Reika : Convergence of Duality
Chapter 1 : Don't fear the dead...
Written by DJ Lesser
Draft started : December 4th
Standard Disclaimer : Neon Genesis Evangelion / Shin Seiki Evangelion
belongs to Gainax and other miscellaneous companies. Characters used
without permission.
--------------------------
Conflict builds character. Crisis defines it. -- Steven V. Thulon
Half an hour earlier...
Ibuki Maya sighed in relief as Magi completed its diagnostics and
reported no error. It had been a trying time for everyone, from simple
technicians to higher ranked officials.
"Finally, we've finished the relocation," Hyuuga Makoto commented.
"It almost feels like the original control centre."
"Almost, but I still think there's something not right about this
place. It's too cramped around the chairs and the sensors don't operate
smoothly. It's hard to work here," Maya complained.
"The layout is the same as the first control centre. You're being
too sensitive, Maya," Aoba Shigeru remarked. "With all the budget cuts
that we've received from UN, we can't even afford to speed up the
repairs of Headquarters after the attack of the 14th. It's almost as if
those heartless bastards want us to lose against an Angel attack."
"Lieutenant Aoba!" Maya gasped in alarm, looking around to see if
any of their superiors heard him. Her gaze strayed aloft, where the
Supreme Commander and his vice-in-command resided in their usual poses,
seemingly disinterested in their idle banter. Maya flushed and turned
back to her console, working furiously. 'You never know with Commander
Ikari,' she thought.
"Well, it's true!" Shigeru defended himself. However, he lowered his
voice anyway and looked a touch flustered.
"Working overtime without overtime pay," Makoto sighed, looking at
his watch. "I guess it's necessary in order to restore offensive and
defensive capabilities. Even now, it's only running at 37% of it's
original capacities."
Listening to the subdued chatter of the bridge crew, Dr. Akagi
Ritsuko got up to fetch herself a hot cup of coffee, her own thoughts
and opinions in a turmoil, unvoiced.
Klaxons pierced the stillness in the Central Dogma, disturbing the
quiet efficiency of the nightshift employees as alert signals filled up
all available viewing screens, bathing the headquarters in a scarlet
light.
"Commander!" Maya called out anxiously. "Magi report hostile
infiltration within the Nerv complex!"
Ritsuko rushed to the console, her cup breaking as it hit the floor, its
contents spilled and forgotten. "Within Headquarters? How did it
manage to get in?!" Ritsuko asked in disbelief. "Blood Pattern?"
"Blue. It's an Angel!" Makoto shouted out in a panic.
Ritsuko took to her station and began an analysis of the breach on
the supercomputers, her fingers moving in swift grace. "Area of
violation is in ... the Eva Graveyard..." Ritsuko's voice faltered in
the last few syllables, seemingly unable to absorb the information
presented in front of her.
"All battle stations, assume first level alert. Inform the Major we
have a situation and prepare the Evas for launch," Commander Ikari
ordered from his command centre above them. Ritsuko glanced up at him
with a questioning look, but he remained stoic behind his tinted glasses
and steepled hands.
"Another Angel?" Fuyutsuki asked casually.
The edge of his lips curved upwards to form a hint of a sardonic
smile.
"Onayepheton."
Katsuragi Misato was rudely awakened by the sound of her ringing
cell phone. Mumbling a few half-conscious curses, she finally found the
object of her annoyance and pressed the 'yes' button.
"WHAT?!" Misato yelled, sitting upright with a jolt, now wide awake.
She got up and found a pair of slacks, hopping on one foot trying to put
it on as she listened to the report coming from Makoto. Then, one arm
struggled through the sleeve of her red jacket, the other holding on to
the phone as she gave her orders.
"Shutdown all physical routes to the area until I have arrived. Get
Section 2 to escort the First Children immediately. I'm bringing the
Second and the Third." With that, Misato finished dressing, turned off
the phone and began to bang on the children's door.
"Shinji! Asuka! Wake up! We have an Angel attacking inside the
Geofront!" she shouted. She opened the door and pulled Asuka out of bed.
Asuka muttered German profanities under her breath as she rubbed the
sleep from her eyes.
"Wake up, Asuka! There is an Angel attack! We've got no time to
lose!"
"Alright, I heard you," Asuka said irritably. Stupid Angels, she
thought. They always have to attack at the stupidest times, like in the
middle of the night. Asuka grabbed her red nerve clips, fastened them on
her hair and made her way to the entrance where her shoes laid, while Misato
opened Shinji's door only to see him standing there grimly, already dressed and
ready to go.
"How come you had time to change?" complained Asuka, feeling it was
unfair that he was fully dressed in his usual slacks and shirt ensemble,
while she wore only her sleep attire.
"I fell asleep in these clothes," Shinji said quietly.
"We don't have time for this!" Misato said exasperatedly. She
grabbed her car keys and pushed the children out of the door. No sirens
blared to disrupt the sleep of the remaining citizens of Tokyo-3, and no
cars hindered Misato's mad race to Nerv's HQ.
"Asuka! Shinji! Change here!" Misato said, tossing them their plugsuits even
before they left the delivering technician's hands, on time just as she ordered
over the phone.
"But...But! Misato!" Asuka protested, her eyes flashing with indignity.
"Just do it! We don't have time!" Misato snapped as she got ready to run to
Central Dogma. Around her, technicians were busy preparing the Evas for launch.
Asuka fumed with anger and picked up the package at her feet, taking cover
under a staircase. Covering herself, she was careful not to let any of her skin
show anymore than necessary. 'That Angel is going to pay,' she swore to herself.
"This is serious..." Shinji said softly, his clothes left in an untidy heap
before he could fold them neatly as he was ushered to Unit 01 quickly after
dressing in his plugsuit. "But what
can I do? Father ordered a freeze on Unit 01. I don't want to fight
anyway... But humanity depends on us. Can I pilot this ... again?"
As LCL filled the plug, he adjusted the A10 nerve clips and held his
breath, releasing a cluster of bubbles as he exhaled. Then, he gripped
the controls with his hands, and steeled himself for the battle.
Asuka was being unusually quiet now, and she entered Unit 02 without a lot
of complaints or sarcastic remarks. She was fully awake, despite being
woken up in the middle of slumber, adrenaline racing through her veins.
"This is your last chance, Asuka," she whispered faintly.
"Status report!" Misato snapped as soon as she entered the command
centre.
"Approximately four Eva skeletons have activated and begun moving in
underground level 84, Section 36 of the Delta Unit! MAGI detected a
series of AT Field five minutes ago and now sensors indicate that they
are breaking their way downwards!" Shigeru replied.
'They are heading for Adam,' Misato frowned to herself.
"Unit 00 and Unit 02, sortie immediately! Expand your AT Field and
disable the Angel! Evas, launch!" Misato ordered.
"Audio and visual connection underground failed! Backing sensors are being
interfered!"
'That is too close to Heaven's Gate,' Ritsuko contemplated sombrely,
watching the fuzz of static onscreen as her protégé toiled to restore it.
'Will the Angel succeed this time?'
"Let's go!" Asuka shouted, as Unit 02 was deployed into a shaft
leading her downwards, plunging down into darkness, as Unit 00 did the
same beside her.
"You're entering a former Evangelion activation test area. There
should be several power cables towards at southwest area, approximately
20 meters from where you'll land. Be careful, Magi has lost detection on
the Angel," directed Ritsuko.
The mechs impacted with an ominous boom in a darkened cavern.
Righting themselves from a crouch, they switched to a local umbilical
cable as instructed, keeping an eye out for hostiles.
"Mein Gott..." Asuka exclaimed as she surveyed her surroundings.
Evangelions! There had to be at least twenty of them, all stretched out
on the ground in a parody of sleep. Then she noticed that they were only
head and bones. She suppressed a shiver from going up her spine and she
tried to peer closer into the shadows, looking for her enemies. She
raised the rifle, ready to fire.
Nothingness.
She hated death. Hated it more than anything else in the world, hating it
more than she loved her mother. She refused to follow her mother's wishes, and
the choice made her what she was today, brought her where she was today.
A damned cemetery.
A faint, chill mist had risen from the ground, reducing their visibility
even more. They couldn't see beyond fifty meters in front of them, the miasma
enveloping the outline of the Evas as they stood out in glaring contrast, the
darkness eager to claim them. It seeped into the very edges of her mind,
clouding her thinking and confusing rational thought.
A graveyard is a graveyard, used to store the dead.
It doesn't matter who or what is the dead.
'Perfect,' she thought. 'They chose their own burial ground. Can't disappoint
their death wish now, can I?'
Rei was silent. She had been here before, briefly, and she had not liked the
experience. She knew about this place, knew what it held, and it troubled her
beyond her logic.
Light and shadows.
Shadows in her mind.
A long silhouette upon the floor, cast by the suspended entity shadowed by
light.
The deadly silence aggravated her, a painful reminder of the silence in the
hospital room. Even the quiet hum of Eva machinery seemed to roar in her ears,
the vastness of the area reverberating every sound.
No sign of them.
Putting aside her internal disquiet, she concentrated on the mission at
hand.
She would not let them reach Terminal Dogma, even if it cost her her life.
Asuka was seething. Where were they? Weren't they breaking their way out?
Her head turned around brusquely for signs of movement.
"Sohryu," Rei said sharply.
An Evangelion skeleton jumped behind her, wrapping its bony arms
around her precious Unit Two. "Get off me you idiot!" Asuka shrieked, in partial
surprise and anger, feeling the arid bones clinging to her own body as she
twisted around and fired her rifle at point blank range, only to have it
deflected off an AT Field.
"AT Field full power!" The foe was thrown backwards and disappeared
in the gloom, the same way it came.
Rei was locked hand to hand with another skeletal remains, before
raising her leg to kick the spine, wrenching the arms and ripping apart
its hands. She immediately engaged her progressive knife and proceeded
to hack at the Eva's head, cracking its armour.
Suddenly, she was rammed from the side and she crashed onto more
bones, shattering them under the weight of Unit 00. With the wind
knocked out of her, the skeleton began to pummel her head, forcing her
to stay down every time she tried to get up.
Asuka had just executed a chopping kick, bringing the leg on her Eva
down on another undead Eva, sending it hurtling to the floor. She raised
her AT Field and shot at it, the staccato of gunfire echoing in the
necropolis. Another one immediately took the opening presented to it and
wrapped its hands around the neck of Unit 02, strangling her.
"God damn," Asuka choked. "How ... many?" she asked as she
purposefully fell backwards, trying to crush the Eva that mounted her
back. Its grasp reduced only marginally, and Asuka threw her head
backwards in an attempt to head butt the skeletal Eva, the effects of
asphyxiation starting to settle in her.
"What are they?!" Asuka gasped.
"Failures. Every Evangelion before Prototype 00 that had failed to
function properly was dumped in the area where you are fighting, since
ten years ago. Wrecked Eva components from previous Angel battles were
thrown in there as well," Ritsuko explained, unnervingly.
"Security lasers online! Tracking hostile targets!"
"It's no use! Lasers are disabled!"
"Asuka! Retaliate!" Misato shouted.
To add salt to the injury, almost literally, the skeleton that she
knocked to the ground had gotten up to start tearing at Unit 02. Asuka
gritted her teeth, drawing blood from her lower lip as her body
contorted in pain, and was fighting off unconsciousness.
'Dammit, not now, Asuka!' she mentally berated herself. 'Stay awake,
destroy the enemy!'
"Pilot life signs are fluctuating!" Maya shouted. The command centre
rumbled and shook with tremor. Even the sirens seemed to ring more urgently.
"A rift has appeared in 67th wall northeast! They're tearing the place
apart!"
"Father, let me go!" Shinji screamed as he heard the ongoing
struggle below.
"Commander Ikari, requesting permission to release Unit 01 from
cryostasis and sortie!" Misato demanded.
Where was her rifle? Asuka thought in a panic. She must've dropped
it in the scuffle earlier. Rolling to her side, she kicked the skeleton
away and proceeded to rip off the one around her neck. Standing to
retrieve her rifle, she experienced a momentary blackout from her sudden
rise and faltered in her steps. It was enough for the skeletons to renew
their assault upon her.
Rei was faring a touch better. Wielding her progressive knife, she
slashed at the enemies to keep them away, but not enough to harm them.
Driving her blade through the eyes of one, it desisted fighting.
However, her knife was now stuck in its head and she had no other weapon
to defend herself with, save her bare hands. She subconsciously shook
her head to clear her dizziness.
Destroy the enemy.
Time was running out.
She would have to make do.
"Asuka's going critical!" Makoto exclaimed. "She's lost
consciousness!"
"Request granted," said Commander Ikari mechanically, as if unfazed
by the events unfolding below him.
"Shinji! Launch at once!" Without needing further prompting, Shinji
was already on his way.
'Please, don't let it be too late,' Misato prayed. Otherwise...
She had been powerless to stop the Second Impact.
She'd be damned if she was going to let the Third happen.
"Rei, I want you to retrieve Asuka from her entry plug and put her
in your own. Shinji will cover for you," Misato instructed.
"Hai," Rei acknowledged, panting.
Unit 01 fell into the scene and rolled into a crouch to reduce
impact, his rifle aimed and ready. "Ayanami!" he shouted. Rei ducked,
escaping the clutches of two skeletons as Shinji raised his AT Field and
filled them with lead, many of the shots missing their marks due to the
small target area. He tried to aim for their heads, and was met with
success. Unit 00 ran towards the unmoving Unit 02, grasping the spine of
a failure and flung it as far away as she can. Quickly, she ejected and
opened her entry plug, and carried a still Asuka into it.
She activated Unit 00 once again.
The bony Evas seemed uninterested in fighting the prone form of Unit
02 anymore, and turned their attention to Unit 00 and 01.
They stood back to back, wary of any skeletons that would rush them
suddenly. Shinji gave Rei his progressive knife, and held his pallet gun
protectively.
A thought formed in Shinji's mind as he imagined the mist swirling around
the form of the skeletons, encircling them, veiling them until they no longer
needed the shadows to hide in.
Until they were ready to attack.
"Misato-san, are these skeletons the Angel, or just being controlled
by one?" he whispered.
Misato's eyes widened, then she frowned. "Dr. Akagi?"
"Doing a scan sweep of the area now," she replied, her hands flying
all over the keyboard.
"They are coming," Rei stated.
Shinji opened fire, but with a swift agility the skeletons evaded
the shots, rushing headlong into him. He sidestepped to avoid it, then
swung the gun to the back of its head. Stomping on its spine, he pierced
the skull with multiple blasts, metal screeching against metal as the
enemy was silenced.
Shinji turned his attention to Unit 00, who had fallen and was being
torn apart, armour by armour, much like what had happened to Unit 02
earlier.
"REI! ASUKA!" Shinji screamed, and started towards them.
Something unexpected happened.
The lone eye of Unit 00 alighted, and it flung its arms outwards,
freeing itself from the attacker. Slowly, it stood up, eyed the
skeleton, and a muffled roar echoed from deep within unit 00.
"Not again..." Fuyutsuki whispered.
"Rei and Asuka... synch ratio ... increasing steadily!" Maya
stuttered.
The tiniest bit of frown creased Commander Ikari's forehead, but in
a split second the emotions hid themselves behind their usual wall of
coldness.
"It can't be..." Misato murmured in disbelief. "Status of pilots?!"
"Unable to confirm! Magi has lost-" Shigeru started.
"Wait, 00 internal sensors indicate a very faint life sign," Ritsuko
interrupted.
Misato was afraid to ask, but she did anyway, and braced herself for
the answer.
"Rei or Asuka?"
"Unknown."
Unit 00 hunched, its arms hanging by its sides loosely as it looked around
with a snarl behind its eyes. Its snatched an object by its feet, a long mass of
limb, and jumped on the skeleton, pinning it down. It proceeded to clout the
armour with the appendage, only to have it shatter upon contact, arid bone
splintering into dust.
Letting loose another bellow, Unit 00 backtracked and seized the Angel.
DESTROY THE ENEMY!
Unit 00 cradled the back of the skeleton's head with its left palm,
then it cocked its right arm and punched the skeleton head, shattering armour
and revealing its misshapen skull. Unit 00 reared its head and rammed it against
the skull, and as it impacted with the target, a cross-shaped explosion ensued,
blasting its way heavenwards and rocked the
very foundations of Nerv.
"Ah!" Shinji shut his eyes and crossed his arms in front of him to
shield himself reflexively. The temperature of LCL began to rise, but Shinji
took no notice.
Letting the broken pieces fall to the floor, Unit 00 snarled one last time,
and stood still.
"Oh god..." Shinji whispered as he struggled to open his eyes.
Was this what happened to him as well...?
--------------------
Author's Notes
Now, questions? Ah, Rei and Asuka achieved a very high synchronization
rate together. I didn't specify any rates because honestly, I don't know
what to specify ^^; They didn't quite reach 400% though.
As for the Angel, Onayepheton (I know it's a weird name, I didn't make
it up, honest!) is described as the name of a spirit by which God will
summon the dead and raise them to life again.
My greatest thanks goes to my sempai, Alain-sama, whom without, this
project will not had existed, because it's really his idea! I lay no claim upon
his brilliance, but I bow to his expertise and gentle guiding hand.
Also, I'm very grateful to weewoo, who allowed me to use his Eva
skeleton / Angel idea, and to Daniel Snyder, for helping me to research
possible Angels.
Thanks to pre-readers : Alain Gravel, Axel Terizaki, Daniel Snyder, Jewelle and
weewoo.
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