Chapter 31
My apologies for the wait, a horrible case of writer's block on this story, coupled with work going crazy. But hey, seven day pay is good pay.
Things should be a little more regular now, just how to do this specific chapter was bugging me. I would not say I am one hundred percent happy with the action scenes, but the drama is exactly what I wanted.
Enjoy.
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here from somewhere else
"Dark Mother, NERV has cleared us for landing."
"Ow, Misato, watch it with those hair pins!"
"You want to try changing in an airborne helicopter, be my fucking guest!"
"Dammit, watch it Major, I only have one of these left you know!"
As soon as the Hind touched down, the pilots and their escorts were rushed to the hangers. With several dozen individual blue patterns popping up all over the country, nobody had time to argue about the soldiers.
Misato met up with Lt. Ibuki on the way to the bridge.
"Cazador."
"Major, you have me at a disadvantage. Sorry I couldn't make it. How did it go?"
"Good, talk about it later if we survive. Is Rits on her way?"
"I would assume, she should have gotten the alert, but I haven't seen her. Nice uniform by the way."
Misato had no intentions of coming to work in a dress again, and certainly wasn't going to show up in a kimono with her chest hanging out. The new uniform, a gift from MSF, was deep green and modeled on old officer's uniforms, before the world started wearing digital camouflage everywhere. It had breast and hip pockets and with golden oakleys already sewn on the broad lapels and the sleeves. The matching trousers had their hems just an inch off the top of the combat boots she had borrowed. A wide leather gun belt gathered the uniform at her waist. Instead of the traditional belt across the shoulder, her chest was lifted and pushed out by the cross strap of the Kodiak style holster holding her new sidearm flush to the left side of her torso. Its deeply stained leather matched the dark brown gunbelt.
"Yeah, tell ya about it later." Misato said, punching her security code into the door to the bridge. As the door slid open, she was assaulted by flashing warnings and sirens from all points of the room.
"Silence those alarms, status report!" She called, taking up position behind the techs as Maya sat down.
There was a delay from the boys, surprised at Misato's new, authoritative tone. Normally when she yelled, it was because she was excited, heat of battle type thing. This voice made them feel they were back in drill. The voice of command called, and it scared them in their boots. Maya filled in.
"Ma'am, we have multiple blue patterns, each with individual wave patterns, spread out across the main Japanese islands. By cross referencing public surveillance and cooperation with local authorities, we have been able to confirm that at least some of these patterns are false, as no angel or anomalous activity has been detected. However we have three confirmed entities, all appear to be angels and are on a course for the city."
Maya tapped at her console and a map of the nation appeared 'above' the other windows with three broad circles showing the confirmed angels. One circle was out to sea, to the east, another was just on the western shore just opposite of the city along the spine of the island nation, while the final was to the far north, about to make landfall.
"Magi have designated the entities Israfel, Sandelphon, and Matareal, the seventh, eight, and ninth angels."
"Right, three angels, well we have three evas. Lt. Makato, pilots status!"
"Y-yes Ma'am… Um, The first and third are in the entry plugs and going through final prep now. The second has just arrived on base and is heading for the hanger under MSF escort, I guess they picked her up."
"You guess?!" Misato barked.
"I-I-I m-mean I received the reports from MSF personnel."
"Good. Aoba, conventional forces status?"
"JSSDF has deployed airborne assets and we are forwarding them information so that they can confirm and deny signals, Ma'am. All city defenses have activated and civilians are being directed to shelters."
"Good. Ibuki, start sorting through the signals, find a way for the Magi to differentiate between the real patterns and the fake ones."
"Aye aye, Ma'am."
"Makoto, I want Unit Zero topside, prepare have One and Two prepared for air wing transport."
"Major, none of the lift wings have been retrofitted to carry an F-equipped evangelion. Currently only Unit Two is compatible."
"Damn. Get One up top and Two prepped."
"Aye Aye, Major."
"Aoba, find me the commanders and Dr. Akagi."
"Aye Aye Ma'am, got it. Commanders Ikari and Kaji are on their way to the bridge according to their personal devices. Dr. Akagi appears to be at her home."
"Has anyone spoken to her?"
"No Ma'am, multiple alerts sent and voice mails left."
"Dammit, okay keep trying to raise her. Get MSF patched into our feeds, they have troops on the ground who can help with herding civilians, and fire support from that battleship might come in handy, even with the big guns stripped out."
"Yes Ma'am… aaaaaw crap. There goes Unit Zero. Data transmission from Zero has ceased. Unit has launched."
"Again?" Maya said, almost whining. "We double reinforced everything!"
Knowing why no information came from the evangelions in battle had only made her more curious about what went on. What were they like in there?
Kali had torn off the stupid suit as soon as she could. The wasp would make sure none looked upon her. As her skin flushed black, the darkness spread through the machine blood of the plug. She had no need to see within, she saw through her chariot, felt through it, lived through it.
As she reached the surface, she felt Zero jerk in the rails before it was released.
Zero… an unfitting name. It meant nothing. Just like this stupid girl had meant nothing.
This was a glorious weapon, nothing short of divine. Ah yes, that would do…
"Prepare for battle… Vajra."
"Field surge from Zero…" Makato began before that terrible sound echoed through the bridge again. He had hoped he wouldn't have to hear it ever again. It made him feel ill, and when he looked over he saw Aoba doubled over. Maya and the Major were fine though. Must be a woman thing
"Launching unit one… And there goes unit one, all connections lost."
Vajra threw its arms down and roared to the sky, its single red flashing in the night. Kali was please with the reaction, now to just find the prey.
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where ninety-nine red balloons go by
In the months since the battle with Ramiel, the repair and rebuild of Unit One had been completed. They had kept the color scheme, which Shinji didn't mind, and completed the F-type upgrade. As he came off the rail, he flexed the muscles of the chest and arms. He could feel the extra weight, it was there, but it wasn't holding him back.
It had been a long time since he had even been in the eva, it was almost unfamiliar, but as the LCL rose up, it had been like a warm welcome back. This was his weapon, an extension of his body as sure as his fingers and toes. This was Evangelion Unit One… by the gods that was a shitty name.
He had looked up what evangelion meant one day in the library, genuinely curious. It was greek for 'good news' and could also mean a book of the Christian bible. Must have been somebody's sick joke, maybe that was where father showed his sense of humor. And it wasn't even the first one, it was the second, who starts counting at Zero?
No, it needed a better name Shinji thought as he reached out with his presence, searching for the threat. He could already feel Kali focusing on something to the West, so he concentrated towards the east and felt the enemy coming in from the sea.
But what to call a weapon? He thought, focusing on the thing in the ocean. Oh well, unimportant, consider it later. Giant monsters to kill, planets to save.
Not far away, Asuka was sitting in the cockpit of unit two, which had a perfectly lovely callsign of Crusader… bored. Angels out there that needed killing and she was sitting there, not doing anything. It would be another ten minutes before they were even in place to complete the hook up to the transport wing.
"Bored bored bored… bordey bordey bored bored bored… hmmmmmm" She rambled, tapping her fingertips on the control yokes. At heart, Asuka was a soldier, if an undisciplined one in a very strange unit.
One of two things happen when soldiers are bored and have access to equipment.
"I wonder…" Asuka said, pulling her Tetragrammiton visor from the bag she had stuffed in the plug when she rushed in. She dug around for a connector port, found it, then hooked the visor into the plug throne and slid it onto her face.
A bored soldier will either find a cure for their boredom that saves lives…
"Hm, now what do we have…. Oh MAGI connection, score!"
Or burns the barracks down. It may be harder to tell the two outcomes apart than it should be.
"Get the speakers on. Shinji and Rei can at least hear us that way. Keep Asuka patched in."
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Alright kids!" Misato said, slamming her hands down on the console's desk. "Looks like the enemy has finally stopped screwing around! Good, I say, means we can kill'em faster! We have angels approaching from both East and West of the city. Units zero and one will engage those targets. Unit two is being prepared for airlift and will engage the third target that is inbound from the North. Confirm!"
"Yes Major!" Asuka quickly chimed in. On the cameras watching the city, Misato could see Unit One nod. Unit zero just started for the western edge of the city. On the tactical map, the circles were slowing moving closer to the city.
With a machine eye, Kali watched the spider approach, along with children so legion the ground appeared to move in their passing. The angel itself was not so big, but was born by stick thin legs that towered over the city and the evangelion itself.
There was still a final section of city between her and the angel, mostly apartment blocks not unlike the one she herself used to live. No not her, where that stupid girl use to live. Useless, bland, ugly girl. They would be no great loss. If any occupants remained, well there was no such thing as too many martyrs crushed beneath the juggernaut.
"Unit two ready to drop in three… two…."
With sharp suddenness, the command bridge went dark. All monitors and lights cut out and not even the red emergency lights were active. Before there could be a word of reaction, the displays and lights came back on, all screens displaying a single message.
FORGED IN THE NAME OF GOD
YE ARE NOT GUILTY
"Sorry everyone, didn't mean for that to happen, just had to do a hard reset there!" Came Asuka's voice. "I just saw that maybe I could run things a little faster this way and don't worry, I should have your comms back up in a sec, just kinda have priority on slaving all the weapon systems right now."
"Asuka, what the fuck? What systems are you in?"
"Um… all of them? Okay dropping, will get your stuff back up when I have time!"
Across Japan, military hardware was resetting and reactivating under the singular authority of Tetragrammaton. Aircraft on the wing, artillery, tanks, missile batteries, anything within striking range of the angel Israfel brought their weapons to bear.
Inside the plug, surrounding by half a dozen empty syringes floating in the LCL, Asuka was nexus of it all.
"Overlay firing arcs, assign hit probability parameters, not enough data okay assign progressive analysis algorithm five-oh-one, run it through Caspar, that should give something workable after a couple shots if it even has a ranged attack. Okay set up GUI, display asset readiness, lets go with…."
Asuka was working furiously on a projected keyboard even as the evangelion fell to earth. Hundreds of icons formed a ring around her vision, each depicting the status of a unit or weapons systems under her command.
"Alright, lets do this!"
The keyboard disappeared and she grabbed the control yokes, willing the eva to land on its feet in a thundering earthquake. As it rose, a pistol in each hand, the angel stood towering before it. It resembled a crudely drawn human sheathed in silver skin, the top of its sloped shoulders rising above the evangelion's pylons.
Crusader raised its pistols and the angel stepped forward… right into a barrage of artillery fire that sent it reeling and clutching to protect its core.
"I am the incarnated might of the military industrial complex bitch! Welcome to my absolute territory!" Asuka roared, opening fire with her pistols. A second wave of artillery fire was already incoming, and the first wave of cruise missiles should arrive right after that.
The apartment blocks crumbled beneath her feet, making for loose footing as Kali mounted the final hill between her and the angel. The sensation as the spider's spawn crawled over her feet was disgusting. Blue arcs of current flowed over the armored skin of her chariot, taking care of any that dared climb too high.
Mace hand strikes broke the legs at ragged edges when Matareal got too close. The pieces made nice spears to gauge into its fleshy eyes. The screeching thing was just laying there, bleeding without any legs left, when Kali grabbed it by the bloody stumps, hauled it up then sunk one of the evangelion's hands through the biggest of the weeping eyes.
Vajra Shara
The angels eyes went first, crusting over in charred black flesh until the pressure from the boiling fluid within caused them to burst. The flesh began to turn to ash and fall off, until all that was left was the stump of one leg in one hand of the evangelion. With a final squeeze, that too crumbled into dust.
Kali breathed out sharply, flaring her nostrils inside the plug. How boring. She could still feel the angel's multitude of children skittering about within the city. HER followers were already moving in to handle it, this was beneath her. She did send out the message that their goddess would be most pleased with them if they took care of it before she had to become involved.
Shinji had realized it was coming underground when he could feel it under the harbor and saw not a single ripple in the water. Still he waded out into the water, because he could feel it coming closer but not really moving. That meant it was coming up.
Shinji did his best to push a message to the ship to move, brace, do something before the thing surfaced. He didn't know how well it transmitted, Kali was better at this sort of thing. He had little time to ponder it as the earth began to shake and water of the harbor started to boil.
It was rising, an earthquake its herald, and Shinji knew he had mere moments as he allowed his divine power to take over from his flesh and blood. Unit 01 raised one foot up, tracing a half circle then slashing straight down in a vicious ax kick just as the angel Sandelphon broke the bed of the bay. The evangelion's strike parted the waters and drove through the jaw the rising angel with golden light. It stopped the body of the thing dead, even as its ribbon like arms pushed forward.
The lord of destruction felt the living wound's fear, tasted its intent to retreat. He took hold of its arms and held fast until it could pull no more, then tore it from the steaming waters of the bay. Held aloft, it looked like a combination of an overgrown flat fish and a tapeworm, the pulped remains of its sucker-mouth weezing in the air.
Thou art a stain upon the rightness of the universe.
The evangelion roared and swung the angel by its arms, throwing it to the hills. The impact shook the city and the screech the angel of the unborn made in terror as the lord of destruction approached shattered buildings worth of glass in the city.
The angel was trying to right itself, to face its already healing mouth to the ground and escape in the warm embrace of the earth again, when Shiva reached it. Another kick tore into its flesh, pinning it by its own bones and skin on its back, exposed.
The purple giant raised one hand and clawed fingertips locked together into a knife hand. The angel screamed again and thrashed with alls its might, but the evangelion was unmoved.
You pervert the dharma by your very presence.
Tongues of AT field engulfed unit one's arm like fire and as the blow drove down, Sandelphon's flesh was flayed open and the core exposed. The strike stopped with two fingers sunk into the ruby core. The fire of divine power was gone until the gore glowed white hot then shattered and a wave of light tore through the angel's body. A flash of light like hellfire, and a second later there was nothing but the evangelion and a blighted and blackened hillside.
Asuka roared and screamed in laughter, Crusader a crimson and gold whirlwind between the divided halves of the angel. Where they struck, she was gone, and blade and bullet were already counter attacking, even as death rained down from the sky in artillery and aircraft fire.
The angels danced, but to her steps, her score. They moved within the paths she allowed with gaps in fire, dodged where she allowed them to dodge. She allowed each part a free approach, even as her guns went dry. She threw each pistol, just to make final correction to their doomed courses. And when she grabbed both by their cores and her blades drove them, it was in perfect harmony, at the exact same microsecond, that they exploded into pink fire.
"Hail to the queen, baby!"
Toji was out on the first Hind into the city. One of the angel's had brought something with it, just like the one at sea.
He had to be there, he had to protect his sister.
Toji was in charge of the other seven men in the chopper. Warthog would be riding out with the next flight. Each man had his rifle, his handgun, and whatever else he grabbed on the way out. Their uniforms and equipment were stillmixed, but they each wore the yellow color around their neck. There hadn't been time to distribute their few night vision devices and the only people who had body armor are the ones who brought it with them when they joined. Toji had his radio but the rest of his squad would have to make due with shouting for now.
"Sir." The pilot said. "I see a large civilian group on foot heading East on 13th."
"Look like they are running from something?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Then that's where we need to be. Put us down ahead of them."
"Aye aye."
As soon as the Hind touched down, Toji and his squad were out the ramp style hatch and on the ground. Toji waved the chopper off as soon as he could. He wanted more men on the ground and eyes in the air.
They were about a hundred yards out from the oncoming crowd. Toji got up on top of a car, to try and see what they were running from, and sent two men forward. The crowd was terrified, he could see that as they approached. The mass of bodies flowed past his advance guard, and then his men were gone.
The hell?... Where did they… Toji realized that there were two kinds of people in the crowd. A thin band of people at the front running away, and the enormous mass chasing them. Seconds later, his men were up, their guns hanging loose on their slings, joining the chase. Their helmets had been stripped off and there was something wrong with the back of their heads.
"Get out of the press!" He yelled "Hostiles in the crowd!"
Toji brought his rifle up and put a burst into a "chaser". The crazy eyed salaryman went down and Toji fired reflexively at the cat sized spider that was clamped to his back. The spider screeched when it was hit. The rear of the man's skull was an empty red bowl.
Toji switched his radio on and patched into helicopters' frequency. "Helo one, this is zero-three, I need immediate air support."
"Zero-three, pick your target."
Toji's men got the idea and started shooting chasers and the spiders riding them, but the enemy spanned the four lane street and went on as far as they could see. The shrieking of the spiders was constant..
"Helo one, enemy is… driving… dead civilian bodies. Everything past the front few rows are hostile. Danger close, I repeat, danger close."
"Understood, zero-three, target appears civilian… May the gods have mercy on our souls. Lining up now, on site in eight seconds"
"…"
"Zero-three, do you copy?"
"I copy helo one, fire free."
"Roger that."
The Hind brought down a hurricane of wind as it took position over his head and opened fire on the crowd with rockets and guns. Some perished in the explosions, other in the fireballs as cars caught incendiary cannon fire. Amongst the screams of the spiders, Toji heard a few much more human screams.
The programming, for lack of a better word, had taught him how to fight, even down to muscle memory. The training and certain psychological tools had made it trivial to not think of his enemies as people. But this was different. He had called down fire on the enemy, not knowing there were friendlies within the crowd. He did not waste time on thoughts of having done it differently. There was no other choice, even if he had known, he recognized that.
NERV's engineering did not teach him to deal with the cruel calculus of war.
Toji shook off his wandering mind. His men had cleaned up the chasers in front of the firing line. The street in front of them was an inferno of burnt out cars and charred flesh, but Toji could still see a few human bodies moving with humps on their backs and spiders moving around on their own, looking for serviceable hosts.
Toji ordered the remaining five squad members to take up position and start picking off the spiders… and give mercy to any humans casualties who still lived. The runners, the humans who let lived, had huddled together behind their line.
"Helo one, I have civilian survivors here, looks like a couple casualties. Do you have an ETA for incoming hostiles?"
"Zero-three, I think you have about a 6 minute buffer, I don't see any masses heading this way."
"Share what we saw, go back and get more men. We build an FOB here. We can start evac-ing civilians once we secure the area."
"Aye aye, zero-three."
"Hey, Helo-one, one more thing. Anything near the hospital?"
"Not that I see zero-three. The other group was dropped in that area though."
"Thanks Helo-one, see you in a few."
Toji was getting ready to check on the civilians when he saw a familiar looking body on the ground. It was part of the leading wave of chasers that they took down before the Hind returned.
It was female, teenager by the size. The clothes, especially the back he saw with the corpse face down, were soaked in blood. It was the remaining hair that got his eye. The things, where they dug in, was from the bottom, near where the spinal column connected. It left the face and top of the head intact, something Toji filed away as evidence of psychological warefare.
This head's hair was in two long pigtails, held up by ties with violet beads on them.
Toji approached with his weapon up and poked the body in the shoulder a few times, just to be sure, before flipping it over with the tow of his boot.
"Oh for fuck's sake…" Toji said, turning away.
It was Horaki, the class rep from last year. Dammit, and he had liked her too. Not enough to say anything,i t took a lot for him to want to even try, but how do you open a conversation like that. Oh hey, I'm a nationally ranked karate champion but what I really want to do is frowned upon… yeah not happening.
Toji shook his head, cursing quietly to himself as he headed over to check on the civvies. Looked like fifteen of them, couple were bleeding but nothing serious looking. Nobody out of shape. All of them had survived by being able to run longer and faster than their neighbors, their friends, their families. As he passed, one tugged on his pant leg. She looked right around his own age, and had a nasty cut on her cheek. Her short hair, it was a light red, framed her face.
"Hey, you okay?" Toji said, taking his support hand off his weapon and offering it to her.
"I want a gun."
"What do you need a gun for?" Toji asked. Poor girl had probably seen everyone who made up her life die. He wouldn't blame her for considering ending it, but he wasn't going to help or have the moral disaster of her doing it here.
"I want to fight."
"Listen, I need you to stay here, okay? We'll kill the monsters. You want to sign up, you can do it afterwards." Toji said. The girl caught up and started walking away, back towards the carnage.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"To fight!" She yelled back at him. There was fire in her eyes and she walked with stomping feet, her hands in fists thrust down against her sides.
"You don't have a weapon." Toji said, walking after her. He reached out to grab her by the shoulder, but she spun around and swatted at his hand.
"I'll find something! I don't care what happens, as long as I can kill one of those things!" She screamed. TOji could see the tears forming in her eyes, but as she turned away he grabbed her by the wrist, twisting her arm around her behind her back.
"Hey! You want to fight? I can get you fighting, but right now, I can't have anyone wandering around because it could mean more people dying." Toji said, marching her back to the group of survivors. When he let go, he spun her around by the shoulder.
"Hold out your arm, now!"
The girl did as she was told, shocked by the barked order. Toji took the yellow scarf from around his neck and tied it around her bicep.
"What's your name?" He asked as he finished the knot.
"Mana… Mana Kirishima."
"Do you swear on your life to fight the angels and defend mankind?"
"Y-yes!"
"Then welcome to the company cadet Kirishima. I'm Sergeant Suzuhara. Your first orders are to check these people for injuries and treat them best you can. Make sure they do not wander. A helicopter will be coming soon with more men. There should be a medic among them, he will expect your report. Understood?"
"Y-yeah, I can do that."
"What was that cadet?!"
Mana's feet shot together and she raised her hand in an attempt at a salute. "Yes sir!"
"I'm a sergeant, don't give me that sir shit."
"Yes, sergeant!"
An hour later, and NERV's blindness continued. They relied on phones in reports from MSF to get a picture of the surface. Attempts to raise Asuka had gone unanswered.
"Ma'am, MSF reports continued blue pattern activity, though much reduced from initial signals. Their theory is the angels are attempting to jam our sensors to mask something else. Once we have MAGI back, we should be able to narrow down the data again to any remaining angels."
"Would someone care to explain how a third party has sensors tuned for detecting angels in the first place?" Commander Ikari said from high on his perch above the bridge.
"A question for another time…" Misato said. "What about the pilots?"
"MSF reports they were able to access the autonomous umbilical stations with the pilots' assistance. Eva's are charging and the pilots are on standby outside the machines. JSSDF reports recovery of the second child from Unit Two, but the unit's battieres are totally drained and it will be some time before accommodations can be made to recharge or transport the unit."
A make shift dock had been made by very gently seating the evangelions on two buildings, back to back with a third in between them at shoulder height. The gap was well within jumping distance for the pilots. A helicopter had brought personnel and a tent, and more importantly food.
"Yet more lurk." Kali said. Her skin had turned back to pale white, and as she had grown accustomed to in such times, she wore a cloth tied about her waist as a skirt, and another across her breasts.
"Yeah… Can't tell where though. Its like a bunch of gnats buzzing around and trying to pick just one out."
"Yes. They fight by deception. They fear us."
Shinji shook his head. He was seated on an overturned crate, still in his plug suit, his elbows resting on his knees. "Its not fear, this is calculated. They could have another surprise or they are just trying to exhaust us waiting."
Kali hmphed and crossed her arms, looking out of the flap of the long tent at the darkness. "It matters not, when they come we will slaughter them all. Then we purge the unworthy from this world and bring the true way back and teach them to fear gods once again."
"What's gotten into you?"
"What do you mean, 'whats gotten into me'? That is our mission."
"Our mission, beloved, is to defeat this enemy. I want to make the world a better place, do what we can to fix what we can, don't misunderstand. We should help as much as we can, but if we go to far, where will they be when we die?"
"We don't die, we are gods."
"We are avatars. We are a tiny fraction of godly power. We live human lives with human minds and human bodies. One day these bodies will stop."
"You've become too human."
"Where did that come from?" Shinji said, standing now across from her. "We are human, Rei…"
"Don't call me that name! I am the dark mother of creation, not an insipid child."
"She was not… I mean, you aren't…" Shinji stopped and collected his thoughts. "I fell in love with Rei Ayanami."
"No, you remembered your love for me and forgot your weakness!"
"I have forgotten nothing." Shinji sighed. "I remember being weak very keenly. I became strong, that doesn't mean I was never weak."
"Bah. Shinji Ikari was weak, you never were."
"I am Shinji Ikari! I lived my life before I ever knew what I was. Now that I know, that doesn't change my identity."
"And this is what I mean when I say you've become too human. You have confused the life of an insect for your own, Shiva."
"This is my life! What happened to you? What happened to Rei Ayanami?"
Kali clicked her tongue and spat. "I left that stupid girl behind me as soon as I could. Her identity serves no further purpose."
"What?" Shinji said.
"Its not like you needed any more mollycoddling." Kali said, then turned and walked outside. She stood beneath the stars, the city lights dimmed enough to truly see them. Weapons fire rang out from the streets below as MSF fought the spider parasites.
"I am Kali, I am the true power of the universe, she who takes the god of destruction as her consort!"
Shinji had followed out and Kali turned to face him, her arms spread wide.
"Enemies come from above, martyr's die below! Is this not the best of all possible worlds?"
Shinji looked at her, his jaw set and eyes hard.
"What? Why do you look at me so?"
"I want to talk to Rei Ayanami."
"Weren't you listening? I discarded that insect."
Shinji's eyes began to glow.
I will speak to her NOW, I command it
Rei fell to her hands and knees on the rooftop, breathing heavily. Shinji was at her side at once, holding her and helping her up.
"What happened?"
"I…" The girl said, hanging limply in his arms for a moment until she caught her breath. "I don't know. She… my power scares me. Its like trying to take a sip from the sea. I only want to use a little, but then it hits like a wave and I… I'm not me anymore."
Shinji held onto her hands as she stood on her own. They stood together like that, Hands over each other's between them. Shinji could feel Rei's hand shaking in his grasp.
"Warrior… I'm scared."
"Hey… we can handle this, okay? I can make her go away if she gets in control again and we can work on it, okay?"
"Okay." Rei said with a sad smile. Shinji smiled back and touched his forehead to hers.
"I love you, wildflower."
"I love you too warrior."
They separated for the smallest bit and tiled their heads to kiss. Both closed their eyes…
On a hill not so far away, with perfect red eyes, the angel of free will watched as the destroyer and his lady had their moment. It would be truly something, and well within their power, to survive and move past this. To reconcile the 'dark mother' persona with the more reasonable human side.
"Can't have that now…" Kaworu said. His many friends had left, but for one little red light that still sat on his shoulder.
"Are you ready for your special part, little buddy?"
The light bounced up and down as if to nod and Kaworu brought his guitar up.
"Its all over and I'm standing pretty, where should be dust, there stands a city. I look to find a souvenir, just to prove that we were here. And here it is a red balloon…"
Kaworu let go of the bridge and held out one finger, pointed at the city with his thumb towards the sky. The last little red light fluttered out and landed on his fingertip.
"I think of you, and let it go…"
Shinji yearned for the familiar touch of Rei's lips. He knew how they felt, and he missed them.
Instead, he felt a great rush of air, heat, and hot liquid splattered over himself. He opened his eyes and held her hands… and that was all.
Her hands were in his fingers… and there was nothing else. Her wrists had been burnt shut, no blood flowed. He slowly scanned the rooftop, and there was nothing. No tent, no machinery, just a long black streak from where her feet had been, all the way to the far roof edge.
Shinji's mind was not working, not processing any of it. It just was and he hadn't caught up yet. Far, far to his right, he felt a presence and looked to it. Somehow, miles away, his eyes focused on a lone figure on a hilltop.
Ashen hair, crimson eyes and a smile…
Shiva the destroyer looked upon the hands he held. All that remained of that which he treasured most in this world. Then he regarded the figure on the hill. No matter how far he spread the light of his soul, he could feel no trace of the avatar of his beloved.
"Boom." Tabris said, his hand cocked up like a fired gun. "Headshot."
End