Disclaimer – Don't own Eva or Armored Core or anything in this chapter with a copy write on it, but you know that, don't you.

A/N her is chapter 13

But anyway…on we go

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Quote the Raven

Chapter 13

Fall of the Nest

It took a while to reach Tokyo 3. Everyone was able to catch up on their sleep and adjust to the time change. It was decided that to save time Misato would ride with Executioner and Yui would ride down with Shinji. Rei looked over her parts list, she had made a few modifications to the Lillian's design the night before they left and was rather happy

AC Name: Lillian

Head: ZHD-MO/EGRET (Stable, high end head by Zio)
Core: ZCL-XA/2 (Lightweight Zio-Matrix core with great basics)
Arms: EAN-50 (Entry-level Emeraude model)
Legs: ELN-2002-02A (Midweight Biped Leg Unit, Stable Emeraude signature model)
Extension: E07AM-MORAY (missile intercept system with improved ammo stores)
Back unit R: EM-AAT110 (Adds 10 extra ammo for all weapons)
Back unit L: CR-WB72CGL (lightweight chain gun adapted to smaller rounds)
Arm Unit R: WR04M-PIXIE2 (machine gun designed for extended combat operations)
Arm Unit L: WL01 LB-ELF (early model Mirage laser blade design with average performance)

Option parts – O01-AMINO, CR-06955, CR-O7SLA, O03-CODON

Color: Blue primary with Gray secondary joint color

Her AC had been tuned the way she wanted it, now it was up to her to put it to best use.

Everyone boarded their respective AC's, with passengers in Shinji and Executioner's cases. The had arrived at the drop point and were waiting for the go ahead when the voice of the transports pilot came over the radio

"We're 60 seconds out, everybody get ready, jack it looks like there's a bunch of transport trucks and a welcome party waiting on you"

Jack nodded

"Yeah there were suppose to be, put us in as close as you can"

"Already on it, 30 seconds to drop point"

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Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko, Hikari, Toji, Kensuke and Asuka stood by the trailer trucks when they heard the whine of jet turbines. They had all come out to great Shinji Yui and Misato home as well as greet their guests. The 5th child had stayed at Nerv HQ. Asuka scoffed

"About time they got here"

She turned to Ritsuko

"Can I leave now?"

Ritsuko crossed her arms and scowled

"You don't want to see them back"

Asuka's face remained almost emotionless

"I don't care"

She didn't even wait for permission to leave, Ritsuko was about to start yelling when Fuyutsuki stopped her

"Don't bother; she's still coming to terms with what happened to her mother"

Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko had briefed the other pilots on the truths of the Eva's, none of them except Kaoru, who Ritsuko suspected already knew, took it to well. Toji had threatened to quit and Asuka. Well she had to be forcibly removed from Unit 02.

Ritsuko sighed, now Asuka was pissed at Shinji because he had gotten his mother back. She would have to discus her relocation with Misato as soon as she could to prevent any problems.

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The doors to the transport slid opened; Shinji and Executioner would go out first with their passengers, then Requiem and Rei, followed by Evangel and Jack-O.

AC Name: Destroyer

Pilot: Executioner

Head: ZHD-MO/EGRET

Core: ZCL-XL/2 - OB capable

Arms: ZAN-202/TEM

Legs: ZAN-X2A/FF

Inside: none

Arm Ext.: BEX-BD150

Option parts SP-S/SCR SP-ENE-SCR SP-BCNDR SP-BSI-LE SP-BE++ SP-ENE-ACC SP-E/SAVER

R.Arm Weapon: Karasawa Mk.2

L.Arm Weapon: Moonlight Beam Saber

Back R: Zio Matrix High Output Laser Cannon

Back L: Zio Matrix Slug Gun

AC Name: Fox Eye

Pilot: Jack-O

Head: H07-CRICKET (part design stressing energy defense and VS ECM

Core: C04-ATLAS (Core design with both OB and Hangers)

Arms: CR-A72F (Combat ready design with good shell defense and cooling)

Legs: LHI 3-JACKAL2 (Highest defense performance of all Biped legs)

Inside: none

Arm Ext.: none

Back R: CR-WBW94M2 (Dual Missile launcher with increased ammo capacity)

Back L: same

Arm Unit R: WH04HL-KRSW (Karasawa Mk 3 less attack than its predecessor with better energy use)

Arm Unit L: CR-WL9SG (portable Grenade rifle exclusive to the left arm)

AC Name: Oracle

Pilot: Evangel

Head: H11-QUEEN (4th generation Mirage design. Well balanced)

Core: C01-GAEA (first generation Mirage core with built in energy Exceed Orbits)

Arms: A11-MACQUE (Mirage arm part that incorporates the latest technology)

Legs: LH09-COUGAR2 (reduced weight version of the COUGAR design)

Inside: none

Extension: FUNI (Interlock missile system that incorporates Micro Missiles)

Back R: MAGORAGA (Micro Missile launcher, fires 5 missiles per lock on)

Back L: CR-WB91 LGL (reduced weight Linear Gun, uses smaller rounds than the WB7LG)

Arm Unit R: CR-WR93RL (high heat attack linear rifle equipped with a new mechanism)

Arm Unit L: CR-WL9SG (portable Grenade rifle exclusive to the left arm

Shinji looked out of the transport and waited for the signal. Once he received it he stepped forward and dropped from the plane. He and Executioner both landed near the trailers that would carry the AC's.

The pair popped open their cockpit hatches and let their passengers out before they docked their AC's. They then joined the group.

Kensuke's eyes were the size of saucers as he watched the two ravens approaching. One was the arena's rank A-1 Executioner, and walking beside of him was Shinji. The trio of teens was around Shinji in seconds. Toji decided to do a repeat of Shinji's first entrance exam and wrap his arm around his head and grind his knuckles into his head. Hikari thwacked him in the head

"Toji, lighten up will you"

Toji released Shinji and laughed a bit, Hikari sighed

"Men, so are you coming back to school now Shinji"

He nodded

"Yeah…I'll be basing out of Tokyo 3 from now on"

Toji nodded, Kensuke was still to out of it to speak

"That's cool, what about Ayanami"

"She'll be staying a while so I don't know

Rei joined them soon after, while Jack-O, Evangel and Executioner talked with Fuyutsuki and party.

Kensuke and Toji and Hikari nearly had heart attacks when Requiem walked up to Rei and kissed her, Shinji smiled.

"Oh yeah, Rei has a boyfriend"

Both stooges stood with their jaws hanging open and Hikari just stood starring. All was quiet until both Toji and Kensuke found the ability to speak.

"WHAT"

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Misato walked over toward the transports which would carry the commander, Ritsuko, Jack-O and Evangel along with the Ravens two AC's to the GeoFront. She wasn't sure what was going down, but it was big. The kids and Yui were going back to her apartment; she would be back a few hours afterward to check on them though she was sure Yui could handle them. Requiem, Rei and Shinji's AC's would be placed in a 4 AC garage Nerv had built in the abandoned lot by her building. Her new problem was what to do about Asuka. Before she could climb into the transport she felt a hand on her shoulder, it was Ritsuko

"We have to talk"

Misato stepped down from the cab

"What about"

"You know about the Eva's right, what's inside them"

Misato's expression dropped

"Yeah I know, the commander told me, why"

Ritsuko sighed

"There's no way to get the souls in units 00, 02, and 03 out, Unit 01 was a special case"

"Because it didn't come from the same thing right"

"Right, but to my point, I think it would be in everyone's best interests to relocate Asuka"

"Why"

"She's pissed at Shinji; he got something she can never have back"

In Misato's mind everything clicked

"His mom"

"Right, she may very well become even more violent, even to the point of being vindictive

Misato shook her head

"Knowing Asuka that's not strong enough, vengeful maybe"

Ritsuko nodded

"Yeah, there are several officers' dwellings still available in Nerv, there all about the size of your place; it would be for the best"

Misato nodded, Ritsuko was right, after everything that has happened it would be better to move her now

"I guess, do you want to tell her or should I?"

"I'll do it, better she blame me for this"

Misato gave her a sad smile

"Thanks Ritz"

Misato looked over toward the group of kids, especially at Rei and Requiem. She pointed the pair out to Ritsuko, standing with the others holding hands

"Look at them"

Ritsuko nodded

"Rei seems to have spread her wings"

Misato scowled at Ritsuko's pun

"Oh har har, not funny, I just think it's sweet…and to have fallen for the 9-Breaker of all people"

Ritsuko blinked

"…come again…"

"The 9-Breaker, you know, the first guy to beat 9-Ball"

Ritsuko let her words digest before she spoke

"You know, they say he's back

"Everyone is almost convinced it a fake, probably just some corporate laky trying to steal the name, Requiem's already going to fight him as soon as he can. Well I better go; I have to talk to the commander. Thanks again Ritsuko"

Ritsuko nodded and headed off, she would have to be wary of Requiem then, especially if he was looking for her.

Misato walked over to the transport Fuyutsuki was riding in and hoped up into the cab,

"Sir, will I absolutely be needed at Nerv today"

"Most likely major why"

"Well, I've decided to follow Dr Akagi's advice and relocate Asuka to an apartment in the GeoFront, I think it would be better if I was there when she came for her stuff today"

Fuyutsuki nodded

"Good point, agreed, I'll have Dr Akagi take your place today and take notes for you"

"Thank you sir"

Misato hoped down and the transport followed the other two carrying Jack-O and Evangel's AC to the GeoFront. Everyone else piled into the other 3 transports and were off to Misato's place

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Misato sat in her favorite Recliner watching TV, it felt good to be home again, not that spending the week at the Ravens Nest had been bad, but home was always better. Maya had brought Pen-Pen home about an hour ago; she had never seen the penguin so happy. She leaned back in her chair and sighed

"Ahh life is good"

Shinji and Yui were cooking dinner while Requiem, Rei, Toji and Hikari sat around the table chatting. Kensuke had been called home for dinner and had left only a shot time ago. The topic of Rei and Requiem's relationship had come up many times to which they both said

"We've only been dating about a day"

Shinji smiled a bit, everything was going well now.

Everyone had sat down to dinner about 4 after a day of Shinji catching up with his friends on the events of the past week. News had slipped about Shinji becoming a Raven. No one at school really knew what to think about it, but they were shocked to hear about Rei being his sister. Who would have guessed?

About an hour later Asuka arrived with 4 section 2 agents to mover her stuff. Misato had told everyone she would be moving out on the way home that day. She didn't even say hi to Hikari, just walked strait into her room and began to pack her boxes, which were then loaded into 2 waiting vans. Once they were done she left without a word, but the look of betrayal she shot everyone said enough, she didn't even look at Shinji and Rei however.

Everyone went back to eating dinner, though their moods were a bit down. Toji and Hikari went home after dinner and everyone settled down for bed.

It was decided Yui would move into Shinji's room and that Shinji and Rei would move into Asuka's old room. She called that night and had section 2 bring another single bed by and set it up. It didn't take long to move Shinji's things. Rei had only enough possessions to fill her duffle bag and another carry bag. She had all of the things with her except the more…intimate sleepwear she had bought while shopping for her black dress with Yui and Misato before her date. Along with a few other personal items

After everything was settled in, everyone went to bed. Rei slipped from her bed and made her way to the couch, were her love was asleep.

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Requiem woke the next morning to the feeling of an odd, yet familiar weight on his chest. He lifted his head from the pillow and looked down; there lay Rei, using his chest and right shoulder as her pillow. Even though he had slept on the couch she had managed to snuggle up to him despite the confined space. He smiled as he watched her sleep; she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He was brought out of his thought reprieve when his and Rei's palmtops began to beep, Requiem could hear Shinji's going off as well.

'This has to be serious, why would all three of us be contacted at the same time'

Rei stirred and got up, awoken by the insistent beep. She went to her room she shared with Shinji to get hers and Requiem went over to where he had laid his bags and retrieved the beeping device.

Requiem sat up on the couch clad only in his boxers, Rei then reentered the room. He looked up at her, she was wearing only her white cotton Bra and matching panties with a small pink bow on the front. It was what she had slept in. She sat beside of him and opened her palmtop, she looked at the message from the Nest. She then looked over to Requiem, about to ask a question until she saw his face, it was the color of ash.

"What is it?"

His replay was distant

"A code 145"

"What is a code 145?"

He looked over at her then sprang into action, he grabbed his and Rei's flight suits from their bags they had laid beside the door which they carried their flight gear in and tossed Rei hers

"Get dressed we have to leave now"

He then went to Shinji's door and pounded

"Zero get up, we gota go NOW"

Shinji tore his door opened

"What happened?"

Misato also ripped her door opened

"WHAT THE HELL IS ALL THE NOISE"

Yui walked sleepily into the living room from her room. Requiem looked to Misato

"Where are our AC's?"

"In the garage next door why"

"Good, we have to go"

Shinji grabbed his flight suit from his room and was doing his best to put it on while hopping around

"What's going on?"

"Did you look at your palm top?"

"I think, I was still sleepy"

"We have a Code 145"

Shinji zipped up the front of the suit

"What"

Requiem grabbed his helmet and pulled out his cell phone to call Jack-O

"Code 145 means the Nest is under attack"

Everyone instantly blurred into action, Yui rushed to get dressed to go to Nerv with Misato while the kids rushed to the Garage for their AC's. Once there they began startup sequence and were immediately contacted by Nerv, apparently though Requiems call hadn't got through to Jack-O it didn't need to.

"Ravens this is Maya Ibuki at Nerv, Jack-O has informed us of what is happening and has left instructions. You are to get to Tokyo2 airport ASAP, your transport is waiting. We've evacuated the road leading to the city edge to allow you an easier route"

Requiem moved his AC from the Garage and into the road, it was indeed empty

"Roger that Nerv, inform Jack-O were on route"

"Confirmed, also the commander has offered to deploy Eva unit 00 if you should deem it necessary"

"You'll have to ask Jack-O"

"Roger Nerv out"

"Ravens out"

Requiem turned to look at Shinji and Rei

"Let's go you two, everyone back at the nest is counting on us"

Both nodded and followed him to Tokyo 2 as fast as their booster would carry them. They were all frightened, but they knew what to do, they were Ravens and would defend their home

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An hour later Requiem, Rei, and Shinji were sitting in the briefing room aboard the Raven transport heading back to the nest along with Executioner and Evangel, Jack-o was going over what they knew thus far

"The current time at the Nest is 4:45 AM at 3:47 AM an unknown force began an all out assault on the Nest using unknown units. Approximately 104 ravens were present and have mounted a defense and are holding their own but need help. Your current standing orders once we arrive are to drop in and destroy any MT unit you don't recognize. We will arrive at 5:10 Nest time at which point we will deploy"

He was interrupted by a call from the cockpit

"Sir you have a communication from Administrator Cortez, its only audio"

"Patch it thought here"

The room's intercom system came to life, the voice of the other Nest administrator came thought

"Are you their jack"

"Yeah Cortez were here go ahead

"The attack ended about 5 min ago; no new units have started attacking us. I'm sending the data we were able to collect on them. How many ravens are with you"

"I have Requiem, Orchid, Executioner, Evangel, Zero and myself on route along with one of Nerv's Evangelions, Unit 00"

The voice on the other end was shocked

"They sent one of those"

Fuyutsuki had ordered Toji in Unit 00 to accompany the Ravens back and do what he could to shore up the defense line at the nest

"Its on loan to help with the defense, they'll only deploy it if needed. What's the damage?

Cortez sighed

"Damage"

He paused for a moment, trying to find the words

"Total, there isn't a building left standing"

Everyone just sat in shocked silence…the Nest had been destroyed. After a few moments jack asked a question everyone on the plane dreaded

"What are the casualties?"

"Over 3000 personnel, 5376 civilians, and…47 ravens

After he took a moment to compose himself Cortez continued

"The damn things hit the garage first, then the raven dormitories. After that they finished off the civilian sector and the Nest administrative section, I was across the compound in the garage when it started. I and many of the surviving ravens managed to put up a fight but all we managed to do was slow them down"

After a moment of silence jack spoke again

"What the hell were they?"

"From what we can tell they were some kind of flying suicide MT. They just flew into anything standing and exploded. Our best estimate placed the number of them at about 10,000. And it gets worse"

"How so"

"The Canadians want us out; they say we're a threat to their country because of this. We have 4 weeks to gather what ever we can and get out; if we don't leave they'll drive us out"

Jack slammed his fist onto the desk, it really only surprised Shinji as the others were pissed as well

"What's the condition of the transport fleet?"

"That's the only bright spot, none of the transports were heavily damaged enough not to fly, the runway is a bit rough but other than that their good to go"

Jack though for a moment

"Alright, get everything packed you can, we'll be arriving soon, Jack-O out"

The communication line cut out, jack then turned to the other ravens

"Alright here's what were going to do, you all get ready to go. Go to what ever may be left of your homes and get what you can and get out. You have an hour, and then come back here. I have a few calls to make to find us a new home"

True to his word jack made his calls. After a few hours he instructed all of the transports be loaded with all useable equipment for departure, the destination, Tokyo 3…

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Asuka sat back in her apartment in Nerv, she and her classmates had watched the chaos unfold at the Ravens Nest on TV, helicopters from various news outlets had overflow the place after it had been attacked and apparently destroyed. The commander had even seen the situation serious enough to deploy an Eva. The stooge had gone in unit 00. But she hadn't been thinking about that. What dominated her mind, she sat back thinking about everything that had happened thus far

'Mama is in my Eva, did she really do this for me, so I could pilot. Did she really know I would?'

At least that's what Shinji's mom had told her today when she had come by. She and Kyoko had gone to school together. Yui had promised Kyoko that if something happened to her she would look after Asuka, something Asuka wasn't, completely, against. It would give her someone new to talk to and in her hour of talking with Yui she learned a lot about Shinji in the process

'So if I want him to grow a spine I just have to be nice to him, I have to admit he does have one. He wouldn't have made it into the ravens if he hadn't. Maybe that's what I'll do when this whole thing with the angels is over, I'll become a raven.'

She laid back and thought about Shinji

'what happened to that baka, one minute he was a coward and the next he makes it into the best mercenary force in the world, I don't get him. Maybe he's one of those guys you don't see the real side of until you get them in a cockpit or behind the wheel, maybe I'll give him a chance when he comes home.'

Asuka had over heard the conversation the commander had with Jack-O not an hour before…Tokyo 3 would be the new home of the Ravens

A/N now on to 14