2010-07-18 - Third Impact: End of Evangelion

TOKYO-03

JAPAN

NOW

Paptimus Scirocco called down the thunder.

The skies over Tokyo-03 went dark with the onslaught of A-LAWS, Earth Federation, and Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force troops that came down like a Biblical swarm to purge this city from the face of the Earth.

And NERV was prepared for it, as NERV often is.

The entire city has been converted into one giant artillery outpost. The facades of buildings fall away to reveal guns -- missiles -- bombs -- all manner of destructive traps designed to cut down anything they can hit. The skies are brilliant and manic with laser beams and explosions, nameless grunts bursting in their mobile suits as the city suffers similar losses. Winged creatures can be glimpsed in the distance, monsters with huge mouths and wagging tongues and spears, like Evangelions but...

But that's all elsewhere. Right here is the Geofront -- the center of Tokyo-03, a pyramid next to a lake that is filling with wreckage and death. As the battle ensues, the skies overhead turn the color of blood. Radios stop working. Paranormal powers no longer operate the way they should. Everything becomes unreliable because up is down and black is white and Tokyo-03 is a state of total war.

And at its center, perched atop the pyramid of the Geofront, is Evangelion Unit-06, watching, waiting.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has reset their systems to full.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has set their HP to 15 person boss HP.

The assault on Tokyo 03 was indeed an unusual occurrence - Vindel had been curious about what dark secrets NERV might be keeping in the basement of their city fortress, but it seemed that they had at last strayed into territory that not even their fellow soldiers and leaders were willing to tolerate. Treason might be excused. Heresy ignored. But to fall into apostasy was a crime that was punishable by annihilation, it seemed.

Vindel himself is not concerned with the battle at large, but instead if he can discover what exactly is going on here, and if there are any secrets or hidden technologies that NERV has been hiding that can instead be turned to the usage of the Shadow Mirrors. As a result, there is little reason to concern himself with the battle that has been raging in the city up above. The Mass Production Evangelions rampage up above, fighting against the forces of the A-LAWS and EFA. And Vindel looks up at the sky for a moment, watching as the heavens transform into something that more properly looks as if it comes from a horror show, rather than reality.

"...I see. Their arrogance is indeed far beyond anything I expected," the green haired colonel muses to himself. The skies bleed - and the earth weeps for what is to come. And high above Tokyo 03, the Zweizergain drifts into a bank of clouds, it's glowing red eyes the only sign of its presence. "Then it is time to find the answers to what is happening."

And with that, Vindel triggers System XN... and the super robot no longer stands in the skies above the city.

A crack of displaced air echoes across the Geofront as the blue and black robot appears just above the ground a modest distance away from the massive pyramid of NERV headquarters. Vindel sweeps the massive cavern for a moment, his eyes coming to light upon the strange form of the Evangelion standing there. A ring of dust rises around the Zweizergain as it rises off the ground, and sets off towards Kaworu and his machine. After all, his ultimate destination would be that pyramid - he should find out just what that machine is doing there.

NOT LONG AGO

Misato types furiously at her laptop, imputing the commands for a quick launch of Unit 01. She had learned how to do this just in case the command center had ever become compromised. She frowned as she saw the plug lower down from storage, knowing this was likely the last time she'd ever see one of those horrible things. "Shinji, it's ready for you." She says flatly, wincing as she bends her shoulder. The bullet had gone through luckily.

"What about my plug suit?" Shinji says staring at his mother, Unit 01. A lot had happened in the past couple of hours. Father and Rei were both dead and Lilith was tearing up the basement while Leo tried to make Contact.

"There's no time for that!" Misato spits out at the Third Child, looking from her computer. It was ready. All that remained was for Shinji to get in and the programs would take care of the rest. "Shinji, once you're in. I need you to take Unit 01 and get as far away from here as possible. I'm going to try to set of the emergency self destruct systems so that..." Misato didn't want to complete that sentence. While she was ready to do what she needed to, she was not ready to say it.

"But you'll..!" Shinji looks at her in disbelief. Not Misato.

"I'll be fine." She lies. "I'll be in safe distance once I get it going." She lies again. There was only one way to do it and that required her to be on-site.

Shinji knows better however. "Misato, don---" Shinji is shut up by Misato suddenly pressing her lips against him. Suddenly it was alright. He felt at ease and lighter than air.

After a moment that feels like forever for Shinji, Misato pulls away, smiling down at him. "That is an adult kiss, Shinji. When I see you again, we'll do more." More lies.She reaches around her neck and hands Shinji her necklace. "You'll see me again to give that back ok?" Not giving Shinji much time to think, she shoves him into the entry plug, closing the hatch. "Shinji, live on. Please." She taps a few keys and the launch sequence begins automatically.

"Hey! I found one!" A JDSF soldier spots Misato, raising his rifle.

"Shit!" Misato raises her rifle and fires toward doorway. Her heart begins to race as she hears the sound of reinforcements come down the hall. She takes on last look as the Entry plug is inserted into the base of Unit 01's neck before the restraints begin to pull it toward the launch bay.

NOW

Unit 01 begins it's ascent toward the surface. It's pilot tries to bite back his tears but it was not working well. Now Misato was gone too and he was unable to find Asuka. Kaworu was missing. It was all so hopeless. Shinji's tears are interrupted as the launch pad jerks to a stop in the middle of the Geofront. Shinji looks around with wide eyes, starting to breath heavily as he sees everything. His heart quickens faster and faster. "No..."

And then it is all okay. There it was. Unit 06! Kaworu's Evangelion. He was okay! Kaworu was okay!! Shinji smiles through his sadness just as a window opens up on his view screen. "PATTERN BLUE" displays with an Icon pointing toward Unit 06. "An Angel....No! Kaworu!"

Katharon was out of the loop on this...whatever this is, largely. It couldn't be helped. Pascal Ambler had no idea at all what it meant when the sky turned red, and when A-LAWS turned to bite its own tail and lash out against Tokyo-03 without warning or explanation. That, alone, would be an excuse for an interference from a Katharon soldier. That alone would draw attention. But...

He isn't just flying to Tokyo-03 because of his duty to Katharon. Muspelheim is /taking/ him there. It has decided that something happening there is drawing it, and it must see for itself. He can tell now, and hasn't the energy to resist. It asked him to launch, and launch he did. It asked him to fly to Tokyo-03, and so he did as well. Its eyes are glowing as it makes a stark black silhouette against the red sky, drawn to something older and stranger than itself.

"This is Pascal Ambler," he attempts to radio any other possible K-tag forces, only to find it isn't...working. The dragon itself hovers as it faces Unit 06, eyes aglow.

Muspelheim does not recognize. But it wants to know.

NEO RIKSENT

A WHILE AGO

Shine Hausen looks up from a late lunch. The future has changed. She frowns, settling back and looking out in a strange way in directions that most people cannot even rationalize, for several seconds. She sets her fork and knife down, and heads towards the spaceport.

TOKYO-3

BASICALLY NOW

The Fairlion, with its IFF systems largely disabled, is easily overlooked. From a distance, it's a custom Lion - not too remarkable. Shine Hausen breathes steadily as she descends towards the seething wall of war that is the third new Tokyo city; the Fairlion moves in a random series of curlicues downwards, little affecting it beyond smoke or small fragments from bursting shell or streaking beam.

The world seems to be screaming around her. She breathes steadily, toying occasionally with the sheaf of hydroponically-grown fennel she plucked from a flower display in her home. The absurdity of her life occurs to her as she goes downwards: She has lived in a high castle, sheltered by money and ancient deeds from the sufferings of others, and granted strange abilities by an accident of birth.

She has no right, she thinks as she accelerates downwards, following a building just slammed loose of its moorings by Gym Gyngham into the depths of the Geofront, to feel fear here. Everything is in order elsewhere. She doesn't know if she leaves this city.

Shine Hausen breathes out as the Fairlion twists away from the farm of buildings which may, at any moment, descend. It is small and perhaps easy to overlook. Sensors sweep over everything, Shine frowning slightly in confusion as she sees a ship floating in a lake. How did they get it there? Not that the guns firing at unseen targets do not explain /why/ it is there.

Her head turns then, as does the silly little fairy-bot's. Contextual software zooms in on the figure standing atop the pyramid right in the center of the grand chamber of the Geofront. The Fairlion turns then, flying lower so as to fly straighter, and makes for that figure.

Roger Smith has been having a *really bad day*.

It started out normal enough - having a few drinks in an A-LAWS bar, talking about his days as a Military Policeman with a disconcertingly violent soldier, and sobering up just in time to fly a trans-Pacific flight in his private jet to Japan for his meeting. It had taken a fairly predictable twist there; no rental car, would he mind taking this secondary backup ugly-as-sin brilliant-pink Volkswagon Beetle across the country, and they're very sorry but it'll never happen again.

About halfway across the country, near the outskirts of Tokyo 03, the twists became somewhat less predictable.

Fire rained from the sky. War broke out, in the most violent and brutal of ways war can - totally and completely. Japan was turned upside-down, flipped on its head, and Roger's car came to an abrupt stop.

To top off the whole storm of crap, not only was he stuck in the middle of a situation he barely grasped, watching an impossible war being waged upon Tokyo 03, in a car that had no protection and no armor and nothing that was even slightly useful to being in a war zone, the horrible piece of rental garbage had just lost the last of its battery charge.

Roger groans, opening the door of the car and standing to look out at the carnage. His eyes were sharp; he noticed those strange angelic things flapping in the distance, the pool of devestation where the city once stood. He watched, and he closed his eyes. This was more horrible than anything he had ever seen. In his mind's eye, something nudged, something urges, something reminds him of a time long gone by, when the Megadeuses marched across Paradigm City and reduced what once was a sparkling world to absolutely nothing, when they (?) burned away all that was left of that precious thing called memory. But it is nothing more than a niggling, an urging, a nudge in the very least back of his mind. It is very much shunted aside, thanks to the very real, very primal, fear that was being exposed upon this stage called Tokyo-03.

Roger clenches one of his fists. "Damn..." He murmurs, to no one but himself, as the wind sweeps by. This wasn't his problem, something whispered. You can walk on by, Mister Negotiator - just get out of town, get out of the country, get out while you can. You can do it, Roger Smith. You don't need to be here.

No, Roger told that little voice. No - this is my problem. This is why I am the dominus! This is why I am the Dominus of Megadeus! It's to help people! If the power of Big O isn't for that...then what good is it?

Roger's wrist is drawn up to his mouth, and he shouts, in a voice that defies the heavens themselves:

"BIIIIG OOOOOOOOO!"

And from the heavens themselves, the Megadeus descends, falling from orbit on a pinpoint trigger to Japan. It heats up, entering the atmosphere like a great black meteor, falling towards Roger's location with uncanny accuracy...especially given that the watch he used to call it no longer works. It is as if the Megadeus is responding to his answer, to the voice in the back of his head - as if to say, Very Well, You Foolish Dominus - I'll Pull You Out Of The Fire Again.

Big O would always save him. Because he was its dominus! The dominus of Megadeus!

Big O lands, with an echoing explosion, planting a crater in the ground not far from where Roger had parked. Roger flattens to the ground as the shockwave blows away the little pink Beetle, shattering its windows with the sound of thunder. Roger stands, and runs, as the Megadeus's foot opens. He rises up the elevator, settling into the seat with arms crossed; the levers descend, sliding into his hands like old friends. And across the old screen it flashes, in that staticky white, those words that had become Roger's dearest friend and greatest comfort:

CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD YE NOT GUILTY

"BIG O! SHOWWWWWWWTIME!"

And the megadeus responds, eyes blazing to life across the dim ruins of Tokyo 03, its heavy footsteps sinking into the earth and shaking it with each motion as it strides, proud and tall and the very image of a god, towards the angelic monster and his pyramid of destruction. It strides with courage, and it strides with pride, and it strides with power in its hands - the power to bring down the thunder.

"FINAAAL FUUUUUUSION!!!"

It was already approved, and Guy doesn't even wait to launch - he executes Final Fusion right in the Amaterasu's main hangar bay, which is - fortunately - plenty big enough for the purpose. The GaoMachines enter the swirling sphere of electromagnetic fog, reconfiguring and locking into place, even as the massive maintenance-carrier executes the barely-controlled dive through the atmosphere which is formally referred to as an emergency deployment maneuver. Given the situation in Tokyo-03 proper, though, they're not flying over Japan proper ... the Amaterasu is just too juicy a target if the A-LAWS have, indeed, gone rogue here.

That leaves GaoGaiGar to take flight, launching from Amaterasu as the mighty High-Mobility Twin-Hulled Supply and Maintenance Ship breaks off from its present course and begins heading out to hold a safe position over the Pacific. GaoGaiGar and its cyborg pilot, though, are heading straight towards Tokyo-03 - and even more precisely, directly towards the Geo-Front and NERV headquarters. "A-LAWS ..." Guy snarls under his breath. "Whatever you're up to, there'd better be a damn good reason!"

Meanwhile, the High-Mobility Forward Deploying Projection Carrier: Division I - Izanagi is executing its own re-entry maneuver, coming in over the Sino-Japanese Sea which separates Japan and mainland China, and a course is being plotted for the launch of the Dividing Driver. At the moment, nobody from the Gutsy Galaxy Guard knows just what's actually *happening* on the ground in Tokyo-03 - and that sits even more poorly with Major Hyuuma than it does with Chief Taiga himself. All they know is what Guy himself knows: A-LAWS has, from all appearances, gone rogue. And like Guy, they hope to Heaven that there's a really good reason for it. The aerial battle is not enough of a reason for them to work with, particularly when Guy hasn't positively ID'd anyone involved in that yet.

God knows whether he'll get the chance, with everyone *else* showing up at once.

"Hmmm." In a dark room, Shizuka Tsuzaki watches reports from Tokyo-03 on a monitor. In the shadows behind her, sitting around a table, are a number of figures who are... inexplicably wearing animal masks. The one nearest the front, in a tiger mask, stands as if to speak, but a quick silent glance from the black-haired woman silences him. One hand comes to her chin, finger tapping lightly. The silence continues for almost a minute before she finally turns around and smiles. "I think my lovely daughter will be going over there to lend a hand. The results should prove interesting." Without another word, she walks off into the shadows. A man in an antelope mask leans over to the tiger-masked man, "Did she really need us here at all?" "Shh! Do -you- want her to think we're unnecessary?"

This is not the first time Aoba has been sent to Tokyo over some strange paranormal activity. She's had encounters with several of the creatures that have come to be known as Angels and, while she can't say she enjoyed it, she did like being able to help. Even if that last one she came across did horrible things to her head.

Seated in the cockpit of the Nana-Two, Aoba darts low across the ground, Rebound Boots propelling her Jinki forward in quick bursts with each step. "Now where was... oh!" She's never been to this part of Tokyo-03 before, so the sight of a giant pyramid in a big lake is new to her. "Huh... weird." After a few seconds, she remembers to turn on her radio transmitter. "Um! This is Aoba... I'm here to help with... with whatever you need help with!" Please don't shoot at her, she's not attacking even if her Jinki may have Divine Crusader transmitters.

JUST PREVIOUSLY

The pilot of Getter-1 raises a hand, fist clenched. "I've had feelings about... this. Feelings from Getter! Old man Saotome may have secrets of his own, but there's something about this NERV bullshit that I can't abide."

Hayato, hands in his pockets, saunters over to join Ryouma. The fat, younger fellow looks incredibly grumpy before joining the other two in solidarity. Ryouma punches him in the shoulder. "Alright! Shinji! Other kid! Get over here! You're officially being drafted into the Getter Army! We'll demand answers from NERV!"

The fat kid eagerly switches from rubbing his shoulder to joining Ryouma's manly fistbump. "Haha! Getter Army! I like that! But, ehh, do you think gramps will go for all this?"

"Haha, Musashi! Like we're going to ask."

Hayato neglects to add his vote. He shakes his head. "It would be better for Shinji to go back for now. We don't have any spare machines for him to pilot." The terrorist turns his eye toward Shinji, grinning affectionately. "What do you say, kid? Feel up to stealing your Eva to find out what's really going on?"

Akira /could/ just read Shinji's mind and figure out if he's lying to him, but from what he's seen, he doesn't think he's got enough backbone to consider it at a time like this. Akira just sighs. Will he really be able to help them?

"Getter Army, huh?" Akira steps closer, now that the brawl is actually over. "I like the sound of that. Awright! The name's Akira, and if it means we're gonna get those NERV bastards to talk, me and Buriki Daioh are with you!" He raises his hand, clenching it into a tight fist in front of him, grinning wildly. Gold light plays across his eyes for just a moment, his excitement nearly tangible.

It's time to pull them out into the light... and then knock their teeth in.

"Um, I'll do my best." Shinji finally knows what is going on. It would seem the Getter Team is going to make Nerv pay for everything. If all of this was true, then Shinji would need to help put an end to this. However, he didn't want to just kill his father. Not yet. After all, he had things to answer for that directly effected Shinji. However, now it was time to do something about all of this.

NOW AT SAOTOME LABS

The warning sirens intermingle with an operator announcing the planned mission. No dinosaurs, no aliens, no demons-they were being called in by A-LAWS to earn their government money by blowing up Tokyo-03.

Ryouma rushes down the hall, trying to get his scarf on. Musashi bursts in from a door on the way, nearly crashing into the other pilot while trying to get his samurai armor fastened on properly. Hayato is naturally waiting by the lift for them.

"Shit!" Ryouma spits, jamming his finger into the close door button. "We should have gone with him from the start!"

Musashi fits his construction helmet on. "Ryouma, we couldn't have known! Besides, do we even know what's going on? We could be going to help Shinji!"

"We were beat to the punch. They're exterminating NERV," Hayato murmurs. Musashi stares, incredulous. Ryouma punches the wall. "Fine! They can exterminate NERV! Getter and Tadokoro will join up with Shinji, first!"

The three dash out into the hangar, where Buriki Daioh has been cleared a space. Michiru Saotome has taken an opportunity to switch from studying ancient demons that once ruled Japan to inspect the strange machine.

"Michiru! We need to borrow your little toy!" Ryouma shouts.

NOW

The Get Machines sail through the sky, keeping pace with their new ally. Ryouma shifts restlessly in his cockpit. "Ughh. I know we should stay open in case we're attacked, but... I feel like we need to combine! Something's telling me!"

"Hayato! Musashi! CHANGE GETTER-1!"

As the sky turns red, the demonic Getter Robo forms, wings spreading behind it. It glows with an eerie light, green spilling from its joints and eyes, lightning crackling across its body! Musashi has the wind knocked out of him. He manages to gasp: "The Getter Ray levels are... too much! Why is Getter trying to crush us?!"

"We can only hold combination for so long like this, Ryouma," Hayato says, monitoring the stressed machine. "This Getter wasn't made to handle this much energy!"

"FINE! Tadokoro! Can you hear me? We need to do this fast! Find Shinji!"

The skies weep blood red in pain. Horrible winged Evangelions sear the heavens converging on prey like animals to a feast. Nothing to their face but large--

"Who the fuck is dumb enough to build a machine with a /GIANT FUCKING MOUTH YOU CAN SHOVE SHIT INTO/?"

This question is asked rather pointedly as a cumbersome mobile suit punctures through the veil of clouds. The white form of the Evangelion underneath the distinctive form of the RMS-142 Xeku Zwei is desecrated with the fluids it vomits up.

This is largely thanks to the fact that the six-armed monstrosity of a mobile suit is feeding it its own lance.

The thick, wagging tongue of the Eva is carved off, crashing into the earth below as its own weapon is used to internally disembowel it. The laughter of the Xeku's pilot is harsh and savage, horrifically delighted at the carnage around him and the violence inflicted upon his would-be opponent. Its unmistakable; that voice could only belong to one person.

"I knew NERV was a goddamn joke, but this is almost too stupid to laugh at!" hollars Yazan Gable as he finally /slams/ that MP Eva into the earth, having literally impaled it upon its own lance. Yazan laughs again.

Because he did say 'almost.'

Drenched in the creature's bizarre fluids and 'blood,' the Xeku turns its mono-eye up. Distantly, Gable notes the pyramid beyond. He remembers this place, from before. When the Angel was attacking it. Rolling his shoulders, the Beast smirks leisurely, pushing his mobile suit forward at a relaxed pace.

"Maybe I finally oughta go ahead an' do what those 'Angels' were to pathetic to," Yazan muses, a grin spreading his lips.

"Heh. Yeah - let's do that. This is shaping up to be a /real/ good use of my free time."

Michael 'Hair King NCA120' Trinity has had a rough month. The GNX team dissolving, Leo under fire, madness and depravity rampaging the halls.

A FEW HOURS AGO

Michael Trinity arrives at the Vesalius, escorting two Aheads wearing backpacks heavy with ominous portent. He passes orders along to Joshua Shardul from the desk of Paptimus Scirocco, and accompanies the ship to Tokyo-03.

NOT LONG AFTER THAT, REALLY

Michael gets bored and speeds ahead, on his way to rendezvous with Leo.

NOW

"GOD, I got /lost./" The black-and-grey Throne Zwei copy dives through the air, GN particles swirling around it, rolling as it avoids some falling wreckage from the city above. Blood drips onto his main camera, a red splotch obscuring a part of his vision.

Missing the part of his psyche that would be mortified by the blood, death, and madness he's witnessed since arriving at Tokyo-03, Michael merely whines, reaching again for the auto-clean button. "This sucks." He leans back in his seat, and aims a nudge at the purple Haro sitting in the dock between his legs. It doesn't budge - it hasn't since they got here. Michael huffs an annoyed breath. VEDA's been odd, too. It's like there's some kind of static in the corner of the Trinity's mind.

He scans around behind him, looking for a clue as to how to get to... Terminal Dogma? The hell does that even mean? "Damnit!" What he /does/ notice is the EVA unit crouching on the pyramid, like fifteen hours after everyone else coming in already has. Glancing around - scowling when he sees GaoGaiGar - Mike leans forward, pulling out a keyboard as his VEDA interface is being buggy. He zooms in on Unit-06.

Cagalli really has no idea what to make of the situation from her limited reports on it. On the one hand, A-LAWS has turned and attacked ostensibly Federal territory... but on the other hand, that territory is that of the secretive NERV, whose use of her comrades as a defensive line against the things from beyond the stars has never quite sat right with her -- though she's even gone along with it at times, because those things, whatever they are, clearly needed to be stopped.

As such, as the gleaming gold Akatsuki flies in toward Tokyo-03 behind Muspelheim, the best word to describe Cagalli's grasp of the situation would be 'confused.' Nevertheless, not knowing what she's doing has never stopped her from inserting herself in a situation before -- she's at her best, or at least she /thinks/ she is, when she has to do things on the fly.

The Akatsuki is even faster than she's used to today; the sheer power of the Oowashi pack in the air is staggering. But that power doesn't help her sort through the situation, doesn't help the faint headache in the back of her head... and it /certainly/ doesn't change the feeling that something is fundamentally wrong with all of existence right now.

TWENTY MINUTES AGO

"So, dawg, I heard dat Leo guy totally nailed Asuka too, what a 'ho, am I right?" Toji says, toweling himself off after the exertion of squash. "Dat Leo guy, he got game."

The confused tech he was playing against just kind of shrugs. "Uh, okay... not really any of my business, kid."

Toji frowns. "Man, where Shinji at..."

Sighing, he shuts the locker and heads out into the hall, narrowly missing a hail of bullets which chews the hapless tech into ground beef. Toji stops. The towel falls from his hands, and his body begins to shake.

"Yo... yo, what is this?!" he asks, voice quavering. "Yo! Come on, man, this ain't funny!"

The black rectangle on legs doesn't answer with words; only more bullets. Toji runs like hell, screaming like a little girl.

FIFTEEN MINUTES AGO

Toji peeks around the corner. Some guy with long hair is holding people at gunpoint. Is that Kaji...? No, Kaji's hair isn't /that/ long. Then who?

He doesn't wait around to find out. The young athlete heads for the launch bay. There is blood everywhere, and bodies all over the place. Toji throws up three times before he gets to his plug suit.

Hiding in a bathroom stall, he stares down at the floppy material covering his arms and hands. "Oh god," he mumbles. "Oh god. Oh god. I ain't wanna die, man." He brings his head down to his hands, furiously scrubbing away the tears. "Naw, naw... it ain't gon' go down like dat. Toji ain't gon' die like a bitch."

The plugsuit vacuums on to his body and he stands, sneaking out to the entry plug for Evangelion Unit-03.

TEN MINUTES AGO

Evangelion Unit-03 steps out of the deployment elevator and is immediately attacked by a slavering white beat. "HOLY SHIT DAWG!" shouts the startled teen, instinctively shoving his fist straight through the thing's head. It explodes in a fountain of gore. Toji's fear is a constant presence in his mind. "Holy shit. Holy shit," he breathes, looking up.

At the blood-red sky, filled with swarming monsters.

Toji is so glad that nobody knows he just pissed his pants.

FIVE MINUTES AGO

Evangelion Unit-03 slams two of its MP bretheren into each other, crushing them utterly. Toji breathes heavily, sweat dissolving into the LCL even as it leaks from his pores. The battle has been bloody and vicious, and has tested Toji to his limits.

"Where the HELL Shinji at..." he asks again, concerned for his friend-- and needing his friend there to help him through this vision of hell. "C'mon, dawg. Don't leave me hangin' now..."

Another creature swoops down at the young pilot, and he swears a swear he shouldn't know for at least another four years.

ONE MINUTE AGO

"YEAH! YEAH! WHO DAT?!" demands Toji, leaping into the air and grabbing the MP Eva above him. His Evangelion begins to choke it one-handed, even while extending a weaponised AT Field around the spasming white grub. Toji pushes off from a falling skyscraper, leaping even higher into the air. The AT Field crushes the monster inside into a roughly spherical form.

Evangelion Unit-03 falls through the sky, picking up ridiculous speeds, still trailing its umbilical cord... until it slams that AT Field with its Angelic payload into the ground.

It explodes. The Angel explodes. The massive cross-shaped explosion fills the sky... and dissolves the Earth below.

Evangelion Unit-03 continues to fall down, down, down, down, down... debris from the ruined buildings and the tons and tons of earth follow him down into the darkness of the GeoFront. The red light of the sky streams in through the new hole opened above the fortress of NERV.

The black machine slams into the lake, throwing up a minor tsunami.

NOW

"Shit, yo," Toji groans, rolling over in the much-diminished lake. The bio-mechanical weapon linked to his mind follows suite. Slowly, painfully, he levers himself to his feet. The Eva mirrors his movements.

That's when he notices the PATTERN BLUE on his screen. And the source of that code. And the battle already taking place down here.

And Shinji Ikari, his closest friend, charging... Evangelion Unit-06.

"Well, I guess this where da party at," Toji decides, cracking his neck, cracking his knuckles. He steps out of the lake, moving up to stand beside the purple giant. Eva-03 puts a hand on Eva-01's shoulder. "Yo, dawg. I know this shit be crazy, so let's get in a bag, an' SET IT ON FIRE!"

It doesn't have to make sense if you say it with enough energy.

PREVIOUSLY

Katharon wasn't /entirely/ out of the loop on this one. It's just that this one is kind of personal, and getting them all involved seemed like a bad idea. Maybe it was selfish of him. Maybe he /should/ have said something to someone, besides dropping Macua a quick message. Meeting up with her earlier helped, but there's only so much he can do.

Like hang around in the hangar and provide power for whatever systems Michiru Saotome wishes to inspect. Buriki Daioh is a weird machine; it has to have a psychic power source, and Akira seems to be the only one able to power it. He kicks back in the cockpit, sitting in the lawn chair that he has acquired for the duration of his stay, and practically leaps up when the alarms start to blare. He pulls himself out of the hatch on the head, looking over as the Getters board their planes.

"Awright! Time to get this show on the road!"

NOW

Buriki Daioh approaches Tokyo-03, flying on it's massive rocket pack with it's equally-colossal Massacre Blade clutched in one hand. He's signaled his friend on the way in; a quick psychic "hello," more of a tingling feeling that he can't manage for long. He's getting pretty good at communicating with Macua mentally like that, but it's still a precise thing he's not good at.

Akira feels uneasy as he approaches. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and his eyes gleam a golden color as he gets closer and closer to the center of the weirdness. It feels like it's getting easier to read the thoughts of another... but he isn't /trying/ to, which is the strange part of it.

Akira shivers, and shakes it off. He looks over as Getter-1 forms, feeling a smile grow on his face. Buriki Daioh lifts a massive metal hand and gives them a thumbs-up. "Right! Let's get in there and shake 'em till Shinji falls out!"

Macua Huitl has worked with the Getter Team once or twice in the past she knows some of their past to know they are dangerous but she also knows they are right. They need to get some answers out of Nerv and she owes Akira a great deal, a whole lot just over the incident at Texas, she really didn't mean to mind crush her friend over that. So here she is she'd found the note eariler and had contacted Akira right away. She'd thought to bring the Amazon but the firepower of the Phoebe would be needed.

"I do not like the feeling I am getting about this I do not like it at all!"

This feels so bad and then the skies are well red, there are terrible creatures there comming she can sense the MP evas they are mindless hungry and desire destruction. She's only ran into a few things with more hate that that even the Radam had a sense of purpose these things just hunger.



She opens up a comm to Akira nd the Getters.

"Heard about beating some answers out of NERV for what the hell is going on, figured you could use some more fire power. Sounds like a plan but watch the white things I can feel them from here."

The black figure atop the decaying pyramid slowly rises to its full height. Evangelion Unit-06 looks very similar to Unit-01 but for the color -- all black and grey and purple, its revolting Eva eyes masked by a visor across its face, a sharp horn spiking out of its skull. Evangelions look wrong when they move -- anatomy should not work like it seems to for the long-limbed beast-robots. And the most wrong of them all is Unit-06, whose every twitch bleeds heretic perversity.

Suddenly, across everyone's radios, a voice can be heard. It's warm and rich -- a masculine sound given to feminine affects. It is undeniably coming from Unit-06, beaming into each suit on the scene as if their radios were his to play with. "Well, Shinji," Kaworu says.

"You found me out."

"I didn't really want to have to kill everyone, but I'm not going to let you stop me. We had some good times, though, didn't we?" Suddenly, Unit-06 /leaps/ off of the pyramid that is NERV Headquarters, and it collapses from the force like an explosive shockwave had just launched through it from the top down. The Eva has its Pellet Magnum in hand -- the standard pistol beefed up to what is probably an intensely illegal degree -- and he fires all six of its shots at whoever happens to venture too near.

Curiously, the monster doesn't even seem to be aiming -- just blasting wildly and carelessly, reinforced by the sudden transmission of a yawn.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Shinji Ikari. Pellet Magnum added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Shine Hausen. Pellet Magnum added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Yazan Gable. Pellet Magnum added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Vindel Mauser. Pellet Magnum added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Getter Team. Pellet Magnum added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Akira Tadokoro. Pellet Magnum added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a minor hit on Yazan Gable's RMS-142 Xeku Zwei using Pellet Magnum.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has counter attacked for a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Short-Range Missiles.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a minor hit on Vindel Mauser's Zweizergain using Pellet Magnum.

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Boost Knuckle counter attack.

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a minor hit on Getter Team's Getter-1 using Pellet Magnum.

COMBAT: Getter Team has missed Kaworu Nagisa with their Getter Cutter counter attack.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a solid hit on Shine Hausen's XAM-007G Fairlion using Pellet Magnum.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a minor hit on Akira Tadokoro's Buriki Daioh using Pellet Magnum.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Jomjom Bullet counter attack.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has missed Shinji Ikari with his Pellet Magnum attack.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Toji Suzuhara. Dismissive Handwave added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a minor hit on Toji Suzuhara's Gundam using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has counter attacked for a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Gat.

Shine Hausen can see the purple figure of EVA-01 quite easily. The black figure near it is not as familiar, but she recalls the reports of another unit in that shade. It must be friendly, she reasons, as well as - well, most of the things arriving. She steers the Fairlion downwards, and -

- gets shot.

The massive round spangs off the Fairlion's skirting armor, which gains a heavy dent, and the unit itself is thrown temporarily off course. This is less profound than what it tells Shine Hausen directly: /she can't see everything coming/. A wriggling sensation of panic starts in her stomach. She pushes it down by main will, squeezing that sheaf of fennel with her free hand.

She turns on the radio then, even as the Fairlion swoops in a long accelerating path towards Evangelion Unit One. She asks a simple question of the public broadcast, perhaps drowning in the mists of the radio frequency spectrum. "I don't understand. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?"

The voice is only passingly familiar to Shine. Her first thought is of the Cyber Newtypes in A-LAWS, but this seems improbable.

Two friendly signals - Vindel had honestly expected to go into this one alone. For Aoba - who was useful, if not exactly a fanatical member of the DC - and Yazan - who Vindel would gladly bring along for the sheer level of carnage he could cause - to be here was fortuitous indeed. "Aoba, Yazan, this is Colonel Mauser. I've just recently arrived inside of the Geofront - do you have information on the area that you can forward to me? I want to ensure mine is not too out of date." After all, Yazan used to work for the EFA - he's probably been around here at least once, given how many Angels had attacked this place over the years.

"...after all, this is the end of the world. We might as well make as best of use of it as possible," Vindel continues, and although the many meters of rock and armor plating block his view of the sky, he knows that the sky is still bleeding. The end is coming, one way or another. The question was... to what end would it be? And should he support it, or not?

...of course, he already knew the answer to that.

"The fools here are attempting something that could fundamentally reshape the entire world," the Shadow Mirror commander states - and from this, he speaks from experience. "Our job is to stop them. We may have to break quite a bit of this place to find what we need to break - so please feel free to indulge yourselves." Of course, a little more information on what exactly was happening would be nice - Vindel had seen the aftermath of several world altering events, and had studied ancient records about times when the sky was reputed to have bled, and the world had changed forever.

That didn't mean he knew the specifics. But they had to try and figure out what it was... and to stop it.

Of course, there is also an additional problem, and one of the shots from the pellet gun that the Evangelion rings off of the chest of the Zweizergain, leaving a large dent there. Vindel doesn't even respond at first, beyond turning and launching one of the super robot's fists at the Evangelion... which suddenly stops with a large flash of hexagonal light as it slams into a massively powerful AT Field. The rocket punch spins around, returning to the Zweizergain as Vindel narrows his eyes thoughtfully. "I'm afraid I will have to ask you to step aside, boy," he states, bringing both hands up. "There is something within that pyramid that I must investigate, and if you are indeed going to 'kill everyone', then you might well be related to it."

Both of Zweizergain's fists erupt outwards this time, clasping together as they form one massive spinning rocket punch that should give him an idea of just what sort of power it will take to blast through that field.

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Double Boost Knuckle added to their queue.

Unit 01 doesn't move as it stares at it's darker counter part. Unit 06 was the Unit of his best friend and now it was reading as an Angel. Shinji doesn't want to believe it until Kaworu confirms it for him. "Kaworu..." is all he can say as he feels his heart breaking. One of his best friends was also lost to him. One of the people he swore to protect was now someone who was his enemy.

Shinji almost wants to cry but then something happens. He feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks over to his left and there is Evangelion Unit 03. "Toji?" Shinji sniffles, almost to weak to be heard. Was he imagining this? "Is that you?"

He doesn't get much time to clear his head, feeling a gun shot strike Unit 01. He winces as the machine's nerves travel into his body. "Ugh...Damnit. Kaworu! Please don't make me do this!" He reaches for a discarded rifle and aims toward Unit 06's shoulder. "Toji! We need to disable the Evangelion and save Kaworu!" Was he serious or just crazy!

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Pellet Rifle added to their queue.

The stray transmission - or was it really a "stray" transmission? - from what used to be NERV Headquarters draws Guy's attention thataway, and GaoGaiGar diverts course. "So you're the reason the A-LAWS are attacking in force?" Guy asks, not entirely sure whether to believe what he's hearing. "Why did you 'have' to kill so many people?!" the cyborg continues, his ire mounting as he heads for the rogue Evangelion ...

And its pilot *yawns* over the radio.

"PHANTOM RING!! PLUS!!" Guy yells abruptly, raising GaoGaiGar's right arm to point straight up/forward as the Phantom Ring floats into place, 'locks' into position, and begins spinning along with the fist and forearm. It's hard to say what pisses him off more - the many lives being lost or ruined, or the apparent perpetrator's seeming nonchalance about the whole matter. "It doesn't matter if you don't plan to let Ikari stop you ... whatever you're planning, all of us together will stop it in its tracks!! BROKEN *PHANTOM!!!!*" The spinning rocket-punch launches, aiming to drill through the AT Field just like Guy's used it to punch through Zondar Barriers in the past. If the other Evangelions can weaken Unit 06's AT Field, it should be able to penetrate.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Broken Phantom added to their queue.

"Cagalli, Akira, Macua." Pascal's French-accented voice comes in over their radio, though he's reluctant to draw attention to himself from any of the other respondents. "Do you know what all of this is? Who that is? It feels...-very wrong." And it has been a while since the Newtype has been able to sense the general wrongness of the battlefield. Muspelheim usually does a good job of drowning out the soft hum of battlefield grief and rage and insulating its pilot's mind. But now, something writhes in the back of his skull, a foreign presence sensed from all sides. It makes him feel slightly ill.

Even the serpent robot itself is writhing slightly, twitching in an unnervingly biological way from time to time, as if picking up on the same irritation.

"...I think we need to stop that thing. If we don't stop...that thing, something will...it will...!!" He falls silent as Muspelheim roars, its eyes flaring and its wings spreading out around it. The dragon rears its head back, giving a roar of its own-not human, not entirely bestial-before unleashing a blast of magically generated flame from its mouth at Unit 06.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Fire Breath added to their queue.

That voice that comes over her radio...

...Aoba doesn't recognize it at all. "Who is that? Isn't that one of those Evangelion things?" Leaning forward in her seat, Aoba squints as she tries to get a better look at the figure on the pyramid. "He's talking to someone else..." A frown comes to her face as she sees Unit-06 begin to move and shoot at some of the others. "I'm not sure who you're trying to find, or what your plan is... but I'm not going to just stand by and let you try to kill everyone!"

The Cognate glances aside as she receives a transmission from Vindel. "Sorry, I... I don't really know anything. But that guy shooting at you said he was going to kill everyone!" As the Nana-Two leaps forward, it reaches back to draw its machinegun from the docking point on the back of its shoulder. With the Rebound Boots in place, the Jinki actually runs across the surface of the water rather than sinking in, though there are still huge splashes from the forces involved as it moves.

Even though she sees some shots flying already and impacting something that she's come to recognize as an AT Field, Aoba still takes a few shots with the machinegun. It's all she can do until she gets close enough to put her sword to use.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. 120mm Machine Gun added to their queue.

SOME WEEKS AGO

"So I figger if he gon' roll up on me like dat, I ain't gon' just take it like a bitch, ya know?" Toji continues, this story now in its fifth minute. The locker room is its usual busy self down here in the GeoFront, and he has just finished a game of Street Hoops with none other than Kaworu Nagisa, the new guy.

Toji bends over, discarding his towel to pull up his track pants and finish getting changed, but something goes horribly wrong.

His butt touches something warm and soft. Yelping, he hikes up his pants as he jumps, turning around with rage and fear in his eyes. "Yo! What was dat!" he demands.

Behind him, facing the other way, Kaworu is naked. And there it is. The strange boy's pale white ass, having just pressed against Toji's own. The young Evangelion pilot feels bile rising in his throat.

Kaworu turns to face Toji, face the usual feline look of detached amusement. "What's the matter, Toji? Was that your first moon landing?"

Toji, face twisted up in horror, runs out of the locker room muttering "No homo!" over and over. He proceeds to avoid Kaworu forever.

NOW

The wave of force accompanying the magnum attack washes over Unit-03, sending it stumbling back. Toji whips out the unit's giant pistol and, holding it sideways, fires off a trio of shots back at the mirror unit piloted by that same Kaworu Nagisa.

To Shinji, he says, "don't worry dawg, we got this. I'll show that bitch a moon landin' he ain't never gonna forget." Solemnly, he removes his hand from Shinji's Eva and looks ahead, eyes growing sharp. "No homo. Now, cover me!"

As Shinji raises his rifle, Toji dashes forward into the expanding dust field of the exploding pyramid, disappearing from view. Along the way, he scoops up a large chunk of /something/ that came down from the surface with him. Kaworu floats above the destruction, being all sassy and shit.

But Toji's not having any of that. The dust swirls away right in front of Unit-06, revealing... Unit-03 flying through the air, holding a large garbage truck over its head.

"SURPRISE, BITCH!"

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Street Fighter added to their queue.

"Oi, oi, oi!" Mike tries to respond, as Kaworu's voice crackles over his radio. "The hell are you?" He reaches for the little radio console, shaking at it - and then frowning.

It wasn't actually on? He flicks at the LED display, and a light grudgingly flickers on. Mike sits back, satisfied, and well-and-truly orients himself toward the most interesting thing in the area: Unit-06.

Michael rolls his shoulders, the Zwei slowly approaching Kaworu, and the last Trinity flicks at his radio. "Hey, hey! Uh... Getters! Geeeetterrrrrrs!" He already tried reaching the general A-LAWS band, but the radio was having none of it. "What the hell's going on over here? I got totally lost trying to get to that Terminating Dagger place!" The Zwei deploys an orange beam saber in its right arm, the gun on its left locking forward. The Fangs stubbornly stay where they are. Mike trains the GN Handgun toward the unfamiliar EVA (not that any of them are really /familiar/ to him), waiting to hear more.

Not out of being cautious - he's just having more fun watching everyone else go at it right now.

Big O arrives at the battlefield, and it is immediately clear to the Negotiator who is the 'bad guy' here. Usually, when GaoGaiGar starts firing, it's pretty clear. The alliance of mechs just received some backup, and it's got some pretty heavy weaponry.

Roger pushes one of the numerous buttons on his dashboard as Big O's eyes blaze to life. One of the hidden panels pops open, revealing...yet more buttons, sitting just to the side of the black-clad Negotiator. Roger adjusts his sunglasses as Big O's onboard targetting computer flares to life, homing in on Kaworu's strange black Eva...one for each of the guns that was about to be fired.

"I don't know who you are," Roger shouts to no one in particular, "But if this is your fault, it's time for you to put an end to it! BIG O!"

"ACTION!"

Roger's open palm slams across the buttons, as many of them as he can touch. The enormous Megadeus's chest slides open, revealing missiles, gattling guns, and so on and so forth; an array of weapons that might even put the Heavyarms to shame with its sheer overkillness. And each and every one of them blazes to life, chainguns roaring across the field, missiles streaking forth with smoke to announce the Black Megadeus's presence to all and sundry, emptying more ammo than most people carry on their entire mechs and somehow paradoxically still blazing on. It's the thunder of an angry god...how will it fare against the angel?!

COMBAT: Roger Smith has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Big Thunder Guns added to their queue.

The familiar Evangelion Unit-01 below is what Akira was looking for. "Shinji! We're here!" he transmits, making the presence of himself and the Getters known, just as they'd planned. He closes in, ready to give him some support... and then he hears Kaworu.

The voice would be a little unnerving normally, knowing who it belonged to. The last time Akira had heard it, it was during an Angel attack, where he casually swatted it down and tore through it's AT Field like it wasn't even there. But Akira knows more than the name of the one in front of them.

He knows /what/ he is.

Macua speaks to him and the Getters. Akira speaks back, opening the short-range transmission to Pascal and Cagalli, to the other Katharon-aligned machines in the sky. He sounds startled; even frightened. For someone who knows Akira, this is much more disturbing than it might otherwise be.

"He's..." His voice falters. He takes a breath and channels his fear into anger. Remember what they did to you! Remember what they did to the ones you loved! "He's Kaworu Nagisa," he states. Akira pauses for the span of a heartbeat, and then says the thing that scared him the most:

"I think... he's an Angel."

The pellet shot strikes Buriki Daioh, glancing off of the strong metal armor. Akira raises Buriki's arm, firing a missile from one of the ports at the Evangelion while he acquires the closest thing to a lock he can. He watches the familiar shield appear, the AT Field coming into view and simply stopping the explosion on a vertical plane in the air.

"But it doesn't matter! We've taken 'em down before!" Buriki Daioh drops to the ground, firing a swarm of missiles from ports in both arms. Jomjom Bullets fire, the explosives streaking forward and smashing into the AT Field, putting physical pressure on Kaworu's unearthly shield.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Jomjom Bullet Raid added to their queue.

The Princess of Orb doesn't feel the same sort of horror that Pascal and Muspelheim do -- for her, it's at best a dull ache in the back of her head, rather than an all-consuming presence that drowns out everything else on the battlefield. Nevertheless, when he says they need to stop that thing, Cagalli is more than OK with the idea.

"... all right. I'll give you some support fire," she says, floating high into the sky and starting to circle the Evangelion, with all the measured caution of a plane circling King Kong. She's fairly certain that someone who yawns and fires on Getter Robo can probably swat her out of the sky with casual indifference if he wants to... so she has to play it safe, play it smart, keep the fear building in her gut down.

Raising the machine's beam rifle, Cagalli fires five quick shots down, one after another -- if this is anything like the other Evangelion units, she's going to have to keep the pressure up if anyone's going to breach the AT Field.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Beam Rifle Volley added to their queue.

"What?!" Ryouma shouts because everything that is going to come out of his mouth during this fight is going to be at the top of his lungs.

Getter Robo darts down toward the battlefield, its primary pilot sensing the confrontation-- oh, there it goes, the one with the helmet needs to be shot. If Shinji's facing Unit-06 down, so will Getter!

For its troubles, a pellet shot glances roughly off of its shoulder, shearing off armor as it passes. Getter-1 jerks to the side from the force, though it still finds the time to swing an arm around, launching an ill-fated blade from its forearm.

Getter lands next to Shinji as he draws his rifle; Ryouma whips the arms of his robot upward, two titanic machineguns forming from the green light leaking from its body. "SHIIIIINNNNNJIIIIII! We were coming to save you, but it looks like you need more guns instead! He-- agh?! Is he yawning?! No one yawns at Getter Rays!"

"Remember our training! Except this time... YOU ARE THE BOULDER AND THAT GUY IS YOU, EXCEPT-- eh?! He's an Angel?! Well Angels can't dodge boulders like humans! It's science fact! WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS HE WANTS TO TASTE THE CURB! MAKE HIM TASTE THE CURB, SHINJI!"

Like everyone with any sense, Getter opens up with all the bullets, Ryouma hoping that there is enough mass being flung at Unit-06 to bury it under an avalanche of lead or something.

Musashi, meanwhile, has 'talking to Michael' duty. He shouts into the radio, sounding like someone was repeatedly punching him in the ribs: "Ahh! Uh, it looks like this guy wants to pick a fight! Our plan is mostly to gang up and beat him mercilessly, it looks like!"

COMBAT: Getter Team has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Getter Machine Guns added to their queue.

The Xeku Zwei trudges along. It'd seem that Yazan has all the time in the world at the pace he's going, and perhaps he thinks he does.

The excitement that sparks into a raging inferno in his eyes suggests he'd rather take his /sweet time/ to savor /all/ of this.

As it moves, the massive beam rifle latched to the Zwei's back shunts outward. Its main arms pry it free almost casually, loading the heavy barrel's handles into both hands and tilting it gradually upward. This languid progress is only briefly paused as words crackle in over his radio. He looks down, blinks. Mauser, eh?

"... This place's got a lotta their real shit underground," Gable provides helpfully. "I dunno what the hell it is; they've always been a bunch of shifty nerds, most of that shit was classified. But I saw it -- when one of those little mutants they like to kick around showed up. It was goin' after the underground." Gable knows. He knows what a predator looks like.

"There's somethin' in there they want--"

A pellet round ricochets off the right shoulder of the Xeku-Zwei. Armor crushes inward with a noisy impact, as Yazan looks dimly to his side.

"... Oh look, the freaky lookin' abortion of science wants to fight with the big boys. That's so sweet." There's something not right with that machine. Even if he'd never admit it, there's a feeling of unease that nestles at the base of Yazan's spine like a persistent, nagging sensation. But that just means--

"I OUGHTA OBLIGE 'EM!"

--that just means it's something Yazan /really/ has to crush.

The beam smartgun's trigger squeezes, and a second later a pulse of burning crimson punctures the air, literally bending at a wide curve to pummel not the Evangelion 06's front -- but its right side. Tit for tat.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Beam Smartgun added to their queue.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using 120mm Machine Gun.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has missed Aoba Tsuzaki with his Dismissive Handwave counter attack.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Beam Rifle Volley.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor critical hit on Cagalli Yula Athha's ORB-01 Akatsuki Oowashi using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Getter Team has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Getter Machine Guns.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Getter Team's Getter-1 using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Jomjom Bullet Raid.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Akira Tadokoro's Buriki Daioh using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Broken Phantom.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has missed Guy Shishioh with his Dismissive Handwave counter attack.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Beam Smartgun.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Yazan Gable's RMS-142 Xeku Zwei using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has struck a solid critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Fire Breath.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor critical hit on Pascal Ambler's Muspelheim using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has struck a solid critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Double Boost Knuckle.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has missed Vindel Mauser with his Dismissive Handwave counter attack.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Street Fighter.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Toji Suzuhara's Evangelion Unit-03 using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Pellet Rifle.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Shinji Ikari's Evangelion Unit-01 using Dismissive Handwave.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has struck a solid critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Big Thunder Guns.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor hit on Roger Smith's Big O using Dismissive Handwave.

Eleven warriors converge on the same point -- the same target -- firing weapons that, individually, are capable of killing any other mobile suit. Their convergence is an amazing thing. Unit-06 briefly and literally /cannot be seen/ in the destruction that ensues, as beams and rockets and punches and every other thing under the sun all come together in a perfect storm of destruction that leaves a gouge in the earth nearly a mile in diameter. It's as if someone had reached down from the heavens and simply /torn away/ part of Tokyo-03 by the root, and the smoke and heat that rises from this devastation is simply indescribable.

But when sensors come back online, when visual data starts coming back in, when the smoke clears...

Unit-06 stands at the center of this sudden lack, its AT Field shining brighter than a star. Kaworu Nagisa's voice transmits again, a dull, dry chuckle, and one word:

"Cute."

To add insult to insult, Unit-06 reaches up and brushes off its shoulder, which, considering how eerily overlimber the things' arms are, is actually kind of disgusting to watch. "I guess you're wondering what this is all about. Why what's underneath here is so important."

Suddenly, Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion withdraws a pair of Progressive Knives from god-knows-where. Panels on the Eva open up, and missiles ready themselves to fire. His suit takes to the air, firing at a handful of opponents. One knife is /hurled/ at Muspelheim, and another stays in Unit-06's hand as it tries to grab a hold of Shine Hausen's adorable Fairlion and run it through.

"But then, at least ONE of you should have been able to see this coming!"

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Pascal Ambler. Progressive Knife Mastery added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Shine Hausen. Progressive Knife Mastery added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Aoba Tsuzaki. Concealed Missile added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Roger Smith. Concealed Missile added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has attacked Guy Shishioh and Cagalli Yula Athha. More Concealed Missiles added to their queue.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a solid hit on Roger Smith's Big O using Concealed Missile.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Fisticuffs counter attack.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a major hit on Aoba Tsuzaki's Nana-Two Way Aoba Custom using Concealed Missile.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has missed Kaworu Nagisa with her 120mm Machine Gun counter attack.

COMBAT: Shine Hausen has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a major hit on Shine Hausen's XAM-007G Fairlion using Progressive Knife Mastery.

COMBAT: Shine Hausen has counter attacked for a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Assault Blade.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a solid hit on Guy Shishioh's GaoGaiGar using More Concealed Missiles.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a solid hit on Pascal Ambler's Muspelheim using Progressive Knife Mastery.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Eye Laser counter attack.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has struck a major hit on Cagalli Yula Athha's ORB-01 Akatsuki Oowashi using More Concealed Missiles.

Shinji looks around as suddenly Akira and the Getters show up. He feels safe but...Shinji gasps as Toji runs off to get up in Kaworu's grill. "but..." He says softly, sniffling to himself. He hears Master Nagare try to tell him to fight. "It's not about fear. It's just that...he's one of my best friends. This isn't him at all....Kaworu, please snap out of it!" Shinji radios all parties involve, still much in shock that Kaworu is fighting them. This had to be like the Domino thing. It wasn't Kaworu's fault. Kaworu was too great a guy...a kitten killer but he was just mistaken then.

"Seen this coming? Kaworu! Stop it!" Shinji's voice is beginning to sound less whiney and more angry. "I won't let you do this!" Deep down he still thinks this isn't Kaworu's true wish. If it was, why would he have cared about Shinji so much? Unit 01 takes out a progressive knife and attempts to stab Unit 06 in the shoulder. "STOP IT!"

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Progressive Knife added to their queue.

The missile streaks towards Big O, and Roger smirks. After his own Big Thunder assault, that didn't look so terribly impressive. "Is that it?" Roger practically dares, his hand swinging back along the controls; Big O takes up a stance, and Roger watches as the missile streaks towards the black Megadeus, towards the cockpit, trusting implicitly in himself and his partner to accurately time the blow. The missile comes, and Roger's arm swings around, Big O's massive fist impacting the missile and shattering the warhead into pieces. The explosion sends shrapnel ripping across Big O's arm and fingers, cracking its joints and leaving scratches all along its shield, but Roger ignores it. Big O's been through tougher than this. He trusted in Big O.

Roger doesn't hesitate. He begins to work the footpedals of the huge machine, the primitive-yet-somehow-so-advanced controls that enabled him to guide Big O's incredible power by his will. And Big O begins to run. Its arms stretch out wide, its hands reach forward, and like a linebacker, the Megadeus comes plowing towards Kaworu's Evangelion, ready to smash into it with all the force of...

Well, of Big O at top speed smashing into something.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Showtime! added to their queue.

The Broken Phantom returns to GaoGaiGar, which raises its still-attached left arm to take the hits from the incoming missiles; they detonate against the armor, leaving mostly-invisible scorching on the black-painted areas, more visible where the armor is colored red instead. "Tch ..." growls Guy, flexing his super robot's reattached hand then balling it back up into a fist. "Stop talking in riddles!! If all you're going to do is try to stand in our way, we'll go either over you or *through* you to get to the bottom of this!"

He barely breaks mental stride as he hears Shinji saying that the pilot in Evangelion Unit 06 is one of Shinji's friends; all it does is tell him that when the time comes for the finishing blow, it may call for the Goldion Hammer - or potentially even the original Hell and Heaven; *something* went stupidly haywire when the Dividing Driver was approaching activation range, and the dimension-warping tool went so far offline that they had to get the Strongest Brave Robot Corps out on the Amaterasu's upper deck to try and catch it.

Guy is a little irked about *that*, too, but he's presently much more concerned with getting some answers out of the snarky kid in the hostile Evangelion. (And no, as of yet he doesn't know more about what's going on than *that*. This doesn't do his mood any favors.)

Given Guy's present state of mind, the fact that he actually waits for an opening before he charges in and tries to punch the stuffing out of Unit 06 is potentially a credit to his tactical sensibilities.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Brave Beatdown added to their queue.

Michael quietly laments that he has to talk to the fat one, the least cool of them. The crazy one is, well, crazy, and so appeals to Mike on a distinct level, and the tall one is just a slick customer. The fat one mostly eats and isn't as cool.

He hates fat people. It's like, lose some weight! Get some abs! It's not that hard!

SOME TIME AGO

Michael Trinity is doing crunches in the gym. Kaworu Nagisa, across the room, sits and stares at Mike, completely entranced by his entire ab situation.

NOW

Mike pounds his fist into his palm. Oh yeah! That dude! "Oh yeah! That dude! I remember his voice now! He pissed me off, I hate it when dudes just look like cute girls!" The GN Handgun clicks back, and a second beam saber springs out of the Zwei's left wrist. Brandishing both blades, he bursts at the brazen bastard, bellowing, "IT'S BASICALLY A WASTE!" The mobile Zwei darts and weaves through GaoGaiGar (one hand twitching back, middle robot finger raised) and Unit-01, blades crossing up as Mike seeks to bodily impact 06, hewing an X into its chest.

COMBAT: Michael Trinity has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Double GN Beam Saber added to their queue.

Vindel nods - underground it was then. Of course, with the interference, he couldn't simply teleport down there. And even if things were working properly, that didn't mean that it was a good idea - as anyone who practiced teleportation techniques could tell you, attempting to teleport down into an underground area that you had no idea of the layout or size was a good way to get yourself killed. Emerging in solid rock, inside of another person, inside of a horrific thing that was about to end the world - none of these things were exactly what you would call 'good ways to die'.

"Perhaps some people simply had faith that humanity would not embrace such destructive actions," Vindel replies, his voice still level. "That field of yours bars access to the headquarters - now stand aside, or we will be forced to stand you aside. We opposed Britannia when it came to this sort of nonsense, and we will not stand for it here as well!"

With that, the Zweizergain vanishes from sight - at least the short range teleportation and skipping technology was working, even if the greater functions of the system might be having difficulties. "Kou..." Energy crackles in both hands as Vindel raises his machine's fists - and both of them slam forward, fingers curled forward as a massive beam of energy erupts towards the back of the Evangelion. "JARYURIN."

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Kou Jaryurin added to their queue.

Shine wonders to herself: A Moon Landing? at Toji's words. It sounds like intriguing slang. The other words, even from groups such as 'the Katharon insurgency' and 'the Getter insurgency' are kind of reassuring, in the same way that having Charles de Gaulle and Ho Chi Minh on your side against Hitler and Tojo are reassuring.

The machine is coming towards her. Shine feels her heart skip a beat as she breathes in sharply. Part of her wants to go and hide in a hole and cry for Latooni. Instead, she reaches for the long blade at the Fairlion's side, pulling it outwards --

And startling as there is a sudden screaming of the internal engine of the assault blade firing up, the carving tips in the 'chainsword' blade segment starting to whirr with blurring speed. Shine's mouth hangs open, and she loses something on followthrough, although some of this is also the vast disparity in mass. The Assault Blade, perhaps, bites into EVA-06's wrist; the progressive knife shears one of the Fairlion's dainty leg/vanes halfway off as the machine bounces backwards, Shine letting out a little half-stifled squeal onto the radio mike she's left open. This creature is staring right at her; only the close proximity of EVA-01 keeps that 'warning, death is imminent' scream in her head from spiking even further. She breathes out, audibly, saying "Shinji..." without quite meaning to.

"I did not," she answers Kaworu then, sounding half-sick (from adrenalin, but who can tell that). "I grant you my foolishness and my blindness. But you still have not said -"

The assault blade is twisted around, still humming along like a good little chainsword does. Shine feels sweat run like a cold river down her neck and back, even as she pulls the Fairlion back like a buzzing, sausage-curled bee, so as to give others nearby perhaps a better angle. Those curls, now, tilt upwards, revealing themselves to actually be -- head cannons?? "/What/ you are doing, or why! I can only see that people are hurting - is that all this is?!"

COMBAT: Shine Hausen has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Rolling Cannon added to their queue.

The fact that the machiengun didn't do much really comes to no surprise to Aoba. Sure, it's a really big gun, firing shells suitable for use in a tank's main gun, but she's not exactly the best at shooting out important areas. She's so used to always hitting thick armor that she tends to see it more as a distraction than a means to destroy anything. There's always the odd lucky shot... but this wasn't it. As the missiles fire, Aoba squeezes off a few more bullets before an explosion knocks her Jinki back into the water with a huge splash.

A few seconds later, the Nana-Two Way erupts from the lake, spear held in its hand. "I'll admit... I'm not really sure what you're after here..." The Jinki kicks downward in midair, propelling it closer to that AT Field. "Or if it's even you or that machine in control..." As the Jinki gets closer, it twirls the spear neatly and lunges forward, seeking to drive the pointy end against the AT field. "But with all this weird stuff going on here, I can't just let you run wild!" Her eyes shift to the side, glancing toward the Fairlion as it's shanked. "...and I won't let you wreck such a cute-looking robot either!"

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Hybrid Spear added to their queue.

Far below the chaos, something is afoot.

In near-darkness, alarms suddenly sound. At the center of a massive, dimly-lit room, four parts of a large containment pod hiss, each segment slowly crawling open. Orange light rips through the darkness at the center of the containment chamber, bathing mechanical parts, casting eerie shadows across cold, sterile walls.

A deafening boom can be heard miles above. The walls of the massive room shudder slightly.

ABOVE THE GEOFRONT

Unit-06 shines like a supernova, terrorizing the world with its existence, and eleven people who dare stand against it.

BELOW THE GEOFRONT

A trail of clothes lead to one thing perched on a small platform above the slowly-opening chamber:

A naked half-Briton girl. At her side is a half-open suitcase.

"Jeez, it's so cold down here," the bespectacled girl manages as she shimmies her legs into a pink fold of clothing around her feet. Carefully she pulls it up the expanse of her long legs, fitting the suit over her body.

"Ah, these plug suits are amazing!" she chimes, adjusting her bosom in the pink, blue-and-white affair. "My breasts look so fantastic! Much better than the Unit-05 suit. Why didn't I do this sooner~?"

Below, the chamber begins to rumble as...something massive starts to emerge. On the reflection of the girl's glasses, a massive red, monstrous head rises into view. The grin on the girl's face grows sharply, jaggedly.

"Well," she coos with barely-contained excitement.

"It's about time we got to know each other, eh, Unit-02?"

ABOVE THE GEOFRONT

Unit-06 continues its assault. Elsewhere, from the Geofront, a large elevator rises to a loud, clacking halt. Perched there, on the elevator, stands Unit-02 with its hands on its hips--

And a large case by its feet.

"Ah, what a mess! How scary~!" Mari Illustrious Makinami observes before taking in a deep breath of LCL. With a flutter of her blue eyes, she exhales with a ragged, too-contented breath. "Well, even if it smells like someone else, it's still so wonderful..!"

Unit-02 kicks the case open by its foot. Its lid flies off, revealing an array of armaments, one of which is a large bladed weapon. Snatching it up, Unit-02 breaks into a sprint, /right for/ Unit-06 to gouge it with said weapon. Everyone else be damned--this is all about /her/ and /her/ enjoyment.

"Ah, you're like a dream come true, 02!"

Mari Illustrious Makinami activates her Evangelion Unit-02 unit.

COMBAT: Mari Illustrious Makinami has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Progressive Knife added to their queue.

So, Pascal hears it from Akira. An Angel. No wonder Muspelheim is so angry, it must sense something about Angels.

Yes, that must be it.

And then the knife hits, and Pascal screams as his robot roars in rage. The knife stabs through a joint in the metal, causing a leak of something glowing orange-hot and liquid. Runes flicker red on its body, and it writhes in as snakelike a manner as the Eva's movements are human.

"Fine. So be it. We'll just have to kill you, then!" The knife remains in the robot as it flies forward, its own tail igniting in white-hot flame. It is that tail which the dragon attempts to whip at Unit 06, still dripping what must be melted metal from its wound.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Burning Tail added to their queue.

"Yo, heads up Shinji!" Toji calls, seeing the knives come out. He manages to escape the onslaught of Unit-06 unscathed this time, but that doesn't mean he'll be so lucky in the future. This is clearly some serious shit, after all.

The garbage truck didn't do much of anything, and in fact crumpled into a disc against Kaworu's AT field. Toji abandoned it soon after, falling back a ways to get his bearings. There's so much going on at once. And then Unit-02 busts out of nowhere. "Wh-- Asuka?!" he shouts. "Ain't you in the hospital or some shit??"

There's no way to know it's not Asuka, after all. Every crazy bitch Toji knows may as well be the same crazy bitch, at the end of the day.

"Well I ain't about to let you have all the glory!" Even as Unit-02 charges and Unit-01 stabs, Unit-03 rushes back into the fray and does a super sweet backflip. As it does, the right leg snaps upwards, trailing a sharp-edged AT field. There is a bright flash as Toji and Kaworu's AT fields collide.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Flash Kick added to their queue.

Attacks converge. The impact is brilliant. The sky broils.

The Eva stands, unharmed, surrounded by a chrysalis of light. Yazan Gable squints.

"Oh, now you're just pissin' me off."

The beam smartgun transferred to one arm, the Xeku Zwei swiftly ejects both sabers at recharge racks on its topmost subarms. As the blades spill forth and encase themselves into sharpened, warbling poitns, Gable's attention drifts. He sees a distinct form in the distance, belching GN particles.

Isn't that a Throne? Then-- "Heh," Yazan chuckles. "That moron sure is gung-ho about being moronic, isn't he? What a champ."

The Xeku Zwei turns. Thrusters pulse a single burst of propulsion, knocking it roughly into the air. It scales hundreds of feet; the bulky machine moves surprisingly fast, especially as gravity takes over and it begins to rapidly descend--

Right for the Evangelion Unit 06, beamsabers pointed down for the head.

He doesn't care if it gets out of the way or not or lets them go underground or not.

Yazan is going to introduce whoever is inside this creature to his tried and true, patented 'Eva Killing Technique #1.'

Guaranteed to work on emotionally dysfunctional teenagers riding apocalypse engines across the world. COMBAT: Yazan Gable has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Dual Beam Sabers added to their queue.

"Hey, asshole!" Ryouma bellows, thrashing with barely contained rage. "When I shoot you I want you to LOOK AT ME!"

Getter-1 tosses the machineguns aside. They do an acceptable amount of collateral damage before dissolving into green energy. Getter shrugs its shoulders, compartments there opening up, each spitting up an iron rod that sprouts an axe blade. Ryouma grabs them from the air!

"Shinji's friend, huh?! I guess that means I can still chop the arms off of that thing and he'll be okay. Shit, Hayato, do you know if the big robot is an Angel or if it's the pilot that's an Angel?"

"I assume it's the pilot."

"Aghh, fuck, can Angels be trained not to be creepy douchebags?!"

"Maybe we should ask Professor Saotome-" Musashi begins.

"Too much trouble! GETTER GREAT TOMAHAWK!"

Getter-1 slams the axe-handles together, forming a giant double-sided halberd. No, wait, tomahawk. The combining robot breaks into a dead run, tearing up the ground, and...

"AT-Field?!"

Ryouma shrieks impotently as he slams the tomahawk against the barrier. "THIS IS BULLSHIT!"

COMBAT: Getter Team has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Getter Great Tomahawk added to their queue.

The Princess of Orb can't quite outmaneuver those concealed missiles; the situation has somehow gotten under her skin in such a manner that she can't quite maneuver the way she 'should' anymore. The Akatsuki has no great protection against missiles; for a moment, the Princess wonders if she should have brought the Strike, instead.

This is no time for regrets, though -- right now, she needs to make sure Kaworu can't... do whatever it is Kaworu intends to do. She still isn't clear on any of this -- the whole narrative of NERV feels disjointed, incomplete to her. She just doesn't know enough to do anything but listen to Kaworu as he tries to brush them away like flies.

The assembled team fighting Kaworu is almost jarring -- everyone from Shine Hausen to Yazan Gable has arrayed themselves against this monstrous Evangelion unit. That knowledge -- that idea that humanity, even its best and worst, can pull together when things are dire enough -- gives the Princess a little hope... and that hope is enough to push forward with. Taking high flight, Cagalli swings forward the heavy cannons of the Oowashi pack; she wastes little time in firing the tremendous red-and-white blasts of both weapons, doing her best to provide fire support for the closer-combat units assembled.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Type-73F High-Energy Cannons added to their queue.

Everything gets bright. Too bright. Akira squeezes his eyes shut against the brilliance, turning away. He can even see the light through that, an illumination he just can't escape.

Akira opens his eyes, blinking it away. He sees the massive gouge in the world, and the Evangelion still standing through it. He's stunned, but only for a second, by the power of the AT Field. He knew they could stop something big... but he always assumed size had something to do with it, too. Could Kaworu have that much power packed into him like that?

"Gh... I know what it's like to fight friends, Shinji," Akira says, "but sometimes--sometimes the only way they see reason is to beat it into 'em! Now c'mon!!"

Buriki Daioh follows Getter-1, charging forward. It raises the huge Massacre Blade over it's head two-handed and comes at Kaworu with a battle-yell, sweeping it downward to hack off the thing's knife-wielding arm. Considering the magic blade is probably as big as the Evangelion, this might just work a little better than the puny missiles.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Massacre Blade added to their queue.

Macua Huitl sees the Getters go in as normal ya they should be fine, for now at least. She sees them going in but then comes Akira and she follows up she can feel something so strange and alien she's actually held off for a moment before she shakes it off. She listens as Akira tries to convince Shinji, and will leave it to him. He knows him better so she'll hold off for now. The power of unit six and it's pilot is massive she's a bit scared, the blood skies, it's got to be something out of Revelations clearly.

Then the funnels break off the back of her machine and she yells over the loud speakers. "So this is how it's going to go? Well fine then!"

Funnels start to open up in a spread out formation zipping around the various fighters!

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Funnel Swarm added to their queue.

COMBAT: Michael Trinity has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Double GN Beam Saber.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Hybrid Spear.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Type-73F High-Energy Cannons.

COMBAT: Getter Team has struck a solid critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Getter Great Tomahawk.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has struck a solid critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Massacre Blade.

COMBAT: Shine Hausen has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Rolling Cannon.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Brave Beatdown.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Dual Beam Sabers.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Burning Tail.

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Kou Jaryurin.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Showtime!.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has struck a solid critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Funnel Swarm.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Flash Kick.

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Progressive Knife.

COMBAT: Mari Illustrious Makinami has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 using Progressive Knife.

Knock Out! Kaworu Nagisa's Evangelion Unit-06 unit has become disabled!

People question Kaworu. They threaten him, and demand to know what he wants, and demand that he get out of the way, and all sorts of things. And Kaworu listens to all of this in the cockpit of his monstrous unit and just chuckles a little chuckle.

"Did you ever wonder where you came from? Have you ever looked at your life and wondered what it meant to be human?" Stepping backward from where it just tried to mutilate Shine, Unit-06 drops its knife, its arms flopping down to hang by its sides.

And then it all starts.

The first blow to hit the thing is Shine's -- the cannons of the Fairlion rock the Evangelion's chest with minor explosions that do little more than scratch the paint. That said, though, the key lesson to take away from it is -- the AT Field didn't manifest. This is underscored when Cagalli Yula Athha's Akatsuki fires its energy cannons and strikes the Eva's hip, staggering it a bit, and Macua Huitl's funnels swarm around the giant mobile suit, biting at it with their blasts like a cloud of hornets.

Perhaps heartened by these minor victories, the rampage of humanity begins. The valiant charge forward is often a literal one. Pascal Ambler's Muspelheim cuts a ragged, burning trail across 06's armor, and immediately afterward Vindel Mauser hits it from behind, the power of the Zweizergain's fists causing the unholy thing's spine to arch as if in agony.

Getter-1 roars forward with its Tomahawk and draws blood, which sprays out of the new gouge in the Evangelion's shoulder like a fountain. When Unit-06 brings a hand up to grab at this wound, it's dealt another -- Akira Tadokoro's Massacre Blade hacks off the Eva's arm at the elbow, causing it to crash to the desolate, ruined ground before it can even properly react.

Aoba Tsuzaki strikes next, her spear lancing /through/ the Evangelion's belly, sticking it like a bullfighter vanquishing its conquest. Around the site of what may prove to be mankind's final battle, the entire city of Tokyo-03 seems to be exploding, burning to the ground, or already gone.

One-armed and stuck through, Unit-06 is prey for the hunters. Michael Trinity charges with both his Beam Sabers, just as Yazan Gable charges with both of /his/. Yazan's charge plunges them into the Evangelion's chest, but when he strikes where the plug /should/ be, he's repulsed by an otherworldly force that seems to force the beam blades right back out, leaving gaping, ragged wounds. Michael Trinity's swords, meanwhile, slash at the monster's legs from behind, cutting into armor and muscle and severing the tendons in one of its knees. Unit-06 is staggered, now, hobbling and pouring out more blood than is possible -- one would be forgiven for thinking that a lake was about to begin forming.

And then splashing through this mess come two more challengers: on one side, Big O, rushing forward with all the power Roger Smith can muster, and on the other, GaoGaiGar, spurred on by Guy Shishioh's righteous fury. The two super robots sandwich the hundred-foot-tall Eva between them, breaking armor and causing its entire form to convulse and sputter. Anything else would have been destroyed, and the sound of impact is deafening.

Reeling from this, the giant black Evangelion stumbles right into Toji Suzuhara's flash kick, which hits it right in its mangled chest and causes the thing to tumble and topple and turn -- right into Shinji Ikari stabbing its Progressive Knife right into Unit-06's shoulder. There's a moment of stillness, of silence, as Unit-06 seems to try and regain its footing...

...which is about when Mari Illustrious Makinami, in her stolen Eva, runs up from behind, Progressive Knife first. Her blade enters Unit-06's back and keeps going. She breaks through its spine, up through the nerves and metal and meat in its chest and neck, and finally emerges from out of the monster's skull, exploding the armored cranium outward like a bomb.

Again, everything is still, blood continuing to gush out of every conceivable place on Evangelion Unit-06... and then the entire thing bursts, popping like Rei Ayanami in her plug one fateful day a million years ago.

And when the explosion settles...

The AT Field can be seen first. Between the three Evangelions remaining, one figure floats. Not a robot. Not even a mobile armor. A teenager, wearing a rather boring school uniform, hands stuffed into his pockets. He's handsome and slim with silver hair and red eyes, and the Field around him shimmers and glows as he floats over what's left of his Evangelion. Somehow, his voice still carries.

"Like I was saying... want to find out?"

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has reset their systems to full.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has set their HP to 29 person boss HP.

Kaworu Nagisa activates his Final Angel Tabris unit.

Shine winces at the sheer brutality of the attack. She doesn't want to watch it.

She makes herself watch.

And is surprised, in the end, when the blood stills and what is revealed is that boy. Still speaking to her. Without any equipment. Her spine chills again, the impulses travelling up and down it quivering in a temporary disorder.

Perhaps she assumes she's being addressed, but then, she nearly got stabbed to death. She answers.

"... I have. I suppose you mean... that you know the answer. But you're asking for trust."

The Fairlion makes a sort of vague, general, sweeping gesture around it, as if to encompass Tokyo-03 and its carnage. The blade tip stops, pointing, by pure accident, towards Cagalli.

"You, uh - you have not established that, sir."

Shinji listens to Akira, wimpering somewhat. "But...i guess I have no choice." He takes a deep breath, thinking about what the Getter Team said. "Alright, guys, if I can't beat him with my words. I'll make him understand with my actions. It's time I use Master Nagare's training to it's fulliest potential." Shinji holds on to his controls, shutting his eyes for a moment. "I mustn't run away. I mustn't..." He stops as he sees Unit 02 suddenly jump into the scene, transmitting an excited "ASUKA?!" Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all. He would need to help his friends stop Kaworu, Shinji drops his prgressive knife, pulling his Magoroku-E Sword from Unit 01's side.

"Toji. Lets finish this battle for what remains of Nerv. It's the right thing to do!" Shinji says over a tight beam to Unit 03.

Shinji's eyes widen when Unit 06 pops like a zit. He clenches his teeth together, feeling more angry at himself than sorrow. It isn't until he sees Kaworu floating that it all finally clicks in his head. Kaworu was an Angel. All those times, Kaworu was using Shinji. He was laughing at Shinji and playing him for a fool. The enemy of humanity was his best friend. Shinji breaths heavily, shutting his eyes. "Why...why did you trick me? Do you hate me Kaworu? Was everything a joke to you?! KAWORU! WHY?!?!" Shinji glares at the small figure, drawing his sword and attempting kill the Angel before he can think it through.

Nerv. His parents. Misato. Almost everything he knew was gone because of the Angels and Evangelion. "WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!?!"

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Magoroku-E Sword added to their queue.

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has activated a spirit command.

"If you are wondering what is happening here, Princess Shine," Vindel states over the radio, his voice sounding a little more upset than he might usually. "Then we are looking at what will ultimately be the end of the world. Either by this Angel, or whatever is happening down below. Someone is attempting to bring about a event that will change the very fundamental nature of the world, altering it into something new, and likely not beneficial for human life."

A thin, less than amused smile crosses the face of the Shadow Mirror colonel. "You might say that we have seen the results in the past, and worked to stop those who wanted to bring about similar ends. There is no *trust* to be given here. You are fighting for your very existence." The Zweizergain's hand swings around, one finger pointing at Kaworu, with his oh so casual pose, floating in midair like some sort of angelic school kid thing.

"As for you, Final Angel - you must be stopped. And then we will discover whom is working to turn the skies to blood, and accomplish what you have also come here to do." There is a ripple as five other Zweizergain's appear in a wide circle, each of them raising a hand. The five shadows and the original collect energy in one hand - and then unleash them from six sides at once towards the last of the Angels. "It must be this way boy because there is no other choice - unless you wish humanity to be destroyed, at the very least."

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Jaryurin Firing Squad added to their queue.

"...He's a human? The Angel...?"

Pascal stares in mild horror at the /human/ floating in midair, with a giant AT Field around him. Could that...no, that must be an Angel. But to bring himself to just attack a human, or something that looks like it, is--

He doesn't really have time to hesitate or debate for himself. /Muspehlheim/ seems to want Kaworu dead, and its rage is starting to overwhelm Pascal again, washing over in a big, terrible wave that even manages to distract him from the increasing sense of 'wrongness.' He shudders, holding his head, moving his hands towards the controls as if under a trance.

Muspelheim's eyes flare, and it roars again. Its wings spread outwards, shimmering as runes appear over its entire body, and those who can sense anything unnatural....well, to be honest, they're probably distracted by the FREAKING ANGEL. But be that as it may, the black metal dragon from La Gias rears its head back, screeching and unleashing a wall of flame from its mouth and throat. There's a deep blue tinge to the fire this time, which is a little...odd.

Pascal hasn't opened his eyes again yet.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Burning Breath added to their queue.

"Who cares?!"

Roger Smith, Neo-Priceline Negotiator,'s voice booms across the radio. It is unmistakably coming from the Black Megadeus - from the Big O! So that unveils the secret of its pilot...but why would Roger Smith give himself away now?

"You don't understand! Creatures like you will never understand!"

Roger's hand swings back in Big O. Big O's fist swings back, its iconic piledriver arm pounding into position with a heavy thoom as Roger flips up the thumbstick. The enormous arm of Big O readies itself to shatter Kaworu to pieces, to explode the Final Angel straight through whatever passes through the chest with its biggest and best attack. Roger's lips twist in a frown.

"People aren't ruled by their memories! We aren't ruled by our past!" Roger's voice is clear and true, strong, single-minded. He begins lining up the shot, Big O encouraging him in the back of the mind the whole time. "People are ruled by just one thing - by their choices! It's not about where they came from, or who they were - it's about what they do with the here and the now!"

"AND WHAT YOU'VE DONE HERE IS UNFORGIVABLE!" His anger is palpable - one can almost see him, crouched in the cockpit, arm ready to swing with the unstoppable force of Big O. "BIG O! IT'S TIME FOR ACTION!"

With a roar that defies sound, Big O's fist swings forward. The sudden impact goes off...early! What is Roger thinking? It's anyone's guess as the huge fist heads towards Tabris...until one notices that the other arm is swinging up for a massive uppercut! With punishing force, Big O's arms swing, one after another, a flurry of punches akin to a massive jackhammer, the Sudden Impact going off early each time - just enough to add a little more force to the blows. It is like the sound of a thundercloud in the distance; a rumbling, an echoing rumble, as Roger and Big O fight. They are the ultimate team - Dominus and Megadeus! Negotiator and his partner! Fighting for Mankind, with a Sure Promise!

COMBAT: Roger Smith has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Jackhammer Punch added to their queue.

Within GaoGaiGar's "cockpit," Guy's eyes narrow as the seeming-boy appears practically unscathed where his Evangelion was just obliterated. "Find out the origin of humanity? The meanings of our lives?" Guy snaps. "You think we need YOU to answer those questions for us? ... AT THIS COST?! I know my parents - a scientist and an astronaut! And the day that EI-01 nearly killed me for the first time, I was set on the path to finding my purpose! You who would treat so many lives like something worthless ..."

GaoGaiGar draws its right arm back and up, not bothering with the Phantom Ring this time as the Broken Magnum, old-school original style, begins spinning up .... but differently: the forearm is spinning like mad, but the hand, despite glowing magenta, is almost motionless.

"Whatever else you may be, whatever secrets you hold, *I DON'T CARE!!* FOR THE SAKE OF EVERY LIFE IN THIS CITY - AND IN THE WORLD - WE *WILL* PUT AN END TO YOU!!! BROKEN MAGNUM!!!"

It's not so much a rocket punch that Guy throws this time ... more of a rocket grab-and-slam, a flashy attempt to grab Kaworu at range and slam him into the ground for others to pound on.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Broken Grapple added to their queue.

Michael accidentally does an X Slash dual tech with one of his favorite people in the world, the screen dimming with a 'srrrashhhhhh' sound echoing out over the Geofront. In his cockpit, Mike pumps a fist. "Whoohoohoohoo!" He opens a channel to the really fat machine to announce, "HELL YEAH!" The Zwei's hands spin, flourishing the blades as he turns, backing away from the Eva as it spurts robot blood everywhere.

"Oh man, these things bleed?" He leans forward, watching with interest, his eyes dilating a little bit. "Freakin' /brutal./" Mike clicks his beam sabers off, ports in the wrists opening up, the weapons sliding in. He's already started to look for some kind of sign pointing to where he wants to go as the EVA explosively decompresses.

...and Kaworu is still there. Mike's eyes widen, and he tracks over, jaw sagging open inside his helmet. "Wh... what? What?? What the HELL!" Next time Leo gives him something to do, Mike is going to get a better brief. This is ridiculous! Dumbly, his hands assume his controls.

Since it's just some teenage, Mike fires a spray of vulcan fire, orange dots spewing from either side of the Zwei's head. What's an AT Field guys I don't even know

COMBAT: Michael Trinity has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Beam Vulcans added to their queue.

Everything starts to get really, really unnerving -- Shine points a blade her way, Kaworu's Evangelion pops into so much nothing -- only to reveal Kaworu, with his own AT field, standing alone amid the explosion. Nothing makes sense anymore.

That wrongness shudders in her head again, a little stronger than it was before -- a little scarier. The Princess begins to float slowly away from the situation, keeping her shield between herself and Shine while simultaneously drawing a bead on Kaworu. Taking down the human -- pilot -- Angel -- /thing/ is her first priority.

The only thing she has to go on right now is what Vindel Mauser is saying -- and while she has no reason to trust him, he sounds like he knows what he's talking about... which means he's about the only thing that makes any sense around here right now. Diving in toward Kaworu as others likewise begin their own reckless descents, Cagalli tries to pry open that AT Field with the sheer force of her beam naginata.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Ending added to their queue.

Is that Asuka in the Unit-02?

Well, if it is, she certainly doesn't seem to be making any noises to those who presume it is. Instead, Mari just sneers, blue eyes half-lidded behind her glasses. "This is so fun," she mulls aloud to herself. "These controls, they're much better than the Five. I feel so liberated~!"

Among the man that attack, Mari opts to come from behind, utilizing her stylishly late appearance to--hopefully--get the drop on Unit-06. Sprinting, it lunges in with its Progressive Knife, shanking the Eva from behind and drags the blade upwards. The blood and gore is horrific; Mari, on the other hand, just squeals delightedly.

She doesn't count her fortune yet, however.

When the Unit-06 pops like a grape, the 02 draws its arm back and steadies its blade. The dust begins to settle and there, at its very core, is the AT Field--and Kaworu Nagisa at the center of it all. "It's about time," she mutters to herself, her expression grim.

"I'm prepared for the worst, though."

Unit-02 doubles back, returning to the large case it had previously left behind. Kneeling, it takes a Pellet Rifle in hand and brings it up to its shoulder, steadying it. "All right, let's DO this! Shaaaaaaa!!"

With a steady hand the 02 pulls the trigger, its sights set on Kaworu's head. Because large ammunition plus tiny human head equals PROFIT.

COMBAT: Mari Illustrious Makinami has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Pellet Rifle added to their queue.

Akira is surprised that he /doesn't/ see the AT Field spring into existence when his sword comes in. The blade hacks the arm off the Evangelion with a sickening sound of armor shattering, flesh splitting and bone breaking. Akira watches it hit the ground, and then looks up to see the Evangelion under assault by the massive combined firepower of the war machines gathered. They tear it to pieces, and it bursts like a balloon, triggering what seems to be... the end.

"Was that--? No!" The Evangelion is gone, but the pilot--the Angel--is not. Akira steels himself for what's next... and what's next is facing down a boy in a boring school uniform.

Akira's nerves are only helped a little by this revelation.

Shinji moves in with his sword. Akira, unable to form any words, keeps using his. He raises the sword up again, and then swings it horizontally right after Shinji strikes, Buriki Daioh's Massacre Blade singing a keening note as it slices through the air--and, with the faint glimmer on it's edge, likely the AT Field as well.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Sword of Decimation added to their queue.

That was not expected. Aoba thought her spear was going to meet AT Field, maybe pierce through a bit. She did not think the field would disappear and she would run Unit-06 through.

Blue eyes go wide as the spear sinks in, and Aoba fights to not be sick as she pulls the spear back through the gush of blood. Fortunately, the head isn't barbed. The Jinki takes several steps back away from the wounded 'machine' and lowers its weapon. "B. but.. I thought..." Aoba even closes her eyes as it explodes. She doesn't want to see it. She doesn't want to see that!

After a few seconds, she finally cracks open one eye. Through the smeared fluids covering the glass canopy of her cockpit, she can make out a small figure floating in the air. Her first thought is 'Oh wow, he's okay!' and her second thought is 'Why is he just floating there, is that supposed to happen?'

Another beat. Another series of blinks. "I really don't get it... Find out where I came from? I..." Aoba thinks back, remembering the reports Ingram showed her. She's just a clone... No, that can't be true. It was just something he made up to try to hurt her, to try to steal her away. Taking a breath, the Cognate sits up straighter in her seat. "Does it matter? It's more important to me who I am than where I came from!" After all, she likes to pretend that that woman is not actually her mother. "Don't you think so? What you do now is all that matters, not what you -are-!" She's still confused. Aoba really doesn't know what Kaworu is, but... "I can see you have one of those field things. Good... then maybe we can get you to stop if we just break through it!"

Aoba hesitates for a moment. What if he drops it like before? But... no, he wouldn't, right? Before, that was just him trying to make some weird point. This is -him-, and he'd protect himself. Taking a breath, the girl stands in her cockpit and lifts one hand over her head. "Alpha Ball!" From off in the east, a small point of light shines. As the summoned object gets closer, the pull of telekinetic force grows stronger, until the giant soccer ball soars into view. "I don't care where I came from... but I'll show you just who I am!" The Jinki quickly turns and hops up, catching the ball against its chest. On knee comes up, bouncing the ball into the air. When it's at its peak, a small cloud of metallic chaff ejects from the heel of the Nana-Two, propelling its lower half upward. The rest follows in a neat backflip, and as soon as the Rebound Boot touches the ball, its momentum is suddenly changed. "SHOOOOOT!"

Glowing with crimson and green energy, the giant soccer ball flies toward the floating figure, spinning and grinding against the AT Field as it tries to pierce through!

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Alpha Ball added to their queue.

Toji breathes heavily, landing the backflip kick with a slight wobble. It would be about a 7 from Olympic judges, probably like a 3 from the Chinese judge. The explosion of gore and blood from the giant machine is something Toji will never get used to, not ever, not in his entire life. The sheer violence of it unnerves him every time.

Fortunately, he has nothing left to throw up after witnessing the massacre within the GeoFront. Did anyone else survive? He hopes so... but after Kaworu /blew it up/ it seems unlikely.

"Aight... that's what I'm... talkin' about, yo," he wheezes, straightening, turning and holding a hand up to Unit-01. "Up high, bro--" the high five, so richly deserved, never comes.

Because that boy is floating there right in front of them, mocking, that /god damned/ knowing look on his face. Toji stumbles back, arm falling to his side, and the Evangelion copies his movements with exactitude. "N,no way, yo! No way! You gotta be dead! We... we already finished savin' the world!"

"I ain't..." Toji panics. Can he kill Kaworu now? Looking so human, just floating there? He's never had to fight another human before. Only Angels. And now... and now... can he... handle it? Does he have the sheer balls to just strike down a single person like this, after seeing his face?

Can Toji be a murderer?

Can he afford not to be?

He thinks of his sister, lying in the hospital, evacuated the moment A-LAWS attacked. He thinks of Hikari Horaki, smiling, presenting him with another delicious lunch box. Did she get away before the attack? Is she alive?

If he fails to destroy this guy in front of him, will /anyone/ survive?

Shinji's words ring in his ears, and he gulps. Swallows the lump in his throat. Tightens his fists. Narrows his eyes. "Aight... aight." He looks down at his hands, at the hands of the creature he controls. He can feel something familiar there, calling to him from deep inside. Something comforting, telling him everything will be alright.

"My soul is innocent, yo... but I'm goin'."

The massive black god-machine withdraws its tonfas, flipping them around and fastening them end to end. Holding them like a bat. Dropping into position. Before his eyes, Kaworu floats in his perfect little AT Field.

Just think of it like baseball, his father's voice says to his mind. It's all about timing. It's all about strength. It's all about your conviction-- can you make that perfect strike? Can you get that home run and save the team? Can you be a hero, son?

Toji swings.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Tonfa Grand Slam added to their queue.

Sabers bite down. They tear into the Eva, piercing towards that plug. There's something oddly nostalgic and refreshing about this. Yazan laments, distantly, that his good friend that he hates isn't here to relish the moment with him. What was his name? He has such a hard time caring to remember. Oh, right. Leo St--

And then the sabers are repulsed like some sort of cruel joke from god.

"What the /fuck/--" Like the repulsion of identical magnetic poles, the Xeku Zwei's beam sabers are pushed backwards violently. The force alone is enough to knock the impossibly heavy mobile suit backwards through the air like a sack of bricks. It impacts messily into the ground below, metal screeching against earth, impacting and blowing corpses of Evangelions like pieces of roadkill caught in the path of a runaway train.

The multi-armed behemoth ultimately comes to a screeching halt roughly fifty feet away from the demolished Evangelion Unit 06. Gable looks up...

... just in time to see a little boy.

Floating.

Covered by an AT Field.

"..." Yazan squints, uncomprehending. Then. "Oh.

"When'd cockroaches start lookin' like albino girl-boys?"

He doesn't know how Kaworu is doing any of that. There's something that tells him, though, that Kaworu is everything he hates. He doesn't know why about that, either. In fact, it actually just pisses Gable off more. He doesn't care about what his brain is trying to tell him.

He just wants to kill Kaworu because he's annoying the hell out of him.

"I'm REALLY gonna look forward to BURYING THIS PLACE and all its whiny, sappy, BOO HOO I HAVE HORMONES NOW I'VE GOT SO MANY PROBLEMS /bullshit/!" Now in a frothing, unthinking rage, Yazan only distantly catches a glimpse of the Akatsuki beyond -- something to try and remember for later -- as the Xeku's beam sabers eject all at once. The first activates, and then is HURLED at Kaworu like a spear. The second is similarly thrown as soon as its activated. Then a third. Then a fourth. Then a fifth. All of them trying to spear or incinerate Kaworu over and over.

"Jesus CHRIST I hate NERV!"

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has activated a spirit command.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Quintuple Beam Sabers added to their queue.

Getter pulls the tomahawk out from its bloody sheath, its red armor heedless of the gore! Ryouma snarls triumphantly, eyes burning with some inhuman purpose!

The combining robot raises an arm, shielding its sensitive head unit from the explosion with a big meaty fist. As it clears, Ryouma finds Hayato uncharacteristically chattering into his cockpit:

"Ryouma! The Angel's shown itself!"

Ryouma lowers the arm, squinting. "What?! It's that... kid?"

"Don't worry about that! There's bigger problems!"

Musashi chimes in, putting his hobby of reading the Getter Ray levels to good use for once: "That field... there's no Getter Ray penetration! Every other AT Field we've encountered, there was still some level of Getter Rays penetrating!"

Ryouma closes his eyes, his giggling unhinged. "Hayato, Musashi... can't you hear them, out there?! Can't you hear Shinji?!"

FOREVER AGO

His father drinks himself to death. Ryouma lives in an empty dojo. He goads members of other martial arts schools into illegal underground tournaments with the intention of killing them. He does that a lot.

No one wants to learn about his father's legacy. He was too dishonorable in his tactics. Bad publicity sticks in insular communities.

MORE RECENT

Ryouma and Shinji sit atop a cliff overlooking the nation of Japan, or so it seems like. Shinji is bruised and broken and will later need hospital care. Musashi lands in a Get Machine and brought them sandwiches. Shinji seems happy. Ryouma thinks his dad seems happy.

RIGHT NOW

"If this Angel refuses to be one with Getter, then we'll force him! Everything good that has happened to me has been because of Getter-- everything good in the world is a part of it!"

Ryouma slams the controls down, feeling his throat choked with blood! He forces himself to vomit, spraying the cockpit with his own life, sanctifying it not as a shrine to Getter but to himself and Getter!

"GETTER ROBO! I don't care if we have to die today, isn't that right?!"

Hayato snarls and Musashi shouts: "IT'S TRUE!"

Getter's chest bursts open, the armor disintegrating! As Ryouma clears his throat of blood, so too does Getter vomit forth a titanic weapon! Ryouma takes it in his arms, cradling it is his own. His cockpit begins to quake. This version of Getter, created by Saotome, cannot hold up under these stresses. The Getter Rays are melting it.

"You've favored us so far! NOW GIVE THAT STRENGTH TO SHINJI!"

Ryouma levels the weapon at Tabris's AT Field, firing to weaken it, that maybe Shinji can pierce it more easily! Missiles dance across the nigh-impenetrable field where even Getter Rays fear to tread... unless taken there by one of its champions!

It's like gale force winds! The ground heats, the few remaining structures erode!

Ryouma howls: "SHINNNNJIIIIII! TAKE THIS WITH YOU!"

Musashi shouts: "IT'S FROM ALL OF US!"

Hayato says: "CONTROL THEM, THE GETTER RAYS!"

COMBAT: Getter Team has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Missile Machine Gun added to their queue.

The combined force of everyone rips Kaworu's EVA apart there's blood, and gore from it everwhere. Akira, the Getters, Guy, the Big O, Shine her self is even here, and Shinj's stepped up as well. What really gets her is she thinks Yazan Gable is here. Then she realises it's massive fight, certainly Gable would be here. Then she feels a spike of emotion from Shinji, but she trries to keep her mind on the battle.

She watches school boy in shock untill a robotic voic chirps.

"FOCUS!"

Macua snaps out of it and the Phoebe picks up speed again and pulls out it's beam saber and heads right for Kaworu.

"I have our back Akira and as for you! THIS ENDS HERE!"

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Beam Saber Mastery added to their queue.

COMBAT: Michael Trinity has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Beam Vulcans.

COMBAT: Aoba Tsuzaki has missed Kaworu Nagisa with her Alpha Ball attack.

COMBAT: Cagalli Yula Athha has struck a solid hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Ending.

COMBAT: Macua Huitl has struck a glancing hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Beam Saber Mastery.

COMBAT: Getter Team has missed Kaworu Nagisa with their Missile Machine Gun attack.

COMBAT: Akira Tadokoro has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Sword of Decimation attack.

COMBAT: Guy Shishioh has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Broken Grapple.

COMBAT: Yazan Gable has struck a devastating critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Quintuple Beam Sabers.

COMBAT: Pascal Ambler has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Burning Breath attack.

COMBAT: Vindel Mauser has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Jaryurin Firing Squad attack.

COMBAT: Roger Smith has struck a major critical hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Jackhammer Punch.

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has missed Kaworu Nagisa with his Magoroku-E Sword attack.

COMBAT: Mari Illustrious Makinami has missed Kaworu Nagisa with her Pellet Rifle attack.

COMBAT: Toji Suzuhara has struck a glancing hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Tonfa Grand Slam.

The teenage boy's AT Field pulses. Some attacks push against it harder than others. The rush of robots leaves some people bottlenecked -- imagine fifteen grown men all trying to lunge for a penny at once. The thing is, when too many of them get in too close, Kaworu's AT Field /pulses/ outward, pushing them away. Then the next wave comes in--

--same result. Kaworu's hands never leave his pockets. He looks around with the biggest little shit-eating smirk on his face. He is, without needing to say a word on the subject, endlessly amused by all of the spirited attempts to kill him. So much bluster and fury about what it means to be, essentially, an individual.

Ha!

"Once upon a time... there was the Seed of Knowledge... and the Seed of Life," Kaworu narrates when everyone's had their fill of ineffectually trying to bash his brains in -- only Big O and the Xeku Kwei even came close, the former's knuckles stretching the AT Field like a rubber glove being pulled on, the latter's murderous flurry of beam sabers simply too much to casually brush aside. But Kaworu is alive, and whole, and his actual person is undamaged.

"You Lilim... for products of the Seed of Knowledge, only one of you seems to have a clue, and he's not even /one/ of you." Kaworu cranes his neck to peer at Vindel's mobile suit, and gives a cheery wave. "Shinji," he says, turning toward his dear friend: "I told you I was going home. Don't act so /childish/, it's really not attractive."

"Now then. Shall we?"

With those words, Kaworu Nagisa stretches his arms out -- and suddenly, the ground starts to tremble. This is above and beyond a mere Earthquake -- this is God reaching his hands down from Heaven, prying his fingers into the cracks of the Earth, and pulling apart with all His might. The ground not only splinters and splits, but it /wrenches/ itself apart, as if it could no longer abide being whole. The trick is, this happens... where everyone is standing. Flying units get to see the fun sight of everyone who /isn't/ flying topple down, down, down, seemingly endlessly.

And ahead of all of them is floating Kaworu Nagisa, AT Field shimmering, humming 'Ode to Joy' with a tranquil smile.

The end result of this cavernous tunnel is Terminal Dogma. Far beneath NERV's Geofront, Terminal Dogma is essentially a giant cave, flooded with glowing amber LCL. Things are not right in there -- for one thing, Evangelion Unit-00, heavily damaged, hunches over a group of on-foot personnel, inert and useless. The Chimera is also there, off to one side. And laying in the LCL, sputtering and dying, torn to bits but still hanging on, is what appears to be a divine casualty -- the giant, luminescent, completely white form of something that looks an awful lot like a mangled Rei Ayanami.

And Kaworu freezes where he floats. "No," he whispers. "No... /NO/!"

Kaworu Nagisa turns to where those above have followed him below. His smile is gone. His hands are out of his pockets and some of the air seems to have been let out of his form. And all he can say is:

"Shinji."

"Kill me."

Huang Qin Shi's body lies face-up in the caverns below the GeoFront, slumped against the railing of an open service elevator. Blood seeps from the side of his head into the lake of LCL that surrounds him. His eye stares upward, pupil dilated, fixated on something only he can see. Something in his mind. Or in the aether. Or in the minds of everyone around him. In the throes of the impossible vision Unit 00's synchronization threw him into. He dreamed of his failure. And now he reams of the end.

His heart beats. The shadows cradle him.

Huang Qin Shi stands in a darkened hallway that extends farther than he can see, dull grey doors lining the walls on either side, featureless except for simple latches and numbers increasing in sequence. A small pale child with white hair and red eyes leans against one of these, behind Huang, shifting restlessly as he contemplates the portal. His eyes - whole again, scarring gone - rest on the number printed in bright, glowing letters.

4444

Huang closes his eyes and lifts his right hand, resting it on the latch. It feels warm to the touch, warmer than metal should...he grins faintly and shakes his head. Even now, at the end, still thinking of form and function, recording data. Still the engineer. His grip tightens and his thumb presses down, the mechanism echoing down the hall as it releases. Huang stands there for a time he can't begin to identify, trying to follow the teachings of his childhood. To let go of pain, of desire, of suffering and step forward into whatever awaits him in the next life. And yet. "There's so much left to do," he whispers, leaning his head against the door. His work, to be certain, but there are others who can continue that for him. But beyond that...

It would have been nice to spend another night playing cards with the maintenance crew in the Earth Cradle, swapping stories about seeing legends before he came to knew them as men and women. Or to take his Sorpresa out on patrol over the desert as the first hint of dawn burns its way across the sky. It would have been nice to lie back on the observation deck, listening to Ibis talk about stars. Or see Novas's face again as the butterflies rushed through the greenhouse. It would have been nice to hear Seolla shouting at Arado, the flush on her cheeks meaning more than the tone of her voice. Or filling Joshua's glass as he goes off on pilots who just won't listen. It would have been nice to stop by the lab with a pot of tea. To hear Latooni forgive him, at least in part. To spend one more night trying to hold an inferno in his arms.

Just once...

The ground opens; GaoGaiGar's engines ignite to prevent it from plummeting into the depths beneath Tokyo-03, and Guy descends into the bowels of the earth, the Broken Magnum reconnecting. He's decidedly ticked off at Kaworu - but between the group's descent and the seeming imperviousness of the boy's barrier ...

Well, anyone whose mecha *can't* fly is getting a lift from the King of Braves. (Up to two passengers only, though.)

"What the-" Big O is repulsed, its mighty fists shoved aside like rubber by the almighty AT field. The power of a Megadeus, shoved aside by the furious, unrelenting calm of the Angel. It's like something out of a mythology, but Roger Smith has no time to contemplate that. In stunned silence, he listens to Kaworu's narration, his anger momentarily assuaged by this boy who idly, casually is telling people about the true nature of the human race. Big O's fists fall silent at its sides as Roger listens. He wants to say something - something about this being nonsense, about it not mattering, about this not being important - but he can't bring himself to do it. It's as if out of some reverance to the world, something greater than Roger Smith, Negotiator, that he is staying silent.

And then the ground is ripped apart. Big O begins to fall, uncannily close to Kaworu (though not too close, of course). The mighty machine's grappling anchors snap out, quick thinking on the negotiator's part, but to no avail; they do little more than slow his fall. Something - perhaps Kaworu - wants him down there. The anchors land on nothing. Big O's hands can find no hold. If only Big O could fly...! But flying is for lesser machines. Big O falls, and falls behind Kaworu, and listens to his humming, as Roger begins to wonder. Could this be true? Could any of this insanity be real?

Big O lands, a tidal wave of LCL sweeping around in the sea from its impact. It is not the Giant of the Sea. It is the Giant of the Land, and it is very uncomfortable as it rises, dripping with goo and slick with the blood-smelling substance. This is beyond Roger Smith's understanding. This is beyond...anything. Even Big O remains silent, as if waiting for Shinji to make a decision. This would be something that would affect them all.

Being addressed by Vindel Mauser is, in itself, chilling. Shine swallows softly. But - she thinks, is that true? Everyone's attacking him; is that the right thing to do?

The boy is still talking. He still lives. Shine sputters, because there is little else she could do beyond run and hide and cry. "What are you even - do you mean Genesis? Do -" The world shifts, the ground rips, the world itself shaking. The Fairlion is spared by being airborne, but such motion moves the air too; downward suction from the spreading of the land as if it were gaped by two powerful hands draws the red machine downwards. Shine feels compelled, perhaps, to follow downwards. To pursue the boy and his enigmatic words. Down, deeper, into the darkness. Headlights on the shoulders of the Fairlion flick down, casting bright light downwards.

Shine gasps again at the sight of the mangled, wriggling, vast bulk of - of -

The best metaphor for passing through Shine's head is the swallowing of a terribly large object. And in this case, the bolus passes. "Oh - no, Rei," she says, the reflex of sympathy possibly covering up the sheer pain of seeing /that/ sight, eyes closing for a moment. And then the boy who has mocked them and, it seems, caused all this suffering, has told Shinji Ikari to kill him.

"- What! You did all of this - and all you can say is that you want to die?! Is your great joke not going to have its punchline?!" Shine says, any sarcasm in her tone coming out really more as 'wounded tone bordering on despair'. (Oh, and this may get picked up if someone is in Evangelion Unit Zero.) "Do all of you come here - is the dream of the entire universe, to come here and to /make fun/ of our struggles?"

The floating machine makes no other hostile action. Shine may have forgotten that, in theory, you use the robots to kill the target.

Pascal's eyes open again at the quake. A mid-blackout fight? He shouldn't be doing that, that's unsafe and...

He stares at the /thing/ below, and his mind starts to shut down again. That's a person, a giant, a thing, something which can't exist, in a lake of something that hurts his head to even look at, that even his robot can't shield him from, above someone who can't be doing what he's doing. His pupils dilate, and he simply stares and trembles.

Muspelheim, meanwhile, seems to /understand./ Something. He can tell it understands something, and is now very angry and...afraid? Why is it afraid? It has never been afraid before. What does it know or sense? Why is it glaring down at Rei now, literally GLARING-there is no mistaking the expression in those machine eyes-and glowing hot red?

"How can something like you exist?" Pascal is speaking, but these aren't his words. He's slipped elsewhere into a slight dream trance, perhaps triggered by some kind of Newtype shock. Or just shock in general. But he's still speaking, in a tone he doesn't ordinarily use, cold and simmering. "What are you? Something so much more powerful, so much older. What are you? How can I destroy /you/...?" Maybe he's addressing Kaworu. But the dragon's head is staring down at the remains of the Lilith Rei...

Inside the plug of the disabled Unit-00, there is a God damn party going on.

It's not a very good party, though, even if two of the people in it /are/ naked.

Leo Stenbuck interrupts his sobbing just enough to yelp awkwardly when Rei Ayanami forces her way past him and Latooni Subota to throw Zerogouki over the group of people at the Evangelion's feet, reaching out to brace himself against the pilots' seat with one arm as the movement jostles those in the plug around. Since Rei has, temporarily, freed herself from his reach, he briefly turns all of his affection on Latooni, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

Leo sniffs once to get the worst of his sobbing under control, smiles sheepishly at the girl in his arms despite the tears still spilling out of his eyes and into the LCL filling the plug, and points out, "I warned you things might get complicated."

That's all he says before he rises to his feet, dragging Latooni up through the LCL with him, and moves to hug-assault Rei again. He only gets his arm around her shoulders before he spots Kaworu on what's left of 00's main monitor... not to mention the mobile weapons following it down into Terminal Dogma.

"That's... Kaworu," Leo says uncertainly, leaning forwards to squint at the figure. After a beat, he glances down at Rei and adds, weakly, "The... the fourth you."

This can't be good.

Latooni Subota finds herself pushed out of the way by Rei Ayanami to get to the controls; she is in the cockpit of the mutilated, unpowered -00 with them. The impact of the machine (?) using its last gasp of power to protect the few people on feet threatens to bowl her over -

Or it would if Leo was not holding her steady. "You did," she says, sounding not entirely sure about herself or anything else. All of this - he was right. It would be hard to be any more complicated than it is. She honestly can't see how to do it.

Guided over to the monitor, Latooni spots something else before she sees Kaworu - the descending Fairlion. "/Princess/?" she says, incredulously, apparently to herself. "And - is that - " She knows of Vindel's unit, too. She identifies some of the others, too.

Latooni looks around the cockpit while Leo points out Kaworu. No, of course it doesn't have an external radio she can grab. "I need communications," Latooni says, more professional-sounding than she should really seem given she is being held by a de-plugsuited Leo in a crowded cockpit filled with LCL. "Please. Does this have /any/ power left?"

A swing and a miss. The tonfabat glances off Kaworu's AT Field and slips out of Unit-03's hands, flying end over end to crash into the ground about a kilometer away. Toji's spirit is crushed just as easily as a man struck by a giant bat should have been. "SH--"

The ground opens beneath him. There are many times when Toji has wished for such a thing to happen, but usually that's when he gets shot down by a girl or has an erection in front of the class while reciting verbs or whatever. Right now he'd rather not be swallowed by the ground.

"--IIIIIIIIIIIIT!" he yelps, falling a couple hundred meters before his descent is arrested by the umbilical cord still attached to his Evangelion's back. "Agh!" he cries, because that shit hurts and is not meant for dangling. It feels like someone's hooked a rusty coathanger through his tailbone.

He sees Kaworu descend, and then stop. He sees Shinji. "Shinji... bro..." he transmits. "I can't... I can't go no further. It's up to you, dawg." A pause. "But... I believe in you. Do the right thing, yo."

He then passes out from the pain.

It's OK, Leo, it's the one thing you've ever wanted to see.

The God Damn Zwei.

His radio forgotten, channel still open, Mike announces, "This is bullllshiiiiit!" as his GN Beam Vulcans plink off Kaworu's field like someone threw a bunch of rice at an inflated balloon. "Oh, come ON, who is this d-howaaa!" The rending of the earth creates some turbulence, picking up the orange GN particles spilling from behind the Zwei, flinging them around in a small typhoon. The Throne stabilizes, and Mike just starts laughing as he looks down at everyone falling like a bunch of tools. Laughing! "Oh, hey!" He suddenly stops. "It's that place!"

The Zwei drops behind the rest of the mobile suits and super robots and whatever the hell you call a Fairlion, speeding ahead where he can. He switches his radio to full broadcast, his voice rolling out of the speakers. "Leo! Hey, hey! Leo! I got lost! Leo! There's a weird dude, watch your ass!"

Giant, shredded Rei. "Whoaaa!" Mike sounds more surprised than anything else - in fact, just surprised. The buster sword releases from the machine's side, The Zwei taking it in one hand, brandishing it out.

"This shit is bananas."

So the legends of their powers were true. Vindel's eyes widen as he watches the last Angel flex his metaphysical muscles, and tear aside the huge volumes of rock, metal and earth that stand between he and the deepest parts of Terminal Dogma. The earth shudders, and a gaping maw opens wide to admit those whom can not cast off the fragile bonds of gravity, leaving them to plummet into the dark depths of that vast, stygian Erebus.

There is no choice. Zweizergain follows the Angel down into that darkness, following the light given off by Kaworu as he descends. But Vindel holds his hand only because he too wishes to see what might be at the bottom of this pit. The shadows of the tunnel mean that only the glowing red eyes and the blue crystals mounted on the super robot's body can be clearly seen, and it may well appear that a demon follows in the footsteps of the last Angel.

"This is the true weakness of human beings," Vindel rumbles, his voice transmitting to everyone present. "There are three types of people that exist in any world. There are the arrogant, the powerful whom believe that their knowledge, their wisdom, and their desires should dictate to the absolute place of every last human being in the world. Those whom would claim that they can make the choice for all humanity, to deny them freedom of self. They claim it is for their own good, that humanity is inherently an ugly and violent animal whom can never truly find peace. That 'peace' must be thrust upon them.

"These people are correct, of course." Vindel smiles bitterly, remembering the last 'civil' conversation he had with Charles zi Britannia.

"There are those who are weak, whom depend on others to protect them. Who are willing to sacrifice anything to ensure that they are protected from harm. Who will follow like sheep to the slaughter, no matter what they might lose in the process. The ones who can not fight back.

"And then there are those of us who are unafraid to carve our paths through the world. Those of us whom understand that violence, competition, and strife will only serve to make humanity stronger. That our misunderstandings and struggles define us!" The Zweizergain lands in the lake of LCL, another small wave breaking against the sides of the giant tank. And as Vindel listens to Kaworu's last request of the Leviathan's pilot, Vindel smiles... and raises the Zweizergain's sword, point it at both the Eva and the Angel.

"You have heard his request, pilot of the Leviathan. What this day promises is not what humanity deserves, even if some may desire it. Destroy the Angel - or stand aside, and I will act in your stead."

Noriko Takaya is on the ground, near Sarah Zabiarov (somewhat brainbroken) and Amuro Ray (very unhappy). She is covered in blood in a way that suggests not so much injury as just, it looks like someone dumped a bucket over her head. She is at first blocked by the now-depowered Evangelion Unit-00, but Noriko, never someone to just lie down, shoves herself to her feet, eyes narrow, haggard, body and heart confused and pained but the world is IN DANGER and she's STILL BREATHING, and that's all she needs to know!

Noriko drags herself, slowly, up the arm of Zerogouki, trying to reach the top. She manages to throw herself onto the upward-facing portion of Unit-00, and stare at what's going on, and manages to hiss, "...K...Kaworu!? You!?"

As the Alpha Ball rebounds harmlessly off the AT Field, Aoba frowns. Even if the combined efforts of everyone else seem not to have had much effect, she still... frowns. That should have done -something-! The girl crouches slightly, preparing to direct her Jinki in for another attack... but she pauses when she notices that the boy up there isn't attacking. He's just... talking. Calming down somewhat, Aoba sits down again and listens, though she really doesn't understand, well... any of it.

And suddenly, the ground is no longer there. While the Nana-Two Way can technically fly, it's more a matter of repeatedly jumping on air. When the ground opens up, the girl is surprised enough that she doesn't activate the Rebound Boots, and the Jinki plummets downward. Somehow, she manages to turn the fall into a quick kick, bounding off the side of the chasm (which somehow inexplicably slows her descent... look, Rebound physics is weird like that). It's still a rough landing, and the girl is shaken up from the landing. The splash caused by Big O's crash landing washes over her Jinki, cleaning Unit-06's blood off... but is being covered in LCL really any better? "...ow."

Aoba reaches up to rub her head, peering out of the cockpit to see... she has no idea what it is she's seeing. "What... what's going on?" There's a giant white... person? And she recognizes the Chimera. And several people on the ground... she even recognizes a few. "Noriko!"

That AT Field strains, but never breaks. Yazan's lips peel back into a sneer. That's not enough?

"Then I'll just hafta slap you around a bit harder, won't I, you prissy shi--"

And then the ground crumbles into nothing beneath the Xeku Zwei. Yazan doesn't even have the time to yelp out a strangled and angry curse before he is engulfed by the gaping chasm, gravity sending him crashing through the depths of darkness. He hates that kid. He hates that kid. He hates that kid, he hates that kid, he hates that kid he hates that kid /he hates that kid/ /HE HATES THAT KID/--

This is just about when the distinctive form of the Xeku Zwei crashlands feet-first into Terminal Dogma, debris crashing all around it, kicking up violent waves of strange, orange fluid. The landing point is dangerously close to where Leo, Latooni and Rei hide away within the Unit 00. Surprisingly, Gable doesn't even notice the nostalgic Eva.

"Where IS that little SHIT--"

And that's when beady eyes focus in on the giant, mangled dough Rei. There is roughly half a minute of silence as Gable gradually digests his surroundings, taking his sweet time to really, /really/ get a good look at that abomination. His lips peel back in a mixture of confusion, anger, and a small sliver of unease.

"What."

Is his choice of commentary on the situation.

Amuro Ray is in rough shape. He looks up, wincing as the Evangelion Unit-00 throws herself over the mottley crew as a 'human' shield. The Newtype is covered in LCL fluid and his own blood, and a bunch of other blood he'd rather not think about. Like the others gathered here, he basically looks like Carrie. Bones are sticking out of his broken left arm, and there's a bullet wound in the same shoulder.

His good hand still rests on the forehead of Johnny Domino, recently called back from the aether by Amuro's concerted effort-- and the young Agent's own willpower. Whether or not there's anything LEFT of the man known as Johnny Domino remains to be seen.

"Noriko, wait--!" he calls, as the younger woman rushes off and upwards. "Damnit... there's still debris coming down!" And indeed, large chunks of rock continue to bounce off Zerogouki's back, ringing out through the cavern. Irritably, Amuro tries to wipe the blood off his face and out of his eyes, spitting as he does. "This is all wrong," he mutters. "This is all /wrong/."

The young boy approaching is one he knows. Kaworu Nagisa. The man who ripped out Johnny Domino's soul. No, not a man. An Angel. The most dangerous and subtle one yet. That shard of Lilith residing within Amuro's soul reaches out towards Tabris, but the Newtype clamps it down, gritting his teeth. There's so much pain to manage, to ignore. Now is not the time to give in.

Groaning, he staggers to his feet. "Leo... Rei..." he croaks. "We've got to help Shinji... we've got to... got to stop them from touching... end of the... everything...!"

The Angel -- Tabris, the Enemy, whatever you might wish to call it -- does not fight back. Instead, he begins to speak -- speak of creation, of the beginning of existence, of humanity -- of the Lilim, of those of the Seed of Knowledge. Following after the tumbling units but knowing the Akatsuki's raw physical strength isn't enough to actually pull anything falling back up, she moves with the rest toward Terminal Dogma.

And then it happens. Kaworu's demeanor shifts, clearly visible on the strong main camera of the Akatsuki. And then he makes that single, simple request: 'Kill me.' All that fighting, all that fear and doubt in the hearts of those assembled, all the risk... was it all for nothing?

Cagalli nibbles her lip, unsure what to say or do. She thought she'd seen things that didn't make sense before, things that defied explanation, but this -- the remains of Lilith-Rei, Kaworu going from all too self-assured and yawning at their plight to begging for death...

... /this/ doesn't make sense. The Akatsuki slowly touches down, and the Princess of Orb realizes how futile anything she does here truly is... and with nothing left to do, she averts her eyes and just listens to what, for all she knows, is still Armageddon.

"Wah, I missed? Pffah, what a gyp!" Mari cries as the Unit-02's head swivels from the harmlessly floating Kaworu toward the Pellet Rifle in its hands. "Tch, I've never been a fan of firearms, anyway. Hup!" With a careless toss, Unit-02 merely casts the large rifle aside, hitting the scarred earth with a ground-shuddering THUD.

"Hm, well, what should I do..?" The Sixth(?) Child wonders, tilting her head just so. Obviously, the majority of assault upon Tabris ended laughably. There has been no progress. Her attack just bounced off his damn AT Field, after all. "Ah, this could be bad. Wait...what?" Mari squints, adjusting her glasses at the sight before her.

Kaworu streatches his arms and the Earth yawns. The ground tremors violently, startling Makinami as the Unit-02 braces itself, trying to keep balance. "Kyaaaa!" is her glamorous response as the 02 gets caught in the chaos, its lanky red and orange body tumbling head over heels, down the rabbit hole. "C'mon Mari...get a...grip--!!"

The Unit-02 throws its body toward the nearest wall, where it SLAMS the Progressive Knife deeply into solid rock. Using it to slow its freefall, sparks flying as the metal screams against ancient stone. Somewhere near the 'bottom' of the cavernous hole, Mari and the Unit-02 hang by one arm.

Mari exhales loudly.

"Gah, that was too close! ...oh my."

Glancing over its shoulder, Unit-02 peers toward the mangled Lilith lying in LCL. Slowly, its head swivels upwards, toward the distant hovering form of Kaworu above. Then, with a crane of its neck, its eyes fall upon the dormant 00X. "Feh, what a pain."

Pushing its feet against the wall, Unit-02 wrenches the Progressive Knife from the wall and lands with a wash of LCL in the lake. It gives its Umbilical Cord a tug, letting it feed further into the cavern as Mari checks her gauges. Then, again, her eyes turn back to the sky. To Kaworu.

Mari frowns and slowly rises from her seat in the Unit-02.

"What a bother. We'll all be dead at this rate. Unit-02...I'm sorry. It's time.

"Invert mode! Passcode--

"THE BEAST!"

The cockpit of 02 goes black. In the depths of the cavern, 02 hunches over, as if it lost its power. For a split second, it /seems/ to be the case. Then the shoulder pauldrons EXPLODE. The sickening sound of bone and muscle wrenching can be heard throughout the depths of Terminal Dogma as, all across 02, limiters EXPLODE from their locks.

Within, Mari struggles as the pain of 02 becomes hers.

"P-please just...bear with it...a little longer..!!"

Unit-02 buckles forward, hands splashing into the LCL as its muffled roar gets louder...louder...louder--

Pitching its head back, the mouth guard of the Eva RIPS off, revealing row upon row of horrific fangs as the Umbilical Cord SHOOTS free. Inside, Mari's eyes glow green, like the gauges on her plug suit, eyes wide as she cries:

"GOOOOOO!!"

And then, with unbelievable speed, grace and agility, 02 SCALES the walls of the cavern and leaps toward Kaworu and the AT Field around him, CLINGING to it and burying its mouth against it, seeking to RIP and SHRED the translucent field free and get to its chewy human(?) center.

Mari Illustrious Makinami's Evangelion Unit-02 transforms into its EVA Second Beast mode.

COMBAT: Mari Illustrious Makinami has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Crushing Bite added to their queue.

The sword hits the AT field, causing Shinji to groan as it bounces from his hands and flies in another direction. The purple Evangelion glares at the person sized figure as Shinji tries to come up with a way to knock Kaworu out. He was torn between the part of him who believed that Kaworu was his friend and the other half who believed it was a lie. It was enough to tear at what little of his psyche was left. This all was a horrible joke. No one should have to go through what he has over the past few hours. He breaths heavily, feeling the tears float away in the LCL. What now Shinji?

There were people counting on you.

But Kaworu was one of your best friends.

But Toji, The Getter Team, and Shine are too. They will die if you don't kill Kaworu.

But there has to be another way.

What if there isn't? What if you have to?

But

No, think.

Shinji takes a deep breath, not flinching when the ground begins to shake. He is not surprised by anything anymore. Kaworu was an Angel. The Evangelion watches the ground split open to Terminal Dogma. Down to where Lilith is. It would make sense that Kaworu is going to make Contact. Just like Leo. Just like his father. That had to be the goal of everyone in the know. Something happened when you came into contact with the being that absorbed Rei's dead body. Shinji takes a deep breath and looks over to Unit 03. "Toji...Right. I guess I can't run away anymore."

And thats when Shinji's Getter Army bros offer him their most prized weapon. Shinji's is suddenly overwhelmed as the Getter Rays flow through his body and his mother's, turning the Unit's green armor to a bright orange as it's eyes start to glow green. Shinji sighs, feeling his sorrow begin to merge with an alien determination, his eyes begining to mimic Unit 01's...Just like that time with Zeruel. Unlike that time, Shinji was in complete control, feeling the power of his friends back him up. If anyone could see his sync ratio, they might think that number was wrong but it was true. This was what happens when Getter Robo and Evangelion merged to make something truly frightening. "Toji, if i die, take care of Asuka." Shinji says, taking a giant step into the abyss.

Unlike kaworu, who is graceful and light, Shinji comes down in a thunderous explosion, landing in the LCL ocean before leeping out toward Kaworu. The purple and orange, semi berserked, Getter'd Unit 01 rwaches out its hand and attempts to grab kaworu through the field in a firm grasp, not crushing him. The fist attempting to rip through the field like rice paper. "KAWORU!"

Shinji stares down at his friend with intense eyes, still filled with tears. "Why did you do all of this." Shinji isn't so sad anymore. He's determined to stop this. But then Tabris calls his bluff, smacking him with his blunt request. "Kaworu...Why do you want me to do that?! Aren't we friends?!"

Akira can't even land a hit. The blade that /should/ carve through the AT Field just bounces harmlessly off of it, knocked aside with a barrier of impossible strength. He scowls at the field, the barrier in his path, and the golden-yellow light in the cockpit intensifies for a brief moment as a pulse of power goes from him into Buriki Daioh.

"You aren't gonna stop us! With Buriki Daioh... with Buriki Daioh, we can do anything! Now get ready for--"

And then the ground opens.

The massive Babylonian machine falls into the hole in the Earth, into the empty expanse of Terminal Dogma. The machine's rockets fire, but it still falls into the sea of LCL at the bottom, a bubbling mass of the stuff boiling around it as it lands.

The huge mech goes still inside the cavernous expanse, the light from it's eyes flickering as Akira sees the scene and feels his resolve waver. He hardly registers the sound of Kaworu telling Shinji to kill him; he dimly recognizes it as ridiculous, but he can't help but keep his eyes locked on /that/, what he's landed in.

Akira moves to the back of the cockpit and climbs up to the hatch on top. The machine goes dead as he does. He stands on the head of the monolithic machine, looking down in horror at the amber pool and all those within it. Is it--?

YEARS AGO

The Great Inko Statue, possessed by the malevolent Odeo, falls. Buriki Daioh stands over it at the shrine in the Japanese town that hardly bears mentioning. Within, Akira pants, drained. He drops to a knee next to the body of the biker he once called his friend, the one who sacrificed himself to save Akira's sister once before.

"Matsu... we did it. We beat 'em. Now those bastards can't hurt anyone else... ever again!" Akira looks down on the scene, the three men behind the monstrous Odeo, now dissipating to a place beyond this time, standing on the peninsula within the massive pool of amber around them. Akira narrows his eyes at the people. "Well, that thing got beat... but what about--"

The men on the ground start to shriek. The amber pool of liquified humans rises up around them, the liquid dragging them in. Akira can hear their screams in his mind, the tormented creatures that were once men, women and children seeking Heaven but finding only Hell. The three disappear, and he slumps in relief, drained. He nearly collapses on the floor.

And then they come for him.

NOW

"N-not again," he says, practically whimpering. "Not again. I'm--I won't let it happen again, I won't...!!"

A pressure begins to build within Akira Tadokoro. Psychic static begins to grow as he gathers his strength to destroy the pool of glowing LCL before...

...what?

Macua hears Vindel lay down the terrible truth and the angel only confirms the slider has an idea yet now she has an idea of what's going on. the terrible feeling she's been having since it started. Only now she starts to grasp even the more of the horror that is being unleashed upon the world.

Then for lack of a better way to descibe it the hand of God comes down and rnexers the earth asunder the Phoebe keeps to the air, it's flight time in this mode is limitdd but it will have enough for her to have an better idea. For once she agrees with Vindel and her machine is dropping down she sees the Chimeria almost dead, and an EVA that's a mess as well. ALso there's a large number people on foot. She has the Phoebe zoom in, there's quite a few peoiple she knows. The Angel gets a look, what caused the sudden change in heart? Then she sees Lilith and isn't sure what to think about it as finally her machine sets down in the LCL at the base of the pit.

Then Akira?! It's like a spike, she sense it and something's comming the Phoebe takes a step back from Akira.

Macua's already horrifed and it's getting even worse now Akira's going off her own fear is growing but her own anger is growing as well. This can't be allowed to go through. Vindel is right, it's got to burn....

Inside Getter Robo, people are dying.

Musashi clutches his head, trying to hold in the invisible feeling that it will explode. He rocks back and forth, concentrating on the place where he learned to take pride in himself.

FOREVER AGO ON MT. OROSHI

Musashi is fat and stupid. He has no friends. He knows it is because he is worthless. He learns Judo. He'll prove to everyone that he's a good person. He makes a living fixing cars. One day he'll be a hero and it will be the most wonderful moment of his life.

INSIDE GETTER ROBO

Hayato clenches the controls. He grits his teeth. He is in control. Blood streams from his eyes and his skin burns with energy. He failed society. It is the province of geniuses like him to put their gifts to use. He was too slow to reveal NERV's state-sponsored murder to the public.

FOREVER AGO IN THE HIGH SCHOOL HE ATTENDED

Hayato finishes ripping the heart out of a girl who tried to blow his brains out with a pistol to end the siege. She wasn't in it for the long haul. She was a menace to the rest of the movement.

"Hayato, was that really necessary?" someone asks.

He looks up, covered in blood, tossing the viscera in his hand aside. His smile is magnificent and calming somehow. "You've shot plenty of policemen and SDF troopers. She was trying to do the same thing. I'm willing to sacrifice lives to save the world, aren't you?"

INSIDE GETTER ROBO

Ryouma's eyes aren't right. He feels that power calling him again. When he was inside the Angel, he felt-it was-it was him and not him. It was everyone. If he dies now, he can go be with them. He's okay with that. He's not okay with Shinji dying.

FOREVER AGO IN AN ALLEYWAY

"That's it, Ryouma," his father says as his son snaps the neck of the wild dog he was fighting. The seven year old Ryouma looks up, wanting.

His father smiles and reaches down, taking his son up by the scruff of his neck, setting him on his shoulder. "You're doing great. A man needs to know what he's capable of. You've got plenty of time to figure that out. Everyone deserves that."

INSIDE GETTER ROBO

They are paralyzed. Something is coming! It's not... it's not what it was before. It's something else, and they're being suffocated to save their souls in one way or another. On the altar of Getter, lives are currency!

"Haaayattooo!" Ryouma chokes. "Musaaaasshiii! One more time!"

These men who hate each other can still unite their hearts! Together: "GETTER SHIIIIIIINEEEEEEEEE!"

Floating above the void, suspended by the Getter Wing, the radioactive combining robot 'Getter Robo' sheds what light it can for Shinji, and for those who still burn for life!

COMBAT: Mari Illustrious Makinami has missed Kaworu Nagisa with her Crushing Bite attack.

COMBAT: Kaworu Nagisa has counter attacked for a minor critical hit on Mari Illustrious Makinami's EVA Second Beast using Dismissive Handwave.

Inside the plug of Unit-00, Rei Ayanami is naked but for her little brainwave hairclips. She slumps in her seat, hands lingering on the control devices. "There are short-range communications equipment on a separate power supply," Rei says, her demeanor cool, impenetrable despite the circumstances. She watches what's happening all around Unit-00 on the monitors, and suddenly stops, staring straight at one of them.

As Leo comes up behind her and wraps her in another hug, one of Rei's hands comes up to gingerly touch his wrist. She doesn't say anything, or look at him, because she's busy staring, wide-eyed, at the sight of the Xeku Kwei, so near--

Kaworu and Shinji Ikari talk business.

"If we were friends," Kaworu says, forlornly, "you'd do what I ask--"

Suddenly, THE BEAST.

Evangelion Unit-02, on Crazy Steroids and Crazy Pills just like how 01 is high off huffing Getter Gasoline, leaps at Kaworu, trying to bite at his AT Field -- but the Field suddenly lashes out, expanding too fast for Mari to chomp into and smashing the Evangelion away as carelessly as a child discarding a toy. "/Rude/."

"Shinji -- I came down here to find my mother. To find Adam." Kaworu lifts his arms, and suddenly, Eva Unit-01's arms lift too. Shinji no longer has control -- or, at least, struggle as much as he may, he can't compete with Kaworu's willpower in controlling his machine. "Instead... this is Lilith, Shinji. She's not /my/ mother."

"She's all of /yours/."

Unit-01's hands are brought forward, to encircle Kaworu. He disappears between them, no longer able to be seen, but he doesn't make the final push himself. He leaves that decision up to Shinji, relinquishing control of the Eva back to his friend.

"If you don't hate me -- you'll do what you said you would. And help me go home."

And as the green Getter Rays' light pours into Terminal Dogma, giving the LCL a truly eerie color, Lilith's wounds begin to lessen, and her doughy, soft flesh begins to fold over its wounds and reknit...

Leo Stenbuck has no idea what the fuck is going on, but he is absolutely certain it is disastrous. It's surprisingly easy to accept the fact that everyone is probably going to die, all things considered. Maybe it's just because he's so exhausted, but he's just... not happy, really, but at least satisfied, that he can be with Latooni and Rei when it happens.

While he's thinking this, he shoots a sideways glance at Latooni, and his mouth, entirely without consulting him, decides that he's going to say, "It'd sure suck for somebody if the end of the world happened and they were still a virgin, huh?"

Shine huffs. Then she says, perhaps answering Vindel, "You must have seen this before. Did you lecture then, too, outlander? If this is our end, at least let us have our dignity."

Her attention stays focused ahead, though. Shinji, she thinks, with an almost palpable pang. The presence of others in the room is becoming even clearer, if only through density of concentration. Is that Amuro Ray? she thinks, before wondering: She couldn't feel them before. What is that strange light falling on them?

A strange smell fills the cockpit. A green smell. Shine's eyes go from the screens, gingerly, and stares at the spreading of the leaves and, apparently, roots of the stalk of fennel she had brought along. "... Is this..."

It's affecting that giant - thing. The radio crackles dimly and Latooni speaks to her. Shine tries to put this all together in her head; it is coming up poorly, even as strange tension and energy seems to be pouring into her steadily.

"I'll...k-kill...y-you!!" Mari Illustrious Makinami promises Kaworu, as the Unit-02 latches onto his AT Field, all but hugging it in an effort to hold on. With a horrible, agonizing roar the red machine rears its head back and LUNGES in, jagged fangs biting at the AT Field around him.

"I can...d-do this..!!"

It almost bites that Field. It almost gets past it, in Mari's eyes. But it isn't enough.

Suddenly, that Field around Kaworu thrusts outward and slams not into the side of 02 or even its chest. No, that AT Field thrusts forward like some grim spear and slams at the open maw of Unit-02--

Within the Plug, Mari's glowing green eyes widen as she gasps in horror. "N--"

The words don't leave her mouth. The Field rams itself past the jagged fangs of the furious Unit-02, a spray of blue 'blood' erupting from the beast's mouth. The sheer force of Kaworu's AT Field presses beyond merely the inside of 02's mouth; it continues, piercing the back of its head, through its skull, where a horrible crack and crunch echoes around it. Blood streaks across several miles of earth.

The force alone is enough to shoot Unit-02 clear across the charred remains of Tokyo-03, where its limp body bounces once before it rolls head over heels several times. It only stops when its body collides with a half-destroyed building, legs splayed awkwardly and grotesque, its left arm broken at the elbow and mouth hanging open, tongue lopped out of its grisly, bloodied mouth.

Evangelion Unit-02 ceases to function.

"Grovel before this if you wish, Princess - but I will do what I can to save my own people. Those who trust me with their futures will at least see me fight to preserve them, instead of accepting the end with 'dignity'," Vindel states in reply. But what would he expect of such a young girl - probably overawed by everything that had happened. Regardless, this was not their world - Vindel had not directly seen this sort of event before, but he had seen the planning. He had seen the aftermath. If he had seen the actual events, he might have a better idea of how to stop this from occurring.

The idea of no one from this world being left was not a pleasant one. These were people the Shadow Mirrors needed. They must not suffer whatever fate that was unveiling itself before them.

And so Vindel levels his sword, and walks towards the giant, rapidly healing version of Rei sprawled out on the floor. The best he can do is hope that killing this thing might derail whatever is happening...

Although the face-off between Evangelion pilots is probably the central focus of whatever's about to actually determine what happens next, Guy has learned that some very weird shit can happen when you're not paying attention. And it's pretty hard to ignore a massive release of Getter Rays.

So in this chamber, while most attention is on Kaworu placing his life and his fate in Shinji's hands in the most literal manner possible, Guy isn't watching. Instead, he's looking around - and might, for all he knows, be the only one who sees the giant regenerating. GaoGaiGar starts wading through the LCL towards the naked female giant ... or Lilith, as Kaworu just named it. Or her.

"What was NERV doing with ..."

He trails off, unable to believe entirely what Kaworu just said. The mother of humanity? An Evangelion-scale giant?

Shinji stares at Kaworu, frowning very hard. "How could you say that to me! Friends don't kill each other! Kaworu, don't you understand?" Shinji says softly, looking away from the boy's cheerful face. Shinji doesn't want to look at Kaworu when he's like this. He doesn't want to help one of his best friend's commit suicide. That was a terrible joke.

Suddenly there is Unit 02! Shinji freezes, wanting to stop "Asuka" from doing she'll regret later. "NO!" And then Kaworu just bats her away like it's a rag doll. Shinji knows Asuka is probably going to yell at him about that later. Shinji frowns, turning back to his friend as he begins his story about why all of this is happening. Shinji feels worse as he knows what Kaworu is going through. He had lost his mother as well. That was what Kaworu meant when he said they were alike.

"Kaworu, I don't know if I..." Shinji feels his controls start to act without his control. "NO! Please don't make me do this.." And then at the final moment, control is given back to Shinji. It is now his choice to end Kaworu's suffering. "Kaworu...You are one of my best friends..."

Shinji sniffles and shuts his eyes, holding the body in Unit 01's hand. All it takes is one flick on the controls. Unit 01 stands there.

After a period that seems like it will never end, there is a sickening crunch from Unit 01's hang, red starting to run down it's palm. Shinji smiles, feeling the power of his friend's running through him. And yet in this moment where most powers in super robots are yelling victory. Shinji cries, holding his head in his hands. "Goodbye Kaworu."

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has attacked Kaworu Nagisa. Just like a kitten added to their queue.

COMBAT: Shinji Ikari has struck a minor hit on Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris using Just like a kitten.

Knock Out! Kaworu Nagisa's Final Angel Tabris unit has become disabled!

The last thing Kaworu Nagisa, alias Tabris, alias the Seventeenth Angel, alias the Angel of Free Will, ever says is this: "The next thing you do... is the proof... of what you really think of me."

Then Kaworu smiles, and it's over.

For him, anyway. For the the world he left behind, it's only just beginning. The Lilim's trials are far from over -- because the power of Getter Radiation has given their Mother new strength. Vindel Mauser approaches the healing Lilith -- and is summarily pushed aside when the thing suddenly rises to its feet. The giant naked snow-white Rei Ayanami reaches out with both hands...

...and takes gentle hold of the Getterized Evangelion Unit-01.

And then, holy shit.

Sound and light no longer mean what you think they mean.

Lilith grows.

The world stops feeling as important -- as real --

The world sees what causes this. The immaterial form of Lilith -- a naked teenager -- Rei Ayanami -- the Mother of Humanity -- the Second Angel -- the Seed of Knowledge -- towers so high that it can be seen across oceans, staring down with a crooked smile and those lifeless dark eyes.

The Anti-AT Field activates.

Instrumentality begins.

You are over.

Just once...

Huang Qin Shi walks down a hallway lit with sterile, artificial light, the dull green scrubs he wears a contrast to the pristine white walls. He moves past door after door, glancing inside from time to time, smiling at what he sees. He'd have preferred to take the call back in the room but (as the head nurse reminded him in full vibrato) rules are rules, even for the director of the EOTI. He clears his throat as he approaches the central desk, and the nurse smiles as she looks up at him, gesturing at...a handset? Huang chuckles and shakes his head as he picks it up and holds it to his ear. No visual. And a /wire/. How quaint.

"Hello," he says softly in Mandarin, a smile quickly spreading across his face. "Father! Have you landed th..." He pauses, his teeth gleaming as his smile widens. "Hello, mother. Please, one at a...yes, yes, it went well. They're both fine," he says soothingly, then stops to listen again. "Well, it was a surprise to me too," he says in his I-am-being-serious-really voice. "I know you...well, what was I supposed to do, push the Little Wooden Fish back in?" There is a long pause after this, and Huang's smile is a private one, filled with pride. "I'm glad you like it," he says softly. "I know Grandmother would have wanted to see her, but with this at least..." He pauses again, then shakes his head. "No, I've sent a driver. He'll take you right here. No!" he says in the firm tone reserved for people you love. "I insist. No sense in having authority if I can't abuse it every now and again." He pauses. "Don't thank me, she did all the work. I'll see you soon."

...just once...

Minutes later, Huang opens another door, stepping into a room where a woman is cradling an infant in her arms. The woman turns her head toward the door. "She just woke up again," she whispers softly as Huang carefully closes the door, then moves to her side. "Your parents?" she asks.

Huang nods. "I sent a car. They'll be here soon," he says, then stares down at his firstborn. She has her mother's hair, he notes with pleasure, and perhaps a hint of him in the eyes and cheekbones. "Heavens help us, she's going to be a looker," he pretends to grumble. "I'm going to have to beat them away with a stick." He turns back to his wife and opens his mouth to...

The silence is shattered by a soft beep from his belt, and Huang grimaces as he reaches for it. The woman's face is no more pleased, resigned perhaps as Huang glances at the display. He knows what it says before he looks at it, though - there's only one reason they'd call this number at this time. "They'll be fine without me," he says firmly.

"Huang..."

"Sophia, I'm not going to..."

She raises a finger and lays it over his lips. "Go," she says softly. "It's all right. It's who you are, you silly man. Besides," she says with a smile. "You're going to protect our daughter. If you can't...who will?"

Huang Qin Shi doesn't move for several seconds, then slowly raises his left hand to bring hers down from his face. "Be a fool to marry a woman smarter than I am and then not listen to her," he says as he turns her hand around and kisses the back of it. "I'm sorry," he adds softly. "I love you." Huang lets his wife's hand go and then stares down at the infant, feeling an ancient force swelling within the depths of him, an anger that rises up through the eons from the first near-apes scrabbling across the savannah, striving to inch ever forward. There are creatures out there in the darkness, and they've come to take his world. His people.

His /child/.

Power courses through Huang's body, his veins filled near to bursting as he reaches his right hand out and rests it on his daughter's forehead, he eyes widening as she stares up into the twisting green spirals of his gaze. "Don't worry, little Xiaomu," he whispers as he lifts his hand upward and turns away, his power coalescing into a tiny metal drill clenched in his fist. "Daddy will make the bad men go away."

...to be the he---

It is the worst headache you will ever have. Every child of Lilith, everywhere - regardless of distance from the Tokyo-03 epicenter, on Earth or in space, to the edge of the Solar System and beyond - suddenly experiences a sudden sense of overwhelming wrongness, as though something had pulled the rug out from under your minds feet. For psychics, it is more like the psychic background you have taken for granted your entire life has suddenly grown teeth and bitten your head off. It is trying to kill you. It is trying to eat you. It wants you to join them, become one with them, lose yourself in them. They will not be satisfied until you are no longer a you at all, but one, great, glorious, and singular. It is the worst headache you will ever have. It may be the most traumatic moment of your life.

For five minutes, someone is screaming within earshot of every point in human space.

The worst begins in Japan. There, at the epicenter of it all, form and life become indistinct. Mother is calling her children home, and she has no use for your Self. Every man, woman and child in Japan and a few hundred kilometers out to sea sees them - someone they love, someone they adore, reaching out for them. Calling to them. Willpower is not enough to resist. No single energy source is great enough to stop it. Fighting only makes your final moment more painful, before Mother embraces you, and welcomes you unto her bosom, and grants you the peace you have always wanted, the peace of unity, total and complete. One soul. Undifferentiated.

Forever.

And from there it spreads - quickly, rapidly crawling across the world, in leaps of dozens of kilometers out from the Tokyo-03 epicenter, reaching China - Siberia - Australia - Hawaii. If it is not stopped it will devour humanity. But the question is...

Can it be?

The pain hits like a terrible wave, overwhelming a Newtype whose mind is already unstable and ragged. Old wounds and vulerabilities in his defenses fall apart, and Pascal is too pained to even cry out, opening wordlessly and then shuddering with cold nausea. Cold, cold, it hurts and it's too cold, he wants to be somewhere else and it's too cold, he'd be anywhere if he wouldn't be cold anymore, and if...

Pascal is not in Muspelheim anymore.

ELSEWHERE

"Pai? Rodora?" A woman and a man both float next to Pascal, both teenagers, in Zeon uniforms. "Are you..."

"We're okay, Pascal. We're happy now. They forgive us."

"They forgive you!"

"I'm sorry we had to leave you to survive that mission and remember it. We're going to where everyone is forgiven." Pai's unblinking smile remains, and she offers a hand out. "You remember our first mission, right? We thought we would do something grand for Zeon..."

"And they made us help with that colony drop."

"There's no way to make up for such a thing, is there," Rodora concedes. "But if you come with us, you'll be where everyone is forgiven. Everyone is loved and needed here, and you can face everyone whose lives we ended with an open heart, if you'll just..."

HERE

The host. Where is the host? Muspelheim lashes and wails, making inhuman noises as it senses the increasing /lack/ of its pilot. Pascal is leaving it. The host it worked so hard to secure, the one it carefully conditioned from the moment he relased Muspelheim from its prison of magma. All the humans are going. They're all going, and there will be nothing left. It will starve. It will go mad with nothing left to destroy. It will be alone with the hole where its soul should be left empty once again. No, it worked too hard, it dug its nails too far into Pascal's mind to let him just /go/ like that. He will have no such peace...

Using whatever power it has left, Muspelheim pulls.

ELSEWHERE

"I can't be forgiven," Pascal insists, shaking his head. His voice is trembling, although he has no tears to cry. "I can never be forgiven for that, even if it was just orders, even if..."

"Please, Pascal," Pai insits. "You were our wingmate. We never want to see you suffer like that. So please..."

Pascal takes her hand.

And another hand appears to reach /through/ his chest, something foreign and unnatural, something that should not BE where he is, pulsing with red runes. It grabs at something inside of him, and pulls. Pascal screams as the hole in his chest ruptures and his form rips into tatters, dissolving into the ether. Rodora and Pai vanish, too, wordlessly. It is like a drop of dye in a sea. Another soul, joining the sea of humanity. The pain he had experienced a second ago, like nothing he had ever imagined, is gone within an instant. So is the memory of it. So is he.

HERE

Pascal's body collapses into a puddle of LCL in his seat, and Muspelheim curls itself up in midair, closing its eyes. A tiny drop of the fluid washes against the wall of the cockpit, and disappears in a puff of steam. Or perhaps it is consumed.

Roger Smith looks into the Apocalypse. Roger Smith looks into the eyes of the Getterized Evangelion Unit-01, into the power of something that is greater than he will ever be, and understands implicitly that this is the end. That there is no amount of struggling, of willpower, in all the world...no amount of anything that will overcome this almighty this. There is no more. Roger Smith prepares for the end in the only way he knows how:

By picking up his sunglasses, putting them on his face, and kicking back in absolute style.

And as he watches the miniature green sun that rises under this hellish Earth, as he begins to wonder how the end will take him, the screens of Big O begin to flash. All the buttons, all the lights, all the warnings in the world begin to blare, as if to hope that somehow, some way, Roger will hold on, distracted by its power. And perhaps the Megadeus is doing something...

...for it does not come to Roger Smith.

Puzzled, Roger leans forward. Did he have a chance to stop it? Was he, somehow, protected by the grace of Big O, of the Megadeus? It was the only answer he could give - and it was a blessing. Roger grips the controls, his sunglasses shining green as the Getter Ray Eva continues to exist, and he thrusts his arm back-

And Big O refuses to move. Roger is stunned - Big O has never before rejected is commands. The Megadeus refuses to move, stuck fast. Stuck fast, frozen, as if by some force greater than itself. Was it the result of the Apocalypse? Was Big O sacrificing itself for Roger Smith?

Roger begins to smash his feet on the pedals. His arms tug at the levers. But nothing. There is nothing. There is no movement, no locking, no change, no life. The Megadeus is frozen, except for the screaming of quite literally every alarm within the machine. And then it goes black.

There is no light, except the Getter Glow. And the screen of Big O begins to flicker on, those comforting words rolling across it.

CAST IN THE NAME OF GOD, YE-

But something is horribly, horribly wrong. It shuts off. The screen fuzzes, statics, changes, shifts...and becomes a scrolling sight more horrible to Roger Smith than anything he could possibly imagine.

A barcode, trailing across his screen, mirrored in his eyes.

Roger's horror grows, slowly, slowly, as he reads the code. He knew that code. He knew it, for it was imprinted in him so deeply that he could never be rid of it. And Roger Smith, locked there in Big O, the unmoving Megadeus, feels Absolute Terror.

"I'm one of..."

"I'm one of..."

"I'M ONE OF THE TOMATOOOOOOOOOSSSS!!!!!!!"

Toji hears Shinji's words ringing in his ears as he passes from consciousness to that other plane of life, the little death. Take care of Asuka? That 'ho? Well... if that's what his bro wants, that's what his bro will get.

Unit-01 meets Lilith and humanity ends.

In the darkness of dreams, Toji can feel that something is wrong, but he can't wake up. He tries to run but gets nowhere. He is at school in his underwear. He is falling. His teeth are all falling out. He finds another man attractive. His mother is naked. He is flying. He is a woman. He is a child.

His mother smiles, holding out her hand. He misses her so much. He reaches out, grasping for the offered hand.

And then he is everyone.

On the surface, surrounded by MP Evangelion carnage as Gym fights his endless fight in the background, Staren Wiremu feels his universe ending.

Akira just might hear something: "Akira... Thank you for being my friend..."

The Princess of Orb, perhaps sadly, is not going to make a booty call at the end of the world like Leo Stenbuck. She instead turns her eyes to Vindel, walking toward the giant Lilith-Rei; she then turns them toward Kaworu and Shinji, the former still begging for death.

Her fingers grab the controls, grip white-knuckled, as the tension mounts -- and that's when Shinji does it, the grip of the Evangelion likewise tightening around Kaworu. Like that, the boy is gone.

A moment later, Cagalli sees her father -- a man whose last words to her she thought she heard a month ago. The Princess reaches out to him, to the man she wishes could have taught her everything, rather than leaving her here with these fumbling feelings, this frightened loneliness... Has she been living up to him? Is she one fifth, one tenth, one /iota/ the person he was?

"Father," she whispers, quietly. "I -- I have so much to tell you, so much I want you to --"

And then Cagalli Yula Athha is no more. She's with her father again, to be sure -- but it is in question whether 'she,' 'her,' 'father,' or 'with' actually have any meaning in this place, in this existence.

Within GaoGaiGar, Guy's eyes go wide as the giant - healed now from whatever had been done to it - rises up, and takes hold of Eva-01.

And then Mikoto is before him, reaching out to him, not caring that most of his body is completely mechanical. His eyes would go wider if they could, *knowing* the impossibility of what he's seeing; it's not the first time his mind has been fucked with. "Mikoto - NO! This isn't -"

It's not that Guy's courage fails him. However, his courage is completely without purpose; his bravery can't fight against a call which is more primal than courage, than even willpower itself.

What little of Guy Shishioh is still human simply dissolves; the vacated cybernetics collapse with a virtually unheard clatter inside the super mechanoid's control-interface chamber.

And GaoGaiGar's telemetry, should anyone in the Gutsy Galaxy Guard be receiving it through the jamming over and around Tokyo-03, devolves into meaningless static with the abrupt disappearance of its pilot.

Instrumentality receives a sudden infusion of hot blood, if that still means anything to the collective. It is willpower, a drive to overcome what stands in the way ... if there is still a way to be blocked, that is, or anyone - or anything - to stand in it.

Latooni, who had been speaking on a small radio on an extra power source, falls silent mid-word to Shine.

She does not have the psychic abilities of her Princess. She does not need them. She /still/ feels the presence of others, and not quietly, but at a scream. Her defiance, her hold on herself as Latooni Subota, not Latune-11, not a Latune at all, is about as effective as lighting a candle in a tornado and expecting it to warm your hands.

Almost everybody Latooni has ever loved is still alive. Everybody except the other hers. She does not see one person welcoming her; she sees twenty-nine, all very similar to each other and to her. Sometimes the hair is a different tint of lavender, or curly instead of straight. Sometimes they are taller, or shorter, by perhaps an inch; some have blue eyes, some purple, some a weird in-between. All of them could be her sister. Most of them could be her twin.

Latune-11 steps into the crowd of Latune-1 through -10 and -12 through -30. She is together again, as she never thought she would be.

In -00's cockpit, the LCL stirs slightly.

Shine feels her head rip. She wonders for a blurry-eyed moment if she's having a stroke. Or if that strange radiation is affecting her - she realizes, with the wonder of belated awareness, that that must be GETTER RAYS. And perhaps she is not one of those who endures it well. She thinks she can see mother in her severe dress, father with his jolly chin and beard, but they've been gone for years, ever since the war. She struggles to say -

?

"- Latooni," Shine says, gazing out from her silver seat in the observation lounge of Neo Riksent, "don't you think that Mineva has grown up quite well?" She sets down the bone china coffee cup, frowning to herself. That headache came by again. Something about it. It keeps coming back, like a splinter in -

Externally, the Fairlion-G, used to external control being a viable option, shifts to a standby mode, hovering, pointlessly, in midair. This will probably continue until the fuel exhausts itself.

It's over. Is it over? That Kaworu person... he was an Angel? But weren't all Angels giant monsters? Still... he looked like a person. From what little Aoba could see, he had -feelings-. As she watches the interaction between Unit-01 and Kaworu, Aoba tenses in her cockpit. She isn't sure if she should intervene or -what-.

And then it's suddenly all over. Aoba finds herself drooping a bit in her seat, and she doesn't even notice the tears coming from her eyes until some of them drip down onto her lap. The girl glances down and sniffs, reaching her hands up to rub at her eyes. When she finally lowers her hands, she's greeted with the sight of a giant naked Rei.

And then her brain is being pulled in approximately seven different directions at once. As the pain grows, she gets a Very Bad Feeling. "No... no, I..." Aoba does not want to go. She isn't sure -where- she is being called to go, but she doesn't want it. She doesn't even notice the scream coming out of her own mouth as she grips the sides of her head. This is worse than anything she's ever felt. Worse than activating Phantom on the Kiribito Zai.

Slowly, she forces her eyes open... and she sees only light. She can see her grandparents. The ones who raised her... She can see Genta, his arms spread wide. Minami and Rui, Elnie and the rest of the Canaima maintenance crew. She doesn't want to go and yet... and yet she finds herself rushing toward them, her arms wide. Her friends. Her family. Her mo-- there is a tinge of regret, and more than a tinge of anger as she sees her mother. She sees a strange figure she doesn't recognize, a young boy in a mask. And as she gets closer, she can see beyond the mask, and the boy has her face. And while something should be wrong with this, she can only feel like things are as they should be.

A blue and gray R-suit lies limp in the cockpit of the Nana-Two Way Aoba Custom. A puddle of liquid sits partially in it, dripping out over the floor of the cockpit.

Michael looks up at the swiftly-growing Lilith, his incomplete mind taking the barest instant longer to be effected. He gets one thing out, taking off his helmet to see better: "Hahaha, what? Hey, Leo, your girl... your..."

This close, he barely even has time for pain. It slams into his mind, the 'spot' where his quantum brainwaves are synched with VEDA feeling like a fist driving up, in, deeper, deeper, spiralling, twisting, eliminating all thought. Michael's eyes become points in swimming white. The colors of the cockpit of the Zwei fade, disitegrate, melt... everything but the purple Haro, floating in a warm golden light. Michael lifts his arms up, even as the pain is twisting his muscles into knots. Two forms begin to shimmer in the light.

"Nena? Johann?"

Michael's voice squeaks, tears swimming in his eyes. His jaw quakes.

He goes, gladly.

Liquid splashes, flowing to the bottom of the Zwei, automatically ejected out into Terminal Dogma by the systems installed entirely because Mike spills his soda all the time. The juice that was Michael Trinity flows down to the lowest point it could reach.

He moves into the images of his lost siblings and beyond. He sees the faces of everyone here for an instant before they too fade into light.

It's been a year since Michael felt complete, and now he feels more... he... he stops being himself. He becomes Trinity, and from there, Infinity.

The Throne Zwei hangs in midair, too high tech to care about not having a pilot. Burnt orange particles drift uselessly through the air. The Buster Sword hums, forgotten.

Everything is correct.

Everything.

(meanwhile, Tommy Drask dissolves, in a hot tub)

Vindel stares up at the end of humanity.

Despite the fact that he has discussed the possibility with people before. Despite the fact that he has stared into death many times, has seen the aftermath of such things, the lore and legend associated with it, nothing can prepare you for the actual sight of the end of humanity. And so as he is pushed away by the rapidly growing Rei-Lilith, he can only stop and stare for a long moment, looking at the sight of a creature that dwarfs the entire world as it grows larger and larger.

The wave of power that washes out, the Anti-AT field, has no grasp upon his soul. Vindel's dimension of birth lies far from here. If he has any connection to an ultimate mother or father, it is not here. Instead, he simply stands, staring up at the heavens with fists clenched. "No..." he growls. He can feel them, deep in his bones - the people who were his responsibility from this universe "You must FIIIIIGHT!"

The roar of sheer defiance comes out of the Shadow Mirror like the roar of some primal beast, as if by sheer force of words and will alone he might inspire humanity to hold itself together. He can hear them over the radio, people vanishing into puddles of liquid like so many water balloons being popped. And with that roar, the Zweizergain throws itself at the leg of the Rei-thing, slashing left and right, copies appearing and disappearing as Vindel vents his rage on the unfeeling, unyielding flesh of the Mother of Humanity. It would take a nuclear weapon to even scratch it's flesh, but Vindel does not give up.

Let his rage push him forward, and perhaps one person might hear it and fight off this catastrophy...

Leo gets an elbow in the ribs for his comment. Rather than point out that it is /literally the Apocalypse/, he laughs weakly and mutters something about just joking. Rei's comment on the issue earns her an odd look, and then a squeeze of the shoulder.

And then it's /actually/ literally the Apocalypse, and it stops being so funny.

Leo's eyes widen as Lilith lurches to her feet. He didn't think he'd gotten the core, but thanks to Chimera she was down, God dammit, she was /down/, but the hole is gone, and her face is back, and oh God, oh God, oh God-

Lilith begins to grow, swelling into a tremendous naked version of one of the girls in his arms. Not even a teenage boy manages to find the nudity titillating in the face of the fact that God looks like his girlfriend, and is preparing to destroy the world.

Leo yanks hard on Latooni and Rei, pulling them closer to him, wrenching the little external radio out of the lavender-haired girl's hand. "Don't look at it," he commands, out of some probably misplaced desire to keep the two from panicking. It doesn't help that he can't even pretend to hide the terror in his voice.

"Don't look at it," he repeats, shifting his arms to wrap them around the girls' shoulders, pressing their cheeks into his bare chest. "It's- it's going to be fine. Everything's going to be fine. I won't let anything hurt you. Everything's okay."

Everything is not okay.

He may have accepted it, in a way, but Leo Stenbuck is still afraid to die. He still doesn't want to watch it. So he squeezes his eyes shut and hangs his head, lowering his forehead to rest on Latooni's and Rei's.

Whatever loved one appears to him, he doesn't look up, doesn't open his eyes. He doesn't miss anything; he has the people he loves the most with him, after all.

Well... two of them.

The only warning Leo gets is one single, deadpan notification:

Ready for combat operation.

And then, for the second time tonight, Leo Stenbuck's AT Field collapses, and the LCL in Unit-00's entry plug swirls violently as he erupts into more of the fluid.

As individuality ends, Rei Ayanami turns to face Leo Stenbuck and pull his face toward hers in what may or may not be a goodbye kiss.

Everyone else has visions, but Rei shuts her eyes and focuses on the sensation of the moment.

Because really, she'd just see Leo anyway.

It's a little less scary the second time you do it but at least this time around she wasn't alone.

Everything keeps happening all the time. Amuro Ray can't stop it. He can't do anything. He watches as Unit-01 crushes Tabris, feels the agony of Shinji Ikari as if it were his own. Tears cut tracks of white flesh through the red mask of blood. This is too much. Too much to put on that boy's shoulders. It's not fair. This kind of agony should be borne by the older generation. The younger generation should be free of this torment.

Lilith shifts. Amuro reaches out with his good hand, shouting NO, NO, DON'T! but it is for nothing. Shinji Ikari and the mother of humanity embrace. The fate of the world is now in the hands of Shinji Ikari. Slowly, hesitantly, Amuro Ray lowers that outstretched hand.

He has failed in every way conceivable.

The world is ending.

Amuro Ray sinks to his knees, defeated. Lowering his head to look at his hand. The tears, pink with dissolved blood, patter to the ground. He can't stop feeling. He can't stop failing.

"I... should have stayed home..." he rasps.

That's when the pain hits. Amuro Ray is one of the most powerful Newtypes in existence, and he is standing at the epicenter of the most devastating psychic event humanity will ever experience. The results are not pretty.

"Hrr... hghk... HRR... HRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Eyes roll up in his head, turning white. The clear tears give way to blood oozing from his eyes, re-surfacing the recently-scrubbed flesh with fresh crimson. Similar streams trickle from his nose, mouth, ears... even his pores begin to bleed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

The screaming is involuntary, but it just won't stop. People dissolve around him, going peacefully into the collective, but the pain keeps the White Devil rooter just a moment longer. Until he pitches forward onto his face, in the puddle of LCL that was, until recently, Saraha Zabiarov and Johnny Domino. Gurgling. His brain shorts out, a protective measure to keep his body from dying of pain.

Amuro Ray opens his eyes and everything is fine. He is in space, wearing his old flight suit, standing in the hatch of the Gundam. He has just won the War. Char realised the error of his ways and joined hands with the White Base crew to defeat the Zabis and the corrupt Earth Government. There is everyon! Sleggar Law, who survived the encounter with the Big Zam. Ramba Ral, who defected and became Amuro's mentor back on Earth. Lieutenant Matilda Ajan and Lieutenant Woody, married and blissful. Ryuu Jose, rotund and cheerful, all of them cheering for him, cheering for peace.

He descends from the Gundam on a wire, walking into the sea of welcoming hands. Everyone wants to shake his hand. Everyone wants to hug him. Everyone wants to understand each other and work for a better world. Nobody is selfish. And there, in the middle of the crowd, is the one man he always wanted to be proud of him, to love him.

Tem Ray smiles, tears of joy in his eyes. He walks forward, holding his arms open to his son. "Amuro.. Amuro, I'm so proud of you. I'm SO proud of you. And I love you."

"You did it!" cries the crowd.

"No!" Amuro Ray says, sniffling, wiping tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. "WE did it!"

He enters his father's embrace, and becomes the world.

Amuro's ravaged body succumbs to the pull, becoming one with everything.

Getter Robo does not fall. It might be that the machine has some autopilot. The members of Getter Team are human, after all. They belong with everyone else.

Inside the cockpits of Getter, cables stretch out. They sink into Ryouma, Hayato, Musashi's flesh. The machine exudes life, digging into their arms, snaking underneath their skin, piercing their minds and hearts and every part of them. The walls cave in.

None of them speak while beneath them the LCL grows. From their vantage point in the sky, they can see Japan changing.

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Ryouma says. For once, he feels the Getter Rays as they were meant to be. They flow into Getter Robo, and then outward-but now they're flowing back in. "As long as space exists... won't life, too, exist?"

AT THE SAOTOME LABS

Professor Saotome sits in the reflecting room above the rift of Getter energy he built his facility upon. His hand rests on a switch. He sees his dead son. This is normal. "I'm home, dad."

"You did a good job before you did," Saotome says. He flicks the control to 'on' and disappears.

Everyone does. The Saotome labs run with LCL. Atop it, the focusing array unfurls, angling toward a specific spot. The orange fluid quakes, taking on a strange color.

INSIDE GETTER ROBO

The machine spreads its arms. The featureless mask of Getter-1 shifts, groaning, metal splitting to form lips and eyes and a nose. Ryouma surveys Instrumentality with the eyes of Getter. The face changes still. Hayato, Musashi-Professor Saotome, Michiru. The members of the Getter Team, pilots and scientists, guards and workers, children and conscripts, they are coming back to Getter.

"Is this what they mean when they mention 'god's child?'" Ryouma says, watching it all happen.

Someone else says, maybe Hayato: "A great deal of energy is flowing from this place."

Maybe Musashi says: "It's like... it wants to go somewhere."

"It's not perfect. Just some of the humans. This is just a start."

Ryouma sinks into the sea of metal and flesh engulfing him, entering him. A voice enters their heads. "This isn't it. It's almost like it. Everything ends this easy. When it happens, leave your body to its will."

"What's going to happen now?"

"Something amazing!"

Getter-Robo-Ryouma-Hayato-Musashi-Saotome-Michiru twists into a whirlwind, its metal body becoming like flesh, bones cracking and forming underneath the skin, limbs stretching and growing strong in the green-red light. Vast wings sprout from its torn shoulders.

A pinecone has been caught in a brushfire. Having no choice, the pinecone opens up to release its seeds. The seeds are carried on by the wind, to make a new forest.

The hurricane of faces and people and intense eyes leaps off into the sky, disappearing from the solar system.

There she is. A giant Rei. Is it like they're mocking him?

He can't even remember her name. Killing her didn't mean anything to him, but how mad it made that Ender ultimately made it worth it.

Killing that Cyber Newtype reject, too.

But she was alive.

Yazan Gable turns his head slowly, as if compelled to. In the corner of his eye, he sees that biomechanical monster -- that Evangelion Unit 00. His nostrils flare. He smells blood in the air. Like any good predator, he knows.

His brow twitches.

Perspiration rises from his forehead.

His teeth grind together.

"... You're in there, aren't you, you little bitch?" he breathes out, hoarsely. He knows. Like any good predator. He knows. She was /dead./ He /knows/ that. He doesn't know her name, but he knows /that./

SO WHY IS SHE THERE?

Killing her didn't mean anything to him.

But when they LIVE.

He can't see her, but he knows it, and he reacts instantly. He pulls back on the controls of the Xeku Zwei. Its remaining beam saber ignites, stabbing forward toward the entry plug of the Evangelion Unit 00.

It comes

like a searing brand of hellfire--

And then stops, one foot away from the 00's entry plug.

The Xeku Zwei is frozen like a statue. Inside, Yazan Gable's eyes are wide, uncomprehending. Slowly, he squints.

"Who the hell are you?"

He can barely see in front of him. There are so many bodies. Phantasmic, barely distinguishable mass of off-white faces and hands that reach out towards the Beast.

You killed me during the One Year War. I had given a signal for surrender. You didn't care.

You killed me during a 'friendly fire' incident. I had done something to upset you. What did I ever do to you to make it worth taking my life--

I was one of your subordinates in the Titans.

I was a mother.

I was too young to be a combatant. You didn't care--

But we don't blame you, Gable.

Yazan Gable looks up, wide-eyed, at a visage of Jamaican Daningham. He can barely make it out. He doesn't know any of these people. But he killed him. SO WHY--

We just want you to feel the peace we do.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?! GET OFF OF M"

And Yazan Gable is forced into utopia with a terrified shriek.

Where Johnny Domino once lay, nothing remains but a puddle of LCL and an empty A-LAWS uniform.

The young man saw no one in his final moments, and yet he saw everyone. Tabris's final gift to him, as well as Lilith's touch, were enough to ensure that Domino got front row seats to the harvest of souls.

Was this truly the decline of humanity that Johnny saw in his vision only moments ago, as he passed through Lilith's body? Was this how the world ended? The young man saw so much, experienced so many things - things that are happening, things that have already happened, things that never will...

Johnny Domino has seen the end.

And this is it, just one of many.

Chimera, no longer sensing Domino, wades within the lake of LCL that fills Terminal Dogma. Searching, seeking, the bio-unit grunts pathetically. Without a master or a cause, Chimera is alone. There's an anguished roar before leathery wings erupt from the beast's back, and it takes to the blood-red skies.

The puddle of LCL that used to be Johnny Domino ripples ever so gently as the gust of air from the beating of the wings reaches it.

Noriko climbs up on the back of Evangelion Unit-00, and watches the end of the world.

Amuro calls after her but Noriko can't /stop/, not /here/, not /now/. She yells at Kaworu, yells at Shinji, but nothing makes SENSE, everything is WRONG, her head is spinning and...

"No," she says, seeing it healed. "NO!" she screams, seeing it lunge. "NO, WE CAN'T--!" she shrieks, and runs, and leaps, and thinks for a heartbeat that if she tries hard enough her soul will find a way to pummel God and win.

In mid-arc, Noriko Takaya's world ends.

He appears before her. Gravity is up and down doesn't exist. She floats for a moment in psychic null-space, no longer cognizant of reality. He is a tall man, with a stern face, the pristine white uniform of the old Luxion Expedition's space navy. He is smiling at her, arms open, and her heart breaks, confusion and pain in her. We can be together again.

But she's strong. Noriko Takaya is strong, so she focuses, tries to remember what is the lie, flies onward toward eternity, thinking that there is something for her there, but she is not alone, because he flies with her, and so do the others, slowly appearing - Master Asia. Gentle Chapman, visions of those she has loved and lost, men she would put the whole weight of her soul on, reaching out to guide her, together, into a world where they no longer have to hurt.

"No," she says, but she isn't sure it's her, or them, or everything, the world is black and upside down and she can't even remember when she started falling, falling toward that sea, and Rei is waiting for her with arms outstretched, calling, Coach, Coach, I'm here, I'm--

Noriko Takaya thinks - for just a fraction of a second - that she wishes she could be with everyone.

And in that instant, her wish is granted.

There is a hollow SPLOOSH as a puddle of orange liquid and an empty Top Squadron uniform splash into the sea of Mother's blood.

Macua Huitl has a very st has a very strong sense of self she's come back from a lot, but then pain stops the overwehlming pain as she feels the presnce she's always felt twist into something out of Lovecraft and want to devour her whole, the brazilian girl screams out loud, screams mentally haro that's been at her feet seems scared. It actually shits up. Macua's machine staggers in the LCL, still not down but clearly out of the fight for all intents it clutches her head and she's still screaming.

They tried to errase her mind, make her nothing, just a weapon nobody she had fought back, she had managed to claw her way back from it. Even then she couldn't remebered who she was, she'd made herself again, with help from others.

Her mind reaches out trying to grasp for anyone but there's too much. Wait Akira her mind reaches out he might hear a call from help for her.

Then she sees something she pause it's a girl who looks a lot like her, she's younger than her and seems concerned.

"I... I didn't mean to kill you."

"You had nothing to do with it, it wasn't your fault. You suffered so much, please, come with me. I can make the pain and suffering stop. You won't have to hurt any more, you won't have to fight any more. You can stop and finally rest."

MAcua seems suprised as the other girl as she hugs her and Macua explodes into a cloud of Tang.

Zako looks up it's covered in goo, Macua's gone and it shrieks!

"MACUA! MACUA! ZAKO! MACUA GONE!"

The power grows. Akira, potentially the strongest psychokinetic on the planet Earth, seeks the destruction of the LCL below. He doesn't know that this is not the same as the liquified humans he's encountered in the past; he doesn't know what it really is, or what it really could be. All he knows...

YEARS AGO

...is torment.

The liquified humans travel up Buriki Daioh, a flood of amber liquid rising up over the Great Tin King. Their proximity gives Akira a glimpse into their minds, something he did not want. He did not look; they /show/ him, their words resonating through every fiber of his being.

FREE US

The liquid flows up into the head and into the cockpit. Akira's senses are overwhelmed by screams, visions of unspeakable agony inflicted on two thousand people. They do not know they are people, not anymore; they couldn't know. Even the one mind he saw that was strong enough to resist the torturous Hell they have found themselves locked in didn't last long. How could someone do this to anyone?

He feels himself slipping. He has to resist it. He feels himself beginning to disconnect from his body--but suddenly, a well of power opens to him. Is this the strength they used to summon that demon into their world? The might of the combined humans surges into him, amplifying his power tenfold.

"BURIKI DAIOH!" he cries, voice hoarse. "MATSU!" he yells, pleading, the echo seeming distant. "EVERYONE! HELP ME!!"

Buriki Daioh glows with a terrible light. The liquified humans boil, destroyed utterly by the eruption of psychokinetic strength. All is silent.

NOW

He has to do it again.

Akira's power builds to a level he has never attempted to reach before. The spot behind his eyes sears and throbs as he focuses all his energy inward in preparation to releasing it all at once. He'll need it to destroy this before they can do it again. Is this NERV's goal? But what about--

He can't think. He can't feel anything but pain, every bone in his body reverbrating from the strength it wasn't meant to hold. His will alone keeps it in check.

He is Akira Tadokoro, he reminds himself. He must be strong. He has to protect his friends. He has to protect his sister. He has to protect everyone. Nobody else can do it this time.

He knows it's happening already. Akira senses the barriers between them all breaking down. They must have come for the rest, and they must be coming for him. He can't let it happen. He won't. He sees red, he doesn't see /them/, but he knows what's happening. Nobody else does. Nobody else.

He feels the pull of Buriki Daioh, seeking power from him, and he tears himself away from it, hurling himself from the machine. He wants to curl up into a ball from the agony. He's never felt so much pain and suffering. It dawns on him that this can't all be his--he must have fallen within the glowing sea of amber. Is that what he feels around him? Maybe. But that's how he'll destroy it.

Akira's mind and soul begin to be drawn into the collective consciousness. He screams out against it, fighting the inexorable tide. "I'm strong!" Akira shouts. His voice doesn't reach his ears. "I won't give up! You can't stop me!!" He starts to shake uncontrollably. His body is still his, held within the LCL as darkness tries to close in, the pinprick of light at the end of the endless expanse of black growing.

"I WON'T LET YOU!!"

Akira's mind touches the consciousness as he prepares to destroy it, the power ready to be unleashed. He waits for the precise moment he taps into the wellspring of energy from all the human potential within it, steeled for the waves of despair and agony he expects. He reaches out for the power--and immediately, three things come to his mind, processed at a speed transcending thought, enabled by the collective.

The first is Bliss. He doesn't experience pain and suffering, but rather the opposite. It is not Hell he is thrust into, but Heaven. He has doubts, and they are carried away as he begins to discorporate, his own gathered power keeping shape within the LCL as his body is slowly washed away.

The second is Will. His remains, against all odds, resisting the tide. His body may begin to dissolve, but his Self persists. The strength he has gathered seems to be merely an echo, an image of his Self, but it is enough to empower him for the moments he must live. He has the strength to destroy them--but, as he listens, he 'hears' the individuals within fading away to nothing. He recognizes them for the nanoseconds he has to 'see' them. They aren't dead. They aren't one, not wholly, not yet.

The last is Strength. It is not up to him, he realizes, his consciousness becoming sluggish. There is a hope in the boy that Getter has chosen to change the world. No--that has the will to change it himself. Shinji's strength, Getter's strength, Akira's strength--it has to be enough. It /will/ be enough. There is no room for doubt.

But he cannot save them--and he must not destroy them. It's up to Him.

Akira vanishes from the LCL. He rises above it, the silhouette of his body ascending within Terminal Dogma. He has to get away from them. He can't destroy them. He refuses to allow it. Even in this state, he has the will to make something happen. The power he has gathered has to go somewhere; he can't simply allow it to dissipate. It must be released.

Akira sheds white un-light. The world around him fades away as the not-illumination, the blankness of reality peeling back and ceasing to function correctly, spreads out. He funnels it upwards, the purest route for his gathered power to be shed. The dozens of people below him give him the strength to channel it away from them, the connection to the collective consciousness feeding him power he can hardly fathom.

Except, he thinks, this doesn't feel like it could be less than what he channeled before. What is it's limit? Akira reaches out, his shadow-hand extending below, flashes of gold where his eyes would be seeking the edge of the consciousness.

And he finds it is Japan.

ABOVE THE GEOFRONT

TOKYO-03

A white disk appears above the center of the Geofront's location on the surface, spreading rapidly. It is blankness, and it casts a shadow upward as it grows, with a gap of perhaps a hundred yards between the surface of the two-dimensional whiteness and the edges of the translucent shadow-dome. Both spread outward and upward, blocks of the war-torn city shadowed by the disk of nothing.

The battle that rages on above pauses momentarily. the remaining warriors of the Spiral and the Moonrace left within the city look upward and disperse. The Evangelions, the few left unslain in the perhaps minutes that have passed in the rest of the world, turn to observe the event. They do not have the animal instinct to flee what is about to occur.

The collected power of the consciousness, of All as One, flows upward. Reality reasserts itself, and the raw power held within the nothing becomes kinetic energy. The colors invert, the dome filling with white light and the ground beneath shadowed as it touches down--and begins to spread, erupting outward in every direction.

The eruption is seen from miles around--or would be, in normal circumstances. From Tokyo-02, it seems something like the sun is rising over the city. Further away, it is only a glimmer over the horizon. Within the city itself...

Darkness brightens to daylight, and the blood red sky reflects the power absolute spreading across the skyline. No obstacle slows it; everything is simply pushed aside and reduced to dust and sand. What cannot move is charred to ash and torn away, the ungodly force leaving nothing standing. From the Geofront outward, in a perfect circle, everything simply ceases to be.

Moments later, the light flickers, disappearing in the blink of an eye. The dust settles.

Tokyo-03 is gone.

In the center of the crater, a hole in the Earth remains. The sea of LCL hardly even ripples as a humanoid shape falls into it's depths.

Shinji is too busy crying to see Lilith gaining power from him and Unit 01. Kaworu was gone. While Shinji had friends still alive, he would've been the same if he had to kill one of them. However, he did it for kaworu and so everyone else could survive. Shinji felt comfort in Kaworu's last words. They showed that they really did care about each other.

Suddenly Shinji is seized by a otherworldly force, he turns his head and sees Rei-3, Kaworu, his mother, and his father waiting for him. Near the back of them, he sees someone he had been chasing all this time, Asuka, smiling at him in that yellow sundress of hers. He smiles, knowing that there was finally some happiness in his life. He shuts his eyes as he feels his body give way into nothing before becoming everything.

The world is seen by Shinji, as visions of real life Tokyo flash before his eyes. "Where am I?"

Rei's voice and pressence become known to Shinji as he continues to watch everyday people living their lives. "This is a world unhindered by the loneliness of the previous one. Here, all are equal and effected by each other. There is no pain because all are one."

"But why am I seeing the world as it was." Shinji asks as he sees a swan glide harmless over a lake. The scene is of a sporting event where a man in a tight green costume dances.

"The world is how you imagine it now. A world without the constraints of fear, hate, and sorrow."

"So I'm seeing what I want to see."

"I is a term that does not exist anymore, Shinji. We are no linked together by bonds which are shaped by all joined within Instrumentality."

"But...this seems weird. I mean what about the things that made everyone...everyone."

"There is no needs ofr such markers now as they only lead to the pain you ran from, Shinji." Rei's voice continues.

"But..I don't think I want this..." Shinji says, sighing to himself. If the world was all one now, there was no individuality. It was no longer humanity but just one being. "HUmanity was fine with how it was."

Kaworu interjects, "Shinji, you exist in a world where you will no longer feel pain."

Shinji's mother interjects, " we Will no longer be alone."

Asuka says, "We can be together and will always be."

Shinji pauses for a moment, looking beyond the visions of the real work and to the sea of LCL he is now a part of. "Even if I can be, what makes these things the people I want to be with and not manifestations of who I wished I was with."

Gendo says, "Isn't it the same thing? You now exist in a world that is created by the beings within it. Something that is eternal and everlasting. A painless world where anything can be accomplished. You are saying this is not what you asked for?"

"But I think I liked the flaws. They hurt me a lot but the pain was part of being a person. Of growing up into someone and passing that on to the next generation. Here, I will just be denying what made the world what it was." Shinji replies, thinking for a moment, taking note of the pretty landscapes. The World as it was before man. Forests and flowers overtake land untouched by human hands.

"So what it was that you wanted was to be a part of the world as it was and not your own. a world of sorrow and pain. You may very well never get that wish in a world like that." Kaji says from nowhere.

"You will face people who will hate you..." says Leo Stenbuck.

"..And people who care about you..." says Misato.

"Some will have no opinion at all...You must learn to cope with people in all forms there." Kensuke says.

"Even so...that was what made people human." Shinji says, watching people fly into space and found the first colonies. The smiles on people's faces. A bee pollunating a flower. "The freedom to choose one's destiny apart from everyone else or to unite together."

"IS that what you want Shinji? You have the power to make the world as it was...but you can never undo that change. Are you sure?" Rei asks from above him.

"Yeah. Even if I'm alone again in the world like that, I'll be me. That's what matters. Not the me who exists in others but the me who exists in myself." Shinji says looking around him at the sea of everyone. "I want to be me. I might've not liked myself but I was atleast free to feel that way if I wanted."

"Do you still feel that way Shinji?" Rei asks one last time, her voice getting distant.

Shinji feels himself smiling without a body. "I don't think so...The Shinji Ikari who existed before all of this was someone who never felt affection. He lived without human contact."

"And now?" Rei asks. "Why does he deny a world where that would never occur?"

"Because he has found that contact in the world where it isn't just a fact."

Shinji feels everything start to pull apart, looking at Kaworu and Rei as they separate out from him. They waves as Shinji looks around him. "I am me."

Individuality is reclaimed. All it takes is one separate from one, and then there's more. The process of Instrumentality thrusts itself violently into reverse. Those who devolved into glop find themselves waking up, corporeal, whole. But not before...

Perhaps it's Shinji Ikari rejecting the end of the world, or perhaps it's Akira Tadokoro's psychic powers trying to instigate it. Perhaps it's Vindel Mauser stabbing her in the toe. Suddenly, the giant Lilith -- the effigy of Rei Ayanami -- seizes, and crumbles. She dissolves into dust so thin it begins breaking apart at a molecular level. By the end of the trip -- only her head remains, and it slams into the barren landscape that was once Tokyo-03, landing sideways and halfway shattering, eerie smile still fixed on her face, now nothing more than a monument.

The world wakes up, scarred but alive.

NERV is over.

Tokyo-03 is over.

Instrumentality is over.

What may have been the last possible chance for universal peace in our time, for bliss and happiness and true, complete unity is over.

And now, as a new day starts, the world once again enjoys the privilege of living with itself.

God is dead.

Third Impact is over.

Deep in the depths of what was once called Terminal Dogma, at the bottom of a reservoir of the blood of the mother of all mankind, a five-foot-long strip of sky blue ribbon has sunk, forgotten.