Disclaimer action: the I am in no way involved with any of the respective parties that created the amazing series, Shin Seiki Evangelion.
Furthermore, I own none of the rights to the White Stripes' works. That is copyright third man studios, V2 Records, and whoever else.
Each chapter is recommended to go with a White Stripes song. Go ahead and listen to the title song after each chapter. More importantly, read the lyrics. You'll get it.
This story contains language, violence, angst, and sexual themes, though not necessarily all present in the same chapters. If this is not to you, the reader's tastes, please discontinue reading. As for everyone else, please enjoy, and criticize where necessary. Yes, I do know how Shinji/Rei pairings are inherently messed up, but for the sake of the story, just ignore those implications.
Thanks,
sven roc petrov I
Background: begins as the sixteenth angel appears.
I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself.
Chapter one: In the Cold, Cold Night, Part One.
{In the NERV command center.}
"Rei, can you hear me?" Katsuragi Misato asked.
"Hai," was the curt response of the pilot of Unit 00.
"Good, now—"
"No, It's attacking," Rei interrupted. The luminous double helixed ring that was the second to last angel had broken itself to change to an amorphous line, and was dashing at the blue Eva.
"Angel has made contact with Unit 00!" gasped Maya.
"This could be deadly, Katsuragi." Dr. Akagi looked over Maya's shoulder, and read the status of the Eva, droning, "There is now a 5% fusion rate. The pilot could die." Misato visibly cringed at how lightly Ritsuko was taking the endangerment of Pilot Ayanami.
Nevertheless, she commanded, "Asuka! Launch and take out the angel that's attacking Rei!"
Asuka didn't dignify the command with a response, and just mumbled to herself about how she couldn't keep herself from piloting, even though she vowed otherwise.
"Launch!" Misato yelled. By the time Eva 02 arrived on the surface, Ayanami had resorted to shooting the amorphous creature with her rifle, to little success. "Asuka, get that angel off of Rei and finish it off!" Asuka's Eva didn't move at all. "Asuka?!"
"It's hopeless, Katsuragi. Sohryu's sync ratio is below ten percent. She will be of no use."
"Grrrrr…" Misato looked on at the events unfolding on the screen. Rei was obviously enduring a lot of pain as she wrestled with the writhing angel. "Lower Unit 02."
"Sortie Unit 01," Gendo Ikari said, no, commanded. He had a power over his subordinates that extended beyond his rank. He had an air to him that just screamed, "Mess with me, and I'll kill you, and then I'll go to work on you."
Even Misato felt this, though she felt he needed to be questioned on this one, "but sir—"
"Sortie it."
"Yokai. Remove the restraints from 01!" Shinji was already in the Eva, and half expecting to have to be used again that day. He never wanted to do it again. He felt that Asuka was addicted to the power it gave her. He suspected Rei didn't like it either, but…
"Launch!"
Shinji felt instantly heavier as he rocketed up to the surface, slightly closer to the ensuing carnage than Asuka had been. "God…" Shinji gasped as Rei's entry plug camera came onscreen. Her entire being was consumed with twitching pain, veins throbbing through her plugsuit, even more grotesque were the ones disfiguring her angelic face.
"Shinji! Look out!" Misato warned Shinji of the closing angel.
Shinji leapt out of the way of the end of the angel, and caught part of it as it shot by him. He held it at a distance to try to keep it from impaling him, but the Eva's arms were to short to account for the angel stretching. It stabbed him in the neck, near his collarbone. "AAAAAAAAAH!!" Shinji hadn't felt this kind of pain since his first battle when his arm was smashed and twisted off…
The pilots were connected by the malicious angel.
"I—Ikari-kun!" Ayanami managed a muffled cry. She fell out of consciousness.
"Aya—na…" His eyes closed, "mi…"
"Am I alone?" Rei found herself standing amongst a pool of LCL. "No, I sense someone else here. Myself in Eva?" She gasped. She didn't know what to think of what she saw.
**
"Hello?" Shinji nervously asked the empty world of LCL he found himself in. "Is there anyone who can hear me?" 'This reeks of blood…oh, why now? I need to help Ayanam—" He looked on in shock.
There was indeed someone else in the LCL world. Two people in fact. Two people who were very close, very close indeed…
**
"Is this me?" Rei asked herself. "What am I doing with Ikari? Are we kissing? Yes, that is what it is." She looked on. The sight would have made Asuka go absolutely insane. The representation of Rei was clinging to him, as if afraid that he'd let go, just as the representation of Shinji held onto her to ground him in his existence.
"Isn't this what you want? A gentle, understanding person to hold you? To, love you?"
"Who said that?" Rei demanded.
"Doesn't it hurt?"
"Pain, no, not pain. Who are you?"
"Loneliness?"
"Yes, this is loneliness." She watched as the couple liquefied and changed form…
**
Shinji looked on. "Is this, no, it can't be reality. Is this some kind of dream?"
"Perhaps it is, Shinji. Freud says that dreams are visions of unrealized desires." The voice was slow and deliberate, monotonous.
"Great. A philosopher." Shinji couldn't pull his gaze from the face of Rei. She seemed to be showing some kind of expression in the arms of what was supposedly him, but he couldn't quite put it together. But it was something, and that was rare, precious, even. As if just in spite of him, his fantasy fell into liquid form and sank into the pool of LCL. "Wait!" Shinji exclaimed, before he realized how pathetic it sounded. With a sigh, he began to lower his head, but a figure was forming and rising from the orange slime. As it developed, he began to see that the figure was distinctly that of Ayanami Rei, whose posture was somehow different than usual, in her plugsuit. She, it, sauntered towards the young man…
**
The form of Ikari Shinji slowly approached her, and put his arms around her. "Ikari," she started, but then she relaxed, and melted under his embrace, and leaned into him as he held her.
SNAP! The two pilots had little transition from such comfort into the excruciating pain of the real world.
"Pilots have regained consciousness!" yelled Dr. Akagi over Lt. Ibuuki's shoulder.
"Shinji! Rei! Are you okay?!" Misato screamed. Shinji and Rei just stared at each other for a moment, until,
"Hai," Shinji struggled. "We are able to continue…" Shinji trailed off. He was still looking at Rei.
'Thank God,' Misato thought, as she clutched her cross necklace.
Rei was still in a mix of shock and confusion, piled on top of the immense pain still coursing through her body. She felt a tiny impact on her lap. "Is this a tear? I'm crying, but I don't know why, or do I? Does my soul want to unite with him? Is that what I felt?" Through this, the angel had overtaken Shinji and thrown him to the ground. "Ika—Shinji!" Her Eva went berserk.
"Sync ratio over 300%!" Maya yelled. 'Please, not like last time, I lost my lunch…'
The blue Eva's jaw bindings burst, and it roared. It ripped the writhing angel out of its stomach with a sickening sloshing sound, and gripped one end of it with its right hand and yanked. The other end of the angel flung out of Unit 01's neck, bringing the collapsed Eva up off the ground with it slightly, before falling back in place with a thud. Eva 00's left hand caught the opposite end of the angel and forced it in it's right hand with the other end, safely keeping the attacking parts away from its body. Grabbing it near the middle with its left hand, it bit straight through the creature. The angel immediately stopped glowing, and instead, began dripping the innards of the beast all over the once blue, now red Eva.
"Shit…" Misato trailed off. She had hoped to never see anything like that ever again, but sure enough, here it was. Another disgusting sight of a beast, 99.89% human, devouring a living nightmare. Though which was really the nightmare now, eh?
"So, Gendo, another god on your hands, hm? How fortunate." Fuyutsuki directed towards Gendo. The commander retained his trademark plotting pose.
'It can be terminated after the final angel is destroyed. It will no longer be necessary. Only Unit 01,' thought the commander. "Fuyutsuki, even as my closest friend, you are my subordinate. It is not a problem."
"But surely you realize that SEELE--"
"SEELE is not a concern at this point. They will cause no problems."
The blood splattered Eva collapsed with a splash in the crimson saturated ground.
**
Shinji briefly opened his eyes, to meet the now familiar ceiling. He heard a person breathing, and closed his eyes. His thoughts drifted towards the blue haired pilot before he left all conscious thought behind, and fell into deep, restful sleep. The fighting was almost over.
**
Rei's view initially surprised her. Dr. Akagi stood directly above her, changing her IV. Ritsuko bent over to straighten the line that ran from the bag to Rei, who squirmed out of the way a bit, turning her head to see Shinji. She breathed in sharply.
"Ayanami, is there something wrong?" The girl didn't respond. She seemed lost in thought. "Ayanami?"
Well, I banged that out in an hour or two. What do you think? Please review. More to come. And soon!
You can reach me at seansv@kc.rr.com
Thanks for reviewing in advance.