Evangelion: Continuum Chapter 5, an evangelion fanfic

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 5:First moves

Disclaimer: Don't tell me that you STILL don't get it...

Three weeks had passed since the awkward meeting and everyone was now used to their new lives and obviously new routines as well. Of course, life wasn't perfect, especially for the two former pilots which knew that it wouldn't be long until they'd start to go back to Earth on missions. During this time they had trained and enjoyed their life together, at the same time John was still gathering information.

Back on Earth, everyone lived their lives just as before Third Impact, aside from the destruction on Tokyo-3 and the assumed destruction of Tokyo-2, there was no other damage. Sure there had been quite a lot of car pileups after the event and quite a few air crashes, but when everyone returned there was no one in danger. Four weeks had been enough time to get things back as they were before. There was one change though, the weather began to change again, apparently, the explosion pushed Earth in yet another axis, though this one was closer to it's original position. That meant that the weather was returning to a much more normal form than before.

SEELE didn't make any moves yet, it still waited for it's adversary, but they were preparing their forces, new beasts were being spawned, new angels to be exact, servants which would hopefully crush their enemy. Also, their project with cloned troops was also progressing, they had an enormous army under their command, just waiting to be awakened. They, knew that John would act pretty soon somewhere, he wouldn't give them to much time to start other plans with which to achieve their path to so called godhood. Their best plan at the moment was still to try and get their hands on the two children and their powers. Still only the top five members knew the whole truth, the rest were only puppets.

Gendo Ikari was also involved in the madness, though now he was pretty uninformed and as always following his impossible dream. He lacked a lot of information, he believed that Unit-01 and the Lance of Longinus were crashed on the Moon somewhere awaiting recovery. He knew that SEELE was planning something big but he didn't knew what. Still he was prepared for the failure of Instrumentality, as soon as his son was involved he knew that it would fail, thankfully for him he had a backup plan.

This plan involved an underground branch of NERV created right under SEELE's nose, hidden from them. It was built and prepared even from the days of old GEHIRN at Yui's suggestion in case they'd have to rebel SEELE openly. It was built in an unlikely place, the frozen Alaska, there, two more Evangalions had been prepared, he had moved there and he had begun scheming. He had to recover Unit-01 and find his son, as much as he hated depending on that boy, also he prepared pilots for the two units. Unit A and Unit B, officially they didn't exist, no one except for him and the base personnel knew of them, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi had followed him there, he gave her a purpose, she had nothing else to do.

John had discovered the hidden base, and he knew that before he could deal with SEELE, he had to deal with this lunatic first and his stupid plans. He knew that an open attack would be stupid, they'd cause an untold number of deaths pointlessly, and John didn't kill people like that. So he'd infiltrate the base and collapse it from within, this would be the perfect test mission for his two young apprentices.

As John was preparing the operational details and so on, the two before mentioned children were waking up. Since Shinji woke up they had been sleeping in the same bed, though aside from John no on knew that. As far as they were concerned it was a good thing, Misato would jump to conclusions immediately and they'd never hear the end of it.

"Come on Asuka, it's time for breakfast."Shinji pleaded, even though he knew that it was somewhat pointless.

"I'm too sleepy to get down."She said burying her head in his shoulder.

"So I take it that you want breakfast in bed?"He asked.

"That sounds like a good idea but no."She said yawning."I'd be asleep by the time you would get back."

"Then you don't leave me any options."He sighed and then picked her up."If you don't want to get down, I'll take you there."

"Now that's much better."She replied playfully as he carried her in his arms towards the kitchen."This is one morning routine to which I'll never get used to."

It was John's turn to cook today, he was the only one in the house who cooked besides Shinji and like the before mentioned boy he was an early riser. He heard Asuka giggling down the hallway so he knew that two of the houses residents were up. It would probably take another half hour for the second couple to get up, he was pretty used to some of their routines by now. He laughed when he saw Shinji carrying the fiery redhead in his arms and placing her in a chair before sitting himself next to her.

"That one I didn't see yet."He said smiling at the two."Morning you two, coffee as usual Asuka?"

"Yea, thanks John."She replied."So anything new on the job?"

"Yup, you two are actually going on a mission soon and I'll supervise in case something goes wrong."He said.

"Just the two of us?"Shinji asked, slightly nervous."That was unexpected, especially knowing how much you didn't want us to join in on your affairs."Asuka stated, she was surprised herself, but she wasn't worried.

"Well, I've taught you excellent fighting techniques and you're both a lot better with the light of the soul, especially since you're more used with the details of your powers. Plus, this mission is a side bonus, separate from our objectives regarding SEELE, this time, we're going after your father Shinji."

"So, you found him..."The boy replied in a bitter tone.

"Yes, we did and he didn't learn much from his experiences from what I can tell. So you two will capture him and we're bringing him here, I'm sure that your mother will have quite a pleasant chat with him."John said. Shinji chuckled, he knew that the chat would be anything but pleasant for father.

"Anyway, come to my office at 2 o'clock sharp, we'll discuss the mission then. It will be a good test and hopefully nothing will go wrong because of SEELE."He said in a neutral voice.I doubt that's likely, but who knows.

Fifty minutes after the announcement John had left, leaving Shinji and Asuka to think about the recent development. Meanwhile Kaji and Misato were also up and had joined them to eat breakfast, both of them noticed that the two were unusually quiet today, then again, they might be talking in a different way she thought. Even she learned some of the details on their powers, so she knew that thanks to Asuka, the two of them could talk telepathically, making the conversation impossible to listen to.

Lilith's powers were more concentrated on the mind and soul, they were spectacular and Lilith had developed them so that she could easily connect to others. Thus Asuka had a natural gift at reading minds and other tricks like that, also she was more inclined to massive displays of power. This was a good thing, because Asuka controlled the energy more easily than Shinji did, so in when they had to use massive energy blasts it was better to let her handle it. Unfortunately, this meant that her powers were less influential on her body, meaning that if you did manage to strike through her barrier and hit her, you could injure her more easily.

Adam's power was somewhat opposite, it worked far better channeled inwardly, fact which made Shinji in a surprisingly effective close quarter fighter. He couldn't do as many tricks as Asuka could and he was unable to heal anyone else aside from himself and Asuka, but he was very resilient. His body had developed it's own S2 organ, his heart was different, it was still beating but it had a different shape and it was a lot more resistant. Also, he regenerated in an angel like manner, as long as you didn't kill him, he just got back up no matter how severe his injuries were.

Shinji had another bonus, due to Adam's power he could control anything that was made from Adam, meaning other Evas if their souls were hiding. Also, he had the Lance, he took a part of it as his personal weapon and shaped it into a sword. The twin prongs became twin blades and the weapon which resulted could cut through other barriers as if they were butter. It was their best weapon against SEELE's minions and as much as John hated to admit it, Shinji was the only one who could truly use that weapon.

The two teens had passed trough intense training during the last few weeks, and they were a force to be feared. Their new powers combined with vicious fighting techniques were devastating, not to mention the two avatars, which so far were never tested to their full potential. Though until they entered a few battles it would be impossible to tell how much they have learned.

Meanwhile the silence had lasted for about 15 minutes and it was now obvious to Misato that the two were discussing something rather intently. She wasn't stupid, something must have happened and it was obviously related to their new jobs, most likely they were going to do something. So she decided to find out what was going out and see if there was anything that she needed to do.

"Ok you two, stop that, we're entitled to know what's going on as well!"

"It's non of your business!"Asuka said, as always her temper got the better of her.

"I'm not buying that."Misato said."So what got you two talking so much in your heads?"

'She's so annoying sometimes!' Asuka thought to Shinji.

'Maybe, but she's just looking out for us. I'll explain to her what's going on. You get our equipment ready in headquarters, I don't think it's going to take to long to get this mission started.' Shinji replied in the same manner.

'Agreed, I have a few things to say to the bastard as well!' Asuka thought back then left from the room. Shinji sighed knowing that Misato wasn't going to take this well.

"Ok, here's what's going on. John has located my father in a base somewhere, we're going to get him soon, maybe even today if we can convince him. This mission will involve only me and Asuka, maybe some clean up crews after we're done with the place. We were talking about the situation... and about my father..."

"Oh... YOU'RE GOING TO WHAT?!"Misato yelled.

"Oh boy this is going to be a long morning..."Shinji said."Listen we'll have to be at a briefing at 2 o' clock. So if you don't mind, I'd like to spend the rest of the morning in a more quiet fashion."

"Listen, the idea is stupid! With SEELE searching for you it's not a good idea to go out alone!"Misato said.

"I doubt we'll be alone out there. We'll be doing the MISSION alone, but I'm sure that John and who knows what else will be in the area. Plus, there will be other people there as well, I'm sure we won't just leave them there. Then again, for all we know my father could be in a cottage somewhere planning his revenge or something like that."Shinji quickly spoke, trying to calm down Misato, the woman was like an older sister or a mother, but ever since Third Impact she had been overprotective of the two.

"He's right you know."Kaji chimed in."There's no way that John would let anything happen to these two. Plus, don't forget, they're anything but defenseless."

"But..."

"No buts!" Shinji cut her of. "We have to do this and it's final. This is the only way we can know how ready we truly are. Not to mention that we'll have to fight SEELE eventually, this job should be a piece of cake compared to what they have. If we can't handle this there's no way we will ever be able to face of against SEELE and their forces."

"Fine, but come back in one piece."Misato said.

"Don't worry, Asuka's to good to get in trouble, as for me, as long as I have my heart intact, I'll recover."Shinji said then stood and left from the kitchen.

"I don't like this one bit Kaji."

"Neither do I, but I'm sure that they know what they're doing. These two have stopped being kids a long time ago." Kaji replied.

John met the two teens in his office, it was a relatively small room, designed to be functional. It had a holographic display in the center, a desk in the back with several files on it and a picture. The picture was that of John, a woman and two children a boy and a girl, all seemed really happy. Aside from this there were two more computer terminals and four chairs near the right wall. John was near the display which wasn't showing anything at the moment when the two teens approached him in their armors.

John had designed some rather interesting suites for the two former pilots, they were similar to the plug suits in the sense that they were skin tight. Still, that wasn't visible from the outside as these suits were armor plated and held special equipment within. Thus these were nowhere near as revealing as the old suits, but they were just as flexible if not more, allowing the wearer to move nearly just as easily as if they didn't wear anything.

True to her old habits, Asuka's armor was bright red, at her back could be seen a staff, but you'd have to be an idiot to believe that it was the real weapon. The staff was merely the retracted form of her weapon of choice, the extended form being far more vicious. Asuka had grown to like more exotic weapons during her training, thus she was now working with one. When the weapon was extended, at one end it grew a scythe blade at the other it had a more regular spear end. The weapon was deadly and Asuka used it to keep her targets at a distance while she used her energy to finish them of.

Shinji's armor was in the same color as his plug suit had been, the only thing unusual was a short 'stick' hanging by his waist. It was red and it seemed to be about the same length as the handle for a large sword. John knew that it was a piece of the lance, and it to was retracted, in full size the stick became a nasty sword which Shinji used with deadly accuracy. The boy was more direct than the German girl, he

would charge his enemies straight on and because of his unnatural strength it was unwise to attempt to tackle him in close combat. You could try to keep out of his range, but that would prove to be a problem as he and the girl could fly.

"Well, I'm glad to see that you two are eager to get to work. Truth be told I hoped that you would get ready like this. I'd like to get this over with as soon as this briefing is over, the sooner we end this the better. Any objections so far?"

"No sir!"The two teens replied in unison.

It's so annoying when they do that! John thought to himself but simply sighed and went on. "Here's the situation, there's a base in Alaska, that's where our primary target is. Still, the base is pretty big and there's more than guards defending it. It seems that Gendo has two more Evangelions under his control along with two more pilots. The Evas have to be disabled and their cores must be recovered to retrieve the souls inside. Also, the pilots must be brought back as well.

Thus your job will be to get in there, disable everything, especially the Evas and capture the main target. We have a complete plan of the base as it was easy to crack their computers and obtain them. Thus you two should have no difficulties in finding your way in that place and achieving your objectives. Once you succeed report to me and we'll get phase two going.

We won't be going alone at this, I'm bringing 60 war mechs and several support ships with us. All of us will be taking out their respective avatars, but you two will leave yours behind and only call them to your side if you need them. Though if you're lucky, Shinji might be able to deactivate the other two Evas without any difficulties, that depends on the souls which reside within them. The support forces will hold back under a stealth field until you two are done. Then phase two begins and we take over the base and evacuate all personnel, and clean up the place, to be honest we'll erase the facility from that face of the Earth. Any questions?"

"How about when do we get going?"Asuka asked with a sarcastic tone.

John sighed, this was going to be a complicated day."In thirty minutes, but just don't kill anyone if you can avoid it. Any mistakes can be repaired, but when you take someone's life, it's over for them."

"We won't, but I won't make any guarantees about my father."Shinji said in a menacing tone."He'll surely struggle to the last moment and accidents happen. I have no intention to kill him, only my mother has the right to decide what happens to him."

"Very well, then make those final preparations and get in your avatars."John said.

In Alaska, near the base, a dark shadow appeared on the ground, but no one was around to notice it. From the shadow a few shuttles came out, they flew and formed a circle around the shadow then deployed their stealth fields, thus hiding the area from any sensors. Then, the giant shapes of the avatars came out followed by the war mechs and several support ships. All three avatars lined up and kneeled, then their respective pilots came out.

"Ok, how are communications holding?"John spoke in his communicator, then waited as the team leaders and several key personnel made their reports."Good, let's get this show on the road people. Also, if there are any bets on please let me on, I'd like to place some wagers myself."He then listened as a lot of stuttering filed the lines.

"I don't even want to know..."Asuka grumbled."Good thing this armor has environmental protection, it looks damn cold in here."

"Don't insult my people's work."John replied trying to look serious."What did you think? That these are just armor plated plug suits?"

"Yea, yea, what ever, can we get to work already? We're just wasting time here right now."She replied.

"Can't you wait a few minutes?"He asked."These people are your back-up and unlike the UN or JSSDF they're quite effective. So stop complaining. Or maybe you'd like me to discus certain night activities with a certain former major?"

"You wouldn't!" Asuka hissed."It's not like we did anything!"Shinji was quick to back her up.

"I will if you two don't wait!" He replied."I know both of you have a few pretty good reasons to want to go and tear that place to pieces with your powers, but don't forget that SEELE isn't on vacation. They're waiting for us to make a move and they'll kill all of us if we make the wrong one. So don't annoy me. It's bad enough that you're here."

"Fine, fine." Asuka grumbled.

"He has a good point of view you know."Shinji said placing his hands on her shoulders from behind."I know, it's just that I don't get how you can be so calm about this. After all he did to you... I don't know how you don't want to kill that man. I know I do!"

"I don't know, maybe I want to give him a second chance, I don't know really. What I do know is that I do have some things in common with him."Shinji said with a cold voice."We both tend to run away from our problems."

"That was before."Asuka said turning to face him."Now you're facing your problems. Plus, you always were a better man than he was. Even when you were running, you thought about how others felt, about the consequences. Your father never did that, he just chased after his goal disregarding anything in his path. You weren't that bad, you came back, you at least tried."

"Maybe... but until I face him, I won't be able to settle this."He replied darkly.

Only the wind was heard as Sanctuary's forces prepared for the operation to take place. There was no tension in the air though, everyone knew that compared to what would follow, this mission would probably be easy even if they had complications. Only three people were lost in thought about what would happen here, two were about to go into battle in a way they never had before and the third was worried about his newest students.

"Ok you two, move out, you can proceed in any way you want, you have all the time you need, so don't so anything stupid."John broke the silence after what seemed to be an eternity. The two simply nodded and left towards the base where their objective awaited.

A guard was dozing of near the southern entrance of the base, it wasn't for no reason, the job was really boring and who the hell was going to bother them in this place? The man knew all too well that if someone really wanted to get in, they would get past one guard and his colleague on duty with ease. So he was almost in shock when two figures walked up to him at a slow even pace. He never saw anything stranger in his life, the two seemed almost alien in the technological armors and the helms didn't allow him to see their faces.

"Stop there, this place is of limits! I am authorized to use deadly force if you come any closer!"He yelled, hoping that it couldn't come to that. He felt very afraid all of a sudden when he looked at the red individual. They stopped and their helms retracted in the rest of the suit, revealing them to be human.

"I suggest that you leave this place, it's going to get really messy!"The boy with the dark hair and deep blue eyes stated. He looked the guard right in the eye, his gaze was full of determination, no fear what so ever, there was also mercy in the eyes. Still, orders were orders, he didn't get paid to be scared away by children.

"You can't use a gun that doesn't work and you can't block a person with a broken gate."The girl with the red hair said obviously annoyed with the guards hesitant attitude. She raised her right hand in a swift movement and then the gate behind him exploded in a red light. The shock wave flew the guard of his feet and knocked his gun out of his hands. Several more explosions followed, but those were simply meant to cause damage to the building. The poor man was almost out, so he simply watched the two.

"That was a bit over board don't you think? I mean, we don't need a hole that large Asuka!"

"I have a lot of pent up anger!"She replied admiring her recent work.

"God have mercy on anything in her path..."Shinji said as they started walking again."I'll go get father, you cause some mayhem around the base and maybe find the other pilots."

"Ok, see you when we get back, be careful!"She said.

"I will!" He replied and then they went of in opposite directions.

During that time, Gendo was on the command deck of the base when the alarms started blaring of. Everyone slightly panicked but they quickly recomposed themselves as soon as they noticed his glare."Status report!"He demanded, remaining unfazed.

"Intruders have broken in trough the south gate, the gate is completely destroyed!"One tech shouted.

"We have visual on the intruders!"Another tech reported.

"On screen!"He called, remaining unfazed during the entire situation, he was very annoyed at how cowardly his current work force was.

Still, what he saw did faze him, even if you'd have to look for it to know see that he reacted. Gendo was genuinely shocked for the first time in a long time, what he was seeing seeming simply impossible to believe. On one half of the screen he saw his son in a blue and white armor, reminding him of the plug suit the boy wore before. He was walking down a corridor when three members of the security team showed up before him. They raised their guns and started shooting at him, but the bullets never made it, they were stopped by what seemed to be a blue AT field. The boy stopped clearly unimpressed at the attempt to stop him.

"Blue pattern detected, it's coming from the boy!" A tech shouted."My God! Is he an angel?"

Gendo heard the man but he didn't acknowledge him, he was thinking about what he was seeing. The boy he was seeing, so calm and determined could not be his son, the AT field seemed to prove that point. Still, he didn't know how the explain this, it was impossible for SEELE to create a clone of his son with such powers without changing his appearance. That was the reason for which Rei didn't look exactly like Yui, the angel DNA changed her appearance drastically, making her pale, changing the color of her hair to blue and her eyes to red.

These thoughts passed in a matter of seconds as the security forces emptied their clips at the boy, simply wasting ammo against his shield. He swiped his right arm in front of himself and a shock wave flew from it throwing the men against the wall behind them, knocking them out. The boy shook his head at the sight then continued to walk towards his destination. He didn't seem to hurry one bit, he also seemed relaxed for some reason or another.

"Get the pilots to their Evas! We'll need them to neutralize his AT field." Gendo ordered.

"They're already on their way!" One of the previous techs yelled.

Gendo continued to watch his son, or what ever it was that looked like his son making it's way slowly towards its destination. The other intruder was being tracked only through the damage it was doing, it was destroying the corridors and thus every single piece of surveillance equipment they could use. It didn't make any sense, no normal weapon would allow it to do so, but if it used an AT field they should have detected it more or less. Still, at least its intentions were obvious, it was headed for the Eva cages.

"Our forces are to stop the second target by any means necessary, if it reaches the cages we're going to close to defeat!"Gendo ordered, without betraying any emotions as always. Still, despite his facade, he was worried about the situation. This wasn't looking well and he had no idea what he was dealing with or what sent them.

Asuka was releasing all of her pent up anger at the moment, she didn't loose track of her objective but she was going to "have some fun" on the way as well. Of course being pissed and having mind numbing powers isn't the safest combination in the world. The truth was she never had any intention to hide herself, but because of her emotions, her powers were wrecking everything, she barely had enough control to avoid useless killing. Still it was no surprise that she was angry, this was the base of the bastard that manipulated her and Shinji all for the sake of joining his wife in a fake reality.

She was quite happy that Shinji decided to face the bastard himself, because she wouldn't have had the self control to avoid killing him in cold blood. So she laid waste to the base, the light of her soul was discharging like a storm of red fire upon the corridors and the security forces ran from her path, no ones orders were worth facing that kind of threat. Asuka wasn't paying much attention to how fast she was moving so soon she found herself at the entrance to the cages.

She blew of the reinforced door without so much as looking at it, she noticed that one of the Evas was missing and that the other was, just about to be manned. The pilot was being assisted into the plug by non other than doctor Akagi, but that didn't last long. Asuka used her powers to rip the plug to shreds and throw both doctor Akagi and the unknown pilot and the bridge before the EVA.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you!" She said with a menacing voice, while staring the two down.

"Asuka is that you?" Ritsuko asked."How the hell?!"

"Dr. Akagi? You're working for the bastard again?! Scheisse! Talk about dum blonds!" Asuka replied highly annoyed by the doctor's stupidity.

"Um... Dr. Akagi, who is she?" The shocked pilot asked.

"She is or at least looks like the Second Child, Asuka Langley Sohryu."The doctor replied.

"What do you mean LOOKS LIKE?! Who else would I be?! Are you stupid?! I swear, not even Shinji before Third Impact was that dense. Just because I have new tricks doesn't mean I'm someone else you know!" Asuka ranted.

"Yup, she's Asuka..."Ritsuko said while the German girl was busy swearing in her native tongue.

"How do you know for sure?"The boy asked.

"Trust me Kenji, I know for sure, only Asuka can swear like that..."The faux blond replied.

"O...kay... good thing I don't understand then."Kenji replied.

"What? You want me to swear at you in Japanese as well? Oh forget it, where's the other EVA? I know for a fact there are two and I don't want Shinji to be forced to fight it."Asuka said with a slight hint of urgency.

"Shinji's here too?! Oh my God, he must be the second target! The EVA was launched to capture him!" Ritsuko yelled.

"Damn, I was too late... He'll probably be forced to use his Avatar... Tell me, does the other pilot know about the soul within the EVAs?"The redhead asked.

"No, she doesn't, but what difference does it make? There's no way Shinji can defeat an EVA on foot!"Ritsuko said.

"Actually... he can, though I'm hoping that he can simply take control, like the 17th did with my unit. If it's one thing Shinji can't handle, it's hurting innocents..."Asuka replied.

"Asuka is that really you? You sounded like you care... about Shinji of all people."Dr. Akagi said, not quite believing her ears.

"Why wouldn't I care for Shinji?" Asuka asked, forgetting that Dr. Akagi had no idea what was going on between her and the before mentioned boy. Ritsuko nearly, fainted after hearing that.It's the end of the world... She thought.

Meanwhile, Shinji reached the Command Centre and was casually floating right towards his father with a relaxed but determined expression on his face. Gendo was rather frightened, but he hid the fact well, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, in his mind there was no way for this to happen. Still, no matter how hard he wished for it, he couldn't wake up from this apparent nightmare, no one can wake up from reality.

The wall to his right exploded, making room to an Evangelion, a large black and silver monster with three eyes. It's right hand was extended towards Shinji, but right before it could grasp him, it stopped. The Eva then ejected the plug and deactivated while the boy smirked at his father.

"One of the tricks Kaworu implanted in my subconscious was a way to control other EVAs which were made from Adam if their souls are dormant. Father, you lost, it's time to cut your losses and surrender!"

"Who are you?!" Gendo yelled, still not believing.

"Mother will be really disappointed when she'll hear that you didn't even recognize me... Surely you don't want to make her even angrier. Surrender the base and maybe she'll want to see you, but there are no guarantees. So what will it be father?" Shinji asked, hoping that he could end this without any more fighting.

"Yui is alive?"Gendo asked silently.

"In a way, but it will be a few years before she has her body back. You could still talk to her though."

"Everyone stand down, our forces will surrender, so everyone leave the bases premises." Gendo shouted in a microphone linked to the com. system, then he turned to Shinji."Now please take me to her."

"If she'll want to see you... Anyway, we'll find out."Shinji replied then he opened his com. link."John, this is Shinji, the base is ours, you can move in at any moment. The Evas are down and I'm right in front of my father. Over."

Roger that Shinji, we're moving out. Great job out there. Get the bastard out and take him back to Sanctuary, see if Yui wants to see him or not. Besides you, she's the only other person who has a right to judge him. Over.

I'm moving out too, see you top side Shinji.

"Roger Asuka, see you there."

With that settled, Shinji led his father towards the exit.

They found themselves out of the base fairly quickly, but both Shinji and Asuka felt something was amiss and simultaneously turned their heads to the right. They were looking for something, but they couldn't quite place the sensation, whatever it was, it wasn't good. Gendo caught the expression on both of their faces and so did the Sanctuary soldiers, they paused, knowing that something was wrong.

The two avatars suddenly landed in front of the two teens, they called them out of reflex, the information implanted in both of their subconscious told them that an enemy was approaching an angel like enemy. Before any one could say anything they jumped in the other half of their bodies and raised their heads. Shinji withdrew the enormous lance turned into a sword and gazed into the horizon, Asuka

raised her scythe like weapon and all of her four eyes glowed with a furious red color as she spotted their targets.

Flying towards them was a group of 7 enemies, 6 beasts like the one that attacked them at the beach and a seventh one, more humanoid, resembling a normal avatar. Asuka remembering her ordeal at the MP EVAs wanted to shred the escort first, to unleash her rage. Shinji was worried about the seventh figure though, as his memory fragments from Adam recounted him as the Fifth among the five councilmen that once served the so called angel. It was rather obvious what he was doing here, either he discovered their intervention and decided to take care of things, or he wanted a word with his father who betrayed SEELE before.

Either way it was improbable that they were expecting three avatars, because John joined them rather quickly drawing two swords himself. Asuka, impatient as ever threw all of her power and rage into her avatar and forced it to grow a pair of bright red wings with metallic feathers. She took of at such a blinding speed that the first beast she encountered was sliced from head to toe without the slightest chance of retaliating.

"These bastards are mine!" She said with a tone that made it all too clear that there was no room to argue. Of course that left the real threat at the hands of John and Shinji.

"So they have their own avatars..." Shinji commented.

"Did you expect things to be different?"John asked.

"Not really, let's get the bastard, Asuka is more than capable of handling his damned escort. They were pretty stupid to make their base soldiers resemble the MP EVAs."Shinji said.

"Well what do we have here? Three avatars and one which looks stunningly similar to Unit 02, now that's a shocker, I didn't expect this kind of welcome when I decided to come and personally collect the traitorous Gendo Ikari." A snide voice entered the communication.

"It's quite convenient that you would show up, you damned traitor towards all of humanity."John said with an edge to his voice."It spares me the effort of tracking you down to kill you. You deserve death since you are too far gone to even be considered human."

"You again... so we were right, it was you who intervened in our plans, then again who else would lead Sanctuary. What name do you go by this time?"The man asked landing his avatar in front of Shinji's and John's while the remaining five units of his escorts were engaging Asuka.

"Let the remaining pathetic followers of SEELE know that for now I go by the name of John, not that it matters. You people always refer to me as the Guardian anyway."John said in a dismissive tone as if he was talking to a minor nuisance.

"Don't use that tone to me... hm.. interesting, Adam's weapon, that means I'm looking at the avatar of the Third Child, the one that received our former master's gifts. That would make my guess correct... It seems that the ones we were looking for are looking for us as well... This is the perfect opportunity to tie up some lose ends!"He finished with a dangerous undertone. His avatar had four arms and a tail covered with spikes. It's armor was metallic grey and on his chest it had the Tree of Sephiroth painted in bright red. The avatar had on menacing eye and the helm was designed similar to that of Unit 00 only that it had a horn above the eye, which was rather sturdy and could easily be used as a weapon. All of the four arms extended claws from the knuckles and side blades from the wrists. Then it lunged forward towards John in an incredibly swift lunge.

John was almost instantly airborne allowing Shinji to strike their enemy from the side with his sword. During the training he received, Shinji adapted his techniques for fighting in an avatar as well. Since he was physically orientated, he was able to make his avatar move with speeds that defied any logic, faster than his current enemy. Obviously, his adversary didn't have time to properly get out of the way and raised his AT field while trying to move. Of course that move proved pointless as Shinji's sword only accelerated while absorbing the energy of the field allowing him to make a deep cut in the enemy's right side.

The 5th member of SEELE staggered and that allowed John to drop on his back and drive both of his sword through the shoulders while using the blade tentacles to try and immobilize him. Their enemy wasn't so easily defeated as he used the light of his soul to cover his body in flames, forcing John to let go and jump back. At the same time as John was jumping back, Shinji charged forward driving his sword through the upper left chest. The enemy avatar released energy from it's soul, then channeled it through the eye forming a beam of focused energy that blew a small but painful hole through Shinji's left shoulder.

Though in pain, Shinji still had enough focus to order his weapon to change it's shape, forcing the twin blades to pivot up and down respectively, cutting trough the shoulder and completely severing both left arms. His enemy struck in rage with its' remaining right arms, the upper one causing deep cuts in the left side of his head and the lower one causing a deep cut over his abdomen from left to right. This caused Shinji to stager back, but his enemy didn't get the chance to do anything more as two swords impaled themselves into it's body from behind. One passed through it's head and exited trough the eye, the other passed trough the spine and exited through the chest right through the core, killing the bastard that was inside and permanently disabling the avatar.

Meanwhile, the remaining soulless avatars were circling Asuka's own avatar in the sky. Inside the core, Asuka had her eyes closed and she was waiting for a few seconds. She was angry, very angry and she wasn't going to leave much out of these creatures. When she opened her eyes they were blazing red and with her so did her avatar's eyes open. She didn't hesitate and released a beam of red energy towards the beast before it, the beam pierced its chest and core, causing a massive explosion in the sky. There four left, and they charged, hoping that their numbers would allow them to strike.

Asuka gathered her avatar's wings around herself, floating only because of the energy she was releasing. When the beasts were close enough she opened her wings quickly, also releasing a wave of red flames and metallic spikes from them. All of them were thrown back while also being damaged by the attack. Still, Asuka didn't stop there, taking advantage of their confusion, she blasted another one of the beasts from her avatar's eyes and killed it. There were now three left.

The last three regrouped and started a full on frontal assault, gathering speed towards her. It was the most suicidal thing they could have done and Asuka was well aware of that. She drew energy from her absurd powers, courtesy of Lilith and summoned a massive cross explosion that would have put the 14th angel to shame. The three remaining attackers were blown to pieces, their bodies were incinerated from the massive release of energy, leaving nothing behind.

She turned her gaze downwards, looking at the leftover corpse from the other avatar that faced Shinji and John. That's when she also noticed the injuries sustained by Shinji's avatar, apparently the enemy was tougher than she had imagined. Asuka landed, worried about Shinji now that her head was clear of bloodlust.

"Shinji, are you alright?" She asked. "I'm alright, more or less, it hurts like hell though."

"I warned you, you feel everything your avatar feels, as if you were at full synch." John added. "This went better than I expected, one of the five is dead, so this is a greater victory than I had anticipated."

"He's… dead?" Shinji asked.

"I'm afraid so Shinji. With them, we have no other options, we'll have to kill them, as disturbing as it is. You can settle for just disabling them, I'll do the killing." John replied.

"Good… I don't think I could handle killing another human, especially after what happened with Kaworu or Adam…" Shinji said. "So this wraps it out eh? How did we perform John?"

John didn't mind the change in the subject, knowing that Shinji needed it. Poor kid, he has no idea in what he and his girlfriend got themselves into. As sad as it is, it's the only way to end this, the sacrifice will have to be made in the end… john thought before replying. "You both performed beyond my expectations, now let's get back to base and get these people to safety before SEELE tries to strike once more."

"Good, I need to cool of after this…" Asuka replied as a large Dirac sea opened on the ground for the troops and their prisoners to move out. They all went in and returned to Sanctuary.

"Now what?" Shinji asked as he Asuka and John went out of the avatar hangars. "Now we sort out all of these people while also allowing Gendo to rot for a day or two in a cell. After that, we take him up to Yui and the two of you can decide his fate. What ever happens with him, we'll be interrogating him anyway since there is a bigger reason for which SEELE bothered to take his existence into account than the fact that he tried to betray them. We need to find out what that is and use it to get rid of the last remaining four councilors of Adam." John replied.

"Then we wait right?" Asuka added.

"Basically yes. You two go and get some rest, even if you don't need it, you've earned it. Everything went according to plan, if not better." John said. "I'll let you guys know when we have to move out once more. Just keep in mind that this is just beginning and we have yet to see SEELE's worst."

"Is it really that bad?" Shinji asked. "How powerful can they be?"

"Not as powerful as you two, neither one of them can surpass either of you, but together they might prove to be a challenge for us if they play their cards right. What happened now was a mistake on their behalf, they weren't expecting to run into us out there or to find that the two of you have your own avatars. Plus, now they know, so they'll be better prepared next time." John said in grim voice. "To make matters worse, the fact that they know that the two of you are active in the war might compel them to take drastic actions here or there to try and force us to come out of hiding."

"What could they do, they can't really threaten us in here…" Asuka here. "Even if they'd find a way in through a miracle, they'd be doomed if they tried to attack Sanctuary directly."

"Yes, but they can still try to force our hands by lets say threatening this place or that with their forces. As you know, conventional weapons aren't a match for an AT field. You guys needed all of the power of Japan to handle a soulless creature that projected an AT field, connected only to Adam's soul. One of them is truly invincible to normal weapons, and so are we." John said. "I believe that it's only a matter of time until they set us up and force us to move out to prevent them from devastating some part of the world."

"What kind of monsters are they? To be willing to kill people like that as long as their purposes are achieved, it's just so monstrous." Shinji said. "It's just so unbelievable…"

"You have much to learn about humanity Shinji, of anything that has a soul and a choice for that matter…" John said.

"What did you mean with the last bit?" Shinji asked, since the tone was a bit strange, he knew that John was implying something.

"The soul isn't necessarily human, we define what human is by the body. Technically speaking, neither one of us is human, since we have a second body bonded to us, which is anything but human, that and Asuka has a nice pair of red wings now."

Asuka after coming out of the avatar had discovered that what John said was true, the wings she grew on her avatar were present on her back as well, even if they were a bit different. Those on the avatar gave the impression of being mechanical, armor plated weapons of doom, the ones on Asuka's back were still red, but they looked far more like the phoenix wings. She had no idea if she could retract them or anything, but for now she wanted to leave them as they were, she liked how they looked.

"Well, I just acted on impulse…" She replied. "I knew that my normal flying abilities wouldn't have been enough to deal with those things, so I grew these to improve my performance."

"It doesn't matter." Shinji replied while placing an arm around her, careful not to bother the aforementioned wings. "They suit you."

"I always did have fashion sense, this is just taking things to another level." Asuka said with a chuckle.

"Now all we have to see is what Shinji will cook up, especially since he's the one who's orientated towards physical combat." John added.

"I don't plan on growing anything out of my body until I actually need something." Shinji replied. "There's no point in trying to do something like that without knowing what I really need. I don't have enough experience with this stuff to risk it."

"Wise choice, you're learning fast…" John said but trailed of when Asuka suddenly gained on expression that spelled impending doom. "What?"

"I just remembered that Misato's home and that she'll want to know how the mission went seeing as she wasn't involved in this one. You do realize how she'll react when she'll see these right? I'll never hear the end of it!" Asuka said.

"Well, look at the bright side, Touji and Kensuke can't really call you Devil anymore now can they." Shinji added. "Now you're an angel in more ways than one."

"Oh you." Asuka replied playfully.

John was content to just roll his eyes and get going, he had his own troubles to deal with. This had been Sanctuary's first true military operation since the rescue mission in Tokyo-2 didn't really count in his opinion. All in all it went better than he had expected, despite the damage sustained by Shinji's avatar. He knew that if either Shinji or Asuka could use their full powers, they could end this fairly quickly and stop this useless war once and for all. Still, it would take too long for their powers to naturally awaken, they needed something else, an emotional shock, one which he knew how to provide in a much shorter time.

When all of this had begun, he had no intention to use them like this, he didn't want to use them at all, but if things went as he planned, then it would all be for the good of everyone, except for one person who would have to die. John sighed as he thought of that part, he'd probably cause a lot of pain with that move, but it was truly the only way. His only regret was that he didn't think things in different light before the angel wars began, then maybe all of this could have been prevented.

Meanwhile Asuka and Shinji had arrived at the villa and were greeted by a rather impatient Misato, who proceeded to faint at the sight of Asuka with wings. Even she had a limit to the weirdness she could see and absorb without a mental shock. Asuka looking like some sort of angel with flaming wings holding a large scythe like weapon was not one of them.

Shinji just shook his head and raised Misato of the ground with the help of an AT field, he had tried to convince Asuka not to try this, but she was far too stubborn to give in. On the way home she decided that she would scare the crap out of Misato so she would think twice before starting to tease her about the wings. In retrospect, Shinji had to admit that he didn't try too much to convince her, the teasing they had been through on the older woman's behalf had been annoying. So he didn't do a thing when Asuka light her wings with red flames and extended her weapon looking like she wanted to kill the first thing that got in her way.

Clearing his head of thoughts, Shinji placed Misato on a couch in the main living room at floor level and joined Asuka in the kitchen to prepare a bite to eat. He didn't need to eat anything and neither did Asuka, but they still had the habit of eating, plus, there's always the taste to keep in mind. Still, they both knew that their own S2 organs would keep them alive in any natural conditions, including the void of outer space if they had to survive up there. As Shinji cooked dinner, Kaji entered the kitchen and sat himself at a chair.

"So I take it that the mission went well." He said, not looking at Asuka, thus missing the wings.

"Better than we expected actually." Asuka replied, that's when Kaji turned towards her and noticed the wings. He was grateful that he wasn't eating or drinking anything, because he would have chocked for sure at that sight. "Were the wings part of the mission objectives or something?" Kaji asked, not really knowing what to make of them.

"Not exactly, I just needed them in a fight so I grew them out." Asuka replied while setting the table for Shinji who was just finishing his cooking. "They're pretty useful, but I'll most likely have to cut some slits in most of my clothes that cover my upper body if I want to wear them with the wings drawn out, especially since I'm not sure if I can pull them back in."

"Well, they look nice." Kaji commented. "Did you two run into Misato? She was really anxious about this whole affair." At that Asuka grinned evilly, but said nothing while Shinji just sighed before replying. "She's out on the couch, Asuka pulled a little trick on her and caused her to faint." At that Kaji chuckled a bit. "Well, I did warn her that you guys would get her back one of these days after all she said."

It was then that the doorbell ringed, it was most likely Hikari or the "two stooges" as Asuka still called the Shinji's friends. They joined them from time to time for dinner due to John's invitation during the party. It could also be professor Fuyutsuki who received the same invitation. Sarah also dropped by from time to time, but she had her own key for some reason or another, still, no one asked up until now.

Kaji went to get the door and quickly returned with Hikari, Touji and Kensuke in tow, the first tow standing rather close to each other, but that was perfectly normal. When they came in the kitchen, the effect of Asuka's new additions was instantaneous and identical on all three. Their jaws dropped as they stared in shock at her just as Shinji seated her for dinner.

"Hi guys." Shinji said then noticed their looks, he sighed, here was an explosive situation if you ever saw one. If either Touji or Kensuke made the wrong move, then they were both pretty much dead, or at the very least they'd receive a long stay at the hospital. Asuka was very touchy when it came to her looks.

"Asuka, what happened? Where did the wings come from?" Hikari was the first to recover from her shock and start speaking.

"I needed a little boost during the mission and so I grew these. How do they look?" Asuka asked and then spread her wings around as much as she could.

"They look beautiful." Hikari said in awe. "I can't believe this, they look so real…"

"They are real." Asuka said. "Go ahead and touch them." Hikari made her way to Asuka and hesitantly trailed her fingers over Asuka's left wing. The wings were soft and smooth, the feathers were displayed in perfect order and the color had a striking flame pattern to it. When Asuka would fly with them, they would literally look like a pair of giant flames that carried her through the air.

As for Touji and Kensuke, they were silently recovering from the shock and began talking a bit. Shinji kept an eye on them, ready to intervene in case either of them was going to say or do something stupid. Asuka was very likely to blow them up with a cross flare if they irked her. He knew that she wouldn't kill them, but she would badly injure them and not to mention that she would most likely ruin the kitchen as well. Shinji doubted that John would appreciate that.

"Touji, I'm seeing the weirdest thing in my life…" Kensuke whispered, partly because earlier they had both learned that both Asuka and Shinji had also gained very good hearing.

"I'm seeing it too Ken, I'm seeing it too." Touji whispered back.

"So Asuka has wings…" Kensuke whispered.

"Yup, it seems like it…" Touji replied.

"What do we do about it?" Kensuke asked, when they both felt a hand on their shoulder. They jumped in fear then looked behind them, seeing Shinji who shook his head.

"Don't DO that man!" Touji said while holding his right hand over his chest.

"Why don't we all eat dinner before it gets cold? As for Asuka, if you do anything stupid around her, she'll blast you with a cross flare and I doubt I can stop her in time. So be nice and act normally, otherwise you'll surely have to make a long trip to the hospital." Shinji said directing the two to their usual chairs while in John's home.

"Yea, sure." Touji said. "Hey, isn't John joining us?"

"I don't think he is." Shinji replied. "He probably has some things to do after the mission we just had. It will be a wonder if he gets home at all tonight knowing how much he wants to help the people he himself rescued."

"Oh." Touji replied, before realizing what was odd in what Shinji said. "Wait, you guys were on a mission?"

"Yea, John found my father and we went to retrieve him. He was holed up in Alaska in a seemingly secret NERV base. We weren't the only ones to get to him though, SEELE dropped in as well, but we handled them. My avatar took some damage, but nothing to serious like some of the other times I fought. As for Asuka, she took out 6 of those beasts herself with no damage whatsoever. She needed the wings to handle them, so she grew them out." Shinji recounted, not bothering with the details of the fight in the base itself.

"You're being too modest Shinji, the only reason you got injured was the fact that that you fought one of the five." Asuka said.

From there it degenerated into a lot of questions from the three visiting teens and one supervising adult. They were joined a bit later by Misato who had her own questions to ask. All in all it had been a good day for Shinji and Asuka, the mission went well and they had returned to their new home safely. Though Asuka silently thanked John for being there with them, she knew that Shinji wouldn't have handled that man by himself and even if he could, he wouldn't have been able to finish the job, even she didn't know if she could have handled it, killing someone else like that.

All present at the table knew that this was just the beginning of this war, or what ever it was and things would probably get harder sooner or later. What no one knew was what had to be done for the war to end in a quick fashion, no one knew of the secret plan known by only one man. A plan that would save the world, even if at a very high price for that person and those that knew him…..

To be continued…

Well, this was the 5th chapter, read and review and if you don't like it, please be more specific than "You n00b, you suxxorz" and stuff like that. If you do want to flame me, then send me a PM or something... no reason to waste review space with spam material. Also, the 6th chapter is up on evamade. I know this may seem annoying, but that I discovered that place before this site and I can arrange a document for that site in 5 min as opposed to a couple of hours or more here. So the 6th chapter will arrive here when the 7th will arrive there, which is in about 3 weeks.