Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Heaven and Hell ❯ A Red Haze of Sadness ( Chapter 12 )

Manga - Addicts Presents:
Heaven and Hell
Revelations 1:2 - A Red Haze of Sadness

HTML version 16 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 1:2 - A Red Haze of Sadness

Shinji shuffled listlessly down the hospital corridor, he wore a pair of light blue hospital pajamas and slippers. The early afternoon light streamed through the windows behind him as he walked. He finally stopped by the door that he had been looking for. He stood there and contemplated his next move.

The pilot took a deep breath and raised his hand. He gave a timid knock before he opened the door and stuck his head into the room.

Toji looked up from the manga he was reading. After that morning's battle the roster was rotated to debrief and monitor the concerned pilots. Yuri, Hikari, and Kensuke were placed on standby, which left Toji without company. He was in his hospital pajamas, the blanket covered his legs. He had pulled up the side table to his bed and leaned on it as he read.

"Well, well if it isn't mister Big Shot himself," Toji smiled widely, welcoming back his long lost friend. "Heard from Dr. Akagi that you got another one this morning."

"Uhm, yeah." Shinji said in embarrassment as he walked in and sat on a chair by Toji's bed. His eyes were downcast, unable to look at his friend. He had been responsible for hurting Toji years before and he had been unable to apologize before he left NERV. He was hoping that now, he could finally make up for that sin. Shinji's right hand clenched and unclenched in agitation.

Toji set aside the comic he was reading and looked at his friend. "So what's eating you?"

"Huh?"

"Don't think you can fool me Ikari! I know you well enough to know something's bothering you." Toji pointed to Shinji's hand. Shinji blushed and tried to cover up his right with his left hand.

"Uh..." Shinji took a deep breath. `Better late than never.' Shinji bowed low in penance. "Toji, I - I'm sorry for hurting you--"

"Is that what's bothering you, Ikari?" Toji curtly interrupted. Shinji looked at him, confusion written all over his face. "God, Ikari! No wonder you can't relate well. You're carrying too much shit."

Shinji blinked. "But I almost killed you! You lost your arm and leg because of me!"

"You did what you had to do! Nothing less than what you should do. I knew the risks when I agreed. Hell, I've been friends with you long enough to know that this job could fuck me up. Anyway, I've gotten used to this new arm and leg they gave me that I've forgotten they're not original parts." Toji grinned, joking about his prosthetic limbs.

"But..." Shinji averted his eyes.

"Look Shinji, if it ain't bothering Hikari, I sure as Hell ain't gonna let it bother me. And if I ain't bothered, why should you be? Besides, if Asuka had been the one they chose for that little stunt, I'd be dead. You're the only reason I lived through that."

Shinji nodded, feeling a great weight lift from his chest. Gratitude shone on his face. "Thank you, Toji."

"No." Toji interrupted, smiling. "Thank you. If anything good came out of it, it brought me and Hikari together."

Shinji smiled as the world seemed a brighter place.

000

"UNIT 27 ACTIVATING!"

"ENEMY HAS REACHED THE EVA CAGE!!"

Misato watched in rapt attention as the monitor was filled with sub-screens, each showed a different scene. But they all showed a massacre. Ninth Branch's last surviving pilot had managed to activate his EVA and had started striking out at the rebels. The silver and black EVA was streaked red with blood as it used its bare hands to crush its human enemies.

"At 1230 hours local time Ninth Branch's MAGI agreed to self-destruct the base and activated the five-minute delay protocol." Lt. Miyuki Kata read off the transcript sent by Ninth Branch's MAGI. "At 1231, Unit 27 escaped the branch and headed towards Tenth Branch in Mexico." Several screens showed the EVA burst out of the base and spread its wings and fly off. "At 1232, Ninth Branch MAGI went off-line. Satellites verify that Ninth Branch had not self-destructed."

Lights came alive in the briefing room. Commander Santiago, Col. Makoto Hyuga, Dr. Maya Ibuki, and several other high ranking officers were seated around a long table, their chairs turned toward the large wall monitors. The squeaking of chairs was heard as the officers turned their chair to face the table again.

Everyone waited for Lt. Kata to leave the room before starting their discussion.

"Unit 27 was recovered near the Nicaraguan border. Its pilot verifies that all other pilots were killed when a bomb exploded in the locker room right before a Synch Test." Makoto said, his voice strangely drawn and cold.

"Traitors..." someone muttered out loud.

"The UN General Committee for Security has ordered that all branches send two pilots and their respective EVAs to the Tenth Branch in order to retake the Ninth." Commander Santiago said.

"Pardon sir," Misato raised her hand to ask a question she already knew the answers to. "What for? The rebels may have the EVAs but no pilots. A ground attack would be much more efficient, or baring that, four EVAs from the Tenth Branch would be enough."

"I have to agree sir," Maya said after making some quick calculations. "That's two EVAs from each of the remaining eleven bases plus the Tenth Branch's eight. That's thirty EVAs. Thirty-one if they send in Unit 27 as well. If the UN wants a show of force, isn't this too much?" There was a murmur of assent from all the other officers.

"Sir, we do have the Angels to contend with, we need all available EVAs here." One of the officers added, drawing more murmurs from the others.

Santiago raised his hand and the room fell silent.

"First, the UN wants to teach everyone a lesson that it will not allow anyone to undermine its power." He pauses and takes measure of the grim officers in the room. "Secondly, the enemy has pilots."

"What?!" Everyone cried out, shocked by the news. Everyone except for Misato.

"Each base commander is equipped with this," Santiago takes out a key-card from where it hung from a chain inside his tunic. "It opens a vault where there are dummy plugs for each of the base's EVAs. And most of you here know how powerful a dummy plug EVA can get." There were surprised whispering among the officers. Makoto looked at his commander not believing that he was not told about this beforehand.

"We were able to stop them once..." an officer said without much conviction.

"The UN had changed the programming, improving immensely on the old one. They totally omitted Dr. Akagi's safeguard and rear-door programs. The General Committee for Security thought it will be an added strength when they needed it." Santiago sounded tired. "Thirty-one EVAs would hopefully have to do."

The room fell silent.

"Who do we send?" Misato asked the much needed question.

Santiago looked at her, his face devoid of emotion. "You choose."

000

Shinji cracked the door open and peeked in. He had knocked several times and wondered why Asuka had not answered. Asuka lay on the bed with her blanket drawn up to her chin, her eyes closed in peaceful sleep. The monitoring equipment beside her was turned off so he could hear her even breathing.

Shinji thought of going away. This was so much like the time he had often tried to forget. The moment that always came back to haunt him during restless nights. It was that moment that made him hate himself. Vision of naked skin and the sensation of warm flesh flashed through his mind. Shinji grimaced and willed the memories away. He sighed sadly as he turned away.

"Shinji? Is that you?" Asuka cried out from the room. The boy gave a surprised "Ack!" before turning back to the cracked doorway.

"Um, yes."

"Why don't you come in? I feel like I had the plague or something if you continue talking to me from behind that stupid door," Asuka chuckled trying hard not to remember the last time he talked to her from behind a partition, the time he left Tokyo-3 after the Eighteenth Incident. Shinji peered through the crack and saw that she was still in the same position but her head was turned towards the door an amused expression on her face.

"I thought you were sleeping..." he replied apologetically.

"I won't talk to you until you come in here, Shinji Ikari." Asuka said in a scolding tone, she turned her head away to snub him. With a sigh of resignation, Shinji walked into the room and absent-mindedly locked the door behind him. Asuka noticed but did not say anything. She could feel his racing heartbeat, the sense of foreboding urgency about him.

"Um, so, do you feel better?" Shinji asked with an uncomfortable smile.

"Yeah, but my back still hurts," she smiled ruefully at him. "I guess it's no surprise that you're up on your feet before any of us."

Shinji blushed at the unanticipated compliment. But he also had a very guilty thought that she may be naked under the covers like the last time he had visited her two years past. He felt his heart skip as Asuka adjusted herself on the bed and the clean white sheets fall away from her to reveal-- A pair of light blue hospital pajamas underneath. Asuka stacked her pillows against the headboard and leaned back on it with a contented sigh. When she looked back at her visitor, Shinji's face was turned down and away, a definite blush on his cheeks. Asuka noticed that his hands clenched and unclenched on his lap. She knew that he only did that when something bothered him.

"Shinji?"

"Um, y-yes Asuka?" Shinji tried to look back at her but found it impossible to look her in the face. So he dropped his eyes a little lower and found it fixed on a very interesting spot below the curve of her pajamas' collar. He gulped audibly and he dropped his eyes to the floor.

"Is anything wrong? Is there something you want to tell me?" Asuka could feel her heart beat faster. `Like 'Asuka, I love you'.'

"I- I," Shinji swallowed uneasily, his heartbeat seemed as loud as drums in his ears. A tense moment of silence passed. "I've got to go."

Shinji stood up and hurriedly turned away from her. Behind him he heard the fluttering of the blanket as it was thrown off. Shinji stopped as he felt a hand grab his arm. He turned his head and was treated to a magnificent view of Asuka leaning forward, her pajama top was loose enough to give him a sight to remember. Shinji blushed harder and tried to pull away from Asuka, but her grip became tighter and the expression she wore dared him to resist.

"No. We have to talk." Her tone indicated that he had no choice.

000

The restrooms in the hospital were characteristically clean and reeked of sterilizing agents. A toilet flushed and a stall door opened as a nurse went out. She straightens her uniform then walks over to the faucets and began washing her hands. She bent over and smiled at herself into the mirror as she scrubbed her hands to regulation cleanliness, the soap foam washed down the drain.

She blinked as she noticed the red stuff coming out of the ventilators in the mirror's reflection. She turned slowly, feeling that she was in a horror show. An unreal but terrifying horror built up within her as the red mist flowed across the floor towards her.

Her scream echoed throughout the restroom.

000

EVA Cooling Pool 4

Ritsuko Akagi leaned back against a wall as she observed the technicians wash away the blood from the EVAs. She was in one of the empty control stations that overlooked the EVA hangar. She held a lit cigarette in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other one. She knew that by merely possessing the top secret documents in her hands, she could get herself killed.

"Bastards," Ritsuko said contemptuously. She had warned them to destroy all data on the creation of the dummy plugs. The artificial pilots were exponentially stronger than any human pilot and provided good backup in case a human pilot suddenly lost the ability to synchronize with the EVAs or refused to follow orders. However the dummy plugs cannot control the Beast within the EVAs because the dummy plugs did not have real souls. She had to admit to being amazed that such an abstract term like soul could have so much meaning when applied to an Evangelion. The General Committee for Security however had laughed at her when she had said the word 'Soul' in her case against the dummy project. That was the primary reason she left, they no longer listened to her.

The General Committee for Security was not SEELE. At least the bastards at SEELE knew what she was talking about. She gave a grimace and stuffed the papers into an inside pocket of her coat. SEELE was gone and though they were cold-hearted bastards, at least Ritsuko could understand their agenda. Who wouldn't want the power to change the world?

She closed her eyes and took a drag from her cigarette.

Ritsuko had to admit that the dummy plug's failsafe was quite ingenious. Now, the dummy plugs had souls - technically. From a scientific point of view, the system was nothing short of magnificent. Well designed, efficient, without being clouded by human error. Then whatever sense of humanity Ritsuko had suddenly kicked in and she began to hate whoever redesigned the dummy plugs. She had to agree with Santiago that the ends don't justify the means-

"This is a non-smoking area, Dr. Akagi."

Ritsuko almost gagged on her cigarette at the unexpected voice. She turned and saw a young girl beam at her. The girl had long black hair tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing an over-sized red leather jacket over her white plugsuit. A small number forty was printed on the flat of her chest below her suit's neck armor.

"Um, you're Yuriko, right?" Ritsuko said as she dropped her cigarette on the floor and snuffed it out with her boot. For a while there, she thought she had outlived her usefulness.

"Uh-huh. But you can call me Yuri, Ma'am." Ritsuko watched as the girl wrinkled her nose. "Yuck, what's that red stuff all over the EVAs?"

"Blood." Ritsuko said as she looked at the EVAs and the red stuff that the technicians were blasting away with water cannons. "Angel blood to be exact."

"Oh." Yuri went over to the workstations by the window and leaned against it as she watched what happened below her. The four powerful Evangelions getting a nice scrub.

Ritsuko stole a sidelong glance at the girl and got a twinge of guilt. She wondered what suffering the child had undergone in the past two years. Whatever they were, she, the great Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, was responsible for it. Two years ago she could have ended human suffering and would have been instrumental in humanity's evolution to the next stage of existence. But instead, she joined those that thwarted the new hope and had plunged the world into darkness.

She was responsible for all the death and suffering in the world for the last two years. Ritsuko sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. That was one heck of a burden to have on one's conscience.

"AAAAEEEEIIIII!!"

Ritsuko's eyes snapped open at the scream and she went to the workstation where Yuri was still leaning over. The child's eyes were wide open in horror. Several stories below them lay the crumpled forms of several technicians, a red mist swirled about their bodies. Several other technicians were retreating from the red mist that seemed to move on its own.

"What's going on?!" Yuri asked frantically as the alarms sounded. Ritsuko's eyes narrowed and she started to run away from the area, pulling Yuri with her. She felt the AT Field making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up - an Angel had invaded the geofront.

000

SLAP!

Shinji's dark blue eyes contained more pain than the slap could have physically given. He slowly raised a trembling hand to gingerly touch his tender cheek. He knew he shouldn't have told her. He knew he shouldn't have hoped for her understanding and forgiveness. Hell, he knew her enough to know that now, she would try to kill him.

Asuka's sky blue eyes showed pain and anger from what he had just confessed. She felt betrayed. Shinji betrayed her by what he had done. And she had betrayed herself for thinking he really cared for her. Her hand was still raised from the slap she gave him.

"GET OUT YOU BASTARD!!" Asuka yelled at him her finger pointing at the door. She began spewing curses in all the languages she knew. Shinji's eyes dimmed and he dejectedly walked out of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Asuka stopped cursing, panting heavily. He had betrayed her. She couldn't believe that the first person she had trusted since her mother had betrayed her too. Asuka took one of the pillows and hugged it as tight as she could, feeling that the world was suddenly not so safe anymore.

He had betrayed her...

000

"Third to Eight Wings have been sealed!"

"We have reports of one hundred ninety-eight personnel trapped within those areas, status unknown."

"Any information on what it is? Besides being an Angel of course," Misato turned Maya.

"It has the same wave pattern as the Twenty-First, so I guess the bastard did have a surprise for us." Maya twitched uncomfortably. It had been several hours since they thought they destroyed the Angel. In those hours, the Angel had managed to elude their scanners and enter the geofront. "The previous form was probably a chrysalis stage prior to its ultimate form."

"Report of the Angel in Fortieth Block!"

"Seal it off! The Angel seems to be in several places at once, Dr. Ibuki." Commander Santiago noted coldly. "Do you have any suggestions on how we should deal with it?"

Maya bit her lip and slowly shook her head.

"Then I suggest you find one."

Maya looked at him, her eyes blazed in anger and determination. She gave a crisp military salute then executed a smart about-face. Misato watched uneasily as Maya marched off.

000

Shinji was on the hospital's rooftop, he leaned against the shoulder high railing looking down at the city. His unkempt hair billowed in the wind. Several stories below him lay the gray concrete street, shimmering in the afternoon heat.

"So easy..." he muttered to himself. Just the brief rush of the air then nothing...

Shinji grasped the top of the metal railing and pushed himself up until he was balanced on the railing, the top half of his body leaned over the edge while his feet were off the roof. All it would take was a slight push forward...

Shinji stood by the bedside of an auburn-haired girl. For once, the cranial transmitters that she had always worn out of pride were gone. Her white blanket covered her up to her chin. The monitoring equipment beside her gave monotonous beeps that verified the nurse's statement that she had been heavily sedated because of emotional trauma.

His lips quivered and his eyes were red with suppressed tears. He had just killed a friend. The first friend he had really opened up to and he killed him. He was an Angel they kept telling him. But he had been his friend and a loved one.

"Asuka, wake up, Asuka," he sobbed out. She was the only one left for him to go to. Misato had problems of her own and was not sympathetic since Koworu had been an enemy. Misato hated Angels with a vengeance. And for the past few days they had been drifting apart. Misato was starting to scare him. He could not go to his father. His father would not understand and he did not know how to talk to him. Dr. Akagi was missing and he was not really close to her.

Kensuke's father had Kensuke moved to Tokyo-2 where he would be safer. He could have gone to Hikari but he didn't really know her that well. He was still guilty about what happened to Toji and couldn't go to see him. And Rei... she was not the person he thought her to be.

"Help me, help me, help me, I don't know what to do." Tears streamed from his eyes. "You've always called me stupid. You're right. I am stupid. I don't know what to do. I just killed my friend. I opened up my heart to him then I killed him. What should I do?"

Asuka's gentle breathing answered him and a desperate frown creased his forehead.

"Help me, help me Asuka," he said as he gently shook her. "You're the only one who can..."

He needed answers and Asuka had always been insistent on her superiority. She was the only one who could help him. He grabbed her by the shoulders and started to shake her more violently. "Asuka!"

The blanket fell off her body to reveal her nakedness. The wires connected to the life monitor system were attached below her collarbone. Below that, her starkly pale flesh was as bare as the day she was born.

Shinji felt the world stop. He was barely aware that his heart had began to thump loudly in his ears. His mind screamed at him that he was just a child. Just a child. He must decide if wished to grow up or stay a child. Grow up or stay a child. In the space of a moment, a decision was made. And Shinji crossed the line...

The indicator on the door read "locked". Clothes were scattered on the floor beside a blanket. The bed spring squeaked with each movement that was made. The young man's hands shook with uncontrollable lust and anticipation as it moved over the young resilient flesh. His breath came in quick gasps as he kissed her lips hungrily. She was a demoness. A bitch. She had always put him down. He felt no regret.

It was time and he could feel himself start to lose control. He looked at her face. She looked so sweet and virginal. All traces of the demoness were gone. She was an angel. A sweet angel. The lust drained from the young man's eyes and sadness and horror crept in as he spilled his seed over her . He felt so dirty, so ashamed.

"I hate myself," he cried bitterly as his tears fell on her pale skin. He had crossed the line to adulthood, paying with the tattered remains of their innocence.

Shinji sighed as he slowly lowered himself until his feet touched the floor again. He turned and slumped against the railing and hugged himself tightly.

"Running away again. No. I mustn't run away."

He felt the wind blow beside him and in his peripheral vision he saw Rei wearing her old school uniform. He turned his head but the image of Rei was gone. He saw an explosion from the center of the city.

"What the--?!"

000

Maya intently watched the monitor. The red mist swirled at the EVAs feet, the bodies of the technicians were almost hidden from view.

"Laser ready!" Lt. Miyuki Kata reported. Her finger poised on the fire button.

"Fire." Maya said without taking her eyes of the monitor. They heard the buzz as the laser fired. Small hexagons of light appeared over the mist and there was a metallic sounding ping as the laser beam was deflected back towards the cannon.

"Laser destroyed!"

"..." Maya straightened and began to read the data off another monitor.

"SIR!!" Miyuki cried out and pointed towards the monitor. The wave patterns displayed on the monitors began to fluctuate. The line graph began to go over the limit.

Maya and the others in the science lab watched in horror as one of the bodies stood up with jerking movements. Its jaw was slack and hung open, the eyes were dead and unseeing. It started to move clumsily towards a door control panel. It stopped for a moment then reached into a pocket on its coverall. It drew out a key-card and slid it unsteadily over the slot. The door beeped as it opened.

Other bodies began to come alive standing with jerking movements like zombies. They followed the first one out of the cooling pool, the red mist swirling about them.

000

Yuri found herself in a locker room with Ritsuko. Ritsuko started stripping her clothes, which made the girl blush. Yuri was amazed that a science nerd like Dr. Akagi could have a magnificent body. When she was in her lacy, black, silk underwear, Ritsuko opened a large locker that snapped open with a hiss of escaping gas.

Yuri peered around the woman to see what was inside and saw a large plastic suit with a bubble-type helmet. Ritsuko glanced at her and saw that the girl was slightly blushing.

"What? Haven't seen a radiation suit before?"

000

Gunshots echoed through the sound system followed by screams as various security positions got overwhelmed.

"Sir, more zombies- I meant enemies detected in block 5!" Lt. Corrie Hayes announced.

"Shut off manual door locks. Make sure the door controls are exclusively operated from Central Dogma! Shut off all vent access between corrupted and clean areas!" Misato ordered.

"Sir! First power transfer station has been destroyed! Fire reported in Tokyo-3!" Lt. Antoinette St. Croix shouted.

"God help us. They're everywhere." Makoto whispered. Misato took a sidelong glance at him.

000

Juno Hurst. British pilot of Evangelion Unit 32. Fourteen years old. Short red hair and ebony eyes. She gave a contented sigh as she buttoned on a pair of well-worn jeans. She started pulling off the pajama top, hating the way it had made her feel naked by its lightness. A few minutes ago she had heard the explosions and the screams and the pilot decided that her hospital stay should be shorter than what the doctor had recommended.

The door slammed open making Juno shriek as she pulled the pajama top to her bare chest. She turned and saw a female nurse standing in the open doorway.

"Do you mind? I'm changing--" she stopped as the nurse started to lurch towards her. Juno suddenly felt very vulnerable and very much in trouble. She felt something primal stir within her, something that made her very afraid. A terror to be exact. A terror she had felt before. A familiar feeling of dread.

"Um, what do you want?" Juno stammered as she began to inch away from the nurse. The nurse had a blank expression on her face and her jaw was slack. Juno noticed the scalpel in the nurse's hand. She also noted the specks of blood on the nurse's hands and uniform. Gritting her teeth and hoping that no one came in, Juno threw her pajama top at the nurse's face and dove across the bed towards her backpack which lay on the other side on a side table.

The bed toppled to its side spilling Juno on the floor, the nurse was left on the other side of the overturned bed, fumbling with the piece of clothing that blinded her. Juno desperately began to rummage in her backpack while the nurse was still pre-occupied.

Juno could feel her heart quaking in fear as her fingers failed to find her little contingency plan. She froze as she felt warm blood drip on her bare back. She slowly turned around and looked up at the nurse. The nurse had managed to rip the pajama top away but had forgotten that she had been carrying a scalpel in her hand. The nurse's face was torn to shreds by the scalpel, one eye out of its socket. The nurse didn't seem to mind. Juno felt absolute terror as the nurse raised the scalpel.

Juno's fingers touched cold metal. A triumphant smile on her face, she raised her bag. The scalpel came down.

A quick flash.

Blood splattered against the wall and the white sheets. Juno's eyes were wide open, unblinking. Blood slowly dripped down her face.

Juno blinked.

The nurse lay in a pool of blood, her head blown off. Juno's bag was wrecked, a scalpel was stuck to it and a smoking bullet hole clearly visible in its underside. She drew her hand out of her bag, a large caliber handgun in her grasp. The gun shook in her hands.

000

First Briefing Room
Tactics and Planning Section

"Pattern has changed significantly when the Angel bonds with a human host," Maya began her briefing of the officers and department heads in the small theater-like briefing room. She glanced up to look at Santiago who stood across her with his arms crossed. She would have felt triumphant had she not learned of the cost of victory.

"After bonding, the Angel loses its mist form and becomes fully dependent on the host body. It also loses the protection of the AT Field's shielding because it uses it to keep control of the infected body."

Lt. Antoinette St. Croix raised her hand, "Uhm, Sir? You're making it sound like they're still alive."

Maya looked up sadly. The cost of victory was a dreadful price to pay. "They are. We've read human Ego patterns using the life sign detectors that we use to monitor the pilots in the EVAs."

A moment of shocked silence followed.

"The Angel uses its mist form to invade the host's respiratory system. Once inside, the Angel acts like a virus that infects the host's nervous system, taking over it. It can therefore access the host's motor system and probably even memories. At the start, the Angel will have difficulty using the new body, but as time elapses, motor control becomes normal and even above normal. They can fire guns, operate doors and even initiate self-destruct systems. And through all this, the human host is fully aware but not in control."

Some officers nervously shifted at the mention of self-destruct systems. Santiago made no reaction but a certain hard edge came to his eyes.

"Can the Angel still transfer once the host is destroyed?" Santiago asked, his voice even and cold.

"No. Once the host dies, the parasite follows suit. We've observed this from the gunfights our security forces had had with them."

"How do we kill it?" Misato asked, her eyes still focussed on the data that she couldn't really decipher.

"I can whip up some bio-agent that can kill the Angel without killing the host, but it will take some time," Maya replied uncomfortably. "The Angel has already occupied most of the lower levels and is trying to get into Terminal Dogma. The companies assigned there have fallen to the Angel."

"SIR!!" Lt. Miyuki Kata barged into the room panting. "Pattern Blue detected topside! Infection is centered around our secure medical facility!"

"It's going after the Children..." Makoto gasped.

"All security personnel are to prepare to clear the Angel out of my Branch! Full Bio-warfare SOP for the whole branch. Warn the civilians at Tokyo-3 to stay indoors and wear their gas masks. Tell them terrorists have launched a biological attack which results in loss of motor control, insanity, and death. Anyone manifesting symptoms of infection are to be avoided and are to be reported to us. First and Second security companies are to secure the Children."

"Sir, the soldiers will not kill their friends," Antoinette cried out. "They're still human beings!"

"No one outside this room knows or will know that the Angel's hosts are anything other than dead. Dr. Ibuki, delete all evidence of your findings. As of now, Dr. Ibuki's findings did not exist." Santiago said coldly, looking into each officer's eyes. Some looked away uneasily, some stared back with anger, some had blank looks in their eyes. But no one dared go against the order. "Dismissed."

He didn't wait for them to file out of the briefing room before heading for his office across the hallway. He knew what he had to do. Unlike Ikari, he preferred doing his own dirty work. He actually relished it.

Santiago took his clothes off. He paused in what he was doing as the door opened without warning. He berated himself for getting caught with his pants down. Figuratively and literally.

"If you don't mind Colonel, please close the door," he said as he reached into the hidden floor panel behind his desk. Of course he saw the gun the Colonel aimed at him, but he'd be damned if he'd show that it bothered him.

"Don't move." Misato's ice cold voice ordered.

Santiago straightened to his full height and looked at Misato with his dark eyes. He knew that he towered almost a head over the younger officer, but he also knew that right now he was as intimidating as any other naked man. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He was not about to let such trivial things as nudity and an angry subordinate get in his way.

"You just condemned about half a thousand people to death," she nearly snarled out.

"Do you prefer six billion?" He almost smiled as Misato's gun wavered slightly. "The last time, three billion people died. I will not let that happen on my watch."

"So you sacrifice a few hundred?" Misato steadied her gun with both hands.

Santiago frowned. He knew Misato was a soldier, a fine military strategist who knew the concept of acceptable losses. So what could get her so riled up against such clear cut numbers? Then it hit him with its simplicity. "Katsuragi, you are worried about Pilot Suzuhara and Dr. Akagi, aren't you?"

Misato's jaw clenched as she tried to focus on her anger at the man that just killed her best friend and one of her Children. She blinked away the tears welling up in her eyes.

A mistake.

She grunted as Santiago barreled into her and slammed her into the floor. Hand to hand combat was never her favorite subject at the Academy. Her gun slid across the floor to hit the far wall. In a moment, Santiago had her pinned down. She looked up with hate filled eyes at her Commander. She nearly gasped out at the sad, haunted look in his eyes. Then the look was gone and only steel looked back at her.

Santiago pushed himself off her and went to his desk, his back open to her. He then reached into the hidden floor panel and took out a black body glove. Misato watched from the floor as he dressed up, first the body glove, then the rest of the radiation suit. "Katsuragi, I think you should make sure that the other Children are safe."

Misato nodded numbly as Santiago took up a rifle and loaded it. He noticed her look at the rifle. "Get going. We can't risk losing any more pilots."

000

"Are all teams ready?" Colonel Makoto Hyuga asked the nearest control officer. On the main monitor was a list of all the sections of NERV-1, red 'Lost' signs marked a lot of them. Commander Santiago had elected to go with one of the security teams to secure Terminal Dogma, leaving Makoto in command. Everyone had on their radiation suits though some still had the helmets off. "Damn, this feels like the last time."

Makoto looked at the observation deck. Hikari Horaki paced the floor nervously in her radiation suit, wringing the straps of the bubble-helmet she held in her hand. Yuriko Suzuhara has still not returned and was presumed to have been trapped in one of the Angel controlled areas.

Kensuke Aida sat on a couch, a machinegun in his hands and a helmet by his side. His eyes were closed and his forefinger lazily tapped on the metal sides of the gun.

Hikari stopped and looked in irritation at Kensuke. "Will you please stop that. It's creeping me out."

000

The stairs were rushing towards him. His breath felt like fire as he ran, his lungs burned from exertion. Shinji had heard the screams and saw the people fly out of the windows into the streets. His legs ached from running but the fear drove him on. He came to the landing and pushed the hallway doors open.

The young man froze, his heart in his throat. The hallway walls were splattered with blood. He felt sick at the sight of the ripped apart bodies. But he had to find her. He began to run towards her room. He saw blood seep out from under the door and he began to tremble. His hand touched the blood splattered doorknob and twisted it open.

"ASUKA!!" He pushed the door open. He saw a doctor slumped across the floor, its body riddled with bullets. The bed was turned over but it was empty. "Asuka..."

He heard someone in the doorway behind him and he whirled around, his heart pounding. Shinji saw another doctor, his white coat splattered with blood, a blank stare on the doctor's face.

"Doctor! What happened here!!" Shinji shouted as he made his way to the doorway, making sure to step away from the pool of blood, not wanting to slip. His blue slippers were already wet with blood, the red, sticky liquid squished underneath his feet and toes.

The doctor looked at him.

000

The armored personnel carriers screeched to a halt in front of the hospital. Bodies and slivers of glass littered the hospital grounds. The armored panels opened and NERV soldiers in white radiation suit and carrying black rifles poured out. Misato looked coldly out of her bubble helmet. "Second company secure the grounds, First company, follow me!"

Misato's soldiers rushed into the massacre in the hospital lobby. Bodies and pieces of human flesh littered the floor. The blood was almost half an inch deep.

"KIII-YA!"

Everyone turned towards the shout and saw someone wearing hospital pajamas fly down a flight of stairs to thud sickeningly on the floor. The person tried to get up, not seeming to mind that its arm was broken. A flower vase flew down and crashed on its head. The person slumped lifelessly onto the floor.

"And stay down!" a female voice shouted from the stairs. Misato gave a relieved sigh at the familiar voice.

"Asuka!" Misato shouted as she rushed towards the stairs.

000

Maya sat on her chair and looked with bloodshot, puffy eyes at the bubbling liquid contained in the beaker. It took less than three hours to decipher the Angel DNA and come up with the counteragent.

Now they could immunize everyone and ensure that even if the Twenty First Angel left behind some of its cells, it would die upon possessing a host. They can probably even use the knowledge gained to use against the next Angel, though the MAGI had already computed how low that chance would be.

Ritsuko would have been proud of her.

"All sections clear. Scanners detect no more Angel wave patterns within the base or the city." Lt. Corrie Hayes announced in a tired voice. It had been eight hours since NERV began its counter-attack. Nine hundred and seventy NERV personnel were dead and more were injured. Civilian casualties were also high when the Angel attacked a NERV hospital. Corrie found it frightening that the Angel seemed to have known that the Children were there.

"We've lived through the Night of the Living Dead," Corrie mumbled to himself as he looked at the data on his monitor about the large number of dead people. He pushed a button and the MAGI Super Computers started deleting all files on the casualties. The only files that will be left will be a hard copy report on Commander Santiago's desk.

"It's as if it never happened," Lt. Miyuki Kata whispered to herself. "The relatives would never know what really happened. It will all be attributed to terrorists, not to our failure to stop the Angel in time."

Lt. Antoinette St. Croix just sat in her seat, staring numbly at the palms of her open hands. "I feel so dirty," she finally mumbled.

To Be Continued

In the Next Episode of Heaven and Hell:
Maya: It's happening all over again! Children against machine! EVA against EVA! Human against human! Why do humans have to fight each other? Heaven and Hell 1:3 I Hate to Say Goodbye.

ORIGINAL AUTHOR'S NOTES;

Yeah he raped her. But before you start screaming at me that Shinji couldn't do that, well...

1) He is not in the right frame of mind during the morning of the Eighteenth Incident. He had just killed someone very dear to him and was basically in a fucked up state of mind.

2) He does have hidden desires for Asuka, clearly demonstrated in Episode 20 of the series. When he was absorbed in Unit 01 and started having dreams, one of them was about Rei, Asuka, and Misato all offering to be one with him, body and soul. Which is his subconscious desire to be with one or all of these women who had made such an impact on his life. This was also shown in The End of Evangelion where he finally settled on Asuka who rejected him. (or I may just be a hentai and misread the scenes ;)

3) Shinji is a healthy, regular teenager riding the wave of puberty. Read: hormonally imbalanced and very curious. He really couldn't help it as Episode 10 (the infamous thermal expansion episode) clearly demonstrated. Though his timidity prevents him from being a drooling, skirt chasing, panty stealing pervert and he actually denies being sexually curious (AHA! Denial! The first sign!).

4) The fact that Asuka was naked, unresisting (all right, she was drugged), and probably wouldn't know, drove him over the edge at the wrong moment.

In this fic, Shinji tried to justify his action by thinking that Asuka deserved to be punished for all the abuse he suffered at her hands. But he feels guilty about what he did to her and added to that were his previous emotions from killing Koworu - Shinji's self-loathing sky-rocketed! This resulted to his other sin: Trying to start Third Impact!

Besides by the end of this fic, he really didn't.

What do I mean?

Sore wa himitsu desu.