M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
Tell me about it. I was having A&T flashbacks for a second.
-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
You Are (Not) at Fault
- Thread starter MisterHalt
- Start date
Chapter 25.1
- Location
- Australia, mate
Once again, I'm on a roll. The next few pieces will probably come out fairly rapidly. Hell, the next snippet's pretty much done already.
Of course, I do have a bit of an advantage there, as you'll soon see.
**
Chapter 25.1
"Shinji, how are you feeling?"
The Third Child looked around his entry plug. It had not yet been inserted and filled with LCL yet, as final checks were under way. He looked up at the comm window and replied, "Um... nervous."
On the screen, Misato nodded. "I guess that's to be expected. Just relax, we'll go as slow as you want."
Since a test for Shinji and Unit-01 had been organised, the decision had been made to give the First and Second Children an impromptu sync test first while the purple Evangelion and its pilot were preparing.
Asuka stood on the gantry next to the entry plug, an LCL-stained towel dangling around her neck as she leaned into the plug. Her sync test had gone without incident as usual, and she was now here to lend her support to the Third Child. "Remember, if you sync, that'd be great. If you can't, then I'd better not see you acting like you've let us down. Got it?"
"Y-yes, Asuka," the boy said as he twisted in his chair to regard her.
"Good." Asuka smiled at him, then slapped the metal tube with one gloved hand before stepping away to let it close. As the plug was inserted into Unit-01, she moved out of the testing chamber. While she would have much preferred to remain as close as possible, the girl had to make do with watching from the control room.
At the doorway leading out of the chamber, she stopped and glanced back at the purple Evangelion one last time. Almost half of its body was locked down with massive metal restraints for this test. While Misato and Ritsuko had faith in Shinji, that faith was lacking for Unit-01 itself.
Asuka shuddered, recalling the last time the beast had come to life. If given the choice, she'd rather have Shinji never able to pilot than to have him trapped inside a berserking Evangelion. Especially one with a limitless energy supply and an unstable temperament.
The S2 Organ inside Unit-01 had been inactive ever since the aftermath of the first Revenant's attack. Nobody had the courage to try and turn it back on, but the Evangelion itself was known to activate without a signal from NERV. Could the S2 Organ do the same?
While heading towards the control room, Asuka brought her towel up to vigorously dry her hair. She had even foregone a shower in order to not miss the activation test, and as she entered the room she saw that the First Child had apparently thought the same. Both female pilots were anxiously watching to see how Shinji would fare in his first real attempt at synchronising.
The German girl barely noticed the time pass as the test progressed. Unit-01 had predictably refused to activate on the first attempt, but she knew that Shinji was not going to give up so soon. An hour passed, and the LCL on the bodies of Rei and Asuka dried completely out, but neither were willing to leave. The best that the technicians had gotten out of the recalcitrant machine in that hour had been a few flickers on a console that had sent Asuka's hopes soaring only to crash back down again moments later. At one point, Ritsuko suggested taking a break, and the poor woman withered under the combined glares of the two pilots and Misato. Shinji himself stubbornly refused, claiming that he'd only leave the plug when he succeeded.
It wasn't until the start of the third hour that something significant finally occurred.
"Unit-01 has activated!"
Asuka jumped in shock. She had been absently chewing on a fingernail for the past half an hour, and the sudden announcement almost made her bite the tip of her finger off.
"Is everything okay in there, Shinji?" Misato asked nervously. Both the Commander and Sub-Commander looked like they were desperate for a cigarette.
"It's... cold..." Shinji eventually replied, eyes still closed. "Why is it so cold?"
"Cold? Do you mean the LCL temperature?" Ritsuko inquired. "Let me adjust the-"
"No." The Third Child shook his head vigorously. "The Eva itself. Unit-01 feels cold."
Asuka glanced at Rei, the same concerned expression on both their faces. With the loss of the original souls inhabiting their own Units, so too had they lost the warm comforting sensation that sitting in an active Evangelion had given them.
Did this mean that Yui Ikari was no longer in Unit-01?
"Shinji," Asuka called out. The boy opened his eyes and looked through the comm window at her. "Can you... can you feel her at all in there?"
"...Her? Oh..." His face contorted into a grimace. "I don't really know." The grimace faded slightly as Shinji closed his eyes once more. Several tense minutes passed before he eventually sighed and said, "I can't tell. There might be... something that feels like her, but it's so faint I can't be certain."
Rei stepped closer to Asuka and whispered, "Lilith attempted to put a piece of her soul in there, but was repelled. Perhaps Yui Ikari is still in there, but has closed herself off. Perhaps she regrets the choices she made."
Asuka frowned and stepped away from the screen before softly growling. "Good! That crazy bitch deliberately abandoned her son, traumatised Shinji by making him watch his mother die, and then decided ten years later to not bother helping him when I was in trouble, leaving him to believe that it was his fault I died."
Rei made no attempt to defend the person who was the entire reason she existed. The blood of Yui Ikari might flow in her veins, but it was clear she held no emotional attachment to the woman.
Behind them, Ritsuko was talking quietly to Maya. After a minute she looked up at the screen and said, "Alright, Shinji. How do you feel about a sync test?"
Shinji shrugged. "Might as well get it out of the way." His tone made it clear that he would have preferred to end the testing now, however.
Ritsuko nodded in understanding. "It won't be a very long one. We've already been here for three hours."
It still took half an hour for the results to come in, and the glance the scientist gave Misato was not a good one. "We're done here, Shinji. We'll let you get out of there now."
Shinji shot the screen a look of abject relief as Unit-01 powered down and the comm system switched off.
As Asuka and Rei left the control box to meet their fellow pilot, Asuka heard Ritsuko mutter, "27%. Just barely over the threshold."
"Give him a bit of time, Rits," Misato replied. "He hasn't done this in a long time."
The rest of the conversation was cut off by the closing door.
**
As expected, there were no physical complications with Rei after her abduction. The teenagers and their families weren't allowed to go home that night, as cleanup was still under way, and so rooms at NERV were quickly prepared for all of them to stay in. But just as Asuka and Shinji were about to drift off to sleep, the door to their allotted room hissed open. In walked a visibly shaking Rei, and the redhead understood instantly what was wrong. After all, she had seem Shinji acting in a similar fashion.
The First Child was scared.
What followed was an hour of attempting to comfort and reassure the bluenette, but eventually Asuka called for somebody to shift Rei's bed into their room. With the other two pilots in the same room, Rei eventually managed to fall asleep.
The next morning saw Asuka awake first, and she wasn't very surprised to see that Rei had migrated into Shinji's bed during the night, laying down behind him and wrapping her arms around her brother like he was a large teddy bear. While she knew that the act was purely out of a desire to keep the fear away, she had still been insanely jealous of the girl.
Even when they were finally allowed to return to the apartment, the same pattern repeated itself for the next few days. Rei also refused to go to school, even leave the apartment, and nobody thought it unusual considering the circumstances.
After several nights of this routine, Rei didn't come into their room at all one night. The next morning, the bluenette, back in her school uniform, expressed her gratitude for letting her sleep in Shinji's bed, before heading off to school.
Shinji insisted on having a test every day during this time period, and nobody had the heart to deny him. His sync ratio climbed, but in incredibly small amounts. Running diagnostics didn't help much, but he eventually made it to 30%. At that point, the decision was made to run Unit-01 through some simulations.
They had to start with the complete basics, simply because the reaction times of Unit-01 were badly hampered by the low sync ratio, but Shinji's prior experience allowed him to eventually pass the simulations despite the handicap.
**
Asuka discovered she was more proud of Shinji than she could have ever anticipated when he finally managed to defeat the simulacrum of the Third Angel. She had to almost physically restrain herself from hugging the boy when he got out of the entry plug, settling instead for a congratulatory pat on the shoulder and a smile.
After all three pilots had showered, dressed and gone back to the apartment, Shinji busied himself with laundry while Rei caught up with the homework she had missed. Asuka was in the lounge room watching television when Shinji came in and passed something to her.
"Hey Asuka, this was in the pocket of your pants." It was the music tape that Kensuke had made.
"Crap, I forgot about this," Asuka sighed. "Thanks."
Before Shinji could comment on why she had a cassette, the redhead disappeared into her bedroom and brought out the SDAT player from its hiding place. She plugged in the headphones and listened to the tape for a few minutes, smiling at the much improved sound quality.
When she heard the washing machine start up, Asuka went out into the kitchen with her hands behind her back and intercepted Shinji as he left the laundry.
"Hey, remember a few days ago when I mentioned that Rei thought of something to help you?" she asked.
Shinji nodded. "Yes, but then you apparently forgot about it."
"I did not forget!" Asuka replied with a huff. "It just slipped my mind, what with everything that happened."
"Um... you said only a few minutes ago that you..."
The redhead turned away, folding her arms at the same time to conceal their contents. "Well, if you're going to be like that, then I guess I won't show you what her idea was."
"W-wait!"
Inwardly, Asuka smiled. It felt good to act like this again. She was obviously not really going to keep the surprise from him, and he undoubtedly knew that as well. "Oh fine, I suppose I'll show you, despite how rude you just were to me."
"Rude? Me?"
Shinji wisely shut up at the look Asuka shot him over her shoulder.
"Alright, close your eyes and hold out your hands," she ordered. The boy did so, and she placed the SDAT player in his outstretched hands, holding back the headphones to keep him guessing a little longer.
When Asuka let Shinji open his eyes, he almost dropped the music player in shock. "M-my... where did you get this?!" he exclaimed.
"Rei found it," replied Asuka. "She saw how you lose yourself in music, and thought this would be a good way to keep your thoughts away from other people. Have a listen to your tape now."
Shinji looked at her suspiciously, but plugged in the headphones and started the SDAT. He closed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side as he attempted to work out what he was listening for. Finally, he opened his eyes and asked, "Is... this a fresh tape?" After hearing what Kensuke had done to help, he smiled earnestly, saying, "Thank you."
"You're welcome. But Rei and I have a condition for you using this." Asuka put her hands on his shoulders as she continued. "Please don't use this to shut out the world when you don't need to. If you're feeling down, talk to somebody. There are plenty of people who'd be happy to help."
For a long time, Shinji stared down at his SDAT player, his hand clenching around it occasionally. Just as Asuka thought he was going to crack the case, he looked up and said, "...Alright. I'll only use it to go outside."
Asuka smiled widely. "Good. Want to try it out now?"
"Um... what?"
"We never got to go to the music store." A look of sudden realisation crossed Shinji's face. "And... damnit!"
"What's wrong?"
Asuka slapped a palm to her forehead. "I left my violin in the Section Two car that took us to NERV," she groaned.
Fortunately, the same vehicle was sitting in their parking lot, and a politely-worded request got the violin returned. A look at Shinji made Asuka change her plan slightly, and a second polite request resulted in them being driven to the mall by Section Two.
The redhead kept a close eye on Shinji as they proceeded through the semi-crowded shopping centre. Though her plan seemed to be working, as the boy didn't appear to be reacting much to passersby, he still occasionally glanced nervously at anybody whose path took them too close to him.
The musical instrument store was almost completely empty, with only one other person browsing the instruments and somebody behind the counter. Asuka frowned. It wasn't Masami, but the young man did look like a younger version of him.
"May I help you today?" the man said as Asuka approached the front desk. Behind her, Shinji had taken his headphones off and gravitated to the sheet music, flicking through several pages.
"I certainly hope so," she replied, carefully placing the violin case on the counter. "Do you happen to know anywhere in town that repairs antique instruments?"
"Hmm. How bad is the damage?"
In response, Asuka opened the case and turned it around to show him the violin. She nodded at his inquiring look, and the man carefully extracted the damaged instrument. While the neck hadn't snapped off entirely, any attempt to play the violin would likely finish the job, and Asuka didn't particularly care to see how it would sound as it currently was. She was already dreading the decrease in quality the antique instrument would suffer as a result of the damage and repair.
"Well, I have two pieces of good news for you," the young man said after a minute. "But also some bad news. This is fixable, and I know somebody who can do it."
"If the bad news is the price, I don't care about that," Asuka interrupted. "I just want this fixed."
With a chuckle and a wave of his hand, the clerk replied, "No, no, not the price. My father can repair this, and probably even make it as good as new."
The redhead interrupted again. "Is your father Masami?"
"Oh, you know him already?" A raised eyebrow from the clerk. "You've shopped here before, haven't you?"
Lowering her voice, Asuka replied, "Yeah, he helped me get the right gift for my... friend."
"I see." He placed the violin back in its case and excused himself as he stepped into the back room. He returned a moment later, a familiar grey-haired old man in tow who had his right arm in a sling.
Masami lightly rebuked his son when he found out who was in the store, before explaining the bad news to Asuka. He had the ability to repair the violin, but had broken his arm during the last Revenant attack when an inconsiderate person had knocked him over while trying to get into the Angel shelter. It was going to take a couple more weeks to heal, and even then he wouldn't be able to put much strain on the limb.
Asuka groaned in complaint at the next obstacle preventing her from joining Shinji in his musical pastime, but she knew there was nothing that could be done, unless she wanted to go looking for somebody else that could repair antiques. But now that she knew that Masami was capable of such a task, could she trust anybody else? Without even knowing Shinji, the old man had picked out exactly the right cello bow for him. What wonder could he work on a damaged musical instrument?
At Masami's suggestion, she decided to leave the violin with him. While he was unable to repair it just yet, he could at least examine it and organise what needed to be done.
Afterwards, she introduced Masami to Shinji, who was now holding several sheet music books. Shinji bowed low and thanked the man for his effort in selecting the boy's birthday gift from Asuka.
"One day, if it is alright with you, I would like to hear you play, young man," Masami requested.
Shinji gulped nervously, and Asuka chose to answer for him. "He'd be happy to."
Both of their phones chose that moment to ring.
The two teenagers stared at each other for a moment, all too aware of what such a thing meant. Asuka almost ran out of the store, while Shinji fumbled with the music books in his hands.
"I'll hold onto them for you," Masami offered, taking them from his unresisting hands. "Go and protect us."
Throwing a grateful look at the old man, Shinji ran out of the store to catch up with Asuka. As he drew level with her, she reached out and latched onto his hand before accelerating into a run herself.
"Shinji?" the redhead growled.
"Um... yes?"
"Remind me after this is over to teach you some German swear words."
"Um... okay..."
Of course, I do have a bit of an advantage there, as you'll soon see.
**
Chapter 25.1
"Shinji, how are you feeling?"
The Third Child looked around his entry plug. It had not yet been inserted and filled with LCL yet, as final checks were under way. He looked up at the comm window and replied, "Um... nervous."
On the screen, Misato nodded. "I guess that's to be expected. Just relax, we'll go as slow as you want."
Since a test for Shinji and Unit-01 had been organised, the decision had been made to give the First and Second Children an impromptu sync test first while the purple Evangelion and its pilot were preparing.
Asuka stood on the gantry next to the entry plug, an LCL-stained towel dangling around her neck as she leaned into the plug. Her sync test had gone without incident as usual, and she was now here to lend her support to the Third Child. "Remember, if you sync, that'd be great. If you can't, then I'd better not see you acting like you've let us down. Got it?"
"Y-yes, Asuka," the boy said as he twisted in his chair to regard her.
"Good." Asuka smiled at him, then slapped the metal tube with one gloved hand before stepping away to let it close. As the plug was inserted into Unit-01, she moved out of the testing chamber. While she would have much preferred to remain as close as possible, the girl had to make do with watching from the control room.
At the doorway leading out of the chamber, she stopped and glanced back at the purple Evangelion one last time. Almost half of its body was locked down with massive metal restraints for this test. While Misato and Ritsuko had faith in Shinji, that faith was lacking for Unit-01 itself.
Asuka shuddered, recalling the last time the beast had come to life. If given the choice, she'd rather have Shinji never able to pilot than to have him trapped inside a berserking Evangelion. Especially one with a limitless energy supply and an unstable temperament.
The S2 Organ inside Unit-01 had been inactive ever since the aftermath of the first Revenant's attack. Nobody had the courage to try and turn it back on, but the Evangelion itself was known to activate without a signal from NERV. Could the S2 Organ do the same?
While heading towards the control room, Asuka brought her towel up to vigorously dry her hair. She had even foregone a shower in order to not miss the activation test, and as she entered the room she saw that the First Child had apparently thought the same. Both female pilots were anxiously watching to see how Shinji would fare in his first real attempt at synchronising.
The German girl barely noticed the time pass as the test progressed. Unit-01 had predictably refused to activate on the first attempt, but she knew that Shinji was not going to give up so soon. An hour passed, and the LCL on the bodies of Rei and Asuka dried completely out, but neither were willing to leave. The best that the technicians had gotten out of the recalcitrant machine in that hour had been a few flickers on a console that had sent Asuka's hopes soaring only to crash back down again moments later. At one point, Ritsuko suggested taking a break, and the poor woman withered under the combined glares of the two pilots and Misato. Shinji himself stubbornly refused, claiming that he'd only leave the plug when he succeeded.
It wasn't until the start of the third hour that something significant finally occurred.
"Unit-01 has activated!"
Asuka jumped in shock. She had been absently chewing on a fingernail for the past half an hour, and the sudden announcement almost made her bite the tip of her finger off.
"Is everything okay in there, Shinji?" Misato asked nervously. Both the Commander and Sub-Commander looked like they were desperate for a cigarette.
"It's... cold..." Shinji eventually replied, eyes still closed. "Why is it so cold?"
"Cold? Do you mean the LCL temperature?" Ritsuko inquired. "Let me adjust the-"
"No." The Third Child shook his head vigorously. "The Eva itself. Unit-01 feels cold."
Asuka glanced at Rei, the same concerned expression on both their faces. With the loss of the original souls inhabiting their own Units, so too had they lost the warm comforting sensation that sitting in an active Evangelion had given them.
Did this mean that Yui Ikari was no longer in Unit-01?
"Shinji," Asuka called out. The boy opened his eyes and looked through the comm window at her. "Can you... can you feel her at all in there?"
"...Her? Oh..." His face contorted into a grimace. "I don't really know." The grimace faded slightly as Shinji closed his eyes once more. Several tense minutes passed before he eventually sighed and said, "I can't tell. There might be... something that feels like her, but it's so faint I can't be certain."
Rei stepped closer to Asuka and whispered, "Lilith attempted to put a piece of her soul in there, but was repelled. Perhaps Yui Ikari is still in there, but has closed herself off. Perhaps she regrets the choices she made."
Asuka frowned and stepped away from the screen before softly growling. "Good! That crazy bitch deliberately abandoned her son, traumatised Shinji by making him watch his mother die, and then decided ten years later to not bother helping him when I was in trouble, leaving him to believe that it was his fault I died."
Rei made no attempt to defend the person who was the entire reason she existed. The blood of Yui Ikari might flow in her veins, but it was clear she held no emotional attachment to the woman.
Behind them, Ritsuko was talking quietly to Maya. After a minute she looked up at the screen and said, "Alright, Shinji. How do you feel about a sync test?"
Shinji shrugged. "Might as well get it out of the way." His tone made it clear that he would have preferred to end the testing now, however.
Ritsuko nodded in understanding. "It won't be a very long one. We've already been here for three hours."
It still took half an hour for the results to come in, and the glance the scientist gave Misato was not a good one. "We're done here, Shinji. We'll let you get out of there now."
Shinji shot the screen a look of abject relief as Unit-01 powered down and the comm system switched off.
As Asuka and Rei left the control box to meet their fellow pilot, Asuka heard Ritsuko mutter, "27%. Just barely over the threshold."
"Give him a bit of time, Rits," Misato replied. "He hasn't done this in a long time."
The rest of the conversation was cut off by the closing door.
**
As expected, there were no physical complications with Rei after her abduction. The teenagers and their families weren't allowed to go home that night, as cleanup was still under way, and so rooms at NERV were quickly prepared for all of them to stay in. But just as Asuka and Shinji were about to drift off to sleep, the door to their allotted room hissed open. In walked a visibly shaking Rei, and the redhead understood instantly what was wrong. After all, she had seem Shinji acting in a similar fashion.
The First Child was scared.
What followed was an hour of attempting to comfort and reassure the bluenette, but eventually Asuka called for somebody to shift Rei's bed into their room. With the other two pilots in the same room, Rei eventually managed to fall asleep.
The next morning saw Asuka awake first, and she wasn't very surprised to see that Rei had migrated into Shinji's bed during the night, laying down behind him and wrapping her arms around her brother like he was a large teddy bear. While she knew that the act was purely out of a desire to keep the fear away, she had still been insanely jealous of the girl.
Even when they were finally allowed to return to the apartment, the same pattern repeated itself for the next few days. Rei also refused to go to school, even leave the apartment, and nobody thought it unusual considering the circumstances.
After several nights of this routine, Rei didn't come into their room at all one night. The next morning, the bluenette, back in her school uniform, expressed her gratitude for letting her sleep in Shinji's bed, before heading off to school.
Shinji insisted on having a test every day during this time period, and nobody had the heart to deny him. His sync ratio climbed, but in incredibly small amounts. Running diagnostics didn't help much, but he eventually made it to 30%. At that point, the decision was made to run Unit-01 through some simulations.
They had to start with the complete basics, simply because the reaction times of Unit-01 were badly hampered by the low sync ratio, but Shinji's prior experience allowed him to eventually pass the simulations despite the handicap.
**
Asuka discovered she was more proud of Shinji than she could have ever anticipated when he finally managed to defeat the simulacrum of the Third Angel. She had to almost physically restrain herself from hugging the boy when he got out of the entry plug, settling instead for a congratulatory pat on the shoulder and a smile.
After all three pilots had showered, dressed and gone back to the apartment, Shinji busied himself with laundry while Rei caught up with the homework she had missed. Asuka was in the lounge room watching television when Shinji came in and passed something to her.
"Hey Asuka, this was in the pocket of your pants." It was the music tape that Kensuke had made.
"Crap, I forgot about this," Asuka sighed. "Thanks."
Before Shinji could comment on why she had a cassette, the redhead disappeared into her bedroom and brought out the SDAT player from its hiding place. She plugged in the headphones and listened to the tape for a few minutes, smiling at the much improved sound quality.
When she heard the washing machine start up, Asuka went out into the kitchen with her hands behind her back and intercepted Shinji as he left the laundry.
"Hey, remember a few days ago when I mentioned that Rei thought of something to help you?" she asked.
Shinji nodded. "Yes, but then you apparently forgot about it."
"I did not forget!" Asuka replied with a huff. "It just slipped my mind, what with everything that happened."
"Um... you said only a few minutes ago that you..."
The redhead turned away, folding her arms at the same time to conceal their contents. "Well, if you're going to be like that, then I guess I won't show you what her idea was."
"W-wait!"
Inwardly, Asuka smiled. It felt good to act like this again. She was obviously not really going to keep the surprise from him, and he undoubtedly knew that as well. "Oh fine, I suppose I'll show you, despite how rude you just were to me."
"Rude? Me?"
Shinji wisely shut up at the look Asuka shot him over her shoulder.
"Alright, close your eyes and hold out your hands," she ordered. The boy did so, and she placed the SDAT player in his outstretched hands, holding back the headphones to keep him guessing a little longer.
When Asuka let Shinji open his eyes, he almost dropped the music player in shock. "M-my... where did you get this?!" he exclaimed.
"Rei found it," replied Asuka. "She saw how you lose yourself in music, and thought this would be a good way to keep your thoughts away from other people. Have a listen to your tape now."
Shinji looked at her suspiciously, but plugged in the headphones and started the SDAT. He closed his eyes and tilted his head from side to side as he attempted to work out what he was listening for. Finally, he opened his eyes and asked, "Is... this a fresh tape?" After hearing what Kensuke had done to help, he smiled earnestly, saying, "Thank you."
"You're welcome. But Rei and I have a condition for you using this." Asuka put her hands on his shoulders as she continued. "Please don't use this to shut out the world when you don't need to. If you're feeling down, talk to somebody. There are plenty of people who'd be happy to help."
For a long time, Shinji stared down at his SDAT player, his hand clenching around it occasionally. Just as Asuka thought he was going to crack the case, he looked up and said, "...Alright. I'll only use it to go outside."
Asuka smiled widely. "Good. Want to try it out now?"
"Um... what?"
"We never got to go to the music store." A look of sudden realisation crossed Shinji's face. "And... damnit!"
"What's wrong?"
Asuka slapped a palm to her forehead. "I left my violin in the Section Two car that took us to NERV," she groaned.
Fortunately, the same vehicle was sitting in their parking lot, and a politely-worded request got the violin returned. A look at Shinji made Asuka change her plan slightly, and a second polite request resulted in them being driven to the mall by Section Two.
The redhead kept a close eye on Shinji as they proceeded through the semi-crowded shopping centre. Though her plan seemed to be working, as the boy didn't appear to be reacting much to passersby, he still occasionally glanced nervously at anybody whose path took them too close to him.
The musical instrument store was almost completely empty, with only one other person browsing the instruments and somebody behind the counter. Asuka frowned. It wasn't Masami, but the young man did look like a younger version of him.
"May I help you today?" the man said as Asuka approached the front desk. Behind her, Shinji had taken his headphones off and gravitated to the sheet music, flicking through several pages.
"I certainly hope so," she replied, carefully placing the violin case on the counter. "Do you happen to know anywhere in town that repairs antique instruments?"
"Hmm. How bad is the damage?"
In response, Asuka opened the case and turned it around to show him the violin. She nodded at his inquiring look, and the man carefully extracted the damaged instrument. While the neck hadn't snapped off entirely, any attempt to play the violin would likely finish the job, and Asuka didn't particularly care to see how it would sound as it currently was. She was already dreading the decrease in quality the antique instrument would suffer as a result of the damage and repair.
"Well, I have two pieces of good news for you," the young man said after a minute. "But also some bad news. This is fixable, and I know somebody who can do it."
"If the bad news is the price, I don't care about that," Asuka interrupted. "I just want this fixed."
With a chuckle and a wave of his hand, the clerk replied, "No, no, not the price. My father can repair this, and probably even make it as good as new."
The redhead interrupted again. "Is your father Masami?"
"Oh, you know him already?" A raised eyebrow from the clerk. "You've shopped here before, haven't you?"
Lowering her voice, Asuka replied, "Yeah, he helped me get the right gift for my... friend."
"I see." He placed the violin back in its case and excused himself as he stepped into the back room. He returned a moment later, a familiar grey-haired old man in tow who had his right arm in a sling.
Masami lightly rebuked his son when he found out who was in the store, before explaining the bad news to Asuka. He had the ability to repair the violin, but had broken his arm during the last Revenant attack when an inconsiderate person had knocked him over while trying to get into the Angel shelter. It was going to take a couple more weeks to heal, and even then he wouldn't be able to put much strain on the limb.
Asuka groaned in complaint at the next obstacle preventing her from joining Shinji in his musical pastime, but she knew there was nothing that could be done, unless she wanted to go looking for somebody else that could repair antiques. But now that she knew that Masami was capable of such a task, could she trust anybody else? Without even knowing Shinji, the old man had picked out exactly the right cello bow for him. What wonder could he work on a damaged musical instrument?
At Masami's suggestion, she decided to leave the violin with him. While he was unable to repair it just yet, he could at least examine it and organise what needed to be done.
Afterwards, she introduced Masami to Shinji, who was now holding several sheet music books. Shinji bowed low and thanked the man for his effort in selecting the boy's birthday gift from Asuka.
"One day, if it is alright with you, I would like to hear you play, young man," Masami requested.
Shinji gulped nervously, and Asuka chose to answer for him. "He'd be happy to."
Both of their phones chose that moment to ring.
The two teenagers stared at each other for a moment, all too aware of what such a thing meant. Asuka almost ran out of the store, while Shinji fumbled with the music books in his hands.
"I'll hold onto them for you," Masami offered, taking them from his unresisting hands. "Go and protect us."
Throwing a grateful look at the old man, Shinji ran out of the store to catch up with Asuka. As he drew level with her, she reached out and latched onto his hand before accelerating into a run herself.
"Shinji?" the redhead growled.
"Um... yes?"
"Remind me after this is over to teach you some German swear words."
"Um... okay..."
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Meanwhile I'm at a disadvantage for once. *kicks modem* 15kb/s my ass!
So they're easing Shinji back into piloting. Good, good.
I hope that doesn't become a habit.
Well Shinji, you did kind of reject everything your mom did for you, so her feeling... well, like you used to, is kind of expected.
Yup. Yui doesn't want to connect.
She'd better.
That's one legit reason to hate the mother in-law: 'she let me die and made her son feel to blame'.
Hm. So now Rei gets added to the 'I need physical comfort to feel at ease'. I know this won't be an Israfel special, but the three Children should just push their beds together and form a platonic cuddle-puddle.
That's the Asuka Langley Soryu tunnel-vision again.
Well, good to hear Rei's bounced back psychologically.
I'd throw a pizza party for an achievement like that, especially if it was better than his first round with that Angel.
Awwwwww.
So Asuka returns to the shop, brings Shinji, and the violin repair process... sort of begins.
That's very heartwarmi-KAWORU YOU SONOFAGUN!
Well, I know a couple from Ranma-sensei, and a few picked up from Wehrmacht veteran autobiographies, but that'll be nothing compared to the colorful vocab I know Asuka'll have.
Good chapter Mr. Halt.
GeshronTyler
Kleiner Giftzwerg
Being able to swear in several languages is indeed a sign of sophistication. 
Well, its good to see that Children were ableto settle down some after the incident, and that Shinji has managed to get EVA 01 at least nominally operational. Just in time, too.
Well, its good to see that Children were ableto settle down some after the incident, and that Shinji has managed to get EVA 01 at least nominally operational. Just in time, too.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
I wouldn't say it's sophisticated exactly, but being able to tell someone that they are the result of a liaison between their mother and a farm animal is an invaluable skill.Being able to swear in several languages is indeed a sign of sophistication.
Well, its good to see that Children were ableto settle down some after the incident, and that Shinji has managed to get EVA 01 at least nominally operational. Just in time, too.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
I'm not entirely sure that's Yui Ikari still in there. Or at least, not alone. Asuka hating her or not, I can't see her locking Shinji out and radiating cold dislike like that. I wonder who else might be in there. And Shinji managed 41% Synch on his first time in canon, without even knowing what he was doing. Now he's got tons of experience and is trying to make contact, and barely getting 25%? Something's not right...
Awww... Rei needs many hugs. Asuka may have made a ton of progress vis a vis her feelings for Shinji, but she's still got barriers to cross, and watching Rei do freely what she still can't bring herself to do despite how much she wants to is going to make her crazy, yup. And she can't even yell at Rei too much, since she knows exactly how much Rei needs the reassurance too.
And...wow. Asuka defined herself by being an Eva Pilot for most of her life. Anything that threatened her pre-eminence in that role was a threat to her personally. But now she's actively nervous, more worried about Shinji being unable to Pilot and fight at her side and his low Synch Rate... She's happy to hear he beat the Sachiel sims.
She doesn't even realize she's moved so far past her own hangups there.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Hmm... I hadn't even thought of him, but it's not a crazy possibility, yeah. I only say no because I think Gendo would have more fear-based avoidance of contact with his son than hostility. Unless it's Manga!Gendo, who was a really evil asshole who actively hated Shinji.
- Location
- Australia, mate
All I'll say for now is that it's not Gendo in there. Unit-01 would probably never have started up if that were the case.
It's not one of the Angels, is it?
- Location
- Florida
If it is an Angel my money is on Zeruel considering that Unit 01 still has its S2 organ.
- Location
- Australia, mate
Nah, the Angels are gone.
If it was Big Z, there would have been a hell of a lot more smashing by now.
Shinji's grandfather? The one who was a part of SEELE? Or how about the guy Gendo had raise him?
MutantRancor
[Suspected Sithspawn]
- Location
- Kashyyyk. I'm a Wookiee, can't you tell?
Is Kaworu already ruled out by the "not an Angel" statement? Because I could see it being him, although that wouldn't explain the difficulty Shinji had synching by itself.
Maybe having more than one person in the Core causes interference. Didn't having more than one person in the Entry Plug cause interference at least once? Same principle.
Maybe having more than one person in the Core causes interference. Didn't having more than one person in the Entry Plug cause interference at least once? Same principle.
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
I would think Kaworu was ruled out by being ADAM's soul in a Nephilim body.
Chapter 25.2
- Location
- Australia, mate
Here's the first part of the fight. Let's see what difference a year of writing has done to my very first bit of fiction.
I've finished the entire chapter now, but I'm not going to spam post it. Instead I'll post the final two pieces over the next couple days, around this time as usual. Give or take half an hour... ish.
**
Chapter 25.2
Two submarines had been borrowed from the U.N. by NERV to scan the ocean where the Revenants had been coming from after the third attack. While they hadn't located the point of origin for the creatures yet, they had been fortunate enough to detect another one making its way towards Tokyo-3, and NERV had called its pilots in early to prepare them.
The afternoon sun shone brightly, reflecting off the blade of a gigantic axe clutched tightly by equally gigantic armoured red fists. Unit-02 stood in the middle of a street on the outskirts of the city, angry green eyes staring in the direction of the Tokyo-3 bay. More armoury and defense buildings had been completed over the last few months, and for the first time since last year, there were weapon batteries standing by to assist in punishing any potential invaders.
Behind Unit-02, hiding partially in the shadow of a tall windowless building, Unit-00 aimed a long rifle past the red Evangelion, focusing on the same point over the horizon. Rei didn't actually need to bring the weapon up to the cyclopean red eye in the centre of Unit-00's head, as the scope on the rifle was really just a camera slaved to her entry plug, but the action felt more natural.
A loud, petulant tone finally cut through the comm system as Asuka gave voice to her impatience.
"Where the hell is this thing?! It better not be late to its own funeral!"
"Asuka, relax for a moment will you? We're tracking the Revenant's progress, it will be here shortly."
The German girl gave an annoyed huff at the reply from NERV's command centre. "Relax? Why don't you try sitting in this tin can for ages, Misato?"
"Sure. Just invent a way to cut fift-seventeen years off my life and I'll give it a shot."
A third, authoritative voice cut in before the argument could devolve any further.
"Your target will be coming into range in three minutes. So settle down, both of you. And I can't believe I have to say that to my superior officer."
**
Deep underground, a soft slap was heard in the command centre of NERV, as Ritsuko's palm met her face for the umpteenth time since she'd first met Misato Katsuragi. The chief scientist and sub-commander slowly shook her head as she realised she had grown used to these arguments between the Commander of NERV and its most abrasive pilot.
That didn't mean, however, she was anywhere close to enjoying having to break them up when they started taunting each other as if the command structure didn't exist. Both Misato and Asuka had an uncanny ability to irritate her, and she was almost positive that most of their bickering was deliberately designed to tick her off.
Standing a few feet away, Misato turned and glanced at Ritsuko, a disappointed look on her face for a few seconds before hardening up as she turned back to the holographic display projected in the air before the control stations.
Kaji had disappeared once more, and the tracking device that Ritsuko had sneaked onto him had been found in a bin on the other side of the city. Now there was another Revenant attack. Misato Katsuragi was not in a good mood.
The display showed an overhead view of the city above their heads, with the three Evangelions on the left side, and a red blip designating their enemy on the right, slowly moving through the Tokyo-3 bay area. Below the map, deep red numbers counted down the seconds before it breached the surface, and to the right, data streamed past as the supercomputers of NERV analysed the target, attempting to acquire as much information as possible on the enemy. Every little bit helped.
"How are their sync ratios?" asked Misato, finally breaking the uneasy silence that almost always preceded an engagement.
A few taps on the keyboard, and Makoto Hyuga replied, "Rei is at 64%, Asuka's at 70%, and Shinji is... 35%."
Just by looking at Shinji's eyes, Misato had known there was no point asking if he was going to join the fight. She sighed heavily. Despite the best efforts of everybody involved over the last few days, the Third Child's progress was painfully slow. She had seriously considered refusing to let Unit-01 launch, regardless of Shinji's determination, but the woman knew that such an act would be crippling for his morale.
'I bet even if his sync ratio hadn't increased at all, he still would have chosen to join Asuka,' she thought to herself.
She was not Gendo Ikari. Misato remembered the fiasco surrounding the Fifteenth Angel all too well. The former Commander had held Shinji back for no better reason than that he didn't want to put the soul of his wife in jeopardy. And both Shinji and Asuka had suffered terribly for it.
This time, there was no reason besides concern for Shinji's safety to hold him back. Despite her fears, Misato had made her decision. Unit-01 had been launched, but she had requested that Shinji stay out of melee combat and focus on ranged weaponry; at least the targeting computers had the backing of the MAGI to assist him in aiming, to compensate somewhat for his slower reaction times.
Unit-01 now stood well inside the city itself, balancing Unit-00's Positron Rifle on top of an armoury building, with a couple of Pallet Rifles stashed nearby. Privately, Misato knew that the weaponry would likely be ineffective against the increasing abilities of the Revenants, but she would rather burn the entire munitions budget of NERV than admit to Shinji that his efforts wouldn't amount to much.
The countdown timer reached 00:30:00 and an alarm chimed to signify imminent contact. Misato closed her eyes as her hand reached for her neck, clenching around the silver cross necklace that hung there.
Maybe she should have given it to Shinji again.
**
As the timer in her entry plug reached 00:30:00, Asuka clenched her Progressive Axe tighter and gritted her teeth, throwing a glance towards the middle of the city.
She, too, was nervous about having Shinji involved in this battle. If anything, she had tried to push harder than Misato to keep Unit-01 grounded. But all it had taken was a few words from the Third Child to make her acquiesce.
"I don't want to be useless again."
"Damnit, Shinji," Asuka muttered to herself, low enough that the comm link didn't pick it up. "Why can't I say no to you?"
Inside Unit-00's entry plug, Rei Ayanami sat, patiently waiting for battle to commence. Only someone who knew her very well, and was staring intently at her face, would notice the faint frown and slightly narrowed eyes indicative of worry on the First Child's face. When she spared a fleeting look at Unit-01, the intensity of the expression deepened slightly.
"Contact in ten seconds!" announced Misato over the radio.
The NERV gunships led the charge once more, unloading their missiles the moment the Revenant's head broke the water's surface. Its AT-Field predictably flared to life, rendering the heroic efforts of the aircraft pilots useless. The Revenant ignored the gunships as it stomped onto dry land, even as they attempted to circle around to find a gap in its protection.
"The MAGI have confirmed that this one is Unit-06, like I predicted," Ritsuko reported. "Sorry, but the weak points on this one are covered."
This beast was clad in more armour than its predecessor, with the orange shell now extending down most of each arm and leg as well as halfway up the long neck of the Revenant. To Asuka's eyes, it looked like the white beast was wearing a onesie that had shrunk in the wash, and the mental image almost made her chuckle.
"Great, this one has more armour. And..." With a mental command, Asuka's view zoomed in. "It's carrying a weapon too?" Her previous mood was extinguished as she realised just what exactly the Revenant was wielding. A familiar-looking double bladed sword was held loosely in its right hand.
"It's one of those shifting lance weapons!" somebody in the command centre confirmed for her.
"That's... not the Lance of Longinus itself, is it?" Shinji worriedly asked. Through the comm window, Asuka could see him clutch at his chest before nervously rubbing the palms of his hands with his thumbs.
"No, that's still somewhere in orbit," Ritsuko replied. "We would have noticed if something went up there to grab it."
"This weapon is just as deadly, however," Rei reminded them. "It will still pierce your AT-Field."
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Wondergirl," Asuka angrily said. Her eye was beginning to throb, as was her arm. She slapped a button to close the comm window before tightly clenching her controls. She immediately regretted the action, as the First Child didn't deserve to be a target of her anger. The comm window was silently turned back on.
The first true attack of the day went to Shinji and Unit-01 as the Positron Rifle unleashed a white-hot bolt of energy, aiming directly for the Revenant's red-lipped face.
"Jumping the gun I see," Asuka remarked as Unit-02 broke into a run, ripping up asphalt and shaking buildings with every step the behemoth took, the power cable unfurling behind her. The shot had simply splashed against the orange barrier, and the Revenant was now staring at Unit-01. She knew she had to get in close and keep its attention away from Shinji. He wouldn't last long in a melee. 'Don't even think like that, Asuka. He's the Third Child, he's invincible.'
Despite her best effort, she couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that had wedged itself into her brain ever since their phones had rung earlier that day. Asuka had a bad feeling that if she didn't take out this angel, something terrible would happen.
"First, with me! It'll take both of us to erode its AT-Field!"
"Affirmative."
Asuka let out a war cry as her Evangelion charged Unit-06. Her axe came around and she swung the weapon horizontally at its torso. The impact could be heard for kilometres around, a discordant musical note, as the gigantic metal blade met the AT-Field.
Surprisingly, the Revenant reacted to the attack, its feet tearing up chunks of earth as it braced itself and the field with one hand raised. With the way things had been going in their fights, Asuka had half-expected that not even two Evangelions would be able to break through. She grit her teeth as Unit-00 fired over her shoulder.
The extensive simulation training the two female pilots had done together meant that Asuka barely even blinked as the round passed within meters of her Evangelion's head. Rei was scarily accurate. The previous fight didn't really count, as that had been a result of the third Revenant pulling a fast one on them.
In this scenario, just as they had practised, the First Child took her shots wherever she could while staying behind Unit-02, using the camera scope to effectively aim past her partner while at the same time covering their power cables. Meanwhile, Asuka would keep the target's attention on herself, acting as a mobile shield for Unit-00.
And this shield had spikes.
As the two female pilots focused their will on bringing down the Revenant's AT-Field, Unit-02 brought its axe around in a mighty swing at the barrier before the creature could shore up its defenses. Any extra pressure that Asuka could bring to bear would only aid their efforts. Sparks flew as the blade simply skittered across the field, unable to gain any purchase on the frictionless wall.
A second positron round from her left impacted against the barrier, and then a third. The Second Child glanced to her left and saw that Unit-01 had repositioned itself as the fight progressed, and was now standing behind another armoured building, firing as fast as his weapon would allow.
The enemy's field was weakening, and Asuka turned her full attention back to the Revenant.
Obviously not content with simply defending itself, the white Evangelion abruptly brought its weapon into play, shifting to a double-handed grip. The massive sword just barely missed Unit-02's torso when it had to bend almost in half to dodge the first swing.
Now that she was on the back foot, Asuka had something else to concentrate on, besides her attempt to bring down the Revenant's barrier. Thankfully, Unit-00 was still firing constantly as Rei backed up to give Unit-02 some space, kicking their cables back as well. The pulleys for their cables soon activated to take up the slack as the Evangelions moved backwards.
The Progressive Axe crashed against the Revenant's weapon again and again as Asuka finally managed to put a halt to the retreat. The Revenant's field was finally down, but now they had to deal with its second layer of defense.
Asuka lost her concentration for a moment as Unit-01 showed up down a side street, where there was no building for him to hide behind, and suffered a cut to her Evangelion's upper left arm. Her own arm burned, but she put it out of her mind. Shinji was now out in the open, firing once again.
With no AT-Field to block it this time, the round slammed into the Revenant's right arm and chest. It shrieked in pain as the armour cracked slightly, before doing something that nobody expected.
Unit-06 fired back.
Its mouth opened wide, and energy pulsed inside its throat before bursting forth directly at Unit-01. In the confined street, the purple Evangelion had nowhere to run.
"Gah!"
"Oh, that is such bullshit!" Asuka cried out as a familiar cross-shaped explosion appeared over Tokyo-3 once more. "Shinji, you alright?"
"I'm... okay, I think. I got my-"
Unit-06 fired again.
This time, the explosion was accompanied by a cloud of dust as Unit-01 flew backwards into the building behind him, and Asuka's heart leapt into her throat.
The retaliation didn't stop there, as the Revenant charged down the street for a few hundred meters, before suddenly leaping into the sky with its weapon raised above its head. To Shinji's credit, he managed to get two more shots off with the Positron Rifle before Unit-06 landed directly in the middle of the dust cloud, but neither of them hit.
As Asuka and Rei reached the edge of the now-clearing cloud, they heard the familiar sound of a Pallet Rifle firing. The smoke and dust finally dissipated enough for them to see, and what they saw was a somewhat confusing sight.
Rubble fell to the ground around the white and purple Evangelions, but most of the building remained standing. The Revenant had just barely missed Unit-01 with its sword, but it had cut the Positron Rifle in half and buried itself partway into the ground. Shinji had apparently picked up the Pallet Rifle during his second repositioning, and was now firing point blank at the centre Unit-06's torso. The rifle rounds, despite being depleted uranium, simply bounced off the armour as the gun wavered around.
And Unit-06 was simply sitting there and letting Unit-01 attack. Asuka growled deep in her throat. It was mocking Shinji as it almost lazily severed his power cable.
Rei continued to fire past Unit-02 as the red and blue giants ran down the street, succeeding only in chipping off small pieces of its armour. Unit-01 finally dropped the useless weapon and punched at the white beast's head, the only unprotected body part it could reach. But Shinji's sync ratio was too low, and his attacks were easily dodged.
The Revenant lacked eyes and possibly ears, yet it still sensed the approach of the other two Evangelions. It batted aside another feeble punch before slamming a hand around Unit-01's neck and clenching tightly.
"Ghhk!" Through the neural link, Shinji was clearly feeling the effects of the strangulation as Unit-06 stood up, dragging his Evangelion with it. Its grip shifted from a strangle to a choke as it turned around, wrapping its forearm around Unit-01's neck and presenting its captive to Asuka and Rei.
"Damn you, bastard!" Asuka yelled as she slid to a halt. It was that or run head-first into a purple and green wall. Behind her, Rei refused to let up, peppering any exposed areas of Unit-06, even if the shots came perilously close to Shinji's Evangelion.
"Asuka... help!" Despite his predicament, Shinji was still trying his best, aiming wild punches over his shoulder as well as slamming Unit-01's elbow into the Revenant's ribs.
"Hang on, Shinji," Asuka said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone as she activated Unit-02's spike launcher. Even as the targeting system followed her darting eyes, it couldn't find a suitable point behind Unit-01, so she aimed for the arm that had her fellow pilot in a chokehold and fired. The spike crunched into the armour, but stopped when barely even a quarter of it had penetrated. The second and third spikes fared no better.
Unit-06 growled in pain, before tightening the hold and almost lifting Unit-01 off its feet. The choking noises from Shinji's comm redoubled even as he gave up his attempts to cause damage to his captor in favour of trying to shift the arm around his Evangelion's throat.
The building behind them exploded.
The recently-completed weapon batteries had finally been brought into play, and they were now hitting Unit-06 in its flank through what was left of the building. But despite the advantage of a surprise attack, they simply didn't have the power to cause any damage to the Revenant.
Unit-06 emitted another growl, before bringing its sword up to point at Unit-01's back. Asuka sensed what was going to happen and charged forward, desperate to stop the white demon at any cost.
But she was too slow.
As if to taunt her, the Revenant shoved the blade through Unit-01's stomach right as she was almost within arm's reach. The choking sounds in her ears stopped, replaced by a single scream of pain as the purple Evangelion's arms went limp.
Tears began to leak from Asuka's eyes, dissipating quickly in the LCL, as Unit-06 twisted the blade and brought forth a howl of agony from Shinji. Despite the people in the command centre shouting about forcibly reducing his sync ratio, he still screamed just as loud when the Revenant pulled the blade sideways through Unit-01's torso, partially bisecting it, before contemptuously shoving the limp robot away to collapse into a building.
Unit-01 fell to the ground and lay motionless as the lights in its eyes dimmed. A few seconds later, they went out.
"Jetzt... reichts...," Asuka quietly said, her teeth clenched so hard they were in danger of cracking. Giant red fingers clenched tightly around the axe in Unit-02's hand, the metal warping under its grip. Pure, condensed anger erupted and propelled her Evangelion forward, crossing the remaining distance between her and Unit-06 in a heartbeat. "Ich werd dich ausnehmen und an deinen eigenen Eingeweiden aufhängen!"
The locks on Unit-02's jaw shattered as the red Evangelion let loose a metallic screech in sync with its pilot.
I've finished the entire chapter now, but I'm not going to spam post it. Instead I'll post the final two pieces over the next couple days, around this time as usual. Give or take half an hour... ish.
**
Chapter 25.2
Two submarines had been borrowed from the U.N. by NERV to scan the ocean where the Revenants had been coming from after the third attack. While they hadn't located the point of origin for the creatures yet, they had been fortunate enough to detect another one making its way towards Tokyo-3, and NERV had called its pilots in early to prepare them.
The afternoon sun shone brightly, reflecting off the blade of a gigantic axe clutched tightly by equally gigantic armoured red fists. Unit-02 stood in the middle of a street on the outskirts of the city, angry green eyes staring in the direction of the Tokyo-3 bay. More armoury and defense buildings had been completed over the last few months, and for the first time since last year, there were weapon batteries standing by to assist in punishing any potential invaders.
Behind Unit-02, hiding partially in the shadow of a tall windowless building, Unit-00 aimed a long rifle past the red Evangelion, focusing on the same point over the horizon. Rei didn't actually need to bring the weapon up to the cyclopean red eye in the centre of Unit-00's head, as the scope on the rifle was really just a camera slaved to her entry plug, but the action felt more natural.
A loud, petulant tone finally cut through the comm system as Asuka gave voice to her impatience.
"Where the hell is this thing?! It better not be late to its own funeral!"
"Asuka, relax for a moment will you? We're tracking the Revenant's progress, it will be here shortly."
The German girl gave an annoyed huff at the reply from NERV's command centre. "Relax? Why don't you try sitting in this tin can for ages, Misato?"
"Sure. Just invent a way to cut fift-seventeen years off my life and I'll give it a shot."
A third, authoritative voice cut in before the argument could devolve any further.
"Your target will be coming into range in three minutes. So settle down, both of you. And I can't believe I have to say that to my superior officer."
**
Deep underground, a soft slap was heard in the command centre of NERV, as Ritsuko's palm met her face for the umpteenth time since she'd first met Misato Katsuragi. The chief scientist and sub-commander slowly shook her head as she realised she had grown used to these arguments between the Commander of NERV and its most abrasive pilot.
That didn't mean, however, she was anywhere close to enjoying having to break them up when they started taunting each other as if the command structure didn't exist. Both Misato and Asuka had an uncanny ability to irritate her, and she was almost positive that most of their bickering was deliberately designed to tick her off.
Standing a few feet away, Misato turned and glanced at Ritsuko, a disappointed look on her face for a few seconds before hardening up as she turned back to the holographic display projected in the air before the control stations.
Kaji had disappeared once more, and the tracking device that Ritsuko had sneaked onto him had been found in a bin on the other side of the city. Now there was another Revenant attack. Misato Katsuragi was not in a good mood.
The display showed an overhead view of the city above their heads, with the three Evangelions on the left side, and a red blip designating their enemy on the right, slowly moving through the Tokyo-3 bay area. Below the map, deep red numbers counted down the seconds before it breached the surface, and to the right, data streamed past as the supercomputers of NERV analysed the target, attempting to acquire as much information as possible on the enemy. Every little bit helped.
"How are their sync ratios?" asked Misato, finally breaking the uneasy silence that almost always preceded an engagement.
A few taps on the keyboard, and Makoto Hyuga replied, "Rei is at 64%, Asuka's at 70%, and Shinji is... 35%."
Just by looking at Shinji's eyes, Misato had known there was no point asking if he was going to join the fight. She sighed heavily. Despite the best efforts of everybody involved over the last few days, the Third Child's progress was painfully slow. She had seriously considered refusing to let Unit-01 launch, regardless of Shinji's determination, but the woman knew that such an act would be crippling for his morale.
'I bet even if his sync ratio hadn't increased at all, he still would have chosen to join Asuka,' she thought to herself.
She was not Gendo Ikari. Misato remembered the fiasco surrounding the Fifteenth Angel all too well. The former Commander had held Shinji back for no better reason than that he didn't want to put the soul of his wife in jeopardy. And both Shinji and Asuka had suffered terribly for it.
This time, there was no reason besides concern for Shinji's safety to hold him back. Despite her fears, Misato had made her decision. Unit-01 had been launched, but she had requested that Shinji stay out of melee combat and focus on ranged weaponry; at least the targeting computers had the backing of the MAGI to assist him in aiming, to compensate somewhat for his slower reaction times.
Unit-01 now stood well inside the city itself, balancing Unit-00's Positron Rifle on top of an armoury building, with a couple of Pallet Rifles stashed nearby. Privately, Misato knew that the weaponry would likely be ineffective against the increasing abilities of the Revenants, but she would rather burn the entire munitions budget of NERV than admit to Shinji that his efforts wouldn't amount to much.
The countdown timer reached 00:30:00 and an alarm chimed to signify imminent contact. Misato closed her eyes as her hand reached for her neck, clenching around the silver cross necklace that hung there.
Maybe she should have given it to Shinji again.
**
As the timer in her entry plug reached 00:30:00, Asuka clenched her Progressive Axe tighter and gritted her teeth, throwing a glance towards the middle of the city.
She, too, was nervous about having Shinji involved in this battle. If anything, she had tried to push harder than Misato to keep Unit-01 grounded. But all it had taken was a few words from the Third Child to make her acquiesce.
"I don't want to be useless again."
"Damnit, Shinji," Asuka muttered to herself, low enough that the comm link didn't pick it up. "Why can't I say no to you?"
Inside Unit-00's entry plug, Rei Ayanami sat, patiently waiting for battle to commence. Only someone who knew her very well, and was staring intently at her face, would notice the faint frown and slightly narrowed eyes indicative of worry on the First Child's face. When she spared a fleeting look at Unit-01, the intensity of the expression deepened slightly.
"Contact in ten seconds!" announced Misato over the radio.
The NERV gunships led the charge once more, unloading their missiles the moment the Revenant's head broke the water's surface. Its AT-Field predictably flared to life, rendering the heroic efforts of the aircraft pilots useless. The Revenant ignored the gunships as it stomped onto dry land, even as they attempted to circle around to find a gap in its protection.
"The MAGI have confirmed that this one is Unit-06, like I predicted," Ritsuko reported. "Sorry, but the weak points on this one are covered."
This beast was clad in more armour than its predecessor, with the orange shell now extending down most of each arm and leg as well as halfway up the long neck of the Revenant. To Asuka's eyes, it looked like the white beast was wearing a onesie that had shrunk in the wash, and the mental image almost made her chuckle.
"Great, this one has more armour. And..." With a mental command, Asuka's view zoomed in. "It's carrying a weapon too?" Her previous mood was extinguished as she realised just what exactly the Revenant was wielding. A familiar-looking double bladed sword was held loosely in its right hand.
"It's one of those shifting lance weapons!" somebody in the command centre confirmed for her.
"That's... not the Lance of Longinus itself, is it?" Shinji worriedly asked. Through the comm window, Asuka could see him clutch at his chest before nervously rubbing the palms of his hands with his thumbs.
"No, that's still somewhere in orbit," Ritsuko replied. "We would have noticed if something went up there to grab it."
"This weapon is just as deadly, however," Rei reminded them. "It will still pierce your AT-Field."
"Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Wondergirl," Asuka angrily said. Her eye was beginning to throb, as was her arm. She slapped a button to close the comm window before tightly clenching her controls. She immediately regretted the action, as the First Child didn't deserve to be a target of her anger. The comm window was silently turned back on.
The first true attack of the day went to Shinji and Unit-01 as the Positron Rifle unleashed a white-hot bolt of energy, aiming directly for the Revenant's red-lipped face.
"Jumping the gun I see," Asuka remarked as Unit-02 broke into a run, ripping up asphalt and shaking buildings with every step the behemoth took, the power cable unfurling behind her. The shot had simply splashed against the orange barrier, and the Revenant was now staring at Unit-01. She knew she had to get in close and keep its attention away from Shinji. He wouldn't last long in a melee. 'Don't even think like that, Asuka. He's the Third Child, he's invincible.'
Despite her best effort, she couldn't shake the sense of foreboding that had wedged itself into her brain ever since their phones had rung earlier that day. Asuka had a bad feeling that if she didn't take out this angel, something terrible would happen.
"First, with me! It'll take both of us to erode its AT-Field!"
"Affirmative."
Asuka let out a war cry as her Evangelion charged Unit-06. Her axe came around and she swung the weapon horizontally at its torso. The impact could be heard for kilometres around, a discordant musical note, as the gigantic metal blade met the AT-Field.
Surprisingly, the Revenant reacted to the attack, its feet tearing up chunks of earth as it braced itself and the field with one hand raised. With the way things had been going in their fights, Asuka had half-expected that not even two Evangelions would be able to break through. She grit her teeth as Unit-00 fired over her shoulder.
The extensive simulation training the two female pilots had done together meant that Asuka barely even blinked as the round passed within meters of her Evangelion's head. Rei was scarily accurate. The previous fight didn't really count, as that had been a result of the third Revenant pulling a fast one on them.
In this scenario, just as they had practised, the First Child took her shots wherever she could while staying behind Unit-02, using the camera scope to effectively aim past her partner while at the same time covering their power cables. Meanwhile, Asuka would keep the target's attention on herself, acting as a mobile shield for Unit-00.
And this shield had spikes.
As the two female pilots focused their will on bringing down the Revenant's AT-Field, Unit-02 brought its axe around in a mighty swing at the barrier before the creature could shore up its defenses. Any extra pressure that Asuka could bring to bear would only aid their efforts. Sparks flew as the blade simply skittered across the field, unable to gain any purchase on the frictionless wall.
A second positron round from her left impacted against the barrier, and then a third. The Second Child glanced to her left and saw that Unit-01 had repositioned itself as the fight progressed, and was now standing behind another armoured building, firing as fast as his weapon would allow.
The enemy's field was weakening, and Asuka turned her full attention back to the Revenant.
Obviously not content with simply defending itself, the white Evangelion abruptly brought its weapon into play, shifting to a double-handed grip. The massive sword just barely missed Unit-02's torso when it had to bend almost in half to dodge the first swing.
Now that she was on the back foot, Asuka had something else to concentrate on, besides her attempt to bring down the Revenant's barrier. Thankfully, Unit-00 was still firing constantly as Rei backed up to give Unit-02 some space, kicking their cables back as well. The pulleys for their cables soon activated to take up the slack as the Evangelions moved backwards.
The Progressive Axe crashed against the Revenant's weapon again and again as Asuka finally managed to put a halt to the retreat. The Revenant's field was finally down, but now they had to deal with its second layer of defense.
Asuka lost her concentration for a moment as Unit-01 showed up down a side street, where there was no building for him to hide behind, and suffered a cut to her Evangelion's upper left arm. Her own arm burned, but she put it out of her mind. Shinji was now out in the open, firing once again.
With no AT-Field to block it this time, the round slammed into the Revenant's right arm and chest. It shrieked in pain as the armour cracked slightly, before doing something that nobody expected.
Unit-06 fired back.
Its mouth opened wide, and energy pulsed inside its throat before bursting forth directly at Unit-01. In the confined street, the purple Evangelion had nowhere to run.
"Gah!"
"Oh, that is such bullshit!" Asuka cried out as a familiar cross-shaped explosion appeared over Tokyo-3 once more. "Shinji, you alright?"
"I'm... okay, I think. I got my-"
Unit-06 fired again.
This time, the explosion was accompanied by a cloud of dust as Unit-01 flew backwards into the building behind him, and Asuka's heart leapt into her throat.
The retaliation didn't stop there, as the Revenant charged down the street for a few hundred meters, before suddenly leaping into the sky with its weapon raised above its head. To Shinji's credit, he managed to get two more shots off with the Positron Rifle before Unit-06 landed directly in the middle of the dust cloud, but neither of them hit.
As Asuka and Rei reached the edge of the now-clearing cloud, they heard the familiar sound of a Pallet Rifle firing. The smoke and dust finally dissipated enough for them to see, and what they saw was a somewhat confusing sight.
Rubble fell to the ground around the white and purple Evangelions, but most of the building remained standing. The Revenant had just barely missed Unit-01 with its sword, but it had cut the Positron Rifle in half and buried itself partway into the ground. Shinji had apparently picked up the Pallet Rifle during his second repositioning, and was now firing point blank at the centre Unit-06's torso. The rifle rounds, despite being depleted uranium, simply bounced off the armour as the gun wavered around.
And Unit-06 was simply sitting there and letting Unit-01 attack. Asuka growled deep in her throat. It was mocking Shinji as it almost lazily severed his power cable.
Rei continued to fire past Unit-02 as the red and blue giants ran down the street, succeeding only in chipping off small pieces of its armour. Unit-01 finally dropped the useless weapon and punched at the white beast's head, the only unprotected body part it could reach. But Shinji's sync ratio was too low, and his attacks were easily dodged.
The Revenant lacked eyes and possibly ears, yet it still sensed the approach of the other two Evangelions. It batted aside another feeble punch before slamming a hand around Unit-01's neck and clenching tightly.
"Ghhk!" Through the neural link, Shinji was clearly feeling the effects of the strangulation as Unit-06 stood up, dragging his Evangelion with it. Its grip shifted from a strangle to a choke as it turned around, wrapping its forearm around Unit-01's neck and presenting its captive to Asuka and Rei.
"Damn you, bastard!" Asuka yelled as she slid to a halt. It was that or run head-first into a purple and green wall. Behind her, Rei refused to let up, peppering any exposed areas of Unit-06, even if the shots came perilously close to Shinji's Evangelion.
"Asuka... help!" Despite his predicament, Shinji was still trying his best, aiming wild punches over his shoulder as well as slamming Unit-01's elbow into the Revenant's ribs.
"Hang on, Shinji," Asuka said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone as she activated Unit-02's spike launcher. Even as the targeting system followed her darting eyes, it couldn't find a suitable point behind Unit-01, so she aimed for the arm that had her fellow pilot in a chokehold and fired. The spike crunched into the armour, but stopped when barely even a quarter of it had penetrated. The second and third spikes fared no better.
Unit-06 growled in pain, before tightening the hold and almost lifting Unit-01 off its feet. The choking noises from Shinji's comm redoubled even as he gave up his attempts to cause damage to his captor in favour of trying to shift the arm around his Evangelion's throat.
The building behind them exploded.
The recently-completed weapon batteries had finally been brought into play, and they were now hitting Unit-06 in its flank through what was left of the building. But despite the advantage of a surprise attack, they simply didn't have the power to cause any damage to the Revenant.
Unit-06 emitted another growl, before bringing its sword up to point at Unit-01's back. Asuka sensed what was going to happen and charged forward, desperate to stop the white demon at any cost.
But she was too slow.
As if to taunt her, the Revenant shoved the blade through Unit-01's stomach right as she was almost within arm's reach. The choking sounds in her ears stopped, replaced by a single scream of pain as the purple Evangelion's arms went limp.
Tears began to leak from Asuka's eyes, dissipating quickly in the LCL, as Unit-06 twisted the blade and brought forth a howl of agony from Shinji. Despite the people in the command centre shouting about forcibly reducing his sync ratio, he still screamed just as loud when the Revenant pulled the blade sideways through Unit-01's torso, partially bisecting it, before contemptuously shoving the limp robot away to collapse into a building.
Unit-01 fell to the ground and lay motionless as the lights in its eyes dimmed. A few seconds later, they went out.
"Jetzt... reichts...," Asuka quietly said, her teeth clenched so hard they were in danger of cracking. Giant red fingers clenched tightly around the axe in Unit-02's hand, the metal warping under its grip. Pure, condensed anger erupted and propelled her Evangelion forward, crossing the remaining distance between her and Unit-06 in a heartbeat. "Ich werd dich ausnehmen und an deinen eigenen Eingeweiden aufhängen!"
The locks on Unit-02's jaw shattered as the red Evangelion let loose a metallic screech in sync with its pilot.
Ranma-sensei
Sorcerer
- Location
- Citrix Receiver
- Pronouns
- Weatherdependent
"It has begun!"
I'm still not totally sold on Asuka's swearing sounding appropriate to the situation, but I'm not that into cursing; and I'm frankly a little wary of doing more as I can't gauge when she's starting to sound antisocial...
I'm still not totally sold on Asuka's swearing sounding appropriate to the situation, but I'm not that into cursing; and I'm frankly a little wary of doing more as I can't gauge when she's starting to sound antisocial...
Last edited:
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
And the subs haven't been smacked... why?
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head...
Pallet or Positron?
Better, but still... ugh.
Shinji's on the Positron.
Because you luuuuuuuuuuv him.~
Aw fak.
They're really improved the rifle from 'take all of Japan's power to fire one shot' to where Shinji can do semi-auto bursts.
A hidden trump card? The Revenants are learning.
Six? Dude, don't mock the boy, either kill him or move on. You're just leaving yourself open for an attack.
No...
... no words...
Dunno what 'reichts' is, but 'I'll take everything from you and hang you by your entrails' is kind of what I'd expect a 'Blood for the blood god, your skull for my lover' angry Asuka would say.
Oh look at that: Asuka's gone berserk.
Five bucks on her eating an S2 Organ, any takers?
I wouldn't call that last paragraph 'anti-social', rather more 'blood rage'. The earlier bits is more Asuka dealing with frustration like she's always done: Verbally take it out on the people around her, then regret it immediately.
Ranma-sensei
Sorcerer
- Location
- Citrix Receiver
- Pronouns
- Weatherdependent
By the book it would be, "Es reicht," meaning "That's enough." The variant, "Jetzt reicht es/reichts," basically means, "That's it!"
You misunderstand. I meant that I didn't dare go farther than this because I wouldn't be able to tell when it's too much. But at the same time it doesn't feel bloodthirsty enough; know what I mean?
Last edited:
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Ah, now I get you. And I can't think of a more bloodthirsty taunt myself. All I know is US military stuff, and that's mainly an exercise in how many ways you can use a certain letter word. Asuka's intelligent and angry enough for something both eloquent and promising 'blood eagle' levels of pain and suffering upon the enemy.
Lemme see if there's some Viking stuff that could work...
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
I did like the bit from her rant before the last Revenant; "I'll make what you did to me look like a Goddamned beach vacation!"
- Location
- Australia, mate
It's the same scaled down version that was used against Arael.
Nifty, and you've caught up to the original chapter one as well!
Chapter 25.3
- Location
- Australia, mate
The vaguely appointed time has come!
**
Chapter 25.3
"Shinji!"
All three technicians were shouting at once, but Misato's anguished scream silenced them as she helplessly watched Unit-01 get impaled. She slammed an angry fist down onto the desk next to Maya and tried to fight back the moisture encroaching on her eyes.
"Unit-01 has shut down," Makoto grimly announced. There was no point reporting the damage; everybody had been watching.
"Tell me he's still okay!" Misato demanded.
"We're getting telemetry from the entry plug. He's still conscious," Shigeru replied. "Comm link open."
"Shinji! Are you okay?"
The only response was heavy breathing mixed with low sobs. And then, so quietly they almost missed it, the command staff heard one word.
"...useless..."
There was no stopping the tear that slipped down Misato's cheek. Even the sight of Asuka and Unit-02 going into a near berserker state and shoulder-charging Unit-06 through the nearby ruined building could not accomplish such a feat.
"All I can do is sit down here and order them into combat," Misato finally whispered to herself. "They're my kids. Why can't I do more for them?"
Ritsuko glanced at her friend, noticing that the Commander seemed ready to collapse in on herself, before sadly turning her attention back to the screen.
**
While the redhead was keeping Unit-06 distracted with her attempts to perform a tonsillectomy starting at the base of its neck, Rei backed away slightly as both fighters ducked and weaved around each other as if they were dancers at a rather strange costume ball. Asuka's erratic movements were starting to throw off her ability to predict and aim effectively.
In the privacy of her entry plug, Rei frowned. This enemy seemed to be deliberately goading Asuka into getting angry. It had not even spared a glance towards Unit-00. Even its assault upon Unit-01 seemed specifically designed to upset the Second Child.
The Positron Rifle was destroyed, Pallet Rifles were useless, and the only thing her own weapon had accomplished so far was chipping the Revenant's armour. While Rei was hesitant to leave her partner uncovered, she needed to get something stronger.
"I require a new weapon," she announced into the comm link.
Only a few seconds passed before she received a response. Misato seemed to be having some difficulty speaking as she said, "Armoury block... to the east. Two rocket launchers in there... Punish it for me, Rei."
"Affirmative," the First Child replied, the slight emphasis she gave the word telling anybody who knew her just how she felt about the assault on her brother. Her rifle was slung over her back and the rocket launchers were collected, and as stealthily as Rei could manage in a robot taller than most buildings, she moved to a side street near where the fight was heading towards. The blue Evangelion crouched down and activated the targeting systems in both launchers after carefully balancing them on its shoulders.
The view inside the entry plug changed as both scopes fed their data to Rei's vision, the shifted perspective causing slight confusion in her mind as her own eyes attempted to adapt.
She opened the comm link to Asuka and told the Second Child her plan.
**
Asuka heard Rei's call and began to back up as if she were running out of steam. Unit-06 did not appear to have noticed Unit-00 setting up and continued attacking, driving her back towards an intersection. Several buildings in the city now bore gaping holes from where the opposite end of the double-ended sword had cut through them. The steel and concrete hadn't slowed the weapon one bit.
"Hold him there," came the order as Rei carefully aimed at Unit-06. Asuka feinted a swipe with her axe, stopping her target in its tracks. Rei had deliberately stayed as close as possible to the intersection to try and avoid a repeat of the previous fight, and her effort paid off. The Revenant didn't see the flanking manoeuvre until it was too late.
Twin trails of smoke filled the street as two of NERV's specialised anti-Angel high explosive warheads were propelled the short distance between Unit-00 and Unit-06. The first rocket slammed into the side of its torso where the explosion almost completely shattered the orange armour, while the second rocket, fired a second later to avoid fratricide, exploited the gap by penetrating into the white flesh before detonating.
Asuka looked on with glee as her enemy stumbled sideways from the sneak attack, and took the opportunity to empty Unit-02's spike launcher at the same target as the rockets. With the speed necessary for the attack, a couple of the spikes missed, but enough of them hit. Asuka was sure she saw a hint of the core buried inside Unit-06's body, as well as what she hoped was a crack, and she quickly advanced on the damaged target to try and finish it off.
Too quickly.
For the third time, Unit-06's throat pulsed as a bolt of energy shot towards Unit-00. While it wasn't as powerful as its previous blasts, it didn't need to be. Rei was too close and couldn't see through the smoke to know she was being targeted. She had no time to shield herself before she was knocked backwards down the street.
"Scheiße!"
Asuka backed up, but Unit-06 turned back to her and fired once more, directly at her Evangelion's face. Two attacks in such a short time with a damaged core meant that the beam that hit her was underpowered, but it still forced her to try and cover her face at the sudden intense light, and the Revenant took advantage of that.
The giant sword sliced an entire building in half horizontally as it came around in a huge arc, and Asuka let out a shriek of agony as she felt Unit-02's right arm fall away and a stabbing pain in the side of her chest, She grabbed at her own right shoulder as she once again felt the sympathetic feeling of a limb being severed. As she tried to recover from the agony, the blade swung down twice more, easily severing Unit-02's power cable before being cutting again into Unit-02's right torso. The beast was no longer grinning.
And voices were now practically screaming in her ear.
"Unit-02's right arm has been severed! Power cable also severed! Five minutes of internal power remaining!"
"Reduce the plug depth! Her sync ratio is too high! "That was Ritsuko."The sympathetic pain is too much for her, we need to do what we can to suppress it!"
"Affirmative, reducing plug depth! Sync ratio falling, currently at 50%!"
"Asuka, get up! Your cable has been cut, you only have five minutes before shut-down!"
'Caught out again!' Asuka thought, nearly paralysed by both fear and pain. Reducing the plug depth only slightly helped. Now it only felt like her entire arm had been stabbed, instead of severed. She attempted to back away but her movements were sluggish now that her sync ratio had sharply dropped and the pain still assaulted her. This wasn't supposed to happen! She wanted to wipe that stupid grin off the demon's face, but not like this!
Despite its lack of eyes, Unit-06 was definitely glaring at her. She knew what was going to happen now; it was going to finish her off. It had been playing with her, provoking her into fighting it like she had when she had to face all nine of them at once. But it had only taken one enemy to lay her low this time.
As Unit-06 brought its weapon up to point at her, Asuka's eyes widened as the surface of the sword began to shift into a horribly familiar form. A double pointed weapon, twisting around itself a third of the way down its length and becoming a handle. Her left eye twitched as she recalled the searing pain of the lance as it speared her Evangelion through its eyes, leaving her half-blind and crippled.
As if it too remembered, the Revenant raised the points of the lance to the height of Unit-02's head, forcing Asuka to back away quicker, but the back of the red Evangelion slammed into a building before she could get very far.
"No, I will not go down like this!" growled Asuka, as she finally forced herself to stop holding her own arm and wrapped both hands back around the controls. Unit-02's remaining arm shot up as the shoulder pylon released its knife. Asuka wasn't left-handed, but all pilots were trained to fight with a weapon in both hands in case of injury to their dominant side. Her training did not even have time to get used, however, as Unit-06's left hand shot across to grab her wrist as she swung the knife at its head.
Leaning hard into the building to brace herself, Asuka brought a leg up and tried to kick at its damaged torso, but the pain and her reduced sync ratio meant there was little force behind the kick. She pushed herself harder into the building behind her and brought both legs up, trying to push her attacker away with her feet, but it was like trying to push a mountain. Unit-06's left hand squeezed, and Asuka could feel the bones collapse in her own Evangelion's as a fresh wave of agony shot up her own arm.
"Rei! Shinji! Anybody! I could use some help here!"
In response, Unit-00 showed up behind Unit-06 and brought its rifle to bear again. The rounds punched into the rapidly healing flesh, causing no lasting damage, but there was no time to get another weapon.
Rei did not stop firing, but Unit-06 simply stood there, looking over its shoulder at Unit-00 for a moment before returning its attention to its captive. With a final crushing squeeze, the white beast let go of Unit-02's left arm and instead grabbed it by the neck. It then whirled around and brought the red Evangelion, still kicking, in front of it. Rei was forced to stop shooting.
Outside her cockpit, Asuka could see the Revenant raising its right arm, lance pointed directly at her Evangelion's core.
She closed her eyes and whispered a single word: "Shinji..."
The arm surged forward.
A sound was heard. It was loud and horrifying, yet it was the sound that Asuka had been holding her breath for. The sound stopped the lance mere millimetres before it could penetrate Unit-02's core, its distracted wielder looking away, scanning for the source of the disturbance as the roar continued.
It was a sound that made Asuka forget about her injuries, the pain unnoticed as she turned her head and focused on that beautiful sound. A sound that lifted her spirits and promised that everything would be alright.
It was a sound that put a small but warm smile on Rei's face as she heard it. Her pale hands, previously clutching the controls so tight they left imprints on them, relaxed as the sound surged through her.
It was a sound that shook the earth for kilometres around, and even deep underground in the Geofront, every single staff member swore afterwards that they could feel the vibrations in their feet.
Unit-01 had reactivated, and it was angry.
No, it was pissed.
When Asuka whispered Shinji's name just before the lance shot towards her Unit's core, the brilliant eyes of Unit-01 lit up and it opened its mouth and roared. It was a roar of fury and hatred and defiance. The sound wave demolished several buildings nearby, pieces flying all over the city as the purple beast got to its feet. It glared across the city at Unit-06, who dropped Asuka and stared back with its eyeless face. Later, Shigeru would argue that if Unit-01 had eye-lasers, it would have struck the Revenant dead in an instant simply from the force of that glare.
Unit-06 opened its mouth and roared back. Unit-01 roared again, and for a minute the ground shook again as both adversaries tried to shout each other down, neither backing away.
**
"Unit-01 has activated!" Makoto shouted in surprise, before his eyes widened. "And... its S2 organ is operational!"
"Its wounds have healed as well," Maya added. "I'm not detecting any internal damage."
"What...what's his sync ratio?" Ritsuko finally stammered. The first horrific roar had shaken her badly. The other two Evangelions simply unnerved her sometimes, especially Unit-00, but she was afraid of Unit-01. Ritsuko sometimes thought that Unit-00 was looking at her, but the Unit was always deactivated, and as a woman of science she tried to dismiss the feeling due to that fact, but it persisted.
Unit-01, however, induced terror in the scientist. She had watched as it went berserk against the Third and Fourteenth Angels. She had seen it viciously tear its way out of the Twelfth, caked in the blood of its dead enemy, and she knew what had caused those events. The soul of the Evangelion, the spirit of Yui Ikari acting to protect her child. But the woman's soul was apparently gone, just like the original souls in the other two Evangelions.
"Unit-01's sync ratio currently at... this can't be right... 245%," replied Makoto. "I can't get a solid reading on the pilot though, the psychograph is all over the place."
"Is Unit-01 berserking again?" asked Maya. She did not want to bear witness to Unit-01 eating another monster. The sight of the Fourteenth Angel's corpse being torn apart had been enough to make the poor girl vomit.
"No, this isn't a berserker state," answered Shigeru. "I'm not detecting any signs of that. Could... could it be that it's Shinji going berserk and not the Evangelion?"
"He heard Asuka," Misato sighed in relief. With Shinji seemingly inconsolable after his defeat, everything seemed to have gone downhill. For a brief moment she had thought about just how similar this scenario was to the last time Asuka had called for Shinji.
But this time, he had responded.
Misato clutched at her necklace again as the sound melted the ball of ice in her gut and replaced the look of shock on her face with a faint grin. "Go get 'em, Shinji," she whispered.
**
Their shouting match finally over, Unit-01 and Unit-06 stalked towards each other. As Rei fired the last shot in her weapon's magazine, the two beasts charged at each other as if she had simply pulled the trigger on a starting pistol. Both fighters met, leading with a left punch that rattled the other's head.
Unlike Unit-06's fight with Unit-02, which could have almost been a dance, this was most definitely a brawl. The two combatants hit with anything they could connect with. A punch to Unit-01's head was responded to by a kick to Unit-06's stomach. Unit-01 attempted to headbutt Unit-06, who grabbed its head in both hands and introduced it to a rising knee in the chin. Unit-06 attempted to follow up with a roundhouse kick, but was countered by Unit-01 grabbing its leg and swinging it around, throwing it into another building. Unit-01 charged after it with a flying kick that pushed Unit-06 through the building and along the street behind it. Getting back to its feet, Unit-06 swung its lance wildly, trying to keep Unit-01 back. The purple Evangelion simply halted and waited for its opponent to cease swinging.
Unit-06 raised its lance and stalked forward, intent on burying it in its foe's heart this time. Unit-01 moved at the same time, crouching down and jumping forward, burying its shoulder in Unit-06's damaged stomach and bringing it to the ground. It then picked up the Revenant by its legs and began to swing it around, completing several circles before letting go. The white Evangelion flew out of the city and landed behind a hill south of Tokyo-3.
And then Unit-01 took a running leap after it, landing on its chest as it began to rain blows down on that which had dared to harm its red counterpart.
At point blank range, Unit-06 could not easily bring the long lance to bear, but it eventually managed to pull its arm back and sink the lance partially into Unit-01's side, forcing it to get up and back away, roaring in pain and holding its torso where the lance had penetrated. The purple Evangelion's eyes narrowed, and a low growl emanated from its mouth as it watched Unit-06 get back to its feet. Both combatants were breathing heavily. It was only due to Unit-01's reactivated S2 organ and its sheer tenacity that the fight had not ended several minutes ago. The stab wounds closed up, leaving no trace that they had ever occurred, and the two enemies charged at each other once more.
Back in the city, Rei and Asuka were moving to give what support they could to Unit-01. The distance necessitated a new power cable for Unit-00, and Asuka ejected the remains of her own cable for a fresh one, collecting a Pallet Rifle at the same time. She didn't know if she would be able to fire it very well with only one arm and a crushed hand, but she was determined to try.
Unit-00 turned and offered a supporting arm to Unit-02, who waved its remaining hand dismissively. A few steps later the red Evangelion leaned on a nearby building as another wave of pain surged through Asuka's right arm.
"Are you alright, Asuka?" Rei asked.
"Oh, I'm just fine, First. You should see the other guy," came the snippy response from Asuka.
"I have seen the 'other guy'. Despite our best efforts, it remains alive."
"Ugh. You are impossible sometimes, Wondergirl." The redhead sounded angry, but internally she was cheering and clapping and dancing. Shinji had come to her aid.
As far as she was concerned, this negated the previous time, especially since Shinji had been too mentally destroyed to do anything back then. Now that she knew the truth, she had stopped being angry at him whenever the thought of her death had intruded on her thoughts.
A loud smashing noise interrupted her musing, followed closely by twin roars of pain and anger. The red and blue Evangelions looked at each other for a moment before increasing their pace. As they crested the hill to where Unit-06 and Unit-01 were fighting, they were stopped in their tracks by the scene in front of them.
Both combatants stood close together, unmoving, with their heads almost on each other's shoulders. Unit-01's right arm was sticking through Unit-06's chest, its core held in an upright purple hand. The sight that shocked Asuka and Rei however was that of the lance coming out of Unit-01's back, having been speared directly in the centre of its chest almost up to where the two prongs became the handle.
"Oh no," Rei whispered. "The entry plug... Shinji..."
"No! Shut up!" Asuka interrupted. The bad feeling she had felt earlier came back in force, making her queasy. The bad thing she was trying to prevent had happened anyway. She pushed past Rei and ran towards Unit-01. "He's the Third Child! He's invinc-"
The core detonated, blinding the pilots and bathing the region in brilliant white light.
**
Chapter 25.3
"Shinji!"
All three technicians were shouting at once, but Misato's anguished scream silenced them as she helplessly watched Unit-01 get impaled. She slammed an angry fist down onto the desk next to Maya and tried to fight back the moisture encroaching on her eyes.
"Unit-01 has shut down," Makoto grimly announced. There was no point reporting the damage; everybody had been watching.
"Tell me he's still okay!" Misato demanded.
"We're getting telemetry from the entry plug. He's still conscious," Shigeru replied. "Comm link open."
"Shinji! Are you okay?"
The only response was heavy breathing mixed with low sobs. And then, so quietly they almost missed it, the command staff heard one word.
"...useless..."
There was no stopping the tear that slipped down Misato's cheek. Even the sight of Asuka and Unit-02 going into a near berserker state and shoulder-charging Unit-06 through the nearby ruined building could not accomplish such a feat.
"All I can do is sit down here and order them into combat," Misato finally whispered to herself. "They're my kids. Why can't I do more for them?"
Ritsuko glanced at her friend, noticing that the Commander seemed ready to collapse in on herself, before sadly turning her attention back to the screen.
**
While the redhead was keeping Unit-06 distracted with her attempts to perform a tonsillectomy starting at the base of its neck, Rei backed away slightly as both fighters ducked and weaved around each other as if they were dancers at a rather strange costume ball. Asuka's erratic movements were starting to throw off her ability to predict and aim effectively.
In the privacy of her entry plug, Rei frowned. This enemy seemed to be deliberately goading Asuka into getting angry. It had not even spared a glance towards Unit-00. Even its assault upon Unit-01 seemed specifically designed to upset the Second Child.
The Positron Rifle was destroyed, Pallet Rifles were useless, and the only thing her own weapon had accomplished so far was chipping the Revenant's armour. While Rei was hesitant to leave her partner uncovered, she needed to get something stronger.
"I require a new weapon," she announced into the comm link.
Only a few seconds passed before she received a response. Misato seemed to be having some difficulty speaking as she said, "Armoury block... to the east. Two rocket launchers in there... Punish it for me, Rei."
"Affirmative," the First Child replied, the slight emphasis she gave the word telling anybody who knew her just how she felt about the assault on her brother. Her rifle was slung over her back and the rocket launchers were collected, and as stealthily as Rei could manage in a robot taller than most buildings, she moved to a side street near where the fight was heading towards. The blue Evangelion crouched down and activated the targeting systems in both launchers after carefully balancing them on its shoulders.
The view inside the entry plug changed as both scopes fed their data to Rei's vision, the shifted perspective causing slight confusion in her mind as her own eyes attempted to adapt.
She opened the comm link to Asuka and told the Second Child her plan.
**
Asuka heard Rei's call and began to back up as if she were running out of steam. Unit-06 did not appear to have noticed Unit-00 setting up and continued attacking, driving her back towards an intersection. Several buildings in the city now bore gaping holes from where the opposite end of the double-ended sword had cut through them. The steel and concrete hadn't slowed the weapon one bit.
"Hold him there," came the order as Rei carefully aimed at Unit-06. Asuka feinted a swipe with her axe, stopping her target in its tracks. Rei had deliberately stayed as close as possible to the intersection to try and avoid a repeat of the previous fight, and her effort paid off. The Revenant didn't see the flanking manoeuvre until it was too late.
Twin trails of smoke filled the street as two of NERV's specialised anti-Angel high explosive warheads were propelled the short distance between Unit-00 and Unit-06. The first rocket slammed into the side of its torso where the explosion almost completely shattered the orange armour, while the second rocket, fired a second later to avoid fratricide, exploited the gap by penetrating into the white flesh before detonating.
Asuka looked on with glee as her enemy stumbled sideways from the sneak attack, and took the opportunity to empty Unit-02's spike launcher at the same target as the rockets. With the speed necessary for the attack, a couple of the spikes missed, but enough of them hit. Asuka was sure she saw a hint of the core buried inside Unit-06's body, as well as what she hoped was a crack, and she quickly advanced on the damaged target to try and finish it off.
Too quickly.
For the third time, Unit-06's throat pulsed as a bolt of energy shot towards Unit-00. While it wasn't as powerful as its previous blasts, it didn't need to be. Rei was too close and couldn't see through the smoke to know she was being targeted. She had no time to shield herself before she was knocked backwards down the street.
"Scheiße!"
Asuka backed up, but Unit-06 turned back to her and fired once more, directly at her Evangelion's face. Two attacks in such a short time with a damaged core meant that the beam that hit her was underpowered, but it still forced her to try and cover her face at the sudden intense light, and the Revenant took advantage of that.
The giant sword sliced an entire building in half horizontally as it came around in a huge arc, and Asuka let out a shriek of agony as she felt Unit-02's right arm fall away and a stabbing pain in the side of her chest, She grabbed at her own right shoulder as she once again felt the sympathetic feeling of a limb being severed. As she tried to recover from the agony, the blade swung down twice more, easily severing Unit-02's power cable before being cutting again into Unit-02's right torso. The beast was no longer grinning.
And voices were now practically screaming in her ear.
"Unit-02's right arm has been severed! Power cable also severed! Five minutes of internal power remaining!"
"Reduce the plug depth! Her sync ratio is too high! "That was Ritsuko."The sympathetic pain is too much for her, we need to do what we can to suppress it!"
"Affirmative, reducing plug depth! Sync ratio falling, currently at 50%!"
"Asuka, get up! Your cable has been cut, you only have five minutes before shut-down!"
'Caught out again!' Asuka thought, nearly paralysed by both fear and pain. Reducing the plug depth only slightly helped. Now it only felt like her entire arm had been stabbed, instead of severed. She attempted to back away but her movements were sluggish now that her sync ratio had sharply dropped and the pain still assaulted her. This wasn't supposed to happen! She wanted to wipe that stupid grin off the demon's face, but not like this!
Despite its lack of eyes, Unit-06 was definitely glaring at her. She knew what was going to happen now; it was going to finish her off. It had been playing with her, provoking her into fighting it like she had when she had to face all nine of them at once. But it had only taken one enemy to lay her low this time.
As Unit-06 brought its weapon up to point at her, Asuka's eyes widened as the surface of the sword began to shift into a horribly familiar form. A double pointed weapon, twisting around itself a third of the way down its length and becoming a handle. Her left eye twitched as she recalled the searing pain of the lance as it speared her Evangelion through its eyes, leaving her half-blind and crippled.
As if it too remembered, the Revenant raised the points of the lance to the height of Unit-02's head, forcing Asuka to back away quicker, but the back of the red Evangelion slammed into a building before she could get very far.
"No, I will not go down like this!" growled Asuka, as she finally forced herself to stop holding her own arm and wrapped both hands back around the controls. Unit-02's remaining arm shot up as the shoulder pylon released its knife. Asuka wasn't left-handed, but all pilots were trained to fight with a weapon in both hands in case of injury to their dominant side. Her training did not even have time to get used, however, as Unit-06's left hand shot across to grab her wrist as she swung the knife at its head.
Leaning hard into the building to brace herself, Asuka brought a leg up and tried to kick at its damaged torso, but the pain and her reduced sync ratio meant there was little force behind the kick. She pushed herself harder into the building behind her and brought both legs up, trying to push her attacker away with her feet, but it was like trying to push a mountain. Unit-06's left hand squeezed, and Asuka could feel the bones collapse in her own Evangelion's as a fresh wave of agony shot up her own arm.
"Rei! Shinji! Anybody! I could use some help here!"
In response, Unit-00 showed up behind Unit-06 and brought its rifle to bear again. The rounds punched into the rapidly healing flesh, causing no lasting damage, but there was no time to get another weapon.
Rei did not stop firing, but Unit-06 simply stood there, looking over its shoulder at Unit-00 for a moment before returning its attention to its captive. With a final crushing squeeze, the white beast let go of Unit-02's left arm and instead grabbed it by the neck. It then whirled around and brought the red Evangelion, still kicking, in front of it. Rei was forced to stop shooting.
Outside her cockpit, Asuka could see the Revenant raising its right arm, lance pointed directly at her Evangelion's core.
She closed her eyes and whispered a single word: "Shinji..."
The arm surged forward.
A sound was heard. It was loud and horrifying, yet it was the sound that Asuka had been holding her breath for. The sound stopped the lance mere millimetres before it could penetrate Unit-02's core, its distracted wielder looking away, scanning for the source of the disturbance as the roar continued.
It was a sound that made Asuka forget about her injuries, the pain unnoticed as she turned her head and focused on that beautiful sound. A sound that lifted her spirits and promised that everything would be alright.
It was a sound that put a small but warm smile on Rei's face as she heard it. Her pale hands, previously clutching the controls so tight they left imprints on them, relaxed as the sound surged through her.
It was a sound that shook the earth for kilometres around, and even deep underground in the Geofront, every single staff member swore afterwards that they could feel the vibrations in their feet.
Unit-01 had reactivated, and it was angry.
No, it was pissed.
When Asuka whispered Shinji's name just before the lance shot towards her Unit's core, the brilliant eyes of Unit-01 lit up and it opened its mouth and roared. It was a roar of fury and hatred and defiance. The sound wave demolished several buildings nearby, pieces flying all over the city as the purple beast got to its feet. It glared across the city at Unit-06, who dropped Asuka and stared back with its eyeless face. Later, Shigeru would argue that if Unit-01 had eye-lasers, it would have struck the Revenant dead in an instant simply from the force of that glare.
Unit-06 opened its mouth and roared back. Unit-01 roared again, and for a minute the ground shook again as both adversaries tried to shout each other down, neither backing away.
**
"Unit-01 has activated!" Makoto shouted in surprise, before his eyes widened. "And... its S2 organ is operational!"
"Its wounds have healed as well," Maya added. "I'm not detecting any internal damage."
"What...what's his sync ratio?" Ritsuko finally stammered. The first horrific roar had shaken her badly. The other two Evangelions simply unnerved her sometimes, especially Unit-00, but she was afraid of Unit-01. Ritsuko sometimes thought that Unit-00 was looking at her, but the Unit was always deactivated, and as a woman of science she tried to dismiss the feeling due to that fact, but it persisted.
Unit-01, however, induced terror in the scientist. She had watched as it went berserk against the Third and Fourteenth Angels. She had seen it viciously tear its way out of the Twelfth, caked in the blood of its dead enemy, and she knew what had caused those events. The soul of the Evangelion, the spirit of Yui Ikari acting to protect her child. But the woman's soul was apparently gone, just like the original souls in the other two Evangelions.
"Unit-01's sync ratio currently at... this can't be right... 245%," replied Makoto. "I can't get a solid reading on the pilot though, the psychograph is all over the place."
"Is Unit-01 berserking again?" asked Maya. She did not want to bear witness to Unit-01 eating another monster. The sight of the Fourteenth Angel's corpse being torn apart had been enough to make the poor girl vomit.
"No, this isn't a berserker state," answered Shigeru. "I'm not detecting any signs of that. Could... could it be that it's Shinji going berserk and not the Evangelion?"
"He heard Asuka," Misato sighed in relief. With Shinji seemingly inconsolable after his defeat, everything seemed to have gone downhill. For a brief moment she had thought about just how similar this scenario was to the last time Asuka had called for Shinji.
But this time, he had responded.
Misato clutched at her necklace again as the sound melted the ball of ice in her gut and replaced the look of shock on her face with a faint grin. "Go get 'em, Shinji," she whispered.
**
Their shouting match finally over, Unit-01 and Unit-06 stalked towards each other. As Rei fired the last shot in her weapon's magazine, the two beasts charged at each other as if she had simply pulled the trigger on a starting pistol. Both fighters met, leading with a left punch that rattled the other's head.
Unlike Unit-06's fight with Unit-02, which could have almost been a dance, this was most definitely a brawl. The two combatants hit with anything they could connect with. A punch to Unit-01's head was responded to by a kick to Unit-06's stomach. Unit-01 attempted to headbutt Unit-06, who grabbed its head in both hands and introduced it to a rising knee in the chin. Unit-06 attempted to follow up with a roundhouse kick, but was countered by Unit-01 grabbing its leg and swinging it around, throwing it into another building. Unit-01 charged after it with a flying kick that pushed Unit-06 through the building and along the street behind it. Getting back to its feet, Unit-06 swung its lance wildly, trying to keep Unit-01 back. The purple Evangelion simply halted and waited for its opponent to cease swinging.
Unit-06 raised its lance and stalked forward, intent on burying it in its foe's heart this time. Unit-01 moved at the same time, crouching down and jumping forward, burying its shoulder in Unit-06's damaged stomach and bringing it to the ground. It then picked up the Revenant by its legs and began to swing it around, completing several circles before letting go. The white Evangelion flew out of the city and landed behind a hill south of Tokyo-3.
And then Unit-01 took a running leap after it, landing on its chest as it began to rain blows down on that which had dared to harm its red counterpart.
At point blank range, Unit-06 could not easily bring the long lance to bear, but it eventually managed to pull its arm back and sink the lance partially into Unit-01's side, forcing it to get up and back away, roaring in pain and holding its torso where the lance had penetrated. The purple Evangelion's eyes narrowed, and a low growl emanated from its mouth as it watched Unit-06 get back to its feet. Both combatants were breathing heavily. It was only due to Unit-01's reactivated S2 organ and its sheer tenacity that the fight had not ended several minutes ago. The stab wounds closed up, leaving no trace that they had ever occurred, and the two enemies charged at each other once more.
Back in the city, Rei and Asuka were moving to give what support they could to Unit-01. The distance necessitated a new power cable for Unit-00, and Asuka ejected the remains of her own cable for a fresh one, collecting a Pallet Rifle at the same time. She didn't know if she would be able to fire it very well with only one arm and a crushed hand, but she was determined to try.
Unit-00 turned and offered a supporting arm to Unit-02, who waved its remaining hand dismissively. A few steps later the red Evangelion leaned on a nearby building as another wave of pain surged through Asuka's right arm.
"Are you alright, Asuka?" Rei asked.
"Oh, I'm just fine, First. You should see the other guy," came the snippy response from Asuka.
"I have seen the 'other guy'. Despite our best efforts, it remains alive."
"Ugh. You are impossible sometimes, Wondergirl." The redhead sounded angry, but internally she was cheering and clapping and dancing. Shinji had come to her aid.
As far as she was concerned, this negated the previous time, especially since Shinji had been too mentally destroyed to do anything back then. Now that she knew the truth, she had stopped being angry at him whenever the thought of her death had intruded on her thoughts.
A loud smashing noise interrupted her musing, followed closely by twin roars of pain and anger. The red and blue Evangelions looked at each other for a moment before increasing their pace. As they crested the hill to where Unit-06 and Unit-01 were fighting, they were stopped in their tracks by the scene in front of them.
Both combatants stood close together, unmoving, with their heads almost on each other's shoulders. Unit-01's right arm was sticking through Unit-06's chest, its core held in an upright purple hand. The sight that shocked Asuka and Rei however was that of the lance coming out of Unit-01's back, having been speared directly in the centre of its chest almost up to where the two prongs became the handle.
"Oh no," Rei whispered. "The entry plug... Shinji..."
"No! Shut up!" Asuka interrupted. The bad feeling she had felt earlier came back in force, making her queasy. The bad thing she was trying to prevent had happened anyway. She pushed past Rei and ran towards Unit-01. "He's the Third Child! He's invinc-"
The core detonated, blinding the pilots and bathing the region in brilliant white light.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
He's OK. Well, if you count being punched through a building, survive being impaled, and suffering a severe case of self-loathing OK.
Because you A, haven't hijacked yourself an MP Eva. B, haven't stuck yourself in an Eva core for the kids to synch with. Or C, have a flying bio-mechanical battleship to deliver fire-support with.
Aaand the flashbacks begin.
Yup. History repeats itself.
Riley, don't look.
...
It's Zeruel all over again.
You wanna bet?
yeah, Maya? You'd better go get a bucket.
Hehehe. Shinji is his mother's son.
Now that's an Evangelion fight: Red in Tooth and Claw, two demi-human godlings fighting to the death. OK, that's enough pseudo-natural philosophy from me.
OK, who let Shinji watch wrestling?
Nah, it grazed the plug, at be-OW! Who are you and how the fuck did you get in my room?
... Now that, he's not walking off.
Excellent chapter Mr. Halt. A Very tense, very Evangelion battle.
Last edited: