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Chapter 30: "…on the point of no return"
The sun sat low on the horizon, casting long shadows and red hues in the evening sky.
Just like the first time.
If it had been any other day, Shinji would have enjoyed the sunset, but now he had no time for such indulgences. No, right now he needed to focus.
It had felt like a lifetime in itself to get deployed. Rei, the commander, and the boy had all crammed themselves into his car as the chauffeur sped towards the GeoFront.
Unfortunately, Shinji had left his bag back at Rei's apartment, a small inconvenience but he shouldn't be thinking about it right now.
They had him change into his plugsuit in what had to be record time, he was lucky his pendent wasn't digging into his skin since he had no time to adjust it. When he finally got to the entry plug, they hadn't even bothered to hide the massive extra apparatuses behind the pilot's seat. It wasn't like the dummy plug was a problem, but still… he expected to at least be lied to.
Right now, Unit-01 was crouched in a valley of rice patties, Shinji was technically awaiting orders, but the truth was he knew he wouldn't have to move.
Bardiel would come to him.
Unlike before, the entry plug didn't give him comfort, there was no feeling of warm belonging. He felt like a stranger in someone's home like he wasn't wanted here.
He ignored the random callouts from his comms, trying to drown out anything and everything, he reached out, deep within the EVA, searching for his only company.
Yui was there, and even again Sahaquiel he hadn't truly reached out to her like this. He needed her help with this fight, he knew he would.
Reaching out, he tried to convey that to her, but there was still that hesitation, that reluctance to connect. He couldn't exactly blame her, he wasn't really her son, but right now he needed her help. This wouldn't be aiming a rifle, or standing under a falling Angel, no, this would be a true fight.
He had no backup, he had no assistance, all he had was himself and even now his heart pounded in his chest.
"Quit whining and focus dammit, getting bent out of shape over spilled milk isn't going to do us any good right now!"
He remembered those words Asuka had scolded him with the first time, but couldn't even bring himself to smile at remembering those words. Though they might just be the ones he needed to hear.
"Target approaching." A female voice called out inside the entry plug.
Shinji's eyes were drawn to the reticle now illuminating the humanoid figure marching towards him. The flashes of explosions trickled onto his screen, he wondered how they could even waste ammunition against the Evangelion despite knowing it would have no effect.
As the frontline of armored vehicles began to retreat, Shinji watched a puff of smoke appear from the back of the EVA, and a piece of armor fly off. He knew that was the ejection mechanism, but the entry plug itself refused to leave the humanoid.
At the very least, Gendo had tried to save Toji this time around too.
For that, Shinji could say he was at least grateful.
Unit-03 lumbered forwards, its slouched figure showing no signs of interest in anything but the purple Evangelion right in its path.
"Your target is approaching; it must be destroyed." That man's voice was as emotionless as always, Shinji had nothing to say to him, instead all he could do was try to keep his heart from racing in his chest.
An effort that was in vain.
He waited, letting Bardiel get closer, there was no need to extend his power cable any more than necessary, not that he expected it to be a long fight.
The possessed Evangelion stopped a few hundred yards away from Unit-01 and simply stood there for a few moments, Shinji wasted no time retrieving his Eva's progressive knife, if he was going to have to pry out the entry plug, he would need it.
The Angel's head reared back as it let out a high-pitched roar that was foreign to the boy before it fell down on all fours.
The Third Children expected it to throw out its arms, just as it had so many times before, instead, it launched itself upwards, raining down on Unit-01 with its leg outstretched.
That was new.
Bracing for the impact, Shinji caught the foot but was sent flying backward as Unit-03 pushed off him.
Skipping across the rice patties, Shinji finally stopped himself and pushed Unit-01 up to see Unit-03 on all fours, growling at him like a feral animal.
Finding his footing, Unit-01 rushed at the Angel, the pilot making sure he was ready to dodge any limbs that may extend themselves to grab onto him.
Just as he thought, those arms rushed out to meet him, extending in an inhuman way that no EVA was designed to do. Dodging both arms he plowed into the Angel, sending it back into a canyon wall.
Shinji didn't have time to recover though, as it simply shook its head and launched from the terrain with such force it cracked the stone from where it pushed off from.
Throwing out his AT field, Shinji noted how weak of a connection he was feeling, fighting to concentrate on both the barrier and reaching out to Yui, the boy was starting to sweat.
The Angel, still in the air, tucked its feet up against its body and threw out its arms in an X pattern, smashing through the barrier, though giving enough time for Shinji to counter its next blow.
As the two began to tangle, the boy felt something, something was wrong.
What was this?
This feeling, the way Unit-03 was fighting, the way the Angel was fighting… it was wrong and familiar.
Blocking another swipe Shinji threw out his AT field in order to gain some distance. He didn't need his own EVA to be corrupted by the blue goo now trickling out the Unit-03, but he also needed time to think, he needed to understand what this feeling was.
He couldn't even take a breath before the Angel was on him again, jumping into the air just as it had the first time. He dodged, letting it crash into the ground, throwing up dirt and debris.
But he didn't even have time to throw up an AT field this time.
Forced on the defensive, the possessed Evangelion came after him, keeping up its barrage of swipes and jabs until it finally crouched down and a leg swept at his feet.
That was when it all became clear.
It was a move he was all familiar with, too familiar with.
No.
The final turn of a gear, the final piece of a puzzle.
Shinji couldn't believe it, but his mind wandered back to when Unit-02 first arrived.
Shinji could still see her foot coming to sweep him a few moments before it would have hit, it was after all a classic thing for her to do.
No…
The Angel took his lapse in concertation to jump on Unit-01, throwing him into the side of the valley. It took every bit of concentration for Shinji to grab the wrists of Bardiel as its hands wrapped around Unit-01's neck.
No no no no…
"Who the hell is in Unit-03?!" he shouted back to command, no, at the Commander.
"Irrelevant, neutralize the Angel." He heard Gendo's voice, the same cold voice he always heard.
"It's her, isn't it?" he asked, his voice roaring, "It's ASUKA!" He didn't want to believe it, he didn't even want to say those words, but he had to.
The silence was his answer.
Why the hell was she in Unit-03?! It wasn't like she'd be able to sync with it, so why have her as the test pilot?!
He struggled against the power of Bardiel, but he couldn't let it end here, he needed to do something dammit!
"What the hell is she doing in Unit-03?!" he choked out as the pressure around his neck began to lighten, slowly he was pulling the hands of the Angel off him, he could breathe!
But the explosions on Unit-03's shoulders signaled the end of Shinji's relief, two more red arms sprouted as pieces of armor fell away. His eye's widened as the fleshy appendages rushed towards him, wrapping around Unit-01s neck.
"Pilot, fight back." That icy voice came over his comms again.
But… it was her inside.
He wouldn't hurt her, he wouldn't do to her what he had done to Toji, no… never.
He'd let her kill him before he did that.
All he could do was stare into those red eyes of Unit-03, it was her behind them, it was Asuka.
It was all so poetic.
His mind floated, instead of the Angel on top of him, now it was just her. Half of her face was bandaged and her arm too, the sand underneath him was rough yet cool and he could almost hear the gentle lapping of waves against the shoreline.
How it could have been, how it should have been…
He wanted this.
If this meant not hurting her if this meant him not doing to her what he did to Toji…
He was willing to die for that.
And he accepted this, slowly he let his arms relax, there was nothing left for him to do. Yui retreated from him, not recognizing the boy who was accepting his death and he was sure his sync ratio was falling. This would be the end.
.
.
.
But all that was cut short.
The world turned red, and the humming of something moving behind him began to increase.
Two red 'arms' came down over the controls as something came over his vision.
'DMYSYS, GOLGOTHA BASE BUILT' it read.
The dummy plug.
How could he have forgotten?
ʡʘʘʢ
What disturbed Kōzō Fuyutsuki the most was not the relaxing heartrate of the Third Child when it seemed all hope was lost. It wasn't the coolness he was displaying at the realization of his own death.
No.
What disturbed him was the laughter.
The laughter at what should have been his salvation.
It had started once the dummy plug activated. Starting as a slow chuckle, then finally building to be a nearly uncontrollable outburst.
Gendo, to his credit, wasn't showing any emotion at the fact his son was currently having some sort of breakdown inside the entry plug of Unit-01.
At least, that was until he spoke up, trying to keep his voice steady.
"You, you think you can just make me kill her again?" the boy was trying to control himself again "I. Won't. Let. You!" he roared, before every screen in the command center lit up with red.
"Sir," Maya? Yes, that was her name "the dummy plug has been rejected!"
"Pilot sync ratio rising!"
"What the hell is going on?" the elderly man could do nothing but ask, the dummy plug was still experimental, but it seemed like the boy had somehow rejected it himself!
"What is the current sync rate?" the commander asked to Makoto, or at least Kōzō thought that was his name.
"Currently at 72.3 and rising sir!"
"Do you think your son rejected the dummy system somehow?" the elderly man turned to the seated man next to him.
There was only silence for his answer.
ʡʘʘʢ
"C'mon…" Shinji growled, the red system that had deployed over him had retreated, curtesy of Yui, or at least his ability to somewhat force her to reject it.
It was like lassoing an animal and dragging it along, she was now fighting against him, not wanting anything to do with the enraged boy.
He had Gendo to thank for that, to think the man could force him to hurt her, to hurt Asuka of all people.
No, he could save her.
Yui still resisted, but he didn't care, not right now, he needed to be careful anyway, if he showed too much skill then what was the point of saving her, only to be held in suspicion.
Shinji flailed his legs, realizing that the Angel had done nothing to protect itself from Unit-01's lower half, Shinji swept Bardiel, though it didn't free him from the Angel's grip, that was his plan.
They rolled along the rice patties, water and mud covering his view periodically, but he was working just as much on feeling as vision.
Juggling the fight and forcing a bond with Yui was not something he had been forced to do before, but now he needed to perform, he needed to win.
For her.
With the constant rolling, only one arm was still latched onto Unit-01 as Bardiel got up, practically dragging the operational Evangelion with it, but Shinji already had his second progressive knife deployed.
With all the strength he could muster, Shinji swung the Angel around with both arms, slamming it into the wall of the valley face first.
Jumping onto its back, he grabbed his second progressive knife as Bardiel began to stand, the sight would have been comical if he weren't fighting for the life of a fellow pilot.
No, it was for someone who was more than that.
The 9th Angel flailed with Unit-01 on its back, making its way now into the small town further down the valley, but Shinji held on tight, fighting to keep balance as he cut away the blue good holding down Asuka's entry plug with the progressive knife.
Just… a little… more….
Slicing through the blue contamination, Shinji grabbed what little of the entry plug was sticking out of the EVA and pulled.
Slicing more strands of blue ooze, he continued to pull, doing everything in his power to still stay on the back of the four-armed Angel. Slicing a few more strands of corruption, Shinji pulled one more time, the last bit of corruption snapping at the stress, letting him fall off the back of the Angel with the entry plug in his grasp.
Looking it over, he could tell it was covered in some blue crystalline structure, but he didn't have much time to examine it more, as Bardiel had turned around to face him again, its maw open and growling.
Unit-01 stood up to face its opponent, whose additional red arms had gone limp, simply hanging from the shoulders, but something else was in its hands.
His cord…. How could he have forgotten, if it was cut, he only had a few minutes left…
He didn't have time to think as the Angel rushed forwards again, crawling along the ground on all fours this time.
Shinji tucked the entry plug against his chest with his left arm, the same way someone would with an American Football, while he readied himself and his weakened AT field with his right.
Between fighting the Angel, forcing a bond with Yui, and protecting Asuka, all on battery power… well this wasn't going to be easy.
He thought about running, running away to set down the entry plug and finish the fight, but Bardiel was so close, it would be almost impossible to disengage at this point.
Dodging the creature, they seemed to circle each other, Shinji making sure to dodge every lunge from Unit-03 while struggling to even remain in sync with his own EVA.
Dammit, Yui… he struggled as she pulled away again, which was all Bardiel needed.
One arm rushed forwards, stretching beyond what should be the physical limit of the body it belonged to. Wrapping around his legs, Shinji was yanked from his feet, first onto his back, crushing a number of small houses, he didn't even bother to try and make his way to his feet, not when he held the comparatively fragile entry plug.
Before long he was flipped over to his chest, he stretched out his arm, not wanting to crush the entry plug beneath his Evangelion, losing his knife, he tried pushing himself up with his remaining hand, but the sudden impact on his back shoved him back into the ground, while the fire erupting from his back made it known how the angel was tearing at him.
The angel stopped, its focus seemingly on the entry plug as it leaned forwards and grasped Unit-01s left hand, which did its best to keep the Angel's own from crushing the entry plug.
The angel unexpectedly pulled the hand upwards and slammed it into the ground, Shinji could only watch as the shock buckled the structure slightly. Again the Angel slammed their two hands down into the streets between the buildings, causing more fractures to form in the tube's structure.
As he watched the Angel pull up his hand again the boy decided he had no other option, Shinji readied his AT field, or at least what little he could muster of one, he would use that to throw the Angel off him, hopefully slicing it in half. He'd play it off as a fluke, something that shouldn't have happened, but his plan was crushed as a red warning appeared on his screen.
0:00
The timer flashed and Shinji's stomach dropped as he could only watch his own EVAs grip loosen mid-fall, sending the entry plug flying.
The Third Children watched in horror as the entry plug plowed through houses, he witnessed buildings crumbles as it went through them light a scythe through grass, making a path of destruction as it went.
Finally, it came to a stop, its structure resembling more a shattered plane fuselage than an entry plug. The metal was warped and twisted in all directions as LCL spilled out of it.
But that's not what Shinji's eyes saw.
No, he was back in the GeoFront, witnessing what was left of the carcass that had been Unit-02. The clumps of meat and metal that had protected Asuka from so many Angels, had become her tomb.
And it was his fault.
All he could do was scream.
ʡʘʘʢ
Fuyutsuki remembered the screams of the Third Children when the boy was dying inside Unit-01. He remembered the way the sound had seemingly clawed at his ears.
This was not one of those screams.
This was not out of physical pain.
Kōzō couldn't place where this was coming from, but he knew exactly what emotion controlled the boy next.
Rage.
"Commander! Unit-01…" The girl stopped, as all the eyes were drawn to the screen, watching Unit-01's frame slowly lift then throw Unit-03 across the valley.
The armor on its back had been shredded, but otherwise, it seemed fine, at least until they saw its face, the jaw was unhinged.
"It's gone berserk!"
"No, the pilot is still synced with it!"
"But look at those readings! It's fluctuating, what's going on?!"
Kōzō watched as before the onyx Evangelion could get up, its right shoulder was torn from its body.
The Angel roared, either in pain or at the loss of its arm, but then once more, its right leg exploded from its body.
The elderly man's eyes widened, it wasn't just random, he could see the AT field being used to crush the leg.
The Third Child was using his AT field offensively, he was using it as a weapon.
The sounds of rage had begun to be more sporadic, lining up with Unit-01's strikes at the 9th angel. Looking down at the commander, Gendo Ikari's face betrayed no emotion, he showed nothing when faced with this increasingly gory scene.
The grey-haired professor couldn't look away as the remaining limbs were systematically crushed in increasingly brutal ways, before being sliced off.
Unit-01's purple hand latched onto Unit-03's head, while its foot held down its chest.
In a spectacle that made his own hardened stomach churn, the man watched as the head of Unit-03 was ripped clean from the torso, along with the spine and accompanying hardware which allowed the EVA to be controlled.
The boy's rage hadn't quite been satisfied yet apparently, as Unit-01's arms came crashing down on the torso. Strike after strike with fist and AT field alike sent red chunks of flesh and fluid into the heavens, only for it to come back to earth in a crimson rain.
Before long, the lone Unit-01 was simply kneeling in a red pool of gore, red liquids and chunks running down its armor in a fleshy waterfall as its chest seemed to heave at the physical undertaking it had just performed. It threw its arms in the air and let out a victorious roar, echoed by the pilot inside, though his was now clearly one of pain.
To the disbelief of everyone watching in the command center, Unit-01 stood up and calmly walked to where the Second Child's entry plug had landed.
The Sub-Commander had to admit it wasn't a promising sight, with red LCL flowing out of every break in the superstructure and bits of metal twisted in a nightmarish pattern.
Scooping up the entry plug with a care that Kōzō thought impossible after that horrific display of violence, Unit-01 took off to the nearest entrance of the GeoFront available to it.
"Do you have any words?" the man muttered as he felt the last of his hair that still held color turn grey.
The silence that met him was deafening.
The clock strikes twelve.
SHOUTOUTS!
Guest – Here your go!
Greg242 – Thanks, Family bonding time? We can't have any of that!
Su Exodus – Thanks, I'm not sure what happened there…
UltraSpink of Da USA – Or the end of the beginning?
EvaPilotFair – Thanks, and now we know….
skyf0x – I am a cruel man, if Shinji could only retire to a tropical paradise.
Guest (2) – Oh I got a bad feeling about this.
GenHirNunDherZ – Thanks, the moment is here.
spartanman2 - And now its off the tracks.
A Guy – We shall see how much of a bastard Gendo is…
Calborghete – if they had the dinner in Canon, I doubt much would have happened, since Shinji would be timid, but it's a neat idea.
KySocceRref – Yes it is.
tomdj1701 – Wow, all in one day, I guess its not that long, Shinji has had a lot of practice, but sometimes things just done go right.
Warning64 – Oh, why thank you, hopefully I didn't disappoint.
Well… it's the next chapter I love more, I'm not the best at fight scenes, so I'm sorry for any holes or confusion, but it should be pretty concise.
Until Next Time