Nothing Will Ever Change That
Chapter 97: Ending It All
A/N- This chapter was proof-read by Frost-Eva-04. Thanks for the help!
Asuka's Room – Morning
She's finally accepted it… Asuka has finally accepted this child. For a short while, I really believed that she was going to hold true to what she said. Hell, I KNOW that she was about to go get an abortion, she really would have done that. I can't even put into words how happy I am about this, that she'll help me raise it, that she won't get an abortion. But the question still remains… does she want it now, or did I just send her on a guilt trip, ending with her chickening out of her promises? She wants it now, right? She said that she'll help raise it, not to love it…
"Asuka, it's eleven already, time to get up," I nudge her slightly.
"I had a dream…" was she already awake? "I dreamt of a happy family… they had a little girl…" she looked up at me with teary eyes, "Why do I have to dream of her?" I hug her and try to comfort her. She softly cried into my chest, "I've had that dream so many times… I want it to stop, but I want to see Dietlinde…" how am I supposed to react to this? I can't exactly promise that she'll never have that dream again, it was brought on by HER brain, there's nothing I can do. After a few minutes, the crying subsided and I leaned back to look at her.
"Listen, I can't protect you from them, but I can be there for you when it does happen. If nothing else, remember that," she smiles up at me and wipes away her last tear.
"Thanks… sorry about that…"
"No, don't apologize. It's not your fault," she smiled at me and got out of the bed.
"Okay… I'm going to take a shower," she walked into the bathroom and started the shower. I really hated it when she would cry, but there was nothing I could do aside from simply letting her cry on me. But that somehow always helped, no matter how serious the situation was, I was always able to calm her down… but why me? I mean, I wasn't exactly the strongest person mentally, why would she want the comfort of someone weaker than her? Even though I didn't know the answer to that, I did know that I always had to be there for her.
"Commander Ikari, we need you on the bridge immediately," a woman's voice came over the intercom. I walk over and speak back into it.
"Now's not really a good time, can it wait?" I hear her sigh.
"Sir… it's SEELE…" them again? Crap!
"Okay, I'll be right down," the speaker goes silent and I walk back to the bathroom, "Asuka? I have to go out for awhile, meet me in the bridge, okay?" I hear her sigh over the sound of the water.
"Fine, but what for? You're not getting me another car, are you?" I start to walk out of the room.
"Look, just hurry up and meet me there. I'm sending Cass in here, he'll take you to the bridge," I wasn't about to let her go on her own with SEELE attacking. I leave without giving her time to respond and head for Cass's room. I knock on the door firmly, "Cass, let me in," he opens the door with a confused look.
"Dang, you gotta be so rude?" Sam walks in next to him.
"Sorry, but we have a problem. SEELE is attacking again, and we might need to pilot. Sam, I want you to go get changed and wait in your Eva for my orders. Cass, follow me," Sam runs off to the locker room and I take Cass to my room, "Asuka's in the shower, and she doesn't know about SEELE actually attacking. You're going to take her to the bridge and then get into your Eva, understand?"
"Yeah, but why do I have to take her there? She knows the way, right?" well no duh!
"Yeah, she does, but I'm not letting her go on her own. She killed a lot of people back at SEELE, they're probably here just for her," I walk over to the dresser and take out a left over gun from YY's. It was a simple .9mm, but it'd do, "Take this when you take her there. Don't tell her about the attack or the fact that you even have to gun. Got it?" he takes the gun from me and puts it in his back pocket.
"You think that they're going to try and get to her?"
"I have no idea, but I'd rather be safe about it. Remember, don't say a word about this to her," I walk out of the room and head for the bridge. Why were they attacking again? Did they really want me and Asuka dead that badly? What could we possibly do to harm them? If they never screwed with my daughter then we wouldn't have done any of that! When I finally get there, it seems oddly quiet. A woman came up to me and began to brief me.
"Okay, we spotted a cluster of Evas about two hundred miles from here. Somehow, they're flying across the Pacific to NERV. We expect them to arrive within the next hour," an hour… okay, that gave enough time to figure out what to do here.
"Any idea how many of them there are?" she flipped through a few pages on her clipboard.
"That's the problem; we have a very broad estimate. We're guessing anywhere from fifty to one hundred," That many? Holy crap… we're going to need some help here.
"Damn it… okay, I want the military to help out with this one. Tell them that they have clearance to use whatever forces necessary to help defeat the Evas. Prep Unit 05 and Sam for battle, but don't launch until I give the order. Have Unit 01 and Unit 06 ready for me and Cass, and send Unit 02 and 07 out with a dummy plug. Do not let anyone interact with it until further notice. Cass and Asuka will be here in a few minutes, send Cass to the locker room to get changed and keep Asuka here at all costs. If she gets away, there will be punishment, got it?" Jesus, I sounded like my father. Never knew I could take charge like this.
"Okay, I understand. I have to ask you one more thing though; the Eva that you brought back from SEELE has been copied. We now have two of the 'Unit 08', would you like to use them?" they are more powerful than our Evas…
"Yes, send Cass into one, and have the other sent out with a dummy plug. Instead of putting Cass in Unit 06, send a dummy plug in it. I'm going to go into my Eva, keep me briefed on anything that comes up through the comm. link," I leave and head for the locker room. After changing into my plug suit, I go to the Eva cages and get into my Eva.
"Shinji, is everything okay?" Sam appeared on a small screen to my left. Looks like she's already in her Eva.
"No, far from it. We got at least fifty Evas from SEELE coming here and all we have are six Evas… I ordered that the military help, but all they're really going to do is distract them…" am I sending my friends and hundreds of soldiers to their death? I know that some – if not many – soldiers will die… but it can't be helped.
"Fifty? We can't take on that many! And how the hell do we have eight Evas? I thought we only had four!"
"Yes, but I brought back an Eva from SEELE awhile ago, and NERV made a copy of it. Unit 02, 06, 07 and one of the Unit 08s will be sent out with dumpy plugs," she looked confused now… who wouldn't be?
"Wait… what? Why isn't Asuka piloting?"
"Two reasons. One, she's pregnant and I don't want piloting to affect the baby. Two; she killed a lot of people back at SEELE, she's probably the main reason they're coming…" the woman that spoke to me earlier came up on screen.
"Sir, Cass is entering Unit 08 right now. All of the Evas you requested are fitted with dummy plugs and are ready for battle. Asuka is here-" Asuka pushed the woman aside and began to yell at me.
"What the hell is going on here! You mind telling me why a guy tried to kill me on the way here?" I was right… God damn it…
"SEELE is attacking again…" she loses her glare and gasps, "Are you alright? What did he do to you?" she looked to the ground.
"He tried to strangle me with a wire… Cass… shot him…" she rubbed her fingers across a red line going across her neck. It wasn't bleeding, just a long red line. Damn it… I knew this was going to happen.
"Listen up! I want Asuka under watch from now on. I want someone to know where she is at all times, got it?" the woman nodded in the background.
"I'm going to get changed," Asuka begins to walk off.
"Asuka! Come back here! You're not going out there, I'm sending in a dummy plug in your place," she comes back into the view of the camera.
"Hell no! I'm not going to just stand back and watch!" she once again walks away.
"Someone grab her! Don't let her leave the bridge!" I see a man run by and then I hear struggling, "Don't hurt her! Just restrain her!" the struggling stops and I see Asuka come back on the screen with hands behind her back.
"What the hell is your problem? You just had your wife handcuffed you asshole!" I wasn't going to let her fight…
"I'm sorry Asuka, but you're not going out there. I-" I was cut off by the woman's voice over the comm. link.
"The Evas have entered Japan! There is approximately seventy eight of them. Estimated time of arrival; three minutes!" how'd they get here so fast?
"Okay, Cass are you there?" his screen pops up next to Sam's. He had a distressed look on his face as he stared down, "Cass… thank you for saving her… thank you so much…" he looks up with a smile.
"No problem…"
"Asuka…" she looks up at me, "I love you… take care of the baby for me, okay?" I was going to die in this battle, I just know it. There was no way we were going to survive this, but I wasn't about to go down without a fight. She gasped and before she spoke, I cut back in, "Launch all Evas and send up all available weapons! Is the military in place?" we start to jet towards the surface.
"Yes. We have four hundred warheads on call, one hundred fighter jets, and fifty tanks all in position. We're ready," when we reach the surface the sight of a small white cloud could be seen. I get ready and grab my controls, then I realize something… there was only one control stick.
"Hey, what happened here? There's only one-"
"I know, I had your Eva re-fitted with a new control system," Was that…? "Oh yeah, and thanks for taking care of that asshole!"
"Ritsuko? You're awake?" Her face pops up on a screen smiling.
"Yeah, about an hour ago. Now, I already know what's going on, and so far I think you've made the right decisions, try and keep them up. Okay, enough formalities, you need to take care of those Evas," seriously, she could not have possibly woken up at a better time.
"SEELE's Evas are three hundred yards from you! Prepare to engage!" me, Sam and Cass each grab a rifle and get ready for our last fight.
"You ready guys?" Sam's face once again popped up.
"Yeah…" I felt so bad for sending them out here… but I didn't have a choice in the matter.
"Oh yeah! Time to kick some SEELE ass!" Cass appeared to my left. Just then, they all dropped full force onto the earth, sending a loud, rattling earthquake through the city. They were all the same as Unit 08! Damn it!
"Whoa…" I hear Sam mutter under her breath. Before any of us, Unit 02, 07 and 08 charge and each attack one Eva.
"You sons a bitches are going down!" Cass fires his gun wildly at the group. I drop mine and simply charge at one of them. Sam follows soon after me and grabs one of the Evas by the neck, killing it almost instantly. I rip the arm off of the Eva I was attacking and hurl it at another one, sending it flying across the city.
"The air force has arrived!" a screen popped up with a pilot's face on it, "Squadron Delta is here! Just give the order boss, and we'll drop all the bombs we have on those damn Evas!" a plane flew by, just inches from my head, then followed by four more, "White Bird is here too!" soon, the skies were filled with planes, "Don't forget about us! Hawkeye all the way!" they all pulled off beautiful aerial stunts as they flew, "Razgriz right here!" the whole nation was on our side with this…
"Sam, Cass! Get out of the way! Run as far away as you can! Don't ask questions, just go!" Sam and Cass ran off as I told them to, "Okay, all fighters, drop everything you have! Try and keep out of range of the Evas," I fought off the Evas from following Sam and Cass.
"But Commander, you're still in range of our bombs!"
"DO IT! All available tanks, fire whatever you have! Put it all out there! GO!" the first of many bombs dropped, sending a shockwave through my chest. Many other bombs soon followed. Bullets, warheads, missiles, everything was being shot within a few hundred yards of me. One of them was miss fired and hit me, but I continued to keep all of them in place. I grabbed one by the neck and held it up as one bomb came crashing down.
"SHINJI! Run! Get out of there!" Asuka yelled at me through the comm. link. She had tears in her eyes, obviously scared.
"I love you Asuka…" I see a warhead starting to come down over me, "Take care of yourself…"
"SHI-" I shut off the link and continue to fight.
"Come on you bastards!" for a flicker of a moment, I lost my human side. I go all out attacking the Evas; ripping apart any foe that came across my path. Blood was all over my Eva by now, making quite the horrific sight. One of them came up from behind and wrapped its arms under mine, holding me in place, "Damn it! Let go!" I struggle, but I couldn't get away. Another one comes up in front of me and begins to punch me in the stomach. I bring my head forward and smash it back into the Eva behind me, then kick the other one away. The warhead was coming down… it was so close I could hear it.
I grab another Eva and rip its jaw off, and then stabbed the razor sharp teeth into its neck. I used the limp body as a bat, knocking away and Evas near me. After tearing out my knife, I begin to slash at other Evas, making blood spray everywhere. I look up one last time to see the warhead only yards from my face. The world froze for a moment – I saw everything. I saw it as it slowly penetrated my Eva's face plate, and slowly make its way down through the body, and eventually penetrate my entry plug.
"My sacrifice…"
A/N- Uh oh… Shinji died… looks like what's left of this fic will be in omnipresent view. Not much left anyway, so it's okay. Now that Shinji's gone, what will become of Sam and Cass? Were all of the Evas destroyed in the explosion? Find out in the next chapter; SEELE's Last Stand, until then, keep on keepin' on!