Sometimes I reflect on that, wondering why the others and I weren't forthcoming about everything. After all, we had escaped the death of our world only to come here. We actually spent days arguing about what to do, to tell director Fury about everything.
And I mean everything: about Hydra, about SEELE, about Loki and Ultron and Thanos. And about IT, that THING. But we decided the risk wasn't worth it, and we chose a simpler route: take over SEELE. In hindsight it was actually a better idea then I gave Shin credit for. I mean sure we had to work in secret and we butted heads with S.W.O.R.D. and S.H.I.E.L.D. more often than we'd liked, but we had billions in assets to work with and could do so with impunity.
At the end of the day it was a judgment call and we made it. I'd say history will decide weather what we did was the right choice, but the fact there is anyone to tell that history means it was.
-Jay Haida, when asked why the Troublesome Trio hid their knowledge from the world.
1.1.7: Doppelganger
June 28th, 2015
"Alright, this will be the last round of questions before you leave." The agent said. They took a second to make sure the recording device was functioning. "Now tell me, what was it like to be under the influence of an Angel?"
"It was like…" Jon paused to think. "It was like I was being controlled. Well, it WAS that, but it was like I was sleep walking, with my body being on autopilot."
"There was nothing I could do." Mana said with a sigh. "All I could do was watch. Mostly from my own eyes, but I remember… flashes."
"Like I could see things with their eyes." Mary explained. "I could only tell because one of them was looking at me. It's weird seeing yourself with someone else's eyes."
"I don't remember anything." Toji informed them.
"Alright." The agent replied. "Did you manage to make contact with the Angel while it was controlling you?"
"No." Mana said.
"No." Mary answered.
"I don't remember a thing." Toji repeated.
"For the last time, yes." Jon replied. "This is the fourth time I've answered this, do I really need to do it again?"
"Just keeping the records clear on the matter." The agent explained. They took a moment to check the hidden readouts from the camera. "Do you believe you are completely free of the Angel's influence right now?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"No."
"Alright." The agent said. "Final question: do you remain loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. or are you compromised?"
"Loyal." The four answered. The agent wrote down the results on a notepad.
"Alright, you're free to go." As each interview came to an end the door to the specially made cell opened.
"Final recommendation?" The audio interface of the M.A.G.I. system asked the agent.
"Keep an eye on them all, but keep a closer eye on those two in particular." With that the agent closed his notepad and walked out of the final holding cell, passing by the one which housed the two who could turn into giants.
Surface
"Oh good god it's nice to finally be back outside." Mary said as she stretched. "It's been what, two weeks since we were out here?"
"Almost two weeks. Felt a lot shorter than that to be honest." Jon replied.
"Says the guy who slept for four whole days." Toji said under his breath. "And what was with those glowing eyes?"
"Your guess is as good as mine." Jon answered, having heard what he said. "So Mana, where is everyone?"
Mana, who hadn't spoken much on their way out, was typing on her cellphone as they walked along the sidewalk. "Someplace called the 'Blu Beatle'. It's a few blocks from here, we just keep going this way, then turn at the…" She stopped as she noticed something. The others stopped a moment later and turned to look at what had gained her attention. What had grabbed her attention was a young child, standing alone near them. He stared at them with the awe that only a child could.
Mary waved at the kid with a smile. "Hey kid, want an autogra…"
She was cut off by her and her companions falling over, suddenly unconscious as sparks of electricity flew around their bodies. Behind them, a black S.H.I.E.L.D. van had pulled up and in their moment of being distracted had two people within shoot them with Zat guns.
As a man and a red headed woman carefully dragged them into the vehicle, the driver quickly gave the child the five thousand yen he had promised before returning to the van.
"Alright, how long should be have before we get someone on our tail?" Shin asked as he kicked the van into high gear.
"With how long it should take them to get suspicious coupled with how long it'll take the M.A.G.I. to figure it all out…" Kay said aloud, pausing to do the math in her head. "Twenty three minutes."
"With how far the airfield is, we'll need to fly this thing once we get into the countryside." Jay said as he carefully placed oxygen masks filled with knockout gas on the children.
"Why did we bother with those again?" Kay asked. "The Zat's knocked them out cold."
"Because better safe than sorry, unless you want to deal with four confused super powered teens." He replied as he placed the last mask on. "Still though, they're out cold. Man, makes me wonder why S.W.O.R.D. keeps these things to themselves."
"I still don't know if this is a good idea." Shin commented while he drove. "Is it really worth the risk?"
"This helps us in too many ways to let the opportunity slip." Jay reminded him. "The sooner we can get this war ended, the sooner we can work on our real goal."
24 minutes later
"Contact the JSSDF and tell them to not let that aircraft leave Japan's airspace." Reg yelled from the top of the command center. "Maya, tell The Hub Shield 113 has been hijacked and to do a forced remote takeover. Makoto, get someone from Section 2 here to tell me just how the hell they let four of our own get kidnapped in our own backyard."
To say Reginald was angry would be an understatement. He was fuming.
"Sir, the Hub can't take remote control. The craft has deactivated all outbound and inbound means of connection. We aren't even reading its IFF." Maya informed him.
Reg sighed. Leaning back in his chair, he contemplated his options for the moment. He knew he had to do something fast, as each moment they did nothing the enemy got further from their reach.
"Sir, we may not be able to intercept them, but I think there's a way we can track them back to their base of operations." Dr. Akagi informed him. That got his attention.
"What would you need?"
"In theory a single iron suit and Rei. But in practice I would prefer all out iron suits and all the children we still have." She replied. He thought about it, but without any other option he nodded his head. Her idea accepted, she flipped open her phone. "Hello, Kaji? Yes, get the children to the war room right now."
As she walked out of the control center, she signaled for Misato to follow.
War Room
"So what exactly happened to the others?" Kensuke asked as he and the other four children sat themselves down.
"This." With the click of a button, the projector showed them the security camera recording of the kidnapping. "It was almost an hour ago, but all of Alpha Flight and Toji where taken. We've assembled you here for the obvious reason that you're going to get them back."
"And just how the hell did they get away?" Asuka asked. Another press of the button showed them an image of the black S.H.I.E.L.D. van that was used.
"The stolen vehicle they used was a standard issue armoured multipurpose van. Like all such machines it has flight capabilities, if limited." She explained. "They used it to reach the airport before we even realized what was happening. We alerted the JSSDF about them, but given how well they seem to know how to use our tech it's unlikely they will be able to stop them. Assuming they can even find them."
Asuka kicked her feet onto the table. "So where do we come into all this? It's not like you want us to find them."
There was a long silence.
"And just how do you expect us to find them if you can't?"
"That's simple." Dr. Akagi looked at Rei. "YOU will find them."
Everyone turned their attention to Rei, who only turned her head slightly, perplexed.
"How am I supposed to find them doctor?" She asked.
Dr. Akagi didn't say anything, but picked up a device which seemed like a modified gagger counter. Activating it, she slowly approached Rei, the device slowly but surely coming to life as she did so. When she was right next to Rei the device was completely active, causing the children to slightly inch away from her in their seats. The doctor turned off the device.
"That is how you will find them."
Another silence.
"So… we're going to use radiation to find them?" Kensuke finally asked.
"You idiot, that's not how radiation works." Asuka told him. "And what the hell was that thing making your little machine go off anyway?"
"Dark energy." Rei stated flatly.
"Rei's powers come from an energetic toxin her body produces." Ritsuko explained. "If you're reports are honest then you've already seen the toxin manifest itself. We call it dark energy. She was the only person in the world which we knew of who produced this toxin, however I say 'was' for a reason, there is another."
"Let me guess, it's some idiot who got himself pumped full of the stuff, right?" Asuka asked.
"Uh, yeah, you could put it that way." Akagi straightened her glasses. "The toxin is now being produced in Jon's body, though we aren't fully aware of what the long term effects will be on him. Right now though, all that really matters is that his body is acting like a beacon for us."
"So you've got some machine that can detect him?" Kensuke asked.
"No, we don't."
"When she said that I would find them, she meant that I would be the one going out and doing so." Rei explained, understanding what the doctor had in mind.
"So you've got some sort of psychic link to him, or how does that work?" Hikari asked.
"It is hard to describe with words. I can… sense him." Rei tried to explain. "It is hard to put into words. Think of it as a sixths sense that tells me where he is, at least relative to where I am."
"Ok, I have no idea what that means, even if that does make sense somehow, what if there was an Angel attack while we are gone?" Asuka asked.
"S.W.O.R.D. will handle that. It's none of your concern." Ritsuko explained.
There was another long silence as none of the children seemed to know what to do. It was finally broken by Shinji.
"When do we start?"
"You just did."
S.H.I.E.L.D. 113 holding bay
"AAAAAAhhhrrr." Toji yelled as he ran towards the door. Reaching it, he slammed his fist against the metallic wall, only to be pushed back to the ground by an unseen force.
"It's no use Toji, these things are made with synthetic vibranium." Mary explained to him. Again. "Three times should have been enough for you to get it."
"Well what the hell am I supposed to do? First we're just walking on the sidewalk, and then suddenly we wake up here. What is this place, and why are we the only ones here?"
"I don't know." She told him. Moving the cell's table next to the wall, she stood on it and faced the security camera. "Hey assholes, do you even know who we are? We're S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. We're Strike Force! What the hell do you think you're doing, putting us in a cell and taking us away from Tokyo 3?"
From the other side of the camera, Kay quickly glanced before turning her attention back to flying the plane. Though autopilot could handle most of the actual flying, she had to make sure nothing went wrong as even a slight variation in direction could sent them to the wrong corner of the world, or worst, crashing into the water not a hundred feet below.
"How are our guests in the box?" Shin asked over the comm.
"One of them is Toji and the other is Mary, that should be all you need to know the answer." Kay replied.
"Yeah, well, just make sure they don't do any of that while they're in there, I'd hate to be the one cleaning up after them."
"I don't think their relationship is at that level yet." Kay replied. Another quick look at the small screen showed Mary smacking Toji in the back of his head. "Then again, it's hard to tell with those two."
Down in the aircraft's lab, Shin kept an eye on his two 'patients' while fiddling with some of the chemicals at hand.
"Well, either way just make sure they don't leave any stains, I'd hate for us to need to clean this place right after stealing it."
"It's not stealing; we just borrowed it without permission."
"Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge." He said. A grown coming from one of his 'patients' caught his attention.
Rapidly moving from the end of the lab to his 'patient' in a split second, he administered a small syringe into his arm before returning to his work.
"What was that?"
"Oh, just Jon. Unlike Mana the sleeping gas isn't enough to keep him under, so I've been giving him a little something extra every now and again." Shin explained. He turned up the volume of the TV he had on in the background. It was just for background noise, but it was better than nothing. It was set to a news channel, this one reporting on an accident at the Baxter building that sent 5 to the hospital.
"Is that even safe?"
"Uh…" Shin went to grab one of the medical books the plane had, then flipped threw it until he found the relevant section. In the two second it took him to do all of this he found his answer. "It should be."
"Uh hum. Didn't even bother to check until now."
"Well, wouldn't have made a difference either way. It's either that or have him jumping around in here." Shin replied. "I'd rather not fall to my death because of a plane crash… again."
"Well, things are going to get a little bumpier now. I can see land, so that means avoiding obstacles."
"I just hope Jay can handle his job."
Forest somewhere in Japan's North
In his old Iron Suit, Jay waited. The machine was old, older is age then the first Iron Suit, but time was an odd thing. The suit was basic by the standards he had come to expect, a first generation military production model. The faded green paint, even chipped in some places, was a testament to its disuse for years before he had gotten his hands on it. The thing was by all measures useless as an Iron Suit. No lasers, no micro-missiles, only two built in guns with ten seconds of ammunition each and the repulses being more effective weapons. There wasn't even a system built in to house an AI, though after handing S.E.T.H. over to Fury there wasn't any he had to do so with.
But the thing could fly, and that's all he needed it to do for now.
So he waited.
"wOrking HArd I seee… MiSter Haida." A man behind his stated. He didn't turn around, knowing full well who it was. He only knew one man (if he even was a man) who spoke in such a manor.
"Are you going to tell me something important, give me something that will help, or just be your usual cryptic self?" He wasn't up for his usual word games, or less so then usual.
"aN odd Way to aCT ToWards an aLLLy." It replied. Though Jon knew what he looked like, we would never know what his true form was. Though knowing him, it was probably one which would cause him harm just by looking at it.
"You may have helped us in our time of need, but whether you are an ally remains to be seen. Right now our interests align, that's all that matters." He said, not taking his attention away from the sky.
"iF yoU Say soo, MiSter Haida. But reMEmber, prepare for unexpected consequences." He didn't need to turn around to know he was gone; his presents always seemed to announce itself just by the atmosphere. Not that Jay cared.
He simply waited, and watched.
2 kilometers above Japan
In the clouds above Japan, nine Iron Suits flew. There was no real order to their movement, one ahead of the rest while the others found themselves in a random order. Four of the suits where empty, piloted by A.D.A.M. to act as backup to the young heroes.
At the front of the pack, Rei carefully guided her machine. Eyes closed, not relying on the sensors, she adjusted the course by two degrees.
"He's moving." She stated.
"Well great, that means it'll take us longer to catch up to them." Asuka complained. She positioned herself beside Rei, doing her best to catch up.
"He's moving as fast as we are." Rei added.
"That should not be possible." A.D.A.M. noted. "The model of S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft they stole is incapable of reaching our currency velocity."
"Well that's just great." Kensuke noted. "I thought our plan was to fight our way through whatever they had waiting for us, now what are we supposed to do?"
"Why change the plan?" Shinji spoke up. "We might need to follow them for a while, but they can't fly forever."
"He's got a point." Hikari noted. "Plus it's not like we can just let them get away."
Rei said nothing. Three degree course change, two percent increase in thruster power.
Bathroom in Tokyo-3
Kaworu felt odd. Not odd in a bad way, or in an uncomfortable one, but just… odd. It was different to say the least. Corporeal existence was just odd.
He wondered how his siblings could have jumped into action so quickly without being sidetracked. Sure, they had been in more eminent danger then he was, but still, it was too different for him to believe he would have done the same in their position. When he had arrived he had spent a full hour looking at his hands. Moving his digits or turning his palms, it was…. fascinating.
When he had found a mirror to see if his form would work, he had been surprised. The limitations of his form where clear. Only two eyes, binocular vision with a significant area outside the field of view, but with the ability to rotate the head and move the eyes to compensate.
A nose, dedicated only to respiration and scent, something the eyes could not see. Scent had been another fascination, something of which he had no equivalent before. At first it had been overpowering, so much so his mind had blocked it out completely. But as he traveled the city he quickly adjusted. By the time he had found a bathroom, his sense of smell had calmed to the point he could distinguish objects. It was still overpowering in some ways, the elegant smell of the soap mixes with the revolting smell of the toilets several feet away. But he was starting to understand it all.
Then there was the mouth. Sole purpose was the intake of nutrients and the assistance of respiration. Also functions as their primary means of communication. He hadn't had a need for it, though he did wonder what some of the objects being sold in the stores he had passed would taste like out of curiosity. To his disappointment he knew there would be no answer, not for some time anyway.
Then there was the fur on the top of his head. He did not understand what the purpose of it was, so he didn't give it much thought. All the fur the humans had looked the same to him anyway.
But then there were the ears. He hadn't really thought much about it, another sensory input, this time for sound, but unlike the others he hadn't realized it was even there, the information blending in with the rest.
Giving it a try, he concentrated on what he could hear. Water was running through the machines all around him, there where steps on the other side of the door he had entered threw. In the distance, he could hear cars, birds, people, and the city itself as if it were alive. But what caught his attention was the music coming from the speaker above. It served no function, yet this world, still recovering from the aftermath of Impact, strove to both create and preserve their music, their culture.
As the tune finished, he looked himself over once more.
With a small smile, he left, now ready for his work to begin.
Two kilometers above Siberia
"Man, this is taking forever." Asuka said to no one in particular.
"We are catching up on them." Rei stated. "It is slow, but we are gaining ground."
After a short calm, Shinji spoke up. "I think I see something."
It was only a speck in his screen, barely visible on full magnification, but it was definitely there. As the image cleared up, realization struck him.
"That's not the plane." Shinji informed them.
"What?" Asuka asked.
"That's not the plane, it's an Iron Suit."
"No Iron Suit was reported stolen though." Kensuke noted. "And besides, we have all our suits here with us."
"Well that's what I'm seeing." Shinji sent them all a feed from his camera to prove his claim.
"Could it be a stolen army one?" Hikari asked.
"No, they aren't going into service for another month." Asuka answered. "Which means the only ones not with us are Iron Man and Warmachine. And last time I checked, neither was green."
"But where is the plane then?" Kensuke thought to himself.
No one had an answer.
"Wait, what's it doing?" Asuka asked, getting their attention back to the Iron Suit in front of them. The suit in question had quickly started to descend, heading towards the cold ground below.
Following its lead, the children quickly followed. Whoever or whatever the thing was, it was waiting for them in a small opening within a seemingly endless forest.
They wasted no time surrounding the green Iron Suit. The nine cut off all avenues of escape, the five piloted ones on the ground evenly spaced out while the four controlled by A.D.A.M. stayed in the air around it.
All nine aimed their weapons at it.
Asuka moved her suit a little closer, her position being the one face to face with the target.
"As acting leader of Strike Force by the authority of Nerv, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the United Nations joint committee, I order you to surrender." She was in her element. While her primary function was to operate Unit Two, combat what her purpose, her reason for being, and the very thing she was breed for. Though she would never say it, deep down she hoped that the target would put up a fight.
"Wait." Rei stated. She opened her faceplate to get a good, unobscured look at the suit with her own eyes. "Jon is in there."
Unfortunately for Asuka, he did.
"Zulu-Zulu-Gamma-Niner-One-Five-Three-Tango-Foxtrot." A male voice from the suit announced. "Emergency override protocol one eight three seven. Authorization: Captain. Haida. Jon."
"Authorization…. Confirmed." A.D.A.M. stated. Back at base, which had been watching over the situation, alarms went off as connections to the nine suits was lost. The suits had, without a fight, been turned against their wearers and had turned from tool to prison, each tailored to contain the child it was assigned to.
"How… is… this… possible?" Asuka asked in anger as she tried repeatedly to change her form. Every time she did so, a special electric current was used against her by her suit, preventing the proses from occurring before it started.
Kensuke wasn't doing much better. Every bolt of electivity he channeled was sent threw a specially made secondary system which simply diverted the energy back into the suit's core.
Hikari had no hope of escape, her own powers not being weapons.
Shinji knew how he could escape, but he didn't. The four suits controlled by A.D.A.M. where overhead, and he had no reason to try and escape. Yet.
Rei, for her part, managed to keep her suit's faceplate lifted and her face exposed, though threw more power being used then she hoped. This caught the target's attention.
"Not going down without a fight I see. That's just like you." The man stated. Walking up to the suit, he moved within arms distance and stared at her. For her part, she did what Misato told her to do in a situation like this. She spat in his faceplate.
"You… Jon… How did…?" Still working to keep her faceplate open, he seemed to understand what she was asking him. In response, he opened his own.
"There's a lot you don't understand." Jay informed her. He leaned closer to her, his voice now a whisper. "They have lied to you, weather intentionally or not. The Angels and you are not what you think. And they are connected in a way you don't understand. This whole war is a lie, a lie we NEED to see." He then whispered something right next to her, being gentle but making sure she heard it.
He stopped, and then calmly closed his eyes. Unseen to the naked eye, dark energy started to surround him. Being careful in how he channeled it, doing it in the way he had been taught for that between old friends, he allowed some of it to reach out towards Rei. When it did, she understood. She didn't know the details, or how the seemingly unbelievable was possible, but she understood.
In that moment, she saw a glimpse of the past.
The fractured image was of a barren wasteland, a darkened earth as far as the eye could see.
There stood but three live individuals.
And a single dead one in their arms.
One of the three was a man who looked remarkably like the commander. Though he was clearly much younger, had a far smoother face and no facial hair. He had his eyes on the other man, but his arm around the woman, holding her tight.
The woman, Rei knew who it was. Even if the unmistakable red hair had not told her who it was, the two small red hairpieces did. She had her arms around the man, holding him back as they looked at their final companion as he wept silently.
The final man, the only other living being in sight, was on his knees. Moving closer to get a good image of his face, Rei say that it was a younger self of the man before her in corporeal existence.
Watching him weep in silence, she took note that he clung on to the body in his arms for dear life, as if leaving it would be his end.
She then saw who the body had been.
It was her.
Nerv Command Center
"Get a satellite if you have to, I want a connection re-established to the suits and done now." Reg ordered.
Ever since the connection with Strike Force had been lost, the techs had been frantically trying to do just that. It took a bit of triangulation, but they and the M.A.G.I. managed to re-establish communications. It wasn't much, but it was a start.
"Contact S.W.O.R.D. and tell them to send them back here now." Misato added.
"Ma'am, S.W.O.R.D. cannot get a lock on their signals, transportation is impossible." Maya announced.
"Asuka, that's happening?" Reg asked into the comm. system.
"I can't change form and the suit's locked up on me. I can't move at all." She informed them.
"Same here." Kensuke added. "The power I'm manipulating just goes on a cycle, I can't do anything."
As Reg sat back and tried to think of what to do, the worst possible thing which could have happened at that moment, did.
"Pattern blue detected, it's an Angel!" Makoto called out.
"How far?" Misato called back.
"One thousand kilometers east by south east, three targets approaching fast. ETA to reaching the city is one hour six minutes."
"Tell S.W.O.R.D. I don't care if they need to have a ship fly right over their heads, we need them to transport NOW." Reg stated, Maya relaying the order.
"Wait." Shinji spoke up. "I can escape."
"What?"
"My suit, I can feel it in the bonds and vibrations in the metal, it won't contain me if I try to escape." He said. "I just need to know what to do."
"Ritsuko, sent him a diagram showing him how to remove the suits from the others." Misato quickly ordered. Reg, understanding what she was doing, continued it.
"Shinji, we're about to show you how to take the suit off of someone. Do it to everyone there then get the hell back here as fast as you can. The sooner you're out of that interference area the sooner we can get you ready."
Not a minute later, several images showed Shinji what to do. Being as fast as he was, it took him less than a second to read it all.
In the first three second, he vibrated himself quickly. Though the suit had been built to contain it, something had not been done right in construction, and the joints disconnected at the points of assembly. When they did so, Shinji entered his 'quick mode'.
Around him, time seemed to stand still. For the arms of the suit, he simply leaned forward and then moved back to where he had been. While his movement had pushed the arms forward, they stayed in place as the momentum of the movement continued to push them forward. Though they were being propelled very quickly, from Shinji's point of view they simply stood almost motionless in the air.
Next were the legs. Turning to the left, he simply did two lunges forward, his legs slipping out from each as he did.
Then there was the helmet. Simple enough, he used his hands to remove it, though once he tossed it aside and it left his grip it entered a nearly motionless fall.
Finally there was the chest plate. The two pieces where barley still connected to each other, and where simple to remove. Using his two index fingers, he simply flicked the part which covered his front side forward, while repeating the action for the part which covered his back.
Now free of his Iron Suit, he walked up to Hikari's. Remembering what he had been told, he took the suit's joints off and then removed the different parts of the machine, freeing her. He repeated the action with Kensuke, then Asuka.
Then he came to Rei.
She was looking at the target, eyes locked on each other. He didn't pay it too much mind, and quickly removed her suits as well. When he was finished, he turned his attention to the target. Repeating the action of removing the suit on him as well, he ended it a little differently. He looked at the target's face, and then gently flicked his cheek.
He then walked back to where he had started, and watch.
To the human eye, it would have appeared to have happened in an instant.
Time returning to normal, all the suits fell apart to the ground; save for those in the air controlled by A.D.A.M., and the target, whose suit also fell apart, was flipped over and knocked to the ground.
A.D.A.M. was taken aback by the action, but then prepared to handle it as was suited for this scenario. Unfortunately, Kensuke reacted first, unleashing the power of the six downed suits against the remaining four. While his was built to handle the overload, the others had not, having been built to contain the others.
The systems shutting down to protect themselves, A.D.A.M. was forced to transfer back to base, where the M.A.G.I. quickly boxed him until further orders were given.
"Ohhhh, man I hate quicksters." Jay groaned as the five children surrounded him.
Asuka, now green skinned and with a significantly larger muscle mass, looked him dead in the eyes. "By the authority of S.H.I.E.L.D., I am placing you under arrest for theft of military property, attempted theft of government property, attempted kidnapping of public officials, kidnapping of public officials and conspiracy."
Jay's reaction was a simple laugh.
"Asuka, sometimes you need to learn when you've bitten off more than you can chew."
Before any of them could act, a force field knocked all of them to the ground. Before they could get up, a new field surrounded Jay and the parts of his Iron Suit. The children could only watch as he went into the air and flew away.
"Well that…." Asuka started, before being interrupted by a bright light and a loud noise. It was only for a moment, but when the light and noise dissipated the five children and the remains of the nine Iron Suits where in the middle of the command center, in the open area on the level of the technicians.
"Went…. Well…." Asuka finished.
"How did we get back here?" Hikari asked, rubbing her eyes to make sure she was seeing right.
"S.W.O.R.D. tech, long story. Not important now." Ritsuko stated. "Shinji, Rei, Asuka, get into your Evas. Kensuke and Hikari, get to the line. Eren and Annie are already waiting at it."
"Yes ma'am" they all announced. Above them in the city, the shield activated and the point defences rose from their slumber.
Six hundred sixty sixth sublevel
Central Dogma
Kaworu looked in muted anger. Anger, a feeling his mind was not accustomed to, but in his current form was built to feel it.
There were hundreds, no, thousands of them. They had fought so hard and escaped that dying world of their cruel creators, and here they were. Had they been awake, they would probable laugh at him, laugh at what he had become and laugh at what he was doing.
But it mattered not, what they thought was irrelevant. What mattered was what he was going to do.
Since entering the base, his brother had used what power he still had in the base's mainframe to keep his path clear. People where directed in a different path, doors which should have been locked where not so, and footage from security cameras where looped in the right places at the right time for his passage to go unnoticed.
As he walked into Lilith's chamber, victory was at hand.
While the defenders of this world where a few kilometers above him, preparing to fight his siblings who had spawned as a distraction, he was within sight of his goal, about to end it all.
No one would stop him. No one COULD stop him, for unlike his brother he hadn't wasted his energy until now, and none stood in his way.
The plan was perfect, so perfect he was surprised he hadn't conceived of it the first time.
Ah the first time, when they had arrived one by one and only fought by themselves in each battle, save for Israfil, who had also come with Israfil. And one by one they had been defeated.
Not this time. This time was different.
As he walked on the LCL, the humans where probably in a panic as they would now be able to detect his presents in his true form no matter how hard his brother try hide him.
It didn't matter, for he was now before mother.
And as she looked upon him, she accepted him.
And with that, he merged into her being, ready for his one wish to come true.
To be continued…