Evangelion: Continuum Chapter 9, an evangelion fanfic

Evangelion: Continuum

By Daetor

Chapter 9: Difficult situations

A/N: Well, I finally managed to get this done, despite several disruptions that made writing more difficult than it should be (the greatest of which being this DAMN HEAT!). Anyway, leaving that aside, here's chapter 9, more details regarding my work will show up down bellow...

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

It had been a long day for Asuka, and by the look of things, it was going to get that much longer. It was no surprise really, whenever things went bad in her life, it seemed that they had the tendency to blow up all the way to hell, apparently, that didn't change with the passing of time. She supposed that some things changed and some stayed the same, the same old story.

Currently, she was waiting to see what was going on and what the general was going to do. He had left and went to give out some phone calls to who knew how many people. He would probably contact the Minister of Defense and he would contact other people and so on until all of the German government would be informed and they would try to take some action of some sort. Presuming of course that there was much left of the German government after the destruction of Berlin, it was after all the capital. So, she suspected that if most of the people involved were dead, then some sort of martial law would be instated until some sense could be made of this rapidly degenerating situation.

As for her, she couldn't really do much, she couldn't just fly out in space after Shinji, she could still feel his confused and pained mind, but the connection was so muddled and pained on his side that there was no way to properly follow him out there. So, she had to wait and see what these people would decide to do about her and the new problems she brought out. Hopefully, they would try and go public with the whole matter, pretty much forcing SEELE into hiding in their damn bases, unless they tried to take over the whole world, which even they couldn't hold. If they tried, it would be a relatively easy, even though lengthy task for her to go around the world and kill of their spread forces of clones and Evas (or more like pseudo-angels since these things were working without any dummy plug or soul, like the angels they fought seemingly so long ago).

She waited for a couple of hours, simply sitting on the shoulder of her avatar, she didn't want to alarm these people, especially since they didn't yet know what to expect from her. She mused about their reactions when they would discover her powers sooner or later. She would have to explain about those sooner or later as well, it was better if she explained herself than let things spiral out of control and allow many theories to rise, which would allow SEELE to bend the truth to their will. She was going to reveal those bastards to the world, especially since the remaining four of the initial council of five had no more positions in the official political world, due to the fact that they were suddenly looking as if they were 20 and had no more implants. No matter how weird Third Impact had been, it would be difficult to explain why that happened and to prove to great deal of people that they were who they claimed to be.

The SEELE council had gathered, at first they were 12, after John had made his first move to secure Gendo Ikari, they remained 11, after the disaster in Berlin, they were now 9, two more had died, one due to his position in the German government and the other due to the fact that he was a member of the UN and was there to presumably inspect the NERV branch. They knew that the damned Founder of Sanctuary would move against that place, due to the fact that they caught the surface thoughts of the Second Child's father, it was a gamble, but they suspected that she was in the area, fact which would mean that John as he named himself would be planning something in the area.

It wasn't exactly hard to get what he would try to do there of all places, so they prepared their own plan to take care of him once and for all and get their hands on the prize that kept evading them for so long. They knew that the man wouldn't bring avatars in such a confined space, so it was safe for them to use quite a bit of their resources to engineer a creature that was beyond the abilities of that man. The only threat to it was the Lance of Longinus and it was unlikely that it would be there without Unit-01.

The plan seemed to work, they were winning, at least that's what they thought going by the reports from the creature they created. Then, all of Berlin was destroyed in a blast that had the magnitude of a small Impact, seeing as most of the blast went upward and destroyed several satellites, you could say that it was an Impact. So, something went brilliantly wrong when Unit-01 came on the battlefield.

Due to the destruction, they had no surveillance in the area around Berlin and the normal channels were unavailable due to the death of almost all of the German government, all in all, Germany was completely out of their grasp for some time and it would remain that way until they could see exactly what losses they had and determine what the hell happened. As a result, the conference room was more or less in chaos.

"Silence!" boomed Keel, using his powers as well to impose his will over the other members. It was really the first time in many years that all of the council dropped whatever they were doing and gathered in person in one location as fast as they could. Only three hours had passed since the incident and with the help of private jets everyone was gathered. "I know things got out of hand, but we will not solve anything if we run around in panic with no self control!"

"01 is right." SEELE 03 said. "We must calm down, or else we have already lost this war."

"Then maybe you would like to explain exactly what happened in Berlin, we lost everything there! Not to mention that two more members died! Number 7 and number 10 were killed there!" 08 yelled. "How can you expect us to be calm?! Keel, you were the one that planned that operation and precious resources were wasted. All for NOTHING!"

"Blaming one another will solve nothing!" 11 spoke. "We should first determine WHAT went wrong and THEN decide what to do."

"Well, going by the size and nature of the blast, I'd say that we were dealing with an overloaded core, much like what happened during Second Impact." SEELE 02 said. "Knowing that it was reported that Eva Unit-01 had joined the battle, we can assume that it was its core that was overloaded. As for why that happened, I have an explanation there as well. Our special agent reported that the Founder, or John as he calls himself, though severely injured and lacking an arm was preparing an assault which contained an enormous quantity of energy. If for some reason that attack struck Unit-01 in the chest, it would overload the core. Knowing that the Third Child has Adam's powers, even though in a latent form, it is safe to assume that it would cause an incident of that magnitude, if not worse. That is the result of my analysis on the incident so far."

"Thank you 2, now, who else has any other observations on the matter?" Keel asked, hoping that they could keep things in order.

"I would like to give a short report on the subject of the Third Child and the power he holds. I'm sure that the rest of you felt it as well, but something came and left from that explosion, something very powerful, something that was maybe even more powerful than our former master." SEELE 4 spoke, partly frightened. "I could feel its roar of anger and pain. I believe that the power of Adam now flows freely in the Third Child, but I don't think that he has recovered after the incident."

"There would be another indicator of that fact actually." 9 said. "Some of the clones are experiencing great pains and so are quite a few of our Evangelions. Seeing as they are made from Adam's DNA, they are attuned to his powers, right now he's most likely broadcasting his pain. I suggest that we terminate these particular clones and Evas, lest we want him to take control of them."

"There's no guarantee that the brat won't take control over all of our forces as soon as he gets a hold of himself!" SEELE 08 said. "I knew that preparing these many creatures based on that DNA was a mistake."

"We didn't have any other options, Lilith's DNA was not stable and no one ever expected Adam to transfer his powers to someone else during Third Impact, we never even imagined that Third Impact could fail." 3 said. "As it is, we can't do much about the situation. We have no way of knowing what that "John" is planning to do presuming that he survived the whole incident. I suggest that we regroup our forces to our key bases and attempt to mobilize our agents to see what's going on as soon as the situation on the planet calms down enough to allow such actions."

"Agreed." Keel replied. "We can't really act until we know what's going on, plus we have to rearrange our forces and prepare our defensive. That man will surely strike as soon as he is capable and there even is the possibility of other governments attempting to get rid of our basses due to the effects of that explosion. They will be wary of anything that has to do with NERV."

The council continued to plan the details of their move, not knowing that soon, they would have to act because of a problem far different from anything they were expecting to happen.

"Miss Sohryu, could you come here please?" A soldier said as he approached her avatar. Asuka knew he wanted to talk to her from the moment he stepped on the airfield, she could feel his surface thoughts. He was going to say that she was free to leave and that they really didn't know what to do about her given the situation.

"No need, I already got the message, don't ask how." She said then she stood there thinking for a bit. "Hey listen, I need a few tools and a good connection to the web, think I can get them here?"

"A… sure, technically as an Evangelion pilot, you have the rank of a Captain in the military so, you're my superior ma'am." The private said, Asuka didn't question him any further, apparently her rank in the German army was still active and she had equal rank in the Japanese army due to the fact that she was expected to return to Germany after the angel wars, moment when her rank in the Japanese army would have been canceled.

"Good, then let's get moving, I already have a list of what I need, don't worry, I don't intend to hack your data base or anything of the sort." Asuka replied casually. "You guys scratch my back and I might help you with a few things in solving this mayhem, at least that's what I hope."

"Very well ma'am." The soldier replied looking over the list. The thought of asking for permission from his superiors never even crossed through his head, because it was being kept at bay by Asuka's powers. She didn't really want to use people like that, but she didn't have the time to wait. She had to act while SEELE was still dazed after this disaster, that way the chaos would begin long before any of them could do anything.

After a couple of hours she was busy working on her old neural transmitters, forming a strange network between them and connecting them to some of the circuits that were embedded in the avatar's armor. Her plan was simple and impossible to stop or even detect by normal people. Hopefully, the four SEELE members that had powers were now in their secret bases, hiding away from a possible disaster. The soldier that helped her gather the tools was watching curiously as she worked, not knowing what to make of the whole technical mess she was working on. As for Asuka, she was simply hoping that her improvised work would hold and that she'd be able to achieve her goals.

It didn't take long before she was standing on the head of her kneeling avatar, preparing for the main event. The soldier was shocked when the avatar's four eyes opened and glowed red as it rose to its feet with its master on its head. Asuka and the avatar spread their arms and wings at the same time and an AT field formed, keeping anyone who would bother her away. The military didn't have anything that could even scratch her field, much less actually move her. Not that they had any reasons to act, she wasn't acting in an aggressive manner after all, but now her wings were visible and anyone who could see her could know that she wasn't perfectly human anymore.

She spread her thoughts through the internet, searching, making connections, and then connecting to the remaining MAGI units across the globe. That was when her powers kicked in and she connected directly to the organic cores of the computers, overriding them, without the operators even knowing that anything was going wrong. Now, it was time to do something really drastic, she was soon looking in all of the files regarding NERV, the Evas and most of all SEELE and their agenda up until Third Impact and what ever she could get of what followed and what would follow.

It didn't take her long to stretch her mind through the data and gather it all in several points, now, the fun would really begin. With a simple thought, all of the data was released all over the world, not only to governments and officials that weren't controlled by SEELE, but also to news agencies and even private homes, over the internet to all sorts of people that could spread the information even more. By the time even a second had passed the information was spread far and wide enough that every person on the planet could know who were the SEELE members and what their goals were. This was just the beginning…

The SEELE council was just wrapping up their meeting when something went wrong. Suddenly, SEELE 08 touched a button and caused a holographic projection to form in the center of the room. What was revealed, left all of the council members speechless.

"People of the world, SEELE have been a parasite for our planet for too long, they not only toyed with the resources of this planet, but with our very lives, the lives of every man, woman and child, regardless of their age or nationality. They are inhuman monsters, with human faces that deserve death for all that they did. I brought forth proof that they were behind both Second and Third Impact, all with the purpose of turning themselves into man made gods, at the price of all of our lives! They used us pilots and when they didn't need us anymore, they tried to kill us! Do not think that they care about anyone, the orders they gave regarding NERV Japan proves that they would stop at nothing to achieve their goals! In their thirst for powers, they even toyed with powers that should have been left untouched and that led to the now well known destruction of Berlin…"

All this and more was being said by their very target Asuka Langley Sohryu, live before their very eyes. She made no attempt to hide what she had become and even explained why things were as they were, while blaming SEELE of course.

"Where is this being broadcasted?!" Keel boomed.

"Everywhere! It's all over the world!" 8 replied. "She has the Magi! She has other computer systems under her control through them, there's no way to stop her. Only the fact that your powers secure our bases has prevented her from hacking in our bases!"

"I'm getting alarming reports here!" SEELE 4 said. "Except for the bases that are unofficial and have clones, all the others are rebelling and cutting their connections to us. No man alive on this planet can understand our goals and accept them. That was the reason why very few knew of Adam's true goal during the first war on the Old Earth. We needed followers at that time."

"Yes, but here we don't need them." Keel said. "We have our armies and we don't really need any humans. Locate the girl and send a detachment of drones to deal with her if she's alone. I doubt that she'll be able to handle 100 of those beasts alone. Even if she could, we have to stop her before she does even more damage. Now the whole world will be after us and we can't forget about those damn Sanctuary warriors."

"John was cunning to have her strike like this…" 3 said. "She's the most charismatic of the group, she's rather well known and to top it off she's German so she would be just as affected of the incident in Berlin, therefore making her even more popular and credible. The fact that she has all the data from our Magi to back her up seals the deal and now we can't touch her through political means."

"Now we can't even show our faces in public!" SEELE 08 said. "The rest of us have to hide seeing that we don't have any powers to defend ourselves from the military or any loyal men left!"

"True, now that SEELE is public, you have no more influence and therefore no more use for us." SEELE 02 said. "So, I suppose it's time to get rid of you." With a flick of his hand, the throats of the remaining SEELE members except the primary four were slit by unseen forces. They died before they even knew what happened to them. "Now, I suppose it's time to get some countermeasures ready. No matter what we do, this WILL blow up in our faces, we only have to make sure that the blast doesn't kill us and that it kills our enemies instead…"

Things in Sanctuary were strained to say the least, the news about John spread like wildfire and those that lived there for so long entered a dark period of mourning. The air itself seemed dark and gloomy to those that hardly knew the man, but there in Sanctuary were families that knew him for several generations. He was an example to all, he seemed invincible, a force that could have defended Sanctuary from even the darkest of threats. Yet now he was dead, defeated because of an unexpected turn about in the battle, defeated by his own attack, all because he hit the wrong target in the wrong place.

All in all, it seemed extremely strange that John died in what seemed to be a freak accident. Up until now he had always seemed to be in control and only rarely was he taken by surprise when it came to battles and dangers. Some were afraid, nothing like this was expected in Sanctuary, the man had lead Sanctuary for longer than anyone in it lived and it was expected that he would continue to do so for many long generations.

Yet, all in all, he expected this or something like this to happen since he had a will prepared, will which ensured that Sarah would take his place, but not by herself, she had a 2 years time to appoint two more leaders, forming a triumvirate of sorts which would handle the complexities of Sanctuary. The triumvirs would have a semi-specific role each, one would handle the internal affairs of Sanctuary and any political matters if they came in contact with other states, the second would handle the military issues of Sanctuary external or internal, ranging from internal security to war outside Sanctuary with whoever or whatever would threaten them. The third triumvir would be a mix of both, keeping the other two in check and acting as a second set of eyes for both of their actions, ensuring that they didn't screw up, his or hers main concern being the welfare of the people.

For now though Sarah was more concerned with her mourning and planning a funeral service for John, not that there were any remains to take care of. In Sanctuary, they didn't bury people, it wasn't practical with the theoretically limited space they had there, so the bodies were released within the Dirac sea in special coffins that would ensure that the remains were disintegrated in time, leaving no trace of the person that died. Now the service was more for those that mourned the man than anything else, since he wasn't of a specific religion, all he said was that a "god" existed, a supreme creator of all, but farther than that it was all open for everyone's beliefs and wants.

Still, there were people in the Geo-front that weren't really concerned with all this, people that even though they knew the man a bit and respected him, were more worried with those which were still alive than with those which were dead. Misato Katsuragi was one of those people, since she was more worried about her missing wards than anything else happening out there. So she wanted to know what the hell happened, since no one seemed to know. So she went right to the source, to Sarah herself.

Sarah was at her home, she didn't really feel like doing anything right now, she was confused and her powers were giving her a headache, she was having difficulties in handling the absurd amount of power surging through her now, so she was wondering if she would ever be able to fully control it. She had so much to deal with and she had no idea what she could do, not even a full day had passed since the incident and the news about the incident had already spread all over the nine spheres. That was when she felt a certain worried mind approaching her home, she sighed knowing that without using force she would be unable to get rid of Misato. At least these new powers gave her some sort of forward warning even in case of things like this.

Misato was just about to knock when the door opened to reveal a disheveled Sarah, the woman had had better days and this was clearly not one of them. Misato didn't really know what the connection was between her and John, but she could care less right now. What did confuse her was the sensation she felt from the woman, as if she was radiating energy of something.

"Come in." Sarah said and got out of the way, leading Misato to her living room. It was small and cozy, it had a small couch on which the woman could probably lounge around when at home and two fluffy armchairs more for her guests than anything else by the look of it since they seemed unused.

"Want some tea or anything to drink before we get to it?" Sarah asked.

"You know why I'm here?" Misato asked, slightly surprised.

"Even if your surface thoughts weren't practically broadcasting it to me, it would have been slightly obvious with John dying and all." Sarah said. "You've come to see me about Asuka and Shinji… Before that though I'll ask you again, do you want anything to drink?"

"No thanks."

"Suit yourself." Sarah said going to the kitchen. She could tell that Misato was in her military mode right now and she wasn't going to drink anything because she was too concerned. Though she needed a drink, not that it could do much to her in her current state of affairs.

She returned to the living room carrying what seemed to be three large bottles of vodka, Misato couldn't tell because of the unusual brand, another one of those things that you couldn't find on Earth. She had only one glass, and it wasn't a shot glass either.

"Whoa there, I didn't peg for the heavy drinker type." Misato said, quite surprised since Sarah never drank once when she came to visit.

"I'm not, but seeing as I am now, I won't even get a slight buzz from this stuff, though it's supposedly hard enough to knock out a horse in one glass." Sarah said. "I only drink when things go to hell, like now for example."

"What happened?" Misato asked, concern for the two kids she thought as her own washing over Sarah. The woman filled herself a full glass and drank it in one gulp without any hesitation. If the smell from that stuff was any indication, it was damn strong, but Sarah didn't seem to notice it one bit.

"You can stop worrying about the kids, they're alive, even though I'm not so sure how well they are. Even so, considering what happened, SEELE should keep the hell away from Shinji, otherwise he might snap out at them full berserker style." Sarah replied while pouring another glass. "Asuka went back after him… so I have no idea exactly how things stand."

"That doesn't explain much." Misato said feeling annoyed because of the way the woman seemed to dance around the subject.

"You want to know what happened? Fine. They blew Berlin of the map, all of Berlin and some of the surrounding area is now one big crater in the earth, a volcanic crater my I add. That, was a result of a display of power from Shinji, let's be thankful that was all he did, if he had used his full power he could have blown the whole damn planet to pieces in a similar incident to what happened to Old Earth and then we would have been really screwed. John died in that blast, his last action was to transport Asuka and whatever soldiers he could reach back to Sanctuary where they would be safe. The reason the blast occurred was because John had accidentally hit the core of Unit-01 with an attack which was meant to overload a smaller target. Now, add an overload of energy to something that is supposed to produce infinite amounts of power connected to the soul of a boy that has enough power from a dead freak to wipe out several planets. The result is that everything goes to hell." Sarah said, throughout the tale she spoke slowly and calmly, but her voice had an undertone of anger.

Misato was left speechless, of all the things she had expected, this was not one of them. Her mind worked furiously around the mountain of questions she had and tried to see what was answered and what wasn't while trying to figure out something to say. She didn't get the chance though as Sarah emptied the first bottle and resumed speaking.

"Now, imagine that all of John's powers which he couldn't access were suddenly active again and passed down to me as well with the responsibility of taking care of Sanctuary seeing as I'm he's great-great-granddaughter. All the while, Shinji is lost in the blast area, I have no idea what state of mind he might be in, but one thing is sure, he's probably in a lot of pain. I ordered a withdrawal seeing as I'm not yet fit to handle the situation and you don't know enough to properly handle this. Asuka obviously blew up hearing that and left Sanctuary to find him, it wasn't as if anyone can stop her, I don't have enough control even if I severely outweigh her with my powers, she'd rip me to

shreds. So right now, they're both out there, all I knew was that when Asuka left Shinji was still alive, but what happened to them I don't know."

"Shit." That was all that came to mind to Misato at that time, there was really no better way to sum it up.

"My thoughts exactly." Sarah replied.

"We have to send out some people to find them." Misato said. "We have to get them both back before SEELE tries something."

"This is not the time and I can't handle it right now, it's too much at once, you have to understand that." Sarah said. "If Asuka's with Shinji, you don't have anything to worry about, his powers will be surely awakened after this. There's no risk of him dying because of the overload, so I'd say that he can easily handle even all the crap that SEELE might throw at him. Those four together could stand a chance against him, but that's only because of their experience and that shouldn't be enough against so much raw power."

"You're just going to leave them there?!" Misato yelled getting on her feet.

"Don't make me angry! I can barely control these powers and if you get me angry I might splatter you on these wall without even wanting to! I suggest you leave and deal with it! I will not risk the safety of all of Sanctuary for this situation. Asuka knew what she was getting herself into." Sarah replied with a deadly cold voice. "I'll deal with all of this when I'm ready, otherwise ALL of us are screwed not just Asuka or Shinji."

With that said, Sarah had Misato leave, this was not the time for her, this was the time for mourning and getting a hang over the absurd powers she was suddenly cursed with.

Gendo Ikari was visiting Fuyutsuki once more, even though little time had passed since his flat out refusal on Yui's behalf, he made a lot of progress, he wasn't one to be defeated easily. He had heard the news like all the others and now because of a certain former Major, the news about what happened to Asuka and Shinji were spreading between the refugees, he just received them from Fuyutsuki, who got them from the source and they were just discussing the consequences of what they knew so far.

"Of all the things tat even I expected, this was not one of them…" Gendo said, gazing out of a window from his old friend's living room. "Then again, these are all things with which humanity in these days should never toy with."

"Yes, most likely you're right, though it took you quite some time to reach that conclusion." The old professor replied. "What do you make of all this?"

"Honestly? I have no idea, this is not my game anymore, but it seems to me that Sarah is too inexperienced to handle a situation like this." Gendo replied thoughtfully. "This situation has the potential for a disaster, if Sarah leaves those two by themselves out there for too long, she just might give SEELE the time needed to win."

"True, but it's not like anyone of us can do anything about this." Fuyutsuki replied. That was when the former commander of NERV smirked, it was the same smirk he had whenever he had a particularly good idea. "I take it that you have a good idea."

"Well, I wasn't the commander for so long because it was convenient you know." Gendo stated. "I think I know how I might be able to send out some reinforcements to my son and the Second Child. Though we'll need some

help from both Sanctuary personnel and some of the refugees. Though, if this is to have any sort of efficiency, we have to get going now, I'll need you help."

"Why not? For old times sakes, though I really hope this idea of yours works."

The two of them left the house, with the purpose of helping two lost warrior children.

Toji Suzuhara wasn't a stupid person, despite what many may think about him, even Asuka understood that to some extent. Still, pretending to be stupid was his way of hiding and sometimes blending in, it was easier for him to keep the image of a dumb jock, there were less questions asked and there was less expected on his behalf. There were only two people who knew how he really was, one was his little sister and the other was Hikari Horaki, his girlfriend, or at least that's what he thought.

He was on a date with said girl when the news reached him, a few hours later, then news about Asuka and Shinji had reached him as well and he was angry. He was angry that these people were just abandoning the two of them out there against who knew what odds. John had explained that there was an ugly situation out there, that SEELE had quite a bit of military power. Toji wanted to help, so he joined the training program for the mechanized forces, which also required a decent amount of power, not physical power, but power over the AT field.

So he had learned ever since he was brought here, he didn't want to be helpless again as he was when those soldier attacked Tokyo-2, like he was during the attack on NERV, or how he was when the 13th took hold of his Evangelion. He could handle one of those machines quite well and it took only a month of basic training to be able to use one in battle, thought control made things so much easier. The only reason he wasn't ever sent out there was the fact that Sanctuary had a two year training policy before you were used as a soldier outside, not to mention that even now he was underage and he had to be at least 20 before they would allow him to go out. In the mean time he kept training and he wasn't the only one of the kid refugees that were training in the program.

Since it was voluntary anyone could get in, but that didn't mean that you would make the cut, they didn't allow anyone handle one of those war machines. Especially since each one was custom built for their pilot, to improve diversity and make the fighting force highly adaptable while also ensuring that every pilot was familiar with their own machine and could handle it with maximum efficiency. You could still pilot one of the others if push came to shove, so the program was highly adaptable.

Another one of the candidates was Kensuke, he was better at AT field usage, but Toji had a better feel of the machine. The reasons for which Kensuke had joined were different from what they would have been more than a year ago. He had seen first hand what the war could do, he had seen the horror that pervaded Tokyo-2 and he didn't think about the war like he used to. Now he wanted to help his friends, to repay the debt he felt he owned to Shinji and the other pilots for saving all of their sorry asses from the angels and later Third Impact.

The medical science of Sanctuary led to one very important change for Kensuke, they healed his eye problem, adjusting them with biological manipulation, that's what allowed him to join the program, since eyesight issues could be a serious problem on a battlefield where everyone moved at astounding speeds. They were supposed to be fast and strong, but especially fast since they could never match and Evangelion in raw brute strength. So eyesight was important and he was thankful that he could join at all.

The importance of their capacity to pilot those machines was null without being able to move out, but that was when Fuyutsuki came on the scene and called as many of the refugees associated with NERV and involved in the mechanized program as he could find to a meeting. Neither of the two thought twice when they heard it was about Shinji and Asuka.

Ritsuko Akagi was sitting on a bench in the rather large garden of the facility where she was staying. She had recovered somewhat after the mental breakdown she had, faster than it was expected actually, but she was being kept there in case she would have a relapse and to make sure that she was perfectly fine before sending her out once more. There were many questions and emotions swirling around her head, but she decided to just let everything go and enjoy it while it lasted. She felt somewhat at peace here, more than she ever did for as long as she could remember. The only thing she was wondering about was Gendo, what happened to him, what did he really feel for her, what did she really feel for him. These were the only thoughts that never left her mind.

That was when she saw him, coming towards her, he had shaved and his hair looked a bit untidy, slightly longer than he usually kept it. There were other subtle changes as well, in the way he walked, for example, changes that no one else would ever notice, but she did, because she knew him so well. All, those changes together told her that something had changed with the man, something big, she could tell by the larges change of them all, he had a sad smile directed at her and his eyes held warmth. She had never seen the man without his emotionless mask on, it was all so strange to her.

"Ritsuko… The main reason I'm here is because I want to apologize, for all that I did to you over the years and especially at the end." Gendo said as he reached her. "I was being stupid and selfish, I want to make it up to you somehow, one day…"

Ritsuko was left speechless for once, what could one say to something so unexpected. In all her years of blind hope and dreams, she never imagined that Gendo could change so much, what ever the reason was, she didn't care, she felt that she had a chance at happiness, even if it was only a little bit of it.

"I know that I don't deserve forgiveness, from you or anyone for that matter, but I still want to set things right between us." Gendo continued. "I think you know by now that what I did was all for my wife, but, the truth is I was deluding myself, believing that she might ever want to deal with me after what I did. Not to mention that, only now I was able to question the nature of my true feelings towards her. I learned the hard way that I was living a lie."

Gendo took a pause and looked over the garden. "It's funny, but if it wasn't for the son I had forsaken so long ago, I might have committed suicide instead of getting back on my feet and getting a firm grip on my feelings, my real feelings." He seemed thoughtful for a second then turned back to her. "Do you remember what I told you right before Third Impact?"Ritsuko silently nodded.

"I meant what I said then. That's why I want you to know that, even though I can't really make heads or tales of my feelings right now, I'm willing to help you along and try whatever you might want. I don't know where it might lead us, but who knows, maybe we'll both find happiness and I'll be able to get on with my life, instead of living in the past."

Tears shone in Ritsuko's eyes, she wasn't one for emotional displays, but, after so much torture and anguish, after all the suffering, she could not really deny her heart. Just like her love for the man would never die, not even after all that he did to her. She never thought that this moment would ever come, but it seemed that despite all that happened, it seemed that everyone did have a right to happiness. Gendo silently held her while she shed her tears, he didn't lie, he was truthful, he really didn't know where this could lead to, but he wanted to give it a chance, he wanted to let go for once in his life and live.

"What now?" Ritsuko asked.

"Now we have to wait for you to recover, but I'll visit as often as they allow it. Still, there's a meeting I have to attend to pretty soon." Gendo said, the woman laughed.

"What could you be doing here?"

"My son and the Second are out there with no support from Sanctuary, I intend to change that." He said. "I may have done a lot of stupid things in my past, but I intend t change, if I don't change at least a bit towards everyone, I won't be able to change at all for anyone."

"I'd never thought I'd hear that from you." She said, smiling for the first time in what felt like a very long time.

"Believe it or not, neither did I, but life has its ways at surprising all of us." Gendo replied. "I mean, would have you imagined that my messed up son could fall in love with the equally messed up girl that is the Second Child?"

"No, I honestly thought that they hated each other, or at least that she hated him, Shinji really seemed incapable of hate." Ritsuko said. "You should go, I have a meeting with my shrink in a few moments anyway and I don't to be dragged there like the first time I was brought here."

"I'll come back as soon as I can, maybe I'll be able to bring some of your friends next time." He said while they both got to their feet.

"That would be nice, come back soon." She said as they both went on their own ways.

"Ok, so who are we waiting for?" Toji asked for what felt like the thousandth time in the last half an hour.

"I told you to be patient." Fuyutsuki replied, not showing any signs of annoyance despite the fact that the he was feeling it. Still, he could sympathize with the young man, his best friend was out there somewhere in unknown circumstances and they had no support whatsoever.

Just then the door to the warehouse they were meeting in opened and Gendo entered. Touji didn't even wait and charged towards the man, charging his whole right arm with energy. Shinji may have forgiven him, but after almost loosing his sister then his arm and leg because of the man, Toji was not willing to let him see the light of day. He would have splattered Gendo's head with that one fist, if it didn't collide with a black armored gauntlet. The hand belonged to a tall man wearing complete black body armor, the heavy armored plates were too heavy for even some people in Sanctuary, but they were light as a feather for this man.

No one really knew who he was, his name was the Black Knight and like most of those gathered here, he was one of the mech pilots. What made him different was that among the mech pilots he was the best, he was hand picked by John himself 100 years before as a sort of General since in Sanctuary there weren't many official ranks due to the unusual leadership. The reason for his name was the black armor he wore, his mech looked similarly and the man liked to fight at close range while wielding a sword and a shield.

"We're here because of this man, all of us." He spoke in deep voice with a British accent, further reinforcement to the title he had received. "It was his idea and his ingenuity brought us here together. I don't know what he did to deserve your hate, but I'd be a little more grateful towards him."

"He's right to hate me, he can finish what he started after all this is over, but for now, you all have other worries." Gendo said. "My son and the Sohryu girl have been practically abandoned out there and I'm sure that neither one of the people present here like that."

Several colorful agreeing statements could be heard throughout the room. Gendo smiled, not his typical evil smirk, but an actual smile which was even more visible and understandable without his beard and the glasses that obscured his eyes. They were all good people, he only hoped that it would be enough.

"Ok, I did my best to gather as many people as I could, I'm surprised that so many agreed to this rather illegal idea. I want you all to know that there's a big chance that you'll all be reprimanded after this when you'll return, not to mention that you might engage the SEELE forces, which could lead to your deaths. I have seen what SEELE likes to play with to some extent and it isn't pretty outside of an Evangelion." Gendo said in a dead serious tone.

"Do you think that we don't know that?" Misato asked, she was going there as tactical support for whatever situations may arise. "Those children are more important to me than they ever were to you. I intend to do everything in my power to make sure that they're safe."

"I know and I agree, but I want everyone to know what they're getting themselves into, after all, you might not be able to come back at all. Sarah may exile you after this move or you could die. I really don't know what could happen." Gendo said. "If you're all determined to stay, I want to know what resources we have available."

"We'll have 60 mechs out there, 10 support ships, 4 camouflage ships, one mobile command unit and 20 gun ships, if my interpretations of the crews are correct." The Black Knight spoke, looking over the mass of people in the warehouse. "In other words enough fire power to blow a few countries to hell even if we didn't have AT fields at our disposal."

"I don't know if that will be enough, but I hope so." Fuyutsuki said. "Can you people get out?"

"I have the access codes to one of the avatar gates, that's big enough to allow us to get out before they have a chance to react and close us in." A young technician spoke. "So no worries, you made the right decision to bring me in this meeting, I'll make sure that we get out. As much as I respect Lady Sarah, there's no way that she'll be able to organize anything that would stop us and this has to be done."

"What about the gun ships, aren't those larger than that?" Gendo asked, not knowing much about Sanctuary's military hardware.

"They are, but gunships are docked on the outside of the sphere, it's all a matter of accessing them and moving out." A man with the distinct markings of ship captain spoke. "They'll need our support because as long as those Evas don't jump on us, we have enough fire power to blow them to pieces."

"Well, that's where we and the fighter pilots come in right?" Kensuke asked.

"Exactly, the man replied. You keep them busy and we take care of them." The man replied.

"I hope everything is clear." Gendo said. "It seems that my efforts in bringing you all here were worth it, now, go out there and help my son and the Second Child. Good luck to all of you."

Everyone nodded solemnly as they prepared to move out. They never imagined that the cold hearted Commander of the destroyed NERV would be the one that would arrange the meeting, all for the sake of saving the two lost children.

When Asuka had finished her global broadcast she felt something approaching, more like a 100 something's, all Eva sized. You didn't really need a degree to know that SEELE was making their move, still, a 100 would normally seem like overkill for only one Eva. Still, Asuka knew that they were aware of the magnitude of her powers and the power of her avatar which exceeded that of soulless monsters. They would arrive soon, but she had enough time to take care of a few preparations. So she jumped in her avatar from her position on it's head.

Immediately she contacted all the people on the base on as many radio's as she could reach, hoping that she could do something about this. "Attention everyone, there are approximately 100 Evas coming here to kill me as a response to what I did just moments ago. I suggest that you run like hell, I have no way in which I can protect you people and fight those things. So run, because this place is about to become hell on earth!" She closed her radio connection, she didn't need a reply, they either ran or they died, but she could clearly see that the German soldiers had picked up the Evas on the radar and were moving out as fast as they could. Asuka took off, hoping that if she fought in the air she would avoid completely destroying the base.

Though she knew that she had to be kidding herself, with that many enemies at once, she had to keep moving so it was safe to assume that she'd be forced to fight in a rather large area because of that. Knowing the nature of her power and how messy normal Eva fights were, she knew that this would lead to a great deal of destruction. It would be surprising if it didn't end up with loss of life. Presuming of course that she could defeat these enemies, she knew that she didn't have full access to Lilith's mind bending powers, if she did, she'd just swat them out of the sky with one blast.

As it were now, she had no options but to do her best, even though she wasn't sure what weapons those things could have aside from maybe pseudo-Lances. She didn't wait to find out, as soon as they were in range, she charged an attack and blasted four Evas out of the sky with a cross blast turning them to ashes. The Evas scattered refusing to give her an easy target. That was her queue to move out, just as about 10 Evas fired positron blasts from cannons mounted on their forearms.

As the red behemoth maneuvered out of the way she noticed that non of them had pseudo-Lances, then again she assumed that even partly attempting to copy a weapon like that must have been really difficult. Several rockets flew around her, she dodged some of them while others bounced of her AT field. All that while 20 of the Evas were trying to form a sort of perimeter around her, being armed with long spear like weapons, designed to keep an enemy at a distance.

That idea proved to be stupid as Asuka blasted right through one of them and took of in a straight line up, avoiding fire from several attacks. After about a minute of ascent, when the Evas were most likely convinced that she was trying to escape, she turned and released the concentrated energy of several minutes of charging. The resulting blast blew ten more Evas to dust and burnt the wings of 6, causing them to fall out of the sky.

Out of the blast, a bunch of positron beams came straight at her, 2 caught her in the chest, because the others broke the AT field she was projecting at the time. At the same time two more Evas rushed out and caught the red giant by its arms. Still, Asuka wasn't defeated that easily and as the red behemoth roared, the two Evas that were stupid enough to touch her were turned into LCL by the use of a short range anti-AT field. Asuka couldn't produce them over a large area, but she could project it from her body and destroy AT fields that were in contact with her. Lilith had developed that anti AT field so to speak, it was simply a matter of making the energy have the polar opposite resonance so to speak, not that Asuka was aware of these facts.

A result of this kind of interaction, besides the turning into LCL of the affected creature was energy, energy that she consumed, allowing her to heal the injury on her chest faster. Still, so far she had killed only 17 of them and blasted 6 out of the fight, that still left 77 monsters to deal with. Not good odds considering the missile storm they began to launch at her from launcher mounted on their backs somewhat between the wings. The missiles were small and were probably designed to be fired at clusters of troops, but fired in such heavy amounts they had the side benefit that they could weaken her field with sheer brute force. Still, the good news was that her armor and wings could shrug them of like nothing.

As several positron blasts also flew from several directions she gathered the wings around her, forming a sort of cocoon that could absorb the blast. The hits exploded harmlessly of the wings and before the Evas with melee weapons could come in and slice through she opened the wings in an instant releasing a wave of Eva sized dagger like feathers. The feathers struck about twenty of the approaching monsters and Asuka projected her energy into said monsters, using the feathers as amplifiers, blowing them to pieces. Now she had only 57 to worry about.

That was when a pillar of destructive energy formed under her and struck her from bellow, her whole world exploded in pain and she screamed in her avatar. It seemed that the pillar was designed to cause her pain, not real damage and it was working damn well since she felt that all of her body was burning, what discomfort she felt while in the volcano so long ago seemed like a mild sunburn compared to what was happening now. Everything burned so bad that she couldn't even see of hear. She feared that all was lost.

'Sorry Shinji, looks like you'll have to handle this without me…'

Through the pain the voice came, like a knife cutting through his flesh right to his heart. All the pain became secondary, there was something that it had to do. He remembered, his name was Shinji, and the voice was speaking to him. Despite the pain, he would not abandon her, despite the fact that through what he felt, he shouldn't be able to operate at all he was going to help her. He couldn't feel his memories, but he knew that she was the most important thing in the world to him.

Rage filled his heart as the behemoth roared in the void of space, no sound was heard, but the roar would have been felt if anyone was in the area, due to the AT field. The beast moved faster than physics would have ever allowed it, someone hurt HER and they would pay for that, they would feel pain greater even than his, pain greater than anything they would ever imagined in their soon to become very short lives.

It took mere moments for the potentially god-like being to reach those that angered it. Even through the pain it could feel them, it could feel the fields of energy. It roared, the strength of the roar, projected with a massive AT field threw them away from her and stopped all that they were doing. There six on the ground, with a mere thought it released energy and blasted them from its place in the sky. The beast caught her as she fell and held her with it's left arm in a sort of tight embrace. Anyone watching the scene would have found it somewhat strange, but that didn't matter, it was a surprise that thoughts like that could still exist in its mind.

The right hand brought forth the giant sword on its back and then it moved towards the remaining enemies. They never stood a chance, it could move too fast, it was too strong and it could feel their every move, since they felt as if they belonged to the Beast, to stay at its side, not fighting it. As soon as it dispatched the bothersome insects, it left the red behemoth on the ground and took of once more, the pain being once more amplified by the thoughts of all the people in the area. It was never in its ability to truly fight against its own pain, only against the pain of others, especially her pain, always against her pain…

When Asuka regained her consciousness she felt like crap, there wasn't an inch on her oversized body that didn't hurt after what happened. She was sure that she was as good as dead when that happened. All because she underestimated the enemy. The six Evas that had been grounded could have rejoined the fight in the sky much sooner since they could re-grow their wings. Unlike the MP Evas, these had full angel abilities, which included regeneration and stuff like that. Instead of going back after her, they stood down and channeled energy forming that pillar that trapped her so efficiently. It was a nasty tactic, but it was also very efficient since she had a hard time keeping track of what Evas were or weren't around her. The fact that they all looked the same meant that she had no way of knowing weather she was fighting the same Eva or not.

Still, the question remained, how did she get down, all she remembered was passing out from the pain after those last few thoughts, thinking that she was going to die. She felt that even more afraid than when she was about to die in the volcano so long ago. She started to look around to see if there was anything that could explain what happened. What she saw made her feel nauseous, the scene was terrible.

All around her were body parts and blood, the remaining Evas had been chopped to pieces and said pieces had fallen everywhere. It looked like something ran into them with a big blade and started swinging rapidly at them without any concerns. By the looks of things, whatever did this was too strong for the lesser beasts so to speak, even their weapons were cut, it looked in some cases that they tried to parry, but the attack passed through the weapons like they weren't there most likely.

She moved to examine one of the cut weapons and she observed that the weapon was cleanly cut, as if an atom thick blade caused it. There was only one weapon in existence that could cut like that and it had the power to do so only in the hands of one person. This brutal scene was the result of Shinji's anger, of that she was certain now. What she wondered about was how was he able to do it, since she could still feel his pain through the link, strong as ever. What ever it was that allowed him to do what he did, Asuka was grateful for it, she could continue her work and she hoped that the pain he felt would dissipate sooner so that she could see him once more…

To be continued…

A/N2: Ok, so the poll has been closed for a week now, the winning fic will have its first chapter posted along with the next update, as for what follows later, who knows. Look out for something with the name along the lines of "Children of Angels", that's what I intend to call it if it's not taken.

Well, I haven't much to say right now, just that I'll keep going and you keep reading, and don't forget to review if you bothered to read the thing? How am I else to learn? If you feel that the what you want to say may be offending or something, then send me a PM and I'll reply as needed.

Until next time...