Chapter Text
She awoke, floating near the bottom of a dark, cold lake. She looked around herself. Weeds slowly drifted in the current, sand and rocks littering the floor. A fish swam by, eyeing her curiously. She twirled around, water cold and clammy against her skin. The remains of her chrysalis lay on the lake-bed a few feet away. A translucent shell, broken open and scattered across the sands. For 15 years it had sat undisturbed, as she’d grown and evolved, until now, her hatching.
Her skin was pale, blue veins visible underneath. Short black hair floated around her head, framing her sharp green eyes. The only feature visibly marking her as inhuman were the slits along her abdomen, gills which would press flat when she surfaced, becoming nearly invisible, but for now flapped, taking in oxygen from the water. If one were to examine even closer, they’d notice the subtle red, seemingly coming from within her torso. Her core. The only piece of clothing she had was her mask, pale ivory with 2 small eye holes and a long pointed beak, loosely strapped to the side of her head.
She remembered the last words her mother had said to her before everything had gone white. “Find your siblings, keep yourselves safe, and when you can, come find me”. Her siblings, their names escaped her at the moment, so many thoughts swirling around in her skull. Names, names… She had a name, didn’t she? What was it? Satchel? Sashy? Sachi? Sachi sounded right, she’d use that for now.
Bidding adieu to the lake that had been her nest for so long, she kicked her legs, and headed for the surface, and the blazing sun above.
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Ritsuko took another drag from her cigarette, glancing back up at the screens. The day they’d been waiting for for 15 years had finally come. A few hours previous, an A.T. Field had suddenly sprung up near an isolated lake. The Magi had scanned through the data and confirmed blood type blue. And yet…
“Anything yet? Anything at all?” she said, opening the channel to the JSSDF squadron that’d been deployed to the location. They’d been sent as soon as the field had been detected, though now the Magi were reporting nothing unusual in the area. The A.T. Field had seemingly disappeared completely on its own.
“Nothing so far, Dr. Akagi. The only thing we’ve found out of the norm was a kid swimming in the lake. Says she got separated from her mother. Permission to withdraw?” The commander replied over the com-link. That was curious indeed.
“A child? What was a child doing in the lake? That entire area should have been evacuated hours ago.”
“I know Doc. We found her in the lake, nearly naked. Seems to be about 14. We’ll drop her off at an evac shelter on our way back to base.”
“Alright. Clear out of there, we’ll have to double check the equipment. If this was a false alarm, the UN will have our necks.” She ended the call and sighed, dropping down into her chair. First dealing with the acquisition of the third child, followed by disappearing angels, false alarms, and now a mystery girl. She took another long drag. This week was shaping up to be a nightmare.
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Satchi wandered the abandoned streets of Tokyo-3. The soldiers she’d met shortly after her exit from the lake had been lovely. They’d given her a warm, dark red sweater to wear, along with some sweat-pants. They were all rather too large for her, but she didn’t mind. The red colour reminded her of her family.
They’d dropped her off at the entrance to an evacuation shelter, telling her to buzz on the intercom and she’d be let in. It was awfully kind of them. Of course, she had no intention of following their advice. She might not know everything, but she was quite certain that the thing they were evacuating to escape was herself.
She grinned, looking up at the setting sun, framed by massive buildings. The Lilin were quite impressive to have built structures such as these. Though Lilin and Angels weren’t very different at their cores, she knew her kind wouldn’t have bothered if they’d inherited the world. At least, that’s what mother had always said. Fundamentally the same, yet also different.
She couldn’t remember much from before, when she and her siblings had simply been free souls, drifting within The White Moon. Mother had tended to them, kept them company, and worked on their bodies. They’d been designed to look like Lilin, hoping they’d be able to fit in within this new world, not meant for their kind. She’d have finished long before, if it hadn’t been for the spear through her chest, slowing her movements and thoughts to a crawl. Not long before they’d have been fully finished, the Lilin and come, and everything had gone blank. She’d be semi-conscious of the next 14 and a half years, drifting in and out of a dream-like haze, until she’d hatched. Nearly completed, her chrysalis had absorbed components from the native ecosystem to complete her, thus her gills.
Pulling herself out of her contemplation, and wanting a better look at the sunset, Sachi flexed her soul. She felt her core spark to life, the fruit within spiralling ever upwards to provide all the energy she’d need. Octagons flashed against the ground as the light of her soul expanded, propelling her upwards until she landed, with a thud on top of one of the buildings. She laughed, ecstatic at having properly used her soul’s light for the first time. It’d helped her break from her chrysalis of course, but that had been mostly instinctual. This was the first time she’d used it intentionally.
She remained on the roof top for some time, even after the sun had fully set, contemplating her situation. No family, no friends, no clues. Well, not very many clues. She’d been excited when she’d first arrived in the city (Tokyo-3, she believed it was called), because the entire place stank faintly of angels. The subtle scent of blue blood and core. Unfortunately even from this higher point, she couldn’t see anything of interest.
She sighed. She knew a little bit about Lilin society. Even trapped in the moon, Adam had kept an eye on her sister’s creations. She knew Lilin needed to eat, and it was abnormal for children to live on their own. Children were also expected to attend school. She’d rather avoid any unpleasant encounters with authorities. She’d have a few days to figure out a plan, before anyone important noticed her, she hoped.
Suddenly, the scent of blood grew much stronger. It became almost overpowering. She shot to her feet, looking around. One of her siblings must have been close by and had scented her too. She hoped they’d be reunited soon. She dashed to the edge of the building, but was very confused by what she saw.
Just down the street, stepping out of a carriage that had emerged from where a building had once stood, was a giant. A massive humanoid figure, clad in metallic purple and green armour. As she watched, the figure took an unsteady step forward, almost falling flat on its face. She took a deep breath in through her nose. Yes, it was certain. The scent she’d felt was coming in waves from this thing.
She puzzled over it in her mind. None of her siblings' bodies were anything like this, armour wearing giants. She doubted any of them would choose to adopt such a form anyway. Taking another deep breath, she found something… off with the scent. The core she could definitely smell, and unmistakable scent, but the blood smelled wrong somehow. Not Lilin, but not exactly an angel either. It smelled closest to… but that didn’t make any sense. Resolving to find out for herself, she jumped from the roof.
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Shinji was, in a word, terrified. First he’d been summoned out of nowhere but his father, after 3 years of no contact. He’d been driven to a secret government facility, by a woman who, frankly, should never have been given a licence. Then he’d been told he had to pilot a giant robot to fight a monster, and stop it from wiping out mankind. At first he’d refused, but after seeing the state of the girl who’d be forced to pilot it if he didn’t, he relented. And there was the possibility, however slim, of gaining his father’s approval. That might have factored into the decision as well, a tiny bit.
And so he found himself sealed into a tube, breathing in a liquid that smelled like blood, stuffed down the neck of a giant, and rocketed out onto the streets. His hands gripped the controls as the walls of the tube flickered and flashed, changing to show the street around him. It was just past sunset, the last fading rays of golden light falling behind the horizon.
Under Miss Misato’s rather unhelpful direction, he tried to take a step forward, and nearly tipped over, but managed to right himself at the last second. Piloting the eva was incredibly disconcerting. The controls barely seemed to do anything, with the massive robot responding more to his thoughts than anything. As he was standing back up, he noticed something else odd. A girl, probably about his age, watching him intently from a nearby rooftop.
“Um… Miss Misato? There’s someone on a rooftop nearby” he said.
“On the roof? Are you sure, Shinji? Everyone was supposed to have been evacuated by now.”
“Yes, she’s just… standing there, watching me. She’s got a weird mask on. Wait, she’s coming closer… ah!” Shinji yelped as the girl suddenly threw herself from the rooftop. He tried, but couldn’t look away as the girl tumbled down toward her inevitable doom. At the last second however, the air under her shimmered, light radiating out in an octagonal pattern, and a large crater formed, the girl standing in the middle unharmed.
“That was an A.T. Field!” He heard another voice over the com-link. “Blood pattern blue detected! That’s the angel!”
Shinji looked down again. The girl had left the crater and was approaching the evangelion. She looked perfectly normal. He wouldn’t have believed she was a monster, except he’d just seen her jump off a building.
“Alright Shinji,” Miss Misato was back on the coms. “You’ll need to expand the eva’s A.T Field to neutralize the angel’s field.”
“But how do I…” He yelped. The angel was suddenly right at his feet, poking at Unit-01’s foot. He felt the touch, like a bug on his foot. It made his skin crawl. Instinctively, he raised Eva’s foot, and brought it down on top of the angel.
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She almost didn’t have time to deploy her shield when the giant suddenly tried to stomp her. All she’d been doing was poking at its foot, trying to figure out what this thing was, that smelled so familiar and yet so alien. Thankfully she’d just managed in time, the foot slamming into a hard barrier, giving her a few seconds to scramble away. She ran, but the massive monster was already coming for a second strike, moving towards her. There was no way she could out run it, it was so much larger than her.
Terror filled her mind as the giant foot came down at her again. There wasn’t time to move her barrier. She’d only been out of her chrysalis for a few hours! She didn’t want to die now. She still had so much to do. Find her siblings and mother, try Lilin food, swim to the bottom of the ocean and explore. She couldn’t… wouldn’t die here.
In response to her desperation, she felt her core light up. It spiralled faster and faster, building up an immense amount of energy. Her torso burned with crimson light as energy coursed through her body, far more than even her angelic body could handle. She felt as if she’d burst into flames or disintegrate at any moment. And then, the energy turned outward.
Energy to matter. A simple transmutation. New layers of flesh and bone sprouted, tangling around her. She felt her body shatter, breaking into a billion pieces and combining with the new whole her core was building. Skin charred black, shard of bone sticking out at odd angles. Her arms and legs lengthened, growing long talons, and bony spurs. Her mask fused to her face, growing alongside her. Her core expanded, new crystal growing until it poked out of her torso.
She glanced towards the windows of a building, and saw a monster looking back at her. Birdlike face, long bony arms, gills flapping slowing against its… her sides. She blinked. Her mask followed suit. She’d have spent longer examining her new form, but the other monster (whom she’d managed to forget) chose that moment to oddly stumble, attempting to punch her in the face. Her soul responded much faster than before, raising a barrier and stopping the attack in its tracks.
“Not so cocky when you’re facing someone your own size, eh?” She grinned, which didn’t translate well to her masked face. The speech too came out wrong, warped and more guttural than normal. The purple monster made another grab at her, but she slapped it away. She kicked out, knocking it on its front. She grabbed the cable protruding from its back. “This is probably important” she muttered as she ripped it out. She flipped the monster over, and grabbed it by the face, lifting it off the ground. Her new body was quite strong.
She flexed her forearm. A bony spear pulled back, energy from her still rapidly spinning core saturated it, causing it to glow the same cherry red hue. Then she slammed the spear into the monster’s eye. Once, twice, a third time. The fourth strike pierced all the way through, passing the metal plating into soft, warm flesh, and back out the other end. The force of it shoved the monster back into a building, where it collapsed on the ground.
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“Shinji?!? Shinji, are you there?” Misato yelled desperately into the com. She turned to the techs. “What’s going on out there?”
“Eva isn’t responding to any commands!” Maya replied “Plug ejection, circuit breakers, nothing is responding.”
“The power cable’s been severed, Unit-01 has less than 1 minute of internal battery remaining.” Ritsuko chimed in. The massive screen at the centre of the display finally switched to the street cameras from the eva’s now non-functional view.
Misato nearly gagged at the situation. Unit-01 was slumped against a half crushed building, crimson blood pouring from its shattered eye socket, and sprayed across the street. The angel was still there, slowly approaching the eva. The microphones picked up a low chattering sound coming from it. It sounded almost like a voice.
“Could it be trying to speak?” Ritsuko muttered, “It did disguise itself as a human.” Misato didn’t much care what the monster was trying to do, she just wanted it dead. She grabbed the com and yelled into it once more.
“Shinji, can you hear me? You need to get up, the angel is coming towards you again. You need to kill it, now!” she yelled, still getting no reply. She screamed in frustration.
“5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. Unit-01’s battery is dead.” Maya announced. Everyone slumped in their seats. With Unit-00 frozen and Rei injured, Shinji and Unit-01 had been their only hope, despite Commander Ikari’s bluff (privately she didn’t think it had been a bluff. She hadn’t spent much time with the man but she was certain that if Rei had been the only option, he’d have taken it, injuries or not). She’d hoped that it wouldn’t be needed. The angel had disappeared minutes after it had first been detected. It was probably a bug in the system. She’d gone to collect Shinji, certain that he wouldn’t be needed that day.
But then they’d detected the angel’s A.T. Field again, this time in the middle of Tokyo-3. She’d floored it, bringing Shinji in as fast as she could, desperately hoping the angel wouldn’t flatten them before they could make it to headquarters, but there’d been no sign of it. There hadn’t been an angel when Unit-01 was deployed either, until suddenly there was. The angel’s true form was just as monstrous she’d imagined, and seen in her nightmares. The same long, unproportional limbs, and exposed, glowing core. The angel had reached Unit-01, and was readying the final blow, surely about to kill Shinji, and move on to the rest of humanity.
“Unit-01 has restarted!” Maya yelped excitedly, then paused. “But still not responding to any commands. The battery level is at 0%... it shouldn’t be able to move at all.”
Despite the impossibility of it, Unit-01 was indeed moving. It rolled out from under the angel, and reared up, crouching on all fours. With a horrible wrenching noise, it tore open the restrains on its jaw, and let out a howl. The noise reverberated, reaching all the way to the control room without the mics.
“It's gone out of control,” Ritsuko muttered, frantically jotting down some notes.
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Sachi stalked towards the fallen figure. It had been surprisingly easy to take out, all things considered. Her new body was unexpected, but it still felt like hers. She flexed her talons, bone spears retreating into her forearms. This must’ve been what she was meant to look like, as an angel, before mother had decided to disguise them all as Lilin. Perhaps she’d kept a way for them to assume their true forms, to keep themselves safe. Sachi thanked her mother internally.
The purple giant had been down for a few minutes, and showed no sign of waking, so she approached more confidently. Maybe she’d pull off its mask, see what was really under there. This thing smelt so familiar, and so foreign all at once. She knelt down, reaching out out to grab its face once more.
Suddenly, the thing moved, rolling away and scrambling to a crouching position. With a sickening crunch, it tore open its own jaw, letting out a piercing howl that shook her to her core. She scrambled back, startled by the sudden movements. She’d been so certain it was downed. The beast scratched at the ground, and then charged.
Acting on instinct, she raised her barrier. A massive wall of orange octagons sprang to life as the monster slammed into it, tearing at the invisible surface. She shuddered, taking the moment of safety to collect herself. That moment was short-lived however. The monster struck again and again, and she felt her barrier slowly weakening. That should have been impossible, unless…
As the purple beast struck again, she saw it. A second soul, scratching against her own, tearing her barrier apart. Whatever this thing was, it had a soul strong enough to manifest its light. She knew no Lilin had strong enough souls, so this must be some kind of angel. But why then was it attacking her so relentlessly? Why did it smell so wrong?
She had to put these questions aside as it tore through the final layers of her defence. The barrier shattered, and the beast pounced on top of her. It tore at the bony cage that held her core, shattering the ribs and ripping her flesh. Her dark blue blood sprayed out, splattering up the buildings and staining the beast’s armour. Then, to her horror, it began beating on her core. Her core, the seat of her soul. If it was destroyed, she’d die.
She raised an arm, intending to skewer it on her spear again, but it grabbed her arm before she could, snapping it with a horrible crunch. She was out of options now. It continued to beat on her core. Cracks were beginning to form. She had no way out, no way of escaping. Unless… The idea came to her in a flash, insane, suicidal, but maybe, it would work. Energy to matter. A simple transmutation. Matter to energy?
“Even easier,” She cackled, wrapping her body around her attacker, and released the subconscious hold that kept her body together. All at once, the bonds holding her atoms together shattered, and her entire form reverted to pure energy. An incredible amount of energy, released point blank into the monster's face. A blinding flash of white. This was how she’d come into this world, it made sense to go out in the same way. The world went blank, then dark.
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Shinji awoke in the hospital. He didn’t remember much of what happened during the battle. The angel had appeared, previously disguised as a girl, and then… He could still feel the phantom pain, telling him that his eye was no longer there, even though he could see out of it just fine. Brains didn’t make sense sometimes.
He’d hoped that his father would decide to take him home. That he’d be proud of him. Of course, no such thing had happened. His father hadn’t given him more than his usual cold gaze. Miss Misato had decided to take him in, rather than let him live on his own. He hadn’t decided how he felt about that. He enjoyed his solitude, but perhaps living with someone else wouldn’t be so bad. He gazed out the window of the car, raindrops splattering against it and dropped back into thought.
The evangelion terrified him almost as much as the angel had. The way it responded to his thoughts, imprinted its own pain onto him, it unnerved him. And what was it anyway? He’d thought it was simply a robot, but robots don’t bleed. Robots don’t suddenly start moving on their own. He blacked out shortly after that’d started. When he came to, the angel had been nowhere to be seen, and Eva was heavily damaged. He’d glanced at a nearby window, and had passed out again when he saw the horrifying eye staring back. That had been several days ago.
Now, it seemed he’d be piloting that… thing again, whenever he was needed to stop another angel attack. He hoped it’d be a long time, but he doubted he’d be that lucky. His thoughts drifted again, to the girl on the building roof. The girl who’d become the angel. From what he’d gathered, that hadn’t been when they’d expected. The giant monstrosity, that was what Nerv had been preparing for, but a seemingly human girl? That was a mystery. That she had looked almost as lost as him was his last thought as the gentle bumps of the road and patter of the rain lured him to sleep again.
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She huddled under a bridge, leaning against some old trash cans, desperately trying to keep out of the rain. It had been a stupid plan. Idiotic, shortsighted, sure to lead to her own death. And it worked.
Every part of her angelic body had dissolved into energy, leaving her human body intact, to be launched free by the shockwave. Any normal Lilin would have been killed, but she wasn’t a Lilin. She hadn’t been unharmed. Unconscious, she’d been unable to use her barrier, so she’d awoke, bruised, battered and broken, in the woods just beyond Tokyo-3. Miraculously, her clothes had survived the experience, a little dirtier and with a few tears, but still usable. Her mask had been perfectly intact. It’d take another day or so after waking for her core to finish regenerating her, it was probably worn out from generating an entire body. The core could provide boundless energy, but it still had some limits.
She’d worked her way back into the city, and now found herself under this bridge to escape the storm. She had no need to eat, no need for heat, her core provided for both, but she’d still rather have a proper place to live.
The next morning the rain finally let up. The golden rays of the sun shone into her hideaway, and she grinned. She stretched, dusted off her sweater and headed out. There was an entire city before her. Surely she’d find some way to survive. She was an angel after all.