Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Heaven and Hell ❯ In the Beginning After the End of the World ( Chapter 1 )

Manga - Addicts Presents:
Heaven and Hell
Revelations 0:1 - In the Beginning after the End of the World
Version1 07/30/2001

HTML version 09 May 2008

Neon Genesis Evangelion created by, registered, and copyrighted to GAINAX, Project EVA, Movic, and any other company and/or division associated with the creation and/or production of Neon Genesis Evangelion. A.D.Vision holds the copyrights to the English version of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This work of fiction is not intended for any commercial purposes but was created for the entertainment of the Author and Fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

No copyright infringement was in any way intended.

Heaven and Hell written by Jino Turtlegod

M Rating. For mature readers only. Some scenes, themes, language, and situations are not suitable for younger readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Revelations 0:1 - In the Beginning after the End of the World

Within the darkened bowels of the earth, in a shadow-clad cavern hewn by the hands of man and adorned with cold, forged metal, a giant, the color of night stirred. Eyes blazed white under the cover of the steel mask it wore. Runes on its forearms sparked into life proclaiming its name - The Revelation of Salvation.

The mask's sculpted form parted on its hinges as the creature roared out its defiance at the darkness and screamed the proclamation of its birth to the world.

000

The rhythmic thumping sound of rotors can be heard as something flew over a dark blue sea littered with the crumbling ruins of skyscrapers. The flying thing's shadow was cast on the sea and the ruins until its form reflected off the dirty but largely undamaged mirrored glass façade of a ruin half submerged in the blue waters. An ungainly white form with short stubby wings which had a huge engine on each end that ran the gigantic propellers. On the tilt-rotor aircraft's sides a strange device was painted on in blood red, half a maple leaf angled on its axis with two pairs of letters making up its other side; an N and an E over an R and a V. Script ran in a curve under the device but the aircraft quickly passed over the mirrored glass before the words could be made out by any observer.

The blue sea slowly became tinged with crimson as if a child had spilled red paint into the lifeless sea. More ruins passed underneath the aircraft until the aircraft hovered over the source of the red tide, the fallen form of a white giant lying face down in the waters.

This is Tokyo-3
The Present: 2018AD

A young girl of about twelve screamed as her white EVA - a giant robot - fell back with a crash that added another ruined building to the burning cityscape. Her breathing was ragged and her youthful face was twisted in a grimace of pain; her chest still hurt from the hit her EVA had received. She looked down and saw that her EVA's chest armor was torn as if it were tin foil, the EVA's blood seeped out from under the ravaged metal. She winced with every breath and she felt the creepy sensation of bleeding though she was personally unharmed, her hand unconsciously touched the white plugsuit she wore in exactly the same place where her EVA had received its wound. Above the crackle of the inferno around her was the terrifying roar of something alien and savage.

A small screen blinked into life several inches from her face and the girl jerked her head up in surprise, her thick black braid swished in the heavy liquid of the LCL around her.

"Yuriko! What the Hell do you think you're doing! You're not paid to get your EVA's paint scuffed!" The screen showed the angry image of a young woman wearing a NERV command uniform; a red beret balanced precariously on atop her long, luxurious auburn hair, red jacket with black and gold trimmings which was open in the front to reveal the black sleeveless turtle-neck shirt and short black dress skirt underneath. The young woman glared at the pilot. "Now get off your ass and KILL THAT ANGEL!" The screen blinked out.

"Yes, Asuka. Yes, Little-Miss-Perfect-Chief-Pilot Asuka Langley Soryu," Yuri muttered vehemently as she willed her EVA to stand up. The white, gigantic bio-mechanical monstrosity picked up a progressive knife that had been dropped by another teammate who was currently under the enemy: the Angel.

The Angel had grasped the sides of the other EVA's head and repeatedly pounded it into the shattered concrete of the wide street while the EVA was pinned to the ground by a lance through the right shoulder.

Yuri mentally activated her communicator and a screen came to life near her. The screen showed a boy frantically pulling on his control stick with one hand while the other grasped the side of his head. "Allen, are you alright?!" - In retrospect, a stupid question.

"NO! Get him off me would ya!" Came the strained voice of her teammate, the boy's long, wavy brown hair obscured his eyes but she could see him grit his teeth in pain. Allen Alleyn suddenly screamed and grabbed his right shoulder as the Angel ceased its pounding and tore the EVA's right arm off, the damaged shoulder easily yielded to the Angel's violence.

Yuri watched in fascinated terror as the Angel stood up from crouching over Allen's disarmed EVA-30 which writhed in sympathetic pain with its pilot. The Angel was similar in appearance to the EVA except that it was black instead of white and its eyes were blazing white instead of the EVA's warm yellow. Its armored jaw hung open, showing-off the white teeth inside, giving the Angel a hungry, bestial look. The neon green markings on its forearms read "EVA - 20". It was growling and grunting like some alien, wild animal as it stood hunched-back over the wounded prey. The Angel pulled back its leg, then brought its heel down on the head of Allen's EVA - it splattered and soaked the ground in blood.

Inside Yuri's entry plug, Allen's scream of horror was cut off as his mini-screen filled with static. Yuri winced.

"That had got to hurt," Yuri thought numbly. She saw the Angel yank its lance from the destroyed EVA as its head jerked towards her direction. Its eyes became narrow slits as it looked at her. Its jaw opened wider as an unnatural roar emanated from it, shaking the young girl to her very core.

"Uh... Asuka?" Yuri gasped out as she thumbed the 'send' button on her control sticks. An overwhelming fear of death suddenly gripped her as the Angel's AT Field completely neutralized her EVA's.

"What is it this time?" Asuka's image reappeared, the smaller screen super-imposed on the image of the charging Angel. The lance the Angel held was raised, ready to strike her down, each earth-shaking step brought the monster closer to the terrified young girl. Yuri wanted to disappear into the control seat as the Angel's lance swung down at her.

"HEEELLLLLPPP!!" Yuri screamed as she frantically tried to fend off the Angel's attack, sparks flew as knife and lance met and locked blades. Angel and EVA leaned towards each other, trying to push the other away, the concrete under their feet cracked and gave way under the weight of the battling titans.

However, a knife is no match against a lance. After a few moments the knife blade gave way and Yuri felt a searing pain in her wrist as the lance cut through her knife and sliced her EVA's hand off. Yuri stared uncomprehendingly at the stump and at the blood that her EVA's circulatory system pumped into the air, her mind briefly registered the impact of the EVA's severed hand as it crashed into a building several blocks down the street. Waves of pain radiated from her wrist, making her tighten her grip on her control sticks. But the pain of losing her EVA's hand was no match for what happened next-

Yuri screamed as the Angel knocked her down with the shaft of its lance, knocking the wind out of her. She gasped as she felt the lance strike her EVA's chest, buried itself to the hilt and pinned her down against the street, her own hands unconsciously gripped at an imaginary lance that had run her through, in an effort to dislodge it. Varied colors of pain flashed before her eyes, staying even after she closed them. Somewhere inside her head she could hear someone or something else screaming, but in her state of pain she dismissed it as a computer glitch. She had something more important to deal with; her own pain. Yuri screamed until her breath ran out and she gritted her teeth.

"Well," Yuri thought numbly as she instinctively pulled herself into a fetal position, "It could have been worse..."

The Angel decided to extricate the blade by cutting the EVA in half, the progressive edge sliced through armor, EVA, and the concrete of the street underneath it, sending red blood and amber LCL spraying into the air. Yuri screamed some more as she hugged herself until the nerve connections were cut and her EVA's screens dimmed.

The last thing she saw was the Angel standing over her, a mist of blood swirled around it as its glowing eyes looked down at her. If it were possible to break into a cold sweat while immersed in LCL Yuri would have been dehydrated.

"Shi-it!" Yuri heard Asuka exclaim through the communications gear. "Terminate training sequence. All pilots failed."

Yuri knew Asuka enough to know that the young woman was pissed. Yuri slumped in her seat as the LCL drained away, debating the pros and cons of getting out or staying inside. The sound of someone pounding on her hatch decided matters for her. Reluctantly Yuri opened the hatch of her entry plug and slid it back, the pain in her chest and wrist still burned, and she emerged into the glaring lights of the Simulation Training Area, fondly called by the pilots as "Artificial Hell".

There were six simulator entry plugs arranged side by side at an angle to the wall. A wide, retractable catwalk was now in position so that the pilots could get out. Under the catwalk, amber LCL sloshed against the walls and the parts of the entry plugs which extended down toward the room's submerged floor. Around the room were large viewing windows from which the technicians could observe the sim plugs.

Yuri could see the paramedics scramble over Allen's open entry plug. She couldn't see him, but she could hear him puking his guts out.

`Eww,' Yuri made a mental note not to get into that plug on the next test. The other entry plugs were also open, a chubby boy still sat in one, holding his aching head while a girl with short, red hair was standing unsteadily using her entry plug for support.

Then the Chief Pilot entered her line of vision. Yuri looked up and their eyes met, the young woman looked down at her with an air of superiority.

Pilot First Class Asuka Langley Soryu, 1st Branch Chief Pilot, is the only pilot on the base who had actually faced and defeated both Angels and EVAs. She is one of the heroes of the war against the Angels, one of the three veteran pilots from that war to remain in NERV. She is also the highest ranked pilot in active service. Pilot Soryu always made it a point to remind the newer pilots of her achievements.

"Well, well, Ms. Suzuhara. How does it feel to die?" Asuka sneered. Yuri braced up in her seat, which made the dull pain in her chest more acute, not wanting to give Asuka the pleasure of seeing her shaken by the training session.

"Fine, ma'am," she replied crisply, trying hard to keep her anger and frustration from her voice. She knew that her Big Brother would approve of her standing up to the bitch. She made a mental note to tell him to lighten up on the next training run. It still irked her that her brother had actually piloted his "Angel" to kill his little sister. Simulation or not, even if the nerve connections were dulled, it still hurt like Hell.

"Fine? Fine?! You got killed! If this was a real Angel attack and you losers were the ones we had to depend on we'll all be DEAD! Shit! Fine does not cut it little girl! We have to win! Second chances are not an option against the enemy! If this was your best, then I suggest you continue your studies little girl because you are not cut out for this job. Feh, forget that, if you and these rookies are our final hope I suggest you go see a priest or whoever you go to to have your hand patted whenever you make a boo-boo and cry your little eyes dry!!" Yuri's eyes began to water and her lower lip gave a little quiver as Asuka thrust her face close to the young girl's. Yuri could swear that Asuka gave off an AT Field. To her credit, Yuri managed not to cry as the whole room quieted down at Asuka's righteous anger.

`Tough little bitch,' Asuka thought, then she smiled to herself, `reminds me of me.' The alarm klaxon interrupted Asuka before she could continue her tirade, to Yuri's relief.

"Pilots Asuka Soryu and Toji Suzuhara, proceed to Hangar 12 for immediate deployment," A female control officer announced with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"What? Another drill? Misato must be bored." Yuri and Asuka turned to the entry plug with the word TRAINER printed on it to see Toji emerge, LCL dripped down his face, his usually spiky hair slicked down by the liquid. A technician handed him a towel to clean off the substance.

"Don't tell me you're whining because you're going into a real EVA again," Asuka said in a mocking tone. Yuri saw her brother tense up, then look at Asuka with a dangerous glint in his eyes. Asuka in turn gave him a challenging look and Yuri actually thought they would end up in a fistfight.

"You're lucky I don't fight girls," Toji growled under his breath. Asuka merely laughed with the back of her hand to her mouth as she strode away. Yuri faintly became aware of breathing again. She was glad that Toji and Asuka hadn't fought. Toji may be stronger, but Asuka's a better fighter - it would have been embarrassing for brother and sister to have Asuka hand Toji his butt on a sling.

"Be careful. Next time, you might die for real," Toji whispered gently to his sister as he walked towards the door. He gave his sister a concerned look - a look that he rarely showed anyone. He went to stand beside Asuka who had turned around to annoy the younger pilots some more.

"All right listen up you misfits!" Asuka yelled at the younger pilots. "Go to the observation deck and see how a professional handles an EVA! Let's go, Toji!"

"Arrogant bitch!" Yuri growled as the door closed behind Asuka. Then for good measure she gave the closed door the finger. She heard some giggling from the pilots and technicians behind her and she felt better.

000

NERV 1st Branch
Terminal Dogma

"Commander Santiago, Please report to Combined Operations Command, an unidentified object has been detected," a female voice spoke through the paging system, echoing through the vast underground cavern under NERV-1's pyramid. A sea of LCL gently splashed against the metal posts of the raised walkways and the mountain of Carbon Bakelite that stood in the center of the sea like an island of amber. Inside the mound of crystalline matter were two figures caught in an eternal struggle, like fossilized insects in resin.

"The very reason for NERV's continued existence..." a man's voice declared with amused sarcasm into the darkness. A tall, imposing man stood up from the kneeling position he had taken at the edge of the walkway. He straightened the black uniform he wore and brushed away the dust from the legs of his pants in a bored and unconcerned manner. He briefly wondered what his predecessor thought of the mission he had been given, the doubtful honor of ushering in man's rebirth. He knew his predecessor's actions but not the reasons behind it, the actions that lead to the bloodbath of the Eighteenth Incident and opened the doors to Unification. "Ikari, what did you think...?"

Commander Crisostomo Santiago walked away from the tomb where NERV's precious ward was kept, his footsteps echoing in the still silence, his question unanswered.

000

"- peat, a state of emergency has been declared for the entire Central Kanto area centering around the Tokai region. This is not a drill. Please report to your district supervisor and proceed to your designated shelters. All First and Second Class buildings will be retracted to attack positions in ten minutes. Fortress mode will be engaged in five minutes. I repeat -" the recorded warning looped, largely ignored by a girl near womanhood lying on her back on a bed in a well furnished room, an empty bed lay flush to the wall opposite hers, a study desk equipped with two chairs separated the two beds. She wore a matching pair of white shirt and shorts. Her hands are on an open book that is lying facedown on her belly. Upon closer inspection it becomes apparent that the book is a romance novel. The girl's eyes, a striking shade of red, are unreadable as they stare unblinkingly at the ceiling.

A cellular phone on the desk began to ring and she turned to face it, strands of her short, cyan hair fell in front of her crimson eyes. She sat up on the bed, her posture straight yet relaxed, and looked at the phone as if perplexed by its ringing. She reached for it and pressed the receive button.

"Yes." She spoke in a calm monotone.

"Ms. Rei Ayanami?" the voice from the other line inquired as if in doubt.

"Yes."

"Please report to the First Branch, A.S.A.P."

"Understood." Rei clicked the disconnect button and replaced the phone on her table, right beside a beaker of clear water which served unintentionally as a paperweight for a piece of paper recognizable as a prescription. She looks at the novel that had fallen on the floor and picked it up.

"He is just using you." Rei sadly said to the book in her hand, the robotic monotone no longer evident in her voice as sadness suffused her words. She smiled wryly to herself before speaking loudly as she moved to the foyer, "Pen-pen, I am going to the base. Please hide yourself."

Rei laughed lightly to herself as Pen-pen, her hot-springs penguin housemate, squawked an answer from somewhere in the spacious apartment. She slipped on a pair of sneakers while humming to herself.

"I am off then," Rei called out as she stepped out of the apartment door. As the door closed behind her, the romance novel can be seen in her hands.

000

A white, twin-engined NERV hoverjet suspended against white. This is what two eyes the color caramel looked at. Kensuke Aida was lying down on his bed and stared up at his ceiling. He raised his hand as if reaching for the model plane that hung above his head. He looked intently at the back of the scarred hand, tracing the jagged tissue that ran from his knuckles down to his elbow.

He imagined the scarred arm bloodied. Stained by his blood, the blood of his father, the blood of the people he killed. He snickered bitterly to himself. "Now Mr. Kensuke, you are a Grade-A EVA pilot. Everything you wished for all those years back."

"But I don't wish it now," he whispered to himself sadly. First hand experience of the pain brought by EVA shattered his fantasies. He once made light of Shinji's pain even though he was there when his friend had suffered during the Fourth Incident. He had still been able to delude himself into thinking that piloting an EVA was the greatest thing in the world, a direction in his otherwise meandering life. It took Toji's amputation to crack his fantasy, he felt scared and stupid for wanting to pilot something that did that to his friend. He had resolved to have nothing to do with the military and EVA. He had even burned all of his military stuff the day after Toji was nearly killed. That was the day he decided to become a pacifist and had urged his father to quit NERV.

Fate had other ideas. The Eighteenth Incident took away his father, his only remaining relative. It had nearly taken his life too, it was his luck that he only had an injured arm to show for that day when he had decided to sneak into the geofront to confront his father and instead got caught in a massacre. After the incident, a man in a black suit came up to him in the hospital and gave him an offer. He had no choice but to accept NERV's proposal. He had to live - facing death had made him realize that he feared death.

Or did he? People died because of him. People mourned because of him. This was his guilt, this was the reason he had decided on this course of action. His scarred hand went to the gun, which lay on the bed by his side. He had reverently cleaned it a little while earlier.

He brought suffering and therefore he should stop it. He loaded the clip into the gun, pulled back the slide and chambered a round. He took a deep breath as he placed the cold metal to his temple.

He would stop it, the pain and suffering. He needed no letter to explain his reasons. There was no one to write to and those who existed knew the reason and would understand.

He --RING-- had to answer his phone.

"Yes?" Kensuke said with a hint of irritation. Suicide was a sacred thing, now he'll have to postpone it since the idiot on the line interrupted- no, corrupted the ritual.

"What?" The color drained from Kensuke's face as he listened to the caller. A little later, a determined look came over his features.

"Understood." He clicked off his phone and bolted upright to put on his boots. He took his glasses from the bedside table and jammed it into position on the bridge of his nose and then looked at the poster on his wall and gave a small smile to himself. He took his jacket from a chair by his door as he ran out of the apartment.

On the poster, written in crisp calligraphy, were the words "Duty is as heavy as a mountain but death is as light as a feather".

000

Soft music played from the radio as Hikari Horaki sat in front of her dresser mirror. She was brushing her shoulder length hair in preparation to go shopping with her girl friends, just the three of them with no boys around. Not that she wasn't cute and unpopular with the boys, she is rather fetching and her freckles, which had made her self-conscious during her junior high school years, were starting to fade. Besides, who would want other boys when she already had the one she wanted. She smiled, lifting the gloom she always associated with being alone. She looked at the photograph on her dresser of herself and her boyfriend.

She only liked to hang out with her close friends and of those she didn't have much of; Toji, Asuka, Rei, and Kensuke. She remembered that only a couple of years or so ago she had a whole lot friends. But now a lot of those friends were either dead, somewhere else, or didn't want anything to do with her and her kind.

Her kind... Hikari laid down the brush and looked at her hands. She could just imagine them dripping with the blood of all the people she had killed. Her kind... they call them "Children". The select few chosen to pilot the Evangelion, those mechanical monstrosities that were once Humanity's greatest hope for survival, now the chain that binds them in fearful peace.

She stood up and straightened her skirt. She had to meet Asuka at the base and then they would go pick Rei up at Misato's apartment on the way to the mall. She hoped to spend a few minutes with her boyfriend at the base, too bad he was on standby duty or she would've dragged him along. In some ways it was a good thing or Asuka would have probably grumbled and made gagging noises all the time she and Toji would be together.

Hikari looked at her self at the mirror. She used to wear her hair in twin pigtails, but that seemed to be a long time in the past, when she had still considered herself a child, now she wore her hair down and unrestrained. Hikari looked down once more at her hands and shuddered as she imagined the blood once more.

Her phone began to ring.

000

Asuka's jacket dropped to the floor followed by her other clothes and underwear. The sound of plastic fabric unraveling as Asuka unfolded her plugsuit with a snap of her wrist. She paused for a moment as she looked at the red suit in her hand as she stood naked in front of her open locker. Red as the color of blood.

She wrinkled her nose in distaste as she wiggled into the suit which used to be a very baggy fit on her when she had been younger but now was a bit tight even in its loose form. She used a hand and a twist of her neck to remove her long hair from the confines of the suit before activating the air pump. With a quick hiss the suit tightened to conform to her shape, remaining soft where movement was needed but hardening to the toughness of armor around her neck, collar bone, shoulders, back, and chest. Asuka sighed at the snug fit of her suit, comfortable in its familiarity. As a final touch, she took her cranial transmitters, two red, clip-like knobs made out of plastics, and attached them to the sides of her head with practiced ease. She glanced at the watch built into the back of the left hand and she hurriedly stuffed her discarded clothing into her locker. She paused after throwing her panties into the locker, a strange wistful look coming over her features. She leaned forward and took a sniff of the air inside the locker.

A disappointed frown crept into her face as she berated herself. It had been two years already - of course her scent would have overwhelmed his by now. She slammed the door on the locker she had appropriated for herself, the locker which still bore the name of its previous owner, the name she herself had prevented the others from removing, content on gluing her own nameplate under the original nameplate. This arrangement had drawn curious looks from the other female pilots and the maintenance crews but none had the inclination to question her eccentricities. Asuka looked at the nameplate and traced a finger over the curves of the letters, this was sort of a pre-boarding ritual for her, drawing strength from the imagined bond to the boy who had owned the locker. With a final sigh she raced out of the locker room.

000

NERV 1st Branch
Combined Operations Command

Not many people would think that a vast geofront would be a suitable place to build a pyramid, but whatever the case may be, that's exactly what Central Dogma is; a pyramid in a vast underground cavern. Central Dogma housed the EVA hangars, repair bays, training areas, research and development labs, and most importantly; the main control theater - Combined Operations Command.

The Combined Operations Command is the heart of the First Branch. This is where everything is controlled, anything as mundane as the door locks on the fourth sub level restrooms, the defensive weapons arrays surrounding the fortress city of Tokyo-3, to several key functions in the Evangelions assigned to the base. The control officers' stations were arranged in several tiers in a U formation around the central monitor. Each division had its own tier, the Command and Control Section, at the highest level of a central area called the Bridge. The central display consisted of a large holograph screen and a topographic relief map angled under the screen.

Colonel Misato Katsuragi looked at the main screen from her usual position on the bridge, watching in dread fascination as the world went to Hell in a hand basket. All across the screen, red warning signs flared up, and off to one side, in tall, all-caps: BLOOD TYPE: BLUE.

"Aw, shit. And my term was only up till next week," Misato complained to no one in particular.

"You'll just have to change your plans then." Misato turned in surprise as her commander's desk on the bridge rose to give its occupant a better view of the theater, her commander was smiling at her from behind it. Misato nodded, then returned to her post. She knew that behind her Santiago's smiling face was turning to a tight-lipped frown as he assumed his command face. She had once made the mistake of observing the transformation and it had disturbed her greatly.

Commander Crisostomo Santiago had joined them after the Eighteenth Incident two years before, shortly after Commander Ikari's demise. In most respects he acted like any normal man, but in a time of crisis he can be a cool (or cold?) operator. Where Ikari made her uneasy, Santiago downright scared her sometimes. She knew deep inside Ikari was something human, in Santiago she knew deep down inside was a monster.

"The target has broken through the Tertiary Defense Line! It's - Shit!" Lt. Corrie Hayes, an intelligent looking young man with blond hair and freckles, announced just as the awesome sight of the Angel became visible on the screen. It was a gigantic, orange sphere with what seemed to be a red "Eye of God" marking on its otherwise blank surface. It was bigger than an Olympic stadium and it made the NERV aircraft flying around it seem like mosquitoes. Misato knew that the rain of missiles from the hover-jets wouldn't even irritate the large thing. Hadn't they learned not to waste taxpayers' money against an AT Field?

"Holy shit! It the Death Star!!" one of the control officers exclaimed. Probably Lt. Hayes, the young officer loved Pre-Impact movies.

Misato felt the adrenaline flood her body and she licked her lips in anticipation. For the last two years she had commanded the EVAs to crush the UN's enemies: her fellow human beings. This was what she was trained for, not for herding her fellow humans to the UN's will. She felt worried as she looked at her new and inexperienced chief control officers. Lt. Corrie Hayes was the summa cum laude of his batch from the Academy in Geneva and highly dependable. Lt. Antoinette St. Croix had been assigned to the job-- Misato didn't really know why. And finally, Lt. Miyuki Kata, liaison to the Technical Department, bright but not very social, very much like her old friend Ritsuko. She missed her old controllers; Maya Ibuki, Makoto Hyuga and Shigeru Aoba. Shigeru had resigned after the Eighteenth Incident, Maya and Makoto both had new duties.

"Warning! Energy surge detected from the target!" Lt. Corrie Hayes announced from his position on the sub-control desk in front of Misato. The other control officers were positioned to either side and a little behind him.

"What?! Where is Dr. Ibuki?" Misato asked in mild surprise as she noticed that the chief science officer and Project E supervisor was absent from the control theater. "Can somebody tell me what it's trying to do!"

The Angel released dozens of smaller spheres, each a perfect replica of the original sphere. In a sudden blur of movement the smaller spheres had spread out, crashing into the hover-jets, destroying them in several fiery balls of shattered steel and death. The Angel hovered as if savoring its victory, the smoke from the downed aircraft floating around it. Now unimpeded by the aircraft, it proceeded to Tokyo-3 where its real target was kept.

Misato heard a shriek of horror from the observation gallery, two tiers below the command deck. She looked down and saw the new pilots along with several senior pilots, watching the proceedings grimly and fearfully. The younger pilots wore their red NERV jackets over their white and red plugsuits while the older pilots wore street-clothes. She motioned to security personnel to take them out of the theater.

"Let them watch," Commander Santiago intoned from behind the mask of coldness. "It's better that they know the enemy."

Misato nodded, giving in to her commander's wishes even though she had her own misgivings. They would probably know the enemy up close, sooner than they expected.

"...my god." Hikari Horaki whispered, her hands were near her mouth where they had failed to stifle her scream. She had seen people die before and it still made her feel cold knowing that she was a killer, but she was still unused to death, especially violent ones. She wanted to run and be sick but she was rooted to the spot, a prisoner of fear.

Kensuke Aida just pushed up his glasses with his index finger. He realized that he was holding his breath and slowly released it. He knew the perils of being a soldier, but things like this still shocked him. "Six squadrons... almost two hundred men..."

Yuriko Suzuhara watched in what could be described as awe and loathing. On the monitors was the image of her enemy. An enemy that had harmed people she had sworn to defend. She licked her lips and looked on in dread anticipation of battle, a slight excitement runs through her body like an electric current. A slight manic smile is on her lips as she continued watching.

Allen Alleyn watched as the jets go down. He felt sad for the people the crewmembers left behind. He knew how it felt to be told that someone you loved would no longer be coming home. He crossed his arms and hugged himself to prevent himself from shaking. He felt sick.

Juno Hurst ran one of her hands through her short red hair, her eyes closed to the horror on the main monitor. She was one of the new pilots, barely one year of training did not prepare her for what she just saw. She muttered swear words under her breath in a continuous stream.

Henri Montblanc's chubby hands were clasped together as he prayed. It wasn't a prayer for deliverance but a prayer for the souls of the departed pilots. He finished his prayer before looking sadly at the Angel on the monitor. "I'm sorry I must fight you."

Rei Ayanami stood apart from the others. Her hands were behind her, a book in their grasp. She felt confusion. "This is wrong," she said to herself.

000

Hangar 12 - Main EVA Cage Area

Asuka softly hummed to herself as she initiated her start-up sequence. Slowly, she could feel the EVA coming to life. She closed her eyes and reveled in the feeling of becoming taller, more powerful. She could feel what her EVA felt, what it felt like being braced up by the cage, her back unnaturally straight and her shoulders pinned to the cage.

She opened her eyes and saw what her EVA saw projected on the large monitors; a huge metallic cavern crisscrossed by rail tracks and gantries. Around her, she could see the lifeless EVAs in their cages. Rei's blue, Hikari's yellow, Aida's gray and beside her EVA, Toji's black. The rookie pilots' white and red EVAs where kept farther back, to allow more space for easier deployment of the senior pilots' EVAs.

Asuka smiled sadly. She thought of the things that she was forced to do with her EVA; to slaughter her fellow human beings during the Eighteenth Incident and the numerous small revolts after the War of Unification. She shook her head to clear her mind of the memories. She was going to do what she was supposed to do with her EVA: Kill Angels. Her brow knitted in determination.

"EVA Unit-02, All Green!"

000

Toji was uncomfortable. He hated the EVA. He remembered the first time he piloted one. He remembered the alien sensations of starting up as his consciousness melded with something hostile, then waking up in the hospital, his body numb from all the painkillers they had pumped into him. Then the helpless horror of finding out that he lost an arm and a leg to the monsters. Since then he felt uneasy in the presence of the manmade demons. The simulation plugs were all right since he knew he wasn't really trapped inside an EVA, that they could pull him out easily if something happens.

They kept reassuring him that it would never happen again, they told him these EVAs were better. They could keep on talking until they ran out of breath and died, it will still not drive away the fear.

"Shinji, I wish you're here," he muttered his friend's name, as he felt the EVA awaken. He hated the feeling of becoming one with the unit. He felt like the beast was absorbing him. That he was becoming a part of the machine - no, something much more sinister than a machine...

Toji remembered the video clips that he had seen of Shinji's EVA-01 stopping the Angel possessed EVA-03 with Toji still trapped in it. Of the Beast destroying the Angel with the fury of Hell itself. The thought that he was piloting something like that... He shuddered."Evangelion Unit-20, All Green."

000

Two sub-screens came to life on the main monitor. One showed Asuka, dead serious, and the other; a slightly uncomfortable Toji. The pilots gave a loud cheer that startled most of the control officers and techies. Misato wanted to smile at Asuka and Toji's cheering squad, but there was the matter of the Angel. The whole place shook as a small sphere separated from the main mass and hurled itself into commercial district, turning it into so much rubble.

"We don't know the full extent of the Angel's capabilities. You are to probe the Angel by attacking it from the opposite sides with ranged weapons. Hopefully it will show us the way of defeating it. Stay close to the recovery routes in case we need to pull you back in a hurry and be careful since we have determined that it uses small replicas of itself as projectile weapons. Shoot and pull back, understand?" Misato said as she looked at the pilots, wondering if they'll live through the coming battle. Both teenagers nodded.

Misato turned around and saw Commander Santiago hunched over his control desk, his right elbow rested on his desk with his hand touching his face and hiding his expression. His left hand's fingers drummed a steady rhythm on the surface of the desk. Misato once again compared him to Commander Ikari and she stifled a shudder as she waited for his command.

"Colonel, this is the purpose that NERV still exists."

Misato was alarmed at his tone. Where Ikari's voice was filled with calm righteousness, Santiago's voice was devoid of emotion. She gulped nervously as she nodded, then she turned to face the monitor, feeling the attention of everyone in the theater on her.

"Evangelion Units 02 and 20," she could feel the memory of other times returning. The times when NERV stood for good, Humanity's only hope. And she knew that those times were back.

"PREPARE TO SORTIE!!"

To Be Continued

In the Next Episode of Heaven and Hell:
Misato: The first battle of the new war against the Angel begins! Without Shinji and Unit 01, Asuka's in the limelight! Can she defeat the Angel or will she be the first child to give up her life in this war?! Heaven and Hell 0:2 Falling Down, don't miss it!