Blood Red
Episode 3
Bloodlust Crusaders
A/N: If it wasn't obvious already I have a thing for warships. Like a really big thing for warships.
Anyway, sorry for taking so long, but you know, final year of school before university and stuff. So yeah I've been kinda busy, like reeeally busy. But hey on the plus side soon I'll have the entire summer free to write! Well mostly but you get the idea.
And what a time too! If everything goes according to plan this chapter is the halfway point of the story!
"Hehehe, get ready for what's coming."
What!? Hey! Who the hell are you!? What are you doing he-
Anyway that's all! Have fun!
Chapter 21: Every great journey starts with an argument.
Genova port
The air raid sirens had stopped blaring a while ago and people were slowly returning to the streets.
Meanwhile at one of the docks of the port, the group which had just saved the city was gathered under a large ship, waiting to meet its captain.
The ship itself was a refurbished Zara class air defense cruiser, with a 127mm gun in the front, two 76mm guns in the middle and two more in the back of the ship, while the rest of the deck was plastered with VLS wherever possible.
The hull had the usual dark gray color, however from the tip of the bow, two large red and white paint jobs extended backwards, ending under the middle of the bridge.
As a bird passed over the ship, the side door opened and its captain, Durand De La Penne, the Antichrist of the sea, walked out, covering his face from the setting sun.
He was a giant, standing at almost two meters tall and with muscles so big and defined they almost rivaled the Slayer's.
His face was partially hidden by his navy hat, which sported a fully golden anchor on the front that acted like a lighthouse with how the sun reflected off of it.
What was left to be seen of his face was a large chin with a very short beard and a small cut on the left, while a defined mustache rested over his mouth which looked as solid as stone.
The rest of his body was covered by a large black coat, completely plain except for the various medals and honorifications that had been hung on it, while his hands provided a stark contrast with their pristine white gloves.
His hair was a darker shade of gray, completely organized, without a single one being out of place.
"Pen! My friend! It's good to see you again!" Woodward shouted as he made his way through the crowd, jumping over the various fences and onto the suspended bridge.
La Penne did not have time to react as the man almost jumped on him as he was pulled into a hug, with Woodward showing a degree of strength much larger that what he looked able to do.
"It's good…To see you as well John." Durand replied before pulling the man off of him, almost holding him in the air with one hand.
"Hehe. As cold as always are ya'? Come, let me show you the other damned souls I've brought with me. Oh and by the way, thanks for savin' me boat."
"Consider it as a goodbye gift."
"Wait wha-!?" Woodward said, but suddenly he was grabbed by the neck as Durand pressed his punch on his head while saying:
"I'm kidding, dumbass. It's good to see you again! You're always as gullible as ever are you?"
"Dammit alright alright stop it hurts! Haha." Woodward replied as he was let go and grabbed his hat from the ground, cleaning it a bit.
In the meantime the others had reached the deck of the cruiser, so Durand turned to look at them, his smile fading as he bowed respectfully before saying:
"Battle group Admiral Durand De La Penne, at your service. You must be Captain Katsuragi Misato if my memory serves me right."
"Yes, I am. It's a pleasure to meet you. She is the intelligence director of the Wunder, Akagi Ritsuko."
"It's a pleasure to be meeting you Admiral." Ritsuko said.
He nodded and then turned to look at Samuel and said:
"Samuel Hayden and… Slayer? Am I correct?"
"Yes, there's also VEGA, the artificial intelligence who currently controls our ship."
He said while pointing at the floating Fortress behind them. Durand tried to hide the uneasiness he felt in knowing that a computer was solely behind the guns of a ship, so he turned to look at the Slayer, as a frigid layer of air formed between them.
The two men seemed to go completely silent, staring at each other with their eyes hidden by the sun.
"What's going on?" Samuel asked and Woodward replied:
"Shshsh! This is my favorite part, they're letting the muscles talk for them."
"What?"
As Samuel said this both the Slayer and Durand began walking towards each other with their hands closed into fists, staring angrily into each other's eyes.
The metal under their feet seemed to crack as they got closer and closer, with their shoulders and upper bodies growing larger as well.
Once they were about a meter and a half from each other, they raised a hand at the same time and then slammed them together into a handshake that seemed to break the speed of sound when they touched.
All the muscles in their arms tensed up and a moment later they let go, smiling at each other as they parted with a nod.
Samuel stood by confused, while Woodward looked at the two with his eyes shining like a starry sky.
And as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, an equally stunned Misato said:
"It's gotten quite late. They have a place ready for us, I'm sure they can find space for you as well Mr La Penne."
"Thank you, but I was actually planning on spending the night in my ship, so I'm inclined to refuse your offer."
"Very well, see you tomorrow at 7 am, we should depart by then after a briefing." Misato said and then she turned around and left the area with Ritsuko following her.
"I'm sure that Woodward has already informed you of the submarine threat, right? This might have been the perfect opportunity to tell her."
Samuel said and the captain replied:
"I was planning on doing that tomorrow morning, because frankly I am quite tired and I did not want to deal with the implications it would have brought.
Also because it would have given the spy enough time to reorganize.
Woodward and I thought that the best course of action was to let the trap be sprung, while also countering it without letting the spy know.
The anti-submarine vessels in my fleet can get rid of the threat without much problems, if however they can maintain the element of surprise.
Can I trust you to collaborate in this operation?"
"Yes. Also VEGA has already begun tracking the activity inside the Wunder, so either they come out or they won't be able to send any more info."
"That's… Great, yes…" Durand replied as he seemed to struggle with finding what to say, but he was stopped by Woodward who said:
"Ah don't mind him, he's just not the biggest fan of computers, that's all."
"Hey it's not exactly like that!" Durand said, clenching his fists to his sides before VEGA said:
"I do not mind that Mr. La Penne."
"Really?" The man said as his rage disappeared.
"Yes. It would be detrimental to the mission."
"Hm. Very well then, I shall try to stick to it as well."
As he said this, Durand took a look at his clock and said:
"Oh. It seems I must go now, dinner is almost ready down in the canteen, and my sailors really don't like to eat without their captain. Farewell to you all, and goodnight."
He turned around and went through the iron door, which locked automatically behind him.
The rest of the group left as well and after they got back on still soil Woodward reached his battleship, while the Slayer and Samuel walked towards a portal that VEGA had just created.
As they were walking, Samuel asked:
"Hey VEGA, is it really okay to have Durand hate what you are, just like that? I'll be honest, I don't think that he's ever going to try to be at ease with you, despite what he said."
"Don't worry Samuel, we can always just sink him."
"Hehehe. I guess so, yes, but let's hope we don't get to that." Samuel replied as they boarded the ship.
Later that night, in one of the hotel's halls.
Misato was walking by herself along a dark hallway, with the only light coming from the large windows to her right, which also gave her a great view of the sleeping city.
She had just left her room after not being able to close an eye, and since it was still early in the night, she had decided to explore the place a bit.
Eventually she reached a large staircase, at the top of which were two other corridors and an elevator, so she thought to herself:
"If I recall correctly, the hotel had a balcony up top. Maybe I can reach it from there?"
She reached the elevator and once inside she found the button for the top floor, so she pressed it and let herself be carried to the top.
As the metallic doors opened, she was greeted by a not so pleasant surprise, as she said:
"Hayden!? What are you doing up here?"
The robot, who was sitting at the edge of the balcony, watching the shining sea, said:
"Hm? Oh hello Misato. I was just relaxing a bit, that's all."
She stepped out of the elevator, tightening her jacket because of the cold air as she started getting closer to him.
"But why up here? Even if you don't feel the cold I'm sure that there's a better view from the Fortress."
As Misato said this, Samuel's back tensed up, with the small pistons moving his metallic vertebrae upwards.
Misato noticed this and said as she was now right behind him:
"Uhm… Is everything okay?"
"I… I'm here because I couldn't sleep."
"But I thought that you didn't need to?"
"Well, that's true, however I do try to rest in a sort of stand-by mode from time to time. Today I couldn't."
"Does it have to do with what VEGA did earlier?"
"Cunning as ever, but yes, it's about him.
About the fact that I'm starting to get worried for him."
She remained silent and let him continue, while a slight seabreeze reached their building.
"His attitude recently has started to change. He feels more distant, his voice isn't as calming as before and now there are these problems he has been showing recently.
Something is happening to him, Misato. You might not notice that because you've met him not too long ago, but me and him, we've been together for our whole lives."
"Perhaps it's because of Molly? Being a sort of father to her might be taking a toll on him."
"Before today I would have told you so, as I too believed that it was simply the weight of new responsibilities weighing down on him. Today me and the Slayer discovered that it's something much more serious.
You haven't been told why we took so long to arrive, right?"
"Now that I think about it, no. I was just glad that you showed up, so I didn't think of it."
Hayden would have blushed at that if he was human before saying:
"Oh… Uhm, I'm glad to hear that. But anyway, let me tell you what happened today when we were still in Europe. Don't worry, I've brought a jammer with me, so now not even VEGA can hear us."
"He's okay with that?"
"Yes, he's still very kind after all. Which is why what happened is even weirder, you see, after we recovered the core from the downed NERV warship…"
Samuel said as he proceeded to tell her the events of the previous afternoon, from the new tendrils to the incident with Molly.
Unknown to him, as he was constantly sitting facing forward, Misato had gotten closer to him, sitting right beside him as he finished retelling the story.
"And that's what has happened up to now."
"Oh my God. Poor Molly, is she still traumatized?"
"I talked to her before leaving, she has just woken up recently, but from what I was able to gather she doesn't remember anything that happened clearly, instead she only feels pain whenever she tries to access those memories. I hope that it's just her brain using it as a self defense mechanism and not something worse."
"What about when VEGA came back from that… Elec- Electrosphere? You kind of skipped over it."
"He said that he felt relaxed, as if he had taken a large weight off of his chest. It was definitely awkward however as none of us could manage to explain what had happened inside his core. So for now we won't let Molly enter it anymore.
Ever since then however I just couldn't feel right whenever we were together, like there was a spark inside my brain telling me to get away from him at all costs."
"Is that why you're here?"
"Probably yes, if it's not me going insane that is."
"That second option seems a bit extreme."
"Oh after you've seen the things we've seen, then it actually sounds like the logical answer."
"...So are you?"
"Technically not, but for how much I've been worrying about VEGA I might lose my mind soon."
A moment of silence passed before Misato said:
"You're probably the only person aside from Ritsuko who would ever use 'technically' to describe their mental state."
"I shall take that as a compliment.
However, it is true. Seeing VEGA in this state has been greatly taxing on my mental health. I can't even imagine how the Slayer feels."
"The Slayer?"
"He doesn't show it, but just like Asuka he's very attached to the people he cares about. And VEGA has been his only friend in, basically a millenia? If not much more. I myself have broken his thrust at one point for my personal gain, and even before that he has been betrayed two more times."
"Looks like he really can't catch a break."
"He's been handed a very bad card by life, but he has made the most of it in some ways. VEGA is one of those. And to be honest the same is for me. Without VEGA I would have never been able to get where I am today. Actually I'd definitely be dead."
"So, uhm… Look you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but, how would it feel like if VEGA couldn't get back to normal?"
"It would probably feel as if your father was killed in front of you."
"Heh. Then I know that feeling."
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"
"No no don't worry. I've gotten better at talking about it over the years. It's actually gotten to be one of my fondest memories."
"A fond memory? For your father's death?"
As Samuel said this Misato took her white cross pendant and said:
"See this? He gave it to me just moments before he disappeared, vaporized by the blast of the second impact, which happened right when we were down there.
He had never been a great father, always away, tired, he argued a lot. And yet in that last moment, he shoved me in that capsule and gave this to me before closing it.
I think that he wanted to ask forgiveness for everything he had done wrong with that gesture, or at least I've grown to consider it like this.
Over the years it has taught me that, no matter what, forgiveness can be achieved through one's actions."
"Shinji."
"Yes. And so much more." Misato said with a sigh at the end before putting the pendant away.
Silence fell between them as the bright red and white moon made the red sea shine all over the hovering Fortress of Doom, almost creating a dark red aura around it thanks to the shadow of its tendrils.
"You know"- Samuel suddenly said - "Despite the dystopian outlook, this night is still beautiful, don't you think?"
"As beautiful as you." Samuel thought to himself,not knowing that a warm feeling was permeating through Misato as well.
"Yes, although there's something that I need to get off my chest with you."
"Hm? What is it?"
"While you were away in the city, I sent Ritsuko there to spy on you. She told me about the submarines and about the spy. Sorry."
"How many people know this information?"
"Just me and Rits. I thought about it and your idea of keeping it secret seemed more reasonable, Rits agreed to it too."
"Okay. Sorry for trying to keep you in the dark."
"I understand you, it was for our own good. I tried that with Shinji as well when he came back from hibernation.
But I'm at fault too,I'm the one who sent Ritsuko after you."
"What? No, you were just trying to protect your interests."
"By spying on you."
"Because it was beneficial to you."
"But I betrayed our mutual trust."
"That we have never agreed upon." Samuel said as his tone rose a bit.
"I thought that some things didn't have to be so obvious!" Misato replied while trying to hide the anger in her voice.
"Oh please, you can't expect us to be completely on board after having arrived here so recently." Samuel said, irritated.
"And yet you still follow us everywhere we go. Why haven't you left us behind already? Why aren't you fighting Gendo on your own? And why do you, Samuel, always seem to want to talk to me and only to me?!"
"Because you're beautiful!"
Time froze right in that instant.
It took them a moment to truly make Samuel's words sink in, but as time passed, both him and Misato started shaking as they slowly stepped away from each other.
Misato didn't say anything as she left the rooftop, with Samuel remaining still like a statue. There were so many things he wanted to say, to break the silence, to try and change the meaning of his words so that she'd remain.
The doors of the elevator hissed shut. And he was only left with the reflection of the Fortress on one of the solar panels looking at him.
Fortress of Doom, main deck
As Samuel exited the portal, he silently walked towards his office, hearing from down below the Slayer working on the Atlan.
And as he entered the room, he approached the shiny gray desk, running his hand over it before coming to a stop near a photograph that he had hung up on the wall behind his large chair.
It depicted the moment when he announced the completion of the BFG 10000, among the cheers of the various UAC workers and him celebrating with his arms raised to the sky.
He had always liked being there, at the center of attention, where he was never alone. Even now, despite his constant squabbles with the Slayer, he'd be lying if he didn't admit to liking being with him.
Which is why the more he stared at the reflection of VEGA's drone on the glass cover of the picture, the heavier his shoulders felt.
"Can I talk to you for a moment, Samuel?"
VEGA said in his usual calm and soothing voice and the robot replied.
"Right now it's not the best moment, VEGA."
"I know. You've been avoiding me this entire time, haven't you?"
Samuel stayed silent.
"I don't blame you. I haven't been acting like myself ever since I got out of the electrosphere. You're not the only one who's feeling like something wrong is going on. Even Molly is still very wary of me."
"Is it going to get better?" Samuel said, slowly turning around to face the drone.
"I'm not sure, I still don't understand what's going on. I don't feel like I'm weaker or other things that could be associated with being sick, if anything I feel even more energetic than before. I feel like my emotions have a bigger effect on me, like they are influencing my judgment much more than before. Nothing has happened yet to confirm this, but I don't want to run into a situation where that could be tested. I'm honestly a bit scared of what could happen."
Samuel sat on his large chair, looking at his hands for a moment before he said:
"You know VEGA, for my entire life I've always been at the center of attention. I was the one leading our expeditions when we worked for Davoth, I was the one leading Urdak next to the Khan Maykrs. Even after I was banished from that realm, I still found myself at the head of the UAC and of the Arc afterwards."
He closed his hands into fists.
"It was only in this last period of my life that I noticed how lonely my office felt without you around.
That's when I realized something. I wasn't scared back then because I knew that you were with the Slayer, but I am now. I am really scared of losing you VEGA. Even if I know that in one way or another you'll always remain until your core is intact I…
I fear that you could one day lose what makes you, you. And I don't know if I could continue going on without you. That's why I want you to tell me everything strange that happens from this point forward, so that we can act on it. "
VEGA moved closer to Samuel, floating right next to him as he said:
"I-, I'll try my best."
The morning after, on the Wunder's bridge
Misato entered the room as her crew saluted her, setting down on her chair before saying:
"Tell me Nagara, at what time are we supposed to depart?"
"The scheduled time is set to 10 am, so around three hours from now. By then all the warships will be ready."
"Okay. Ritsuko, does our AT field have enough lifting power to lift their entire fleet?"
"I believe so, yes, even if only for a short amount of time due to how big it is. What are you implying there?"
"Oh nothing, I was wondering if it would have been easier to lift the ships like we did with our previous ones in Paris."
"That's not possible unfortunately, those ships didn't have any crew in them, plus they were also stripped of their internals."
"I see… Nagara, get the engines up and running, I want to be able to lift off at a moment's notice."
"Understood captain." The dark skinned girl replied as Ritsuko stole a glance towards Misato, wondering what she had in mind.
At the same time, somewhere in the Wunder
Play: [Opening of Dream] End of Evangelion OST
Asuka watched the clock tick by as she sat on the railway's bench. No train was scheduled to arrive, with the board being completely blank.
The column she was on seemed to stretch indefinitely in either direction, endlessly repeating the same bench, bin and clock combination.
And in the walkway to her left, Shinji was sitting down,waiting for a train that wasn't coming too.
Suddenly however Kaworu appeared from the mist, covering Shinji's eyes from behind before revealing himself to him, much to Asuka's displeasure.
They seemed to talk about something, Shinji was smiling the whole time, but she couldn't hear them.
The clocks ticked to midnight as bells began ringing all around the station, with the faint sound of a train moving towards them.
It stopped right in front of Shinji and Kaworu, opening its doors to let them in.
A shadowy female figure inside of a room far away approached a microphone and said:
"All passengers are asked to board their trains, as this is today's last ride."
Those words echoed around Asuka as she finally got up and walked towards the edge of the track, right over the yellow line.
She watched them take the first step forward, so she mustered all of her force and said:
*Shinji! Don't go just yet!"
The boy stopped walking, with Kaworu standing on the edge of the closing doors of the train, waiting for him.
"But why? This is the last train I can take. There's no other option for me, Asuka."
Shinji said without turning around.
Asuka took another step forward, placing her foot right on the edge of the platform as alarms started echoing from all around them. She took a deep breath and jumped forward, nearly making it to the other side.
As she was about to hit the tracks however, a long blue arm grabbed her and brought her to safety on the other edge.
She then immediately sprinted towards the two of them, but just as she was about to get them, Kaworu turned around and projected an AT field to stop her.
Asuka slammed her hands on the barrier, as she said:
"God dammit, come back here Shinji! You're making a mistake!"
"Then what am I supposed to do Asuka? It feels like every action I take is the wrong one."
"This isn't you taking action you idiot! This is you letting others manipulate you for their own good!"
"What tells me you're not doing the same thing?"
A sudden earthquake shook the entire station as all three of them nearly fell to the ground. Once the shaking was over, the voice from the speakers said again:
"Last call for today's final train, the Wunder has taken off. I repeat, last call for today's final train."
Having exhausted most of her energies in trying to break Kaworu's AT field, Asuka and Bardiel could only watch as Shinji and Kaworu approached the open door.
Which slammed shut right in front of them.
"Wait. What is going on?" Kaworu said as he looked around confused.
Then, as the previously white sky began to take on a more dark red hue, as if it was being covered in blood, the voice at the speakers said:
"Attention everyone. Evacuate the station immediately! I repeat evacuate! Evacuate the station immediately! Something is comi-vhfdgczbzzz."
The sky became ever more red as a strong smell of blood polluted the air around them, making Shinji almost puke as Asuka said:
"Is this your doing, Kaworu!?"
"What? No! It's coming from outside, I-I…" Kaworu could not finish his sentence as his entire body became paralyzed, with fear almost flowing out of him like a river.
He was stuck looking at a particular point in the sky, from where the already faint light seemed to be dimmed.
Eventually, Asuka turned around as well, witnessing something she should have never seen.
Wunder, pilots' room
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Asuka shouted as she awoke screaming from her bed, alerting Mari who had just been coming back from her walk.
She rushed into the room and grabbed Asuka's hand before saying:
"Asuka! Asuka, what's going on?!"
The redhead continued to breathe heavily for some time as she tried to calm down while Mari attempted to help her.
As the sweat started falling off Asuka's face, she turned to look directly at Mari's eyes, who said:
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Princess. Don't worry, both Shinji and I are still alive and well."
Asuka's tension abandoned her body as she was able to curl up into a fetal position as she said:
"I saw something. In the dream I was having. However I'm struggling to remember exactly what it was,despite the fact that I remember the rest of the dream quite well."
"Oh well, you know how complex the world of dreams can be, right?"
"Yes but, this… It felt so real. It made me feel like I wasn't in my dream anymore, but in my entry plug."
"Is there really nothing that you remember?"
"I… Agh!"
"Princess!" Mari shouted as she got over Asuka to stop her from shaking uncontrollably. Her entire body was incapable of standing still as Mari did her best to try and hug her as tightly as possible.
Suddenly however, Asuka stopped moving and relaxed herself on Mari's body. She pushed the redhead away a bit to look at her in the face and for a moment she thought that she was looking at a corpse.
"I can't remember Mari." Asuka said almost without moving her face.
"It's okay Asuka, there's no problem if you can't remember what it was, especially if it makes you scared like this."
"No no. You don't understand…" Asuka said again as her hands shot up to hold Mari's face.
"I can remember Mari, I am able to make out what it was that I saw in my dream…
It's just that I'm too scared to do so. My entire body refuses to let me know what I saw."
A small tear escaped from Asuka's trembling pupil as Mari silently understood and said while clearing her face:
"Let's go to the roof, some fresh air will definitely help you, let's bring Shinji as well."
"O-okay."
Asuka said as Mari grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her bed. And as they got outside Mari thought:
"That face she made. I've already seen it once before in the past. Let's just hope that it's not the same fear that Yui felt."
At the same time in Shinji's cell
"Kaworu? Are you there?" Shinji said to himself, trying to reach out to the angel who was currently hiding and trying to not die from an impossible heart attack.
Kaworu could still feel the taste of blood in his mouth and his hands as he tried to stop himself from screaming, with the visions of that still flashing rapidly inside his memory. In his entire life he had never felt a sense of fear so strong, so primal and overwhelming. He thought that given his angelic powers he could easily control his emotions, but when he was standing there, he felt no less human than a first born baby, incapable of thinking about anything else but the being in front of him.
Eventually Shinji gave up as he washed his face, just in time for Asuka and Mari to enter the room and ask him to come with them. However, considering Shinji's condition he had no say in the matter as the trio headed towards the top of the Wunder, accompanied by an awkward silence as Mari dragged the two of them by holding their hands.
And as they entered the elevator to reach the balcony, Mari suddenly took a step back and united Asuka and Shinji's hands, making them hold each other for a moment before their faces exploded with red embarrassment.
"Wait, where's the Fortress? Weren't we supposed to depart all together?" Asuka said and Mari replied:
"Katsuragi thought that it was a better idea to take off earlier, maybe she knows something that the others don't. To be honest it sounds like a good way to mess up a spy's plans to me. Who knows…
Hey, are you two okay?"
Mari said as she looked at Asuka and Shinji, who were fixated on a random point in the sky.
Suddenly they recoiled back at the same time, before they seemed to return to their senses as Shinji looked at Asuka and said:
"Did… Did you see something that looked like the Fortress too?"
"Yes."
"Hey what are you guys talking about? There's nothing there. Also what if it's the Fortress of Doom anyway? They've probably been chasing us since we took off. Nothing to get so worked up about."
"No Mari you don't understand, that wasn't the Fortress of Doom! It was something else. They were similar, but not the same, I'm sure of it!" Asuka said before a sudden strange smell started to invade the area. And Mari said as she leaned on the railing:
"What? So there's two of them now? Well I guess that we have more allies then. By the way, do you guys sense this smell too? It's kind of familiar, uhm…"
"Blood. It's the smell of blood." Shinji said and Asuka added:
"I can sense it too."
Just then a large red cloud started to move in front of the Wunder and the huge lightning bolts emanating from it made Asuka say:
"That's a huge storm, let's get back inside."
The entire group headed back into the elevator as the doors closed just in time to not let them be swarmed by the red dust.
Meanwhile, several hundred kilometers away, the Fortress of Doom sliced through the sky as it kept chasing the Wunder.
And as the larger ship entered the storm, VEGA said:
"I am no longer able to track the Wunder, the electromagnetic interference is too intense, we'll have to get inside the storm too."
"Alright, I'm increasing speed. Slayer, everything okay down there in the Altan?" Samuel said as he took a quick glance to a video feed to his left.
The man nodded so Samuel started pushing on the throttle, but then suddenly VEGA said:
"Target detected to our right, it's standing still, marking it on the HUD."
"Uhm, VEGA there's nothing there."
"What do you mean? I can see it on the radar, perhaps it's camouflaged."
"Hold on, let me try something." As Samuel said this he took control of one of the railguns and fired to the right of the position that VEGA had marked inside a cloud. The speed and momentum carried by the large shell made it push away most of the cloud, revealing that there was completely nothing there.
"Hm. Perhaps it was just the interference messing with your radar, try to change frequency as we enter the storm."
"I will, thanks for checking Samuel."
VEGA said as he adjusted the radar, thinking to himself:
"I swear though that the return signal was way too strong to be just some interference, it's like there was something there that instantly vanish-"
The same target had reappeared on the radar. It was following right behind them, by less than a kilometer.
VEGA did not dare to turn around or sound any alarm as they entered the storm cloud, with the target disappearing immediately, while the Wunder reappeared soon after,just a few kilometers in front.
"The storm must have slowed them down, it's our opportunity to catch them!" Samuel said and VEGA simply replied with:
"Yes." All the while he tried to keep the smell of blood out of his systems.
Some time later, along the Wunder's corridors
Asuka, Shinji and Mari were walking silently towards the front of the Wunder as the constant thunder from outside muffled their footsteps.
As they entered unit 02's hangar Mari turned to look at the eva and said:
"There's still no one here, so let's stop for a moment because I want to talk for a bit."
Asuka and Shinji looked at her confused, but they obliged as they reached a set of stairs to sit down on.
"So, what did you actually see out there? Try to make out as many details as possible."
Shinji then said:
"It looked similar to the Fortress, yes. But it didn't have any lights on. Everything was shut off. It even seemed like the stone that makes up the outside layer was darker too, but I'm not sure if that was just the cloud blocking the sun. Then there was also…"
As Shinji stopped to think Asuka said:
"The underside, where the boosters are, wasn't made of the usual irregular rocks the ship has. It was crystallized, with repeating patterns and the holes for the missiles very visible near the middle.
It had a crown too."
"A crown?" Mari asked and Shinji continued:
"Yes. Remember those large white spikes on the top of the Fortress? It looked like they had grown, by a lot. They covered the entire cupola and were inclined towards the one in the middle like middle one too was much higher and it held some sort of sphere at its tip. That's all I'm able to remember."
"Same for me." Asuka said as Mari seemed to get lost while thinking about something else, as it took them calling her a couple of times to get her attention back.
"So? What do you make of all of this? To me it still sounds like you saw the Fortress, but your brain got confused."
"Dammit Mari what I told you is true! There was a totally different ship there! It didn't even seem like there were people on board. VEGA, Hayden, no one."
"A ghost spaceship?"
"No. It was alive. I'm sure of it."
"Maybe it was because of VEGA? He's been acting quite weird recently." Mari said, making Asuka look at her confused and ask:
"What are you implying with this?"
And Mari said: "Oh well, maybe VEGA is becoming less and less reliable over time. He might be a computer, but he's also shown human emotions and that means that he might not always take the most logical path. Have you seen how they added those tentacles to the back of the Fortress? Who knows what other kinds of modifications they can do since they have the core of Molly's old evangelion fused to the ship."
Suddenly the lights of the room flickered, before stabilizing once again as Shinji said:
"Strange… Maybe we got hit by lightnin-"
His sentence was interrupted by the incredibly loud sound of metal slamming against metal as the room was turned dark and then bright again.
The trio all looked at each other, then at unit 02's resting figure, then at each other again for a moment before Mari said:
"I'll go to the controls to open the hatches, you two get inside."
"Wait what shouldn't w-"
Asuka tried to say something, but she was already gone before her protest could be heard. So she turned towards Shinji and said:
"Ugh. That stupid woman. Misato is going to kick our asses for this. Oh well, come on idiot, get up."
Shinji silently followed her, feeling both weirded out and scared by the entire situation, so he didn't even register how quickly they reached the evangelion's exposed neck.
A short climb later and they were already inside the dual entry plug, with Shinji's nervousness being intensified by the fear of another accident occurring.
He tried to seek out Kaworu for help, but he was met with only silence as he said to himself:
"Weird, usually I can at least sense he's near me. This time however it's like he's gone and hid somewhere. I wonder why."
"Hey idiot, I can hear the plastic on those controls screaming like souls from hell from how much you're shaking. Relax, will you? It's not like we'll have to fight the Slayer or anything."
As Asuka said this, the bright yellow giant hangar door slid away and slowly, she and Shinji managed to lift unit 02 out of the water.
As they slowly climbed outside of the cylinder and into the Wunder's roof, they noticed that huge cracks had formed all over the top of the AT field. Following them with their gaze, they found that the Fortress of Doom had cut a hole into the field from where the Atlan had been dropped through.
As Asuka stared at the floating spaceship, the same sense of dread that had filled her when she was on the balcony came back to haunt her.
"H-hey Asuka." Shinji said and she was immediately able to understand from his voice that he was feeling the same thing.
"Perhaps that fortress that we saw back there wasn't a vision?"
Eventually the Atlan turned around as VEGA informed the Slayer of their presence, just as a window opened on unit 02's hud, with VEGA's symbol on it.
'Shinji, Asuka, we're glad to see you are safe and healthy. We are here simply because Katsuragi has been continuously rejecting our attempts of communication, so the Slayer proposed a more direct approach.'
"Wait, Misato didn't inform you of our departure?" Asuka asked and VEGA replied:
'No, we were discussing our plan of action with the rest of the fleet when the Wunder suddenly took off.'
"That's… Quite characteristic of Misato. What do you think might have caused this?"
'Besides unit 01 as the core of the Wunder regaining sentience we do not have many hypotheses. The most probable one based on my analysis is that Misato has acted on impulse caused by an abnormal emotional state.'
"In other, more comprehensible words?"
'She's mad about something.' VEGA said, knowing that Samuel was standing right there on the deck hearing all of this.
Then Shinji said:
"Well I mean… That does sound like something Misato would do."
Suddenly Samuel said:
'It's not important if it's something that she would do, we just have to stop this as soon as possible to not put the fleet in danger. Slayer, you may proceed.'
As the robot said this, the Atlan turned around and began heading towards the front of the ship, when Asuka said:
"Hold on, maybe if we talk to her first she'll react better? You know it's not nice to land on someone's ship like that uninvited."
The Atlan turned to look at unit 02 for a moment before VEGA said:
'Well. I've been jamming the Wunder's communications until now, but I guess that we should take the opportunity.'
Suddenly unit 02's entry plug was filled with a torrent of distorted sounds as all the messages which had been blocked up until now were replayed randomly. However, as the connection stabilized, Asuka and Shinji were able to clearly see Misato's face and she was not exactly beaming with joy.
'Glad we finally managed to get connected with you again.'
She said as Asuka replied:
"Yes, uhm. Before you say anything else, taking the evangelion was Mari's idea."
'Yes. Yes. We know. I believe that they want you to talk to me first right?'
"Yes. They had indeed tried to board our ship, because of our sudden and unplanned departure." Asuka said as her eye lazily moved around, staring at the storm in the background.
'We wouldn't technically have boarded you yet since we're still outside of your ship. However, let's leave that behind us. I believe that you and Samuel have something to talk about, right?' VEGA said as he suddenly entered the conversation, and then Misato replied:
"I have no idea what you are talking about."
'Oh please, I insist. The Slayer does too. I think that it would be better for all of us to resolve these problems quickly.'
At this point some of the crew members on the bridge started looking at each other, confused about what was going on.
Even Asuka wasn't sure, so she asked:
"Uhm, captain, may I ask why we decided to take off without following the original plan?"
Everyone on the bridge turned their eyes at their captain as Asuka's question immobilized her. The last thing she could do right now was tell them the actual truth of this unscheduled action,if she didn't want them to throw her outside of the ship.
Her head felt like it was about to explode as hundreds of different scenarios flew across her mind, all based on what she was about to say. Eventually, she found the one which was probably going to be the least painful.
"The reason for why I ordered this takeoff… Is because we suspect that a spy is on board the ship. I believed that they would have been able to send information to the submarines waiting for us in the Atlantic and given that the Eminent Domain is carrying the only weapon capable of making the mission succeed, I didn't want to risk any damage to it."
Silence followed as Misato's heart was about to stop from beating too fast, however suddenly Samuel said:
"Well, that was definitely a riky plan, but who knows maybe it has worked out in our favor, after all the ships haven't yet reached the area where the submarines are believed to attack. Still, I would have liked a bit more warning, for a moment I even thought you were going to fight them by yourself."
"What? Come on we had a plan, you really thought I was going to leave you like that?"
"Well it's not exactly like that plan was followed to the letter, right?"
"I know. But I had to do something, we don't know anything about this spy except for the fact that they're somewhere on the Wunder, they might be listening to our conversation right now!"
"This ridiculous escape was definitely the last option I would have thought of."
"Oh really now, so how would you have dealt with it?"
"Well now that you ask I'm not so sure, but it certainly wouldn't have been this. Nor any other less crazy plan."
"Less crazy? Come on, do you understand how stressful it is to come up with solutions to problems like these?"
"If you always go this far then no wonder it's a difficult task."
"Why you… Aoba, can we shoot at him, like right now?" Misato said as she covered her face with a hand, before Maya replied:
"This isn't the best moment, I've spotted several aerial targets rapidly approaching us!"
As she said this a lightning bolt struck the Wunder, making lights flicker for a moment.
"God dammit, another one?" Misato said and VEGA replied:
"Sorry, but the tip of the Fortress is very good at attracting lightning."
"Ah whatever, we'll talk later Samuel. Tell Mari to get in her eva as well, let's clear these guys and get back to the Eminent Domain as soon as possible!"
"Yes Captain!" Her crew responded as the Fortress of Doom detached itself from the Wunder, letting the AT field close itself.
On the roof of the ship, near the four large turrets, the Atlan and unit 02 were gripping their weapons, making sure to have a good hold on their terrain as they didn't want to risk falling in the middle of the ocean.
The Slayer readied the Atlan's shoulder mounted cannons and the blasters on its palms, trying to spot the flying machines across the dark red clouds.
Meanwhile, Shinji and Asuka were stuck with just their knives as they hadn't thought of bringing any other weapon with themselves when they got out.
"Hey Asuka, are you sure we can do this? We just learned to walk a moment ago."
"You killed an angel on your very first time piloting an eva, I'm sure that whatever comes at us now shouldn't be a problem. Plus we're not alone up here."
"I know that, it's just that- To our right! I saw something in the clouds!"
A large machine suddenly emerged from the darkness, letting out a roaring screech.
It was best described as a conglomerate of evangelion bodies, all tied together by a sort of fleshy red mud which gradually thinned out to the sides to create a pair of large wings. The central body then separated into four extremities, two large legs and two clawed arms, while at the top it split into three different ways, forming three large and menacing heads, while at the back it had a tail, with a spiked ball at its tip.
"Is that… A dragon!?" Shinji exclaimed as the Wunder turned around and moved its guns on it.
The eight large cannons fired a burst of flashing rounds directly at the dragon, but just as they were about to hit it, the red mud moved away, creating holes that made the shells fly right through and miss their target.
It roared back at the Wunder, making a storm of flying evangelions appear from the clouds
Play: [Death Odyssey] Ultrakill OST
'We'll deal with the evangelions, you take on the dragon!' Samuel shouted as the Fortress' weapons wirred into action.
And while the swarm followed the Fortress of Doom, the large beast headed straight for the Wunder, opening its three mouths as its body started glowing orange.
Just as it passed over the ship, three waves of violent flames were shot out of its mouths, colliding and spreading over the AT field.
The Wunder's cannons fired up at it, however it moved away just in time, flying towards the back of the ship.
Misato ordered the ship to turn around and Unit 02 and the Atlan had to hold on for dear life as the behemoth changed direction.
The dragon looked back at them as its mouths glowed again. This time however, large flaming balls of red mud were shot at the Wunder, exploding in contact with its AT field and spreading over it like napalm,gradually corroding it.
'AT field at eighty-five percent and descending rapidly, we need to shake off that mud! Nagara!'
Shinji heard Ritsuko say over the radio right before the ship performed a sharp turn to the left. He and Asuka tried to steady their grip, however one of the evangelion's feet slipped, destabilizing them.
Just as they lost control and began to fall however, the Atlan sprinted towards them, grabbing one of their hands at the last moment. The weight of unit 02 forced the Slayer to activate the Atlan's Argent sword and stab it into the ship until it returned level.
The dragon came back for another pass, this time however it did not have enough time to dodge as, while the mud moved away from some shells, it was also hit by a couple of them.
Using this opportunity, the Slayer fired at it with the Atlan's cannons, hitting it on the wings.
The dragon roared in anger as new mud appeared to cover the holes, it flew upwards and turned back down, closing its wings as the spiked ball on its tail started emitting a faint light.
The three heads evaded the incoming fire, allowing it to reach the body instead, which seemed to have a minimal effect as the dragon continued undisturbed in its dive.
Finally, right before hitting the ship, it opened its wings and pulled up, transfering all of its kinetic energy into the spiked ball on the tail which slammed into the AT field, unleashing a shockwave of electricity along with the hit.
'AT field at sixty-five percent!' Ritsuko shouted across the radio, just as Mari finally got out of her hangar with unit 08, carrying a pair of guns for herself and unit 02.
"There we go, you two, let's show him what you're capable of!" Mari said as she handed the large rifle to unit 02.
The dragon soon came back into view, this time approaching from behind as it prepared to fire more balls of flaming mud, however the Wunder's cannons impeded it from doing so as it flew over to avoid crashing into the ship.
This allowed the three mechs to fire at it with impunity, however only a couple of shots seemed to do any damage as the others either passed through the moving mud or exploded on its thick hardened skin.
One of the shots from Mari's sniper however was able to hit it on its left wing, making it lose balance and land on top of the AT field.
Sensing the impending danger, the dragon roared as it relentlessly let out flames in all directions, covering itself in a coat of fire.
"Alright, we got it!" Mari said, but then Ritsuko added:
'Not yet! The AT field is holding, but the flames are cutting a hole into it! It's the same thing that the Fortress did earlier to get the Slayer inside. Everyone get ready!'
The AT field began to crack around the fireball, as it absorbed cannon fire like it was nothing but a nuisance, eventually causing it to break apart like a plane of glass.
The fireball fell right on the Wunder's cannons, creating an explosion that severely damaged their hydraulics, making them unable to aim vertically anymore,instead leaving them fixed at a certain angle.
Meanwhile, the fireball disappeared and from it the dragon emerged again, with its body fully repaired and emitting a red glow,while trails of steam came out of various points on the body.
The three heads looked at the mechs and roared before charging up and then spewing flames all over the top of the Wunder. The evas were pushed back as their AT fields distorted the flames, while the Atlan stood still by stabbing its sword into the ship and relying on its armor.
As the flames died down, the Slayer wasted no time and immediately rushed at the beast, firing at it with the shoulder cannons while gripping the Argent sword.
Just as he got close to the dragon however, the beast spun around, trying to hit him with the spiked ball. The Slayer dodged just in time, but he couldn't resume his run as one of the heads tried to shower him with flames from directly on top of him. He used the large area of the Argent sword to cover himself, blocking the line of fire for his shoulder cannons in the process as the two other heads moved in to attack him.
They were intercepted by Mari and Asuka's fire, getting their attention as they shot two mud fireballs at them.
The evas dodged them easily, watching for a moment how they ate through the ship's hull like a hot knife through butter.
Two more were launched in their direction, they barely dodged them before resuming their fire on the central head that was holding the Atlan still, stunning it and allowing the Slayer to jump and get a clean cut to the neck with his Argent sword.
The lifeless head flew away and plummeted down below before a shockwave of heat and vapor exploded outwards, launching the Atlan as it landed near the two evangelions.
From the rising column of vapor a new long neck and head emerged as if nothing had been done to it.
More fireballs followed, with the trio being unable to get any closer to the beast, except for Shinji and Asuka, who slipped through an opening between the shots and began running towards the beast, taking out the two prog knives.
The dragon's left foot planted itself firmly on the metal before it spun around, hitting Asuka and Shinji with the spiked ball on its tail and sending them flying to the side.
The Slayer jumped after them, barely managing to save them from falling into the sea as they landed on the Wunder's right wing.
The dragon jumped after them, dismissing Mari as it landed on the edge of the wing, making the entire ship tilt to the side.
The Atlan held unit 02 with one hand and planted the sword into the ship with the other as the dragon began charging at them with fire flowing out of its mouths.
As it was about to hit them however, Mari landed firmly on its back, stabbing it with her own knives and carving out two huge cuts across its back.
She then jumped away from it to avoid the stream of fire coming her way, helping the other two get back up as the ship righted itself.
As they watched the dragon turn back towards them, Asuka said:
"Look! The cuts Mari left are not healing!"
And Mari added:
"That must be why it only opened holes in its middle body when we fired, that's the part that cannot regenerate! Looks like it has to be prepared for the blow too."
As Mari said this, the beast took flight again, heading back towards the top of the Wunder and the mechs followed it by climbing over the side of the ship.
The trio were face to face with the dragon once more, getting ready for the next attack, just as the Slayer said:
"Misato, keep the guns ready to fire, I'll cut off its heads, you three take care of the tail."
Just as the radio went silent, the Atlan dashed forwards, barely dodging a fireball as its cannons landed a hit on the two heads to the side.
The other two evangelions, whose pilots barely had just enough time to understand the Slayer's plan, used this window to run to the side of the dragon, eventually reaching its tail.
The three pilots felt as if their bodies were being roasted by the extreme heat that the spiked ball was letting off, however they gritted their teeth and by stabbing the tail in the thinnest section they started cutting it away.
The three heads were about to attack them, but then the Atlan jumped and stabbed the central one, it pulled out the sword and spun it around, cutting off the other two.
As the steam started to come out once more, the evangelions finally managed to cut off the tail and grab onto various parts of its irregular body while the Atlan got back down in front of the dragon.
Together they pulled and pushed it towards the four turrets as it lashed out frantically in all directions.
As they were getting close, Shinji said:
"We might just be able to make it in time!"
However, as he saw the three necks start to reappear, he lost his focus, making Asuka lose control of the eva as they slipped and started sliding off the ship.
Asuka managed to grab a ledge at the last moment, however unit 02 was just too heavy and they slipped off.
Unit 08 grabbed it just in time to stop their fall, however the extra force made Mari lose balance as well as she slid off. This time the Slayer intervened, saving them both and remaining on the ship thanks to the Atlan's sword.
As the initial relief faded however, Mari asked:
"Wait. Slayer what about the dr-"
She didn't get to finish that sentence as the Atlan was covered by a wall of flames and she was forced to lower her eva's head.
The flames ended soon afterwards, but the Atlan emerged badly damaged from them, even if the Slayer himself was fine.
The dragon wasted no further time as it took a step back, charging its tail like it did before against the Wunder.
None of the three mechs were able to do anything as it finished charging and took flight, circling around for a moment before diving towards them.
As the beast got dangerously close, Misato's voice suddenly emerged from the radio:
'Now Nagara! Full reverse and maximum upward pitch!'
Upon Misato's orders, the giant ship started decelerating and its nose started moving upwards, aligning the immobile guns with the dragon.
'Take the shot!' She said as the four large cannons opened fire, with a couple of shots missing.
And while a pair of bullets flew through holes in the flesh, the dragon hadn't had enough time to predict the last one, which impacted right under its central head and exploded inside the body, turning the beast into a flying mess of red mud and evangelion guts.
'Target destroyed!' Aoba exclaimed from the bridge as various cheers could be heard over the radio.
With the ship coming to a stop, the Slayer was able to bring the other two evangelions back on top of the ship, as the Fortress of Doom returned soon after, having dealt with the smaller enemies.
Upon viewing the critical state of the Atlan, VEGA said:
'Slayer, I do not believe that the Atlan will be combat capable for much longer, I suggest we make our way to the fleet as fast as possible.'
And then Misato said:
'VEGA's right, we haven't heard anything from them and they might soon reach the area with the submarines, unit 08 and 02, return to your hangars immediately.'
After a brief pause she added:
'Oh and Asuka, Shinji, congratulations on your combined performance.'
Just as she said this, unit 02 almost fell off the ship again, making her immediately regret ever opening her mouth.
The three mechs returned inside their various ships, which turned around and headed towards Woodward's fleet as quickly as possible.
On the deck of the Eminent Domain, some kilometers away from the strait of Gibraltar.
"Hey Durand, how are things over there?" Woodward said as he held the radio down from the ceiling.
'We used up quite a bit of anti-submarine equipment, but overall we're alright,no damage reported. And you, has your girl finally decided to start falling apart? Or did you give it enough kisses to keep it together?'
"Gunner, aim for the ship off our bow right now!"
'Hahaha, you never change do you? Oh and would you look at that, they brought back the princess.'
As Durand said this Woodward turned around, seeing the Fortress and the Wunder emerging from the clouds in front of them.
A moment later his radio rang again and as he answered, a floating screen appeared, showing him the Wunder's deck as Misato said:
'Woodward are you alright? Have you encountered any enemy submarines?'
"Oh for sure we did, but with all the trouble you guys caused up there we were able to get the jump on them! All thanks to Durand's ships that is. Now they're all down there playing cards for their souls with Davy Jones."
'Wait, really?'
"Exactly, yarhar. It seems that they needed the help of the spy to attack us, but with your reckless action Durand's frigates were able to hunt them down like fish in a barrel! By the way, what took you so long up there?"
'We had a… Small mishap, I'll tell you later, let's just get out of here for now.'
"All right. All engines, full ahead flank!"
Some time later, in some unspecified area of the Atlantic
As Misato boarded the Eminent Domain, she was greeted by Woodward and they began walking up together to the top of the ship.
Once they reached the armored conning tower, Woodward pulled down a staircase from the ceiling, which opened a trapdoor on the roof where a little observation area had been set up.
Durand was already waiting for them as he helped Misato climb as she said:
"Quite the cozy place you have up here, is that champagne?"
"Prosecco actually, Tuscany's finest, taken directly from one of the last few farms in the world that still produces it. There are people who would give away three of their sons for a bottle like this. It almost feels bad to be able to enjoy it."
The man replied as he handed her a glass while Woodward closed the trapdoor,he then turned towards them and said:
"Well it's not like you could keep it in your ship's deposit forever, what's good about having it if you can't even taste it? Plus, tonight I brought you two here to celebrate our voyage, it's a shame that Samuel couldn't join us."
"Oh? Why is that?" Durand said as he turned to look at the Fortress of Doom with the glass in his hand. Misato said:
"He said he needed to do some emergency maintenance on VEGA, before their ascent into space to scout ahead for other threats."
"Damn computers, you can never trust them these days." Durand replied as Misato giggled before saying:
"Haha. Watch your words, he might hear you, you know?"
"Who?"
"VEGA, it's like he's got ears and eyes everywhere."
"Ah don't worry Durand, my old girl here is bugproof. Even for how creepy Katsuragi makes him sound." Woodward said as he patted the plate of metal that he was laying on.
"You think that already is creepy? Wait until you hear half of the things he's done. What if I told you he's in a sort of father-daughter relationship with a Rei clone?"
"Wait what?!" Woodward said as his pirate hat nearly fell off while his eyepatch seemed to lift for a moment. So Misato continued:
"It's true, she's called Molly. Her body deteriorated while we were still near Tokyo 3,so now she lives on as a presence inside the Fortress' power source. I've been told by Samuel that they play together a lot inside of VEGA's core. Don't ask me how that can work though as I have no idea."
Woodward fell into a strange silence as he heard Misato's words, but before she could dwell on it Durand said:
"You know? The more you talk about him the less like a computer you make him seem to be."
"I know right? I sometimes feel like there's something that Samuel isn't telling me. By the way, if I may ask, what has caused you to be so openly hostile to computers?"
"Well, it's a tale nearly lost to the red sands of the near third impact, but I suppose that you should know."
Durand sat down on one of the small chairs as he said this before continuing:
"See my vessel? The Zara? It's actually the last surviving member of an entire class of heavy command ships. The other three, Gorizia, Fiume, Pola, they all sank in front of my eyes.
It was one of our first encounters with NERV's forces, back when we didn't know what to expect.
We were ambushed during an extremely foggy morning. The visibility was so bad that we had to rely on our sensors and radars. It was during that time that some NERV machines emerged from the water near our formation and somehow they were able to make themselves appear as friendlies on our screens.
When they opened fire there was nothing we could do, as our own systems prevented us from firing on friendlies.
Eventually I destroyed Zara's main computer and me and my crew were able to fight them off like I was back in the second world war."
He stopped to take a sip of his glass before saying:
"Three thousand brave men died that day and I lost my eye, all because of some stupid machines."
"I'm really sorry to hear that. It must be hard to bear all of the weight of those victims."
"You know how the formula goes, a ship floats as long as it displaces more water than it weighs. And mine hasn't sunk yet! Hahaha!"
Durand said as he raised his glass to the air before saying:
"I say we drink in their honor, shall we?" Woodward refilled their glasses as Durand said:
"To a safe voyage, and may their peaceful souls guard our ships!"
The trio raised their glasses and made them touch before taking a sip.
As they finished, Misato tried to put her glass on the small table, but soon each single one of them began to shake as a low rumbling noise started filling the air.
The trio looked up, seeing that the Fortress had gotten far enough away for it to start its ascent into the upper atmosphere, right as the moon appeared over the horizon.
"Let's get back inside, I don't want to get my clothes splashed with all the water that thing's going to push up."
Durand said and the other two agreed, bringing the bottle and glasses with them into the main deck, where Woodward turned on the communication equipment and contacted the Fortress.
A large screen appeared in front of them, showing the piloting deck of the Fortress of Doom as Samuel, VEGA and the Slayer got everything ready.
After a short greeting Samuel said:
'Keep some of that prosecco for later Woodward, this shouldn't take too long.'
"But how are ye gonna drink it? Also isn't that just gonna fry you?"
'I'll show you later, for now let's get this thing done with, I'm done on my part, Slayer?'
The man gave him a thumbs up,then VEGA said:
'Flight trajectory has been calculated, we should be able to scout forward enough to find a path for the entire fleet to pass through without being ambushed.'
'Yay we're going to space!' Molly suddenly said as her voice echoed throughout the deck, leaving VEGA in a somewhat embarrassed silence, which was broken by the rumble of the engines coming online.
'Energy readings look good, Argent is flowing smoothly, t minus thirty seconds to lift off.' Samuel said as an eerie blue glow covered the Fortress' four engine exhausts while the noise got louder.
't minus fifteen seconds' VEGA said as the countdown rapidly approached the single digits.
Misato and the other two captains watched silently as VEGA said:
'Five, four, three, two, one.'
A shockwave erupted from the Fortress as its four engines propelled it off the water at an incredible speed, throwing up a huge wave under it as the other vessels vibrated from the extreme power.
A beam of light followed the flying ship as it ascended through the clouds, getting ever closer to earth's escape velocity.
From the Fortress' bridge, the horizon curved and then faded away as the clouds disappeared, leaving the dark blue of the upper atmosphere to accompany the ship.
The Slayer and Samuel gripped their holdings tightly, unable to hear Molly's joyful exclamations because of the extreme noise of the engines.
As they finally broke through the atmosphere however, all that noise died down as the engines drastically reduced their power output.
And as the Fortress reached its designated trajectory, they stopped just shy of earth's escape velocity as VEGA righted the ship.
An endless sea of stars greeted them just above the red hue of the earth, with the moon slowly approaching in the distance.
As VEGA went back to managing the ship, Samuel said:
'You should see the sight from up here. Next time you can come with us, Katsuragi.'
As he heard this, Woodward got closer to Durand and whispered to him:
"That sounded like a date invitation to me."
"Sure was one." Durand replied, but as he returned his gaze to the screen, he was met with Misato's angry and very embarrassed face.
"I am not going up there! I already tried it with the Wunder and my stomach never makes it anyway."
"Sure, sure, hey are you going to take a look at the moon too since you're up there? It looks like it's coming towards you anyway. I always wanted to figure out what was wrong with it." Durand said and Samuel replied:
'I think that we have enough altitude, what do you think, VEGA?'
'The moon is going to pass over us around the time that we have finished our reconnaissance, so we should be able to observe it quite closely too.'
As he said this a screen with a graph appeared in front of Samuel, showing two lines, one red and the other blue, that indicated the Fortress' and the Moon's trajectory respectively.
"That's good to hear, I've had a couple of my men in the past who I had started to believe were werewolves for how addicted they had grown to watching it."
Durand replied as he drank a sip of Prosecco, so Misato said:
"It wouldn't surprise me one bit if they actually were, are they still doing it to this day?"
"No,they stopped a long time ago… By taking their own lives."
Misato was taken back by this as Durand continued:
"After a long time staring at it, night after night, they started growing stressed, showing signs of mental instability.
Every night they kept asking with increasing insistence that they were to be let out and see the moon's light. I forbade them from doing so, locking them up until we managed to figure out what was wrong with them.
That was until on a particularly full moon night, when the moon itself seemed closer than ever to the Earth, I was suddenly awoken by an ear-shattering scream coming from outside my ship.
As I ran outside, I made my way through my own crew to the bow, from where I could see the two of them and one of the guards on a lifeboat as they stabbed each other.
Turns out that that guard that was with them had grown obsessed with the Moon as well and had aided their escape.
We could only watch as they kept stabbing each other, until only one of them was left alive.
He took a gasoline tank and spread it all over the lifeboat, then as he lit a lighter he turned towards us and said:
"The moon's light is the only thing good left in this world, let us join together in her chant as we become part of it!"
He then dropped the lighter and was engulfed by the flames, all while we could hear some sort of classical music in the distance. From that day onwards I feel like something in me has changed. I've grown to understand that there are some really scary things out there, some things that we humans might probably never understand. But that's what has made me learn to grow closer to my crew as well, in this hellish world we only have each other for support after all. Tell me John, have you had similar cases?"
"Not really, sure the random oddball here and there, but given how often my ship was modified my crew was changed quite often as well, also to cover the losses we took during our previous attacks on New York. What about you Misato?"
"I've never heard of this, nor encountered something similar. But since the Wunder is a very closed off ship I guess that it doesn't work nearly as well."
Samuel then said:
'Hm, maybe we might be able to find what's causing this trouble pretty soon, don't you think?'
That's when Molly said:
'Yes and then we'll blow it up! Actually, now that I remember, I think that Nagisa used to stare at the Moon a lot when we were back at NERV. I never understood why though,maybe he's a nutjob too?'
"That doesn't seem too far fetched." Misato said as the conversation slowly derailed to other topics.
Time kept passing and as Misato finished another glass, VEGA, who had been quite silent up to that point, said:
'Scan complete, we now have a clear map of the Atlantic for our use.'
'That's great VEGA, and just in time too, the Moon is going to pass by us in just a moment.'
Samuel said as the Slayer got closer to the main window as well to have a better look while VEGA moved the ship to have it look directly at the satellite. Then he said:
'We might not have much time to observe it, we are going to re-enter the atmosphere soon. All of the sensors are ready.'
The moon got closer and closer, until suddenly the Slayer said:
'VEGA, doesn't it seem like it's getting too close?'
'Recalculating trajectory… Wait. The Moon has shifted its orbit! Impact is imminent!'
Samuel quickly grabbed the controls of the ship as he turned it around and fired up the engines to lower their orbit. That's when VEGA said:
'At this speed we should be able to avoid… This makes no sense, the moon's speed is increasing!'
Samuel squeezed everything out of the ship's engines, almost making the Slayer fall off as they tried to avoid the giant celestial body.
The moon's silhouette grew ever closer, however, they were just able to move out of the way as the red markings on its surface illuminated the Fortress entirely.
And as they got in front of the satellite, they found themselves in its enormous shadow, at the centre of the eclipse.
Instead of turning pitch black however, the red markings on the moon seemed to glow brighter and brighter, just as the equipment on the Fortress started glitching out of control.
The communication link started to die out and Samuel said before it was completely cut:
'Misato! Something is… There's a-... Sleep… Lov-"
The feed was cut, but before any of the three of them could realize what had happened, Misato received a call from Ritsuko on the Wunder, who said:
'Misato we just detected a large spike in blue blood type in the middle of space! But it has already vanished!'
"What about the Fortress? Where is it?!"
'It's… Coming towards us! Wait. Misato the ship is falling out of control! It's going to crash into the water! We can't detect any signal coming from it!'
As Ritsuko said this, Misato walked outside the armored bridge and into the balcony around it, looking directly up at the sky.
There she saw a glowing dot in the sky as it became brighter the closer it moved. Thankfully the Fortress was sturdy enough to not take any damage from this unshielded re-entry, however as it kept spiraling around, it was clear that it wouldn't be able to resist the impact with the water at such speeds.
"Ritsuko take off and try to slow it down!" Misato said, but Akagi replied:
'It's no use Misato! We don't have time to intercept it!'
The point in the sky suddenly stopped glowing as the Fortress passed through the various layers of the atmosphere at various times the speed of sound.
Twenty thousand meters, eighteen thousand, fourteen thousand. The Fortress only seemed to get faster as it reached the first clouds.
Just before it entered a really big one however, a bright red spark had shot throughout the entire ship, reactivating the engines.
The ship quickly righted itself and began slowoying down, pushing away all the clouds in its way as it quickly approached the surface of the water.
The roaring sound of the engines started shaking the air in the area as the ship kept slowing down, eventually stopping right above the water, touching it just briefly.
Throughout all of this, a dark red aura had surrounded the silent ship, but now it was gone, replaced by the bright blue lights slowly flickering back online.
As the main lights illuminating the piloting deck came online, Misato was able to see both Samuel and the Slayer slouched on the ground and not moving, so she turned towards to Durand and said:
"We need to send a medical team right now!"
The captain wasted no time in communicating this to his crew, and from one of his ships a helicopter soon departed.
As it approached the Eminent Domain, Misato said:
"I need to go as well! Tell them to stop above us and throw a ladder!"
"What the? Katsuragi it might be dangerous."
"Please I need to get in there, just to make sure that the Crucible with Molly's soul is alright."
Durand thought of it for a moment before saying:
"Okay, but don't do anything stupid in there."
"Thank you." Misato said as te helicopter picked her up.
As they flew towards the Fortress, a light breeze lifted up some water vapor, making the Fortress shine as the sun returned once again.
No traces of the red aura that had surrounded it just moments before were left, only an eerie silence that seemed strong enough to black out the sounds of the ship's engines welcomed Misato and her group once they got down from the helicopter into one of the side entrances.
The woman gripped her pendant tightly, not knowing if she was doing it out of fear, determination, or worry, but she was sure of one thing. That someone was watching them.
TO BE CONTINUED