All characters copyrighted by Gainax, not me.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
In this fic, Yui Ikari is NOT part of Unit 1.  If you have a problem with
this, don't read.

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        Everyone watched in horror as Eva 1 continued to howl, it's voice
drowning out those of the other Eva's.  That horrible, half human/half Eva
voice continued to rise in volume until it suddenly stopped, prompting most
people to breathe a sigh of relief.  Unit 1 closed it's mouth slightly for
a fraction of a second before it started advancing on the other Eva's.
        To Misato and the others in Central Dogma, it looked like it was
stalking them.  It would shuffle forward a few meters, pause, then shuffle
again, this time a dozen meters, then another pause.  It seemed to enjoy
this kind of pace, slow and methodical.  Misato looked at the screen
closely, trying to decide whether or not to worry about Shinji.  She wanted
to worry for him, it was only natural to her.  But... as she looked at the
screen and saw what had happened to him, she was unsure of who had the
upper hand.  She risked a glance over at the screen that displayed his
Synch Ration with Unit 1, hoping that it would provide some sort of answer,
something to quell her fears.  It had increased to 390%.  It didn't work.
        Shinji, on the other hand, had a very good idea of who was going to
win.  Nothing would stand in his way.  Nothing could.  He was an
unstoppable engine of death and destruction, steamrolling over anyone in
his way!  He contiuned to close the distance between himself and the
Angels, a small smile spreading across his face.  Even the biting cold that
plauged him wasn't enough to stop it.  Soon, so very soon, everthing would
be quiet again, and he could spend time warming himself.
        Suddenly, something reached out at him and grabbed his leg.
Frowning, he looked down.  It was Unit 8.  It had reached up with it's left
hand and snagged his leg.  Shinji's frown deepened.  This Unit was dead,
it's head crushed, what could be controlling it?  In response, Unit 8's
head started sprouting some bubbles of matter.  The mass started to grow
and flatten out on it's head.  Within seconds, Unit 8 had a new head that
opened at the jaw line just like the other Eva's.  The process was
identical to one Unit 1 used to regenerate it's eye three years ago after
the battle with the Third Angel.
        "Unit 8's head's regenerated!" Makoto yelled out, his voice a
mixture of shock and fear.  "It's attacking!"  And ideed, it was.  It
pulled itself along to Shinji's foot and wrapped it's jaws around it all
the up to his ankle.
        Unit 1 swiveled it's head to stare into the camera that was
recording the fight and it's eyes dimmed for just a moment.  Misato
could've sworn that it just rolled it's eyes and got a distinctly annoyed
look on it's face.  Over the comm system, Shinji sighed a little before
Unit 1 picked up it's right foot and kicked at the Eva that was latched on
it's leg.  It took three kicks to dislodge it, and when it came off, it
went flying into a nearby building, destroying it completely.
        A flying chunk of building attracted Shinji's attention.  Turning
his head, he saw that the two Eva's had closed the distance between
themselves and Unit 1.  On the way, one of them had picked up a peice of a
building that had collapsed earlier in the fight and tossed it at him.
Sighing again for a moment, Shinji prepaired to face the new challange when
an idea formed in his mind.  Turning quickly, he grabbed Unit 8, which was
still on the street, picked it up, turned back at the charging Eva's, and
threw it at them with a roar.  The two advancing Eva's had too much
momentum to stop in time and Unit 8 slammed into them, the result being all
three falling to the ground in heap of tangeled arms and legs.
        One of the Eva's managed to look up in time to see Shinji crouch
down, then lauch himself forward into a sprint that ended up with him
slamming into the three with such force that the group of them were thrown
into a skyscraper, went through it and two others behind it, and embedded
themselves into the next one after that.
        Shinji stood up, twisting in the process so he was facing Unit 5.
He started to move towards the Unit, with none of the stalking movements
from before.  He took the most direct path to the only remaining white Eva,
and was most of the way there when movement off to his right caught his
attention.
        One of the camera's covering the fight also twisted to see what he
did.  The other Eva's, the ones that had been damaged before, started to
rise from between the buildings.  They regenerated what was missing.
Mangled arms and legs flattened out.  Slash wounds closed up.  Warped
armour, crushed apendages, they all regenerated.  In the space of a few
moments, Shinji was faced with fighting six opponents again.  Curiously,
Unit 7 did not regenerate like the others.  Misato picked up on this.
        "Why didn't that one regenerate?" she asked out loud.
        "Because that one was killed by the Lance?" Shinji offered.
        "So that's how to win?  To get the Lance?" Misato said.
        "It appears that way," Ritsuko said.
        "Just one question," Shinji said.  "How am I supposed to do that
without being killed in several different ways, each of them undesireable,
by several willing angels?" he asked sarcastically.  Misato was tempted to
answer with her usual dry humor, but bit her tounge.  She had no idea how
Shinji would react to being prodded at, given the new him, but more
importantly, it wasn't the time, some distant part of her mind reasoned.
        Asuka shook off the cobwebs the pain had cast upon her
consiousness, looked up, expecting to see two Eva's standing over her.  She
never expected to see all the other's that they'd killed already looming in
her vision.
        "What the hell is going on?!" she asked, wondering else had
happened when she was oblivious to the world.  As she struggled to make her
Eva stand, the two Unit's that had been attacking her before turned back to
look at her.  She managed to get up and look up in time to see the two huge
blades slice toward the red Eva.
        She dived to the side just barely dodging the blows, but slammed
into a building, and fell back to the ground.  Looking up through eyes that
were half-closed from the pain, she could see the two Angels look at her,
then open their jaws a little more and allowed a greyish tounge to snake
out.  The tounge played along their jaws for a few moments before it
dissapeared back into their mouths.  From Asuka's point of view, it looked
like they were salivating over her, like she was piece of prime steak
dipped in barbeque sauce and cooked to perfection over an open flame in a
five-star restaurant.  She didn't like that thought.
        Eva 9 kept staring at her as it lifted it's leg up and kicked Unit
2 in the abdomen.  Asuka was sure that only one of her ribs breaking would
make that much pain.  The pain caused little spots to float in front of her
vision, but she could still see clearly enough to make out the other Eva's
moving join the two above her.  Out of the corner of her eye, she thought
that she saw Unit 1 dash off to the side, but only for a moment as her
immediate surroundings took precidence.  One of the UN Eva's had joined the
two abover her, and the others were a distance away and it would take them
some time to join the three above her.  One of the Eva's kicked Unit 2 in
the side again, and another jolt of pain played on her nerves.  The blood
rushing in her ears blotted out all other noises.  All she could hear was
her own heartbeat, and for a moment, but only for a moment, she thought she
could hear the steady beat slow down.
        She had to fight to keep from blacking out, and it wasn't easy, but
she did it.  She focused on the thought of how proud Shinji would be of her
when they were finished her.  But soon, her thoughts turned to ones of
seeing Shinji's body pulled from Unit 1's entry plug, broken and battered.
She knew that this would be the outcome for them both if she failed.
Besides, she needed to show him who was the best of them all.  With these
thoughts floating in her mind, she could feel the strenght returning to her
limbs, returning to her whole body.  The spots slowly faded from her vision
and she regained her hearing.
        "-ject Unit 2's entry plug!" Misato yelled.  Asuka could feel the
commands come into her Eva, but she didn't want to leave the fight.  She
could still do it!  'I don't want to stopI don't want to loseIdon't want to
stopIdon't want to lose...' she thought.  Evangelion Unit 2 acted in
accordance with it's pilot's wishes.
        "No good!  The signal's being blocked!" Maya shouted.
        "Asuka!  What are you doing?" Misato said.
        "I... can... still fight!" Asuka shouted through clenched teeth.
Misato looked over at Maya and nodded.  She quickly typed a few commands,
but Asuka fought it.  She couldn't give in, she wouldn't!  She would fight
until she either could fight no more, or were dead.  She was going to prove
that she could hold her own and didn't need Shinji, the Stooge, or Wonder
Girl to help her out.  This time, she'd do it all herself.
        "Again!" Misato instructed Maya, who tried again, with the same
results.  "Again!"  Nothing happened.  "Dammit, Asuka, you'll die if you
don't eject!"
        "I...will...win!" she said, the haze of pain returning after
another vicious attack.  "I can make it!" she shouted, but more for herself
than any of the others.
        Seele, watching the battle on a secure feed from the UN forces
moble HQ, were decidedly unhappy.
        "What's happening?" the man in blue asked aloud.  "This was not
supposed to happen!"
        "Yes, it seems that the UN forces have lost control over the Eva
Series," the man in yellow said.  "They seem to have gone Bezerk.  This is
most unfortunate.  Not to menton what happened to Unit 1.  So far, it's
been moving for over seven minutes without batteries or an umbilicle cable.
It's internal reservers should be drained by now, and yet, it's still
moving."
        "What about the blue patterns the scanners have detected?" Red
asked.  "This situation is deteriorating more and more with each passing
moment.  What could have caused such a total disaster?"
        "The answer to that is obvious: Gendo Ikari.  If anyone could have
pulled a victory out of this mess, it's him," Yello answered.
        "But we still have a trump card," Keel Lorenz said.
        "You can't be serious!  The polical ramifications of that act would
be enormous!  Not to mention that we show the world how much power we
actually control," Blue exclaimed.
        "Yes, but launching the missles fitted with N2 warheads may be the
only thing to insure victory over Nerv," Keel said.
        "But then the rest of the world would know of their existance and
ours," Green said.
        "How?" Keel asked.  "How would they know?  The missles are on a
weapons platform in high Earth-orbit.  No one would see their launch, much
less who created them."
        "I still think we should refrain from such actions.  Why not simply
use a regular N2 mine, dropped from a UN high-alititude fighter?  That
would be cheaper and cause much less trouble for us down the road," Blue
stated.  The other members of Seele nodded their agreement.
        "Those missles should be saved for a later use.  After all, there
are only six of them.  And, when the project was first started, we agreed
that they'd be used to convince any nation who didn't go along with
Instermentality to change their mind," Yello pointed out.  "Not that they
have much choice in the matter, anyway," he added.
        "Agreed," Keel said after much thinking.  "A regular N2 mine will
be used."
        "How long until it can be implemented?" Blue asked.
        "At least twenty minutes for the order to be acknowledged and the
fighter launched.  After that, anywhere from two to ten minutes for it to
reach Tokyo-3 and drop it's payload.  That's assuming the fighter is
launched from Tokyo-2," Yello said.
        "Let us make the preperations," Keel said, and the meeting ended as
the five figures faded from view.
        Asuka was having a hard time staying alive.  She'd managed to turn
and sprint away from the UN Eva's, but the slashes in her Eva's legs made a
painful move, and the constant pounding in her mind that signaled the war
between the eject signal and her will to keep going.  She was crouched in
between two buildings and across the street stood one of the weapons
buildings with battery recharges.  'If I can only get at it,' she thought,
then risked a glance over at her clock.  She had twenty-two seconds of
power left, then another minute of her Eva's internal batteries.  She
didn't like those odds.  She'd managed to shake the other Eva's from her
trail, but they were still looking for her, and if she broke cover, they'd
see her.  The lessons of her instructor from Germany loomed large in her
mind.  Escapes from every possible situation were the lessons he'd spent
most of his time on.
        She got the beginnings of an idea.  'It's a bit clichéic, but hey,
if it works, why should I care?' she asked herself.  Risking a glance
around the corner of the building, and seeing nothing, she picked up a
garbage dumpster, one of the few left in the city, and threw it over the
weapons building across from her.  It didn't land for several blocks, but
it had the desired affect as the three Eva's following her swiveled their
heads toward the sound and started in that direction.  Asuka waited until
they were out of sight before she darted out of the alley and across the
street, the motion causing more pain in her legs.
        But she got across, reached into the building to retrieve the fresh
packs, drop the ones she was currently using, and then strapped the new
ones on all in nine secones, six faster than Misato had estimated.
        'Now I only wish my Unit 2 could regenerate like Unit 1,' Asuka
thought to herself as her Eva stood up to it's full height and a wave of
dizzyness passed over her.  She closed her eyes tight in the hopes of
fighting off the dizzyness, and partially succeded.  But when she opened
her eyes, she saw that the UN Eva's had learned of her trick and turned
back to look at her.
        "I'm in trouble," she whispered to herself as she saw the three
Angels turn and start moving in her direction.  Reaching up to her right
shoulder pylon, she activated her Eva's Prog Knife and prepaired for
hand-to-hand combat.  She had to close her eyes and really fight to keep
her entry plug from being ejected.
        "Dammit, Asuka, eject!  That's an order!" Misato yelled.
        "I can still fight!" Asuka yelled back, still unwilling to resign
herself to loosing again.  She raised the knife in front of her Eva, and
got ready for an attack by the two approching Eva's.
        Unfortunatly for her, the attack not from the front, but from
behind.  A small flash of light was all the warning Asuka had, but it was
enought for her to swivle around and use her relativly small Prog Knife to
deflect the massive blade of the White Eva.  The impact was hard enough to
knock Unit 2 off balance and crash to the street again.
        Asuka looked up and quickly dived to the side and chunks of
concrete showered her Eva as the giant blade of the Eva unit above her
slammed into the space Unit 2 had occupied only moments ago.  Asuka tried
to make her Eva sit up, but it was quickly smacked down again by a swift
kick to the head.  Once more, dark spots appeared before Asuka, and once
more, she shook them off by sheer force of will.
        Asuka looked up again, but this time she saw all three white Eva's
standing above her yet again.  But this time, they didn't spend any time on
kicking her.  She saw one of the Eva's, Unit 10, had it's blade raised
above it's head, the point aiming straight for Unit 2's head.
        Asuka could feel Maya attempting to eject the entry plug again, but
she fought it off, again.  'If I'm going to be stopped, it's not because I
retreated,' she thought to herself.  'I'm going to go down fighting!'
        She looked up, just in time to see the blade start it's movement
towards Unit 2's head.  Asuka didn't close her eyes, instead, she stared
defiantly at the white Eva, like she was daring it to kill her.
        But it didn't get the chance, for just as it was about to kill her,
two hands wrapped themselves around it's neck and twisted, hard.  With an
audiable _snap_, it's neck was broken.  It's two comrades turned to look at
their teammate, only to see it crumple to the ground.
        Shinji dived in between the two UN Eva's and grabbed Unit 2.  He
picked it up, slung it over his shoulder, and ran.  He weaved in and out of
the side streets of the city, he hid in the alleys, and finally he managed
to get into an isolated part of the city where it would take the UN Eva's
some time to find them.  After taking a quick look around to make sure that
they were alone and would stay that way for a while, Unit 1 gently put Unit
2 on the ground.
        For his part, Shinji didn't know what to say.  He'd been monitering
the comms channels, and was aware of the struggle between Asuka and Misato
over her right to be in the fight.  He knew he had to say something,
anything, to her, but he just couldn't.  Shinji was a maelstorm of emotion,
not knowing what he wanted more: the chance to get back in the fight, or
the chance to stay with Asuka and make sure she was safe.
        Meanwhile, Asuka was pretty stable, considering.  She sat in
stunned silence over what just happened.  She couldn't believe what had
just happened to her.  Shinji had saved her bacon again!  Asuka could feel
the anger inside her well up, threatening to spill over.  'I couldn't do it
without him, again!' she thought.
        Shinji summoned up his courage, and opened a channel.  "Asuka...
I...," he started, but then stopped when he realized that he had no idea
what to say.
        Asuka opened her mouth to ask him what he was trying to say, but
instead she shouted, "Look out!  Behind you!" when she saw a flash of white
behind him.  Shinji turned around and was greeted by Unit 10 almost on top
of him.  He didn't say or think anything, he just reacted.  He dropped to
the ground, so he was below Unit 10's center of gravity, waited until the
Eva was right above him, put his hands under it, and pushed.
        The force of the push, added to the Unit's own momentum, was enough
to send it sailing into a building.  "How many buildings does that make?"
Shinji asked dryly.
        "How did they find us so fast?" Asuka asked.  Both she and Unit 1
looked around and saw nothing that told them the answer.  Misato and
Ritsuko were also at a loss to explain it.  Commander Ikari, however had a
good idea as to how they did it.
        "Elevate the camera's," he ordered, and the image that was produced
confermed his theory.  The image was one of the UN Eva's, hovering.  It was
Unit 5, and it had taken off, to act as a spotter; it had directed it's
teammates on where to go.
        Shinji growled a little when he saw that.  His plan was perfect,
except for that one little detail.  'Well, I guess that makes my mind up
for me,' he thought unhappily, then started looking around to see if there
were anymore enemies in the immediate area that could threaten them.
        There were none, so he turned back to Unit 2, who was, again,
trying to stand.  Unit 1 leaned over and offered a helping hand, which Unit
2 ignored completely.
        "I can take care of myself!" Asuka said.  Almost like the world was
defying that statement, her head started to swim from the effort of
standing and fighting off Maya at the same time.
        "Asuka!  Eject!  That's an order!" Misato yelled.  'That girl!"
Misato thought angrily.  'Does she have a deathwish?!'  Asuka didn't bother
answering, her actions were answer enough.  "Asuka!  You'll die if you
don't eject now!"
        Shinji, who was listning, was interested that Asuka would continue
to disobey Misato, even if it cost her job after this was over.  'If we
survive,' Shinji thought, and then that thought started repeating itself
over and over and over in his mind, like it was the first time that he
actually understood what it meant.  And then he made up his mind and opened
a private channel between himself and Unit 2, so Nerv couldn't hear what he
was planning on saying.
        "Asuka," he started again, and Asuka was shocked at the strength
she heard in his voice.  He knew what he was doing, now all he had to do
was summon the courage to say what he needed to say.  'Oh, goodie,' Askua
thought.  'He'll tell them to stop trying to eject my plug.  He'll tell
them what to do-' she thought, until Shinji interuppted her.  "Asuka, I
love you too much to loose you now," he said.
        He _what_?!
        Asuka sat back in her entry plug as his words, and their meaning,
sank in.  'I love youI love youI love youI love you...' kept circling
around in her mind, and it provided enough distraction that Asuka didn't
notice Maya attempting to eject the Entry Plug.  By the time she did notice
it, it was too late.
        "Daaaammmmmmmmniiiiiittttt!" she yelled as the plug shot out of the
Eva's backpack, her voice fading as the distance between her Entry Plug and
Unit 1 grew.
        After a few minutes of silent thinking, he looked up at Unit 5.
'Alright.  It's just you and your lackeys against me,' he thought.  'Time
to die!!!'  He punctuated that thought with a roar that blasted out all the
windows for several hundred meters around.

end

Cory Holmes
gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca

Thanks to: Wayne Pennachi, A1BoogZ, Mark, and Zero-XIII