Blood Red
Episode 2
New Horizons
A/N: Disclaimer, this chapter (and the next one) take heavy inspiration from a mission with the same name from the awesome game Titanfall 2. I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.
Chapter 11: Effect and Cause part 1
Near the observation tower, after the two failures of infinity were taken down
"Slayer! Are you alright?" Kaji jr asked as the man caught up to them and he replied:
"Yes, honestly I thought that they would have been harder to deal with."
"You just killed two gigantic mechs! How were they supposed to be harder?"
"Well they could have had weapons. How's the structure doing after those explosions?"
"It's still holding up, though only at one third of its original power and unfortunately rare pieces of equipment were destroyed by the explosions, making it impossible for us to repair them unless we call the Wunder for spare parts."
Suddenly VEGA moved next to Kaji and said:
"About that Kaji, there's something we need to tell you about."
"Huh?"
And so VEGA quickly filled him out on the plan that they had devised and why they had come there in the first place.
"Wait so… Tomorrow the Wunder is going to come here?"
"Exactly." VEGA replied as the boy's face was filled with the brightest of smiled as he said:
"That means my mother is going to come too! Yes! Thank you guys!"
"Wait, aren't you worried about the battle?"
"Me? It's been forever since I had any kind of action here! And the others here think that too.
Don't worry, tomorrow we'll help you as much as we can."
The Slayer smiled internally as he thought:
"I wish I could have been that excited to go to war when I first joined the space marines."
Then Kaji Jr continued:
"Anyway, Slayer, you want to meet Matarael right? Then follow me please."
Into the pillar 01 observation station
"It's me guys, I brought some friends." Kaji Jr announced as all the people in there gave them a quick salute before going back to their work on managing the explosion damage.
"I'll have to join them for now, instead you should enter the door to the right at the end of that hallway, where there is our specialist on Matarael."
They nodded and walked forward among the chaotic noise, with the Slayer drawing in quite a few strange looks.
Still, they arrived in the room with no issues and once inside they were surprised to only see a young girl playing around with a small paper airplane she had made. She was wearing a bright cyan hoodie and pink leggings while her hair was curly and of a bright pink color.
When the paper airplane landed right on the Slayer's visor, she looked at them and said:
"Oh hello! I'm Kotone, glad to meet you! I believe that you are here for Matarael right?"
"Yes." VEGA replied, making her spring out of her seat and say:
"Alright! First things first. I've been friends with her since I was a little girl, so I know everything about her!
The most important thing that you should remember is that she reaaaly cares for her babies. Like, if one of them got killed by a human, she would totally devastate the place."
The Slayer and VEGA looked at each other for a moment before the drone asked:
"What if we have befriended one of her children?"
"Then you're set! Just play with those little monsters a bit and she'll love you too."
"Alright… Can she understand us?"
"Oh definitely! And she can talk too! I used to spend hours gossiping with her and talking about which ones of the angels she would date. Turns out that they're all siblings."
"Wait, didn't Kensuke say that due to the radiation humans can stay a maximum of an hour there? Also if she's supposedly an alien, how can she act so human and understand you?"
"Hell if I know, I'm a girl with weird friends, not a prophet. She might as well have been possessed by a dead woman for all I know.
And about the radiation stuff, basically she protects me with her AT field and since it takes me fifteen minutes to go back and forth with a suit it's no problem.
Or at least until a couple of days ago."
"Hm? What happened?" VEGA asked as the girl unzipped her hoodie, showing them a mechanical implant around her heart.
"During my last trip I fell down a hole and the suit broke. I managed to get out alive, but I was filled with radiation and my heart wasn't working as well anymore.
So now I have to keep this thing implanted into my body for around half a year as it avoids me having a heart attack.
If I were to go back in there however, that would kill me. I was the only one agile enough to get into the cave where she resides, so no one has seen her since my incident.
She also didn't scream like that before, which makes me think that something bad has happened to her."
Suddenly the Slayer said:
"Could it have to do with the Matriels stealing pieces of the Mark 5 that Asuka took down?"
"Maybe, but what would they need them for anyway?"
And so VEGA said: "It's a good point though, could it be that she's injured? How is the cave that she lives in? Is there anything particular?"
"Not that I remember, no. Apart from a strange glowing rock that naturally forms there there isn't much else, I've never seen a stalactite either."
"Hmm...I guess that we can only go there and see it for ourselves, Slayer?"
The man nodded and as he turned to the girl he asked:
"Do you have a map of the path that you took?"
"Yes, but it's too small for you, there are some places where you have to crawl or walk over ravines and your greater weight and size might make them impossible to traverse.
There is however another possible path, although I've never ventured through it as it passes right through that abandoned building that has been rotting away for as long as Matarael was found, maybe even more."
She then grabbed a long tube of paper and spread it out on her desk, with the others coming closer to see better.
It was a more detailed top down view, where there was a clear red line marked across the large forest as it went around a hill
"You can follow the standard path up until you meet a rusty gate on your right with military signs on it. Usually you would go forward and not go through it, but in your case you'll have to enter it and follow the other path until you reach the entrance of the facility.
The entire place is filled with overgrown plants and there is no map of the military installation, so you'll have to find a way out yourself.
If everything goes smoothly you will exit the facility and find the destroyed chemical plant and in front of you, with the lake next to it.
From there you just go around the perimeter and you'll soon find the cave.
Got it?"
The Slayer nodded as he asked:
"And about the military facility Kotone, what was it like before it was abandoned?"
"I don't know. It was left behind before I was even born and there's no record of it in any archive."
"I'll have to go in blind then." He thought as she opened and drawer and grabbed some things.
"Here, take this radio and this Geiger counter, if the radiation levels get too high we won't be able to talk, so watch out."
"Thank you Kotone, I guess that we can go now." The Slayer said as they quickly tested out the equipment she had given him.
It all seemed to work fine, so the group walked out of the establishment, with both the Slayer and VEGA noticing that Kensuke had become much more moody after their talk with Kotone.
Even more suspicious was the fact that once they were outside, he announced out of the blue that he urgently needed to go back to the village, leaving them in a nervous hurry.
"Looks like our village leader isn't as clean as he looks, should I keep an eye on him with the cameras?" Samuel asked and VEGA replied:
"Please do, we can't be sabotaged with our plan coming in action so soon."
"Alright, I've also finally managed to get some more info on NERV, I found where they keep Molly's extra bodies. It wasn't a pleasant experience… Mostly because they seem to have some kind of baseline conscience and they kept laughing hysterically at the drone.
It seriously felt like they were staring at me through the camera at some point.
Anyway, they also seem to be in a state of decomposition, which makes me think that Molly's current body doesn't have much time left… If our plan succeeds tomorrow, it's going to be a close call."
"Thank you Samuel, I believe that we will have to perform the operation during the assault then."
"I was considering it, yes.
Thankfully the Atlan has just finished repairing."
The Slayer grinned widely as he heard those words, keeping a malicious laugh to himself.
A moment later they reached the entrance point near the small river, with the Slayer turning around to check if everything was ready.
Asuka was holding Shinji, for her own protection of course, while also setting up the radio station with Molly, who gave out a smile or two at her brother. Shinji himself had tried to help, but he fazed out once the tiredness from all the crying earlier caught up to him.
Finally, as he noticed Kaji Jr walking towards them and Kensuke's red jeep leaving the area, he loaded the super shotgun and crossed the border into the unknown.
After a while he had walked along the path for around two kilometers, following the map in his suit as the ground itself was barely visible with all the spines, overgrown vegetation and fallen leaves.
Animal and natural sounds were constant at first, with birds of all sizes singing as the water of the river flowed next to him and the wind washed the leaves over him.. But the deeper he got into the forest the scarcer these things became, completely disappearing at one point as instead a thick fog settled in.
"Looks like I make a good Indiana Jones copycat after all." The Slayer thought as he used the Doom blade on his arm to cut through a bush and finally end up in front of the gate.
Once there he pushed the metal structure out of the way without any issues, making it creak and scream as it moved for the first time in several years.
"This damned fog really had to come here just when I walked through, didn't it?
Ah, no point in arguing with myself, I'll just have to be stuck with a visibility of barely ten meters.
I wonder, how are the others doing on their end?"
The Slayer thought as he opened the radio channel and said:
"Slayer here, there's a thick fog which isn't making me see shit, am I at least going in the right direction?"
And Kaji Jr replied:
"You're good, from what I can see from VEGA's locator you're only a couple hundred meters away from the facility, so just keep walking straight and you should arrive."
"Alright. How are you doing over there?"
"It's fine, Shinji has fallen asleep and Molly is trying to understand how to play chess with Asuka…Which isn't making her too happy if I have to be honest."
"Hey I heard you!" These words were suddenly heard from a distance, leaving no doubts on who they belonged to.
"Hm. What about Kensuke? Did you get an explanation as to why he had to leave so suddenly or?"
And this time VEGA said:
"We unfortunately haven't. Samuel saw him enter his house and he hasn't come outside since, no one has come in and out of the building either. I believe that something's up if you ask me."
"Not much we can do about it until we get this thing with Matarael done."
"Correct. There are five hundred meters left to the entrance of the facility." VEGA replied as the conversation died out.
Shinji's head
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!-
ah! Ah… Is… Is it gone?" Shinji said as he got his breath back after running away from such a horrid monster.
"Where did it come from anyway? I was in the fortress with Mari and suddenly that thing was there! I guess that dreams really are as weird as it's said.
Wait… Is that-"
"Kaworu? What are you doing here?"
"Oh hello Shinji, I was trying to come to your rescue, but the beast disappeared before I could attack it, I'm sorry. Would you like to spend some time together with me?"
"N-no, I think that I'll rest now, I'm feeling really sleepy lately you know?"
"Oh, I'm surprised to hear that, I wonder what could be the cause of it. What was happening in there if you don't mind telling me?"
"There was like this *Yawn*-. Ok so it was me and-and Mari, inside the fortress and she seemed to be talking to the uhhhh… Ceiling?
Then a red light, like… Appeared over her and a giant mouth k- *Yawn* killed her. I ran away as that hideous mass followed me and then suddenly… Molly appeared, I think. She pushed me into a door and I found myself *Yawn* here.
I'll be closing my eyes for now."
And in an instant Shinji fell asleep on the invisible ground inside his mind, with Kaworu deactivating the psychic effects of his AT field.
He then said:
"He can't hear us now."
And the black mass behind him replied:
"Good, I see that they have not found a way to kill you yet."
"You haven't been discovered either. Our scenario seems to be progressing smoothly."
Suddenly the black mass shifted a bit, worrying Kaworu as he asked:
"Is… Everything alright?"
"I was thinking about VEGA, Samuel and the Slayer and I just realized something."
"What do you mean? You said that they can't interfere with us."
"I know… But I think they are hiding something from everyone. Something big."
"How big?"
"I'm not sure… But watch out for anything unusual, try to help them at times too. If we want to succeed they need to reach the endgame first after all."
"Will do. Asuka is waking up Shinji now, I have to go, see you later."
They both disappeared, leaving no trace that their conversation had ever happened.
Real world, two minutes later.
"I never thought random vegetation could get that thick. The radiation levels must have done something to them."
"It is highly possible, Slayer. Still, you have reached the facility, are there any signs that might help us identify it?"
VEGA asked as the group (Along with an awake Shinji) sat around the radio and he replied:
"There doesn't seem to be anything that might- Hold on a moment…
I just found a twisted piece of metal, there's some kanji in it but it's unreadable."
And so Kaji Jr said:
"Oh yeah we found it too on a previous expedition, but it would have been too hard to fix it there, so we ignored it. We weren't even able to bring it with us given how radioactive it is."
"You're right about the radiation levels, my Geigher counter is going crazy, but for the first part…"
Suddenly the sounds of metal being twisted were heard from the other side of the radio as the Slayer used his enormous strength to make it into a slab again.
Once the sounds stopped there was only silence for a few seconds, prompting Asuka to say:
"So, did you figure out anything about this super mysterious base?"
The Slayer then replied:
"Asuka… This base I'm in front of, or at least these ruins…
It's what remains of the NERV Matsushiro base."
She immediately jumped up at the mention of that name as her eyepatch flared an intense blue.
"Y-you're kidding right!? They- He-... He told me that it had been vaporized along with the explosion of unit 03!"
"Who told you this?"
"K-Kensuke."
An unbreakable silence fell upon them as Asuka slowly came to the realization that he had lied to her for all these years.
And when she did, she immediately lashed out onto the closest tree she could find, punching it so many times that the bark cracked everywhere and her plug suit-covered hands were full of resin. All while screaming insults in german, but with so much rage behind them that they were incomprehensible.
Once she finally calmed down, she turned to Kaji Jr and burned his soul with her stare as she said:
"I want you to bring him here. Now."
"A-alright!" The boy said as he ran like he was running for his life. Which considering the circumstances was exactly what he was doing.
"And tell him that he needs to have a fucking explanation ready!" She then shouted as he was already too far away to hear her.
She then sat down, only letting her anger show out of all the emotions that she was feeling.
She turned to look at Shinji, who had been shook by the revelation too judging by his dead face, but suddenly Molly stepped in and asked:
"Wasn't Matsushiro base the one where you had your acc-"
"We'll talk about it another time Molly alright?" VEGA said as he used one of the drone's limbs to cut her sentence short.
She gave him a small thumbs up, so he released her. Not even a second later she was already near Shinji, trying to understand his foul mood.
He let out a defeated sigh as suddenly the Slayer said:
"Hey VEGA can you check if there's anything wrong with my visor?"
"Hm? What's the matter?"
"Some things are moving a bit strangely, wobbly almost."
After a quick check the Ai replied:
"There aren't any issues with your suit Slayer… Strange."
As he turned around to think about the new information, he saw Shikinami's face suddenly lit up in worry, with her eyes widening and her eyepatch glowing more than ever before.
She felt her plugsuit tighten all around her body as she said:
"I think that I know what's going on."
Matsushiro base, Slayer's location
"Another one of those strange hallways… They're becoming more common the deeper I get into the facility and I'm not liking this one bit."
"Slayer, listen to me, Asuka might have an explanation for the strange events."
"I'm all ears."
The girl then said:
"If...This is truly Matsushiro base then...Bardiel and Matarael aren't the only angels that have been here.
There was another one that we fought here too.
Leliel. The angel of the night.
It was a four-dimensional black and white circular being who had the ability to transfer objects into an empty dimension called the Sea of Dirac.
Mari was sent into this dimension and we thought that she was gone forever, but after twelve hours Leliel spit her and her evangelion out.
She then told us that she had found a way to kill it and we went with her plan, which consisted in making Leliel 'eat' one gram of antimatter."
"Where the hell did you find antimatter?" VEGA asked and she replied:
"You need to know that this base wasn't just a base for evangelions.
Deep down in fact there were hidden laboratories who experimented with unknown technology of all types.
In one of those Mari found the test tube with antimatter in it, so we were then able to defeat the angel.
We left the area soon after, but even two days after the battle I still had a feeling that it was still alive." Her eyepatch flared for a moment as she said this.
"I eventually forgot about it. It happened during some of the toughest years of the war, so it was only natural to leave it behind given that we thought it had died, the village wasn't even around at the time.
However, after hearing about these distortions of reality that the Slayer saw… I'm starting to have my doubts."
"Is there any way I can verify if they are real or not? Shooting them should work." the Slayer suddenly said and she quickly replied:
"No don't! If it's actually alive then right now is in a docile state. If you were to wake it up by shooting it you would be pulled into the sea of dirac."
And as the Slayer whispered something in annoyance, VEGA asked:
"About the Sea of Dirac. Do you believe that your previous attack has had any effect on it? I remember from some tests at the UAC with something similar that it ended up destabilizing it."
"I don't know, you'll have to ask the Wunder for that."
So VEGA opened a, new channel and asked:
"Samuel, are you there?"
"I'm here on the bridge VEGA, I was reading a book right now as I followed the development of the mission. What's the matter?"
"I was wondering if it would be possible to contact the Wunder directly from the Fortress as it should have reached our communication range by now."
"Hold on, I'm making a scan… And found it! I'm connecting right now."
Aboard the Wunder
"How are the engines looking?" Misato asked her flight engineer as the entire bridge crew sat comfortably in their seats, wary to not run into any stray NERV or Federation forces.
"All good captain, we should be there by tomorrow's sunset!
Hm? Hyuga there's something flashing on your screen."
Misato turned to him as he said:
"It's a radio transmission, coming directly from Tokyo 3! I believe it's the fortress,we may have reached their communication range."
"Only one way to find out. Connect us."
"Roger captain.
This is the AAA Wunder speaking, identify yourself."
"Who else do you think it could be if not me?" Samuel replied as his face appeared in front of them while he continued:
"I'm calling you because on his way to Matarael's cave, the Slayer has entered what remains of the Matsushiro base and Asuka has told us what transpired there."
"So… She finally found out. Is she listening?"
Samuel looked at the other screen with VEGA's visual on it, seeing back Asuka and Molly staring at the camera, the first with flames of fury behind her single good eye.
"Yes." He said.
"Asuka… Look… It was Kensuke who convinced us to keep it a secret. He didn't… He didn't want you to remember that awful experience."
"And keeping me in the dark for all these years about it was the best thing you could fucking do!?" The girl shouted and so Misato shouted back:
"No one else wanted to accept you! In the entire world! He was the only one who decided to keep you by his side!"
Asuka suddenly recoiled backwards as she heard those words, with VEGA noticing how hurt she was through her lonely eye.
Yet he didn't say anything as the girl stood motionless, with her brain processing so many things at once that she almost fainted.
Once she was almost functional again, she approached the radio and said while trying to keep her voice intact:
"You… And I really need to have a good talk once I'm back."
She paused for a moment, looking down at VEGA and then at the other two. Then she said:
"Tell them everything about Leliel. The Slayer is listening from inside Matsushiro."
The bridge crew was stunned by this request, especially Ritsuko who said:
"Asuka, I'm sure I don't need to remind you how classified such information is, right?"
"And I probably don't need to remind you that at the moment I don't give a fuck.
Our best chance at winning this war is inside that hell and if he gets sucked into another dimension never to be seen from again then I'll make sure to let all of humanity know it was your fault when instrumentality happens."
"I guess that we really have gained her trust huh?" VEGA asked himself once she was done.
"Asuka, moderate your tone." Misato suddenly said and the girl replied, now a bit calmer:
"Alright, but you agree with me, am I correct?"
Ritsuko looked over at her captain, but she couldn't see her face behind the shadow that her hat and glasses created, so she was a bit thrown back when she heard her say in a cold tone:
"Yes I do. Rits, tell them."
The scientist let out a sigh of defeat as she opened the file and began reading:
"During our operation we discovered that Leliel's body has two states, a sphere and a near two dimensional circular plane.
In the sphere form it is harmless, however it cannot be hurt either.
It uses this form when resting or is in an idle state and once attacked it changes to the circular plane.
In this form anything that falls into the hole is sucked into the sea of dirac. Leliel can accelerate this process by using black tentacles to drag the enemy inside.
No known way of getting outside the Sea has been found. The only exception is Mari's event, in which she and her evangelion simply reappeared outside the sphere form before the angel left the area. Unfortunately she doesn't remember how she was able to do it and the evangelion's internal memory had been canceled, leaving us nothing to work with.
The only thing that we learned was that the only way to destroy the angel was to drop antimatter inside the sea of Dirac to destabilize its structure and cause the core to collapse.
It was just a theory, so we weren't sure if it was effective or not, but we went with it anyway.
For now Slayer your primary objective should be to avoid any confrontation with the angel, you still have Matarael to worry about after all."
"I agree with her." VEGA replied.
Inside the base
"Another long hallway… Seriously, who did they hire to build these bases? The inhabitants of Crete?"
"I agree with her." VEGA said over the radio as the Slayer thought:
"Alright, that does make sense. I guess that I just have to find my way out and I'll be fine, still better watch out for those radiation levels. I mean they can't hurt me but they can still damage my armor."
*Creeeeeeak*
The Slayer immediately turned around to his right, seeing a wooden door where he had heard the noise come from.
"That… Wasn't there before…" VEGA said as he finally managed to transmit the Slayer's visual to both the village and the Wunder.
The man slowly approached it, super shotgun in hand to avoid any potential problems.
His footsteps got louder as he approached the door and the light became more dim. The hallway itself seemed to stretch to infinity, but he managed to reach the door as the red emergency light was the only luminescent thing he could see.
He found it unlocked and, after looking around himself, he entered the room as a pair of white eyes revealed themselves from over the door.
Once inside he couldn't help but feel confused. It was what looked like a standard office with a large desk and some papers over it. Still, it could be easily seen that it had been left unkempt for some years as a thin layer of dust covered everything.
He looked around a bit, but this didn't help as the room was sterile apart from a bookshelf which contained completely empty books.
The only notable thing was a ceiling fan from where a broken cable was rotating around the air, despite the wall of the cover not being broken at all.
Finally the Slayer reached the large empty desk, seeing that there was a hidden nameplate on it covered in black dust.
He brushed off some of it, revealing the name 'Shiro Tokita', so Maya said from the bridge:
"Hey I recognize that name! He was the CEO of Japan Heavy Chemical industry before SEELE sent it bankrupt and ended the Jet Alone project.
I… Never thought we would find him here though, I thought that he hated the evangelions after what they did to his life's work."
Suddenly one of the drawers of the desk was shot open with considerable force, making the Slayer immediately scan the area, ready to rip and tear anything alive.
Yet, the only things moving in that room were him and the ceiling fan.
He moved closer to the open drawer, finding a portable recorder with a note on it that read: "Please listen to me."
The Slayer grabbed it and put it down on the desk, then he pressed the red play button and waited.
It made a short buzz sound before starting the audio file:
"This is Shiro Tokita, entry log number one.
It's been months since my company was destroyed and if there is a lowest point that a man can hit then I certainly was there.
Still, I have my daughter to care about and anything is less important than her. Even if I have to go work at the company which previously destroyed me.
I- I don't know how many of these I will make, I just felt like venting a bit by myself.
Who knows what the future holds for me, but whatever it is, I'll try my best to make my daughter happy. What was the secret password for Jet Alone? Ah yes.
Hope."
Then the recording ended.
The Slayer sat completely still as he contemplated the man's words, thinking that the two of them weren't so different in some aspects.
Suddenly though, the silence was broken as a warning alarm fired inside the Slayer's suit and VEGA said:
"Slayer, Type S Argent has been detected near you! It's the highest amount we've ever seen!"
The man immediately pulled out the plasma rifle with the microwave beam mod equipped as he looked around for any potential threats.
"Type S Argent? What's that?" Ritsuko asked and VEGA replied:
"It's a special type of Argent that manifests when a spirit is nearby, however previously we had only encountered it with demons and there hasn't been any breach so far in this world."
Suddenly the lights of the room started to flicker as sparks of electricity came flying from the ceiling fan's broken wire, yet the enemy still wasn't making itself known.
A moment later the power shut down, covering the room in darkness, but only for just a few seconds as the lights soon came back to life.
And now, standing at the centre of the room as it floated around in a circle, the hanged eyeless body of Shiro Tokita watched the Slayer as his head rotated on the broken neck to always keep him in line of sight.
The two men stared at each other silently as the Slayer ignored all the screaming coming from over the radio, but he did notice that the sounds were getting increasingly worse in quality until a callout from VEGA was the last thing that he heard.
Suddenly the dead body stopped rotating once it was in front of him and it stretched out its arms, where a small girl began appearing.
She was wearing a bright cyan princess-like dress with white flowers dottered around it, accompanied by a pair of small completely black shoes which contrasted heavily with her pale white skin.
Her hair was long past her shoulders and blacker than even the deepest regions of space, while her eyes shined brighter than a newborn star.
Apart from the two white globes however, her mouth didn't have any other features, yet she still somehow spoke to him as she said:
"I am Leliel, the angel of the night, please leave at once."
Outside, back at the village
"So Yuji, how was your weekend?" Kaji Jr asked as he made his way to Kensuke's house with the buff man next to him.
"Ah pretty nice my friend, me and my wife finished renovating our house yesterday and tomorrow I think I'll go buy some things for my soon to be born son. What about you instead? Is there anything that you've planned for now?"
The boy thought for a moment before saying:
"I… I guess that I'll meet my mom tomorrow, really looking forward to that. Though I doubt that she will ever let me stay aboard the Wunder, it's 'for my safety' and all that."
"I wouldn't worry too much, plus she's right, I've lived outside after the impact for a while and let me tell you it was hell out there."
"I'm not asking to go on a mission like Asuka or Mari do, I just want to see what's over the horizon."
"Ah, do we have a young adventurer here?" Yuji said as he suddenly grabbed Kaji jr and began shuffling his hair.
"Hey hey stop that! Hehehe. Stop, come on!"
The man finally let him go and after a deep breath the boy replied:
"I guess. I've always lived behind our protective AT field, but it always felt for me like a limitation more than a shield. It's why I got so happy that time you guys gifted me a rotating globe, it's still in my room!"
"Heh, I'm glad to hear that, you've still got so much to see that you wouldn't believe it if I told you right now."
The man then suddenly stopped walking and the boy noticed this, however before he could ask anything Yuji pointed to the second trail of footsteps that had been left in the mud in front of them, meaning that someone who wasn't Kensuke had come before them.
Fearing the worst, they began running towards the house, but Yuji fell unconscious just after a few meters.
Kaji tried helping him up, but as soon as he saw a white dart embedded on his back, he felt something sting him pretty hard as his vision slowly faded.
The figure in the dark then left, having already set up his trap before their interference.
Back at the river
"Still nothing, I've completely lost his signal VEGA."
"Keep checking Samuel, I believe something big is going on in there."
"Sure will. Wait… VEGA I'm detecting an unknown entity near your position, do you see anything?"
"Hm? There's only the four of us here Sa-"
A pair of red eyes in the distance locked with VEGA's visor, causing all sorts of traumatizing memories to resurface again.
This time however, he wasn't the only one who was being affected…
Matsushiro base, at the same time
"I repeat, leave this area at once." Leliel said as her eyes narrowed on the green man who hadn't moved his own sight either.
But, ever so slowly, the Slayer began to move towards the door he had entered from, with the old floor tiles cracking under his weight.
The moment he and the two flying figures were at their closest, the Slayer turned to look at the eyeless man one more time, being surprised by the small dark veins that were popping up on his face and hands.
Leliel was about to scold the Slayer once more for not leaving them alone, when suddenly she felt a lot of pain in her neck as she was attacked by Shiro's corpse, with the black matter starting to crawl all over her face.
The Slayer tried to help with his plasma gun, but he was met with a strong AT field in front of him.
Just as he recoiled from the hit however, Leliel's eyes lit up in white flames as she let out an ear shattering scream, making reality momentarily collapse around them.
The Slayer lost consciousness as felt like he was falling through the air, with the last thing he saw being the small girl freeing herself from the black matter.
Much lower in the facility, some time later
"Arrrgh. What the hell was that?" The Slayer thought to himself as he woke up from under a large pile of rubble.
He looked up, seeing that he had fallen through a large number of floors from the initial room, so he began thinking on how to get back up.
In the middle of his thoughts however, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of nakedness in his hands, soon realizing that he had lost his plasma rifle.
He quickly started searching for it, finally finding it under a small pile of rubble, but there was a metal pole that had broken through the magazine of the gun quite badly.
He got it out and tried firing it, but it short-circuited right in his hands, meaning that now his only way to kill spirits was gone.
"However… If I'm not mistaken, this is the same place Mari went into to find the antimatter,so there's a chance that if I find that room I'll be able to repair my gun, Hmmm…
Well, it's worth a shot, not like the situation will be any better without at least trying."
Once he got back up, he turned on the led lights in his helmet, banishing the darkness as he found himself in what looked like an abandoned hospital.
The walls were consumed and their white color was interrupted by dark stains or cracks, while the floor was filled with dust and broken equipment.
He began walking around the dark hallway when, after turning around a corner, he found a dead body lying on the ground.
"Strange, I thought that they would have been more decomposed by now. It's surprising that it still has skin… Well it could be that being in such an isolated place has preserved it. I'll have to see if there are more dead bodies like this around the are- Wait.
Looks like someone put a bullet in his head… Hmm." He thought as he crouched next to it.
The Slayer stood back up when he suddenly noticed something strange in front of him. The hallway seemed to be split, as if there was a two dimensional cut through the middle of it.
He slowly approached it, shotgun in hand because one could never be sure enough and once he was closer he noticed that there was a thin black and white border around it, immediately giving away that this was Leliel's doing.
"She didn't seem too hostile to me earlier, there was just… That incident, so maybe she's trying to help me? No time like the present to find out."
He then touched the barrier and was stunned when his vision began warping around his eyes for a moment, before returning back to normal as he found himself in the same hallway.
The situation was very different however, as it was lit once more and it looked like it had just been built. Before anything else could happen however, a man a little shorter than him wearing a blue shirt and with a ponytail behind him came running by with a still smoking gun in his hands.
And as the Slayer tried reaching out to him, he suddenly saw bullets phase through him as if he was made of thin air, trying to hit the running man as he turned around a corner and left.
The Slayer quickly turned around to face the new threat, finding a squad of soldiers with one of them grieving over his fallen comrade.
When he aimed his shotgun at them however, they ignored him and began running towards him, eventually passing through him just like the bullets from a moment earlier.
And as he fixed his eyes on the dead body in the corner, he felt his vision distorted once more as he returned to the old destroyed hallway.
"I guess that she really wants to help me… By making me understand what happened here."
He then proceeded forward into the unknown, not noticing the two glowing blue eyes of the living corpse behind staring at him.
Back up to the surface
As Samuel rejoiced to finally receive some sort of signal from his computer, he was also confused what he saw what kind of signal it was as he said:
"VEGA… The Fortress has just detected a rapture in the space time continuum right under the Slayer's last known position.
What could it mean?"
The AI was still left a bit stunned from the attack before,but he was able to elaborate on that information as he asked:
"Could it be… Misato, what does Mari remember from being inside Leliel?"
"We'll have to ask her, she never really revealed that much. Maya, go search for Mari, she should be in her private quarters."
"Roger Misato, wait why are the lights flickering-"
*Kaboom*
Suddenly the camera rotated to the left as everyone was thrown to the ground, while the ship was flying at a 45 degree angle.
Samuel immediately shouted: "Misato are you alright!?"
It stabilized after a while and one of the bridge technicians shouted:
"We've been hit by an N2 missile! More incoming!"
And then the woman replied:"Shit! How the hell did they detect us? You're still in Tokyo 3 right Samuel?"
"Yes! I haven't moved an inch and the jammer didn't detect anything!"
"It's coming from outside then! We'll call you back later! Get us out of here!"
And then their feed died out, leaving a nervous Samuel to stare at nothing but empty air.
"If there's a time to finally do something, then it's now." He thought as he looked at the other monitor and said:
"VEGA, I'm using the guns to cover the Wunder, however I'll be offline for a while, stay safe."
"I will Samuel, now go save her."
"Don't say it like tha- ah whatever."
And as he disappeared too, Molly asked:
"Hey VEGA, why did you two talk like that in the end?"
"Oh it's nothing, he just has a huge crush on Misato."
Immediately Asuka shouted:
"He has a fucking wha!- Ach- a h!-"
Shinji quickly gave her a breathing mask and as she looked down at him, she noticed how the arm that was holding the device was strangely tense and he was applying a lot of force too, which made it a bit uncomfortable to breathe for her.
He also looked like he was distracted, or distant as his eyes focused on something that wasn't there.
So, when she was able to move her arm again, she tried moving his arm away, but his eyes were suddenly filled back with life as he instantly retreated his arm himself.
The sudden movement however, made Asuka react by grabbing his hand and stopping him mid movement.
They couldn't help but draw their eyes to each other as the warmth that they were both feeling erased every other signal coming from the outside world.
It was only when Molly let out a loud 'Woahhhh' that they finally snapped apart and returned to their former selves.
VEGA let out an amused sigh as he watched two gigantic bullets arc over the sky while going many times over the speed of sound and as he watched them disappear over the horizon, he thought:
"The things people do for love."
Wunder, a few seconds later
"We have two missiles behind us! I don't know if we'll be able to dodge them!" Hyuga said as Misato held on as much as she could onto the railings while shouting:
"Pull up and throw flares! Then shoot at them with our guns!"
"Roger!"
And so, as the mighty flying vessel turned upwards, the missiles followed it, however they were too slow to turn, giving enough time for the guns to shoot at them and make them explode early.
The woman let out a short sigh of relief, when suddenly the entire bridge saw a missile come out of the clouds right in front of them. Yet before anyone could react, a dark blue bolt hit it and set off a chain reaction which saved the Wunder from the hit.
After a moment Aoba shouted:
"It… It came from Tokyo 3! Samuel must have fired it!"
"How the hell was he able to hit such a target?"
"Because I'm shooting fire and forget projectiles." Samuel suddenly said as he reactivated his visual feed with the ship.
Then he continued:
"It seems that they are being launched from different silos around you, try going lower to the ground."
The Wunder did so and a moment later Ritsuko shouted:
"There! I see one!"
The ship immediately aimed its guns and fired at the area, however once the smoke settled, they saw that nothing important had been destroyed as an orange AT field presented itself.
So Samuel, upon analyzing the images further said:
"Misato listen I got an idea."
"We're all ears, Samuel."
"If you can use a laser to point at each silo, I'll be able to lock onto it with the guns.
Because of our distance it'll take a while to lock on the target, so you'll have to keep it aligned for as long as I need you to."
When the main screen of the Wunder suddenly flared red as another N2 missile was launched, Misato struck a pose and as her long purple hair was sent flying by the ship's movement she said:
"Let's do this. Quickly! Redirect the guns to the front of the ship, we'll be able to do it as quickly as possible this way!"
"Roger Misato."
"God, she's so beautiful." Samuel thought as he focused on every aspect of her.
Despite being lovestruck however, he was still conscious enough to get control of the guns and change their fire programs.
Play: [Magic Spear 1] Ace Combat 7 OST
The Wunder suddenly pulled up and it turned around, leveling out after completing the half circle.
Then as the nose was lowered, they followed the trail of the missile and found its silo, pointing all the guns at it as they slowed down to get a better lock while Samuel fired the guided munitions in the sky.
The lock was successful and as the Wunder fired its engines again to get out of there, two huge explosions came out from the ground under it.
"Alright, first one down! Four more to go!"
Samuel shouted as the ship located the next one and got its guns ready.
However, just as they were about to acquire a lock, they saw five flying evangelions equipped with the jetpack that had been originally built for unit 02 fly out of the ground in front of them.
They rotated in the air and began flying towards the Wunder, each with a large circular device equipped under them.
"What are those? I've never seen units like these!"
Hyuga shouted, but before anything else could happen, five bright red dots appeared under each evangelion as five high powered lasers were fired at the Wunder.
The ship was shaken by the hit as the five enemies kept their lasers firing directly at the bridge, so Misato shouted to abort the approach and use the guns to defend themselves.
They managed to take one down, but the others evaded their fire with their high maneuverability and got on the ship's tail.
"Full throttle now! Aim at the silo again and give full power to our rear AT field!"
The crew under her worked as fast as they could and in a moment the mighty ship was in attack position once more.
The lasers fired again as they closed in on their target, but the AT field saved the ship as they were able to get a successful lock once more.
And as they came out of the attack run, they used their rudder to turn around and face the drones once more, this time taking out two of them as bullet after bullet flew into them and exploded.
However two new threads presented themselves as two of the three remaining silos fired their payload at the Wunder.
Getting an idea, Misato told her crew to fly away from the silos and give full power to the AT field at the stern once more. This had the effect of drawing in from the same direction both the two drones and the two missiles.
Once the four targets were behind their ship and about to hit them Misato shouted:
"Give us full AT cover and activate the reverse thrust! Let's blow up these bastards!"
The crew did as instructed and they were suddenly flung forward as the ship experienced over 6Gs of deceleration for a short moment. This made the proximity fuse of the N2 missiles activate before the two laser evangelions were able to fly away, annihilating them.
And as the crew got their heads back in place, they shouted in admiration, with even Samuel said:
"You got some nice moves, Katsuragi."
"Well, we haven't been fighting for fifteen years for nothing.
And just call me Misato, Katsuragi makes me feel old."
"Sure." He replied, being thankful that his robotic body couldn't actually blush.
The next silos were destroyed without a hitch, letting the crew exhale happily as they got to live another day.
"Alright, now that that's over with, Maya, has anyone found Mari?"
Suddenly the girl entered the room as she said:
"Oh hi Misato! Nya! Sorry for not coming. I was in the hallway when we were hit, making me fly in the communication room and get stuck in there."
"Oh, alright. At least you're fine. Let's go back to VEGA now, we need to tell him everything that you experienced while you were inside Leliel."
"Sure thing, nya!"
A while earlier in village 2
VEGA and the others were sitting around the area where they had originally left the Slayer from, waiting for any kind of signal from either him or the Wunder.
In particular, Shinji and Asuka were observing the peculiar red landscape around them, sitting on two rocks two meters apart with neither of them feeling able to start a conversation.
Meanwhile VEGA was sitting near the river with Molly as he explained to her the water cycle.
"You see, the water in this small river is currently flowing to a much larger one and once there the big river goes into the sea.
Once the water is in the sea, the sun makes it evaporate and it forms the clouds in the sky. Then when it rains that same water comes back down into the ground, restarting the cycle once more."
"Woahh and… Can we go see the sea one day?"
"Sure Molly, I'll show you every single one of them." The Ai replied as he felt his core get warmer.
"Thank you VEGA!" The girl shouted as she hugged him, making his core back in Tokyo 3 emit a powerful yellow spark.
He hadn't felt this fulfilled in billions of years after all.
"Well well well, what do we have here?"
"Oh hello Ms. Kazuya!" The girl said as she let go of the drone while the woman approached them.
Then VEGA asked her:
"Is there anything we can do to help you?"
"I was actually wondering if you saw Ryoji anywhere. They told me that he had gone back to Kensuke's place, but it's been a while since he and his friend went away."
"Oh no, could something have happened to him?" Molly asked and VEGA replied:
"I'm not sure, but it's better if we go check up on him, go alert the other two please."
"Okay!" Molly said as she left the area, leaving only VEGA and the middle aged woman with him.
"Soo…
Are you trying to adopt her?"
"Wha-! I- I mean…
It's not like she's ever had any family…
But I don't know why I feel like helping her so much, maybe I'm doing this just to feel more human myself."
"I don't know much about artificial intelligence like you, but I do know a lot about kids."
"You were a mother?"
"Was."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."
"Thanks, but that's what I wanted to talk about anyway.
You see… I'm kind of Kaji's second mother. I don't blame Katsuragi for abandoning him here or anything, it's just that over the years I grew close with him, mostly to cope with my daughter's disappearance.
And I feel like you were trying to be just like me a moment ago."
VEGA paused for a moment as he watched the sun high in the sky, reminding him of a forgotten story from so long ago.
Then he said:
"You're kind of right. I think that I have the same reasons as you, but… I do actually think that there's some paternal love left in me too.
Also because… I had a son once.
But unlike you, I made so many mistakes that… I don't think that I can be redeemed."
"Oh come on that's bullshit, if Ikari out of all people can redeem himself then so should you."
Screams of agony and pain filled VEGA's head as now the image of Molly's bright smile appeared to him at the same time.
'No, it won't happen ever again' The drone whispered.
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"No… Just that, even if I'm not her true father or have the right to be a parent to her…" The smile flashed once again in front of his eyes.
"I still want to protect her." VEGA said as the trio came back from the woods.
Kazuya snickered for a moment as she said:
"Just from this I can tell you that you're much more human than so many people in this world. Ironic given that you don't even have a body."
"Well I mean, I do have one. I'm just not in it right now."
"Huh. Cool…
Well you'd better get going now, be sure to bring those three idiots back here safe and sound."
"I will, goodbye Kazuya."
"Goodbye VEGA."
And so the drone joined the other three, with a woman letting out a sigh of relief as she said to herself:
"Maybe there's still hope for this world."
Deep down in Matsushiro base
The Slayer had started to get bored of all the empty hallways he had already traveled to. The only particular thing in there was the huge amount of bodies that were just lying around dead.
It seemed strange to him however that a normal human besides him could bring so much death. Some of the bodies were even missing limbs or even their entire torsos.
"What kind of guns was that guy I saw in my memory using? I mean the only thing that can tear up human flesh like that is my heavy cannon-
Hold on a second."
He got close to one of the bodies and examined his large wound trying to find if there was still a bullet inside.
He eventually found it, it was a large, curved and heavy yellow bullet which had begun to corrode a bit due to being left inside of a body for so many years.
He still had some suspicions, so he pulled it out completely and pulled out the heavy cannon too, ejecting a bullet along with its casing.
He was immediately blown away when he swapped the two bullets and the older one fit perfectly inside of the brand new casing, drawing him to a single logical conclusion.
"These are… My bullets. But… I've never been here… nor have I fired a shot at any of these guys… So how the hell-"
"Warning, demonic presence at unsafe levels." His suit suddenly shouted and before he could react the dead body in front of him came to life as his entire features were enveloped by a glowing blue energy.
The guard jumped on him as it began to wail randomly and try to eat him alive, but the Slayer quickly kicked him back into the wall and blasted him away even more with his super shotgun, finally killing him as the spirit of the guard flew out of the body and possessed another nearby one.
He pulled out his plasma rifle with the microwave beam equipped, but due to the fall damage from earlier, it couldn't fire, letting the spirit disappear as suddenly all the other corpses around him woke up from their slumber.
"Shit, I guess every one of them is possessed by them."
He quickly got to work, blasting away the guards with all of his guns, especially the destroyer blade from the ballista as it could shoot out a horizontal blade with just one charge that was powerful enough to immediately kill any guard that stood in front of it.
He was getting worried however, that the spirits he killed now would go on to possess other bodies. As the more spirits one body had, the tougher it was going to become.
Still, he had no problems clearing the area and after turning another corner, he found a small metal pole that had WILLE's symbol on it.
There was another one further ahead and even behind him, making him realize that this was the way that Mari had gone through during the fight against Leliel.
He also noticed that the pole had a small arrow on it, giving him the direction to the antimatter room.
As he began running however, he didn't notice Leliel in time, so he flew right through her time portal and ended up in the past.
It was different however, now people could see him and both interact with him, explaining how he had been the one to originally kill those guards. He still had some doubts however as the thought:
"Hold on, why would I ever kill them? I mean did they confuse me for another spy and attack me? And why would there be two spies in this base at the same time anyway?"
Suddenly all the people in the hallway turned their heads up as the intercom said:
"Attention everyone, in five minutes the unit 03 activation test will begin, please go to your workstation and wait for orders from your superiors."
"Oh shit."
TO BE CONTINUED