The following incorporates characters, situations and settings which are derived from the copyrighted works of Studio Gainax/Khara, DC Comics, and Jack Kirby. Hail to the King, baby.
Last Child of Krypton
Chapter 24- Blood and Thunder
Rei found herself in the unpexpected position of watching Kaworu mount Unit-00 with some trepidation. She still did not know quite how he was able to pilot the Eva. Whatever had once dwelt within her was now gone, consumed in the terrible process that had taken one of her own clones and given it a perverse form of life. He looked at her as he slipped into the plug, but said nothing. She pelt a pang of something deep, pulling her towards him. There was a curious resonance, something else drawing her to the deepest levels of the facility, some profound need to seek out something that called her, like a splinter in her mind.
She felt the thrum of energy as Unit-00 came alive. The Eva stirred, drawing groans and metallic bangs from the restraint system. She hastily made her way to the edge of the bridge as it retracted and the LCL pool began to drain. Steam rose from the surface of the Eva as it came to operating temperature and warning lights over her head began to spin as it drew backwards, gliding away on huge rails that would carry Kaworu onto the launch pad.
She turned and headed for the elevator to seek the command center and the Commander therein. She was unsure of what to do. She could manifest huge power on her own, but she was afraid of facing the Angel on foot, as Shinji did, in her own person. The thought terrified her. She did not know why, only that it would be dangerous to face one of them without the protective embrace of Eva. She was not even particularly afraid of dying. She only knew that she must never, ever face an Angel alone.
Asuka met her halfway from the elevator, obviously rushing to the cages in her full plugsuit.
"Rei?" she said, slowing slightly. "You look upset? What is it?"
"Will you… I do not know how to say it."
"Huh? I've got to-"
"I am afraid that Kaworu will be hurt. I do not wish that."
She blinked. "Uh. Okay. Are you guys… nevermind, I have to go. He's already in his Eva, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"I"ll do what I can."
Asuka left her in the hall, and she headed for the elevator. The level indicator tick-tick-ticked away, and she willed it to go faster, then checked herself before she accidentally used her gift to tear it out of the wall. She actually tapped her foot as the door opened and she almost ran towards the command center, brushing some technician out of the way in a storm of papers and a half-full cup of cold coffee.
"Commander!" she nearly shouted, her voice hoarse.
Katsuragi turned in a flurry of raven hair, her eyes ride. "Rei? What is it?"
"What is happening? The Angel-"
She rested her hands on Rei's shoulders. "Calm down, Rei. We've got it," she lowered her voice, "Shinji and Toji are up there, and Asuka and Kaworu are in the Evas. We're not going to let this one catch us off guard, I promise. You'll be safe."
"It is not myself that I am concerned for," she said softly, but the Commander had already turned back to the battle.
The Angel took the form of a ring of light, whirling around a central point. It simply came into being near the Ashi lakes, and there awaited the Evangelions as they stormed forward, Unit-01 and Unit-00 behind it.
"Mari?" Katsuragi called. "You ready?"
"Yeah," she said listlessly, her voice a little hollower than usual. "Just tired."
"Get your game face on," Misato called, annoyed. "We may need you."
As the Units approached, the Angel did not react. Shinji and Toji were marked on the command center's massive view screen by moving cursors, as they were now too distant to be seen by the camera system, or at least Shinji was; Toji's position was clearly marked by a fuzz of green light like a will o' the wisp.
The Angel was not silent for long. It suddenly lashed out, breaking from its ring-like form into a helical serpent of light, whipping this way and that. Asuka cried out as it struck at Unit-01, leaving a deep furrow in the Eva's armor plate. Rei felt a sudden surge of tension in her stomach as Unit-00 stepped into the fray, grabbing the Angel and dragging it bodily away from the other Eva.
"Asuka," Kaworu called, "You must retreat. It means to invade our bodies!"
"Eww!" Asuka called back.
"He's right," Akagi turned towards them. "It's trying to breach Unit-00's armor now. We can't let Unit-01 be contaminated."
"You and I are going to talk about that when this is over," Misato said coolly. "Asuka, pull back."
"Yes, ma'am, should I-"
"No."
Asuka growled something in guttural German, just soft enough not to be heard.
The Angel lashed out at Unit-00- at Kaworu. Rei took a step forward, her mouth falling open ever so slightly. He screamed, and she tensed. The creature wrapped around his Eva and began to seep into it, sliding under the armor plating, denting it. Kaworu tried to say something, but all that came out were a few guttural syllables and grunts. Rei felt herself tensing, felt the power drawing within her. Her heels began to rise off the floor.
Shinji's voice broke into the madness, clear, clean, and calm. "I have an idea. We need to contain it. Toji?"
"I gotcha, man," Toji said through his own ear communicator. "Get it off him."
The Angel moved. Rei's heart fluttered in her chest and she felt an involuntary sigh escape her lips as the creature's luminous body tore free, even as Kaworu groaned in pain from the separation. It flailed around a point to too tiny to see, and then, somehow, Shinji drew together the titanic strength he needed to throw the thing, hurl it away from the Evas.
It was Toji's turn. His Ring discharged a thick beam of green light that struck the creature at its center and unfolded around it, first as a set of prison bars, and then as a sphere. Inside, the beast lashed out against it, and it trembled, but it held.
"Hurry," Toji said, his voice strained. "Hard to hold it."
"We need something that can take it out, and fast." Shinji said calmly.
"You read my mind," Katsuragi said. "Kaworu. Get the positron rifle, from armament building-"
"No time," Toji panted, "I'm losing it!"
"I have an idea," Kaworu said softly. "It is desperate."
"Spit it out," Katsuragi said, her voice a bit heated.
"Allow it to escape and attack me I will set the self-destruct charge. Contain the creature and the blast and destroy them both."
"We lose an Eva," Ritsuko said, shocked. "This is crazy, we can't sacrifice a third of our operational-"
"Shut up and blow it up!" Toji shouted, as the sphere began to bulge out where the Angel pressed against it. "I can do it, but it's going to burn out my Ring, the whole charge. Shinji'll have to catch me."
"I've got you," Shinji said immediately.
"Do it," Said Katsuragi.
The Angel escaped. There was a ringing thump and Kaworu ejected, the plug spinning away from Unit-00's neck as its head lurched forward. Rei looked into its one eye and felt a pang of regret, though she could not say why. The creature slammed into it, almost bowled it over, and with a sickening crunching sound began to tear into its now motionless body, even as it began to move.
"Now!" Shinji called.
Toji turned his ring on it again, just in time. The field of green energy wrapped around the Angel and the Eva both, just as something white and brilliant flashed in the Eva's depths. The green shield turned bright white with energy and Toji grunted, but he needed hold it only for a moment. The light and its source both winked out and the monitors tracked Shinji as he caught his comrade.
It was at that moment that Rei noticed Katsuragi was on the phone.
"Kill him?" she said, "why would I-"
SSSSS
Shinji came to rest not far from the ejected plug.
"Dude," Toji said, "You're carrying me the girly way. Put me down. Right now."
Shinji smirked and helped his friend balanced himself on one foot against a rock. The crater from the explosion loomed behind them, but much smaller than it would have been had the blast been uncontained. Toji's suit hung a little looser, his arm and leg lip cloth where the Ring-construct replacements had faded without his power to sustain them.
"I'm out of the fight until I get back to my battery," he said, sliding to a seat.
The plug hissed and the hatch slid open, discharging a great gout of LCL. Kaworu stepped drunkenly over the side clutching his head, running his gloved fingers through his silvery hair, slicked against his head. He panted and mumbled something, and Shinji walked towards him, hand outstretched.
"Hey, man, what's wrong?" Toji said, his voice wavering a little.
"R-run," Kaworu stammered out, "L-last messenger, Armisael, dead, cannott stop it, can't hold it… in… the word, must say the word…"
"What?" Shinji stepped forward. "What word? You're not making any sense."
"Run," he pleaded, "It's in my head, they put it there, I cannnnot st-s-s-s-s…" he trailed off, took in a deep breath, his eyes going utterly flat and lifeless.
"Shazam," he whispered.
Thunder roared out, rumbling across the sky. A bolt of lightning reached out of the heavens and snapped between Kaworu's outstretched hands. Raw force surged out from where he stood, and Shinji darted back and grabbed Toji, shielding him with his body. He felt the wave of heat and surge of static electricity wash over his body, and his hair stood on end. Toji groaned, his head lolling to one side, knocked senseless by the force, but alive.
Shinji turned. Kaworu stood in the center of a scorched crater, his black plugsuit gone, replaced by a glossy black bodsuit marked only by a golden lightning bolt stylized across his chest and a golden sash knotted loosely around his waist. He still stood, hands raised, face skyward, his eyes hidden in the shadow of his hair. His gaze slowly turned on Shinji, his eyes flat and expressionless above a maniacal smile, a mad grin that strained his lips.
He said nothing, and surged forward. Shinji pushed Toji away in time, dropping him roughly to the ground as Kaworu planted both fists in his chest. The pain that surged to him was an unwelcome guest, a rare sensation that knocked the breath out of him with a grunt. He went sliding along the ground, digging a deep furrow as he did, and Kaworu stood over him, fists planted on his hips, lunatic grin never leaving his face. His soulless eyes stared down at Shinji.
"Wait," Shinji said, "You don't have to do this. I can-"
Kaworu said nothing. Instead, he grabbed Shinji by both ankles and slammed him through a nearby boulder, pulverizing it to powder and chips of stone in the process. He continued the arc and threw Shinji hard, sending him into the ground. He hit with an exploding cone of clumped mud, stood up, and flew.
His fist connected with Kaworu's chin with a shock of impact that ran up his arm and made his bones creak, and it surprised him. For a moment, a tiny skin of an instant, neither of them seemed to move until a shockwave spread out from the point of contact, sending a rolling wave of debris away from the spot where they both stood. Kaworu launched backwards, slowed, and came to a hover in the air.
He moved with a speed Shinji couldn't counter, could bare perceive, a sonic boom trailing behind him. His hands around Shinji's throat, Kaworu shoved him backwards, towards the city. Shinji strained to look behind himself in horror as Kaworu slammed them both into the streets at the very center of Tokyo-3, and he could swear he saw the skyscrapers around them sway.
Misato's voice crackled in his ear.
"Shinji! Shinji! You have to stop him! He's going to bring the Geofront down!"
He force his hands up between Kaworu's, spread them, and shoved his arms away, then snapped forward in a fierce headbutt that sent the silver-haired boy stumbling backwards, shaking his head. His lifeless eyes never left Shinji.
The building behind him was starting to move.
God.
The shield building slid down with an audible groan, followed by a series of rippling booms as its moorings came loose. With a huge rasping clatter it descended faster than it was meant to, tearing out its own tracks as gravity drew it earthward, into the true heart of Tokyo-3. Shinji let out a gasp of surprise and flew after it. The top surface crumbled in his hands and he let out a yelp of anger, and then boosted his speed until he was under it. He pushed at the bottom of the building, his hands denting the steel among the grease and the gears. The great mass slowed. It was a tenuous game. If he pushed too hard, he'd go right through it.
He moved it. Its trajectory changed, moving it towards an unoccupied stretch of the Geofront, over some agricultural fields.
Kaworu hit him. The building dropped.
Shinji hit the ground first, driven there by Kaworu. He looked up in horror as the building blocked his view of the artificial sky, huge and gray and imposing. There was a crash as it buckled and crashed into the ground all around them. Shinji rolled into it, great pieces of steel and concrete scraping across his back like rain over a turtle's shell. He stood up and hurled a great piece of debris off of himself.
Asuka came running. He looked at her.
Oh God.
"No!" he shouted, "Don't! Run! Run!"
Kaworu stood up.
He tossed aside a chunk of concrete the buried him and rose, covered from head to toe in dust that made him into a gray ghost, a thing of the grave. Asuka gave a battle shout and jumped at him, and with neither contempt nor malice but that same sick grin he turned and backhanded her and she went flying, a thin streamer of blood trailing from her nostril. She fell and hit the ground and was silent in a limp heap.
Shinji stood for a moment, or it seemed a moment, as Kaworu faced him again.
"You son of a bitch!"
He flew. He grabbed Kaworu under the arms, and he flew, straight up. Misato was screaming but he didn't care, he went right through the armor plating and the soil and the street and up into the sky, dragging a swirling cone of dust with him. Kaworu batted at him but he ignored it, feeling the press of the air around him until it gave way in the glorious explosion of the sound barrier, his own scream trailing behind him.
What went up, had to come down.
He aimed for the hillside not far from the high school. Some part of him still knew to be careful, and he could see that the school was empty, the area deserted. He hit the hillside, Kaworu with him.
Then there was no more hillside.
What remained of it rose in a mushroom cloud with a rippling boom, as if someone had dropped an N2 mine on it. The shockwave swept the school away as if it were a balsa wood model, turned the whole structure into a cloud of debris and dust that rolled down the hillside toward the city. Shinji mounted Kaworu, planted his knee into his chest, and closed his hands around the boy's throat.
"Shazam," Kaworu croaked.
The lightning came, and white hot pain lanced through Shinji's body. Everything forgotten but the heat straining every nerve ending in his system, he arched his back and screamed, and Kaworu seized him by the belt and neck, raised him, and cried the word again.
"Shazam! Shazam! Shazamshazamshazamshazam!"
Shinji rolled. His elbow took Kaworu on the face. The lightning went where it was meant to go.
They stood. Shinji held him by the jaw, his iron-hard fingers crawling over his face. Kaworu stared at him with those dead eyes, only they seemed to soften for a moment. The strange suit was gone, his plugsuit back again. He put both hands on Shinji's forearm, and trembled under his grasp. He slackened his grip slightly.
"Kill me," Kaworu begged.
Shinji tightened his grip again, and so they stood.
Shinji tensed as soft fingers ran down his arm and rested atop Kaworu's own.
Rei stood, her crimson eyes wet with tears. She ran her fingers down both of the boy's cheeks, and his eyes, so like hers, bored into her own. Her fingers laced through Shinji's.
"Don't," he said, "He killed Asuka, he-"
"She is alive," Rei said softly, "she will be fine."
Shinji's hand wavered, almost releasing the boy's mouth. "I can't… I don't know what to do…"
"This is why he was sent to us," Rei said softly, facing him. "They sent him here so that you would murder him. To break you."
"W-what?"
"You are not a killer, Shinji."
Shinji released his grip. Kaworu didn't move.
"I need him," Rei whispered. "We are the same."
He trembled, his eyes focusing and unfocusing, the effect unnerving. "Sh-Sha…"
Rei covered his lips with her own. He froze, and his expression slackened. Shinji felt a pang of anger as his arms slipped around her waist and drew her into an embrace. She parted from the kiss with an audible gasp and when she left it, there was a thin layer of orange light over his lips, binding them closed. He smiled weakly, and she kissed him again, softly, on the forehead.
"I know what you are," she whispered to him, "I know what we are. They will not hurt you anymore."
"Rei," Shinji said, "I don't understand. What do we do?"
"Use your gift, brother," she turned slightly to him, not releasing Kaworu. "See."
He did. Kaworu wasn't human. Neither was Rei, but he expected that. They were similar, somehow. Except that Kaworu had something in his head. Shinji sagged. He'd told him. He tried to warn him. They put it in his head.
There was a worm. Somehow, it realized he was looking at it, and twitched. It moved. Rei didn't have time to protest before Shinji lanced out, the heat of his vision boring through the top layer of Kaworu's skin just behind his ear. The thing let out a tiny squeal as it died, and a rush of psychic energy made him take a step back. Sudden feelings of despair washed over him, the feeling of an immortal life drawing to a close. The thing wasn't even ash. There was only a small burn mark on Kaworu's neck.
Rei released him. The energy band dissolved. No one spoke. Kaworu let out a long, exultant sigh, and sagged to his knees. Rei rushed to his side and he fell into her shoulder, apparently asleep.
"Rei," Shinji said softly. "What's going on?"
"He is like me. We are not what se seem."
Static crackled in his ear.
"What the hell was that? We just detected the most powerful AT-Field ever." Misato demanded.
He touched his earlobe to make sure he would be heard. "It's over. He's down. Where's Asuka?"
"She's fine, she's in the infirmary. Get Rei and Toji and get your ass back here. We're in trouble."
He was about to ask why when the first snowflake drifted past his face.
/\../\
Kaji knew he was in trouble as soon as he hung up the phone.
Rushing outside had not been the best plan, given that the person who'd directed him to find what he'd just seen had probably anticipated that. Had anticipated that, since Gendo Ikari was standing just outside the mansion, his clone by his side in a fashionable trench coat, and, he noticed, nothing else. She hadn't even bothered with shoes, yet at some point she'd bleached her hair blonde. Or dyed it, rather- one doesn't bleach silvery-blue hair.
He was standing at ease, jacket undone as usual, although he'd traded his NERV uniform for a conservative gray silk suit, lost the gloves, and most shockingly of all, shaved. If he hadn't been standing next to a barely decent clone of Rei Ayanami that was practically drooling, Kaji might have walked right past him.
Kaji tensed, thankful for the cape covering his movements as he went for the utility belt. Bruce thought of everything.
"Relax," Gendo smirked. "if I meant to kill you, Naoko would have flattened you the moment she laid eyes on you."
"Where would be the fun in that?" the clone purred.
Gendo shot her an annoyed glance. "I came to you, 'Batman'. I may let you live. Where is the book?"
"I don't-"
"Let's not insult one another's intelligence," he said dryly. "You caught on to my clue, you know of the Equation. Did Shinji find it?"
"Yes, but I kept him from reading it."
Gendo's eyes became harder, colder somehow. "You have no idea what you've done."
"What?"
"Why do you think I left it in a place where only he would find it? I meant for him to read it. He had to see it, to understand."
"Why?" Kaji started edging away, looking for an exit. "So you could recruit him?"
"No, you fool, to prepare him, so that when the time comes, he may resist."
"What's your game, Ikari? First you try to kill me, then you start feeding me information."
"Every inch of NERV is covered in surveillance. If I had simply left without a token battle, it would have undermined my goals. I had already instructed Naoko not to harm Shinji or the Soryu girl. The rest are expendable."
Kaji barked out a bitter laugh. "Oh, that's convenient. Here's my theory. You tried to go to ground, only to find out that you had no ground left to go to. Your connection's superiors had already cleaned up that loose end. You've got nowhere else to run, and this is a backhanded attempt to find the nearest port in a storm."
"Believe what you will. My reputation, my life, all mean nothing. You read the book. You saw the Equation. I watched my wife kill myself and ruined my relationship with my own son to stop this madness."
"Wait, what?"
"What would you have had me do? Be a good father? Recruit him? I kept him from them, lied about his heritage, hid him away until his powers had a chance to manifest. I gave him an anchor. I had Soryu's plane sabotaged. I ensured she was berated and praised at just the right times to facilitate her bonding to him. I made sure the Dummy System maimed the Suzahara boy to force his hand, provoke him into confronting me so I could reveal the alien mineral and teach him some caution. If I thought it was necessary, I would have assigned Soryu to Unit-03, or Rei. If I thought it was necessary, I would have paralyzed him with the mineral and put a bullet in her head."
"You," Kaji said cooly, "are out of your mind."
"Probably," Gendo smirked, pressing his glasses up his nose. "but who isn't?"
"What now?"
"If the Final Messenger has not been defeated, it soon will be. Now that NERV has served its purpose, it will be utterly destroyed and Third Impact initiated. The leaders of the cult that controlled SEELE are all insane, and probably mean to resurrect him, if they haven't already. Third Impact will destroy and unite humanity in the perpetual living death of the Anti-Life Equation."
"I'm against that." Said Kaji.
Gendo smirked. "So am I."
SSSSS
On the massive central screen of the command center, a wireframe model of the Earth gradually rotated, marked in a dozen places by flashing red dots, with new ones appearing every few seconds. A satellite view of the clouds was superimposed above that, now covering half the globe, from Antarctica up. Ritsuko turned around slowly, and let out an agonized breath.
"We have seismic activity covering the entire planet, two tropical storms, a hurricane, and what will probably turn into a cyclone in the next forty-eight hours. At the same time, there is a huge mass of cold air rushing out from Antarctica in all directions. The entire world's temperature has already dropped by half a degree."
"Shit." Misato said.
"It gets worse. If these readings are right, there's some sort of destabilization in the Earth's core itself. The MAGI are still calculating, but they acknowledge the possibility that it will explode."
"What do you mean, explode?"
Ritsuko turned to Hyuga. "Run the simulation."
The word SIMULATION appeared on the screen, and lines appeared connecting the surface of the wireframe Earth to the red sphere of its core. The lines thickened in brightness and intensity and simulated flames appeared, erupting from great fissures all around the Earth, until as the globe spun, great pits of fire licked out from the surface into the ionosphere.
"When I looked, he opened the sixth seal, and behold a great earthquake," said Ritsuko. "The seas boil. The skies fall. Judgment day."
SSSSS
Asuka was asleep.
They'd bandaged her head, but it was redundant. By the time they'd gotten her to the X-Ray, she was mostly healed. As Shinji sat beside her, it occurred to some part of him that the doctors and nurses were lucky a groggy Amazonian Asuka hadn't woken up and started tearing up the hospital. He also reflected that he'd spent far too much time in here lately.
She opened her eyes.
"Hey."
"Hey," she smiled weakly. "That was dumb."
"Yes," he said, taking her hand. "If I tell you to run, you really should."
Her eyes hardened. "No. Never."
He sighed. "Asuka."
"Yeah?"
"I-"
Toji walked in. "Dude. You need to see this."
Shinji looked at him wearily for a moment, then stood up. In short order, Asuka sat up, tore the bandages off her head, and ran her fingers through her wild hair, desperately trying to tame it. When the machines next to her blared as she tore the sensors off, she yanked the plug out of the wall and followed after them, padding on her bare feet, growling angrily as she had to hold her hospital gown closed with one hand.
Down the hall, Kaworu lay in bed, his wrists strapped to the bed frame with leather cuffs, as if it would do any good. Rei lay with him, and both slept peacefully. She'd abandoned her school uniform on the floor, where it lay in a heap along with his hospital gown. She lay curled around him, the bedsheet barely covering both, contented smiles on their faces.
The mattress was completely covered in flowers. Vines and stems grew up from between Rei's toes, and sprouted from between her fingers where she lightly clutched the pillow. The plants had sprung from the mattress itself, as if it had been soil, and creeping vines spread from where the pair lay in all directions, draped over the edges of the bed, scrabbling for purchase on the linoleum floor. One had crawled up and into a glass of water on the bedside table, and from the cup had sprung a sunflower, standing a good six inches tall. Rei sighed and her hand slipped down the bed, and when her palm hit the sheets, new sprouts forced their way out of it and twined through her fingers.
"Okay," Asuka said blearily, "I did not see that coming."