Angels With Clipped Wings
Disclaimer: I do not own any Nasuverse –related works, neither do I own Evangelion. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. I would be presumably rolling around on my giant bed of money.
Edited Note: Man, I uploaded this badly on my first try. Came out all horrible. This copy should be fine.
Chapter One
First Day- An Empty Utopia
The birds scattered as they fought amongst themselves for the small crumbs being thrown into their flock by the young teenager slumped against the wall.
Shinji Ikari was bored. How long has it been now? The sixteen year old sighed to himself as he tried once more to message his supposed guardian with his mobile phone only to get no response. Jeez, he knew that Tokyo-3 didn't get much service from being so close to a Dead Zone but he hadn't expected a citywide communications blackout.
With a groan he returned to feeding the birds with the remnants of his lunch. At least they showed up on time. The woman who was supposed to be picking him up, the one who worked for Dad had left him waiting on the corner of a busy intersection for what felt like hours but was probably only thirty minutes at most. Which was still ridiculous. Wasn't this 'Lt Colonel Katsuragi' supposed to be military or something? The amount of knowledge Shinji didn't know about the military could fill several large libraries but he was pretty sure that they were supposed to be punctual.
Maybe there had been an emergency of some kind, though you wouldn't be able to tell it from looking. Tokyo-3 was full of people going about their lives completely unconcerned. From travelling here by plane, Shinji knew that this city was a tiny vibrant speck of life in the middle of a wasteland. Burnt out Dead Zones mostly surrounded the city, leaving it marooned in a sea of black and red.
He shook down the chill that had suddenly crawled up his spine. He had his own memories of the Second Impact fifteen years ago. Normally one would never remember anything that had happened so early in their life but a grotesque image of flames and melting things that had once been people had been permanently impressed onto his mind.
He'd been lucky. Most people who had been unfortunate to be caught in a Dead Zone when the Second Impact struck were dead. Either they had perished in their droves or they had been rescued only to kill themselves a few days later. It must have been Shinji's young age that had allowed him to keep his sanity with only a single memory and a few recurring nightmares to show for it. Children were supposed to be resilient, right?
A bright blue Renault messily pulling up to a parking space with a screech in front of him quickly shook him out of his memories. Shinji shook his head at the unseen driver. He didn't even have his license yet and he was pretty sure that even he could drive better than that.
The doors opened and an absolutely stunning woman emerged. Usually Shinji would have gawked at such a beauty. This Shinji though, had other things on his mind. This was the woman who was to have supposed to show up ages ago! It's about time.
"Hi there! Sorry I'm la-"
The Lt Colonel's greeting was interrupted by a massive foot crushing the car she had formerly been occupying.
"Gyaaaaah!" she cried as she quickly rolled out of the way. "It was here after all! Damn monster! How is my insurance supposed to cover that!"
Shinji's knees buckled as he gazed upon what must surely be Death. The inky black foot was curiously human-shaped with five defined toes. It lead up to a black giant, it's indistinct form hidden by its constantly reforming nature. Its skin was like molten pitch, bubbling and dripping long ropes of black ooze to puddle onto the ground. It only had a single arm rising from what looked like a right shoulder. It had no clearly defined head but a bone mask rose out of the pinnacle of its body, a white death's head staring down at the world.
Tokyo-3 swiftly grew a forest of screams as everyone began to run from the monster that had appeared in their midst.
Where…where had it come from? It certainly hadn't been there several seconds ago. It was as if it had stepped out of thin air, walking from a dead void that Man was not meant to see.
A great dollop of the black mud dripped down onto the pavement next to him, steaming as it slowly began to chew through the concrete. Involuntarily, Shinji's mind immediately flashed back to his sole image of the Impact. He didn't know how he knew or why he knew, but he knew. This thing was connected to the Hell that he saw in his nightmares.
"Hey! Snap out of it! We need to run! NOW!"
He felt the world give way underneath him as Katsuragi dragged him to his feet. With a stagger he immediately began to follow her as she began to run.
"What the hell was that thing?" he cried. "How is running supposed to help? We can't outrun that!"
"Don't worry," replied the Lt, still using her cheerful tone as if nothing had happened. Despite this, her eyes had taken a strange manic look that Shinji wasn't certain that he felt comfortable looking at. "It won't try to kill little bugs like us. We just need to get out of the blast zone!"
"Blast zone! What are you talking about Katsuragi?"
The woman pressing her hand over his mouth stopped the rest of Shinji's breathless questions, which was an incredibly awkward and uncomfortable position considering they were both running at the time.
"You should just concentrate on running right now! And please, call me Misato. Katsuragi was my father."
000
Several Minutes Earlier
The door slid open as Fuyutsuki entered Gendo Ikari's inner sanctum or as some NERV personnel put it, "The Beast's Lair". Fuyutsuki had never liked that particular nickname. He felt it was unfair to most beasts.
The 'Lair' was a large circular room deep underground, even for the rest of the Geofront. Its location was a small oddity, at least to those who weren't truly in the know. Fuyutsuki on the other hand, knew that it had several secret advantages that Gendo was likely to surrender only over his dead body.
The massive circular pattern of runes decorating the floor was only a small part of them.
The man himself sat at his desk in the center of the room, his gloved hands in that familiar pose as always. "News?"
"I have consulted the Board again. The results are unchanging. The Third is in this world. Once again, I can't get a lock on its Class. It could be anything."
"Curious," Gendo replied. "Its corruption must be blurring the barriers between Classes. I didn't know it could do that. But," he continued, steepling his hands further. "Where is it? Our Boundary Fields read no intrusions whatsoever and my familiars have seen nothing out of the ordinary. As the Board has been telling us for the past hour, the Third Servant has been summoned by the World. And yet it is not here. Our entire plan, no, the very reason for Tokyo-3's existence is based on the fact that the Servants should be attacking here! Check it again, Fuyutsuki. Something is wrong."
Fuyutsuki raised an eyebrow. This was the most emotional he had seen his former bitter enemy and current ally be for the past three years. He began to walk out of the room on his futile task when Gendo's terse voice halted him.
The man had taken his glasses off as he received new information remotely from his sources.
"Stop. It's here after all. It's been here all along."
000
A few seconds later, the sirens began to wail.
A soft rushing of air was the only noise as the doors opened for Gendo's private elevator that connected his sanctum to the NERV control room. As he stepped out with Fuyutsuki trailing behind him, he silently reviewed the information he had received from his familiars. With that mask it could only be…
He smiled. Of course. That explained everything perfectly.
Fuyutsuki, being far less informed than Gendo gave a nearly inaudible gasp as he saw the monster on the view-screen before averting his eyes.
"I know the Board warned us about this but…I never dreamed I would see such noble beings reduced to such a corrupted monster state."
Gendo gave a small noncommittal noise that communicated precisely what he thought of Fuyutsuki's shock.
"Don't be so surprised. It's exactly what we've been doing for the past fifteen years. We have long lost the right to think such things. But more importantly, look at it's head."
Fuyutsuki was opening his mouth to respond but it shut like a trap the moment he saw the giant white skull mask swimming in the body of giant. The blood rushed from his face, leaving him even paler than usual.
"Tha-"
"Yes, it does explain a few things doesn't it? Of course we didn't see it or detect it coming. With a Presence Concealment of that grade, it's probably been lurking in this city the entire time until it lost it's patience and decided to batter it's way through."
As he paused momentarily, Gendo took the moment to thank whatever deities that was available that Presence Concealment faded when in 'attack mode'.
He stood closer to screen calmly, an island of serenity in the ocean of panic that was the NERV command room.
Of course, Gendo was not as unfeeling as he pretended to be. Under his calm façade, his heart was beating as fast of the rest of them. They had been preparing for this for a long time, true. But nothing could truly prepare you for the sight and feel of a Servant in action, even one as colossal and warped as this one. His right hand reached down absent-mindedly to scratch at the back of the left. It had been a long time.
He turned back to his still silent subordinate.
"Problem, Fuyutsuki?"
Fuyutsuki had endured Gendo's mockery ever since that incident fifteen years ago. He could deal with it now. He cleared his throat.
"Ritsuko," he called out to the Head of Research. "Just what is the composition of that fluid that the Servant is secreting?"
The blonde "scientist" turned to the older man, the delicate Crest inscribed on her upper arm briefly glowing from her recent interfacing.
"It's not what you think it is, I assure you. The first thing I did was have the MAGI analyse it as a top priority. I'm afraid it's just a cheap imitation of the real thing. Highly corrosive but it barely registers on the Keter scale."
Gendo nodded, unsurprised. His familiars hadn't registered any long-term damage to their souls and so he'd assumed the best. It was nice for that to happen, for once.
"Excellent. For a moment there, I thought we were in trouble."
000
Shinji was coming close to nearly being out of breath. He was good at running, he ran track after all. And he'd often had plenty of practice, whether he liked it or not. But he couldn't just run full pelt like this forever.
He turned to see Misato collapsed in a heap several meters behind.
"Why…why…did I …ever …think this was a good…idea", she wheezed. That strange dangerous look in her eyes was long gone now. She had a strange form of radio held to her ear as she lay panting on the ground.
"How… the hell… were you able to keep that pace up… and not be dead by now?" she demanded.
He shrugged as he replied "I've always been good at running."
"Bull…shit. There's good at running and then there's…there's…"
She stopped as she listened to the incoherent noise of the radio warble on for a few seconds. Frowning, she got to her feet and looked at the gargantuan monster in the distance, looked back at their own surroundings and then back at the monster.
"Yeah. That might just be far enough. I can barely believe that they'd do it in here though."
"Far enough for wha-"
"Get down!"
With an unusual speed for someone so exhausted, the woman leapt at Shinji and took out his legs in a diving tackle, knocking both of them off the sidewalk and into the mouth of an alleyway. Shinji's startled scream was muffled as an earth-shattering boom momentarily deafened his ears. Scant moments later, the building they were now sheltered behind shook slightly and a small wave of backwash swept down the street that they had been standing in.
"What was that?"
Misato looked down at him in his prone position, her sunglasses knocked askew and hanging from one side of her face.
"I told you. Blast zone."
000
The command center watched silently as the Servant became Ground Zero for several dozen missile strikes of varying strength. Though the black mass of the Servant absorbed the majority of the explosion's power, waves of backwash was blasted into the surrounding area.
Gendo smiled, finding a brief moment of mirth in this catastrophe. For this engagement, NERV was theoretically placed under the SDF's command, and they weren't planning for NERV to pull its trump card until all the more reliable methods of destruction had failed. Such ignorance had clearly been displayed here and what's more, such reckless endangerment of human lives by firing brazenly at the monster that had infiltrated past their defensive line would be a massive political blow. He very much doubted that the military would have authority over NERV by the time of the next engagement. There would be no more fetters.
As the widespread evacuation continued, the dust cloud faded to reveal the Servant to be completely unharmed. It's flowing skin was unmarred, an example of hideous perfection in the field of destruction around it.
"As expected," Fuyutsuki claimed. "Ordinary weapons will have little effect on them."
The rain of projectiles slowly petered out as Gendo looked expectantly at a red phone sitting at his desk. The moment it rang, his hand snatched the receiver up only to put it down just a few seconds later.
"We have authorisation for direct supernatural intervention."
Fuyutsuki nodded. "I see. Shigeru, put me on the line to Ayanami's cell."
"No. The First Child is not ready for deployment yet. She has taken far longer than predicted to recover from the last simulation. The catatonia has ended but her synch rate with Unit-01 would be abysmal. We will deploy the other Child."
"The Second? But she's in England!"
"Of course not the Second. The Third Child is on his way now."
"So PENDRAGON finally found the Third? But what would he pilot? There are no free…Oh." Fuyutsuki stopped as he caught on. He lowered his voice so not even Ritsuko could hear them.
"No. No. Why would you…What…That doesn't-"
He was at a loss for words.
"You think I don't know that?" Gendo's voice was similarly lowered. "You think I want this? Trust me, if I had any choice in the matter it would have been very different." With those words Gendo turned away from his subordinate and walked back into the elevator.
"He was your mistake, Kozo. And now we have to deal with it. You handle the control room, I'll be down at Unit-00's containment chambers."
The elevator doors closed.
000
"There sure are a lot of elevators here," Shinji remarked. After the brief missile fiasco, Misato had radioed for a NERV chauffeur to drive by and pick them up to take them to HQ. He kinda wondered why they just didn't do that in the first place rather than have him get picked up by Misato.
Since then they had been on some sort of weird car elevator, a car train/elevator thing, a regular elevator after they had disembarked and were now standing in a glass-sided elevator moving down.
On the plus side, it gave him time to talk to Misato more. Now that his initial shock over being nearly killed by first a giant sludge monster and then an air strike, she was pretty pleasant company.
"Yeah, I was surprised when I first came here too," Misato said. "But they really are necessary. HQ is pretty far underground. Also, I think your father just really likes them for some reason."
"My father…He's in command, isn't he?"
"That's right!" she chirped. "You still have those files I gave you, you can read up on them in your spare time." She stopped and looked suspiciously at him. "Come to think of it, I never actually asked you your name. You areShinji Ikari, right?"
"Er…yes?"
"Oh thank God," she laughed. "Imagine if I'd accidentally given those files to a complete stranger without asking!"
Shinji joined in her laughter unreservedly. Judging from what he'd seen so far, it wouldn't be strange for this woman to do that.
"Why, I'd have to execute you on the spot!"
Misato kept laughing. Shinji didn't.
A few more minutes of idle chatter followed before Shinji manned up enough to ask the question that had been hovering at the edge of his mind since he'd been called here.
Or at least, he tried. But the next sight took his breath away as the elevator exited the tunnel it had been travelling down and he could finally see where he was.
It was as if they were suspended above an endless void that stretched forever in all directions. As they rattled lower though, he began to make out the details. It was a massive underground cavern that stretched for kilometres. Most of it was dark but several large sections were lit up to reveal a rocky barren surface and buildings. Many buildings.
Just from a glance he could see a set of huge greenhouses next to a large scrawl of low-lying refugee centres for the inhabitants of Tokyo-3 next to a series of cranes large enough to be considered buildings themselves. The cavern was under a constant state of construction, new structures constantly expanding outwards. Directly below them in the center of a cavern was large cluster of squat fortress buildings with a single tower that proudly bore the NERV insignia.
"I can't believe it," he breathed. "I get to see a real live Geofront. The Geofront!"
"Yeah, it's pretty nice," his companion said nonchalantly. "This is after all, the last fortress mankind will ever need."
He turned to her to ask Misato just what she meant by that last remark when the elevator glided to a smooth stop inside the top floor of the tower and she quickly ushered him out.
"No more time for questions. Follow me."
Kozo Fuyutsuki frowned at the mammoth shape of the Servant on the view-screen. It was wandering around at random now, tipping over and destroying buildings in its quest. Thankfully, the entire city had managed to evacuate from those areas.
"What must it be like," he mused. "To have come so far, endured so much to reach your goal and now that you are here, you don't even know where it is. Sad."
To be fair, NERV and the military were doing more than their fair share at keeping it confused. If at any time it started to look like it was focussing on it's task they hit it with a few missiles to lure it away into trying to attack what was annoying it. The thing seemed to have been robbed of most of it's reasoning. It was like fooling a child.
But still, it was causing significant amounts of damage and had already claimed several dozen lives. Ritsuko had already left to help prep the new pilot. He could only hope that they were getting Unit-00 ready for combat soon.
"Hello Shinji. It's been a long time."
Shinji couldn't help himself backing away slightly. His father had unexpectedly joined them in the corridors and told Misato to head back to the command center while he took Shinji personally.
Shinji couldn't help but think that something very bad was about to happen.
"H-Hello father. …What am I doing here?"
"A very good question," his father replied. The next thing he said did not surprise Shinji one bit. "It began with the event called the Second Impact that occurred fifteen years ago."
"…"
"As you are no doubt aware, the Impact is called so because it was the result of a large and destructive meteor shower. It was as if the entire surface of the Earth was sprayed with buckshot. Not only this, but the meteors contained substances and elements unknown to Man. The sites of impact burned with something like napalm, only far more long lasting. Strange radiations were emitted from the wreckage of the meteors that degraded the brain cells of any living being inside it. These still-burning sites are the Dead Zones.
It was the near downfall of all of humanity but the result was a single unified group of humanity forged by going through the incredible hardships. Mankind, though seemingly weakened, was made stronger than ever," he said, beginning to sound like the announcers on the old child documentaries about the Impact they used to play.
"That story is of course, a complete nonsensical fabrication," Gendo concluded. He looked back to Shinji, no doubt expecting him to be shocked. He wasn't. Ever since he'd seen that thing back in the center of Tokyo-3, the thing that smelled like old fires and the desolation of fifteen years ago, he'd known that the monster was tied to the Impact, and that by extension that the official story was clearly a lie.
He wasn't sure howhe knew this though. But just seeing the gunk oozing out of its veins seemed to have affected him.
"The Impact was caused by those monsters, wasn't it?" he said quietly, a brief flash of burning buildings crossing his mind momentarily.
"Well, yes." Gendo looked at his son oddly in a way that Shinji couldn't fathom. Was he surprised? Disappointed? Maybe even proud?
After adjusting his glasses, the Ikari patriarch continued.
"The real cause is extraterrestrial life," he said with a completely straight face.
"…What."
"Don't look at me like that, Shinji. The things that caused the Dead Zones were not meteorites but some kind of alien terraforming machines, altering the landscape around them and creating the Zones. I don't know the science behind it but then again, barely anyone does. These beings were light-years ahead of us, using science and technology in an indescribable fashion that goes against anything we knew of physics, trying to shape our planet into something completely inimical to life as we know it."
"But that thing back in the city wasn't an alien!"
"Not quite. It was a self-operating autonomous invasion and resettlement unit, created through bioengineering that our Head of Research can only beginto understand. We've codenamed them 'Servants'. Their task is to explore and to wipe out any native resistance to the terraforming, and in the long run, expand it themselves. But hope is not lost! We have prepared for them. Using backwards engineering and human ingenuity, we have a means to fight back."
Shinji was getting a little caught up in the words, he couldn't help himself.
"Wait! How do we do that?"
As they neared the end of the corridor, the final set of doors slid open.
"With these."
"…"
They were standing only a long walkway suspended over an overly large room. The height of the walkway was in fact, just perfect for looking the giant robot straight in the eyes.
Wait, giant robot!
"The Spirit-Class Mobile Combat Mechanized Unit. Engineered from alien technology, these are the last hopes for all humanity." He turned to the surprised Shinji to face him in the eye. "And we need you to pilot them into combat."
"…Are you insane? Why me? I'm not trained! I'm not even an adult yet! Why, Why would I pilot this thing!"
Shinji waved his hands at the robot to emphasize. It was a huge humanoid, taller than most buildings. It had a plain blue and white colour scheme and it's horned head with it's glaring eyes reminded him somehow of a hungry beast. An angryhungry beast.
"You are one of the only ones who can pilot it, Shinji. Listen to me and calm…down. We were able to re-engineer it but this model, Unit-00 is a prototype and is filled with certain…quirks. It can only be piloted by someone with extensive exposure to a Dead Zone. As you can imagine, it is very rare to find such people alive. Trust me, Shinji. If I had any other choice I could have taken, I would have."
"N-No! There are others! This sort of thing is…is just beyond me! Father, please! I can't do this."
"Well-"
"I can't believe this! You don't speak to me for three years and when you do send for me, it's because you want me to fight to the death in a giant robot?"
"Shinji, given enough time, I am sure I could convince you." Gendo frowned as he listened to a report on the current state of affairs aboveground with his headset. He reached up with his hand. Shinji had to stop himself from flinching back. Would his father try to strike him? Shinji honestly had no idea what he would do then.
"But we are out of time. Shinji, look into my eyes."
"Why-"
Despite himself, Shinji couldn't help but let his gaze flicker over briefly to meet Gendo's just as he took his obscuring glasses off.
His eyes were orange. His father's eyes were orange. He didn't remember that when did that happen orange they were orange yellow blue red red red orange...
With a brief shake, Shinji snapped himself out of it. He must have been mistaken before somehow. Gendo's eyes were brown, as they always were.
"Wha-What were we saying again?"
"I'd just finished telling you about our situation and you'd just agreed to pilot the Spirit, remember?"
"Oh…that's right. Yes. Yes I will."
000
The next few minutes passed in a daze for Shinji. He vaguely remembered changing into a strange suit that was far too tight for his tastes but the blonde researcher told him it was completely necessary. He couldn't really remember any details on her, she was a blur to him. To be fair, so were most things to him by then.
He'd sat inside a giant plug of some kind that was inserted into Unit-00. Or at least, he thought he did. Things seemed to be getting kind of metaphorical to him at that point.
Liquid…some kind of liquid. He could breath it though and it was clear so it wasn't really there. A lot of funny colours happened at that point and his left hand really hurt for some reason but then the pain went away so it's all good. All good. All good.
He began to get the vague feeling that something was wrong. This didn't feel like aliens, if it made any sense. It didn't feel technological at all. He began to feel that maybe Gendo wasn't really telling him the whole truth. But he could think about it later as he goes up the tube. Lots later. Just need to keep going, keep going, keep going
He eventually emerged from his drowsy state into full consciousness once more to find himself above-ground inside the Spirit, preparing to face off against the increasingly pissed-off looking skull monster.
"Aw fuck."
000
Somewhat Earlier
Fuyutsuki continued to watch the idiot Servant criss-cross it's paths as NERV lead it on a wild goose chase away from civilians. To be honest, this was far from how he expected the Fifth War to proceed.
And then the monster paused in mid-step; the thing that may or may not be its head rose high as if sniffing the air. And then it brought its fist down into the ground, the impact cratering the concrete.
It continued it's desperate excavation, ignoring the ineffective weapons they tried to goad it with. Its single arm was already nearly sunk up to its shoulder into the ground.
Just moments later, his headset crackled as Ritsuko told him that Shinji's bonding with Unit-00 had been a complete success.
"Shit," he breathed. The Servant must have detected its activation. It knew where it's objective was now. "Shit. Shit. I didn't think they would still be able to do that."
With a sickening motion, the Servant began to flow into its buried arm, slowly turning to fluid and seeping into the ground. Kozo Fuyutsuki did not say another word but instead left the command center immediately.
As he strode down the corridor, he spoke rapidly into his headset.
"Yes, I'm going to need the express to the surface waiting for me. Thank you."
One swift detour to the sealed chamber concealed underneath the mundane armoury later and Fuyutsuki entered the high-speed express elevator train to the surface holding a long thin black case in one hand.
There were some things that a man just had to do himself.
000
The Servant was nearly half into the ground. The annoying missiles and bullets had long since stopped. Once it had found it's true goal, it simply ignored the futile attackers.
And in turn, they had slowly stopped when they realised that they had just been wasting munitions.
So it came as a great surprise when what seemed to be a regular bullet impacted its hide and ripped through it, tracing a line of fire across its chest. No, more than that. Its impact fractured it, spreading tiny cracks into the very nature of its being. The thick black mud began to merge around the spiritual wounds and begin his regeneration but it…it hurt so much. It hurt far more than anything so small should.
Hidden in a sniper den halfway across the city, Fuyutsuki smiled as he reloaded for his next shot.
000
Ritsuko returned to the command center far earlier than Gendo did. The preparation and activation for Unit-00 had gone smoothly. So smooth in fact, that it was almost suspicious. Nobody had ever managed to obtain such a high Synch rate with a Spirit unit on first bonding before.
Especially not on the insane prototype model Unit-00, which was known for eating it's potential pilots. The way that the Commander's son had calmed it so easily was uncanny.
That word could easily describe Shinji Ikari as well. Her first meeting with him had been…strange. He had been so calm, despite his imminent duel to the death with a horrific monster. His unresponsive gaze had unnerved her.
Surely, something was wrong here. Out of all the people in NERV, Ritsuko was one of those who were most "in the know", third only to the Commander and the Vice-Commander themselves. There shouldn't be things happening that she couldn't explain and yet, there they were.
What was currently happening aboveground was another one of them.
"He's doing what?" she roared. "And he's actually hurting it? Give me a closer look."
Her subordinate and former apprentice Maya Ibuki manipulated the screens to show the Vice-Commander of all of NERV lying on his belly behind a screen of rubble with an odd-looking sniper rifle in his hands.
Ritsuko didn't recognise the weapon, but she did know what the discarded long case behind Fuyutsuki was.
"He raided the Conceptual Armoury," she breathed, barely believing her eyes.
000
As he fired another magical bullet into his gargantuan foe, Fuyutsuki resigned himself to the fact that if the Servant didn't kill him, the old men likely would. The tiny amount of magical weapons hidden in the Conceptual Armoury was one of their treasures, the result of a painstaking search through the ravaged post-Impact world.
Entire treasuries had been emptied to obtain even the meagre amount of weapons that the Conceptual Armoury contained. They had even gone to the lengths of stealing the Third Holy Scripture from a ruined Church outpost that had been in the middle of an emerging Dead Zone.
The Scripture in question of course, was still sitting safely inside the Armoury. It was far beyond Fuyutsuki's abilities to wield it. But he had settled for the next best thing, another great treasure that had been unearthed in Egypt decades ago and hidden away ever since until it came into NERV's hands after the Impact. Which is why Fuyutsuki was doing this himself.
He could have ordered a soldier to do this instead. They probably would have been much better at it than he. But he couldn't let another take the inevitable punishment for endangering an Artifact that would be so valuable in the Endgame scenario.
The thunder from the third shot echoed in his ears as another harbinger of death impacted into the Servant, sending it reeling back and knocking it back into it's fully solid form, abandoning it's attempt to flow into the Geofront.
Excellent. Fuyutsuki knew that this weapon couldn't slay the Servant. Its purpose was to slay far grander beings than the deranged monster currently devastating Tokyo-3. But still, each bullet fired from its chambers wreaked havoc on the Servant's spiritual nature, causing it great pain.
Where conventional weapons had failed, the Conceptual Weapon in his hands would distract it long enough for the weapon truly capable of slaying it to arrive.
He reached for the fourth bullet and was in the process of placing it into the chamber when an ear-piercing screech echoed through the city, the first sound that the Third Servant had emitted.
It was looking directly in his direction. With a chill down his back, Fuyutsuki knew that it could see him. It could see him.
Throwing the bullets aside, he threw the priceless gun roughly back into its case. There was nothing he could now but run for the entry point as if all the dogs of Hell were after him. Looking back at the Servant scrambling insect-like at impossible speeds towards him, Fuyutsuki decided that Hell would have been much more preferable.
000
Present
"Aw fuck."
Shinji's awakened mind quickly took in the charging Servant. He wasn't quite sure how he'd gotten up here aboveground inside the Spirit but he knew what he had to do. He was supposed to fight it, right? That's what he had wanted to do after all. Maybe.
Without thinking, Unit-00 threw it's shoulder forward and collided with the charging monster at precisely the correct moment, knocking it off it's feet and sending it sprawling with a supreme combination of force and precision.
000
"It's about time!"
Fuyutsuki scrambled out of the way as the Spirit's impact repelled the charging Servant, throwing gooey ropes of the monstrosity's black mud everywhere. The sounds of the two gargantuan monsters clashing was deafening, nearly reaching a physical presence.
It was one of the grandest fights that a mortal man could ever see, corrupted divine mysteries colliding and corroding each other. But he could be spectator later, back when he's safely in the command centre. He just had to get bac-
A particularly mighty blow from the fight behind him shook the earth far more than he anticipated. Fuyutsuki's left leg slammed into the ground the entirely wrong way, twisting his ankle and throwing him to the ground.
He blindly threw out his hands to break his fall only to have them plunge into one of the small pools of mud that the Third Servant had thrown everywhere.
Oh.
Oh.
Fuyutsuki collapsed into his own personal hell.
000
Had…had he done that?
Shinji had no idea how he had been able to push the Servant aside like that. The Spirit was responding to him almost completely instinctively, moving with a speed and grace that he himself could never muster.
The plug he was in had disappeared and it was as if he and his chair were floating far above the ground, directing the Spirit that was a barely seen extension of himself. Compared to him right now, the Servant seemed to be swimming through treacle, slowed down to a miniscule rate.
He laughed. He had been so afraid but he had this. He actually had this.
The Spirit's arm reached down to grab the fallen Servant but the monster shiftedand completely evaded his swing. It moved ludicrously fast, skittering along the ground like some sort of giant insect.
How. How did it get so fast? Wasn't it slow just a moment ago? How-
His line of thought was interrupted as the Servant lunged forward in a spray of debris and caught his Spirit by the throat with its solitary arm.
Shinji's eyes bulged as he felt the thing constrict his throat. How? How? How was it hurting him through the Unit?
His world once again exploded in pain as the Servant used its grip on him to swing him viciously into the ground before launching itself upwards and planting the full force of it's weight into his abdomen.
The Servant's semi-fluid body flowed over the prone Spirit, smothering him as it's hideous acids flowed over the Spirit, looking for a point of access to flow into and invade.
It hurt…it hurt so much.
All earlier bravado was lost as Shinji screamed and screamed and screamed. Ohgodohgodohgod everything was burning ithurtsithurtsithurts the acid melted up his nervous system and into his body.
"Shinji! Whatever you're feeling, it's not real! It's not real!"
Right. Right. Not real. It's all in his head. He…just has to lift.
His dying muscles strained as main mass of the Servant was slowly lifted off Unit-00. The Spirit raised its right foot and planted a solid blow into the creature's face, sending it flying off him.
He threw himself forward and buried a fist into the center of the Servant's bulk, knocking it backwards.
It had been hiding its true speed before to serve as a trump card. Now that Shinji had his measure, he could do this. He could do this. He just had to keep hurting it. Keep hitting and hitting it, never letting it get it's footing back.
It all just boiled down to one stark truth. He had to kill it before it could kill him. He couldn't run away. He mustn't run away. He can't outrun that thing, even in the Spirit. No flight, just fight.
The Servant swung it's arm at him in a wild scything arc but the Spirit just jinked to the side and grabbed the Servant by it's unprotected left side. He rammed both of his hands into the thing's body and stretched.
The Third Servant made its second outcry in the battle as it screamed in pain as it was slowly ripped apart. A flood of blood and mud poured out of the gaping hole in its side in a great wave that swamped the street below.
This was easy now that he got the hang of it. The Servant was strong but the Spirit's power just seemed to outclass it in nearly every way. What's more the beast only had one arm, on it's right side. No matter what it did, its left side would always be completely open.
Pushing the wounded Servant against a convenient building, Shinji got his fingers underneath the mask. That part looked important. Maybe it was how he killed it.
"Let's see what you really look like, alien!"
The mask was torn away only to reveal a second skull swimming in the ooze behind the first.
It seized on his momentary confusion to press it's back fully against the building as a brace and kicked out both legs into Unit-00's chest, sending him toppling over.
Instead of pressing the advantage the wounded monster leapt back several hundred meters and watched it's foe carefully.
Shinji manoeuvred the Spirit back to its feet slowly. The earlier rush he had felt seemed to be dying down and Unit-00 felt heavier on its feet. But in return, the Servant was still bleeding freely and looked like it was far less steady on its feet. The two monsters eyed each other cautiously.
000
The command centre watched silently as they faced off. Gendo steepled his hands together once more. This was the proving ground, where NERV's chances were either made or broken.
If only it could have been Rei rather than Shinji piloting.
Maya looked up from her console.
"I'm picking up a large spike of energy in the Servant! It's PHANTASM grade!"
Misato didn't waste any time in snatching the radio off Ritsuko to the pilot of Unit-00.
"Shinji! You need to evade! Evade now!"
"What's going on? Why isn't anyone telling me anything?"
A slow ripping sound echoed through the battlefield as a geyser of polluted blood suddenly burst from the Servant's left shoulder. A single blood-red limb emerged from the wound, an arm of impossible length that had joints where no joints should be.
For a long stunned moment, the fully extended arm hung over the ruined battlefield like the worst of omens.
And then it shot forward at nearly supersonic speeds, bending around buildings, infallibly spearing towards its target, the chest of Unit-00.
It was unstoppable. It was death that one could barely see, let alone avoid…
…Unit-00 reached up and caught it by its wrist; just scant meters from touching the center of the Spirit's chest.
"I am," Shinji panted, "so sick of you by now."
000
"Well, that was a lot easier than I thought it would be," Misato said. She quickly turned on her old friend.
"Ritsuko, you told me that PHANTASM weapons were supposed to be incredibly powerful! What gives?"
"Well… I admit that that was a bit more underwhelming than I expected but-"
"Another energy spike! The MAGI are detecting Ether manipulation!"
The demonic arm wriggled slightly inside Unit-00's grasp and closed into a fist. Once again, the command centres radio was filled with the sound of Shinji screaming.
000
He thrashed wildly in his chair. The earlier illusion was gone. Shinji was in the closed environment of the entry plug. What's more, the plug was collapsing while still inside the Spirit, being crushed by an unseen fist.
Dents began to appear on the sides of the plug as it slowly began to be squeezed inward. The fluid inside the tube compacted, crushing Shinji under its weight. He wasn't just taking sympathetic pain from his connection to the Spirit anymore. This was him, this was real.
His cries rose as he felt his ribs begin to give way. They were slowly breaking, he could hear them audibly groaning under the pressure.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
The last one wasn't a rib. The only thing he could was scream as his leg dangled uselessly.
Snap.
Another rib.
Snap.
That one was a finger.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
000
"Eject the pod! Eject it now!"
"I'm sorry Commander Katsuragi, but that won't help." Gendo remained completely calm. "The ether clump being used by the Servant is connected to his entry plug and by extension Shinji. Even if he would eject, he would still be crushed."
The entry plug crumpled inside the Spirit like an aluminium can. Shinji stopped screaming.
000
From the viewers at NERV HQ, it seemed like the air around Unit-00 suddenly exploded. A small magical shockwave poured out it in all directions as the unit was suddenly lit up with a strange luminescence.
Where the tide of energy struck the invisible ether construct mirroring the entry plug, it burst back into its separate particles.
Wordlessly, Unit-00 reeled the Third Servant in using it's own grotesquely oversized arm as the line.
The Servant's unblinking skull, it's true face slammed into the Spirit's gauntleted fist with an explosive crack!
Again and again and again. Unit-00 punched the startled monster in the face several more times before grabbing its face with both hands and digging its fingers into it. Tainted blood spurted out several times before Unit-00's hands located what seemed to have been the head and squeezed mercilessly.
The fight ended quickly.
000
Later
By the time Kozo Fuyutsuki had woken up, night had fallen. A buzzing fluorescent light that promised to get very annoying lit his private hospital room.
"Hello Fuyutsuki. I see you're awake"
A devil walked into the room. Fuyutsuki might have been worried once but it was a familiar devil that he'd known for years.
"Hello Gendo."
An awkward pause descended. In the time that elapses, Fuyutsuki felt like he could almost hear music coming from the next room.
As always, Gendo started it.
"I thought you'd given up being a hero fifteen years ago."
Kozo gave a small self-depreciating chuckle.
"I guess some dreams never die, even for an old fool like me. And then we have to pay the price"
As he said the last, he looked down at his heavily bandaged hands. He couldn't feel anything in them, as they were completely numb. He didn't know the extent of the damages. He had a sinking feeling he might not want to know the extent of the damages.
"We found you lying in the wreckage. You'd nearly fallen into a pool of the stuff. Be thankful it only burned your hands."
"Hmph," Kozo grunted. "It didn't feel like it was just my hands. It hurt like I was swimming in the stuff."
"Well, it might just be a cheap imitation of the real thing but it's still a thaumaturgical acid designed only to inflict pain and death. It's supposed to hurt far beyond regular means."
"So…"Fuyutsuki motioned with his bandaged hands. "How extensive was the damage?"
"Some serious acid burns and necrosis, nothing major. Easily healed. You're going to have to keep those bandages on for a few days though. Might have to keep from sniping monsters for at least a week."
"Heh. About that, though…they're going to have my head on a stick for that little jaunt, aren't they?"
"Not if I can help it," Gendo adjusted his glasses. "What you did out there was foolish, dangerous and suicidally stupid to an extreme I have rarely seen, not to mention putting one of our necessary pieces into danger far before it's supposed to be. But still, you helped save us. All of us. You probably won't get a medal out of it but I'll placate the old men."
With those words he began to stride out of the room, pausing only at the doorway.
"By the way, when the bandages come off your hands aren't going to be something people will want to see in public. Take this."
He took a small package out of his pocket and threw it onto his bedspread before leaving without another word.
Curiously, he took the package gingerly in his hands and slowly opened it. A few seconds of silence followed before the room was resounding with Fuyutsuki's laughter.]
000
Gendo sat behind his desk as the inevitable meeting/interrogation proceeded.
Surrounding him were eight black monoliths, each one floating slightly above the ground. Each monolith was blank save for red engraved words reading 'SANGRAAL'.
The monoliths marked SANGRAAL-00 and SANGRAAL-01 were faded, signifying that those members were not attending this meeting. This did not surprise Gendo. SANGRAAL-01 did not usually deign to speak to people like him and Gendo was one of the few people who knew SANGRAAL-00's secret. He would only speak at the end of all things.
SANGRAAL-02 cut the bickering off with the sound of his voice.
"Enough. We have trusted Ikari so far on these matters and the Longinus was not harmed. His subordinate will go unpunished."
SANGRAAL-06 took up the next item.
"We had wasted far too long arguing on that anyway. The real problem here is how the Third Servant managed to breach your so-called impenetrable defence. Tell me Ikari, how were you not prepared for the possibility of a corrupted Assassin class?"
Gendo gave an inaudible sigh. He'd known that this would come up.
"I'm sorry gentlemen but," a small cough from SANGRAAL-04 interrupted him, causing Gendo to look up in annoyance before continuing.
"I'm sorry gentlemen and ladybut one simply cannot plan for a Presence Concealment of that high a rank. It sailed through our best Boundary Fields without letting off a single alarm, invisible to all forms of scrutiny. Luckily, the Geofront is sealed off from the majority of Tokyo-3 and so the Servant was forced to reveal itself there."
SANGRAAL-05 swiftly interrupted.
"But the civilian casualties taken from it's complete bypassing of your defences are not to happen again. All of those people will be needed for when it starts to move."
"Indeed," Gendo nodded. "And I assure you that this will not happen again. Our fields are set up in such a way that we should be able to detect the Servant coming from miles off, giving us more than enough time to evacuate into the Geofront."
"The pilot. What precisely happened there?" SANGRAAL-04 was curious.
"He is alive through fortunate means, though only barely. When he lost consciousness, he stopped pacifying the Mad Enhancement on the Unit-00 and it briefly took over and finished the fight."
General noises of shock and horror were heard throughout the room.
"Unit-00in the Berserker state!"
"Yes. Luckily we were able to remote detonate the bomb-clusters we concealed in its vital nerve systems to temporarily bring it down for sedation. It has been safely recovered."
"But what of the other pilots? We clearly need to bring them in. The Third Child will not be sufficient on his own."
"The First should be battle-ready again soon. I cannot speak of the status of the Second."
"But I can," SANGRAAL-04 chimed in a second time. "Her studies in the Clock Tower are progressing marvellously and there have been no recent problems. She should be able to be relocated to Tokyo-3 promptly."
"Excellent."
"Enough, Ikari. We have another problem. The significant…"
The rest of the meeting passed in the standard fashion without incident. When the end was declared, the monoliths faded out as the runes projecting them deactivated. One monolith however, remained.
Gendo turned to his side so he could properly face SANGRAAL-07.
"All is going according to the plan."
"As expected," the voice emanating from 07 was completely blank of any identification or intention. Clearly modified by either technological or magical means. Or perhaps the member just actually spoke like that. Such an empty void of a voice.
"The other SANGRAAL still suspect nothing. Tell me Ikari, how do you find my latest gift?"
"The implantation was...exceedingly painful but a perfect success. I haven't had the chance to use them so far. Hopefully, I never will."
"They should be used sparingly, I approve. The Fractal Rainbow is far too much power for an insignificant magus such as you. I see you have been wearing the Mystic Eye Killers I told you to wear. This is fortunate. If you had not, it would have ripped you asunder by now, reinforced Circuits or no reinforced Circuits."
"They were a generous gift."
"No doubt. Since the destruction of the Counter Guardians fifteen years ago, you are one of the last hopes for mankind's survival against what is to come. It is only fitting that you be armed with the greatest of weapons. Now, you have the Black and the White. The Red is in good hands. All that leaves is the Jewel. I trust you have began your plans for that inevitability?"
"Yes."
With nothing more to say, the monolith faded out, leaving Gendo alone in the suddenly dark room.
000
End Day
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ShE feLt sIck sHe FelT wROng
SHe FElT sICk sHe FElt wrONg
ShE feLt sIck sHe FelT wROng
ShE feLt sIck sHe FelT wROng
ShE feLt sIck sHe FelT wROng
ShE feLt sIck sHe FelT wROng
She could feel the weight, sitting on her soul. Her muscles quivered and moved under the surface of her skin like living animals. More and more of her would be pushed out for these things, even with just the one currently inside her.
But this wasn't how it should go. This was wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong.
She could feel it creeping in her veins. Once she'd tried to rip it out but that's not allowed anymore. This is not the right thing she should have nownownow it was broken and wrong and what is more fitting for a broken/wrong thing like her it feels so heavy soon she'll carry the load but now all she can do is be crushed under it's weight.
She can smell burning see a rabbit's throat torn she has never seen a rabbit but she knows their blood soon it will be more rabbits are so unsatisfactory more more more to satisfy the weight she can feel growing.
ShE feLt sIck sHe FelT wROng
Her lips curved in a smile as she remembered that. She was going to have a baby soon.