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SECOND PROPHECY: SHADOWS

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Is this what it is like to be truly dead?

"Who… are you?!" I managed to ask through the grip.

This emptiness?

"Tell her or die…" the stranger hissed.

This… mixture… of silence and memories?

"Don't…don't get out" I pleaded Asuka, but she could not hear me.

No.

"She'll kill me anyway…"

This is not death.

"Who are you…?" I demanded to know.

But I was…

"What are you…?" I knew, but I wanted to hear it from her.

Dead…? Was I not?

[YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM…] the stranger replied.

Oh. Now I see…

[THAT IS WHY YOU CANNOT LIVE]

One last time…

Rei's body suddenly lurched forth, jerking off the wires and sensors stuck to her body. Straps, which were meant to restrain her, were torn off as if they weren't even there.

"Whoa!" exclaimed one of the medical staff.

It took all five male nurses present to hold her back down. Immobilised, Rei begun to splutter wildly, her eyes spinning around uncontrollably.

"She's awake! Call Dr. Ibuki now!"

The blue haired woman soon slowly slumped back into bed, with the help of some quickly administered cocktail of drugs. Settled back into a peaceful relaxed state.

"Rei…? Rei…? Can you hear me?" asked a voice.

Rei slowly opened her eyes and scanned her limited field of vision as she found it almost impossible to move her head even side to side. She found Maya's familiar face complete with an apprehensive smile.

"Dr… Ibuki…?" she managed to whisper.

"Rei… you don't have to talk if it's too hard. Just listen to me. Your new body is still not completely under your control yet. It will take a while for your mind to adapt itself. So don't stress yourself needlessly" Maya explained.

Rei tried to say yes, but even that task seemed tedious and quickly decided that a simple nod would be just as effective.

"Good, now get some rest. You are going to need it" said Maya as she turned around.

Maya exited the room but walked only a few steps down the hall when she turned into another room. Within, lay one of the most dangerous entity she has ever known. Even reading Ritsuko's notes on the information they had managed to gather was enough to make her shiver.

Still, watching Inanis right now, lying helplessly in the special ward prepared for her, it didn't feel so intimidating as it could have been if she were awake. But at the same time it didn't mean Maya was even a bit comfortable anywhere around Inanis. Just probably have to get used to her, she thought. It was ironic that not too far away, lay Rei; also helpless, who could have been the second most dangerous entity Maya knew was still definitely alive.

Maya approached the sleeping woman, who by all accounts had fallen into an unexplained comma. There were no signs of any conventional injuries she could have sustained to cause her to result in such a state. Carefully reaching out, she picked up the copy of the girl's MRI, almost expecting her to wake up as she did so.

But she did not.

Maya could not help but notice how the years have changed Inanis. She had seen old records of the Pariah, and remembered how initially no one could tell Rei and Inanis apart, her being one of Rei's 'spares' and all. But how different they looked now.

Inanis seemed older, in a more worn out kind of way, suggesting she had seen much more of the world compared to Rei. Inanis was also more fit, no doubt she was stronger and faster now than she was six years ago, necessity demanded it or else she could not have survived as long as she did. No doubt with her new body, Rei would be capable of the same speed and strength, but they still possessed very different skill and personalities. Because of her non-aggressive approach to the world, Rei would never achieve her potential as Inanis has.

Shinji and Touji had called in for an emergency extraction less than four hours ago, whilst Misato had managed to get them back in less than three. The Colonel had also called in some favours so that no questions were asked about what they were doing in Tunisia in the first place. But Maya was sure that someone in the GEO upper echelon will noticed that something odd in going on, and she feared that they will shut down before they could fully restore Rei, or find out what's wrong with Inanis. So far these two were their only solid leads to finding Asuka.

Well, at least Rei was almost fully recovered, and right now Maya was developing some theories on Inanis' situation. Fortunately for them, the bodies and equipment of the ones who attacked Inanis had been recovered straight after Shinji and Touji's retrieval. She expected this was because whoever was still alive, decided that it was wiser to try and get themselves out of the country rather than clean up the mess.

Of the items recovered, two things caught her interest, the strange headgears the attackers all carried and the body of one of them who'd been shot in the face.

The headgears were something that baffled even Maya. Some of the hardware in it was still years ahead of even the most advance research laboratories. This was something that could only be created if you were someone who had eyes and ears in government projects across the globe.

Someone like SEELE.

But this was impossible.

Maybe someone else, who had access to SEELE's technology and connections?

Unlikely, yet still… possible…

They turned out to be in fact experimental Psi-barriers, designed to shield the minds of the individual wearing it from psychic-attacks created by AT-field manipulation. NERV was in the process of developing something like that since the 15th Angel, but nothing as advance and the project was discontinued after the fall of NERV.

Several special modules were grafted onto the inside of the headpiece in a concentric circle, each of the modules displayed a zero waveform pattern activity. This created a kind of null-zone around the mind of the wearer, rendering him practically immune to even the abilities of the Pariah without resorting to extensive mental training which would have been regardless by far less effective.

The body on the other hand, came to her almost as a shock. There were signs that she recognised all to well. The utter lack of pre-death physical degradation was all the proof that she really needed.

A clone. Fresh out of the tank.

Or at the least, an engineered being.

After extensive examination, Maya concluded that its brain had been in fact hardwired with multiple Bioware nodes. This discovery helped her considerably in developing a theory on what happened to Inanis. Maya was confident that she would be able to reawaken the sleeping woman.

But she would need Sempai's help.

Tunisia
Lower district, Remada

A man hastily ran through the labyrinthine passageways, which were the back streets of Remada. Fear was all that kept him running now, his muscles and bone having preferred to give up ages ago.

Stumbling through a stall, the man tripped forth, twisting his ankle in the fall.

Screaming in pain and despair, he struggled to pull himself up again. But he knew, that by now there was never any real chance of escape. His sentiments were confirmed when a figure appeared above him, cloaked in darkness and shadows. It was her.

"You should have know better Nero. How many times, did I stress that you were not to leave without taking care of the bodies first" said the woman as she paced in front of him, "I would have been will to forgive the fact that you failed to capture Inanis, even when she was conveniently incapacitated. But to allow them access to our technology and possibly a means to revive her? That, I'm afraid, is not a transgression I can ignore."

"No! Please! Give me another chance!" pleaded Nero, who despite was not the type to beg, knew that the fate that awaited him was worse than death.

"Goodbye Nero" she whispered.

He didn't even have time to scream. With those words, Nero felt himself wretched apart. His senses and thoughts flared into one long feeling of excruciating pain.

He was coming apart.

Slowly, bit by bit, he felt himself lose himself.

His memories.

His sense of identity.

His place in this existence.

In the end, Nero simply ceased to be.

Without his ego-border to sustain his form, his body returned to it's primary composition.

Of the man once know as Nero, the only evidence was left, proving his previous existence was a puddle of yellowish orange soup and his memories now etched clear into the mind of the very woman who killed him.

Lyra took a step back from the puddle that once formed the man known as Nero slowly trickled to her feet. Avoiding it with great distaste.

The incompetent fool, she thought. If only he'd followed her instructions to the letter, he'd still be alive.

The young woman bore no personal malice towards the man but she did abhor stupidity, whether it was from her allies or even enemies. And would not stand for it.

Inanis has been taken to Japan, but she was not yet out of her reach.

There was still time.

Then Lyra spun around on her heels and slowly walked back into the shadows of the dark alleyways.

"Shinji…"

"Huh?!" Shinji leap to his feet, quite a feat taking in consideration the fact that he was laying asleep in the cafeteria only a moment ago.

"Shinji it's only me Touji…" said his concerned friend.

"Oh… Touji… any news?" half-moaned half-asked Shinji.

Touji regarded his long time friend, never before had he ever seen Shinji in such a state before. Sure, there were times when Shinji had been downright depressed, especially near the end of the war against the Angels. But this was plain freaking him out.

Shinji looked like he'd been drinking tremendous amounts of coffee. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair in a mess. He definitely required some decent sleep, which was not a likely occurrence with the troubled dreams he's been having lately.

"Maya and ghost lady say they've got something, but they also say they don't expect results until tomorrow at least… and man, they've already pulled a 24 hour shift already…"

Shinji slumped back down on the beach, shoulders sagged and arms dangling. He lowered his head until it hit the table.

Touji sat himself down the opposite side of the table and sign softly. He was never any real good with these sorts of things. When it came to real problems, he didn't have a clue of what to say.

That is why he did the next best thing.

"Hey Shinji someone's come to see you…" Touji said, tilting his head to try to re-establish eye contact with Shinji.

"Mmmmph…." was all Shinji said.

"It's not nice to ignore a friend Shinji…" said a voice behind him.

Shinji turned around.

"Hikari?!" he exclaimed.

"Hi Shinji" smiled Hikari, who stood there behind him holding a small book bag.

After finishing High School, Hikari went of to do a course in Actuary at the Toyko-2 University. She had grown up to be a fine looking woman mused Shinji, quite refined in the modern Japanese way.

"Err… w…what are you doing here?" Shinji asked.

Hikari walked over and sat herself down next to him.

"Oh, I just finished my classes for today so I came for a visit."

"Ah… isn't this a bit far off from Toyko-2 University?"

"Touji gave me a lift, and considering how he drives more and more like Misato nowadays I got here fast enough."

His mission looking like a success so far, Touji silently got up and sneaked out of the room, least he end up participating in some mushy conversation which he could not stand. Maybe he'll give Kensuke a ring.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean

"So… give me a reason why I should agree to this… proposition?" asked Gendo as he sat back in a comfortable recliner.

Across him Marina sat, carefully eyed the woman standing behind Gendo, which at first glance, the blond seemed like your ordinary bimbo. But Marina had come across their types before. Although she played the part, she was no bimbo, it became apparent by her movements that she was a trained killer or in this case more likely a bodyguard.

"Consider it… your repentance…" Marina replied. Turning her attention back to the subject at hand.

Gendo begun laughing in quiet amusement.

"My dear lady, I am beyond an form of repentance. I knew that I would be the case the very day that I embarked on my failed project." he leaned on to a side, withdrawing back into his shell "All I can do now is watch the world go by, day by day. But at least, I can make sure that it is a good show for the damned."

"Then we have a deal?"

"Very well, you may have the sample. But I warn you, be weary of how you use it" Gendo voice was cold, as if he knew that it was inevitable that something terrible was to occur, "You may not be prepared… for the consequences."

"Good" said Marina, getting up from her seat.

But before she could leave, Gendo interrupted her. "You can keep your money. It means nothing to me how this ends any more" he pointed out.

"Then why…?" asked Marina, caught off guard by his comment.

"I'm just here to enjoy the show," he smirked, "this way, things are more… interesting…"

"Thank you Hikari, it was nice of you to drop by…" said Shinji, who despite being still depressed about the whole situation, was now more hopeful for better results.

"That's alright Shinji" Hikari beamed him a smile, "You should be thanking Touji. Even though the fool won't admit it, he's just a big softy."

"I guess…"

"Anyhow, just remember… Rei is getting better, your friend Inanis will recover, and you WILL find Asuka understood!" she ordered him playfully.

In truth, Hikari herself was fearful and worried sick about Asuka, but she knew better than to show that in front of Shinji who at this time needed as much encouragement as possible. Hikari was not unfamiliar being relied upon as a pillar of strength, herself unafraid of expressing herself unlike often those around her. But she could do so in her own time.

"What?!" shout Misato as she slammed her hands down onto her desk.

"You heard me. You are to end these unauthorised use of resources" said a tall man who stood before her with his arms crossed.

"Unauthorised?"

"We have people already dealing with the situation with the 2nd child and a medical team can handle the 1st. There is no further need for Dr. Ibuki or for the Magi to waste anymore time with such matters. The orders are from the top, you can complain to them if you wish."

Misato was about to argue back, when she realised it was useless. It was just as bad when Ikari was in control of NERV she thought…well, maybe not that bad. But still, there were things best kept out of the knowledge of those in power.

Maya and Ritsuko could possibly keep on working on their solution for a while still, but they would be eventually shut down. She vaguely suspected that if that happened, Inanis would be lost and any lead on finding Asuka's kidnappers or why they needed her in the first place. Misato didn't doubt the trustworthiness or abilities of GEO's agents, but rather thought that by the time they found her, it would have already been too late.

But in the end she had very little choice in the matter, she could only help her cause by pressing for as much time as possible.

"It's… a…what?" exclaimed Shinji.

"A mind virus" repeated Maya.

"What… the hell is that?"

"It's actually pretty simple… the virus is a modified interface program which is normally used to translate mental commands to the Bioware. This is basically the reverse of that, in this case the program is overriding Inanis' own brain functions and has placed her into the coma…"

"But Inanis doesn't have a Bioware implant!"

"That's right but she is able to get into other people's minds through other ways… the last body you found was in fact the carrier of the virus. It was as I had suspected, an engineered human shell, one with most of its brain replaced with Bioware. When Inanis killed it, she allowed the virus to imprint itself into her own mind, but she wouldn't have recognised it as such until it was too late."

Shinji was silent for a while, taking his time to absorb the information.

"They seem to know a lot about the nature of a Pariah…" commented Maya.

"That kinda makes sense though…" said Misato, "Whoever did this knew that it would have been next to impossible to catch her otherwise… which also means that they want her alive…"

"But why…?" Maya voiced everyone's concern.

In the background Kaji stretched himself, and yawned. "I take it that you can get rid of this virus then?" he asked.

"Well yes…" Maya replied, "But it's a fairly difficult process. We've had to hook her up with Sempai. That's the only way we can think of getting into her mind and figure out how to purge the program without damaging her mind. Sempai is working on the program even as we speak, so I'm confident that she'll be able to eliminate the virus within another 24 hours."

"That's good, I'm being pressured to shut this whole thing down. Apparently, they'd rather you be working on other things" said Misato.

"It was to be expected…" said Kaji, "Well, it's all in Ritsuko's hands now…"

Location: Unknown

Asuka shielded her eyes as the four large men led her out of her confinement cell for the first time in days. The light was hurting her eyes, as they have grown accustomed to the dim prison that she was held in. Something she thought was done intentionally to discourage her from attempting to escape. At least whilst her eyes were still adapting to the brightness.

None the less, before they had a chance to, she had be already brought into a small chamber to which she was then unceremoniously thrown into. Within moment, the room was flood with what Asuka quickly realise was LCL.

For a moment she thought that her captors had not only kidnapped her, but stolen Unit-02 Prime as well. But for some reason she could not explain, she felt that she was connected with another Eva, a different one yet uncannily familiar.

It was…

Her mother?

No… No!

It can't be… Who… How?

The original Unit-02's core was disposed of because of its instability…

Or was it?

Tears begun to appear from her eyes, but quickly dissipated into the LCL. Caught by surprise in a moment of confusion and emotional turmoil, Asuka failed to notice that the chamber, or what was now likely to be a modified Entry Plug, had in fact started to move.

"How's she doing?" asked a tall blond man in scientist smock.

"She's in emotional shock" answered a small woman who seemed to a lab assistant.

"That was expected, how is the up-link?"

"The link is at 68% capacity. Well within viable parameters." She indicated on the glowing monitors.

"Excellent, and the controls?"

The woman smile, pointing towards a display unit. The man nodded in satisfaction and turned around, exiting the room without another word.

Back in Japan at the GEN3 base. It was close to midnight, when dark figures crept onto a ramp on the west flank of the platform. Hastily, yet silently, they discarded their diving tanks and proceeded to quickly remove their dry suits. All dress in pitch-black combat gear, they smoothly avoided a patrolling guard. Each of them carried a small arsenal on them, their weapons silenced and specially water-proofed so that they would still be able to fire when wet.

Undetected, they reached a rarely used access hatch, monitors, sensors and electronic locks were quickly overcome. Allowing them entrance to the inner depths of the GEN3 base. However, just before they were all inside, the last figure spotted what seem at first glance like a falling star. But to the trained eye, it could see that it was heading straight towards the base, and thus was unlikely to have been a natural phenomenon.

"Shit…" mutter Marina under breath, "She's here already…"

Quickly, knowing that she was now pressed for time, Marina immediately rushed into the access hatch. With an audible hiss, the armoured bulkhead sealed itself behind her.

Only about a hundred meters from the surface of the base's helipad, the top of the small pod exploded open, shooting out several parachutes which cut down the speed of the falling object tremendously before it slammed onto the deck. The force of the impact was still enough for the pod to break through the armoured surface and embed itself into the floor of the deck underneath.

Needless to say, within seconds numerous guards came running in and the entire base was put on full alert. However, by that time, the interior of the pod lay opened and empty.

"What the hell's going on?!" shouted Misato.

"Security's been breached Ma'am… We're locking down all the levels right now until we have the intruders" explained a guard on the holo-screen.

"This is just great" she muttered sarcastically, "Very well, call me back in a few minutes and report…"

"Yes Ma'am"

The screen went blank and disappeared. Misato quickly turned around and glazed into Kaji's eyes, who had been listening all along.

They stared at each other silently before Kaji made a move for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To the special wards…" he said with his back turned towards her.

"Why?" she asked him even though she already knew the answer.

"Security won't be able to stop them… and it's pretty obvious where they're headed"

"And you think you can?"

Kaji half-turned and watched her with an eye, "Probably not…"

"What…?"

"Remember all those years ago, when I disappeared and you thought I was dead?" he interrupted.

"What the hell does that have to doing with anything?" Misato snapped.

"But it does… you see, back then Ikari almost nailed me… if it wasn't for Inanis I would have been quite dead…"

"You knew Inanis?! Why didn't you say anything before?"

Kaji broke into a small smile, "I met her only briefly… but I owe my life to her, therefore I have to make sure no harm comes to her…"

"Quit that! Quit talking as if protecting her is a lost cause!" she shouted angrily.

"Misato, you really haven't seen her powers up close have you?"

"Well… no… but Rei…"

"Rei is powerful, but we're not talking about her and besides, they still managed 'kill' her remember? No, I have a distinct feeling that the one who's coming is likely to be also a Pariah, just a deadly, just as powerful. Knowing as much as we do, I still don't think we can stop it."

"I didn't think… I knew she was dangerous from what she did at the school but…"

"That was when she had been shot and fatigued from being hunted for several days... and let's not forget that was quite a few years back when she was literally fresh out of the tank…"

"Anyway, how do you even be sure that there's another Pariah out there?"

"I have… heard things…"

"What?! Dammit, why didn't you tell me…?! Fine…! Look, I need to stay here to monitor the situation but you go down there and supervise the guards there. Barricade the whole floor if you have to. Don't let anyone in or out until I say it's clear ok? Make sure you take Shinji and Touji and well, they'll be safer there too than anywhere else."

Somewhere not too far from them, Marina's team had already managed to infiltrate deep within the complex. Even with the elevators locked down, they quickly overrode the system and begun to descend. Marina could not help but stare in wonder as the elevator slid quickly down one of the external tubes which lined GEN3's central spine, allowing them to see out into the now flooded Geofront.

It was a strange sight, like some remote outpost of humanity in an alien realm. Artificial lights shone out from the gloomy dark waters.

In but a mere minute or two, the elevator came within sight of the Pyramid-like structure that was Central Dogma, and promptly disappeared into the murky lakebed.

"I'm getting a override signal from the Magi" suddenly called out one of the men, "They're trying to lock down all the elevators."

"Do it" Marina commanded.

Pulling out a small electronic device, the man quickly inserted several wires into the control panel. After a few seconds of tension, the elevator suddenly buckled, whilst in the background they could hear several muffled explosions, but did not stop it's decent. Without any further interference, they finally reached their destination.

Private Takuma tightened his grip on his pistol, steadying it at the target before him. He was one of four men assigned to guard the main vent shafts at the centre of the base. This was to prevent any enemy from infiltrating the lower levels of the base through here. But Takuma and his fellow guards never really expected any real danger in this job, mainly because the main vent shafts were lined with multiple motion-activated lasers. Making any attempt to penetrate security by descending through the vent close to suicidal.

But here he was, aiming his sidearm at a girl not too younger than his fiancée, with his friends already dead around him.

A cold bead of sweat trickled down his forehead, his muscles tense from fear.

Not because he was the last one alive, but because he was unable to move. Frozen to the spot.

Hard as he tried, he was not capable of even pulling the trigger. He had been totally immobilised by some unknown means and could do nothing by await death.

They say your life passes in front of you before you die, but for Takuma he could only see the face of his loved one. Closing his eyes, he grimly embraced the darkness that came next.

Takuma collapsed on the spot, like a puppet that had just had it's strings cut. The girl slowly stepped towards him and kneed down next to him. She carefully reached for his forehead. But she did not kill him. She could not, despite everything, even after all those that she had killed without so much as a second thought.

One of the things about being able to sense minds is that you know exactly how your victim feels when you are going to kill them. In the case of Takuma, his strongest feeling was one of regret. Not fear, not anger or despair as most do. Regret was something Lyra knew all too well.

Standing back up, the Lyra left Takuma where he lay, unconscious. Quickly, she ripped off the steel panel sealing off the vent shaft with her bare hands. Reaching into her coat, she pulled out an elastic cord similar to the type use for budgie jumping except it was far too short for that purpose, with a large, very strong-looking grappling hook on the end. Holding it in her hand, she crawled her way into the vent, stopping just before the long drop.

Looking down, Lyra could not see the bottom of the shaft, which was more than a kilometre down. But she could already see the laser pods every meter or so downwards. The lasers were designed to target anything attempting to climb down the shaft, but she knew they had a fatal flaw. Steeling herself, the girl closed her eyes in determined concentration.

A minute later, she reopened them, and promptly threw herself down the shaft with as much force she could muster.

Falling straight down into the darkness, the Lyra positioned herself to reduce as much drag as possible in order to gain as much speed as possible. As she zipped past the laser pods, one by one they fired. However by then it was too late, by the time they triggered, she had already sped past them.

When the pods were installed, nobody conceived that someone would be insane or brave enough to launch himself or herself down the shaft, rather than attempt to rappel down it. Even budgie jumping in the normal sense would have been impossible due to that fact that the lasers would have sliced the cord to bits. But because of this, the pods had a 0.8 seconds delay before they fired.

Then, after what felt like minutes…

"12… 11… 10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"

By now, she was almost at the bottom of the shaft, the row of laser pods having ended some way up.

Lyra spun herself around and slammed the grappling hook into the concrete wall. With such a tremendous force behind it, the hook still easily bit into the hardened concrete. She spread herself out, now increasing her drag and continued to fall for another two or three second. Then she thrust out her legs and mashed her boots against the opposite walls of the shaft.

Lyra could smell the burning rubber of her sloes as she continued to slide down, but she managed to cut down the speed of her fall considerably. This alone was not enough to stop her but that was what the chord was for. If she had allowed herself to keep on falling at the same kinds of speed as before, the sudden whiplash caused by the chord would have been powerful enough to snap ever her spine.

Her heart skipped a beat when the hook was almost torn out of the concrete, but it held.

Even so, this stunt could have probably only have been pulled off by 'enhanced' individuals such as herself. Or ones, which had been genetically engineered like Inanis.

Now, dangling from the chord like ragged doll, Lyra smirked as she spotted the vent which lead towards the special medical wards.

As the elevator came to a halt, the GEO security team did not even wait for the doors to open. The deafening sounds of machinegun fire echoed throughout the corridors, the passageway lit up from the sparks cause by the bullets as they bored through steel and concrete alike. For a whole ten seconds they would have maintained a constant stream of armour piecing ammo into the carriage.

But before they stop, a large explosion blew a hole through the ceiling, the cloud of dust cut visibility to a less than an arm's reach. Stunned by the surprise attack, many of the security force were cut down where they stood by quick and efficient sprays from the hole above.

Despite their horrid losses, the security team did not remain idle, and hastily made a quick retreat in an attempt to regroup and rally.

Calmly, Marina's team drop themselves down into the debris-filled corridor. Marina glanced around her, examining the carnage her men had wrought as the dust settled.

She frowned, they had intended to eliminate all the GEO troops in one go, but it was obvious that they would have to fight their way through the survivors now. The element of surprise was gone and they would not be underestimated again.

At least they had sealed off Central Dogma from the majority of the security forces. Which meant that the remaining group, were nothing but the nightshift watch. Nowhere near a match for her elite team.

All of a sudden she let out a cry which shook her men. Shearing hot pain shot up her arm from her hand, causing her to bite her lips until she tasted blood. Clutching her gloved right hand in agony, Marina smashed her hand repetitively against the concrete wall as if it were some wild beast that had bitten her.

A short while later, Marina stood up again, nursing her hand. She came to notice six pair of eyes staring at her questioningly.

"I'm alright… let's go…" she ordered, barely able to hide the distress in her voice.

They all hesitated for a moment then turned around and advanced down the passageways.

'Damn' thought Marina, 'That was… bad… it must be because it's in proximity of both Pariahs…'

"How many did we lose?" asked Touji, stand at the doorway.

The GEO sergeant standing before him looked up at him nervously, knowing that it was his responsibility for underestimating the attackers and the heavy casualties they suffered. "At last count we have six men confirmed dead, one missing, and another two are severely injured…"

"Combat capable…?"

"Excluding Pilot Ikari, Agent Kaji, and yourself Corporal, we have five men, two of which have been lightly injured…"

"Very well," said Touji calmly, "Barricade the reception area and post two uninjured men there, as soon as the enemy shows up, have them toy with them for a while and then immediately fall back to the main hallway. We'll make our proper stand here until we can get reinforcements."

"Yes sir!" quickly saluted the sergeant who then rushed off to carry out his orders.

Kaji took this moment to step out of the shadows, "You do know that communications with the rest of the base has been cut off… and that they cut off the elevators from the Magi's control, right?"

"Yes, Mr Kaji… but I don't see you having any better ideas if you don't mind me saying…" grumbled Touji.

"Oh! Forgive me if I was sounding a bit presumptuous… I was just making sure you were fully aware of our situation," stated Kaji with a sly grin, "I have every confidence in your leadership".

Touji glared at Kaji, recognising all the signs that the older man had more than likely hatched a Machiavellian plot.

"Ok, ok… what is it? Spit it out…" finally conceded Touji.

Kaji simply gave him a grin.

"Dammit!" Misato cursed as she observed the command displays. Even after what happened to NERV, GEO's security was proving to be no better equipped to deal with a determined assault. Already they had confirmed not one but two groups which had managed to reach Central Dogma when the majority of their own security forces were confined to the surface facility.

"Ritsuko! What's the situation with the elevators?!" Misato asked tensely.

A holographic image of Ritsuko appeared next to her, also seemingly staring at the display monitors.

"They are good Misato… they knew that they couldn't hope to block me off long enough, so the control units have been physically isolated from the Magi. Unless the connection is re-establish I can't do a damn thing" spoke Ritsuko.

"Then why don't they re-establish the connection then?!"

"It seems that that might take a while considering our visitors have rudely placed high-explosives at key points in the system before they went down. They only detonated them when we had confirmed their presence. So in one stroke they managed to lock out all elevators and even the Eva transport rails linking us to Central Dogma. They still work, but we don't have control of them anymore.Though they probably do because they redirected the controls before they took down the system."

"Then what can we do…?"

"If it comes to it then our last chance is Rei and Inanis no matter how unlikely."

"Huh? You mean you finished…?"

"Oh yes, of course. A two-bit job like than didn't take long at all. Whether it's successful or not is what remains to be seen. And even if it did, I still don't know how long it would take for her to recover. The last part goes for Rei too, as she's still under the effects of some pretty potent stuff we gave her to help adjust to her new body."

Misato turned to meet the virtual Ritsuko's gaze. "Then… those two…"

"As I said Misato, it's very unlikely they will awaken in time."

"I see…" Misato looked down, disappointment written all over her face, then she looked up again, "Wait… Ritsuko, are there any rails shaft still connected from the surface…"

"Well… yes, there's one or two which haven't collapsed, but they haven't been used since the fall. Besides, it'll take hours to get through them without a working rail carrier, which were all dismantled."

"Who says we need a carrier?" grinned Misato.

Shinji sat quietly in the small room in which they had moved both Inanis and Rei. The two were kept together because it was easier to protect one location rather than two, especially considering how limited the numbers of men they had.

In his hand he held limply an old pistol, a P-10, quite a relic when compared with the kind of firepower held by modern soldiers in these days. But it was the only thing they could spare for Shinji, who elected himself to act as the final defence line.

He swore to himself that he would protect the two women to his last breath. The two women, whom his relationships with extended by far more than simple genetic-relations…

Although Rei woke up quite a while ago, she'd been immediately knocked out again by the use of a harmless cocktail of drugs to allow her to adjust. Shinji did not dare disturb her. He knew, that even if Rei were to be able to shrug off their effects, there was no way of telling whether Rei was ready to control her new body, much less fight in a life or death situation.

Ritsuko had been working on a way to eliminate the virus in Inanis' mind, but as far as he knew, she'd been interrupted and then cut off by the attack. Even if Ritsuko did finish, there was no way of knowing that it would work unless Inanis woke up. Thus she could not be relied upon to fight off their attackers neither.

It was incredibly ironic, how Shinji was in the presence of two of the most powerful women he knew in the world, and yet they were as defenceless as new-borns.

"You do realise that we're toast if things don't go like you say they will…!" said Touji as he nervously crouch behind a barricade made of a row of various lab equipment with another row of metal drums behind the first.

"Yes…" said Kaji plainly.

"And you know this really stinks you know...!"

"It would, considering we just dumped more than two dozen bottles of cologne we found in the ward locker rooms in one go… who'd known that so many of GEO's staff had them on hand."

"Hmmm… well, we did find a dozen in one guy's locker alone…"

"And another half in one of the women's lockers…" grinned Kaji, thinking back to other 'interesting' things he found.

"Is that all you can say in a situation like this…?"

"What else can I say? That it's gonna work and we're not going to end up blowing ourselves up…?"

"…."

"Then shut up, they're almost here…"

As soon as the words left his lips, Kaji could just make out several figures advancing cautiously in the gloom. From the way they moved, Kaji was able to guess that they were well trained and that he was correct in assuming that in a direct firefight the intruders would have no problem mopping them out.

Looking over to the other side of the corridor, Kaji nodded in agreement with Touji. Then immediately after, the pair leaped on their feet and fired several rounds from their pistols at the enemy.

A couple of them were struck and thrown back by the force of the bullets, but to Touji's horror they go up again. Kaji however was not surprised, it wasn't hard to guess that their new friends were in fact wearing the latest in bullet proof armour.

Without even consulting each other any further, the two quickly twirled around and sprinted to the door behind them.

That was however not something completely unexpected, as within seconds, a hail of bullets tore into the barricade in retaliation. Touji just barely leapt clear of the doorway as several rounds slammed into the wall just above his head. Several of the GEO security agents came rushing to their aid, to see if either had been injured.

Regaining his breath, Kaji wiped the sweat of his forehead, "Well, that… went well…" he uttered.

"Yeah… easily for you to say… you're not the one that almost got nailed…" whizzed Touji.

Kaji then gave his brightest grin, "Now, we wait…"

"Yahoooo!" screamed Misato as she sped down the rail shaft in her car at full speed. The newly acquired car had been refitted with rough terrain configuration in mind. This was a good thing, considering every few hundred meters she'd hit a piece of rubble that'd send the vehicle flying a good few meters above the floor.

The security agents that were brave enough to ride ahead with the Major were hanging on their seats for dear life. Their original train of though went like this; they had been trained to jump off high altitudes, scale the highest mountains barehanded, and fight deadly enemies without even a weapon. Surely a little car ride was within their capabilities.

This just proves that they had never seen Misato drive.

A few hundred meters back several other vehicles carrying more GEO troops were being transported in. They however, reach their destination much later than Misato, as they, as hardened veterans as they were, could not commit themselves to an act of pure suicide as was the car driving at 150kmph+ in front of them certainly were.

Marina motioned a pair of her men to advance towards the barricade. They'd waited for several minutes now, suggesting that only those two cowards had been hiding behind the makeshift defence. It was obvious now that they had tried to hold them off there for as long as possible here, but they ran back to safety as soon as they were being shot back at.

That was not too smart of them.

Foolishly, they had left valuable cover for her and her men in preparation of their final assault on the wards, which they had built themselves. After all, barricades worked both ways.

As they approached the wall, however, several of GEO's agents appeared at the doorway, snapping more shots at them.

Marina's team quickly ducked and made their way behind the barricade. Sure, they had some of the best body armour you could buy around, but nothing would still save you if you were careless and got hit by a headshot.

A few of the forward agents returned fire, it was almost amusing to hear the staggering difference in firepower mused Marina. Pistols and a couple of machineguns with AP ammo, compared to the latest Machine-pistols loaded with caseless AP ammo. One luck shot stuck down one of the GEO agents, Marina could not see if he was a kill or not, but they quickly pulled him back behind the walls.

Being the last in her line, when Marina finally got to the barricade she sense immediately that there was something terribly wrong.

Her suspicions first arouse when she noticed that the GEO agents were always firing high, almost as if they were trying not to hit the barricade.

Then… there was the strong smell…

Originally it smelt like someone had spilt several bottles of expensive and really powerful cologne, but after a while her keen nose could pick up something else under it… something familiar…

Marina did not have to even see the labels on the barrels behind the barricade, nor did she have any doubt in her mind why the floor in front of the barricade where they were currently hiding was wet, it suddenly was all too clear to her…

Before Kaji and Touji retreated from the barricade, they pulled open the plugs at the bottom of a barrel each, which eventually caused them to leak their contents down the corridor on the other side.

By the time Marina was able to order her team to evacuate… it was already far too late.

From the doorway, a wounded, but still quite alive Kaji crept out and took a well-aimed shot at one of the metal barrels neatly labelled 'Kerosene'.

Lyra felt it barely a fraction of a second before the explosion. A sharp spike of excruciating pain almost overcame her. That was when she knew... There was no doubt…

'It' was here too.

Someone had… No! Impossible…! Marina!

What?

What was that?

That familiar feeling…

Could it be… no… that's not right…

I… feel weak…

Like I've been asleep for a long time…

So long…

Endlessly dreaming…

No! Enough!

I… it… it's here… and…

You… You…! YOU!

They are here!

As the conflagration of flames begun to fade, the GEO security team cautiously stepped out from behind their shelter. The smell of black smoke and burning flesh almost made several of them gag in disgust, but still, they could not help but be relieved that they had defeated their foes.

"Something's not right…" whispered Kaji under his breath, clutching his shoulder wound.

"Huh?" Touji looked at him puzzled.

"The Pariah… it wasn't with them… we probably would not have even succeeded if it was…"

"But… so… those that mean it's still out there?! In our base?!"

"I assume so… maybe not in our…" suddenly Kaji stopped in mid sentence. His eyes widened in shock.

Obviously this drew Touji's attention, and caused him to turn around. That was when he saw what Kaji was so shocked about.

Standing amongst the flames, stood a figure…

Alone… her hair whipping around by the updraft caused by the heat.

Save for a few singed ends on her coat, she was untouched by the explosion.

Her gloved right hand was stretched forth towards them.

A pair of security agents reacted at whim, raising their firearms and let loose a volley of shots straight at the woman.

The bulleted never reached their destination.

An extremely powerful AT-field appeared out of nowhere. The phase-shift space was so apparent that it almost blinded them.

Calmly, the woman raised her own weapon and shot the men who'd fired at her with uncanny precision.

By now the urgency of the situation knocked Kaji's brain back into working order, causing is mind to pursue various lines of thoughts. But one what the most prevalent one had to do with what he was facing.

This was definitely not the Pariah, as Pariahs to not possess AT-fields, this was clear enough.

This was not an Angel either, at least not like Rei or the 17th, if it were, then why had it not simply crushed them on the spot with it's AT-field?

No… he had heard of something like this before. Specifically from the accounts of survivors of a special elite team sent to hunt down Gendo Ikari after the fall. That could only mean one thing… the woman… on her hand…

"It's… it's still alive… and she has it…" Kaji stuttered.

"Who… What…" asked a bewilder Touji.

"Ad… Adam… "

The ventilation duct inside the ward was suddenly thrown forcefully across the room, almost striking Shinji, who manage to dodge it in the last moment.

Before he could even make sense of what had happened, Shinji felt a wave of nausea and pain wash over him. He recognised the effects immediately, the repulsive mental impressions naturally projected by a Pariah was not something that you could ever forget.

The force behind this impression was however, by far more malevolent than he remembered when it was coming from Inanis. Back then, Inanis wanted to only protect herself, but this other Pariah was intent on killing. He could almost feel the anger pour into the room.

Struggling to clear his head, whilst picking himself up. Shinji did not see as a dark figure dropped itself down from the hole left behind by the demolished air duct. He could tell however, that there was a new presence in the room.

Then a slight movement caught his eye.

On the far corner, where Inanis lay was movement.

Without any warning, Shinji was struck from behind. He felt something twist but luckily did not snap. A new form of mesh armour he had been given by Kaji had dispersed most of the force behind the blow.

Choking and gagging from the pain, Shinji crawled his way towards the nearest wall. His mind was in jumbles, under influence of the powers of the Pariah.

Looking up with half closed eyes, he finally saw her. She was standing halfway across the room from him. She stared at him with obvious puzzlement and at the same time contempt. Her emerald green eyes almost shining out of the darkness from underneath her white bangs. Perhaps she had expected to kill him with her first blow Shinji thought. If she struck him any hard Shinji doubted his odds of survival were very high even with the mesh armour.

That's when another a slight movement caught his eye.

It was Inanis! Her fingers! Ritsuko must have succeeded!

Then he realised that if the other Pariah took notice before the time was right, then Inanis wouldn't stand a chance. He had to give her as much time as possible.

Luckily for Shinji, all Lyra sensed at this moment was his nervousness, missing his sudden boast in morale completely. And with her back towards Inanis, she did not notice.

Stall her, thought Shinji. Think fear! That's not going to be too hard.

"Who… who are you…?" he boldly asked.

She regarded him from afar, as if examining an animal through a glass cage.

"Why would it matter to the dead?" her voice as cold as ice.

"I… I can't let you have her… nor will… nor will I allow you to kill Rei again…" said Shinji, suddenly realising his mistake as the words left his mouth.

"Ah…" the woman half turned to see Rei, laying on a bed not too far from Inanis, "A spare… I see… pity I did not destroy her soul entirely so that this could have been avoided… no matter… she will die again and for good this time…"

"I won't let you…" said Shinji, levelling his P-10 at the woman. Whilst she coolly noted that his hands were shaking so heavily he almost dropped it.

She stepped forwards at an angle, keeping her eyes locked on Shinji's. "What makes you think you are any better of those I have killed."

"Because… I know 'what' you are…"

She came to a halt, standing in front of him. Shinji would have been surprised to know than beneath her mask of indifference, Lyra was in shock.

She could tell that he really did know what they were. Not in the same way as others did. It was something that could not be explained or conveyed with mere words. Only 'shown'.

Inanis had opened herself up to him. She had linked… with him! Why?!

Her anger flaring, Lyra lashed out.

Faster than anyone Shinji had ever seen move, the woman closed the space between him and her within less than the blink of an eye. Shinji had only time to fire off a shot, which grazed the woman's arm but other than that was entirely ignored.

His pistol was then promptly slapped out of his grip with such force than he felt a snap here and there. This was immediately followed by a backhanded strike, which was again absorbed by the mesh armour, but still enough to throw Shinji into the air and slammed him against the wall.

Groaning, Shinji forced himself up with every bit of strength left. This was it he thought.

After the horrors he faced in the war against the Angel, this was how he would die, beaten to a bloody pulp. He had failed them all, he had failed Rei, he had failed Inanis, and most of all he had failed Asuka, who he didn't even know if she was still alive.

Shinji Ikari closed his eyes.

Shinji!

A voice? It couldn't be… It sounded almost as it was from two people at the same time. Yet Shinji heard it as if it were as clear as… if it were in his mind? He dare to open his eyes, and saw that the woman in front of him, equally as stunned and surprised as he was. His eyes then came to rest upon the two figures behind the woman. Shinji could not keep his elation hidden at such a sight.

The woman turned around, puzzled at what had caused such a change in Shinji.

Already halfway off her bed, was haggard-looking Rei, clutching onto the bed rails to support herself. Next to her, stood none other than Inanis, who was keeping a constant eye on their foe whilst helping Rei on her feet. Seeing them like this together was a strange sight, for although Inanis has done everything she could to change her appearance short of plastic surgery, they still looked much like twin sisters.

Despite being two very different people, Rei and Inanis still shared an unseen bond, whether they liked it or not. Because of that, they were able to help each other, strengthening themselves much faster than if they had been recovering on their own.

Upon seeing Shinji's battered state, Inanis seemed frown even more.

"Lyra…!" Inanis growled.

Clenching her teeth in frustration Lyra became suddenly aware that this had become a lost cause. Although her opponents were currently weaker than she was, three people who could actually harm her now surrounded her. Rei and Inanis who were right in front of her, and Marina, who was not too far away.

She could manage these two in their state, but the strain would leave her vulnerable for the third. Which could not be allowed to happen.

"Inanis, it's been nice to see you again… But I'm afraid I have to run… I have matters to attend to elsewhere…" announced Lyra.

"You're not getting always that easily…!" shouted Inanis as she leapt towards her.

Lyra rose her arms to block to blow, but she forgot that she now faced a foe who was more or less equally matched with her. Lyra was thrown backwards, crashing through tables and bed alike till she hit the wall, which cracked around her upon impact.

Dust was shaken off the ceiling, but Lyra was still on her feet.

"I see you're in better shape than I thought…" observed Lyra, shrugging of the attack with ease, "Rest assured, we will finish this."

Before anyone could react, a sudden explosion rocked the room, ceiling felling blinding them all with a cloud of dust and debris. By the time the cloud cleared, of Lyra there was not a trace. Shinji looked around, checking if any of them were injured, instead he found Inanis and Rei, each pushing aside a large slab of concrete that had fallen on top of them.

"Are you both alright?" asked a concerned Shinji.

"We are fine…" answered Rei weakly, still slightly under the effects of the drugs.

"Is… is she gone?" he promptly asked Inanis.

Inanis in turn looked up at the hole in the ceiling, where there was now a large gaping hole in it. Her shoulders were now sagging and she looked as if she was going to collapse. It was a facade after all, she was pretending to be stronger than she was too force that woman… Lyra… to back off. But wait… she knew her name, so it was obvious that they know each other.

"She's gone, but don't bother to go after her… you won't catch her…" said Inanis.

"Ah… Inanis… about that woman…"

"No time…" Inanis interrupted, "We have another problem…"

Rei nodded in agreement, seemingly knowing what she meant and they simultaneously headed for the door.

"Wha…? Hey, wait for me!" called Shinji from behind them.

Kaji ducked around the corner again, narrowly dodging a Machine-pistol burst. Touji was standing on the other side of the doorway, back pressed against the thick walls.

"What the heck is Adam doing on that b!tch!" shouted Touji over the noise.

"How the hell am I suppose to know that?!" responded Kaji.

"Any more bright ideas?"

"Hey, I had the last one, it's your turn…"

Kaji looked around to the surviving GEO security team, who had been reduced to a dismal number of four men. They all wore the same grim look on their faces, none of them had expected such ending up in such a situation and he wondered if any of them would see the light of day again.

"Why doesn't she just walk through and shot us all?" asked Touji when the gunfire died down.

"Because… the AT-field is being projected by Adam, not her. So if she's caught in a situation where one of us is in front of her and the other behind, she has to choose which side she wants to protect. That's why her clothes were singed in the explosion, she managed to shield herself from the blast, but the back-draft still got to her."

"In other words, there's a bind spot…"

"Well, yeah…"

Suddenly a small object was thrown through the doorway and bounced heavily against the floor.

"Shit! Everyone down!"

Touji rushed forth and kicked the grenade as hard as he could, which caused it to skid across the hallway into an empty office room. With an earth-shattering roar, the fragmentation grenade exploded, tearing apart the office and shaking Touji off his feet and knocking his head hard against the floor.

"That was too close" said someone.

"Next time she'll reduced the delay and we'll be toast" said another, helping Touji up on his feet.

"Calm down… we'll just have to pull back from the doorway for now… " Suggested Kaji.

They did so quickly and wordlessly, a security agent helping Touji along, moving well out of range of any thrown grenades.

Just as soon as they did so, another two grenades flew into the doorway and exploded in mid-air. The blast totally obliterated the doorway and cleared a wide angle into the room. This meant that there was no way they could surround her any longer.

"Damn… we're done for…" muttered Kaji as he bushed the dust of bits of concrete off his head.

The figure slowly walked into the ward, with her right hand outstretched before her. No one bothered to try to shoot her, for they knew it was futile. Finally, the woman brought up her machine pistol and readied herself for one cleansing spray around the room.

"Don't you dare…" came a voice from behind her.

Marina froze on the spot.

How could this be? How could they have surrounded her?

Slowly, and cautiously she turned her around as much as she could without moving her body. She immediately lowered both arms.

Behind her stood Major Misato Katsuragi and several dazzled but still competent security agents.

How on earth did she get down here? Thought Marina.

But it didn't matter… Not at this point…

With a quick unseen movement, Marina grabbed a small device in her right hand and rose it above her head, displaying it for everyone to see.

"Hold your fire if you want to live!" she declared, "I've just armed several powerful explosives set around the base of the GEN3 spine. If I release the button then it will blow!"

The Major however, kept her gun trained on her, more than likely guessing if it was a bluff or not. Which it certainly wasn't.

"Then we have a stand off" finally spoke Misato.

"No we don't" Marina casually informed her, "I am willing to die and take you all with me at this point, and at the same time doing what I came here to do… but I really just want one person."

"Inanis…"

"That's right… it's her or everyone… your choice"

By now Kaji and Touji had rallied their group and also trained their guns at Marina.

A minute passed without a word being uttered between them.

"I'm waiting…" added Marina impatiently.

"Then keep waiting…" whisper a voice.

"Rei!?" chorused both Kaji and Touji, who were spooked to find the blue-haired girl suddenly appearing between them wearing a medical gown. Behind her stood Shinji, who looked pretty beaten up.

"Stay away from me!" cried Marina, who was starting to get nervous. Rei was the only one here who would be able to brake through the AT-field and grab a hold of the trigger. But Marina's main advantage lay in the fact that she could detonate it before Rei could get more than a few step of her.

"Nothing's changed! Give me Inanis or everyone dies!"

Suddenly Rei made a step towards Marina, 'causing everyone watching to wince. But Marina did not detonate just yet, "I told you to stay away!" she shouted, backing away towards Misato a few steps.

Unbeknownst to Marina, she had just been tricked into stepping directly beneath an air duct. Which was exactly where Rei wanted her.

A pair of pale arms abruptly smashed through the grating and passed right through the AT-field surrounding Marina's hand with comparative ease. One hand immediately grabbed a hold of Marina's hand in an unbreakable steel grip preventing her from releasing the trigger. The other grabbed Marina by her neck, the grip was so tight that left Marina with no doubts that if she tried to struggle, her head would be ripped off her shoulders without a second thought.

"Move and you die…" whispered an all too familiar voice from above her.

Marina noted at the corner of her eyes that the grating had cut into the arms and blood was dripping down their length and onto her hand and neck. But still neither grip became anywhere remotely lax.

"So… You wanted to see me?" continued the voice.

"Inanis…" Marina could only sneered back.

After what she guessed had been more than 12 hours, Asuka was finally pulled out of her Entry plug prison. Unfortunately, she knew that she would only be taken back to her original cell to allow her to clean herself up and rest. Her mind had been going into overdrive quite a while ago. When she finally stopped crying and tried to make sense of the situation.

What were they doing with Unit-02's original core?

Why did they need her specifically?

What did they hope to achieve?

These were the questions, which plagued her mind for hours and filled her thoughts even now.

Although she was not allowed to see the images from the outside of the Entry plug she was still exposed to considerably more light than what she was allowed in her original cell, no matter how little it still was. This allowed her to finally observe her surroundings when she was finally pulled out of the Entry plug.

What she saw shocked her.

She was in a massive cage, much like the ones for the Evas, but by far larger. When she tried to turn around and look for whatever it was that the cage held, she was disappointed to find it empty. She quickly summarised that whatever they put her in had either been moved or that the Entry plug was moved in from another cage. The second felt more likely.

As she was pondering this, and was being led away. Asuka felt a pair of eyes on her. She could immediately tell that it wasn't the woman from before, because she didn't feel any nausea. But she knew someone was definitely staring at her.

Asuka glanced around, hoping to locate the individual in question.

When she finally spotted him she immediately felt weak on her knees and fell onto the walkway, staring back at him. The two men holding her tried to force her up again but Asuka would not respond. She was too overwhelmed to care.

"But.…" she whispered under her breath in horror, as he smiled back at her, "But… you… you're dead…."

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AUTHOR'S NOTES

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Rei and Inanis are back, and they're ready to kick some ass! Wai!!

Well, whatda ya think of my new pic eh? I've been praticing... You you haven't see it already, I've actually post on IOW an example of new pics for the Fallen Angel series, they look a LOT better I tell you...

I have a feeling theres a few gaps here and there still, but this is all I could fix at this point... still need more Asuka scenes though... urgggg....

As I said before the story doesn't flow as well as the original Pariah, but it's alright I guess, after all I'm partially trying to get this over and done with so that I can work on other stuff I got planned... I've already started on the 3rd and last installment of 'Pariah 2'... and as soon as I finish that I'll be going back to work on more chapters of Fallen Angel. I probably won't finish Fallen Angel, but at least I get another chapter or two done. This is because I'm not use to writing in script format anymore, and I already have plans for a new upcoming project called 'Birth right' which is technically a slight crossover I guess. But basically it's the reverse of Rakna's 'Chosen' where the story has a fantasy base, whilst mine will by dark future-type sci-fi.

Now... sleeppppp... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....... Till next time...

Many thanks to my pre-readers

Zoe Symons
Juan Luis Carrasco
Orac Otaku
Sayuri
& last but not least, Seph Khan

Mekat @_^