A/N: Well it's time to celebrate again! I've hit the milestone of 100,000 words! And now to respond to the reviewers.
nick2951 – If you think you know, could you not say anything so as not to spoil the story? Thanks. BTW, taking your advice on Mana's death, I made her die with grace as you noticed. A lot better than my brother's idea I tell you.
Jasmine fire adept – I'm sure you are not an idiot. Thanks for your reviews.
Chiban-chan – I'm glad you think my fic is the best!
VrtraHex – I'm glad this one is your favourite!
Arm-Slave – OMG! Your comment had me rolling with laughter!
And thanks to everyone else for your reviews. So far so good! Almost at 100! Keep reviewing! On with it!
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NERV HQ – Ritsuko's Office
The doctor was busy in her work as usual. She was spending some at her grandmother's house as she hadn't done for quite some time as NERV usually had her buried in work. But today she decided her workload was light enough so that she could visit her grandmother and her cats. One of them had died and Ritsuko had spent most of the morning looking for a cat to replace it. And now, the new white kitten sat on her lap while she typed away at her desktop computer early in the morning.
There were a few problems that kept eluding her. Like how a portion of Yui Ikari's soul ended up in Rei Ayanami's body. It just didn't make any sense. But if Rei had something of a soul, it may explain how Rei does the things she normally wouldn't do, such as go on vacation, play paintball with Zack and Ivana, or even get a tan or dance. That normally wasn't like Rei at all.
The second problem was that Shinji and Asuka were both able to achieve a 500-sync ratio with their respective EVAs. She knew at a 100-sync, the EVA could go berserk as Shinji had done with Unit 01 and Asuka had done once during 3rd Impact with Unit 02. And a 400-sync would make the beast within come to life. And now a 500-sync made the EVA grow wings that were never part of the original design. Perhaps they were created by the AT Field?
"Oh Ritsuko. Come have some tea," called her grandmother.
"Coming Grandma." Suddenly, the city's siren went off. "Gotta cancel that Grandma. I gotta go!" And with that, she rushed out the door and drove off to NERV.
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NERV HQ – Battle Stations
"Where's Dr. Akagi?" asked Maya. "We have an emergency."
"It's not like her to be late," said Makoto. "Something's wrong usually if she's late."
Just then, Ritsuko came rushing in. "Sorry I'm late! Status!"
"We have two targets just outside the city!" reported Shigeru. "10 kilometers out! There are two of them, and they look like large winged dragons."
"Black Waveform patterns detected! MAGI are 100 percent sure they are Black Angels."
Gendo was in his seat watching what was going on. "Go to First Stage Alert. Tell Major Katsuragi to have the pilots ready to be launched. And Dr. Akagi…"
Ritsuko turned around to face her commander. "Yes?"
"Try to wear more appropriate footwear in the future."
Ritsuko looked down and gasped. She was wearing the pink slippers her grandmother had given her with the pompoms on the toes. The other technicians couldn't help but laugh.
"HEY! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY HERE! THIS IS NO TIME TO BE LAUGHING!"
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Tokyo-3 (Set in battle formation)
Misato had ordered the kids to take several different positions around the city with positron rifles and be on the lookout for any UFOs.
"Are we shooting down alien spacecraft or something?" asked Zack.
"Casanova, weren't you listening? We're shooting down the Black Angels!" said Misato over the com.
"What do they look like?" asked Rei.
"Yeah, we were just told to take positions and be ready to shoot something down," said Toji.
Ritsuko came on the com. "Any second now, you'll be seeing two giant creatures that look like winged dragons. One is red, and the other is blue. Make sure they are both dead. It seems strange because we've never had two Angels attack at the same time."
"Here they come!" said Ivana suddenly.
In the sky, they saw the targets. Indeed, they looked like two dragons. Once they came close enough, a flurry of gunfire at the beasts began. Immediately, the duo split up. They were large, but very fast.
"Damn! Stay still you flying son of a bitch!" Zack was getting frustrated by trying to hit these things.
"Why do so many people hate us?" said Asuka firing her gun rapidly. "To hate us enough to unleash these things on us? Don't they realize 3rd Impact was a false illusion?" Asuka had one dragon fly by her and she couldn't hit after several rounds of gunfire. Suddenly, her gun clicked empty. "Shinji! Cover me! I need to reload!"
Unit 01 moved closer to Unit 02 so he could cover her while she reloaded.
"Screw this! I'm taking out the heavy artillery!" Toji put down his positron rifle and went with the rocket launcher. One dragon swooped by. Unit 03 opened fire. To Toji's shock, the dragon smacked the rocket with its wings and sent the missile back at Toji. "Oh shit!" Toji braced for the impact. BOOM!
"Toji are you okay?" asked Misato.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Elly took this chance to talk. "Next time don't be so reckless!"
Rei continued firing as well. But her gun clicked. However, she chose not to call one of the others over for backup. She went with the two pistols she had beside her. However, her guard was down as she was switching weapons…
The two dragons began screeching in a way that appeared to be some sort of communication. The red dragon went after Rei, while the blue dragon followed closely behind.
"Watch out Rei!" said Misato.
It was too late. The dragons capitalized on Rei temporarily lowered guard. As the blue one played defense for the red one, the red dragon opened its mouth and fired some sort of fireball at Unit 00.
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"Unit 00 has suffered damage. High mental trauma!" reported Maya.
"Toji! Get Rei back here now!" ordered Misato.
"Roger!" replied Toji.
"Switch all of Unit 00's power to life support!" ordered Ritsuko.
"Elly, cover their escape!" ordered Misato again.
Everyone watched at Unit 06 moved in front of Unit 03 as it carried Unit 00 back into NERV HQ.
"Have a medical team ready to retrieve the pilot," ordered Gendo. Have the pilots switch to the loose pentagon formation."
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"Kids, new order from Commander Ikari," started Misato. "He said to switch to the loose pentagon formation."
As the kids continued to fire at the dragons, they moved into their required positions around the outskirts of the city, so it looked like a pentagon from far above.
They continued their rounds of fire at the dragons, which seemed to be impossible to hit.
Zack then got an idea. "Hey, I got an idea."
"What kind of idea?" asked Shinji.
"I'll taunt them to get them both to attack me, then you guys open fire on them. Chances are, we'll get one of them."
"Chances are they'll fry you," said Asuka.
"Well if he wants to get barbecued, then let him," said Ivana.
"Let's try it!" said Elly.
"Okay when I give the signal, fire!" said Zack.
'What is Casanova up to?' asked Misato.
Zack moved out into the open where the dragons could see him. He then turned Unit 05's back to them, and started mooning them with the EVA. "HEY ASSHOLES! COME AND GET IT!" He also smacked his EVA's backside to bolster the effect.
"ZACK!" shouted Misato. "This is NO time to fool around!"
"Look, he got their attention!" said Ritsuko over the com.
The dragons seemed to notice this and flew towards him. Once they were within seconds of being in attack range of Unit 05, Zack shouted "NOW!"
The four others began their simultaneous fire on the dragons. To their success, the blue dragon was hit and went down. The red one did not last well on its own, as it was downed not long after.
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The shorter hooded man watched from far away as he liked to whenever the EVAs would battle. "Seems like Keel took my advice and summoned both of them at the same time," he said aloud. "You must beware kids. These dragon sisters are deadly in the air and on the ground." He began to concentrate. While in concentration, he spoke to them through telepathy. "The purple and red EVAs are the toughest. Focus on the others first."
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Both dragons got back up. The red one turned to face Unit 04. The other turned to face Units 05 and 06.
"Let's take 'em apart!" said Zack. He charged after the blue head-on!"
"Zack, no!" shouted Ivana.
Unit 05 attempted to grab the blue dragon in a bear hug, but right before he did, the blue dragon jumped into the air and he was looking right at the red dragon who blew a fireball right into the chest of Unit 05.
"HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT! HOT!" shouted Zack. "I gotta eject!" He moved Unit 05 as far away as he could, then ejected the entry plug.
"What an idiot," said Asuka.
"Apparently, these dragons use teamwork," said Shinji.
"So that means we have to fight as a team as well," replied Elly.
"It's not as easy as it sounds," said Ivana. "We would require two of us who know the others' moves inside and out."
"Well I think your teammate burned out," said Asuka.
Shinji had an idea. "Hey! I know! Asuka and I have done synchronization training. We know each others' moves fairly well!"
In response, Ivana and Elly stepped back. "Then we leave this to you."
"Yeah," said Elly. "You better bring Shinji back Asuka!"
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The hooded man continued to watch from afar. The current developments surprised him. "Two-on-two? I never expected this would happen. Now we have a tag-team match. Well Shinji and Asuka, even if you defeat them, you still won't beat them. But this will be interesting."
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Asuka moved to face the dragons. "Just remember, think like me, as I think like you!" she said.
"Got it," replied Shinji. "GO!"
Both EVAs hid behind buildings on the outskirts of town. The dragons were confused by the sudden cowardice. But they could hear movement, but it sounded like it was coming from all around. Then they heard no sounds.
Suddenly, they heard an explosion come from behind them. In response they both turned around to see what it was.
Suddenly, Unit 02 came down from above with two progressive swords in its hands. As the dragons turned around to intercept her, Unit 01 appeared from below with gunfire cover. One dragon managed to dodge, but the other got slashed across the chest, and roared out in pain. The other dragon went to assist, but was hit by a missile launcher from Shinji.
"Great teamwork you two!" said Misato. "They're retreating!"
"Follow them!" ordered Commander Ikari. "Battery packs are being provided."
Once battery packs were equipped onto Units 01 and 02, the two EVAs gave chase at high speed. The dragon's wings were hit from Zack's scheme, so they were fleeing on foot.
It didn't take long to catch up with the two Black Angels. They had obviously chosen to stop running. Perhaps their plan was to face Shinji and Asuka out here on the open plain.
They both attack together this time. Shinji and Asuka both attacked simultaneously. A five punch combo, followed by a somersault off the chest and a tornado kick brought them down.
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The hooded man continued to watch from far away, seeming very impressed by the battle. "Okay you two, see what happens when you fool around? Time to stop playing and finish them."
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Suddenly both dragons gave a large simultaneous roar.
"What are they doing Asuka?" asked Shinji.
"How am I supposed to know? I don't speak dragon!"
Suddenly, a flash of light blinded the two.
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"The Black Angels are undergoing some sort of bio-fusion!" said Shigeru.
"What? They're merging with each other?" said Ritsuko.
"Their waveform pattern is getting stronger!" said Makoto.
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Once the blinding light was gone, Asuka and Shinji gasped at what they saw. The dragons had disappeared, and in their place, was a new dragon. It was purple and it had two heads. And all apparent injuries it had were gone.
"Oh shit," said Shinji.
"Shit isn't the word for it. More like shit and shit!" said Asuka.
The two-headed dragon gave off a loud roar. The earth began to shake.
"I got a bad feeling about this," said Shinji.
"Way to point out the obvious! Let's kill before it uses that circle!"
"Oh no!" shouted Shinji over the rumbling.
What they saw next horrified them. The Seal of Diablos appeared beneath its feet. It spread out until all three were encircled. Then the five point star was drawn.
"Too late," said Shinji.
"What are you worried about?" asked Asuka. "There's two of us and one of it! How hard could it be!"
They found out the hard way. The dragon flew at Shinji, and smacked him aside with ease. Asuka took out one of the progressive swords she had. She made a direct hit, but she couldn't penetrate its AT Field. The dragon then threw a punch at Unit 02, sending is sprawling.
"Dammit!" said Asuka. "That thing is more powerful than that bitch was!"
The two EVAs slowly got back up. Misato called in on the com. "Are you two okay?"
"I'm fine," reported Shinji.
"Same here obviously," reported Asuka.
"Be careful you two, it'll take both of you to penetrate its AT Field," said Misato. "It's much more powerful than it was before."
Asuka passed Shinji a sword. "You'll need this. Anything will help to protect us in this situation. Can't you make your wings come out or something?"
"If I knew how, I would have done that already!"
The two pilots tried as best as they could, but their swords couldn't break the two-headed dragon's defenses.
Asuka then tried to get in behind it so her and Shinji could attack it from both angles. It worked for a bit, but what happened next shocked them both. One of the dragons' heads turned around to face Asuka with the other facing Shinji at the same time.
"Look out Asuka!" shouted Misato.
Unit 02 could not dodge the incoming fireball. Unit 02 took it in the face and was sent flying. Asuka clutched her face in pain.
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"Asuka is in serious pain!" shouted Maya.
Gendo made another order. "Cut her sync down to 30. It will blot out most of the pain."
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"Asuka are you alive?" asked Misato.
"What do you think? If it hurts, I'm still alive. And it FUCKING HURTS!"
"We're cutting your sync down to 30. It'll make some of the pain go away."
Asuka could feel the pain go away somewhat. She could stop clutching her face now. "That feels better."
"Good. Now help Shinji!"
Shinji had a difficult time fighting on his own. This dragon was fast and its attacks were furious. He saw something come at the dragon from behind. It was Asuka. "MOVE!" she shouted. Shinji quickly sidestepped out of the way when Asuka used Unit 02 to deliver a powerful dropkick to the back of the fused Black Angel.
Although the attack failed to penetrate the AT Field, the force of the assault was enough to send the beast flying. With a flap of the wings however, it managed to stop itself in mid flight. And it turned around to face them both.
"Great," muttered Asuka.
"Any ideas?" asked Shinji.
"Great! Even the Invincible Shinji has no clue of what to do!"
"Hey, what is that dragon doing?"
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"The dragon's heads are combining an attack!" said Makoto. "The power output is off the charts!"
"Extensive damage is imminent!" said Shigeru.
"SHINJI! ASUKA! LOOK OUT!" shouted Misato over everything.
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There was no way they could dodge the attack. Both had raised their AT Fields in hopes of putting up as much of a defense as possible. But with the Black Angel using both heads, on top of getting power from the Seal of Diablos, the attack was way more then either could handle.
Both EVAs were sprawled out on the ground, pretty much out of power. Asuka was in a lot of pain. External communications to NERV were gone, and so were the battery packs they were wearing, so they only had about 5 minutes or less before this was over. Asuka felt scared and alone. She hoped communications between EVAs were still active. "S-S-Shinji?" she called out weakly.
"Yeah, I'm here," Shinji replied, also weak and in lots of pain.
"I'm scared," said Asuka. Asuka was usually never one to back down in the face of fear, but being contained within the Seal of Diablos, usually something even worse than death happened to the loser. "We're going to die. We'll be all alone."
Shinji knew their hopes were bleak, and getting bleaker, but he had to keep Asuka's confidence high. "We're not going to die Asuka. I have faith. You need to have faith too. And even if we do die, I'll never abandon you, even in death."
Asuka felt a smile come to her face, despite the pain it was bringing. "Thanks Shinji. I don't know how, but I feel I can trust you."
"Same here. I trust you as well. Whatever happens to us, we'll face it together." Unit 01 reached to grab the hand of Unit 02. "Can you feel that?"
"Yes. Thank you Shinji. I love you."
"I love you too."
Power suddenly began to flow through them both.
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"I don't believe this!" said Maya. "Both EVAs were down, but power is flowing through them both!"
"What?" said Ritsuko in surprise. "Both EVAs activated on no power!"
"That's not all," continued Maya. "Both EVAs have a sync of 500!"
"I don't believe this!" said Makoto. "Unit 01 is undergoing bio-fusion!"
"Is the Black Angel trying to fuse with Unit 01?"
"No!" said Shigeru. "Unit 01 is undergoing bio-fusion… with Unit 02!"
"Two EVAs merging together?" asked Misato.
"MAGI are 100 percent sure. The EVAs are merging into one!" said Makoto.
Gendo and Kozou were both out of their seats. "But that's impossible!" said the Vice-Commander. "EVAs can't fuse together!"
'What is going on?' thought Gendo.
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The two-headed dragon was surprised at the flash of light that was coming from both EVAs. They were both glowing white. The dragon decided to destroy what was happening before it was too late. The attack apparently had no effect at all.
The glowing figures had merged into one entity. The glow then began to fade. Everyone who was watching could just look in horror as to what took the place of Units 01 and 02. It had the ferocity that Unit 01 had in berserker mode, but had the multiple eyes of Unit 02, which made it look even scarier. It had red arms and legs, but a purple body and head.
Next, it grew 10 large spectral wings. It looked at the dragons with fury in its many eyes. The EVA roared with rage. The dragon did its combined fireball attack. But the newly fused EVA swatted the ball aside as if it were nothing. It advanced slowly upon the Black Angel its fireballs having no effect on the angry beast's AT Field. It grabbed both arms of the dragon with incredible speed. With a deadly kick, it ripped both arms off the Black Angel. It screamed out in pain as the EVA went up to it again. It began to punch the two head several times before beginning to strangle it.
The others could only watch in horror as the fused EVA began to throttle the beast's heads with one hand each. To sicken the plot, the dragon's necks were squeezed with so much force that the heads just popped off, and blood went everywhere. They couldn't look anymore. The EVA began to take what was left of it apart piece by piece. And finally it found the core, which it ripped out and crushed with no effort. The EVA roared once more, before going silent.
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"The Black Angel has gone silent. The Seal of Diablos has disappeared. The EVA has also gone silent," reported Maya.
"Reestablish communications now!" ordered Misato.
"We're trying, but there's no response from the… EVA," said Shigeru.
"We got something here," said Makoto. "But I can't make anything out of it."
"Have the MAGI find out what happened to Shinji and Asuka now!" ordered Ritsuko.
Gendo who was also watching just slumped back in his chair and thought, 'Yui, those two are in your hands now.'
"Ma'am! We have a problem!" said Makoto.
"What is it?" said Misato, who was in quite the panic.
"The MAGI can't find any sign of either pilot within the EVA," replied Makoto.
Misato just sunk to her knees in horror at the news. This was just like when Shinji was absorbed into Unit 01 before. But now, Shinji and Asuka were absorbed by this fused EVA.
Gendo decided to take command. "Have that EVA retrieved and placed in cryo-stasis. Focus all efforts on finding a way to recover the pilots. NOW!"
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"We have to bring that thing back? That thing absorbed Shinji and Asuka!" Elly was not happy at having to retrieve the fused EVA. "What if it goes nuts again! I don't want to be on the menu!"
"There's three of us," said Ivana. "And if it is acting on Shinji's and Asuka's thoughts, then we should be fine."
"Let's do this already," said Toji.
Slowly but surely they advanced to where the EVA was and the mess it made from mutilating the Black Angel. And just as slowly, they brought it back. Once the EVA was placed in the launching bay, it was cryo-frozen so it couldn't move again.
As Misato walked past the fused EVA in the bay, she could see its eyes, as if it came alive again. She just looked at it for a few seconds and broke down crying.
"Give me back my children you piece of shit!"
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Shinji woke up. "What happened?" he said aloud. He quickly realized he wasn't in an entry plug anymore. He was in some strange place, that looked a little like the middle of outer space. He remembered blacking out after telling Asuka he loved her.
He realized he was still in his plugsuit, and in some other place other than an entry plug. The last thing he felt before he blacked out was that felt that Asuka's mind, body, heart, and soul was merging with his own. The power was more than he could handle.
He looked around. He saw Asuka lying on the ground unconscious. She was also wearing her plugsuit too. "Asuka, wake up!" he said shaking her.
She began to moan and stir. She finally woke up. She had a look of shock onto her face. "Hey what are you doing in my entry plug?"
"Asuka, we're not in an entry plug. I'm not sure what happened to us. But whatever is going on, we have to find a way out of here," said Shinji.
"Well got any idea where the hell we are? Last thing I remember was this feeling that my body, mind, heart, and soul was merging with yours. Any idea what happened?"
Shinji shook his head. "The only thing I can think of is that the EVA may have absorbed us. That's what apparently happened to me last time."
"What? We're inside the EVA? How are we going to escape?"
"Who knows. Let's look around. Maybe we'll find the answer if we look around." Shinji gave a hand to Asuka to help her up.
"Sure. Beats staying in one spot."
A/N: And so begins Shinji and Asuka's adventure on how to escape from their fused EVA. Will they be able to escape? Find out next time! Until 33, be cool!