Blood Red
Episode 2
New Horizons
A/N:
So, a full month for an entire chapter eh? Well, look in my defense I wish to keep a life outside of here and also because this chapter was so full of ideas that it would have taken me probably 30k words to explore all of them. But still, it's here now so, enjoy.
Oh and leave a review if you want! They really help!
Chapter 12: Effect and Cause part 2
Matsushiro base, 15 years in the past
"Oh shit."
"I repeat, the activation test for unit 03 will begin shortly, please go to your workstation and wait for further orders."
The intercom died down as everyone around him began to run in different directions, constantly bumping into him as if he was a pole in the middle of the street.
Amidst the chaos, he suddenly noticed a young girl with long black hair who turned to look at him with her empty black eyes.
The Slayer decided to approach Leliel as best as he could and once he was next to her she drew a circle on the ground, making his vision flicker as he returned back to the present.
He looked down once more, noticing that instead of a circle there was an arrow and a small recorder, similar to the one he had found in the strange room earlier.
He picked up the recorder and pressed play:
"This is Shiro Tokita, day ten.
I've started to grow accustomed to my new workplace, there are lots of things that I still need to understand, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Today some parts from my good old Jet Alone were delivered to us.
We apparently need to convert them into additional pieces of armament or armor for future evangelions.
Well, at least my creation was useful for something.
Yet, the best part about today was bringing my daughter to school for the first day.
She was so cute when she tried to never let go of my leg that I think I could have cried right then and there.
I've also received a call from my brother, he's saying that he'll be able to take care of her while I'm at work, since he works night shifts with his other cop buddy.
What was he called? Cypher I think? Strange name, but hey, it sounds quite cool at least.
I have to go now, I'm really starting to think that I'll be able to slowly turn my life around for the better."
And then the device died, leaving the Slayer with an even greater weight on his conscience than before.
He continued walking in silence, this time however he truly noticed that the only sound in the entire area were his footsteps.
Meanwhile Leliel was secretly following him from behind, curious to discover more about this strange human.
After all, she learned more and more about his past each time he time-traveled.
Some time later
Finally, the arrows that Mari had placed years earlier ended in front of a large locked door which the Slayer easily kicked open, revealing the lab where they experimented with antimatter.
It was covered in both dead scientists and broken equipment, but thankfully what he had come here for was still intact.
There were four cylindrical glass canisters, with three of them having a glowing purple point surrounded by gasses at their centre.
"Mari must have used the now empty one on the left." The Slayer thought as he grabbed the furthest one to the right and moved back into the corridor from before, so that if anything explosive happened it wouldn't at least start a chain reaction.
He sat down and placed both his broken plasma rifle and the antimatter on the ground, then he opened up the gun, finding that the energy source had short-circuited.
He removed the broken energy module and tried to connect the wires to the glass tube's mechanical ends.
However, now that he was closer to it, he noticed that there was a bar with five dots on the upper end of the tube and there was only one red dot left.
It suddenly began to beep very loudly as the dot started flashing really quickly.
So the Slayer kicked it away much further down the corridor, just as the magnetic seal failed.
This made the antimatter come in contact with normal matter, instantly turning each other's masses completely into energy.
Because this process was instantaneous, it resulted in a large explosion which sent the Slayer flying backwards and created a huge hole in the ground.
Immediately after the frail land over it began to crack as it couldn't resist the weight of the hill.
He immediately dashed forward and managed to get to the other side of the corridor, narrowly escaping the falling rocks.
Still, his way out had just been cut off, so the Slayer simply went back to the antimatter room and tried searching for a new one, while also taking with himself another container.
This one was empty, but the other two that still had antimatter in them had too small of a charge left to be of any use to him.
So he busted open a previously closed door and began searching in the unknown,not seeing the two slender black arms from the ceiling that grabbed the remaining antimatter and brought it away.
A while later. On the way to Kensuke's house, in the forest
The quartet walked together in silence as they got closer and closer to their temporary house, with VEGA feeling increasingly worried each metre they walked.
"Calm down VEGA… You're just being paranoid again. Nothing is going to attack you. You are safe with them… And Molly is safe with you."
"VEGA, what are those?" The pale girl suddenly asked as a pair of butterflies flew in front of them.
"They are insects called butterflies, do you like them?"
"They are pretty." She replied, with VEGA noticing that some of the excitement from before was starting to go away from her voice.
"You sound different from before."
"I guess that I am starting to get a hold of my new emotions. But do not worry, I will not go back to my old state."
As the girl said this, VEGA noticed her entire body lose color as her plug suit turned off and on for a moment.
Surprisingly her expression didn't change at all, but a line of sweat did flow down her forehead, meaning that she had struggled greatly against her own body to keep her smile for him.
He tried to ignore the weight that his soul was feeling, knowing that her time was running out, but it was becoming increasingly harder to do so.
Thankfully she gave him an escape route when she asked:
"VEGA, do butterflies have emotions?"
"Yes they do, just like every other animal or insect."
"Do they have to learn to control them like me?"
VEGA paused for a moment, looking at Shinji and Asuka as they walked side by side in front of them, yet so far apart.
So, he said:
"No, but they are similar to you, Molly."
"I'm what way?"
"You see, just like you come from one of Rei's bodies, butterflies are actually caterpillars when they are born.
These are similar to small worms and at one point in their life, they go to sleep inside a special nest and later, a butterfly comes out of it with beautiful wings.
The same has happened for you Molly, you're a clone that has gotten her wings of freedom.
And it's very important that you managed to do this Molly, because you see...
Just like two porcupines who need to find the proper distance to not hurt themselves, one needs to fly out of its shell like a butterfly to connect with someone else in the first place."
He again looked in front of himself as he thought:
"If only those two knew how to."
They continued onwards, with the two butterflies finally resting next to each other on a tree branch directly over the duo in front.
A flock of birds flew over them as the earth began shaking violently under them. Another earthquake was happening.
VEGA quickly stopped Molly from falling to the ground as Shinji and Asuka held themselves on the nearest tree. Suddenly though two large figures fell on them from between the leaves.
The earthquake stopped a couple of seconds later as VEGA thought:
"That was much stronger than the previous one… I guess that the fourth impact has made the tectonic plates start moving again. Let's just hope that we don't see any volcanic activity.
Although I would like to show an eruption to Molly one day…"
"Hey VEGA?" The girl suddenly asked.
"Yes Molly?"
"Are Ikari and Shikinami dead?" She replied, pointing to the two corpses that had fallen on top of them.
The larger one suddenly began moving and as he regained his senses, Yuji said:
"What the hell happened?"
VEGA noticed the dart still implanted on his back, so he said:
"It looks like someone knocked out the both of you, we have to hurry. Kensuke might be in danger."
"GET THIS BAKA OFF OF ME FIRST!" Asuka shouted as she wailed from under Shinji's body as Kaji ran for his life, jolted awake by the scream.
As soon as Shinji regained consciousness, a new earthquake started, prompting them to spring towards Kensuke's house. Meanwhile a hidden figure looked at them from deep in the woods, next to their red jeep.
At Kensuke's house
The group finally reached the wooden building, whose door had been clearly busted open.
At the end of the corridor they could see that Kensuke had been bound to a chair, with a piece of tape over his mouth.
He noticed them too and they began running towards him, making him try to shout at them.
However it was useless as with the tape he couldn't inform them in time of the molotovs that had been hidden all around the place.
Suddenly Yuji stepped on a hidden black wire, which detonated the trap and engulfed the house and a large chunk of the forest in flames.
A wall of heat and smoke came upon them as the uncontrolled fire started spreading and consuming the house. As a large piece of burning wood fell on the door and blocked it, Asuka shouted:
"Kensuke no!"
In that instant, the world seemed to stop for Shinji as her words of care for her guardian and friend bounced in his chest, with eventually all of them hitting his weak heart.
Light disappeared from all around him as if he had just fallen inside a black hole, accompanied only by total silence and the complete coldness of the air.
He looked around in the void, strangely not feeling alone anymore.
It wasn't Kaworu, or that black being who had been terrifying VEGA that made him feel that way, but he subconsciously knew that someone else was there with him.
The boy tried to make sense of the situation, only to find out that his body was gone and that now he was just a simple white silhouette.
He freaked out, something that escalated even more when he didn't hear his own screams at all, just the steps that he made on the semi-transparent ground.
A heartbeat sound began echoing through the void and on the third beat, Shinji's asleep body appeared in front of him, making the boy stop dead in his tracks and look at it.
Suddenly he felt a powerful surge of energy in his chest as a spiral of yellow light emerged.
He also felt like something was forming inside his head… Something strangely familiar.
An unknown force pulled him closer to his body as Shinji's mind was completely assaulted with the rare images of Shikinami smiling, all of them from before he fucked up the world.
Only a single one came from his current time, it came from when they were in the fortress. It was a slight smirk that she had made when they were trying out the firing range, one that had stuck with him up until this moment.
All over the image the word 'Protect' appeared, glowing a powerful hypnotizing red light that finally made Shinji understand what he had to do.
And as he walked into his now glowing body, he thought:
"I have to protect that smile. And to do that…
I need to save Kensuke."
Everything disappeared instantly as soon as he touched the body, making him feel like he was in control of it, or at least that's what he hoped was the truth.
He felt the smell of smoke and the heat of the fire once again, but his vision hadn't come back, replaced with only red. And yet he managed to orientate himself and find the man, almost as if his body already knew what to do.
Except for VEGA who remained silent, he didn't hear the others screaming at him as he leapt into the fire and rushed towards the house.
From that point on, Shinji felt only sharp spikes of pain at different intervals as the smoke was getting worse and worse by the second,but he still managed to get to Kensuke.
He got a hold of him and began dragging the fully grown man outside as if he was made of feathers, ignoring the falling piece of burning wood that fell before them, jumping over it with ease.
Finally, when he heard VEGA shout something to Samuel about 'Thermobaric ammo', the fumes in his body got the best of him and finally knocked him out, just as Kaji and Yuji came to his aid.
Two large points of light appeared from over the horizon, heading for them as they exploded in mid air above the burning area. Thanks to the high pressure waves that their special fuel had caused upon exploding, most of the fire was put out, so VEGA lowered himself and attached two Argent lines to both Shinji and Kensuke to heal them.
When he came in contact with Shinji however, he felt a heartbeat echo throughout the cable as his medical hud began glitching out, making him think:
"There's… Something really strange about this boy."
Kaworu stood silent inside Shinji's head to avoid being detected, not knowing that he was subconsciously asking himself the same question.
Suddenly Molly and Asuka approached VEGA as the pale girl asked:
"Are they going to be fine?"
"Yes. Fortunately it seems that there won't be any lasting damage."
"I'm glad to hear that… But how was my brother able to do such a thing? I thought that humans could not survive in such situations."
VEGA paused for a moment before saying:
"That… Is one of the few things that I don't know how to answer. We'll ask him when he wakes up."
"Okay. Also could you ask Samuel to repeat what he did earlier?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I would like to see the 'kaboom' again."
The AI suppressed a snicker as he replied:
"I'm sorry, but we can't do that right now Molly. Why don't you go near the house to see if some of your things are still intact?"
"Okay, but first I would like to try something."
"Sure, go ahe-" Molly suddenly hugged him.
This ended all verbal conversation for about ten seconds before she said:
"I- I- I remember Tsubame doing this with Suzuhara and I… I thought that you would appreciate it too."
As Samuel watched this through the screens in the ship, a sudden yellow lightning bolt appeared, almost hitting him.
He let out a short sigh as he thought:
"Looks like someone finally managed to put a dent in that thick shell of his.
Well, I guess that giving her a little reward for this is the correct option."
He then pressed the fire button, setting the rounds to explode high above them and just before the explosion, he saw VEGA hug her back.
Suddenly though his nice mood was ruined by a lot of pings appearing on his radar.
He focused the cameras on that location, seeing a lot of villagers coming near them, who were not happy at all.
So Samuel got closer to the microphone and said:
"It looks like our ruckus has attracted some attention. We have at least thirty people coming towards your location and they don't seem happy.
Asuka, Molly, you better go hide somewhere, we don't want to repeat the same events as last time."
Molly let go of the drone just in time for Shikinami to grab her as she ran towards her entry plug, entering and closing it just moments before they could be seen.
Kaji and Yuji remained outside with VEGA and the two unconscious bodies as the mass of people finally reached them.
The first one to come out of it was Toji, who had seen the fire and got worried for his friend.
When he saw the burn marks on his face. he immediately rushed over to take a look at his injuries, while Hikari stayed back with a shocked face and Tsubame in her arms.
VEGA however interrupted him as he said:
"Don't worry, I'm keeping him alive for now, but we'll need to get to your hospital if we want him to live, same with Shinji."
"Phew. Thanks VEG-"
"That murderer is going nowhere!" Someone from the crowd shouted, followed by a streak of similar sentences as a wall of flesh was formed between VEGA and the hospital.
"Have you lost your own mind people!? Let him go! Kensuke is in danger! At least let him survive!"
"But he's the one who offered hospitality to these monsters! Along with that redhead too! And the Slayer! He deserves to die just like them!"
"I bet it was you who started the fire! To keep him hostage like this!" A middle aged man shouted while pointing at VEGA, but this time Yuji intervened by saying:
"It was not him who did it, people! There is a third party involved in this!"
"What a bunch of lies! He's the only one here! And no one in the village has access to the tools necessary to do this!"
Suddenly Toji's father appeared as he said:
"That's right! Yesterday night I found lots of vodka bottles missing from my bar, he used them to set the house on fire!"
"We are sick of your shit! We can't stand you ruining our paradise anymore!" The crowd began chanting as they walked closer and closer to them.
VEGA looked around himself, noticing how Yuji's muscles tensed in preparation for a first fight. He was strong, sure, but he had no chance to win against so many people, especially because some of them might be carrying hidden weapons.
He moved to Kaji Jr. who seemed to be getting overwhelmed by the situation, wanting to run away, but too nervous to do so.
The same was for Toji, however he was more preoccupied with protecting his family rather than running away.
Thankfully none of them had decided to check the entry plug, which meant that Asuka and Molly were safe from harm.
So he began calculating every option they had, with both diplomatic and violent ones taken in consideration.
This time however, a huge explosion in the sky interrupted everything as Samuel told him:
"I'll take it from here."
VEGA was surprised by this, but he let him continue, trusting him to get them out of this mess.
And as Samuel watched the crowd standing in total silence after the explosion, he said:
"Now that I have your attention, let me lay down how the facts are. Ahem.
You are all a bunch of selfish, greedy cowards who are less human than Gendo himself."
The crowd gasped in surprise at the accusations, but before they could reply he continued:
"You might be surprised to hear that unlike your abomination of a place you call village 2, not the rest of the world is like it. There are people fighting, dying every day or being tortured and oppressed just for a few words!
While you all stay here in your little happy corner of the world, running away from the hard reality that everyone else has to deal with. You are… Disgusting."
"How dare you even compare us to that monste-"
"At least Gendo has a plan! He knows what to do with his time! Even if it's plotting the end of the world!
What are you doing here instead? Farming rice for yourself, rotting away in this oasis until you all die of old age or the world ends right?
You seem more like mindless robots to me! And I'm a damned cyborg!
And the second someone tries to make you see the world for what it truly is, you aren't afraid to banish him or even try to end his life. Because that's everything that matters to you right? Keeping up the illusion that the world has not ended and that it was all in the past.
Tell me, why do you even think that you managed to survive this long while being the closest village to Tokyo 3? Definitely not because Gendo is scared of a bunch of wooden houses and some hills.
It's the same reason you were left here: Kaji, as well as Asuka.
This little world is so insignificant that even the most evil person on the planet doesn't want anything to do with it. If you were dead or alive, he couldn't care less. Same goes with WILLE and the rest of NERV too.
This place is only a drain of precious resources that the sane part of the world is still benevolent enough to keep giving you.
If you were gone, I think that they would actually be relieved.
However, you still have a chance to redeem yourselves.
Tomorrow the Wunder is going to arrive here as NERV will attack this place with as many forces as possible. This is going to be a crucial fight, the outcome of which is going to determine the entire fate of the world…
Molly, could you please come out of the plug?"
After a couple of seconds, the hatch opened as the two girls came out, with Asuka holding a tight grip on her taser.
Then Samuel spoke again:
"This is the girl that Gendo is after. If she is killed tomorrow, he will be able to start a new impact and end the world, killing everyone.
Now, if you want to show me that this entire village has not been a huge waste of everyone's time and resources, made only to satisfy your selfish needs because you were too scared to face the pain of reality, then be my guest.
Otherwise, the only thing I can tell you is to try to not get shot tomorrow morning.
But, then again. That wouldn't matter too much right?"
Total silence fell upon the area, only interrupted by the eventual gust of wind through the forest.
However, just as the crowd was about to move away, one man stepped forward with an angry face as he said:
"I'll show you, you stupid robot… How wrong you are!
Tomorrow NERV isn't even going to put a dent in our village! Even if I have to fight to the death for it!"
"I won." Samuel thought as he listened to the entire crowd slowly but surely join his side, going away as they went with Toji to grab the necessary medical equipment.
Once they were gone, everyone looked at the drone as Asuka asked:
"How the hell did you manage to do that?" and Samuel replied:
"You don't lead the entirety of humanity in a fight against hell without learning a thing or two about encouraging speeches.
Also, Kaji, sorry for that remark on you, I needed an example to get my point across, but I didn't mean it.
I was so harsh because I saw that the villagers are good people, but they had closed themselves off against the evils of this world and honestly? I can't really blame them for it.
I'm glad that I managed to break them out of their shell though, this will make tomorrow's fight much easier.
Sure, they are only fighting out of spite to get back at my insults, but that's enough for just one fight… Or at least until the Wunder arrives.
Heh. Thinking of it, I did the same thing that you are doing right now, Shikinami."
"Eeehhhh?! What are you implying with that?!"
Samuel chuckled in response as he saw the group coming back, feeling proud of himself for what he had accomplished.
At the same time, Matsushiro base
The Slayer crushed a skull of the last soldier that had stood in his way, freeing the spirit that had possessed it.
He watched the blue being with anger as it flew away into another body. Even if there were always less of them, these soldiers were getting harder and harder to kill.
He didn't worry about it too much though, having fought for so long in hell he knew that this was nothing compared to other things he had to deal with.
He entered a new room, which had a sign over it that read: "Private meeting room."
Inside, there was only a single desk with a chair next to it, while the rest of the room was covered in a strange worn out fabric.
He saw another one of Shiro's recorders, so he pressed play on it while he continued inspecting the room.
"Day one hundred twenty seven. Entry log… uhhh, fifteen.
Today… It was a strange day. While going to work I always felt like someone was following me, but I didn't give too much thought into it.
Things only got worse when instead of an usual meeting, I was brought to a special room where five monoliths with holograms were waiting for me.
They had SEELE written on top of them, with a number and a strange symbol of a snake under and over it.
They all talked with voice modulators for some reason, asking me for very detailed and classified information about how I was using the resources that they had apparently given me.
I answered most of their questions with ease, except for the last one when they asked if they could trust me. I replied as honestly as I could and then a guard escorted me out of the room.
I don't know what they talked about after that, but I guess that I left some good impressions given the rise in budget that we received earlier tonight.
Let's see how this goes. I think that I'll try to do some research on SEELE tomorrow, but for now, to sleep I go."
The Slayer turned towards the desk to stop the recorder, finding a black and white young girl waving her legs while sitting on the edge of it.
He made sure that his suit had registered the message properly, then he walked next to Leliel, who pointed towards the time portal that had just formed in the door.
He nodded and began walking towards it, but, after not even two steps, he felt her tug his arm with her smaller one.
He turned around, seeing that her movements were a lot less fluid and that a slight grey area had formed in her cheeks.
"Is she… Embarrassed? What the-?"
His thoughts were stopped as she began writing something on the desk seemingly out of nowhere, and once she was done it read:
"Thank you for what you are doing. Please do not hurt him."
The Slayer looked back at her wishing to ask her a question, but deciding not to as he walked forward and ended up backwards in time.
Immediately a group of soldiers that he had killed earlier showed up and began firing at him, but he got rid of them with a single rocket as the intercom shouted:
"Attention, the unit 03 activation test will be delayed by five minutes due to anomalies found in the experiment room number 7. Remain in your workplace or leave the room immediately as the qualified personnel are currently working on the issue."
The Slayer saw a group of men in suits run around a corner, hearing one of them shout:
"Quick! We need to get to room 7 before the machine destabilizes too much!"
So the Slayer decided to follow them corridor after corridor, making the soldiers think of him as one of their own.
He also crossed paths with the ponytailed man once more, but they were running in opposite directions, so they only shared a glance with each other.
Finally, after turning around a corner he saw a room at the end of a corridor from where lots of smoke and a bright light were coming from, but he was abruptly brought back to the present as the shock made him trip and fall down.
He stood back up, seeing Leliel standing next to him as she looked at the door to the room, which was still emanating a strange light even in the present.
She extended an arm forward, turning into a very long black tendril which she used to unlock the door from a distance.
The moment after she disappeared, leaving the man to himself as he cautiously walked forward.
He blasted the door fully open as his helmet's hud began glitching out, displaying less and less information until it completely died off.
He looked around the room, noticing that it was a lot larger than the door led to believe, at least fifty meters in each direction.
And at the center of it, a shining sphere emanated a faint light, surrounded by floating broken metal beams, rocks and human skeletons.
He took a step forward, being lifted in the air as gravity immediately turned to zero. Thankfully, he was still able to move around the area with the thrusters in his legs, which were the same ones that allowed him to double jump.
A couple of dashes and some more space walking later, he was right next to the partially glowing sphere, pushing away an empty skeleton.
The Slayer touched it for a moment with a single finger and it reacted, almost as if it had recognized something about him.
It then began opening up, with two red lines starting at the equator and then repeating themselves until the entire thing had been cut open, revealing the small device inside of it.
It had three lead latches while a strange circular machine made up of a ring of copper wires and some unknown machinery at the centre emanated a blue light.
As soon as it was in his wrist, the zero gravity area disappeared, making him touch the bottom of the crater while everything else was pushed up in a pile near his feet.
Looking at the three leaches again, he used them to tie the device to his external wrist, noticing how at the end of each leach there was a hole for a finger to be put into.
He felt some light tension in his hand once the device was fixed and as he tried to close it slowly, nothing happened.
Surprised by this, he repeated the motion one more time, but much faster.
This triggered a mechanism inside the device that made a snappy 'click' sound before activating and sending him back to the past in an instant.
He immediately understood the power that this small device held in itself and, wanting to test it out, he walked outside the room once he heard a group of soldiers come by.
He fired a shot with the heavy cannon to get their attention and as soon as they were about to fire, he activated the wrist device once more.
He found himself in the abandoned corridor, noticing that light blue hues had been left where the guards were standing just a moment ago.
He walked behind them and activated the device again, ending up right behind the three clueless guards who, from their perspective, had just seen a man disappear.
He returned to the present to not have to deal with them, finding Leliel waiting for him nearby with a new recorder.
She left it on the floor and backed away, with her eyes fixed on the wrist device that the Slayer had just used.
The man noticed this as he thought: "I guess that she's not the one in control of this… Better for me, now I'm a bit more flexible with my time jumps.
Now, let me listen to what this guy has to say."
He pressed play on the recorder.
"This is Shiro Tokita, entry log number nineteen, one hundred and forty days since I joined NERV.
Today… Was shit.
I was researching about SEELE when my dear daughter got caught in a traffic accident when her school bus crashed.
She's in the hospital right now… They told me she's going to be fine, but… I really can't get this awful feeling off my chest.
I've also noticed some black cars following me around and… I'm really starting to get nervous…
Later today I have a scheduled appointment with my psychiatrist. She's just the woman I need right now. She's helped me out with my wife before, so I think that she'll be able to help me this time too."
The recording came to a stop, but just as the Slayer was about to put it away, it began playing again, with a clearly streesed out Shiro heavily breathing into the microphone.
He said:
"She's… Oh… Oh my God… My psychiatrist she's… dead.
God p-please help me."
The recorder then suddenly short circuited, emitting sparks as it died off in the Slayer's hands.
He got rid of it and proceeded forward, being met with a hallway full of possessed soldiers which had been awakened by the noise a moment earlier.
He immediately grabbed the first one by the head and lifted it up, throwing it down the corridor as it made the others fall.
He pulled out the destroyer blade and fired a single charge blade, which until now had been able to cut them in half.
These however seemed to house more than one spirit as they managed to survive the attack.
Immediately they began running back at the Slayer, who pulled out the heavy cannon and made the head of the first one explode so violently that the nearby soldiers blew up too.
Then he fired a rocket at the horde, followed by two fragmentation grenades. This however had only slowed them down a bit, pushing him to pull out his gigantic minigun.
Over two meters long and weighing in at more than eighty kilograms, a weapon that could have been easily found on an APC or attack helicopter, it was one of the deadliest weapons in his arsenal, along with the modification that he had just activated.
The sides of the gun that held the rotating barrels in place retracted backwards as the numerous barrels were let off, dividing in four groups of three barreled machine guns, all from the same weapon.
They only had half a second to rev up as a flood of hot lead bullets came out of them, lighting up the dark hallway with just the muzzle flashes.
The tsunami of bullets instantly found its target, ripping apart all the bodies that the rounds went through with ease as the sound of the soldiers' second deaths eased the Slayer's ears.
The Slayer left two bodies at the end to replenish his ammunition reserves and after that, he really stopped to take in the carnage that he had just caused.
Broken heads had flown off, limbs and open torsos everywhere, faces blasted off completely and of course red blood all around. Lots of it.
"Hm, one could say that I painted the floor Bloo-.
Actually, nevermind."
The Slayer quickly left the mountain of corpses behind as he was finally able to find an emergency staircase next to a broken elevator.
He began climbing it, noticing how high it was while having at the bottom of it twisted metal beams that made for a pretty spiky death hazard.
He didn't have time to elaborate on that when a possessed soldier fell through the central hole of the staircase, impaling himself at the bottom.
The man looked up, seeing a horde of soldiers rushing towards him, while a door behind him was suddenly busted open by a second horde, effectively trapping him in between.
He fought with all his might and after bullets, missiles and plasma the horde was finally thinning down.
It was at that moment when a soldier jumped on him from a higher level while he had the rocket launcher equipped. This caused the Slayer to miss his target and instead hit the staircase directly.
The old infrastructure immediately fell apart, causing a chain reaction until the entire ten floors of stairs above the Slayer were now falling towards him.
To make matters worse, the one he was standing on fell apart too, sending him into a free fall.
After an instant however, the Slayer closed his right hand violently, activating the time machine as he was now falling through an intact staircase full of soldiers on the run after Kaji.
He quickly pulled out the super shotgun, impaling one of the soldiers to stop his fall and bring him back up. Then he blasted away the rest of his squad while launching a grenade to get rid of the lower ones.
Turning his eyes upwards, he saw tons of barrels aim towards him, which began firing immediately after.
He let his armor take the shots as he ran up the stairs, jumping constantly as he set the soldiers on fire to regenerate the damage taken.
And floor after floor, all the soldiers were killed as the Slayer reached the top. It was a large corridor with two reinforced doors on each end, while the middle had a vehicle weight scale.
"Looks like I ended up in some sort of security checkpoint." The Slayer thought as he noticed the ponytailed man running through a higher smaller corridor to his left that overlooked the checkpoint.
He didn't have time to make out his details however when the elevator next to him suddenly opened its doors and a squad with a flamethrower unit walked out of it.
The Slayer nailed in a single shot the fuel canisters behind the man, making him and his companions burn alive.
He walked through the flames as if they were nothing, following the direction that the man from before was running towards.
The Slayer used a blood punch to bust open the reinforced door, which led him towards the generators of the base, specifically the refrigeration equipment.
As he was running in that direction he passed by a sign over a staircase that read: "Vehicle hangar."
However he didn't stop, especially because he began hearing gunshots coming from in front of him to his left.
He entered the refrigeration area going at over 90 kilometers an hour, turning left into a hallway that had bullet marks on its walls.
He came just in time as a group of soldiers was about to fire upon the man he had been chasing, but he stopped them with an ice grenade and then cut all of their heads off with the Doom Blade on his wrist.
As the smoke finally settled, he looked up, only to see the man resting near a slowly rotating fan with a bullet wound in his chest and a cigarette in his mouth.
He didn't seem at all surprised to see the Slayer, which made him question whether he was actually still alive or not.
Instead, with a shaky voice he asked:
"Do you want one?"
The Slayer moved his head horizontally he replied:
"What's your name?"
"Kaji Ryoji, nice to meet you Mr. Time traveler." Kaji replied once he noticed the device on his wrist, then he continued:
"When do you come from? You don't seem from around here."
"2030, when your world has gone to shit."
"My world?" Kaji asked puzzled.
"I'm not from your dimension,but I'm helping WILLE for now."
Hearing that name Kaji smiled as he said:
"If that thing exists… Then we truly have failed on every front.
Did an impact happen?"
"Tenth angel. Zeruel, right after this one in unit 03. Unit 01 was awakened."
"That old bastard actually managed to change the scenario in his favor? Unbelievable. And… I guess that the rumors were true after all."
"He definitely knows more than he's letting on…", The Slayer thought as he non verbally pressed for more information.
"The Japanese government sent me to investigate a possible rumor that an angel had infected the unit.
My mission was to cause various problems in the base to delay the test for a couple of days, making it so that the angel would have been possibly found.
Tell me is… Misato still alive? In the future I mean."
The Slayer nodded, noticing how the man let some of his insecurity show for a moment as he let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly a soldier that had been hiding since then jumped out of the shadows and fired his gun at them.
The Slayer immediately dashed in front of Kaji to shield him and as some of the bullets bounced off of his armor, he made the soldier's head blow up with a single precision bolt shot.
As the body fell to the ground, sparks flew from the Slayer's right hand and he looked down, seeing that a bullet had struck the time traveling device.
It was starting to malfunction, with the electricity flowing around the copper coil becoming less and less controlled.
"I guess that you're staying on borrowed time here…
You should go back to your timeline now, I think that you saw what happened to the bodies around it the first time."
The Slayer nodded as he was about to move his hand, but suddenly the Intercom came to life as it said:
"The pilot for unit 03 has arrived, the activation test will begin shortly. All relevant personnel, do one last check before we begin."
The Slayer immediately started heading towards the evangelion hangar, but Kaji stopped him by grabbing his shoulder as he said:
"Just go back to your timeline, if you make changes here it won't matter, you'll just create a parallel universe, plus who knows what kind of paradoxes you might get thrown into."
As the Slayer felt the sparks from the damaged device tickle his exposed arm, he said:
"That's what you think, but I see it differently.
We've already had this conversation, the simple fact that I was able to time travel to this time shows that I did something back here, something that has altered this timeline forever.
The only way to avoid a paradox now, is if I do exactly what I want to do.
Where is Misato?"
"She's in that truck over the- Wait, oh my God it's so close to the eva! If the angel activates the S2 engine she will be blown away.-"
The man stopped his sentence immediately as he stared at the Slayer with wide eyes, muttering:
"Holy shit… I… Understand now…"
Then, after regaining his composure he crushed the cigarette that had fallen out of his mouth as he said:
"Well, it was a nice talk, Slayer. I hope to survive long enough to see you in person again, but for now…
Go save her."
He didn't need to be told twice as he busted through the ventilation fan and sprinted across the facility, with a little less than a minute before the evangelion would be activated.
As he moved around from bunker to bunker, the lights in the hangar were turned on as unit 03's entry plug was inserted into its back.
The Slayer located his target right after that, around a kilometer in front of him. So he increased his speed by using the nearby trees as grappling points for his meathook.
He flew through the air, his muscles feeling the vibrations each time he hit the ground as he jumped again with renewed energy, constantly landing a little further and further. Doing this, he was able to get to the truck just as unit 03 opened its mouth and created a gigantic fireball.
Just as the truck was about to be hit, he pulled out the chaingun shield which shielded both of them from the blast, but the pressure wave was still strong enough to launch them in the air.
The Slayer quickly grappled towards the truck as they kept flying towards a ruined building.
And as the roof of it came loose with a strong kick, he grabbed as many people as he could and used the chain of his meathook to tie them together, turning off the flaming effect that it usually had.
When the vehicle crashed into the side of the building, the Slayer jumped off of it with enough force to let the unconscious survivors land safely with him on the roof.
He untied them and made sure that they were all okay, treating an open wound on the back of Misato's left shoulder.
Then he left them there, noticing that both Kaji and the emergency units were making their way towards his position.
The two men looked at each other for a moment as the Slayer gave one final salute to Kaji just as he ended up in the present.
The only thing that he found waiting for him on the other side was a huge group of possessed soldiers and even a larger one made up of dead corpses that had fused together.
It immediately sprinted towards the Slayer, running over the other soldiers as if it was a speeding white truck in an isekai.
Not feeling like entering another dimension once again, the Slayer dodged to the side as he grappled onto its curved spine and fired at it, destroying three or four vertebrae and part of its nervous system.
Unfortunately it wasn't human anymore, so that only inconvenienced it as it spun around, making the Slayer jump off and distance himself with two dashes.
He pulled out the rocket launcher and tried to get a lock onto the beast, but it was still too close and it managed to hit the Slayer with its left arm, pushing him a couple of meters away and making him fall back first.
It then tried to jump on him, but the Slayer used this opportunity as he pulled his legs closer and kicked the beast in the head just as it was about to hit him, snapping its neck as its face got stuck looking up.
The Slayer then immediately pulled out the super shotgun, but as the monster wailed in pain, slamming the ground with all of its force, it broke the concrete under them and brought him underground once more.
Thanks to his double jump however, the Slayer was finally able to get onto its back once again and with a swift movement he grabbed the creature's head and cut it off completely with his wrist blade, killing it for good.
However, as the spirit got out of the body it began convulsing and screaming, until it almost looked like it was on fire as it disintegrated shortly after.
"Wait what? What the hell just killed it? I don't even have my plasma gun out."
The Slayer thought as he began looking around now that the rubble had finally settled, noticing that there was a small metal green box with bars around it and a red illuminated circular light in the center.
"Wait… I think that I've seen this thing before…"
He got closer to it, noticing how there were two cables connected to it that went into the rubble and some letters in Russian on one of its sides.
"Hmm, my Russian isn't too fresh, but I think that I can translate it…
'Shtora… Anti… laser… system… version 3… T-90X...Tank.'
Did I just find a fucking tank?!"
The man got up with excitement as he began moving away the larger pieces of rubble, grinning once a long green barrel came into view.
Soon enough he was done removing the rest of it too, uncovering the Russian main battle tank that was hidden under it.
"Heh, it's been years since I've seen one, I actually forgot how much the Russians liked to cover their tanks with ERA (explosive reactive armor) blocks.
Still, it's probably been sitting here for fifteen years. How the hell was it able to power that infrared light for so long?"
Suddenly the hatch on top of the tank opened up and Leliel walked out of it, leaving a recorder behind her as she disappeared.
The Slayer climbed on top and played the recorder, hearing Shiro's voice once more:
"Shiro Tokita, entry log number forty five, day four hundred.
The higher ups just signed a deal with the Russian defense forces today, hell ever since this base was promoted to main operational center of the region it looks like every army in the world wants to get under our door. Is this how they feel at Tokyo 3?
Anyway they said that a first batch of experimental tanks will be delivered soon and although I'm not an expert on the subject, they are basically older tanks that got upgraded with an entirely new control system. They even said that they could be piloted by one person if necessary.
I don't know how they were able to do that, but hey, I'm not complaining, at least less people will die if one of them gets destroyed… Which is something that will probably happen, especially with how violent these protesters outside are.
They keep saying stuff like: "Don't kill the angels! They're just misunderstood!"
Ugh, I really can't wait to get one of those tanks so I can blow up their faces into tiny bits…
Those fuckers don't know what destruction they are able to bring, they have never seen it first hand like me and… My wife… Who simply got too close to it when the second impact came… I'll kill those bastards, every one of them."
"He sounded much worse at the end, could his mental health be deteriorating?" The Slayer thought as he looked down at the tank once more, entering to see what had been powering the Shtora.
He quickly found out that this prototype was equipped with an emergency power supply, which had been activated by the debris that destroyed the sensors in the engine.
Remembering that Shiro had talked about an entire branch, he turned off the emergency power supply and brought the red box outside.
Then, once he opened it, he was able to connect it for a moment to the broken wires that were hanging from the ceiling, giving him a couple of seconds of bright light that he used to spot a large pile of tanks all huddled up onto each other, probably because of the explosion fifteen years earlier.
The lights soon died out, but he was still able to reach the pile, getting close enough to make out the various hulls and turrets.
The Slayer cracked his knuckles as he grabbed the front of a tank and lifted up the entire thing,but it had lost its tracks, so he couldn't use it.
The next one had a broken barrel, for another one a part of the hull was busted while many of them were simply out of fuel.
After ages of searching in the pile however, he suddenly spotted a silhouette of a barrel coming out from some fallen debris.
He got closer to it and after moving some of the bigger pieces, he found what he was looking for, an intact tank with some spare fuel canisters stored around the turret.
Getting inside with the canisters, the Slayer found the fuel tanks and filled them up as much as possible, but right after he was done, a loud growl grabbed his attention.
A group of soldiers were all coming towards him, screaming in unison as they tripped and fell over each other, getting then stomped by the advancing horde.
"Dammit, there's too many of them, even if I fight them some might ruin the tank and I need the Shtora's infrared radiation to kill the spirits… Alright then.
Let's see if the Motherland likes me."
Play: [Uhh idk, whatever stereotypical russian music you like, hell you can put hardbass over this if you want] Greg242OST
He got closer to the gunner seat, where he found the driving controls for the tank and the ignition button.
He pressed it, the engine made some noise and then it shut down.
He did it again, but nothing, the engine only kept whining, so he thought as the horde got ever closer:
"Come on now comrade, you've got Vodka storages and a Motherland to protect."
He didn't notice the black haired girl jumping off from over the engine compartment, but he didn't care to check as he heard the sweet melody of one and a half thousand horsepower coming to life.
The bright red lights of the Shtora turned on and as the tracks began moving, the devil-eyed tank speeded towards the horde as the hatch was automatically sealed shut.
The Slayer felt the adrenaline in his veins as the tracks of the fifty ton machine crushed and flattened all the possessed soldiers in front of him, with the sounds of their bones breaking and bodies erupting in old blood echoing through the area.
Once the Slayer figured out how to turn the turret around, he stopped the frantic sprint and pointed the red light of the Shtoras at the spirits, making them burn up and disintegrate.
He repeated this a couple more times, enjoying every single second of it.
Once they were all gone, the Slayer let out a short sigh in celebration as he got out of the tank to look at the carnage, but not for long, since he had a big new toy to learn how to play with.
He sat in the gunner's seat and noticed that a screen with some sentences in russian had come to life, which sai:
"Welcome aboard the glorious T90X tank soldier, to start operating a system checkup is needed."
He then noticed that there was an arrow on the screen that pointed to one of the buttons that circled it, similar to the one on an ATM.
The Slayer pressed it and the process started, with the screen saying:
"Engine… Online…
Fuel… 50%
Fire Prevention Systems… Online
Autoloader… Online
Turret rotation…Online" As the text appeared the tank's turret did a complete 360, followed by the hull turning on the spot as neutral steering was checked.
"Gunner optics and targeting… Online
Shtora 3… Online
Barrel integrity… 89%
Ammo stowage… 20 APFSDS, 20 HEAT rounds.
Checkup complete, the tank is fully operational."
Once it said this, the screen was replaced by some other targeting controls, leaving the Slayer free to experiment.
The first thing he immediately did was crash into a concrete column when he tried to turn while going forward instead of just going in a straight line like before.
"Figures." He thought. "It's been millenia since I've been inside one, can't expect to nail it on the first try…"
Nonetheless he tried again, turning in circles while also getting adjusted to the gun controls.
Once he felt confident enough, he drove towards a tunnel that was still intact, hoping to reach the surface again.
He couldn't have done it from the hole in the hangar, since it was too far up and the delicate Shtora system risked getting damaged if he threw up the tank.
So he kept going along the abandoned tunnel, dodging the vehicles that had been left in it. Suddenly however, a wall behind him was smashed as another mass of soldiers came running after him.
The Slayer turned the turret around as he activated the cruise control, then he started taking aim as an armor piercing round was loaded into the cannon breech.
And as the beast kept approaching him, he moved the reticle around as he thought:
"Stay still you fucker… Come on just a little bit longer…
Got you."
He slammed the firing pedal as the round was fired out of the barrel at more than one and a half kilometers a second, impacting the beast right in the face.
The round did its job as the tremendous kinetic energy it carried burst open the giant's head along with most of his spine, letting the spirit out of its dead body.
The Slayer slammed on the brakes; the sound of the steel tracks breaking the concrete obscured by the dying screams of the blue being.
Suddenly he saw something shining inside the decaying corpse, so he backed up to get a closer look.
It was another recorder, covered in the beast's gastric fluids, but somehow still functional.
The Slayer smirked lightly as he thought:
"Someone should really teach these things a proper diet, eating only small metal objects isn't going to kill them. Oh well, let's see what our father has to say."
He clicked the play button and waited.
And he waited…
And waited…
And waited… A bit annoyed…
And he waited… Wondering if the thing was broken or not.
Suddenly it came to life as he heard Shiro's heavy breathing echoing through the tunnel.
And then… Three single words were enough to freeze the area entirely.
"She is gone."
The Slayer might as well have been a statue at his point, because everything inside him had ceased to work, as if someone had just stopped time.
"I… Dug too much and… They took her life… SEELE… They… They… In front of my own eyes!"
The sudden scream agitated the dust around the recorder, but it's holder remained immobile.
Crying could be heard as he continued:
"I've l...I've got nothing left… Only…T-This-T-T-This fucking job that they… Aren't allowing me to… L-Leave…"
A glass was heard shattering, with Shiro muttering a soft cry of pain as he said:
"I've suffered long enough. Eheheh-
I won't need my hands anymore after today.
If they want me to work for them, then I'll work, I'll use my mind like I always Heheh did.
I'll build them a machine so powerful that it will surpass any evangelion! I already know what those fucking monsters are anyway!
And I'm going to do what humanity has always done.
To fight monsters, I'm going to create a monster.
I'm going to make what Jet Alone was destined to be- Ahaheaheh. An invincibile weapon.
I'll do this for you my dear. May we see each other again… Once I've sent all of them to hell! And their families too, their friends! Everyone who is even remotely involved with SEELE!
I'll kill them all myself!
Starting from the man who caused all of this. Gendo… I'm coming for you.
…
Heh…
Hehehehe…
Haven't you heard me!?
I'm coming for you Gendo Ikari!
Hehehe...hahahahahahahaAHAHAHAH-"
The device suddenly exploded in the Slayer's hands, covering him with a thin black layer of ashes. Yet, he was still immobile.
He only moved twenty seconds later, turning towards the tank where he saw Leliel waiting for him, sitting on top of the turret.
He ignored her however, closing the hatch behind him as he resumed his drive to the outside.
She teleported inside the tank, standing next to his seat as she said while looking away:
"So, I think that you understand why he looked like that in that room."
He remained silent as she thought: "Well, it's not like he talks that much...But still I would have liked an answer."
"I mean I'm not sure myself how he was able to turn into that afterwards, but I don't understand humans too well either."
He still ignored her as the engine roared in the background.
"Aren't you curious to where-"
He moved a hand towards her to tell her to stay quiet.
Leliel finally got pissed at him, but she stayed silent, trying to possibly find something else to distract herself when she noticed the device in his hand.
"It's about to break, if I get caught in the explosion I'll be gone for real this time.
I need to get him out of my body soon enough… Let's just hope that he doesn't catch up with us too quickly."
"Turn to the left here, there's a ramp you can use." She sharply said and the Slayer followed her advice, thinking that she must know the place well given how long she had been stuck in here.
The ground suddenly shook so violently that the Slayer lost control of the tank and crashed into the side of the tunnel.
He immediately went to the gun controls to try and identify the threat, but the system was powered down by Leliel as she shut off the tank's engine.
Enraged by this, the man leapt towards her and grabbed her by the neck. She could have easily slipped away, this wasn't even her real body after all, but there was something off about the situation which stopped her from being conscious enough to use her powers.
It was the Slayer and the icy hellish glare that he was giving her.
She could see the bones, gibbs and blood of the demons in his red eyes, the thousands of years that he passed in hell, suffering and struggling against insurmountable odds just to survive and fight back.
Those were the red eyes of a pure killer, the eyes of a being not meant even for this nightmarish world. And their slight glow made him all the more menacing.
The only thing that she was able to do while in the grasp of the Harbringer of Doom, was to bring a single finger to her mouth and gesture him to stay quiet, for a very large threat was searching for them right in this moment.
A wall was heard breaking up near them, as the dying screams of various soldiers were suddenly muted by a powerful metallic sound.
And as they heard something that was spinning slowing down, the two stayed completely still inside the silent tank.
They could feel it over them, inspecting the warmachine as much as it could, but, since the Slayer and Leliel stood completely motionless, it didn't hear anything, so it moved on to another place where the sound of a possessed was coming from.
After a while Leliel moved her head through the roof of the tank, seeing that it had disappeared.
The Slayer followed her out soon after, trying to make the least noise possible after figuring out that it could only hear them.
Leliel later confirmed this by pointing to her dark eyes and moving her index fingers horizontally.
The man then sat on the tank's engine block as he thought:
"Well, if I keep the tank, that thing is definitely going to come back, however..-"
The Slayer looked up, noticing that the broken wall had eight straight openings similar to a crown and the marks of four heavy metallic wheels were left on the broken asphalt.
"If this is the machine that he talked about in his recordings, then I doubt my normal weapons will be all that helpful, leaving me with only one option… That I absolutely adore."
He got up and gestured to Leliel to follow him, following the destruction that the machine had left.
They eventually found it again as it was smashing a mass of possessed into the ground using one of its round wheels and as the dust settled, they managed to get a good look at it for the first time.
It was made up of a large white thick torso and a head with no neck, behind it eight black rods extended outwards, barely avoiding the ceiling. On its left arm there was a heavy rocket launcher and machine gun hybrid while on the right it had a two bladed hyper vibrating chainsaw made to cut through AT fields.
Finally, on the shoulders two CIWS with miniguns constantly scanned the area for incoming projectiles to shoot at.
"There's also a strange blue hue around it, which probably indicates it has a shield too."
The silence of the area was suddenly interrupted when the radio in the Slayer's helmet came to life once more as VEGA said:
"Sl-... Can….Hearr-r-...?"
He did not respond, especially because he had a gigantic death machine that was looking straight at him.
And the moment he heard the miniguns start revving up, he immediately dashed away, back towards the tank.
Thanks to his superhuman speed, the machine wasn't able to catch him instantly, but the head start that he had built up was slowly shrinking, with the Jet Alone successor not showing any signs of stopping.
He noticed however that in front of him, near the open ramp, a part of the ceiling had been damaged by the earlier assault, so he used this opportunity by firing two rockets at it, enlarging the crack enough to make it collapse.
He was already fast enough so he easily avoided the falling rocks which instead completely stopped Shiro, especially with the sound confusion that they created.
This gave him enough time to jump into the tank and drive outside, speeding up as much as he could on the outskirts of the base.
A moment later in fact Jet Alone mk 05 jumped out of the hole and resumed the chase, smashing and flattening everything that came in front of it.
Due to the intensity of the situation, neither of them had noticed that the sky was completely black, without a single cloud or either the sun or the moon.
"What the- Oh shit!" The Slayer thought as he tried looking up at the sky for a moment, but he was instead greeted by a rocket passing right over his tank.
He immediately looked behind himself, kicking the driving controls to turn left and avoid the two chainsaws that were about to fall on him. The road behind him was cut open as the two rotating blades sank into it, slowing down Jet Alone a bit.
He used this opportunity to get back into the turret and turn the cannon towards the enemy, slamming the firing pedal as soon as it was in his sight.
To his disappointment however, a large blue bubble covered it, absorbing the round completely.
Without having any time left to frown at this, he fired a rocket | to his side, hoping to distract Jet Alone with the concussion blast of the remote detonation.
This didn't work either, since the minigun on the right shoulder activated and destroyed the rocket with a stream of rounds before the Slayer could trigger it.
After dodging another rocket, the Slayer tried driving into the forest, to hopefully mask his engine noise with the trees he was going to run over.
This partially worked, especially because a large group of possessed soldiers ran out of the ground and towards the mech, distracting it for a moment.
Once he was out of sight, the Slayer turned off the engine and got out of the tank, running back to see how well it dealt with the undead soldiers.
As expected, Jet Alone was having no problems at all in annihilating them, but still the Slayer was able to find its only weakness.
He had in fact noticed that when the possessed banged on the shield enough, the black rods that it had on its back rose a bit, emitting hot air from some holes at their bases.
"A cooling system… If I could overload it then the shield might go off, but it seems very efficient too, so I'll have to be quick."
The Slayer immediately ran back to the tank, turning it on again as he drove back into the wide road of the facility, smashing through an old guard post too.
He immediately delivered a Heat shell into the blue shield, then activated the secondary machine guns to keep a constant volley of fire towards Jet Alone.
The mech soon turned towards the Slayer, ignoring the still coming waves of possessed soldiers, which were now headed for both of them.
Before it could fire again however, a second Heat round hit the shield, bringing the cooling system up to 10% operating power.
A volley of rockets was fired towards the Slayer immediately after as he could hear Shiro shout:
"Die you bastard!"
The rockets both missed and hit him, but thanks to the reactive armor the tank was covered in, the damage was negligible.
"I got lucky there, if one of them had hit the tracks I would have been toast."
He fired off a third round just as the mech started chasing him, bringing the cooling up to 15%.
He had to leave soon after however, resuming the chase from before.
The two of them exchanged fire once again, with Shiro's aim being at a great disadvantage since he could only base himself on the sound of the Slayer's engine.
Doomguy himself had his own problems, when a giant possessed started running towards the front of the tank while he still had the turret pointing backwards.
He also had to change the loaded round into an armor piercing one, all actions that when combined gave Shiro the chance to fire a second volley of rockets.
This time it dealt much more significant damage as two of them landed in the engine block, setting one of the fuel tanks on fire.
Thankfully the automatic fire prevention worked as intended, but the Slayer's sensitive ear could already feel the engine's output lowering, along with his speed.
To add onto the fire, an electrical current was suddenly sent through the Slayer's left arm as a piece of shrapnel had managed to hit the time device, damaging it even more.
Unknown to him, this also caused the sky to be filled with white stripes as the entire area of land was suddenly lifted off the ground.
Meanwhile, just moments before from a nearby hill.
"Dammit, the Slayer still isn't responding, what the hell is he doing in there?"
Samuel asked no one as he watched the giant black sphere that surrounded the facility from the fortress along with the Wunder, VEGA and the pilots.
"I haven't been able to access his helmet's video feed either, whatever that black thing is it's causing lots of interference." VEGA said as he stole a glance towards Asuka, noticing that her covered eye was as bright as ever.
"Say Asuka, are you really sure that Mari was able to kil-"
A loud alarm suddenly erupted from the Wunder's bridge as Misato shouted:
"It's a blue pattern! We just detected it in front of you! VEGA, that thing in front of you is Leliel!"
Suddenly the giant black sphere got covered in white stripes as an enormous earthquake shook the ground under the pilots, and they all watched in silent awe as Leliel lifted the entirety of Matsushiro base off the ground and began rising through the air.
"Shit, Hyuga, get our long range missiles ready! We're not letting that angel escape again!"
"No wait! The Slayer is still in there! We could lose him if Leliel disappears." Samuel said, stopping Misato as he added moments later:
"For now all we can do is wait."
The woman angrily accepted his offer, focusing again on getting there as fast as possible.
Back inside Leliel
Shiro Tokita had now been searching for the Slayer for a while, after he had heard the tank run through the wall of a building no more sounds had come from it, puzzling him.
He had entered the same building too, causing his cooling to go up to 20%, but he wasn't worried. Instead, Shiro was now trying to focus and to remember in which facility they had brought the fight into.
"Let's see… I started by taking exit tunnel 9, then we proceeded along the cargo maintenance road, turned left… We ran past some of the refineries and then…
Dammit what was the building in at the end of this road?
Ahh think Shiro, think! You can't forget such a detail right now." - He breathed out to calm himself a bit- "Alright so. I've driven past the missile launchers already, so it's not the surveillance area, nor is it the unit 03 hangar because the terrain is still flat here.
Could it be the iron smelting facility one? No that's to the left of the refineries, not after…"
Suddenly he felt something heavy brush along the shield, startling him as he immediately got the weapons ready.
Having heard no other sounds however, he moved the rocket launcher near the area that had been touched, finding the heavy object once more.
It was a hand, a gigantic metallic hand.
"Wait a second this means that-... I'm in the hangar for evangelion weapons!"
Suddenly the facility around him came to life and gigantic legs, knives, guns and whatnot were all dropped on him from their holding stations above.
Shiro couldn't move either as the wheels had poor traction due to the constantly changing surface and the high weight.
This all caused the cooling system to go into overdrive, trying to keep the shield up, but as the percentage kept rising, so did the weight that was crushing Jet Alone.
And just as he heard the system announce that the cooling was now at 95%,he heard the sound of a tank's engine from above him and metal tracks screeching against a metallic structure.
The Slayer had outsmarted him and now, he was flying directly at him while driving a fifty ton tank.
The barrel let out a single large round while mid-air to finally deactivate the shield and crush the mech under all that weight, leaving the piloting cockpit exposed.
The armor fell under the weight of the heavy russian war machine and Shiro was directly impaled by the long deformed barrel.
The Slayer got out of the tank and held the man at gunpoint, who in return tried to free himself, but he was too hurt to do that.
Both of them were surprised when the scenery turned completely white, the tank, the rubble and everything else disappeared, leaving only the two of them and a short black haired girl.
They both turned to look at her as Shiro said, sensing her presence:
"My dear? W-what's happening? Why are you doing this?"
The Slayer noticed the small drop of grey liquid that began to fall from Leliel's eyes as she walked towards the other man and said:
"I… Believe that it's time for me to end this farce Shiro."
"W-what do you mean my dear? And… why did you not call me dad?"
"Because… I… *hic* Am not your daughter."
"My dear what are you saying, of course you are my-"
"No! Listen to me, I'm not your daughter! *hic* She died fifteen years ago at the hands of SEELE!
I'm just an angel who pretended to take her place!"
Time seemed to stop for both men as she continued after a short pause, her voice and tone growing weaker with each word:
"This… Life you had since you killed yourself… as a ghost… It was all a lie. A lie that I built…
M-my true… Name is… Leliel, the angel of the night… I've been pretending to be your daughter for fifteen years just to… Survive."
There was another glacial pause before she continued:
"Back when Wille attacked us and… That pink evangelion dropped the antimatter inside me… I was truly going to die, but, just as the explosion enveloped my core, Lilith appeared to me.
She said that she would have allowed me to live if I were to take care of your soul Shiro, by becoming your daughter and ending your sorrow.
I was on the verge of death, so I accepted. Lilith smiled as she placed a sort of seal around my dying core and she gave me your soul.
In these years I used the Dirac Sea inside of me to create a false reality for you Shiro, so that I could keep my end of the deal with Lilith.
Even now, the fight you two were having, was just an illusion I made up."
She crouched in front of him and touched his head, making both of his eyes reappear in his empty sockets.
"Ahhh! I c-can see again!" Shiro shouted as the light bombarded his retinas, but he got adjusted to it after a while and he was finally able to see who he had thought to be her daughter for the first time.
Leliel's cheeks seemed to almost drown in her grey tears as she looked at his eyes and said:
"I was… Forced to take your vision away… Otherwise you wouldn't have believed in the illusion… *hic* I'm… *hic* Sorry."
The Japanese man looked at her with a mess of feelings inside his heart, from where a single question came out:
"Why… Now? Why are you telling me this now?"
"Because… Of him, and the device he's carrying." She replied, pointing to the Slayer and his wrist time machine.
"That time machine was what kept me alive, the seal that Lilith gave me. Ever since you took it out and used it to fulfill the past, which wasn't an Illusion, I've been slowly dying.
This… Has made me realize something however. That… The time I've spent with you Shiro… Being your daughter… has made me stop hating humanity and actually...These last fifteen years were the best in my entire life.
I don't know if you will ever forgive me for this, for making you live in this illusion only to satisfy my own survival needs, but at least I have to admit something…
You were a great father Shiro.
Now Slay-"
She was suddenly interrupted by a pair of arms pulling her in a tight hug as Shiro said:
"And you were a great daughter."
She looked up at him in disbelief a he continued:
"To be honest, I was starting to think that something was off too, but my rage for the past blocked all those thoughts and… I had you to think about too.
I understand why you might think that I could be angry and frankly I am, but with myself.
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to get over my daughter and so you had to suffer through this with me, Leliel.
But at the same time, I can't thank you enough for spending all this time with me."
Her tears got stronger and stronger as she rested her head on his chest, lightly punching him as she said:
"Why do you humans make me so damn emotional!"
Shiro let out a small laugh as he held her close, while the Slayer stood in the background, his face and feelings invisible to the outside.
Yet, he too couldn't ignore the strings in his heart being pulled by the scene in front of him.
After a while the two of them stood up and Shiro said while looking at him:
"I guess that we have to thank you mister Slayer, even if it wasn't your direct intention to free us. Actually, may I ask you what you were doing there?"
Leliel was about to tell Shiro about the man's attitude, but before she could the Slayer replied:
"I was trying to reach Matarael, tomorrow NERV is going to attack the village."
"Oh, I see, sorry if we caused you all this trouble-"
The Slayer suddenly placed his right hand on Shiro's shoulder, exchanging a look with him that told him everything that he needed to know.
Their non verbal discussion was suddenly interrupted by Leliel starting to cough rapidly and they grew increasingly worried when droplets of blue blood flew out of her mouth.
Shiro immediately sat down near her as she said:
"T-The seal on your hand… It's going to kill me."
"What why?! I'm still here!" Shiro shouted as she coughed harder and harder.
"Lilith… Ach… Never wanted you to know the truth…"
"Wait so you- You sacrificed… Yourself to… Let me know… Why?"
"I… Took a look at the Slayer's memory… And I learned that keeping you like that was the worst thing that I could ever do."
Doomguy stood there surprised, he never told about his past to anyone, so the simple fact that one being had been able to see everything was an unprecedented situation for him.
Especially when she looked directly at him and added:
"Don't worry… They'll always love you, no matter what."
He stood there silently as Shiro let her rest on his lap and asked:
"Is there anything we can do? To stop this?"
"The… Seal will explode after a while if it gets out of the Dirac sea, it's an explosion large enough to kill us all, so no, there's no way we can prevent this."
"No no no! There has to be a way to-... Wait… You said that it'll explode after a while right?" Shiro asked as his decades of experience in quantum physics and engineering came to life inside his head.
"Yes?" Leliel asked with a meek voice, surprised to see a small smile form up in the man's face as he said:
"I was thinking… It's just a stretch, but… If the seal is actually a real object, then the antimatter that I took from the lab is real too right?"
"It… might be, yes."
"Then if I were to detonate enough antimatter in one point, it could create a wormhole for just enough time to send the seal across the universe."
Leliel's eyes shot open at the absurdity of the idea, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense to her.
There were however, two problems with this as she said:
"It might work, but… why even try at all? If the seal goes away then my core will die and you with it too! And you also need someone to carry out the antimatter, I can't do it by myself."
The Slayer stepped up when she announced the second problem, not surprising her since she knew the reasons behind his actions.
And after a while, Shiro said:
"Well… If these are going to be our last moments together, then I want them to be the best they can possibly be."
A smile appeared on the girl's face as he stood up, carrying her with his arms. They both looked at the Slayer as Jet Alone mk 05 appeared behind them, it's cockpit already open.
Finally, Shiro said:
"Good luck Slayer, but please don't risk your life for us okay?"
The Slayer nodded as he got inside and activated the controls, noticing that all the antimatter containers were blinking red, ready to explode just after they got out of the Dirac.
And as the hatch slowly closed, the two of them gave him one final message:
"Goodbye-" Their lips continued moving, saying something else other than Slayer, so he thought:
"Great. They know my real name too.
Well, time to get this over with."
He slammed on the gas as the four wheels all began to turn simultaneously, speeding him up towards Leliel's skin, where an opening was forming itself.
He crossed it, finding himself orbiting around the Earth, exactly in the middle of the bloody moon and the red planet.
The ejection mechanism worked as intended, launching him away from the enormous explosion that happened a moment later.
It turned out that Shiro's plan worked, as a small wormhole formed in the middle of space and sucked up the device, sending it somewhere else in the universe.
He took one last look at Leliel's decaying body, up until it died, leaving a gigantic cross of light in its place, with the blood moon right behind it.
He couldn't help, but smile lightly as he started reentering the atmosphere.
A while later, he landed exactly where Matsushiro base once was, finding VEGA and the others waiting for him at the edge of the crater.
He started walking towards them, knowing that he was about to tell them one hell of a story.
There was however one last sensation that occupied his mind as he thought:
"When I was watching the moon from up close… It almost felt like it was looking back at me."
TO BE CONTINUED-
Omake (Yes I have these now):
Now, where did the time device end up?
Well…
In a galaxy far far away…
"Emperor Palpatine! The new death star is ready to fire!"
"Good! It's time to crush the rebellion once and for all! Fire at- Ow! Where did this thing come from?"
*Beeep*
And that's how the empire was defeated once and for all.