Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Twenty One
After coming within mere seconds of dying, followed by the discovery that Asuka was alive and well, Shinji had lost his hold on the uncontrollable rage that had possessed him when he'd seen that Unit Zero had been mangled and mutilated at the hands of the MP EVA Series.
He didn't understand why this was so; Asuka being all right again did nothing to change the fact that Rei must have died one of the most gruesome deaths possible, but that perfect fury that had allowed him to destroy seven of the nine white Evangelions in under five minutes had deserted him.
Fortunately, Asuka seemed more than able to compensate for this.
With a loud battle cry from Asuka, Unit Two charged one of the white Evangelions, putting its hands into the MP EVA's cruel mouth. If the Dummy Plug controlling the EVA ever thought to bite down on its enemy's hands, it didn't react quickly enough. Asuka pushed off the harpy, almost like she playing leap frog with it…and the incredible pressure from having the multi-ton war machine use it as a spring board caused the MP Unit's head to explode in a shower of gore.
"I understand now, Mama!" the German pilot screamed as she headed toward her next target. "The meaning of the AT field!"
Deciding not to ask, Shinji grabbed one of the massive swords that the MP EVA's had brought with them and headed to the Evangelion that Asuka had just felled. He plunged it into the decapitated EVA's back, right where the Dummy Plug was located, and was rewarded with a burst of amber LCL. Counting the EVA that Spirit had destroyed and the one Asuka had speared with that Lance, this made…
"Three," Shinji said as he turned to help Asuka.
For a few stunned seconds, Rei and Akagi just stared in complete shock at the winged Rei Ayanami III. With the exception of the wings, she looked just like Rei in every regard. She was even wearing a sleeveless plug suit that was identical to Rei's, except for the fact that there was a Roman numeral three where there should have been a double zero. And it apparently had slits in the back for her wings.
The altered clone merely looked blankly at them, obviously not a bit nonplussed by their shocked scrutiny. Gendo allowed himself a triumphant smirk.
"This is what you've been doing in the labs down here in Terminal Dogma," Ritsuko spoke, finally finding her voice. "You resurrected the Nephilim Creation Project using the blood sample Section Two got from Spirit when you tried to capture her, didn't you?"
"Correct," Gendo said, seeming pleased that Akagi was asking. "Isolating the genotype that gives the girl the ability to absorb and assimilate Angelic DNA into her own genetic code proved extremely time consuming, even with the help of the MAGI. However, once that task was accomplished, splicing it into the prototype and infusing her with the appropriate DNA proved a relatively simple task. It was far easier than the process used in the original Nephilim Creation Project."
He looked at Rei, as if expected her to be ashamed at how much more difficult her genesis had been compared to the creation of Rei III. The true Rei just glared coldly at him.
"Had you not destroyed all the clones which weren't in my lab at the time," Gendo continued, "I would have had an entire army of them, which would have made turning back the invasion child's play. However, such an army proved ultimately unnecessary. Men who wish to rule the world need armies. I seek to remake the world."
"This still shouldn't be possible," Akagi said, narrowing her eyes. "The Chamber of Gauf was empty; only one Rei Ayanami can be active at any one time, or at least, that's the way it's supposed to be. Where did you get a soul to animate this girl with?"
Gendo turned to her and smirked, the dim light in the chamber reflecting off his glasses and turning his eyes into cold, inhuman disks. "Dr. Akagi, do you recall how, a few months ago, you came to me and informed me that you were late?"
Ritsuko frowned…and then her eyes widened in horrified realization. "No," she gasped, the blood draining from her face as she pressed her free hand over her stomach. "You wouldn't…even you wouldn't…"
"It was a simple matter, really," Gendo said, as though he was discussing something as mundane as a high school chemistry experiment. "I merely had to wait until you were far enough along for it to be useful to me, secretly sedate you during one of our rendezvous, and then have the procedure performed. The salvaging of the soul was then executed without complication."
"I thought I just had a miscarriage," Ritsuko said softly, still reeling from the shock. "You bastard. You evil, monstrous bastard. You had no right to do such a thing."
"Please, Dr. Akagi, spare me the theatrics," Gendo said. "I know you never wanted children. I merely made the same choice you would have. "
"It wasn't your choice to make! It was mine!" Ritsuko screamed. "And I sure as hell never would have given my child's soul to Rei!"
The scientist raised her pistol, gripping it with both hands, and pulled the trigger again and again until the weapon clicked empty, the sound of the gunshots echoing in the vast chamber. All the bullets bounced harmlessly off of Rei III's AT field, and Ritsuko threw the gun at Gendo with a cry, which was also deflected by the barrier of orange light.
"My god," Ritsuko said, sinking down to her knees and sobbing as just how terribly she'd been violated began to truly sink in. "It was yours, too, you know! And here I thought you didn't care about Shinji!"
"Your scenario is still doomed," Rei told Gendo. "You require the container of Lilith's soul to complete it. She doesn't have Lilith's soul. I do."
"Which is precisely why she's going to take it from you," Gendo sneered.
"That is not—"
"Yes, it is," Gendo cut her off. "The soul that Rei III possesses is immature; it will be swept aside when she destroys you, and Lilith's soul flows into her."
"Commander," Rei III said, speaking for the first time.
"What is it?" Gendo asked.
"She is coming," Rei III said. "The one who is like me. I can sense her approaching."
"Good," Gendo said, a small, malicious grin forming on his face. "After everything she's done, I don't want her to be reborn after Third Impact. She must die before Instrumentality commences. Rei, you will destroy her when she arrives here."
"Yes, Commander," Rei III said.
"You are so confident that she can defeat Spirit?" Rei asked.
"Yes," Gendo answered firmly.
"Damn it, Maya, if you're not going to fight, at least give us updates on the battle outside!" Misato barked as she ducked beneath a row of computer consoles to reload her pistol.
The invaders had made it to the command center in the middle of Shinji's battle against the EVA Series, forcing the technicians as well as the security officers and the Operations Director to take up arms against them. Only Maya, who abhorred violence, had refused to accept a weapon and join the fight. She was currently disconnecting wires from beneath her terminal and connecting them to a laptop.
"It's been more than five minutes since Unit One's umbilical cable was cut," Aoba said grimly. "By now…"
"Shut up, Shigeru!" Misato snapped, emerging from cover enough to end the lives of three JSSDF soldiers with three shots.
"Sorry, ma'am," Aoba replied absently as he sprayed lead in the vicinity of the doorway to the command center.
"I got it!" Maya said as she finally got the connection between her laptop and the MAGI working. She then frowned in confusion as she looked at the data scrolling across her screen. "What the…?"
"Talk to me, Ibuki!" Misato demanded.
"Unit One's back on external power!" Maya exclaimed. "I don't know…wait a minute! Unit Two's been activated and is running on its internal battery! Asuka must have given Shinji her power cable!"
"Asuka's okay?" Misato asked, barely daring to believe it.
"Better than okay," Maya confirmed. "She's shattered her previous synchronization record."
Misato grinned. "Then we may still win this thing yet."
Unit Two sprinted toward one of the MP Evangelions, progressive knife in hand, tearing craters into the ground with its feet that would later became small lakes as it ran. The white beast put its hands up in an instinctive defensive motion, but it was to no avail. Her knife cut through the harpy's forearms like they weren't even there, sending them falling to the ground before it sliced into the white EVA's face, creating a clean vertical slash that severed the beast's head in two.
Now this is what EVA piloting is all about! Asuka thought.
The whole time NERV had been fighting the Angels, Asuka had tried as hard as she could to prove to everyone that she was the best, only to come up short over and over again. Her best simply hadn't been good enough, and she had had to suffer through getting shown up by Spirit and even Shinji, her self-confidence ebbing away bit by bit.
Now, though, now she was the Great Asuka Langley Soryu again. Sure of herself again. Invincible again. Herself again.
And it felt fantastic to be back.
Who ever knew that a wanton slaughter could be such a balm for the soul?
"Four," she heard Shinji say, and she flicked her gaze back to see Shinji stabbing the EVA she'd just destroyed, Unit One using one of those giant swords.
With a loud cry, Asuka threw Unit Two into another of her enemies, tackling it into the side of building, pinning it against the tower of now crumbling concrete and twisted metal.
It turned its horrible, eyeless face at her, as if to say, "I'm still alive."
Asuka responded by commanding Unit Two's right shoulder pylon to open, revealing something only the production model Evangelions possessed. Massive metal spikes were ejected from the hidden launcher in Unit Two's shoulder, impaling the white EVA's head and wiping the perceived smirk off its face. Unit Two released it, and the white EVA fell forward onto its face.
The Second Child then spotted her next target and ran toward it, lashing out with her progressive knife and severing its right arm from its body before it could even try to defend itself from her. Unit Two then slashed again, cutting a huge diagonal gash into the harpy's chest, releasing a spray of crimson blood but also snapping the blade of her knife in the process.
"Damn!" she exclaimed, even as the white EVA collapsed limply to the ground.
"Five," Shinji said as he destroyed the Dummy Plug of the EVA that Asuka had shown her spike launcher to.
"Stop counting!" Asuka snapped in annoyance.
"I'm just trying to keep track," Shinji snapped back.
Asuka blinked, actually impressed with the Third Child's display of spine. She wondered how long she'd been out of it and what had happened to Shinji during that time.
She quickly moved to cover this up, however. "Where the hell is Suzuhara?" Asuka demanded.
"I don't know," Shinji replied. "Damn it!"
"What?"
"One of them got my umbilical," Shinji said grimly. "I've got two minutes. I guess I didn't get a full charge, while—ahh!"
Asuka turned to see that one of the MP Evangelions had tackled Unit One from behind. Shinji had gripped the thing's wrists and was trying to throw it off, but it had also straddled his EVA's waist and was refusing to let go.
The Second Child threw Unit Two into motion and was at her comrade's side in an instant, grabbing the white EVA's legs and wrenching them off of Unit One's torso. The thing was now suspended in a horizontal position, held aloft by the two NERV EVA Units, one with a grip on its wrists and the other holding its ankles.
"Shinji! Pull!" Asuka commanded.
The Third Child complied, and Units One and Two pulled. The white EVA roared as its arms and legs were all ripped from their sockets, a rainstorm of blood falling from the fresh wounds before the now helpless MP EVA crashed to the ground.
Unit One quickly picked up the sword it had dropped and stabbed the white EVA's back, destroying the Dummy Plug. To Asuka's relief, Shinji didn't tick it off on his verbal tally.
Satisfied that Shinji was all right now, Asuka sprinted off in search of her next victim. She didn't have much more time before her EVA's internal battery ran out than Shinji did, after all.
Spirit's heart hammered as she flew through Terminal Dogma, no longer needing to worry about finding her way. The call of Adam was becoming impossibly loud at this range, and for brief, terrifying moments, she forgot that she was seeking the First Angel to destroy it, not to become one with it.
She spied a huge door that lay open and knew that was where Adam was. Pausing a moment to take a deep, steadying breath, Spirit flew into the chamber. What she found there shocked her.
The room was dominated by a massive red cross, upon which a great, white being was crucified. At the foot of this cross, stood four people.
Two of them were Rei.
"What?! Rei? I thought you were dead!" Spirit exclaimed in shock.
She could barely think straight with just resisting Adam's call taking nearly all her concentration, and she didn't immediately notice that one of the Rei's was sporting a pair of wings just like her own.
"Hikari! Look out!" one of the Rei's shouted.
Spirit turned to see that the other Rei was flying toward her like a rocket. The silver haired girl let out a squeak of surprise and was just barely able to dodge the advancing white and blue cannonball.
Having missed her target, Rei III stopped with impressive ease and grace and quickly turned around to face her foe. Spirit blinked, her fogged mind finally registering the presence of this Rei's wings.
"Hikari!" the normal Rei shouted up at Spirit. "She is the key to Third Impact! You must destroy her!"
What?! Spirit thought…just as Rei III managed to grab hold of her ankle and fling her out of the room with strength that at least matched her own, tossing her well out of sight.
Rei III flew after her enemy, bound and determined to destroy her, and the battle left the LCL Production Plant.
"'Hikari?'" Gendo asked, turning to Rei. "You know who she is?"
The corners of Rei's lips quirked upwards, the First Child easily able to see the rage smoldering in Gendo's eyes. "How do you think she evaded the blood test?" she asked. "I warned her of it."
Gendo scowled darkly and fired a single shot at Rei. He was unsurprised when it bounced off her AT field.
Dr. Akagi released a burst of nearly hysterical laughter and Gendo regarded the bottle blonde with a disdainful look before he turned his glare back at Rei. He never noticed it when Ritsuko's hand slowly slipped into one of her lab coat's large pockets and began to carefully manipulate her cellular phone.
Spirit felt her mind clearing somewhat the instant she was out of the LCL Production Plant and away from the massive Angel imprisoned within it. She snapped her wings open and aborted her crazed arc through the air, hovering above the replica of the Antarctic Sea which existed outside Lilith's chamber.
"We don't have to fight," she said to Rei III, trying to sound as calm as possible.
"The Commander has ordered me to destroy you," Rei III replied flatly. "Therefore, I shall."
"The Commander's just using you! Can't you see that?!" Spirit snapped.
Rei III didn't reply, not verbally anyway. A whip of pink light appeared in her right hand and she lashed out at Spirit. The masked girl's eyes widened and she did the only thing she could do to avoid the attack: she allowed gravity to claim her, plunging straight downwards and escaping the whip.
"What the hell?!" Spirit exclaimed, as she began to fly again, rapidly moving to put distance between herself and Rei III. "How did you do that?"
"Unlike you, I have been infused with the DNA of several Angels," Rei III answered calmly, even as she flew off in pursuit of Spirit. "Now hold still."
"Sorry, but I'll have to take a pass. I'm really not into the whole whips and chains thing," Spirit quipped.
"You have no choice," Rei III said. "I will destroy you."
Spirit shivered at the cold, matter-of-fact tone in Rei III's voice. She decided that, much as she loathed the idea of killing a person, let alone one who looked just like her close friend, she had no choice. Not when her foe possessed more abilities than she did and was the key to Third Impact on top of that.
Rei III lashed out with her energy whip again. Spirit dodged, and the whip struck one of the spires of ice that was sticking up out of the lake of amber liquid. The silver haired girl couldn't help but notice how the whip sliced off the top of the spire without even slowing down, sending a substantial part of it falling down into the LCL below.
Spirit winced. Okay, I need to end this, now!
The silver haired heroine spun about in midair, allowing her momentum to continue carrying her in the direction that she'd been going. White light formed in her palm, and a cross blast soon shot out toward Rei III.
The clone's AT field, too weakened by its close proximity to Spirit's own field to block the blast, suddenly inverted, transforming from a barrier to an inky black void. The white cross blast flew into it and was immediately swallowed up into the darkness.
"A Dirac Sea…" Spirit whispered to herself in disbelief, suddenly realizing that this was going to be far more difficult than she had hoped.
The next white Evangelion that Asuka confronted actually met her with one of the huge swords in hand. Asuka sent Unit Two into a roll, deftly evading its initial swing, and grabbed another of the swords that had been laying on the ground as she brought Unit Two back to its feet. She swung her weapon…and to her amazement, the MP EVA actually blocked, catching her off guard and throwing her off balance. Unit Two staggered back a step, and the white EVA lashed out with its foot, kicking the scarlet titan in the abdomen and knocking it over. Asuka gasped as she felt the blow in her own stomach through her link with EVA, and then winced as Unit Two impacted into the ground. She looked up to see the white Evangelion raising its sword above its head, readying a killing blow.
Two blood stained metal spikes suddenly erupted from the harpy's chest. Asuka blinked dumbly for a second before she realized that it had been run through with a Lance of Longinus from behind.
The now dead EVA began to slowly fall forward and Asuka quickly rolled Unit Two out of the way so it wouldn't fall on her. Absently plunging her EVA's hand into the white Unit and crushing the Dummy Plug (just to be on the safe side), she looked up and saw Unit One standing next to the harpy that she had speared with the Lance when she'd first joined the battle. That MP EVA was still mercifully unmoving, despite Shinji's removal of the Lance.
"Damn it, I'll never work off my debt to you if you keep saving my life!" Asuka exclaimed, opening a channel to Unit One.
Shinji thankfully didn't think she was being serious. "If we live through this, I'll be more than willing to call it—"
The picture of the Third Child in the "FROM EVA-01" box on Asuka's display was suddenly replaced by snow before the window winked out all together. The Second Child turned toward Unit One to see that purple colossus was intact but slumping and motionless. Shinji had run out of power.
Asuka's gaze flicked over to her own countdown timer and she saw that she herself had twenty seconds left.
"Plenty of time!" she proclaimed, as Unit Two charged toward the last MP Evangelion still standing. "Plenty of time for one more kill!"
The last harpy tried to block her assault, but it was like a person trying to halt a freight train. She battered its arms aside effortlessly and plunged Unit Two's right hand into its neck. Asuka could feel it as Unit Two wrapped its hand around something hard and cylindrical.
With a savage scream, she pulled with all of her Evangelion's enormous might, and the MP EVA's spinal cord exploded out of its body in a shower of blood, taking with it a huge amount of still quivering muscle tissue, and, more important by far, the Dummy Plug.
Unit Two hurled the spine away, and it landed in the Geofront's lake, taking the Dummy Plug with it. The massive column of bone and flesh created a splash that was at least thirty meters high, easily capsizing the battleship that NERV kept in the lake.
"I did it!" Asuka screamed exultantly as the last few seconds of her battery power ticked down. "I did it! I won!"
That was when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, her triumph instantly being smothered by a wave icy cold fear which gripped her heart. The MP EVA she had slashed across the chest, the one she'd destroyed right before Shinji had gotten himself into a fix…she'd forgotten to destroy its Dummy Plug. It was reactivating.
"No…" Asuka breathed as her countdown timer hit zero, the walls of her plug becoming opaque.
Spirit fired another cross blast at Rei III, hoping to catch her before she could defend against it. An ebony abyss opened up and swallowed the energy blast well before it could threaten the third Rei Ayanami.
Damn! Spirit thought. Guess I only have one choice here. I just hope it doesn't kill me.
Flying with every bit of speed that she could muster, Spirit soared forward, straight toward her enemy. Rei III immediately responded by forming an energy whip and lashing out with it. Spirit twirled in midair, barely able to keep her flight path under control at her speed and just avoiding the strike, losing a few feathers in the process. The whip vanished from Rei III's hand as Spirit drew to within inches of her.
Reacting more quickly than Spirit would have believed possible, Rei III's arms flashed out, grabbing hold of Spirit's wrists. Before she knew it, she was caught in her enemy's grip, letting out a cry of pain as Rei III held one of her arms behind her and forced it into a position that the human shoulder wasn't meant to accommodate.
Spirit reacted on pure reflex, flipping Rei III and throwing the blue haired girl over her head in an extremely clumsy but still effective throw, grunting with the effort and the further pain that was inflicted on her abused arm.
Rei III went tumbling through the air at an impressive speed. With a roar, Spirit hurled another cross blast at her, thinking that there was just no way the blue haired girl could possibly recover in time to create another Dirac Sea.
She was wrong. Rei III managed to get herself under control at the last possible second, again summonsing an inverted AT field to consume the energy blast. The black void vanished after it had done its job, and Rei III raised her hand, purple light forming in her palm.
Oh shit, Spirit thought, just before Rei III unleashed her attack.
A massive beam of blinding violet light shot out from Rei III's palm right at Spirit. The silver haired girl flew straight up as quickly as she could, handily avoiding the beam, but even with the amount of distance she put between herself it, she could still easily feel the intense heat radiating off of it. The beam plowed right through the far wall of the room, not being slowed down in the least by the multiple layers of reinforced steel armor.
Spirit turned to look at the resulting hole, and for a moment thought she could see daylight before a distant portion of the new tunnel collapsed.
That was not a cross blast! Spirit thought, fighting the urge to panic. Hell, that would even put a Halo Wave to shame!
Not the least bit shocked by the power she'd just demonstrated, nor annoyed at all at missing her target, Rei III flew towards Spirit, one of her deadly energy whips in hand again. Spirit quickly turned and flew off, deciding that perhaps it would be wise to change their battlefield. She soared through the hole in the wall that Rei III's energy attack had created, feeling a fresh wave of fear as she realized just how large said hole was. Rei III flew after her without hesitation.
They came out in the Evangelion graveyard. Spirit took one look at the chamber and immediately decided it was almost ridiculously creepy. The huge, scattered skeletons, the dim light, and the dusty, armored helms almost looked like something one would find in a Halloween funhouse, only much more unnerving. Spirit even thought she saw a huge spider web clinging to a spinal column the size of a giant redwood.
Not wasting time to admire the décor, Spirit flew down to the floor and grabbed one of the smaller EVA bones, lifting it high over her head. Of course, given the size of an Evangelion, said bone still weighed in excess of several hundred pounds.
"Catch!" Spirit shouted as she flung the bone up at Rei III.
The clone responded by striking with her energy whip, easily slicing the bone into two pieces and diverting its course. However, this also resulted in a great puff of dust as the old, dry bone fell apart. Rei III coughed, momentarily blinded by the cloud.
Which was exactly what Spirit had been hoping for. The silver haired girl quickly flew behind a pile of EVA bones, pressing herself up against a huge vertebrae as she landed as softly as she was able.
If she couldn't beat Rei III in a straight up fight, Spirit was more than willing to lose her in this grotesque dumping ground and then jump her in the dark.
Not hearing anything from her opponent after a few seconds, Spirit slowly climbed up the bone she was using as cover, peaking over it and hoping her silver hair wouldn't give her away in the dim light. She blinked as she looked out, not seeing Rei III anywhere.
It was the shadow that saved her. Spirit saw it fall upon her and looked up immediately, only to be greeted with the sight of Rei III hovering above her with another Evangelion bone in hand.
Spirit fired a cross blast straight up, barely destroying the bone before it bashed her brains out. The masked girl sprinted out of the resulting cloud of bone dust just before Rei III struck the place where she'd been with her energy whip, digging a long, thin trench into the metal floor with it. She took to the air again and began to fly wildly around the chamber.
Damn! She was able to sense me! How could I be so stupid?! Spirit thought, only now realizing that she could feel Rei III's presence with her own Angel senses.
The silver haired girl fired still another cross blast at Rei III, forcing the clone to create another Dirac Sea to swallow the attack. In the fraction of a second that the ebony void obscured her vision, Spirit dove behind one of the orange and white EVA helmets.
I don't have wings! She thought, and the wings retracted smoothly into her back, her eyes and hair returning to their normal brown color.
Hikari gazed up at Rei III, who was looking almost frantically about the chamber, clearly not sure where her target was this time. The clone began to slowly fly about the huge room, searching for Spirit.
Come on, Hikari willed, just a little closer…a little closer…
Rei III's slow, methodical circuit of the room finally brought her near enough to Hikari.
I have wings! She thought, instantly transforming and flying at her enemy like she'd been fired out of a cannon.
Rei III had just enough time to sense her enemy and turn toward her before Spirit's shoulder rammed into the clone's torso, forcing a loud "Oof!" from her and sending them both barreling backwards.
The clone let out a cry of pain as her back was slammed into the far wall with enough force to dent it. Spirit didn't allow her to move, keeping her pinned and driving her knee hard into the other winged girl's stomach. Rei III let out a grunt of pain.
Then she spat in Spirit's face.
Spirit shrieked in agony as the extremely powerful acid easily burned through her mask and then dissolved the skin just above her nose, exposing the white bone beneath. The front of the mask was reduced to two separate pieces and fell off her face, but Spirit barely noticed as the acid trickled into her eyes, blinding her and sending incredible agony shooting through her skull.
Rei III easily pushed Spirit off of her and flung the silver haired girl down toward the floor. Spirit was far too preoccupied with the breathtaking pain she was experiencing to halt her fall with her wings. Summonsing her energy whip, Rei III flew down after her prey.
Asuka's breath came in quick, shallow pants as she waited for the last remaining MP Evangelion to destroy her now lifeless Unit Two. Had she been breathing air at the moment, she would have hyperventilated.
Anyone watching her would have assumed that she was going hysterical with fear.
They would have been partly right. Asuka was becoming hysterical, but there was as much pure rage running through her as terror.
This battle had begun so well for her, yet now it looked like everything was going to fall apart when it came down to the wire, to do or die time.
Was this fight just going to be a microcosm of her entire career as an EVA pilot? A brilliant beginning with an ignoble end? Was she truly going to fail again? This time fatally?
No! I won't accept it! I am the Great Asuka Langley Soryu and I will not lose my greatest battle! She thought, deciding that nothing so trivial as a depleted internal battery would stop her from destroying all of her enemies and seizing victory.
"Mama, please don't let me die!" Asuka cried.
The LCL the Second Child was immersed in suddenly changed to a translucent red color, and Asuka screamed as she felt pain erupting all throughout her body, feeling as though every nerve ending she possessed was on fire. The walls of her plug were suddenly a whirl of colors as Unit Two slowly reactivated with nothing more than its pilot's will to prevail and her mother's overwhelming need to protect her only child powering it.
The EVA's quartet of eyes suddenly burned with an unholy white light as it began to move again, and part of the helmet shattered, finally allowing the great war machine's jaw to open and release a roar that shook the Geofront.
Asuka somehow managed to smile in spite of the pain she was in. "Thanks, Mama," she said through gritted teeth as she gripped the controls.
The lone MP EVA facing Unit Two stopped as its formally dormant foe came back to life, actually seeming surprised by this development.
That hesitation would be the last mistake the white EVA would ever make. Unit Two charged forward and then leapt at its enemy, somersaulting in the air and bringing both its massive feet slamming into the harpy's torso with enough force to partially crumple the 12,000 plates of fortified armor that protected it. The white Evangelion staggered backwards several steps, and it looked like it was going to go tumbling, but somehow it managed to keep its feet.
Not deterred in the least, the scarlet titan that was upon it roared and then sank its fangs deep into the harpy's shoulder. The coppery taste of blood suddenly flooded Asuka's mouth, which was quite a trick, considering she was already immersed in something that smelled and tasted of it. The Second Child didn't mind, however. She was much too deeply into her battle rage to be concerned over such a little thing.
The white Evangelion thrashed wildly as Unit Two's immense fangs pierced deep into its flesh, but despite all its strength, it could not dislodge its crimson attacker. EVA Unit Two pulled its head back, a large chunk of the MP Evangelion's shoulder coming with it, blood dripping down the red EVA's teeth.
Unit Two apparently enjoyed the taste of Mass Produced Evangelion flesh. The crimson giant sank its teeth into the harpy's neck. The white EVA actually screeched, desperately trying to bring its own jaws to bear on the attacker but unable to do so at the angle it had. Unit Two pulled its head back again, taking with it a mouthful of armor, muscle, esophagus and blood.
At last, the MP EVA was unable to stand any longer and went crashing onto its back, Unit Two remaining atop it as it fell. The red titan reached its hands into the harpy's chest, the beast's armor slowing it down no more than putty would have, and tore it open, exposing the harpy's alien organ system to the open air.
That organ system included the red sphere nestled in the white EVA's abdomen.
Snarling like a wild animal, Unit Two brought its fists down onto the core again and again, raining blows that could shatter mountains onto it.
Initially, it seemed as if the core would hold fast against this unrelenting assault; the first several blows yielded no noticeable damage. Then, tiny cracks began to form all over the front of the sphere. Tiny cracks which steadily grew larger with each successive strike from Unit Two.
Suddenly, the white EVA lurched, the great engine of death grudgingly reactivating for a second time. It raised its head…
And Unit Two brought its huge fist down upon its core again for the final time. The red sphere shattered like so much glass, shards which weighed dozens of tons flying everywhere with the impact from the red EVA's fist.
The last Mass Produced Evangelion's head fell back to the ground, its gray tongue lolling out almost comically.
"Holy mother of god," Lieutenant Colonel Iwanaga of the JSSDF breathed.
Out across the Geofront from the small command tent he occupied, EVA Unit Two rose to its feet, having utterly destroyed the last of the Evangelions sent by the other, still loyal NERV branches. The crimson giant rose to its feet, threw its head back, and roared thunderously. Iwanaga could actually feel the vibrations from the inhuman sound in his chest.
Iwanaga was not one of the tough (and some might argue partially crazy) old veterans who had served in the impossibly hellish post-Second Impact wars. Nor was he high enough in rank or close enough to SEELE to know that this operation was ostensibly to prevent the world from ending.
He was, however, currently in command of the operation, thanks to the fact that Unit Zero's brief but incredibly brutal rampage had ended the lives of every officer higher in the chain of command than himself.
The colonel looked out at Unit Two, considering whether he really wanted to fight the thing without Evangelions of their own on his side. True, the thing should be deactivating any second now without its power cord, but then again, he knew it should be dormant already.
"To hell with this shit," Iwanaga finally declared, picking up a phone. He got an answer only a moment later. "Yes, this is Colonel Iwanaga. I'm ordering a full retreat."
"The entire EVA Series has been completely destroyed," SEELE-09 told the rest of the council, naked disbelief in his voice. "The JSSDF taskforce is retreating from NERV and Tokyo-3 as we speak."
"Then, the scenario…" SEELE-03 spoke in a quivering voice, clearly hoping someone would tell him it could be salvaged.
SEELE-01 quickly shattered that hope. "The scenario is ruined."
There was a moment of absolute silence in the virtual room as the members of SEELE struggled to take in the fact that their precious scenario had failed, despite the fact that they, the twelve most powerful men in the world, had carefully nurtured it for fifteen years.
SEELE-08's monolith suddenly vanished.
SEELE-04's monolith followed, then SEELE-11's. In seconds, the entire council had left the meeting chamber, with SEELE-01 the last to go.
Over the years, the members of SEELE had done much in the pursuit of making their plans a reality. They had borrowed enormous sums of money, made vows they couldn't keep, made enemies of people they could only fend off for so long, committed heinous crimes that would eventually be traced back to them…all of it on the assumption that the end of the world as they knew it was neigh.
That it apparently was not introduced several complications for the members of the SEELE, to say the least. And at the moment, it was every man for himself as the SEELE members scrambled to get some money together and flee to a remote corner of the world.
Misato frowned as the sound of battle in the command center suddenly dwindled and then died. Cautiously peeking out over the console she'd been using for cover, the Operations Director saw none of the JSSDF soldiers anywhere near the doorway to the room.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"The JSSDF seems to be withdrawing on all fronts," Aoba said, having picked up a head set from somewhere and apparently getting a report from NERV security.
"You mean…we won?" Makoto asked, blinking in surprise.
"Looks like it," Aoba confirmed.
The two male techs both suddenly let out a whoop, high fiving one another as the reality of their victory sunk in. Misato smiled, relief flowing through her.
"Major!" Maya suddenly exclaimed, her laptop still in hand.
"What?" Misato asked, suddenly on edge all over again.
"It's Unit Two!" Maya said, clearly alarmed. "It's not shutting down, even though the battle's over and it's already been online for far beyond its operational limits. Asuka's sync ratio is skyrocketing! 150…200…250 and still climbing!"
"What'll happen if it keeps going up?" Misato demanded.
"I don't know!" Maya said helplessly.
"If the pilot's synchronization ratio reaches 400 percent, she will be absorbed into her Evangelion," Fuyutski spoke up.
"How do you know that?" Misato demanded, spinning about to face the Vice Commander.
"It's happened before," Fuyutski answered, looking older and more weary than Misato had ever seen him.
"300!" Maya reported. "350…380 and still rising!"
Everyone on the bridge held their breath, waiting for it to happen.
"370!" Maya exclaimed, sounding joyous. "It's started to drop rapidly! Asuka's sync ratio should fall below the absolute borderline in twenty seconds at this rate."
Inside her entry plug, Asuka slumped in pure exhaustion as Unit Two slowly deactivated around her. "Thanks, Mama," she whispered. "You did brilliantly. Guess I know where I get it from now, huh?"
The Second Child's eyes then fluttered closed as she passed out, a weary but triumphant smile on her face.
"It's over," Makoto breathed, all but collapsing into his chair, which only had a few bullet holes in it. "I can't believe it's over."
It's far from over, Misato thought grimly, knowing that the aftermath of this battle would last for months, if not years. Even in the immediate short term, there was still a lot of work to be done. The dead would need to be counted and buried, the living would have to be found and tallied, and the injuried had to be located and tended to. Hell, the Fourth Child was presumably still lost somewhere in the massive ventilation system of the NERV base.
However, even she couldn't begrudge her subordinates a very brief breather, not after the emotional roller coaster of the past hour or so.
Nobody could have been more grateful for this than Maya Ibuki, who had never really seen herself as a soldier, despite her employment at NERV, and felt completely drained after the hell of battle.
If anything else happens today… she thought.
That was when her cell phone went off. The petite young woman quickly took it out of her pocket to see that her sempai had been sending her text messages for a good period of time. She hadn't even realized it in all the chaos.
Wondering what Dr. Akagi felt she needed her so badly for, Maya brought up the first text message she'd been sent…and then paled.
It read, "cmdr ikari tryimg 2 start 3impact."
Spirit screamed as Rei III's whip struck her, not nearly hard enough to end her, but with more than enough force to leave a long, bloody gash across her torso. The wound almost immediately began to close up, but Spirit thought it was doing so more slowly than the previous injuries her enemy had given her.
The other winged girl had been subjecting her to this torture ever since she had used her acid attack on Spirit. Her face and eyes had healed long ago, but having her sight back did her no good. Every time the silver haired girl tried to rise, she found the whip striking her and knocking her back down.
"Normally, I would not do this," Rei III said in a totally neutral voice. "However, Commander Ikari specifically ordered me to make you suffer before I killed you."
And you're doing a wonderful job of it! Spirit thought. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Rei's always been very thorough about cleaning the classroom when it's her turn, after all.
"Commander Ikari's a complete bastard!" Spirit spat. "Can't you see he's just using you?"
Rei III's red eyes widened, and she ceased her assaults with the energy whip. Spirit gulped as the other girl drew near, realizing that she'd pissed her enemy off. Rei III landed next to Spirit, crouching down. She cocked her fist, clearly planning to literally smash Spirit's face in.
Spirit's arm shot out and grabbed Rei III's ankle. Before the blue haired girl could react, Spirit flung Rei III over herself, sending the other winged girl careening through the air.
Leaping back to her feet, Spirit quickly took to the air and hid behind the massive femur of a dead Evangelion, dismissing her wings with a thought. Rei III quickly got herself under control and looked around, her heretofore expressionless face forming a faint scowl.
"You attempted this before," Rei III called out. "It did not work."
Her enemy responded by rocketing out from her hiding place as she transformed back into her Angelic form. Rei III had no time to react before Spirit's fist slammed into her jaw, shattering the bone. The blue haired girl let out a cry of pain from the blow, even as she could feel her broken jaw knitting together again.
Rei III looked about wildly, searching for her foe, but discovered that she had vanished from sight again. She had apparently returned to her human form once more, as well, because the clone couldn't sense her, either.
"This delaying tactic is—"
Rei III was cut off as Spirit's fist connected with her side, right before the silver haired went back into hiding. The clone fell to her knees, feeling certain she had more than one broken rib. Fortunately for her, the injury healed quickly.
"I am far more able to recover from—"
The clone went flying through the air as Spirit's fist found the side of her head now, fracturing her skull. Rei III fell to the floor and her vision swam as the concussion she'd received healed itself, her skull fusing back together.
"You are doing nothing more than delaying the inevitable," Rei III stated, a trace of annoyance in her voice now. "I can recover from these attacks indefinitely."
Hiding behind an EVA skeleton, Hikari narrowed her eyes. Why isn't she trying to hide from me like I'm hiding from her? Is she too much Angel to do that, or is she just that uncreative?
She then realized there was a third possibility and grimaced. What if her enemy was being completely honest about her ability to shrug off her attacks? What if she tired herself out before she brought down the Rei clone?
Grimacing, she decided she couldn't just keep up this hit-and-run tactic until one of them just collapsed. She'd have to go for the kill.
I have wings, she thought as she broke from cover, white light forming in her palm.
Firing off a cross blast took only a couple of seconds longer than landing a punch would have, but it was all Rei III needed. The blue haired girl spun around and was just able to summon a Dirac Sea to consume the energy attack before it hit. Then, before the dark void had vanished, an energy whip appeared in her hand and she lashed out, a loud "crack!" echoing through the room.
Spirit released a cry of pain as the whip twisted around one of her legs, feeling like white hot barbed wire was wrapped around it. Before she could react, Rei III pulled hard on the whip, turning her body to keep Spirit from slamming into her as she was pulled toward the ground. The silver haired girl collided with the helmet of a failed EVA prototype, screaming in agony as she felt a number of her bones breaking from the impact.
The whip vanished and Rei III ascended into the air, hovering high above Spirit. "I believe that I have made you suffer enough to satisfy Commander Ikari," she said, as purple light appeared in her outstretched palm.
The silver haired girl's eyes widened, and she tried desperately to move, only to be rewarded with sharp pains from all over her still battered body. She wasn't going to heal quickly enough to evade this attack.
This was not the first time Spirit had stared death in the face. In fact, it wasn't even the first time she'd stared death at the hands of another superwoman in the face. When this had happened in the past, an eerie sense of calm had claimed her, as if the inevitability of death rendered it no longer frightening.
This time, however, Spirit just felt cold inside, knowing that if she died, everyone would soon follow. Dying simply wasn't an option this time, but it looked like it was going to happen anyway.
She struggled mightily to move, redoubling her efforts to get out of the way.
It was to no avail. She could feel her bones and muscles repairing themselves rapidly, but it wouldn't be rapidly enough to save her and the world. She closed her eyes.
Only to reopen them as the far wall of the chamber exploded, chunks of metal and concrete flying everywhere as a dark goliath burst into the Evangelion graveyard, one of the living successors to the mountain of dry bones.
Rei III stared dumbly at this unexpected intrusion for a moment, and that was apparently all it took for Toji to size up the situation. Unit Three made it across the room in two steps, its right hand shooting out and grabbing the third Rei Ayanami.
"Rei! What the hell are you doing?" Toji's voice blared out over Unit Three's external speakers.
"That's not really Rei!" Spirit shouted as she managed to slowly drag herself to her feet. "It's a clone or something! Crush her!"
Toji turned to look at Spirit, and blinked in surprise when he saw that her mask was absent. With a thought, he commanded his display to zoom in on the silver haired girl and gasped aloud when he got a better look at her.
"Hikari?" he asked, stunned.
Spirit never got a chance to answer him. Unit Three's right arm abruptly exploded in a shower of blood and gore as Rei III fired her energy attack right into it, blasting another hole into the wall. Toji screamed and Unit Three staggered, both pilot and EVA caught entirely by surprise.
"You bitch!" Spirit shrieked, shooting into the air toward Rei III, despite her body's protests.
Rei III responded by striking with her energy whip. Spirit held her forearm up to block it, and the string of pink light wrapped itself around it. Spirit grimaced as pain exploded in her arm, but she didn't allow it to break her focus. Instead, she grabbed the whip and pulled hard.
Rei III's eyes widened as she was yanked toward Spirit, and the silver haired girl's fist shattered her jaw bone for a second time. The clone finally had the presence of mind to dismiss the whip, allowing it to vanish like some much smoke, but it did her no good at this point. Spirit was already on her.
With a cry of rage, Spirit grabbed hold of one of Rei III's wings and tore the appendage right out, evicting a shout of pain from the clone.
"Take this!" Spirit shouted, flinging Rei III downwards.
The clone's remaining wing flapped about furiously, but it was unable to so much as slow her fall, even as its twin began to grow back. Rei III landed hard on the floor, dazed.
Spirit didn't let up for an instant. She too landed and then fired a cross blast right at her enemy. Rei III lacked the presence of mind to summons a Sea of Dirac at the moment and instead rolled out of the way, just avoiding the energy blast. Jumping to her feet, Rei III summonsed two energy whips this time, one in each hand, and began to attack with them. However, the clone was starting to panic slightly as it began to look like she might fail, and her strikes were powerful but wild, digging many gashes into the floor but failing to touch Spirit as her opponent dodged the attacks.
The silver haired girl's mouth formed a somewhat feral grin as she watched her foe starting to lose her composure, finally feeling like the tide of this battle had turned decisively toward her.
Unfortunately, she failed to take much notice of all the collateral damage Rei III was causing.
The floor collapsed out from under the two girls from the numerous slashes Rei III had made in it, and both girls went screaming as they fell, too surprised to fly. They landed on the floor below before the falling debris, which crashed down on them, breaking bones, tearing gashes in their skin, and pining them to the floor.
Toji, meanwhile, had finally managed to recover from the pain of having one of his EVA's arms blown off by this point, and Unit Three approached the hole, looking down into it at the pile of rubble on the next floor down. He saw a tiny pinprick of purple light as Rei III took advantage of the position she'd landed in.
"Cut Toji's nerve connections!" Misato barked. "Do it now!"
"Right!" Maya said, her fingers blurring over her keyboard.
The live feed from Unit Three that was on the main screen suddenly filled with blazing purple light before it winked out, being replaced by snow.
"Did we…?" Misato began, afraid to ask.
"We were in time," Makoto said. "Toji's still alive."
"But Unit Three's head was completely blow off. It's completely inoperable," Aoba added grimly. "Everything depends on Spirit now."
Misato scowled, but couldn't honestly disagree with the tech's conclusion. With the exception of an EVA, nothing they had could hope to stand against the winged Rei clone. Unit One was the only Evangelion that was still in fighting shape, but getting a fresh umbilical out to it would take forever with the base still in chaos.
"Keep a close eye on the red/blue patterns," Misato ordered, knowing all they could do now was observe.
With a groan, Spirit crawled out of the pile of rubble, considering herself fortunate to have had a relatively small amount of the debris land on her. However, that was about the only fortunate thing she could think of in regards to this new twist in her battle against the Rei clone.
Her entire body hurt, and her wounds were now healing at what was, for her, an utterly glacial pace. She turned toward the heap of debris and saw that it was moving as Rei III, who had been more thoroughly buried than she, began to muscle her way out. Spirit raised her hand and summonsed a cross blast, ready to end this battle.
No white light formed by her palm and she cursed softly, unable to believe her misfortune. She staggered to her feet and leaned heavily against the wall, taking a quick look around. The hallway she was in now looked very normal compared to the rest of Terminal Dogma. Only the dim lighting and the lack of signs on the walls to guide personnel made it look any different from a hallway in the base proper.
Not even thinking about making an attempt at flying, Spirit began to stagger down the hallway, soon turning a corner.
Come on, Spirit, think! She urged herself as she forced her body to keep moving. She's way more powerful than you are, so you have to win by outsmarting her! You need to figure out something before she gets out and follows you!
But how was she supposed to do that when it was a struggle just to walk?
"The gift you received from Bardiel is something of a double-edged sword," the words of the final Angel echoed in her mind, seemingly of their own accord.
Spirit frowned. Did she have a power that Rei III didn't, one gained from her close encounter with the Thirteenth Angel? Up until now, she hadn't thought that she'd gained anything besides the heightening of her Angel sense, but thinking about it further, it did seem likely that she'd gotten something else.
Either that or I'm just grasping at straws, Spirit thought ruefully.
Hearing a crash from the direction of her enemy, which she assumed was Rei III now throwing pieces of rubble off of herself, Spirit decided that a long shot was better than nothing and made her way to a small metal door in the wall.
Rei III was annoyed, very annoyed. Commander Ikari had assured her that she would have little difficulty with defeating her enemy, but the other girl had proved both ingenious and willful in combat.
The blue haired girl didn't personally care about her life much, but she knew that she could not be replaced if she died. If she was defeated, Commander Ikari's scenario would fail, and that was not acceptable.
Spirit had almost defeated her, which made Rei III even more intent on destroying her than she already been.
Rei III turned a corner in the hallway and was greeted with the sight of Spirit laying sprawled out on the floor. The corners of her lips quirked upwards.
An energy whip appeared in her hand, and she lashed Spirit with it. The silver haired girl released a groan of pain that Rei III found very satisfying. Rei III struck her again, advancing another step toward her prey.
Spirit let out small sob. "Please, stop," the girl pleaded.
"Very well," Rei III said, advancing a few more steps, purple light forming in her palm.
Now! Spirit thought.
Bakelite suddenly gushed down from a pipe in the ceiling, cascading over Rei III. The clone let out a short scream as a substance designed to restrain Evangelions was dumped all over her body, covering her completely. Her cry was cut off, however, when the bakelite hardened with its usual speed, encasing her body in an ultra dense shell, sealing her mouth and nose shut in the process.
Whether or not Rei III struggled within the red casing of bakelite, Spirit didn't know. If she did, there was no sign of it.
"Sorry, Rei," Spirit said, as she felt her foe's presence dwindle and then vanish with her Angel senses.
She looked up at the maintenance panel that she had opened and smiled slightly in triumph. Grey goo that was extremely similar in composition to the substance that had made up the Thirteenth Angel had grown all over the wires inside like an out of control fungus. With a thought from Spirit, however, the stuff shriveled up and died.
The remaining winged girl lay on the floor for several minutes as her body slowly healed enough for her to move about with relative ease again.
"I'm going to feel this tomorrow," she groaned as she got up. "Even more than I'm feeling it right now, that is."
With that, she headed back toward the LCL Production Plant.
"Starting to get nervous?" Akagi taunted Gendo as they waited. "It has been a long time. Perhaps your new puppet is having more trouble than expected."
"She is just taking her time and sufficiently punishing Spirit for her interference, I'm sure," Gendo said, though there was a noticeable waver in his usually steady voice.
"I wouldn't be so confident, if I were you," Akagi continued to needle him. "You might have given Rei III a few upgrades, but Spirit has a lot of experience with real life-or-death battles."
"Irrelevant," Gendo said. "My creation's added abilities make her all but invincible against the likes of Spirit."
"I would not be so sure of that," Rei spoke up with a small smile, pointing.
Gendo gasped as he saw Spirit flying back into the chamber, his eyes wide with disbelief. "No…"
"Hey, I know her!" Ritsuko exclaimed as she looked up at now unmasked Spirit.
Spirit ignored the both of them, however, and flew right up to Lilith. She hovered there for a few seconds, face to face with the white giant, before she finally spoke.
"This is not Adam," she said, her voice sounding distant, almost dreamy.
She suddenly turned to look down at Gendo. Her eyes narrowed, a wild look in the red orbs. "You have Adam," she said. "You have the All-Father."
Spirit flew down and landed in front of Gendo. The Commander of NERV responded by unloading his gun at her, only to have the slugs all bounce harmlessly off her AT field.
"Hikari…" Rei said softly, not at all sure of what her friend's motives were at the moment.
Spirit shoved Gendo hard, sending him sprawling onto the floor on his back. Before he could even try to get up, the winged girl had pinned him to the floor by planting a foot on his chest. She then reached down and pulled the glove off his right hand, exposing the Adam fetus that had been grafted onto his palm. She looked at it greedily, her breath suddenly coming in quick pants.
"Hikari! No!" Rei exclaimed.
Spirit looked up at her, glaring at the First Child with such raw intensity that Rei took a step back. Apparently satisfied that Rei wouldn't be trying to stop her, Spirit turned her gaze back toward Adam.
"I am…of Adam," she wheezed out.
"No! Don't do it!" Akagi cried.
"You're stronger than this, Hikari!" Rei added. "Fight it!"
If Spirit heard either of them, she gave no sign of it.
"But…I am also…of Lilith," Spirit panted. "I have…the power…to choose!"
With this declaration, she quickly brought her foot down on Adam with all the force she could muster, reducing the All-Father of the Angels to jelly along with Gendo's hand.
The First Angel unleashed a shriek of impossible intensity as he died, one that was soundless to human ears, but not to Angelic senses.
Spirit and Rei both screamed, their cries of pain mingling with Gendo's. The blue haired girl fell to her knees, but Spirit, already tired and weakened and far more in tune with the Angels than Rei, was effected much more. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she knew nothing but soothing blackness.
Author's Notes: End of the world: averted!
Back when I was just starting this story, I briefly toyed with the idea of Spirit gaining a new power from every Angel she managed to kill, similar to how the EVA pilots in Children of an Elder God were changed with each Angel they slew. However, I knew Spirit would become far too powerful if I did that. But as you can see I brought back a variant of the idea to create a very powerful super villainess for our super heroine to fight.
When I first came up with the idea for Rei III, I was originally going to have Gendo more or less magic up a way to animate the clone while Rei II was still alive. Probably something related to the Dummy System. Having him do it the way he did here felt like it was more in keeping with the "rules" of souls presented in NGE, and it had the added bonus of making Gendo even more evil than he already was.
I hope nobody minds too much that Shinji had a rather lackluster performance compared to his solo fight against the EVA Series, but I really wanted the second round of that battle to be mostly Asuka's moment for a couple of reasons. First because it was her moment in EoE, albeit one that ended with her getting speared in the eye. Secondly because, as Zoro50 has been pointing out, Asuka is the only character (aside from Gendo) who's actually been having a worse time of it than in canon NGE. I wanted to make it up to her.
Anyway, the epilogue is up next, where we'll see where all the pieces fell in the aftermath of this battle.
Reform Joms, well, if Spirit ever met TA Shinji, she'd first have to thank him for serving as a large part of the inspiration for her. After that, who knows?
Dennisud, no Eve, and no fight between Adam and Lilith as you can see. I considered the latter, but it just felt like it would have been too much.
As always, thanks to all my readers and reviewers.
Omakes
Mortal Kombat!
Asuka's gaze flicked over to her own countdown timer and she saw that she herself had twenty seconds left.
"Plenty of time!" she proclaimed, as Unit Two charged toward the last MP Evangelion still standing. "Plenty of time for one more kill!"
Finish him! The soul of Unit Two ordered in a resonant voice.
With a thought from Asuka, a small compartment opened inside the plug, and the Second Child pulled out something that looked suspiciously like a video game controller. The redheaded EVA pilot rapidly pushed a series of buttons, and Unit Two went sprinting off towards its foe.
The last harpy tried to block her assault, but it was like a person trying to halt a freight train. She battered its arms aside effortlessly and plunged Unit Two's right hand into its neck. Asuka could feel it as Unit Two wrapped its hand around something hard and cylindrical.
With a savage scream, she pulled with all of her Evangelion's enormous might, and the MP EVA's spinal cord exploded out of its body in a shower of blood, taking with it a huge amount of still quivering muscle tissue, and, more important by far, the Dummy Plug.
FATALITY! Kyoko shouted triumphantly.
Battle Royale
"Are you really sure this is necessary, Hikari?" Shinji asked for what felt like the thousandth time.
Spirit sighed. "First of all, call me Spirit when I have my wings out," she said. "And secondly, yes, it is. I'm afraid this is by far the least destructive means of deciding this issue, Shinji."
"But shouldn't I get some say in this?" Shinji asked pleadingly.
"Ideally, yes," Spirit replied. "However, given the circumstances, this is the best way to work this out without the risk of destroying what's left of Japan."
"But—"
"Sorry, Shinji, but it's almost time to start," Spirit said.
Shinji sighed, looking down at the large adamantium cage that was far below him. Fifteen feet below him to be exact. Shinji Ikari was tied up and suspended from the high ceiling, with a sign that read "The Prize" taped to his chest.
Spirit landed lightly on the ground and picked up a referee's shirt with black and white vertical stripes. It had the letters "WWF" on the right breast and slits had been cut in the back for her wings. The silver haired girl put it on and then flew high into the air again.
"The following contest is a Hell in a Cell match and it scheduled for one fall!" she shouted out at the cheering crowd. "Entering first into the arena..."
The audience roared its approval as the various other superwomen entered the cage, many waving around signs with their favorite lady's name on it. When they were all present, Spirit rang the bell, and the brawl to end all brawls began inside the massive cage.
Shinji sighed as he watched the carnage play out, the sheer awesomeness of having a bunch of beautiful superwomen fight tooth and nail over him totally lost on the Third Child.
"I never have any control over my life," he said morosely.