Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 58

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.

"I didn't think it was possible for us to be injured like that." Cagalli gasped, less than two days later, as she stared at Kira's unconscious form, which was lying motionless on a bed in the Excalibur's infirmary. The amethyst-eyed man's body was now covered, from head to toe, with blood soaked bandages.

"We're just lucky that he was able to kill that damned thing." Misato scowled, having not suffered any truly serious injuries, and the ones she had received had already been healed by Lacus.

"I'd like to know exactly what that thing did to him." Murrue said, doing her best to hide the tears that were now welling up in her marigold eyes. "We can't seem to heal him with our abilities."

Five days had passed since the last battle, and now, deep within the Geofront below the city of Tokyo-3, the three Evas had once more come to life and were already on their way to battle when the first attack hit and tore most of the way through the base's outer armor.

This Angel, number fourteen, had already been desiginated; Zeruel, and he would prove to be far tougher than most previous opponents that humanity had faced and defeated.

As the three Evangelion Units appeared from underground to challenge Zeruel, he attacked with his razor whips and quickly downed both Rei and Asuka before then moving towards Evangelion Unit 01 and it's pilot.

As Zeruel lashed out at Shinji, a blindingly bright column of yellow energy suddenly appeared, vaporizing the razor whip and forcing the creature to take cover behind its AT Field.

The Excalibur had finally arrived and the massive ship immediately opened fire with four of its bow-mounted Lohengrin positron blaster cannons. The four blue and red beam weapons effortlessly cleaved through the AT Field, destroying Zeruel's ability to use it.

Within the cockpit of the Divinity Gundam, Kira Yamato smirked as he lowered the twin buster rifle and took to the air.

"This is impossible! How can Shinji's synch ratio with Unit 01 be at over five hundred percent!" Maya Ibuki suddenly yelled, as Evangelion Unit 01 charged at the Angel, before quickly being beheaded by a beam saber slash delivered by the Divinity Gundam.

"What?" Ritsuko Akagi asked as she checked the readout herself.

"Is it?" Commander Ikari inquired.

"Yes, it is." The faux blonde replied.

"I see, and what of Evangelion Unit 01's condition, is it salvageable?" Gendo asked.

Finally, Maya lost her temper. "Don't you even care about your own son? He could still be alive, you heartless prick!" Maya yelled, unknowingly on an open frequency.

"SHUT UP! He was being insubordinate anyway, it's his own fault and if Evangelion Unit 01 is lost..." He didn't finish, not wanting to give away secret information to the command team.

Back on the battlefield, three pairs of Freedom LPTs had landed near the downed Evangelion Units. The Gundams carried pods containing teams of both medical and maintence personnel.

The teams immediately began swarming over the fallen Evas.

Finding that the Entry Plug of Evangelion Unit 01 was stuck, the maintence team simply cut a hole into the armor of the Eva, in order to get two members of the medical team inside.

The present thought was that Shinji was dead, but you never know what a person can actually survive until you personally confirm it on-site. Too many mistakes like that had already occurred during countless wars in the past.

While the rescue team swarmed over Evangelion Unit 01, the Divinity Gundam was giving Zeruel one hell of a beating and then some, or rather a lot.

The hole was finally cut and by luck, three medics crawled into the cramped compartment and found that despite the wounds and blood loss, Shinji Ikari, was alive and breathing unassisted. One of the three medics called out that he was alive, but unknown to all, Evangelion Unit 01's radio was on and was broadcasting unenclosed.

"He's alive! Get that neck brace in here! We need to move fast!"

The radio operator made a report when he confirmed it had been from Evangelion Unit 01. Turning in his seat he addressed the combat commander, Major Misato Katsuragi with the newly gained information.

Misato, along with Asuka Langely Soryu, the pilot of Evangelion Unit 02, were actually undercover agents working for Celestial Being.

"Confirmation made! Pilot of Evangelion Unit 01 is alive and a medical team from the Excalibur is now removing him from the remains of the Entry Plug." Kira broke out into a huge smile as relief washed over him.

Zeruel could only stare in confusion at the golden-horned, angel-winged vestige of the CB-X60D Divinity Gundam.

The angelic machine held a twin buster rifle in its left hand, a beam saber in the right and had a physical shield mounted on each forearm. The shield on the machine's left forearm was highly aerodynamic, and mounted on the front when the Gundam transformed into its flight mode, while the shield on the right forearm concealed a retractable, super-heated whip, in addition, both of the shields possessed beam shield generators. The Divinity Gundam's wings were glowing with a bright white light as it stood in a defiant gesture, shoulders raised high and ready to fight, the eyes locked in a penetrating glare at Zeruel. The machine's white, black and red armor slightly shrouding it in the night.

Suddenly, the Divinity's eyes flickered a few times, the color of the eyes changing from purple to blood-red before once more beginning to glow with a steady light, causing Zeruel to take a step back.

Meanwhile, beneath the fortress city of Tokyo-3, the ORB-01 Akatsuki literally cut a path through the Nerv troops with the recently upgraded and equipped Sword Striker Pack. The massive Quantum Crystal, beam bladed, anti-ship sword effortlessly cut through tanks and other armored personnel carriers. It also cut through bunkers and pillboxes with ease, forcing Nerv security personnel to run for their lives as a group of ten Celestial Being Custom GINN, and GuAIZ mobile suits engaged and quickly dispatched a force of VTOL fighters that had been deployed only seconds earlier.

The Celestial Being versions of the ZAFT mobile suit models had either blue or pink visors in place of the standard mono-eye configuration, they also bore a pink stripe, painted on the left side of the chest, as well as feather-like wings. These distinctions notified all that these mobile suits belonged to Celestial Being.

The Freedom LPTs, Freedom CGUEs, GOUFs, Tauruses, Murasames, Strike Daggers, Windams, and ZAKUs, eight other mobile suit models produced by Celestial Being, were left unmodified, with the exception of either blue or pink visors in place of the standard eye configuration. They, like all of Celestial Being's mobile suits, also bore a pink stripe, painted on the left side of the chest, as well as modifications to their armor and weapons to increase survivability, range, power and accuracy.

'Why not join forces with us, Zeruel?' Kira telepathically asked the Angel now standing before him.

'Join forces with humans?' Zuerel scoffed. 'I'd rather be analy raped by the abomanations you refer to as Evangelion Units.'

'That can be arranged, if you wish.' Kira grinned, but the only response he received was Zeruel lashing out with his razor whips.

"I can do that too!" Kira roared, dodging to the left and lashing out with the super-heated whip stored within the shield on his machine's right forearm, the glowing weapon quickly wrapping itself around Zeruel's outstreched razor whips, binding both of the Angel's whips together and effectively rendering them useless. The Divinity Gundam shuddered a few seconds later, as Zeruel fired his eye cannons, a bright white cross of energy instantly enveloping the angelic machine.

As the blast slowly faded to reveal that the Divinity Gundam was completely unharmed, Kira glanced at one his subscreens as the crimson form of Evangelion Unit 02 rose back to its feet, completely undamaged.

"Kira." Asuka growled through the communications line. "I have a score to settle with this jackass."

"Understood, Asuka." Kira smiled, as the Divinty Gundam ignited its thrusters and took to the air. "You are hereby cleared to engage and destroy the target."

"With pleasure." Asuka snarled, deactivating Evangelion Unit 02's holoshroud, while simultaniously igniting a blood red beam saber on her machine's right wrist and freeing a beam rifle from its rear waist.

Evangelion Unit 02 looked almost exactly the same as it had before Asuka had originally defected from Nerv, except that now the machine posessed a Gundam-style head, along with more weapons, defenses and design features. The crimson Evangelion Unit now sported a GN drive, which had been modified to emit blood red GN particles, which, unlike the crimson GN particles emitted by GN tau drives, would not harm anyone.

Among the weapons and defenses that had been added to the crimson Evangelion Unit were a beam saber on each wrist, a pair of beam sabers stored on the hips, a beam shield generator on each forearm, a pair of hip-mounted rail guns, a single high-energy beam rifle, a plasma cannon and beam saber in each shoulder pylon, and finally, the ability to generate a GN field. In addition to being outfutted with more weapons and defenses, the crimson Evangalion Unit now had more versitility in battle as well, thanks to the hardpoints which allowed it to mount either Striker Packs or Silhouette Packs. At the moment, Evangelion Unit 02 was equipped with a flight-capable Aile Striker.

"W-what are those?" Ritsuko asked within the Nerv command center, staring in amazement at the modified form of Evangelion Unit 02, as it ignited a blood red beam saber on its right wrist, while simultaniously freeing the beam rifle from its rear waist armor with the left hand.

Suddenly, the voice of Athrun Zala's past-self spoke over the communications line, even as a blue GOUF mobile suit flew by, quickly followed by the Destiny Gundam and Legend Gundam. "If you have to shoot me down, at least give Meyrin a chance to get out. She's done nothing wrong!"

"She's already an accomplace to your crimes!" Rey growled from the cockpit of the Legend Gundam. "There is no meaning to her existence!"

"Rey!" Athrun shouted, from the cockpit of the GOUF.

"He's the enemy, they both are." Rey replied. "They betrayed the Chairman! They betrayed us! They're trampling on our dream to end war! Are you going to forgive them?"

"No!" Shinn's past-self screamed, igniting the Destiny Gundam's wings of light. "This is all your fault! Because you...you betrayed us!" The Destiny Gundam screamed towards the GOUF, sword pointed out ahead of it, as an army of brillantly glowing afterimages followed in its wake.

"Shinn Asuka, Eclipse Gundam. Standby for launch." Lacus Clyne's voice boomed through the Excalibur's hanger as the machine in question was transported to the catapult. "Confimring all systems activated. Initiating launch sequence, hatch opened. Linear launch system engaged, catapult online, power levels normal. Course clear. Eclipse, go ahead, launch!"

"Shinn Asuka, Eclipse, launching!" Shinn's present-self announced as the catapult fired, launching the Eclipse Gundam out of the Excalibur and into the sky. An instant later, the Eclipse Gundam suddenly streaked in between the GOUF and the pursuing Destiny Gundam. The Destiny's eyes went dark less than a second later, as the Eclipse speared the Destiny on the blade of its anti-ship sword.

"Now it's your turn, Rey Za Burrel." Shinn scowled, the Eclipse slicing the Destiny in half at the waist before then turning to face the Legend.

"S-Shinn?" Rey asked, shock and surprise evident in his tone of voice as the Legend slowly backed away from the Destiny as it exploded into a massive fireball.

"Yes, I am the one you call Shinn Asuka." The crimson-eyed man smirked as the explosion caused by the destruction of the Destiny Gundam slowly faded. "However, unlike my past-self, whom I just killed, I know that you are nothing more than a clone of Rau Le Creuset."

The Legend Gundam boosted towards and slashed at the Eclipse Gundam, but a pink lance of energy came between the Legend's beam saber and the Eclipse's anti-ship sword. Shinn blinked and looked at the interfereing mobile suit.

"Back off!" Lunamaria Hawke snarled. An instant later, the Twilight Gundam delivered a punishing backhand to the face of the Legend Gundam, sending it spiraling away and with a flash of exhaust, she charged after it, her anti-ship sword pointed directly at the grey machine's chest.

"Die, you whore!" Rey shouted, as he threw a beam boomerang which he had freed from the Legend's shoulder, severing the Twilight's weapon arm. Rey smirked slightly as he threw another of the twirling pink blades, both of the spinning beam blades coming at Luna's suit from different angles.

The Eclipse Gundam suddenly fired its twin rail guns, destroying both beam boomerangs. Luna scowled up at the Legend and readied her blade, opening her wings of light and streaking towards the grey machine. The two machines came together with a crash and a shower of sparks, but an instant later, the Eclpise came up behind the Legend, delivering a beam shield assisted backhand to the face of the enemy machine, severing its head.

Before Rey could reorient himself, the Twilight Gundam was once again screaming towards him, every beam blade on it blazing. The crimson machine twisted, slashing out with its beam saber. Rey blocked with his own saber, but the Twilight's attack knocked the weapon away, then came the beam boomerang from the Eclipse, which knocked away Rey's beam shielded arm, opening up the crotch for the kick from the Twilight, which sent the Legend flying backwards, end over end. The Legend Gundam vanished an instant later, as both the Twilight and Eclipse opened fire with all of their weapons, nearly two dozen beam blasts slamming into and completely obliterating the grey machine within a huge orange-red fireball.

"Transmit the deactivation signal for Evangelion Unit 02 and force eject the entry plug!" Misato said within the Nerv command center, as she wanted to remain undercover for as long as possible. If it happened to become necessary, Misato could also order Asuka to return to the Excalibur, since, even in Celestial Being, she held a higher rank than the redheaded pilot.

"It's not working!" Maya replied. "The abort codes and the plug ejection codes are both being rejected!"

"Of course the codes are being rejected." Asuka smirked as her face appeared on the main screen.

"Asuka, what is that thing?" Ritsuko yelled, her voice a combination of amazement and horror.

"This is Evangelion Unit 02, of course." Asuka smiled, even as Zeruel's razor whips bounced harmlessly off the crimson machine's MCPS armor. "Please try to be patient, Zeruel. I'll kick your ass in just a moment." The redhead said, glaring at the still attacking Angel.

"That is not Evangelion Unit 02!" Ritsuko replied.

"No shit, sherlock!" Kira's voice interrupted. "For someone who claims to be a genius, it's pretty sad that it took you more than five minutes to figure out that this machine isn't one of your shitty Evangelion Units."

Misato chuckled slightly, but suddenly Hyuga spoke. "The target has ceased its attacks on Unit 02 and is now advancing towards us!"

"Oh no you don't!" Kira growled, as he unleashed his DRAGOON units, quickly swarming the remote weapons around the once more advancing Angel, pummeling its restored AT field with dozens upon dozens of searing green energy blasts. The beam blasts that were being fired from the DRAGOON units were powerful enough to keep Zeruel distracted, but not so powerful as to completely shatter the AT field.

"What the heck? Radar sites 8 to 17 have gone dead!" Aoba suddenly announced. "Oh crap! We've got a JSSDF tank battalion advancing through the Goura defense perimeter!"

"Two more battalions are approaching from the Gotemba sector!" Hyuga yelled.

Even as all hell began to break loose, an automated announcement blared throughout Nerv headquarters. "Closing all Central Dogma barricades up to Level 2. All non-combat personnel, must evacuate via route 87."

"The Daigatake tunnel has been cut off!" Aoba yelled, even as multiple alarms began to sound. "Invading forces have entered Level 1!" At that moment, nine flying wing transports flew overhead, each of the transports dropping a white Evangelion Unit.

The physical build of the mass production units was different from previous Evangelion Units, being narrower in the chest and shoulders and wider in the hips, and apparently covered by the same reinforced plastic that coated the arms of all the Evangelion Units. The mass production units had long jaws with red muscular lips, metal-plated teeth, a large grey tongue, and produced large quantities of saliva. They had no apparent eyes, but were equipped with large, mechanical, avian-style wings that enabled them to fly, and which could be fully retracted into the back. The mass production units also lacked the shoulder-mounted pylons which were characteristic of all previous Evas and stored their main weapon; the Progressive Knife. The primary weapon of the mass production units was, instead, a large double-bladed lance.

"The Eva series!" Asuka asked, staring at the nine white Evangelion units as they circled omniously overhead. "They've been completed?"

"Damn, those things are ugly!" Kira growled, freeing his anti-ship sword, igniting the beam blade, and boosting at the nine units that were circling overhead. With a single slash, the Divinity Gundam effortlessly sliced one of the mass production Evangelion Units in half, and less then two seconds later, the mass production unit had been cut into nearly a dozen pieces, before being vaporized by a pair of beam blasts from the Divinity's chest-mounted multi-phase cannons. Seeing that their comrade had been destroyed with such ease, the remaining eight mass production units were quick to move towards the angel-winged Gundam.

"Ha, bring it on!" The amethyst-eyed man taunted, even as the eight mass production Evangelion Units charged towards him. A few seconds later, the Divinity Gundam violently shuddered as one of the Evas smashed its lance into the chest of the machine, sending it tumbling through the sky. The eight mass production units quickly charged at the floundering Gundam, only for the angelic machine to suddenly begin to glow with a blood red light, as a pair of shimmering beam wings erupted from its back. The lead Evangelion Unit slashed at the Divinity Gundam, but the heavy blade only cut through the air. An instant later, the bird-winged Evangelion Unit vanished within a massive column of blindingly bright yellow light. The seven remaining mass production units turned their heads upwards to behold the Divinity Gundam, still glowing with a blood red light, a pair of shimmering pink beam wings extending from its back as hovered high above them, now wielding a twin buster rifle in its left hand, while the right hand held its combined beam rifles.

"Give up already!" Kira yelled, throwing the twin buster rifle at the now charging mass production units, while splitting his combined rifles and stowing them on his hips. The amethyst-eyed man raised an eyebrow as one of the mass production Evas caught his buster rifle, only to bite into the barrel, causng the weapon's automated defense system to activate and the rifle to self-detonate in a nuclear explosion. The nuclear blast caused by the rifle's self-detonation system was equal to about 100 megatons of TNT, easily enough to vaporize the remaining mass production Evangelion Units, the Angel, and even Nerv headquarters.