Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Everything is owned by their respective creators
"Stand behind me, Mr. Ikari!"
Shinji complied, and Cable went ahead and fired her guns at Iron Maiden – Mana Kirishima –, and XJ-9 – Jenny Wakeman –. Just as expected, it had no effect on the two women covered with metal. Iron Maiden shot another beam which Cable dodged. She took to her bike.
"I"m so sorry, Ms. Soryu," She said as she threw the bike towards Iron Maiden and Jenny, who fell to the ground.
Before Iron Maiden could get up, Cable went to her and repeatedly hit her in the head with her robot arm before ripping off her mask, revealing Mana's face.
Jenny, who was free, tackled Cable, releasing Iron Maiden from her grasp. Cable struggled against the two women.
"You're not the only one with cybernetic hands," bragged Mana.
"Listen to me! You can't have Mr. Ikari!"
"No, you listen!" cried Jenny, tears forming in her eyes. "I already failed my original universe. I'm not gonna fail my other home too."
Jenny Wakeman. A girl who shouldn't have any business going on in the world of Second Impact. But one day, she just mysteriously showed up. Despite being far away from home, Jenny decided to help however she can in the battle against the Angels.
There was just one problem. Jenny was an Anchor Being.
Jenny could've been sent back to her world, but her effects on Mana's world have become massive and she's become integral to the timeline, so the TVA decided to leave her where she was and pruned her home universe. Jenny only found out about it after the second one got pruned and she was thrown to the Void.
"Ms. Jenny, please! Mr. Ikari–!"
All three of them heard a muffled scream. They turned to Shinji, whose mouth was being covered by another Iron Maiden.
"Oh great, it's you!" Exclaimed the first one, pointing her repulsors at her doppelganger. Said double did the same. "You steal my face and now you're stealing our chance to go home too?"
"I'm not stealing anything!" Yelled the second Iron Maiden. "I'm Mana Kirishima, same as you!"
"I was here first!"
"Bitch we're literally the same person in different worlds! I can't just change who I am! What do you want me to do?!"
"I don't know, be Doctor Doom or something!"
"That makes no fucking sense!"
"Ok, how about this? Give us Shinji and you can be the Iron Maiden of the Void while Jenny and I go home."
"I am NOT staying in the Void! I want to go home too!"
"Then I guess you'll have to fight us on that."
"NO!" screamed Cable. "No one is fighting no one because Mr. Ikari still has a home!"
The Manas and Jenny all were silenced by this as they all looked at the clearly terrified boy. The Iron Maiden who still wore a mask let go of him.
"H-He does?" whispered the Mana whose face wasn't covered.
"Probably. I'm sure his world hasn't been pruned yet. But it probably would be if you jerks keep hunting him down like this!"
Another bout of silence.
"We have to help him get back home," Jenny stated. The Manas nodded in agreement.
Cable calmed down. "Thank you. Now, can you guys help us? There's a whole bunch of other people chasing after Mr. Ikari like you were."
The three heroes cringed after being reminded of their – now that they thought about it – unheroic actions. Nevertheless, the Iron Maidens stood side by side as they faced the road that Cable and Shinji had taken.
"Yeah," said the first Mana.
"We can handle this," the second one continued.
"I'll go with you," said Jenny to Cable. "You're going to the inn, right?" Cable Nodded. "You'll be faster with me."
Cable agreed to this, and so Jenny carried her and Shinji on each hand as she flew off, while the Iron Maidens stood on guard.
"I'm really sorry about earlier," Jenny said for the third time. "I don't know what came over me, but it was cruel, and it was wrong."
"Really, it's okay," assured Shinji. "You just wanted to go home. We all do."
Shinji really can't be mad at them even if he wants to. He knows firsthand what it's like going to extreme lengths to save something after all.
And he can't get mad at them because they lost. They've lost everything that they've cared about and would give anything to bring them back.
Shinji frowned as he once again thought of his Ayanami. Is she alright? Did he save her?
"Oh shit, it's the Ree!"
Shinji was taken out of his musings by Cable's announcement. Jenny landed on the ground. Shinji looked to the horizon and saw what seemed to be a stampede.
"What's happening?" asked Shinji.
"The Ree is coming," said Cable with a tone half annoyed and half fearful.
"Who?"
"The Ree," repeated Jenny. "Rei variants who decided to band together. They're one of the biggest groups in the Void."
"Normally, they have a leader that they follow," added Cable. "But she's exploring the multiverse at the moment, so the rest are just wandering about."
"But what about the Ayanami with the surfboard?" asked Shinji.
"Not all Reis are team players," Jenny shrugged.
Cable took out her guns, much to Jenny's horror.
"What are you doing?!" yelled Jenny. "You're not planning on killing them, are you?!'
Cable blushed. "Oh, sorry," she said as she put her guns away. "Force of habit."
"Can't we just fly over them?" Shinji asked. Cable shook her head.
"That's not an option. They're just gonna keep bothering us, especially with a Mr. Ikari in tow. We're gonna have to face them head on."
The Ree drew nearer, stopping on their tracks once they encountered the trio.
"Heee~ey!" they all greeted, before pausing in shock after seeing Shinji.
"Shinji? Shinji? Shinji? Shinji? Shinji?" the Ree said in a harmonious mess that made them sound like seagulls.
Cable decided to speak up. "Ms. Ayanamis. I know what you're thinking. No, you can't have him."
One of the younger Rei's asked, "why not?"
"Well, we're kind of on a schedule," Cable explained. "We need to take him home before the TVA notices that he's gone."
"Boo!" said YuRei, a Rei wearing a white bed sheet.
"Je dis qu'on le garde," said a Rei in a maid outfit.
"Hang on, now," said another Rei. "Maybe they're right, and we might end up wasting their time."
"Who cares?" Reimo argued. "Everything will be pruned one day."
"And it's not like the Void is such a terrible place to live in," added Reiltor. "The weather is consistent, no one ages, and you get to have crossovers with all kinds of other franchises."
"Whatever," shrugged Reicer. "First one to get to Ikari wins!"
The Ree murmured in agreement. Jenny rolled her eyes. "Then you've left us no choice."
[Insert Song: bury a friend - Billie Eilish]
Shinji didn't need to be told to stay back this time.
Cable and Jenny ran headfirst towards the Ree. They made good work of them, not holding back against their opponents.
They took YuRei's bed sheet and tossed it to three other Reis.
"I am all the Jedi!" announced Rei Skywalker while swinging a toy lightsaber before Jenny whacked her with her hammer hand.
"Gyatt! We 'bout to skibidi to Tokyo-3!" said the Reizzler, who Cable smacked in the head with her robot arm.
"Hey, doesn't Lilith translate to spirit? Then why is Spirit like, a child of Adam?" wondered a Rei drugged out of her mind, whom Jenny lightly tapped into unconsciousness.
Treicer didn't even put up a fight as she was wondering who she wanted to be. "Should've picked Mercy," Cable quipped as she tossed her away.
And then they got to Reindeer, a deer with blue fur and wearing a deer-shaped plugsuit.
"Wait, we can't hurt an animal!" Jenny pointed out.
Cable thinks about it for a moment. "Fine. You can play with Mr. Ikari."
"Wait, what?" Shinji said before getting glomped by the deer.
The two superwomen continued with their work. They kicked away a chibi Rei, and used another to throw against the other Reis.
At the very least, they were gentle to the kid Reis (including a third chibi), whom Jenny was now reading bedtime stories to while Cable fought a Yuki Nagato.
Finally, they took down Billie Reilish, and all of the Ree save for Reindeer were now incapacitated.
Shinji – free of Reindeer who was now focused on one of the unconscious Reis – walked past the Ree and asked, "will they be alright?"
"They're Reis. They're like Angel cockroaches," assured Jenny. "Now come on, let's go!"
Mana Kirishima – and Mana Kirishima – were expecting a lot of things while they waited for the superwomen coming their way. They were expecting women more powerful than them, with incredible powers unlike they who only wore powered armor. The technology in the void is limited so maintenance for their suits are difficult. Even so, they were prepared to fight to the bitter end.
What they weren't expecting was the pathetic display before them.
The superwomen, while they attempted to catch up to Shinji, were also preventing each other from getting far ahead. So what proceeded was a strange race-brawl thing that left them all exhausted.
"Um, you guys wanna rest?" the second Mana asked.
"Not a chance," Captain America retorted as she gave a weak punch to Loki, who was knocked out in the process. "I can… I can do this all day…"
The Silver Surfer was also panting, having just gotten rid of the Scarlet Spider as well as defeated Storm, but she was then struck by a realization.
"Wait a minute. I can't get tired!"
The Surfer attempted to fly off, but was stopped by the first Mana.
"You're not going anywhere, Ayanami. None of you are."
Scarlet Spider looked at the Iron Maidens in confusion. "Why… Why are you still here? You can chase after Shinji if you want."
"We can't," said Mana 1. "And we don't want to. Shinji wasn't pruned. His home is still out there."
That declaration hit the superwomen like a splash of cold water, and they were awakened from their impulsive, single minded thought process.
"Seriously?" questioned Storm.
Mana 2 nodded. "That's what Cable thinks, and she understands the multiverse better than any of us. Either way, we can't take him. It's very selfish and that's not what heroes do."
The superwomen – save for the Surfer who remained on her board and the two Iron Maidens who sat – lay on the ground, both out of exhaustion and to contemplate things.
"It just feels unfair, you know?" said Asuka. "It's like we haven't even done anything."
"I get you," said Hikari. "There's so many things I wanna– I had to do. DESTRON, NERV, SEELE; I never got the chance to destroy them."
Mari let out an ironic chuckle. "Well, look on the bright side. They're very destroyed right now." Thankfully, Hikari also let out a weak laugh at this.
"But yeah. It feels so anticlimactic." Mari continued. "All things considered, everything was going well, and then it just… ended."
Loki looked at nothing in particular. "Eh, I don't really want to be like my past self, Ikol. I'm more disappointed that I never got to prove myself as a hero." She turned to the other superwomen, in particular Mari. "Someone who could stand next to you guys."
"I just want to see my friends again," Mayumi said, her eyes starting to water. "To be with them, have adventures again. I thought if I could get Shinji back, then I'd–" Mayumi stopped as she broke down.
"That does it then!" Announced Asuka. "Let's go see Shinji, not to steal him away or anything, but to spend time with him again, just this once."
The superwomen all agreed to this, their moods much brighter than they were before.
Rei however saw some movement from the distance. "Oh no, it's the Ree!"
A groan was the collective response of the group.
Shinji, Cable, and Jenny finally made it to their destination.
"We're here. Welcome to Hinata Inn!" announced Jenny, and they were greeted by a huge Japanese inn.
A young man was working at the front of the house when he took notice of the newcomers.
"Suzuhara, Jenny. What brings you here?"
"Hey, Mr. Keitaro," greeted Cable. "Is Sucy here?"
"She's in her room," answered Keitaro. "Why do you ask?"
"Well," Cable gestured to Shinji. "This is Mr. Shinji Ikari. We need help getting him home."
Keitaro's eyes briefly widened upon hearing this, but he was able to compose himself enough to shake Shinji's hand.
"Hello, Ikari. I'm Keitaro Urashima. I've heard so much about you."
Shinji's cheeks flushed pink. "Can't say I'm surprised."
Keitaro chuckled. "Why don't all of you go inside?"
The trio found themselves in the inn's kitchen. Also there was a brown-haired girl in a red dress, a man in yellow, another man in a hat with two rings on each hand, and a woman in a white suit. Tending to them was a blue-haired girl.
"Sucy will get to you soon, but first, you guys eat," the girl – Shinobu – said as she each handed them their share of the rice meal that she made (Except for Jenny, obviously). The ringed man disgusted them all when he put mayonnaise on his.
They dig in to their meals.
"You're getting help from Sucy, huh?" said the girl in red. "You must be trying to get home."
"Yeah," Shinji nodded. "You guys, are you all pruned?"
It took Shinji a second to realize how insensitive of a question that was, but the others didn't seem bothered by it.
"Yep. I'm Akko by the way, but in my world, I was known as the Scarlet Witch. My world kinda– 'stagnated', and I guess the TVA decided that's good grounds to prune it."
The man in the hat spoke next. "I'm Kyosuke Nitoh, and this is my junior, Tsubasa," he pointed to the man in yellow.
"What happened to you guys?" Shinji asked.
"We killed our Anchor Being," Tsubasa said bluntly.
Shinji was taken aback by the declaration. "Huh?"
"We had to," added Nitoh. "He went crazy."
It was the woman in white's turn to speak. "I'm Diane Martin. My world was pruned because I decided not to leave my team."
"As for me and Sempai," Shinobu cuts in. "I have a… condition. Sempai tried so hard to protect me, but in the process, we caused a Nexus Event."
"What's that?" Shinji asked.
"Something that causes a branch in the timeline," answered Cable. "Like Ms. Martin not leaving Battle Fever."
"In any case," Shinobu continued. "The TVA didn't like that, so our timeline had to go," she smiled sadly. "All that was left were me, Sempai, and the inn."
Despite their casual attitudes, Shinji still felt bad for them. "It must be hard. Losing your homes."
"Yeah, it is," confirmed Nitoh. "But what can you do? At least we know we tried to do the right thing."
"And it wasn't all for nothing." Added Shinobu. "I won't lie, I was depressed for a long time, I blamed myself for our world getting pruned, but Sempai, even though he was also suffering, he didn't change. He still protected me. He didn't regret anything. The least I can do is to try and be happy despite everything. For him."
"And are you happy?" Shinji asked.
Shinobu smiled. "Like I said, it wasn't all for nothing."
"Alright, where's my new guinea– I mean customer?" someone announced.
Arriving in the kitchen was a pale brown-haired girl who could only be described as a stereotypical witch. Along with that, she was wearing a red cape.
"Hello Shinji. I'm Sucy Manbavaran, Sorcerer Supreme!"
"Trainee," clarified Akko.
"My whole world is dead I'm Sorcerer Supreme by elimination!" Sucy snapped before turning back to Shinji. "So you want to go home. Well you've come to the right place. Come on, let's get back to my workshop."
"Alright." Shinji turned to Cable and Jenny. "I guess this is goodbye."
The two of them smiled. "It was nice seeing you again, Shinji," said Jenny.
"Good luck on your journey, Mr. Ikari," said Cable.
As Shinji and Sucy went upstairs, Cable couldn't help but ask, "should we be worried?"
Akko waved a hand in reassurance. "I'm sure she knows better than to mess with him, especially while you're around."
Cable forced herself to relax, and then she remembered something.
"By the way, could any of you help with fixing my goober?" she asked as she presented a watch-like device that she wore on her left arm.
As Nitoh examined the device, a stray thought suddenly hit Cable, and her eyes widened in realization.
Meanwhile, in Sucy's room, she had just plucked a bit of Shinji's hair. Then, she handed him a mushroom.
"Eat this," she told him.
"Why?"
"It's important," she said, somewhat irritated. "Now do it."
"Wait!" Cable called out just before Shinji could eat the mushroom, banging on the door.
Suzy sighed. "What is it?"
The door opened, and Cable stepped inside. "We need to go back to Unit-01," she said.
Shinji was confused. "Unit-01? Why?"
"You need it when you get back home. It's very important in the grand scheme of things."
"Whatever," said Sucy, opening a portal to where they've left the Eva.
Shinji, Cable, and Sucy stepped outside, but Unit-01 was nowhere to be found.
"But it was here," Cable said in confusion. "Where could it have gone? Did the others take it?"
It was then that another portal opened behind Shinji, and he was grabbed by a Rei wearing a black plugsuit and a white hood.
"Rei Q?" questioned Cable, even more confused. She took out her guns while Sucy summoned magic circles from her hands.
"Not exactly," said "Rei". "I'm lucky you decided to return here. Fighting the other superwomen would've been exhausting, at least for this body."
"Who are you? What do you want?" demanded Cable. "Rei" smiled.
"You can call me… the Beyonder."
Cable's body shook the moment she heard the name. Nevertheless, Cable shot at the Beyonder, careful not to hit Shinji while Sucy hurled out magic attacks.
The Beyonder simply deflected their ammunition. She then forced Cable's guns out of her hands and tied Sucy up with her cape.
The Beyonder was amused. "You recognized my name and yet you still try to fight? Humans can be so curious. No matter. I have what I need."
Cable tried to run and get to Shinji, but it was in vain. The Beyonder and Shinji entered the portal, and it closed just as Cable was about to reach them.
"No!" exclaimed Cable. "Mr. Ikari!"
A/N: Despite the Doctor Doom comment, I actually think making RDJ the new Doom is a novel idea. (well, depending on how they go about it)
The Ree is taken from Gregg Landsman's Nobody Dies, wherethey are a group of Rei clones. Inside the Void, they have since added alternate Reis among their ranks.
Scarlet Witch!Akko and Sorcerer Supreme!Sucy are made specifically for this story, although I have thought of making LWA fanfics before, but never went through because… I don't actually have any ideas. (That and I haven't actually watched it)
Tsubasa Yoru and Kyosuke Nitoh are variants of Tsubasa Ozu of Mahou Sentai Magiranger and Kousuke Nitoh of Kamen Rider Wizard, introduced in Harry Potter and the Curse of Angra Mainyu, my very first fanfic and so far my only Dead Fic.
Diane Martin is the first Miss America of Battle Fever J.
Keitaro Urashima and Shinobu Maehara are from The Beast That I am, a Love Hina/She-Hulk fic by OrionPax09.
Although this story used 'Nexus Event', what Shinobu was talking about and what I had in mind is more in line with Canon Events, like, they did something that goes against the typical Hulk story. I didn't use the latter term as I wasn't comfortable using a term not yet used in the MCU.
I once again thank Author0fntent for the idea of using the Beyonder. It was exactly what I needed to fully make this story.