Evangelion: Continuum Chapter 8, an evangelion fanfic

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 8: Wrath of Angels

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

A/N: Here's chapter 8, this was actually written pretty fast compared to other chapters. Read and review, though I don't particularly care about the last part, they do help me improve and if I improve that means you'll probably like the story more. Criticism which has an actual logic is appreciated, as for flames, I'll just consume them like all negative things thrown at me and only make me stronger and EVEN MORE stubborn.

It had been a week and three days since the mission began and the time to act was approaching rapidly. It took Asuka some time to contact everyone that had to be contacted, but it took even longer to set a course of action. It wasn't something easy, there was only once chance to get things right and they weren't going to get a second chance with this. Not to mention that if they took a wrong step, it could end up with a disaster large enough to wipe out all of Berlin, if not more.

Things were looking good, there were no signs that SEELE detected them or that they even suspected that they were doing something. Still, John felt that something was wrong, well not wrong, he could place the feeling under the fact that it was time. Neither Shinji nor Asuka were able to notice these things, the signs were there, but the two of them were too inexperienced with emotions and reading them in others to notice such subtle signs. Also, because of John's age, it was difficult to read him, the only person who could truly do that was back in Sanctuary, unable to leave it as long as it stayed hidden in the Dirac sea.

Still, the man didn't want the two teenagers to learn that he was preparing for something rather ugly, no one could know except Sarah. Still, after this, there would be no turning back and SEELE's end would be assured, no matter what they would do. Those old fools had no idea what they were trying to do and he would use their own idea against them, even if in a different way than they imagined.

Meanwhile, Shinji and Asuka enjoyed what ever free time they had during this mission together, it was strange for Asuka, though she hated the city and though it brought back many dark memories of loneliness and pain, she was able to make new memories to overpower the bad ones along side with Shinji. Shinji just enjoyed his time with Asuka, even now it all felt a bit like a strange dream, though every time he held her in his arms, he was more sure than ever that it was reality. For the two of them, it was a great time.

Still, the fun times were going to be over soon for the couple as the final stage of the mission would begin right the following day. The idea was quite simple, a meeting was going to be in order in the secret complex underneath the NERV base, obviously all of the researchers and their assistants plus any important members would be attending. Because of these large meetings that had to take place from time to time, the conference room was quite large since it also needed space for demonstrations of any kind. It was large enough that a small ship could come in the room.

So the plan was for them to enter the room during the meeting and open the Dirac sea there, after that, they would evacuate everyone from the area and bring in the Mechanical squads. From there, it was full out war which would decimate the base from within no matter what SEELE did. Plus, unless those four were there, it was unlikely that the situation would degenerate too much. Also, since that was an easy to expose location, it was highly

unlikely that those four would gather there of all places where they could be caught of guard and supposedly even slaughtered.

Even they knew that if pushed, John would raise Berlin of the face of the Earth to get rid of the four of them, so they weren't foolish enough to think that hiding in a populated area would help them. At least, that's what John hoped, he didn't want to kill innocents, but sometimes, it didn't matter, especially in a situation like this. Those four had to die as soon as possible, no matter what the price. If they became to strong, the death of millions could easily turn into the death of the entire planet.

John was talking with Sarah over the "phone", that was possible because the ship that dropped them here was still outside town acting as a relay between Berlin and Sanctuary. He knew that Sarah had to e prepared and as the conversation went through their usual "how do you do" routines, John decided that there was no point staling it.

"Sarah, I have to let you know that the time is now, tomorrow I will do it. You know what will happen on your end and you have to be prepared." John said calmly.

"WHAT?! THIS SOON?!" Sarah yelled back so hard that she would have made Asuka proud. John almost snickered at that thought but thought better and controlled himself. "You can't be serious, it's too early, I don't know if I can handle it."

"You're as ready as you'll ever be…" John said, cutting her of before she could complain. "We might not have another field mission as certain as this one, it would be too risky in more unstable conditions. So, it has to be now I'm afraid. I've waited long enough and they trust me enough for this to take place."

"There's nothing I can do to change your mind, is it?" Sarah asked. "Because of you I lied to them… Then again, I never expected it to be a lie…"

"I never expected it to turn out this way Sarah." John replied sadly. "There's no other way to obtain that power, the world needs that power to act quickly, to stop those abominations. You shouldn't be to surprised since I will pay for my sins when all is done."

"What do you think people will think of you when all this is said and done?" Sarah asked. "No one will expect this back home… I don't know if I'll be able to forgive you if things go the way I think they will…"

"No one will Sarah, no one will and I will pay for that. Yet I think that the death of one person will be a small price to save the whole world." John replied. "I can be executed or something when all is said and done."

"You're lucky that I owe you to much to betray you…" Sarah said. "This plan is too cruel to be accepted."

"No Sarah, you don't know how cruel the real world is, you're being naïve and even more idealistic than I ever was." John replied thoughtfully. "Maybe one day you'll understand, maybe even tomorrow."

"Who will you strike at?"

"The girl, it's how it must be. After that, well, let's say that the Old Men will have to use up all of their resources to stop what will be coming against them." John replied. "I'll see you soon Sarah, tomorrow everything will be made clear."

Sarah looked ahead after the transmission was over. She thought about all that was said and done, she thought about John's plans and decided that there was something that she could do about it, even if there would be hell to pay afterwards.

She got up and she went to Unit-01's maintenance throne, she stood on a platform right before the face of the great behemoth. She knew that Shinji could hear her.

"Shinji, I know that you don't understand, but I will send Unit-01 to you, it will arrive during the battle tomorrow. I have a feeling that you will need it." Sarah said then paused. "I ask you to trust me, it will feel weird for your avatar, but it will be there when you'll need it. Nod once if you want me to go ahead, but don't speak, no one must know. Take care of everyone, keep Asuka and John safe, you may be the only one who can."

The avatar's eyes light up and its gaze seemed thoughtful, then after a few minutes it nodded. Sarah smiled and then she raised her arms, an arc of energy formed between them. Soon, the whole room was shaking and her eyes were shinning with golden light, even her hair seemed to radiate energy. The room was now windy and some alarms were blaring, obviously what ever was going on wasn't meant to happen. Then, right before the avatar, what seemed to be a black hole formed. The monstrous weapon disappeared in it and Sarah collapsed on her knees, that took a lot out of her.

Soldiers entered the room, but all they saw was the fact that Unit-01 and its fearsome weapon were missing, but there was no trace as to what happened to it. The sensors reported a Dirac sea type anomaly in the room, but the source was unknown and how it even happened in the main sphere was an even bigger question. Sarah, despite her weakened state had managed to run of before anyone could question what she was doing there. Things would be better this way she hoped.

She ran of to her home as fast as she was able to considering her condition. Once she got there she went on a straight line to the bedroom and there she collapsed on her bed without even thinking of changing. She knew that she wouldn't wake up until long after it was all over, the only thing that was left to do was to hope that she was right, since not even she had full knowledge of John's plans.

The following day in Berlin, two teens and one adult met in an empty warehouse, all dressed in armors. All three of them had serious expressions on their faces, they knew that the first part of the strike would be like a blitzkrieg, swift and deadly, they could only hope that they were able to keep up the pace before the enemy had a chance to recover and hopefully end it all before it even fully began.

"Ok, the meeting will begin in half an hour, you two know the plan, we can't afford any mishaps." John said as he began to channel energy in his right palm. Asuka stood right in front of him and was doing the same. "Five minutes after the meeting begins, we release all of this energy in a straight line down and break through right to them. We fly down there and you know the rest."

"Yea, and I'm going first." Shinji said, waiting for it all to begin, the idea wasn't all that appealing and the thought of fighting Kaworu clones wasn't all that pleasant, but then again it was better than fighting real humans, that he wouldn't have handled at all, he doubted that he would even over many years.

"Well, you are the most resilient out of the group and they don't know the extent or full nature of your powers." John replied. "Not to mention that they don't know that you're as adaptable as you are."

"Even so, I still want to say that I don't like this one it." Shinji said.

"It's too late to back out now." John said as both his and Asuka's hands light up with energy. Between the two of them formed a sphere of energy that suddenly exploded downwards.

Shinji didn't even wait for the dust to clear and the blast to finish it's descent. He jumped after the wave of energy, reaching the conference room in mere moments. For those who were inside, it looked as if a human figure exploded downwards from the roof and then jumped forward with incredible speed, not even pausing to see where it landed.

Shinji felt two AT fields blaring, two guards were inside the room, right near the door. So as soon as the ground was in reach of his legs, he pushed towards them, extending his sword from the small form and slashed while crouching. The clones fired, but their shots hit only air as Shinji slashed the first in half in one swift movement, the second didn't get the chance to re-aim as Shinji moved the sword and cut its legs at knee level the as it fell he cut its head of.

What was truly frightening out of this display was the fact that the boy had his eyes closed all throughout the movements. He didn't stop there though, he didn't need his eyes, his other senses were enough for the environment around him and the AT fields of his enemies were enough to fight them. Shinji could describe what he felt about them in one word, hollow, they were like shells of energy that were driven by outside forces. The sensation made him angry for some reason, like they were some sort of abomination that his very blood wanted to destroy. He didn't like the sensation but at the same time he felt content with it, he was forced to act on it, to seek and kill these monstrous experiments.

Meanwhile, Asuka and John landed in the room just as Shinji blasted through the doors and right into a couple of more guards. Asuka immediately rushed after him, her weapon extending at her command and her eyes lighting with power. John just shook his head as the two rushed out, it was part of the plan technically speaking, but Shinji going on a rampage wasn't exactly what he had expected. Still, it was all for the better where he was concerned.

He raised his hands and forced an opening to the Dirac sea to open in the middle of the room as the people in it headed around him. From the sea, a ship came out and soon, the armored forces of Sanctuary were exiting as well, as the ones that were forced to work for SEELE were evacuated. They cheered as the soldiers didn't really bother with the doors and broke through the walls, searching for the closest enemies. John simply smirked as his troops were moving out. He took out his own swords and extended his blade tentacles, this would be interesting, that was certain.

"Try to keep in groups of four at the least or group up with either Shinji or Asuka!" John yelled. "I want this facility cleaned as soon as possible! No screw ups!" He then felt that something was amiss, he looked up and jumped out of the way right in time to avoid the blast that came from above him.

Before him landed a 4 meter tall creature, its head was elongated backwards, it had muscular arms, its whole body was covered in heavy bone plates, from its shoulders protruded three spikes. It had legs which ended in two large digits, though it was standing on them. Its leg structure reminded John of birds, or better yet, dinosaurs, most likely inspired by raptors. It had a mouth full of sharp teeth, but those were not what worried John, the energetic blades that extended from that thing's forearms were what bothered him. He covered his blades with AT fields as that thing took a single step forward, seeming to grin at him.

Some of the armored soldiers there raised their weapons towards it. John shook his head, he could feel that this thing was far out of their league, it was a walking nightmare, something he himself didn't know if he could fight. What was even worse was the fact that some sort of energy field was spread in the area as soon as that thing landed, he couldn't contact either Shinji nor Asuka and he was sure that radio or other signals were jammed as well. The answer was obvious, this was some sort of trap, SEELE found out somehow that they were coming. John swore.

"Get out of here, find Shinji or Asuka and tell them to look for me, GO!" He yelled on top of his lungs as he charged towards the thing, preventing it from attacking any of the soldiers in the room.

He clashed his swords with its energy blades and tried to cut it to pieces with his tentacles. To his surprise, they simply bounced of the solid armor, he jumped back and released a blast of energy into the creature, but the energy coursed over the armor and was absorbed. Before he could even blink, the blast he fired was returned slightly weaker from the spikes on the shoulders, throwing John through a wall.

"SEELE sends its regards Founder of Sanctuary. This is your end, I will consume your power and that of the Children and bring forth what my master desire!" The creature said as it stalked towards him, its grin seeming to grow and acquire a rather sadistic look.

"You'll never succeed." John replied.

"Do not be foolish, there is no way that you can harm me, you didn't have the means to create the necessary weapons to harm one such as me!" The creature replied. "You are dead, and you know it all too well."

John didn't show it, but he knew that indeed he didn't have the necessary weapons to harm that creature, he and Asuka had no power over it. The only weapon currently in existence that could kill that thing was in Shinji's hands, all the others manufactured by Sanctuary simply didn't rise at the level of the weapons on The Old Earth, that was biting them in the ass right now. It wasn't that John didn't want to create better weapons, but they simply didn't have the conditions to create those kind of weapons. So, he had to stall it until Shinji could get there. Still there was a problem with that plan, this thing had a soul, it was engineered from one of SEELE's followers.

Meanwhile, Shinji had gone on a rampage just as John had predicted. He was quick to locate the room with the largest number of soldiers in it. He charged in it without even checking to see if it was a good idea or not. The soldiers had prepared a barricade there, it was well prepared enough to stop the advance of Sanctuary's forces, theoretically even Shinji. So as he jumped in he was blasted by hundreds of energy attacks from the special weapons of the clone troopers. They didn't really aim, they were just spraying the entrance with fire, attempting to annihilate anything that tried to cross though.

Asuka just managed to catch up in time to see Shinji being blasted out the door of an unknown room. He had several wounds, but the most severe seemed to be his left arm and his right eye, a hole was blasted though it right to the other side. He was thrown into the wall and slumped down before she could even blink. Asuka was paralyzed in shock, the amount of fire power that could do that to Shinji was no joke.

Shinji was in a state of shock himself and the rational part of his mind was taking a prolonged leave of absence. The memories of former battles were there though, one in particular, his first battle, the fight against Sachiel, the so called third angel. He was engulfed by the same rage as he felt the pain in his head and arm, only that this time it was much worse as his whole body hurt. He had a hole in his head, but he was angry and the S2 engines in his body

weren't even scratched, despite the amount of damage the rest of his body received. His left arm was limp, his right arm was hanging motionless, the hilt of his sword still in it.

Instincts took over for the young Ikari as the past mingled with the present in his confused and pain riddled mind. On reflex his right hand tightened its grip on the large sword and he shakily got up, and then he did the most surprising thing for anyone that knew him. He screamed, but it soon turned into a full roar as his voice seemed to change, the vocal cords being changed by instinctual desire. The S2 engines went in overdrive, the flesh began to regenerate at an incredible rate and then it began to grow in places. The muscles grew and became denser, the skin grew tendrils in the damaged armor and began to merge with it, the flesh in the hole in his head bubbled and regenerated, forming a new eye, only now both eyes were glowing a bright blue.

Asuka watched in shock as Shinji became a human sized and more fearsome version of his avatar, only with his head exposed. The armor had changed, it was partly organic now and veins of energy only seemed to go through it from place to place. His whole body was visibly more muscular after the changes and Asuka realized that those changes were not simply at cellular level, they went down to his DNA, it was simply primal instinct driving him to adapt, survive and destroy that which threatened his life. Though, that wasn't what worried her, what worried her was the fact that she was unable to communicate telepathically with anyone, the only connection she could still make was with Shinji, but his higher brain functions were pretty much on vacation right now.

Before she could worry even more, Shinji blasted forward like a berserk Eva, he looked somewhat like Unit-01 in the recordings of his first battle, only that now he had the sword with him. The fact that he held it with one hand was proof enough of the differences that occurred. Also, Asuka needed no further proof to know that he was the one that made Unit-01 rip the third angel to pieces, as much as he thought that it was impossible, his actions now showed her that it was true.

She ran after him, she saw him blast in the barricade with absurd speed, the clones barely had enough time to fire a couple of shots. He jumped right through the crates and improvised defenses head first and then made a wide swipe with the sword, spinning his upper body and slashing through several soldiers in the first hit. Asuka wasn't one to stand aside in a situation like this and she raised her hands, she made a swipe and from them she released wide arcs of electricity, killing as many soldiers as she could hit. That was when she noticed a strange figure in the back of the room, it seemed to be focusing, Asuka could feel that there was some sort of energy field emanating from it, for her it was faint, but then she realized that it was tuned in to Shinji, he probably felt it like a car horn blowing in his ear.

She raised her right hand and formed a sphere of energy in it, then she fired it at the figure, the clone or whatever it was didn't even have time to see that it was sighted that the sphere hit it and exploded, incinerating the body. Shinji was just finishing the last of the clones in the room and so far he had used even the most grotesque methods of killing. Right now he had his fist right in the chest of one of those things, it was passing through the spine and the hand itself was visible on the other side. His whole armor was covered in blood and he looked like some kind of nightmare.

He stopped and blinked a couple of times as if he was coming out of a daze, he looked at his hand and he slowly retracted it from the dead body. He was now shaking and Asuka rushed to him just as he fell on his knees dropping the sword from his suddenly limp right hand. He was just staring at his bloodied left hand which even had small claws on the tips of his fingers.

"W… what kind of a monster am I?" He whispered, still staring at his hand.

"Shinji stop!" Asuka shouted, realizing that he was going into shock and he might even freeze there like that if she didn't act quickly. "Look at me!"

He turned his head slowly as she kneeled before him and placed her hands on either side of his face. "Take a few breaths and calm down, it's ok, calm down. You didn't do anything wrong. Listen to me Shinji, they were using some sort of field to make you go nuts like that."

Shinji nodded dumbly and soon tears were running down his face, clearing away some of the blood on his cheeks. "How can this be ok? Look at what I've done Asuka, I didn't just kill them. I slaughtered them! Like some sort of twisted animal!"

"It doesn't matter Shinji, they were pushing you, pulling at your mind to lash out in any way you could." Asuka said, now placing her arms around him. The embrace was strange because of their armors, but it didn't matter, it had the desired effect as Shinji began to calm down. Asuka just held him and whispered in his ear, hoping that nothing would jump on them in the next few minutes.

John wasn't doing so well, the fight was drawing to long, thus it was taking its toll on him. He had several deep gashes on his chest and stomach, his left leg was barely working because several muscles had been severed so far and the right one was also injured. The arms had been spared so far only because they were moving in time with the blades he wielded. Still, the blade tentacles were obviously shorter, they had been shortened by those energy blades that seemed to cut through any kind of normal material.

As for his enemy, he only had faint scratches on his armor plates, his swords even supported by his AT field weren't enough to handle that kind of biological armor. To make matters worse, it seemed that his enemy had an S2 organ of its own and that meant that unless he caused some injuries, that thing would be able to keep this up forever. He on the other hand wasn't that lucky, the injuries were taking their toll and slowing him down. He was wasting energy because of them and that meant that sooner or later he'd slip and that thing would get an opening.

He really couldn't understand how SEELE had the resources to create something like this, even during the war on the Old Earth, creatures with this sort of armor were very rare among Adam's forces, it was very hard to create them and ensure that they didn't collapse because of genetic instabilities. So, either SEELE didn't stabilize this guy and he was going to day in a matter of days or weeks or they were far better prepared than what he ever imagined. Still, what ever the case, he was in deep shit.

The fight had taken almost a half an hour and if it would continue like this, he was going to loose, which meant death. No sooner had John thought about that possibility that the creature managed to get passed his defenses and get a really good slash at him, severing his left arm from his shoulder. John screamed and used his powers to quickly move away from his enemy, there was no way he could keep up now.

"Give up, there is no way that you can stop me!" The creature proclaimed. "What can you do now? My next attack will most likely kill you and I shall consume your strength."

"I'm not that easy to kill." John replied panting. The wound was already sealed, he had dropped his sword and used his right hand to channel energy into the wound in such a pattern that it would close it. It was a bad fix, but it would prevent him from bleeding since that wound was too big to be fully cauterized by the energy blade's heat.

"Indeed, you've lasted far longer than I expected, yet it is only a matter of time." The creature said unconcerned, knowing that it could move fast enough to prevent him from picking his sword up from where he had dropped it. John knew it too. "What will you do? Glare at me?"

"I might, but I had something else in mind right now." John said, grinning at the creature. "I didn't want to use this on you, but it seems that I have no choice. It will be quite effective knowing you are a spawn of Adam."

"You think that YOU can harm me in the state you find yourself in?" The creature started laughing. "You'll have a hard time even striking me with anything, much less killing me." With that said it started to run around John. Said man realized that he was in the center of the large conference room and that thing was circling him like a shark.

He raised his remaining hand and in it a sphere of golden light appeared, he was channeling a large amount of energy and now his hand was glowing as if he was holding a small sun in it. The creature kept running, unconcerned by the display of power. SEELE had assured him that an energy based attack would never harm his armor, it would just redirected at his will, and he was going to use it to turn that man into ashes for his defiance of SEELE's will. That or he was going to miss and he'd get to see exactly what that man was trying.

Just then a giant fist exploded from the wall and knocked the creature right into the opposite wall and through it just as John was releasing the sphere of energy. John recognized the fist as the fist of Unit-01, but as good as the hit was, he realized that they were in a very bad situation. Asuka had burst in the room with about half of the squad of armored troops, as the creature was still sailing through the air.

Everything went into slow motion for John as his mind analyzed what was going on. He could see part of Unit-01, more exactly the chest as all of it went through several floors at a time because of its height and size. His attack was heading straight for it, it would hit straight in the core, the armor would not prevent his attack from releasing the charge of energy in the core of the Avatar. That was a very bad thing and there was no way he could stop this.

He had intended to attack the monster with something that would overcharge it, even if the attack was more or less redirected, it would overflow since it was raw energy instead of pure destructive power. If that entered the core, it could cause a cataclysmic reaction it. The good part was that it wouldn't be dangerous for the avatar itself, but it would screw up the whole base if not more and they were all going to die if that happened. As things were at the time being, there was no way to stop it from happening, in reality the whole thing would last less than a second, the only reason he was still there was the fact that he could think really fast, making it look like time was slowed down.

So, in other words, he was dead, or would be soon, he wasn't expecting things to turn up like this, it was just so wrong. Still, as he thought about it, he couldn't really complain, knowing that it would turn out like this sooner or later, with him on the death roll. All he could do now was reduce the amount of damage this would cause, knowing that he was almost at the end of his limits, that wouldn't be much. He smiled and called on all of his reserves, a maneuver that would ensure that he would have died even if he wasn't going to be incinerated by the blast that would follow.

A Dirac sea opened and swallowed Asuka and the troops in a split second, as soon as it had appeared it was gone, then John saw the most bright white light he could ever imagine. He was engulfed in it, but he didn't feel any pain, he could still feel his body disintegrating.

'I wonder how Unit-01 got here anyway? Shinji, Asuka, Sarah, I'm sorry I couldn't do more than this, I guess I won't have to be sorry for what I had planned anyway. At least maybe I'll get a chance to see her again…'

With that last thought, John ceased to be, destroyed by the power he had unleashed unwillingly.

Asuka and the other troops were shocked when they found themselves being thrown out recklessly in the throne room that was dedicated to John's avatar, just as the whole place seemed to shake as if an earthquake was taking place. Still, that shouldn't be possible in this place, something was very wrong, that much Asuka could tell, but what. He got on her feet from her fall and she heard a shocked gasp from one of the soldiers. She turned to look at him and saw him staring at the avatar, she turned towards it and found herself shocked as well.

Blood was dripping from all of the armor joints and the chest armor was seemingly blasted from inside, that was not all of it though, the core was also destroyed as if something exploded from within, blood was pouring out of the gaping wound like a crimson stream. The avatar had its head and shoulders slumped forward and blood was flowing from its eye sockets, it was obviously dead.

Asuka looked at herself and only now did she realize that she was covered in the avatar's blood herself and so were all of the soldiers. They arrived through the avatar's core, John generated the sea and sent them here for some reason, but what the hell was going on. They were going to act as reinforcements for the man when one of the soldiers told them that he was in trouble. Unit-01 had dropped out of a Dirac sea only minutes earlier, that had snapped Shinji out of his paralysis and got him moving, saying that he promised to take care of them. He tore his way through walls and floors with ease, collapsing whole sections of the underground complex and heading towards the man, they flew through the empty space left behind before taking a turn and going through the normal routes to enter the conference room through the shattered door and some of the holes in its walls.

Just as they entered, John had released some sort of attack, it was heading for Shinji at high speed and before she could even realize what was going on, they ended up here. Something was wrong, very wrong, if the avatar was dead, that could mean that John was dead as well, which meant that Shinji was in trouble. She had to find out what happened, so she moved, ignoring the shocked soldiers, some of which still staring at the dead avatar. She headed to the command room of this place, knowing that she could get some answers there.

Meanwhile Sarah awoke with a scream, feeling an unexpected pain in her heart, then power the likes she never felt before. She screamed as the absurd amounts of power flowed through her, her eyes light with pure golden light and her whole body glowed, shinning its light with the intensity of a sun and releasing a nova of raw energy throughout Sanctuary. She couldn't feel anything else except the power that was coursing through her, her senses were overloaded by it. Then after what could have been an eternity for her, it stopped and she fell on her bed from nearly touching the ceiling.

Sarah got to her feet shakily and as realization dawned on her, she started crying, knowing what had happened. Only one thing could have charged her with so much power, John had died, all of his power, including that which he couldn't use anymore was hers now. A power that wasn't much use, since she wasn't a warrior by nature and even if she was, she couldn't leave Sanctuary anyway.

'How? How did it happen? How can I handle this situation? I'm now the leader of Sanctuary, unless John left something else in his will. How can I handle such powers?' Sarah asked herself, scared and confused. Of all the things she was expecting, she didn't expect John to die, not like that, not today…

The power she now had was incredible, she could feel all of Sanctuary, all the souls in it, she could feel connections between certain souls. It was incredible and overwhelming for her, the sensation was like nothing she could describe. That was when she realized that she could feel a soul that shouldn't have been there, Asuka was in their Sanctuary, through her she could feel that Shinji was still alive as well, the connection between them was as strong as ever. She decided to contact her.

'Asuka, how did you get here?' Sarah asked.

'Sarah? How did you contact me so easily?' Asuka asked in surprise, Sarah could tell that she had stopped moving.

'John… John died Asuka… I have all of his powers now.' Sarah replied, finding it hard to push the thoughts forward without overwhelming the girl with her sorrow. Though she quickly realized that she was receiving the beginnings of panic from Asuka. 'Don't worry, I can tell that Shinji is more or less alright, despite what ever happened.'

'Thank God… I thought for a second that he might have died too…' Asuka replied. 'I'm sorry Sarah, you're probably not in the mood for this…'

'It's alright Asuka, we have to find out what happened, any ideas?'

'Non, all I know is that one moment I was heading towards John with reinforcements while Shinji was barging in with Unit-01, the next I was bursting out from the core of John's avatar. The thing is dead, and the corpse is bleeding a lot. So I was heading towards the Command room to see if I can get any answers.' Asuka replied.

'That's a good idea. Stay there, I'm joining you.' Sarah sent.

Before Asuka could question her about what she meant, she focused and called on her new powers, then she moved herself through time and space by breaking herself apart and reforming near Asuka. When she opened her eyes she saw Asuka staring at her, though Asuka was not a pretty sight herself, her armor was completely covered in blood, luckily she had her helm on, otherwise her hair and face would have had the same problem. Still, the sight was not pretty.

"I'll explain later, first let's find out what the hell is going on." Asuka replied.

When they entered the room, it was deadly silent, on the screen was displayed what looked like a close up from the smoke covered mouth of an active volcano. Asuka was going to ask what the hell they were doing, she even opened her mouth, but she quickly closed it when she read in the upper left corner at what she was looking at: Berlin, Germany, feed from temporary relay, Combat Transport no. 342.

Sarah was equally shocked, it just couldn't be possible, that was ALL of Berlin. Something destroyed it all, not only that, but it dug a hole deep in the Earth's core. The amount of volcanic ash coming from that kind of hole in the Earth could very well cause an ice age, because it would definitely cover all of the Earth, preventing the sun from shinning on its surface for many years to come. Something very wrong took place there, it was a screw up bigger than anything she could have ever imagined.

"W… what happened there?" Asuka asked in complete shock. All of Berlin had been whipped out, every living creature had been destroyed, including her father. She had hopped that after all this was over she would be able to understand the man better and maybe even patch some things out so that they could both get over all that in a better way.

One of the technicians there placed his hands on his control station and issued a command. The screen went blank for a few moments, then a recording began to play.

"Holly shit!" someone swore as several things falling and breaking were heard.

"Get this thing moving! Get the sensors one, what the fuck is going one?" Another voice, a man, panic obvious in his voice.

The screen than revealed a wall of bright light, the camera began to move and then zoom out, they could now see a giant cross made of bright light blasting from where Berlin used to be. The thing was enormous, it could probably be seen on the whole hemisphere, not to mention from outer space. It was accompanied by a roar full of pain and anger, it was Unit-01 and Asuka never heard a roar like that even when it used to go berserk.

This roar was expressing untold agony and pain, the likes no being should ever feel, it seemed to come from the base of the explosion, it was probably the very center of the blast of unknown power. That was the power that Shinji possessed and so did she, Asuka was never more aware of the power that was in her hands, or more frightened for that matter. What could have happened to cause something like this, what could have forced Shinji to do something so destructive?

"Well, it seems that some of Adam's power was released." Sarah said. "Good thing that this blast was considerably smaller than the one that destroyed Antarctica, otherwise all of Europe and quite a bit of the Asian continent would have been wiped out."

"Just how powerful are we? If we had our full powers I mean?" Asuka asked, staring at the screen as the image returned to the burning inferno.

"You and Shinji have enough power to destroy the planet Asuka." Sarah replied. "If you were able to control it all that is. Second impact was an accidental release of power, not something intentional or controlled, therefore, it didn't have all of Adam's fury."

"Then, this was just a freak accident?"

"Most likely." Sarah replied. "Something must have happened down there that taped in Shinji's unused reserves of power. That would release a lot of energy in destructive form, without causing real harm to his body, but I imagine that it hurts like hell for him. This was definitely nothing I expected to happen."

"This is so wrong… so many people killed…" Asuka said. "We have to get Shinji out of there right now, we have to find him Sarah, other wise he might think he's at fault for this disaster. Knowing him, that won't end well!"

"We don't even know where he is Asuka, though I know that you can find him, we can't just jump in there… John's dead… I'm not ready to handle this… I can barely keep my powers in check." Sarah replied as she held a hand at her temple. "I… can't do this… I'm sorry…" She turned to the technicians. "Tell them to come back. Until further orders, we're retreating and staying low."

Several "Yes Ma'am!" were heard throughout the room and the feed from the outside world was cut as the ship was retreating through a Dirac sea back to Sanctuary. Sarah had no idea how to handle a situation like that, she knew enough to easily handle Sanctuary's internal affairs, but there was no way that she could handle a military operation of any kind. She knew that these people would look at her for answers, but she had non right now and she had to get things in order before she could do more about the outside world.

"You're going to abandon Shinji out there!?" Asuka yelled as loud as she could. The fact that she was slightly desperate made her yell reverberate with some of her powers, letting everyone know that she wasn't going to accept that decision. "I'm not going to leave him out there like that!"

"Asuka, there's nothing I can do about all this, it's too much for me and Misato doesn't have enough knowledge about our methods to be more than a second in command, she simply can't handle a full scale operation like this one!" Sarah replied, angry that she had to deal with this, angry at herself as well that she couldn't really do anything. "All I can do is let you go out there with you avatar, but that's it, you'd be all by yourself with no support and no way to communicate with us, adding to that, we won't know what's happening with you or with Shinji for that matter. We won't be able to help you in any way and unless you know how to open a Dirac sea by yourself, you'll have no means of coming back to us."

"I'll figure something out!" Asuka replied angrily. "I'm not going to let him out there by himself, no matter what happened, I'm going out there and there's no way anyone's stopping me." Asuka's eyes glowed bright red with those last words, making Sarah wonder if she could have stopped the girl even if she really knew how to use her powers in an offensive way.

With that said, Asuka stormed out heading towards Unit-02, no one was stupid enough to stand in her path. Sarah dropped on her knees, wondering how could it go so wrong in just so little time. No matter what John had planned, it couldn't have turned out this badly, she wondered about what could have happened…

He felt pain, Earth shattering pain, something like he never felt before in his whole life, though he felt a lot of pain before, this topped it all of. It was too much for him. He felt it from his very core, spreading throughout his body like fire, burning all of his nerves with unimaginable fury. He struggled against it, he lashed out, with it though came an odd sense of power that burned from him, coursing and surging around him. He was barely aware, the fact that he knew that was strange to him, especially when the pain made it hard to think, he wasn't even sure who he was through it.

Still, he knew that he had to get away from it, to make it stop, to be able to be free again, yet it wouldn't stop, no matter what he did. So he began to move, or at least that's what he wanted, yet he couldn't be sure if it was happening or not. He knew only when trough all of the pain he was able to feel only the faintest sensation of air moving on the surface of whatever it was his skin, if he had skin, he really couldn't tell.

The people that lived around Berlin far enough to escape the deadly blast that took place earlier were still staring at the horrifying spectacle. That was when a loud roar came from the smoke filled inferno and from it something came out flying at great speeds. It was about 30 or 40 meters above the ground and it was moving quickly.

No one knew what it was, but everyone witnessed the shape of what was once Unit-01 flying out of the smoke looking more like some sort of monster than it ever did before. Six enormous pairs of wings made of orange light came from its back and energy was coursing all over its body. Its eyes were glowing bright blue and the energy around it seemed to create a sort of halo of blue fire all around its body.

It was mainly flying east, but it wasn't really going in a straight line, it didn't seem to be able to go in a straight line for unknown reasons to those watching the creature. Most thought that it was one of those angels NERV was

supposed to fight, but no one really knew what they were looking at. Just that it came from that disaster, and that it was most likely the source of the destruction that claimed millions of lives in and around Berlin.

The bystanders watched in mute fascination as several jet fighters headed towards the confused behemoth , it was a squad of five fighters, sent to investigate what happened and destroy any hostiles that may be in the area. The monster that was roaring in the sky was most likely hostile, the pilots wanted something to blame for the destruction and the creature was a good target. Not to mention that the reports they had on the angels, incomplete as they were, gave enough info to consider that thing as one. So far, there was only one way to deal with angels.

The pilots circled the beast once from afar, the maneuver wasn't all that easy because of the low altitude and the fact that the monster was moving quite quickly and it wasn't keeping a straight course. They had to wait for orders, and it didn't take long for them to be ordered to bring that thing down by any means necessary. They knew that other planes were being prepared in case they couldn't handle the threat by themselves. They had no idea about the AT field, or the fact that conventional weapons were useless against this enemy, so they armed their missiles and waited for a lock on the target.

As soon as he had started moving he had felt others, he had felt fear and confusion from them, those feelings were making the pain more bearable through the fact that they imposed on it by a bit. That's why he tried to stay as close to those feelings as possible, trying to stop the pain, trying to think. That was when he felt something else, a different kind of feeling, one that was making the pain worse, it had five sources that were around him, in a circle he managed to think.

So he willed himself to move straight up as fast as he could, to get away from the pain. What ever those things were, they couldn't keep up apparently and they were left behind, so he decided to leave, somewhere where there were no others, were there was no one to either stop or feed his pain. At least then, he would only have that and he could try to fight it, he had to fight it, that much he knew, but nothing else aside from that.

The pilots were shocked that before their missiles could even launch, the beast took of straight up with astounding speed. The maneuver seemed physically impossible, that thing had stopped all movement in all directions at an instant and then only moved in straight line up. Knowing that it was moving at about mach 1.5, it should have been impossible, no matter what, yet that object defied normality.

It moved so fast that there was nothing they could do, it disappeared of their radars in minutes, most likely going into orbit. What ever it had been, at least it had left. That was when another contact appeared on the radar, right in the middle of the smoke. From it came out a red four eyed behemoth, flying with the help of large metallic wings, this one didn't even seem to have a mouth, it was looking around curiously almost. They headed towards it as it landed at about 40 kilometers from the crater. Until they received the orders to engage, they could only circle it and observe its actions, but the red behemoth didn't seem to have any intentions to start a fight.

They soon received a transmission over the radio, the leader of the squad replied, wondering who the hell knew their frequency.

(This is Asuka Langley Sohryu, The Second Child, pilot of Evangelion Unit-02, don't shoot, I'm not here to fight.)

"What?!" The pilot asked incredulously. The whole world heard about the three heroic children that fought the angels and piloted the Evangelions, but it was declared that they died while stopping Third Impact. Yet, the four eyed red behemoth seemed proof enough that she was alive, either that or someone else was piloting it and that person was trying to take the dead girl's place, the pilot didn't know what to think.

(Listen, I don't have time for these games. I know I'm supposed to be dead, but let's say that the people that declared me dead didn't quite manage to get the job done. The girl replied over the radio. If you don't believe me, let's head out to the airport and I can talk with some of the people in charge there.)

She took of towards the airport and the planes escorted her there. It didn't take long for her to land on an air strip and wait for someone to come out and greet her. Asuka made her avatar kneel and she came out, knowing full well that SEELE couldn't do anything in the area, at least not until things settled down. Before she left she was smart enough to download all the data John had on their bases, so she knew that there were no more bases in the vicinity and that she was safe for now. Normal soldiers had no power over her, plus, the fact that they weren't SEELE fanatics ensured that they didn't know any sort of truth and they weren't even thoroughly brainwashed by them.

"My God, it really is her!" A man said as he approached the avatar in a jeep, he had an escort of two more soldiers and the driver himself was well armed. Asuka was no expert in military ranks, but if what she had learned from Misato was correct, she was dealing with a general.

"As I said, I'm not dead and as much as the people that said that I was dead want me as such, I have no intention of dying any time soon." She replied. "That… monstrous disaster in Berlin is also their fault."

"Wait, are you saying that the UN is to blame for the complete destruction of our capital? What about that thing that came out?" The general asked in shock. "I find this all pretty hard to believe miss Sohryu."

"Listen to me, I don't give a damn if you believe me or not. Here are the facts. The UN is corrupt, they're being manipulated by a group of four men that want to cause the Fourth Impact and were the cause of the Second and Third. They want me and the Third Child dead! They attacked the main branch of NERV in Tokyo-3 by convincing the JSSDF that NERV wanted to cause Third Impact! They destroyed Tokyo-2 in an attempt to silence all witnesses and covered it up with the help of Third Impact." Asuka said angrily, but didn't give the general a chance to comment as she kept going. "The same people that wanted Third Impact were doing a lot of experiments in the NERV base in Berlin, we tried to stop them, me, the Third Child and a man named John that got us out after Third Impact."

"That man DIED there trying to stop those people and I barely got out alive. Shinji was there too, in Unit-01, he was in the middle of that explosion when it happened, so when he came out, he'd probably feel a hell of a pain and he was more than likely confused too. I'm looking for him and I know that you people know where he went. I want answers now! If I don't get them, I'm willing to pry them from your head. Is that clear?"

"The thing that came out of the explosion went straight up, by the looks of things, I'd say that it's in outer space by now." The general replied, even though he didn't understand why he was giving these answers so easily.

"Shit, there's no way to get him now, I have to wait until he comes close enough to Earth…" Asuka replied more to herself. She could still feel Shinji, their powers made their connection a lot deeper than what would normally happen. As a result, they could normally find one another with ease, but in this case, he was too far and the amount of pain he was feeling prevented him from acknowledging her and even realizing where he was for that matter. This was not good at all since she couldn't just go out in space and attempt to look for him.

"I really don't know what to say… this doesn't make much sense…" The man said, feeling more confused than he ever felt in his life before.

"This is all YOUR guys fault!" Asuka replied angrily. "If you morons didn't try to shoot missiles at him, he might have stayed on Earth at least and I could have found him! Do you idiots always shoot first and ask questions later?"

"How…"

"How did I know?" Asuka asked, reading his surface thoughts unwillingly, she was too angry to keep her powers in check, she was barely able to keep her wings retracted. "It doesn't matter, just be happy that I don't stomp your little airport to pieces with my Avatar!"

"Listen, I really have no idea what's going on here, we didn't really know what else to do!" The general replied. "All I know is that not even an hour ago, Berlin went from being the capital of our country to being a big hole in the ground that keeps spiting out volcanic ash! After that, some big monster comes flying out, roaring like a demon from hell! We thought it was one of those angels or something and that it was the source of our troubles, but it doesn't attack and it runs of at the first sign of aggression from us. Then you come out of nowhere and tell me that the UN is led by a bunch of men that want to cause an Impact and that they're behind all that happened in Berlin while you're looking for the Third Child Shinji Ikari, who incidentally is piloting that thing that came out first."

"I suppose there's no way you'd believe that story…" Asuka replied with a sigh. "Do you know about the Human Instrumentality Committee? Or something along those lines?"

"Yes, they supposedly have a lot of power in the UN and they were the ones funding NERV." The general replied.

"Well, those people are the leaders of a secret organization known as SEELE." Asuka stated. "Instrumentality is basically the unification of all human souls in one entity under their command basically turning them into some sort of gods, that can be achieved through an Impact. Third Impact was meant to achieve just that, but it didn't go according to their plans due to several factors and Shinji was placed as their man made "god". He chose to give everyone a new life, that's why everyone was reborn after that day and some people turned out younger and so on. Does that make things a bit more clear?"

The general and the soldiers gasped, everyone remembered Shinji's face after Third Impact, no one knew who he was though, but all they knew was that he had done something for them, a favor that could never be repaid… Everyone gained something after Third Impact, some gained some youth, but everyone was reborn without any diseases or scars or mutilations. Everyone that had some sort of inability was reborn without it. They knew that was she said was true, because in reality, every man and woman on Earth knew that Shinji Ikari chose to give them all life again despite the fact that he could have been a god-like being, it was just that the memories were blocked for some reason and until you heard the story from someone else, you couldn't remember.

Asuka smiled when she saw their reactions, maybe if she were to spread the story, she would be able to turn the world against SEELE…

To be continued…

A/N2: Well, it seems that most people are more interested in the idea where idea that has potential to lead to more fics. If things keep going like that, it will win without even having any real competition from the other one. Not that I care, I wouldn't have had this poll if I was able to decide on my own. Still, a few more votes would be appreciated.

Relating strictly to the chapter, I have to mention that this part was planned out before even the first chapter was out or even half finished, it's not the only one. There are parts where I go by the flow so to speak, but like I like to say, I don't simply ride my creativity, I control it when the need arises. WAFF addicts, don't worry, this won't blow over to hell completely like the original series did. Meaning that I won't keep going worse and worse. I'm adding this warning because I know some people might not handle well extremely depressive content.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying this and I'll get the next chapter out as soon as i can find the time. After all, I try to ensure that these things are decently written.