Evangelion: Continuum

Chapter 2: Taking care of loose ends

By: Daetor

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to this story or the characters, I'm just obsessed by it. I'm writing this because I want to and no other reasons, I'm not getting paid or anything. Gainax owns this stuff and they can sue me if they don't like what I did here.(Though I hope they don't)

Asuka woke up once more not knowing where she was or how she got there.This is becoming really annoying. she thought while trying to realize where she was. She was in a bed, in fairly large room, to her right were large windows and the sun was starting to bother her. That was probably the reason she woke up in the first place. Near the windows was a desk perfectly arranged so that you could work in peace while also being able to look out the windows and make use of the apparently abundant sun light. A pretty large closet was placed near the wall opposite to her, perfect for her needs. To the left she saw the door which led to the rest of the house, door which had a lock and a key in it. Still the room could use some decorations... She mused then she remembered what had happened and how she got there.

This was John's house, the mysterious soldier which rescued her and Shinji last night, he told her to make herself at home. She was too tired to think at that time and she was grateful for the chance to sleep somewhere comfortable. She slept well, and she felt surprisingly well, but the events from last night came back to haunt her. Nothing made any sense since then...

--

"I see, I'll take you two at a safe place, before anything else tries to kill you. I'm sure that he would never forgive me if I'd let anything happen to you." The man said with a slight smile on his lips. Asuka wondered what he meant, but she didn't have time to finish her thoughts when she noticed that the behemoth behind her began to move once more. The man seemed to concentrate a little and she recognized on his face the same expression she or Shinji had when they tried to synch with their Evas.

The creature moved a large container from it's back an placed it before them, moving around with care, looking almost worried. As soon as the container was placed down, the man relaxed his expression. He went to it and opened a part of it's front revealing an entrance, he then turned towards her."Ok let me carry him in, trust me he might need treatment. I have medical equipment inside and I can take a look at your wounds too. I hope that using that power didn't cause him any internal injuries..."

He took Shinji out of her arms as she reluctantly let go and went towards the container, she got on her feet and followed him. Something felt odd, her arm and eye didn't hurt anymore but she felt a lot more tired than before. She followed the man in, and she was surprised to see what looked like a hospital room much larger than the actual container. How was this possible, she asked herself but decided that the answer was unimportant at the moment. The strange man had already placed Shinji on a bed and turned towards her.

"Ok sit there, I'll check your wounds, he checked out all right, no physical damage from what I can tell it's only the shock of releasing so much energy." Asuka sat on a bed wondering how did he check anything since she couldn't see any real equipment around Shinji. Then he came and raised his right palm over her left eye, then she saw a bright red light from it and felt a pleasant warmth from his palm. He did the same for her arm, looking surprised at first then he smiled.

"You can take those of, it seems that you have regenerated and you've also healed him."The man said as he removed the bandages around her left eye. Asuka was at first scared but then she realized that she was able to see with both eyes. She then tore the bandage of her right arm herself, and then she looked at her arm, which was completely unharmed. Still the bandages, in both cases held traces of blood, her blood she realized, but how was that possible if she was uninjured. The man smiled at her surprise, he looked as if there was nothing unusual happening.

"What's going on?"She managed to ask."Well Asuka. I may call you Asuka right?" He said, but he was interrupted. "How do you know my name?"She asked."I doubt that there are many who don't know your name and Shinji's. You Eva pilots are pretty famous you know, but that doesn't matter now does it?"

He asked the last bit knowing all too well about her pride and how much she had paid for it. Normally Asuka would have loved the fact that someone recognized her as the pilot of Unit-02, but for some reason that didn't matter now. It was part of her life 'before', before Third Impact changed everything.

"My name is John and well it's rather difficult to explain what's going on."He began, his expression showing traces of sorrow for some reason. "First I suppose you want to know what happened to Shinji, then how come your wounds are healed."Asuka simply nodded surprised by the fact that she was actually going to receive some answers."Shinji used the light of his soul to stop that monster from attacking you. The light of the soul is an A.T. Field I guess, but it can do much more than what you've witnessed so far. Shinji received a lot of energy from the one you people refer to as Adam or the First Angel, yet he wasn't ready to use it yet. Only a very powerful emotion could have triggered that display, not anger nor hate..."

"Wait. are you saying that Shinji expanded an A.T Field of his own? That he got it from Adam?" Asuka asked finding it hard to believe, still this was a pretty good explanation for the barrier that stopped the initial attack. Remembering what she had been trough herself during Third Impact made this seem petty normal."Is that what he did? But why did he collapse?"

"As I said, he wasn't ready to use it yet. It's one thing to have the power and quite another to be able to use it. The energy probably surged through his body reacting to his emotions and will without any form of control. As soon as he was done, he collapsed since he couldn't keep himself conscious anymore due to the enormous strain on his body. That's what happened with him, physically he doesn't have any problems but that is because of you. On the other hand it might take his mind quite some time to recover, if ever..."

"WHAT?!" Asuka yelled in disbelief."Are you saying that he'll might remain like this for the rest of his life?!"She stopped because of John's gaze, filled with regret and sorrow, apparently, despite his calm, the situation pained him."I hope not, I'll do my best to ensure that things won't turn out that way." He said with a reassuring voice. "Still, he'll only wake up if he has reasons to live, and you're the only reason he has left at the moment..."

"Wha...What do you mean?"Asuka asked as her anger subdued, taken aback by shock and curiosity. "What do I have to do with anything?"

"Come on, you surely realized why he's in this state...Why he used that power..."

"Because of me?" She asked not wanting to believe those words, even though she knew they were true. "Yes... He did it to protect you, and the truth is that he's lucky that you were around when he fell, because you healed his internal injuries."

"I don't understand, how could I heal anything?" Asuka asked, wondering what could he mean."Tell me. Didn't the one named Lilith offer you a gift?"John asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"I'll tell you after we've sorted some of this mess out. Suffice to say that your gift is just as powerful as Shinji's but it has a different nature. You wanted to help him when he slumped in your arms unconscious, right?" Asuka simply nodded."Your hidden power reacted to your emotions, even if you yourself are unable to accept them. Thus a part of your energy passed trough his body and healed his wounds, at the same time the energy had to exit your body first, so it healed yours as well. That's what happened."

"Still we don't have time now for this long story. I have to go back to the avatar and move you two to a safe place. I'll be damned if I let those bastards mess with children that way! Wait here and take care of Shinji, trust me Asuka, I won't let any of you get hurt, not if I can do anything about it."

With that said John exited the room and closed the door behind him. Then Asuka felt as if the whole place was being moved, the Eva unit outside must have lifted them again and it was probably moving them to who could say where. Still why did he call it an avatar? Asuka knew that there was a lot more going on than she could understand at the moment. For now she was contempt with watching Shinji who seemed asleep, he was relaxed, but then his expression shifted as if his dream took a turn for the worst.

Asuka placed her hand over his forehead wondering what was going on trough her mind about him, why should she care? Why did he care? She never did anything good to him. She had acted towards him as bad as she did with all other boys she met if not much worse. Why would he be different and why would he care at all? Why did he think he could understand her of all persons? She then felt a shock trough her arm, as if a pulse of energy came from his mind.

Asuka found herself watching Shinji as a young boy, as he was left behind by his father. The image quickly shifted and she saw trough Shinji's eyes, she saw Shinji's mother Yui climb in what seemed to be Unit-01 and falling victim to it, being absorbed completely as he was after the battle with the 14th. Asuka was shocked to discover this resemblance of her life with Shinji's, they had both lost their mothers to Eva and both of them were ignored if not even hated by their fathers.

It seemed that he could understand her, because at a certain level, he was just like her, only that he dealt with his problem in a different matter. While she pushed everyone away and pretended to be self-sufficient and strong, he ran away and closed his feelings within, letting everyone walk over him. You could say that each solution was the exact opposite of the other, but both were just as useless.

Asuka realized that if Shinji would have been in her place when the 15th attacked, he wouldn't have done any better himself, his memories would have probably finished him up as it happened to her. Also since the boy had the tendency to run away and back down from any threat, the effect on him would have been much worse then on her. Asuka wasn't certain, but she believed that he might have died in her place, or driven insane for good. Still, she was upset that he didn't try to help her if he cared so much.

The memories changed, Shinji was in his entry plug, she could feel his anger and she could hear her screams over the comm. link. He wanted to help, but his father didn't let him, he wasn't even allowed to connect to Unit-01, he could just sit there and listen to her screams. Asuka felt his emotions and she felt how every single scream of hers was tearing at his heart. She couldn't believe this, but it was true, if it wasn't for his father, Shinji would have jumped out there to her rescue for no other reason than the fact that she needed him. He didn't give a damn about the world or about his duty, all he thought was that he wanted to save HER.

Asuka snapped back to reality when the room jolted suddenly. She held Shinji preventing him from falling from his bed, and she felt regret. He was now in a coma because he had protected her and she might never get the chance to tell him anything. Even if he would have been awake, she wouldn't know what to tell him anyway, after all that happened her emotions had been tossed in a blender.

The room began to shake hard and she had to use all of her strength to keep Shinji in his bed. A hologram displaying John's face suddenly flickered to life near each bed."I'm afraid that we have some trouble outside, hold on since this will be a real bumpy ride." The hologram disappeared before Asuka could say anything, also, she knew that only one thing could cause this, they were under attack from something...

--

Outside, the avatar had extended it's blade tentacles once more, and it was flying high above the clouds. On it's back it had extended similar structures to the Eva's shoulder pilons, but these were longer and they emanated a field of energy which allowed the avatar to fly with incredible speed. It's eyes were glowing red and it maneuvered with astounding speed and agility which would be impossible for anything that would fly through any other methods. It held the container under it's left arm and had extended an energy field around it to protect it from the shocks caused by the speed maneuvers. In the full moon you could see it's red and black armor, which seemed more resilient than that of regular Eva units.

Behind it you could see two flying beasts, they struggled to keep up but the avatar was to fast for them. They were forced to fly with wings and had no means trough which they could properly compete with their target. They had attacked while it was in a cloud, using the element of surprise to their advantage, but the target escaped and was flying away. They were almost identical copies of the beast on the beach, and even though they didn't know it, they wouldn't have been much of a challenge for the avatar. Still the 'pilot' knew that he had other worries and he couldn't defeat the beasts while protecting his precious cargo.

'It seems that they're pretty determined to see this through before it even begins.' John thought from his position in the control sphere of the avatar's core.'Still they have no idea of who they're dealing with. I've allowed them to play around with humanity for long enough, it's time to allow humanity to strike back at these fiends. It will take some time to prepare everything, but I'll have it, they'll be more cautious after this failure.' John knew who his enemies were and he knew that it wouldn't be easy, but he also knew that he had no choice. He stood aside for too long and he knew that his intervention would lead to the end of this war that lasted for too many eons. That would have to wait however, his priority now was to take care of the two children that suffered so much until now. After the war they would be very important in returning humanity to it's former glory and surpass it. They could even be part of the war but that was their own choice, he wasn't even going to suggest it to them, in his opinion they had suffered enough.

The avatar followed on it's path until John was certain that nothing was following them anymore, there was one last step to take and then it would be impossible for their enemy to reach them in any way. He began a steep dive and plunged into the depths of the Atlantic ocean, deeper than any submarine would have dreamed of following. A black shadow opened before him and he entered it leaving from the world as the shadow disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. It was the to the Sanctuary, a place of which no one but it's inhabitants knew.

This place was hidden in the most unlikely of places, a Dirac sea, an inverted space closed in itself. Here you could see ten large spheres made out of heavy armor plates, but you had to have the adequate sensors to orientate yourself in a place like this. The spheres were linked together by enormous bridges, the sphere themselves were absurdly large, being large enough to contain several cities each of them. Amongst them, there was on which was in the center of it all, which was three times as large as the others.

The avatar went to it and a large door opened on it's surface. The door made the avatar look small since it was made for several such creatures to come out at once. The door closed behind it and the sound of air rushing in could be heard. Once the room was pressurized once more, another door opened before it and allowed John to enter, he was back at his domain, Central Sanctuary. He relaxed his tensed muscles, even though this wasn't over, he had to take a little break at least. Before that he would have to take care of Asuka and Shinji, the later needed to be taken to the hospital.

The avatar thus placed the container to a special receptacle designed for that exact purpose and then proceeded to rest on a giant throne like structure, several cables attached themselves to it's armor and technicians began buzzing around it checking it for damage. John came out from it's back and entered the "throne" as the technicians nick-named it. It was basically a massive chair on which the avatar rested and through which it was checked and repairs or medical interventions were given if necessary. It had no restraints, it reacted only if he wanted it to react, and no restraints in the world would have held it for more than a nanosecond if he wanted it to do anything.

He rushed with the medical crew to the container and opened the door. Asuka was holding Shinji in her arms again, she had no choice due to the violent shaking. He smiled thinking that if he didn't use his energy to buffer the effect, then the whole room would have been mangled and they would both had serious injuries from the enormous G-forces generated by his maneuvers. Asuka let go of Shinji as the medics ran in, they were led by a young woman with brown hair and dark eyes. She checked Shinji in the same way that John did but she seemed more concentrated and she kept her palm over her forehead for a longer time. She then muttered something to the other members of the medical team and they took Shinji away. She turned to them and went straight to John with a serious expression on her face.

"How is he Sarah?" John asked, hopping that the more experienced doctor might have seen something he missed.

"As well as can be expected, your report was pretty accurate. We'll have to monitor him for awhile but he should recover."Sarah replied." The poor boy is more lucky than he can imagine, her intervention might give him the extra push he needs to pull back. Apparently she made contact with his mind, she didn't do anything but he felt her presence, that will help if you're correct about his feelings towards her."

"You haven't seen what I've seen."John stated with a grin on his face." Anyway, I'll take her to my place so that she can take a nap. What do you think?"

"I don't know, sleep sounds good..." Asuka said since the last part was addressed to her. She was too tired to go on or to say anything against this idea. Her mind was on the brink of break down. John led her through a long series of tunnels and then they exited the complex through a lift. They came out in the yard of a large house, a real villa to say the least. He led her inside, gave her new clothes and showed her to the shower, as soon as she was done he practically had to carry her to the bed room and she collapsed in the bed falling asleep.

--

Asuka quickly got out of bed and went straight to the closet, she found clothes that were her size, fact which was surprising to say the least. Still her mind didn't dwell on the subject for any longer than a second. She had only one thing in mind, she had to find out what happened to Shinji. She ran out of the bedroom and then down the stairs to the left, despite the fact that she had been dizzy last night she remembered what little she had seen of the houses layout with surprising ease.

"Morning." John's voice greeted her as she came down."You're in an awful hurry to see him for a person who doesn't care. Anyway, I was expecting this so follow me." Asuka considered what the man just said but she decided that it was pointless to argue with him. "Fine lead the way. Don't get any ideas about me and that idiot!"

"Stop playing games with me, at my age you have no way of hiding emotions under shallow disguises." He stated with a tone that made it clear that he wasn't in the mood."Even at an age of 2349 years I can still have a limited patience sometimes. Especially with a situation as sensible as this one."

The last part hit Asuka and refused to fit in her thinking process, the age was impossible yet somehow the tone and the frequency of the voice convinced her that it was the truth. She somehow KNEW that what he said was true, even if it was impossible.

They exited the house and were now walking on a street towards the edge of a town, the season seemed to be autumn as the trees in the area had their normally green leaves turned in different shades of yellow and red. Asuka had never seen such a thing in her life and she couldn't understand what was going on. She wondered where they were, but she was more concerned as to how the man at her side convinced her that what he stated was true.

"How did you do that?"She managed to ask, despite the fact that the man was somewhat intimidating Asuka was not the kind of person who would back down easily."Do what?"John asked forgetting that she wasn't used to his talents as everyone else around here was."How did you put in to my mind the idea that what you said is true despite the fact that it seems impossible?"Asuka asked, with bits of anger showing in her voice."Oh that...It's simple, it is the truth, my mind knows it as a true fact. Knowing that I added energy in the air that carried the sound to your ears. That energy passed into your body and convinced it that the statement is as exact as a biological truth, like pain for example. I can only do that if my own body knows that the statement is true, otherwise I have nothing to impose on yours. In simpler words I used a little trick I know called the Tone of Truth."

"So you're really THAT old? What are you?" Asuka asked in shock."I'm just as human as you, only that my body is different along certain lines. You'll live a longer life than I will anyway."He said as if he was speaking of something perfectly normal, also Asuka realized that he was using the same 'trick' again."Ok so you're human... but I still find it impossible..."She said, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"I'll explain everything as soon as Shinji's awake again and after I've gathered anyone that needs to hear these things." John said as they entered the town and headed to a hospital building."Until then I'll get you used to this place. When I'm not around Sarah will show you the area and explain what she can. You're going to be living here, since this is the only place in the world where they can't find you."

"They? Who are they? What do they want from us?" Asuka asked desperately trying to make sense of all this madness."Though I have to admit that living here wouldn't be too bad... We can't go back to Tokyo-3, it's been destroyed in Third Impact..."She knew that this meant that all of her belongings and memories which were there had been destroyed as well. Still that wasn't all that important too many things had changed, she knew she'd have to move on. Asuka then wondered what happened to the people they knew there, they were all probably absorbed like she was than spat out again.

"John, I see that you've actually slept. So you brought the young lady to see her friend. How are you feeling miss?"Sarah greeted them from the hospital's entrance."I'm all right, How's Shinji?" Asuka asked the young doctor."He'll be fine, I'll take you to him. John, we received a report from the rescue teams and the armored division, they've recovered every person they were able to find in the LCL sea. I guess that you can proceed with your plans to recover the two units. That's what I know, anyway you've probably got the full report on your desk."

"Then I'll be leaving miss Sohryou into your care, I have no idea how long this will take. Allow her to get used to this place and send word immediately if Shinji wakes up." John said and then left, Asuka heard the fact that he was concerned. Who was that man and why did he care about them anyway. Did he need them as pilots? Whatever the reasons she decided to find out, thinking that maybe the young doctor would provide more information.

"Why is he doing this?" Asuka asked as Sarah lead her to Shinji's room in the hospital."Why? Well John is a really nice guy, he actually cares and he doesn't want anyone to get hurt. He knows both of your stories pretty well and he believes that you've been trough enough as it is. He wants to help, but I can't explain why without getting into private information. Still you can count on him telling you himself pretty soon."

"Does he need us as pilots?"She asked trying to find out ANYTHING."No, he'd never do that to you two or to anyone else for that matter. He'd even try to stop you if you wanted to do it yourself."

"Then why?"

"You'll see in time. For now be there for your friend and try to get used to this place. I or John will help you with the second. If things were to go as John wants them to, you two could live here in peace without having any worries of any wars." Asuka simply nodded and she entered Shinji's room, which resembled a normal hospital room, but it didn't have the same smell. It felt like a cozy room, a place in which patients could recover much more quickly than the normal hospital rooms. Asuka took a chair and sat besides Shinji's bed wondering when he would wake up.

--

John was back in his avatar and he was flying outside the atmosphere, heading towards his target. He was going to recover Unit-01, and the Lance of Longinus.'What a stupid name for that weapon, but humans are humans I guess and SEELE never had any real imagination while pretending to be humans.' He thought while stopping in front of the inactive Eva unit, his purpose wasn't the Eva itself and the Lance was just a bonus to him. His purpose was to free the soul trapped within, since in his opinion Yui Ikari deserved a better ending than this.

Also, he knew that Shinji would be glad to see his mother again, not to mention that she might have some extra information about his enemies which he might have overlooked. So he first removed the Lance from the purple mecha's hands, the lance seemed to liquefy at his touch being commanded by his powers. It merged with his avatar leaving no trace at the surface of the armor, but it would serve a new purpose later in the war. He then turned his back at the monster and caught it with the blade tentacles firmly immobilizing it.

With his target secured in place, John began his journey back to Earth and then Sanctuary, where they would begin their work to extract Yui's soul from the purple monster. Though he knew that even if they extracted the soul it would take a lot longer to reform a new body without causing her any harm. Still that didn't mean that she wouldn't be able to see Shinji until that happened, he had other ways...

--

At the outskirts of Tokyo-2 an army deployed from unusual vehicles, they literally looked like flying boxes. The soldiers wore dark-silver uniforms with light armor plates and sturdy helmets with dark visors. They were armed with weapons which didn't look like anything any man had seen before, yet they were held like fire arms. In the city no one knew where this threat came from and panic began to spread, as if Third Impact hadn't been enough.

Touji Suzuhara was with Hikari when this event began to take place and found himself caught in the ensuing chaos. He was whole again, when Third Impact began he was missing his left arm and leg, but when he woke up he was healed, amazingly so was his little sister. It seemed that whatever happened in that madness gave them another chance at life. Now it seemed as if fate was working against them once more, not only that he didn't have any news on Shinji or even The Red Devil as he still called Asuka, but now someone wanted to raise the town of the face of the Earth.

As the soldiers entered the town and opened fire on anyone who moved starting with the edges of town and working their way to it's middle. A large number of 5 meter tall machines began to land all over the town engaging the soldiers which weren't equipped to face such enemies. What was even stranger was the fact that both enemies seemed to utilize A.T. fields. Of course no one noticed that while trying to run for their lives.

Several transports began to land in the center of the town, bulky ships with four engines that came out of nowhere. From them came out people that began picking up the scared townsfolk. Touji pulled Hikari to one of them got her on board and he ran to find his sister, whoever these people were, they were trying to help them and they didn't fire at anything except for the soldiers that attacked first. It was easy to make out the good guys from the others, despite the fact that they didn't seem to have a specific design for their war machines. They did have the same symbols decorating them. A sword with two wings and Sanctuary written under it.

Toji found his sister in the streets threatened by one of the dark-silver invaders. Just as he was about to shot her one of the machines impaled the soldier with a long lance and then turned towards them."Are you two alright? You better run to a transport, we can't protect you people and fight these guys effectively at the same time. Now go!"Touji didn't wait for the man to finish, he was already running with his sister in his arms towards the transports.

Then he saw the most frightening thing: what seemed like a red and black Eva unit which was carrying Unit-01 behind it. It hovered for some time then seemed to open fire on something outside his line of sight. It was clearly on their side otherwise it would have shot the transports in the center of the town. A little hope flickered in his mind, maybe these people would know something about Shinji.

To be continued...

A/N: Well, this is the second chapter and I think I'm getting the hand at this formating thing on this site (even though it still gives me a head ache). I tried to make this a quick update, but the next one might come a bit later than this one. If you like the story, or it makes you raise an eyebrow at it or on the other hand you out right hate it, then leave a review or send me a PM, I like to know what my readers think about my story and some criticism might help me improve more or less.

Oh, and don't say that John is a "gary-stu" or what ever it was called, because you have no idea what I have planned for the man.