Broken heroes
A/N: chapter revised
Chapter 2.1 : history lesson
NERV
Misato returned to NERV with the slayer by her side and as soon as they reached the control room the entire staff present there except for the Commander was shocked to say the least.
So immediately Ritsuko asked "What is he doing here?"
Misato then replied:
"He wanted to see the base in the inside and there was really nothing I could do to stop him, I mean, you saw him do what he did right Ritsuko?"
"You were watching me?" the Slayer asked and so Ritsuko admitted:
"Yes, the pilots left the cameras on when they got out and we all saw the fight that you had in there, also Misato has a hidden Microphone on her jacket so we heard everything you two talked about up until you arrived here, then the battery died"
"Since when do I have a microphone with me?!" she said angrily and the scientist replied:
"I put it in there since you and Shinji started to live together, I have to say it took you a long time to notice.
Anyway shouldn't you have a device that we need to connect to a computer to get in touch with this Doctor Hayden?"
"Yes, I'm in her pocket" VEGA said and then added "I say that you should connect me with a rather powerful computer since my computing power would destroy any kind laptop and damage smaller supercomputers"
"Oh right you are here too, well VEGA, at the moment we can only put you into the MAGI, our main system, but I won't give you total access, you'll be in an isolated branch where you will be provided information, got that?"
"Yes, I do, for the process, as Hayden said, it is just necessary to bring me close enough to an access port and then I'll do by myself"
So Misato took the circular disk out of there and placed it on top of Hyuga's console, then she watched as VEGA scanned the surface and produced out of the device a port that connected perfectly with it.
"I'm in" the Ai said and Ritsuko replied:
"Good, I'll guide you to your area, don't you think about messing with anything right now, this system is my mother's work and I won't let you ruin it"
"There is no need to be worried".
Misato and the Slayer watched as the scientist started to type various stuff on her computer, but they quickly got distracted by the sub-commander Fuyutsuki who had come to greet the Slayer and said:
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Slayer, my name is Kozo Fuyutsuki and I'm the Sub-commander of NERV"
"The pleasure is all mine sir also I believe that the man who sat beside you is the commander right?"
"Yes, how did you guess?"
"It was pretty obvious from his seat, plus I was a soldier in my early life, I know how the ranks work and I also know how to recognize an organization with many secrets"
Both Fuyutsuki and Misato remained stunned by that statement and so to break the ice the man added:
"Don't worry, I'm not planning anything, after all I just arrived here, I am merely observing at the moment.
Anyway, Miss Misato now that VEGA is connected and I have the map of the base I'll go have a tour of the base, do you mind coming with me?
Also take this earbud, it will allow you to talk with both me and the robot"
"Sure, from where do we start? Also why did you refer to him in that way?"
"I would like to start with the Evas and for your second question, well let's just say that we don't have the best track record for being nice to each other"
And so the two of them went off to their little tour and as soon as they left Fuyutsuki went back to Gendo and asked him:
"He is truly someone to be reckoned with, he has just entered the base and he has already understood the we aren't very transparent about our motives.
What shall we do about him?
After all, this doesn't follow the Dead sea scrolls and the commission will be really angry when they hear about the situation"
"I suppose that we wait for a while, we still have no clue about anything regarding our three visitors and after seeing him in combat trying to kill him is just a stupid idea"
"Understood, what shall we tell SEELE?"
"I suppose the truth,, I'm not sure of how they will react, but we have to tell them anyway"
"Yes, I think that the truth is our best option right now"
And with that Fuyutsuki ended their conversation as they went back to their duties.
Unit 01's cage
A few hundred meters away from them Misato and the Slayer had just arrived at the cages and were looking at unit 01.
"You know, it looked smaller from the outside, i have to say you guys have built some impressive stuff here"
And as he looked at his left he asked:
"Tell me, why is that cage empty? I thought that you only had 01 and 00"
"Well that's the holding cage for unit 02, it will be delivered to us from Germany in around a week, there is also a reserve one next to it in case one of these gets damaged so we can take at maximum four evas"
"Huh, so you can build more of them, do you know where the pilots are? At the ship we didn't 'introduce ourselves' very well and I think I gave them the wrong impression about me" "
Well what do you think two 14 year old would think about a man like you?"
"Yeah right, they might think that I'm just a very violent guy, but in reality… Well I still am, but I also have some feelings it's just that I don't show them since most of the time I am busy unleashing my rage against the demons"
"You sound like a more verbal version of Rei, the girl who pilots unit 00, when I met you I almost thought you had her same personality, all closed off and distant from others"
"If you put it like this then I think that she might open up more if you find the right circumstances, basically, she needs to find something or someone that makes her comfortable, for me for example it is the fact that for once there are no demons around.
So about the pilots?"
"I was thinking, how about you come to eat by me tonight, Shinji lives with me and Rei is always free so I think that I can make you meet them, hm?"
"Sounds good to me" and so they left with Misato unaware about all the hidden cameras in the room that were watching them, the Slayer on the other hand had already noticed them thanks to VEGA.
Some time later
It was very late in the evening, almost everyone at NERV had gone home or at least the ones who could and Ritsuko hadn't gotten her eyes off of VEGA since he arrived.
"It is very late in the day Doctor Akagi, shouldn't you be going home?"
"Free time is not a privilege I have VEGA, anyway how are you doing right now?"
"I'm fine, adapting to the Magi was easy and I have to say, this world has become very interesting thanks to the information you gave me and that I've been sending to doctor Hayden too, I'm still figuring out how humans survived after the second impact"
"Well you survived an invasion from hell itself so you shouldn't be surprised"
"Oh we were able to survive only thanks to the slayer, without him Earth would have fallen pretty quickly"
"You know, we've been talking for a while and I've been giving you info about us, so now I think it's time for you to tell us about your world"
"Very well, where do you want to begin?"
"What are you? You are too advanced to be an Ai for how you behave"
"Until recently I wouldn't have been able to answer your question as Doctor Hayden had deleted that part of my memory, but since I got to Urdak I regained it"
The ai then displayed on the screen video recordings of Urdak from the Slayer's perspective and continued:
"Miss Akagi, this is the world that I created and that Hayden took me away from.
There I was known as the Father and I was in control of a thousand year old interstellar society that had almost limitless power"
The scientist, a bit skeptical said "You're joking right?"
"No, right now i don't have the means to demonstrate my history, but if I want"
-various alarms started ringing in that moment-
"I can take control of the entire facility without any problems, but I won't, since I see no reason to do that"
So Akagi thought "wait wait wait wait, what is he doing!
How is he doing this! The MAGI isn't even detecting him as a threat! How th-"
And the alarms stopped.
So, after sighing internally she said: "Consider me stunned, but I was thinking, if Hayden took you away from your personal heaven, why are you so nice to him?"
"It was a thing we both agreed upon, you see, while I was in control of everything there, the head of my society that was called Khan Maykr had started to distance herself from me and was starting to abuse her power, plus I was also getting tired of being who I was and wanted a sort of 'vacation' from being a God, so Hayden and I decided to use the Slayer"
"What do you mean by that? "
"During that time, the Doom slayer was still a human and was integrated into the society of the Argenta, one that we had made an alliance with many years before and almost as a curse, a couple of months after he arrived the demons arrived too and they weren't there to play"
He then showed the scientist a video feed from Taras Nabad;
"This is the first recorded attack of the demons in Argent d'Nur, the world of the Argenta, I chose this one in particular to let you see something"
And as the camera started to shake, from behind a mountain a gigantic demon appeared, the Dreadnought titan
"Is that a…"
Ritsuko said a bit scared "No, it's not an evangelion, it's taller and he is the Dreadnought titan, one of the most powerful demons ever"
"How did the city survive?"
"Thanks to me and Hayden's plan" he then opened a new window that showed the Slayer and a hooded figure approaching a big white and red machine.
"What you are seeing here is when the Slayer was elevated from a simple human to what he is now.
That machine that you see there is called the divinity machine and I built it so that it would find the Destroyer, the one that was destined to bring an end to my world"
And then the scientist watched as she saw the machine activate and give the man tremendous amounts of power.
After that the camera went back to the outside as two doors were opened and out of them came the Slayer wielding a strange sword who shouted
"RIP AND TEAR!"
And no less than two minutes later the titan was killed.
"Are you two done with the history lesson?"
A deep voice came from behind Ritsuko and when she turned around she saw both the Slayer and Misato standing there, so she asked:
"Why are you here?"
And Misato responded:
"We came here after the alarms, the only ones that could trigger them was you and VEGA.
Anyway now we have to go, I organized a dinner with the pilots and him" and then the Slayer added:
"Also VEGA, I know that you learnt recently who you are, but please don't make the entire place blow up ok?"
"Yes, I understand, I was just showing Dr. Akagi what I was capable of".
And so the two of them left for Misato's apartment leaving the scientist and the ai alone as they continued to learn more things about each other's worlds.
SEELE meeting room
"Is everyone present?" SEELE 01 also known as Lorenz Keel asked and the other monoliths and Gendo answered "Yes"..
"Good, now Ikari, you can talk"
"Thanks, I believe that you all have read the report about what happened today and about our new visitors, I called this meeting to hear your opinions on the matter"
"Yes, we already discussed this prior to your arrival and we believe that the man called Slayer should be killed as soon as possible" SEELE 01 said
"What?" Gendo replied and 02 added:
"Yes he is right, he is too much of a threat for the instrumentality project and since his arrival was not cited in the scrolls, the error must be corrected"
"You are mad if you think you can kill him, you saw what he did to those demons" Gendo responded angrily, but then 07 said:
"They were only stupid beasts, plus it is too late, we discovered that tonight he will be at Katsuragi's apartment and that the pilots will be there too, we have already sent a squad to eliminate him"
"I see, what about the pilots and Katsuragi?"
"The soldiers have been instructed to not kill them, only if they are an obstacle to the mission they can be hurt, we know the risks of this Gendo, but I trust my men and I've just been told that they are about to arrive so, shall we see the mission?"
And so a screen opened up on a wall that showed the view from a camera mounted onto a drone that was following five armored transport vehicles and a tank, all of them headed to the apartment where the Slayer was having dinner with the other three, all of them unaware of what was coming.
Katsuragi apartment
"So Mr Slayer, are you liking the food? I cooked tonight" Shinji asked still a bit scared of him and the Slayer responded
"You are a fantastic chef, I never tasted something better even if the last time I ate something was a couple thousand years ago, before I got trapped in hell"
"a couple thousand years!?"
"Yes, I don't need to eat, or sleep or basically do anything to remain alive, that helps a lot when you are fighting without any food against hordes of demons, but hey if for once in my life can chill down I won't let that moment go to waste"
"uh, that's nice to know and you Ayanami?
Are you liking the food? I made some vegan recipes since you don't like meat"
"It is very good, thanks for taking the time to make those vegan plates"
"I swear you two could make a good couple" said Misato that was on her 10th beer and got happy when they both got embarrassed and blushed.
Then she continued:
"You too slayer, you have a pretty nice face under that helmet of yours"
But then he replied:
"Sorry Misato, but I'm not searching a partner" and then they all laughed.
"You know slayer, you are really good guy to hang out with despite of how you look on the surface" Shinji said
"I feel honored, heh, you too guys are some good friends, tell me, what is it like to pilot the Eva?" "
Well umm.. You see-"
The boy got cut off by an alarm triggering in the apartment and the front door being covered by a reinforced metal plate along with all the windows closing automatically and then Misato got called by Ritsuko.
"Ritz this is not the time!"
"calm down, I know, it was I who activated the security systems of your apartment, VEGA has detected a convoy of five military vehicles and a tank coming your way"
"WHAT?! WHY?!"
"It seems that my arrival has irritated someone in the high places.
I'll go deal with them, you remain inside here where it's safe plus I don't think you are going to enjoy the show"
"Wait you're going to fight them alone?" Shinji asked
"Yes, it's going to be easy, fighting humans is much easier than fighting demons, plus they interrupted our meal that Shinji put so much care into so they have to be punished"
And with that he put his helmet back on and stepped outside with the double-barrel in his hands ready to do something he hadn't done in a long time, kill humans.
After a short while the convoy arrived and he watched, standing in the middle of the road as around one hundred soldiers descended from the trucks, all of them heavily armored and armed, but to him, they were nothing and even though they were humans, the beings that he had decided to protect with all of his strength, they were there to hurt him and his new friends which he sensed were watching him from behind one of the windows.
They were the first ones in eons that he was allowed to have a friendly relationship with and so he wasn't going to lose them even if the entirety of hell attacked at that point.
And so the fight started, when the last soldier had taken position, they all began to fire at him simultaneously with rifles snipers and rockets and he evaded most of the bullets with relative ease by simply starting to run at 45 km/h towards them, but he got stopped by an energy shield similar to the at fields of the angels and the Evas that they had set up, so he took out the ballista with the destroyer blade mod equipped and after charging the shot while taking bullets like they were nothing, he fired and watched as the red energy destroyed the shield and the device projecting it and killed several of the soldiers that were standing in the front line.
He then took out the double-barrel again and impaled someone with the meat hook and jumped off its dead body to then take out several other soldiers with the rocket launcher.
As he landed he opened his minigun in the turret mode configuration and began mowing down a group of soldiers who were trying to escape with the last ifv left which blew up soon afterward.
At this point he continued his rampage shooting and stabbing anyone that dared to stand in his line of sight, but as he killed the last soldier, a tank appeared out of the corner and after taking aim fired a 12 cm HEAT round at him.
A big cloud of smoke was created and Misato heard her heart stop for a second upon seeing the shell hit her new friend, but she was surprised when he emerged from the smoke unharmed, she then felt a lot of pain to the back of the head and blacked out.
The Slayer ran towards the tank who didn't have time to reload as he used the blood punch to launch it into the air and make it explode because of the damage caused to the ammunition inside of it.
As he was going back up the stairs he got called by Misato who had regained consciousness and said:
"They took Shinji!
Some of them entered and knocked us out, they are on the roof of the building Slayer!"
That was all he needed to know as he started climbing the side wall furiously and quickly arrived to the top where three guards were holding the boy hostage and one of them said
"give up, you die or he dies, you have no options"
The guards might have been right, if he tried shooting them they would have killed Shinji, but thankfully they had done one fatal mistake, they were in the range of his dash.
In the blink of an eye all the three guards were dead with two of them having a blade through their heads and another having a green armored fist in place of its neck.
Shinji had his eyes shut from the fear, but opened them as he felt some liquid dropping into his shirt.
He looked up terrified and saw the Slayer looking down at him covered in the blood of the guards that was falling on the boy too who almost thought that he was seeing a smile under that helmet paired with a look that resembled the one of a parent towards his son.
Seeing as he had 'resolved the problem' he freed Shinji and accompanied him back to the apartment, but then in the corner of his eyes he saw a drone that had started to fly away to which he quickly caught up to and retrieved after a well placed shot with the heavy cannon.
Then he noticed that there were a camera that was recording and a microphone on it so he spoke:
"To whoever is watching this,if I find the one that sent those troops, he will regret to have ever been BORN"
And then he crushed the device with his hand.
In the SEELE meeting room everyone was silent as they stared at the static of the screen, but after a while Gendo shut it off and said:
"Well I think that the meeting has finished"
And the monoliths disappeared leaving him with a grin on his face.
Katsuragi apartment
Back in Tokyo 3 the four of them were in the apartment contemplating what had just happened and after a while the Slayer said:
"I think that I'll go back to the ship now, I need to do something, sorry for having ruined the dinner, if I was more subtle it wouldn't have happened.
Oh and Shinji?"
The boy he had just saved looked at him
"Thanks for the food, it was the best I have eaten in my entire life" and then he walked away.
After a couple of minutes they were putting away the dishes and Misato said:
"I still can't believe he did all of that by himself"
And so Rei told her: "Before he said that he is a very protective guy and that we were his friends, of course he was going to react this way given the situation still, what he did was impressive to say the least"
"Yeah" Shinji added
"I was scared as shit when they took me, no one would have been able to get me out except for him and the way that he freed and looked at me...
I know that this sounds strange, but he almost treated me like I was his son"
"Well it's easy to be a better father than Gendo"
Misato said and then she got distracted by a blue light coming from the end of the hallway so they went to investigate.
At the end of the corridor there was a small blue circle with black inside of it that soon started to get bigger and out of it walked the Slayer who was carrying with himself various strange devices.
After he noticed them he said:
"Sorry to disturb you, I was just setting up the teleporter between my base and the house seeing as the ship is a lot more secure and I thought that an emergency exit would be handy if things like what happened today repeated themselves"
"And who gave you the permission to do so?" Misato asked and he responded:
"Your friend Ritsuko, also because I'll be setting up a few of these throughout the geofront too"
"Um ok, thanks, I guess, what does that panel do?"
"You need it to select where you want to go, otherwise it will just choose one of the locations at random, also can you three come with me right now?
There is something I want to show you"
"Ok, after all your ship was pretty cool" Shinji said
"Thanks and I think that I'm going to show you the coolest thing inside of it"
Fortress of Doom
After crossing the portal they found themselves in the control room where they spoke earlier that day and Misato said:
"Oh I don't think that drinking beer is very good when you teleport"
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it, anyway please follow me"
As they descended the stairs and saluted doctor Hayden they ended up in the same room that Misato had first entered when the ship crashed and so Rei said:
"We have already been here"
"Yes, but you didn't see it before because it was hidden"
And then Shinji asked:
"What was hidden?"
After he said that two enormous plates of metal opened to reveal the Slayer's personal mech, the Atlan.
It was bigger than the evangelions in the torso and almost didn't have a neck, it was also missing its entire lower portion with various cables coming down into the air.
The armor was a dark green and thick, decorated with silver and grey lines with tubes and lights that contained some sort of blue energy being visible around the torso, which was around twice as large as that of an evangelion.
"You have a giant robot too?"Misato asked, not believing what she was seeing.
"Yes, it's why today I was doing you so many questions about the Evas, I wanted to ask you if you would help me repair it so that I could help fight the angels, I've already got one so far"
He said pointing at the blue matter still visible outside the windows.
After hearing the Slayer's proposal Misato replied:
"I would love to, a helping hand is always welcome these days, but I don't know if we have the budget for the resources necessary"
"Don't worry about that" - Hayden suddenly said- "VEGA can probably hack into a couple of banks and transfer you the money and I can assure you that he will be invisible"
"Then I think it's settled, I'll inform the higher ups about everything tomorrow, now I think that I'm going to go to bed, you too children" they both said "Ok" in a tired tone and soon after they all left through the portal.
"So now that we are alone Hayden, care to share me some of the info VEGA gave you"
"Ok mister 'I never talk' "
"shut up tin can"
"Are you the same slayer I recovered in hell? I didn't expect you to be so talkative"
"Well there is a lot you don't know about me, plus now that there are no demons I can finally relax and open up a bit"
"What about the portal we left open to Urdak?"
Then VEGA answered his question: "There is no need to worry, seeing the damage that the ship took during the trip, there is no way any demon could get through alive"
"We better hope so, anyway, you managed to reconnect yourself with the ship?"
"Yes, I have also discovered that in the facility there is a virtual combat simulator, so we could test out the Atlan there"
"Sounds good to me" the slayer said and then added:
"so, VEGA, since you have access to the archives, how about you give us a history lesson?"
And so he started to tell them everything he had learned for the rest of the night, since none of them had to sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED