Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.
Chapter Thirteen: Lingering Fears
In the past, Misato had gone to a lot of different places with Kaji, some very romantic, others not so much.
The dark alley where she found herself meeting him now definitely fit into the "not so much" category.
"I seem to remember you having better taste in venues," she grumbled as she walked up to him.
He was standing beneath the fire escape of the building he was currently leaning up against, and while the shadow it cast did little to really conceal his features (it was the middle of the day, after all), it did give him an air of mystery.
This, combined with the way he was smoking a cigarette, made Misato think he was deliberately aiming for the whole "Deepthroat" look.
"Chiron's having me watched wherever I go, on the pretext of protecting NERV's Operations Director," Kaji informed her. "I had to slip away for this, so meeting you in a nice bar just really wasn't in the cards."
"I'll have you know I quit drinking," she grumbled.
"Oh, right, I forgot."
"And couldn't you have made it look like were just meeting some place casually, as friends?" she asked. "That wouldn't arouse too much suspicion."
"True, but I didn't want Section Two to know I've had any contact with you, outside of any communication we have at work, which they can monitor, of course," he said.
"Fine, whatever," she finally relented. Then, in a lower voice, "So, you know something about where Fuyutski really is?"
Kaji nodded. "The Commanders had some sort of…falling out with the Committee," he said. "I don't know as many of the details as I'd like."
Misato frowned. "So you're saying the Committee's response was to kidnap him?" she whispered.
Kaji nodded.
"Doesn't sound like the sort of thing a UN subcommittee would do," Misato remarked.
"There's more to the Committee than meets the eye," Kaji said darkly.
Misato all but rolled her eyes. "My, but we're being cryptic, aren't we?" she asked.
Kaji shrugged and gave her a crooked smile. "One of the few perks of my job, and I don't mean the Ops Director post," he said. "So far as I can tell, that job has no perks."
Misato couldn't refrain from smirking. "Tell me about it," she said but quickly grew serious again. "So, I hope you didn't ask me to come here just so you could be obnoxiously mysterious."
"No, I can obnoxiously mysterious at NERV headquarters," Kaji quipped.
"So, what are you going to tell me, smartass?" Misato asked.
"I can give you Fuyutski's location," Kaji said. "If you promise to tell me anything he should happen to tell you during the rescue."
"No promise to come back alive?" Misato asked.
"I have faith you'd do that whether I told you to or not," Kaji said.
"That may be the nicest thing you've ever said to me," Misato smirked. "Okay, I agree to your terms. Now, spill."
The silence in the apartment was deafening.
Normally, Shinji didn't have a problem with quiet. Just the opposite, in fact; he tended to relish it, especially since he came to Tokyo-3 and moments of peace had become all too rare.
Yet ever since the Fifteenth Angel had attacked…
He shuddered at the memory and commanded himself, again, not to think about it. As usual, he wasn't very successful when it came to bossing himself around.
He had thought it was a real slap on the wrist when his father had punished his insubordination with a day in solitary confinement, but it had turned out to be quite the penalty indeed; it had given him a solid 24 hours to do nothing but think about the battle.
The Angel had not managed to truly enter his mind—frankly, he didn't even want to imagine about how much of a mess he'd be if it had. However, it had come close, and that had shaken him to his core.
The mind was supposed to be sacred. It was supposed to be the one place where, no matter what happened, his secrets would be safe, inviolate unless he gave them voice or else somehow recorded them in a way others could get at.
He had always valued that, and he had only come to value it more since coming to Tokyo-3. Shinji had had many thoughts he wasn't proud of over the course of his life, and they had only multiplied in number since he'd been pressed into piloting Evangelion that first time; it was probably inevitable for someone in his situation, but that didn't make it right.
He'd had revenge fantasies. He had nursed cowardly desires both simple and elaborate. He had imagined himself just boarding a train and leaving Tokyo-3 more times than he could count, abandoning the others to fight the Angels without Unit One. In his darkest moments, Shinji had even thought about performing that ultimate act of running away and ending it all for good.
He had always taken all these urges as proof that he was a coward, and that something was wrong with him, which was bad enough. However, the mere thought of another seeing them in all their wretchedness…
He shivered.
With a great effort, the Third Child pulled himself back to the task at hand, which was setting out lunch on the kitchen table.
"Food's ready," he called.
Asuka emerged from her room and sat down at the table. "Thanks," she said, before she started to eat at a sedate pace.
Normally, getting a word of gratitude from the redhead was practically cause for celebration, but at the moment, Shinji would have much preferred some loud insult or complaint about his cooking. Anything other than the subdued attitude Asuka was currently displaying.
It was bad that he was so shaken by what had happened, but seeing the German pilot like this was even worse. For all her flaws, Shinji had always thought that Asuka was very brave, so seeing her so badly affected was a sign that the Angel's attack really was that terrifying.
Yet even that wasn't the worst part.
"Asuka," he spoke up abruptly.
She looked surprised. "What?" she asked.
He hesitated, then finally said, "Nothing. Never mind."
Asuka hmphed and turned her attention back to her food.
Shinji shook his head at his own cowardice, but he didn't bother to try again. In the end, he just didn't seem to have the nerve to ask her if she thought any of the next Angels might be able to invade their minds like the Fifteenth had tried to do.
He was afraid she'd think, like he did, that it was very possible.
Having done special ops in some of the most dangerous parts of the post-Impact world for several years prior to joining NERV, Misato was no stranger to infiltrating enemy bases.
Even so, busting into the facility where Fuyutski was being kept was something of a new experience for her. She was used to getting into the strongholds of Third World warlords, who usually located their headquarters in the middle of nowhere, not the middle of modern urban centers.
She'd have to worry about collateral damage, not to mention law enforcement coming after her, if she blundered too badly.
"Ring, scan that building and give me a display of its defenses," Misato ordered, standing a safe distance away from the compound, which looked like an ordinary warehouse from the street.
The band of green metal was silent for a moment. Then, an emerald hologram appeared above it, highlighting everything that would be of interest to a would-be infiltrator such as herself.
There were a lot of things to highlight.
"Wow," Misato commented to herself, letting out a low whistle.
Though there was a surprisingly small number of guards around the compound (the smaller the staff, the fewer potential leaks, she supposed), it was clear that the Committee had spared absolutely no expense. Security cameras, motion detectors, and heat sensors were present all around and throughout the facility. The handful of guards were armed to the teeth and had been positioned for maximum effect, ensuring that no intruder could go through the facility without running into them.
Of course, none of that would be a problem for Green Lantern, Misato thought. So it really stinks that I can't do this as Green Lantern.
Kaji was a lot of things, but stupid definitely wasn't one of them. If he learned that the jade superwoman had liberated Fuyutski—and she had no doubt he would find out about the details of the Vice Commander's escape somehow—it would take him about two seconds to figure out that she was Green Lantern.
She wasn't entirely sure what he'd do with that information. The Kaji she'd known from college didn't have the malice in him to use it for something potentially wicked, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.
After all, back when they'd been in college, he hadn't been a spy, and she hadn't been the Ops Director. Back then, Misato never would've imagined that she could order teenagers to go to war, so who was she to say what Kaji was capable of doing now, if it was for a cause he felt was ultimately justified?
No, she definitely had to do this without any obvious use of her ring.
"Not enough time to be delicate," she decided, muttering to herself as she put on the black ski mask she'd brought with her and checked her Heckler & Koch to make sure the safety was off. "Guess I'll have to use the direct approach."
The sight of Gendo Ikari and Rei Ayanami walking through the hallways of NERV headquarters together was not unusual. Indeed, prior to the war, when the Commander had had significantly more time available, it had been so common that several people had started referring to Rei as Ikari's "pet" pilot.
Following that, some…exceedingly ugly rumors had started.
Gendo had made a point of discharging or otherwise firing anyone caught repeating said rumors, so while there were no doubt people in NERV who still believed them, no one dared to speak them aloud any longer.
Regardless of this bit of ugliness, one thing that most people noted, if they worked at NERV long enough, was that about the only time it was possible to see either of them smiling was when they were in each other's company. Indeed, it was usually a pretty safe bet that they would both look pretty happy whenever they got to spend time together under more or less casual circumstances.
Usually.
Lately, each of them had been noticing a change in the other. Gendo had observed that Rei was increasingly coming very close to actually talking back, a trend he found to be both disturbing and irritating, but which he'd had little time to deal with recently.
For her own part, Rei had noticed that Gendo was becoming colder and more brusque around her. It troubled her, and it made her wonder if this was the way that he appeared to everyone else.
"The Green Lantern was the one who defeated the last Angel," he commented. "Not NERV."
"Yes," Rei agreed, as there was no point in arguing that fact, even if she'd been inclined to; it was just the simple, undeniable truth.
"With Pilot Soryu neutralized by the Angel's attack, and Pilot Ikari was refusing to obey orders, you were the only pilot focusing on the Angel," Gendo continued.
"Yes," Rei agreed again, not at all certain where he was going with this line of conversation.
"You should have done better," he said.
Rei blinked. "I was unable to acquire a target lock because the equipment was not designed for—"
"Are you arguing with me?" Gendo interrupted her, his voice practically a growl.
The blue-haired pilot hesitated a moment, caught by surprise. Though Commander Ikari was often a demanding leader, it was unlike him to lay the blame at his underlings' feet when the problem was obviously something else, such as an inadequate targeting computer.
"No," she answered eventually, "I was attempting to point out that—"
"Stop talking," he commanded her curtly.
Rei immediately fell silent.
For a long moment, Gendo simply glared coldly at her, and for the first time, the First Child found herself truly understanding many of the things that the rank and file NERV personnel said about the Commander behind his back.
"I expect you to do better next time," he said. "If you do not…well, don't forget that you can be replaced."
Rei inhaled sharply, almost but not quite gasping.
That she could be replaced if she died—that she indeed had been replaced once already—was something he had never kept from her. However, in the past, it had always been just a simple fact of her existence, not a…a…
A threat, a little voice in her head finished.
Emotions she couldn't immediately identify but definitely didn't enjoy surged through her; her hands curled into fists as her palms started to sweat, and her heartbeat accelerated while her stomach roiled.
"I understand," she said softly.
Gendo continued to glare at her for moment, then he abruptly turned his gaze downwards to look at his gloved hand, an expression of surprise on his face.
"Excuse me," he said brusquely.
Feeling shaken by the encounter, Rei was only too willing to let him leave.
It might have just been her confusion at his unusual behavior, but when he had threatened her, she thought that his eyes had looked…yellow.
"Your time is up, Fuyutski," SEELE 01 announced grimly.
"Already?" the Vice Commander quipped. "It feels like I haven't been here for very long at all."
It was probably the single largest and most blatant lie he'd ever told. Though he had no way of tracking exactly how much time had passed since he'd been abducted by SEELE's forces, it had definitely felt like an eternity. He'd lost track of the number of times he'd found himself in this miserable room, tied to a folding chair and surrounded by the council's holographic avatars. He'd started to have nightmares about giant dominoes falling on him and crushing him.
You'd think that a group of men as supposedly important as SEELE would have better things to do with their time, he mused.
"Impertinent right to the bitter end, Fuyutski?" SEELE 11 sneered.
"Why not?" the Vice Commander asked, sighing tiredly. "It's not like you won't kill me if I just act respectful and afraid of all of you."
"No, but we won't kill you if you simply answer our questions," SEELE 08 spoke up.
Fuyutski remained stonily silent.
"Come now, Professor," SEELE 08 said, sounding like reasonableness personified. "Why should you have to die to protect Gendo Ikari? What has he ever done to deserve such loyalty from you?"
Fuyutski couldn't help but snicker slightly at that. In all honestly, Gendo had done little or nothing to gain his loyalty. The man had gotten Fuyutski to join NERV when the old professor had gone to confront him so many years ago through threats and intimidation as much as anything else. Since then, the two had developed a relationship that was difficult to truly call friendship even on its best days; they were more like allies working toward a common goal, their interactions always maintaining a professional air to them.
It also didn't help that Ikari liked to give him the most boring jobs, like meeting with the city council, which existed largely for show and had no real power.
Yet what the eighth member of SEELE was completely failing to grasp was that it wasn't about Ikari for him. It wasn't even about saving his own increasingly wrinkled hide, anymore, obviously.
These days, it was about stopping SEELE, because while Fuyutski wouldn't have described Ikari's plans for Third Impact as good or beneficial to the human race, they were one hell of a lot better than what the shadowy cabal had planned. After everything he'd been through, the lesser of two evils seemed like the best possible outcome.
Also…he had hopes that he'd get to see Yui, just one more time, before the end.
"One last chance, Fuyutski," SEELE 01 spoke up when the old professor didn't say anything. "Answer our questions now, or face the consequences."
Fuyutski stayed silent.
"Very well," SEELE 01 said. "Call the—"
The identity of the person Keel planned to summon would forever remain a mystery, because at that very moment the holographic monoliths quietly vanished from existence. The solitary light shining directly down on Fuyutski went dark as well; someone had cut the power.
Only moments later, he heard the sounds of people shouting from somewhere nearby in the building. This was soon followed by the roar of gunfire.
Shortly after that, the door to the holographic meeting chamber opened, allowing light to stream in. Fuyutski winced slightly as it hurt his eyes, but he forced himself to look at his rescuer.
The woman (and she was definitely a woman; the black top she was wearing did nothing to show off her assets, but they were obviously apparent all the same), was wearing a black ski mask and holding a smoking pistol.
Since Fuyutski had known he couldn't expect Kaji to come and get him, he suppose this mystery woman was as good a rescuer or any. That was, of course, assuming she wasn't actually his executioner.
"Hello," he greeted her mildly. "Have you come to save me?"
"Yes," she answered in a surprisingly low voice that he didn't recognize at all, and despite himself, Fuyutski felt a significant amount of tension leave his shoulders. "But first I want some damn answers."
"You're not the first," he commented.
She ignored the remark and went to the task of untying him. "Why the hell are you even here to begin with?" she demanded. "It's not exactly the UN's style to abduct people like this."
Whoever this woman was, Fuyutski mused, she didn't know enough about the situation to ask the questions he really didn't want to answer.
"The Human Instrumentality Committee is more than just a part of the UN," Fuyutski answered. "Much more."
"How much more?" the woman demanded.
"They're the tail that wags the dog. The power behind the throne. Pick whatever figure of speech you want," he shrugged as the ropes holding him finally went slack and half fell off of him. "The truth is, they have power over the rest of the rest of the organization."
"That still doesn't explain why they kidnapped you," she pointed out.
"The Committee has begun to suspect that Ikari has a different endgame planned for the conclusion of the war than they do," Fuyutski explained as he stood up.
"A different endgame," the woman repeated. "Not different ideas on how to run the war, or even different ideas on what to use the Evangelions for after it's over."
"That's right."
"Isn't everybody's goal to save the damn world by stopping the Angels?" she asked.
Despite his best efforts, Fuyutski smirked a little. "You don't know very much about what's really going on, do you?" he asked.
Before she could retort, the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard in the halls outside.
"Damn," she hissed, grabbing her gun and reloading it with quick, practiced motions. "Come on, Fuyutski, it's time to go."
It had taken Gendo several minutes to reach his office after his encounter with Rei. As the Commander of NERV, he often found people coming to him with questions on how to proceed with one issue or another, and that seemed to happen with an extremely annoying frequency as he made his way to the one place in headquarters where he felt completely safe.
Finally, however, he made it back to his office. After locking the door behind him, he wasted no time in pulling off his glove, revealing the yellow power ring he still wore.
As he'd suspected, it once again glowed with a golden light, much like it had when it had first flown through his window and placed itself upon his finger.
"You have power again?" he asked.
"Affirmative," it answered him. "Power levels at 0.01 percent."
Hardly a full charge, but that was certainly more than he'd had before.
"How?" he asked.
"It is possible to marginally charge this ring by invoking fear in others, or experiencing and understand it within yourself," it answered. "However, to obtain a full charge, the power battery is required. Do you wish this ring to resume guiding you to its location?"
Having already tried that once with less than stellar results, Gendo wasn't keen on the notion of using the ring as a GPS again.
"Give me the coordinates of its location," he said instead.
Glowing golden numbers immediately appeared in the empty air above his ring, and Gendo retrieved a pad and paper, quickly copying them down.
He could go immediately, he mused. There was nothing of extreme importance that needed his attention that day, and once he had the yellow power battery, his options for dealing with both Green Lantern and SEELE multiply tenfold.
The phone on his desk rang. Scowling, Gendo picked it up.
"Ikari here," he growled.
"Ikari, it's me," Fuyutski replied. "I've been liberated."
"Obviously," Gendo replied, expertly hiding his surprise.
He hadn't sent anyone to rescue Fuyutski; SEELE had infiltrated NERV thoroughly enough that he couldn't do it without the old men knowing, and he couldn't openly act against them without igniting a powder keg. He could've told Chiron to relax his watch on Kaji, but after Section Two had kept such a close eye on their new Operations Director for so long, that would've been just as blatant a move as sending one of his own agents.
"Where are you?" he asked.
"On my way to headquarters," Fuyutski answered. "I'll be there in less than a half an hour."
"Understood," Gendo replied, hanging up the phone.
He probably should've been glad that the closest thing he had in the world to a friend had escaped confinement and was on his way back. However, all Gendo felt was annoyance at the fact that he now had to wait a bit longer before retrieving the power battery. Questioning Fuyutski about what he'd endured, learning what he might have revealed to SEELE, and planning what to do next were not activities that could wait.
He looked at the set of the coordinates he'd written down. A quick check confirmed that they were in the mountains outside the city, the middle of nowhere. The battery would surely still be there in a few hours.
"Soon," he promised himself, slipping the precious piece of paper into his pocket. "Soon."
Misato was not exactly feeling joyful and triumphant when she returned to her apartment that afternoon; though she had rescued Fuyutski, she had gotten more questions than answers from the entire excursion.
What on Earth could the Commander and the Committee be planning to do at the end of the war? She wondered. What is there to do?
She wasn't naïve enough to think that once the threat of the Angels had passed, the world powers would happily decommission EVA technology and never touch it again. However, Fuyutski had made it quite clear that he was taking about something besides a post-war scramble to control the technology NERV had had to develop to counter the Angels.
As if she didn't have enough to worry about with those damned monsters, the humans apparently planned on making trouble, too.
It didn't help her attitude that Kaji had clearly already known everything she'd told him when she'd recapped what Fuyutski had told her for him.
Feels like everyone knows more about what's going on than me sometimes, she thought irritably.
"I'm home," she called grumpily as she entered the apartment.
"Welcome home," Shinji replied, his voice barely higher than a whisper.
The subject of the shadow war that the Commander and the Committee were apparently waging abruptly left her mind for the moment as she took a look at her charge. Though pots were simmering on the stove, whatever he was cooking apparently didn't require much attention, because he was seated at the kitchen table, doing homework.
This by itself was hardly cause for concern, of course. What did get her worried was the almost palpable aura of gloom around him. He had been…subdued ever since the last Angel, as had Asuka, but she hadn't realized he was so down.
"Shinji, are you okay?" she asked, sliding off her shoes and then plopping down in the chair next to his.
"I'm fine, Misato," he said softly, not looking up from his book. "Why do you ask?"
"Mostly because of the dark cloud hanging over you," she said.
He grimaced, finally turning to look at her. "It's that obvious?" he asked.
Misato nodded. "Yeah, it is," she said. "So, spill. What's wrong? I thought that Green Lantern stopped that Angel before it could get into your mind."
"She did," Shinji said, "but it was a close thing, and it was so damn scary to have something trying to get into my head like that. I mean, you tend to think of your mind as a safe place."
Misato nodded. After her battle with Tokita, she could certainly appreciate the visceral horror that came with being on the receiving end of a telepathic assault.
"So you've been so down because the last battle left you shaken?" Misato asked dubiously, thinking that Shinji should've been getting better rather than worse if that was the case.
"No," he confessed softly.
"Then what's bothering you?" she asked gently. "Please tell me, Shinji."
"You know how each new Angel is usually stronger and more dangerous than the one that came before it?" he asked. "I can't stop worrying that the next one will have an attack like that, only this one will be more powerful. I don't know how I'll be able to pilot next time."
Wordlessly, Misato wrapped her arms around him, embracing him gently. She sighed softly, "You don't know how much I wish I could tell you don't have to pilot ever again, or at least promise you that none of the other Angels will attack your minds like the Fifteenth did," she said.
"It…it's okay, Misato," he said rather awkwardly. "I know you can't do those things, and I didn't expect you to have some magic solution to this…issue." He chuckled weakly. "I mean, how could you explain to me how I'm supposed to get over this? It's not like you've ever had this problem. You're not afraid of anything."
A bitter smile appeared on her face. "That's where you're wrong, Shinji," she said. "I've been afraid of lots of stuff in the past. Still am, in fact. I know what it's like to deal with fear."
He looked up at her, his dark blue eyes cautiously hopeful. "How do you do it?"
She sighed. "It's not easy, and it never gets easy," she admitted. "But I let my fears control me too much in the past, and the consequences were always bad. Sometimes really, really bad. It helps me to remember that no matter how scary something might seem, things always turn out worse when I don't overcome my fears. Plus I try to remember what I'm doing it all for. That helps, too." She added, smiling slightly.
"It's that simple, huh?" Shinji asked.
"Yeah, it really is," Misato nodded. "Unfortunately, just because it's simple doesn't mean it's not difficult as hell."
"Very true," Shinji agreed with a small, rueful smile.
"So, feeling better?" she asked.
"A little," he said. "You know, Asuka was really freaked out, too. I don't know if she's worried about the next Angel, too, but it wouldn't surprise me."
"I'll have a talk with her, too," Misato promised.
That was one conversation she definitely wasn't looking forward to; it would be quite the challenge just getting Asuka to admit that the Fifteenth Angel had had any significant effect on her. Honestly, sometimes she thought that the redhead's greatest fear was admitting she had fears.
Before she could contemplate the thought further, her cell phone went off. Wondering who could be calling, she reached into her pocket for it. However, before she could even touch the phone, Shinji's went off as well, and she knew that it was NERV on the other end of the line.
It looked like Shinji and Asuka would have to confront their fears sooner than they might have expected.
"What's the status of the city?" Kaji asked from the second tier of the command center.
"Transformation into wartime configuration is complete," Maya reported. "Over ninety percent of the civilian population is in the shelters. The rest should arrive there in under two minutes."
"The pilots have just reached their Evangelions," Makoto added. "We can launch whenever you give the word."
Kaji did his best to keep a scowl off his face. He really detested being the Ops Director, he mused as he scanned the command center for Misato. Unfortunately, after getting Shinji and Asuka to base, she seemed to have disappeared.
He knew that she'd been shaken by her own actions at Mount Asuma, but she really needed to get over it, at least enough to show up and help him at times like these.
"What's the status of the Angel?" he asked. "Have the MAGI been able to determine anything useful about it yet?"
"Negative, sir. The MAGI are still analyzing what data we've been able to collect, but they've been unable to reach any conclusions about it yet," Makoto said. "And it's still holding position above the city."
Kaji nodded, silently looking at the main screen, where an image of the Sixteenth Angel was displayed. This one had taken the form of a massive, glowing double helix that formed a great ring in the sky.
The long haired man decided that he hated it already. Experience had shown that it was the stranger Angels that NERV really needed to watch out for.
"Director Kaji, have you forgotten that we're in the business of killing the Angels?" Fuyutski asked testily from his place alongside Gendo on the command center's top tier.
"No, sir," Kaji said, wondering if whatever SEELE had done to him had made the old professor grumpy. "Status of civilian evacuation?" he asked Makoto.
"The entire populace has made it to the bunkers," the bespectacled man answered.
"Then launch the Evangelions," he said quietly.
Instantly, the electromagnetic lifts in headquarters fired, sending the trio of giant war machines hurtling up toward the surface.
"Shinji, Asuka, Rei, this is Kaji," he said, pushing a button to open a communications link. "Unfortunately, we need to send you up blind again, so proceed with caution, and be ready to help each other."
"Roger," they all replied in unison, Shinji and Asuka sounding a little too shaky for his liking.
Damn, if only this one hadn't shown up so soon after the last one, he thought.
The three Evangelions reached the surface, heads snapping up with the force of inertia as their rapid ascent came to an abrupt halt. The manacles holding their feet to the lifts opened, and the air shimmered around them as the pilots willed their AT fields to life.
The Angel responded instantly to the presence of the invisible barriers. Its endless spinning over the city came to an abrupt halt, and the double helixes composing its body came together, transforming it into one glowing blue whole. A break appeared in its body, changing it from a ring into a luminous rope.
A deep hush fell over both the command center and Tokyo-3 itself for just a moment then, as the Evangelions and the Angel seemed to size one another up.
Then Unit Zero charged forward, its pallet rifle blazing with gunfire.
The Angel lashed out at the blue EVA with all the speed and ferocity of a viper, ignoring the massive shells which bounced harmlessly off its body. Unit Zero tried to dodge, but next to the Angel, the EVA was clumsy and slow.
The glowing blue rope plunged into Unit Zero's torso like some kind of particularly vicious parasite attempting to burrow into its host's body, ignoring the Evangelion's tough armor like it wasn't even there. The sound of Rei screaming could be heard throughout the command center, and red warning messages started to flash all over the smaller screens.
"Severe damage to Unit Zero!" Aoba reported. "Mental contamination is imminent!"
"Rei!" Gendo shouted in alarm. "Rei, are you all right?"
"It is…invading me," Rei answered, her voice tight with pain.
Unnoticed by everyone in the command center, the other two EVA pilots' eyes widened with horror.
"Shinji! Asuka! Get in there and help Rei!" Kaji ordered.
Units One and Two didn't move.
"Shinji? Asuka?" Kaji asked.
Communications windows popped up on the main screen, showing the two pilots, and the new Ops Director couldn't help but wince. Both Shinji and Asuka looked frozen with terror.
Kaji felt almost paralyzed himself at seeing that. Though he had dealt with Asuka for some time, helping her conquer her fears was something he had never really had to do before. He had no idea how to help a pair of terrified and traumatized teenagers snap out of such a state, least of all in the space of a mere few seconds.
"Sir, radar has picked up a bogey coming in from the south," Aoba spoke up.
"Do we have any idea what it is?" Kaji asked.
"It's tiny, too tiny for any known airplane," Aoba said. "I think…yes, it's the Green Lantern."
Kaji did his best not to let the Commanders see just how relieved he was.
As he watched the screen, she streaked forward, looking like a tiny emerald comet traveling across the sky. Once she was near enough to the Angel, she released a volley of jade blasts from her ring, all of which struck the glowing thing without fail, drawing blood in several places.
Despite having no mouth, the Angel shrieked in pain and rage, an awful, inhuman sound that sent chills down the spine of everyone listening. However, the glowing blue rope pulled away from Unit Zero, which had no doubt been Green Lantern's intent. Kaji grimaced when he saw the azure Evangelion; most of the armor on its torso was just gone, and there was a bleeding wound on its front. He wasn't the least bit surprised when it slumped forward and then went still.
"Status of Pilot Ayanami?" he asked.
"She's unconscious but alive, and her vitals are stable," Maya reported. "Synchronization level is zero. Unit Zero has deactivated."
Kaji nodded in acknowledgement as he watched the Angel chase Green Lantern through the sky. Despite how minute a target the jade superwoman was, the Angel was coming dangerously close to striking her, the damn thing was so fast and agile.
Then, a beam of emerald light burst from her ring, quickly forming what looked like—of all things—a giant dog collar, which quickly clamped down around the Angel near one end of the glowing rope. Impossible though it might have seemed, the Green Lantern's construct managed to stop the Angel's advance toward her. It thrashed wildly, almost resembling a bucking bronco, but despite how desperately it tried, it couldn't close the distance between itself and Green Lantern.
Kaji was just starting to feel cautiously hopeful when the Angel got smart.
Rather than trying to force the firmly bound portion of its body closer to Green Lantern, it instead lashed out with its other, free end.
The tactic apparently caught Green Lantern by surprise, because she just failed to move out of the way in time. However, instead of striking her and sending her slamming into the ground as Kaji had expected the Angel to do, it struck her…and then seemed to swallow her whole. Green Lantern practically vanished right before his very eyes.
A very tense pause fell over the command center.
"Did…did it just…?" Kaji began.
Then, as if in answer to his question, the Sixteenth Angel's blue form abruptly turned jade green, and it glowed more brightly than ever.
Kaji's jaw set. It looked like Shinji and Asuka had an even more difficult challenge ahead of him than he'd thought.
Seated in his entry plug, Shinji Ikari could barely breathe. In fact, he wasn't quite sure he was breathing at all; perhaps the LCL oxygenating his blood directly was the only reason he hadn't passed out yet.
The moment he'd heard say that the Angel was "invading" her, his heart had started hammering in his chest. His worst fear, another Angel with the same terrible power as the Fifteenth, had come to pass.
When Green Lantern had swooped in, he had breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she would take care of this Angel like she'd had taken care of the last one. He knew his father wouldn't like it if the emerald superwoman was able to add another Angel kill to her tally, but at the moment, he couldn't care less.
Then the Angel had absorbed her, and suddenly he and Asuka were the only ones available to stand up to the beast.
God, I don't want to do this, he thought miserably, already at the edge of hysteria. I'm not even sure I can do this…
He was dimly aware of Kaji ordering him and Asuka to engage the Angel, but the new Ops Director's voice seemed like a very distant thing to him right then. As Shinji watched, the now green Angel curled itself back into a circle, though it did not revert to its double helix form. Then, emerald light radiated forth from the Angel's body, like some kind of luminous cloud, quickly forming into a shape that Shinji remembered only too well.
Sachiel, the Third Angel, stood there, dressed in green. The Sixteenth Angel, the real one, was inside the construct it had created.
As Shinji watched, the emerald Angel slowly advanced toward the motionless form of Unit Zero. It opened its great, claw-like hand, and the Third Child could easily see the sphere embedded in its palm. Unconsciously, he raised his hand to his eye; he could recall all too vividly what it was like to be on the receiving end of an energy blast from the Third Angel.
He swallowed, remembering what Misato had told him not an hour ago, about how things always turned out worse when you didn't stand up to your fears. She'd made it sound so straightforward.
The faux Third Angel grabbed Unit Zero's head and pulled it up, so its feet dangled helplessly above the ground. Shinji felt a very unpleasant wave of déjà vu wash over him as he saw it.
I have to do something, he thought frantically, and yet both his body and that of Unit One still refused to move. It was like someone had replaced his Evangelion's legs with pillars of cement. I can't just stand here, and let Rei go through that, and Green Lantern…
His eyes widened. Shinji had been so lost in his own terror that he had momentarily forgotten about his suspicions regarding the emerald superwoman's true identity. If he lost both Rei and Misato because he was too cowardly to act, he'd never forgive himself.
Almost without realizing what he was doing, Shinji sent Unit One charging forward. Ignoring the rifle that was clutched in the war machine's right hand, he lashed out with Unit One's left fist, striking the faux version of the Third Angel right in its bony face. The emerald Angel dropped Unit Zero, which fell limply back to the ground, and went staggering back, its form losing cohesion, reverting to nothing more than a green cloud.
Shinji hoped that the construct would fade entirely, allowing him to focus on the real Angel inside. He had no idea how he might get Green Lantern out, but he felt he had to try; Misato would want him to at least make the attempt, and he was growing increasingly sure that Green Lantern and Misato were in fact the same person.
Unfortunately, as usual, the Third Child found his hopes dashed. Rather than fade away, the green light swirling around the real Angel soon reformed, taking on not the shape of the Third Angel, but of the Sixth.
"Crap," Shinji hissed.
If it was going to cycle through the previous Angels, he would've preferred that it go in order. That way, at least he'd know what was coming next.
The green Sixth Angel soared upwards, moving like it was swimming in the dark seas rather than blue sky. For just a moment, Shinji was struck by how graceful it was despite it great size, something he hadn't exactly been in a position to admire when he and Asuka had fought the real version of the beast.
Then the Angel plunged downwards at blistering speed, its jaws open and its multiple rows of razor-sharp on full display. Shinji reacted on instinct, raising his pallet rifle and firing off a long burst. Several of the massive slugs impacted against the core in the faux Angel's throat, which just happened to be where the real Angel was hiding.
Immediately, the emerald copy of the Sixth Angel released a whale-like bellow of pain and anger, veering sharply off course as it blurred around the edges. The thing crashed into the city well to Unit One's right with stupendous force, shattering nearly an entire city block and creating an enormous cloud of dust and debris.
Shinji pointed his rifle at that cloud and waited with baited breath to see what came out.
He cursed when it was a green version of the Fifth Angel, even though it was much smaller than the real one had been.
It entire body pulsed, and Shinji sent Unit One diving out of the way as the blast of emerald light erupted from one of the points and went streaking straight toward him. It was a good thing, too, because the building behind Unit One was all but vaporized by the force of the blast.
This is insane, he thought. I can't let it go through all the Angels. I have to try and stop this now.
Unit One broke from cover just long enough to empty his pallet rifle's already depleted clip into the emerald copy of the Fifth Angel, which cracked in multiple places from the force of the slugs. Almost immediately, its form started to waver.
Now! He thought, sending Unit One sprinting toward the green light, intending to rip the real Angel out of is protective cocoon and hopefully end the battle once and for all.
He almost made it, too. Almost.
Just before he could reach it, the green light took shape again, becoming a nearly perfect (if color-shifted) duplicate of the Fifteenth Angel. Unit One came to an abrupt halt before it as the human at the center of the war machine felt his stomach plunge into his shoes.
"No," Shinji breathed, suddenly forgetting about what he planned to do in the face of those shining emerald wings.
He told himself to move, told himself to run, but he found he couldn't do anything. Once again, he was paralyzed by fear.
The Angel's body glowed, and Shinji knew it was about to unleash its telepathic attack. Cringing, he raised his hands in front of his face, as though that would help anything.
Then, the sound of gunfire roared through the air, a nearly solid stream of massive metal shells striking the faux Angel, which quickly became a shapeless thing again. Blinking, Shinji turned to see Unit Two standing behind him, smoke rising from the barrel of its pallet rifle.
"What are you waiting for?" Asuka barked at him. "Move it!"
This was a little much coming from someone who had just stood there while he'd fought the Angel for several minutes, but Shinji was so grateful to her for what she'd just done that he wasn't about to point that out. He sent Unit One rushing forward and reached into the green light, grabbing hold of the Angel. It felt like gasping onto white hot razor wire, and his jaw clenched as he suppressed a cry of agony. He could do this, he told himself. It wasn't any worse than grabbing the Fourth Angel's energy whips.
With a grunt of effort, he pulled the Angel out of its incoherent energy construct, hurling it onto the ground where it thrashed about on the ground like some kind of gigantic, panicked snake, causing massive amounts of damage to the surrounding buildings as it did.
Shinji didn't give it a chance to reorient itself. With a mental command, he opened the compartment where Unit One's progressive knife was kept. He stabbed the body of the Angel, silently praying that he didn't hurt Green Lantern. His efforts were rewarded with a veritable geyser of blood, along with another shriek from the Angel.
Before Shinji could strike again, Green Lantern exploded out of the Angel's body, at the center of a sphere made of emerald light. She left a significant hole in the thing as she exited, and the Angel almost immediately became blue again without her and her power ring inside it any longer.
No longer having to fear that he would kill the superwoman, Shinji was about to redouble his attack, but he never got the chance. A green battle axe so massive that even an Evangelion couldn't have used it comfortably materialized in the air above Green Lantern, then swung itself down at the Angel, neatly cleaving it in two. The beast released one more truly ear piercing shriek of pain, then it went still and silent. Its body ceased to glow and started to shrivel up right before Shinji's eyes, making it look like a giant earthworm that had gotten stranded on the sidewalk on a sunny day.
He turned to look at Green Lantern, but the jade superwoman was already streaking away at speeds even an Evangelion couldn't hope to match.
Gendo Ikari had had a long day, to put it mildly.
In addition to debriefing Fuyutski on his impromptu absence from NERV, he had then had to deal with the Angel battle and its aftermath.
The whole battle had been something of a wash for NERV so far as Green Lantern was concerned; though she had ultimately struck the killing blow, there was no arguing that things would not have ended well for her without the presence of the Evangelions.
However, the old men could complain about any battle, so long as NERV didn't manage a flawless victory in which absolutely no damage to city or the Evangelions was done. Therefore, he had been forced to go before the Committee and endure their petty complaints, in addition to all the other bureaucratic nonsense he was forced to deal with following every Angel conflict.
All this while filled with anticipation over what awaited him in the mountains outside Tokyo-3.
It had felt like an eternity before he had finished with his duties for the day, but finish he finally had. Dismissing his security detail, Gendo had claimed a vehicle with all wheel drive from NERV's private fleet of cars, then he'd driven out into the night, getting as close to the coordinates his ring had given him as possible. Then he had gotten out and began to slowly pick his way across the rocky terrain.
It would have been easier, of course, to send someone to retrieve the battery for him, but in this, Gendo felt he could trust no one else.
Eventually, he reached the indicated coordinates, only to find no power battery waiting for him. Instead, he discovered what looked very much like the remains of a rock slide.
He scowled darkly as he surveyed the area, now suspecting that the precious object he sought was buried beneath tons and tons of earth. He almost decided to turn back to see about getting the necessary equipment and crews to move the great pile of rocks, but then the beam from his flashlight stopped on something that most certainly was not a boulder.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that it was a withered arm sticking out of the rocks.
Gendo rushed over to it as fast as he dared and started moving the rocks around it, soon exposing the rest of the mangled, half mummified body it was attached to. The color of the skin had faded somewhat since death, but it was still a deeper red than any human possessed.
Clutched in the thing's other hand was the object Gendo Ikari sought, the power battery. It looked like an old train lantern made out of solid gold.
Many a man would have been rather disturbed at seeing their predecessor like this. Gendo never gave that a thought as he grabbed hold of the battery. Quickly, he peeled off his glove to reveal the power ring there, then held the battery near his hand.
"In blackest day, in brightest night," he began as golden flames appeared around him, lapping painlessly at his clothes, "beware your fears made into light. Let those who try to stop what's right, burn like my power…Sinestro's might!" he shouted.
Golden light flared around him, transforming his current attire into the black and gold uniform of the Sinestro Corps. Gendo's feet rose slightly off the ground as a halo of yellow light appeared around him.
"Power levels 100 percent," his ring hissed.
Author's Notes: And the Sixteenth Angel has come and gone. We're really getting close to the end now.
Thanks as always to my readers and reviewers.
