The woman watched in awe as the giant robot she recognized as Evangelion Unit-01 and one of those monstrous entities that had been labeled as Angels were thrown into the air, before falling on the ground. She had seen some unofficial footage of the war machine in action, in her study of the recent strange occurrences in Tokyo-3, but those hadn't done justice to the purple behemoth. Despite all the weirdness she had went through in her youth, all she could do was stare at the sight. She also felt respect for the boy who was piloting this thing. She had witnessed the defeat of his two teammates and had quickly understood that this so called Angel was a monster of great power. Yet, he was fighting it, with only one arm and barehanded... and was clearly winning. He was wild, close to berserker rage, but still he had potential and that, she could only acknowledge. Then, suddenly, as the robot appeared to be about to viciously rip the monster head off... he went still. Information on the Evangelions was hard to come by, but one bit she had been able to obtain was their power capacity. Normally, an Evangelion was powered by what could be best described as a gigantic power cord. When cut of this alimentation, like it was the case here, the machine only had between one to five minutes of operational power. Corporate companies, such as the one which had been involved in the Jet Alone fiasco, had made this design problem one of their main argument against the use of Evangelions. Obviously, in his recklessness, the boy had neglected to keep watch on his power reserve. Soon, the Angel began to recuperate, and the tables were turned. It grabbed the Evangelion with one of those ribbons which seemed to serve him as arms and projected it against the black pyramid that housed the NERV organization. The woman cursed under her breath. She had really wanted to stay out of this until she had more information on those mysterious Angels and who was controlling them, but it was no longer possible. So far, except for the first Tokyo-3 battle, NERV had been very good at keeping the loss of life to a near zero. She still felt guilty for not having reacted to that first attack, and more for the recent losses of life in the United States and at Matsushiro. While there had been no way to prevent the first occurrence, it was simply something she would never had expected to happen, giant monsters didn't normally exist here, she felt that she should have acted earlier and if she had done so, might have prevented the later catastrophes. With the other two Evangelions beaten, it was clear that there would be no one to save the young boy who was under the onslaught of the monster. And then, who knew what this thing might do. The woman clenched her first in anger and frustration; anger directed toward what evil force was trying to plague this world and a frustration at the clear end of her now cherished normal life. Then, her eyes hardened, flames appeared in her hands to solidify into a sword and she called a name she hadn't expected to ever all say again. "RAYEARTH!" ======================================================================= THE FATE OF TWO WORLDS An Evangelion / Magic Knight Rayearth crossover concept short story Based on characters created by and copyright GAINAX & CLAMP Written by Alain Gravel http://www.geocities.com/rakna01/ ======================================================================= "Dame desu! Unit-01's reached its operating limit! The backup doesn't work, either!" "Shinji-kun..." Katsuragi Misato gritted her teeth and clenched her hands hard. Shinji had failed. This was it. Without any EVA to fight it, the Angel would reach Adam and Third Impact would occur. And there was nothing any of them could do to stop it. It was over. But instead of going back into NERV Headquarters, the Angel surprised Misato as it fired a blast against Unit-01. She had to close her eyes and instinctively protect her face from the light of the explosion and debris. "Shinji-kun!" When she looked again, she froze at the sight. Embedded in the chest of the Evangelion, a familiar shape. "That's...?" The core of an Angel... The Angel began pound on the dark red sphere, and for a moment, Misato forgot about her thoughts of imminent death, as worry for Shinji filled her mind. Then, suddenly, another gigantic shape phased into existence into the Geofront. Everyone stared in disbelief, and for a moment, the Angel itself stopped it's attack to look at it. It was another giant robot, perhaps a quarter the size of the Angel and Unit-01. It was primary red with yellow, and flames seemed to form a sort of cape or mane behind it. Then, a beam or red light seemed to flash from the direction of one of the underground shelters and hit the robot's chest. It's eyes seemed to flare with life, and then it raised its right arm, palm toward the Angel. Misato blinked as she heard a feminine voice say "RUBY LIGHTNING!" before a beam of red crackling energy shot from the robot's hands to hit the Angel's AT Field, shattering it. Flames burst in the robot's hand and solidified into a sword. "Can we analyze that thing?" asked Misato, to see that Ritsuko and Maya were already a step ahead of her. "Dame desu! The Angel attacked damaged the Control Center too extensively. We can still get readings from Unit-01 through another circuit, but that's all. Everything else is offline." "Damn..." While Misato had been focussing the scientific duo, the robot had, somehow, taken flight and Misato turned around just in time to see it launch itself at the Angel, sword first. It embedded itself in the Angel's core, and for a few seconds, the Angel and the robot became immobile. Then the robot went right through it in a burst of flames and the Angel apparently, for a lack of better term, disintegrated. It hadn't burst into flames or exploded, it had just... vanished rapidly bits by bits... "I don't believe it..." "Neither do I!" said Ritsuko, in a near frantic tone. "This just doesn't make sense! It's not possible! You don't get rid of Angels that easily..." Misato didn't pay too much attention to her friend, as her focus was on the robot, which was approaching their position. It landed, and a red light was emitted from it's chest, apparently leading down someone. When the light vanished, a woman with bright red hair held in a pigtail and wearing an armor matching the robot's colors stood in front of them. "Maybe we'll get some answers..." --- Ikari Gendo was not a happy man. Unit-01's awakening had almost been at hand and that... woman... had interfered. Not only had she thrown a monkey wrench into his carefully built plans, but she had also outdone NERV in eliminating the Angel with an impossible ease. "Seize that woman." The Commander hadn't given the order to anyone in particular, but still half a dozen NERV employees and an equal number of Section 2 agents were suddenly set in motion. And stopped dead in their track when the armor clad woman, with a gesture and a whisper of the words 'Flame Wall' eructed a wall of flames between herself and the men. Hikaru smirked. Lantis had helped her gain more control over a pyromancy in all those years she had spent in Cephiro. Fuu wasn't the only one who could now summon protective walls. The pointed her finger toward a patch of grass not to far away and muttered the words "Flame Arrow". She no longer needed to say the words to use her magic, but it always felt more appropriate. As a column of fire erupted from her hand, in a way more akin to a flame thrower, the ground exploded on impact. Her powers on Earth may have been weaker than on Cephiro, in fact Hikaru had been really surprised when she had first discovered that they worked at all here, but it still was more than enough to pull an impressive display. "You guys want to play?" she asked with a grin. The men stared at the fuming crater and took a step back. Misato gasped. This wasn't possible! Could this girl be a sort of Angel? But then, if she was... why kill the Fourteenth? Ritsuko lost interest in the new giant robot but rather focused on the woman. She was displaying abilities no normal human could hope to accomplish. Critically, she assessed her. She was about the same height and built than her assistant Maya, but considerably older than herself. She couldn't really tell for sure, she was probably between forty and fifty. The armor wasn't bulky, and Ritsuko noted that there was no sign of any technological devices that may have been used to trigger such pyromantic display. The Commander simply frowned. While he could adapt to chances, this new development was upsetting. "Who are you?" he asked simply, the use of force obviously not the answer. Yet. Hikaru eyed the man warily. Men dressed in black, with tinted glasses and half covered in blood tended to be more evil than good. "Shidou Hikaru," she answered proudly, "Fire Knight, Commander of the Magic Knights and Pillar of Cephiro" the last bit being mumbled by Hikaru, who had never cared much for the title and the powers that went with it, even if she was stuck with it. She had thought that she would have been freed from the role by wishing for the people of Cephiro to be the ones to decide their own fate, but while that wish had been granted, in Cephiro she was still more powerful than the common mortal. Which was why she had left for good after Lantis' death... without him, all she craved for was an ordinary life. "I see." Actually, he had no idea what the woman was speaking about. But he wasn't about to admit it. Misato watched, as the Commander and the armor clad woman eyed each others, the same way two warriors would assess each others' strengths and weaknesses. For a moment, she wondered it that Shidou person wasn't about to spring into action and shove her sword into the Commander's guts. "What's your purpose here?" coldly asked the Commander after a full minute of tension filled silence. He frowned as the woman smirked, apparently enjoying the fact that he had wavered first. "Are you always so hostile toward people who just saved your life?" "You're interfering into our affairs." Hikaru fumed, almost igniting the blade of her sword. The gall of the man! She forced herself to calm down, remembering that getting angry while wearing her Magic Knight armor would be a bad idea. No one yet seemed to had figured that they could try to shoot her with guns and she didn't want to risk some trigger happy soldier to go into motion. Still, she gave the commander an angry glare. "Correction. You're the one in the wrong here. I don't know what your conception of all this is, but that creature you call 'Angel' is not deserving of that name. I know the creator of this world and he would never do such a thing as to send messengers of destruction. No, this thing comes from this world, from our hearts. It is the incarnation of our fears, thirst for power, violence and annihilation." When Rayearth's sword had stroked the Angel's core, for a few moments, Hikaru had been able to get a glimpse at the creature's chaotic mind. This thing was just like the monsters of Cephiro. Something was very wrong here. It wasn't supposed to be possible for people's mind to give form to their anguish here on Earth. "Something's wrong. I realize it now..." Hikaru shook her head sadly. "No... I've know it for some time now... I just didn't want to see it..." Her expression then hardened in one of determination. "We must find the cause of all this chaos! We've got to go to Cephiro!" As she said those words, a bright white light suddenly blinded everyone present and when they found themselves able to see again, the woman and the robot were gone. Along with Unit-01, and the two other Evangelions. An hour later, reports came, declaring the Fourth Children missing from the NERV infirmary. And the following day, the parts that had been salvaged from Unit-03 were nowhere to be found... FIN Author's notes: This is the result of watching the DVDs of the second Magic Knight Rayearth season in a single weekend (BTW, best looking anime DVD boxset I've ever seen in America yet!). The following week, my head found itself filled with thoughts about Hikaru and her friends, while it's normally filled with plot devices concerning my NGE fanfics. It's not wonder really that one morning, while taking a shower (most of my brainstorming happens there...), both concepts somewhat began to merge. And I found myself forced to write this. I needed to bring to life a viable concept of working NGE/MKR crossover. I'd like to think I succeeded. However, I have no intentions of going forward with this idea. My elsewhere series, Chosen, will borrow a number of MKR like ideas, so it would end up being a sort of repeat of what I already intend to do. This would be bad. My apologies. But as bad as I needed to write this, I also wanted to share it. Yeah, egoistic and self-centered. But I can only be myself. At least, you'll find below a crude outline of events that cold have followed this "prelude". Oh, for those wondering, for the MKR part, I'm mixing anime and manga. It basically follows the anime plot, but with Mokona revealed as the Creator. One a last note, for Hikaru's powers.... Here, I've borrowed a concept from a Ranma 1/2 / MKR crossover called a "Duet of Pigtails" (excellent story, if you avoid to think about what happens to Umi in it - http://www.yogipigs.org/Duet/ ) Basically, in the manga context, or even anime, while Hikaru created a new law that would allow the state of Cephiro to be decided by the people and not by one single Pillar, she still remains the Pillar, as well as a Magic Knight. Furthermore, the Earth IS a sister universe to Cephiro, as both were created by Mokona. For Rayearth, the Machins stated somewhere in Season 2 that they were sleeping in an alternate dimension. I figured it could be tapped from either dimension, the Earth or Cephiro. Outline: [X] HIKARU and RAYEARTH defeats the 14TH ANGEL. [ ] SHINJI, REI, ASUKA and TOUJI have been transported to Cephiro. The EVAS (00 to 03) have been transformed into the NEXT GENERATION MACHINS [ ] YUI's soul is now in control of UNIT-01. Units 00, 02 and 03 becomes SELF AWARE and gains PERSONALITIES derived from NAOKO AKAGI, KYOKO SOHRYU and BARDIEL [ ] The CHILDREN must go on a quest to retrieve ESCUDO in order to gain SWORDS which will permit them to become the new MAGIC KNIGHTS and pilot the MACHINS [ ] HIKARU, FUU and UMI investigates, with the help of NERV, about a RIFT between the two worlds [ ] LILITH and ADAM are revealed as cloned from remains of LADY DEBONAIR [ ] KEEL LORENZ is revealed as the mastermind and being from AUTOZAM [ ] The NEO MAGIC KNIGHTS fights SEELE Started on June 3rd 2001 First pre-reader draft finished on June 20th 2001 Alain Gravel rakna@globetrotter.qc.ca