Apotheosis Echo: Re(verb - it)erations

by StriderInCosmos

The end has passed, and a storm looms over a broken world. At its edge, a Captain who cannot fully chart her course plunges in regardless. Within the lightning, a Priest sees his gods, and hopes to draw them to the dying Earth he wishes to gift to them. Against the rain, a Soldier and his family seek to dispel the tempest. The storm looms, and the End is nigh. But what End?

28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28: In the City of the Iron Lady

It's close, now. We're going to leave after this.

I've gone over the decision in my head over and over again. How much it's going to hurt her. How much it's going to hurt me. But it's for the best. I think we've both needed the space to process things. Not make a hasty decision just because of our time together.

If nothing else, I have Village-3 to look forward to while I wait for them. It's beautiful. And it's been so long since we've stopped there. I wonder how they've been doing. Eleanor and Daniel talk somewhat briefly, both of them focused on such wildly separate missions, and she and I speak to each other more briefly than that.

In all… I'm ready to simply breathe, and be somewhat at peace for a moment.

- From the personal journal of WILLE Captain Maya Ibuki

Village-3 Schoolhouse, March 31st, 2028

Ayanami looked up at the whiteboard, and still couldn't quite figure out the lesson that Mr. Aida was trying to teach. It had something to do with mechanical engineering, and there were only a few in the classroom who were paying attention to it.
Mr. Aida was very invested in his lesson, however, and it looked like something to do with the work in the paddies. Thus, she tried to take in what information she could.

The children that she worked with had invited her to school today, and she'd gotten permission from Ms. Shinkawa to attend the day before. She had said something about 'getting more experience living normally'. That was before some of the other women had chimed in on her state of dress. And her state of cleanliness.

Thus, they'd first taken her to what they called a bathhouse, a stout building on the western edge of the village. Kaworu had not accompanied them, but Rei Nagisa had. She wondered why they'd been so insistent on unburdening themselves of their clothes inside of the establishment or keeping her from undressing at the paddies. It made little sense to her to wait until they had gotten to the bathhouse itself to prepare themselves.

A lesson of Lilin feelings on propriety from Rei as they made their way to their destination that evening had made some sense to her, but still left her baffled. Why be so concerned with what was underneath clothing? It was just a part of their bodies, after all.

Regardless, it was a strange feeling she experienced as she dipped herself into the warm, slightly steaming water. It was almost like the LCL that she'd been immersed in since she'd first come into existence. But she felt no healing from the slight, but inevitable unraveling that she'd felt begin after their first day in Village-3.

"So," one of the older women said after a sigh, "how do you like this?"

"It is both familiar and strange at once," Ayanami replied. "Unlike the LCL that I am used to."

"LCL?" their other older companion asked as she tilted her head.

"I require semi-regular immersion in LCL in order to maintain my existence." it was simply a fact of life. She would degrade once the mission was complete and she was no longer needed. It was the way of the world. And nothing could change that.

It left the women disturbed somewhat. "What happens if you don't dunk into this LCL stuff?" the first woman asked.

"I will lose cohesion to my form and break down into LCL, as I have been designed to do."

Both women's eyes had turned to Rei at that point. "Is that going to happen to you too, Mrs. Nagisa?" the other woman asked.

Rei shook her head. "No. I do not have such requirements. And…"

Rei looked at Ayanami intently. "We will find a way to ensure your continued existence, Ayanami. I can assure you of that."

Ayanami found the idea of having no knowable end… complex. Confusing. Even, as her emotions had become more and more realized, somewhat frightening. Even still, to hold little Tsubame, to help foster life, to see what this world had to offer…

"I see. I do not know what will come of your efforts, but… thank you."

Rei smiled at that. "You're welcome, Ayanami."

"Speaking of Ayanami…" the first woman said, her eagerness to change the subject clear even to her. "Have you found a new name for yourself yet? Calling you 'Ms. Lookalike' all the time is a mouthful, and you deserve a better name than that."

Ayanami considered the question. There were so many different names, each with different levels of meaning. She'd asked those around her, quietly of course, what their names meant. Most had little idea other than simply 'it sounds nice'. A few were deeper than that. But few truly resonated with her.

Except… Athena. She was a beacon of compassion in the stories that Rei told her, a shining light in the darkness of a powerful, petty world. A goddess that had sprung from the head of a god, fully formed to fulfill her purpose. It was, at the very least, fitting. And perhaps she could live up to the name, with whatever time she had left.

"I am… Athena Ayanami."

"Asia?" the second woman said. "I guess you've liked the geography books."

"Athena," Rei said clearly, her soft smile evident. "As in the Greek goddess of the old myths."

The first lady nodded. "I see. It's a good name."

Afterward, they went to the clothing dispensary, to give Athena what they deemed a fitting attire for her day at school. Baskets full of clothing surrounded them, and a few of the children that she worked with in the paddies peered in as they went through one set, then another, then another.

Finally, Rei found a school outfit, seemingly tailored to her, that ignited memories of a vision. One she had seen when floating deep within the Geofront. "Can I try that one on?" she asked, pointing to the dress that Rei held.

Rei looked down at the dress with a slight, warm smile, and Athena could feel something warm and familiar in her emotions. "Yes, certainly."

A white shirt, a blue skirt with an attached vest, and a red bow with sturdy shoes were soon on, and it felt… right.

"Ayanami?"

She blinked, and she found her focus back on lunch, sitting in front of a young man who, if she recalled, was Ryoji Shinji Kaji. Next to her was Natsumi Horaki.

"My apologies. It seems that I was lost in thought." Athena said as she continued to eat.

"That's alright. We all space out sometimes." Natsumi said with a sympathetic smile and a shrug.

"Also," Athena said after a moment, "my name is now Athena."

"Oh!" Ryoji said with a slight smile. "That's a wonderful name."

His smile faded, and Natsumi's expression grew concerned as she put her hand on Ryoji's. "Ryoji… what's on your mind? You've been worrying more and more the last couple of days. Spit it out! Bad thoughts are like a bad cough. No use keeping it in."

Ryoji tried and failed to smile. "It's Grandfather. He hasn't even gotten out of bed now, he's gotten so weak. I don't know how much longer he has left to live."

Athena found herself slightly confused. "I was not under the assumption that regular humans succumbed to catastrophic disintegration."

Ryoji and Natsumi looked at her with some confusion. "Well… no, I guess not. But people…" Ryoji said, swallowing as he trailed off.

"People can die in a lot of different ways." Natsumi picked up. "Sometimes they're violent like I'm assuming this disintegration thing is. But sometimes, we just get sick. That's the biggest one, and that's kind of what Grandpa's going through. Either way… we can't last forever."

"But that's kind of the point, isn't it?" Ryoji said. "We have to treasure what we've got before we go. Grandfather's told us all about that. He likes to talk about how things were before Third Impact, and when he was a young man before Second Impact."

He chuckled. "It's been crazy to hear about some of the things he's talked about. I mean, at one point, all the water on Earth was blue. Could you imagine that? Not just a lake or a stream, but the whole ocean being like that?"

Ryoji's expression grew distant, wondering. "And if you look at some of the books in the library, they talk about all sorts of different animals that used to live there, too."

Athena considered the image for a moment, overlaying it on the memory of passing by the bay as she'd walked to Village-3 with the others. Imagined it teeming with life. It seemed… impossible. Dream-like, as she'd heard Shinji Ikari describe it.

"I see," she said quietly. "Thank you for enlightening me on this subject."

Natsumi smiled. "It's not a problem, Athena. It's not every day you make a friend that you can show the whole world to."

"We are… friends? What is a friend to you? I have heard the younger children referring to me as such, even though I have only had limited contact with them."

"It's someone you like to spend time around," Ryoji said, his smile small compared to Natsumi's but larger than it had been before. "Someone that helps you grow as much as you help them do the same."

Athena nodded slightly. "I see. I am thankful you are all my friends."

And she felt herself unravel a little more.

. . .

Daniel Theisman waited quietly at the door of Kensuke's house, his project and tools a reassuring weight in his pocket now for whenever Eleanor sent the bridge crew over.

It had been a few days since he'd shown up to walk with them to the forge. Call it one of life's little bits of randomness. But he had a greater reason to be here than simply keeping his pupils on their toes. That he'd put this off this long was, frankly, terrible of him.

'We all needed a second to not be in our Plugsuits and relax.' he thought to himself. 'I needed my tools as well. I can't do the sort of miracle work that Eleanor can.'

The door opened, and Asuka Shikinami arched a brow as Shinji nearly collided with her. "Been a minute since you've been here, Daniel. Got something to tell us before we go and hammer on metal for several more hours?"

"Well, something a little more than just that. May I come in for a moment?"

They stepped aside, and Daniel looked around the small, comfortable space. "Doing well here, Shinji? Sleeping okay?"

"The futon's comfortable enough." young Shinji replied.

Daniel nodded, looking at Asuka as she sat down on said futon, looking up at him expectantly. "Good. If you want to take a seat, Asuka, we'll go ahead and finally do something about that damned Choker of yours."

Asuka's hand began to go to her throat as her eye narrowed at Daniel, who sat beside her and began to dig through his jacket. "Isn't that going to piss off Captain Katsuragi?"

"Seeing as she ordered Ritsuko to take them off Rei and Mari, I have my reservations as to that," Daniel replied as he pulled out his tool, simply blinking on his Sight as he activated the Frame weaver. "Eleanor and I had a wonderful discussion last night. She knows that our team name courtesy of our Misato is now GEIST, and I know that they're about to enter what used to be French airspace, DSS Choker free."

Asuka nodded slightly as she watched the weaver unfurl its arms, the ends glowing a slightly different shade than their usual prismatic heartbeat. Now, they would pull Frames apart, weakening the structure of the collar without setting it off. "This isn't going to take forever, right?"

"No more than a few minutes." Daniel touched the weaver to the Choker, the arms slowly extracting glowing Frames and breaking them apart. "Then, we can start working on the final shape of our blades and putting in an edge."

"Huh," Asuka said quietly after a moment. "This is going to be… weird."

She glanced at Daniel. "And you're sure that the Angelic corruption isn't going to spread after this?"

"Bardiel is contained. Without the influence of his soul, the physical corruption can't grow." Daniel was silent for a moment. "When I'm able to get him out…"

He trailed off, recalling the end that was more likely than not still coming. A giant of light, born from Unit-02…

"When you're able to get him out?" Asuka asked archly. "What ungodly reason would you have to keep that bastard in my head?"

"It's… complicated. And has to do with this world's potential future." Daniel replied, the last Frames grasped in the weaver's clutches. "If I didn't have to worry about that, he wouldn't have been sealed away, he would have been out already. I'm sorry, Asuka."

Asuka looked away, and Daniel didn't need the Sight to see that she was unsure of it, even a little sad. But what his Sight did reveal to him was that there was fear layered underneath all of those emotions. Fear of whether removing Bardiel failed or succeeded, he couldn't tell.

"So, is that another story you'll be telling us?" Shinji asked as Daniel severed the last Frame of the Choker, the section beneath the weaver going from black to a decayed gray. "I know you started with… Guts' story last night." He was still a little unsure of how someone could be named that, Daniel could tell.

"Perhaps. The future has already changed radically enough due to our actions in the present that showing you what I saw of this world might not change much. But I'm still going to be careful. Little actions like that have led to dire consequences before."

Daniel deactivated the weaver and gently grabbed the Choker, tearing the dead strip as easily as a piece of paper and lifting the now deactivated Choker away. "Congratulations. Welcome back to freedom. At least, as much freedom as I can give you right now."

Asuka rubbed at her neck, the place where the Choker had been still somewhat red as blood finally flowed fully through it. "Thanks, Daniel," she said quietly. "It's been a long time since I've felt like this."

Daniel nodded as he stood. "Of course, Asuka." he paused for a moment. "How is Bradley doing? I haven't heard from her for a while."

Asuka chuckled as they began to make their way out the door. "It's a rare moment we're not talking to each other. She's been begging me to send her images of what I see, even if the eyepatch gets in the way."

"I see." Daniel looked over at Shinji. "And have you talked to Kaworu yet?"

Shinji looked away. "Not yet. After what happened…"

"I understand. Take your time, and don't rush it. Healing will come with time and patience."

Daniel turned and walked to the door. "Take whatever time you need to get ready. I'll meet you two at the blacksmith."

With that, he was out the door.

. . .

Shinji watched for a moment, then sighed quietly. His link to Kaworu was there in the back of his mind, and the marble which allowed for such a thing sat in his pocket like a weight. Could he talk to him? He could at least try after they were done today.

Asuka stretched. "I don't know about you, but I'd like to get on to the rest of my day. So let's get this metalwork out of the way, how about?"

Shinji followed her out the door, and once again, they were alone as they walked to the forge.

Shinji couldn't help but think about what Asuka had said a few days ago. "Fuck you, you useless hunk of metal."

"Asuka…" he ventured, and she looked over at him with curiosity.

"What is it?"

"A couple of days ago…" this felt stupid. More likely than not, she was going to smack him, regardless of whether or not she hit the metal in his place. "You started calling the metal useless."

"Yeah. So?"

He could see that she was… defensive about it in a way that she never showed at the forge. "With Daniel's lesson being that the metal is us… does that mean you think you're useless?"

She stopped on the path, Shinji stopping in turn as she regarded him with a single, intense gaze. "You never knew what I was, did you?"

Shinji blinked. "What do you mean?"

Asuka sighed as she continued walking again. "I'm not your average kid. I didn't have any connections to NERV like you did through your father and mother. Technically speaking, I wasn't even born. I was made to pilot the Eva."

Shinji's eyes went wide. "Like Rei…"

"Yeah. I mean, Ayanami, Shikinami. If you really looked at it, it was kind of obvious."

The uneasy smile that had accompanied her words faded away. "But I'm not piloting the Eva. Hell, the last time I piloted, I blew up Unit-02 even with Bardiel's stupid help. And now I'm here, hammering on a piece of metal in a place I'm supposed to be protecting. I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm…"

She scoffed quietly. "Well, useless."

"I…" Shinji was quiet for a moment. "I get the feeling."

"Well, at least I've got that much."

"So… what do we do about it, then?"

Asuka glanced over at him. "Do you really think either of us actually has any idea right now?"

Shinji opened his mouth, then closed it. "Well… no, not really."

"That's what I thought." Asuka paused for a moment. "Tell you what. I'll be thinking about it while we're working with these swords. You do the same, and if you figure something out, tell me. It'll probably be better than nothing."

Shinji nodded after a moment. "Well, it's a deal. As long as I don't have to tell you before you finish your sword."

Asuka smiled slightly. "No. A few days of thought, as good as it is, isn't going to be enough to suddenly figure out our problems."

"At least we've started acknowledging that we have problems."

"Y'know what, Shinji? You're not wrong on that."

. . .

The AAA Wunder, Southern French Border

Vice-Captain Ritsuko Akagi shrugged on the Plugsuit in one of the locker rooms of the ship, an olive green attire with an orange stripe following the shape of her collarbone, and clicked the cuff buttons, wincing slightly as the suit clung to every part of her body. She was grateful that she'd managed to keep in decent enough shape that it wasn't too unseemly.

Maya was in much the same position, her suit a bright yellow, nearly golden affair. Even still, she took a few moments to move around in the suit, her brow furrowed slightly. "I guess this is what the pilots felt like all the time, then," she said as she finished moving.

Ritsuko did her best to get used to it herself. "Indeed. It's a little… liberating. If revealing."

"Well, it's either that or we disintegrate into LCL, so I'll take the momentary discomfort."

"I imagine that the men who will be going with us have a little more to worry about," Ritsuko said with a slight smile.

Maya rolled her eyes. "That's their problem to deal with, Senpai. I'd rather not think about it too hard."

"Uh, Vice-Captain?"

Volunteer Kitakami, their lookout for this mission, rounded the corner, wearing a lavender Plugsuit that almost, but not quite went with her pink hair as she held the attendant helmet under her arm. "What prompted you to choose these colors, if I may ask?"

"I didn't," Ritsuko said with a sigh of exasperation. "In fact, these are some of the tamer colors that were readily available onboard. I'm having a more… subdued design manufactured for after the mission."

"For a ship intended to be crewed by Ayanami clones," Maya said from behind her, "Commander Ikari seems to have lost all sense of decorum."

"I doubt this was Ikari's doing," Ritsuko said as she grabbed her helmet. "Deputy-Commander Fuyutsuki might be testing us, or acting out against Ikari."

"Or, perhaps," she continued with a weary sigh, "Commander Kaji was simply enjoying some antics when he toyed with this ship before we commandeered it."

They exited the locker room with their helmets, taking in the equally garish suits worn by the men as they emerged from their own locker room. One was a maroon color, another hazard orange, and the last was an actually decent teal.

The technician that wore it wasn't necessarily impressed. "Honestly, I would have just preferred straight black to this."

"That's the color that's being manufactured for general use Plugsuits," Ritsuko said as she continued down the hallway toward the briefing room.

"General use?" another man groaned. "Are we really going to be worrying about turning into LCL that much?"

"We might," Maya warned from behind her. "We're picking up a slow increase in background emissions from the core material fields, especially around where Eva-type units are being stationed. If we're going to deal with NERV, we'll have to be prepared for such radiation to possibly penetrate the ship in the middle of a battle."

That had answered all complaints, it seemed, and Ritsuko looked over as Maya walked up to her side with a quiet sigh. "These sorts of young men…" she muttered.

"You don't exactly seem terribly excited yourself," Ritsuko said with the ghost of a smile.

"But I got my complaining over with. At least for now."

Ritsuko chuckled softly as they entered the briefing room, a table with a screen inlaid on its surface. Surrounding it were Misato, Ryoji, Mari, and Helmsman Nagara representing WILLE, and Eleanor, along with Kensuke and two other pilots, Hikari Suzuhara and Mariah Marlowe, representing HERZ.

Ryoji's brows rose, at least before everyone else's did, as he took in their garish outfits. "Well damn, Ritsuko. That's… quite the get-up," he said with a chuckle.

Her theory that these colors were Ryoji's fault was becoming more credible by the second. But they had more important matters to worry about. "We're ready. That's all that matters right now. I'd like to go over the plan one more time."

Ryoji's amusement faded as Ritsuko looked down at the table, showing the general layout of Paris, the entrances to NERV-Euro's base there outlined. In the near center of the city, near the Arc de Triomphe, stood a tall black dot that was NERV-Euro's last defiance before their people were evacuated: a massive version of an ACC Pillar which, if activated, would allow them to begin carving out a new European Safe Zone. And allow them access to the valuable stores of Evangelion parts and what remained of the Jet Alone project. They would need to be lowered in a special capsule to get them on top of the Pillar, which the technicians would then link up to in order to finish the process of activating it.

"Mari," Misato began, "has there been any contact from Fuyutsuki?"

Mari sucked her teeth for a moment. "Well, sadly, Sensei has some bad news for us. They noticed the bad guy's ship on its way here too. So, Ikari sent a squad of 06Hs, a flight of two more squads of Mark.44As, and another 4444C to back them up from a cache in Moscow. Even managed to snag us some schematics for the big one."

Mari tapped on her tablet, then an image of what was likely the Mark in question appeared. It had four drill-like tentacles, leading up to a spherical body under which hung another, smaller sphere. At its top were four Evangelion torsos holding up what was obviously an iteration of the massive positron rifle that she remembered from operation Yashima, all those years ago. Behind it, 10 attendant charging stations on two pairs of legs, the Marks designated 444B, trailed like a procession.

"About as directly military of an application as anyone could make an Evangelion." Misato mused. "The Vatican Treaty signers would have a fit if they were still around."

"Even still," Eleanor interjected, "the Scions, more likely than not, are going to be a prime distraction while we do our work. As long as we can keep them tangled up for enough time to activate the pillar, then we can deal with them in full force."

"Yeah," Kensuke began, "but the fact of the matter is that interference in Paris is at a level that it's interfering with communications and teleportation. If we clear the Corite away while that ship's still functional, then we might risk some really bad reinforcements."

"That's a fine balance to walk, then." Ritsuko mused as she cupped her chin in thought. "We can't afford to stay on top of the Pillar for long. If we're caught out, there's a good chance the core material, Corite as you call it, will spread to our landing craft. And the Corporeal Protection systems can only take so much strain over a given length of time before failing."

"Alright, then." Eleanor leaned slightly on the table as she looked down at it and continued. "Our targets will be, in priority order, the Scion Seabreaker, the 4444Cs, and the 44As. With our forces, we should be able to make that list work."

"Especially if they're messing around with each other," Mariah said with a smile.

"Well, it's as good a plan as any," Kensuke said. "I've heard of, and been a part of, wilder ones."

He looked over at Eleanor. "Should the Val be a part of this? I know a little shipboard artillery would probably go a long way if the Wunder is on the field."

"Not unless we really need it," Eleanor replied. "If the Scion ship sees another Seabreaker, it might do its best to break off and get reinforcements the old-fashioned way. Have the Val stay on the periphery, out of sight if possible. She can catch up if she needs to."

Kensuke nodded, and Ryoji nodded in turn. "Well, let's not waste any more time, shall we? Heaven only knows what those Scions are there for."

. . .

Mari Makinami settled into her piloting rig, the startup process to Unit-08 now nearly rote. She felt the thrum of connecting with the Evangelion, that sensation of growing bigger than you were.

Accompanied by that, however, was something greater. Something that meant more to her than any chance to pilot her Evangelion.

"Hello, mother." her daughter said, happiness thrumming through the connection between them. "I see we're going out into battle again."

"You've got that right, kiddo,"

Mari replied. "We're going to Paris today. Having a little action and excitement in the City of Love!"

"Paris…"

Mariah paused for a moment, confusion pulsing through the name. "Why is it called the City of Love?"

'I forgot how little she actually knows.'

Mari thought with a pang of guilt. Even if she came out in Mari's old body, she'd still have the mind of a 5-year-old.

"I'll have the other version of you help me explain it when we're able to. It's supposed to be a romantic place. Or at least, it was supposed to be that."

"Even not remembering what it looks like… it sounds like a nice place."

"It is. I hope after we're done, you can see it."

The conversation faded as a screen showing Sumire Nagara appeared. "Hello, Mari." Sumire began. "I'm about to hook you up to the ship's tether system. Stand by."

Mari arched a brow. "Anyone else going trapezing with me?"

Sumire shook her head. "Not any Evangelions. It seems we're putting a lot of strain on the system with Unit-08 and the battleships we've got running as mobile cover. Besides, your main task is…"

She was interrupted by something off-screen, and Sumire was clearly quite confused as Rei stepped into the picture. "Hello, Ms. Nagara. Mari."

"Hey, bluebird," Mari replied. "What are you doing on the bridge?"

"The ship guided me here. Perhaps there is something that I can do to help that does not require an Evangelion. May I?"

Sumire leaned away somewhat as Rei studied the controls, then began to type. Her brow creased slightly in focus as the typing grew faster and faster. Sumire's eyes went wide. "Is that… wow… a 45% increase in control and speed? How did you do that?"

"I am not entirely certain. I have never operated a computer system this complex before. The ship guided me without words to do what I just did."

Sumire looked back at where Mari knew the command platform was. "Did you see that, Captain?"

"We did." Captain Katsuragi''s voice replied. "Rei, do you have any theories as to how you did that? Does it have anything to do with your synch score?"

Rei shook her head as Mari felt the slight shake of the gantry beginning to get her into position. "I do not think my synchronization score has any bearing on my feat." she paused for a moment. "This ship was made to be staffed by clones of myself, correct?"

"If I remember the schematics correctly," Ryoji replied, "yeah, actually."

"Perhaps the ship was designed, much like an Evangelion, to create a link between ship and crew in order to more efficiently conduct ship operations."

"Looks like we've got a proper ship's wizard, then," Mari said with a grin. "That's going to make things interesting."

"We're about to enter the mission area," Hyuga interjected, focusing Mari immediately. "We're getting a visual on the enemy. It looks like we're going into a hot combat zone."

The gantry slowly opened, and Mari looked down at the DSRV, the pod that the technicians were cocooned in, and grabbed it, the claws gently clunking as they secured the precious payload.

Then, she, and likely everyone else, heard the buzzing howl of what had to be one of the 4444Cs. Mari looked up to see the cannon tilted up, an AT Field springing to life as several brilliant, disc-like rounds slammed into it. The Field held, but barely.

Around them, the Mark.44As swirled, Lance copies just barely missing something that all of them obscured. Mari focused as she heard the flash and bang of the HERZ Evas forming on top of the ship's hull, and found flashes of white and gold intermixing with green in the midst of the now teal-colored 44As. Then, a claw of glowing gold dragged its way through a line of 44As, the explosions fading away to reveal the two Herald Units, seemingly shot through with filaments of gold that shaped their heads into masks that had horns like rays of sunlight.

They wielded this gold stuff like an extension of their bodies, weapons and armor flowing out of them as they dueled with over a dozen 06Hs, a few of them bound down by the gold stuff like ropes.

"Looks like Tavis has been busy," Eleanor said as a comm panel popped up. "That ship doesn't look like it was originally military. Must be some sort of Q-ship or converted freighter."

"Either way," Captain Katsuragi interjected, "we're about to be over the Pillar. Mari, are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be, ma'am!" Mari replied, hoping that the smile covered her unease.

"Alright. Begin descent."

Mari began to descend, slowly at first, the Shield ships beginning to weave down in front of her like stiff whales. Far more graceful were the Evas that jumped over them, weapons appearing in their hands as they arced through the air and slammed down nearly in the middle of the chaos, getting everyone's attention as most of them charged through the curtain of 44As, two of them hanging back to provide fire support.

Mari glanced back up at the ship that was currently trying to take down the Evas below it. It was a utilitarian, boxy thing, rectangles growing more and more as the ship went further back. Spaces on the ship's hull were decorated with what looked like religious symbols, letters in a language she didn't have time to try and interpret.

"Good luck, guys!" she said to Eleanor and the others. "Try not to let too many bad guys try and get at us."

. . .

Ritsuko Akagi waited in the darkness of the DSRV, listening to the sounds of battle going on outside. Not being able to see anything in her set her on edge. She kept it beneath a calm facade, however. It wouldn't do for everyone to see her be fearful when she needed to lead out on this.

She sat close to Maya, however, her hand on top of Maya's. She didn't know when she'd see her again. A part of her hated that today had come seemingly so quickly. After today, she had no idea how long it would be before she saw her Kouhai again. She kept that beneath the facade, too.

"While living in this world's like a long trek up a hill, what's not important is how long you live, as long as you didn't go off the path of truth…" Mari was, unsurprisingly, singing. Whatever song it might have been, the words struck Ritsuko.

'The path of truth…' Ritsuko shook her head. How long had she been straying from that path?

"Touchdown in 30 seconds."

Maya's proclamation, along with withdrawing her hand to gather her tools, shook Ritsuko out of her thoughts as she gathered her tablet and sealed her helmet. The lab coat, a piece of surety in this chaotic world, fluttered as she stood, holding on to one of the handholds as the DSRV thudded onto the surface of the Pillar, Mari's song finishing alongside it for a moment.

"We're good to go. Move quickly." Ritsuko was first out the hatch, descending down the ladder and gripping it for a moment as a shockwave, dulled by the buildings that surrounded them, still buffeted her.

She got out of the way to allow the other technicians to exit, turning to study the battle before her through the circling Shield ships.

"It's been a long time since I've visited," she said to no one in particular as the HERZ Evas battled the Herald Units, the golden filaments that seemed to reinforce their bodies a potent armor, and powerful weapon. "To see the City of Flowers in flames like this…"

She shook her head as she saw the technicians pull off the access panel and plug in their computers, beginning to type madly. "We don't know how much time we have before we're noticed. Let's make the most of it."

. . .

Eleanor Theisman, pilot of Unit=10, really would have appreciated it if they could at least deal with the ship.

She leaped out of the way of the Seabreaker's cannonade, the rounds slamming into the flying Marks or the ground with little resistance. The Herald Units, caught in the explosion, seemed to shrug it off with geometric shields composed of lines of gold, cones and octahedrons sending the energy flying into the air for a moment before it dissipated.

Massive roots broke from the red ground, the green of sprouting leafs a stark contrast as Toji's Expression tied up one of the 06Hs that was still free, Hikari charged forward with a lance of pale blue light, spearing through the Mark with ease before she withdrew it to block a jab from a 44A, batting it out of the way.

"These things are damn tough!" Mariah said as she shoved off one of the Herald Units, Mana tag teaming with her as they switched between the two pale, golden Evas. The one that faced Mariah at the moment used prominent claws to try and tear through her defenses, while Mana sparred with one that was seemingly a little more civilized, wielding a massive mace, more of a hammer really, that it used to batter away Mana's claw and spear.

She glanced to the side and saw the brilliant flash of 444Bs arcing power to their master, the barrel of the 4444C's positron cannon glowing from within. "Scatter!" she shouted, and she darted behind a Corite-encrusted building as she raised her AT Field, the howl of the Positron cannon firing accompanied by a lance of brilliant blue light that slashed up across where they'd been standing moments before, the 44As moving out of the way seemingly on command, and the Shield Ships that dived in to block the beam, thankfully, only had to stand fast for a few moments before the beam vanished.

Another positron cannon shot stabbed up into the sky, striking at the Scion ship and slamming into the interceptor fields of one of its Aegis Drones. The beam skewed to the left slowly, soon hitting the drone dead on and eventually piercing through it, the drone exploding just before the stream of positrons stopped flowing. Eleanor waited for a moment to see if another drone would take its place. None did.

'Well, the ship might be easy to deal with soon, then,' she mused as she turned her focus back to the situation on the ground. The Herald Units, only slightly singed for the beating they'd just taken, once again tried to press forward toward the 4444Cs, running into the stiff resistance of the 06Hs that met them, both parties hard-pressed to fend off the attacks that her pilots charged at them with.

She felt a prickle of cold land on her Unit's back that could only be Borealis, and heard an explosion behind her as she turned to see a spear of ice pointing into the air, what few pieces of the Mark.44A that tried to charge her spiraling away. "I've got your back, Eleanor," Mayumi said from beyond the perimeter, a slight smile on her face.

"Good to know that's literal," Eleanor replied as she charged back into the melee, picking a 06H that just barely batted away her ax with its Lance copy, an AT Field flashing to life for a moment. These things had gotten smarter even since the last time they'd engaged them on the way here. Some sort of machine learning, perhaps? There could have been actual pilots in the Plugs, but Gendo wouldn't waste that sort of time if he didn't need to…

"Uh, guys? I think we've got a problem here."

Mari's words shook her out of her fugue, and Eleanor looked up to see the 44As all rippling out from the dome that they'd made surrounding the ship and the Herald Units, all of them seeming to head straight for the ACC Pillar.

"Sumire, Rei," Mari continued, "I'm trusting you guys with my wire-whoaaaaa!"

Unit-08 shot up into the sky, swooping through the air and nimbly dodging the Marks that tried to slam into her, Mari doing her best to shoot her pursuers. She made an admirable lure for the 44As, all of them following after her and giving her a nice target-rich environment.

"I'd appreciate some help!" Mari said as she nearly danced through the air, twirling and tumbling while she continued to destroy the 44As that chased after her. And, as Eleanor looked up to see the Scion ship turning to face the Pillar, those wouldn't be her only problems.

"I'm on my way, mum!" Mariah replied as two rods of metal, almost like sheathes, appeared on Unit=08's hips, a pulse of sound accompanying Mariah flying into the air.

Eleanor turned her attention back to the Herald Units, who held off those 06Hs that weren't tangled up with the other pilots. Behind them and to her left, the two 4444Cs, their several attendant 444Bs once again charging up. The one behind them began to swing its gun toward the Pillar and the ship that hovered above it, the other remaining tilted down to try and annihilate the enemy Evas on the ground.

In a moment, she saw the potential advantage of having two of these damnable things in the battle zone could be. "Pin them down!" Eleanor said as she rushed forward. "If we can get them exposed to the cannon, we might only have to deal with NERV!"

. . .

Mari Makinami was very thankful that she couldn't feel everything as she flew through the air, letting the thunder of the guns act as a beat to a wordless song. Back and forth, back and forth her arms went, each pass leaving dozens of brilliant purple stars gleaming in the sky for a few moments.

But regardless, they just kept coming, wave after wave seemingly intent on snaking toward her. And behind them, that big ship that Eleanor said was from the Scions was getting just a little too close to the Pillar for her comfort.

"Doc!" she said to the audio-only comm panel that went to Doctor Akagi's headset. "How much longer are you going to need me up here?"

There was a brief pause that still felt too long. "We need 350 more seconds before the Pillar activates."

"Got it!" Mari said as she watched another positron cannon shot slam into the ship behind her, gouging deep into its hull now and slicing across the belly of the ship.

Before she could think of anything else, however, the barrels of her cannons, glowing red-hot as she kept her fingers firmly on the triggers, finally burst, the muzzle brakes flying off, the sight and sound sending a spike of fear into her chest. 'Damn it!'

She ejected the now useless hunks of metal and watched as the 44As flowed into making a dome around her, swirling around her for the briefest of moments. "Well, then. Many a small bird drives away a hawk, huh?"

"Good news!"

Mari's smile picked up as she saw Unit=08 soaring through the air toward her, a red-edged sword in hand. Then, the shockwave hit her right after hitting the Marks, and Mari realized it was a song.

"You want a song, mom, this is how you do it! Let's get to work!" Mariah said as she swung past Unit-08 to slash at the disoriented Marks.

Mari smiled as she swung forward, her power claws a far sight from how effective Mariah's sword was right up to the moment she broke off a Lance copy from one of the Marks and used it as a crude dagger. Mother and daughter, though from separate universes, danced together in the sky, their sweeps and graceful tumbles leaving stars in their wakes that left the world just a little brighter for a moment.

The Marks, finally, began to scatter, the cage breaking as they seemingly fled the twin Evas. Mariah whooped in triumph. "Now that was flash! You're awesome at this, mum!"

Mari couldn't keep the laughter that bubbled up within her inside. "That it was! It's been ages since I've listened to Queen."

Then, they looked at where the few remaining Marks were heading and watched the first ones going up as they raced toward the Scion ship, now almost dangerously close to them and the Pillar. The ship was firing wildly now, cannons and smaller munitions lancing out to desperately try and fend them off, Mari and Mariah dodging a few shots that slammed into the base of the Eiffel Tower, sending it tumbling to the crimson earth.

For a moment there, it looked like it might actually make it. Then, one 44A slipped through its defenses, slamming into the hull and glowing for a moment before exploding. The dam broke after that, several more diving into the hole and sending the ship slowly towards the earth below it, the drones that still surrounded it falling much faster. Much as the Shield ships below tried to dodge out of the way, the falling ship still clipped two of them at their tips, creating a bow as it fell.

Then, the positron cannon aimed at the ship fired again, a beam of blue slamming into the Scion vessel amidships. 'Oh no… please hold…'

The side of the vessel facing the Pillar glowed red, then white, and the positron beam tore through it in a moment, scoring the Pillar for terrifying seconds. Then, it shut off just before the ship exploded, Mari and Mariah throwing up AT Fields to shield Doctor Akagi and the other technicians on top of it.

"Damn it!"

Mari blinked before she realized that it was Doctor Akagi who'd sworn so fervently. "We have to call off the mission! The Pillar's been damaged to uselessness now. Mari, we're going to board the capsule. Pick us up and get us back to the ship as quickly as possible."

"No!" Eleanor shouted, and Mari caught Unit=10 dashing away from the battle with the remaining 06Hs and the Herald Units. "I'm on my way!"

"There's only so much Interfacing can seem to do, Mrs. Theisman. What tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

"I can fix this. Trust me, and I'll explain more later. Just don't leave yet!"

. . .

Eleanor felt her heart pounding almost in time with her Eva's feet as she slid to a stop in front of the Pillar, an AT Field flickering above her head to shield her from whatever falling debris there was left as her Sight flashed on almost by instinct, allowing her to survey the damage.

It was bad, especially where the beam had struck and the surface had borne the brunt of the explosion. The Frames were still whole, thankfully, battered by the sympathetic damage their physical extension had suffered, but still repairable and useable to heal this utterly eldritch construct.

She placed Unit=10's hands on the Pillar, sending her own Frames in and willing the Pillar's Frames to activate, bring the physical image back in line with the Pneumaic.

"I'm going to need cover from…" she began as she looked back at the Herald Units, surely finishing off the last of the 06Hs. She paused as she saw mist, glowing golden from deep within, dissipating to show the stunned HERZ Units and the four remaining 06Hs. Mayumi and Ichigo were the first to regain their wits, catching the Marks off guard with a blast of aurora-like energy and a massive terra-cotta tiger sending two of them tumbling to the ground, the others falling on the last two in short order.

Eleanor's glance went up to the 4444Cs that now began to adjust their firing arcs. "I'll need the 4444Cs off my back. I need the ability to focus on this."

Confident her pilots could make that happen, she turned back to the Pillar as it slowly began to mend itself, and hoped that the data Ritsuko's team was working on wasn't corrupted. 'What I'd give to have our Maya here to make sure…'

. . .

First Lieutenant Hikari Suzuhara was, unsurprisingly, the first one to take charge. "Alright. First question, can we take both of these cannons out at once?"

"That's probably a little much to ask for," Mayumi said as she fired an experimental shot at the one closest to them, the beam slamming into an AT Field that was likely bolstered by the 444Bs surrounding them.

It was a tough situation. But like the unruly classroom she'd managed to tame, there was, unsurprisingly, an unorthodox solution they could at least try. "Mana, Mayumi, Ichigo, see if you can take out one of the cannon's group of 444Bs. Toji and I will try maneuvering the remaining cannon to fire on our other target."

"Wait a minute," Toji said, pausing as they all dodged two baleful lances of positrons, AT Fields keeping them safe from the grazing edges of the beams. "I thought this sort of plan was Misato or Daniel's gig. When did you stop trying to be sensible?"

"When our enemies decided to, dear," Hikari replied levelly. "Let's get to work!"

Mana and Mayumi turned aside, dashing toward the still charging 4444C as Mayumi fired and sent Borealis ahead to take down another, the relatively weak AT Field it put up brushed aside as it exploded. Mana pushed her way through the 4444C's AT Field before she dodged away from one of its drill-like tentacles. From behind the Marks, a griffon, painted in startlingly real colors, appeared from the ground, tackling a 444B to the ground, another Spirit inhabiting a cobra-like body getting to work on a fourth.

Hikari and Toji turned to the other 4444C, aimed at their friends' backs and charging up, but still not firing. "I'm going to have to be the bait, aren't I?" Toji asked, dread tinging his expression.

"Well, it can only shoot at what it can see. So… sorry, darling. I'll get there as quickly as I can."

Toji smiled slightly. "I know you will."

Unit=04 stepped forward into a clear view of the 4444C. "Hey, idiot!" Toji shouted through his loudspeakers, tossing a hastily made javelin of thorny vines that bounced off the thing's AT Field. "Come and get me!"

Unit=04 dashed to the side as a drill tentacle slammed down on where he stood, and a rifle appeared in the wooden titan's hands as he fired, mostly for dramatic effect, at the massive Mark.

Hikari smiled slightly as she bent the light around her, the form of Unit=03, sans some comparatively small eyes to allow her to see normally, disappearing as she snuck up to the back of the 4444C, at least as best as one could in a giant robot.

The forward drill tentacles writhed and lashed, Toji dancing out of the way and making it far too close for Hikari's comfort. Even with its focus on him, she kept a careful eye on the back two, glancing between them and the rapidly falling 444Bs across the way.

The 444Bs beside her began to charge their master, lines of light that were all too familiar to her arcing toward the sphere hanging under the 4444C as it aimed at the other pilots. "Are you ready? I'm going to get on this Mark soon!"

She watched as her comrades hurried out of the way, only two of the ten 444Bs remaining for their target. "Take the shot!" Mana said, jumping over a tentacle that swiped at her and Mayumi, Unit=09 sliding under on a sheet of permafrost.

Hikari wasted no time leaping into the air assisted by her AT Field, arcing through the air gracefully as the Mark below her finally noticed her, the four legless Marks that held up the cannon making an eerie howl as the charging finished. She landed deftly on the fan at the back of the cannon as its muzzle began to glow, the cables around her (at least she dearly hoped they were cables) glowing with energy that had to be released.

Lashings of light on her forearms, prismatic like her AT Field, became vambraces before twin cords shot out to wrap around the barrel of the cannon. She pulled with all her might and braced herself as the cannon fired.

A baleful stream of positrons flooded out, brushing aside her target's AT Field and melting it in short order. The stream ceased, what remained of the 4444C crashing to the ground as now lifeless limbs and body lost all strength.

Hikari released the Expression and jumped past the grasping tentacles, her AT Field smothering the 4444C's with ease. She landed, dashing over to the others as they regrouped, and winced as she heard the 444Bs charging their master again.

"Eleanor," Hikari said as she looked over at the Pillar, "how are the repairs going? Should I assist you?"

"I've almost got it repaired," Eleanor answered levelly, her expression tense with concentration on the comm panel. "Right now, just take out that last cannon, and we'll be free and clear."

Hikari nodded and turned back to see the 4444C aimed at them. "AT Fields!"

They braced themselves, AT Fields layering on top of each other as it fired at them, the beam bearing down on them as it broke through one Field. Then another. Then another.

Hikari's heart was pounding from fear as much as it was from exertion when it finally stopped, the beam shutting off as the 444Bs began to charge again. "How are we going to defeat this one?" Ichigo asked, her Unit settling into a ready stance as dark clay began to stain its fingers.

"Same general idea," Hikari replied. "If it worked before-"

"Excusez-moi, Eiffel!"

"Gang-way!"

Hikari looked toward Mari and Mariah, and her eyes went wide as she saw the Eiffel Tower, at least a good portion of it, swooping toward the 4444C. "Get ready to tear this thing's AT Field apart!" Mariah said with a wide grin.

"Sumire," Mari said, "get us a distraction!"

"Got it."

Sumire said nothing more as a ship, one of the ones that had been damaged by the Scion Seabreaker, flew back into the air, slowly arcing toward the 4444C. Hikari and the others moved back as it moved a tentacle up to bat the ship aside, doing it with ease.

As it did so, the HERZ Evas smothered its AT Field as best they could, the barrier that it threw up as it saw the rapidly approaching spear of the Iron Lady seemingly paper-thin as the Tower punctured through it, the barrel of the cannon disappearing in short order as the Eiffel Tower embedded itself to the base of the cannon.

The Mark shuddered, then fell backward, its tentacles writhing as the Evas backed away, the 444Bs behind it not so fortunate as they found themselves swept off their feet.

"Contain the blast!" Hikari said, putting up an AT Field dome around the floundering Marks. The others followed in short order, and a baleful ball of purple energy consumed the Marks, the prismatic Fields warping the color as it shifted into white-hot intensity. Even still several phantasmal crosses, glowing with a pale pink light, reached through the Fields into the sky.

Hikari waited patiently for the explosion to dissipate, then let her AT Field down with a quiet sigh. It seemed that, at last, the operation was over.

Hikari looked over at Eleanor, who approached them from a Pillar that was now beginning to glow, red lines moving on its surface and making geometric patterns as the Pillar activated. A wall of white, a shimmering rainbow at its base, bloomed out from the Pillar, washing past them with a warm feeling that left Hikari's skin sympathetically tingling.

"The operation is complete," Ritsuko said over a comm screen that appeared in Hikari's view, almost obstructing the sight of Mari and Mariah touching down. Her voice, steady as it was, was filled with relief. "We'll go ahead and proceed to the entrances of the NERV-Euro facility."

"And thank goodness!" Mari chirped. "I'm ready for a pair of arms that have actual hands again."

"We'll even be able to rebuild Unit-02 even more quickly," Eleanor said with a smile.

"If your LCL manipulation is effective, I'm sure," Ritsuko replied. With everything she'd seen of Mending, Hikari thought, surely that seemed only a little more challenging. "Otherwise, we're more than capable of restoring Unit-02 to combat effectiveness."

"Say," Mayumi interjected, "Mari, Makinami I mean, said that there was a place in Moscow where some of those Marks came from?"

"Very astute, love," Mariah replied. "Maybe we hit there after we're done securing our new old house?"

"Not before we repair Unit-02 and Unit-08," Misato interjected. "Then we might consider something after retrieving Asuka."

"Well, it's a start," Mariah said with a shrug.

Hikari sat back in her seat, wiping her brow which was soaked with sweat. Not dealing with it was one of the few things that she missed from being immersed in LCL, she'd come to find. She was sure the others felt the same.

"Good job, Hikari," Eleanor said with a smile. "I didn't quite expect something like that from you."

"Well, if there's anything I've learned," Hikari replied as the Frame Evas began to deform, "it's that the stranger the solution, the more effective it can be. Especially in this line of work."