Shinji watched the sky roll by as the car pulled up to the Izumo Inn. He had been to it just once, right after Takehito had purchased the place, and those were the last good memories he had of the Inn before his world went to hell. Takehito's sudden death had been the catalyst for many terrible things that he wished had been avoided. Minaka's madness had been tempered by Takehito and perhaps this insane game Minaka wanted to play with innocent lives might have been averted or at least adjusted to non-lethal levels, but the man was dead. The dead no longer interacted with the living. That was the rule.
Slowly, he opened the door and stepped onto the curb. From the other door the Guardian emerged, dressed in an un-tucked white shirt and black pants that emphasized his thin frame that seemed almost too small for a human. "Homura," Shinji beckoned the gray haired Guardian to join him as he marched towards the small covered porch and the sliding shoji screen door that he dreaded to step past.
Would Miya greet him with cool indifference or naked steel? He could think of a thousand different reactions she would have to his presence. Fear grew in the pit of his stomach and he began to question his resolve. Homura gave him a curious look as he slowed his walk, but Shinji was preoccupied with other matters. If she struck first he would have less than a second to react…he could strike first and he might succeed…
Two steps to the door…
That was all…
Two steps to open an old wound…
Two steps that might determine how much longer he might live…
The door opened.
"Oh my!"
That voice… a voice that hadn't changed in years and a hand that covered her mouth, a familiar gesture. It was the voice of a purple haired woman clad in a purple hakama, a white haori tied by a deeper shade of purple sash he knew all too well. Miya Asama… "It's been a long time," he said after a moment, scanning her body language for any signs of aggression.
"You're still alive…" she whispered as if in wonder. She shifted the basket in her hands and her eyes narrowed as she looked behind him, towards the car. "And you still have the same job as always," she said tensely.
Her mistrust of MBI was well founded and he knew how it might appear to her. His mere presence could have been seen as an act aggression against her and then the destruction would begin. NERV would have to intervene and send in soldiers to be slaughtered as they fruitlessly would try to contain the situation. Miya and Karasuba would clash shortly thereafter. Shin Tokyo would burn to ashes and the world would see the truth of the world humanity lived in, a world they weren't ready for. "I have a request," he told her tensely. "It concerns your…kin."
"My! You still have no manners," she said teasingly. "I was just about to go shopping for dinner. So rude," she exclaimed with faux exasperation. "Do come in," she said, as she started to room her shoes.
Shinji almost let himself believe she was as relaxed as she had been around Takehito, but he knew an act when he saw one. She was putting up a front and the Guardian was most likely the only reason. If he had come alone she might have attacked him, but the Guardian was a newcomer and she wouldn't show that side of herself to a stranger.
"Miya…" Shinji began, but fell away as he followed her example.
"Hmm?" She stopped a step from the kitchen and looked at him darkly, a stark constant to the seemingly innocent nonverbal question.
"I…" Words failed him. He couldn't think of anything to say. "…never mind. Wait in the living room?"
"Calling a beautiful, young widow's name so familiarly…you've become very daring," she teased, implying more than she said, as she stepped into the kitchen.
"Follow me," he told the Guardian as the alien removed his outdoor shoes. Shinji walked into the living room and was taken back, to long nights spent planning around the very table he saw again, quick smiles and laughs from bad jokes, waking up in the morning surrounded by sake, Miya's faux anger towards Seo for some poorly thought out plan involving an improvised driving range and so much more.
"Are you alright?"
The Guardian. Shinji realized he had lost his focus, a dangerous thing to do in this place. "Ah, I'm fine. Just some…memories." He took a seat at the table, his back to the entry way, as Miya reappeared, laden tray in hand. Silently, she poured the tea. Shinji took the offered cup; inhaling the scent of the tea he had never been able to discern the exact ingredients.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Homura hesitantly take the cup, giving Miya a guarded look. It seemed that even the Guardian wasn't sure what he thought of the eldest living alien. Finally, Miya sat down and for many moments the tea held their attention, though Shinji saw her studied him out of the corner of her eye. He returned the action and the alien turned her attention to Homura, not doubt studying the judging the younger alien.
"The time has come," Shinji told Miya, breaking the silence. He set his tea cup down and place his hands in his lap. "Soon the Plan will begin. Will you take a side or not?"
She raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Is that how you want to start? You should be groveling for forgiveness," she said innocently, though the unspoken threat.
"I had nothing to do with that," he protested evenly. It seemed she still thought of herself as the goddess of her kind. That was a dangerous delusion for any being that didn't have the power to back up that audacious claim, though she had power in excess. So had the Angels, and they were dead. Slain by the hand of the seemingly weakest of all of creation; now humanity, in parts at least, fought thegod-like beings in their own homes.
"I'm sure," she replied dryly. "I am a young widow. Why should I take a side in the game of CEOs and Generals, where demons and angels fear to tread?" Her tone left no question that she would reject any offer.
It was no use. Trying to convince her to side Takami and NERV was still useless. She was sick of war and he had asked her to return to war, though it would come to her one way or another. "I understand," he said, accepting her stance for the time being. "I'll be blunt, the Guardian is the linchpin in our plans to undo this mad Plan or at least keep it in check. We need him safe until all the younger ones find their Ashikabi." There, he played all his cards on the table and now it was Miya's turn.
The female alien was silent. She sipped her tea and watched him intently. "My husband would never turn anyone in need away, nor will I. I will not accept MBI's card though or NERV's for that matter."
That was irksome. He wanted to be gone quickly. She would not side with them and he knew he would say something stupid eventually if he stayed. "Fine, I don't know why you would turn away NERV. We are backed by the United Nations and Japan, our credit is perfectly good," he struck back.
"You are a multinational band of mercenaries who work for pay, lack any thing could be called morals, assassination is your favorite tool to suppress anyone who opposes you, sabotage your competition in lethal manners is commonplace and your first backers tried to end the world once. Why should I accept blood money?" she asked pointedly, placing her tea cup on the table.
"Because you no different than us. You and I, NERV and MBI all of us will burn together for the sins we've committed," he stated flatly. She was trying to claim the high ground and he wasn't about to let her gain such an advantage, even though she already had the advantage of the home field.
She gave him an amused look. "Why should a goddess suffer with you mortals?"
The unspoken words spoke volumes. She claimed she would never die and he was almost inclined to believe it. She hadn't aged a day since Minaka found her. The last thing the human race needed was an alien with a god complex and immortality when he and the rest of NERV were long gone, even though it might be a long time before such a thing happened. "The world has no need of a goddess or any immortals. Let all things die in their time."
Miya didn't rise to the challenge; she shrugged slightly and looked at him. Shinji returned her gaze stoically. Each knew the other was sizing them up; two titans circling each other looking for an opening they might exploit, and both sides were equally unwilling to back down. He would bring this goddess down himself if he had to. The Angels had thought themselves gods of humanity, masters who could terminate their experiment any moment, and they had been broken by humanity. No longer would the servants of the alien god called ADAM be allowed to live. If he could slay Angels and see ADAM destroyed then he knew breaking this other alien goddess was possible.
Slowly the world faded away. There was nothing beyond them. He felt the room vanish as he stared into the purple eyes of the alien goddess. There was no floor, no walls, no table, no Inn, no city, no country, no world, only endless blackness as this strange space manifested. "What is this place?" he asked, still locking eyes with the alien. His words seemed to come from every direction at once, resounding echoes as though he had spoken with the mouth of ten thousand men.
"Nowhere and everywhere, the endless and finite, this is the beginning and ever-after." Her eyes were utterly still. They betrayed no thoughts or emotions, utterly alien eyes so far removed from humanity. "I want you to see something," her words came from every direction, resounding in his skull, "a certain truth," anger was apparent in her words as the endless blackness was tainted by a faint red.
A pinprick of light, bright and radiant in the endless void appeared in the reflection of purple eyes. Only by the reflection in her eyes could he see the world around him. "This is your mind!" he realized too late. He had walked right into her trap without even seeing it. She had lured him in and now she was the master. He had entered the domain of an alien goddess like a fool.
Berlin-2 was many things, but safe was not one of them. Blasted into a crater after the Second Impact Wars and rebuilt by refugees, the once great city had fallen far. Sites once rich in history and pride were covered in the mad scrawls of squatters; where valiant warriors had once stood in memorial eternal, only the ladies of the night hunted for the money of the unfortunate. It was little wonder in a city of despair that the people would turn to any force who might offer them a chance of a better life. In the dark nights, as smog from the factories cast its foul blanket over the city, one woman hunted the most dangerous of beasts.
High atop the industrial tower, she waited and watched the city below. The silver ring holding her long red hair back glinted faintly in the weak moonlight. Her leather coat hung limply in the stagnant air. Blood slowly dried on her face and clothes. Behind her, a trial of bloody bootprints marked her path to her observation post. The coppery tang was welcome. Blood, the life of humans and monsters, even the Angels had bled. All things bled and she would kill them if they bled.
"Captain!"
Asuka didn't react to the familiar voice. "Keep your voice down," she hissed, continuing her survey of the city unabated.
"Ah, sorry!" the approaching girl offered sincerely. "The local commander says it's time to move out. She doesn't want to run the risks of losing another life to the Wolves."
"Bah!" the red head scoffed. "I don't care. These Ghost Wolves are idiots, but humans are worse."
"But you're a human," the girl protested quietly joining her mentor on the edge.
"Am I?" She turned to the girl and exposed her face. The right side of her face was a mass of scars, the unhealing eye milky white, giving her a fearsome visage. "And that's just my face," she chuckled darkly as the girl shuddered at the horrifying sight. "NERV has done things…I'm no mere human, less human is more likely. Worse than a human…and to think they once called us heroes and had hope in us monsters. Idiot humans," she snickered, mocking the human race that had scarred her face and broken her soul for their petty games.
"But we're fighting to save humanity!" the girl protested. "You're still a hero because hero's save people. You saved that group of kids last night after all. I don't think anyone other than a human would have done that," the girl passionately insisted, trying to gather the courage to look back at her mentor's face.
"First off, heroes don't save people. People save people, heroes chose who lives and who dies," she stated bleakly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the girl shake her head as if rejecting her words. "Secondly, last night was intentional. I knew that Wolf boy was near so I lured him out with some tasty human girl snacks after he saw me. I couldn't let my presence be announced to their leader before I fill him with bullets." That a wolf boy had her worried anyway. He had recognized her two seconds after seeing her. Did the German clans already know her face that well? He had been strong for a child, but she was better. Wrenching his jaw off with her hands had been taxing, but worth the message it would send. "Thirdly, there is no 'we'. In six months you'll be modified and most likely you will die during or shortly after the operations. You and I are two separate species. Don't claim to be what you're not. I can't see why anyone would want to be like us anyway…" she trailed off darkly.
It was a miserable existence, more of a half-life than a real life. Normal things that should have amused her were dry and stale. All that she had once considered fun was a chore. Food was dust in her mouth and it had only been a few years. Where once she had seen color she saw only shades of gray. Day and night were one and the same. Life was the bland existence, but the price she had paid for this power she sought to master. Was the power worth the price? She didn't know, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't, but she wasn't alone in it. The only thing she found pleasure, amusement and everything else she had once known was a purpose, a fundamental purpose she had lost in becoming…whatever she was trapped between Angels and humans. In the end she would have others to stand beside in this confusion that was her life, but they were equally confused. Each of them dealt with it in their own way; Shinji wished to die in time, but she wasn't sure that he was completely truthful. This had been the power needed to fight for the world like she had always done, no matter the cost. Perhaps in time she would grow tired of life and seek what Shinji did, but the thrill of battle was a stimulant, a flash of color in the gray, but never more than a flash and only half as long.
"And what if I survive?" the girl challenged defiantly, crossing her arms. "I'll become a hero! I'll show you that you can save everybody, even you."
She barked in laughter at the little firecracker beside her who refused to die. "Then you'll live long enough to see yourself become a monster worse than us. The people," she gazed out over the city sprawled out below. It had once been the city that had screamed her name, praising her actions and NERV, but no longer. She had returned not as a triumphant battle queen, but as an assassin slipping in with the night. They hated her, the people of the world hated the pilots who saved them and still fought for them. Even if they were ungrateful, she had to fight for them. So long as NERV existed she would too. She was their dog, trained and hooked by the drugs that sustained her perfect body. "The people will," she began again, "turn on anyone who saves them. It's human nature, pitiful and weak willed beings will never see the larger picture."
"You really don't consider yourself human," the girl stated in a horrified whisper. "You've turned your back on us."
"Humanity? Yes I have. The other two might have some small measure of faith in you people that will soon die," she predicted. "Me, I'm beyond that fool's errand. Time reveals all truths and I've always matured faster than those two," she said faintly amused. Her body was the pinnacle of what humanity called beautiful and equally untouchable. She wouldn't allow them to see the glory they had rejected. Her tightly military jacket was almost always buttoned up and the half maple leaf on the left breast kept all but the most drunken fool away from her. One did not mess if NERV, that was the message they had sent in slaughtering the Japanese Self Defense Force like vermin. Three Evangelions, three pilots filled with wrath and childish fury had slaughtered ever tank, plane, body, bomb, bullet, and experimental weapon the Japanese government and the UN had to throw at them.
"I'll never give up on humanity!" the girl vowed, looking at over the city. "Even when I become one of the Accursed, I'll be the hero they want. I'll save them and I'll save you," she turned to the woman, wide brown eyes full with youthful innocence and naiveté. "I'll save you all from yourself!"
"Then kill us and then yourself," she suggested grimly. The last thing she needed was a nigh immortal fool like Elizabeth, running around trying to redeem them from some perceived darkness. It could be done; this girl could become a hero, but never the one the world wanted. Perhaps the hero they needed, but she would be vilified and she would be brow beaten into a pale, drunken half-life of staggering bar to bar and hotel room to hotel room drunkenly selling her body to pay for her drinks.
"Why would I do that? That would make people sad," Elizabeth asked confused, tilting her head curiously.
"Sad? Really, sad?" She let out a hollow laugh. "Sad, that's amusing. I guess the Commander assigned you to me to keep me assumed." Her lips curled upwards slightly as she saw lights moving, torches of all things. It seemed the Ghost Wolves liked tradition. They would love her. "So the prey reveals itself at last," she said, getting ready to do violence. "Get down to the local bitch. The targets are on the move. Reinforce the command not to strike until I'm done," she commanded turning a bit to get a better look at the girl.
Slowly and unsteady, Elizabeth was starting to pick her way back towards the ladder that hung off the side, a look of dread on her face at the prospect of climbing down, but determined to do it anyway. When the girl vanished over the edge, the woman sighed. "Naïve brat." The torchbearers were moving towards her. They would soon pass beneath her lookout post. "Time to kill," she told herself in an excited whisper.
The implants in her body came to life. Fire coursed in her veins as they hummed, shaking her very bones. Pain and pleasure sensitivity became intense as various nerve synapses were triggered over and over. She forced the change to happen, pushing her unconscious desire to remain whole away; she dared to be more than human. To be above the other mortals was exhilarating. To see the world as the Angels saw it, the shadowy world of men that flickered and danced was a testament to the inherent frailty of the human creation.
Without fear she stepped off the tower. She let herself fall, the bright shadows of the torches becoming brighter flickers as they approached her. They would be given no warning. She shaped her AT field and formed a barrier beneath her feet. Compressing the air and increasing the gravity beneath her feet created the impact weapon she wanted. She crashed into the shadowy figures of the Wolves with an artificial roar and crack. Those near her impact zone were crunched in a moment, leaving nothing beyond a pile of bloody flesh and bone shards. The flickering troches were dropped in shock and Wolves leapt into action.
"Stupid pups," she scoffed, as she crafted anInversion Field. As the Wolves found themselves leaping away she crafted a thousand lances from the rock of Berlin, anointed by the ancient and powerful blood of her forefathers. They rose around her, pointing in every direction, as the first Wolf figuring out the trick of the Inversion Field. He leapt towards her, his shadowy face more beastly than human, and she pointed at him. A lance obeyed by unspoken command and the Wolf was skewered before he knew what happened.
Spurred on by bloodshed, driven mad by the smell of blood in the air, the other Wolves charged her with animalistic howls and feral growls. She dropped the Inversion Field and swung her arms in the wide arch, front to back, open palms pointing to her charging wolves. She marked the targets, shadowy figures marked by a red spot she called Fairy Fire. None could feel the flames of the fairies that marked death's newest converts. The targets were set, her lances were ready, and she uttered the unnecessary command, "Die!"
They died in droves, each skewered by ten or more lances, but she didn't seek to intentionally kill. She had planned to take prisoners; some might still survive the barrage giving her some solace. Heightened sense told her there was none left standing, only ragged breath and pain cries filled the air as the pups died. She looked about at the carnage for any more enemies, but was disappointed to find none of these pups still stood. They hadn't provided as much entertainment as she had thought. The rumors and intelligence reports had always placed them as much more competent fighters.
Familiar shapes approached as NERV agents and local military police rolled up. "A pity, I wished they had put up more of a fight," she complained as she watched the wall of building impaled by her lances crumble. The street was smashed from her impact, blood, clothing, and fur covered the ground, but it wasn't enough. They hadn't even gotten her heart beating hard. If they had a King…she longed to slaughter one of those legends, but legends didn't become legends by making themselves easy to find.
"Goddamn you Soryu!" The loud voice of the female commander of the local military police snapped angrily, just a shadow flicker in the shape of a human female. Her voice was as an echo, weak in the real world, yet strong in the human world.
"Just doing my job," Ausuka replied coldly. She didn't want to put up with the local bitch commander. They had never see eye to eye and never would; of that she was sure of. How could an ant comprehend the mind of the man who held it imprisoned? The Accursed were no humans; they were less than human, more than human, but not human. She had never been human, some might argue. Groomed form childhood to fight monsters, made into a monster of man. She had been a monster masquerading as a human until they let her out, to let her become what she truly was. She was an eldritch goddess of humanity and this local bitch thought herself above that which she should be groveling. Humans were a truly arrogant species, incapable of gratitude to those whom it was due.
"You're good isn't to make this place look like one of your battlefields in the east! You were supposed to leave some of them alive! You know, to interrogate! Instead you put them up on your damned crosses!"
Asuka slowly eased herself back into her body. She had never had issues retaking her human shape, she hated the Angels enough that she would never become like them. They had broken her and made her into the monster she was, at least in part. Humanity had taken her mother from her and screwed up her life long before the Angel completed the transformation. "Oh that!" Asuka muttered as she saw the crucified Wolves in the street and hanging from the buildings. Many had more than four lances pinning them to the walls. "No symbols there," she commented as she started to walk away. "I'll the rest to you Miss Bitch," she called out, waving her hands dismissively. The sound of a hammer being cocked made Asuka halt with a smirk on her face.
"Stay there!" Miss Bitch commanded angrily. "You move and I swear I'll fill you with bullets."
"Really? Will you? Can you? No, wait," she slapped her forehead in mock drama, "that's a rhetorical question. You would shoot me…if you could hit me," she proclaimed haughtily. A simple bullet was mere metal and slow, bound by the rules humanity thought governed the universe. She knew the true rules and she would abuse them to the utmost. Even death was not the end and mortal wounds were hardly fatal to a being on her level, slightly above or below human. Humans were so very limited; it had taken Dr. Akagi and NERV high command years to recognize that and respond appropriately.
"Don't you dare mock me! Ever since you came here you've mocked everything we stand for! Our pride, our honor, our values, our methods, our very lives! Everything! Now you're mocking our ways of taking down criminals!"
Asuka slowly turned around and showed the Bitch a smirk worthy of the greatest villains of the American cinema. The Bitch was a tight lipped, middle aged, German woman, in a black business suit much like the NERV agents seeking a still living Wolf, trying to pull a living one from the lances. Her black hair was pulled back into a bun that made her look older and the sleep deprivation along with the stress marks on her face were no compliment to her real age.
"Do not move!"
"Adalia, Adaila, Adaila…" Asuka accented each repetition of the Bitch's name with a single, slow step. "You can't even hit me with your silly toy," she hissed. "I do as I please, walk as I please, speak as I please, and you," she was kept closing the distance between them as the Bitch's resolve seemed to waver. The gun in her hands trembled. "are," another step, "less," four long steps to the gun pointed at her long gone heart, "than," three steps, "dirt!" Two steps, "Mortal," one step, "TRASH!"
Asuka wrenched the gun from Adalia's nerveless hands. She had slipped into the Angel state a bit while with reach step and condensed the air behind her into dark cloud so the woman might understand the difference between them, but the primal fear of humanity had done more work on Adalia than anything Asuka was willing to try with the Angel state. Unlike Rei she had never mastered the ability to project fear or tap into the unconscious influenced human underwent every moment of existence, but the fear of the unknown, especially the known and powerful unknown had worked in Asuka's favor.
In a seamless motion her other hand went to Adalia's throat. She lifted the taller woman easily as she gasped her breath. She was well aware of the military police turning their guns on her, but the NERV agents were above such things. They knew their place and continued with the jobs assigned to their systems. "Listen to me carefully bitch! I'm no angel sent from heaven or a demon from hell or whatever the hell you want to think! I've walked as a god, fought as a god, commanded as a god, sacrificed as a god and became a god! The only reason I listen to my superiors and came to this traitorous city to solve your damned vermin control problems is because I'm an enslaved goddess.
There is no beginning, no end for you. I've seen the beginning and the end as only a god can! You, what are you? A lowly worm! Less than a worm! In the greater world beyond your useless sight you're nothing! Calling you trash is a disfavor to trash. For all the alien and demon care you are a nothing, a speck of dust to be wiped away when you get annoying. Be happy none of them have decided to clean their homes and sweep out all you bits of dust, because I won't come to save you! I'm the perfect monster of humanity! You people created me and this is the truth you have to live with. You people made me into a goddess so I suffer you to live, but I don't care about you.
Your pride, your ways are nothing! Trash, useless baggage that keeps humans bound in your stupidly limited perception of reality. Everything you care for is dust; soon to pass into nothingness and you along with it. Praise my name that I might still stand to defend you miserable bastard offspring called humans. Praise my name and I might allow you to live out your days before you're swept aside, vainly hoping to defeat forces far beyond your power and beyond your perception! Praise my name! Praise my name!" She let the woman fall to the ground, having heard her gasps for air grow more and more desperate.
Scornfully, she looked to Adalia lying on the ground, coughing and wheezing as she tried to regain breath. "Run back to your leaders, little whore of the government! Tell them everything I've said, you slave who reaches for the heavens! Sell them your story about the reality we now live in. Tell them to praise my name and I might lower myself to save you from the next threat. When you sleep at night remember it is I who stands watch to keep the human dust from being extinguished without a care or thought by those who see you and your 'pride' as nothing, but dust! Praise my name forever and you might not live to see all of this wiped away! Praise my name forever because I spared you!" Fury grew in her eyes as she let her anger and frustration come forth in a final, lethal barrage. She grabbed Adalia by the shirt collar and hoisted the woman level to her face. "NEVER POINT A FUCKING GUN AT ME!"
Stone crunched beneath her boots. She was keenly aware of the lack of movement. Even the NERV agents had frozen. Only the crunching of small stones and weak gasps of a terrified woman filled the street. In the distance the sound of cars could be made out, but she didn't care. None of it mattered, not this city in the slightest. They had betrayed her, left her to rot in NERV for nothing more than political power. She had returned only to put to death all her ghosts and finally turn away from the city and nation of traitors. Never again would she return to this city or this German nation. They were dead to her, dead in the eyes of the goddess and she did not flirt with the dead.
"Praise my name," she repeated the words under her breath. "Praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name, praise my name. She slipped into the Angel state, her anger keeping her from feeling the pain for the moment. She negated gravity around her and soared upwards, not once looking to the men and women below who watched her go with naked fear.
"Praise my name," she told the sky as she halted her ascent high over the tallest spire of the city. "Praise it, damn you!" she cursed the city. "Praise the monster you created, praise my name! That was all I ever asked for and you refuse now. Where is the pride you told me of? Where is it? Where is it? Why lie to me? Why not tell me the truth? I was a pawn and I knew it from the start. You coddled me however briefly and sent me to die in the foreign land, bleed on foreign soil, die far from home all for you and your lies of pride!" Her anger towards the human race and her city had finally broken free. Years of building up and she had finally exploded, but she wasn't done.
Adalia had only been the start. The remaining Wolves would be reeling back and in panic. The rest of NERV could sweep them up and the matter of the Ghost Wolves would be finished once the last Wolf was sealed up in the Tyrannus Dogma. She had time to tend to her other affairs. All the ghosts of her past were set to die and this city would pay for its betrayal. She would make the streets run red with blood, she would drown them in their own shit and piss and more if she had to. Men would answer for the lies they had fed her. The power they had abandoned her for wouldn't save them from her wrath. She could only smirk at the foolish dust that lived below her. She flung her arms wide and proclaimed to the sleeping city, "I am no hero. No black knight or anything like that. I'm the monster of Berlin and I've come home!"
A/N: Yes this chapter in uncommonly short. Normally I want my chapters to be twice this length, but I can't find a good way to go on without ruining the feel. Asuka's part is an emotionally charged part and, to be frank, a fun character to write. As you can clearly see she has serious issues…
With Miya I wanted to go a route few others explore, the fact that she is utterly alien. In her own words she's not Sekirei and certainly not human. In this fic she is as alien as the brief alien encounter described by Karasuba in the last chapter, utterly beyond humanity in terms of power and more.
In the background there is a song of unseen destruction playing as the greatest foes of humanity marshal their dark forces to bring the endless night to Shin Tokyo as the curtain rises on the grand play of humans and Sekirei…