Blood Red
Bruxelles, inside an elevator of the European Parliament
*ding*
The two doors opened as the man pushed the cart with his cleaning equipment inside, whistling a tune from his earbuds.
The music muted out the slow ticking of the floor counter over him as he watched the light from the various floors pass by at regular intervals. But then it suddenly stopped, and the two doors opened once again.
The Slayer walked inside as he selected the top floor and then laid on the side of a wall.
The caretaker did not have the heart to look at him, for he had heard the things he was capable of, but he also wasn't able to survive with such high tension in the air.
So, after nearly a minute of silence, he said:
"Top floor? Aren't they having a meeting right now?"
"I've been asked to intervene."
"Hm, I see. Just please try not to make the floor too dirty, this job of mine is already a pain."
Doomguy nodded.
The elevator opened, letting the caretaker quickly walk out as the Slayer remained by himself inside the grey box.
And he thought:
"Let's hope that those empty heads managed to come up with some way to attack the United States. At least with Samuel they should have made some progress."
The doors finally opened for one last time, inviting the Slayer to the reception that preceded the meeting room.
As the woman sitting behind the desk noticed him, she said:
"Uhm Sir you are not allowed to enter at the moment, I'll let you know wh-"
She couldn't finish her sentence as the Slayer blew her brains out with the super shotgun.
He kicked down the large door, surprising everyone inside the circular room, even Samuel who said:
"Slayer? What are you doing here?"
He was about to reply, when suddenly two VTOLs rose up outside of the glass as they got ready to fire.
Two huge beams of energy from the fortress of doom obliterated them as VEGA said to the Slayer:
'There's no more time! The bomb is about to explode. You need to jump!'
So Doomguy grabbed the cyborg just as the last person exited the room and, while ignoring his protests, ran into one of the windows, breaking it as they began freefalling.
Despite the loud wind, he was still able to hear Samuel say:
"Slayer what the fuck is going on?!"
Episode 3
Bloodlust Crusaders
A/N: Yes, you read that right. :)
Chapter 14: Unlikely alliance
Village 2, around two months earlier
The Slayer opened his eyes to a blurry white ceiling, its bright light giving him a bit of discomfort while he tried to understand where he was.
"Wait… I know this ceiling."
He got up from the bed he was resting on, finding himself in the fortress' medical bay, with his armor waiting for him nearby and lots of cables and monitors attached to his body.
He quickly got rid of them and got back up, still feeling a bit dizzy about the entire situation.
Just as he finished 'dressing up', the entrance to the room opened, revealing Samuel waiting for him as he said:
"Ah good, you're awake.
By the confusion on your face I can tell that VEGA was correct by saying you would have had amnesia.
You ended the battle a couple of hours ago, in quite the spectacular way I might add.
Come upstairs with me, we'll tell you everything, plus the three of us need to discuss something."
He didn't reply as he made his way towards him and into the elevator.
As they kept rising up, he fixed his gaze on the Atlan, which looked already fully repaired despite the battle having ended only a while earlier.
Plus, every time he tried to recall what had happened after the spear hit him, a powerful spike of pain came to his head, so he avoided it for now.
Once they rose up past the Atlan's head, he noticed that the Wunder was still there and so he thought:
"I wonder how those kids are doing…"
Wunder, near Shinji's cell
The two guards exited the circular room as the thick door closed behind them, sealing Shinji inside.
Asuka and Mari were nearby, watching the boy through one of the windows scattered across the explosive walls.
It looked like the guards had beaten him up quite badly, given how he was holding his left arm and how tired he looked.
And having seen what had happened at the end of the battle certainly wasn't helping as Asuka thought:
"Kaworu must be enjoying this a lot, seeing him miserable like this so that he can keep feeding him propaganda…
But I don't want anything to do with him at the moment. Or anyone else…"
She began walking away, leaving Mari behind as she leaned on the glass and thought:
"Princess, princess… Losing her really hurt you didn't it?"
She got off from the glass and started walking towards Asuka, feeling a strange force pushing out of her plugsuit near her spine, but she dismissed it.
In front of her she could see the redhead walking with steady and stiff steps, while her covered eye left a blue trail of light behind, providing the only warmth that the girl would accept right now.
"Looks like he's finally starting to show his care for her."
Meanwhile, Misato and Ritsuko were in the captain's room, discussing their situation over a cup of coffee while watching them over the cameras.
"Have they contacted us yet?" Misato asked, her chest still feeling warm after the talk she had spent with her son.
Due to this however, she hadn't even looked at the monitor in front of her, as it was too risky for her emotions to see Shinji now.
"No, I don't see- Oh. VEGA just messaged me that the Slayer has woken up again."
"That… Monster is still with us then."
"A monster who saved our lives."
Misato didn't reply, her eyes were wide open as flashes of the Matsushiro base clouded her vision. To her surprise she even saw the Slayer at one point, carrying her out of the truck and into a roof.
"What the-... Nevermind."
She got up and looked out of the window, the huge black AT tower visible in the distance… And the evangelion arm that had been thrown near it.
After regaining her breath, Misato said:
"Ritsuko, promise me something."
"Hm?"
"I want you to never let the Slayer aboard this ship after today. Ever."
"I… I'll try Misato. But I'd rather not even attempt to stop him."
This reply made the captain tightly grip her hands on the base of the window.
Her authority had already come into question after she had allowed Shinji to live, and she wasn't sure if her crew could accept having another mass murderer on board.
"You have to,Ritsuko. That's an order."
"Roger."
"You do really sound like him lately." The woman thought with a light smirk on her face as she left the room.
Meanwhile, Misato thought:"I see that you're not agreeing with me, Ritsuko… I already know that my orders won't be listened to by someone like him.
Will I really have to go down to compromises?"
Back on the Fortress, the Slayer's room
The Slayer sat down on his bed as VEGA said:
"That's most of the story, however we still have no idea of what happened inside the Atlan, so we need you to try to remember Slayer… Take your time, as it might hurt a lot."
The Slayer nodded as he laid down and began focusing, which immediately made him feel a strong headache, but he persevered, setting the pain aside.
After a moment flashes of bright red light appeared in front of his eyes, then various sounds followed slowly, rising in volume with each color that appeared.
He was about to start screaming from the pain that his head was feeling, but that's when he felt Samuel put something in his left hand… A photograph that he was very familiar with.
A moment later he was in the Atlan, feeling two large holes in his chest while being surrounded by darkness and sparks flying everywhere.
He had just been impaled and now the Mark 06 had sent the mark 04s to finish him off.
He was about to be defeated by some minions controlled by a dickhead on a damned planet, eons of suffering were about to receive their most disappointing finale.
He slowly closed his eyes to reflect as he heard the evangelions get closer, one was coming from the side too.
"It's probably Mari." Was the last thing he thought before he was enveloped in total darkness once again. But this time, he wasn't alone.
A hand was holding his. It had no mass, but it felt to him as heavy as a mountain. It had no color, except the brightest red in existence. And it had no body, for it wasn't a hand at all.
It was the fire that had kept burning harder than a star inside of him ever since he was born, the fire that had kept him alive ever since.
He controlled that fire, and he knew what it wanted of him… Because they were his own thoughts.
He clenched his hand as the flames torched his entire body in an instant, reopening his eyes while leaving him with a single command.
Kill.
On the outside the first unit was about to reach the defenseless Atlan, as well as Mari.
Just as the mark 04 was attacking the Slayer, she jumped in the air with her eva's sniper rifle and after aiming it at the enemy's head she shouted:
"Point blank shithea-"
Only the lower body of the eva was left in front of her before she could finish her sentence.
Her heart began beating loudly as a huge shadow appeared in front of her.
It was the Atlan… But there was something different.
All the neon lights were now red, a dark aura surrounded its burnt green armor while the cage at the mouth had burst open, revealing the teeth shaped ventilation system.
And when she saw how it was holding the bloody eva's core, everything clicked inside Mari's head. That was no longer the Atlan, it was the Slayer.
The hand holding the red sphere began to close, cracking it as the mech opened the Argent towers on its limbs.
Finally, after an obscene amount of pressure, it broke and let out all of its energy, which was quickly absorbed by the Atlan.
Play:[The Beast] Neon Genesis Evangelion OST
"Rip. And. Tear!" The Slayer roared from inside as he immediately broke into a sprint towards the Mark 06,annihilating immediately any of the Mark 04 that got in his path.
In his rage he had not accounted for the unit's AT field, which he slammed into when he reached his target.
This gave the mark 06 the opportunity to recover his weapon, which it immediately had to use to block an incoming attack.
Suddenly however, the Atlan moved so fast that it looked like it had defied the laws of physics, ducking under the spear and then kicking it away.
Out of options the Mark 06 tried to just tank the damage with its AT field, but with a single roar and punch, the Atlan shattered it like fragile glass.
The unit did not have time to react. It was immediately grabbed by the neck and slammed into the ground so hard that its entire skull got destroyed in a single hit.
The Slayer ripped off its armor as it stood above it, recreating the same motions that the Dummy plug had used on unit 03.
Only that he was much more violent.
After completely tearing open the unit's abdomen like a raging tiger, he punched through its entire body, pulling out the spinal cord from the other side.
Bone shards flew everywhere as he began punching away at the ribs, perforating the lungs and blood vessels.
He then ripped off both of its arms, pulling out the clavicle with them due to how much force he had used. Broken blood vessels dangled off of the dirty bones while muscle fibers danced around the air, forever separated from their original body.
He snapped off the two femurs as if they were wood sticks and finally, after tossing the limbs aside, he picked up the body and slammed its spine on his knee so hard that the eva split in half, launching the entry plug in the air.
The Slayer caught it with the Atlan's mouth, putting it between his teeth.
Shinji, and none of the old NERV staff could dare to look at what happened next.
But no matter how hard they shut their eyes, that hellish sound of a mech chomping down on an entry plug still reached their brains and they were forced to picture the scene like they were right in front of it once again.
Kaworu grinned inside Shinji's head as the defeated unit's core began to glow, exploding in a huge ball of fire a moment later.
And out of that inferno the Atlan appeared, its green skin darkened by the flames surrounding it. The red visor stared into everyone's soul and the mouth let out one last growl before it deactivated and fell to the ground.
The last thing the Slayer felt before returning to the present was a tight warm embrace as it slowly let him go.
He rose back up from his bed, removed his helmet, and began retelling what he had seen to the others.
Meanwhile, inside the demonic crucible
"Wh- Where am I?" Molly asked herself as she got up, looking around at the empty white space with a confused face.
"VEGA? Samuel? Shikinami? Ikari? Is anyone there?" She asked, but her voice seemed to only dissolve in the void.
There was, however, someone who had heard her.
Molly kept walking around, trying to understand where she was when suddenly the crucible itself appeared in front of her.
She stopped to take a look at it but as she began approaching it, it glowed a bright green as three large alien spirits shot out of it.
They flew around the artifact for a moment, gaining color until the trio finally came to rest in front of the girl, scaring her a bit with their strange bodies.
They had six long spider-like arms, all connected by thin grey bat wings. Their grey concrete bodies provided joints for all of these while at the bottom four elongated sharp legs formed a sort of tentacle that they hovered with.
Finally, two large black horns stood to the sides of their heads, with their faces being made up only by a wide lipless mouth.
Despite their lack of eyes, Molly felt them staring at her as they said in unison:
"Hello… Molly."
"H-how do you know my name?" The girl replied with a somewhat stuttering voice and they said:
"Do not be afraid, that basta- we mean VEGA, had already informed us of your arrival. You are inside the Demonic Crucible at the moment, the mission was… Successful."
She smiled at this and since she felt safer than before, she said:
"I see, nice to meet you, what's your name?"
"We are the Elemental Wraiths, we do not need a name for each one of us since we act as a single… Individual."
"Doesn't that make it confusing?"
"Not at all, our minds were united since our… Creation."
"Okay, sorry, but this is all still very new to me. I was born just a few months ago and I began learning things only recently."
"Only a few months ago? We thought that humans needed years to develop this… much."
"Oh, I believe that VEGA might have not told you, but I am a clone, my real body disappeared after my soul was put in here."
"Interesting, you are far from being fully developed then. Say, what is the world like out… There?"
"Well you see… I haven't experienced much of it myself, but from. What I've seen, it's a sort of beautiful world out there…-"
Fortress, main deck
Samuel and the Slayer were standing near the center of the room, where all the controls were, while VEGA watched them from above as he darkened the outside window to avoid being looked at.
Samuel was the first one to talk as he said:
"After we recovered you, I wasn't able to get back into the Wunder because of what you did, so Shinji was left to them. They also went silent, none of our attempts at communicating with them were successful except one. They even ignored Matarael!"
Then VEGA said:
"We were however able to intercept this transmission, let me play it:
'Where are we supposed to bring him?' An unknown male voice asked.
'Put him in one of the cells for now, we've got to bring him to Bruxelles.' Misato replied.
'Roger. Come with us scum, let us show you where you'll be rotting for the next few days.'
The communication ends here.
After we intercepted this, me and Samuel decided to do a scan of the Wunder to see its structure, however it is incomplete because of the interference caused by the AT field.
Still, we managed to get some information, come get a look."
As VEGA said this a 3d hologram of the Wunder appeared in front of him and Samuel started pointing out the locations with his finger:
"This here is the command room, or deck, the one you saw before engaging the Mark 06.
Near it we can see what is most probably a canteen given how large it is and over it we have the general crew's rooms.
Over them again we can see the bridge crew quarters and finally Misato's room.
Unfortunately the engine area can't be analyzed and we still don't know where they are keeping Shinji. We haven't been able to find the pilots' rooms either.
That's where you come in. VEGA can't still hack into their main system without being detected, they've got an unknown program protecting them and I'm too large to effectively sneak around. What you'll have to do is to walk around the ship and try to make us learn as much as possible, you can use Shinji's SDAT as an excuse, I have to give it back to him anyway."
The Slayer thought about it for a moment before nodding, so Samuel continued:
"Great, unfortunately we can still only teleport you on the main bridge, but I believe they'll let you go if we tell them about the SDAT."
And then VEGA said:
"It's also very probable that the crew is tired too given how many flight hours they had recently, which will probably lead them to be more lenient. Still I will try to help you by hacking smaller untraceable electronics. "
The Slayer looked back at the Wunder as he heard this, noticing that many of the lights had been turned off, while a menacing storm cloud flew over them.
Then, as Samuel gave him the music player, VEGA opened the portal and the Slayer began walking towards it, until Samuel said:
"Wait Slayer. I figured that it might be a good occasion to give this to Asuka too if you can find her."
The robot then handed him a piece of red cloth that had its edges burned a bit. The Slayer was quite confused by this, but he let it slide as he crossed the blue portal.
He found himself in the middle of the Wunder's main deck which, to the trio's surprise, was completely empty.
The lights had been turned off, as well as all the computers and sensors, giving the large room quite an eerie feel.
Suddenly however, one of the side doors opened, revealing Mari waiting for him on the outside. And she said:
"Hey there, sorry to ruin your little stealth mission, but everyone's sleeping for now, we didn't close an eye for the entire night after all."
"And why are you awake?" Samuel asked and she replied:
"I'm similar to Asuka given how much eva piloting I do, but not as severe as her. Now, follow me, I'll bring you to the puppy."
The Slayer began walking towards her and as they left the room she said:
"By the way, nice show you put on earlier Mr Slayer."
He didn't reply, being more focused on why it felt like he was being followed by something and how she had been able to anticipate them so well.
This persisted throughout the entire journey to Shinji's cell, which was a pretty boring one, just a lot of metallic hallways that all looked the same and Mari constantly trying to make bad jokes.
Thankfully he could still distract himself with VEGA giving him updates on the Wunder's map.
In the end however, they finally reached the circular cell, with the two guards in front of it having fallen asleep on their rifles.
Mari then took her ID card and swiped it across the door, with the sound that it made almost waking up a guard. He opened an eye, but went back to sleep soon after as if nothing had happened.
Mari then turned towards the Slayer and said:
"You can give the SDAT to me now, there are silent alarms and face recognition cameras, so you'll make a big mess if you enter."
Inside the his helmet VEGA said:
'She's right, the room is also filled with explosives and retractable spikes on the wall. Shinji won't survive if you enter.'
Trusting him, the Slayer gave the SDAT to Mari and watched her as she crossed the bridge that led to the small cage where a boy was currently sleeping.
'I thought that at least they would have given him a bit more space' VEGA said and the Slayer agreed with him, but then Samuel added:
'It's probably a show of force on Misato's part to keep the crew under her command. After what happened today she might even prevent us from getting onto the ship.'
"Oh but in fact the Slayer has been denied access to the Wunder." Mari said as she came back after eavesdropping on them.
The Slayer replied to her with a raised eyebrow and she said:
"Yep, I could get put in solitary for what I'm doing now, they're soo scared of you, nya.
But that's why I'm letting you go by yourself from now on, have fun exploring the ship, you might still have around an hour before anyone else wakes up."
'Wait Mari, is Asuka awake? We need to give her something.' Samuel and then the Slayer showed her the burnt piece of red cloth, to which Mari replied:
"Oh. That might be the last thing she wants to see now."
Being fed up with all this ambiguity, the Slayer finally said:
"Why? What is this?"
And so Mari replied:
"You don't remember right? After the explosion of the core, one of the Mark 06's limbs crashed into Kensuke's house and her old entry plug, destroying both of them.
Just before the battle she had put that doll of hers inside of the entry plug, what you're holding is what's left of it.
She was very attached to that thing and she's been blaming you ever since.
I'll hand it to her, maybe she'll brighten up a bit with i-"
She was suddenly stopped mid sentence as the Slayer stopped right in front of her and said:
"Where's her room?"
After regaining control Mari said:
"Wait, you want to bring it to her? She won't come out of our room you know? And you can't get in either, we basically live in a modified version of Shinji's cell."
The Slayer completely ignored this information as he pressed on:
"Where."
Just as she was about to reply again, Mari made the mistake of looking at his eyes, which vaporized any will she had of trying to stop him.
So, defeated, she just said:
"Turn to the left down this corridor and after a while it'll be on your right."
He nodded as he silently walked past her while she thought:
"I really do hope you know what you're doing Slayer… Too bad that I couldn't get my hands on that last piece first, now there's no way I can get rid of it.
Sorry princess, you'll have to tough this one out."
Outside of Asuka and Mari's cell
The Slayer stopped in front of the open door, tightening his grip on the piece of cloth as he walked right into the motion detectors.
Asuka heard his steps through the glass, and almost jumped out of the top of the tower bed when she recognized him.
She immediately got out of the cell and said:
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
He kept walking forward, ignoring Asuka's words until he reached the platform in front of her room's entrance. He stopped in that moment and said:
"I wanted to give you this, I know what happened to the doll. Sorry."
These words left her completely stunned, something that intrigued Misato too as she watched from her personal computer in her bed, while also standing up to reach the button for general alarm.
Asuka was about to reply, when suddenly her eyepatch almost exploded outwards with blue energy towards the red cloth. This made her suddenly lose balance as her legs gave out.
She almost fell off into the lower sphere, but the Slayer caught her just in time, surprising Misato as she slowly moved her hand away from the button.
The man helped her stand up again and gave her the red cloth, which instantly calmed down the angel inside her for some reason.
He didn't question it, especially because she immediately ran back inside with a moody face once she realized what had happened.
The Slayer tried to silently reach her again, but this time she ignored him, too closed in her own world to look back.
So after a while he gave up and began walking away, not before staring at Misato through one of the cameras. She felt a chill run down her spine as she started back, until her computer's monitor suddenly turned back.
A moment later a message sent by VEGA appeared:
"Don't worry, we're just looking around, sorry for the trouble. You can visit the fortress later if you want."
The woman exhaled, very annoyed by the situation she was in. She hated feeling powerless, it made her remember her father and… What he had done for her on that day.
As she tried to make her mind drift away from those memories, she noticed that a small white bar was blinking near one edge of the screen.
She got out of her bed and turned on the lights to see better, then she sat down and began typing:
"I'll send some people later, but I want him out of my ship as soon as possible."
"Don't worry, he'll be done soon. Rest well." VEGA texted back before leaving Misato's computer as it returned to normal.
He then went back to the Slayer's helmet and said to him:
'Alright, let's finish this quickly Slayer, Misato has given us some time. Oh and Samuel?'
'Yes?' The robot replied, still connected to the helmet.
'Your setup for a date has failed, Misato will send someone else instead of coming directly.'
'VEGA! I was not planning a date!'
'Eheheh.'
Hearing this, the Slayer thought as he began running around:
"You two bastards, always ready to brighten my day uh?"
A while later
"Alright, I've already checked the engines, the medical bay, the eva hangars and all the rest. Now I've only got one last room to enter."
The Slayer thought as he ran closer to the entrance to the unit 01 hangar, which was also the ship's power supply thanks to the S2 engine.
Once inside the room he turned on his night vision since it was pitch black, allowing him to quickly find the switch.
After turning the lights on, he was quite impressed by the sight that had presented itself in front of him.
Unit 01 was laying dormant, with its chest opened to reveal its core and high enough to allow people to walk directly next to the red sphere from the platform.
This elevated position ended up tilting the upper body, making it tower over everything that stood under it.
To the sides of its body four giant rotary blades kept cutting the metallic tissue that the unit tried to regenerate constantly, providing a good source of spare parts for the ship while also keeping the beast immobile.
Finally a series of long thick chains were put around the evangelion's waist and shoulders, all of them ending up in a deep hole under the Slayer's position.
The man looked back up to unit 01's face as VEGA kept putting the pieces of the ship together, feeling like it was staring at him.
"Something's not right with this thing… It feels very different from all the other Evas I've been close to…"
'Map complete Slayer, let's get you out of here.' VEGA suddenly said as a blue portal opened in front of the man, which he walked through after giving one last look at unit 01.
A silent whisper filled the room once the portal closed, with no one noticing the partially lit eye.
Shinji's cell, a bit after lunchtime.
*Knock* *knock* *knock*
"Wake up you bastard, it's lunchtime!"
Both the screaming and the heavy hand hitting the reinforced glass door made Shinji open his eyes, noticing that two armed men were standing outside his cell.
One of them said:
"Don't even try to move until we say you can."
His companion then pushed a tray with something to eat into the hole in the door and as soon as the smell filled Shinji's nostrils, his stomach grumbled in protest.
He tried to extend a hand out to grab his dish, but as soon as it got out of his bed, the guard shouted again:
"I told you to stay still, bastard!"
The scared boy instinctively retracted into himself, finally noticing that something had been placed on his bed.
After a while the two guards left and so he immediately started eating while the meal was still somewhat warm.
Once he finished it felt to him like he had skipped through time, so he looked up at the clock and noticed it was already past 2pm.
As his body continued to wake up, it finally realized how hard it had been hit. All of Shinji's pain receptors fired at once, making him feel so much pain that he could only weep, because his throat hurt too much.
He fell back down onto the metallic floor, making his insides cry again in pain. And as his face began beintp be covered up with tears, a slithering voice replayed in his head the sounds of the previous battle, while saying:
"Tell me… Who is your enemy here?
The loud witch?" The memory of Asuka shouting at him in the ruins of Tokyo 3 resurfaced in that instant, throwing a spear at his heart.
"The queen of hearts and her servants?" Misato's disappointed face flashed in between the images of the men punching him, further impaling his emotional barrier.
"Or the devil and his demons?"
His father and Fuyutsuki appeared in front of him, but they immediately disappeared as Shinji found himself standing right in front of the bloody Atlan, with Samuel and VEGA standing on its shoulders and the head of unit 01 in one of its hands. All of them looking down at him.
The last spear hit Shinji's ego, it was merely moments before he would have completely broken down.
"Let me give you a hand Shinji, let us reach heaven together." Kaworu said with a smile, filling the boy's head with silence as he extended a hand outwards.
Shinji began moving towards it, his body hurting more and more each centimeter he moved, but for now he didn't care, since he felt like the pain would be worth it in the end.
That's when a huge dark sphere appeared in front of him and over Kaworu, which then turned yellow as it said:
"Aren't you forgetting someone?"
And then the pain was suddenly gone, replaced by a pair of bright red eyes and a partially open mouth, surrounded with a pale face that radiated confusion and innocence.
Molly extended a black arm towards him, outshining Kaworu despite being the opposite color of light.
Shinji felt his heart forcing him to grab her hand, but just as he did, he felt something made of plastic in it.
As if someone had just kicked him in the head, all the visions disappeared, leaving him with only his SDAT in his hand.
"Did she pick it up or… Did I do it by myself?"
He thought just as he noticed a small piece of paper had been left inside the cassette compartment.
He pulled it out and then it read:
"Shinji, it's me Samuel, I've added quite a lot of songs, just don't listen to the track after track 65. It glitches out for some reason and it might ruin the cassette.
Don't worry, putting it on repeat will avoid it. Have fun."
Intrigued by this and with no other way to pass the time, Shinji put on the ear plugs and played the first new track, numbered 27.
Play:[Into Sandy's city] Doom 2 OST
After a few seconds of listening, he thought:
"Well it's certainly different from what I'm used to. Let's see what the next one is."
Play:[At Doom's gate] Doom 2016 OST
"The guitar sure is nice on this one, though the volume kind of feels a bit too low, let me raise it a bit…"
A few seconds later he deeply regretted that decision.
At the same time, in Asuka and Mari's cell.
"Ugh, my hair is a mess." Asuka thought as she tried to fix it to the best of her abilities while standing in front of her cell's mirror. She was feeling unreasonably tired that day, but with no particular reason coming to her head.
The unlit glass room slowly filled with the faint noise of Asuka falling asleep as she clutched tightly the red piece of cloth.
After a while however, faint weeps and short cries could be heard coming from the girl, as her brain didn't waste any time before bringing up old memories from Germany.
She suddenly felt a lot more tired, as if she had just run a marathon, but before she could wake up again, she fell completely unconscious.
Once her senses had become too faint to feel anything, her eyepatch began glowing blue, its luminosity rising with each second.
Out of the corner of the black material, a small blue tendril escaped, moving forward until it touched the piece of red cloth.
Small staples appeared all over it as it slowly got larger and larger, taking on a different shape and also getting warmer.
The warmth coming from the object woke Asuka up again, but she quickly went back to sleep, not noticing the bright red doll in front of her.
Bardiel would have let out a sigh of relief if he had a mouth as he thought:
"I should be in the clear now, since there are no cameras in here. Thankfully one of those dogs damaged the eyepatch earlier today,giving me this golden opportunity…"
As the sobs started coming back from the girl in front of him, Bardiel thought as he got closer to her:
"Asuka… You've been hurt too much, by me and everyone else… So, at least let me try to amend my mistake."
And so the doll sat down between her arms, which quickly pulled it into a tight hug while Asuka's sobbing became quieter and less frequent.
"Sleep well Asuka, even though I don't know why it's happening… But I don't care."
As the angel focused himself on comforting the girl, he did not notice the pair of red glasses that had just stopped peeking inside the cell.
Mari slowly walked outside the area, trying to be as quiet as possible as she thought:
"Well well well, isn't that a nice development… I better keep this a secret though, I wouldn't want to ruin his efforts. Eheh."
A sudden thunder echoed along the hallway just after the door closed behind her, startling her for a moment.
"But I thought the storm had passed a while ago…"
Confused by this, Mari walked towards the nearest window, finding that it was pouring outside, but without any red sand.
As a second thunder was heard, she walked to the elevator to reach the top of the ship, curious to find out more as she walked past all the other Wille members that gave her a weird look.
On the Wunder's balcony, a while later
Mari breathed in the fresh air as she stood over the railing on the top of the ship, covered by a small roof.
And while observing the dark clouds she thought:
"It's been ages since there was a storm this bad without tons of red sand, almost forgot how they looked."
She moved her eyes around, stopping only once she saw the fortress' copper tinted dome starting to turn invisible. So she thought:
"Oh? So parts of it can disappear? Well, I can see it being useful to have a better visual when cameras and radars don't work… But why now?"
She grabbed the pair of binoculars that were usually left there for the crew to scout or admire the landscape and pointed them at the now fully invisible dome.
"The hell is that brain shaped thing?" Mari thought once she laid her eyes on VEGA's dark core, not knowing that he was also looking back at her.
She then noticed a while blur coming out of the floor near the core, so she adjusted the focus and found that Samuel had walked up there with a deckchair and a book in his hands.
She watched him sit down and start reading while the storm around him continued to rage on, yet all of its might was left ignored by the relaxing robot.
As he turned his head to look at the core behind him, Mari moved her eyes too, finally being able to read the 'VEGA' label on the front of it.
"Wait… Jesus VEGA is huge! Although now that I think about it, he's still smaller than the three NERV MAGI combined and yet much more advanced… I bet Ritsuko will get a heart attack when she discovers this.
Where the hell is she anyway? I haven't seen her since lunchtime."
Suddenly the girl's ears were filled with the roar of jet engines as she put her binoculars aside, seeing a VTOL flying towards the Fortress.
"Huh, I guess that Misato decided to reciprocate the favor after their little expedition. Oh well I'm bored now, let's go see if the puppy is doing anything interesting."
Near the fortress
Maya was going through her notepad for her daily assignments, trying her hardest to not look at Ritsuko who had just gotten up from her seat to ask:
"For how long are we going to sit here? Do you want to land or what?"
And the pilot replied:
"Well where am I supposed to land this thing? There's no space. I could try those bridges, but it would be tough without damaging the engines."
Suddenly though their radio came online and Samuel told them:
'I see you're having trouble landing,me and VEGA are about to pull you closer, hold onto something.'
"Wait what do you me-" Ritsuko tried to reply when suddenly the entire aircraft stopped moving in mid-air, with the pilot instinctively lowering the power of the engines.
As they looked around themselves, the crew inside could see that a faint blue sphere was now all around their VTOL and both the pilot and Ritsuko could see a blue ray of energy being fired at them from a cannon that had come out of the side of the Fortress.
They then began moving again as the ray brought them closer and closer to the bridge, allowing them to get off safely.
They were soon greeted by the robot as the VTOL quickly left, so they followed Samuel inside, the soldiers and Maya being intrigued by the strange architecture and how big of a change it was compared to the all-metallic Wunder.
They first passed by the Atlan, some of them still pretty scared of it for what they had seen before, while Ritsuko just gave it a stern look before dismissing it.
They then walked up a set of decorated stairs with torches on the railings that held blue flames in some small thin towers. These led them to a wide interconnecting room that held at its center a 3d printer so Samuel stopped and said:
"Alright, I'll leave it up to you, if we go up the stairs on the right we'll reach the main deck and have access to most of the more common rooms and the area where the crucible is held.
Otherwise to the left we are going to reach the room where we keep an experimental weapon. Finally if we go back down we can take an elevator to go lower."
"I'd say we check out the main deck first." Ritsuko said and the others largely agreed with her.
"Follow me then." Samuel replied as they headed upwards.
Once there, they were greeted by the wide circular room and the huge frontal window, which everyone except Ritsuko marveled at for a bit, especially Maya, despite how hard she was trying to hide it.
They then swiftly walked through the area with the guest room and Samuel's office, ending up near the internal pool in the back.
And when one of them tried to get a peek inside out of curiosity, Samuel said:
"Oh wait, that's off limits for now."
"Uhm, may I know why? Is the Slayer there?" The man said and Samuel replied:
"No, we just haven't finished cleaning it yet after some demons got inside of it."
They didn't reply and instead followed him in surprised silence.
After that they went back down to where they originally entered from and took the elevator, which was big enough to fit all of them without problems.
And because of this Maya said:
"This place seems a bit too big for just the two of you."
Samuel didn't turn from watching the Atlan as he said:
"It's true, you see, before coming into our possession, this ship was a heavy command cruiser of another human-like civilization. The Slayer got affiliated with them in the past and even became their king once."
"Okay… What happened to this civilization?"
"It was annihilated by the demons."
"Oh."
Nothing else was said as they stopped for a moment to take a look at the infirmary, something which Ritsuko got really curious about, especially for the large tube in the middle, which to her looked very similar to the ones she used to put Rei in.
So she said:
"This is where you healed Ikari's injuries, right?"
And this time VEGA replied:
"Yes, I used a combination of both Argent energy and nerve rehabilitation to fix his nearly broken spine."
"Hm… Say what does Argent energy do exactly?"
"Well it depends on how it's used. It can be a source of nearly limitless energy, it can turn into ammunition, heal wounds… And give immense power to those worthy of it."
Ritsuko didn't say anything as she headed for the elevator with the others.
After descending a bit more, they reached the area where the Argent fueled reactor of the ship was kept, but the most striking particular was the decapitated head of the Mark 09 sticking out from over it.
"We use its body for repairs and to replenish our ammunition, just like you do with unit 01." Samuel said and Ritsuko replied:
"How the hell do you know about that?"
"We made a tour of Wunder while you were all asleep."
"But Misato had told us that nothing had happened."
"In fact nothing happened, we just looked around, which is the reason why you are here too. Don't get angry at her, she just didn't want you to freak out. Besides, the Slayer would have not gotten out of there before he was done even with her best efforts."
"Let's hide the fact that I'm the one who came up with the idea…" Samuel thought as he got closer to check the reactor,when he suddenly noticed something:
"Hm? VEGA why are there these fluctuations in the flow of Argent from the Crucible?"
"Oh, Molly must have woken up, don't worry I'll handle it." The AI replied, so the group left the area, some of them still feeling creeped out by the giant head.
Finally Samuel brought them to the bottom level, where a bridge led into a large room that was blocked off by a huge metallic Gothic-styled door.
Once inside there was a small elevating circular platform in the middle, with also various windows and screens. Finally, a large statue of the Slayer sat in the back of the room, while two long red banners carrying his mark hung right next to it.
Suddenly the central platform came down, and when it went back up the Slayer was standing in the middle of it, covered in demon blood after he had just finished a session in the Ripatorium.
He looked at the group in front of him and gave them a nod of acknowledgement, while they only stared back as the red liquid began burning away from his skin.
He passed by them as Samuel said:
"Well, did you have fun there?"
"Why don't you go inside and try it out yourself?" The Slayer replied as he left the room, making the group turn towards the robot as Maya asked:
"Aren't you supposed to be allies?"
"Well, we're allies that actively want to kill each other.
Anyway, the tour is over, let's go back up so we can use the portal to bring you back to the Wunder."
"Can we stop by the… Crucible, I'd like to know a bit more about Molly if it's possible." Ritsuko asked and so he replied:
"Sure, I don't think that they'll mind."
"They?" The woman asked again.
"You see Molly's soul is currently living with some… 'alien guests', but VEGA can make them behave well enough, so we won't have any problems."
Inside the crucible
"So he then told me everything about rocks and minerals while we were exploring the cave and-"
"Oh God, why did we talk to her?" The Wraiths thought as they tried their hardest to keep up with Molly's rapid talking after she had been going on for a good thirty minutes.
"What if we try to put her in one of our mental traps?" The first Wraith asked and the second replied:
"It could work, she seems careless enough to fall for it."
"Maybe we should just tell her to shut up?" As the third Wraith said this, they immediately felt a chill run up their spines and detected a new presence inside the crucible.
"You're not going to do any of that. Am I understood?" VEGA told them.
And as they remembered what had happened before the attack in the night, they didn't even think about trying to test him again.
"Now, some guests are coming, don't show yourselves to them, they just want to see Molly."
"Fine."
A while later, in the Crucible room
As Ritsuko got closer to the glowing artifact, she suddenly stopped for a moment, wondering if she should continue.
The woman inside of her was yelling to back off, while her scientist side told her to push forward with just as much intensity.
Her motherly side did not say anything, for it had gone silent a long time ago.
In the end the scientist won, so she walked right under the sword as its green eye began glowing.
"Ayanami, can you hear me?" She said, feeling somewhat embarrassed until a whispering voice was heard:
'Hello lady, how are you? Ohh my voice sounds funny now. Oh hey Samuel! Did you bring some friends?'
"They are from the Wunder Molly, they wanted to talk to you for a bit."
'Okay, I just finished talking with the other three guys in here, they're really fun, you know?'
As Molly said this, Ritsuko got her attention by cleaning her voice and saying:
"Ayanami, I would like to ask you, what caused you to defect from NERV?"
'I was ordered by Gendo to protect Ikari before the fourth impact was started. After which I realized that I could not protect Ikari effectively if I remained with NERV, so I followed them instead."
"And about your soul, how sure are you of the fact that Gendo can't make a new clone of you? I worked with your previous versions myself and I know that it's possible to forcibly remove a soul, despite the pain that it causes in the host."
'Because I don't have a body anymore, and the world has not ended already, so I think that it worked.'
"I guess you're right… So are you stuck there now?"
'I think so? Can I get out Samuel?' Molly asked and the robot said:
"You would need a soulless body to get inside of, however, there is one more thing that's stopping us from just going directly to Tokyo 3.
You see, currently the Crucible treats your soul as a host. You're inside of it, but if it uses too much energy you'll be expelled and return to NERV. For example if it needs to protect itself."
Hearing this Ritsuko asked:
"Just how much energy exactly?"
"I'm not sure… Definitely a couple hundred megatons of energy, but it has never been tested."
"That… Would be enough to cause a nuclear winter all over the world, I don't see how it would be possible for NERV to ammass that much power."
"Better safe than sorry."
Ritsuko let out a sigh as she heard the cyborg's words,she then turned to the Crucible one last time and asked:
"Okay, one more thing Molly. If your soul ever gets taken back by NERV, will your conscience remain? I don't know how much progress your clones have done, most of the time we just kill them."
'That,unfortunately I don't know. I keep traces of memories from my previous lives, but i might be a completely different person' As Molly said this however, VEGA immediately added:
"I wouldn't worry about that. Besides, what is WILLE going to do now that we have immobilized Gendo?"
"We'll probably head back to Europe to have a meeting and decide. You should come too, you'll give us more of an edge in the decisions we take." Ritsuko replied and so Samuel said:
"We are not a political tool Akagi…However I will consider it. I always liked being at the center of the stage after all."
Meanwhile VEGA whispered to Molly:
'It's probably because he wants to impress Misato.' Making her giggle lightly.
After that they left the room and went back to the main deck, where a portal to the Wunder's bridge was waiting for them. Despite their initial fear due to the alien nature of the machine, all the WILLE members eventually crossed the portal, finding Misato waiting for them on the other side.
"So, how did it go?" The captain asked and Ritsuko replied:
"I'll tell you the details later, most importantly though I believe that I've convinced them to come with us to Europe."
"So,we'll finally be listened to for once?"
"Possibly."
"And all it took was for three guys to crash in from another dimension…Have I told you how strongly I think that the world hates us?"
"Many times captain, many times."
Back on the Fortress
"So, Molly got close to the Wraiths?" Samuel asked as the portal machine returned to its deactivated position,
"Yes, and I only had to 'persuade' them twice." VEGA replied, getting a short laugh out of the robot. Suddenly one of the side doors opened and the Slayer walked out of it, carrying the helmet of his oldest suit in his hands.
He approached the deck and reactivated the portal,but changed the exit coordinates, making Samuel ask him:
"Where are you going Slayer? It's still raining hard outside, everyone in the village is in their homes."
"I have to give this to someone." The man said as a new portal was formed, remaining silent as he crossed it.
Matarael's cave
He found himself inside of Matarael's cave, right in front of her mosaic, at the bottom of which a small puddle had formed from the open ceiling. He placed the helmet down,along with the note he had left inside.
Just as he was about to leave however a voice called out to him, saying:
"I didn't see you come in here. I guess that I still have much to learn about humans,"
He turned around, noticing that Matarael was visibly tired. He decided to remain for a moment as he said:
"I believe that we're leaving soon, so I wanted to give Rami a gift, to thank you all for helping out during the battle."
"How kind of you…"
As the Slayer heard the angel's weak voice, he tried to ask her about it, but she was faster than him as she said:
"Don't worry, it's just that it's been a while since I used that much power. Plus you don't know how hard it is to send those boys and girls to sleep…
Hey, since you're leaving soon. Would you mind staying by the mosaic with me for one more time?"
He nodded and so they both approached the wall, sitting down as thunder echoed in the distance.
After a while however, a question had formed in the Slayer's mind and,since he just couldn't send it away, he said:
"Hey Matarael…What caused the conflict between humans and angels in the first place?"
She remained silent for a bit, looking at the image of ADAM on the wall, but in the end she said:
"There might be many answers to that question, but for me… It's because we angels wanted to find a purpose in the world. After we lost ADAM with the second impact, many of us felt lost.. Others were angry at humans for taking him away…But in the end we were all scared of what life would be without him.
He was such a big influence on our lives that it doesn't surprise me how many of us flocked to that city when we felt his presence again…
In the end, be it in death or otherwise, each of us has found a purpose now.
Are you searching for a purpose too Slayer?"
The sudden question caught the man a bit off guard, but as he focused his eyes on the green fields behind the angels , he said:
"No, I already have mine… It's just that it feels more unreachable every day that passes. But, I've already come this far…What good would it bring stopping now? And who would take my place?"
The angel didn't answer as he slowly stood up and headed towards the portal, but just before leaving he turned around and said:
"Thank you for your time Matarael, say goodbye to Rami for me."
He didn't have time to take one more step as she said:
"Thanks to you too, Slayer, it was good knowing you."
The man smirked under his helmet as he crossed the dark blue barrier, leaving the mother alone as she kept watching the other angels, unaware that a small brown bunny was observing them from behind a rock.
TO BE CONTINUED