Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion and all characters from therein are property of Gainax, Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Studio Kara, and a whole bunch of other people who are far more creative than I am.
"A Little More Human"
A Neon Genesis Evangelion Fanfic
By No-Brand Hero
Chapter 1: Angel Attack
"Due to the present state of emergency, all phone lines have been disabled."
Shinji Ikari gave the receiver of the squat orange pay phone an irritated look, as though this might halt the polite yet canned recording from repeating its message once more. When his cell phone had lost all signal a minute ago, he had hurried to the nearest public phone to call Touji back and let him know his cell was on the fritz, only to find that it wasn't working either. He sighed as he replaced the receiver in the cradle, shaking his head to the salaryman who had just rushed up clutching his own non-functioning phone. Hopefully his friends would just meet him at the arcade as they had planned.
The sound of jets drew his attention upwards, and with a frown he realized that the unmarred blue of the sky was quite at odd with the distant rumbles of thunder he had been hearing for the past few minutes; an audio-visual discrepancy that was suddenly given a quick counterpoint by the ear-splitting shriek of air raid sirens all across the city. Shinji cast about frantically, making doubly sure he was clear of the many well-marked "Caution" zones even as pedestrian barricades began to rise out of the sidewalks to section them off. The very second that the barricades had finished rising, gigantic lock bolts retracted from the bases of every building he could see and those buildings began to rapidly sink into the ground.
Tokyo-3 was converting to combat configuration.
Every traffic light across the city had turned red at the instant the alarms had begun to sound, and every overhead sign had begun to flash directions to the nearest shelter; directions that Shinji dutifully followed. He briefly looked around for the lone operative that comprised his Section 2 security detail, but at 14 years old he lacked the height to see much in the press of people now surging down the sidewalks to safety. He wasn't even sure why his father had assigned him a bodyguard, to be honest. Sure, the son of the Commander of Nerv was a potential target for his many enemies, but Shinji was surprised his father didn't consider it a waste of resources.
"He'd probably pay a kidnapper to keep me," Shinji scoffed to himself as he stepped onto one of the many automated people-movers designed to whisk the population of Tokyo-3 to safety. As the job of paying attention to where he was going had been temporarily removed from his list of concerns, he took the time to look around, marveling at the smooth efficiency at which everything seemed to operate. Nobody jostled, there were no bottlenecks, no backups to speak of. Just like everything else in this city, the evacuation ran with smooth mechanical precision. He had to, grudgingly, admit that having evacuation drills just like this one twice every month for the past seven years had certainly paid off.
"Shinji!"
Shinji heard someone calling out to him as he sought a place to sit in the crowded shelter. He looked around until he spotted a familiar bespectacled face framed by a disorderly mess of shaggy brown hair.
"Hey, Kensuke," he greeted his friend after he had worked his way over to where Kensuke was sitting. As he sat down beside him, Shinji noted Kensuke's ever-present video camera, view-screen open and TV antenna extended. He also noted that Kensuke seemed somewhat…agitated.
"Isn't this exciting?" Kensuke practically radiated the question from every pore even as he gave voice to the sentiment.
"What's so exciting about an evacuation drill?" Shinji asked, giving his friend a puzzled frown.
"That's just it!" Kensuke exclaimed, getting a number of annoyed looks from the people sitting just to the other side of him. "I don't think this is a drill. Look at this!" He shoved the camera at Shinji who obligingly looked at the view-screen.
"A test pattern?"
"Exactly!" Kensuke hit the channel advance button. "And this!"
"Another test pattern?" Shinji asked, not really getting the point, and becoming somewhat uncomfortable at the number of glares his somewhat over-enthusiastic friend was drawing their way.
Kensuke was rapidly changing the channels now. "See! They're all test patterns! If it was a drill or a natural disaster or something they'd be reporting on it!" He paused, his cheeks flushing as he finally noticed the disapproval of those around him and leaned in towards Shinji, continuing in a more subdued tone. "An information lockdown like this can only mean that this is for real. We're being attacked."
Shinji thought back to the unusual thunder he had heard just before he entered the underground areas, and an unexplainable feeling of dread washed over him. "Have you seen Touji?"
"Nah," the other young man answered, still fiddling with his camera. "He had to watch his sister. Didn't he call you?"
"Yeah, but all the circuits went dead before he could say anything." Shinji cast a worried look towards the metal ceiling of the shelter. "I hope they're all right."
"You worry too much, Shinji," Kensuke said, not for the first time. "Touji can take care of…" He trailed off, gesturing with his chin up behind Shinji. "You've got company."
Shinji looked up over his shoulder at the black-suited man who was now looming over him. Imposing while at the same time non-descript, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, a small communications device in his ear, the man practically screamed Section 2.
"Shinji Ikari?"
Shinji cringed inwardly at the question. He knew this man. He'd been one of the revolving members of Shinji's security detail for as long as he could remember. From experience he knew that asking for confirmation of identity even when there were absolutely no doubt thereof never led to good things. After a moments hesitation he nodded his head in the affirmative.
"I am from Nerv Department of Security, Section 2," the man in black continued the formality. "In accordance with Clause 8 of Nerv Security Regulations I will now escort you to Nerv headquarters. Do you understand?"
Shinji sighed and nodded as he stood up, offering a shrug to his confused friend who was gaping up at them both. "Your guess is as good as mine, Ken," he said, turning to follow the Section 2 agent who was wasting no time in clearing a path towards the emergency exit. "See you in school tomorrow?"
"Uh…yeah!" Kensuke finally replied, pulling his gaze away from the departing agent and back to Shinji. "Good luck, man."
The Section 2 agent led Shinji through the shelter and out of the back emergency exit, which itself led up a long steeply-sloping shaft back to the surface. The shaft emptied into a heavily armored bunker, which itself exited onto a side-street at the very outskirts of Tokyo-3. The sky above was streaked with the contrails of jet aircraft, the very air vibrated with the roar of far-off explosions, but most immediately striking of all was the shapely woman in a clingy black dress waiting for him beside the blue sports car.
"Shinji Ikari?" she asked after assuring the Section 2 agent that she would take responsibility from here, then continued without waiting for a response. "Misato Katsuragi at your service. We're a little short on time now, so if you'll just hop right in, we'll be off." She gestured to the open door of her car.
"Uh…right," Shinji managed, pulling his eyes away from admiring the way her cross necklace hung between..well..anyway. At least she seemed amused by his reaction as he slid into the passenger seat. He buckled his seat belt as Misato got behind the wheel, and was immediately glad he did so as the woman gunned the engine, the tires screaming in protest as the car roared to life. So intent was Shinji on holding on for dear life, that it was several minutes of sharp cornering and breakneck speeds before it occurred to him that he had no idea what was going on.
"Um..Miss Katsuragi.."
"Just Misato is fine," she cut him off, giving him a smile that simultaneously made his heart flutter and a cold spike of fear shoot through him as she took her eyes off the road. "Nice to meet you, Shinji."
"Likewise..ah..Misato." Shinji fretted for a few moments longer, looking for that train of thought that had been derailed before it could even leave the station. "Misato," he began again shortly, "Where are we going?"
"Nerv HQ" Misato answered, then added with a slight hesitation, "Your father sent me to come get you."
Shinji digested that for a minute before asking a question to which he wasn't sure he wanted the answer.
"Why?"
Misato vacillated long enough in answering him that she was temporarily saved from having to do so by the sudden appearance of a second sun rising over the horizon behind them. Shinji threw his arm across his eyes against the glare even as Misato downshifted with a curse and put the hammer down on the accelerator, making for the sudden decline of the road that marked the entrance to the auto-train down into the Geofront. Shinji lowered his arm just in time to see them enter the access tunnel and careen at highly unsafe speeds towards the waiting train. He screamed and stomped his foot down on the imaginary passenger-side brake, eliciting a laugh from Misato as she skillfully brought her blue Alpine Renault to a screeching halt perfectly positioned within one of the train's automobile berths.
As the train immediately left the platform, Misato keyed the small communication device pinned to her collar. "What the hell was that?"
"The JSSDF deployed an N2 Mine against the target," came the response from one of the two male Nerv command staff, Hyuga, she thought. "Effectiveness is currently being evaluated."
Cries of anguish filtered down over the connection, and Misato couldn't help but smirk at the dismay of the JSSDF commanders who'd been hounding her for the past three days. "Not as effective as they'd like?"
"Negative," came the response from a second male voice, Aoba, if she had gotten Hyuga's voice right. "Target has suffered eighteen percent fusing of external surface area, but is already regenerating. It has currently stopped its advance, though it is unknown why or when it may start up again."
"Pattern is confirmed: Blue." Hyuga broke in.
"Understood. I have the kid on the express auto-train. I'll take him to the cages when we arrive. Let me know if anything changes out there." Misato waited for their acknowledgements before she keyed off the communicator and leaned back in her seat with a sigh. Why did it have to come now? Couldn't it have waited another week for her to get settled in, at least? How could something called an Angel be so inconsiderate? Well, this is the chance she'd been looking for, at least. She couldn't complain too much.
"M-Misato?"
Misato frowned at the ceiling as she was suddenly reminded that she wasn't alone, then turned a somewhat more cheerful face towards her passenger. "Yes, Shinji?"
"Why did my father send for me?"
Misato turned her gaze back to the roof of her car, the sigh that passed her lips being as much for the difficulty of the question posed her as it was the morose tones in which it was asked. "I'm sorry, Shinji, but that's not really a question I can answer. I haven't exactly been told why myself."
Shinji's head drooped and his gaze drifted down to his lap. "Oh."
They sat in silence for a minute or two before Misato finally spoke up again. "Look, I've only been assigned here at HQ for a few days now, and was only told that you'd be joining us less than an hour ago. I haven't exactly had a lot of time to review your file." Misato reclined her seat halfway and laced her hands behind the headrest. "But…I can make a guess, and from that glum look on your face, I'd say you've made the same guess I have."
Shinji considered that for a moment. "Misato? Where is my sister?"
"Rei Ikari is en route to Berlin Schönefeld Airport where an SSTO is waiting on the runway. ETA Tokyo-3 is four hours."
Shinji didn't acknowledge her answer, instead allowing his attention to be drawn to the windows as the train passed out into the open space of the Geofront. The vast underground chasm practically glowing with the orange rays of the evening sun, collected by large towers on the surface and transmitted down below the city via fiber-optic cables. The retracted buildings of Tokyo-3 glittered like a crystal chandelier hanging from the armored ceiling and reflected in the clear blue lake below. At the edge of that lake sat the imposing black pyramid of Nerv HQ.
Misato couldn't help but notice the apprehension that arose in her young passenger at the very sight of the structure that the train was now turning towards, and she drew his attention back to her with a touch of her hand to his shoulder. "Look, Shinji, I can get what you're going through here. My dad and I don't exactly get along the best either, you see. But regardless of whatever your dad is planning, I promise you that nobody is going to make you do something you don't want to do."
He appreciated the small commiserating smile that accompanied her words, and found his nervousness lifting just enough to give a small smile in return. "Thanks."
Forty-five minutes and an untold number of turns through the vast underground warrens that formed Nerv HQ found Shinji and Misato approaching a dock at the edge of a tank of unknown depth filled with red liquid. On the dock, seemingly waiting for them, stood a woman with bleach-blonde hair wearing a white labcoat over a purple blouse and black skirt.
"Ritsuko!" Misato called out as she approached the woman.
"Ah, Captain Katsuragi," the blonde replied, "I have to admit, I'm impressed. You're actually on time."
Misato gave a self-conscious laugh at that. "Well, I had a little help this time," she admitted, placing a hand on Shinji's shoulder.
Ritsuko smirked, "Is that so? Shinji, it's been so long, I'm surprised you remember your way around."
"N-no, I, uh, just followed the signs," Shinji said, catching an elbow jab in the side from Misato for his troubles.
"Now don't hurt the poor boy for being honest," Ritsuko laughed, turning her attention to the boy in question. She realized he was looking right past her, his gaze fixated on the gigantic purple arm seemingly embedded in the wall on the far side of the tank. "Shinji? How are you feeling?"
"O-okay, I guess, Dr. Akagi," he answered, managing to tear his gaze away from the massive arm, though only to direct it again down at his own feet. "Maybe a little…nervous?"
"That's perfectly understandable. Just try to relax."
"You two know each other?" Misato interjected.
"We see each other every six months for his physical," was the response. "Now if you'll follow me."
It was a quick ride in an inflatable motor skiff across the tank to the far wall and the access stairs that led into the chamber beyond. The access stairs that was right next to the gigantic purple arm. The gigantic purple arm that once again drew Shinji's undivided attention. Misato cast a worried look at Ritsuko, but the blonde scientist could only offer a small shake of her head in return.
The next chamber was shrouded in darkness, the light coming through the door just enough to show a long metal causeway leading out across a lake of red fluid identical to the one just crossed. The two women led the way across, Shinji following them with his head down, his sense of trepidation growing with every step. The door behind them closed when they were halfway across, leaving them shrouded in darkness.
"Shinji," Ritsuko said, "We're here."
With the loud crash of large switches being thrown, the entire massive chamber was bathed in light. Much like the last it was a rectangular metal-walled expanse several dozen meters in each direction and of unknown depth due to the translucent red fluid that filled it to the base of the causeway. Of course, Shinji didn't really notice any of this, as his eyes were squeezed shut against what he knew he would see before him if he opened them. His hands clenched in white-knuckled fists as he worked up his courage and slowly he opened his eyes, and for the first time in eight years he looked up Evangelion-01.
He almost would not have recognized it, had the arm he saw earlier not had the name of the giant humanoid emblazed upon the shoulder armor. The grim purple mask with the flared neck crest and large brow-horn was new, as was much of the armor and equipment connected to it. However, when he looked into the dimly glowing yellow eyes of the robot, each of them the size of a small car, he knew exactly what he was looking at.
"Mother…"
A firm hand on her shoulder stopped Misato's exclamation of surprise before it had even started.
"I'll explain later," Ritsuko whispered to her old friend before raising her voice to speak to Shinji. "Yes, the end-result of your mother and father's work: the ultimate man-made multipurpose fighting machine. The artificial human, Evangelion."
"Father called me here for this?" Shinji's voice was quiet, barely heard, and he seemed unable to take his eyes from the purple mech before him.
"Correct."
The cool seemingly emotionless voice drifted down from a speaker overhead, and Shinji managed to pull his eyes away from the Evangelion to regard the backlit figure of a man standing at a large observation window above and behind the head of the machine. Shinji could only make out the man in shadow, but he immediately knew who he was, and his presence filled the boy with far more dread than the menacingly leering robot that was only meters away.
"It's been a while," Gendo Ikari continued, his smirk now easily distinguishable in his tone.
"Father…"
"Prepare EVA-01 for launch," Gendo ordered, turning his attention to the two women on the causeway.
"Launch?" Misato exclaimed, less than pleased to have been right about his intentions. "The pilot is still three hours from arrival!" She cast a glance at Shinji, then back at the silhouette above, "You can't seriously intend to go through with this!"
"There is no choice, Captain Katsuragi," Ritsuko countered, emphasizing her friend's rank before turning again to the downcast young man beside her. "Shinji Ikari, you will pilot it."
Shinji was silent for several long moments, his gaze never leaving the metal floor beneath him, before he addressed the menacing figure above. "Father, w-why did you call me here?"
"For exactly the reason you think."
"B-but, you said…the last time I…you said that…"
"I said that inside the Evangelion you were a danger to yourself and all around you," Gendo cut him off, not an ounce of pity in his voice. "This is still true. Were there not extenuating circumstances I would have left you where you were. However the fact remains that the enemy is here and your sister is not. I am willing to gamble that the danger you present to all around you will also include our enemy."
"You only care about…defeating the e-enemy?"
"Correct."
"I'll do it," Shinji said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Shinji," Misato knelt next to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder and speaking softly. "Are you sure about this? You don't have to do this, no matter what he says. We'll find another way to stop it."
"It's okay, Misato," Shinji raised his face to the woman beside him, the bleak smile on his face freezing her heart in mid-beat. "I've been waiting eight years for this."
"This had better be one hell of an explanation," Misato groused as she swiped her Nerv identity card through the elevator security scanner and keyed the level for Central Dogma.
Ritsuko sighed, checked her PDA for the estimated amount of time before the target began to move once more, and hit the elevator emergency stop button. "I'm sorry there wasn't time to brief you before you went out," she began. "You are aware that Shinji's mother, Yui Ikari, was the original head of Project E, as well as the principle designer of the Evangelion system as a whole?"
Misato nodded, leaning up against the elevator doors, arms crossed in front of her.
"What is not a matter of public record is that she was killed during the initial contact experiment with EVA-01. At the time there were no barriers to synchronization at all, the danger it posed was simply not well understood," the lies flowed smoothly from Ritsuko's lips, she was glad she had practiced this ahead of time. "In a matter of seconds her synchronization rate had reached 400%, the point where there was no differentiation between herself and the Evangelion. Her ego barrier broke down and her body simply dissolved. She essentially ceased to exist."
Ritsuko breathed in deeply, and then exhaled with a sigh. "Shinji watched the whole thing happen from the control booth."
"Oh god," Misato gasped, her eyes wide.
Ritsuko nodded in commiseration, "He thinks the Evangelion is his mother, because of this." She paused, glancing at her PDA again and deciding she had time for a more detailed explanation. "Synchronization with the Evangelion happens within the Ventral Tegmental Area of the human brain, the so-called A-10 area. This part of the brain handles many many aspects of human biological psychology…including the bond between a mother and child."
Misato's expression grew fearful, her complexion paling as the blood drained from her face. "You don't mean…"
"The factor that allows for successful synchronization is one that can be passed on genetically," Ritsuko continued on over her friend's interjection. "Thus Shinji Ikari was tested and then selected by the Marduk commission as the First Child. We had implemented numerous safety devices since Director Ikari's accident that were designed to prevent synchronization from approaching the critical state. Unfortunately, because Shinji believed that the Evangelion actually was his mother, he bypassed each and every failsafe on his initial test and only swift action by Commander Ikari himself was the boy saved from a similar fate."
"What is Nerv doing to this kid!" Misato shouted, her fearful expression being rapidly overtaken by her growing anger. "How can they possibly ask him to get back in that thing?"
'They?' Ritsuko thought, making a mental note of Misato's distancing herself from the perceived injustice. "Do you think we want to?" she countered aloud. "That's why he was washed out of the program in the first place. He was immediately discharged as the First Child and until Rei was chosen that position remained empty."
"But now we're going to put him back in that thing and let him MELT just like his mother!"
"Get a hold of yourself, Misato!" the blonde scientist exclaimed, gripping her friends shoulders. "We wouldn't even try it if we weren't certain we could prevent that from happening. All else aside, that wouldn't help us in the slightest!" She gave Misato's shoulders a reassuring squeeze before releasing them and stepping back. "We have developed new safeguards specifically designed to prevent an empathy-based ego-dissolution. He'll be as safe as we can possibly make it."
"I still don't like it," Misato grumbled, barely placated.
"We don't have any choice," Ritsuko said with a sigh as she pressed the button to allow the elevator to continue. "You know better than anyone else what will happen if the Angel isn't stopped before it can penetrate Headquarters."
"Yeah, I guess I do."
The alarms were sounding as Misato and Ritsuko exited the elevator near the top of the massive Central Dogma command complex, numerous holographic viewscreens around the vast chamber issue red warning indicators.
"Report!" Misato barked, moving to her position at the front of the bow-shaped command center, two of the command technicians to either side and the third directly in front of her.
"Target has resumed it's advance," reported Shigeru Aoba from her left. "Estimate five minutes until it reaches the final defensive line."
"All launch tubes report green status," Makoto Hyuga chimed in from the station in front of her.
"Pilot Ikari has suited up and is standing by," Maya Ibuki added from the right-hand station. "EVA-01 stop-signal plug has been ejected. The entry plug is being lowered into position."
"Excellent. Stand by to engage target within the city itself," Misato said with a satisfied nod.
"We're not going to engage at the final defensive line?" Ritsuko asked, walking up to stand just to the side of Maya's station, looking over the young technician's shoulder at her datascreen.
"No," Misato said, "he may be able to synchronize, but he has no practical experience in piloting. We're going to need every advantage we can get out of Tokyo-3's Evangelion support buildings."
"Inserting entry plug now," Maya reported, a large holographic display appearing over her workstation showing a white cylindrical tube being inserted into the base of the Evangelion's neck. A sub-display showed the plug interior, where a visibly nervous Shinji Ikari sat in his skin-tight plug suit, the contact points of his A-10 connection headband poking through his dark hair.
"Unlocked spinal conductive network," came the voice of the plug control technician on a lower level of the command platform. "Prepare for connection."
The entry plug spun into the Evangelion's spine, screwing into place, forming an integral part of the artificial human's nervous system.
"Locking down exterior array," Maya said, as a few taps of her keypad caused the entry plug to retract fully into the Evangelion and the armor plates moved back into place overtop it.
"Start first contact," Ritsuko ordered.
"Flooding entry plug."
The external display disappeared, the secondary display expanding to replace it, showing as Shinji watched the interior of the entry plug fill with liquid until it was well above his head. From the way the bubbles flooded from his mouth and the way his breathing remained regular, Misato figured that he remembered the properties of LCL well enough to avoid being panicked.
"Primary power source connected," another unseen technician reported.
Maya glanced over her shoulder, getting a nod from Ritsuko before turning back to her console. "Starting second contact. Initializing interface. A-10 nerve connection is normal. LCL ionization levels normal. Cognitive interface set to Japanese as linguistic default. Communication lines open."
"No problems detected in initial contact," Ritsuko sounded pleased.
"Points on the list completed up to 1405," Maya said, a small smile twitching on her lips at the satisfied tone of the woman behind her. "Measuring synapse levels." A series of sine waves appeared on her datascreen, slowly merging together as the Evangelion and its pilot synchronized. "Synchronization rate is 43.2%"
"As expected, he's a natural," Ritsuko said, leaning over her shoulder to watch the graphs. "No problems detected in final contact. Maya, limit synchronization for this activation to 70%"
Maya blinked at the woman next to her even has her fingers flew across the keyboard. "Yes, Sempai. Synchronization restricted to 70%, absolute borderline established."
Inside the Evangelion, Shinji watched as first the translucent LCL became clear, and then the walls of the entry plug itself seemed to fade away, giving him a nearly vertigo-inducing view of what the technicians had called the 'cage'. He could see that the causeway he had stood on earlier was part of an elaborate restraint system that was attached to the EVA's arms and shoulders; a restraint system that was being pulled away as he watched.
He could actually feel the restraints being pulled away, for that matter, as though the arms were his own, as though the EVA's body was his own.
He could feel something else, as well. He let go of the two butterfly control sticks in front of him and leaned back in the control chair, closing his eyes as the A-10 connectors on his head began to glow.
"Mother?"
"Synchro-rate 50% and rising!" Maya reported as a new set of alarm klaxons began blaring throughout the command center.
"I thought you said this couldn't happen?" Misato demanded, rushing over to Maya's station as the young woman reported that the synchro-rate was now up to 60%.
"The borderline for this activation is 70%" Ritsuko informed the panicked tactical commander with a hint of irritation. "There's no sense not letting him synchronize to a level where he can use the Evangelion to best effect." She leaned in on Maya now, "That being said, terminate contact immediately if it rises above that rate."
"Yes, Sempai," Maya replied once more. "Synchro-rate is at 70% and holding." There was a long pause before finally the alarms silenced and Maya let out a relieved breath. "Synchro-rate finalized at 70%. Absolute borderline is steady and holding. A-10 nerve impulses are under control."
The command center shook from the shock of a distant explosion, and a new, much larger, holographic display snapped open directly in front of the command tower showing a skyscraper-sized creature indiscriminately firing beams of force into the city below.
"Target has breached final defensive line, and is assaulting the city," Aoba announced. "No damage reported to Geofront armored layers."
"It's time," Misato growled as she moved back to her position between the three. She turned to face the command balcony behind and above her. Sitting at his desk there was Gendo Ikari, his elbows resting on the desk, his hands steepled in front of his face. Beside him stood the thinner and older Vice Commander of Nerv, Kouzo Fuyutsuki.
"I have your approval?" she addressed them, as behind her the technicians began reporting on the progress of the transportation system that was moving EVA-01 to the launch tubes.
"Of course," Gendo replied, his mouth hidden behind his hands, his expression unreadable. "Unless we defeat the Angels, we have no future."
She turned back to the control screens, a gesture bringing up another direct feed to the interior of the entry plug. "Shinji, are you ready?"
Shinji was beginning to rethink his decision to pilot the Evangelion. Furthermore he was beginning to doubt his own sanity. He had felt the presence of his mother, he knew he had. She had been beckoning to him from the other end of the long tube that was synchronization, and he had gone to her gladly. Only, when he got to the end of that tube, there had been nothing there. Oh, he definitely felt more in tune with the Evangelion beneath him, he could feel the immense weight pressing down on the bottoms of the machine's feet as though they were his own, could feel the pressure of the few lock bolts still attached to the mech's shoulders, he could even feel the individual plates of armor pressing into the skin of the biological robot beneath them. But his mother was not there.
"Shinji?" Misato was calling to him, waiting for her answer.
"I'm ready," he said, trying to summon up a smile for her on the viewscreen that had winked into existence on the side of the entry plug.
Whether she doubted his sincerity or not, she simply nodded and turned to someone who was out of view. "Evangelion-01, lift off!"
Shinji had the sudden and incredible sensation of extreme G forces pressing down on the body of the Evangelion as the magnetic induction catapults built into the launch tube fired. His teeth grit at the strain that was passing through the connection from the machine as he watched the many layers of the headquarters complex and Geofront fly past at a blur. Only seconds later he shot up through a street in the center of Tokyo-3, the bolts holding the Evangelion to the catapult by the shoulders halting its momentum at the end of the track.
He had little time to get his bearings before he noticed something approaching from the other end of the long avenue. It was easily as tall as the Evangelion, similarly bipedal with spindly legs and arms, hulking shoulders, and the white bones of an external ribcage surrounding a glowing red sphere which stood out against its dark green skin. The ruins of a birdlike head hung from the side of its broad chest, and a similar head seemed to have erupted out from beneath it. The eyes were recessed within the bony structure of the head, though as Shinji watched they suddenly flared red, and a building on the other side of the city exploded in a pillar of flame which suddenly split at the top to form a cross.
"W-w-w-w-what is that thing!" Shinji shouted, his eyes wide with fear.
"That's an Angel," Misato replied, her tone grim. "That's the enemy."
"Shinji, try to stay calm," Ritsuko said. "For now, let's concentrate on walking, all right?"
"Uh…right…" Shinji looked down, he could see the feet of the Evangelion far beneath him as the final lock bolts retracted and the mech lurched forward, free from all restraint. He tried to force the Angel from his mind, directing his concentration at the feet that were and were not his own. "Walk…"
The Evangelion lurched forward, taking a single step that shattered every window within thirty meters and set off every car alarm on the block. Shinji could hear excited reports filtering over the communications network, shocked that they could be excited over something so basic. 'They didn't think I could make it move at all,' he realized, his confidence dropping so that when the Evangelion lifted its foot for the next step, it instead toppled straight over onto the ground, smashing its face into the street. Shinji cursed silently as he cupped his hands to his nose, the feeling of faceplanting be only too real. He was trying to figure out how to make the machine get back to its feet when he realized that they were shouting at him over the communications network. He looked up, and immediately froze in fear.
The Angel had closed the distance with EVA-01 and was regarding it with its expressionless face, it was close enough now that Shinji could see the red eyes glowing dimly deep within the bony sockets. Blind terror had paralyzed his limbs, and he could only watch as a monstrous three-fingered hand reached down and lifted the EVA by its head, the other hand grabbing its left arm. Suddenly the bulk of the Angels arms expanded, as though it had instantly put on literal tons of muscle, and it began pulling the arm of the Evangelion as though to separate it from the rest of the robot.
Shinji cried out in pain, clutching his left arm as he felt it being pulled from its socket. Misato was shouting something about it not being his arm, but how could it not be? The pain was so intense, how could it possibly not be real? He could hear the groaning of stressed metal and tendons from the EVA and he was sure it was matched by the creaking of bones and tearing of muscles in his own.
And then the arm broke.
He couldn't even scream as the searing pain ripped through his body, black spots swimming before his eyes, his paralysis lapsing into a state of total shock. He could still hear Misato and the others shouting commands at him and each other, but they washed dully over his consciousness as he watched the palm of the hand hold EVA's face light up with an unearthly red glow. And then he doubled over in agony, clutching his face with both hands as something began to slam repeatedly into his eye. Now he could scream, and his LCL-distorted screams filled the entry plug and the communications channels as the lance of light from the Angel's palm pierced the EVA's eye and went straight through the back of its head.
Shinji curled up into a ball in the pilot's seat as the mech flew backwards down the street from the force of the final impact and crashed limply against one of the many defensive towers of the city centre. He cried. He whimpered. He moaned. And most of all, he called out for his mother.
Who answered.
Another set of alarms once more added themselves to the steadily-growing number that flooded Central Dogma with cacophony as a large series of new holographic displays opened up all across the chamber, each of them displaying bad news in bright red text.
"Synchro-rate rising!" Maya shouted, her fingers flying across her keyboard. "Absolute borderline is breached! Pulses are flowing backwards!" On her screen the graphs showing the pilot's rate of synchronization to the EVA were starting to reverse as the EVA began to synchronize to the pilot.
"Cut the circuits!" Ritsuko ordered, looking over Maya's shoulder with dawning horror. "Block the flow!"
"We can't! The signal's being refused! It will not acknowledge!"
"Abort the operation!" Misato shouted, looking over Hyuga's shoulder at a pilot status display. "Force eject the plug! Pilot recovery is top priority!"
"It's no use! Eject signal has been rejected!"
On the main viewscreen EVA-01's remaining eye could be seen glowing with a white light that was increasing in brightness with every passing moment. The bolts that held its jaws together were straining as a low growl began to rumble across its oversized vocal cords.
"It's going Berserk…" Ritsuko said, staring in disbelief at the screen.
Several meters above and behind the panicking command crew, Gendo Ikari watched the screen with a deceptive level of calm. His second-in-command and oldest, if not only, friend leaned in, his expression and tone an equally deceptive calm.
"If we just let this run its course, we will be certain of victory, you know," Fuyutsuki said, quietly enough that only Gendo would hear.
"Yes," the other man agreed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a white gloved hand, "but this is the last act of your scenario, old friend. I'll play it your way."
Fuyutsuki nodded, stepping back to his position standing just to the side of the desk. Gendo steepled his hands in front of him hiding his expression, and more importantly his mouth, from the command crew below. Pressing a small button hidden within the cuffs of one sleeve, he spoke softly into the communications device hidden in the other.
Shinji no longer felt any pain. He no longer felt any terror. He had no more worries or anxieties. The only thing Shinji could feel was the warm embrace of his mother, her arms wrapping around him. She could hear her growling in anger, preparing to destroy the thing that had dared to harm her little boy. He felt safe and secure for the first time that he could remember. Mother would protect him. Mother would always protect him.
"Shinji!"
The sound of his father's cold pitiless voice snapped his eyes open out of pure reflex. Hanging before his eyes was a black rectangle that read, "Gendo Ikari – Voice Only". The shape was fuzzy at the edges and wherever his eyes turned it always remained directly in front of him. He got the disturbing impression that it was actually being projected directly into his brain through the neural connectors on his head.
"You are right. She will protect you. She will always protect you. But she will only protect you."
"Father…"
"Please be quiet and listen to me. We can talk when this is over. What you need to understand, and quickly, is that this course of action has dangerous repercussions."
A viewscreen flipped open on the wall of the entry plug, focused on an alleyway just beyond the Angel's feet. With a flicker it zoomed in, showing two cowering shapes. Another flicker and the features of the cowering figures became clear, even as a subset of windows snapped open with relevant data identifying the individuals as Touji and Kana Suzuhara.
"Touji!" Shinji cried, feeling the arms of his mother slowly starting to pull away from him.
"Indeed," Gendo's dispassionate voice affirmed. "You can feel the rage and power that Evangelion-01 is waiting to unleash. If that power is unleashed without any control, do you think your friends will be safe? She will destroy half this city to protect you, because she only cares about you."
Shinji looked past the floating rectangle from which his father's voice emanated, seeing the Angel standing there watching him, as though waiting to see what would happen next.
"Shinji, you have two choices. Either you continue to hide in her arms like a frightened child, or you grow up a little and protect your friends. I leave it to you."
Shinji heard little of what had been said after his friend's face appeared on the viewscreen, and gave little heed when the floating rectangle suddenly winked out of existence. A could resolve filled him as the terrified face of Touji's little sister flashed into view, Touji trying to protect the girl with his own body. As that resolve grew, he could feel the sense of his mother fading, the rumblings from deep within the EVA quieting. He took a deep breath.
"I have to save them."
"Pulse reflux is subsiding," Maya said, her tone disbelieving. "Synchro-rate re-establishing absolute borderline. Holding steady at 70%. Evangelion-01 has entered standby mode."
Stunned silence ruled the vastness of Central Dogma as the Evangelion, which had begun to rise up on its own, apparently ready to tear the Angel limb from limb, instead slumped over and was motionless. The Angel stood across the street, apparently confused by the erratic behavior of its enemy, the recessed eyes in its skull-like head blinking as it cocked this way and that, examining its erstwhile foe. Gendo frowned behind his steepled hands at the inaction of the command crew, wondering if he had somehow made a catastrophic error in selecting them…
"I want Barricade Units three through seven to open immediate salvo fire on the target!" Misato shouted, and Gendo grinned as the lieutenants around her snapped back into action. "Try to draw it off to the southwest. Have Type-12 Railway Cannons two and four fire staggered shots at one minute intervals. Keep them moving, I want terrain between them and the target between each shot!"
Missile fire began raining down upon the Angel, which turned towards the offending batteries and, after a moment's contemplation, began to fire devastating blasts of energy in retaliation.
Misato grinned. "Inform civil defense command that there are two civilians in the combat area. I want an immediate pick-up and evac as soon as the target has been drawn away from the area." Aoba acknowledged her command and opened a channel to civil defense as Hyuga directed the distraction fire against the Angel.
"Shinji?" Misato called, turning to the screen displayed the inside of the entry plug. "We're going to try and get you back into the fight, understand?"
On the screen, Shinji nodded fiercely. "I have to save them, Misato!"
Misato glanced at the smaller screens representing the two civilians. The older of the two was a classmate, and, from Section 2 reports, a close friend. She nodded. "We have people standing by to get them out as soon as we can get you up and running again. Stand by."
She muted the channel to the Evangelion and gave the tactical display a brief glance, noting with satisfaction that the Type-12 cannons' intermittent hammering had irritated the Angel enough to draw it a block away from the civilians and the EVA. Then she rounded on Ritsuko and Maya.
"All right, I've bought you two some time," she said, not without a bit of satisfaction in her voice. "I need you to get 01 back on its feet. More importantly, I need you to somehow get him good enough at moving that thing to fight." She paused, considering her options, before nodding to herself and continuing. "Lieutenant Ibuki, all instructions to Shinji will come through you. Keep up a steady dialogue, explain the basics to him, keep it simple, don't use any technical terms, and above all else keep him calm."
"Me? But..why?" Maya asked, confused.
"Because he's fourteen, and you have a pretty voice," Ritsuko answered with a smirk, drawing a bright blush from the young lieutenant. "It's a good plan, go with it." She crouched down next to Maya and turned the technical console towards her. "I'll take care of initiating system commands and status monitoring, you just concentrate on keeping up a dialogue with the boy. Understand?"
"Y-yes, sempai!" she responded, rolling her chair to one side and keying her headset over to direct communication with EVA-01.
Shinji watched the counterfire from Tokyo-3's numerous defensive batteries impact the Angel with a slight sense of relief. Even though it didn't seem to be having an effect on the Angel, really, it at least gave him the sense that he wasn't out here alone. Plus it had convinced the Angel to move away from where Touji was hiding so it could try and blast the hidden batteries.
"Ah, S-shinji?" a younger female voice came over the communicator. He had heard her voice during the startup sequences, but she had never directly addressed him before. "This is Lieutenant Ibuki," she paused and he could almost hear someone whispering harshly to her. "B-but you can call me Maya for now. Are you feeling all right?"
"I…I think so?" Shinji stopped to take stock, and realized that no, he actually did not feel fine. "Actually, Maya? I can't feel my left arm. What's going on?"
"That's okay, Shinji. We had to disable the connections to the EVA's left arm because it was damaged. If we didn't, as soon as we started up, you'd feel it broken again. Once you get out of the EVA, the numbness will go away. All right?"
"Um..okay," Shinji said, flexing his numb arm, finding it difficult to even move it. "I hope you're right."
"It'll be fine," Maya said, sounding more confident by the moment. "We're going to re-engage the synchronization now. Are you ready?"
"Yeah"
"Engaging."
There was an odd sense of displacement as once again the body of the EVA was seemingly overlapped with his own, the odd way that the robot was leaning against the building unbalancing him and giving him a growing sense of discomfort.
"Okay," Maya said, sounding pleased at whatever she was seeing. "Before you do anything, we're going to send a Pallet Rifle up in one of the armament buildings. We're going to overlay directional assistance over the entry plug display, so you'll be able to follow the arrows to it."
"Got it," Shinji replied as a series of directional indicators suddenly appeared all around him. They marked the locations of numerous nearby structures that apparently held support apparatus for Evangelions. One in particular was marked in flashing red, with clear arrows directing him to it. The virtual icon above the building displayed a large machine gun.
"Now let's get you standing up," Maya said next. "I think the trick is probably to not think too hard about it. I know that sounds confusing, but just act like it's moving your own body. You don't think to walk, you just do. EVA is controlled by the same parts of your brain, so you basically do it in the same way."
Shinji frowned at the explanation, but he could feel the way the EVA was responding to a lot of his smaller motions, twitching here and there and shuffling the debris around. So rather than think about how he was going to stand up, he just…tried to stand up. All around him the buildings seemed to shift and shrink as the EVA rose to its feet once more, though Shinji felt a little weird twitching around in his seat to do it.
"Well done!" Maya cheered, causing him to blush. "Once you get used to it, I'm told you can do it without your own muscles moving, but that's just fine for now." She paused for a moment. "Okay, now we have to extend your AT Field."
"Uh...what's that?" Shinji asked, looking around for some button or another that might be labeled such, and not having any luck.
"It's like a forcefield," she replied. "It's why none of those missiles are actually hurting the Angel." Shinji glanced over, the Angel was still dueling with the missile batteries, the tops of several nearby mountains had become a smoking ruin. Maya continued hesitantly, and Shinji could tell that someone else was telling her what to say. "It's…think of it like your personal space. Like, say someone was standing way too close to you. Then imagine if you had the power to force that person away, to keep everyone out of your personal space. Now imagine that, and concentrate on the Evangelion."
Shinji closed his eyes and tried to imagine precisely what she had described, with minimal success. Power fantasies had never come easy to him, and it was hard not to envision a scenario where an invasion of personal space simply sent him running.
'The AT Field, the barrier of the heart, sacred territory where none may intrude.'
The stray thought floated across his consciousness like an old memory. He could not place where he had heard that before, nor who might have told that to him. But it felt more natural to him than Maya's explanation. He took years of repressing his desires, hiding his emotions, bottling his anger, keeping all but a select few at arm's length, and even that few kept from the true depths of his soul. He took all of that, and gave it to the EVA.
The air around Evangelion-01 shimmered for a moment.
The Angel whipped around, eyes glowing, and began to stalk back towards its prey.
"AT Field is up!" Maya exclaimed, happy and suddenly nervous at the same time. "Shinji, the Angel must have noticed, it's coming back, I need you to…"
Shinji listened to Maya's instructions as she coached him on the basics of Evangelion maneuvering, lurching the EVA into a walk, then a jog, then finally a run, as the Angel advanced. At her direction he managed to keep the taller buildings between himself and the Angel as he made his way towards the indicated rifle. He was rapidly getting the hang of moving the Evangelion around, and she was doing an excellent job of keeping him calm. From the way she was relaying orders, he could tell that someone had ordered her to keep talking to him, help keep him calm. He didn't mind, she sounded really cute, and it definitely seemed to be helping. By the time he pulled the Evangelion-scale assault rifle out of the munitions building, he was confident enough that the EVA simply grabbed and hefted the weapon without hesitation.
"All right, Shinji," Misato's voice broke in over the net, he could hear the grin in her voice. "We've just received confirmation that Suzuhara and his sister have been evacuated to a shelter. You ready to kick this Angel's skinny green ass?"
"R-ready and waiting!" Shinji said, forcing an eagerness he didn't quite feel.
"That's the spirit. I'm setting waypoints. You're close to a block that is being demolished for repurposing. We'll lure this thing in there and then pull out all the stops."
Shinji looked around, getting his bearings, realizing where in the city he was, and suddenly he knew exactly which building block Misato was referring to. He also knew that exactly one person still lived there. He laughed bitterly to himself as he willed the Evangelion into motion. At least he knew they wouldn't be home right now.
He kept his head low as he ran, trying to stay below the level of the buildings, treating the entire exercise like he was out playing airsoft with Kensuke. He could hear the Angel stomping down the streets behind him, but hadn't actually caught sight of it since just after reactivation. The sky behind him lit up brightly, and he heard a strange harmonic sound from back where the Angel was. He risked a glance behind him as he ran, though he didn't see anything, the light fading rapidly.
"Shinji! In front of you!" Misato shouted, and he whipped his attention back, just in time to see the Angel crash to the street directly in front of him, spindly green hand already reaching out to grab him. With a scream of rage and terror, Shinji ducked the shoulder of the Evangelion and barreled straight through the Angel, catching it in the gut with a shoulder pylon and driving both of them through the row of abandoned apartment buildings that Misato had been directing him to.
The momentum of the EVA's charge knocked the Angel to the ground amidst the shattered buildings, and the Evangelion tumbled over it and rolled to a halt further down.
"Shinji," Misato said as the Evangelion and Angel both began to rise to their feet, "you'll need to hold your fire until you're right on top of it. Otherwise the AT Field will block it all. The only way to get through an AT Field is to cancel it out with another AT Field. Do you understand?"
"But…won't that mean it can get through mine too?" Shinji asked apprehensively, the EVA stumbling to its feet in the debris, rifle held firmly in its good arm.
"I wish there were another way," Misato said by way of affirmation. "As soon as that Field is down, you must destroy the core. It's the red sphere. Destroy that, the Angel is dead. Try to move around its…"
"Too late!" Shinji screamed as the Angel suddenly launched itself into the air with a sudden burst of light. Shinji dodged the EVA to the side, just managing to avoid the Angel landing on him. Instincts took over now, and he lunged forward, trying to tackle the beast around the midsection as he did before, only to run solidly into a wall seemingly formed of glowing octagons. Behind that wall he could see the Angel standing there, watching him, its eyes flashing rapidly with the strain of maintain the barrier between itself and EVA-01. Even as he pushed the EVA forward, he could see holes forming in that wall as though it were rotting before his eyes.
"The Angel's AT Field is being cancelled out by yours," Misato confirmed what his eyes were telling him. "Be ready. As soon as that Field is down, fire your rifle directly into the core!"
"R-roger!" Shinji grunted with the strain of forcing the EVA through the barrier, he could see it starting to distort inwards where he was pushing the rifle towards the core.
And then the barrier flew to tatters. His hand reflexively jerked on the firing mechanism, and he could hear the rifle roar to life. At the very same instant, however, the Angel's eyes flashed brightly, the EVA was rocked by a violent concussion, and then the world faded to black as he felt the EVA toppling backwards.
It was still night outside when Shinji awoke. He supposed it could be night again, but he honestly didn't feel bad enough to have been out for that long. He was lying in a bed, and for a few moments, that was all he could muster up the brainpower to recognize. He spent a fair amount of time examining his left arm curiously. He could have sworn there had been something wrong with it. Finally he sighed and looked up. He had absolutely no idea where he was, but it felt and smelled like a hospital.
"An unfamiliar ceiling," he muttered philosophically.
"Pray that it never becomes familiar," a cool dispassionate voice said from the foot of his bed.
Shinji sat bolt upright in bed, sending spots swimming before his eyes, and stared in disbelief. "Father!"
Gendo Ikari looked up from the desk at the foot of the bed, his elbows resting on the surface, his hands steepled in front of his face hiding his satisfied smirk. "You did well today, Shinji."
Author's Note: So, wow, there it is. The first chapter of "A Little More Human", my first ever fanfic, not to mention the first thing I have written of any real length in about ten years. I hope anyone who has gotten to this point has enjoyed the story thus far, and I hope to see you back here for chapter 2, which is already being written! Constructive criticism is welcome, as always, as are simple accolades, speculation, recommendations, praises, money, etc. See you soon!
-NBH