Chapter 13:
Interference
A STRANGE TWIST OF FATE was at play here, as unlikely as winning the lottery multiple times in a row. The Type-N robot, which had joined the stars after the Asuka/Eva synthesis had flicked it into outer space, was caught in the ridges of the Lance of Longinus as it sped toward the moon’s orbit.
Six picked up the beeps of its distress signal and gave chase.
When Ayanami Rei Six had woken in the Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica, she, too, had been stranded in space. The Lance of Longinus replica had zoomed past her, and she was in the process of accelerating after it. “Ugh… I’m still under the Doppler effect,” Six complained about her negative acceleration.
As she kept her eyes fixed on the lance, she noticed that a significantly large hole had opened up in the vacuum of space.
Had that always been there? If so, Six hadn’t noticed until now.
Although equipped with powerful thrusters that allowed it to fly into space, Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica was still a land unit. The star chart installed in its navigation system was strictly for emergency situations, only detecting the brightest stars and planets to get the unit’s bearings. It was cruder than a grade schooler’s constellation map. Six would’ve noticed the stark anomaly upon reboot if she’d been provided with a more detailed system.
A large mask of shadows covered a portion of the stars. Six took a closer look and noticed that its outline was glowing, and it was slowly growing larger.
The large shadow was forming over the dark side of the lunar landmass.
Sirens started blaring in her plug. The moon slab was rushing through the thick dust cloud.
Violent sparks flashed across her A.T. Field. The field functioned similarly to magnetic field lines, and whatever resistance it met was reduced before being transmitted to Eva-0.0’s body. The Eva held up its left hand to withstand the shock waves and bursts of light. When the storm finally settled, and Six could see again, she let out a cheerful whistle.
“Leaping lemurs!” Six said as she saw the blue ring of Earth rise above the lunar horizon.
<<Ayanami Rei Six, is that you?>> said a voice that wasn’t a voice. Six recognized it somehow.
“What? Who’s talking?”
Quadrupeds have excellent awareness on level ground but are mostly oblivious to whatever happens overhead. Wolfpack was no exception, even with Mari’s senses enhanced by her pack.
Wolfpack’s sensors were overwhelmed by the amount of dust being kicked up from the slab. The data from its immediate surroundings was too much for it to bear, and the fact that it was also still in mid-escape made for one disoriented Eva.
Six had been so overjoyed at finally spotting Earth that she’d accidentally activated all the switches within her reach. Her firearms were fortunately locked by the FSC reacting to her brainwave patterns, but her communication lines weren’t so rigorously protected. Her Eva proceeded to broadcast Six’s meaningless declaration across the empty void.
<<Leaping lemurs!>>
Mari turned to look at the sky without glancing at her communications console.
She noticed, with a twitch of the ears atop her head, I’m not the only one who came through the portal!
The halo of light that was Ramiel’s particle beam wrapped around Wolfpack’s waist. The beasts of its A.T. Field shone like lightning and bolted out of the compromising position.
Suddenly, an inverted dust cloud exploded from the slab in the silent vacuum of space.
The replica Lance of Longinus had finally landed.
Its impact produced shock waves over four hundred kilometers from the epicenter, rendering its immediate vicinity into floating rubble.
That voice…
<<Ayanami Rei Six, is that you?>> Mari growled this, and yet, for some reason, Six understood her perfectly.
<<What? Who’s talking? Cat Ears?>>
The lance stood tall in the center of the crater. Wolfpack proceeded to pull it out of the stone with its powerful jaws.
<<Wolves and a dog… No cats present.>>
Six fired the enhanced Angel’s Backbone at the Q.R. Signum of the Carrier who was trying to steal the lance. It shattered into a fireworks display of blood.
<<Cat Ears! It is you!>>
Six was ecstatic to hear a familiar voice in the loneliness of space. Mari took the red lance and stabbed the remaining Q.R. Signum of the lurching Carrier.
<<Six, Momo is inside of Wolfpack’s transport craft.>>
<<It’s pronounced ‘cease’! Like in French! Really? No wonder I couldn’t find her anywhere.>>
Mari thought that this might be the first time she’d cared for anyone outside her pack.
Eva-00 Type-F Allegorica began decelerating after firing its thrusters in the other direction.
Wolfpack was getting used to the low-gravity environment. It still had three Angel Carriers left to fight, but with the Lance of Longinus in hand…
<<Six, did you throw this lance?>>
<<Nope. I’m just going after it. My friend’s stuck to it!>>
<<Your friend?>>
<<Yeah!>>
Mari’s monitor robot squeaked in response to the signal coming from the Type-N robot attached to the Lance of Longinus’s helix. The Type-N with suction cups for legs also chimed in, and the three robots proceeded to have a high-speed conversation. Mari could almost hear them sigh as they complained about the humans’ treatment of their kind.
<<Can you see Asuka from where you’re standing?>>
<<You mean Asuka’s here? Asukaaaaaa!>>
Six was unaware that the Asuka/Eva synthesis had turned Victor—or Torwächter A1, per the NATO designation. In fact, Torwächter A1 was also unaware that she was working for the enemy now, and she waved to Six from behind the Angel Carriers.
<<I see her. Sunrise to the left. Fifteen hundred meters off its rotational axis. I think.>>
That was all Mari needed for Wolfpack to start charging through the swarm of Carriers.
<<Why? What’s going on? Are you friends with Asuka?>>
<<I’m here to eat Asuka.>>
Six didn’t know what she meant by that. She squinted her eyes and thought about it. Eventually, she said, “I wonder if she’d taste like a habanero—aah!”
Six yelped at the sudden gust of white in the empty vacuum. Birds… Birds as far as the eye could see.
<<Hallucinations. Don’t let them fool you.>>
<<I don’t think they are!>> snapped Six.
<<Look, there’s something behind the moon, and they’re all flying there.>>
Six said this on pure intuition. She didn’t know what she was pointing to. Back on Hakone, Shinji had said the thing that Trois had hesitated to say: The stage for the next Earth is the moon.
The moon was secretly siphoning Earth’s materials to expand itself. Yet, despite the Earth’s shrinking mass, its seas remained stable, and the water was beginning to encroach on the land.
Only the birds would survive the Great Flood.
But there would be no doves to deliver olive branches from the new world.
Torwächter B, possessor of Shinji’s heart, stood its ground as the U.S. Eva charged toward him.
<<You’re mine now! With your heart, I can finally drive this body!>>
Meanwhile, a different party watched as Six and Mari carried on their meaningless conversation while fighting Angel Carriers.
“There goes your plan.” Ayanami Rei Quatre scoffed at her passenger.
“Those two are very much alive and in possession of the lance.”
“The quadruped and the puppet will die on this rock when it falls to Earth. No rush.”
For once, the Kaji-vessel was in the entry plug with Quatre. The A.T. Field would usually provide protection against any kind of environment, but the field would dissipate upon a pilot losing her consciousness. Having fallen off an Eva under those exact conditions, Seele/Kaji seemed to have learned his lesson.
Quatre was in the plug seat while Kaji straddled the interior as if he were sitting on the edge of a dinghy. He struggled to fit his long legs in the cramped cockpit.
“The beast’s execution shall commence forthwith.”
They had succeeded in transporting themselves to a place that wasn’t the Earth, nor the moon, nor the Apple’s Core.
The broken slab of rock was still technically part of the moon, and Quatre’s mutant Eva had managed to use the tunnel network to warp to this newborn heavenly body.
“The two were once one, no matter the distance between them. We merely used this fact to travel here,” the Kaji-vessel said.
Quatre’s Eva was the first to be infected with the black giant Armaros’ scales. Seele, who now possessed Kaji, was able to control an Eva pilot through these Q.R. Signums.
Quatre couldn’t fight back.
Back on the Apple’s Core, she’d traded herself for Trois to be Kaji’s puppet. But her goal was no longer to escape the primary emotions that ruled the Ayanami clones…in her case, fear.
This world would be destroyed and born anew, Seele along with it. Quatre was intent on watching the whole process.
This was the world Shinji had created three years ago when the Human Instrumentality Project failed. Quatre thought that was a good enough reason to kill him. Whatever Seele/Kaji did, it was as a prophet who signaled the end of this world and prepared for the next.