Shadowy Figure

Declaimer:

I guess, you know, that I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. Nine Hells of Baator, if I would own it, I wouldn't write stories here at fanfiction.net, because in that case I would be rich!

When shadows meet (A day after death of Tabris - the seventh angel)

The beautiful red-haired girl, about fourteen years of age, stood before the mirror and studied her reflection. She was dressed in black low-cut grown. The grown suited her perfectly, but she seemed to be unsure about golden earrings with emeralds.

Suddenly, movement in the corner of the room caught her attention, and she turned to see figure in the shadowy corner of the room. It was certainly a young boy, but thick shadows concealed the rest of his figure.

"It is pleasure to meet you" - said boy - "You look especially lovely today"

"Always a gentlemen" - teased him girl with a smile - "But I got a feeling, that you have intruded my apartment not just to give me a complement."

"Indeed" - said boy - "I suppose you know what is going on. Only we, have power to stop this apocalypse."

Girl lowered her eyes, which suddenly were filled with sadness, and said - "You know, I took oath never to kill again. I just can bring myself to do it once again."

"All of us took this oath" - said boy - "But sometimes, oaths must be broken. We must make a choice. Good of many, before good of few."

"Yes" - said girl sadly - "Good of many, before good of few. Such meaningless words, when you think about them. How could we claim, that we fight for good cause, when thousands of innocent people die because of us?"

"Yes, indeed many people will die because of us" - answered boy - "But even more will be saved by our actions. We can't turn our backs to the world, just because we never wanted to kill again, and because we took our little oath not to kill again."

"You are right, of course" - said girl even more sadly - "When need arise, we must fight over and over, until the bitter end. I just hoped, that we could finally forget about all these and live a peaceful life. But now I see, that our hopes would never come true. Very well. I will fight."

"No need to rush into things." - said boy - " For now I control the situation pretty good. You can enjoy yourself for a while. I heard you was looking forward to this party."

"Yes, I was." - said girl - "But now I am not so sure about it."

"Keep head up!" - said boy – "By the way, I am certain, that earrings with sapphires would suit you much better. Blue is the color of your eyes, you know."

The girl removed her golden earrings with emeralds, and replaced them with golden earrings with sapphires.

''Is it better now?" - asked girl, but the shadowy figure has already disappeared, as if it was never there…

Failed project (Three days later, in the SEELE council room)

Gendo was both afraid of this moment, and was looking forward to it. It would be SEELE council, which would decide fate of all humanity.

Both Gendo and Professor Fuyutsuki appeared in the black virtual SEELE council room, surrounded by eleven monolith, which represented anonymous SEELE council members. Both Gendo and Professor Fuyutsuki noticed, that SEELE-08 was absent.

"The promised time has come." - began meeting SEELE-01 - " But, with the Lance of Longinus now lost, complementation using Lilith is impossible. Our only hope is to proceed with EVA-01, Lilith's sole clone."

"However" - continued SEELE-11 - "It appeared that we haven't foresaw all possibilities. Recently we were attacked by some unknown enemy. Ikari, I hope you didn't lied to us. I hope, that all angels are dead, aren't they."

"All my reports are true." - said Gendo - "Angels from third to seventeenth perished from the hands of Evangelions."

"Then, we must accept possibility, that some kind of new enemy attacked us." - said SEELE-06 - "We must disable this new threat before doing anything else, or we can risk in failing to complete Human Complement Project."

"I agree" - said SEELE-07 - "Ikari, you should deal with this threat."

"It is decided then" - said SEELE-01 - "We will halt Human Complement Project, at last for a while"

"What?" - asked Gendo - "You want to halt Human Complement Project?"

"We can't risk by performing Human Complement Project with such dangerous enemy still at large" - said SEELE-01 - "Ikari, your orders are to destroy this new menace as soon as possible. To complete this task, we will sent you reinforcement in form of EVA-14 and EVA-15. But we don't have any pilots, so you will have to find pilots yourself. Don't fail us."

And with that, all eleven SEELE council members disappeared, leaving Gendo and Professor Fuyutsuki in the darkness.

"What do you think about all these, Professor?" - asked Gendo.

"The fact, that they are sending us reinforcement means, that they are in trouble indeed." - said Professor Fuyutsuki - "I noticed that one of SEELE council members wasn't present. I don't believe, that he just decided to skip this meeting. More likely, he was killed by this new menace."

"Than, we must be very cautious. With seventh angel dead, the game will be getting more and more cruel"

And after that, virtual images of Gendo and Professor Fuyutsuki disappeared as well.

Old friends (A few hours later, near the Tokyo-3 lake, which was result of destruction of Armisael – the sixteenth angel)

Two women stood near the Tokyo-3 lake, the dark-haired and blond-haired. Misato and Ritsuko.

"I am glad, the all charges were removed from you, Ritsuko'' – said Misato.

''They aren't removed'' – said Ritsuko sadly – ''I was just temporally released under Commander Ikari's authority.''

''Even if it is so'' – said Misato – ''It is not reason to be so sad.''

''You don't understand'' – said Ritsuko – ''He released my just because he found me some use, no doubt. He is such an egotistical man.''

''Ritsuko, aren't you…'' – began Misato, but she was interrupted by telephone call.

''Hello'' – answered Misato to call.

''Major Katsuragi'' – heard Misato Maya's voice – ''Please return to the command office immediately! We are under attack! Repeat, we are under attack!''

Under attack (Half an hour later, in the NERV command office)

When Misato and Ritsuko arrived to the NERV command office, Maya, Makoto and Shigeru were watching battle on the computer screen, while Commander Ikari and Professor Fuyutsuki were discussing something at the upper level of the NERV command office. On the computer screen, black giant humanoid made short work from United Forces.

''What is going on here?'' – asked Misato.

''Major Katsuragi'' – said Makoto – ''About forty minutes ago our security cameras near Tokyo-3 detected this creature. United Forces sent a small squad to investigate situation, and this squad was totally destroyed by some kind of sonic wave. Right now, United Forces are trying to delay this creature long enough for us to determine what to do with it. Light weapons apparently didn't do it much damage, and this creature is agile enough to dodge heavy weapons like missiles. In fact this creature is extraordinary agile. Also this creature seem to posses AT Field.''

''I see, and what commander Ikari is planing to do with it?''

''He plans to use EVA-01 against this enemy.'' – answered Makoto – ''There seem to be no other way to defeat it.''

''But Shinji isn't ready to fight yet.'' – said Misato angrily – ''He was so distressed of Kaoru's death.''

''Commander Ikari'' – addressed Misato to Commander Ikari through the comlink – ''With all respect, Shinji isn't ready to fight yet. He wouldn't be able to fight best of his ability.''

''Nevertheless, we must use Shinji.'' – said Gendo – ''We don't have any other choices. Asuka is still in coma, and when we tried to reprogram EVA-02 for Rei to pilot, EVA-02 rejected Rei. So Shinji is our only choice.''

''Yes, Commander Ikari'' – was forced to agree Misato.

''Okay'' – addressed Misato to NERV command office personal – ''Prepare to launch EVA-01.''

''Shinji'' - said Misato, as she contacted with Shinji through comlink – ''I am sorry, but you know, there is no another way. You must pilot EVA-01 once again. Nobody but you can do that.''

''Yes, Major Katsuragi.'' – said Shinji dutifully.

''Okay'' – addressed Misato to NERV command office personal – ''Unit 01, Launch!''

Battle against the shadow (A few minutes later, at battlefield/ in the NERV command office)

Shinji in his EVA-01 exited NERV facility at the outskirts of Tokyo-3, or precisely speaking, what had left from Tokyo-3. Seeing this, remains of United Forces began strategic withdrawal, leaving humanoid creature in Shinji's care.

"Not good" - said Maya back in the NERV command office - "His synchronization rate is only 46,9%. And it is much worse then it was at most previous battles."

"Shinji, prepare to attack" - said Misato through the comlink - "You mustn't let enemy to reach Geofront."

''Yes, Major Katsuragi.'' – said Shinji dutifully, as he reached for his palette rifle.

The enemy slowly walked toward EVA-01. Shinji carefully aimed at enemy's head and pressed trigger.

However, in the next moment, enemy jumped high into air, and, and before Shinji could reacted, the enemy was upon EVA-01…

*punch, grab, throw*

EVA-01 crushed to the ground about ten meters away from enemy. Before Shinji raised his Evangelion from the ground, enemy jumped at EVA-01 once again…

*kick, punch, grab, smash*

And once again EVA-01 was at the ground, in full mercy of the enemy.

" Major Katsuragi!" - screamed Maya at NERV command office - "Shinji's synchronization rate is falling. Right now it reached 42,0% and keep falling."

EVA-01 rolled away, avoiding enemy's vicious kick, but once again, EVA-01 wasn't able to get from the ground in time, and enemy was upon EVA-01 once again…

*kick, punch, grab, smash, kick, punch, punch, grab…*

"Shinji's synchronization rate is 34,7%!" - screamed Maya at NERV command office - "And it keep falling faster and faster. What is he doing there?! At this rate, he soon won't be able to pilot Evangelion!"

"I don't deserve to live" - thought Shinji bitterly, as he tried to raise his Evangelion from the ground once again - "Now I can't even pilot Eva properly. I am useless."

*punch, kick, punch, grab, smash, punch, grab, throw*

Once again EVA-01 crushed to the ground about ten meters away from the enemy.

"His synchronization rate is 23,5%" - screamed Maya at NERV command office - "And it keep falling! We must do something. Otherwise he would be killed!"

"Very well" - said Gendo gloomy - "Eject Entry Plug. The pilot can't defeat this enemy anyway. And pilot's life is far too valuable to waste it."

"Ejection completed successfully" - said Maya - "Entry Plug will be transported to safety immediately."

"Very well" - said Gendo - "Prepare all Geofront defense systems. Close all barriers and…"

"Commander Ikari" - said Makoto - "Enemy is retreating. Confirming, enemy is leaving Tokyo-3 area."

On the screens, NERV command office personal could see, that enemy walked to the sea, and in the next moment, from humanoid, enemy transformed into a large black bird, which strongly resembled raven, and flied away at extraordinary high speed.

"Track it using radars!" - ordered Misato.

"We can't do it, Major Katsuragi!" - said Maya - "The enemy is completely invisible on our radars!"

"Damned!" - swore Misato, as enemy flied from the range of Tokyo-3 security cameras - "We have lost it!"

After the battle (Evening of the same day, near the Tokyo-3 lake)

Shinji and Misato stood near the Tokyo-3 lake. The sunset was beautiful indeed, but either of them really cared about beautiful sunset right now.

''Shinji, don't blame yourself" - said Misato - "All of us were just caught unprepared by this new enemy. We thought, that all our trouble have gone, but we were wrong."

"Now, I can't even pilot my Evangelion" - said Shinji bitterly - "Then why am I? If I can't be Eva pilot, then who am I?"

"Don't be too hard to yourself, Shinji" - said Misato gently - "At last you forced enemy to retreat."

"The enemy didn't retreated." - said Shinji - "It didn't wanted to kill me, I am sure. It just wanted to taunt me, to show his strength, and then he just walked away."

Misato didn't knew, how to answer this comment, because she knew, that Shinji was right.

Failed mission (Meanwhile, in the SEELE council room)

"I heard, you have failed us again, Ikari" - said SEELE-02 - "I heard, that you couldn't destroy enemy."

"It is true" - said Gendo - "The enemy is still alive. However, it was unable to reach Geofront, and it was forced to retreat."

"Did it indeed retreated?" - asked SEELE-03 - "I heard, that it just crushed all your defenses into pieces and then walked away. Is it true?"

"No" - said Gendo - "While enemy indeed crushed our forces, it was unable to penetrate Geofront defenses, and so enemy was forced to retreat. If you'd sent us reinforcements, which you promised, the enemy would be already dead."

"The reinforcement, EVA-14 and EVA-15 would arrive tomorrow in the morning" - said SEELE-12 - "Don't fail us again, Ikari. Destroy this enemy."

"With that" - said SEELE-01 - "I proclaim this meeting finished."