Evangelion 1. The Cursed Blade in the Stone

**Legends turn to Myth**

_The key to predicting the future that shall come to pass lies in understanding the past. In times of crisis it is important to remember what has come before. I belive that some of our oldest myth of the age before the Age of Legends hold important lessons that we would be well served to learn in the face of coming events._

_Little is know for sure about that age and the heroes it was named after. Legends have become corrupted over time and even our oldest sources on them often contradict each other where they are not totally incomprehensible to our modern understanding. This has prompted many to doubt the accuracy of these tales from the Age of Heroes and made them banish for example the entire Silvermoon Cycle about the rise and reign of the Bunny Queen Serena Moonfield into the realm of myth and to consider characters like Ran'ma, the two-faced shifter to have been wholly fictitious._

_They are wrong. The Heroes of the first age truly existed. Their adventures really happened and it would be a great mistake of us to dismiss our accounts of their deeds. Tales of heroes like Shinji Godslayer might not be entirely accurate in all minor details, but their core is true and there is much wisdom to be gained in studying what they tell us about the heroe's fight against evil._

(From the introduction of Laufeyjarson's treatise  
"On the legends of the Age of Heroes,  
written shortly before the end of the third age)

**Part 1: The Cursed Blade in the Stone**

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is almost forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Age of heroes by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose over the bay that held the ruins of the sunken eastern capital. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

Inland it blew to the long plain where the human survivors of the great cataclysm had rebuilt their city calling it the new eastern capital. Past the dwellings of rulers and courtiers it blew on and on. Finally it reached the unfinished building site that was already hailed as the city that would replace the new capital. Past furnaces and barracks it blew to the entrance of the great pit that the city had grown around. Past scholars who had come to study its secrets and mercenaries paid to defend them. It rustled artisans and traders, lords and beggars and all the people who had followed to partake in the fortunes that were made at the pit. It dragged at the uniforms of soldiers gathered around the central plaza where a curious sword hilt was peeking out of an unhewn stone.

Unmoved by either the sword or the wind stood a bearded man with a bearing of authority.

"Take the sword," he ordered while pushing up his glasses with one gloved hand.

"I don't understand father why should I take this sword. Is this some kind of test? You know that I know nothing of swordsmanship," the boy he had spoken to answered.

The boy was young and his bearing was full of insecurity and doubt, but even without him calling the older man father the family resemblance would have been obvious to any observer who had not known of their relationship before.

"This is not a test. I already know that you can pull the sword from the stone and wield it, all you have to do is do it." The man stated impassively.

"Why?" The boy demanded defiantly. "Is this all that you have called me here for, to wield one of the artifacts you and your alchemists have recreated here with the lore gained from this evil place? Hasn't our family suffered enough from this already. Why me, when you know how I feel about anything that comes from this cursed place? Why not let one of your loyal henchmen use it?"

"Because you are the only one who can wield the blade. Yui will not just serve any master," the older man revealed.

"Yui?" the boy asked enraged. "How dare you name this thing that? How dare you father!"

When no answer was forthcoming the boy turned his back to the stone and the assembled persons and left.

* * *

A little while later Shinji felt foolish about just walking away like that. He had no horse, no provisions, no gold and few skills to acquire any of it.

His only possession of any worth was his fiddle. He could always try to pay for his way as a gleeman or traveling bard, but he doubted that his talents were up to the task of keeping him fed. Especially not in a city as large as the Third Capital where there were many competent and experienced entertainers vying for work.

Sooner or later he would be reduced to begging. His only choice was if he wanted to beg in the streets for alms or return to his father to ask him for enough gold to leave this place. The street sounded more inviting he would only get spat at occasionally and perhaps a bit beaten by the other beggars who would resent the unwelcome competition.

The worst part was that his father would undoubtedly give him what he needed without hesitation or blinking an eye. The humiliation would be all inside Shinji's own head.

Maybe he could get what he needed without having to talk to his father directly. Katsuragi the woman-soldier had seemed sympathetic to him and the old man at his fathers side had looked at him kindly.

As he made his way back to the plaza suddenly bells started to ring. First a distant bell to the east and then more and more bells in towers all over the town took up the chime. People in the streets turned around and started in other directions than they had been walking before. Peddlers were packing in their wares and mothers began herding their children along in haste. As he continued on his way the streets quickly emptied and the few people that remained on them were running with determination.

The bells must be a signal and obviously everyone here knew what it stood for and what to do when it came. Shinji did not. Was it a warning of danger or a call to arms? What danger could threaten such a city like this and which enemy would dare to attack a place that was filled with so many armed men.

Shinji quickened his stride not so much out of a real sense of urgency but more to fit in with everyone else. He noticed trends and patterns. People were abandoning some places and gathering in others. Windows and gates were barred and drawbridges that crossed the many canals of the city were raised while in other places barges were moored to create new walkways.Wooden walls moved into gaps blocking alleys and boards were lifted on roofs forming walkways that connected buildings. In front of his eyes the city turned into a fortress.

The worst thing about this strange transformation was that Shinji could not tell whether he was on the guarded inside of this fortress or outside of it. Hopefully somebody at the central plaza would be able to tell him what was going on and where to go.

As he neared his goal Shinji realized that getting to the plaza might be more difficult than he had thought. The streets and the buildings were still mostly as they had been, but everything else seemed to have shifted.He had to make different paths over bridges that had moved and stairs that he did not remember taking before. He had walked by a row of buildings that seemed to have sunken into the ground since he had seen them last,before he finally realized that he was no longer walking on the ground but on wooden boards that covered the street at second story height. He had seen the strange balconies and masts on the buildings when he had come this way before, but only now did he realize their purpose. He still did not know what the purpose of covering the street like this was, though.Were they protecting the street below from an attack from above or did they fear flooding of the lower levels or something burrowing through the ground?

Shinji wished that he could ask somebody but the only people near him were standing guard on towers looking down at him or staring at him through embrasures in the walls or gullies in the ground. It became increasingly clear that wherever 'inside' was in this strange fortress Shinji was not in it.

He reached the place where the open plaza with the sword in the stone should have been, but found that in his short absence a roof had sprung up over it. He peered through an embrasure, a small hole meant for shooting out arrows to see if he could get anyone to let him inside.

Father and his people were still there and arguing very agitatedly in the shadows below.

"... coming at us from the east. But there are no reports from the south and southwest either and we fear that they might have overrun our forward bases before they could get off a warning." A man reported.

"We can withstand any conventional attack, but without the child to wield the sword we are doomed in the face of this enemy." another moaned.

"We will defeat the armies and we will have a warrior take up the Yui in our defense," Shinji's father stated confidently.

"But Shinji ran away," the Katsuragi women objected," I have already sent out messengers to the shelters, but I fear we might not find him in this chaos."

"Shinji has made his decision." His father declared, "Rei will wield the sword for us."

As if on cue a young blue haired girl Shinji's age was carried into the gathering on a litter. She looked pale and sickly, it was hard to imagine that she would be able to add anything to the city's defense.

"I must register my protest," A fair-haired woman accompanying the litter-bearers declared. "Rei is in no condition to fight. And even if she was I would recommend against it; holding that cursed blade had almost killed her the last time Rei attempted to use it."

While the people on the inside were arguing the weather seemed to have taken a turn for the worse outside. Dark clouds occluded the sun and it the distance noises could be heard that Shinji knew by now must be the sound of approaching armies.

"You protest is duly noted. Unfortunately it seems that we have no other options," The older man who seemed to be his father's second in command said.

"This is madness. The swords hates her. It hates all of us. The stone is the only thing keeping it contained. Even if Rei manages to draw without getting killed it will be as much danger to us as the attack," Katsuragi objected.

She was ignored. His father meanwhile had approached the girl on the stretchers.

"Rei, you will draw Yui for us." He half asked/half stated with unnatural kindness.

"Yes." the girl replied weakly.

The litter-bearers, now looking more like pall-bearers to Shinji, carried the girl to the stone. The other people below had already moved away from the sword to what must have seemed to be a safer distance to them.

The ground shook beneath Shinji and he tumbled away from his peeping hole.Was it an earthquake or had the attack already started?

Shirking and screaming and clashing of steel could be heard to the east.The sky was so overcast as to render the day almost night. In the darkness overhead shapes could be seen. Were the Invaders hurling projectiles and boulders at the city? Lightning illuminated the scenes striking a metal roofed tower and for a moment Shinji could have sworn that some of the shapes overhead had wings.

He tried to get to his feet, but before he knew it there was great crash and Shinji found the ground tilting under him. The roof he was standing on collapsed and he fell.

He landed and tried to rise again as the shirking came nearer.

He looked around. The roof over the plaza was half collapsed and he was in a section alone with the girl cut of from the others. Her litter lay on the ground next to the stone as he moved towards her he saw that on of the stretcher carriers had been killed by fragments of the fallen roof. The others must have fled.

"Are you all right?" he asked dumbly knowing that she most certainly was not all right and had not even been all right before the roof almost squashed her.

But Rei only nodded weakly, feebly trying to reach for the sword when she was barely able to lift her arm.

Before he had time to react to this a loud crash made him turn. There in front of him stood a monster half animal half man. It was folding its leathery wings behind its back and made to advance on Shinji and Rei.

Shinji had to do something. He had to defend himself! He had to protect the girl!

While staring at the intruder in horror his hand reached behind him and unthinkingly grasped the only weapon within reach.


	2. Into the Battle

**Legends turn to Myth**

**Part 1: Into the Battle**

Shinji was not at first aware of what he had done. In the confusion he had merely grasped for the only weapon within reach to defend the strange blue-haired girl and himself against the attacking monster. He did not care that it was the very same sword that his father had wanted him to wield.

He also had forgotten that the weapons blade was still encased in a block of solid stone and that it had earlier looked to him as if it would require a great act of strength to pull it free. He simply reached behind him and grasped the hilt of the weapon with his right hand.

Not even trying to draw it straight up he as he would have done had he consciously thought about freeing the sword from its prison, he instead,  
once he had a firm grip on it, dragged it sideways out of the stone and then swung it in wide arc in front of him to take hold of it with both hands like had often seen soldiers do it.

He never noticed that in the process he was cutting through the stone,  
part of the floor, a few pieces of rubble, the corpse of a late litter bearer and almost the very girl he was trying to protect. The sword was so light in his hands and the blade was so sharp that none of the obstacles in its path gave it enough resistance to allow the young man to register their cutting. Only when he held the sword in front of himself did he notice that it was a most extraordinary weapon he had taken up in his defense.

Shinji had realized earlier that it would likely be a magical blade of some sort that his father had wanted him to draw it. The man had been obsessed with the secrets contained in the pit and the unnatural tools that could be created with them for as long as Shinji could recall. That his obsession had cost the live of his wife and Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari was something that Shinji could never forgive him. That he had had the gall of naming the abomination in Shinji's hand after her only made it worse.

And an abomination it surely was. It gleamed evilly in the near dark that had fallen over the city and Shinji did not dare to imagine what method of tampering of the metal might have caused the unnatural color of the blade. The purple stood in stark contrast with the virulently green inlays and the purulent orange decorations near the hilt. But even more than its sight it was the feel in his hands that filled him with abject loathing and horror.

He could almost taste through it the few drops of blood clinging to it and he knew that it thirsted for more.

Since the winged monster had backed off a bit when Shinji had brought the sword between them he decided to risk a glance to his side to look for the origin of the blood.

His relief that the girl was apparently still alive and unharmed was short lived as he soon beheld what had become of the body of the dead litter carrier. Where the sword had cut through the already dead man a disgusting process had begun. The flesh that had come in contact with the blade had turned black and rotten and the malignant effect was still expanding and slowly consuming the entire corpse in front of Shinji's horrified eyes.

He would have dropped the cursed blade then and there had not the winged monster chosen that moment to attack.

In that moment instincts took over and made him slash out with the weapon in his hands. The surprised creature managed to block and parry Shinji's strikes with his own sword but soon found itself on the retreat anxious not to let its opponents sword come in contact with its own flesh.

Soon others like it joined the fight descending from the overcast sky,  
but Shinji managed to defend himself even against their superior numbers.

As he was beating back monsters that was larger, stronger and no doubt far more experienced in the art of sword fighting Shinji realized why his father had been so sure that he would be able to wield the weapon. It was rather than him using the sword to fight, the sword which was using him.  
It guided his movements and directed his actions.

Shinji had heard that many experienced warriors sought to consider their weapon as merely an extension of their self in battle. At this moment it was Shinji who was little more than an extension of his sword.

* * *

Not far from where Shinji was fighting Misato Katsuragi, captain of the guard and battle-commander of the forces defending the city stood staring out of the window and directing the battle taking place in the twilight that had come with the attackers. Her fortified command post was build on top of the walkways connecting the two towers of the great drawbridge that formed the main crossing over the central waterway of the city. Standing in moving water as they were the stone towers of the bascule bridge were one of the most defensible places against the rabid hordes attacking them at the moment and from high up in her combat center Misato could oversee the entire battlefield below and with short harsh shouts audible above the general chaos in the war room she directed her subordinates to sound horns, raise flags and send runners in rapid succession.

The entire bridge was in a state of permanent change as the colorful display of pennants and banners along its sides was constantly permutating and everchanging sets of the brightly lit windows in the upper parts of the towers were independently darkened for short durations by rapidly opening and closing shutters. The sound of a hundred horns and bells added a musical accompaniment to the visual chaos.  
Inside several attendants manning the bridge were busy pulling and pushing at a large number of levers and pedals or operating the controls of a machine resembling those of a pipe organ while others were relaying information from lookouts and runners. In the background a large model of the city was being manipulated by a group of sappers and artisans to reflect the actual state of the fortifications.

They were all doing much better than even the best exercise and drills would have let Misato hope. The entire city was functioning as a giant military unit. The rochade-transformation had been successfully accomplished and with a thousand different changes the complicated castling process had turned the Third Capital into a nearly impregnable fortress.

The men and women in the field were reacting with speed and discipline to the various signals she was sending out so that they almost formed one giant unit and the weapons and traps placed all over the city artfully hidden in seemingly normal looking buildings were taking their toll on the invaders. Under Misato's command was the most magnificent fighting force she could imagine.

But all that counted for nothing. They were still losing against an overwhelming force.

"Sector C-7 is clear!" one of the sappers manning the model shouted loudly while taking the last little model banner from an area of the board.

It meant that the last of the defenders in that area had fled or fallen to their enemies, but it also meant that the short ranged balistae and catapults behind them could now start firing without risk of hitting one of their own.

"Signal sector D6 to begin bombardment of C7 and have C6 include it in its range of fire, but keep all heavy artillery in D7 targeted southward"  
Misato ordered.

The city was slowly overrun in front of her eyes and there was little she could do to stop them.

"Captain," a lookout shouted for her attention pointing to something close by. "Down at the sword plaza!"

Misato tried to look down the shadows beneath the bridge. The protective ceiling of the plaza had earlier collapsed burying their last hope beneath it. It looked as if the invaders had already sent a number of their bat-winged scouts to scavenge the place. Misato wished them good luck at their task. At least the winged assasin busy in the rubble below would not harass her light and signal towers like so many of their brethren were doing. She was not concerned about the possibility that they might unearth the sword. Even these shadow-spawned nightmares had no hope of surviving against the even greater horror of the sword should they be foolish enough to release it from its stony prison.

Misato turned away from the scenes to another lieutenat who was demanding her attention.

"Captain Katsuragi, we can't hold the eastern merchants district much longer," Hyuga informed her breathlessly. "There are too many of them coming at us from outside."

Misato did not need to look at the model or at the distant battle to know that he was right. They had lost any hope of holding that area for long when the invaders had managed to take two channel bridges and a small ferry to that district intact. The beast-men would not willingly cross even the shallowest water but once they the ways across under their control the dark riders that were leading them could easily drive them across in large numbers.

"Have everyone still there fall back beyond the boulevard and tell them to seek higher ground," Misato ordered. "And signal the northern reservoir to prepare to open their eastern gate once everyone has evacuated the danger zone."

Hyuga hurried of to relay her orders and Misato sighed with regret.

The maneuver would flood the district and turn the appropriately designed roads and alleys into shallow stream and canals. It would also destroy the live-hood of many families that had their business in the district. But Misato could not waste any thoughts one them. The oncoming hordes needed to be driven back and the water would be the best way to stop them for a time.

"Misato!" An angry blonde women shouted storming past the guards into the combat center. "I have heard that the invaders are trying to steal Yui and that you are just going to let them."

Misato was tempted to have her thrown out of the room by the gurads. Even if the scholar was one of Misato's oldest friends, a civilian had no business on the bridge at times like this. But Ritsuko was not just her friend but also her nominal superior as a fellow employee of Gendo Ikari.  
She might not have any say over the military decisions Misato made in the defense of the city, but it would probably be best to keep her satisfied unless Misato wanted to be in trouble later.

"With Rei dead and Shinji who knows where we don't have any body left to wield that damned sword," She explained her reasoning. "It is as useless for us right now as it will be for them."

Ritsuko would have nothing of this. "The sword is our only hope to defeat those creatures," she insisted.

"If they pull it out of the stone and start cutting themselves on it perhaps," Misato half joked. "Considering the damage it did to us when Rei tried wield it, it might very well be their destruction."

"I don't believe you." Ritsuko yelled. "Do you have any idea what went into forging this weapon? How can you just let it fall into enemy hands?"

Misato did indeed not know what had gone into making the sword, because Ritsuko and Gendo were always so secretive about it, but she decide that it would not be the right moment to point that out. Instead she ordered the mousy lieutenant Ibuki who Misato strongly suspected of having informed Ritsuko about the sword to have the western tower's searchlight pointed at the plaza.

In more peaceful times it was used to help ships safely navigate the river below but now it would enlighten the remains of the square to hopefully show Ritsuko that it was to late to do anything about the sword since the winged scouts of the enemy had already absconded with it.

Together with Ritsuko Misato peered outside. There was fighting going on down there now. There should not have been anybody left. They had evacuated that section after the collapse of the ceiling had compromised their perimeter. The moment the outer armor had been breached the whole upper layer of the square had become 'outside'.

The darkness that had come with the enemy was getting worse soon their flags would no longer be easily visible from a distance and they would have to fall back on communicating entirely with the light shutters and sound signals.

In the dim light provided by the tower she tried to make out what force had been disobeying her orders to protect an area already deemed unholdable. Almost all she could see were the dark-winged assasins of the enemy. Who were they fighting against?

One of the shapes took flight. It was visibly wounded at one wing-tip as it tried to lift of from the shadow below, but it did not get far. Its entire wing shriveled before it had made more than a few successfully wing beats and it fell back to the ground to die screaming a horrible death-scream that could even be heard above the general din of the battle.

Ritsuko gasped and Misato swore. She recognized that effect. She had seen it before and hoped never to see it again. Somebody down there was wielding Gendo's accursed purple sword and he was slaughtering the enemy's winged scouts.

Suddenly she was grateful that Ritsuko was with her since the women was one of the foremost experts on the blade.

She send orders to directed two of their only a handful remaining operational light-towers to add the beams of their large parabolic gas-lamp spotlights to the illumiantion of the plaza.

Within a short time her order was relayed and the battle scence below illuminated.

"It is Shinji!" Misato triumphantly.

"So the third child has successfully drawn the purple sword," Ritsuko declared in awe.

He had Not only was he wielding the sword, but he actualy seemed to have mastered it.

"And Rei is still alive, too" Misato added.

The girl was sitting on the floor behind him and not only was Shinji not trying to kill her he was actively defending her against the attacks of the monsters. That meant that he was still in control of his bloodthirsty tool.

Misato immediately directed reserve forces to have Rei fetched out of there and to assist Shinji in his fight. With the blade in control they might just win this battle, yet.

"Why don't you direct him to use his sword where he will do more good"  
Ritsuko asked.

"He doesn't know any of the signals," Misato explained.

She had given him a booklet that contained explanation for the standard signal pennants, but it was unlikely that he had read it and learned them by heart in the short time.

"I will have a row of pennants set anyway," Misato decided. "Maybe Rei is well enough to relay the to him for us."

It was frustrating. Their most powerful weapon was wielded by the only human in the city above the age of six who would not understand the signals that Misato was trying to send.

Helplessly they watched as Shinji wasted his time fighting the few winged scouts that the enemy had sent into the heart of the city. Finally a group of archers had reached a nearby highrise and was starting to rain down arrows on the winged ones.

Once the last of his foes had fallen Shinji just stood their cluelessly before turning to Rei. At first Misato thought that he would now turn his sword against her, but he was just making sure that she was all right.

Rei must have managed to relay her orders to him as Shinji turned to face the direction that Misato wanted him to walk.

* * *

Sinhji slowly advanced in the direction that Rei had said he must go trying to keep in the center of the spotlight that illuminated his way. He was unsure about how exactly Rei knew where he needed to go and what difference a single fighter could hope to make in a battle like this, but he had obeyed. He did not even insist to stay with her until the troops she said where on their way would pick her up. Truth to be told Shinji was glad to be away from her. Or rather he was glad that she was safely away from him and the sword.

The sword Shinji had decided was dangerous. It was not outright controlling his actions but merely leading influencing his feelings. He had nearly lost himself to the bloodthirst when he had fought the winged monsters. A part of him had delighted in killing them and he had feared that once he ran out of enemies he would kill Rei. The sword had definitely wanted her dead, but that hate had been the key that had helped Shinji to seperate his own desires from the sword's.

He had only know the girl briefly but he had felt a strange sort of connection there. He most certainly did not want to see her die or come to any harm. And that was why he was now walking away from her.

Shinji paused as he realized that the circle of light had stopped following him several some time ago and he was about to step into darkness. He looked up at the light-towers quizzically nearly blinding himself in the process. Then he looked back behind him.

The spotlights had not just stopped moving forward they had moved a bit to the side where they had before been centered directly on the middle of Shinji's path.

Shinji backtracked and found a small alley branching of from the main road exactly where the lights indicated. Shrugging his shoulders he decided to follow that path instead.

Paying more attention to where his illumination wanted him to Shinji made his way through the deserted city. Finally in the middle of a low bridge over one of the many waterways it stopped again.

What did that mean? There was no way to move anywhere but ahead or back from where he had come, but the spotlight stayed centered slightly to the side of where he stood. Did they expect him to jump into the water?

Carefully walking to the edge he realized that he was not in fact on a normal bridge, but one of the improvised ones that had been created with the city's transformation. It was made out of river barges and ferries that had been strung together to form a new crossing. And the float he was standing on was strangely disconnected from the rest of the construct.

The other boats had been side by side and fastened to the channels edges.  
His raft was not fastened to the boats on either side but instead held in place by ropes leading to the aft and fore of his vessel. He had seen similar on ferries that were towed by them across streams, but who would want to use it to tow a raft along a river instead of across.

The ropes seemed to be under some tension as they were straight and not dipping down at all as far ahead as he could see. He poked one with the sword he still held in his hands and the light went out.

The light came on again a moment later. Did they want him to cut the rope?  
Or did had that been a warning not to touch the ropes. There was little else he could do here but passively wait and the light had pointed to the side and not the center as waiting should logically be indicated.

Perhaps it was just the sword filling him with a need to cut things even if they were inanimate objects, but Shinji raised so that its blade sparkled in the light. He held it there for a moment to make his intentions clear when no further messages seemed to be forthcoming he let the blade come down and cut through both ropes on the side he was standing on at once in a mighty strike that he would not have thought himself to be capable of before he picked up the sword.

For a moment nothing happened and then with a lurch the raft started moving in the other direction. First slowly and then quickly speeding up he moved along the river.

Turning around he saw the source of his motion up ahead. The ropes were leading to a large drawbridge where presumably through a system of pulleyes the mass of the slowly descending bridge was serving as a counterweight to reel him in.

From the way both he and the bridge were speeding up their motion it looked like it would close just when Shinji passed its position in the river. A thought occurred to him.

The bridge looked like it would be awfully close to the water once it was closed.

Shinji quickly lay down on his raft hugging himself to the deck.

Another thought occurred to him. What exactly would happen once he ran out of rope on the other side? Being brought to a sudden full stop from the speeds they were going did not seem like something that would be healthy for the boat or for that matter for him.

He needn't have bothered since a cheerfully waving guard manning the bridge cut him loose when he passed safely underneath the bridge with several spans of headroom above him.

Now coasting along Shinji shakily stood up again to see what lay ahead.  
There was little to see, but the distant sound of battle had become notably louder.

Slowing down his craft finally came to a rest in the middle of what looked like a small artificial lake.

* * *

The artisan held in his hand a little glass bauble containing a small purple figure that looked like a thin and especially ugly type of horned demon.

"Evangelion Unit 01 has reached the southern retention pool!" Lieutenant Ibuki reported from where she was looking out the window.

The artisan dutifully placed the little bauble in the velvet clad part of city model that represented the retention pool.

"All pond gates closed," Lieutenant Ibuki added now spying men waving red flags on all the minor channels and waterways leading to the pond.

"Launch channel is clear," the artisan added after looking over the model one last time to make sure that there had been no change of status along the way since he had last checked.

"Are you sure about this, Misato?" Ritsuko asked hesitantly.

"We need Shinji in the battle and we need him there now. This is the fastest way to get him directly into the heart of the enemy forces. If he can handle holding the sword he can handle a little rafting," the captain declared categorically then in a louder voice she ordered. "Open sluice gate seven and launch EVA!"

"Opening sluice gate seven," lieutenant Aoba confirmed from his console where he was relayin that order.

The artisan lifted a small wooden board bearing the number seven out of the way. For a few heartbeats there was relative silence in their part of the bridge while everyone waited eagerly.

"EVA-01 launced!" Lieutenant Ibuki finally declared when she saw Shinji's raft beginning to move in the distance.

The artisan backhanded the purple figure sending it madly carroming down a path of little velvet clad channels towards the southern edge of the display.

* * *

Shinji was screaming loudly and holding on for dear life as he was riding his raft down a series of narrow channels. He had stuck his sword into the raft to create a handhold when he had first realized that the lake he had been on was emptying itself and was now clinging to it as if his life depended on it.

And it very well might have, given the speed at which the water masses were rushing down the channels. But for all his terror he also felt an odd sense of security and being watched over as he was holding tightly onto the unholy artefact to keep from falling overboard.

The city was whisking by left and right at speeds not normally associated with horizontal movement and several times he almost thought he would die when his path took a sharp turn to the side.

Finally the stream he was riding left the city proper and emptied itself into a meadow outside the city walls momentarily flooding it in the process.

And a good thing that was too, for the meadow had up until then been a staging area for the hydrophobic attackers. The water forced them back giving Shinji just enough breathing room to pull his sword free and ready himself for the fight.

These enemies were different from the ones he had fought before. While some of the winged nightmares were present, the bulk of the enemy's forces were made up out of earthbound creatures that were half men and half beasts. The creatures came in several distinct forms, but no matter if they had beaks or snouts, were shaped in grotesque parodies of wolves,  
bears or rams they all had in common the inhuman feel of savage malice about them. They almost physically reeked of evil. A few mounted adversaries were among the hordes, but Shinji paid them little attention since their numbers were few and their more human appearance made them seem less of a threat to him then the monstrous foot soldiers.

He was slightly concerned that he could not see any other human defenders anywhere nearby. In fact all the usual battle noises seemed to be coming from behind him in the direction of the city.

Where was everyone else? Shinji wondered as the monsters again closed in around him, encircling him from all side. Was he supposed to take on that army all by himself?

As the first attackers dashed forward through the receding water Shinji concluded that he was in even deeper trouble than he had thought.

He parried a few attacks and cut down the first of those who dared to approach him. He soon found that they were far stronger warriors and competent fighters than the bat-winged monsters had been.

When he saw that he was surround by hundreds if not thousands of the creatures he realized that he would not have any choice. He closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the siren song of blood and death that had been playing in his mind since he had first picked up the blade. He allowed the bloodthirst of the sword to take control.

When he opened his eyes again they were glowing red and the hordes before him suddenly knew fear.

* * *

"They are going to overwhelm him." Lieutenant Ibuki feared trying to make out Shinji among the hordes of beast-men south of the city.

"We flushed him directly into the heart of the enemy's forces." Captain Katsuragi stated. "I can only hope, that you did not overestimate the power of the sword."

"Don't fear Misato," Miss Akagi assured her. "If Shinji has truly mastered Yui than he can easily overcome those hordes."

Captain Ktsuragi seemed less sure, but she said nothing and turned to direct other parts of the battle raging in her city.

Lieutenant Ibuki stayed next to the blonde scholar peering out into the twilight.

Something was happening out there, but it was almost to dark to make out anything more than vague shapes. Suddenly movement came into the crowd of monsters where Shinji had disappeared. The chaotic motions soon resolved into a large circle that was cleared leaving nothing behind but wreckage and the dead bodies of a few attackers. In the center of that sudden clearing stood Shinji with his sword raised high into the sky.

Unnatural lighting seemed to answer him and the hordes of monsters further shrunk back from the youth. The mounted half-men tried to spurn on their soldiers to attack him, but it seemed that the beasts had more fear of the young boy holding the sword than of their eyeless leaders.

"He is surrounded by an Aura of Absolute Terror that envelopes him almost like a physical armor." Ritsuko said in awe even if it was clear from her quick analysis that she had been expecting something like this.

"Is he fighting now?" Captain Katsuragi asked rejoining them again at the window. "He frightening them!"

At that moment several of the half-men concentrating their efforts on the same group of minions convinced them to attack. Details were hard to see but it became obvious that Shinji was dispatching the attackers quicker than the half-men could convince them to fight. Shinji fought his way through the attackers out of the ring and into an especially large concentration of beast-warriors.

"What is he doing?" The Captain demanded outraged. "Hacking and slashing the foot soldiers will not achieve anything. He has to go after the leaders to get them to disperse!"

"He does not know that either," Mistress Akagi sighed regretfully. "Unlike Rei or the second child he never received any training. It is a miracle that he has been doing as good as he has so far."

"We somehow have to point him out the enemies he has to engage," Captain Katsuragi declared.

"Can't we use the spotlights for that again?" Ritsuko asked.

"Even the closest working light-tower is too far away to be of any use"  
the Captain explained. "The circle of light they would create would be awfully large and dim. Impractical to point out anything smaller then a large building."

They watched on in silence as Shinji wasted his efforts against lowly foot soldiers.

Suddenly Misato turned to Lieutenant Ibuki.

"Maya," She said unprecedentedly addressing her with her given name during an operation. "Didn't you mention something a while ago about colored lenses and focusing spotlights? You said one of Ritsuko's papers had given you the idea."

"She is a great fan of your work," Misato explained as an asside to mistress Akagi.

"A large convex lens might focus a spotlight enough to reach over the distance," mistress Akagi mused thankfully concentrating on the first part of the information that captain Katsuragi had provided. "But it would require some caluculations and you would have to have a lens specially made. I don't think we have the time for that."

"I have the necessary equipment already prepared here at the bridges own spotlight. The target I was planing for was about the same distance as Shinji is now," Maya admitted.

"Well that is perfect!" Captain Katsuragi cheered. "I told you she was a smart one. Go, go! And Aoba you go with her in case there is any heavy lifting."

Maya and Shigeru hurried outside to the western tower of the bridge where her experiment was located.

"I don't feel so good about going out there in this weather." Maya confided in her fellow bridge officer.

"What's a bit of lighting and bat-winged terrors against the chance of really impressing you Ritsuko." he teased.

* * *

Back on the bridge Misato assured her friend "Maya really is a smart one.  
You should take a look at some of the stuff she has written sometime when this is over."

With that she went back to the rest of her bridge and left Ritsuko alone at the window.

She could need an assistant, she mused, she would have to ask around a bit about this Maya once the battle was over. Her problem of course was that anybody intelligent enough to be of real assistance in her work would also be smart and naturally curious enough to ask exactly the wrong sort of questions. Ritsuko would need someone who was both competent and capable of working alone and unsupervised on complicated problems but also so trusting and loyal that they would not question her or investigate where she forbid them to go. And ultimately of course they would have to be expandable.

Risuko looked out the window where Shinji still could be seen fighting in the distance. He was still aimlessly hacking and slashing at the hordes of beast-men like a man possessed.

Lightning struck again and this time it almost seemed to strike the youth directly, but far above the sword he was holding up with both hands the lighting seemed to split up and branch. From all Ritsuko had been taught it should have travel straight down through the sword and the boy into the ground, but it was almost as if the lightning itself was repulsed by the Aura of Absolute Terror that was surrounding Shinji. The lighting branched instead and hit in a dozen different places around the boy incidentally striking down a small number of his enemies.

The scary thing was that if you had just enough imagination you could almost think that you saw a great horned demon in the pattern of the purple afterimage of the lighting.

Ritsuko shivered not wanting to think about that too much.

Finally, after an indetermininate time that had seemed to her like a small eternity, but was still amazingly short for Maya to get her machine to work, a dim red spot the size of a man's head appeared on the battlefield.  
Ritsuko waved Misato back over to the window.

"So Maya has actually gotten her gotten her gas-light pointer to work"  
she commented. "I told you she was a smart one."

The red dot sought out one of the riders marking him for Shinji. For a moment Ritsuko feared that he was already to far gone in the thrall of the sword to react to the hint, but eventually he took notice.

Shinji waded through the see of beast-men surrounding the half-man on the horse as if they were of no concern. The fight when he finally reached him was little more involved.

Maya immediately pointed out the next rider in the crowd and Shinji went after him. After the third target Shinji had obviously recognized the pattern and was now independently seeking out the human looking leaders of the enemy by himself.

Shinji might made it look so easy, but Ritsuko knew the true strength of a pale rider. No human should have been able to deal with one of them this easily even aided by the sharpest sword in the world. It wasn't Shinji who was fighting down there, it was Yui.

Monster was fighting monsters down there and at the moment the greater horror was winning. Already the troops surrounding Shinji had come into some disarray as there were now far less half-men than would have been necessary to control the beast armies in the presence of so much terror.

"He is doing it," Misato cheered. "With nobody to drive the reinforcements into the city the tide will soon turn for those forces already trapped in the city."

She went back to send messages and coordinate her troops to take advantage of the situation.

There was still fighting going on and it would be for some time, but Ritsuko sensed that the battle was already won. As she gave one last look in the direction where Shinji was fighting, she could not help but ask herself at what price.


End file.

Evangelion, Adventure, Fantasy