The nurse blanched as she rushed into the room, her eyes flashing across the monitors and instruments. Screaming down the hallway to the other staff already running down towards the boy's room, she rushed to the bedside, trying to control his thrashing motions, trying not to slip in the pool of blood being fed from his nose, eyes, and ears.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Just as she had gently put the Entry Plug on the ground, she caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eye. Whirling around, she threw up one arm to intercept the newly revived Angel's strike, the base of its neck a bubbling, roiling mess of regenerating tissue.
"Scheisse! Der Drecksack regeneriert sich schneller, als ich dachte." she snarled to herself, swinging her free arm in to smash the core, reinforced knuckles slamming in against the red orb.
There was a blinding flash of light, and she felt herself flying through the air for a gut-wrenching moment before slamming into one of the walls of the arena.
She looked up in time to see the totally regenerated Angel, complete with a skull mask, casually and contemptuously stomp down on the Entry Plug, sending a spray of LCL out the sides.
"Oh, fuck-" Asuka screamed into her microphone, eyes wide with horror and hatred. "Misato, the Angel just-"
"We saw! Get the Angel out of the area! We have recovery teams standing by!" Misato shouted back at the girl, hands gripping the back of Lieutenant Aoba's chair so hard they turned white.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Sir, the surveillance drone crew reports that one of their pilots is dead, killed by the Angel."
The general looked up from the dark-suited man sitting in front of his desk to the aide who had just interrupted his meeting.
"How likely is it that they will defeat the Angel?" he asked, leaning back in his chair and looking back at the man before him.
"We estimate the enemy will be destroyed within the hour." Pausing, the aide shot the general a questioning look. "We have those assets on standby. We can have them there in less than ten minutes."
"Go ahead, general," the civilian said. "You wanted a chance to lash out at Ikari, did you not?"
Smiling a tight, cold smile, the general nodded.
"Send in the hogs."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
With a battle cry of "Fick dich, du Schwein!" Asuka resumed her attack as she and the Angel traded blows, both of them throwing fists capable of carving through buildings at the other. With Toji out of the picture, Asuka did not have to pull her punches out of worry of causing sympathetic injuries, but the Angel was now in full command of its capabilities.
While it was based on an Evangelion and thus humanoid, it was much more dangerous than the other humanoid-shaped ones they had encountered thus far. Strong, fast, and reactive, it fought in a way that showed it was no mere beast.
This cunning adversary thought, planned, and fought with vicious intent.
Asuka was so engrossed in the combat that she almost didn't hear the warning from the command team.
"Radar signatures?" She asked, jumping sharply to the left as a mighty blow deflected off her AT-Field before dropping it to strike back with a harsh jab to the solar plexus. "I'm not picking anything up on my-"
She trailed off as a massive series of sharp blows hammered into her back as a loud, distinctive buzzing roar filled the air.
Muttering a quick "Arschgesicht," she dropped to the ground, rolling in a tumble that tore through a low-lying building, getting out of the line of fire.
Overhead, the short, stubby form of an A-10 attack aircraft flew, banking off to the right as its partner opened up on the Angel with its Avenger Gatling gun, the dull roar echoing across the battlefield. The Angel's AT-Field flared with light as the stream of rounds poured into it with devastating power.
"Those fucking assholes!" She growled, quickly running through her diagnostics and glancing at the displays, looking for any damage. Fortunately, there seemed not to be any real damage, although she was sure there would be something wrong when the technicians got hold of the unit once the battle was over.
The two planes circled them in wide arcs, moving in again to open fire on the Angel, although the pilot wasn't sure how much their orders allowed for collateral damage and friendly fire. They certainly had taken their first shots where it was obvious that she would be in the way.
Of course, they could have been trying to take advantage of the fact that the Angel's AT-Field would be down, neutralized by her own, if not outright lowered to make its attack. There was no immediate harm to her Evangelion, after all.
Scrabbling off to the side, she held her attack for a moment, watching as the attack planes opened fire again, a deadly stream of 30mm cannon fire rippling across the golden shield of light held before the Angel, which was turning to track the aircraft as they banked off again as the otherworldly foe raised its arm at the receding shapes.
Sure that this was a precursor to using the energy weapon, Asuka sprang forward, slamming into the Angel's side, hands grasping at the outstretched arm.
With a vicious, blood-thirsty grin on her face, she jerked her controls hard, causing the reinforced musculature of the Evangelion to amp up the amount of force her motion started, and rewarded her with a sick, wet cracking sound followed by an outraged scream of pain as she ripped the Angel's arm off at the elbow.
Reeling around, the Angel tried to backhand Asuka, but she ducked underneath the arm, sweeping close inside its reach. She looped one arm around the Angel's intact arm and trapped it while dealing short, sharp jabs to the red orb in its midsection. She twisted it around so the monster's back was presented to the oncoming planes.
The lead attack craft obliged her by opening up with the rotary cannon again, and her grin deepened as she felt the Angel's body jerk violently as it soaked up damage. Her vindictive feelings of triumph vanished as her systems sounded a target lock-on tone, signaling that someone had targeted her with a laser-guided munition.
Moments later, her world was replaced with fire as the two five-hundred-pound JDAM bombs detonated on both her and the Angel.
Alarms went off as system warnings flashed red across her entire display. The five-minute timer was already racing toward zero, the digits flashing their urgent message over everything else. Shaking her head, grateful that the LCL had protected her from the brunt of the blasts, she cleared all the warnings away with a thought and pressed the attack.
The Angel was in much worse shape than she was, a shredded-looking mess of flesh and steel, the skull cracked and blackened, and most of its lower half missing. It raised itself as best it could, the red orb flickering uncertainly.
Energy leaped across the distance between them, dancing out from the ruins of its remaining arm to slam into her. Yowling in anger and pain, Asuka kicked the slumping figure hard, connecting with the core and smashing through it. Just as she destroyed its orb, the Angel looked up at her before erupting in the cruciform pillar of light that signaled its death. In that last half-moment of life, Asuka was struck by the apparent complete and utter pitiful disappointment and sadness on the alien face.
Knocked backward, landing hard against the ruins of the testing site, Asuka raised one hand at the circling aircraft, flipping them her middle finger. Activating her secondary communications suite, she smiled half-heatedly through bloody lips as she contacted Misato.
"Angel's dead. I'm going to take a nap."
She passed out before her commanding officer could reply, the wave of darkness pulling over her like a comfortable blanket.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei said nothing to Sub-Commander Katsuragi as they watched the repair crews work on Unit-02. The woman had been the one to come let her know that her time in confinement was up, as they had reached an agreement with the Diet and JSSDF officials. Commander Ikari had left shortly after the battle for a rare, personal meeting with SEELE. The other three pilots were all in intensive care. While she would usually want to be as near to Shinji as possible, Sub-Commander Katsuragi wanted her only duty-capable pilot within arm's reach in case anything happened. She was taking no chances that SEELE or other groups might make a power play, especially with the Supreme Commander gone and Agent Kaji missing.
Of course, the agent was not missing, or at least not in the way that her superior thought. However, her reasoning was not without merit, and the Rei could accept the woman's decision. It was only a temporary situation, just as was her imprisonment. Soon, very soon, she was sure, her level of control with her cloned bodies would be at the point where she could inhabit two bodies at once, actively controlling them through two separate series of actions.
Unfortunately for her test subject, she could not attend to him yet, leaving him to rest under MAGI observation in the imaging device. She would reactivate the clone that sat against the wall watching him soon enough. They were ready to adjust the parameters of the scan and run another experiment.
He had not taken the scan of his mind, memories, and self well at all. While it was undoubtedly a much more in-depth scan than a simple MRI or the scans they routinely did of the other pilots, she had been surprised at how he had reacted. She had never had any such reaction. The data would have to be thoroughly investigated later, and the image would have to be heavily scrutinized before she felt secure enough to use it on Shinji.
There was no apparent physical damage, though, as the man had regained himself shortly after the test had terminated. His continued demands to be released were only to be expected, she noted to herself, but he was also very pleading in his requests for her to never do that to him again. While he did that, he refrained from giving her any information that could be of use. If he continued to be uncooperative, she would be forced to try a test with him in an unconscious state. Engrossed in her thoughts, she almost didn't catch the question posed to her by the older woman.
"Do you think you can handle it? If one were to attack before we can get the other Evangelions ready, or the pilots are well enough to fight?"
"I will handle anything that attacks, Sub-Commander," she replied, just louder than a whisper, her voice almost lost in the loud clatter and confusion of the cage. "Unit-00 is ready for combat."
"Alright." The ordinarily chatty woman was certainly not her usual self, though she was usually quite resilient in the face of hard fighting and terrible setbacks due to damaged equipment. Even with her admittedly sparse understanding of people, Rei could sense that her commanding officer was not in the mood for the once-usual post-Angel celebration.
It was apparent to the young girl that the general atmosphere at NERV had been getting progressively darker. It had been quite some time since they had celebrated a victory.
To be sure, things were to be considered grim. They had been cut off from several suppliers, support from the UN and the JSSDF, assets overseas were being destroyed to prevent them from being seized by local governments, and SEELE was preparing to make their move. Now that this one had been dealt with, Rei knew the Commander was anticipating between four and fourteen more Angels, although some sources implied that there were as many as twenty more waiting for their turn at uniting with Lilith.
Rei doubted the morale of the rest of the organization was much higher than the generally exuberant woman's now dour self.
Watching a team as they removed one of the cracked optic pieces from the severely damaged casing, she mulled over the situation. The Sub-Commander had often spoken about the importance of maintaining morale, even, or especially, in dire times and harsh conditions. The woman had remarked on more than one occasion that it was essential to always look on the bright side of life.
Things indeed were dire, Rei reasoned, now studying the faces of work crews who had just spent weeks of time and effort to patch up the Evangelions to working order. They now had to repair a devastated Unit-02 and did not have Unit-04 anymore; what few remains of it were now buried deep within the Geo-Front. Morale was low and needed to be raised.
Many of these technicians had sent their families out of the city. Some had relocated to other NERV-held locations, others to extended families in other towns and cities, away from the fighting and any possible incursion against NERV. More than a few of those who remained had moved into the Geo-Front itself, filling up the dormitories to avoid spending time in otherwise empty houses that only served to remind them of those they were separated from.
They would not be receiving any emotional support from that. Their faces were pinched and tired, creases and lines etched into their skin. They were exhausted, looked ashen and worn out. Their bodies ached with a need for rest, and their souls cried out for sustenance. They were all working themselves to the bone, and deep within herself, Rei knew and understood that it could not continue for long. They could not keep at it the way they were.
She was sure nobody else was thinking about this, so the obvious course of action was to organize some morale-raising event.
There were, naturally, several obvious flaws to that line of reasoning. For instance, she had no idea how to begin doing such a thing. The parties the Sub-Commander orchestrated had food, beverages, entertainment, and activities of uncertain purpose and dubious value. She had a limited resource base, and while she largely had run of NERV, she doubted she could obtain the requisite materials in the necessary quantities.
There was also the fact that the other pilots were still in the ICU. They would not benefit from any morale-raising event held while they were otherwise occupied, and they would not be able to attend while under medical observation. Any such party would have to wait until they were cleared from the hospital wing.
While she would normally only be concerned with Shinji and the other pilots at most, she had observed that Sub-Commander Katsuragi had always involved the different components of NERV, especially the command, technical, and repair teams. Therefore, she would be obligated to consider the tasks they needed to complete before any such revelry could be had, or at least incorporate a schedule that allowed maximum fun and enjoyment to be shared amongst the crews working to repair the Evangelions. All groups had been working hard ever since the incident that had seen her incarcerated, working long shifts around the clock to ensure the living weapons were capable of marching to war as soon as possible.
Nerves were frayed and tempers short, according to the MAGI. There had been more than a few altercations between various personnel, including one earlier in the day that had seen two hospitalized and three locked up. If there appeared to be any sort of 'slight' to a particular group, the potential outcome could be detrimental to the organization, contrary to Rei's intent.
A new level of respect for her commanding officer grew in the girl as she considered the problem facing her. Organizing fun, morale-boosting events without detrimental effects on work schedules or the organization's efficiency was challenging.
A security team member quickly approached them from the far side of the catwalk. "The Second Child is being released from the ICU, ma'am," he reported. She's awake, and the doctors say that while she should maximize bed rest for the three days, she's cleared for light duty."
A small smile broke across Misato's troubled face, a small weight lifted from her shoulders. "Good! Good! Is there any word on Suzahara or Shinji?"
The black-suited man shook his head. "The Third Child remains non-responsive, although there is abnormal brain activity. The Fourth Child is still in surgery."
As quickly as the smile had appeared, it vanished. "Well, it's some good news, at least," she sighed. Turning to her only combat-ready pilot, she smiled again, although as Rei studied her face, it was apparent the woman was feeling worn out. "Let's go see Asuka."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Asuka sighed as she lowered herself into the steaming water of the bathtub, trying to relax. She was sore all over, but apart from a mild concussion, she was fine. Fierce pride boiled up from within her chest, causing her to smile at the ceiling. Unit-02, for all that it was now some mystery, had done what it was supposed to, or at least what she thought it was supposed to, which was to protect her while allowing her to fight the Angel and win. Some level of damage was to be accepted or expected in these fights.
While she was still cross with the JSSDF's audacity in not waiting for her to clear the line of fire before opening up with their attack, not to mention the use of the bombs, it should at least get them to shut up about the earlier incident. It should also help pound it into their heads that they needed the Evangelions and NERV, although it shouldn't need to be a lesson they kept getting over and over again. What with the other Angels and the military's poor showings at each step, there should be no question that the Evangelion was the only thing that could kill them.
But getting the JSSDF and the UN to play ball was all up to Shinji's father, although she had her doubts about how good the man was at diplomatic relations where he didn't have a gun to the other party's head, even with the apparent necessity of the Evangelions. The man was brutal and cold, uncaring, and probably more than a little insane for all that he had spearheaded the defense of the whole world.
Of course, you probably had to be all those things to even think and operate at a level where such a thing was feasible. It would explain a lot of things about him, although there was still a lot of weird fucked up shit about him.
Like how he had sent his son away but then adopted Rei out of nowhere, though it was quite a stretch of the concept of adoption. She hadn't ever heard it used to describe a kid living on their own the way Rei had been.
Being raised by Gendo Ikari was probably what it would be like to be raised by wolves. Machiavellian wolves, with a side of Napoleon.
Not entirely a bad thing, though. If she had half the run of the place Rei did when she was a child, then things would be a lot different around here. It spoke volumes about how much of an underachiever Rei was despite all other evidence.
Her ruminations were interrupted by a scratching sound at the door, prompting her to toss one of the soaps at it. "Get out of here, Pen-Pen!"
As the penguin scampered off into the rest of the apartment, she frowned at the wall.
Toji was out of surgery and still asleep. The doctors had ended up removing his legs, and they had to replace most of his pelvis. They were already making his new legs, custom full-length ones to match Shinji's partial replacement. He would walk again, and if that had been the only damage done, he could have continued to be the athlete he had prided himself on being.
But while he had escaped with his life, there had been a lot of damage to his spine. It had been broken in eight places, and they had needed to fuse several vertebrae and replace other ones outright. It had been a miracle that he hadn't died on scene or during the almost eighteen hours of surgery. As it was, he was scheduled to go back under the knife the next day, this time to work on his left shoulder. What was left of it, anyway. It was being cleared away and getting replaced like his legs.
He would live and be able to be moderately active, but the doctors and physicians doubted his ability to be as active as he had been. His spinal column just wouldn't be able to handle it. There was some talk of LCL regeneration experiments, but while that might keep him out of pain, his spine was a lost cause.
He wasn't ever going to pilot again, though, even if they had been able to cleanse Unit-04 of Angelic taint and keep it as an Evangelion.
Ducking her head underwater, she slowly blew out her breath while counting, trying to clear her head of the depressing thoughts. When Hikari found out about it, she was going to have an aneurysm.
Wincing at the thought, she surfaced, taking a few deep breaths. Shinji had had an actual aneurysm at some point during the battle and began hemorrhaging blood into his brain. They had managed to save him, however, which was no minor miracle in and of itself, considering everything else that had been going on at the time. He was out of danger, or so they claimed, but was still in a coma, although they had been reading strange brain activity when they had left the hospital to come home, with Misato practically dragging Wondergirl behind them, not wanting to leave her out of arm's reach.
All in all, the only truly good thing that had come of the day was the blue-haired annoyance being released from solitary, the JSSDF formally lifting all charges and dropping their claims.
Sighing, the depressed redhead sank back into the water. The fact she had killed the Angel didn't matter in the light of everything else. It was getting harder and harder, she thought to herself, sinking back down under the water. She could see it on everyone's faces. The command crews, the technicians, the repair teams. Even the people not directly connected to Project E, like Section 2, the medical teams, the supply groups, or the janitorial staff.
They were getting worn out, worn thin. It was getting harder and harder to summon up the energy to do anything. They badly needed a break, and there was no sign they would get one any time soon. This one had come barely two weeks after the last, and each had taken a devastating toll on NERV just by themselves. Now add that NERV's global operations were being attacked and in danger. On top of everything else, the loss of a pilot and an Evangelion were devastating.
Resurfacing, she ran a hand through her hair. Even keeping track of the damn things was tiring.
Staring at the tiled wall, Asuka's thoughts wandered off, mulling over their problems and sliding down deeper into the water. Moments later, she shot up out of the water as sirens wailed across the war-torn city. Scrambling out of the tub, she grabbed a towel and ran out of the bathroom. Rei rushed up to her.
"An Angel has been spotted, closing rapidly on Tokyo-3," the pale girl reported, offering a mismatched pair of jeans and shirt to the still-dripping redhead. "Sub-Commander Katsuragi is starting her car."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
With lights and sirens wailing from the top of her recently modified sports car, Misato sped through the city streets towards the waiting checkpoint, swerving around other vehicles and small crowds of pedestrians as what members of the populace remained hurried for shelter. The Angel, while not the largest they had ever seen, but still an imposing and somewhat bulky figure, could be glimpsed flying towards them, seemingly wrapped up in sheets or bandages, leaving only the skull mask revealed. This one's face was different, the graceful and inquisitive bird's skull gone, replaced by a more humanoid visage, although twisted into a mournful grimace.
The MAGI were trying to scan it, according to the radio chatter coming from Central, although they were meeting with mixed results. It was armored, had four limbs, and was an Angel, but other than that, they had nothing.
"It looks like it should be in the range of the perimeter guns." Asuka offered, breaking the tense silence in the car. Rei nodded, never taking her eyes from her window.
Almost as if they had heard her comment, the long-range defensive guns began to fire, flashes of light cutting through the darkness of early evening, answered by flashes of yellow hexagons before the Angel as its AT-Field flared into life.
It was hard not to wince at each shot, as each round spent cost money NERV would have to pay to replace, but they had to slow down or at least distract the Angel until they could get loaded into the Evangelions.
So far, there had been no response from the Angel except for its defensive field, but that was of little comfort to the women in the car as they sped their way to the fortress.
"It is still moving quickly." Rei commented, watching their enemy, "It has not altered its pace or direction."
"It knows what it wants," Misato said grimly, hands tight on the wheel. "We're almost there."
A bright, sudden flash of light split the darkness, and the earth trembled violently, the car jerking to the side.
"Holy shit!" Asuka screamed, eyes wide. "Did you see that flash? That was a fucking energy blast!"
"Yes," Rei answered. "It seems it is in the same category as the Fifth Angel. Its direct energy weapon is much more powerful than the others."
Misato turned up the volume on the radio, calling back to the command crew to read back their last transmission.
"I say again, I say again!" the frantic voice of one of the second shift crew members answered, "That shot tore through eighteen layers of armor!"
The car fell into hushed silence.
"We are so fucked."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
They had forgone the modesty of the locker room, the girls tearing off clothing as they ran down the catwalks to their waiting Evangelions, a pair of techs each at the open Entry Plugs with plug suits. Practically jumping into her suit, Asuka tossed her still-damp hair out of the way of the plug suit's neck, letting the tech seal her in. Hitting the button on her wrist, she darted up the last few stairs to the waiting cockpit as her suit compacted around her, leaping into the already-filled tube.
Still getting situated in the throne as the plug sank into the war machine, she tried to relax as synchronization started, begrudging every wasted second. There was a muffled explosion, accompanied by another tremor, and she swore as an error message flashed across her screen.
"Control, I'm reading an error on the left rear AT-Field projector. I'm taking it offline and cross-loading the difference, but I'm going to have to keep the Angel on my front. I'll take up support fire, and Rei will need to take point this time."
"Acknowledged," Rei replied over the net. "All systems are functioning properly. Proceeding to weapons station one."
Asuka swore under her breath as she pulled free from the last restraints, moving to the second weapons station when another shock ripped through the fortress.
"Evangelions! The armor belt is almost penetrated. Advance into Geo-Front instead of exit lifts!"
Swearing again, louder and angrier, she grabbed as many weapons as possible and ran down the hall towards the opening doors. The artificial lights were ramping up towards noon brightness, allowing her to easily pick out the dark stain on the ceiling where the Angel was quickly blasting its way through, making short work of the armored plates of steel, concrete, and dirt.
Cursing as she got into position, she laid out her armory and threw another look up at the ceiling before sprinting back towards the entrance doors to the cages.
"Leave the doors open until I say!" she commanded over the radio. "I'm getting more guns. I have a feeling I'm going to need them."
Scooping up another armload, she ran back to her chosen spot, looking for her wingman, but the cyclopean giant was nowhere to be seen. She tossed the weapons to the ground and quickly hooked up the massive belts of ammunition into the two machine guns.
"Control, close my exit. Rei, are you ready? Where are you?"
"I am in position, Pilot-Captain," came the terse response. "I am ready."
Shaking her head, she decided to drop it. The girl was reliable enough. "Misato, do we have anything else on this bastard?"
"The energy weapon emits from its right eye socket," Misato replied from within the command room, watching the camera feeds. "Other than that, nothing new." She frowned as the Angel's AT-Field flashed into visibility repeatedly, the only sign it noticed the rings of guns and missiles firing on it. "All weapons stations, cease firing; no need to waste any more ammunition than we need."
The Angel was floating over a small, smoking crater it had been hammering with its powerful energy blasts, still wrapped in white sheet-like material. The mysterious figure instilled an uneasy dread within her, although that could be because its energy blasts were devastatingly strong. She knew from how her gut had tightened up and gone cold that this fight would be bad.
"Girls, I want you to hit it hard and fast. We're only allowing it into the Geo-Front because of time constraints. Kill it hard, kill it fast, and kill it dead."
Before the two pilots could respond, the Angel let loose the final blast that would allow it entry into the secluded and verdant garden below. Smoke and debris exploded in a spray as part of the dome's ceiling caved in. Asuka waited for the briefest of moments before she opened with two of the Evangelion-sized machine guns, sending almost twenty rounds a second up into the smoke, setting her sensors into a rapid cycle of different settings, hoping to catch sight of her foe.
The sound of the twin guns was deafening in the mostly enclosed space, a rolling sheet of thunder and roaring chaos that drowned out all other sounds, even of the enormous brass casings falling to the ground in an ever-growing pile before her. The sustained sound crossed the line of merely an audible vibration traveling through the air. It became a terrific, rapid throb that reverberated throughout the Geo-Front, shaking the men and women who rushed about their vital errands. Inside the shelters, children screamed while the adults looked at each other in stark fear.
Asuka's first sign of the Angel was a glowing field of burning gold that slowly pressed against the normally deadly stream of depleted uranium that beat against it like a glacier moving through a mountain range. Howling in fury, she ignored the warning messages that flashed in her eyes about the heat building up on the barrels, pushing the weapons to their very limits and waiting for the ammunition counter to hit zero.
As soon as the guns clicked empty, she dropped them and snatched up one of two missile launchers, her fingers triggering them almost as soon as she brought it up to her shoulder. All four missiles launched, but the combined force of their back blast was still not enough to cause her to recoil. Dumping the pod to the right, she had the second up before the first set of missiles impacted against the Angel's AT-Field.
Inside the control room, Maya could not keep from pointing out to the group that the Pilot-Captain's synchronization had jumped up several points to a new group record of fifty-nine percent. While quiet, her voice rang with pride.
Fire in her eyes, Asuka dumped the following four missiles at the Angel, her towering figure a crimson blur as she grabbed a pallet rifle, bringing it up to her shoulder and opening fire as her second batch of rockets broke against the glowing shield, just barely audible over the dying echoes of the sustained machine gun fire.
"Die! Die! Die!" she howled, dumping the entire magazine of rounds up at the still-advancing foe. The grimacing face was barely visible behind the bright shield as the Angel continued its sedate advance. It was still high above the surface where Asuka stood, defiantly sending destruction towards it, as inexorable and uncaring as an advancing glacier. "Just die already!"
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
The nurse looked up from her unconscious charge towards the ceiling as the terrible vibrations and roaring thunder died away, hoping the worst was over. She didn't notice the door sliding open and felt the soft punches in her chest before she understood the significance of the dull coughs from the room's entrance. Shuddering, she looked over at the black-suited men, one hand going to her gunshot wounds, the other grasping for the bed's rail as the strength went out of her legs. Falling to the floor, she gasped, trying to breathe, pulling herself up and reaching for the emergency call button, ignoring the pistol in her pocket.
She heard one of the three men swear in a foreign language as he rushed towards them, kicking at her, but he was too late. She pressed the button with all her strength, feeling it connect as the man pulled her away, tossing her to the side as the others started pulling the boy from the gurney and manhandling him into a wheelchair. With her last bit of life, she pulled the small subcompact out and shot the man who killed her in the back.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Gendo frowned as a small red light began to blink on his desk, drawing his attention away from the battle on the main viewer. He picked up the phone and dialed the nurse station in the pilot's medical wing.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Without any warning, as it usually was with the Angels, the leering skull seemed to wink as a burning line of energy leaped from one of the dark eye sockets towards Asuka, who threw up her AT-Field, neutralizing and diverting the majority of the blast, but was still thrown backward, plowing through part of the meticulously tended forest that surrounded the glass pyramid of NERV Central.
As the red titan went sprawling, Unit-00 leaped into view behind and to the left of the Angel, two progressive knives in hand, the arc of the jump bringing her down straight onto the powerful enemy. Inside the Entry Plug, Rei leaned forward, her normally placid face twisted with concentration, intent on killing her foe before further damage could be done.
Her frown of concentration became a wide-eyed look of shock as the Angel shot off to the right at an almost unbelievable speed, causing her to miss the landing. Twisting in midair, she threw one knife at the Angel, bringing her legs in to land in a crouch, gouging a great divot in the earth. Springing forward, she charged at the Angel as Asuka rolled to her feet, bringing the rifle up to resume firing.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Still rocking back and forth, chanting under his breath, Shinji screamed as a pair of arms embraced him from behind, and a tall woman drew him in for a hug.
"Oh, Misato!" the boy exclaimed, turning around. "I couldn't find anyone, and the Angel is- is..." his words died into a sputter as he stared at the woman who had hugged him. It was not Misato but a tall, pale woman whose features shifted and changed every few seconds. She looked like the memory of his mother but mixed with Misato, Asuka, Rei, Lieutenant Ibuki, Dr. Akagi, and Hikari...
She was weeping, twin trails of orange running down her face, which was twisted with pain and sorrow.
I WILL BE FAITHFUL TO MY PROMISE, BUT YOU MUST WAKE UP, MY CHILD. WAKE UP AND LEAVE SOME OF YOUR PAIN WITH ME, FOR THIS IS ALL MY FAULT.
She squeezed him against herself, tightening the embrace as he flailed about, trying to escape.
Shinji shut his eyes as he felt his flesh begin to sink into that of the woman's, and a strange euphoric rush filled him.
WAKE UP, SHINJI IKARI. THEY NEED YOUR HELP, AND YOU ARE IN GREAT DANGER.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji awoke suddenly but silently, his eyes snapping open, not knowing where he was. The last thing he remembered was fighting the Angel, and going into the shadow, but that was it. He knew he was in a moving car with three men, all shouting at each other, but he could barely hear them over the familiar din of an Angel fight.
"We need to get to the extraction point before Ikari realizes we've taken him! Even with this shit going on, it won't be long until someone notices what we did!"
He jerked upright out of the slump he had been in as he instantly realized what the driver had meant, one hand fumbling for the seat belt release and the other going for the door handle, his limbs feeling sluggish after being asleep for so long.
"Oh, shit, he's fucking awake!" the man sitting next to their captive in the rear seat exclaimed, roughly grabbing at the boy's shoulder, slamming him back against the seat. "Get the tranq!"
Thrashing as best he could to get out of the man's grip, Shinji's eyes locked on to the three titans battling in the near distance, a new terror gripping him and commanding his attention.
They were fighting inside the Geo-Front, currently rampaging through the lovingly tended forest, almost a few strides from the central highway or the pyramid that served as the main office.
Free of the seatbelt, he lunged for the door, hoping to get out of the current situation, but the driver suddenly swerved as Unit-02 was thrown back from the Angel, taking out a chunk of the road.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Fuck!" Asuka screamed, leaping back to her feet and rushing towards the Angel, picking up another pallet rifle. "Misato, what the fuck is this Section-2 car doing out here? I thought we evacuated everyone!"
Misato frowned in confusion, keying in the girl's feed, watching the car swerve around the giant and continue on its unknown business.
"I'm not sure what they're doing, but I'll find-"
"STOP THAT CAR!" Gendo bellowed from his throne above the chaos of the command pits. The whole of the room looked up at him in shock. He was standing, leaning against the desk, his phone gripped in one gloved hand, the other pointing at the car. "They have kidnapped my son!"
"What?" Asuka said, not quite sure she had understood the background conversation properly. "Misato, did the Commander just say that someone's kidnapped Shinji? Who would-"
Unit-00's head twisted towards the black car speeding along from where it battled the Angel.
"Oh, shit," Asuka said. "Rei! Don't you fucking dare! Keep on the Angel! Kill it!" Spinning around, she scrambled after the car.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Rei slashed at the Angel with her knives, her eyes beginning to glow. She did not have time to deal with the Angel. This was taking too long.
Shinji was being abducted.
Shinji was in danger.
She did not have time for this.
Her eye twitched as the Angel ducked between her and the car, escaping towards the cave's far end, the Pilot-Captain in close pursuit.
Her face twisted for the briefest moment in fury before she reestablished the practiced and ingrained stillness to her features, as her synchronization rate shot up several points.
One must never lose their composure, no matter how dire the circumstances. Never let them see what you felt; this was the wisdom of the Supreme Commander.
She slammed the Angel to the side with all her might, sending it rolling over the ground. Turning, she chased after the car, ignoring the cries coming over the communication net.
Before she had taken a second step, however, she was sent sprawling as the Angel's energy blast washed over her AT-Field.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Fucking knock it off, kid! This is for your own good!" the agent shouted at Shinji as the two struggled in the back seat, as the front passenger tried to stick the boy with the hypodermic needle.
"Oh, shit." the driver moaned, swerving as the red titan pursued them, effortlessly closing in on them. "They noticed!"
As they jostled for position, Shinji felt the hard shape of the man's pistol through the jacket tucked into the quick-draw holster on his belt. Twisting around, he slipped his hand in, awkwardly closing in on the pistol grip.
He felt more than heard the man's sharp intake of breath. "Don't do it, kid!"
Shinji hesitated only for a moment.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"I have gunshots inside the car!" Asuka shouted, her voice strangely cold and angry as the black sedan spun off the road, red blood coating the inside of the windshield. "Oh, god, he's alive. He's alive!" She called into the microphone as a rear door opened, and the boy spilled out, covered in blood. "He doesn't have his leg!"
"We've got recovery inbound! Return to assist Rei!" Misato ordered, quickly scanning the feed of the boy as he weakly crawled away from the car on all threes, vomiting.
"Roger!" Asuka replied before switching on her external speakers. "Shinji! Help is on the way! I've got to go help kill the Angel!" She waited until he waved one arm at her and threw a thumbs-up at the boy.
She picked up the car and flung it at the others, changing back to her internal communications. "Wondergirl! Heads up, fastball special coming in!" she warned her wingman, opening fire on the automobile as it neared the Angel, showing both belligerents with burning fuel and shrapnel. Unable to trigger its AT-Field, the Angel warbled as fire cascaded. It retreated, pulling back for the first time since it had appeared, as the tightly wound bandage-like wrapping loosened up, falling off from its squat, powerful-looking form.
The Evangelions appeared to be modeled after a lithe human body, and several of the Angels had been roughly humanoid. This one looked to be from a shorter, more muscular stock than the others had been, but oddly enough, where there should have been arms, there were only short nubs that appeared to be connected to the loose wrapping sheets.
Those sheets suddenly began to coil up tightly, a great wind following them as they were drawn into the Angel's body.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Shinji ignored the doctor's questions as he watched the others fighting in the distance through the window of the ambulance as they sped out of the danger zone and back to safety, sucking in a sharp breath as Unit-00 went flying back, struck in the chest by one of the Angel's strange appendages, the uprooted tree the pilot had been using as a weapon thrown into the glass-covered building.
"Is Unit-01 operational?" he asked again, panic in his voice, his heart racing.
"Yes, but we need to make sure that you're alright! You've been in a coma, and there's the question of mental contamination. We need to"
Unit-00 crossed into view again, leaping over the ambulance as it hurried back towards the central pyramid. One arm was cut off, blood and oil spraying out in a dying stream as the internal emergency components kicked into gear to minimize loss of pressure, but not fast enough to keep from dousing the vehicle with foul fluids, prompting the driver to curse.
Shinji turned to look the medic in the eyes, fire in his own and steel in his voice. "We need to get me to Unit-01."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Damage is minimal- but I must retreat to retrieve another weapon," Rei reported into the communications net. "I will return momentarily."
"Hurry up!" the Pilot-Captain ordered as she dodged one of the same blows that had cost Rei an arm. "If you're not back soon, I don't know if I can keep him contained!"
"I will return momentarily," Rei repeated, keying in a silent command to the MAGI, telling them to bring the weapon to the nearest delivery point. The supercomputers acknowledged the command, spinning into action, loading the specified device into the device delivery system, and routing it to her in seconds.
Gripping her remaining hand around the lance's shaft, Rei allowed herself a small smile.
Is this the one? Unit-00 asked her younger sister; pain and annoyance were present in equal amounts. Is this the atomic lance? The war machine sounded eager. Eager and ready to glorify in the destruction promised by the modified weapon.
Turning them around, Rei couched the long weapon, bending into a sprinter's starting stance. Lining up on the Angel, she nodded. "This is the one." Carefully watching the emergency vehicle speed back towards her position and the questionable safety of the inner fortress, she nodded with satisfaction. "The Angel is powerful; capable of withstanding sustained assault from conventional weapons and tactics." As Unit-00 exploded into motion, charging back into the fray, her eyes blazing with crimson fire. "Let our next experiment see how it reacts to Science."
Unit-00's howl of vicious exultation was lost in the din of battle but brought a small smile to her sister's face, one that was reflected across all of her drones.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
"Where is that girl?" Asuka complained, leaping into the air over the top of one of its arms, firing both of her spike throwers at the Angel and peppering it with the last few rounds in her pallet rifle. "Central, I'm all out of ammo. I'm switching my AT-Field to full front and going in."
"Please step aside, Pilot-Captain."
Unit-00 thundered past the red Evangelion in a white blur, and Asuka barely saw the long weapon in the giant's arm leveled at their foe.
"What's that weapon? You could have gotten my sword!" Asuka screamed in rage, chasing the other girl back into the devastated forest.
Rei ignored the belittling remarks and activated the control circuits she had integrated into the shaft, drawing her AT-Field into and then projecting it out of the lance, far ahead of her.
The Angel's AT-Field flared into life, the powerful force field shining with bright light and dying as Rei's focused AT-Field tore through it.
"What?!" Asuka bit off, eyes narrowing as she watched a hole tear through the golden shield. "Oh, you clever little minx!" she crowed exultantly. "You copied my sword! When did you do that?"
Deep inside the control room, Gendo turned to look at his friend, a troubled frown on his face. "When did she do that?"
Kozo shrugged, his face a perfect mix of worry and amusement.
Rei felt the tip of the lance hit home against the Angel's front, the barbed tip hitting and punching through otherwise unyielding armor. "Eyes," she announced over the net, but keeping her own open, wanting to watch. She triggered the control circuit, sending the fatal command to the modified W33 howitzer shell that formed the tip while reestablishing her AT-Field in front of her as an angled wedge.
The tactical nuclear artillery shell detonated with the force of ten kilotons of TNT, two-thirds the amount of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The blast wave broke against her AT-Field, the devastating release of energy washing around her.
Asuka swore as she staggered back, triggering her energy shield. "Wondergirl, you crazy bitch! Was that a fucking nuke?" She set her system to scan through the different settings again before dropping her AT-Field to try pinging the area the way Shinji could, but she still found herself unable to properly shape the waveform.
Returning to the visible light spectrum, she stared at the smoking, dust-choked haze. Switching back to thermals, she scanned the ceiling of the vast dome, shaking her head. "Rei, they are going to be pissed at you... I think you wiped out most of the ceiling and the lower levels."
"If we can confirm the Angel has been defeated, it will not matter."
"Rei," Asuka said, shaking her head, "this goes beyond normal. You can't just detonate a nuke and not expect there to be some sort of inquiry!"
"This Angel posed a threat far greater than any prior. It was the first to successfully gain entrance to the Geo-Front." She paused, looking around at the destruction she had wrought on the very place she fought so hard to protect, a small twinge in her stomach. "It was an acceptable, if unfortunate, necessity."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
The shock wave slammed into the pyramid, destroying almost every window on the building, although the squat structure remained otherwise undamaged. If the exterior offices had not been evacuated along with the 'outside', the death toll among the workers would have been catastrophic. As it was, everyone was deeper inside the fortified location, and those civilian shelters sitting near the dome were empty, all occupants having been redirected to ones further away from the Geo-Front itself in the event of a highly energetic Angel death.
Even so, to say that the use of Rei's atomic lance came as a surprise to the command crews and the command staff was a gross understatement.
"What the fuck was that?!" Misato screamed, pulling herself off the floor with the help of one of the bolted-in-place technician chairs. "Did she just set off a nuke? Who fucking authorized that?" She glared up at Gendo and Kozo, who merely shrugged, not even trying to play the incident off as something that had been planned. "Reestablish comms, now!"
"Nothing on the scans! Trying to ascertain damage to internal systems!"
"Evangelions are still active! No damage reported!"
"Communications restored!"
"Rei! What the hell did you just do?" Misato snapped, eyes scanning the greatly diminished flow of information dancing across the screens.
"I have dealt with the Angel, Sub-Commander." Rei's voice crackled back over the speakers in the same breathless whisper it always was, making an odd counterpoint to the havoc she had just unleashed.
"Rei..." Misato ground out, half listening to the others as they reported the varying levels of damage to their defenses and systems, "what exactly did you use?"
"I used a modified W33 shell from the stocks of emergency weapons." There was a short pause, and then Rei continued speaking as if prompted by someone else. "I deemed it a necessary precaution as this Angel posed a great threat to NERV and was not responding favorably to our current tactical approach."
Misato made a strangling noise somewhere deep in the back of her throat, but Gendo spoke up, cutting whatever response she was about to make off. "There will be time for further investigation later, Sub-Commander. Let us first ascertain if the Angel has been defeated or not." Lowering his voice, he turned to his friend. "Also, see if Shinji made it inside before the blast."
Kozo nodded, turned, and left without a sound.
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier!
Despite the massive hole where the Angel had gained entry into the Geo-Front and the ventilation fans turned to maximum, it took almost twenty minutes to clear out the cloud of dust and smoke from the giant underground cavern. As the haze began to clear, the full power of Rei's modified weapon became apparent. Gone were the lush forest and fields, and the deep lake home to the battleship was almost empty. What trees that had not been flattened were burning in tiny clumps that dotted the terrain.
But as disheartening as that was, it was nothing compared to the crater in which stood the regenerating Angel.
A little over three-quarters of it remained, although a quarter of that looked to be freshly regenerated material mixed with the twisted ruins of its old body. A glowing field surrounded the Angel; they could watch the burned flesh grow and rebuild inside the glowing curtain.
"Well, fuck." Asuka announced, flopping back against her seat. "It's regenerating, and regenerating fast. Look at that shit!"
"Advance and neutralize the field," Misato commanded, watching the situation unfolding before her with hate in her eyes. "Destroy it while it's weak."
Asuka grinned, but her heart wasn't in it. "Yes, sir!" she replied, picking up her sword. The Evangelions had reequipped themselves, acquiring more weapons, and Asuka had picked up her sword, though it was still riskier for her to enter melee with the sub-optimal rear projectors. "C'mon Rei, let's go finish what we started."
"Yes." Asuka's smile warmed as she heard the annoyed undertones in the other girl's voice, who clearly was put out that her little toy hadn't killed the Angel.
"How do you want to do this one? Tight angle fields to take down its defenses, followed by a sword to its guts?"
"That will be acceptable."
Still grinning, Asuka refocused her AT-Field into a tight, narrow band, pushing it out ahead of her to erode a path through the Angel's own field, aided by Rei. "Hey, at least Shinji woke up. We've got that going for us!"
While the command team was being tight-lipped, and with Misato being very unhappy with them at the moment, they knew the boy appeared to be in good health, if unable to remember anything after being sucked into the Dirac sea of the 14th Angel's body. They were running a whole battery of tests on him, and he wasn't going to get into Unit-01 anytime soon, despite his protests that they needed his help.
Which they might have needed, Asuka admitted to herself as she watched their fields erode through the Angel's glimmering defense had Rei's weapon not been as successful as it was. Instead, he was having samples drawn, and they were about to give the final stroke to the latest threat to the future of humanity. That was what he got, though, for always hanging out in comas. You missed out on stuff, being asleep like that.
She wondered if they had told him about Toji yet.
"Enemy AT-Field is down," Asuka announced, advancing the final distance, pulling up her sword into an overhead stance, ready to strike the Angel's vulnerable core. Now was not the time to dwell on the unreliability of the boy. Now was the time to kill the enemy.
There was a sudden flash of light and almost too fast to see the blur of movement, and then Asuka screamed in sudden pain, clutching at her shoulders as her Evangelion's arms fell to the ground. Eyes rolling up into the back of her head as she howled in pain, beating her feet against the footboard of the Entry Plug, Asuka missed the bandage-like arms of the Angel retracting and couldn't hear the shouted warnings over the communications net.
"Cut the synchronization!" As the Angel surged with new life, Misato screamed, "Rei, kill it! Kill it NOW!"
Rei's only response was to charge at the Angel, shoving the horrifically wounded Unit-02 out of the way of an arm aimed at its neck, taking the blow herself, wincing as the top half of one shoulder fin fell away.
The Angel danced out of reach of the spear she held, trying to dart around her to strike at the fallen Evangelion. One extended arm missed its target again as Rei forced the Angel to move back again as she lunged forward, jabbing the spear at her enemy's midsection.
Beginning to grow exceedingly angry at the grotesquely grimacing Angel, Rei felt her sister's mind pushing into her own as their synchronization grew stronger. Her eyes began to glow with a red light matching the glow of the crimson orb she was targeting, and new strength and speed flowed through her as Unit-00's movements became more fluid, beginning to blur with the same speed the Angel showed.
Inside the control room, Misato motioned to Maya. "Lieutenant, get Ritsuko on the phone. Have her get Shinji to Unit-01. Also, have the emergency crews get Unit-01 prepped to go out."
Maya spun back to her station, already working on it as Misato returned her attention to the screen. "Send the eject signal to Unit-02. Get recovery teams on it, and get Asuka to the medical wing."
Rei smiled with relief as she heard the sound of the emergency ejection rockets as Unit-02's Entry Plug shot free of the stricken Evangelion. Pressing the attack, she shot the spear at the Angel, catching its midsection as it tried to back further away.
The Angel bellowed angrily, sending both thin, deadly sheets at the pale Evangelion. Rei deftly avoided them and darted forward to grab the spear handle and smash one armored fist into the grimacing face. Shoving all her weight against the gored Angel, she knocked it to the ground, pinning it in place. Reaching up to the undamaged shoulder fin, she drew the progressive knife stored there and brought it down against the red orb.
Her tight, angry smile vanished as an armored shield sprang up into place over the core, her knife shattering against the bone-like plate. The Angel shuddered rhythmically, and Rei realized it was laughing at her.
She leaped backward immediately, robbing the Angel of another kill as one of its sheet-like limbs cut through the space she had just evacuated. Throwing herself into a sideways roll, she picked up Asuka's sword, bounding ahead and under the Angel's attack while swinging it around with none of the graceful skill the German girl had. Still, the weapon did as it was designed to do and cut through the AT-Field of the Angel, causing it to duck backward away from her charging advance. It seemed unwilling to let her come near it with the sword, and its arms also shied away from the blade.
That small fact gave the girl some hope as she pressed her attack, trying to formulate a plan with her sister as they advanced on their foe.
The downside of the current situation was that the Angel's energy weapon didn't require it to risk being hit by the sword.
The blast, while partially absorbed and deflected by her AT-Field, took off her remaining arm and a large part of her upper torso. Rei shrieked as pain flooded her system, gasping as she tried to pull away.
The Angel swept by her, one arm cutting off her feet, sending her toppling. Leaving her fallen form, it floated across the blasted landscape towards the broken pyramid.
It vocalized a dreadful cry as it advanced on the devastated fortress of its enemies, no foes left to stand between it and the Great Mother down below.