Author's Note: This chapter is exceptionally short. The next chapter will probably be exceptionally long, unless it ends up being cut in half and each become a chapter (that wouldn't be the first time that that's happened—do you really think this story was supposed to be this long???), and maybe even then.

At World's End

S-Michael

Chapter the Twelfth

Mass Produced Evas

"What are those?" Asuka asked. "Angels?"

"I've never imagined angels so uniform, but anything is possible," Shinji said.

"Valaskas says that they're 'mass produced Evangelions,'" Browne's voice whispered.

"How do we fight them?" Asuka asked.

"Honestly?" Browne asked.

"Yeah," choked out Asuka, who knew that the answer wasn't going to be good.

"I have no idea," Browne said. The second he said them, he knew he shouldn't have. The old Browne would never have said anything so careless, so undermining of these soldiers'—these children's—confidence.

"Well. I love a challenge," Asuka said, with what was no doubt more bravado than she felt. "Don't worry, I'll lead us to victory."

Thank you, Asuka; thank you, thank you, thank you!!! If you were sixteen years older, I'd marry you. At the moment, Browne would have, too.

"Right," said Shinji, who didn't really believe her, but was trying to force belief with all of his might. Browne did not blame him for his fear; there was something sinister about the mass produced Evas. Something sinister about their cetacean heads, about the vulture-esque quality of their flight, circling the pillar of light, like nine sentinels. These were Eva Units 05 through 13.

"Afirmative," agreed Rei flatly. Was she even scared? Was it his imagination, or did Browne hear a slight tremor in her one word reply, a slightly higher octave to her voice? Browne was in no way in any condition to analyze her at the moment, being paralyzed with fear himself.

Browne stared up at the mass produced Evangelions, and he thought, I am going to die. Right here, right now. I am going to die, and then Valaskas will rule the world. And God only knew what Valaskas would do if he ruled the world and Browne wasn't there to…temper…him. Alright: to control him. Valaskas, Browne had learned early on, was utterly ruthless and virtually without conscience. He hadn't needed his special skills to tell him that; in fact, this had been before he had learned them (he had always been empathetic, however). Browne had accepted him as he was, because utterly ruthless and virtually without conscience was exactly what Browne had wanted to become, ever since that day when he saw his brother murdered by a warlord. One had to be utterly ruthless, or they would be swallowed by the world's sorrows and their mind would break under the pressure of it all, more than any man could bear…didn't they?

Browne stared up at the mass produced Evas, his mouth dry, his brain turned to putty. He…he didn't know what to do? He fervently wished that he was not in charge here. This was his boat, figuratively speaking (but not literally; the ship had a captain who was in charge of it), and so it was his responsibility to tell everybody what to do. Their lives were his responsibility. If they lived, it would be because of him; if they died, it would also have been because of him. There was only one problem with that scenario, though: he had no idea what to do. Browne was not a military commander of any sort. He knew nothing of the greater stratagems of war. He had never even won a game of chess in his life, that he could recall. He was the absolute last person who should have been in this position.

Don James would know what to do. The sad thing was, he probably would, too. If he would even be on their side in this battle. (Why? Why had he defected to SEELE? Did he truly believe that the world would be better if Human Instrumentality had taken place? While it was a view Browne could sympathize with, he doubted that it was one Don James himself would have been able to. Perhaps some questions were unanswereable.) Thinking of Don James caused an upwelling of sorrow, which—quit it! He had no time for this.

Browne had to do something! Say something! Build up the confidence of the pilots and crew somehow. When in doubt, state the obvious. "Those things must have S2 engines, or they'd be falling out of the sky about…now." For one glorious split second, it looked as if one of them was about to fall into the ocean, but it turned out to be a trick of the thermals. The enemy Eva righted its flight quickly enough. Browne nodded. "S2 engines. Definitely." What the hell are we doing here? Browne wondered suddenly. It seemed suddenly apparent that the intelligent thing to do would have been to sick about a dozen angels on SEELE. If people wondered why the angels would behave that way, hey, who really understood how angels thought, anyway? Or they could make something up. The power from this beam of light being like the call of a thousand Adams, or something. Why would the angels attack SEELE? Really, hadn't they been attacking SEELE all along? There was no way Valaskas could not have seen that.

But if he had, then why send the three Evangelions, the three real Evangelions, into this deathtrap? Ah. There was the answer. Deathtrap. Valaskas sends the Eva pilots and Browne to Antarctica, where they are slaughtered by SEELE, and then the angels come to slaughter SEELE. It was a beautifully double-edged trap. On one hand, Browne was out of the picture, and Valaskas would then be able to rule the world alone. (As a bonus, the whole Eva pilot situation would be cleared up quite nicely.) On the other hand, SEELE will have had to tip their hand to Valaskas, showing him at least a piece of what they were capable of. Win-win.

Browne did not think for an instant that Valaskas had planned this. He would have seen any signs of planned betrayal and acted appropriately. (He hoped; then again, it was possible that he was too soft to kill his best friend.) (And then, maybe he wouldn't of seen the signs…after all, he hadn't seen the signs of Don James' betrayal, and that had obviously been going on for a long time, according to the records he left for them detailing it. No; Brown would not think like that.) Valaskas had seen an opportunity, and he had jumped at it. It was as simple as that. And it was going to work, too.

"They're not coming for us," Shinji said after ten seconds total had gone by.

"How do we get their attention?" Asuka asked. Which was, of course, the moment they chose to dive-bomb the ship-bound Evangelions. "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer," Asuka mumbled to herself. Aloud she said, "Alright, there's nine of them. That's three for each of us. Don't get greedy!"

One came right for Asuka. She grabbed it by its forehead and crushed its skull, and then used its momentum to lift it over her head. Holding it by what was left of its head and its crotch, she squeezed it until she was drenched in a shower of blood.

Meanwhile, Shinji drew his progressive knife, preparing for the one that was coming for him. It actually landed on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier that was serving the Evas, and then bound at him, retracting its wings while doing so. Shinji stabbed it up thrugh the jaw and into its brains before its wings had fully retracted, only to have his knife break. "Shit! Hey, guys, don't use your progressive knives. They'll break."

"Affirmative," Rei said, putting her progressive knife away after using it to cut off the arm and then the head of one that had come after her. Then the rest came. Shinji, knifeless, picked up the weird-looking weapon (Heavy Lance) that was dropped by the MP Eva he felled.

Asuka was tackled by two of the mass produced Evangelions, and couldn't reach them with her knife. One of them opened its mouth and lowered its head towards her, for all the world like it was going to take a bite out of Unit 02's shoulder. That's ridiculous, Asuka. Well, whatever it was doing, Asuka fired a needle pack into its head from the internal weapons rack in her right shoulder. The other one grabbed her head with its hand, trying to squeeze her. Asuka used its arm to pull it closer to herself, and then she reached for it's throat, which she literally tore out.

Meanwhile, Shinji was in a Heavy Lance duel with two more of the mass produced Evas which had landed on the bridge on his watch. Thrust. Block. Perry. Thrust. Perry. Block. Yeah, like I know what any of that means! Why didn't I learn kendo when I had the chance? He managed to cut the throat of one clear through to the spine, causing it to fall, and then he was down to one. He cut its leg off, causing it to fall on its back, and stabbed it in the "face."

Rei had punched through the chest of one that had come onto the deck after her. The last Eva threw its lance at her. Rei reached out, and blocked it with her AT-Field. It was slowly making its way through. Then…it transformed. The Heavy Lance had turned into grey version of the Lance of Longinus. The fake Lance of Longinus was stuck in the AT-Field for a few more seconds, and then slid through, continuing its flight into Unit 00's abdomen.

Shinji saw this happen just as he was pulling his own newly-acquired Heavy Lance from the skull of his last enemy, and he screamed, tossing it at the flying Eva. It looked at him just in time to get a face full of lance, and fall into the ocean.

"Rei, are you alright?" Shinji asked.

"I am…fine," Rei said, strained. "It didn't hit anything…vital."

"I'm going to try to pull the Lance out of you, okay?" Shinji asked.

"Afirmative," said Rei, nodding inside of her entry plug.

"Alright…three…two…one…ugh," Shinji pulled the fake Lance of Longinus from Unit 00's body. "Are you still alright? I didn't rip anything inside of you when I did that, did I?"

"Negative. I am fine, Shinji," Rei said. "Just a little…worse for the wear."

"Oh my god, something has to be wrong; robot girl made a joke!" Asuka said overdramatically. "Not a very good one, granted, but still. Call an ambulance."

Browne noticed the ease at which they had defeated the other nine Evangelions. "Maybe it wasn't a trap, after all," he mumbled.

"Pardon me?" Misato asked, who was standing right next to him.

"I said it wasn't much of a trap, after all," Browne said. "I expected more, from SEELE." Something was bothering him, though. These mass produced Evangelions were…stupid. They had a clear aerial advantage, not to mention weapons that could penetrate the AT-Fields of their foes, so why not stay back and shoot them like fish in a bucket with those freaky weapons of theirs? Browne had figured that out, and he wasn't exactly Alexander the Great. Yet, instead of doing the intelligent thing, all but one of them had come in close to do battle, usually using melee attacks.

Browne remembered that he and Valaskas used the brains of chimps to control their angels. So what was SEELE using to control these things? More chimps? Spider monkeys? Dead bodies? Soulless clones of Rei, Asuka, and Shinji? Another question, speaking of their artificial angels: where was the escapee?

"Yeah, I'll bet that the old men are really shaking in their boots, now!" Asuka said. "Alright, these pathetic excuses for Evas are weighing down our ship, so lets toss them overboard before we go on the offensive."

"Excelent idea, Asuka," Browne said.

"Right. I'm keeping this Lance," Shinji announced. "If it can penetrate AT-Fields, it will come in handy in future angel attacks."

"Hmm, I'll take one, too, then," Asuka said.

"Right," Rei said. After picking out their weapons, the three Eva pilots pushed the mass produced Evas over the edge of the ship.

"Alright, lets go!" Asuka said.

"Wait, we're picking something up!"

"What is it?" demanded Browne.

"It's the mass produced Evas! They're—" The mass produced Evangelions broke the surface of the water, beating their waterlogged wings frantically for every precious inch of lift.

"Okay…this will be a little harder than I though," Asuka said. "But hey, their injured now, and we're armed with their weapons. We'll just mince them into tiny little pieces. What's the worse that could happen?"

"Are they regenerating?" Browne asked. Suddenly, he wished he hadn't brought up the possibility. The children were doing such a good job of fighting, in spite of his "leadership."

"That doesn't appear to be the case."

The mass produced Evangelions flew in a circle over the pilots, more like vultures than ever. Then a giant centipede-like monster rose out of the water and pulled Unit 01 in. Shinji yelped in surprise.

"Shinji, are you alright?" Rei asked.

"Where did this thing come from? I'll deal with it; you two deal with the undead freaks," Shinji shouted, turning his Heavy Lance on the escapee angel. He stabbed the thing, and pulled the Heavy Lance up the length of its body.

"Alright," said Asuka. "You take four, Rei, I'll take five."

Browne watched this, amazed. He and Valaskas had designed every one of their angels to be destroyed, of course. Either by Evas or by the Sahaquiel II, depending on how their plans unfolded, and so there was a specific way in which the angels were supposed to be killed if they were to fight the Evangelions. Slicing it the long way up its body was not the way in which an Evangelion was supposed to kill it, as that was supposed to be impossible. It just went to show you what nice toys SEELE had kept for themselves. Bastards.

Something exploded in the angel's body (whatever SEELE had used to control it?), and it thrashed about wildly, in its death throes. It tossed Shinji into the beam.

-

"Shinji, wake up," a familiar voice said. A voice Shinji would never forget and thought never to hear again. His eyes bolted open. It was him.

"Kowaru? You're alive?" Shinji asked.

"Not exactly," Kowaru said.

"Then…am I dead?" Shinji asked.

"Not exactly," Kowaru said.