Well, I'm still around, even though schools started now; I'm down in California, Burbank to be exact. So updates are going be slower now, but still coming. So this is getting close to be done at least, and hopefully by Christmas it will be done.
Shinji didn't know how many waves of enemy soldiers he had been through, only that he had lost track at about seven.
As he had predicted, the soldiers after the German group were less sympathetic towards Nerv; some even seemed to take pleasure in what they had been assigned to do, but Shinji quickly corrected that mentality.
The total number of casualties had reached double digit numbers, and that was all Shinji knew. At one point, he had been forced to dismember each soldier in this one company that attacked him, killing many of them from blood loss. That fight alone had probably netted over ten deaths. He wasn't proud of what he had to do, however, he didn't regret the decision either. It was either him or them after all.
Since his first battle with the German soldiers, Gate 5 had turned into something similar to the remnants of a bomb shelter during World War II. The actually gate had been completely blown apart during one of the attacks, and Shinji still wasn't sure how it had happened. The metal floor which had once been shiny, now had two inches of dust coating the top of it, while rock and metal lay above the two inches. Bullet holes were numerous along the walls and ceiling, with the casings spent by the soldiers littered the floor in front of the gaping hole that admitted them. The entire air was choked with dust and smoke, making it increasingly harder to breathe for both Shinji, and the soldiers, but they at least could use oxygen masks if necessary.
Shinji himself was starting to grow weary. He had not been hit at all yet, but he had several grazes, and even more near fatal hits. Even if he was hit though, he would always just regenerate the damaged tissue, but it was more a problem with losing his concentration after he was hit. He could handle two, maybe three bullets, but if he turned into something like the wall behind him, he didn't think any amount of time could regenerate the destroyed tissue.
He had just finished fighting another wave of enemy soldiers, these men being extremely determined it seemed to break through past him. He guessed that the word was that he was starting to get tired, which was unfortunately becoming true.
Leaning against a tattered wall, he wiped some of the sweat off his brow before sinking down to the ground, stretching his legs out before him.
He really didn't know how many more of these he could handle; each one was becoming more and more difficult, and the soldiers seemed to be figuring out ways of combating him. He was only a fifteen year old kid after all, and going up against people that could hit an apple at two hundred yards away.
'I knew it wouldn't be easy, but this is starting to wear me down,' he thought while picking up several stones and throwing them towards the gaping hole that used to be Gate 5.
He sat in this spot every time he defeated another wave of enemies, and always wondered how the other parts of Nerv were doing. Gates 5 and 6 weren't far apart, and if he suddenly had enemies shooting behind and in front of him, he wouldn't last long. He had no way of contacting Misato or the others in the command center, but she had trusted him to do what he saw fit, so it was unlikely she would contact him.
During these times though, he found that his mind didn't really drift towards Asuka, as much as it surprised himself. Maybe it was because he knew that she was in such a closed off area; that he had no chance of seeing her again and that it was altogether pointless to think of her. This brought some peace to his mind though, because it let him focus on what he had to do.
Picking up another stone, he was about to throw it towards the gaping hole when he paused suddenly. Was he imagining it, or was the ground shaking slightly?
Sitting up now, he placed a hand against the ground and waited for a few seconds. He was almost certain this time. He could feel the slight shifting of the powdery dust that coated the top of the metal flooring. As he looked to his left and right now, he saw that the small pieces of rock and metal seemed to be vibrating slightly.
'What is that?' thought Shinji.
He didn't feel anybody approaching him, which made him wonder if something hadn't happened somewhere else in Nerv. But why would the floor be vibrating, unless something happened underneath Nerv? But that was a dumb thought, they shouldn't have been able to penetrate into Terminal Dogma this quickly. It hadn't even been an hour since the initial attack.
'Then what the hell is it?' he thought again.
But all at once, it stopped, as suddenly as it had started.
Shinji waited a few more seconds for the vibrating to start back up, but when it didn't, he stood up and kicked a rock to relieve some of the tension built up in him. For a brief instance, he had thought it had been an Evangelion.
"Stupid," he mumbled as he shook his head.
Brushing the dust that had landed on his pants off, he walked over to the large hole in the wall and looked out.
Tokyo-3 looked like a ghost town now, and Shinji wouldn't have been surprised to see a tumble weed go by like in those old westerns. The city had been evacuated, but that didn't seem to stop Seele. Many of the large skyscrapers had gaping holes in them from missile strikes, and some of them were on fire. Shinji didn't see the point of destroying the city if the inhabitants had left, but if it distracted them for a bit, he supposed he was thankful.
Turning away from the ruin of Tokyo-3, he started walking back inside the remains of Gate 5's terminal when he felt a large number of AT-fields approaching him again. They seemed to be moving fast, making him guess that they wouldn't be on foot this time.
'The holes too small though, they can't fit a vehicle in here though,' thought Shinji with a frown on his face.
But then he felt and saw something else. What he felt was the vibrations again, except that this time, he saw what was making them, and he had to hold back a sudden laugh that threatened to surge of his throat. Really, that half-hearted wish was really just a joke, but he was rather thrilled that they were taking him so seriously.
Standing in front of Gate 5, he looked down the road where several large trucks filled with heavily armed men drove toward him, all grim faced and not joking. Behind them, however, was what had made him almost laugh.
As the convoy of soldiers neared Shinji, he saw the thing behind them take aim at the entrance to Nerv. He rather doubted that they had even spotted him yet, thinking to bury him with the first shot if possible. There conceitedness would be their undoing.
Shinji saw the flash, and very briefly the smoke as it discharged from the barrel before he swung his right arm downward, projecting his AT-field in front of him and shielding him from the blast. The tank shell struck his AT-field dead on, exploding behind and to the left and right. The buildings on either side got hit by shrapnel as the shell exploded, shattering windows and ripping apart several cloth awnings. The blast radius exploded outward by ten feet, with Shinji being in the center. Asphalt was thrown up into the air as the explosion left a hole in the pavement. Hot smoke was blown right into Shinji's face, searing his skin and blinding him momentarily. Knowing what would come next, he braced himself as he felt the AT-fields of the soldiers approaching him preparing to fire.
Small arms fire erupted from both the trucks that neared him, but of course the bullets vaporized the second they hit Shinji's AT-field. With the smoke from the tank shell starting to clear from a sea breeze coming from the Sea of Japan, Shinji could clearly see what he was up against. The tank that had fired at him was starting to move closer now, and seemed to be preparing for another shot. Knowing that he didn't have long, Shinji quickly ran out from the smoke and charged at the two oncoming trucks. His intention was to make it so the tank wouldn't fire at friendly targets, but either the gunner of the tank was not of the same nationality as the people in the trucks, or he simply didn't care.
The barrel of the tank recoiled as another round exploded out of it, firing straight at Shinji and one of the trucks. Swearing within his own mind, Shinji did something which he had wanted to try, but never had the time for it. He didn't know what the AT-field was made out of, only that it seemed to be a mass of raw energy that could not be measurable. What it did seem though, was that it had a certain density to it, because of the mass of energy. Using his AT-field as something like a spring board, he managed to jump over the hood and windshield of the truck, before hitting the top of it and rolling painful across the top before he hit the hard pavement. Rolling over, he put everything he had into his AT-field before the shell struck it.
His AT-field expanded so that it reached both the right and left sides of the roads before the shell struck it. The explosion happened, inches away from Shinji's face this time, instantly giving him third degree burns from the burning hot smoke that hit his face. Another crater was created in the middle of the road, flinging asphalt in all directions.
Wincing painfully as his burns started healing, Shinji heard the squeal of tires as the trucks he had evaded turned around to chase after him again.
'You think they'd be more grateful after I just saved their asses,' thought Shinji angrily.
Forcing himself to stand up, he started running at the tank, getting closer all the while. The gunner seemed to realize that he wouldn't be able to ready another shell, because he opened up with the machine gun that was placed alongside the main gun. Easily destroying the bullets, Shinji continued racing towards the tank while all the while he heard the screech of tires behind him. It was the one situation he didn't want to find himself in. If they started firing behind him, then he would have to create a dome like AT-field to protect himself with. But then they could attack him on all sides and whittle him down. He couldn't let that happened.
Now close enough to the tank, he brought his right arm down, slicing off the barrel of the main gun with his AT-field, which sliced it like butter. Running along the side of the tank now, he was able to ignore the machine gun which couldn't hit him now. Swinging his arm again, he sliced apart the treads of the tank so that it couldn't move. He didn't want to kill the people that were inside, but he didn't want them able to attack him either. Using his AT-field in a similar way as he had used it to jump over the truck, he jumped on top of the tank and slammed his AT-field against the hatch of the tank, making the metal crumple like paper. The soldiers were trapped in there now.
Sliding down the front of it, he paused briefly as a rain of bullets hit his AT-field from the trucks which were almost to him, before turning to the machine gun left. It was so small that it melded right into the metal plating of the tank. Shinji felt rather sorry for what he was going to do, and hoped that whoever was inside wouldn't be too badly injured, because next second, he sliced apart the metal plating that housed the gun clean apart, creating a large hole that somebody may be able to squeeze through. Hearing a brief shriek of pain, Shinji knew that somebody had likely just lost a hand, but he didn't have time to dwell on the subject.
Behind him, the trucks had reached him, and were pounding the tank with bullets. Jumping back on top the tank, Shinji blocked more bullets before he slid down the other side and crouched down briefly behind the tank to catch his breath. He had never noticed it much before now, but he supposed that his physical attributes had been enhanced significantly because of his awakening as an angel. He certainly never could or would do any of the crazy things he just did if he was a normal human, even with being the pilot of an Evangelion.
Knowing that the soldiers would most likely be exiting the truck right about now, he looked around one side of the tank and had to pull his head back as several rounds ricocheted off the side of the metal plating.
'Damn it,' he thought briefly, before dashing along the other side, simultaneously creating his AT-field. He startled the soldier in front which seemed to be the company officer. Shattering the gun of the officer, he proceeded to slice off both his fore and index fingers before continuing on.
Hearing the shrill cry of their leader, every soldier converged on that one side of the tank. The soldiers crawled over the broken down tank and pointed their guns down the other side, only to find their office down on his knees with blood dripping out of his destroyed fingers. White bone was sticking out of the stubs, and the ends were laying on the ground in an increasing pool of blood.
"Find that bastard!" he shrieked at the men surrounding him.
Suddenly from behind them, the sound of nails on a chalk board was heard as one of the trunks was split cleanly in two with a flash of orange. In between the large gap created from the severed truck, only half of Shinji's face could be seen. To the soldiers who witnessed this scene, he looked like a demon.
"Throw down your guns and I'll spare you," Shinji spoke in a voice he hoped sounded menacing, because he was reaching the end of his stamina.
"Don't listen to him!" screamed the officer while cradling his bloody hands. "He's almost gotta be close to-"
But his words were cut off as the second truck was sliced apart. Shinji was also reaching the end of his patience.
"I could kill you all in a mere instance if I want, but I'm giving you a chance to surrender. I destroyed that tank you brought along with you, even though it seemed like the gunner didn't care whether you lived or died. You say that I'm close to getting tired? Does this look like the work of somebody who's getting tired? I could go on doing all day!"
Shinji hoped this was believable, because in truth, he was lying between his teeth. It was getting difficult just standing up. The shell shock from the tank's shell seemed to have hit him, making it difficult from him to see straight or walk straight.
"Don't believe him," said the officer, but with much less certainty this time.
Shinji laughed at that.
"Do you know how many stubborn officers I've put down today because they thought I was getting weary? I don't think you want to make that same mistake...do you?"
Shinji seemed to have gotten his point across, because next second, the officer told his men to throw down their guns. Shinji walked around the other side of the destroyed trucks then, and crushed the guns that they had thrown down with his AT-field. Then he told them that if they wanted, they could try and rescue the men trapped in the truck, but it seemed that he had been right about two different groups belonging to different nationalities. They had simply met and forged a brief alliance to try and kill him. If they had actually coordinated there attack, it might have worked.
After making sure that every last one of them didn't have any other weapons on them, Shinji ordered them to walk in the opposite direction and to not turn back until they found friendly allies. Himself, he started walking in the opposite direction also, back to the remains of Gate 5. He was exhausted. He had said he'd rather wish that they'd drive a tank through the gate, but he never thought they'd actually try it.
Walking back under the Gate 5 terminal which resembled a bombed out shelter, he leaned against the wall for a minute so that he could regain his equilibrium. He didn't know why it had taken the shell shock so long to settle in. Maybe it was because of the adrenaline that was likely pumping through his body, but he didn't know.
"I suppose I have to say farewell to this place now," mumbled Shinji. He knew that if he continued, the last fight here would likely be his last. He needed to regain his energy, and more importantly, find out what was happening elsewhere.
Pushing himself off the wall, he walked a little ways into Nerv before turning around and swinging his arm once. His AT-field sliced into the wall on either side of the entrance to the Gate 5 terminal, taking away the support beams which had been holding it in place. The ceiling started crumbling away as the weight couldn't be held anymore, eventually sending large pieces of rock and rubble cascading down until the entrance into Nerv via Gate 5 was blocked.
"Now they really will have to drive a tank through there if they want to break through," laughed Shinji as he turned away and hurried to the Evangelions chamber.
Asuka couldn't remember a time when she had been more bored...well, maybe a few times during her college days. Sometimes she had fallen asleep during the more boring classes, the Japanese ones for instance, and right now, she wished that she could fall asleep.
The bunker that her and Rei in was nothing more than a giant square room, lit with florescent lights that hung from the ceiling. The walls were white, like almost everywhere else in Nerv, but it was a matter of how empty the room was. Misato's apartment was starting to look very lively right now.
A wooden table sat in the middle of the room, with several wooden back chairs placed around it. The wood was cheap, something that you'd see in a rundown coffee shop in the lower districts of towns. The only door in and out of the room was the one that Asuka and Rei had entered through. The door was made out of a thick metal platting, similar to that of what the plating protecting the Geofront was made out of; in fact, the entire outer casing of the room was likely coated in that material.
Asuka herself had not chosen to sit at the table though, choosing instead a blank piece of wall on the other side of the room. The reason for this decision was because of the person sitting at the table. Rei hadn't said a word since she had spoken in the elevator, and Asuka preferred it that way. If she so much as opened her mouth, as unlikely as that sounded, Asuka would most likely hit her.
She hated this; this waiting without knowing what was going on. It had at least been an hour since she had-
A frown passed of her face as she thought of that boy, that stupid boy who refused her help. What did he hope to accomplish by himself? What could he even accomplish by himself? Asuka didn't know what he had in mind, or whether he planned on dying or not. But she wasn't about to forgive him if he did die, and took whatever he knew about her to the grave. She couldn't accept that, knowing that he knew something about her memories, something, that for some reason, he and everyone else didn't seem to want to tell her. She even briefly wondered if the stupid First had been in on the secret.
Looking over at Rei for a brief moment, she saw that the girl in question was reading a book that she seemed to have brought along with her.
'Well aren't we prepared,' thought Asuka bitterly as she watched Rei turn a page of the book she was reading. Watching this socially inept person though only brought a sour taste to her mouth, because she turned her head away the next second, determined not to look at her.
Titling her head backwards, she stared up at the ceiling and into one of the bright florescent lights. She wanted to know what the situation was above the surface, but knew that the guards stationed outside the bunker wouldn't tell her even if she begged...not that she had any intention of doing that though.
'What has come over me?' thought Asuka as the light above her flickered slightly. 'Since when have I cared about other people? Its almost like...I don't want to lose the people around me. Is that why I'm worrying about whats happening up there so much?'
This bugged Asuka. She had been right before; she couldn't recognize herself anymore. But what had made her change then? Or maybe it had always been there deep inside her, the longing to finally find people that cared about her, and that she in turn could care about.
'But even if everyone survives all this, I'll have to move back to Germany. I'll see Misato I suppose...but some of the others...'
Her mind for some reason drifted to a certain boy when she thought this, but she shook her head to clear her mind of his face.
'No...thats not just it,' she thought. 'But he is...'
She didn't really know what he was to her...not yet at least, but she intended to find out when this was all over.
'Even if I have to slap his dead body back to life,' thought Asuka grimly as she folded her arms across her knees and placed her head in them, slowly drifting into sleep.
Shinji didn't run into anyone on his way to the Evangelions chamber, but he hadn't assumed he would; all non militaristic personal had taken shelter somewhere.
As he ran into the Evangelions chamber, and it opened up before him, he paused for a minute to catch his breath, his hands placed on his knees as he bent over. Looking up into the face of Unit 01, he couldn't help but feel that this was likely the last time that he would be entering it. They had been through a lot together after all.
Smiling slightly, Shinji rushed towards Unit 01, ignoring the plug suit that had been readied for him. He wouldn't need it. But as he was about to climb the long ladder that would place him in the entry plug of Unit 01, he stopped again and looked to his left. Evangelion Unit 02 stood there, its body still mangled and destroyed. Shinji had honestly forgotten about it; forgotten that Misato had wanted him to destroy it, but that he had refused her. When it came to it though, he didn't really know what he was gonna do to it, if he didn't destroy it. He could hardly carry it over Unit 01's back and fight at the same time.
'I'll block off the entrance before I leave,' thought Shinji, 'that way nobody will be able to enter.'
It wasn't the best plan in the world, but he couldn't think of anything better.
Stepping into Unit 01's entry plug, the automatic hydraulic system pushed the entry plug into the back of Unit 01's head, and Shinji felt his synchronization with the Eva commence.
'Well look at you boy, all grown up and all.'
Though seemingly impossible, Shinji choked on the LCL fluid floating around him when he heard a voice he hadn't heard in forever.
"You! What are you doing back!"
'Now thats not a very nice way of greeting the person who's helped you out so many times.'
"Sorry...I just didn't expect it."
'I suppose that congratulations are in order though, for maintaining your sanity through all of this. Not many people could have accepted the fact that their the child of something like Adam, and still act as though they are human.'
"You knew about that!" shouted Shinji inside the Eva.
The voice laughed at him as it said, 'Of course I know about it, I've known about that since you were born those fifteen years ago. I was just waiting for you to learn the truth.'
"Why didn't you ever tell me!"
'Oh I gave hints about it as often enough as I deemed it necessary, but I was never going to come right out and tell you about it; it would have destroyed your mind. Now though, after you've experience many more things, and learned about your own powers, it was time I appeared before you again.'
Shinji's anger turned to confusion.
"But you've never appeared before me, at least, not in a physical form..."
It almost seemed that his words had silenced the voice, but then-
'Not quite true as a whole, though thats not to say we've ever truly met...'
Shinji was even more confused by this statement.
"Which one is it then?" he asked.
'Not telling anything,' laughed the voice before it turned serious. 'Are you sure you've made the right decision though?'
"What do you mean?" asked Shinji after a long pause.
'Your power, your visions,' said the voice growing impatient. 'Are you sure you chose the right path?'
"Its a little late to second guess my decisions," mumbled Shinji.
'But at this rate you'll die.'
"You act like your worried about me."
'I have my reasons,' retorted the voice slightly cross.
"I've already prepared for the fact that I'd die," said Shinji eventually. "I don't believe that I've chosen wrong, and even if I did, I wouldn't have it any different way. Everything leading up to this was fun. Every moment spent with Touji, Kensuke, Hikari, Ritsuko, Misato, Rebecca, Ayanami, and Asuka...I don't regret a moment that I've spent with them. The times we laughed, the sad times, all the times we argued; it hurts, but they're all engraved in my memory. So no, I don't regret the path that I've chosen. The only thing I regret is that I didn't get to spend more time with a lot of them." His mind specifically drifted towards Ayanami, who he had only gotten to know in these past few weeks, before they parted.
The voice was silent however, as though it was pondering everything that Shinji said, but Shinji still had something else to say.
"So? Was that good enough for you, or should I continue?"
'No, its fine,' said the voice. 'I just had to be sure you weren't second guessing yourself.'
"Before we continue?" asked Shinji, guessing more than what the voice was letting on.
'Correct,' mumbled the voice, seemingly deep within its own thoughts.
"Then lets get this over with," sighed Shinji as Unit 01 activated and Shinji's eyes turned scarlet.
Science fiction is just that: fiction, its not real, which is why it is improbable that a being like Shinji, and Evangelion Unit 01 could exist in the physical word. But they do, and to the soldiers that witnessed the final activation of Unit 01 and Shinji's subsequent destruction of everything that he could touch, they all felt that they had stepped into a science fiction novel. A demon seemed to have been born at that moment when Unit 01 burst forth from Nerv.
A large section of the pyramid like structure was sheared completely off by the giant AT-field that Unit 01 generated as it forced its way out and into the Geofront. Winds reaching speeds of eighty miles an hour were generated; entire sections of earth were torn up and tossed into the air; trees were ripped out of the soil, their roots left dandling in the wind as they were tossed across the Geofront. The steps of Unit 01 created vibrations that reached deep down into the earths crust, making it so the soldiers in the vicinity had difficulty standing upright.
Looking across the battlefield, Shinji squinted as he looked for targets. A large number of helicopters were already headed towards him from the looks of it.
'As if those could do anything even if I stood here and let them attack me,' he thought smugly. Though just as he was about to destroy them all with a single of swipe of Unit 01's AT-field, a familiar voice came on the radio.
"Shinji, are you okay!" came Misato's worried voice.
"Fine," replied Shinji, "How are things holding up at the other gates?"
"Badly, all of them have been overrun, and the enemy has pushed further into Nerv. You did a good job of holding them off at Gate 5 though. I picked up a radio frequency saying that you destroyed a tank. Is that true?"
"More or less," said Shinji, still watching the helicopters as they neared him.
"I'm very proud of you," said Misato after a short pause.
"How much longer do you think you can hold them inside the facilities?"
"I'm not sure. In all honesty, there were more nations involved then we had initially thought. Its proving rather difficult to figure out how much we're up against."
"How many have died so far?"
"Of our own? Not many surprisingly; none of the shelters have been hit yet."
"Thats good," said Shinji, thinking briefly of Asuka and Rei.
"Shinji...about Unit 02-"
"I sealed off both entrances," said Shinji cutting her off. "They won't be able to get to it without several tons of plastic explosives."
"I know but...thats not really a permanent means to the problem, and the ventilations ducts above are still accessible."
"It'll be fine," said Shinji.
"But Shin-"
"Sorry Misato, but I have to go."
"Wai-" but Shinji disconnected the connection.
"Right then," mumbled Shinji as Unit 01 started running towards the helicopters. Shinji even almost felt sorry for them as he brought Unit 01's right fist smashing down on top of one of them, instantly crushing the pilot into red mist. Missiles were fired from the helicopters, but Shinji didn't bother blocking them; conventional weapons had no effect against the Evangelions.
'Who's next?' thought Shinji, as Unit 01 charged forward, ripping apart the landscape as it bowled through the Geofront at sub-supersonic speeds. Generating Unit 01's AT-field, he wiped it around, slicing many of the helicopters surrounding him completely in half. He could feel the AT-fields of the enemies surrounding him slowly starting to diminish.
'Is this all that they can throw at me?' wondered Shinji. He was almost worried that this would end rather quickly.
Just as he thought this, an explosion happened from the far side of the Geofront as the missile batteries started launching artillery size missiles. Smiling slightly, Shinji brought Unit 01's hand behind its back and brought out the progressive knife hidden behind its left shoulder. Running directly at the missiles, Unit 01 suddenly jumped into the air to greet the missiles. Bringing the progressive knife down directly were the tip of the missile was, the progressive knife sheared the missile in half, sending raining debris down onto the terrain below.
'Next,' thought Shinji as he turned towards another of the missiles, but next second changed plans as he was assaulted by a vivid vision of the entire Geofront being engulfed in a large explosion.
Testing the limits of his and Unit 01's AT-field was not smart at this time, but he didn't have any other choice as the warhead reached him. Creating half a dome with Unit 01's AT-field, and the other half with his own, Shinji encased the warhead in the two AT-fields, just as the explosion went off.
Shinji felt as though his entire body was threatening to be ripped apart as the nuclear explosion threatened to spill out of the two AT-fields. The explosion was not as strong as it could have been though, due to the fact that the two AT-fields had absorbed most of the raw energy. As Shinji forced the two AT-fields to slowly shrink, encasing the explosion even more, the AT-fields slowly dissipated the explosion. It looked as though a miniature sun had descended into the Geofront, only to be destroyed by a larger sun.
Sweating heavily from the strain it took to incase the explosion, Shinji finally dropped both AT-fields as the explosion was lost.
'Shit,' he thought, 'I can't believe those bastards actually tried setting off a nuclear explosion inside the Geofront.' The thing was, if it had been an N2 bomb, which was significantly greater than a regular nuclear warhead, he probably wouldn't have been able to stop the explosion. Be that as it may, he felt weak now, and had no idea if the radiation from the explosion would affect him at all.
It seemed that the explosion had also garbled radio frequencies, because he heard Misato's voice come through the intercom, but he couldn't understand a word that she was saying, only that she sounded worried. Muting the intercom though, he was just turned back to the battle when the remaining missiles struck Unit 01. Thought it did no damage to Unit 01 physically, internally, Shinji was feeling worse. Thankfully though, the remaining missiles hadn't held a warhead.
'I have to destroy those missile batteries,' he thought.
Forcing his body back under control, he briefly glanced down at his right arm. The tips of his fingers had turned slightly black from the radiation, and he couldn't move them.
'I'm still human after all,' he thought as he looked at his hand. It may take some time, but he hoped that the radiation would eventually be filtered out of his system because of his angel DNA.
But it wasn't bad, and he could still fight.
Not waiting for the batteries to fire another round of missiles at him, Unit 01 jumped high into the air, and soared above the batteries, its shadow just above them. Like a bullet ripping through the air, Unit 01 crashed down on top of one of the batteries, instantly destroying it and the soldiers that surrounded it. The large strip of pavement that it had been resting upon was split in half, a deep crack running down the landscape of the Geofront. Swiveling around, he turned towards the other missile battery, which was slowly rotating to face him. Quickly deploying Unit 01's AT-field, it sliced directly into the missiles armed on the battery, sending off numerous explosions. Around twenty humans that were in the vicinity were instantly vaporized as the missiles exploded. A large crater was left in the ground where the explosion had happened; grass turned instantly brown as the heat wave exploded outward, looking as though it had been baking under the sun for several months. Several trees had their leaves burned off and turned to black soot that fell to the ground.
Out from the dark cloud of smoke that had been issued walked Unit 01, completely unscathed from the ensuing explosion.
'Thats done at least,' thought Shinji as he looked around from his position in the Geofront. The missile batteries had been placed upon one of the higher ledges so that it would have a high vantage point. From here, Shinji could see everything that was happening in the Geofront, though admittedly, there wasn't much here in the realm of things that were left for him to destroy. It seemed that the large concentration of power was still above the surface, in Tokyo-3.
'But they had to have gotten down here somehow...'
Shinji knew of a sky elevator somewhere in the Geofront that was used for aircraft, so he figured thats how the helicopters had gotten in, and the batteries had gotten in by the normal road routes. Maybe he could use that to reach the surface easier.
'Its worth a try,' thought Shinji. 'And the more time a stay battling in here, the longer I put the entire Geofront in danger.' He had already done a good amount of damaged to it as it was.
Misato had seen the nuclear explosion that Shinji had been able to contain from the monitors in the command center, and she had instantly tried to contact him, fearing that the radiation may have adverse affects on him. But the radio frequencies had been scrambled, and even when she had tried contact him, he had muted her. She then felt relief though as she saw that he seemed to still be fine with Unit 01 moving as it was. But now though, after he had destroyed those batteries, Unit 01 was just standing there. She tried making contact with Shinji again, but it was still muted.
'Damn it,' she thought angrily at how helpless she was in a situation like this.
"Whats the status of the interior of Nerv?" she asked to the surrounding personal still stationed at the computers.
"Blocks one through one hundred sixty-three have been completely overrun. Shelters four, five, and six have also been hit. Estimated number of casualties have triple digit numbers."
"What about Terminal Dogma?" asked Fuyutsuki who was acting as temporary commander, since Gendo was nowhere to be found. "Have any of the elevator shafts been penetrated?"
"Strong defense has been placed around number three where the First and Second children are being protected. The other elevators are unknown at this time."
"Flood the blocks that have already been taken over by the enemy with the bakelite. It should slow down their advance a little," said Fuyutsuki.
Misato bit her lip in frustration; the bakelite had always been used as a last resort sort of solution.
"Fuyutsuki..." started Misato tentatively. "I think...I'm going to go see what the status is with the other elevators."
Fuyutsuki turned around and said quite bluntly, "That would be suicide Major-"
"Lets quit with the discrepancies and just call each other by our names." Fuyutsuki frowned, but obeyed her anyway.
"Fine then, Katsuragi, what do you hope to accomplish by learning the status of the other elevators?"
"I don't know, but I can't just stand here and do nothing!" she shouted. Everybody in the command center was now listening to their conversation.
"You do not need to shout Katsuragi, I can hear you plainly enough, and since this is a very stressful time it would be best if you-"
"Shinji's out there fighting to protect everybody, even after everyone thought he was a freak! And he's fighting all by himself!"
"And what do you suppose you going to the other elevators and getting yourself killed would accomplish?" asked Fuyutsuki, getting surprisingly angry. "Do you think Shinji would appreciate the fact that you died while trying to help him?"
"But we aren't doing anything-"
"We are doing everything that we as humans can do," retorted Fuyutsuki. "We are a world apart from Shinji now, and the only thing we can do at this moment is rely on him."
Misato glared at Fuyutsuki for a second before she turned around and walked towards the elevator.
Calling after her, Fuyutsuki said, "I wont stop you Katsuragi, but at most you should go to elevator three and assist with the movement of Asuka and Rei if necessary."
Misato looked over at her shoulder, but saw that Fuyutsuki had already turned around and was staring, waiting for Unit 01 it to start moving again.
"After all," he said continuing after a brief pause, "you know those kids better than anyone else."
"I know," replied Misato.
Chuckling slightly, Fuyutsuki said, "That stubbornness is just like your father. You know, it wasn't just your life that he saved that day; he saved many of his fellow scientists at risk to his own life."
"I know," said Misato again, "and I'm quite proud of him for it."
Without glancing at anyone else in the command center, she walked over to the elevator and was about to press the down button on the elevator when the doors swung open. Thinking that it might have been the enemy, she unholstered the gun at her hip and brought it up, only to have a hand grasp the top of it and point it at the ground.
"That was rather rude Major," came the jokingly comment of Kaji.
Misato didn't even bother replying as she stepped into the elevator alongside him, though when he didn't step out, she asked rather testily, "Aren't you going to get out?"
"No, actually, I was looking for you; it seems that luck still hasn't failed me yet."
"Lets hope it holds up for the rest of the day," said Misato as she holstered her gun. "And? So? What did you want to see me for?"
"Just to be sure you were okay," said Kaji while shrugging.
Misato made a disgusting look with her face, but wasn't letting on how she really felt. Beside her, Kaji fished a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it.
"Those things will be the death of you," said Misato as the elevator started descending.
"I don't think I'll have to wait for the cancer to take me," said Kaji as he took a puff on the cigarette.
Eyeing it rather evenly, Misato finally snapped at him, "Oh, give me one of those!"
Kaji raised and eyebrow but pulled another out of his pocket and lit it for her. With both of the puffing in the small elevator, the air quickly became choked with smoke.
"I don't think I've smoked since college," said Misato, breaking the silence, "but my nerves are just..."
"You worried about Shinji?"
"Of course! How could I not be. He's fighting with everything he's got, but I don't even know what I'm supposed to do right now. I'm a wreck! I kept thinking that soldiers were going to burst through the wall of the command center any second while I was there. Thinking about what Asuka's going through right now, with her mind a mess, not knowing whats going through the commander mind, and the whole idea that I might not-"
Kaji silently removed the cigarette from her mouth, and pressed his forefinger against her lips.
"Not. Another. Word. ...Alright?"
Misato nodded silently through her closed lips.
"Good then," said Kaji as he removed his finger from her lips, and placed the cigarette back between her lips. Though Misato hated to admit it, the feel of the cigarette between her lips had rather lost its luster, now that she had felt Kaji's warm finger touching her soft flesh.
"Hey Kaji?"
"Hmmm?"
"Do you think I made a mistake...having Asuka and Shinji live together?"
Kaji was silent for a minute, before he took the cigarette out of his mouth and said very seriously, "I don't think it would have made a difference. They would have still found each other."
"...You think so?"
"I do," said Kaji, looking down at this own cigarette as though it suddenly tasted bad. Dropping it to the floor of the elevator, he stamped it out with his shoe; beside him, Misato did likewise.
As the doors opened, and they were about to step out into the open hallway, Misato grabbed the back of Kaji shirt and slowly asked, "Can you...do me a favor?"
"What is it?"
"Stay by my side...till-"
"I would have even if you didn't ask," replied Kaji with a slight smile.
Misato broke into her own smile, though it would be a long time before she ever smiled again.
Shinji had found the sky elevator which would take him to the surface, but the only problem was how he was supposed to get that high. He had no idea either whether Unit 01 would even fit through the hole.
'But I don't have any other choices.'
Bending Unit 01's legs, he made it crouch so far down that its chin was in danger of touching the ground when he jumped. The ground shook as though a miniature earthquake had been set off; large pieces of dirt were thrown up into the air. Unit 01 tore through the sky as it soared upward; Shinji had actually misjudged how high Unit 01 could jump, because he was quickly at the sky elevator. Quickly generating Unit 01's AT-field, he cut off the metal door that sealed the elevator from the Geofront. Slamming Unit 01's hands into the metal siding, he was able to get an adequate foothold. Many feet above him, he could just see a crack of daylight.
'Almost there,' he thought.
That was when it happened.
As he started climbing, he heard the unmistakable sounds of a large airplane flying overhead; the sound of its engines funneling down into the narrow cylinder he was in. It seemed to have stopped directly over the Geofront.
'Shit,' thought Shinji as it dawned on him then what they were likely doing, but it was too late.
The N2 bomb was dropped at a height of seventy-thousand feet above the city of Tokyo-3, falling at a rate of five thousand feet a second. Shinji had enough time to generate both AT-fields just before the bomb struck the crust of the earth.
It looked like something directly out of the Cold War; the city, already laid waste thanks to the explosion of Unit 00, was almost completely leveled. The N2 bomb struct the metal plating separating the Geofront from Tokyo-3, melting it almost instantly and ripping through the seventy some gates of reinforced steel. A giant explosion erupted into the sky; the plume cloud was so large that it blocked out the sun outward of ten miles from the epicenter. A large gaping hole had been made in the Geofront. Small pieces of twisted metal were falling from the sky, still burning as they fell to the ground. It felt as though the entire earth was shaking.
In this attack on the Geofront, many nationalities lost soldiers that had been placed above the surface. The attack had come directly from Seele, organized through their Japanese contacts, so that only the Japanese knew about the impeding strike. But Seele didn't care at this point, because they were close to their objective.
Unit 01 had taken the explosion head on, and though it was able to minimize some of the damage, thanks to both Shinji's and its AT-fields, it still suffered considerable damaged. Most of the metal plating had been completely melted off; the top part of the Evangelion looked almost naked, while the bottom half still retained most of the metal plating. Blood poured out of both arms of the Evangelion as it had taken the strain of maintaing the AT-field.
Shinji was little better off; large sections of his skin had been completely peeled off, revealing the red muscles underneath. Blood poured forth from his arms, and around certain parts of his face. His fingernails had been torn off, while the ends of his finger seemed to have been completely eroded away, leaving white bone sticking out. But the pain didn't bother Shinji; he was too used to it by now.
'Those bastards,' he thought bitterly, as a trickle of blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth before bursting and started flowing down the side of his face. His normally white shirt was already dyed in blood.
The sky elevator that Unit 01 had been in was likewise destroyed, so that Unit 01 was falling back down into the Geofront. But at least now Shinji didn't have to worry about finding a way to the surface.
Unit 01 crashed back to the bottom of the Geofront, its feet crashing into the soil and splitting the ground, creating a large chasm. But Shinji had only eyes for the earth above him. Squinting through the darkened sky to the world above, he had Unit 01 crouch down again before it leapt upwards.
The pressure was unbelievable as Shinji was thrown backwards into the pilot seat, as the change in G's threatened to tear his body apart. Shinji's blood started to mix with the LCL fluid inside the entry plug, almost turning the fluid red. His eyes continued to glow red, and his bodies cells were already starting to repair the damage.
Unit 01 rocketed upward before it passed outside the Geofront, and up into the skies of Tokyo-3. As Shinji floated airborne in Unit 01 for a few seconds, he was able to see the damage done by the N2 bomb; everything was barren and brown. The tops of skyscrapers littered the ground; twisted pieces of cars lay scattered across the landscape; the asphalt of the road ways had turned liquid hot, so that the tar bubbled upward. Shinji saw all this and more, because he then saw a large group of ships far off in the distance in the Sea of Japan. Boiling hatred the likes of which he had never known erupted within him as Unit 01 tumbled back towards the ground.
'Those bastards,' he thought again. His eyes boiled blood red, the LCL fluid inside the entry plug seemed to boil along with Shinji's hatred, and Unit 01 reacted to that. The hinges clamping its mouth closed broke loose as it released an ear splitting roar, shattering the glass that had not been destroyed when the bomb had hit. The roar of Unit 01 was heard as far away as Tokyo-2. The waves in the Sea of Japan increased with intensity as though listening to Unit 01. The men on the ships heard the roar and were filled with a fear and a sudden wish to be back at home.
Unit 01 turned towards the enemy, its eyes narrowing as it did so; its thoughts that of Shinji's, and only one thing resonated in its mind: destroy everything.
Unit 01 broke the sound barrier as it rushed towards the ships, creating a sonic boom which kicked up dust and debris. It was moving so fast, that it looked like a blur. As it reached the edge of the shore, it suddenly jumped, flying over the fishing boats which had been left abandoned to the sea. Flying over the wide expanse of the sea, it came crashing down on one of the aircraft carriers out in the water. Without even changes positions, Unit 01 generated its AT-field behind itself, slicing the control tower of the aircraft carrier off so that it fell into the water.
Jumping again, it soared above the aircraft carrier, and this time sliced it cleanly in half with its AT-field, before directing its attention to another ship. But just as Shinji was about to destroy the next battle ship, he paused in mid air as he heard the large plane that he had heard earlier above him. Landing on the battleship that he had been about to destroy, he looked up into the sky and could just make out the stealth bomber high up in the sky. It was too high for him to reach by jumping, and out of reach with his AT-field, but oh what he would have given to be able to destroy it.
'Bastard,' thought Shinji, as he turned away from the bomber, but something caught his eye, because he turned back to face it. Twelve white specs seemed to be floating down on the air, and each was getting bigger and bigger by the second. Shinji grimaced slightly as he figured what they were. Turning back to the battleship, he pushed off against it, propelling himself back to the land, while in turn, easily capsizing it. He could see little dots in the water which he assumed to be the sailors from the battleship. Hopefully they could stay afloat long enough to get help, but that wasn't Shinji's jurisdiction.
Landing back on dry land, Shinji looked above him and saw that the twelve white objects were now circling above him, as though they were birds of prey, and they sorta were; Shinji saw that they had wings like that of a bird on their backs. Each of them landed around him, forming a circle.
"So this is the Eva series" mumbled Shinji as he looked out at the enemy in front of him. He thought they looked strangely reptilian.
Wiping some blood off his cheek, he thought grimly, 'This wont be easy.'
The N2 bomb is what woke Asuka from her fitful sleep.
The force of the explosion reached all the way into Terminal Dogma, sending vibrations through the metal wall, which was what Asuka was leaning against; the vibrations startled her awake. She jumped upward as she felt an unpleasant feeling travel up her spine. Looking wildly around, the only thing that she could see was Rei still sitting in her chair and reading her book, but Asuka's desperation won over her hatred for Rei, because she asked, "What the hell was that just now?"
"An N2 bomb most likely," said Rei without taking her eyes off the book.
Asuka's eyes widened at that. "Are you serious?"
"Why would I lie?"
Asuka hated this for some reason, because she narrowed her eyes in annoyance and turned away from Rei. Its not that she wished she was back asleep, when her dreams were so painful, but the waking world wasn't much better either.
'And at least this socially challenged moron isn't in them,' thought Asuka with a sidelong glanced at Rei. Asuka didn't know how long she had been asleep, but she didn't think it had been long, an hour at most likely.
'What the hell is going on up there?' she wondered.
Next second, the roar of Unit 01 could be heard from above in Tokyo-3. Asuka jumped immensely as she heard the cry of fury from Unit 01, but she thought she heard another voice in the mix...his voice...
'He's angry for what they did,' she thought. At the table across from her, even Rei seemed to have paused and was looking up at the ceiling, listening to the roar of Shinji and Unit 01.
Just then, the metal door opened and a man walked in. Asuka tensed up almost instantly, and with good reason; Gendo Ikari had just walked into the room.
"It is time Rei," he said simply.
Rei looked at him for a second before she stood up without a word and walked over to him. Neither of them gave the slightest sign that they noticed Asuka standing in a corner of the room, but she was, and she saw the entire thing pass by in a few seconds. Now that she actually looked closer, as Gendo started walking away, she saw that blood was dripping off his right arm, and what seemed to be large pieces of dead skin cells were flaking off his arm and falling to the floor.
'What the hell?' she thought.
As they disappeared into the darkness outside, Asuka took a few hesitant steps towards the door, before she broke into a fast walk and stopped in the opening of the door. She looked out into the darkened hallway, but didn't see any sign of the soldiers which had been positioned there earlier. The lights that had hung along the tops of the walls were also out.
Everything was dark, but Asuka thought that she could find her way to the elevator shaft without too much difficulty. Taking several steps into the dark, she briefly looked around for Rei and Gendo, before disregarding them and breaking into a full out run. Turning around a corner, she stopped dead and had to hold back the loud gasp that threatened to spill forth from her mouth. A soldiers was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, apparently dead. He had a large gash right down his chest, slicing into his sternum. Asuka sucked in her breath so as not to smell the stench of blood, and edged around him, careful to not slip in the blood.
Breaking into another run, she quickly reached the elevator, and placed both hands on her knees and bent over, catching her breath. She didn't even know why she was doing this, only that if she didn't get an answer, she wouldn't be able to live with herself, or anyone else for that matter.
'Stop that!' she shouted into her mind.
But she didn't care anymore. That idiot was fighting by himself, and that cry had held more than just anger, she had heard pain mixed into the middle of it.
'He never asks for help,' she thought, 'and he never relies on anybody else. Is he that alone? Like me? How is it that we are so similar, yet we can't understand each other.'
I want to understand you! I want to help you when you stumble. I want to laugh with you when you're happy! I want to stay by your side!
I don't care anymore! Even if I am hurt! Even if I have to drag myself to be with you, I don't care! So please...don't ignore me; don't shun me, don't hurt me, accept me for who I am!
Asuka straightened up, her mind set on what she was going to do.
"You stupid idiot," she mumbled, "don't do this alone...not without me."
Running into the elevator, she hammered on the up button, and waited for it to take her up to Central Dogma.
Far above her, Shinji started his battle with the Eva series...