Gods of War
Chapter 2
An Evangelion x Gundam Wing crossover
By Korogi Nagisa

      Quatre stood his Gundam up slowly and carefully, raising its arms high in the air in surrender. "Please! We don't want to fight you!"
      He watched in hope as the purple mecha before them turned from him and watched his bulkier Gundam behind him. For an uncomfortable moment, the two stared off at each other before the voice that had identified itself as Ikari Shinji spoke sternly over the comm link. "Call the others off."
      "Trowa… Wu Fei! Guys, stop! These aren't the enemy!" Quatre almost screamed through his links, sitting forward, straining against his shoulder harnesses.
      Trowa's face appeared on Quatre's display, frowning heavily under the long bangs of brown hair that nearly devowered his entire face. "This is no time to be going soft, Quatre."
      "Trowa, listen to me! I have a feeling about this!" he looked up to his monitor, cornering Trowa with one of his typical soft, pleading looks. "Please trust me."
      The other frowned slightly, but dropped their defense and stepped away from the red mecha. "Fine. I surrender."
      "Quatre's made you soft, Trowa," Wu Fei growled over his display, Shenlong taking off across the makeshift battlefield towards the blue mecha. The blue mecha was hurtling towards him just as Sandrock suddenly appeared in his flight path, arms outstretched. Wu Fei managed to pull Shenlong to a stop before colliding with the other Gundam, cursing in Chinese under his breath.
      "Trust me on this on, Wu Fei..."

      Shinji watched as the mecha that had identified itself as Quatre approached him slowly. "Our friends are buried under that rubble pile over there…" it pointed.
      "Yeah, hello!!" the new voice came again. "Did you guys forget about us down here, or what? Hurry up! Heero's hurt! And pretty bad, for what Heero can take."
      Shinji watched as the three mecha's turned almost in unison and headed for the rubble pile that could have nearly covered an entire football field. Slowly, he pushed Unit 01 forward and joined the other mecha's sifting through the rubble.
      Rei and Asuka stood off on the fringe a moment, Unit 02 shrugging slightly. "Ah, what the hell. I was getting bored anyway…"

      Duo looked nervously to his monitor. Heero had long since passed out, the gash on his forehead nearly painting his entire face in red. "Come on guys, hurry up," he reached to his displays and fiddled around with the controls a moment, bringing up Heero's life readings. The computers hummed over the signal a moment, but came up to the conclusion that they were no different than Heero's normal biorhythms. "Stupid me," he raised an eyebrow. "Hey Heero… you still with me over there, buddy?"
      He watched his screen intently for any sign of movement that would have signaled to him the Heero was, indeed, ok. To the best of Duo's knowledge, he had known Heero to survive situations much worse than this: jumping from buildings without a parachute, falling in the path of guided missiles… the self-destruction of his Gundam.
      Again, Duo grasped his controls firmly and pulled. He heard the useless revving of the engines behind him, but still, Deathscythe did not move. "Hey guys…." He called quietly over his communications. "How's it going up there?"

      "One… two… three!" Sandrock and Unit 01 heaved a large chunk of the fallen building off to the side, the enormous piece of cement fracturing into a million pieces as it hit it's new landing base, exploding into a furry of grey dust and debris.
      "This is nuts… it's going to take us all day to get through this. And we don't really know WHERE Duo and Heero are," Wu Fei set another chunk sailing through the air. "We need some sort of guide."
      In Wu Fei's communicator, the monitor port fuzzed slightly, Duo's voice breaking over the comm. "I can try to reverse my radar pings. Only thing is… our Gundam's don't really show up on radar."
      "What if…" Shinji's voice quietly interrupted, Unit 01 turning to Rei and Asuka. "What if we use the AT Fields as a sort of jack hammer?"
      "What's an AT Field?" Trowa asked, concerned.
      Rei ignored him and pulled EVA Unit 00 up beside Shinji, the light blue armor glinting in the murky light. "I am uncertain if the AT Field can be deployed as a weapon or not."
      "Worth a try, I guess," Asuka's feed broke center-screen to both of them. "Ok guys… stand back."
      The Eva's and Gundam's all stepped back as Asuka approached the base of the mountain of rubble. Unit 02 raised its red-armored arm. "Ok… spreading AT Field…"
      Unit 02 drew back and swung its arm through the air like it was holding a long sword. From the mecha's hand, the hexagonal AT Field exploded into view. The field impacted the rubble pile dead on and exploded in a blinding cloud of dust and ash.
      "Good grief!" Quatre exclaimed through his comm, his monitors fuzzing out momentarily from the dust in the air. "That was amazing!"
      "If it did anything useful at all," Wu Fei closed his eyes as his monitors fuzzed into pixel noise from the disturbance. His readouts whirled frantically at him, insistent beeps causing him to open a lazy eye. The power grid was flying off the scale as Asuka's AT Field was dispersing, the plane of proliferation being demolished on his scope. "Impossible…" he whispered to himself.
      The dust cleared quickly as a stiff breeze kicked up, the grey, dusty phantasms being forced off of the rubble pile to be dispersed into the air.
      "I don't believe it…" It was Trowa.
      The rubble pile before them that had spanned nearly a football field and was piled at least 4 stories high had been decimated, a large chunk of it just plain gone.
      "What are you guys doing up there!" Duo's voice came over the comms. "My instruments are going nuts down here!"
      "Do it again, Asuka," Shinji urged.
      Again, Asuka let loose her AT Field.

      Duo latched on to his shoulder harnesses as reality around him shook violently. "What the hell are they doing up there," he winced through the commotion, throwing a quick eye to Heero's monitor. The feed fuzzed out every so often, but Heero still lay unconscious in his Gundam. "This is taking too long…" he reached forward to his controls again, giving them a firm jerk.
      Dethscythe moved.
      "What the… hey guys! Whatever in hell you did up there worked!" he pulled again and again, each time, Deathscythe gaining more ground in the rubble.

      "Over there!" Shinji's EVA pointed a thin, purple finger. "I see movement."
      All 6 mecha's where scrambling up the rock pile, tossing armloads of debris aside. Little by little, the rubble pile churned until finally Deathscythe was able to stand up fully, brining the damaged Wing Zero up with him.
      "Duo! You're ok!" Quatre laughed lightly over his communications.
      "Yeah, I think. But Heero's not…"

      Duo hopped down the remaining 10 meters of his Gundam as it stood dirty and scratched in NERV's launch bay in Central Dogma. Just down the catwalk from him, the medical crew was rushing Heero down the catwalk, IV bags and monitor attachments being stuck to the boy in the fray, hanging at perilous heights from his body.
      Pushing his way through, Duo's bruised and bleeding head popped over Heero as the stretcher rolled down the hall. "Heero… Heero, can you hear me, buddy?" Duo frowned heavily as a stray nurse's hand reached up to secure a guaze patch over the gash on Duo's forehead.
      "He'll be ok," a doctor fell out of step with the rest of the nurses and stepped into stride with Duo. She gently took his arm and slowed him from the stretcher as it continued off down the hall. "We have some of the best doctors here in the Geo Front."
      Duo watched on forlornly a while as the doors to the Cranial Division of NERV's headquarters swung shut. Slowly, he looked up to the doctor beside him. She was tall and thin, brown eyes smiling down at him under bleached blonde hair. But perhaps what made her stick out from the rest was the mole that hung like a tear just under the corner of her eye.
      "Dr. Ritsuko Akagi," she smiled and patted Duo on that back. "Now, that cut on your head looks pretty bad…"
      Duo frown and turned away from Dr. Akagi as the rest of the guys, including Shinji all ran up to him.
      "Is Heero going to be ok?" Quatre's constantly worried face was the first to find Duo.
      "Knowing Heero… in about half an hour he'll sit straight up in the hospital and walk out like nothing happened."
      Just then, there was a huge commotion down the hall in the Crainial Division. Within moments, the doors burst open, Heero rushing out them with a flood of nurses following at his heels.
      "Heero!" the guys all managed to gasp at once.
      Heero slid to a rather uneasy halt upon seeing the other pilots, reaching up to furiously rip out an IV that hung from his arm. The trauma erupted the blood vessel in his arm and it began to bleed violently, Heero regarding his injured arm with a dissatisfied look before tossing the IV roughly to the floor.
      The wild look of a caged animal began to fade slightly from his eyes as Duo rushed forward and herded Heero off into the group of the other Gundam pilots, holding the nurses off with a raise of his hand. "Jesus, Heero. Are you ok?" he cupped a hand over the bleeding vein in Heero's arm,
      Heero frowned and reached a hand slowly to the gauze pad on his forehead, gently touching it. "Fine."
      "You sure?"
      The other frowned and touched the bandage on his forehead. "What happened?"
      "You were just about pulverized under a collapsed skyscraper," Duo frowned and lifted his hand slightly from Heero's arm to examine the popped vein.
      Dr. Ritsuko Akagi slowly approached and laid a hand on Heero's shoulder. "You should have that head of your looked after," she pointed to the stained gauze bandage on his forehead.
      "I'll be fine," Heero ripped his shoulder from her touch.
      Behind them, Captain Katsuragi Misato burst into the launch room, running down the corridor to slide to a stop beside Shinji, Asuka and Rei, all three children still in their plug suits. With a single, swipping glance, Misato took in the five new children.

      Commander Ikari still sat at the command desk as Koji popped up to sit on the polished surface beside him, rubbing the stubble on his unshaved chin. For a moment, the two of them watched the five new children gather in the launch bay of Central Dogma.
      "Very interesting," Koji was regarding a readout as he sat atop the command desk. "It appears that these mecha's were built by the Space Colonies… Gundams, I believe they call them. Very powerful, from what I hear." He rubbed his chin again and leafed through his print out. "And equally as interesting… it seems upon the discovery of the two Gundams buried under the old Fujitsu building, EVA Unit 01 had some very adverse and erratic behavioral patters emerge."
      "I am well aware," Genrou sat back from his desk. "The same patterns as it displayed when Shinji was first told to pilot it."
      "Yes, it seems. We could possibly use one of these children as a reserve pilot for Unit 01." Koji flipped through his printouts. The view screen before them adjusted to a picture of Heero as he stood out in the launch bay. Occasionally, he would raise his hand to his injured head. "Pilot Heero Yuy, Japanese decent. Grew up in the gravity fields of outer space. Pilot's the Gundam Wing Zero."
      Koji paused to leaf through his print outs as the video feed switched to center on Duo, laughing away like goof in the bay, one arm flung haphazardly over Heero's shoulder. "Pilot Duo Maxwell… an American. Very interesting." He flipped the page. "Adopted family was a priest and a nun in the colonies, I believe he was the assassinated Father Maxwell from the "Maxwell Church Tragedy" 10 years or so ago." Koji pointed to the monitor to the large iron cross that hung from Duo's neck. "Pilot's the Gundam Shinigami Deathscythe. Reports call him "Maxwells little demon" because…" Koji stopped to chuckle to himself ," the boy thinks he's the Devil."
      "Keep an eye on both of those pilots."

      Shinji and Duo were walking through the locker rooms under Central Dogma, Shinji flinging his plug suit over his shoulder, now dressed in a white shirt and jeans.
      "Those Eva-thingies of yours are pretty spectacular," Duo was nodding his head in approval as Shinji pulled to a stop by a locker, reaching down to fiddle with the combination lock. "How do they work?"
      Shinji smiled and popped open the lock. "Through our minds. We think what we want EVA to do, and it does it. Very little is manual control. Only the steering."
      "Through your mind?" Duo frowned and scratched his head lightly.
      Shinji held up the blue connection pieces that he normally wore on his head. "These patch into our brain and relay our thought signals to EVA." Shinji folded his hand over them and reached into his locker, laying them gently in the top rack.
      "Woah," Duo watched them carefully as Shinji set them in his locker, a gleam sneaking into his eyes.
      "It's a really weird feeling. Its like you become part of the EVA itself when you pilot it."
      "Really?" Duo chewed intently on his bottom lip as Shinji was hanging up the plug suit. "You need that suit thing to pilot them too?"
      "Not necessarily," Shinji smoothed a hand over the plug suit. "The suits help to cut down on interference from our bodies."
      "So… are you, Rei and Asuka the only pilots?" Duo pointed down the long row of lockers.
      Shinji peered around his locker door to the long row of lockers beside his. As he did this, Duo reached expertly into the locker and retrieved the connection pieces, pocketing them and returning to leaning on the locker doors as Shinji looked back to him. "So far it's just Asuka, Rei and I. No one else."
      Duo nodded again. "How about we grab a bite to eat and you tell me more about this Eva of yours."

      "Breathing fluid?" Duo's face contorted into a look of being grossed out as they walked into a vacant concession area. At the coffee and tea machine, Quatre was busily fiddling with the buttons, attempting to get the machine to make him a cup of tea. "Hey Quatre!"
      The blonde Arabian boy turned and smiled. "Hello," he waved. "Anyone want tea?"
      "Sure," Shinji smiled.
      "Ah, no thanks." Duo took the end of his braid and fidgeted with it a moment. "I'm gonna go find the other guys…" he trailed off and turned quickly from the concession area, almost running down the hall to disappear behind a corner.
      Shinji shrugged and sat down silently on a bench before one of NERV's vacant reception areas. Before him, Quatre was still happily punching away at the automatic coffee and tea machine, humming a light and airy tune as he made his decision. And just above Quatre's head was a giant video screen. Occasionally, the screen would blink large, corporate flag-waving advertisements such as "See the world. Join NERV now!" or "The future of the world lies with NERV."
      Quatre retrieved the two styrofoam cups of tea and turned from the machine with a smile.
      "I've never seen other children piloting other robots like we do," Shinji smiled as Quatre sat down beside him, handing him a Styrofoam cup of tea. "Are they the same? … Our Eva's and your Gundams?"
      "I don't think so," Quatre said around his cup of tea, taking a seat beside Shinji.
      "Oh," Shinji finished half-heartedly, sipping his tea.
      Quatre smiled and set his tea down on the bench beside him. "You seem like a very lonely person, Shinji. I suppose I couldn't imagine there are very many people on this base other than the adults."
      "Oh no. I don't mind it, really. Sometimes, I'd rather be alone."
      "You feel safer that way? Feel you won't be hurt?"
      Shinji paused a moment and looked at Quatre. "I… suppose."
      "You know, Shinji. Friends are a very valuable thing to have, even if it means getting hurt sometimes. Myself, for instance. I was like you. I had "friends" but never anyone close enough that I could trust. It was just me and my troops. And then I found Trowa."
      Shinji frowned a moment and took a careful sip of his tea. "I don't understand."
      "Don't understand, or don't agree, you mean." Shinji threw the other a confused look. "Don't agree with the fact that Trowa and I are both guys?" he smiled sweetly.
      "I guess it really doesn't matter," Shinji smiled and nodded his head once. "I guess I just don't understand. I've never really felt loved. My mom died when I was very young, then my father abandoned me to work here at NERV. He only sent for me when he needed me to pilot that stupid Eva of his."
      Quatre smiled and patted Shinji on the back lightly. "I'm sure someone's loved you. Like, Misato-san, for instance. She seems very concerned about you. And Ms. Asuka…" he smiled sweetly again. "Haven't you even been kissed, Shinji-kun?"
      Shinji laughed slightly. "Well, I don't think it counts."
      "What?"
      "Asuka was bored one night and decided to kiss me to pass the time…"
      Quatre laughed out loud, setting his teacup down. "Here, Shinji… turn your head like this," he raised his hands softly and turned Shinji's head to the side. "Open your mouth slightly…"
      "Uh.. Quatre-kun… you're not… I mean…"
      He only smiled and leaned in slowly towards Shinji, tilting the other's face gently. "It helps if you relax…" and Quatre pressed his lips softly to Shinji's.
      For a moment, Shinji seemed to freeze solid in place as he felt Quatre softly kissing him.
      Quatre drew back just enough to speak. "Now you kiss me back…" and again, pressed his lips softly to Shinji's.

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