Judgment Day
Judgment Day
By Artemis
Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is a copyright of Gainax co.
Elements of this fanfic are inspired by the movie
"Armageddon" by Touchstones Pictures. Most of the
characters in this fanfic are owned by Gainax co., so
please don't sue me!
Part 1
"Shinji . . ." a voice calls out his name. Shinji squints his
eyes, and tries to search the source of the sweet, pleasant voice from
the bright white veil of light.
"Shinji . . ." the voice calls out again with an urgent note in
its tone.
"W-Who . . . who are you?" he reply hesitantly.
Though the light was very bright for his eyes, Shinji could make
out a dark silhouette of a woman. Her height reminds him of Misato-
san, while her long hair and elegant gesture seems so familiar, but he
can't seem to make out where has he seen them before.
"Shinji . . . Third Child . . . your time has come . . ." says
the figure again.
"M-My time?" he reply, starting to get confused.
"Man's ultimate destiny is at hand, and only you, Third Child,
who have the power to stop it . . ." With that, the figure retracts
gigantic wings from her back, beat them forward and floats back slowly
into the bright light.
"Remember, Third Child, you have the power to change man's
destiny . . ." she says again as she disappears into the light, "You
have the power . . ."
"Wait! W-What power?" he calls out to the figure, "I-I don't
understand! Wait!"
Shinji woke up in an all too familiar environment: his bedroom in
Misato's apartment. He is breathing rapidly and sweat damps his new
pajamas, a gift from Misato shortly after they retrieved him from the
trap of his own Eva-01. He calms down his breath, and lay back on the
bed while looking up at the ceiling.
"A strange dream . . ." he says after a long pause.
Misato's Apartment; 07:00 A.M
Misato grumbles as her phone rings. She really hates to be woken
up from her 'beauty slumber' by anyone, especially on a rainy day like
today when the weather really makes you hesitant in doing anything
except sleeping.
All bundled up in her blankets like a turtle, Misato reach out a
hand and fumbles for the telephone, among tons of other junk in her
room. She finally finds it, picks up the receiver and brings it to her
ear. "Yeah, what do you want?" she says in a rather irritated and
sleepy tone, "Mmhm, mmhm, mmhm . . ." Suddenly, she shoots up from her
blankets and exclaimed, "WHAT?"
Shinji was just finished making his bed when Misato suddenly
stormed in to his room. "SHINJI! SHINJI!" she exclaimed.
Shinji looks rather surprised, for he have never seen Misato woke
up and all dressed up this early, especially after her big, two twelve-
pack doze of beer last night. "W-What is it?" he asks.
"You're not going to school today," she says hurriedly, "We have
to get to NERV headquarters quickly! It's about Rei!"
At the mention of Ayanami's name, Shinji's eyes grew wide in
disbelief.
NERV Infirmary; 07:15 A.M
Outside of the infirmary, Ritsuko waits while looking at her gold
wristwatch impatiently. 'Where could they possibly be, she thought, I
know Misato is usually late, but this is an emergency. Can't she
understand that?'
As she looks at her watch again, she hears footsteps from down
the hall. Looking up, she sees Misato and Shinji walking hurriedly
towards her. They were both dressed in their usual attire: Misato in
her black dress and red jacket, and Shinji in his school uniform. As
they get near her, Misato asks, "How was she?"
Ritsuko shakes her head, and says, "Not too good. Her wounds
from the battle with the 14th Angel are re-opening, and she's having a
fever. We've tried our best and stopped her from losing more blood.
She's sleeping right now."
"May I see her?" asks Shinji. Ritsuko look at Misato, look back
at Shinji with concern, and nods her head. "If she wakes up, tell her
to go back to sleep, Shinji. She needs the rest," Ritsuko said again
as Shinji walks toward the door.
The door hums and slides open. Shinji could see Rei, with
bandages covering her body, right arm, and part of her head, lying on
the infirmary bed, sleeping soundly. The sound of the beeping
instruments next to her bed is the only thing he could hear. He steps
into the room, and the door closes behind him.
"Is she going to be alright?" Misato asks as soon as the door
closed.
"To tell the truth, I don't really know," said Ritsuko calmly.
"Why did you call us, then?"
Ritsuko sits down on the seat next to the door. "You don't have
any use to be here, actually," says Ritsuko, which made Misato frowns,
"But, Rei called out Shinji's name in her sleep. I figured his
presence might help her healing process."
Shinji sat on a chair next to the bed as he watch Rei sleeping
peacefully. 'Ayanami,' he thought, 'How hard you take your job as an
Eva Pilot' He looked at her again, and thought, 'I have never thought
you're so beautiful when you are asleep,' Shinji blushes at the
thought, and shakes it off his head.
As if sensing his thoughts, Rei slowly opens her eyes and look at
him. "I-Ikari-kun?" she says.
He smile at her, and says, "How do you feel?"
"H-Head hurts," she says. She looks up at him and says, "Ikari-
kun, I have . . . a dream . . ."
Shinji, remembering Ritsuko's message, says back to her, "You
have to sleep now . . . Rei. You need more rest." He was quite
surprised by himself for the remark. Usually he addresses her with her
last name, but he felt that he mustn't call her that this time.
As if not noticing, Rei pushes on. "No, I-I have to tell you
this now," she says. She reaches out, held his hand in hers, and says,
"An angel, s-she spoke to me about you, Ikari-kun. She said, d-death
will rain from the sky, and only you, the Third Child, who could stop
it"
Shinji has never seen Rei like this before. She is talking with
a note of urgency in her tone, and her way of talking hints an emotion
that is alien for Rei's personality: fear.
She clutches his hand even harder and says, "When she spoke to
me, I felt as if my heart stopped. I felt something very strange . . .
I never felt that way before . . ." An even stranger spectacle happens
afterwards: Rei is crying. Rei, the commander's doll, the perfect
pilot, is now crying on the bed in front of him.
Shinji tries to comfort her by patting her hand, and says, "It's
alright, Rei. It's alright." He smiles at her, and adds, "You should
get back to sleep, you really need the rest." She nods, and slowly
closes her eyes, trying to get back to sleep.
Not once Shinji let go of her hand; instead, he held her hand in
his as if it would bring comfort for her. He thought of what Rei had
said, and try to make some sense out of them. 'Death will rain from
the sky . . .' he thought.
Asuka walks the wet street with a frown on her face, which is not
unusual for her. 'It's not fair!' she thought to herself, 'Shinji got
to skip school today just because Wonder Girl called him out in her
sleep, while I have to walk to school in a stupid day like this!'
"IT'S NOT FAIR!" she exclaimed loudly as she kicks an
unsuspecting can on the road, which flies a few feet away from her. As
if fearing her wrath, the rain slowly begins to subside, and Asuka
folds her new blue umbrella and carries it on her right hand like a
sword in its scabbard. She then continues on her way to school,
grumbling all the way.
Suddenly, she hears a faint, long whistle. She whirls around,
ready to bash whoever dares to whistle at her, but there was nobody
around. Asuka focuses on her ear, and could hear that the whistle was
getting louder and louder by the second. She look around again, but
still there is nobody in sight and still the whistle grew louder and
louder.
"What the . . ." she is cut short when she look up, and sees a
ball of fire heading straight to Tokyo-3. In a few seconds, the
fireball smashes to a spot in the middle of the city, accompanied by a
small explosion and a thunderous boom.
Before her brain manage to acknowledge what is going on, a set of
three fireballs land in three different parts of the city, again
accompanied by the explosions and booms. Another fireball falls and
shot through three skyscrapers, leaving gigantic holes on each
building, before it smashes through Tokyo-3's Central Maglev Station.
"Mein Gott . . ." Asuka exclaimed in horror as more of these
fiery menaces bombard Tokyo-3 while shrieks of panic and terror could
be heard from where she is standing. Asuka watches the bombardment of
Tokyo-3 in intense horror without even realizing that one of the
fireballs is shooting straight at her.
The fireball flies 5 feet above her head, creating a whizzing
sound and a hot, strong wind which made her school uniform flutters
violently. She held on to her uniform while shrieking in sheer terror.
Never before have Asuka experiences a menace that frightens her so much
as this one.
The fireball plow through six houses before it finally halts its
destructive course. When the wind calms down, Asuka look at the ruins
of houses. 'What the hell was that?' she thought. After a moment of
pause, she decides to take a closer look at the thing that almost took
her life. With that, she runs towards the wreckage of houses as more
fireballs smash themselves to Tokyo-3 . . .
Shinji was still busy with his thoughts of Rei's words when he
feels the infirmary room shakes, and he can hear a distant boom. The
light sources of the room flickers a few times before they are shut
off. Shinji look around the room, wondering what is going on.
The door of the infirmary slide open, and Misato, pushing a
wheelchair in front of her, hurriedly walks in. "Shinji!" she says
frantically, "We have to get out of here! Quick, put Rei on the
wheelchair!"
"W-What is going on?" he reply.
"There's no time! I'll explain it to you on the way!" With that,
she pushes the wheelchair next to the bed and tries to get Rei, who is
still sleeping peacefully, on it. "Hold the wheelchair!" she says to
the boy, who comply to her order. Gently, she lifts Rei from the bed
and places her on the wheelchair. "Let's go! Hurry!" command Misato,
as she walks quickly out the door. Without hesitating, Shinji follow
suit while pushing Rei on the wheelchair. They turn left towards the
hallway where they first came in. "Misato, what is going on?" he asks
her as they quickly zip through the hallway.
"MAGI has confirmed unidentified objects flew past our
atmosphere, and chose Tokyo-3 as their crash-landing spot," she replies
without even once looking at him or slowing down her pace. She leads
them to another hallway as the whole building shakes again. "MAGI also
suggested that we go deeper underground to avoid them," she says again,
"Ritsuko and the others have gone to the Emergency Command Center 3, 10
stories below the Geo-Front, and that's where we're going."
No sooner than that, a fireball breaches through the layers of
armors and lands on the lake in front of Central Dogma. The impact
causes the water to fly out of the lake and lands on the pyramidal
structure of Central Dogma.
"My God! We have to get out of here before it gets any worse!"
Misato says in amazement as she watches the spectacle through the
windows of the hallway. Shinji nods in agreement, and they both starts
to go on while Shinji is still pushing the wheelchair with Rei on it.
'Strange,' he thought as they zip past the hallway, 'How come Rei was
not even disturbed from her sleep by all this?'
Before he can find an answer, Misato points at one of the
elevators at the end of the hallway, and says, "Quick! In there!" With
that, they hurry towards the elevator, and Misato pushes the button
impatiently. "Come on, come on!" she exclaim as she pushes the button
again and again. Growing impatient, she kicks the door of the elevator
with desperation and anger. "COME ON, YOU PIECE OF JUNK!"
As if knowing the urgency of the situation, the door slides open
and the three of them goes into the elevator. Misato pushes the button
for the lobby, and the door slides close. There is a hum of machinery,
and the elevator move quickly downward.
There is another distant boom and the elevator shakes. Misato
and Shinji hold on to the railing, while Shinji held Rei on her
shoulder, holding her from falling off the wheelchair. The lights in
the elevator flickers for a moment or two, but don't die off, and it
continues its journey downward.
When the elevator comes to a slow halt, the door slides open and
the three of them hurriedly walk out of it and goes straight to the
main entrance. The glass doors slide sideways, and they step out to
the park area near Central Dogma.
"Misato! Over here!" calls out a familiar voice. They look to
their left, and sees Ritsuko in front of a bunker entrance. They
hurriedly walk on towards her as yet a fireball breaches through the
layers of armor, and smashes to the infirmary some fifty feet behind
them, blowing it to bits. The blast of the explosion throws the three
of them off balance, and fell to the ground. Rei fell of her
wheelchair, and instantly wake up from her rest. "I-Ikari-kun?" she
calls out, "Ikari-kun?"
Shinji quickly get up, get to her and says, "I'm here. Are you
alright?" Rei nods, and Shinji instinctively help her up, and carry
her on his back.
Misato get up, look back at the ruins of the infirmary, and then
at Shinji and Rei. "Are you two alright?" she says. Shinji nods while
Rei mutters a quick "Yes ma'am."
"We better get moving before it gets any worse," Misato says
again. They both nod, and Misato says again, "Shinji, do you want me
to carry Rei?"
He shakes his head, and says, "No, thanks. I'm fine." With
that, he goes on towards Ritsuko with Rei on his back. Misato was
quite surprised to see his thoughtfulness towards Rei today, which is
quite unusual even for a kind-hearted person like Shinji. With that
she quickly follows them towards Ritsuko and the bunker entrance.
The Emergency Command Center looks somewhat the same as the
Command Center in Central Dogma, which has just been fully recovered
from the attack of the 14th Angel. The only difference between them,
according to Maya, is that this Command Center has hard and
uncomfortable seats. But, in an emergency situation like this, that
matters very little to NERV.
When Ritsuko, Misato, Shinji and Rei arrived in the E.C.C, they
could see Maya, Hyuga and Aoba busy calling out data read-outs from
their screen, while Gendo and Fuyutsuki stands behind them, watching
the whole procession without any reaction. As the door behind the four
of them slides close, another tremor shakes the structure of the E.C.C
while Shinji slowly sets Rei down on a chair.
"65% of Tokyo-1 and Tokyo-2 are severely damaged!" call out Maya,
"Sector 12, 13 and 18 are completely destroyed!"
"80% of Tokyo-3 has been attacked by these unknown objects!" call
out Hyuga without looking up from his station display.
"Clearly these objects were actually intended to attack Tokyo-3,
wouldn't you say?" says Fuyutsuki calmly to his quiet companion.
"Indeed," reply Gendo, as he fixes his glasses with his usual
cool manner. "We could assume that this is yet another Angel attack."
"MAGI has calculated the casualties so far," says Aoba. "200
people dead, 1,500 severely wounded!"
"Sir!" calls out Hyuga, as he turns his seat towards Gendo and
Fuyutsuki, "Two of these objects have breached through the layers of
armors and crashed in the Geo-Front!"
"What is the status of Central Dogma?" says Fuyutsuki.
"Searching . . . Central Dogma is still standing," says Aoba.
"Have the MAGI confirmed what these things are?" says Gendo
without even a hint of concern in his tone.
"No sir! Whatever they might be, they induced the friction with
our atmosphere to create a great veil of fire," says Maya, "MAGI
couldn't recognize the original substance yet."
Suddenly, all the shaking and rumbling stops. All that are
present in the E.C.C froze, expecting a final blow from these falling
nightmares that would end it all, but it never came. The long, deathly
pause was broken by the sound of a cell-phone ringing, which startles
everyone in exception of the ever cold and calm Ikari Gendo.
The phone rings three times before Ritsuko realizes it was her
cell-phone that was making the noise. Hastily, she picks it up and
opens it. 'Ritsuko?', says a very familiar sound on the other end,
'It's me, Asuka! Listen, you'll never believe what I found . . .'
NERV Research Center 3, Central Dogma Level 10; 09:00 A.M
Misato walks in to the research with three cans of soda on her
hands. As the door slides open, she sees Shinji and Asuka keenly
observed a round, silvery object the size of a basketball. They
watched through the looking glass as mechanical instruments, much like
the ones they used to scan Rei's injuries from her Eva-00 accident,
rotates and scans the mysterious objects.
She walk towards Ritsuko, who was busy working on her computer as
data flashes on the screen, tap her on her shoulder and hand her a
soda. She turns around, take it from her and mutter a quick "Thank
you" She then opens the can, take a quick sip, set it down, and
continue on with her work.
Misato smile at her busy-body friend, and says, "Found anything
yet?"
She shakes her head, and says, "Aside from knowing that this
specimen has a blue blood-type, I couldn't find anything else about it.
No substance match, no element match, nothing. It's like this thing
never exist, but yet here it is"
Misato listens intently as she walk over towards Shinji and
Asuka, and hand them the sodas. While Shinji refuses kindly, Asuka
quickly snatches the can, opens it and take big gulps from it. "Man,
was it hot outside!" she exclaims as she pause her drink, "Maybe its
because of those meteorites that the weather suddenly became so hot"
She drinks some, and stops when she sees Shinji looking rather gloomy.
"Shinji, what's wrong?" she asks, as she watches Shinji fix a sad
gaze on the silver object.
"What happened today . . ." he exclaim, "It is just like what Rei
says, 'Death will rain from the sky'. What does this have to do with
Rei?"
Asuka look at him with a strange, smiles tauntingly and says,
"Oh, so that's it, huh? If Wonder Girl says something, Ikari-kun has to
stop and listen. Hmm, I smell romance!"
Shinji blushes red with embarrassment, and says, "N-no, that's
not what I . . ."
Asuka, cutting him short, continues her taunt. "I'll bet the
next thing on your list is a romantic, candle light dinner with Wonder
Girl, eh Shinji? You dirty old fox, you!"
"I-I . . ." His voice trails off as he blushes even brighter
red. Asuka secretly giggles to herself for she just love seeing Shinji
embarrassed like this. 'Hey,' she thought to herself, 'It's a lot
better taunting than getting into a fight with everyone almost
everyday.'
She continues on her silent giggle before she stops and realizes
something. 'Wait a minute!' she thought, 'Since when did Shinji
addresses Wonder Girl with her first name?' She glances back at
Shinji, who is still fixing his gloomy gaze at the silver object
through the observing glass. 'Could it be possible that he has a
changed emotion towards Rei?' she thought again.
Before she could figure out the answer, she was startled by
Ritsuko's voice. "I've got it!" she exclaims. Hurriedly, the three of
them gathers behind Ritsuko.
"What have you got?" asks Misato.
"Apparently, this object is a transmitter of some sort," says
Ritsuko, not once taking her eyes from the screen, "The object
transmitted, or rather, relayed a low frequency of codes. Here, I'll
show it on the screen" With that, she pressed a button on the
keyboard, and instantly the screen was filled by a series of ones and
zeroes.
"It's a binary code!" Misato exclaims.
Ritsuko nods, and continues, "These codes are easy enough to
solve. Give me a second, here . . ." She then types a few commands on
the keyboard, and the binary codes were soon replaced by a series of
words.
The four of them, eager with anticipation, quickly read the
message, and an expression of horror passes their faces. "My God!"
exclaim Ritsuko.
"I-Impossible!" stagger Shinji.
"There must be a mistake, right?" exclaim Asuka.
Misato shook her head, and says, "With billion of dollars worth
of a computer database like the MAGI, it's impossible to be wrong,
Asuka"
They watch as big red letters prints on the screen, 'Countdown To
Judgement Day'. Below them is a digital counter which reads,
'198:57:10' and counting . . .
NERV Pilot Briefing Room; 09:15 A.M
Gendo, Fuyutsuki, Misato, Ritsuko, and three pilots stood around
a rectangular table in the darkened room. Shinji notices that most of
Rei's bandages have been unveiled, except for the one around her head
where the bleeding started this morning. Shinji often wonders how did
she manage to heal so fast, but always kept this thought to himself for
he knew that it was NERV and Gendo's big secret.
On the table was a huge hologram display of both the U.N General
and Keele, none of them seemed pretty happy of the situation they're
facing right now.
"Has it been confirmed that it was an Angel attack?" asks Keele.
"MAGI has confirmed that the blood-type of the objects that
penetrated our atmosphere is blue," Fuyutsuki replies. Keele nodded
slightly.
"But this is very unusual for the Angels!" cry out the U.N
General, "Reports has it that these objects did not just attack NERV
Branch 2, but also other places on Earth!" He grabs a long piece of
paper, and read its content out loud. "Japan, China, Cambodia,
Thailand, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, India, Bulgaria, Great Britain,
U.S.A!" he says, flings the paper, and says, "God damn it, nobody in
the face of the Earth is safe, and it's all because of your damn
project!"
"What is it really that we're dealing with, Gendo?" asks Keele
again, taking no heed on the General's outburst.
Gendo fixes his glasses in his usual cool and cold manner, and
replies, "One of my staff, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, has done an investigation
on that matter. It would be best if you talk to her."
With that, Gendo steps back and Ritsuko steps forward along with
her notes on her notepad. The glasses she wears gives a very formal
impression, as if she was about to give a long and tedious speech in
front of an open public.
"So, Dr. Akagi, what have you got for us?" asks Keele.
Ritsuko look into the hologram and says, "These objects, 'Angel
Feathers' as I refer to them, were apparently parts of an even greater,
unknown entity. These 'Feathers' relays a very low radio frequency
from their source. The principle is much like a Morse code, only they
were transmitting binary codes instead of your usual dots and dashes"
"Go on," says Keele.
"Yes, get on with it!" exclaims the General impatiently.
Ritsuko was a little irritated by the General's impatience, but
manage to hold her ground. She continues on with her report. "The
MAGI have managed to decipher the codes, revealing a countdown timer.
Currently, the timer is indicating 198 hours, 40 minutes, 15 seconds
and dropping"
"What does the countdown mean, doctor?" asks Keele again.
Ritsuko sighs. She realizes that it's all uphill from this
point. "The label on the countdown reads 'Countdown To Judgement Day'.
I guess that title is quite self-explanatory."
There are murmurs coming from the audio output, signaling that
both the U.N and SEELE have finally understood how serious this
situation really is. Ritsuko pushes on, and says, "MAGI had managed to
track down where the signal that the Feathers relayed was originally
transmitted via the U.N satellites, and after a few cross-calculations,
MAGI have concluded that the arrival of this entity is as accurate as
on the countdown. This 'main object' will arrive in less than six
days, and it is highly unlikely that it would cancel its advance
towards Earth."
"You mean it is on a definite collision course with Earth?!" says
the General frantically. Ritsuko nods. There is an even louder murmur
on the other end of the audio output as SEELE and the U.N discusses
this shocking news, and both Keele and the General's face disappears
from the hologram for a few seconds.
As the murmurs starting to cease, both Keele and the General re-
appears on the hologram. Keele starts to speak again. "Just how big
this 'entity' is, Dr. Akagi?"
Ritsuko lowers down her head, let out a sigh, and thought, 'This
is it, the final straw.' She looks up towards the hologram, and says,
"How big is it, sir?" She pauses to remind them how crucial her
information would be. It was working since everyone, excluding the
cold Commander Ikari, pays close attention to what she's about to say.
Hesitantly, Ritsuko goes on. "It's the size of Germany, sir. It
is highly unlikely for the atmosphere to reduce its size due to its
massive AT-Field. MAGI have calculated that the impact would have an
equal result as 10 N2 bombs, demolishing 90% of the world's population
that we have today after the Second Impact. The remaining 10% would
have to go through centuries of nuclear winter, where they would die
slowly due to the lack of food sources. Nothing would survive during
this period, not even bacteria, sir. This is indeed the Third Impact,
the final blow that would accomplished the Angels' mission: to
eliminate all humanity and also the Earth."
A deathly silence fell upon them as the final straw has been
drawn. Ritsuko's final words pierced even through Gendo's cold, iron
mask as Shinji notices his so-called father flinches at the news . . .
In the silence and darkness of space, an enormous shadow sneaks
slowly across it, like a silent stalker quietly aiming at its prey. It
seeks sanctuary as it approaches the shadow of the red planet named
after the Roman war god. It's round structure gleam silver as the
sunlight shines on its round surface. In a slow but sure pace, it
continues on its steady course towards Earth . . .
To Be Continued
Author's note: This is my very first fanfic I've ever written (Many
thanks to my editor and co-writer: Rian Pulunggono), so
please tell me what do you think. My address is at
artemis156@hotmail.com. As always, all flames would be
ignored (ha ha!).
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