Death in the Family

Letting him hug her, she accepted it as a loving embrace. When she left him to go get into her EVA, she readied herself for a fight, having a strange feeling this might be her last.

"Off goes the heroes. The fight for man." Kaji muttered to himself as Asuka ran off to prepare for the next battle against the angels once more. Next he was to be escorted to the command centre.

All hands had to be at station. If Central Dogma was to fall Kaji was to retreat to the European branch and prepare for the end of the world. Such things did not shock him anymore. This world he lived in was cold but it was something he was good at doing.

She was terrified; who wouldn't be if you thought for sure you were going to die but she went on anyway. Climbing inside and prepping for the fight, she headed out with Shinji and Rei.

On the large screens was an angel drifting through the sky; it was high in orbit, they seemed to be coming from space now as they picked them up at a distance. Taking slow steps, they were all conversing quickly in low tones. Looking over at Kaji, The commander looked back at the screen.

On the screen, the Angel was visible and shifting through the sky, it was like a giant winged human, descending from the heavens like a real angel; Unit 0, 1 and 2 were visible on separate monitors and their faces were visible.

"Unit 1, bring up the positron rifle" Misato spoke and cut to Unit 2 and 0. "Unit One will lead the operation, Shinji, you need to…"

There was a snap as the coms cut in. "Why does Shinji always get the lead?" there was a sigh from Misato as Asuka cut into the conversation. "I'm the best pilot, look at my sync rate! Look at my scores! Why does the third child always get to lead the squad? Just because he's commander Ikari's Son..." she brought up her own rifle and took aim.

"Fine.. if Asuka wants to be the hero, let her" Misato grumbled and looked at Commander Ikari who nodded.

"Alright, I got this fucker" she snarled and took aim, she waited for her rifle's system to aim.

"Target has fired something..." a call came across the command floor.

A howling scream came across the comms Unit as a bright light shot from Angel and filled the camera's watching Unit 2. Asuka was screaming, her camera flickering in and out as the energy disrupted the coms.

"Damage?" Misato asked, but none was reported, the beam gave no damage yet Asuka was screaming. On the camera she gripped her head, her EVA mimicking the movement as she screamed, shook her body and slammed the EVA into the buildings around her. She fired her rifle several times and sent shots smashing into buildings, in to the air and into defences.

"Get out! No! Get out! I.. I cant! NO!" she screamed and bellowed as she fought some unknown force.

"Unit 0, take out the Angel!" Misato cried and Unit 0 fired, but the shots did nothing to the Angel, its AT field too strong from this distance; even sustained fire from Unit 1 and 0 failed to work. Meanwhile Asuka screamed, she begged and she pleaded for it to stop. She cried for her father, her mother, for Kaji to come and save her.

"Unit 0! Get the Lance" Commander Ikari hissed, discussions about using the lance began and Kaji would be able to hear Commander Ikari state "Seele has already begun its work, we need to get there first" He turned to Kaji and stated. "I know that you know more than most Mr Ryoji, I do hope you chose your side well"

"Kaji! please... help me! I.. I can't.. It ... I wont let it! " she begged and whimpered over the coms, Unit 1 was wanting to help but the Commander told him to stand down. Asuka's readings were going crazy, everyone was panicking and even Misato was worried that Asuka was not going to make it.

All of a sudden the coms went quiet, Asuka's readings were flat lined and the emergency alarms came on. "Asuka's flat lined! Her brain waves have gone null!" Misato bellowed out.

Slowly Unit 2 began to turn to Unit 1, where it suddenly attacked, charging with its bare hands, Unit 1 fought it off but wasn't able to do anything. Another alert appeared on the screen.

"We have a Second Angel! Blue Alert! Narrowing... wait..." the tech looked up at the others. "Unit... 2?" he stammered.

"Rei... Hurry up with the Lance... Shinji.. You have to destroy Unit 2" The commander ordered.

"No, its Asuka... I can't do that" he argued. What followed was the Commander overriding Shinji and for the first time the dummy system was used. Unit 1 attacked Unit 2 and the pair were fighting it out in the city; almost like a dog fight in an underground gang hideout. Rei appeared with the lance, just as Asuka was about to rip off Unit 1's head, Rei threw the lance and it went straight through Unit 2's head, the Eva shuddered, stood up slowly and looked to the sky; raising a hand up to the sun, a voice whispered across the quiet coms.

"Free..." Then Unit 2 stood rock still, hand raised to the sky as if grasping for the sun.

"Blue alert on Unit 2 is over, First Angel still in position!" the tech yelled. Unit 0 ran over and yanked the lance from Unit 2 before throwing it into the sky, destroying the angel. Unit 2 began to slump to the ground as the lance was removed, as if the lance itself had held Unit 2's muscles and bones stiff.

"Recover Unit 1. Unit 0, hold and keep an eye on Unit 2 until the recovery comes" Commander Ikari ordered and looked at Kaji and Misato. "Find a replacement for Unit 2, notify her next of kin" he then stood up and left.

Misato turned to Kaji, all anger and hate between them gone for now, an expression of worry was the only thing there.

When Unit 1 was recovered, Shinji wasn't happy, he'd almost killed Asuka in Unit 2, or thought he did. Unit 2 was another matter, as they cranked open the pod inside, a foul smell drifted out, the LCL had turned into some sort of fleshy material and having to cut their way in; the HAZMAT teams found Asuka. They got her out and into a truck where no one was told her condition for almost a week, not even Misato knew where they'd taken her for quarantine.

Kaji would get a text from Misato a week and a half later, she finally was given Asuka's location. The pair were allowed to come together to see her. Through several layers of Central Dogma, right down pretty far in security layers, they were shown into a room where they had to wear special HAZMAT suits.

On a medical bed and wired up to machines, Asuka lay with her eyes open staring up at the ceiling; well, one eye open, her left eye was covered in a black piece of silk with tiny marks in silver inlaid into the material. The life support beeped slowly and the machines showed her alive but... she didn't look alive.

"Medically, she is alive" the doctor explained, "Mentally, she's a vegetable... nothing there" he waved his hand in front of her eye and clicked his finger. "However she was in contact with an Angel, we analysed her readings and will be conducting tests" Kaji and Misato were both handed a clipboard and a form to sign.

"As her guardian and next of kin, you two are to sign this form to release her body to NERV's science division for study and dissection" the doctor explained. They wanted to cut her up and use her body for 'science'. Even though she was 'brain dead' as the doctor claimed, her finger kept tapping against the bed in a rhythmic pattern.

"We dont know what the pattern is, it is repeatable, over and over, a four part repeated pattern. We don't understand it... for now. I'll leave you with her for a while" the doc explained and left. Misato stared at the brain-dead Asuka and sighed as she sat down on the chair next to the bed.

"I always knew one of the children would die at some time..." she bit her lip. "But not like this, she's alive but... not."