Blood Red

by Greg242

As the Fourth impact is ongoing, the Fortress of Doom and its occupants are catapulted right into the planet and without any information about their location, they have to resort to the only ones left in the area, initiating a series of events that will shape the ruined world forever. You don't need to know too much about either franchise, I explain things along the way.

13. Chapter 13

Blood Red

Episode 2

New Horizons

A/N: Hi there, just a small piece of news, from now on calls or radio conversations will be identified with: 'text'

That's all, have a good read!

Chapter 13: Cancelling the apocalypse

NERV pyramid, 19:00

"They have been firing a lot recently… I believe that they have discovered Rei's decomposition process."

Fuyutsuki said as he watched the floating fortress above them and Gendo replied:

"They can't stop it, their jamming doesn't affect the soul collector. Our best option is to wait.

However… I can't deny that I am not too sure about this decision, even if it is the only viable one."

"That's surprising, especially when coming from you." The older man said with a small smile on his face.

"The LCL in the air is probably altering my judgment, let us get back inside and go to the drone controls. I believe that given their alien nature our certainties might not be true in some situations."

They walked in silence, not noticing the small arachnotron drone staring at them from its hidden position.

Fortress of Doom main deck, 19:15

'Thank you for the information Samuel, now that we know that Kozo and Gendo are going to take extra precautions we'll see if we can get the local WILLE forces involved too.'

Misato said as the recording ended and Samuel replied:

"No problem Misato, what's your current ETA? (estimated time of arrival)"

'Around 6:00, we can't go any faster because we would have to rise in altitude and get attacked by missiles again.

Will you be able to hold on until then?'

"I believe so, VEGA has been monitoring Molly's body and he says she will die at around five thirty tomorrow.

That leaves us with only around thirty minutes of battle to cover.

We've been able to get most of the civilians in a secure place, leaving outside only the men that were willing to fight and had adequate weapons."

'Hm? Where did you put them?'

"Well you see…-"

Near the previously radioactive lake, 18:00, shortly after the Slayer was done retelling the previous events.

"I still can't believe that Lilith of all people appeared to her at that moment." Asuka said as she walked towards the cave with The Slayer, VEGA and Molly, who suddenly fainted and fell to the ground.

Thankfully VEGA was able to catch her just in time and after a short while she regained consciousness, but still looked very dizzy and scared.

So VEGA used one of the drone's claws to ruffle her hair a bit and calm her down by saying:

"There, there. It's okay now, you're still with us Molly. You've got nothing to fear."

The Slayer lowered next to the trembling girl who had just experienced something similar to death for a moment and he could definitely see in her eyes how much it had shook her.

He couldn't blame her, after all he too once had gone through that.

With some more fatherly headpatting and words of encouragement from VEGA, she was finally able to stand again, so they began their journey inside the cavern.

The Slayer went first, exploring the area and making sure it was safe for the others to proceed. It was a huge and dark cave, uneven and filled with lots of stalagmites and stalactites along various small ponds of dirty water.

Suddenly the Slayer's LED light shone on something very reflective, so much that it was almost blinding. He quickly lowered the power of it, making it able for them to get a good look at the strange material.

It was a crystallized rock similar to diamond, blue in color and highly reflective, clustered in large cubical blocks inside the basalt it partially inhabited.

VEGA got closer to it to analyze it, when suddenly they heard some small steps all around them and in an instant, they were surrounded by Matriels.

The Slayer was ready for a fight and about to start it, but suddenly they seemed to calm down as an electrical current flowed from brain to brain.

The group was confused by this, until suddenly another Matriel appeared from on top of a rock and jumped towards them shouting:

"Taka-frens!"

"Rami!" Molly said as he landed in the Slayer's head, happy to see him again.

The man was delighted too, grabbing him and patting him on the brain.

As he saluted Asuka and VEGA too, he turned towards the others of his kind and said:

"Taka taka, taka fren taka taka taka."

And one of them replied:

"Taka taka? Taka taka taka."

Rami seemed to think for a moment before turning towards the group and pointing at the mineral, moving his thin black leg in a way that meant it was off limits.

They all gave him a thumbs up at this, so he communicated the good news to his brothers and sisters.

They all expressed their joy in various ways, some of them doing even a short silly dance where they rotated on their brains in mid air.

When the Matriels calmed down, Rami grabbed the Slayer's leg and said:

"Taka-Mama, taka-Mama."

The Slayer nodded as he figured that he was going to bring them to Matarael, so he let him climb on top of him and start guiding them through the enormous tunnels.

While the Slayer and Rami walked in front, Molly was busy learning various facts about caves and rocks from VEGA and finally Asuka was in the back, wondering why she couldn't get the well-being of a particular idiot out of her head.

She thought:

"Stupid, stupid, stupid idiot. He hasn't been back for even half a year and he's already trying to hog the spotlight again.

Well he did save Kensuke- Alright enough! He's just my prisoner. I shouldn't think of these things. Moreover, how large is this Matarael? Like if I have to guess that it was the one who made this cave… Then it's possibly one of the largest angels ever!

Still is Shinji going to be okay after all tha- No, stop thinking about it!"

The battle in her mind kept raging for a while longer until she suddenly bumped her head against the Slayer's back. While her mind was elsewhere in fact, she hadn't noticed that they had arrived.

And there she was, Matarael, resting on the ground in front of them.

Her body was quite similar to the ones of the Matriels, however she also had two eyes instead of one on her brain and her elicoidal body was covered by a thick armor of that material they had seen earlier.

All over her legs, pieces of armor and weapons that had been taken from the fallen mark 05 stood immobile. All around her, other scraps and ammo could be seen.

There was also a spike launcher near her left side, similar to the ones on unit 02 which was missing one of the central spikes.

Rami got off the Slayer's head and pointed towards it, then used his leg to tell them that the spike had gotten stuck inside her body.

"It's strange though, shouldn't an angel as large as her be able to easily get rid of it? And how did this happen in the first place?" VEGA asked and Rami replied:

"Taka-mama taka-speak. Taka-Tone fren!"

"You mean that she spoke with that Kotone girl?"

Rami nodded, not noticing Asuka when she walked forward and said:

"The spike must have hit the core if she's still in this state and considering her enormous size that means that it travelled a good distance inside her.

But I know that those things have trouble with armor, so something peculiar must have happened to cause this.

Anyway you'll have to travel through her insides for a bit, they don't leave too large of a hole after penetration and I don't see any other way in.

If you manage to remove it from the core beware that it will reactivate and possibly send her out of control, so you'll have to get out fast.

Got that?"

The Slayer nodded and turned towards the angel, with Asuka going silent again as her covered eye flashed a very bright blue.

"Dammit, I know that you're happy to see another angel, but would you just calm down for a moment?!"

Asuka said mentally to Bardiel, who listened to her and tried to calm down, but it was easier said than done. It was the first time seeing one of his siblings after all.

To try to have a better chance, he focused on the Slayer again who had just found the entrance point of the spike.

And he was thinking:

"Looks like Asuka was right, here the armor is very thick, yet it still looks like it went through without any resistance… Still, first things first, I need to get that spike out.

And given how much blue blood is coming from that opening, I'll have to rip through a lot of guts to find it."

The man slowly opened the wound, listening to how Matarael made a light grunt of annoyance, but nothing more.

So he jumped in, trying to find some sort of grip on the blood covered walls. He eventually found a good balance and began slithering forward, noticing how the blood disappeared the deeper he went.

Finally, after almost ten meters of angel guts, he was met with a man-sized dark black elongated cone. Thankfully for him, after hitting the core the spike still had enough energy to deviate a bit, forming a larger cavity where he could move a bit more freely.

He also found the core itself, a simple dark red sphere with a small crack where it had been hit.

He managed to turn around and get a hold of the spike, slowly moving its base to point towards the hole, but still not removing it.

He got ready for Matarael's eventual reawakening by placing both feet on the sphere and aiming to get outside with the help of his dashes and double jump.

Right after one last mental checkup, he gripped the spike tightly and jumped as hard as he could, trying to cover as much distance as possible.

And then the spike immediately got stuck in the flesh again.

"And that's why I never became a surgeon."

He thought as the core behind him was brought back to its full potential.

Outside of the angel, everyone jumped in surprise at her tremendous roar that shook the entire cave, her two orange eyes opening shortly after. And they were very angry.

Her AT field suddenly appeared all around her body and legs, cracking the stone in the area as Matarael lifted up her body.

Waves of blue electricity began flowing through her giant brain as the spike and missile launchers came online.

Finally, from the bottom part of her armor, a turret loaded with acid appeared, ready to fire at any time.

She immediately noticed the intruders all around her children and blinded by rage, she didn't listen to their words and got ready to obliterate them.

Suddenly though, she felt a part of her armor and lower body being blown up by a powerful strike. After looking down at the blood covered green man, she saw him hold up something large and pointy as he said:

"I think that you're searching for this."

The Slayer grinned once he saw Matarael's eyes widen as the spike was lifted off his hands by the AT field and promptly disintegrated into the nearest wall.

They heard the angel exhale for a moment as silence filled the cave, finally letting the mother hear what her children had to say about the new intruders.

She turned around, speaking with the Matriels for a moment before looking down at the group and saying:

"My my, where are my manners, excuse me for my outburst. I have not hurt any of you have I?"

"Don't worry, we are all fine. My name is VEGA. Me and the green man who just freed you come from another dimension, these two girls come from the village above."

The giant angel looked down at the Slayer as she said:

"Oh, well Sir, you have my most sincere gratitude."

He simply nodded in reply, so she continued:

"However, must I ask why you came to me? I do not doubt your good will, but I find what has just transpired to be unlikely under most circumstances."

VEGA spoke up again as he said:

"We would like to talk with you and to inform you on what is about to happen."

"Then please follow me, I have a section of the cave dedicated to these meetings."

"Did you build this all yourself?" Molly asked and she replied:

"My children helped a lot too. We may keep conversing while we walk. Please children, do not disturb our guests."

As Matarael lifted herself up and began turning around, she noticed that Rami was still standing next to the Slayer, so she got curious and asked:

"Have you befriended one of my children Mr?"

He nodded and she let out a small happy giggle as she said:

"I'm so glad Rami finally found someone to get along with! He was always a bit left behind by the others so you can't imagine how happy I am."

"Mama-mama! Slayer fren!" Rami replied, sounding somewhat embarrassed, and his mother replied with another giggle before resuming their walk.

After a bit VEGA asked:

"By the way, how did you get that spike stuck inside of you Matarael?"

She remained silent for a moment before saying:

"This armor I have in my body is fantastic, but since it is semi-organic, I need to get rid of it monthly as new layers form. It happened a couple of days ago while I was doing this, that one of the spike launchers we had collected suddenly fired for no particular reason and struck me in the core.

Immediately after that I remember hearing a lot of explosions over me as a piece of the cavern fell right on top of me.

It was only thanks to my children that I survived, otherwise there's a good chance I would still be stuck under those tons of rocks."

As he heard this, VEGA's mind started putting the pieces together, finally reaching one single conclusion:

"Matarael, can I tell you something?"

"Hm? Of course, go ahead."

"Based on events that recently happened in the village above, and given how they all seem to be involved with explosives and have happened in a relatively short time-frame… I believe that someone tried to kill you Matarael.

Not only that, but they could be the same person who tried to sabotage the AT shield, the one who kidnapped Kensuke and who knows if they weren't involved in the train accident too."

"...Oh dear." The angel replied, when suddenly Asuka added:

"VEGA, remember that conversation that you and Kensuke had inside the jeep? When he seemed to have seen something, but then dismissed it?"

"Did you happen to see the same thing?"

"I think, earlier when we were waiting near the river I saw a red jeep drive away after Kensuke decided to leave.

At first I just assumed that it was him who was driving it since he has the exact same car, but now that I think about it, we were too far away for him to have reached the road in such a short time, even with how quickly he was walking.

Could it be that this guy you are talking about, has been using his car or either a copy of it to go around unnoticed?"

"That… Might be a possibility."

"I believe that I've heard enough." Matarael suddenly said: "If this person does truly exist, then I'll finally go out and kill him myself."

"Mama-taka? Taka-Out-taka?" Rami asked and her mother replied:

"I know that I've gotten better only a few moments ago Rami, but I don't want to stay in here knowing that there's someone out there who can make the entire cave fall on top of you, okay? Plus you like to see mama fight don't you?"

"Taka! Taka! Tatakae! (Ahahah did I really write that?) Taka mama!"

"You sweet little boy…" She said while gently head patting him, ignoring for a moment that she was almost making the Slayer sink into the ground with that much force on top of his head.

When she was done,she looked around to see that they had finally reached their destination, so she said:

"But before that… There's something else I need to do and I would like you, Slayer, to join me in this."

The man questioned her with a movement of his head and so she moved to the side, revealing a giant wall of the cave that was beautifully illuminated by the setting sun.

This wall was covered with thousands of shining colored rocks and pieces of glass that all together formed a beautiful mosaic.

And as Asuka looked at it she said:

"Is that-"

"My family, the family of the angels. In all its entirety."

The group stood in awe of the gigantic piece of art depicting them when they were still all together with Adam before the second impact.

There was Ramiel, Zeruel, Sachiel, Sahaquiel, Adam, Shamshel and basically every single angel they had met up until that point.

And while Asuka looked at it with a bit of worry, Matarael said:

"I felt in my core what happened to Leliel a couple of hours ago Mr Slayer, so if you do not mind I would like to pray for a moment to let her and her caretaker's soul rest in peace. She was a good friend of mine and it would hurt me to not give her a final salute."

The man nodded and she replied with a simple "Thank you." while Rami got off from Doomguy's head.

They walked closer to the mosaic and when Matarael seemed to lie down in silence while closing her eyes, he did the same, putting a knee to the ground in respect.

Meanwhile the group watched them from behind, intrigued at how Matarael's cortex glowed while sending electricity everywhere.

Nothing happened for a minute, only the Slayer sensing Matarael's hidden sadness and loneliness.

The air around them dared not to move, otherwise it would have destroyed the sacred silence that had formed around the two.

In the end however, Matarael finally rose up again, giving a final look to all its brothers and sisters… And to her father.

A moment later they were back with the rest of the group, so Asuka felt it was now the time for her to ask:

"So… If you are the one who made that mosaic… Can you tell me something about the angels in it? There are some that I've never seen.

This guy in my eye could tell me something, but he can't talk."

"Wait a second…" Matarael said, getting a bit closer to inspect her covered eye a bit better, finally recognizing the blue hue behind it.

"Bardiel is that you?"

The eyepatch suddenly turned a dark red as blue flames started coming out of it from all directions, while an emergency signal was secretly sent to the Wunder.

"Ahhhh! Oh God it burns, stop it you dumbass!"

The eye immediately returned to normal as Asuka let out a tired sigh, when she was suddenly lifted up by Matarael's AT field and bear hugged.

"I'm so happy that you managed to survive Bardiel! I can't believe that I'm not the last one alive on Earth!"

"Hey! Let me go! I'm here too and he's in my body!"

"Well why can't he get out?" Matarael asked confused and Asuka replied:

"Because this bastard had the bright idea of possessing me when I was trying out a new evangelion, so now he has ruined my life and we can't live without each other."

"Oh.

I guess that… You should be glad to be alive?" The angel replied, a bit embarrassed.

"Please just be happy that a member of your family is here for once, it doesn't look like you get many visits except for Kotone after all."

"Oh yes! How is she? Is she okay? I received her message, but I haven't been able to reply to her, the thing she used got destroyed in the explosion."

"She's fine, you'll get to see her soon. And as I said, spare me the trouble, I've already got too many eyes on me up there."

"Oh, but now you've made me curious, Bardiel is a picky guy so I want to know what kind of person he chose to live in."

"I'm not worth talking about, besides,I don't think that he had a choice in that situation, or he's a total dick. I'm more inclined towards the second one." Hearing this Matarael said:

"I believe that there is something interesting about you, after all I've never seen someone with red hair before. What's your past?"

"Again…

It's not worth talking about."

Asuka flinched and turned around as she said this, so VEGA decided to break up the conversation by saying:

"Ahem. Anyway, Matarael, you said that you believed to be the last angel alive on Earth, what happened to the others?... If you feel like sharing."

"Sure…

The one with the two bodies is called Israfel, during his slumber at the bottom of the Bermuda triangle a military plane carrying nukes was shot down by him unconsciously with his AT field.

The nukes fell on top of him and he didn't even know about it.

Then there is Iruel, the one made up of tiny points. He was off to a good start after he managed to get inside the MAGI, but we never heard from him again after a while.

The one made up of bird wings is Arael, she's probably still alive, but her orbit around Earth was deviated by an asteroid while she was still asleep and we lost contact with her after she got past the moon.

Then there's Sandaphlon, the turtle-like one, who died in a volcanic eruption after near third impact.

And finally we have Armisael, the one who looks like a ring. She was still on the moon near the human base there when we lost contact with her, it's a shame because she was one of the strongest too."

"I believe that I have seen her once, when Nagisa used the Mark 06 to prepare her as a sacrifice for the most recent impact."

"Oh… I see. Wait, who's this Nagisa you're talking about? Is he in the area?"

Molly looked at VEGA who said in her place:

"He is currently inhabiting another pilot's mind over in the village and he is of angelic nature, like you and Bardiel."

He suddenly saw Matarael's eyes turn darker as she heard his words, then after a moment of silence, she replied with her head filled with lighting bolts:

"Don't. You. Dare. Compare us. To that putrid abomination that he fakes himself as.

…Nagisa says that he is the last angel, Tabris, right?"

VEGA nodded, still a bit surprised at how quickly her mood had changed and then he added:

"At least I believe so, Asuka? Molly?"

"I think that I heard him say that once, during one of our raids on NERV."

"Nagisa mentioned it more than once in my presence too, maybe he thought that my new body would have forgotten about it-nghh-"

Molly suddenly fell to the ground, but Rami was quick enough to stop her from hurting herself.

This time however, even though her heart was still beating, she remained unconscious, making VEGA extremely nervous.

"Oh dear, what happened to her?" Matarael asked and the drone replied:

"Her body is not human, she's a clone made out of Lilith's flesh and without constant LCL baths she will decompose.

If this were to happen, Gendo would be able to restart the impact and kill everything.

Matarael, let me cut this short. In a few hours a big fight will take place in the village. We would like to ask you if you were willing to keep the villagers safe inside your cave while we deal with the enemy.

At one point an ally of ours will arrive with an object capable of saving Molly, but until then we need to resist."

The angel looked at him perplexed as she reflected on what to do, keeping her children's safety as her top priority.

After a while though, she had made her decision, and just as Molly was starting to wake up again she said:

"Honestly VEGA, there are so many reasons as to why I shouldn't help you. I could put my children in danger if the enemy decides to target the civilians and our two races have been in a constant war for well over thirty years now.

Plus I've just met the four of you and besides the Slayer, I have no connection with any of you, nor do I need to listen to anything that you all tell me.

But, I know that being selfish wouldn't bring my family anywhere in this situation. I know that Kotone is in the village and hurt, so she might die in the fight if she remained there.

Or even if I did not care about that, I still can't deny that the AT field around the village has kept my family safe from the walking monsters time and time again, getting it destroyed in a fight would probably make our house not safe anymore.

So in the end I've decided to help you, bring them here and make sure Kotone is there, alright?"

"Thank you very much Matarael. I don't know what could have happened to them if you had refused."

"They would have all died." The Slayer suddenly said, making everyone turn towards him and notice his slight smirk partially hidden by the darkness of the helmet.

At that moment Asuka's radio came to life as an incomprehensible version of Toji's voice was heard echoing through the cave.

She tried moving around to get a better signal, but it was pointless, the walls were just too thick.

To her surprise Matarael walked up to her once she had stopped moving and began producing electricity from her brain.

The radio immediately started receiving a much better signal, so they were finally able to hear Toji say:

'Shikinami can you hear me? Kensuke and Shinji have just woken up, it's such a mess up here that I think I'm about to faint. How can Kensuke do this?'

"It doesn't matter now, we found a shelter for all the civilians.

Bring everyone that isn't strictly necessary here at Matarael's cave, she agreed to protect them during the battle."

'Really? That's awesome! Alright I'll try to get everyone ready, but you should come back too, it's getting late.'

"We will. See you in a few minutes."

The line went dead after that and so Matarael returned to normal. Then they all reached the entrance of the cave when the Slayer suddenly said without turning around:

"About the unknown person… Don't worry Matarael, we'll find him."

"And I will kill him." He said to himself.

He heard the angel let out a small sigh of relief as she replied:

"I'll focus on simply keeping the villagers safe then, thank you. Now Rami, it's time for you to go back to your siblings."

With that, they waved each other goodbye before going their separate ways.

During the return trip however, VEGA couldn't help but feel a strange sensation whenever he reflected on the angels' mosaic as he thought:

"Is this what Molly feels like at times? Not being able to describe your own feelings? Poor girl."

He unconsciously got closer to her with each step they took towards the village, rising up to her head's height to make sure she always knew he was next to her.

This had its effects, as the tiniest smile slowly formed on her face, with each of her steps becoming more and more secure.

They eventually reached the village and were unable to believe their own eyes.

The sheer mass of resources, people and personal objects being moved was astounding, there was even Kensuke leading the effort even though he had just recovered from the accident.

Soon they located Toji, who was busy talking with another person,but left the conversation as soon as he noticed them and said:

"Okay so we're almost done, we even managed to find some weapons thanks to that old John Davis guy, he said that he wanted to talk to you, Slayer.

Anyway, Shinji is currently in his hospital bed, that exoskeleton seems to be doing something as it made him recover very quickly.

How about you two girls instead?"

"I haven't had those lung attacks in a while, I think that I'm healed now." Asuka said with a flat voice, passing the ball over to Molly and VEGA with a glance as the girl said:

"I have been losing consciousness more frequently and for longer periods each time. I… I'm starting to get a bit scared."

As she said this VEGA instinctively grabbed her hand as he said:

"Don't worry, everything is going to be okay."

She smiled back at him, but Toji interrupted her by saying:

"Still, it's best if we go and check your vitals now. By the way, how is the soul transfer going to happen, VEGA?"

"I will tell you in a moment, let's go to your hospital now."

"Okay sure, and you Slayer ca- Wait he already left?"

"Sometimes the way he can avoid being detected is the most frightening thing ever." VEGA added as they started making their way to the hospital.

Meanwhile, in an already deserted area of the village

The Slayer stood silently in front of the door to John's house, a slight breeze passing by, announcing the arrival of another red storm.

He finally decided to walk forward after meditating with himself and then he knocked on the door, finding it already unlocked.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Shiesse! I told you I already gave you all my guns! What more do you wan- Oh hey, it's you.

Sorry for that, these guys haven't given me a break…

By the way, do you mind helping me out with something? It's a briefcase I need to carry with me when I get to America. It's full of important documents, but it's very heavy and I can't really move it around well.

I was trying to put it in this basket under my wheelchair, but I risked falling over, so could you do it for me?"

The Slayer nodded as he leaned in to grab the metallic briefcase, but just as his left arm moved near John's legs, the Doom blade sprung forward, stabbing the cripple right through his thigh.

"Hey! Why did you do that! I still have blood flowing through them, you know?"

The Slayer got back up and tried to make it look like an accident with his arm movements, then he went into the bathroom to grab a towel which he then knotted around the injury.

Finally he grabbed the briefcase and put it under the wheelchair, waiting for Samuel's analysis on the force that the blade had encountered during the attack.

And the robot whispered to him inside his helmet:

"The blade went through the flesh as expected, the only resistance was done by the bone, while muscle tissue and nerves were almost absent. He doesn't seem to be lying about his condition, Slayer."

Hearing all of this, Doomguy gave one last look at John before opening the door and pushing him outside.

The man then gave him the coordinates to the drop off point where a secret task force of Marines was supposed to be waiting for him, so the Slayer gripped the handles and decided to break the world record for the fastest wheelchair ever.

During the trip no words were spoken as the Slayer was busy trying to avoid all the giant undead evangelions, while John was trying not to pass out.

Finally, they reached an old electrical plant that had a long strip of flat terrain next to it.

There, a C-130 Hercules transport plane was waiting with it's cargo bay open, surrounded by military vehicles and well equipped soldiers.

As they got closer, the Slayer noticed the serial number of the aircraft, the roundel of the american airforce, the stars and stripes flag. Even the soldiers and the vehicles around him were all American, and carrying American weapons.

So, seemingly cleared of doubt, the Slayer handed over the old man who, once he got inside the cargo bay, turned around and said while doing a military salute:

"Mr. Slayer, The United States of America are in debt with you. Be sure that your brave efforts will not be in vain. I must go now, my country needs me, to repel the evil forces of NERV from its sacred territory. Farewell Slayer, may God bless you and America."

With that, the soldiers entered the cargo bay along with their vehicles. And as soon as the ramp closed up, the four enormous propellers started rotating, picking up a large cloud of red dust as the plane accelerated forward and took off to the skies.

Once it was airborne, the Slayer pulled out his rocket launcher with the lock-on mod equipped, then pointed it at the flying fortress.

Q He waited for Samuel before getting a lock and as soon as the plane began to turn sideways, the robot said:

'It's going towards the western coast, should be headed to Los Angeles if it keeps that orientation. Still I'll keep an eye out for it, you don't have to engage it for now. If it does anything strange I'll just shoot it down with the railguns.'

The Slayer put away his weapon as he started making his way back to the village, gripping his fists tightly as he felt the Argent flow through his body.

As he crossed the open countryside, he was greeted by the sight of an undead evangelion feasting on the corpse of another one, still alive and screaming in pain as its flesh was torn apart.

Then, just as the predator bit down the red core inside its mouth, a large surge of energy went through its body, repairing the damaged armor and bloody tissue.

This gave the man an idea, although he would have to wait for the battle to test it out.

Village hospital

By the time the Slayer was back to the village, it had already been abandoned, everyone except a few guards had been left behind.

The sun had started to set, casting the entire valley in a faint orange hue, which made the red dust shine like a gem in the darkness.

"Sometimes… Even hell is beautiful."

The Slayer thought before turning around and entering the building, surprised by how noticeable the absence of the secretary was behind that empty desk.

However he didn't need her, and soon he found the rest of the group who were all standing around Molly's hospital bed, with the girl in it plugged to every health monitoring machine they had.

The Slayer joined them and so VEGA moved a bit away from her as he said:

"Now that the Slayer is back, I'll tell you how the operation is going to happen." He took a short glance at Molly's small smile before he continued:

"Samuel will arrive here with a portal once the fortress is in range and using the Demonic Crucible, he will absorb Molly's soul directly from the small core inside her body, transferring it inside and preventing Gendo from making any other clones."

"What's this… Demonic Crucible?" Toji asked and the drone's eye was filled with blue light as it displayed a hologram of the artifact. Then he said:

"The Demonic Crucible in its deactivated mode takes the shape of a longsword hilt, made up of ancient demon bones with three skulls at the base.

Each one of them holds a gem where the souls of three ancient aliens are currently kept, they provide the energy to the artifact and the ship.

At the centre, there is a green eye surrounded by flesh which is where the rest of the power is usually stored.

This sword in fact replenishes its power by consuming the souls of the ones killed by it, but since Hayden has only ever killed demons with it, that space is empty."

Suddenly two dark metallic blades sprung forward from the top of the artifact, their sides covered in ancient runes and flickering with Argent energy.

"In this mode, the Crucible is semi-active and it will be the form that Samuel will use for the treatment.

To cut it short, he will stab your core with those two spikes, which will suck your soul inside. Don't worry though, I predict that you won't feel anything by the time it happens,plus I wouldn't allow it in the first place."

"And you'll have lost all senses by then anyway… If only there was another way…"

VEGA thought desperately to himself, not noticing that the Slayer had seen clearly through his words.

"What about the Wunder? What are they going to do exactly?" Asuka asked as Shinji kept looking at his sister's hand.

"Samuel is talking with Misato just now, they should be able to reach us while the operation is underway, providing cover. Once the battle is over, we will hand you and Shinji back to the Wunder.

I would like to keep Molly with us for a while though, as she might find it difficult to adapt to her new life." VEGA said and so Asuka replied:

"Fine by me."

Her eyes moved towards Shinji, who was lost in his own thoughts:

"Are they… Just going to leave me like this? I mean I still have their exoskeleton in my body…And the Wunder… Seeing Misato again… I-I'm scared."

"Hey Shinji, don't worry about it, I'm still here. Remember that I'll always have your back, no matter what.

Now don't say that I didn't tell you, not even these guys from another universe want you around, they just want you off the face of this planet.

I mean they preferred to keep Ayanami with themselves, you too should see how wrong that is, right?

But don't worry, as long as I'm here, nothing like that is going to happen… And you'll never have to suffer again."

As he said this, a vision of him appeared in front of Shinji, hugging him as the brown haired boy's mind replayed the events inside the double entry plug while a strange warmth emanated throughout his body.

Meanwhile, Kaworu thought to himself:

"Thank Adam I managed to get a hold of him now, every day that passes I'm starting to lose him a bit more, I can feel it. If I can't do anything to win him back, he'll join WILLE completely very soon.

Shinji, I'll never leave you alone again, I need you to love me… For the scenario… For me."

However, just as the angel's head was about to explode again in the boy's mind and Asuka was about to grab him, he felt as if an iceberg had just eaten his left hand.

He looked up, noticing that Molly was holding his hand, smiling at him as she said:

"Don't make that face brother… You'll get to spend more time with Shikinami if you are both on the Wunder."

"Hey! What are you implying with that!?" Asuka immediately shouted, causing Kaworu to disappear and the pale girl to giggle lightly.

Fortress of Doom

That short happy reaction from the girl set off numerous yellow lightning bolts from VEGA's core, one of which almost hit Samuel in the leg, prompting him to move to the side to avoid it.

This made Misato ask him from the Wunder:

'Is everything okay?'

"Yes, yes, just VEGA getting emotional about something I guess, Molly's body has to be failing at this point."

'Molly? You mean the Ayanami Series with them?'

"Yes, she calls herself Molly Ayanami now and he has… Adopted her basically, which is also one of the driving forces behind this mission."

'Oh, okay.' Misato replied as the memories of a particular boy entering her apartment came back to her mind.

She dismissed them for now, trying to stay focused on her mission as she asked:

'Anyway, we've detected a large red storm forming nearby, it's going to hit the village soon so we might have some trouble.'

"I think that it's going to cause us some problems as well, possibly delaying our arrival to the village. It's why I've locked onto all the nearby NERV forces, better start whittling them down as soon as possible."

As the robot said this a loud sound was heard from his feed, and then another, repeating every six seconds.

He and Misato said farewell to one another, but just before she closed the call, Samuel said:

"Oh and one last thing, Misato."

'Hm?'

"Travel safely okay?"

'Uhmm, sure. See you soon Hayden.'

As she said this the call was finally closed, allowing the robot to do a short celebration shout.

"So how did your flirting with Misato go?"

"Ah! Shit! Don't you jump on me like that ever again VEGA!"

"Hehe." The AI replied as the guns moved to a new set of targets.

After a short silence, Samuel went back to close some of the programs at the piloting station, and while he was doing so he said:

"Oh and by the way, you almost hit me with a lightning bolt earlier, did something happen to Molly?"

"She giggled right after Shikinami shouted at her, I couldn't control myself."

"Well… I don't blame you, how long has it been since the last time we were this close to someone else?"

"I… Really don't want to know… Actually now that I remember there was that girl at the UAC who visited me a lot."

"Wait, are you serious?"

"Yes, she was a quite short brunette that used to work on one of the refrigeration systems. One day she stopped by and closed herself inside my core room.

She tried to kill herself by jumping into the hot wires below, but I managed to talk her out of it at the last moment."

At this point Samuel was sitting on his chair, listening with full attention.

"Her name was… Agatha, she was a lesbian who had just discovered the woman she loved didn't reciprocate her feelings. So she wanted to end it all, but all she really needed was simply for someone to listen to her.

Turns out that she was very… Insecure, despite how well she guided her team.

Her parents had never approved of her choices and she had decided to escape there on Mars to find some sort of peace with herself.

After our initial talk, she came back numerous times and we gradually opened up with each other. She asked me to keep it a secret from you and I did, deleting any evidence each time she left.

The last time I saw her was… A couple of days before the first portal to hell was opened, she came by to say goodbye as she had finally made peace with herself and had decided to go back home.

We thanked each other for the time we spent together and never met again. I just hope now that she was able to survive the invasion…"

As Samuel heard this, a memory popped up in his head, about a peculiar encounter he had had at the ARC, so he asked:

"Say, did you ever give anything to this Agatha?"

"I recall allowing her to take with herself a piece of my core that needed to be repaired."

"That's it! I think I found who you are talking about."

"Really?"

He quickly moved his fingers across the keyboard, opening a file that contained all of the ARC workers and their personal profiles.

VEGA watched in silence as Samuel kept scrolling through the names, up until he clicked on one and said:

"There she is, Agatha Silvestri, she joined the ARC as a field medic right after the Icon of Sin was killed. Now I remember, she had a pendant to her neck that I noticed during her job interview.

When I asked her about it, she said that it was 'The last piece of someone close to her'.

If I only had understood at the time, I mean can you imagine her face if I had told her that you were still alive?"

"The same face a baby would have made when their parents bought them candy probably."

"Yeah… You're right.

You know, sometimes I like talking like this with you, just reminiscing about peculiar things of the past and hanging out with each other.

After all, if we always talked about Hell, Urdak, Davoth and all of our other problems we'd lose our minds at some point right?"

"I couldn't agree more. In fact, how about a quick game of chess?"

"Oh no, you can think way too many steps ahead, it's no fun. And don't get me started on board games, you always know how to perfectly throw dice."

"What would you like to play then?"

"Hmm… I know." After saying this Samuel went to his room, then came back with a large dusty box that he placed on the ground.

He opened it, pulling out a strange set of old toys he had found once in a wrecked store.

"What are those? I've never seen them." VEGA asked, interested in the strange contraptions and the robot replied:

"VEGA, get a drone down here.

We're going to play with some Beyblades."

Back to the village, around 20:30

"Thank you for the dinner, I'll go check around if everything is ready." The Slayer said as he got out of the hospital, leaving a taser to Asuka in case of emergency.

Once he was outside, he moved his head around a bit, checking if anyone was there.

The place was desolate however, the only ones left being the few soldiers they had managed to convince.

"They should be able to catch anything that slips through tonight, or at least I hope so.

Damn, this desolate city really feels like a ghost town."

He took the opportunity to remove his helmet, taking in the fresh air and admiring the giant white and red moon above him.

In that same moonlight however, he noticed that there was a faint reflection from one of the windows of the defensive perimeter.

He immediately put his helmet back on once he realized that they were a pair of binoculars,then he sprinted towards the wall.

What he found around a corner a moment later was a pair of men who were almost pissing themselves in fear and a pair of dark binoculars on the ground near them.

The Slayer let out an internal sigh as he extended a hand forward to reassure them, but they got even more scared at this.

Seeing as they were basically petrified by fear, he removed his helmet again, looking at them as his face was faintly illuminated by a nearby lantern.

Then he said: "Gather the rest of you, in two minutes we'll be discussing the strategy."

He gave one last look at them before leaving with his helmet back on again.

Meanwhile, the two soldiers had stopped shaking, and just now they were able to come to their senses as one of them said:

"Holy shit… I- I can't believe that this just happened."

"M-me neither… L-L-let's go call the others now."

"I- I'm right after you."

After having made sure both of them left, the Slayer came out of the corner he was hiding in and climbed the nearest wall. Then, after some jumps, he reached the top of the hospital, the tallest building there and began looking at the battlefield in front of them.

It was mostly flat, as expected of the red desert, with a couple of small dunes here and there, but not much else.

The problem was however the two hills at the side of the village.

Because while they were able to provide good protection from larger enemies thanks to their thick vegetation and rough terrain, the smaller ones could easily use them to sneak around their defenses.

Finally, after some quick calculations, he was able to determine that he had around four kilometers of space to work with.

"If that tin can is able to eliminate all the Evas and flying units nearby, then it'll be a piece of cake." The Slayer thought as he started descending the roof. "Also was I really that scary?

Meh, It's probably my reputation who did most of the work, good thing that they don't even know a hundredth of the horrifying things I did."

With that he approached the group in front, with VEGA's drone having just arrived.

He had taken in the video information from the Slayer's helmet and he had been able to immediately understand his tactic, so he got in the middle of the soldiers who had gathered in a circle and said:

"Alright listen to me for a moment while I give you our strategy for tonight.

Our weapons are mostly assault rifles, but we have two sniper rifles. You two will be in front, looking at the battlefield to take out anything that slips away from the Slayer's reach." They nodded and so he continued, addressing the other ten:

"The rest of you will be spread along the perimeter to guard those two hills.

To be more precise, two will guard the hospital with me while the remaining eight will split into two couples for each side,understood?"

They all nodded, however one of them raised a hand and so VEGA said:

"Is there something you would like to ask?"

"I was wondering why there isn't a larger concentration of us in the front. I'm not doubting the shooting ability of our snipers, but I fear that they might be overwhelmed."

"It is a valid point, however the Slayer will make sure that that does not happen.

There's also another factor to consider…"

VEGA paused for a moment before continuing:

"The fact that you are here demonstrates your bravery and tonight I would like to keep our losses to a minimum.

I know that you might have families waiting for you, a hope for a better future or some other reason to fight here and I want to make sure that your efforts are not wasted.

If one or both of the snipers were to be taken out, I need that one from the closest couple goes in to replace them, and then their partner if this happens again.

I know that this will leave us exposed in some areas, but it's the only way we have.

That's all, go prepare your weapons and rest, we have prepared supplies for everyone inside the bar and if you have questions ask me, I'll be in the hospital.

The Fortress will leave at 5:15 am, that's when the fight will begin, and the Wunder is expected to arrive at 6 am.

See you soon."

And with that they all left, leaving only the Slayer and VEGA together.

After a moment of silence, VEGA let out a deep sigh and said:

"Wow, how are you able to do this every time Samuel?"

'It's in my nature I guess, definitely not in yours though. Still it went well for your first time.'

"That's true. How's the radar looking?"

'Quite empty, all the air units are out and even most of the evangelions, however some of them disappeared inside the huge dust cloud that's coming from the north.

Given it's speed it should reach us ten or fifteen minutes before the Wunder arrives.'

"Hm, having those units wandering around is a huge risk though, what do you think, Slayer?"

"I think that I'll just have to aim a lot higher." The man replied with a sinister grin on his face, ending the conversation as the two of them returned inside the hospital.

A bit later, inside the fortress

Samuel had just gotten up from his chair after playing some games and he was heading back to his room, walking towards the door to his right.

But just as the panels moved away, a faint whisper echoed through his audio sensors, which immediately stopped him in his tracks.

'Come here...Samuel.'

It said, as the robot moved his visor to the central door. He knew where it was coming from, he had heard that sentence hundreds of times before after all.

He waited for a moment before, turning around and heading towards the source.

He crossed the middle door and descended the short staircase after it, ending up in the room where the demonic crucible was kept.

'It's been some time since we last… Talked.'

The voice said by vibrating the air around the floating weapon.

"I believe that you are smart enough to understand why."

'Ohhh getting cocky are… We? Tell us Samuel, don't you miss the… Power? Of wielding… Us?'

"No. That's in the past now. Plus I got my body chopped in half because of you!"

'Yesss, and we are ssorry, but we were having so much fun… Together. Fighting against the demons and our… Captors.'

The robot's eye almost turned red as he said:

"For the last time… No one was holding us back! It was your senseless bloodlust that made me go ballistic like that and kill all those people! And you know it!"

'That isss somewhat… True. But we were only letting what was inside of you… Free.'

"I don't have a monster like that inside of me."

'Yess, you… Do. We saw it together… Remember? The true Samuel… Hayden.

You are just running away from the… truth And your soul will never be at peace because of… It.'

"My soul is fine, could you shut up now?"

'Hmmm… Then tell us, what do you feel for… Misato? You would like to have her close, don't ...you? Oh, but her husband is...Dead.

If you two end up together Samuel, you will hurt… Her. She will always think of her dead husband and never about… You.

You will suffer with her... Samuel.

Let's kill her… Together.'

Not even a fraction of a second later the robot had already jumped right on top of the pedestal as his huge figure covered completely the Crucible, while his red single eye and the spikes that had come out of his hands got closer and closer to it.

"Don't you dare say those things about her!"

As soon as he said this however, he understood what was happening and immediately jumped away from the sword, then quickly left the room.

"Shit I almost fell for their tricks…" He thought as he walked along the corridor, passing by the musical paintings of the Slayer's best songs.

"But how could it have happened? The last time I heard them was right after my accident… I still have the scar from it too.

And I've installed every kind of mental protection in my body,do what was it that-"

A sudden flash of a woman wearing a long red coat with long purple hair and a red cap appeared in his mind, making him stop right in front of the guest room.

Given that he had not checked it out ever since they had left the fortress, he walked inside, noticing immediately the small grey box that had been left on the floor near the bed.

"I remember Molly having this with her, though she never specified what it was… It looks like an old tape player to me."

As he sat down on the red covers of the bed, he kept checking it out, but at one point he suddenly opened it, revealing the cassette inside, where: "Property of Shinji Ikari" was written.

"Hmm, I should have figured that someone with his personality must have had something to block out the world around him. Let's see what kind of music he likes."

He then moved the earbuds to two openings that had formed on the side of his head then, after closing it again, he pressed play and the first song started.

Play: [Rei I] Neon Genesis Evangelion OST

Samuel listened to the piano notes in silence, not looking anywhere as his mind took in the light melody and the slow pace made him relax.

Then, halfway through the song he thought:

"Well, it's definitely got a certain feel to it, melancholic if I had to describe it. I think that I'll listen to it a bit a while longer."

He then exited the room and headed towards his, which was a bit further down the corridor.

As he moved his visit towards the end of the hallway however, he noticed a pale girl with blue hair and a school uniform staring back at him.

"What the… Molly?"

As soon as he said this, the image of a flock of birds flying away appeared in front of him and just as she had appeared, the strange girl had vanished from sight.

"I guess that the Wraiths really did a number on me this time, maybe some rest will put my gears back together."

He finally entered his office, sitting on his rotating chair and activating low-consumption mode, with SDAT still playing in his ears, the first music that that valley had listened to in a long time.

Over him the moon stretched long and wide across the starry night sky, making its presence known to anybody who was still awake at the time.

Back in the village, on the roof of the hospital

The Slayer lowered his gaze to look at the watch in his helmet, still two hours until the fight would begin.

With a sigh he moved his eyes back to the stars, when he suddenly felt a presence reach him from behind.

"Can't sleep either huh? Well neither of us have to anyway."

Asuka said as she laid down on his right.

"Still glad I found you here, down there it was getting boring as hell. Seriously, you don't know how stale it is to just watch people sleep."

"I had to do that twice for you three back on the Fortress, remember?" He replied, not moving his head.

"Oh right… Anyway, what are you doing here? Just stargazing or?"

He then pointed towards a region of the sky right to the moon, where stars seemed to suddenly disappear behind a strange blue hue.

"That's where we came from. That portal is still open to Urdak."

"Soo, that means that you can go home now?"

He moved his head horizontally, only for VEGA to say:

"To reach and leave Urdak one needs a portal like that, otherwise it is nearly impossible to access it.

Currently the portal is too unstable for anything to pass through, so we are safe, but if the demons were able to repair it to its full potential, then this world would be invaded in no time.

We are planning on going back to Urdak to send away the demons and prevent them from adding another threat to humanity."

"Wait, but won't that make it impossible for you to leave this world?"

"No, we could honestly leave any time we want after tomorrow's battle."

"But we now have a war to finish." The Slayer suddenly added, making VEGA leave the conversation.

Silence conquered the rooftop again as Asuka started feeling a strange sensation by simply being next to him, so she tried to avoid it by asking:

"Hey so uhm… For how long have you lived?"

"Around two eons in hell and one in the real world."

"So… Two thirds of your life have been spent there huh… Well I had to spend half of my life living here, so I'm not too far off."

He did not reply.

She was getting irritated by this, being ignored like she wasn't even there always got her spirit boiling.

She began considering her options, either remain there and press the Slayer a bit more, or go back down…

And see Shinji again.

She moved closer to the Slayer, completely sure that he had noticed her even though no muscle in his body had moved.

And now, it was time for her attack.

"Hey Slayer, do you think that I am pretty?"

He remained silent, a bit confused by the sudden question, but then he replied to understand her a bit more:

"Your plug suit's white and purple parts match well with the red."

"I like your armor and your muscles too." She replied with an unnatural small smile that the Slayer immediately picked up on as she got close enough to touch his left arm.

At this point though, the Slayer had already seen through her, so he said:

"You are hiding something from me."

"Ehh? Of course not. I'm just trying to get closer to others for once, like Kensuke told me.

Just because I particularly like you doesn't mean I'm hiding anything from you! Plus I want to show that I don't need anyone to tell me how to get close to others. I'm perfect on my own, so you should accept me back!"

At this point, he turned around to face her, staring deep into her eyes, while the only thing she could see was the darkness of his visor.

He got up, standing so tall over her that he seemed like an insurmountable mountain, then he looked down at her and said:

"It has to do with Shinji, right?"

She didn't reply.

He lowered himself towards her, ignoring the lack of a response as he asked:

"What did he say?"

"That… He hopes I'll die alone."

The Slayer didn't say anything else as he descended back down to the hospital, while Asuka sat with her knees to her chest as she pulled out a doll from her jacket.

"Stupid Asuka, listening to the words of an idiot, where did your pride go? You're the best in the world! Remember?" The item told her as its little limbs moved around.

"But I can't be the best in the world, if not everyone thinks that the best. And he doesn't. Actually he hates me." The girl replied.

"Couldn't it have been that evil angel inside his head? Hm?"

"No, it was a conversation he was having, with himself. That angel can't do that."

"Don't worry then, you'll be able to win him back with your perfection Asuka. Show him how it's done later tonight, okay?"

The reply of the doll lifted her mood as she said:

"You're damn right about that, time to show him what Asuka Langley Shikinami is able to do! That way I'll finally have the entire world back at my feet!"

The wind of the dark night silently applauded her as she thought:

"But first, let's get you somewhere safe."

And so she descended the rooftop too, walking in silence towards Kensuke's house.

Inside the hospital, in the storage room.

The Slayer had followed the light sobs all around the hospital, finally locating the boy sitting on top of a wooden crate with his hands covering his eyes.

He got closer to the boy, finally being able to make out what he was saying:

"Asuka I hate you, you'll never be able to satisfy everyone, you never achieved everything, you just trick yourself into believing that you are good at piloting the eva, when we both know that Mari is the better pilot.

You're worthless without her Asuka, you don't have any value on your o-"

The Slayer had heard enough as he sprinted at the boy and moved his hands away, revealing a pair of red eyes and completely black irises.

As soon as they noticed the Slayer however, they disappeared, with Shinji returning to normal as he fainted.

He got back up a couple of seconds later, confused by what had just happened.

The Slayer told him to follow him to a hospital bed to rest and so he did, but while they were walking the man thought:

"Kaworu couldn't do this before, controlling him, yes, but never his voice… Could he be getting stronger as time passes? I don't see how though. Unless…"

He suddenly stopped and indicated a medical scale, so Shinji asked him:

"You want me to go there?"

He nodded and so the boy did, seeing no problem with it.

After a moment the weight calculated was 45kg,so the Slayer thought:

"Wow, he's very underweight for his age, maybe it has to do with his shorter height too? But still, he seemed a little less skinny back at the fortress.

I'll need to check his weight again soon."

With that, he accompanied the boy to a bed, leaving the heavy cannon he had first trained with by his side, but unloaded.

They waved each other goodbye as he immediately fell asleep, feeling like he had worked for the entire day.

The Slayer left the area soon after to join VEGA in Molly's room, with that strange feeling of uneasiness never leaving him.

5:10 AM, operation "Knifehead" begins

Play: [Harbinger] Doom 2016 OST

The clock ticked to zero in the fortress' main deck and so it's four gigantic reality-warping engines came to life, pushing the gigantic ship forward towards the village.

In around ten seconds the jamming effect would no longer work on NERV, Samuel knew this, Gendo knew this and VEGA knew this.

And indeed, a short time later, the battle had begun.

Back at the village it didn't take long for the first robots to arrive. These were large metallic snakes that could easily maneuver through the red sand, just like the ones that had attacked the Slayer and his group when they were crossing the desert.

Doomguy didn't waste any time and from the top of the wall, he jumped down and sprinted forward, engaging the enemy at around three kilometers from the village.

All the robots went on him as a large cloud of burnt and broken metal was quickly formed as the Slayer, moving faster than a bullet, either destroyed them with his weapons or bare hands.

A single remotely detonated rocket took three of them out of the equation, while grenades and various sticky bombs from the combat shotgun got rid of another six.

He then charged up his destroyer blade on the ballista, firing out a wide red projectile that had the shape of a quarter moon and cut through anything that presented itself in front of him.

The snipers watched the carnage in awe from a safe distance, when suddenly one of them noticed something moving towards them from underground.

"Target to the left! Five hundred meters!"

The retired policeman shouted as his buddy opened fire after locating the snake.

He did the same, waiting for the first bullet to make it come out to the ground to then land a clean shot on its head.

It worked, with the robot falling dead a moment later. They didn't have any time to celebrate however as more trails of these snakes appeared.

"How much I wish I had brought a bottle of good ol' whiskey with me." He thought as he reloaded his rifle and took aim once more.

Back on the battlefield, the dust around the Slayer had just finished to settle and he was in the middle of chainsawing the last enemy to replenish his ammo.

Suddenly however, three Gaghiel mk4 units came out of the ground, jumping at him as if they were great white sharks.

He avoided them, jumping around constantly as the rotating blades that were their teeth kept missing his armor by mere centimeters each time.

While they kept chasing him, he didn't hold back, filling them with lead from the four triple barrels of the minigun's mobile turret mod.

Aiming at their eyes, the stream of hot metal quickly destroyed them, making the three giant pieces of metal rely only on their secondary detection systems.

He was about to counterattack when they immediately began digging underground, using their large tail to cover up the hole so that he couldn't follow them.

And just as they had appeared, they were now gone, with only some moved dirt as evidence of their previous presence.

The Slayer stopped for a moment, placing both of his feet firmly on the ground and feeling the vibrations coming from under him.

He was currently being circled, like a fresh piece of fine fish floating in the middle of a shark pack.

He didn't move, just kept listening to the ground while yellow energy gathered in his left fist and his right hand impatiently tapped the super shotgun's trigger.

He suddenly felt them move further away from him, only to notice a moment later that they were closing in from three different directions, all of them coming with different timings.

He waited until the last second, then jumped high in the air to avoid the mouth of the first one.

After landing on its head, he delivered a blood punch to the jaw of the second flying metal beast, making it destroy most of the other Gaghiel the Slayer was standing on and present its tail near him.

Finally, as noticed the third one arrive, he ran towards it while gripping the second one tightly by the tail, carrying the multi-ton armored robot like a sack of potatoes.

Or maybe a baseball bat, since just as the third one came out, he slammed it completely out of the air with its companion's body.

It landed a good distance to the side, so the Slayer took the opportunity to rip apart the metal under the throat of the Gaghiel next to him with his enormous muscles, finally destroying the core after tearing off so many layers.

He did the same with the first one that had appeared, feeling the Argent flow through him as his hands crushed the red sphere into dust while he thought:

"I… Like this feeling, it's… A bit different from the Argent I'm used to… A bit more, frantic… Excited even."

He looked around for the third one, finding it trying to struggle with getting back up. So he went in for the kill, but just as he got off the other metal carcass, two huge glowing rounds appeared from over the horizon, one of them faster than the other.

The first bullet impacted right in the middle of the dying Gaghiel, completely destroying it.

However the much larger second one followed a higher arc, ending up in almost freefall towards the ground in front of the Slayer.

Once it reached a certain height, the metallic faring opened, launching bombs everywhere in a circular formation.

Then, Samuel suddenly contacted the Slayer as he said:

"Slayer, the red storm that was headed for the Wunder changed course and has hit me directly! There's such a strong magnetic field that my instruments are malfunctioning and I'm slowing down a bit.

I'll still manage to reach you in time, but I've been able to detect the additional forces only now, look where the second shell landed!"

The Slayer did so, noticing that three huge vehicles had been revealed after the explosions destroyed their light reflective coating.

They all stopped moving in unison as the Slayer stood before them, then their frontal gigantic doors opened up to reveal entire platoons of humanoid robots.

He reloaded his shotgun, counting each row of metal that descended the ramp… One, two, three… six…

"If I counted them correctly… Around one thousand units…

Very well NERV, let's see who wins at Mann vs Machine."

The robots came online as they began to shoot at him with their weapons, machine guns, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, snipers, rocket launchers… But they all missed, as the Slayer was moving so fast that their algorithms, which had been designed to fight humans, were simply unable to keep up.

He took out several of the lighter ones with a single pull of the super shotgun's trigger, then after opening up a hole in their formation with his grenades, he used the ice bomb to freeze some of them in place.

He used them as a bullet shield as he finally got the destroyer blade at full charge.

And just as the ice went away, he found the best angle and fired the horizontal blade, which now extended twenty meters in both directions.

It travelled through the metal as if it didn't even exist, cutting robotic torsos in half along a diagonal path.

It even reached one of the transport vehicles, where it finally stopped after slicing right through it and making it explode.

The Slayer didn't even have time to grin however as the shine of a volley of huge shells appeared on his visor, all headed directly at him.

He quickly dashed to the side, avoiding the large explosions that followed.

He heard some distorted sounds over the radio while he kept making his way through the robots, with the occasional volley still appearing out of nowhere.

He had no idea of how close the red storm was.

Back in the village, near the defensive perimeter

"Man the fight's truly raging out there huh? Do you actually think that we'll be able to win?"

"Us? I'm not sure, but that guy over there definitely will."

"It's crazy that we had such a beast in our village don't you think?"

"Mah whatever, I just want him gone from my sight, I really can't wait for this battle to be over."

"You tell me. Say did-"

*Bang bang bang*

"What the? They're coming from the area the Left 2 couple is in, come on let's go!"

"Wait, someone's on the radio!"

'Left 1,Left 1, do you hear me?"

"We hear you Centre, we just heard some shots from Left 2,we're going to investigate."

'Okay, but be quick! We don't have much ammo left and Right 1 is busy helping Right 2 already!'

"Roger that! Don't worry though, left 2 already took out a robot before, they know what they're doing. We'll reach you as soon as we can!" The man then closed the radio, checked that his assault rifle was loaded and sprinted off with his buddy.

Neither of them noticed the trail of dog footprints that seemed to immediately stop at one point on the road.

Inside the hospital, while the fight is ongoing outside

"H-Hey VEGA?" The pale girl asked with her frail voice from her white hospital bed.

"Yes Molly?"

"Will you still make me see… All the seas? Like you promised?"

"Of course, actually if everything goes well you'll be able to see the first one later today."

"R-R-Really? Thank you very much…"

"No problem, Molly." As VEGA said this, he noticed the girl's red irises get bigger in curiosity as she said:

"You are… Sad. You're trying to hide it, but you're really sad right now."

"It's because of you Molly. The thought of you losing your body makes me feel like that."

"And also because you're my second chance… After…No, It's not the time for that now…."

"T-thanks V-VEGA.

Hey, do you… Mind if I… Take a nap? I'm quite tired at the moment."

"Not at all, I'll wake you up when Samuel arrives and it'll be soon, so rest if you want."

"Thank… You…" Molly then closed her eyes as VEGA turned to cover her better with the white sheet.

Just when he was done however, he heard her whisper one last word:

'Dad.'

And then the green line on the heartbeat monitor flatlined, while her plug suit began turning white.

He connected one of the drone's Argent tubes to her body, slowing down the decoloring rate.

"We've only got a couple of minutes left…

I'm counting on you Samuel."

He suddenly heard something hit the nearby door quite hard, but when he looked at it, there wasn't anything, so he thought:

"Just what are those two doing there?"

In the adjacent room

Shinji was slowly getting back up after hitting the door, when suddenly Asuka stopped over him, looking down at the bruise that he had just gotten.

"That's what happens when you touch my eyepatch without permission. You dumbass."

"I was just curious, you could have told me. Ow."

"Oh yeah, hey Shinji look out there's an angel right there that wants to attack you.

But you knew that already, you're just too infantile to think about the consequences of your own actions."

"You're right Asuka. Fourteen years might have passed, but you're still much more mature than me."

"Of course I am, you're no match for me."

"Well, I would still like to keep trying. I have to earn my redemption after all, right?"

Asuka looked to the side as she said:

"Y-yeah you do."

She suddenly noticed something out of the corner of her eye, a red line on a white square surrounded by a large gray outline.

Asuka got away from him and refocused her eye on the door that led to the outside, finally seeing a large splash of blood on its small window.

"That… Wasn't there before."

She quickly got her taser out of her jacket, while Shinji got back up, having picked up on what was going on as well.

She slowly walked closer to the iron door, measuring each step as if she was going through a minefield. It was only once she was about half a metre away from the metal surface that a huge inward dent was made in its lower half.

Immediately after came another one on the other side, so Asuka made the decision to run back into the infirmary where VEGA was.

It turned out to be the correct one since just as Shinji was closing the door, they saw two robotic dogs smash into the area.

Asuka quickly went to grab one of the metal poles that was used to hold the various IV bags from one of the other hospital beds, while Shinji stood there, scared and uncertain on what to do.

Suddenly however VEGA shouted to him:

"The charged punch, Shinji! Be ready to use it, I'll try to slow their sensors down!"

Just as he said that, the two enemies smashed through the second door.

They were huge chunks of metal and hydraulics with frontal armor and large mouths filled with sharp teeth, while a single red visor acted as their main connection to the outside world.

Immediately VEGA used the drone to shoot infrared light at their visors, partially blinding them.

Asuka took the opportunity to try and hit one of the more important hydraulics with her staff, managing to lock it up in its back legs.

She was about to fire at it with the tazer, but the second one jumped on her right before VEGA could warn her, getting her down on the ground as it opened its mouth to take a bite at her.

Suddenly however it was launched to the side as Shinji's punch broke the wiring in its back, effectively killing it.

Shinji tried to give her a hand to get up, but she pulled out her weapon again instead as the second dog had freed itself.

The two pins of the taser hit it right in the eye, but their current was too weak for them to do any damage.

This made it impossible for Shinji to avoid the dog as it jumped on him too, but he did get enough time to grab its jaw and hold it open.

Asuka did however notice that he was struggling quite a lot, so she grabbed her taser again, but this time by the barrel. Then, just as she threw it towards him, she said:

"Let it go, Shinji!"

He did as he was told, right as the device was just in front of him.

As the dog closed its mouth, the metallic teeth perforated the battery, completing a circuit that unleashed all of its power at once, frying the robot's circuits.

Shinji pushed it off as he slowly got back up, feeling the pain from the initial hit its metallic claws had done.

Asuka was feeling it too, but she'd die rather than show it openly in this situation.

In the meantime VEGA had been analyzing the dead bodies and once he was done he said:

"These dogs are packed full of explosives, if I hadn't blinded them we would have all died here. Are they the only ones you saw?"

They nodded, so he said:

"Hmm, I guess that our guards have all been killed too, I've heard the snipers stop shooting a moment ago too."

Suddenly the sound of a huge explosion invaded their ears, making them look through the busted doors, only to find that the defensive wall had been destroyed.

"Go take your weapons, quick! This place is no longer safe."

"Where are we even going to go?"

"The village's shield extends up to two kilometers in front, we can walk along the perimeter to reach Matarael's cave."

A car's tires were heard as it stopped violently in the red ground in front of them and looking up, they saw Kaji Jr. and Kensuke ready to give them a lift.

After carrying Molly inside, they closed the doors of the red jeep as it speeded towards the battlefield, where the Slayer was still getting bombarded and the storm was growing larger and larger.

That's when they saw a huge shadow appear from inside the red clouds, the ground shaking under the tires as Shinji began feeling a strange sense of deja-vu.

In the middle of the battlefield, atop a hill of dead robot bodies.

The Slayer stood victoriously above his fallen enemies, covered in red dust and black lubricant oil.

Even the barrages had stopped, though that was only because the enemy had finally decided to show itself.

'Slayer, Misato just told me that the one in front of you is a Mark 04 eva unit! I can't get a lock with all this dust from here.

More evangelion units might be on their way too! It's that group I wasn't able to take down from before.'

"Oh don't worry about that." The Slayer said as the perfect killing path clicked in his head.

"I'll finish what you started."

And so he rushed in, just as the eva unit grabbed its rifle again.

From a distance the group in the car watched him run, with all of them but VEGA being in utter shock.

The Slayer dodged the eight inch shells coming out of the rifle with ease, the red dust rising all around him from both the explosions and his heavy boots impacting the ground.

He kept moving towards the eva, watching as its single red eye struggled to keep up with his constant dashes.

A lightning bolt from the storm struck its orange head, making the Slayer notice that this particular version did not possess an AT field, making his job much easier.

The orange and white eva unit pulled up a leg to try and crush the Slayer, who simply looked up at it as he pulled out the meathook.

The group in the car had their breath cut out when the giant's limb hit the ground, rising a large cloud of red dust.

And out of that cloud, a shining flaming chain flew out, sinking its double fangs into the thick armor of the eva.

The Slayer was seen flying up as his body arched towards the side of the knee.

And as his fist glowed with yellow Argent energy, he said:

"RIP AND TEAAAAR-"

The fist collided with the left knee, completely shattering the bones and muscles inside while burning the dark flesh.

He dashed away from the falling eva as it desperately tried to get a hold of him, reaching the right shoulder instead.

He let off a second punch right there, with the vibrations causing the armor to crack and the bones to start shattering.

With one arm destroyed and the other trapped under its immobile body, the Slayer had free reign as he quickly located the area where the core was. But it was covered by a thick layer of armor and he had run out of charges for his blood punch.

He noticed however that a part of flesh had been exposed where he had hit the shoulder, so he went back to it and stabbed open the muscle, letting out Argent energy that his suit immediately began absorbing.

With his two punches refilled, he dashed to the top of the abdominal armor plate and unleashed both of them at the same time, creating an opening deep enough to reveal the core.

He extended the Doom blade outwards and stabbed the large red sphere, bathing in the sparks that came out of it as it died.

Some more Argent started coming out of it, but the Slayer didn't have time to absorb it as a new artillery barrage came his way.

He dashed away from the danger and as he felt the ground around him start shaking, he saw that five evangelions were approaching him, three mark 05 and two mark 04.

Along with them, five more of those enormous robot transport vehicles were approaching, which meant another thousand threats.

"Hmm,this will be tough…

Well, I always loved a good challenge."

He began sprinting towards the new enemies, when suddenly VEGA told him:

'Slayer, we don't have enough time.

Molly's not looking good and I need you to get rid of those targets quickly to allow Samuel to reach us.

Don't worry though, the Fortress has gotten close enough for me to send in some support.'

"What is he talking abou- Oh. Yes."

Two huge blue beams to the head suddenly sent to the ground the two mark 04s at the sides. The ground was now shaking much more than before, as something much bigger was coming.

Another pair of beams stunned the two internal mark 05s and they were followed by the Fortress' shells hitting them square centre.

Finally, as the ground was now shaking so hard that it seemed like an earthquake, a huge silhouette appeared behind the mark 05.

Finally, a huge green fist hit the mark 05 on the head, sending it flying hundreds of meters away.

The gigantic mech stepped out of the storm, stopping just in front of the Slayer.

It stood one hundred meters tall, wide shoulders with two enormous cannons mounted on them.

Everywhere its green armor was thick, bulky and robust.

Its two huge feet cracked the land as they supported more than forty thousand tons of weight, followed by a pair of large legs. Then came the abdomen where blue Argent power lines could be seen behind the armor.

The large chest over it hid the metallic beast's Argent reactor with a signature red light shining near the left nipple, much like the Slayer's own suit.

Descending down the arms, the hands were covered by large gloves that had lots of small metallic towers on them, while the inner palm housed a less powerful beam cannon.

Finally, at the top of it, a neckless head stood, with its mouth hidden behind a cage from where blue exhaust constantly came out.

Over it, a large visor made up of tens of blue lights gave it a similar look to unit 01's face, however both sides were united in the middle, giving it a menacing and angry look.

On its back an empty weapon holder was fixed, with two large rocket boosters near it.

Finally, a pair of large horns stood over the head, resembling a viking helmet, and in the middle of them the entrance hatch, which VEGA had already opened.

'The Atlan is ready, Slayer.'

The man began jumping around, grabbing onto various points of the giant as the enemies around him started getting back up.

Once he was at the top, he stopped for a moment to take in the view of the mech he was about to pilot once again.

If the enemies had a remote chance of winning before, now he had just vaporized it as he descended down the hatch.

Play: [Pacific Rim main theme] Pacific Rim OST

Landing in the back of its head, the Slayer made his way to the two nervous control towers at the front while VEGA said:

'I wasn't able to prepare the main weapon in time, so you'll have to fight without it this time, but still, I don't think that it'll be a problem for you.'

He grinned as he placed both of his hands on top of the sentinel runes, activating the machine's piloting protocol.

Yellow energy began building up at their base while all the lights came online as VEGA said:

'All subsystems are in the green, power supply is steady and mechanical tension is in the clear. Activating cameras in 3… 2...1…'

The screen in front of the Slayer came to life, showing him how the enemy units had begun circling him.

'Alright Slayer, get ready to activate the neural link in ten, nine, eight, seven, six-'

He gripped the control rods again as two cables connected themselves to his armor.

Back in the car

"Wait neural link? Does that thing work like an evangelion?" Asuka suddenly asked and VEGA replied:

"It's based on the mind control technology from the revenant program, reverse engineered and upscaled to fit larger machines.

A single person doesn't have enough mental strength to control one of them alone, so usually they have a co-pilot.

The Slayer, of course, is not a normal person."

In the Atlan

'Connection in three, two, one…'

The Slayer tensed his muscles as he felt the energy invading his brain, getting into every single region of it and stimulating them all at the same time.

Like always he began to see things, things that he had learned to keep to the back of his head.

And just like every other time, he pushed them back, finally stabilizing the connection.

'The link is stable and holding well, good work Slayer. Now, I believe that it's time to calibrate it a bit.'

"You don't have to tell me twice." The man thought as he took his first step forward.

He was immediately jumped on by one of the Mark 04s, whose head armor was cracked open by the immense power behind the Atlan's fist as it sent it flying right into one of the green mark 05.

Then the Slayer used the thrusters on the back to dodge an incoming volley of fire before quickly approaching one of the Mark 05s.

He tried to punch it, but to no avail as he simply left a large crack on its AT field. This however gave him the idea to fire both the hand and shoulder cannons at it, which was enough power to shatter the orange barrier.

He disarmed the eva and then gave it a powerful right hook, then a left hook and then a final uppercut that put it out of commission for a while.

He turned around to the other units and grinned as he saw one of them running at him with a pair of knives out.

He simply stood there, showing his abdominal armor like a nanomachine filled senator as sparks began flying everywhere.

After a while it was clear that the blades simply did nothing to him, but just as the eva unit tried to change tactic, it was grabbed by the head and pushed face first into the Atlan's knee before the Slayer pulled it up again and slammed it on the ground a couple more times as if he was unit 01's Dummy plug.

He then grabbed the defeated mark 04's left arm and pulled it off, stopping the two knives that another unit was about to attack him with.

A short fist fight started, with the Slayer blocking his agile opponent's every move despite the Atlan being much slower.

In the end he got the advantage by headbutting the mark 05 while it was recovering and he was able to start landing a long series of punches.

This ended with him getting his hands together and smashing them onto the beast's head after jumping in the air.

Such an attack made the unit's neck audibly crack and everyone saw the huge fountain of blood that came out from the crushed entry plug area.

It was a sight that shook both Asuka and Shinji to the core, they were now starting to feel a bit of fear for what he could do.

They had been so mesmerized by his actions, that they had completely missed the fortress of doom arriving near them.

Suddenly a blue portal opened and Samuel ran out of it with the crucible in his hands.

He quickly reached the car and helped Kensuke and VEGA lay Molly on the ground.

Most of her plugsuit had turned white by now, with her skin somehow looking even paler than before.

And as Samuel lowered himself in front of her, he said:

"We should still have enough time… Shinji, Asuka, you might want to turn around."

They didn't, but he didn't care as he raised his hands and stabbed Molly's body with the metallic extension of the crucible.

Suddenly red waves of energy began flowing into the weapon which itself began glowing a very bright red.

At one point, everyone was able to see the red transparent Molly rising over the body of the other one, which was starting to turn into LCL.

Finally, red thunder came out of the crucible as demonic screams and words were heard, with Molly's soul lighting up in blinding light that filled the entire horizon while a long crimson beam was shot towards the sky, high enough that even the nearby Wunder was able to see it.

All these lights came to a halt as the crucible absorbed her soul, slowly making it disappear into thin air as her body melted into LCL.

Samuel stood up and took a look at the weapon in his hands, the beings inside stared back at him as a flow of red electricity began creeping up his right arm.

He was able to resist it, feeling calmer when a new unknown entity sent waves through the Crucible's structure.

Suddenly though a large explosion went off near them, so Samuel told everyone to follow him as he ran through the portal he had previously used.

Once everyone was safe, he placed the crucible back in its location, reactivating the Fortress' main power source.

VEGA immediately went back to his core and took control of the guns, while Samuel began moving the ship from the main deck.

Just as they were about to fire however, a huge number of pings was displayed on their radar. They were all heading for Matarael's cave, which was completely opposite of their location.

So Samuel said as he opened the radio:

"Slayer, there's a large group attacking Matarael's cave and they'll kill everyone from the village if we let them!

You take care of them, we'll deal with the remaining forces here, the Wunder is nearly here too."

Play:[Destiny] Evangelion 2.0 OST

The Atlan turned to look at them and nodded as it kicked away the Mark 05 it had been fighting with, which soon found its head blown off by a railgun shot.

The Slayer immediately began running towards the lake, crushing the red earth with each step the giant took.

He took down trees and flattened hills as he began jumping from top to top, using the rockets on the Atlan's back to even do a mid-air flip.

And once he landed after that he thought:

"Newton must be rolling in his grave for what I just pulled."

"No, I'm right here! Now go back to the fight!" Newton's ghost suddenly told him and so he thought:

"Eheh, roger that."

The lake came up on his HUD as he ran over another hill, noticing that there were already five mark 05s surrounding it. All ready to crush the entrance to the cave.

He immediately fired at them with his shoulder cannons, but one of them dodged the blast and moved its feet down, ready to kill everyone inside thanks to the falling rocks.

Just as its foot was about to touch the rock, a huge orange blast of energy cut right through it, slicing its body in half.

The top of the cave suddenly exploded outwards as Matarael came flying out of it, rotating its legs around the oval base like a UFO.

She landed a moment after, with her brain letting out more electricity than a nuclear power plant.

Just as one of the evangelions the Slayer had hit began getting back up, it was immediately struck by powerful lighting as Matarael paralized its limbs and began dissolving the armor with the acid.

Behind her, hundreds of small black dots rose up in the air as they did the same to another mark 05.

"A little happy murderous family." The Slayer thought as he closed in to crush the skulls of the remaining Evas, not noticing the villagers looking up at his mech in awe.

As the last core was destroyed, the Atlan's threat indicator lit up in bright red as a barrage of missiles started making its way towards him.

He immediately got ready to dodge them, but instead he saw lots of blue bolts of electricity fly right in front of him as they destroyed each and every missile.

Once they were gone, he looked down to see Matarael floating near him in her UFO form and so he gave her a thumbs up for the help.

They didn't have time to do much more than that however as more evangelions and robot transport vehicles appeared from the red storm.

And as the Matriels charged in to cover in acid the smaller units, Matarael deployed her AT field to block some bullets while the Slayer was already running forward.

She caught up with him quite quickly given how fast she was when flying and then she decided to use the storm to her advantage, flying right over the largest concentration of enemies.

Using the full power of her S2 engine she gathered all the electric charge of the storm, letting out so many lightning bolts that it looked like the sun had risen already.

The Slayer used this opportunity to wreck the paralized enemy units, feeling the bolts tickle his skin as they did nothing to his mech.

He smashed one's head into the one next to it, grabbing its gun and quickly emptying the magazine on other ones nearby.

Then he grabbed one by the neck and used the power in the Atlan's mechanical muscles to hurdle it across the air and into another group.

As they fell to the ground, the lightning storm stopped, with Matarael descending as she used her quick rotating legs as blades to cut the enemies apart.

One of them tried to attack her from below, but she sprayed it with acid from the cannon on the bottom of her base.

The Slayer then used the shoulder cannons to stop another attack that she hadn't seen in its tracks as he jumped to the eva and began hammering its body armor.

Once it came away, all it took was one quick hand blast to the core to kill it for good.

Both fighters stopped for a moment as they took a look at their surroundings. The only large threat left was a large group of units that were all running at them with their knives out.

They were too far apart for the Slayer to attack one without getting surrounded and not even Matarael's lightning strikes and acid had enough range.

The Slayer quickly came up with an idea however as he activated the small towers on the Atlan's fists, which began glowing bright blue.

He then turned around and said:

"Hit me Matarael!"

She gathered up all the electricity as she could and then fired it at the Atlan, which jerked up as it absorbed the now concentrated energy while the Slayer resisted the charge.

Once she was done however, the Slayer let out a short sigh as the automatic voice inside the glowing Atlan said:

"Warning, power exceeded by 600% Release immediately."

"Good thing I have an outlet right in front of me."

The Slayer thought while, just like in Shinji's exoskeleton, he activated the charged punch, which this time came with a rocket booster extending out of the elbow.

He also took aim with all the other available cannons and once the first unit reached him, he delivered all the energy at once.

The entire evangelion's body was destroyed as its fragments were sent flying at tremendous speeds, immediately killing anything in their path. Meanwhile, for the more remote targets, they were obliterated by the empowered shoulder cannons.

This made quick work of the remaining enemies, letting Matarael rest for a moment as her S2 engine recharged.

The Slayer moved his view towards the fortress, watching as it blasted away the core of the last remaining unit on its side of the village.

Finally, he decided to move when a huge aircraft was picked up by his radar…

Back in front of the village, a moment later

The Slayer stopped next to the huge flying fortress as Samuel said:

"All clear on our side Slayer, I saw that Matarael helped you out there, so I don't think I should even ask about the enemies in that area.

Moreover, we have something else to focus on now."

As he said this they both turned to look at the enormous Wunder as it exited the clouds and landed in front of them.

The bird-shaped vessel, while being only a bit taller than the fortress, was much wider with its huge wings and even longer with the skeleton tail on the back.

Three huge antennas dominated the superstructure compared to the fortress' metallic spikes over the main dome and the five double barrel turrets were right in front of them instead of the sides.

The most distinctive feature was however the giant white 'beak' that dominated the front along with the two wide orange AT field generators that led to the engines in the back.

And while the Slayer, Samuel and VEGA kept analyzing every detail, Misato contacted them as she said:

'We finally meet.'

"Hello Katsuragi, it is an honor to meet you." VEGA replied and then continued:

"I have to inform you that the operation was a success. Molly's soul is currently contained safely inside the crucible and casualties were kept to a minimum. Asuka and Shinji are safe too, they are waiting here with us."

'Perfect, shall we meet outside?'

"The storm is getting worse… Hold on, I have a better idea."

As he said this a portal was suddenly opened in the Wunder's bridge, from which Asuka, Kensuke and Kaji Jr. all walked out at once.

"Hi there Katsuragi, it's been a while since we last talked eh?" Kensuke said as he looked around, noticing how everyone seemed to be fixated on the boy next to him. Especially the captain.

The boy himself looked like he was about to explode from the joy of finally seeing his mother again and of having boarded the Wunder for the first time.

The woman however was trying to avoid looking at him for more than half a second, as her guilt kept stabbing her repeatedly.

So she ignored him and said:

"It's good to have you back Asuka, where is Ikari?"

"With Hayden, he said he needed to grab something."

As the girl said this, the portal turned slightly blue again when Samuel and Shinji walked out, with the cyborg immediately impressing everyone with his three meter tall body and with the relic he was holding.

"You looked shorter in the video feeds." Ritsuko suddenly said as she and Misato walked down from the captain's station.

"Well, the restricted view of video cameras tends to do that. Same goes for you if I may add."

Suddenly Mari burst open the door as she entered the room, joyful as ever, immediately heading for Asuka as she said:

"Princess! You don't know how much I missed you. Did you have a good time with the puppy?"

"Mari just shut up." Asuka sharply replied and so Mari said:

"I'm just trying to liven the mood.

Oh well, I guess that you're keeping your enthusiasm for the moment the two of you will be all alone right?"

The redhead ignored her as Misato walked by, stopping right in front of Samuel, who was nearly twice as tall as her.

"It's nice to meet you Hayden." She said as she extended a hand outwards and he replied the gesture while saying:

"The pleasure's mine Katsuragi, let's hope that we can help each other get rid of our problems in the future."

Suddenly a pair of hands went around her and enveloped her into a hug, making their hands separate as she looked down to find Kaji jr. who said:

"Sorry mom, it's been so long I just couldn't resist."

As he kept hugging her, Misato tried to hide her extreme embarrassment as she said:

"Kaji n-not now please."

"Oh don't worry Misato, nobody minds it." Samuel said, reassuring her as she lightly hugged her son back while a conflicted Shinji watched from the side.

Kaworu was about to say something to him when suddenly they heard a loud sound of metal clashing against rock.

They looked outside, finding the Slayer standing on top of the Atlan, who waved at them.

The WILLE crew waved back, most of them out of a sudden sense of fear that had taken over their bodies.

The man then pointed out to Samuel that the emergency power of the Fortress was starting to run out, so the cyborg made it quick by showing everyone the crucible as he said:

"I brought this here to show you where Molly's soul is currently contained, to show that today's battle wasn't for nothing."

He then moved his free hand in a strange way over the demonic crucible, activating the green eye in the middle which projected Molly's unconscious body in the air above them.

They all looked in silent surprise, especially Ritsuko who was eager to put her scientific knowledge to the test with their alien technology.

After a short while, the image disappeared and Samuel said:

"Alright I have to put it back where it belongs now, you Shinji stay with them alright? I'll bring you back your things later."

The boy nodded and so the robot, along with Kensuke, walked back into the portal, which was immediately closed as soon as they appeared on the Fortress, with alarms starting to ring everywhere.

Then VEGA said:

"Enemy evangelion group spotted at 9 o'clock! I'm detecting a person's life signs inside one of the units! It's of an unknown type too!"

The Slayer jumped back inside his mech as the final enemies appeared out of the red dust, four orange mark 04 and the unidentified manned evangelion in the middle.

It was very different from the ones they had met up until now, with its eyes united in a single red, arrow shaped visor and dark blue armor that contrasted heavily with the background.

It was taller than the other units, almost as much as the Atlan, and it carried a huge black double bladed sword in its right hand.

The Slayer could feel the enemy pilot stare at him, but just as he got ready to engage them he heard Misato shout:

"Mari, run to your eva and get out there! That's a mark 06!"

"A mark 06?" VEGA asked and Misato replied:

"We've only ever seen five of those ever since the near third impact and every time we've lost! Be careful out there."

As VEGA finished up his analysis of the enemy he said:

"She's right about being worried Slayer, it has similar energy levels to Matarael and that sword is made of a material I can't identify, plus from the way they move it looks like it can control the units around itself."

"It still doesn't sound worse than an archvile, but better be safe than sorry."

The Slayer thought as he came up with a different strategy, which was to simply shoot at it from far away using the shoulder cannons, along with the support of the Fortress.

The first of his hits only slowed it down a bit, while the ones from the fortress almost made it fall to the ground.

On the second volley however, the unit decided to defend itself by using the sword too, which almost broke when it received the shots from the fortress, but it soon began to regenerate as the Slayer finally decided to rush in too.

Play:[Angel attack] Neon Genesis Evangelion OST

He immediately noticed how this unit was much more agile than the other ones, having better accuracy with its strikes too.

Still, the Slayer was trained in all kinds of combat, so it was easy for him to keep fighting without much issue even in this situation.

He landed a punch on the right side of the unit's face, then dashed away to avoid the counted attack and dashed in again to land a kick with the added power of his speed.

He then trapped the enemy blade between both of his hands to stop a high strike and used the shoulder cannons to greatly injure its exposed shoulders.

They suddenly heard the man inside shout in pain as he said:

"You bastard!"

"Critical hit to the shoulders! It can use its weapon anymore!" VEGA said, but then The Atlan was suddenly pushed back by a strong kick to the chest, which the Slayer blocked with his hands.

This however left him off guard as the muscle joints in the eva's shoulders suddenly began to regenerate, allowing it to launch the large sword directly at the Atlan.

"Try to stop this one!"

The Slayer got ready to block it mid-air, but at the last second it changed shape, turning into a black two pronged spear, which impaled Atlan directly.

The gigantic mech was hurled into the air as all of its lights were shut down. It kept flying until it finally came to rest on a mountain, leaving behind itself a huge trail of dust.

"Slayer! Slayer! Respond to me Slayer!" VEGA shouted as he tried to get a response from him, but he stopped as a new warning appeared.

"What the- His vitals just disappeared! I can't get any sort of signal from the Atlan!"

"The emergency ejection isn't working either!" Samuel shouted as he moved from screen to screen on the main deck while the mark 06 quickly approached the Atlan.

Before they even realized it it was already standing over him with the spear in its hands.

It got ready to strike, just as VEGA shouted:

"Come on Slayer, answer me!"

TO BE CONTINUED… In episode 3!

A/N (made a lot of time after the first one):

Hey there. It took a while eh? Around a month if I'm correct. So uhh, yeah sorry about that, writer's block and all got me good ahah. It almost seems like it's become my new schedule, I still don't know if I like it or not, but hey at least I have more time to polish the chapters :).

About that, thank you Hydration station for beta reading the chapter! Helped out a ton. And go read his fics guys, he's an awesome writer.

Anyway, as that final line says this is the end of episode 2, quite a bit larger than episode 1 eh? Well don't worry because episode 3 is probably going to be the largest one out of the four planned.

Still, I hope you're liking the story so far, leave a review if you want.

As for the future, well… Strap in your seatbelts boys, shit's going to get wild.

:)