Neon Echo Evangelion

Episode 8: Tragedy

	The shot hit Jacques’ Eva full in the chest and sent it skidding back along the ground into a small group of buildings that the Eva bulldozed down. Jacques grunted in pain, a small holographic window in the entry plug informed him that the armour on his Eva’s chest had been damaged. He looked back towards the derelict Eiffel Tower. He could see the Angel’s black sphere, in the centre of its face, start glowing again. It’s going to shoot again, Jacques thought. He quickly rolled to the left, crushing several more buildings just as the rubble left over from the buildings he had crushed exploded in a huge cross-shaped explosion. Without wasting time he quickly drew the two pistols from his Eva’s shoulder units and opened fire on the Angel. The bullets struck the Angel in the face and chest, blood spraying out from the bullet holes. Jacques quickly got up and ran towards the Angel while it was busy trying to heal the wounds, he loosed another volley at the Angel, striking it in the chest and stomach. He dropped the pistol in his right hand and shook his right arm, the prog knife shot out of its launcher fitted into his Eva’s forearm, Jacques grabbed it and activated it, the blade sprung out and began emitting the steady hum that prog weapons vibration cause. He lamented the loss of his prog sword, which he had dropped when the Angel had hit him, he could see it lying behind the Angel, which had healed most of its wounds by now. As he drew closer he held the prog knife out behind him, ready to deliver a devastating swing with the weapon. Suddenly the Angel looked straight at Jacques, the sphere in its face flared and he was struck in the chest again by one of the Angels energy projectiles. He felt like he had been punched in the chest by a giant, his Eva was lifted off its feet by the impact and sent hurtling back to land right back in the group of buildings he had accidentally demolished earlier. When he landed it felt like all the air had been knocked out of him, he wheezed heavily as he tried to get up again. He noticed he had dropped his other pistol when he had been hit by the shot from the Angel. Oh great, he thought, I’m stuck with my prog knives now.
	“Hold on Jacques,” he heard a voice say, “The cavalry is here!” Jacques looked round, he saw Eva-Shield come running towards the Angel down one of the streets to his left.
	Brian raised his shield-gun and opened fire on the Angel with his machine gun. The bullets tore into the Angel, sending splashes of the Angels blood onto the ground around it. The Angel put its arm up to shield itself from the bullets. The sphere in its head flashed several times. Brian dived to the side as the ground in front of him erupted into a mass of cross-shaped explosions, throwing up clouds of dirt and rubble.
	“Quick, after it,” Jacques said, as he climbed to his feet, “It’s getting away.”
	“Where?” Brian tried to see it but the dirt and dust thrown up by the Angels attack had created an effective smoke screen to obscure it. He got up and walked through the dust cloud. He saw Eva-Assault to his right pulling itself out of rubble. Eva-Sniper appeared to his left, running from behind him.
	“Come on guys!” Emma said, “We’ve got this Angel on the run, let’s get after it.”
	“Alright Emma, calm down,” Brian said, “Jacques, which way did it go?”
	“Over that way,” his Eva pointed to Brian and Emma’s left, towards the large business and industrial districts that circled Paris.
	“Okay,” Emma said, “Let’s get after it.”
	“Be careful,” the pilots heard Lily say, “You’ve seen how fast that thing can regenerate, it’s stronger than it looks.”
	“Okay Lily,” Brian replied, “We’ll be careful.”

	“Josh what can you tell me about that Angel?” Lily asked as she watched the pilots Eva’s start off on their pursuit of the Angel.
	“Not that much at the minute,” the American Data Analyst said, “It obviously has great powers of regeneration, it took 2.332 seconds for it to regenerate the entire right side of its body. It also appears to be armed with some kind of energy projectile mechanism, similar to that of the designated Third Angel Sachiel. My hunch is that the sphere in its head must be the core, if the pilots can manage to cut off its head, or destroy the core, then the Angel will die.”
	“Thanks a lot Josh.”
	“Hey, it’s my job,” Josh said returning to his screen, “And tell Jacques to watch out, his chest armour has been badly damaged.”
	“Got it.”
	
	“Okay pilots,” the pilots heard Lily say, “From analysis of the Angel we’ve decided you need to go for its head, that sphere must be the core, got it?”
	“Roger.”
	“Are you sure it went this way?” Brian asked. He stopped to allow the generator truck to catch up, he and all the other pilots were finding it hard to move with those things in tow.
	“Of course I am,” Jacques replied, “This is the way it went, it’s a pretty big thing, I don’t think I would have missed it.”
	“Yeah it’s a pretty big thing,” Brian said, “ So how come we can’t see it?” Brian said angrily, he looked around, the tallest building nearby was only the height of his Eva’s knee.
	“I don’t know, maybe it’s much faster than us, it could be in the business parts of Paris now,” Jacques tried to explain. Brian looked ahead at the business area, they were only half way between there and the Eiffel tower. I doubt it could travel that fast, he thought. “Anyway, we can’t stand around here all day, we better continue searching for it.”
	“Yeah, come on Emma,” Brian said, he and Jacques began running on ahead. Emma was looking down at the road, she could see strange markings on it, like something had dragged itself along the path. She immediately guessed what it was.
	“Wait a minute guys,” she looked up to see the two pilots running on ahead, “I think I might of-.” She suddenly stopped as she saw the Angel rise up from a street to the two pilots left, the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, it looked just like a Vampire rising from a coffin, it didn’t look like it had used its arms to push itself up, it just looked like it had levitated upright. “Watch out!” she cried.
	“Huh?” Brian turned to look at Emma and as he did he saw the Angel looking at him, the sphere flared and his face erupted with blazing pain. The shot hit the Eva in the middle of its face, the impact snapped his Eva’s head back, throwing him off balance and sending it toppling backwards.
	“Damn you!” Jacques charged at the Angel, holding his prog sword to his side, he had remembered to pick it up before setting out after the Angel. As he reached the Angel he swung the blade, the Angel side-stepped but the sword still caught its right arm just above the elbow, sending its arm flying off into the distance and splashing his sword with more red blood. The Angel fired again, hitting Jacques in the right shoulder. The impact span him round, and the Angel capitalised on this opportunity, Jacques’ back was left open to the Angel. It swung with its remaining arm and caught Jacques’ Eva in the side of the head, sending him staggering, trying to keep his balance, and then it opened fire, hitting Eva-Assault in the centre of its back, sending it sprawling on the floor. Brian staggered up to his feet and saw the Angel turn to look at him, just as a new arm sprouted from the remaining stump. A bullet hit one of the tentacles coming from the back of the Angels head, severing it and spreading more blood over the nearby buildings.
	“How much blood does this thing have?” Brian asked. Emma fired at the Angel again with her sniper rifle, but it moved to the side and avoided the bullet. The Angel fired off more shots towards Emma, she dived to the side as the shots exploded on the ground around her. Brian was able to think fast and pulled his rifle up to fire off a grenade at the Angel. The Grenade struck the Angel in the left shoulders, completely obliterating the Angel’s left arm. The Angel turned to face Brian now, the sphere flared several times. Brian was able to raise his shield and plant his feet apart, he steadied himself against the constant impacts of energy projectile against his shield, it looked like a purple firestorm erupting round his shield. As the Angel was laying down this barrage Jacques rose up like a whirlwind, spinning round as he got back onto his feet, as he rose up he swung his prog sword and caught the Angel right across its waist. The Angels torso fell backwards, its sphere still loosing off shots into the sky, its legs turned black and dissolved, just like its right side had done earlier.
	“Quick, close in everyone!” Jacques shouted, the Angel was incredibly weakened at the minute, “We’ve got to get it quick!” As the pilots ran forward the buildings around where the Angel had fallen exploded in purple crosses. Jacques halted himself running while the other two pilots threw themselves to the ground. When the destruction cleared Jacques saw the Angel sprinting off towards the city’s outskirts. “God, how fast does this thing regenerate?” Jacques asked in disbelief, and quickly sprinted off after the Angel.
	He could see the Angel running on ahead of him, he wished he had remembered to pick up his pistols before he left, the other two pilots had long-range weapons but they were still pulling themselves off the ground. Jacques clutched his prog sword to his side, ready to strike, he was slowly catching up to the Angel.
	“Jacques,” Lily said, “You have to try and stop that Angel as soon as you can, your beginning to enter areas that haven’t been evacuated yet.” Jacques looked up ahead, beyond the Angel he could see helicopters hovering in the air, occasionally dipping down to land and pick up people trying to escape. He could see the motorways nearby were starting to become clogged with traffic, a lot of cars had been abandoned in the middle of the motorway, their occupants deciding to try running for it than risk waiting on the motorway any longer.
	This is crazy, he thought, they don’t stand a chance of evacuating before the Angel gets there, I’ve got to go faster and catch up with it. He put as much effort as he could into willing his Eva to go faster, he felt his legs start to ache as the Eva picked up a little speed.

	“Alright everybody,” The officer cried, “Stay calm, form an orderly group here,” he pointed to the large space in front of him. The people who had chosen to be airlifted out of the city started to mill about in the cul-de-sac the rescue workers had designated as a landing zone for rescue helicopters, a large H had been painted on the ground at the end of the street. “Now we’ll be evacuating women and children first, so any mothers with children please come forward.” The air was suddenly full of conversation.
	“Don’t worry dear, I’ll be okay go on ahead.”
	“We’ll have to find each other when we get out of the city.”
	“We can stay at my mothers when we get out.”
	“Don’t worry Claude your just going for a ride in the hecilopter with mommy okay?”
	All this fuss over something we don’t even know about, Francoise thought, I hate having to do all this work when I don’t even know what I’m saving these people from. Francoise looked round and saw several rescue workers signalling a large helicopter to land at the end of the street. “Okay, you ten move forward to the helicopter over there,” he said to a group of mothers carrying children near him, “When it lands get on as soon as-” A collective scream went up as the helicopter exploded in mid-air, showering the nearby houses with burning wreckage. Everyone ducked down, covering their heads with their arms, after the noise of the explosion died down Francoise looked around, the rescue workers who had been signalling the helicopter had been killed by wreckage from the helicopter. “Merde!” he cried, looking at the devastation around him, “What was that?” Another scream went up from the prospective evacuee’s, Francoise noticed they were all looking in the same direction, abject horror showed on their faces, and then they all turned and ran. Francoise looked to the focus of their gaze. A grey giant was running towards the street he was standing in. Francoise stood frozen in terror. “Saints preserve us!” He cried.
	“No,” He heard a voice say, “Saints will destroy you.” Francoise turned to see that there was someone standing in the street, dressed in crimson robes, holding a green orb in their hand. The person laughed, and held the orb out above their head. Francoise stared at them. The sphere in the middle of the giant’s face flashed white.

	Jacques saw a street in front of the Angel get engulfed by a barrage of shots from the Angel. “It’s opening fire on civilians!” Jacques cried.
	“Take it out as quickly as you can!” Lily shouted back.
	“Look it’s stopped moving,” Josh said. Up ahead Jacques could see that the Angel had suddenly stopped in its tracks and was standing upright.
	“Huh?” Jacques asked in confusion, he slowed his Eva to walking pace and slowly approached the Angel.

	“What’s going on?” Lily asked.
	“You got me,” Josh said, he began rapidly typing various commands into the several computers arrayed around his seat, “It looks like it’s completely forgot what it was doing.”
	“What do you mean ‘forgot what it was doing?’”
	“I don’t know, but if you saw when it stopped, it just stopped dead, it didn’t slow down or anything, it just stopped running and stood still.”
	“Jacques,” Lily said down the Intercom, “Approach with caution, we don’t know what’s going on.”
	“Roger,” She heard Jacques say. 
“Anything odd coming from the Angel?” She asked Josh.
	“Nothing,” Josh said, “Energy readings from the Angel are stable, if anything they seem to be lower than before.”
	“Keep an eye on it.”
	“It’s moving!” A data analyst shouted.

	Jacques froze when he saw the Angel move, he was quite close to it now and he wondered if it had spotted him, he clenched his fist, his nervousness echoed by his Eva which tightened its grip on the hilt of his prog sword. The Angel turned its head, to look over to its right, as if it was looking at something far away and out of sight. Then its whole body turned to face in the same direction as its head, and it was about to march off in that direction when Jacques prog sword cleaved straight through the Angels neck.
	Jacques let out an angry battle cry as he charged forwards, he swung his sword with both hands gripping the hilt tightly. The blade passed through the Angels neck like a hot knife through warm butter. Its head landed, with a heavy thump, on several houses. A jet of blood erupted from the Angels neck, then its decapitated body fell to its knees, and then slumped forward onto the ground. Jacques stood still for a few seconds, gripping the sword tightly, ready to smite down the Angel should it happen to regenerate its head, although he would be very worried if it did manage to come back to life after that. He breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed his prog sword back in its scabbard, hanging by his Eva’s side.
	“Good work Jacques,” Lily said.
	“Thanks, but I really only got it because something distracted it, do you know what caused that?”
	“No, sorry Jacques were still working on that.”
	“You were great Jacques!” Emma said. Jacques looked behind him and saw Brian and Emma’s Eva’s making there way over to him.
	“Hey you finally managed to get one,” Brian said.
	“Was there any doubt?” Jacques said, “And I haven’t got a scratch on me,” he proudly declared. Emma laughed. “What, what is it?”
	“I wouldn’t say that if I were you,” Emma said. Jacques looked at the status display for his Eva and saw that his Eva’s chest and back were flashing red, indicating that they were damaged. 
“Oh well, can’t win ‘em all,” Jacques said.
	“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go home,” Brian said.
	“Yeah, come on Jacques,” Emma and Brian’s Eva’s turned and began walking back to their extraction points in the centre of the city. Jacques started off after them.
	“Jacques look out! Behind you!” Lily shouted. Jacques quickly span around, drawing his sword in the process. He could see the Angels body levitating in mid-air, several tentacles sprouted from the Angels neck, followed by the rest of its head. It’s head looked different though, instead of the black sphere in the centre of its face it now had four small ruby coloured eyes. Jacques readied his sword and charged towards the Angel. The Angel started to glow all over. And then everything exploded.

	“What the hell was that?” Lily asked. She looked around at all the screens that should be relaying footage of the battle in Paris from various spy planes in the area.
	“Christ, I didn’t think the thing would be able to regenerate its head,” Josh typed in a command and the screens displayed the footage taken from Jacques’ Eva. The Angel’s head regenerated on the screen, pushing up out of its neck like a grotesque plant flowering. “It’s head has changed,” Josh remarked.
	“What does that mean?” Lily asked.
	“I can’t say at the minute but…” Josh trailed off as he watched the Angel start to glow. The footage began to shake as Jacques ran in to attack the Angel, and then what looked like a bubble of flames expanded rapidly from the Angel. “That explosion looked like it came from the Angel,” Josh said.
	“Do you think that it has increased in power?” Lily asked.
	“It looks like the attack by Jacques on it caused the Angel to change itself to defend itself better, that’s probably why it took so long to regenerate its head.”
	“So it’s able to adapt to situations?”
	“It certainly looks like that, its body did seem to exert a large energy output when it regenerated.”
	“What about the pilots?”
	“I’m trying to find out there status now.”
	“So what about any plans to kill this thing?”
	“We have to try and find its core, it’s obvious that the sphere on its head wasn’t its core, so its core must be elsewhere, most likely some where in its body.”
	“Any ideas where?”
	“Well, I think that it can only regenerate the parts of its body connected to its core, we’ve seen that any parts separated from its main body seem to dissolve. Therefore all I need to do is find out which parts of the Angels body haven’t dissolved.”
	“Okay, get on it.”
	“Alright,” Josh looked over at one of the computer screens around his chair, “I’ve re-established contact with the pilots.”
	“And…”
	“They’re still alive, but Jacques is only barely hanging on.”

	“What the hell was that?” Emma asked, she looked up past her arms, which she had instinctively used to shield her face from the explosion, she could see the Angel standing in the middle of the terrible ring of destruction the explosion had created. It seemed to be continuing to change, its elbows seemed to be protruding and hardening, turning into spikes. Emma spotted Eva-Assault lying in front of it, it looked badly damaged. “Jacques!” she cried and started to run over to his stricken Eva, but she was held in place. She looked round and saw Brian’s Eva with its hand grasping her Eva’s shoulder, holding it back.
	“Don’t be stupid,” Brian said, “If you run straight over there without thinking things through then your going to be no help to him.” Brian grabbed her Eva and dragged it behind a derelict building. “Look, that thing seems to be doing some kind of uber-regenerate at the minute, if we can work out a plan we should be able to attack the thing before its finished and then we’d have the upper hand, okay?”
	“Yeah,” Emma said, she hated having to wait. While we’re thinking up a plan to save him he could be dying, he could already be… no, she refused to think about that.
	“Lily, Lily?” Brian said down the Intercom, “Damn, my Intercom isn’t working, is yours?”
	“No I don’t think so, the Angel must be generating some kind of ECM field.”
	“Damn it, it looks like we’re on our own here. Okay, any ideas?”

	“You know, she might be right,” Emma said.
	“About what, that we should break up?” Jacques asked.
	“No, of course she’s not right about that, but what if something does happen to one of us, like what happened to Tony. What if I get killed or something, you might-”
	“Hey, don’t talk like that,” Jacques said angrily, “I won’t let anything happen to you, you know that.”
	“I know, that’s why I’m afraid you’ll end up getting yourself killed protecting me. What if that happens? I’ll be on my own, look at Brian, he hasn’t been the same since Tony was attacked. All I’m saying is, what’s going to happen if something really bad happens to one of us.”
	“Nothing’s going to happen,” Jacques said, “I said I’ll protect you and I will,” Jacques peeled the plastic wrapping off his sandwich and took a bite out of it.
	“You can’t just ignore things and hope that they will go away Jacques.”
	“Why not?” He said, “Is there a law that says I have to face all of my problems?”
	“You shouldn’t try and ignore all of them though. You just bottle up all of your troubles and hope that they will go away, that can’t be healthy, one of these days all those troubles are going to come back to you.”
	“I don’t care, when my granddad died it hurt too much to face it. He was my inspiration in life, I wanted to be a great military officer like him, and when he died I just couldn’t accept it, so yes, I bottled it up inside, but that’s my way of dealing with things, Okay?”
	“I’m sorry Jacques, I didn’t mean to offend you or anything,” She looked around the base cafeteria sheepishly, trying not to offend him more by making eye contact.
	“It’s okay,” Jacques said, “You do have a point. But like I said, I’m going to protect you. I guarantee nothing is going to happen to either of us,” He had a confidence in his voice that made Emma believe in every word he said.
	“Promise?” she asked.
	“Promise.” She leaned across the table and kissed him.

	Jacques awoke. He tried to remember were he was, for a moment he thought he was still in the base cafeteria, in that happy moment with Emma. He recognised the familiar environment of the entry plug around him, the holographic displays were flickering on and off around him, and his whole body ached, that was a bad sign. He lay there slumped in his command chair in the entry plug staring at the video feed of what was outside. He could tell the Eva was lying on its side, mainly because he was finding it hard to stay in his seat, but also because the horizon had suddenly become vertical. The ground stretching out in front of him was scorched and the buildings and houses he could see were burned out, it looked just like an N2 mine had been dropped on the city. Have they dropped an N2 mine? He thought, then he remembered seeing the flames burst out from the Angel, no it was that Angel. Suddenly he nearly vomited, his eyes had fallen on a large pile of charred bodies. Dear God, that Angel killed all these people, his eyes moved from one dead body to the next, the corpses were everywhere. They didn’t stand a chance, he thought. Then he spotted two dead bodies lying next to each other, they didn’t look as badly burned as the other bodies, and he could just make their faces out.

Episode 8: Descent

	“Okay, have you got everything?” Brian asked.
	“Yeah, I try and distract the Angel while you run round and try to get a shot in on its back.”
	“Alright,” Brian glanced nervously at the power supply meter, it read 00:03:58. Great, he thought, what a time for our power trucks to get destroyed, and only 3 minutes 58 seconds of power left, okay, I’ve got to do this right. “Alright,” he peaked round the corner at the Angel. It was still standing in the same spot, it now looked rather nasty as well, it had a row of spikes down each forearm, two spikes coming from each elbow, a spike from each knee, and it seemed to have bulked up as well. “Go, now!” He saw Emma’s Eva shoot off to his left and begin firing at the Angel as it ran. He quickly turned and ran to the right. He saw the Angel turn to look at Emma’s Eva, it raised its hands and began firing off shots from its palms, which now each had a black sphere in the centre of them, again the familiar cross-shaped explosions sprang up around the running form of Emma’s Eva. He took advantage of the opportunity, as the Angel now had its back to him, and fired off a grenade at the Angel. The grenade seemed to explode before it reached the Angel, the Angel turned round to face Brian and, although it had no facial features it looked very angry. “Emma, its improved its AT field, I couldn’t hit it with a grenade.”
	“What?” Emma said.
	“Try and shoot it!” Brian readied another grenade to fire at the Angel. The Angel raised its hands, its palms facing outwards, the black spheres in the centre of its hands glowed and then two bolts of white light flew out at his Eva. Brian tried to jump to the side but one of the shots struck his Eva in the leg. He cried out in pain, a display in the entry plug told him that his left leg was badly damaged and unable to move. He looked back to the Angel, he saw Emma run behind it and begin firing at the Angel with her carbine, the Angel didn’t seem at all bothered by this and began to slowly turn round to open fire on its assailant. “Run! Get out of here Emma, it’s too powerful!” Brian cried, he swung his rifle to point at the Angel. If I can distract the Angel maybe Emma can get away, Brian thought, I can’t move like this, I at least have to give her a chance. Brian tensed his finger, ready to pull the trigger on his grenade launcher.
Eva-Assault suddenly sprung into life. It pushed itself up into a crouching position, it flicked its wrists and a prog knife fired out into each hand, and then it leapt straight at the Angel. Brian saw the Angels AT field flicker momentarily a bright orange as Eva-Assault struck it, but the prog knives it was carrying cut straight through the field. The Eva stabbed the Angel in the chest with both knives, and the weight of the leaping Eva knocked the Angel flat on its back. The Eva then quickly pulled one of the knives out of the Angels chest and stabbed it into the palm of the Angels right hand, which it was raising to try and shoot the Eva, and pinned the hand into the ground with the blade. The Angel raised its other hand and fired at the Eva keeping it pinned to the ground, the shot from the Angel went straight through the Eva’s shoulder, blowing a large chunk out of it and splattering the Eva’s blood on the ground around the two battling titans. Eva-Assault then pulled the other knife out of the Angels chest and stabbed it through the Angels other hand, crucifying it to the ground. Eva-Assault then began to punch the helpless Angel repeatedly in the chest, the Angel struggled to get away but the knives through its hands and the weight of the Eva sitting on its stomach kept it pinned. Brian stared in horror at this display of brutality, it looked like Jacques didn’t care for himself, he just wanted to make sure that the Angel ended up dead. Eva-Assault raised its hand up in the air, fingers spread apart, looking like it was about to claw the Angels face. It struck the Angel in the chest and its hand ripped through the Angels skin, plunging deep into the Angels torso, a jet of blood sprayed out of the wound. The wound healed up around the Eva’s arm, but Eva-Assault tore its arm back out, increasing the amount of bloodshed. The Angel seemed to flop down and stop moving. The bloodied Eva held both hands in the air, clutching a red object. It’s Core! Brian thought, his mouth dropped open in shock, he’s just tore that Angels core out of its chest. The frenzied Eva grasped the Core high above its head and then brought it down as hard as it could on the Angels face. The Angels head crumpled under the impact, more blood sprayed out from its crushed head. The bottom part of the Eva’s face split, revealing a mouth lined with teeth, it roared in triumph, then the Eva pulled the Core back over its head, and struck the Angels head again. And again. And again…

	“Dear God, look at these readings,” Josh pointed to the screen that showed Jacques’ readings, they were fluctuating and spiking erratically.
	“What’s going on?” Lily asked, worry sounding prevalent in her voice.
	“I don’t know he seems to be undergoing some kind of extreme emotional reaction,” Josh explained, “Don’t worry I’ve nearly restored contact to the pilots,” a small message appeared on one of the screens surrounding Josh that read ‘Uplink Restored.’ 
“Alpha Team,” Lily called, “Alpha Team, can you hear me? We have information on the Angel, you need to go for its core, we think its in the Angels chest.”
“It doesn’t matter,” She heard Brian say, he sounded badly shaken.
“What’s going on, what’s happened?”
“It was Jacques, he, he… Oh God…” Brian voice trailed off, it sounded to her like he was trying to stop himself from vomiting. 
	 “I told him to stop,” Emma said, she sounded equally as bad as Brian, “But he wouldn’t listen, he wouldn’t.”
	“Okay, what exactly happened?” Lily asked, sounding anxious.
	“The Eva’s have ran out of power,” Josh commented, “But I should be able to pull up a feed from Emma’s Eva.”
“He, he…” Emma started, Lily stared up in awe at the big screen as the image of the battlefield from Emma’s Eva appeared on the screen. There, motionless, like some grotesque statue, sat Eva-Assault, It’s hands still grasping the Core over its head, ready to swing another blow down on the Angel, its mouth open in a roar of fury. Below it lay the ruined form of the Angel, in a massive pool of its own blood, its head completely crushed by vicious blows, blood leaking out of its head freely. 
“Oh my God…” Lily said, all the colour draining out of her face.
	“He ripped out its core, and smashed its skull in with it,” Brian said, fear and confusion mixing in his voice, “He butchered it.”
	“Can you get in contact with Jacques?” Lily asked Josh, she didn’t look away from the hideous diorama in front of her, her eyes locked on it through morbid curiosity.
	“Negative,” Josh said, “I think he’s unconscious.”
	“Send in the extraction team,” Lily said, “I want to speak to Jacques as soon as possible.”

	“Happy Birthday!”
	“You’re the only child we have ever needed.”
	“Good boy.”
	“We love you son.”
	Laughter.
	“Are you enjoying yourself?”
	“We don’t want you to.”
	“You’ll be safe here.”
	“Happy Birthday!”
	“Think about what happened to your uncle.”
	Laughter.
	“Merry Christmas!”
	“Well if you must, do your best.”
	“I’m proud of you son.”
	“Are you happy here?”
	“Well if you want to go, we won’t stop you.”
	“We love you son.”
	Screaming.
	Screaming.
	Screaming.
	“Mom… Dad… wake up, wake up Mom, wake up Dad, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, WAKE UP!”
	“How are you doing Jacques?” A voice said, “Feeling any better?”
	He screamed.

	“He what!?” Lily asked one of the nurses, she could see that her arms were badly bruised.
	“He woke up, and then he just went crazy, he attacked the doctor, and tried to run out of the room, we had to hold him down and sedate him, and he fought all the time,” the woman rubbed her bruised arms.
	“He went crazy?” Lily asked, she couldn’t believe that they were talking about the same boy. Sure, he was known to cause trouble, but he had never deliberately tried to seriously hurt anyone.
	“Yes,” the woman said meekly, “And all the time he was screaming, but not like he was angry… it was like he was scared.”

	“Do you have any idea how much damage you have caused?” Alphonse Tomay fumed.
	“Under the circumstances I believe that those losses were unavoidable, the Angel appeared out of nowhere and we were unprepared for-”
	“Unprepared?” Alphonse interrupted Eve, “I thought the whole reason that you have been getting all this extra funding is so you could be prepared!”
	“That Angel was exceptionally powerful!” Eve said, anger could clearly be heard in her voice, panic seemed to flash across Alphonse’s face, she had never got this angry before. “That Angel was the most powerful one ever encountered by either SIN or NERV!”
	“Please retain your composure Director Cardinal,” Sebastian Cole said, “And Director Tomay, I will thank you not to interrupt a speaker in the future.”
	“I apologise Director Cole,” Eve said, her voice returning to its normal calm self, not betraying any of Eve’s emotions, “But as I was trying to say the Angels are not a normal enemy, no one can be fully prepared for fighting them. Take the recent encounter with the Angel Leliel, NERV was completely unprepared for an encounter with an Angel such as that one, it was only a complete anomaly which allowed them to succeed.”
	“Your point is duly noted,” Sebastian said, “Are there any other questions for Director Cardinal?”
	“Yes,” Gerhard Wenger said, “What is the situation of the pilot of Eva-Assault?”
	“He is currently in the hospital at SIN HQ, we are attempting a psychiatric evaluation to determine the motives behind his actions,” She lied.
	“Yes, these are worrying events,” Maria Folstein remarked, “Do you believe the pilots should be informed of the events of the battle with Sachiel and with Leliel? The berserker behaviour of Unit-01 matches with the behaviour of Eva-Assault in the last encounter.”
	“I do not believe it will benefit the pilots to know about the encounters with Sachiel and Leliel, In my opinion I think it will only worsen the pilots current condition.”
	“The mental suitability of your pilots is once again brought into question Director Cardinal,” Gerhard remarked. “I believe it would be easier to dismiss these pilots from SIN and defer to Bravo team, they have had longer to train in the Eva’s, they also seem to be more mentally stable.”
	“I believe that these mental stresses will appear in any children chosen to pilot the Eva’s,” Eve argued, “The pilot of Unit-01 at NERV has ran away from NERV on previous occasions, and has displayed mental instability several times. The pilot of Unit-00 also appears to be completely maladjusted to any kind of social interaction. It would be better if the pilots are left as they are, Alpha team has proven themselves in combat on several occasions, and giving the pilots the chance to face their fear may be beneficial for them in the long run.”
	“Hmm, very well,” Gerhard conceded, “But I still dislike the large amount of casualties inflicted in this last encounter.”
	“And the large structural damage to Paris,” Alphonse chipped in, he was based in Paris and as such would be very annoyed that his base of operations had been struck at by the Angels. “The damage will be able to be covered up easily as a bomb blast by Saints, luckily, or perhaps unluckily, it seems anyone who saw the Angel was killed in that explosion.”
	“Yes, once again SIN is absorbing more and more funds,” Lisa Morgenson said, “The costs to repair Paris will be high, and I don’t believe that the people will be too happy unless we start reconstruction straight away.”
	“But SIN is still a necessity, as Director Tomay has said before, if NERV is to become involved now it wouldn’t take them long to discover the existence of SIN,” Sebastian said, “Therefore we must all make sacrifices to further the cause.”
	“I agree,” Maria said.
	“Is there any progress in the apprehension of Saints?” Gerhard asked.
	“Yes,” Eve replied, “We have been able to infiltrate the organisation, so far they do not appear to be as much of a threat as we initially thought. They seem to follow standard practices for a terrorist group, a single member does not know everything about the group. However we have been able to identify who we think is their leader, if we can succeed in capturing her then we would be able to take down the organisation.”
	“This is very promising,” Sebastian said.
	“Indeed,” Alphonse agreed, “You have made good progress.”
	“Well at least we can see that we are gaining the upper hand over this group, good work Director Cardinal. Are there any further questions?” The council members remained silent, “Very well, this meeting is adjourned.” The council members’ video screens switched off and slid back into their recesses. There was a knock at the door of Eve’s office.
	“Yes?” She asked.
	“Emma Harwood to see you ma’am,” Jan said as he stepped through the door.
	“Send her in.”

	“Settle down, settle down,” Jan said as he walked into the tactical briefing room, the pilots obediently stopped talking and faced the front of the room as Jan walked up to the lectern there. “Now I suppose you have all heard about the encounter with an Angel in Paris,” The puzzled pilots looked at Brian, who was the only member of Alpha team in the room. Obviously not, Jan thought. “Well,” Jan sighed, he was hoping to avoid having to explain the facts of the battle, “Last night, Alpha team engaged an Angel which had suddenly appeared in Paris, the Angel displayed remarkably fast healing properties, and as such was very hard to beat. Eventually, due to what is currently believed to be a systems malfunction in Eva-Assault, the Angel was finally destroyed.”
	A systems malfunction? Brian thought, is that what it was, it looked like the thing went crazy, I’d hate to see a major malfunction. “Where is Jacques?” Brian suddenly said, Jan looked at him suspiciously.
	“He is currently in the base hospital, the medical staff want to keep him there a bit longer for observation.” Jan hated having to lie to the boy, he knew that he didn’t like Jacques too much but if he told him what had really happened to him, he didn’t know how he would take it.
	“And Emma?” Brian asked.
	“She is currently in a meeting with Director Cardinal,” Jan said, “And if there are no further interruptions,” he said, trying to feign annoyance to make things appear normal. “We don’t know how long Jacques will be kept under observation for, so we want you all to be alert for the next few days. Also one member of Bravo team will get the chance to pilot a real Eva,” A ripple of excitement passed through the pilots, except for Brian, who still looked thoroughly miserable. “One member of Bravo team will be assigned the temporary position of Eva-Assault in Alpha team, until Jacques is released from hospital.” Jan sighed again, he knew that Brian would find this suspicious, it had become obvious to the people high up in SIN that he had become suspicious of the organisation, Eve was worried about this, but Jan didn’t see why she was so worried. “So tomorrow we will be conducting a live test, Bravo team assemble at the Eva Hangars at 18:00 hours.”
	“Okay,” Art said happily.
	“Until then, dismissed,” Jan watched the pilots as they all walked out of the room. Brian slowly got up, put his hands in his pockets and wandered out of the room. A man dressed in military clothes with a UN armband, and a folder under his arm, rounded the corner of the door and walked into the room, and then promptly collided with Brian.
	“Hey,” Brian said a hint of Anger in his voice.
	“Oh, I’m sorry,” the man apologised, “I’m so clumsy,” the man bent down to pick up various papers that he had dropped on the floor. Brian felt sorry for the guy, he didn’t really look like he knew what he was doing. He must have been a recent recruit, Brian thought. He crouched down to help the bewildered soldier pick up his papers, Brian heard Jan groan behind him.
	“Not you again,” he said to the soldier.
	“Yes sir,” the soldier stood up and saluted, “Sorry sir, but I have information for you regarding the terrorist group Saints.”
	“Oh really, well once you’ve finished cleaning up that mess I’d like to see it,” Jan said as he finished clearing up various data sheets he’d brought to the meeting. Brian picked up a sheet of paper up and revealed a picture underneath, it was a pretty bad picture, people’s heads were obscuring the view, and the left side of the picture was partially covered with something black. But a woman could clearly be seen, in long flowing robes, standing on a stage and giving a speech, her face the picture of determination. He recognised her instantly. 
	“Excuse me,” he said to the soldier.
	“Yes?”
	“Where did you get this picture?” 
	“You shouldn’t really see that, it’s classified.”
	“Can you just tell me where you got it from,” Brian pressed, he was desperate to know now.
	“Well, I suppose it won’t hurt,” the soldier said, “That’s a photo of the leader of Saints.”
	“What?” Brian asked, he didn’t believe what he had just heard.
	“Hey, what are you talking about?” Jan asked, getting suspicious.
	“That, can’t be,” Brian said.
	“I know, it was amazing they were able to get a photo of her. Apparently they concealed a mini-camera in a spies button on his jacket, that black part there is part of the button,” the soldier pointed to the left side of the photo, obviously enjoying showing off his knowledge.
	“No,” Brian whispered under his breath, “It can’t be,” he looked at the woman again, her shoulder length blonde hair, her narrow nose, all her facial features, they were all exactly as he remembered. “This person can’t be the leader of Saints,” Brian announced.
	“Huh?” Jan stared intently at Brian, confused by his behaviour.
	“She can’t be the leader of Saints,” Brain said defiantly, “Because she’s my mother.”

	“No, it’s not true,” Emma said, tears welling up in her eyes.
	“I’m afraid it is,” Eve said, trying her best to be sympathetic, “If it is any consolation I’d like you to know that we will try to do whatever we can for him.”
	“No, your lying,” Emma said again.
	“I wish I was, and I am truly sorry, but it seems like the loss of his parents was too much for him to take,” Eve said. She didn’t want to have to break the news to Emma, she knew how much she cared for the boy, but Jan assured her that it would be better if she heard the news from an authority figure.
	“No,” Emma began to cry, she turned and ran out of the office, tears streaming down her face. Eve sighed.

	Brian sat down on the couch in his apartment. When will it all end? He thought, when will this madness end? The thought to run away from all this came to him again, but he knew now that running away was an impossibility now, he had to see this through to the end, he had to find out about his mother. What has happened to Jacques? He thought, it must be something bad if they’re replacing him, I’ve never seen him since the end of the fight, maybe he was badly injured in that explosion? He was standing right next to the Angel when it happened. 
He had been and visited Tony again after that revelation with the photograph, he could confide in him, he knew he wouldn’t tell anybody about it, and It felt good to get it off his chest. Tony seemed to be improving greatly on the physical side of things, that awful purple and green rash had all but cleared up, but his mental condition hadn’t really improved. The Doctors had said that he had suffered severe mental trauma in the encounter with the Angel and his mind had essentially went into hiding to protect itself. Apparently he could wake up any minute, or never. Brian preferred to think more optimistically, and so he was confident that Tony would wake up soon, he had went to all the trouble of buying that games console after all.
	Brian switched on the TV. He couldn’t think what else to do, he had finished all his homework, and the new information about his mother was the only thing that he could think of at the minute. I need to figure out some way of getting in contact with her, he thought, but how. There was a knock at his door.
	“Huh?” Brian asked out loud, to no one in particular. He got up and walked to the door. Not many people had actually came to his apartment, not if they could phone him. He opened the door, and Emma was standing there, she looked in really bad shape, her hair had been blown about by the wind, and her cheeks were sticky with tears. “Emma what’s the matter?” He asked, very worried about what had happened.
	“It’s Jacques…” She sniffed, and wiped tears from his eyes, “Oh God Brian, its Jacques, he, he…” she lurched forward and grabbed Brian, hugging him tight.
	“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he said, he hugged her back. Dear God, he thought, what the hell has happened to Brian? I never even thought how Emma would react to anything happening to him. “Now what’s happened?”
	“Eve said, that Jacques…” she sniffed again, “Jacques… he’s gone insane.”
	“Insane!?” Brian blurted it out without thinking. He had expected something along he lines of, Jacques has been seriously injured, or Jacques had been killed, but gone Insane? He had never expected that.
	“His parents were killed in that explosion with the Angel,” she said, her voice shaking, “And he, he just couldn’t face it, he always bottled things up inside, always.” Emma began to cry again. 
Oh God, his parents were killed? Brian thought, oh dear God, nobody deserves that. Brian remembered how he felt when he heard that his mother had been killed, and that brought back the confusion he felt when he saw that picture. 
	“What am I going to do?” Emma asked, “What am I going to do?”
	Brian didn’t know.

Ending Theme: Coldplay – The Scientist