The blast doors closed shut behind Evangelion Unit 01 as it made the descent towards REPC HQ. Midori Suzuki continued to cradle her side and legs inside the Evangelion’s entry plug. The pain was subsiding slowly, but it seemed to her to be taking an eternity. Her tears had made a visible form inside the entry plug; it reflected light like oil. Her mouth was opened slightly, and she sobbed. But regardless of the pain, one thought lingered in her head: Failure.

Hideki Miyazaki stirred inside his own entry plug, nervousness making him shiver slightly.
“I’m I going to be deployed now?” Hideki asked, his voice quivering.
“No,” Rayan’s voice came through forcefully. Hideki heard a cough, Seizon he was sure, through the audio link.
“No,” Seizon assured coolly, “Tactically unsound. We’ll analyse the data that Evangelion 01 recorded before you are deployed.”
“Er, how is Eva One?” Hideki wondered.
“Well, the damage prim-“
“Second’ll be okay,” Rayan interjected.
“Thanks,” Hideki replied, before he rested back in his seat.

Demogorgon, The Third Daemon, pondered its current situation. It felt its goal far below itself, below Tokyo-3, in the Geofront. The Evangelion hadn’t been much of a problem; its teeth had torn through the beast’s armour like piecemeal. The task of getting to the Geofront on the other hand was proving far more difficult. It stood in the middle of Tokyo-3, looking round, waiting for its next challenge.

“It’s just standing there,” Ayame said incredulously, “Why is it just standing there?”
“Conserving energy no doubt,” Major Tsuchi Seizon replied. He looked up to where Commander Suzuki sat, arms crossed on the desk in front of him. A slight nod from him was the signal Seizon had been waiting for. “I’m going to look over the readings. Hold the fort Evans“
Ayame replied with a brief nod, and Seizon walked away to find Dr Yunokawa.
Rayan stood over Ayame’s chair, hands on the backrest. Ayame looked up, past the vertical, into Rayan’s dark eyes. Her own violet eyes shone with criminal intent as her currently red hair fell back behind her neck.
“Does he know what he’s doing?” she asked gently.
“He too-” Rayan cut himself off, remembering where he was, who he was meant to be, “Yes,” he replied harshly between gritted teeth.
“You don’t sound-“ she started, but he laid his hands on her shoulders.
“Not now Lieutenant.” He emphasized the last word for a reason. This was work, not at home. Not alone, together.
“Yes sir.” She looked back down at her console with a silent sigh.

NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: Battle of Souls
EPISODE TWO: The City of Blood / Stained Hands

A medical trolley trundled along the lengthy corridors of the REPC medical facility. Lights seemed to float over Midori’s head as she was rushed along countless hallways. Her plugsuit glistened with yellowy-orange LCL. She had been pulled out of her entry plug as quickly as possible, and regardless of her adamant resistance, Rayan had insisted that she was to be taken to the infirmary.
At least he didn’t insist to strip me of my plugsuit back then. A shiver ran down her spine, not caused by the cold liquid that stuck to her, but on the thought that Rayan could of ordered that. Men she thought bitterly.
A sign overhead read ‘Cranial Nerve 02’. Another shiver ran through her. Who knows how much damage that thing could have one if it had had the chance.

”Evangelion Unit 00?” Yadama Toyomura, First Child, asked. His father walked alongside him. He was unsure, but he felt they were nearing the cages.
“Arriving in a few days,” Sub Commander Keiji Toyomura replied.
“What happened?”
“With... oh, right. I don’t know,” Keiji shrugged, “Maybe your arrival sparked something.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Don’t worry, Midori shouldn’t fail.”
“Midori?” Yadama asked curiously.
“The Second Child, Pilot of Evangelion 02,” Keiji replied with a frown, “You don’t know?”
“No. Details were left out for some reason.”
“Well, no worries. Rayan will fill you in.”
“Rayan? That man who picked me up?”
“Yes, Captain Rayan Ladine.”
“I don’t like him.”
“Most of us don’t,” Keiji grinned, “but he’s useful.”
“I’m sure,” Yadama mused.

”It’s far superior to what I suspected,” Dr Yunokawa awed. His octagonal glasses had slipped halfway down his wrinkled nose, so he pushed them back up. He was in his late fifties, which no hair left on his head, and his grey eyes looked like black pits compared to his pale face. “The rifle has no effect whatsoever.”
“Tell me something useful Doctor,” Seizon sighed, “Reiterating isn’t going to help here.”
“Well, it doesn’t appear to have an AT Field,”
“Absolute Terror Field... then he could engage with the progressive knife?”
“Possibly, but the point is that it doesn’t appear to have an AT Field, not that is doesn’t have one. And it’s uncannily fast. You need a pilot with a high sync ratio.”
“Midori is-“
“Yes, my point,” Yunokawa chided, “And the Third Child isn’t as high. In fact, he’s disappointing low.”
“As I said, reiterating isn’t going to help.”
“Sadly, I need more data, and with only one more Evangelion-“
“I’ll figure something out,” Seizon stated, before removing himself from the Doctor’s lab.
“Foolish child,” Yunokawa sighed. He scratched his head, removing a tiny itch. “Those poor children.”

Midori lay in an empty room. Pale light lit the room from the light strips on the roof. Her attire had changed. She now was robed in a simple white hospital gown. This is all too much she thought. She started to move, but a twinge of pain shot up her right hand side. She reluctantly lied back again.
She refused to let herself sleep. Sleep is for the lazy, especially at midday. She didn’t know the time, but she was fairly accurate. She craned her neck and looked around the room. There was a plain metal chair, and a bedside cabinet with a buzzer that hung over it. The window had white curtains tied back at each end, and the white blinds were closed. The blast shuttered was closed too, which explained why no light entered the room from that source.
Her eyes returned to the light strips on the roof as she began to think over the battle. What did I do wrong?

Hideki sat in a chilled silence inside the entry plug. No-one had talked to him for over fifteen minutes, which made him feel unimportant, and with the daemon overhead, he felt scared. Unimportant and scared... not a good combination. He looked down at himself, at the crimson plugsuit he wore. Like blood. It hadn’t previously occurred to him before that Evangelion Unit 02 was the finished production model, built for battle, and it was the colour of blood.
A flash of pain struck him, red flashed in his eyes. He grabbed his head urgently, but it was over in an instant. Even the pain had disappeared, but the thought lingered. It was so sore... He sighed. Things weren’t going his way today.

”Report Seizon,” Reichou said in an icy tone of voice.
“We have no more information then we did before,” Tsuchi replied.
“And what is the condition of the Second Child?”
Why can’t you call her by her name? She is your daughter after all. “She will be able to operate in a day or two.”
“And the Third Child?”
Hideki Seizon thought bitterly. “Standing by in Evangelion Unit 02.”
“And what is your suggested course of action.”
“Without more information, we can’t assess a weak point in the Daemon. Engage Evangelion Unit 02 in a recon role.”
“Understood.” Reichou’s glare returned to the main screen, and Seizon dismissed himself.

”Hideki.” After the long silence Seizon’s voice commanded his attention.
“Yes sir?” Hideki replied meekly.
“You are to engage the daemon in a reconnaissance role only. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” he replied, his voice shaky.

Safety checks were run through for Eva 02 as they had for Eva 01. The Evangelion moved backwards and up as the platform it stood on made its way to for the catapult launch system. The restraints that held the Evangelion were released, and Hideki felt the Gs push down on him as his crimson Evangelion shot upwards.

Demogorgon’s attention turned away from its current problem to a new one it sensed. It spun slowly on one heel, and rotated around to face the new threat. Its two heads grinned, revealing bloody teeth, parts of Eva 01 stuck between its razor sharp teeth. It flexed the claw-like fingers on each arm eagerly.

Evangelion Unit 02 wheeled round as it exited the lift. It quickly reached for its shoulder that opened up to reveal a large knife. The Evangelion removed the prog knife and then held it firmly in its right hand as the shoulder closed.
“Recon only,” Seizon reminded.
“It’s a just-in-case measure,” Hideki replied. He looked out at Demogorgon, and shuddered in fear. With two heads with grinning maws of death, and teal with white skin, it was some weird parody of a nightmare. But those teeth... If it can get Midori so badly... His jaw clamped shut, and he carefully backed away from the daemon as it approached. How am I supposed to get any data it it’s just going to follow me?

The door opened, and Midori saw the form of Rayan enter the room. He silently took the sole chair in the room, and positioned it near to Midori’s bedside. Only then did he decide to speak.
“How are you?”
“Been better.” Midori begun laughing softly, but even that brought some agony, and she stopped quickly wincing.
“I’ll make sure you get your peace in the apartment. I’ll keep the boys on a tight leash.”
“Thanks...” She didn’t like to thank people, especially not Rayan, but he was being helpful.
“Anything I can get you?”
“The head of that bastard,” she growled. No name had to be traded between them; Rayan knew she meant Demogorgon. A smile formed on his face as he got up.
“Hideki’s taking care of that.”
“Hideki...” she mused. Always trying to upstage me... I guess we all just have to do our best, but I should be better then that idiot! The door closed behind Rayan. She didn’t even realize he had gone until the door had shut.
A thought stirred in her head that had taken its time to immerge. “Boys?”

The strange pursuit continued. The daemon walked forward at the same speed Hideki half-stumbled backwards.
“This is pointless,” Hideki growled to himself.
“Just-“ Seizon started, but something diverted their attention. The daemon suddenly began to sprint at Hideki. Hideki began to turn to run, but the daemon moved at a lightning speed, and rammed into the Evangelion’s side. It toppled over, and one of the daemon’s mouths bit into the same side. Hideki cried out in pain, but he was concentrating enough to stab the daemon in the leg with the prog knife. An inhuman howl bellowed out of the second head, before it bit the hand that held the knife. He released his grip on the knife as pain overtook his nerves. He tried to pull the hand free, but Demogorgon held on too tight.
Next he heard a crunch, and he pulled his arm free. Then agony spread like wildfire, ravaging up his arm, across his body, from his head to his feet. In the daemon’s maw was Eva 02’s right hand, separated from its arm.

”Jesus Christ!” another tech, Ieyasu, cursed. Hideki’s cry of pain resonated eerily around Terminal Dogma.
“My God...” Ayame stared at the screen with disbelief.
In his ‘ivory tower’, Reichou Suzuki didn’t even blink.

With its left hand, Hideki willed the Evangelion to grab its foe. With its hand gripped on the head that was pinning the Evangelion down, the one sending pain through his side, he squeezed. The fingers ruptured the surface, and begun to bore into where a human would have a brain, but all the daemon appeared to have was muscle. A screech came from both months now as the one previous on the Eva’s side wheeled back, bleeding. Hideki took the break in combat to get on his feet, but one of the daemon’s claw-hand grabbed his Eva’s head, lifting the construct off of the ground. The second claw-hand started to pound the Eva’s stomach, Hideki’s stomach. He lurched in pain.
Red flashes came to Hideki’s mind. Pain, but not pain. Emotions.
ANGER
HATRED
SUFFERING
DESTRUCTION
DEATH
Hideki drifted on the edge between conscious and unconscious. He wavered for only a moment.
KILL

”The pilot’s blacked out,” Ayame reported in a level tone, although underneath she was concerned.
“What?!” Seizon yelled.
“All readings indicate that’s he passed out.”
Seizon’s eyes seemed to bulge out of his head. He looked as the daemon sent punch after punch into Eva 02’s midriff. It was at this time Rayan exited one of the lifts and his eyes also seemed to bulge out of his head as he glanced upon Hideki’s Eva.
“What happened?!”
“The pilot’s passed out,” Seizon stated.
“And can you get him out of there?!” Rayan panicked.
“No,” Seizon sighed. Rayan fought back his anger.
“What now?”
”I don’t know.”
“There is nothing that can be done,” Commander Suzuki added, “If the pilot is unconscious, and a daemon is still up there, we cannot risk a retrieval crew.” Although the Daemon must be stopped.

Demogorgon laid into the Evangelion as hard as ever. Cracks appeared on the chest armour, and added to the arm and side damage already caused, Unit Two looked in a bad way. With a final, determined punch, the daemon dropped the Evangelion to the ground, where it lay as it landed. The daemon cast it a glance, before looking at the lift the Eva had entered via. Two grins revealed its intent. It bent down in front of the blast doors, and started to tear them apart.

The groan of metal bending echoed through the room where the First Child sat. He looked fiercely around the cage were the Evangelion were normally held. Bakelite had been in this chamber, but now it was a hollow shell.
With his legs dangling off the edge of an umbilical bridge, Yadama begun to whistle a tune; Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre.

The two-headed daemon looked down the long shaft that would take it directly into the heart of REPC. It hunched over the gap in the ground, feral snarls forming on its lips. Twisted metal lay around it; the remains of the blast doors.
The defeated Evangelions’ eyes shone bright red momentarily before it dimmed down to its normal levels. It moved, rolling itself onto its back, before it pushed itself upright using both arms, the bloody stump soaking the ground with blood. From its mouth it yelled out something wolfish yet alien, before launching itself into a sprint at the teal creatures.
One of Demogorgon’s heads looked to the revived Evangelion. Soon its body turned, and it received the full force of Evangelion Unit 02 slamming into it. The Eva’s jaws sliced into one of the daemon’s neck and tore a mighty gash from it. Dark blood gushed out of the wound into the Evangelion’s face, but it continued unperturbed. With another bite the first of the daemon’s heads dropped off. The Evangelion pushed the daemon back even more until the Eva slamming into an invisible barrier. It punched at it, orange octagons rippling from the barrier.

“An AT Field?” Keiji asked.
“Of course,” Reichou replied.

As Eva 02 punched at the AT Field, Demogorgon regained some composure. It stood up, and snarled at the Evangelion that fumbled to get at it. A grin surfaced on its face.
The berserking Eva grinned back as a fist punched into the AT Field, and then half-penetrated it. Ripples shuddered away from the Eva’s fist as the AT Field collapsed.

”I’m getting no signal from the pilot!” Ayame shouted.
“What!” Seizon and Rayan yelled in unison.
“Hideki’s still unconscious.”
“Then how is the Evangelion moving?” questioned Rayan.
“Nothing like this has happened before,” Seizon added.
“I don’t know sir,” Ayame answered, not realizing it was a rhetorical question.

A clawed hand attempted to rip the Evangelion’s head off. Another shout bellowed from the Evangelion’s orifice as the Eva and Daemon stopped, barred by a grassy hill. The daemon flailed to get out of the Eva’s grasp, but the Eva put its entire weight on it. The Evangelion’s head shook as the Third Daemon begun to succeed in ripping it off its body. A sickly sound was heard as muscle and bone reformed. The Evangelion flexed its flesh coloured right hand. With both hands free the Evangelion started to choke the one head that remained. A gurgle sputtered from Demogorgon, dark blood spitting on. The hum of the prog knife trapped in its throat became more apparent as the daemon’s neck was constricted. The point of the blade pierced out of its neck, before the Eva’s arms twisted. A subtle crack and the claw arm dropping signified Demogorgon’s death.
The Evangelion panted like a dog after a long run, but its energy wasn’t spent yet. Without resistance, the Eva’s fists slammed into the daemon’s second head. Blood exploded from it, showering the Eva and the nearby buildings in more of the dark liquid. It reached down the daemon’s neck, and removed the humming prog knife. Then with it, it slashed the daemon’s chest open, revealing a blood red orb. Evangelion Unit Two drove the blade into the orb. Firstly cracks appeared, before the sphere shattered into pieces. Two jagged spikes of red speared through the Eva’s shoulder, but if it noticed it didn’t outwardly registered its presence.
Then it returned the daemon’s favour by repeatingly punching the daemon’s open chest. Endless streams of blood shot out from it, drenching a large area with blood. Only after the daemon’s body had the consistency of soft dough did the Evangelion relent its attack. Its chest rose and lowered as it heaved, drained of energy, blood dripping down from its body at several points. Finally it slumped forward, its red eyes fading into nothing.

All attention had disappeared from work as all the people in Terminal Dogma looked at the scene of destruction that had been carved out by the Evangelion. Dr Yunokawa had finally joined them.
“Well, that’s something of a spectacle. Didn’t really expect quite those results,” he mused.
“Is... Is Hideki okay?” Rayan stuttered.
“Er, yes,” Ayame replied, “He’s alive, but...”
“He is unconscious,” Seizon said, reading the young technician’s mind.
“Then how did... what did just happen?” Rayan looked around in shock, “If that wasn’t Third, then-“
“The Evangelion,” Dr Yunokawa said, and he nodded to himself, “There is much we don’t know about them.”

“Dear God, is that the true power of the Evangelions?” Keiji asked.
Reichou spared himself a grin. “Yes. Its seems all is well.”