Sitting inside EVA-02, being connected with the machine, felt good. No trouble with Shinji here. No confusion about him and Rei. Just Asuka and her machine. Asuka and the machine she excelled in. And an enemy who would soon feel the brunt of Asuka's anger. Life was so much simpler inside an Evangelion.
"So, what's the status?" she asked the Command Central. "Why are we deployed all the way out here in the boondocks?"
"An unidentified object has emerged from Tokyo-2," Lt Ibuki explained. "There has been a major explosion in our test facility at Matsushiro, possibly caused by the unidentified object."
"Matsushiro?" Shinji exclaimed. A view screen to his cockpit popped up in Asuka's. "But... that's where Misato is! Is she alright?"
"We... we haven't yet made contact with the staff at Matsushiro," Ibuki admitted in a soft voice.
"But then..." Shinji began anew, but Asuka cut him off, "Is that object an angel?"
"So far we're detecting Pattern Orange," Ibuki admitted. "But it's better to be safe."
"Then why are we so far away from Tokyo-3?" Asuka demanded to know.
"NERV doesn't want ou..." Ibuki began but then completely changed her answer, "We figured we can minimize collateral damage out here."
"Also, we have tracked down the route of the unidentified object," Lt Hyuga added. "It has to take the pass at Mt Nobe, which gives us a chance to have you all deployed, ready and awaiting it."
Asuka scoffed at these answers. This would be the first time NERV had ever shown concern about minimizing collateral damage. And if NERV worried about not losing the object, then making a stand at Tokyo-3, where it seemed to be headed, would have made the most sense. But most of all she was annoyed about sitting around in her Evangelion, doing nothing, and that out here in the wilderness while the sun was already setting. She really had better things to do than to just wait.
"But... but if we have to fight," Shinji protested. "How are we supposed to do that without Misato?"
Another viewscreen popped up in Asuka's cockpit: Rei. "Commander Ikari will assume direct control of the operation."
"F...father?" Shinji muttered.
Oh for fuck's sake. "Yes, your father!" Asuka told him. "He is the supreme commander, remember? Now forget your daddy complex and just focus on what's ahead of you! We might have an angel to battle!"
There was silence on all comm channels afterwards. Damnit, Asuka. As much as Shinji has fucked up, we really don't need a sullen pilot right now. Focus your anger on the angel. And as much as she tried to justify it to herself, she was kinda annoyed that she was back to lashing out at Shinji.
...his thumb stroking her hand...
Damnit!
Asuka looked around. Wide and far there were only mountains, forests and rice fields, with only some few quaint buildings and some streets interrupting that monotony. It was quite scenic. Asuka hated it. Being deployed to Tokyo-3 at least meant being in a proper city. Tokyo-2 or Osaka would have been better, but Tokyo-3 wasn't bad. It didn't have Berlin's rough and dirty charm, but it did have its own distinctive look, all sleek and modern aesthetics. Quite a bit better than the wilderness here.
Asuka didn't like the countryside. The town where she had last seen her mother was in a scenic countryside as well.
"Object within one kilometre of pass," Lt Shigeru reported. "Estimated contact with Evangelion defence line in less than three minutes."
"That's all the information you can give us?" Asuka muttered.
It took a while before someone answered. "...sorry, Asuka," Ibuki apologized.
You gotta be kidding me! "Ehem!" Asuka protested. She had spoken with... well, shouted at Ibuki for her lack of professionalism after the double-synch test.
"...I apologize, Pilot Soryu," Ibuki told her. She suddenly did sound a lot more professional. None of that sentimentalism stuff anymore.
Better. If Asuka could do nothing else until that maybe-maybe-not-angel finally showed its face, she could at least demand the appropriate respect for her.
"Object has crossed the pass," Shigeru announced.
Asuka now concentrated on the view in front of her. She should see the object any minute now...
Are you fucking serious?
Between the forests, along a road fortified by quaint stonewalls, a giant head appeared: All black, except for white eyes and creepily large, red teeth. Behind that head, impossibly large shoulder pylons. And then the rest of the body appeared: A black Evangelion. Its gait was slumped, and yet it emanated an aura of immediate danger.
"You knew!" Asuka shouted into the comm system. "You fucking knew! Why did nobody tell us is the object is an Evangelion!"
"Pattern Blue detected," Ibuki announced in a subdued voice. She sounded awkward. "EVA-03 designated as the Ninth Angel."
And then it hit Asuka.
"That's why you brought us to the wilderness!" she shouted. Without awaiting orders, she raised her missile launcher and aimed at the Evangelion. "You cowards were afraid of losing face again, if too many people should see one of your precious Evangelions going rogue.[1] You bastards!"
There was an uncomfortable silence on the comm channels.
Asuka fired. The missile would have hit the Evangelion... angel... Evangelion... whatever right in the head. However, it exploded uselessly against its AT Field. The giant monster just walked casually through the smoke, the setting red sun in its back. It looked eerie; far too slender for an Evangelion.
Asuka prepared another shot...
...the angel jumped.
It was completely impossible. It bent backwards and leaped like a jumping spider, a movement EVAs were never supposed to do. And the jump was at least four times its height. Asuka was utterly dumbfounded as the angel landed not even 100m in front of her.
She tried to react; 100m should give her enough time..
….suddenly EVA-03's hands were around her unit's neck. It was completely impossible! The black Evangelion's arms had extended to a size of double its height! And now Asuka felt utterly paralyzed. EVA-02 couldn't do much but wiggle and kick, but it couldn't free itself from EVA-03's grip.
...breathe..breathe...breathe...
It hurt! Asuka's neck hurt!
"Gottverdammt... Gottverdammt... Gottverdammt..." she cursed.
"Asuka!" she heard Shinji's long-drawn shout over the comm system, and a much quieter and shorter repetition from Rei: "Asuka..."
There was an incredible pressure on Asuka's neck. She couldn't breathe and it hurt. Her chest began to burn. And she felt completely useless... a doll in the hands of another being. EVA-02's hands were on EVA-03's arms, but there was nothing Asuka could do. The grip was iron-hard.
...and the pain was taking over her senses.
A comm call made it through the pain. "...stay back. Use long range weaponry. Avoid contact with the enemy." An utterly cold and unmoved voice.
"But Father!" Shinji screamed.
Shinji... Shinji will save me. Asuka felt utterly pathetic and weak for thinking so, but the pain had become unbearable. And she was really only a plaything for EVA-03 anymore, anyway.
...and then suddenly, a punch to her stomach. She spat out its contents into the LCL. EVA-03 had retracted its hands again and rapidly moved forwards along their path, ramming its knee right into EVA-02. Its hands let go of EVA-02, only to punch it. And again. And again.
...and again...
Asuka screamed, again and again. Her stomach, her head, merciless beatings were raining down on them, and she had no protection against them. Inside the entry-plug she raised her hand as if to protect her body, but that of course had no effect.
...and again...
Asuka barely noticed anything but the pain anymore.
...and again...
Then the world went black.
"Aaaaasuka!"
Shinji didn't care what his father told him. EVA-01 ran through the rice fields, its giant boots tearing them up and leaving behind desolate puddles. These fields were located on several plateaus, and EVA-03 lorded over the surrounding region from one of the highest ones. Finally, EVA-01 stepped onto it...
...and saw EVA-02 lying at its black counterpart's feet, entirely motionless. Shinji screamed in despair and rage. EVA-01 raised its pallet rifle... and Shinji hesitated. EVA-03 had now turned towards him, entirely calmly, with no haste. The two units were now standing opposite of one another, simply looking each other in the eye.
It's an Evangelion unit...
And there was something else. Before EVA-03 had turned, Shinji had seen something white sticking out of its back, something long and round. An entry-plug.
"Retreat and fire, Shinji," his father told him, his voice calm, rigid, uncaring.
"No!" Shinji exclaimed. "It's an Evangelion! There's someone inside, isn't there? Someone like us! A child!"
"Irrelevant," Gendo told him. "Right now, it's the enemy."
Slowly, EVA-01 backed away from the black creature. Shinji felt trapped. He didn't know what to do. Retreating meant abandoning Asuka; attacking meant hurting someone just like him, someone who had been thrown into this crazy war, an innocent, a child like him. Maybe it would even mean ultimately killing them.
Shinji would rather die.
EVA-01 backed away step by step. EVA-03 slowly followed.
"Engage the enemy," Gendo ordered Shinji calmly.
"That's not the enemy!" Shinji shouted. "That's..."
And then it hit him.
...NERV agents have taken Touji away...
No! No, it can't be!
"Nononono..." he muttered. EVA-01 now walked backwards at a brisk pace.
EVA-03 stopped... and roared. An unearthly, long, piercing sound that echoed off the surrounding mountains. EVA-03's mouth wide open and skywards, its terrible red teeth clearly visible.
And then it jumped. Not a high jump like the one that brought it close to EVA-02. It was leaping almost parallel to the ground... right into EVA-01.
Shinji thought his chest would soon explode, and then felt EVA-01 crashing down onto the ground. After a second, he could orientate himself again, but he was still coughing from all the pain in his chest. He noticed that EVA-03 had now lifted his own unit into the air... one-armed.
Pain!
EVA-03's free hand began punching its purple counterpart. And again. And again. Shinji whimpered inside his entry-plug. Tears of pain ran down his cheeks.
"Shinji, use the gun!" Even now, his father's voice didn't sound concerned in the slightest.
EVA-01 still had the pallet rifle in its hands, and the hands free to use it. But even if Shinji could have focused on all that, despite the pain... maybe he could have fired wildly. Maybe that would even have hit EVA-03. In that close a distance to EVA-01, its AT-Field surely was eroded. But Shinji could not condemn Touji to death just because NERV had again screwed up. It wasn't Touji's fault. And Shinji would never be able to live with himself if he became responsible for Touji's death.
Pain!
When Shini came to again, he noticed EVA-01 was lying at the foot of a mountain flank, several hundreds of metres away from the rice fields. EVA-03 had thrown the unit all the way to here. It wasn't technically disabled... the umbilical cord had been severed, but the battery was running just fine... but Shinji felt weak and wobbly. Enough so that he couldn't get EVA-01 to stand up again. He felt terrible.
Once again.
He was getting sick of it. Every angel fight he participated in was pain. He knew he had no other choice, that only he and Ayanami could pilot EVA-01, and Ayanami was needed in EVA-00, but that only made it worse. He could see that it wasn't malice on the part of anyone, that this just was how circumstances were, but it still meant his life was terrible. That was his life now in fact, ever since he had come to Tokyo-3: Getting mauled by angels. And there was nothing he could do about it.
He came to full attention when there was a loud, pained gap in the comm system. Ayanami! Shinji frantically opened all comm channels to hear what was going on.
"The angel is invading EVA-00's left arm," Lt Ibuki reported. "The nerve systems are being corrupted!"
No! Ayanami! Shinji tried desperately to get EVA-01 up now, to scramble, to help her...
"Cut off the left arm." That was his father. "Immediately."
While she's still synched? It would be like cutting off her own arm!
Some seconds later there was another pained gasp.
"EVA-00 is heavily damaged," Ibuki reported. "The pilot is wounded."
Of course she is! Because the Commander had willed it. The way Ibuki listed that as if it were news was almost cynical. And "the pilot" - as if Ayanami were nothing more than that, just the pilot of EVA-00! But of course, Ibuki was not the one to blame.
Father! You bastard! There was now a white-hot rage burning inside Shinji. His father had hurt Ayanami. Just as his father had put her into that dump in the slums of Tokyo-3, had her rolled out from hospital when Shinji had at first refused to pilot EVA-01, even though she had barely been able to move, and probably it also was him who had drilled it into her that she was 'replaceable'.
If he had to choose between his father and Ayanami... there would be no choice at all. And his father had just ruthlessly hurt Ayanami.
Like a drunkard, EVA-01 stumbled towards the nearest supply truck. Fortunately, it wasn't even 200m away. Had the Evangelion been thrown just a little bit farther, it might actually have crushed it. As it was, the truck was sitting prettily on a road leading up the mountain flank, which was fortified by an old-fashioned looking cobble stone wall. EVA-01 took the umbilical cord that lay next to it, and attached it to itself.
"Shinji, the enemy is approaching your position," his father told him. "ETA 40 seconds. Stay close to the supply lines and engage the enemy."
No.
That was simply clear for Shinji, a given. He could not attack Touji. Touji should never have been EVA pilot in the first place!
Against the backdrop of the setting sun, EVA-03 calmly approached Shinji's position. He still didn't know what to do. He couldn't fight, so what else was there? He could run away, but that wouldn't work. He'd just end up out of reach of the umbilical cord and then the battery power would run out. He...
EVA-03 jumped again.
Shinji managed to make EVA-01 raise up the pallet rifle as an impromptu defence. EVA-03 still kicked EVA-01 right in the chest, but EVA-01 managed to swipe it off it with the rifle. EVA-01 landed in the mud; EVA-03 managed to jump off its counterpart and land relatively gracefully some dozen metres away.
EVA-01 got up again. EVA-03 didn't bother; it swept its hand over the ground... and reached with it all the way to EVA-01. Then the other hand. Its arms were now extended to a length of double its height. And the hands were strangling EVA-01.
Inside his entry-plug, Shinji struggled against an invisible force choking his own neck. But no matter how he turned and shifted, it never went away. There was no protection as his neck got further and further abused.
EVA-03 roared and whirled its purple counterpart around, but this time it didn't let go. EVA-01 crashed against a mountain flank as the black unit continued choking it.
Shinji sat in his cockpit, in pain, and just hoped this all would end soon.
"Life support is breaking down." Lt Hyuga at the Command Centre.
"The pilot's life is in danger." Lt Ibuki.
"Lower the synchronization rate!" Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki.
"Belay that order." Shinji's father, the Commander. He didn't even seem concerned at all. He had the least amount of emotion in his voice. "Shinji, why aren't you fighting?"
"My friend... is in that unit... isn't he?" Shinji managed to respond. Talking was hard, with his neck distorted and mangled.
"The unit has been taken over by an angel," his father stated. "Our enemy! You must fight it!"
"I can't!" Shinji exclaimed, then breathed heavily. "I... can't kill..."
"If you don't, you will die," his father told him. Forcefully, yes, but all matter-of-factly, with no concern for him at all.
"I know," Shinji answered. He was beginning to sound weaker.
The communication channel died.
...suddenly the pressure on Shinji's neck just stopped. His upper body fell forward and for several seconds all he could do was catch his breath. It was finally over... somehow. Though it would soon start again, at the earliest when the next angel would come and maybe...
...the light in the entry plug switched to red. It took some time for Shinji, still dazed and exhausted, to even notice it. Then he caught the writing on a screen, in English and Latin letters: "OPERATION DUMMY SYSTEM – REI".
Rei... that was the only part he could decipher. Rei Ayanami?
There was a sound coming from the back of the entry-plug, like an engine starting up. What is that?
First connection synchronization seemed to still stand, as Shinji could look outside the EVA. He didn't feel anything anymore, thanks the gods, but he could deduce movement from what he was seeing. The scenery was shaking, as if EVA-01 was moving its entire body. Then Shinji could see purple arms coming into his field of vision... and they grabbed EVA-03's neck. As they choked the black unit, EVA-01 was slowly getting up from its mountain flank again. Now it was the purple unit who had the height advantage.
What's happening?
The two Evangelions were now trying to choke each other.
Why is the Evangelion moving on its own? How can that happen?
There was an unhealthy sound coming from EVA-03's neck. Its head was now bent nearly all the way backwards. Its arms fell down from EVA-01, and yet the purple unit was continuing its choke.
Nononono...
"Stop this!" Shinji shouted, desperately hoping the Command Centre would hear him. "Father! Stop this! It's over!"
EVA-01 grunted, and swung EVA-03 beneath it. The black unit landed hard on the street leading up the mountain flank, blood coming out of its mouth.
"Faaaather!"
EVA-01 punched its black counterpart right in the face. And again. And again. Then it raised its own head and roared, a powerful sound of dominance and victory. It raised its arms far above its head, and clasped them together for a hammer strike...
...and then it stopped.
What happened now?
Rei felt her left arm burning all over. She had difficulty breathing, difficulty moving, for all the pain she felt.
Once EVA-00 had been disabled, the angel had simply moved on. But for some reason, synchronization was still up, and Rei had felt her arm blown off. There was a gaping wound at EVA-00's shoulder now, and Rei was still feeling it. As far as her senses were concerned, her arm had just been hacked off, and she was left to lie here, near a street ramp.
She looked at a big, orange counter. EVA-00 had lost its umbilical cord in the fight, and the five minutes of battery time were ticking away. Soon... Synchronization would end automatically then. But until then, the pain remained. Rei held her shoulder and quietly whimpered.
And until then, there would be dark and repulsive thoughts entering her mind. The her inside the Evangelion was in just as much pain as she herself, and furthermore she was livid, counting the use of the explosive charges as one more crime committed against her. Rei did not think in those terms. Though, actually, neither was her counterpart inside EVA-00, really. She simply raged and was just adding reasons for that rage. And that rage and disgust and feeling of impotence were leaking into Rei's mind.
She heard a roar from outside.
It exhausted her to no end, but she managed to support EVA-00 on its remaining arm and raise its head. .. and she saw the angel swinging EVA-01 against a mountain flank and then choking it.
Ikari! For a moment, her pain was forgotten.
EVA-01 still looked functional, though. Why isn't he fighting back?
...he has figured out who is inside the contaminated unit.
Rei let EVA-00's upper body fall down again and reached out with its intact hand. Pain jolted through her whole body. Slowly, EVA-00 crawled over the street ramp in front of it. It was completely useless, of course. Soon, the battery would be spent.
Rei opened all communication channels.
Lt Ibuki was currently speaking: "The pilot's life is in danger."
I have to... I need to... But there was nothing Rei could do. Even now, she couldn't ignore the pain. Even only listening to the comm channels was difficult.
"Shinji, why aren't you fighting?" the Commander asked. Uncompromising, straight to the point, as always. Rei had always found that comfortable about him. One didn't need to guess his intentions; it was always very clear. She was his tool, and he didn't cover that up in fancy illusions.
Now, though... Ikari can't fight back. Rei knew that for a certainty. If Ikari knew that it was Suzuhara in that unit, he would rather die than attack. The Commander's usually so pragmatic stance suddenly became something very unpractical.
"The unit has been taken over by an angel," the Commander told his son. "Our enemy! You must fight it!"
"I can't!" Ikari exclaimed amidst heavy breaths. "I.. can't kill..."
"If you don't, you will die," his father told him.
Worry added to the pain Rei was feeling. The Commander was certainly right. His son had to fight back. And yet, he surely wouldn't.
Is that the end? Already? There was a part of her rejoicing at that thought. The her inside the EVA certainly embraced it wholeheartedly. But... The Scenario. This will end the Scenario. That was unacceptable, but what could Rei do? Certainly, the her inside the EVA did not care for the Scenario at all.
And the battery timer inside her entry-plug fell below the one minute mark.
"Switch to Dummy Plug control complete," an unknown voice from Command Central announced.
They are bringing the Dummy Plug online. That could maybe salvage the situation. But...
"Open the system. Begin the attack," the Commander ordered.
Suddenly, EVA-01 began moving again. It arched its back to reach the angel with its hands. Finally, it broke through the angel's chokehold on it, and began strangling the angel in turn. EVA-01 rose from its position, nearly subduing the angel in doing so. The two were now strangling each other.
...until the angel just stopped. Black arms fell down from EVA-01's neck. EVA-01 continued, though.
"Stop this. Father! Stop this! It's over!" Ikari. But Rei could only hear it on the EVA-to-EVA channel. The Command Centre probably couldn't.
It hurt to hear his despair. Ever since he had come to Tokyo-3 he had been there for her. And now, he would watch as his own Evangelion was killing his friend.
"Faaaather!"
EVA-00's battery died just as Ikari's scream ended.
...and then, Rei decided she could not allow that. She reached into the Evangelion, to feel the her inside it. The her inside the Evangelion resonated with her. Rei could feel her strong wish to just end it all. And now, she would get her wish. Two parts of a single soul... now united in purpose.
"You've always taken care of me..." Rei whispered.
Outside, EVA-00's giant red eye suddenly flared up with light, sending visible rays of it everywhere.
"My turn."
Maya Ibuki had always been against implementing the dummy plugs. It was a nice enough idea for sure: If dummy plugs could synchronize with the Evangelions, then nobody would need to send children into life and death battles again. But at what price? Rei, poor quiet Rei who had already suffered so much, had been further exploited to make those things a reality. And it had been Ritsuko, her mentor, her superior, her... who had done this. It made Maya feel very conflicted.
She supposed that now that they had the dummy plugs anyway, they could as well be used, but... not like this. The Dummy Plugs were completely untested. Professional procedure would be to first hold strictly regulated tests with them, then field tests and only then use them in battle. To immediately jump to "use a battle as field test" was just reckless! Doubly so as Ritsuko wasn't here to supervise it all.
However, orders were orders, and Commander Ikari was the legitimate supreme authority here.
On the giant viewscreen in front of the command decks of the NERV headquarter, she and all the others could now see how EVA-01 slowly rose from its subdued position... and then nearly immediately forced the infected unit down with a counter-choke.
Murmurs went through the command central.
"Is that the power of the Dummy Plug?" Maya whispered.
It was what they needed right now, but it made her even more worried. Such a powerful thing should not have been first tested in battle. Nobody knew what it would do now. And what if they couldn't shut it down anymore? Its use right now was just reckless.
...but Commander Ikari, calm as ever, probably knew what he was doing. After all, if the angel broke through...
The two units were now engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle. Maya looked at at the data output of her console: All systems were stable, and ever more of the system's emotional moments were cleared up and brought under observation. Everything seemed to go smoothly.
Another part of the terminal showed her the MAGI's estimations of the angel. And all activity values suddenly fell drastically. Maya looked up at the viewscreen: EVA-03's arms were limply falling from EVA-01's neck. It was over.
...however, EVA-01 continued its choke. It even swung the infested unit around and began punching it. Maya turned around to look at the upper deck, but there was no order from Commander Ikari to disengage the Dummy Plug. In fact... was he smiling?
Then suddenly something caught her attention on her terminal.
"EVA-00 reactivating!" she shouted.
"What?" Shigeru exclaimed. "But its battery is dead."
Maya switched her terminal's screen to show EVA-00's data output... and paled. "Berserk..." she whispered.
"What's that?" somebody from the lower decks shouted. Maya looked up and saw that EVA-01 had stopped mid-movement, its two hands raised and clasped together, as if ready to strike any second now... but it didn't. It did nothing. It seemed frozen.
Frantically, Maya brought up the readouts from EVA-01 and the Dummy Plug. Huh? "Dummy Plug system still active," she announced.
"Then why isn't the Evangelion moving?" Shigeru complained. "Wait. Look at the nerve functions! They're getting no feedback! As if... as if the body just isn't listening to its own nerves anymore."
Maya knew that EVA-01 was a special unit, that its very material was different from the other units'. The very flesh that was now not responding to its nerves. But how could this be a problem? Ritsuko had never spoken about anything like that.
EVA-00 now walked up the other two units... and pushed EVA-01 away with a heavy blow from its elbow. And then, the purple unit just turned and walked away.
"It's as if the Dummy Plug has absolutely no control over the unit anymore!" Shigeru complained.
"Is the pilot of EVA-00 alive and conscious?" Commander Ikari asked.
"Ah... yes, sir," Maya confirmed. At least he cares abou...
"Raise LCL pressure to maximum," he ordered.
"What?" Maya exclaimed. She knew that was unprofessional, but she couldn't help it. On the uppermost deck, the Commander had sat down again. Whereas before he had watched the scene standing and smiling, now he was back to his usual enigmatic and intimidating pose.
"Just do it!" Ikari ordered.
"Yes, sir," Maya confirmed in a subdued voice. She felt terrible, but she entered the commands... to no avail. "EVA-00 is not responding", she reported. She wasn't very surprised. If one could speak about a normal behaviour of berserking Evangelions, it was that.
"Pattern Orange detected!" Hyuga bellowed from his terminal.
Maya took a look at her own again. Indeed, there was a strong Pattern Orange AT Field... and it came straight from EVA-00. How is that possible? A Pattern Orange shouldn't have that much strength.
"Is that unit infested as well?" Shigeru asked tersely.
Maya shook her head. "No indication. All readouts from EVA-00 normal and stable... well, except for the berserk state. But EVA-00's nerves and tissue are unaffected."
"Pattern Orange rapidly contracting and expanding again," Shigeru reported.
"So is EVA-00's AT Field," Maya added. "The two fields can pass each other seamlessly. Strange..."
"What is it doing?" Hyuga asked.
It was a rhetorical question, but there was an answer. And for once, Commander Ikari sounded tense. "It's scraping off the angel from the Evangelion unit."
Rei wasn't fighting with the her inside the Evangelion anymore. She wasn't trying to subdue her anymore, to control her, to keep her thoughts constrained. The two parts of one soul were now resonating with each other. They were both drawn to the end... to the final salvation. To nothingness. But not without helping the one person who had first shown kindness to Rei.
EVA-01 moved as they/she willed. It was part of their/her flesh. They/she was now all her, the part of their/her identity deep down and well covered. This let a feeling of uneasiness fester inside Rei... I'm not her!... but it also let her/them transcend the pain and the physical needs and urges of existence.
Rei's AT Field, the AT Field of both of her, of a soul now united, flared up. Then EVA-00's, and Rei's contracted again. It flared up again, and EVA-00's retracted. And so on and so forth. And bit by bit, they were scraping off the angel... towards EVA-00. EVA-03 would be freed at the cost of the Prototype.
But it was all good. That was what Rei wished for.
Suzuhara will live. Ikari will not blame himself. And another one of me will return. Despite all the best efforts of him and Asuka, the simple fact remained that she was replaceable. Ikari was not; he was unique and precious and he had to be protected.
And besides, oblivion was what Rei wished for anyway. It was that desire for oblivion that made the her inside the Evangelion resonate with her. Only due to that were they of one will now.
Finally, there was no trace of the angel on EVA-03 anymore. Determining that was difficult. Adamite tissue was Adamite tissue, after all. But EVA-03 was now inert, bereft of both its pilot and its parasite. All active Pattern Blue had been removed from it.
EVA-00 maintained a strong AT Field... inverted it... and ran. The angel was now inside the light of its soul, a prisoner of it.
"What are you doing, Rei?"
The Commander's voice. Superficially, it sounded as calm as ever, but Rei could hear his tension in it. She didn't answer. She couldn't justify what she was doing to her Commander...
...not our Commander...
EVA-00 ran up the mountains, far away from any settlements or houses. They/she began to feel something... a feeling of searing flesh inside her. The angel, disrupted and partitioned by AT Field manipulation, was now regrouping and beginning to take over the Evangelion. They/she didn't have much time anymore. Almost worse, yet, Rei could feel the angel turning outwards, trying to escape. Only the inverted AT field held its back. She didn't know if the angel could even survive outside of an Evangelion, but then again, it had to have existed somewhere before infecting EVA-03.
Inside her entry plug, Rei turned in her seat to open up a switch behind it.
"Rei, the angel is infesting your unit," the Commander told her. "You must eject."
"I can't," Rei told him softly.
"Rei! Evacuate EVA-00 immediately! That's an order!" Now the Commander had finally lost his famed composure.
"I must stay to keep the AT field in effect," Rei answered. She could still feel the angel trying to escape. Then everything would start again, and there was no telling which Evangelion would be the next target. Maybe Ikari's. Maybe Asuka's.
She pulled the switch. Mode D was activated.
Rei turned around in her seat again. She saw a brilliant white light and a person approaching her... the Commander?
No. Ikari... Shinji was smiling at her. And so was Asuka.
It all returns to nothing,
it all comes tumbling down,
tumbling down,
tumbling dooown...
x
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x
x
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[1]Look up Mount Nobe (Nobeyama) in Google Maps. It's almost all the way up to Tokyo-2 (Matsumoto), and rather remote. NERV didn't need to intercept the angel so early, and so far away from the Fortress City they specifically built to fight angels...