Angels, Heaven, and Earth
                                by Ken Arromdee

                                   Chapter 1
                           Friendly Angel, Come To Me

    And it was evening, and it was morning, Akuma's first day at Tokyo-3.
Akuma leisurely put on his new school uniform.  At least NERV provided him with
those.  He was just finished buttoning his vest when he heard a knock on the
door.  "Hello?" answered Akuma.

    "It's me, Shinji.  You wanted to know where the school was, so we could
walk there together.  Open up."

    "Oh.  Right, I did", said Akuma.  "You mean we have to be there this
early?"

    "It starts at 8.  It's 7:40.  We'll be late."

    "It what?" replied Akuma.  He wouldn't be late, he could just telep--  no,
wait, he couldn't.  Not with Shinji around waiting to go with him.  Why did he
ever agree to this?  "Shinji, how far away is it?"

    "It's twenty minutes away."

    Figures, thought Akuma.  "Hold on!  Just another minute...."  Akuma rushed
around the room fast enough to blow loose papers around, combing his hair in
fifteen seconds, collecting his notebooks and searching for his keys.  "Okay!"
he said. opening the door.

    Shinji's eyes alit on a yet-unmade bed.  Akuma caught his glance and
said "Never mind that.  We have to go, right?"  He quickly closed the door on
the sloppiness and let Shinji lead the way out.

    But there was still something else he had to do.  Halfway down the street,
Akuma pointed to a spot on the horizon.  "Shinji, look over there!" he
exclaimed.  "Isn't that the Eva?"

    Shinji turned, just as Akuma had expected.  "No, that's a water tank", he
replied.

    Not that Akuma didn't know that.  But the question served its purpose.  In
the few seconds it took for Shinji to turn away, Akuma split in two, one of
himself quickly floating away through a wall.

    Shinji rapidly turned back towards Akuma, then shook his head and shrugged,
as if something just eluded him.  "I thought I saw..."

    "What?" asked Akuma.

    "I thought I saw someone floating behind you.  From the corner of my eye.
You looked a little distracted... maybe you saw it too."

    "No", said Akuma.  "I didn't see anything...  what did it look like?"

    "Not sure.  I saw Rei like that once.  One moment she was there, and the
next, she was gone.  Anyway, we'd better get moving."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Akuma was more than a little distracted.  He had double thoughts, so he
could control both bodies separately, but he wasn't really two separate
people, and he had to constantly assimilate two sets of experiences both going
on at the same time.  Parallel processing on the same CPU, his grandmother
compared it to.

    Gathering his strength, he--the he in the wall--concentrated.  The world
shimmered around him and he was at the train station.  That should be far
enough.  Akuma picked up a phone, deposited his 100 yen, and dialed.

    "Hello?  Jurai Sasami speaking." 

    "Hi, Aunt Sasami?  It's me, Akuma.  I'm just calling like Mom asked so I
can tell her and Dad that I'm here and I'm safe and everything worked out fine
and despite what they said I really am getting a chance to pilot a giant
robot.  Are they there?"

    Akuma heard the sound of someone grabbing the phone.  "Hey, watch it", said
Sasami faintly on the other end.

    "Akuma-chan?  It's so good to hear from you.  Are you having fun?" asked
Ryouko.

    "Yeah, we're glad you called", said Tenchi.  Akuma imagined his mother and
father on the other end, his mother pushing her face close to his father's
regardless of any feeble protestations.

    "Yeah.  I got really lucky and I'm going to be a pilot.  There must be
twenty kids my age here and they picked me.  I hardly met any of them yet
though."

    "Make any new friends yet?" asked Tenchi.

    "One.  His name's Shinji.  He's had a really bad family life and I sort of
feel sorry for him.  He feels sorry for himself a lot too."

    "How's your dorms?" asked Tenchi.

    "They're terrible.  I think there's some kind of mistake, though.  Shinji
says his is much better.  Oh, and the cafeteria food is decent, you don't have
to worry if I'm going to be eating well."

    "Seen any girls you like?" asked Ryouko.

    "Mom, I've only been here for around nine hours, not counting sleep.  I
haven't met anyone except Shinji and a few people from Marduk and some of them
sounded really creepy.  I-- oooof."  Akuma felt a sensation in his intestines.

    "Akuma-chan, are you using the restroom while you're split in two?"

    Yes, he was.  Well, his other half was.  "Ah, eh.  Mom, I'm in a hurry."

    "Akuma-chan, I hope you're being careful about all your powers", said
Tenchi.  "The existence of Jurai is probably a bigger secret than those robots
you're getting to use, and it would be best if we kept it that way."

    "All right, Dad.  It's not like anyone can see me doing this.  Look, I'll
call you later, okay?  Classes are going to start and I don't want to stay in
two places for another hour."

    "Okay, Akuma-chan", said Ryouko.  "Bye, and we love you", she said, Tenchi
joining in only a few moments after she started.

    Akuma hung up the phone, ran to where nobody could see him, and teleported
back to the school, where he was in a restroom stall, waiting.  He merged his
two bodies together (his waste luckily merging in the toilet) and ran out.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Akuma stood at the front of the class and introduced himself.  "I'm Masaki
Akuma, age 14", he said, writing the kanji on the blackboard.  "Nice to know
you."

    The class all introduced themselves in response, one row at a time.  Akuma
paid particular attention to the other Children.  Shinji, of course, he had
already met.  Asuka, sitting to the right of his own desk, was a red-haired
foreigner who turned up her nose at him as she gave him her name.  She didn't
seem as depressed as Shinji, but Akuma wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

    Sitting way to the back of the classroom, and near a window, was the other
Child, Ayanami Rei.  Her hair was unnaturally pale, and her eyes were red.  He
had never seen eyes like those before.  Not only that, but the longer Akuma
looked at her, the more something about her felt very wrong.  She never looked
anywhere else except at the teacher and at her work, not even out the window.
She didn't doodle, scratch itches, yawn, or do any of the little things anyone
else would do.  No wonder Shinji thought she was so strange.

    Akuma waited through all the introductions.  Suzuhara Touji.  Douki Hikari.
All the others.  As he sat down, he resolved to find out about that strange
girl that seemed so mysterious.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Akuma ate his lunch quickly.  He walked over to Rei, vaguely suspecting
that talking to her would be completely useless, but intending to meet her
anyway and see on his own how much she was like the rumors.  "Hello,
Ayanami-san", he said.

    "Hello."

    "So where are you from?"

    Rei just stared at her books emotionlessly, not answering.

    Akuma stammered a little and asked a very important question.  "Do you have
a boyfriend, Rei?"  There, he said it.

    Rei looked up and quietly said "No", then looked down again.

    Akuma thought a while, not knowing how to continue his thought, and
finally asked "What's it like piloting the Eva?"

    "It's what Commander Ikari orders to me to do", replied Rei nonchalantly.
Not exactly an answer to the question.

    "Hah.  Give it up", said Touji.  "You're talking to Ayanami Rei there.
She's worse than Shinji used to be.  Nobody knows anything about her, and she
won't tell anyone.  It's like she's from a completely different planet."

    No, thought Akuma.  That, he could deal with.  "Is she...", said Akuma,
and hesitated, finally swirling a finger in the air near his head.  "Is she
sick?"

    "Not as far as anyone knows", replied Touji.  "And she's been like that as
long as I've been here."  He looked at his lunch but, glimpsing Hikari near
himself watching his every move, forced himself to take several more bites.

    "My father brought her here", explained Shinji.  "I don't understand it.
She hardly shows any feelings herself but she's the only one who can get him to
show any towards anyone else."

    "Isn't that right, Rei?" said Touji, poking her with a chopstick from the
lunch Hikari gave him.

    Rei grabbed the chopstick from Touji, before he could react, and let it
drop from her fingers onto her desk.  "Talk to Commander Ikari", she replied.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    After classes finished for the day, Touji took Akuma aside.  "So you're
the Fourth Child?"

    "Right."

    "You know, Kensuke wanted to be chosen as the Fourth Child."

    "Oh.  Anyway, I have to go now.  Since I'm the Fourth Child, I need to do
synchronization tests."  Akuma began to walk away.  "I should have been there
hours earlier without ever coming to school, but they delayed it."

    "Not so fast.  Tell me."  Touji grabbed Akuma's shoulder.  "You suddenly
come in from nowhere and you get a job that a lot of us would envy.  Who are
your parents?  What kind of promises did you make in order to get picked?  If
you can tell them to make you a pilot, can you tell them to bring my sister
here?"

    "I just got lucky.  My parents have nothing to do with this place.  I
didn't tell anyone anything."  He took Touji's arm by the wrist, and moved it
off of his shoulder.

    "Hey, are you trying to start a fight?  Why don't you just answer me
instead of..."  Touji grabbed Akuma again, whereupon Akuma picked up Touji's
arm by the wrist and squeezed it, hard.  Touji's face turned pale.  "Let me
go!" said Touji.

    "You let me go."

    "Fine", said Touji, releasing Akuma's shoulder and letting him go on his
way.  "You know, now I know why you're called Akuma."  He fled as soon as
Akuma dropped his wrist.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Wow! said Akuma as the moving walkway entered the Geofront.  It was huge.
Sure, Washuu had bigger lab spaces, but they were all empty.  There were people
all over this one, doing things.  "Is this where the Evas are, Shinji-kun?"

    "It's farther in.  The place is pretty big, but you get used to it."

    A well-dressed woman with long hair waited by the end of the walkway.  She
waved to the two children, and Shinji waved back, seeming to recognize her.
"Hello, Misato", said Shinji.

    Akuma looked at the woman, took in her figure and stared at her chest,
which was just a bit below eye level for him.  That's Misato?  She certainly
didn't look drunk, and Akuma understood why everyone in the class was so crazy
over her.  "Hello", he said.  "I'm..."

    "You must be the Fourth Child.  Masaki Akuma.  I'm Katsuragi Misato.  I'm
Commander of Operations here, so you're working for me now."  She smiled at
him...  wow what a smile...  and Akuma nodded back.

    "_You're_ the woman Shinji's living with?  Shinji, I never expected...."

    "Shinji and I are like family", said Misato, hugging Shinji suddenly.
Akuma turned a little bit red watching, a reaction which seemed to satisfy
Misato, whereupon she let go of Shinji.  "Anyway, if you come with me, I'll
take you to the Evangelion units.  The synchronization test will start very
soon."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Akuma gaped at the huge robot that stood tethered in the bay.  Someone
tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a bundle.  It was a blonde woman
scientist.  Not as attractive as Misato.  "Here's your plugsuit", she said.
Now go ahead and put it on.

    "Put this on?" asked Akuma.

    Ritsuko nodded.

    He was going to pilot a giant robot!  Akuma put the suit on eagerly, afraid
that at any moment someone would come by and tell him that there had been a
terrible mistake and that the job was to go to Touji or Kensuke.  Just a few
more minutes.  Then it would start; then he would be inside Evangelion Unit 03.

    When he left the dressing room, Asuka and Rei had arrived.  "Good luck with
your sync ratio", said Asuka sweetly.  "You might be able to get thirty
percent."

    "Misato-san, is thirty percent good or bad?" asked Akuma.

    "Bad.  Anyway, you can get into the entry plug now, and you'll be placed in
the cockpit.  And we expect at least fifty percent or more."

    Rei just watched him.

    Akuma climbed into the entry plug and waited.  "You're in", said Misato's
voice.  He looked around himself and spotted the speakers, as well as a screen
and a few controls and levers.  "Can you see everything clearly?" asked Misato.

    "Yeah, how do I control this?"

    "There's some wires on the appliances, and a direct mental link through
the LCL.  You'll get feedback, so with a little practice you'll quickly learn
how to use the controls and how to react instinctively."

    "LCL?"

    "It's a kind of oxygen-bearing liquid.  Just relax and breathe normally.
Sorry we couldn't explain more, we didn't want you to spend hours thinking
about it and panicking.  Don't worry, you're not going to drown.  And it may
smell a bit at first, but Maya got the idea of adding chemicals to numb the
pilot's sense of smell, so it should go away."

    Akuma sat in the plug and waited as the liquid filled around him.  Misato
didn't know.  He'd done this in real water.  He couldn't be hurt by the
pressures at the bottom of his family's lake, and he didn't need oxygen, so
breathing liquid was no problem for him.  As the liquid rose past his mouth,
he took a big gulp and inhaled the LCL.  That was the last step.  He was a
pilot now!

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Maya read off a set of numbers to Misato, Ritsuko, and the rest of the
staff.  "Synchronization fifty percent...  sixty...  seventy...  stabilizing
at seventy-two for now.  Brainwave activity near-normal...  unusually high
epsilon waves but within acceptable parameters.  Respiration...  zero?"

    Misato spoke into the transmitter.  "Akuma, are you holding your breath?
You have to breathe in the LCL normally.

    "I am!" yelled Akuma.  "What's wrong?"

    "There's a flaw in the oxygen supply system.  The gauge is stuck at zero.
It thinks you're not using any oxygen at all, and we can't be sure you're
getting enough oxygen if we can't measure it.  You've got to get out of there."

    As realization came to Akuma, his hopes plummeted.  Oh no.  He screwed up.
It was the last step to becoming a pilot and not only was there no way he could
pass it, things could get a lot worse.  The existence of people from outer
space was something that had to be kept secret from everyone else.  If Misato
and the others figured it out, anything could happen, and most of it bad.

    Akuma thought furiously.  "Is there some way I could stay in here and only
stop the test when I smell the air going bad?"

    "There's no way.  Carbon dioxide is odorless, and your sense of smell is
numbed in there anyway."

    "Can I...  can I practice for as long as it takes to use the air that's
already in here?"

    "Akuma, that's a crazy idea.  We've got to get you out.  This isn't a game.
You'll suffocate in there if you don't get any oxygen!  Can't you realize that?"

    "Fine, fine", said Akuma, disappointed.  "How do I get out?"

    "We're going to eject you.  Hold on tight."

    Outside the Eva, Ritsuko ordered the eject sequence.  The operators sent
out the sequence to the Eva, and...  nothing happened.

    Misato watched the readings.  "Something's wrong.  Akuma, the eject's not
working.  We're going to--"

    Maya, a junior operator, yelled out some bad news.  "We're reading a huge
energy surge inside Unit 03!  Source two meters below the pilot, spreading
rapidly.  Something completely foreign...  blue pattern...  it's an Angel!"

    "It must have entered the unit when it was brought from America", said
Ritsuko.  "And all this time it was waiting for the Eva to be activated so it
could take control."

    "The whole base is in danger!" exclaimed Misato.  "If only we had done the
test outside the Geofront as was originally planned."  She spoke into her
microphone.  "Akuma, can you hear me?  We've got to get you out!  We believe
the Eva's been taken over...."

     "Misato, I don't know what to---" said Akuma.  Static suddenly enveloped
 Akuma's voice and then the line went dead.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Gendo, from his command post, was listening to the whole exchange.  The
thirteenth Angel.  What a surprise.  SEELE had delayed the test on Unit 03 to
see if they could release the seventeenth Angel inside the complex.  But now
there was a wild card.  There were two Angels in that Unit.  Would they fight,
or join forces?  Would they ignore each other?  Should NERV-- could NERV--
take out two Angels in one blow?

    The Third Impact that those old men in Seele wanted was not the one that
he wanted, or that Yui had intended.  It was too early; he hadn't been able to
get access to Adam yet.  So the best option was the last.  The Thirteenth had
to be destroyed, and if they got the Seventeenth too in the process, well, it
couldn't be helped.

    "Evangelion Unit 03 is now to be considered the Thirteenth Angel",
commanded Gendo.  "Destroy it at all costs."  A moment of sentimentality
entered his thoughts.  Yui herself could keep the plan in line.  "Send in
Unit 02."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "No!  He's my friend!" shouted Shinji.  "If I go into Unit 02 and kill him
I'll be killing another human being!  I can't do it."

    Stubborn boy, thought Gendo.  Of course he didn't know.  Very well.
"Since Unit 01 isn't ready, send in Unit 00.  Rei, you're to destroy Unit 03.
Unit 02 is to be readied for Shinji for backup immediately afterwards."

    "Keep the bindings in place!  Restrain the Eva!" yelled Misato.  "If we can
buy enough time to figure out a way to get Akuma out of there...."

    Ritsuko looked at her, a bit of sadness in her normally scientific
demeanor.  "That's not likely.  Rei is our only chance."

    The operators worked feverishly, skipping the normal check procedures so
Rei could make an emergency entry.  Rei entered the plug of her Eva as Unit 03
struggled against its bonds.  Just as the liquid filled her capsule, Unit 03
broke loose and began to grapple with the still-inert Unit 00.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Akuma felt the entire fight.  It was like the Eva was his own body, but he
had no control over it.  "No!" he yelled.  "I've got to stop it somehow!  Eva,
stop!  Please!"

    The machine didn't listen.

    Wait a minute, there was _something_ he could do aside from just sitting
there and feeling his hands wringing a proportional neck.  He animated a chunk
of rock into a giant robot.  Couldn't he animate a real giant robot?  It was
worth a try.

    Akuma concentrated.  He felt the metal around him...  metal he could move
and reshape.  Metal that...  what?  That didn't make any sense.  All he felt
was a skin.  But he knew there was an Eva around him, he could feel it directly
through the neural link.  There was only one explanation.  This wasn't a giant
robot.  Eva-03 was alive.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Unit 00 sprung to life and the two behemoths grappled with each other
savagely right in the docking area in Central Dogma.  It was like a battle of
ancient times, when giants walked the earth.  When they hit each other, the
sounds echoed throughout the facility.  When one fell down, walls, machines,
and soon, no doubt, people were left behind as if a hurricane had passed.

    And caught in the eye of that hurricane, thought Misato, were two young
children, forced to fight battles in a war that nobody understood, not even the
adults, let alone them.

    "New reading", said Maya.  "Pattern blue detected in right leg of Unit 00.
It's spreading through contact!"

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Akuma looked around himself desperately for some way to escape the
catastrophe without betraying his family.  He pounded against the wall of the
plug, denting it under his inhumanly tough hands.

    And then he realized.  Why pound it?  He could blast his way through.  The
Eva was getting smashed, beaten up, and broken anyway.  A blast could as
easily be an exploding transformer or just the aftereffects of a punch.  Nobody
outside would notice the difference.  Energy flowed through Akuma's hands, and
he released it in a direction that hopefully pointed towards the surface.  The
wall burst open, exposing the interior of the Eva.  It softly pulsed with
life, but it didn't seem to be flesh.  It was completely different from
anything he'd ever seen.

    Another few blasts tore a bundle of cords and made him enough room that he
could get to the surface...  had to be careful in case he made it through and
someone saw...  and Akuma reached metal.  He pulled back the metal plates and
emerged into the air...  facing straight down.  Now there was one last
dilemma.  How could he get down without revealing anything?

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The LCL poured in around Shinji.  "Backup", his father had said.  What did
"Backup" mean he was supposed to do?

    "Shinji, you're in", said Gendo over the speakers.  "Now, cut off Rei's
leg.  Do it now!"

    "She'll feel it.  I won't."

    "Do it", said Rei, as her image flickered into existence on the screen in
front of Shinji.  "You must."

    Suddenly Unit 03 went quiet.  Shinji spotted something on its neck.  Akuma!
He was alive!  The Eva must have rejected the entry plug for some reason,
because it was now piloted by an Angel instead of a human being.  And that
broke the connection in its spine.

    He picked the boy off of the Eva even as it began to move again, a rippling
happening in its neck, which smoothed out, chunks of metal breaking off and
revealing some completely different substance underneath.  It must be trying to
reconnect around the plug, he thought.  Shinji put Akuma down on the ground
and then cried as he drove his knife through what he knew Rei still had to
feel as her own leg.  She yelled out in pain, but came to her senses after a
few seconds.  I know I could never recover that fast, thought Shinji.

    Rei activated her AT Field and drew her knife, cutting into Eva 03 while it
was still trying to bypass the missing area in its spine.  The knife went in
and the field expanded through the Eva's body, destroying enough of the Angel
to make it lose coherence.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    How could he get down, Akuma wondered?  He didn't need to wonder for long,
though, as a third Eva, one painted with the numerals 02, reached for him.  It
plucked him off of Unit 03's neck and gently put him down on the ground.  Akuma
watched as the Eva tore into Unit 00's leg, and then how Unit 00 created a
field of force and stabbed the rogue Eva.  Awesome, thought Akuma.  So that's
what it meant for the Evas to be alive.  It's like the Light Hawk Wings.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The renegade Eva exploded, expending its energy harmlessly against
Unit 00's AT field.

    "Eva Unit 03 destroyed", said Maya.  "Thirteenth Angel destroyed.  Get a
medical team for the pilots."

    Wheeeeew, thought Misato.  That was close, much too close.  A lot of
machinery was destroyed, but the pilots were alive.  Hopefully...  who knows
what injuries they might have suffered, especially the new boy in the destroyed
Eva?  But there was something strange about that kid.  He seemed a little too
eager to be in the Eva.  Like he couldn't really get hurt, like it was all
just a game.  He didn't seem frightened so much as...  desperate.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "I'm all right.  I'm telling you I'm all right", said Akuma.  "You don't
need to take me to the hospital."

    "Leave the boy alone", commanded Gendou over the speakers.  The paramedics
paused, puzzled a bit, and decided to follow the instructions and back off.

    "Thank you, Mr. Ikari", said Akuma.  "How long is it going to take for the
next Eva?"

    "There will be no next Eva for a long time, if ever.  I'm placing you on
standby until you are needed."

    So much for giant robots, thought Akuma.  Even if he could do something
about that oxygen measurement, he was never going to be a pilot now.  The Eva
was dead.  His parents had told him not to expect to become a pilot, that it
was too unlikely; he'd have to tell them they were right.  So now he would be
just an ordinary school pupil, which is what he came here to be anyway.

    "That's how my father is", said Shinji.  "He only cares about his work
here.  I'm sorry about that.  I'm sorry I had to hurt Rei, I'm sorry about
everything."

    "Shinji", said Akuma, "you don't have to be sorry.  Not everything that
happens is your fault just because you're there.  And thank you for saving me
from the Eva.  I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't done that."

    Shinji nodded politely to Akuma.  Maybe Akuma was right.  He blamed himself
too much.  He shrugged the thought off, as in a corner of his mind he realized
that feeling guilty was the only way he had not to feel helpless.

    "And one other thing...", said Akuma.  It was a little corny, but maybe he
could make Shinji feel a little better.  It was how he felt, anyway.

    "What?"

    "I'm not an Eva pilot any more", said Akuma, patting Shinji on the back.
"You are.  I want you to carry on for me, as my friend, okay?  Good luck,
Shinji."

END CHAPTER 1.