i'm back and story is not abandoned! sorry if i took too long to update, but i really (again) had to study with semester comming to an end. And (again again) inspiration problems... Chapter is not big, but... hope, it is not completely awful...

SM02, this is AU so i shifted our fovourite Redhead's cycle by +12 (or -15 if you like that way)
CrazyKidDeath, Archeon21, ShadowGreymon, SithKnight-Galen, thank you!
starburst98, true, i have BIG problems here. after i finish story, it'll be reedted (who wants to be beta-reader?) and (hope) mistakes will be corrected.
and everyone. hope, you will not be too much disappointed with chapter 4...

Angel's help
chapter 4: Salvation from the fallen

Friday, like almost any other day, for Asuka began with alarm clock ringing. Though this time it wasn't her alarm clock. Neither she was in her room. After Misato had interrupted them yesterday, Asuka had had a hard time restraining herself, so, when night fell over Tokio-3 and purplehaired major went to sleep, she come back to Shinji... Still they went only as far as kissing and some grouping...

Asuka shifted in the warm embrace of Shinji to reach for and deactivate alarm clock. Then she stood on her hands over sleeping boy and leaned forward, kissing him full on lips. After several seconds Third Child gave first signs of waking up and responded to the kiss. Finally they broke it.

"Good morning, love." Greeted Asuka. 'Morning to you too, Angel-girl.'

'Mmm... Perfect morning... I love this.' Responded Angel.

'Me too.' Second Child mentally sighed. 'Who knew that being in love would be such a fantastic thing.' Deciding, that she was spacing out to speak with Arael for too long, Asuka returned to real world. "As much as i would like to stay like this for the whole day, we have to get up..." Shinji nodded in understanding. He too didn't want to leave bed...

Misato already left for her morning shift, so they were all alone. Not that they minded... One breakfast later they went to school. Well, Shinji went and Asuka, who had to be at NERV HQ for physical at 10:00, accompanied him. After a walk, two Eva pilots entered schoolyard. Hand in hand, causing everybody there to stare at them.

"Well, good luck today, Shinji-kun." Asuka said, before giving hot kiss to Shinji in front of everyone and going away. Third Child, as red as Eva-02, stood on the same spot until first bell rang.

'Wh-what was that?' Kensuke, who saw everything from classroom's window, thought. Finally sure, that this wasn't hallucination or something like that, and 'Red demon' really just kissed Shinji, in public no less, he couldn't help but shout: "Shinji, you lucky bastard!"

***

Gendo definitely was not in a good mood now. All his plans for reunion with Yui were breaking apart in front of his eyes. And sixteenth Angel's attack delay was the reason for that. That bastard of Armisael was already six days late and had no intentions to show up in the nearest future either. Currently commander was in deep thoughts, trying to find a way around current problems... And sub-commander decided to break silence in cavernous cabinet.

"Ikari?"

"My old friend, i think that we lost this game. Scrolls of the Dead Sea were wrong about Angels..."

"Not yet." Replied Old man, catching Gendo's attention.

"What do you mean?"

"I recently studied them. And what they say about our current situation: the sixteenth will attack ten day after death of fifteenth." Said Fuyutsuki with small uneasiness.

"So you want to say that Arael is still alive and is hiding somewhere. Haven't we all seen it's body destroyed by Lance of Longinius?"

"By that time Angel could have found new body and left its old shell floating on the orbit as a distraction."

"Hm... That is possible... But if it is true, than where is it now?" Both men started to think. After one minute or so they both came up with the same idea...

"Asuka Langley Soryu!" After short pause Gendo added. "Today she has a physical with doctor Akagi. We can strike after it finishes." Fuyutsuki could only nod.

***

"Good morning, Akagi-dono." - greeted Asuka, as she entered Ritsuko's office.

"Good morning, Asuka-kun." Answered doctor. "Let's start." Second Child nodded. Ritsuko switcher her laptop to stand by mode and reached for the box with medical instruments. "Anything happened in this week?". Asuka again nodded.

"On wednesday i had some pain in abdominal, accompanied by strong headache, but other than that, i was alright." Ritsuko frowned.

"Why didn't you tell me that? That could be dangerous to your health."

"Well, it lasted only for half an hour or so..." '...Because i took a dose of painkillers...' "And i decided that this wasn't the case..." Redhead tried to do the most innocent face possible. Doctor sighed.

"OK, OK..." And she began physical from girl's abdominal. It was, surprisingly, much more firm, than it was week ago. 'Strange... This may be somehow related to her recently activated genes...' "Any discomfort?" Asked doctor. Asuka only shook her head and Ritsuko continued physical... After five minutes she finished first part of physical. 'Now let's see, what's happened to her blood with those genes active...' "Well, i'll take blood sample from you now, OK?" Girl nodded. One minute later Ritsuko was looking through blood test's results with very confused look on her face.

"Something wrong, Akagi-dono?" Asuka asked.

"Well..." Only after several seconds Ritsuko replied. "Looks like you have blue blood cells... And a good many of them. It appears that you may have S2 organ grown in your abdominal, that's why it is so firm now."

'She found out.' Arael said inside of Asuka's mind.

'That was bound to happen.' Second Child replied.

'True. But i hopped it would take more time...'

"Come here, Asuka-kun." Risuko already was next to computer tomograph. "We'll have CT, to see if i was right about you growing S2 organ." When it was done and Ritsuko showed her results, Asuka was a bit shocked. Before she saw only Angel's Super Solenoid organs, and they were big and almost spherical in their shape. Her, however, looked more like a strange mycelium with hyphae around internal organs.

"Wow."

Asuka left Ritsuko's office almost hour later, being aid to be healthy and ready to return to piloting. And immediately she almost ran into section 2 agent in corridor. Unusual was that the man had his gun with silencer bare. And pointed to her. Something wasn't right there...

'RUN!!!' Screamed Arael in Redhead's mind, but girl already came to the same idea. Asuka immediately hided behind the corner, bullet missing her head by mere centimeter. Asuka waited till man came close enough to her hiding spot to launch surprise kick to his gut. Successfully. As agent fell on the floor, Second Child ran towards the exit of NERV HQ complex, but on the first crossroad there was ambush. Only good reaction from her pilot training saved her life. There was no way she could go past this point this way, so Asuka fell back to try to find better way out of this... scrape.

'Why are they against us? They are supposed to be NERV personal, just like me!'

'Maybe someone found about me...' Answered Arael.

'Then we're in a really big shit now!' Asuka could feel 'Angel-girl' nodding in agreement.

Asuka almost ran in section 2 agents playing hunters three more times, before she was encircled by them with only one option where to run next. So she turned around the corner, again bullets missed her head by sheer luck...

Deadend.

Asuka turned around. Just to face three section 2 agents with guns, pointed to her head, and maniac-like looking commander Ikari. He watched her for several seconds, before two word left his mouth.

"Kill it." Asuka instantly closed eyes, waiting for painful death. But in never came. Instead of it Second Child heard Angel-alarm claxon turning on. Opening her eyes, she saw blue hexagonal shield of Arael's AT field in front of her. Gendo smirked. "So you are really Angel."

"No, she is not. I am." Blue ghost-like figure of teenage girl emerged from Asuka's body, with one hand up for holding AT field.

"Angel-girl, what are you doing? You'll die if..."

"I know." Still holding shield, Arael turned to Asuka. "Promise me one thing: love that we raised will not die with me gone. Just promise, and i will regret nothing." Asuka gave her puzzled look for a second and then quickly nodded.

"Of course."

"Thank you, Asuka-chan, be happy..." Arael leaned forward and lightly kissed Second Child on her lips. "And... I'm sorry..." Pause. Ghosty tears fell from her eyes. "I resumed the war..." With that Arael and her AT field disappeared in billions of quickly fading blue sparkles. Siren turned off.

"ARAEL!!!" Yelled Asuka, trying to catch these sparkles. In the next moment AT field exploded form Second Child in the form of the spherical wave of small orange hexagons, for the second time this day turning alert siren on. This wave of AT field left craters on the walls, ceiling and floor and send all four men flying to the nearest wall with tremendous force. Those two section 2 agents that stood closer to Asuka had their sculls and many other bones broken by the impact with concrete wall and were dead. Third one and commander were a bit more lucky and stayed alive but broken and unconscious... Asuka herself was lying in the middle of crater on the floor, passed out from unbearable pain that stroke her at the moment her AT field exploded... Alert siren died, leaving five motionless bodies in the destroyed corridor in the ringing silence.

~~~***~~~

four chapters down, epilogue to go...