M R X Fanfiction
NGE: The Splitting of the Soul
By Mind Raider
http://www.geocities.com/mind_raider2000/mrx.htm
Revised by Babel Matrix
http://www.ifihadasite.com/itwouldbeabout/explodingsquirrels.htm
DISCLAIMER: All characters are the property of Gainax Inc. I'm just borrowing them.
Author's notes: It starts at the end of Episode 20 when they try to get Shinji back. I will try to keep them in character but I reserve the use of creative license.
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted;
persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
By Order of the Author
Mark Twain, "Tom Sawyer"
=====================
Prologue: In the beginning...
=====================
Deep within the Earth, in the cavern NERV called home, the command room was filled with noise as they prepared to retrieve the pilot of Unit-01. Misato walked down a corridor to reach the room where she first learned what happened to her Shinji, a room which she was hoping would save him. It was not the first time she had lost him, but it was the longest. It had been a month since Shinji was lost in Unit-01, yet the memories etched into her mind could be summoned up like it was yesterday. As she closed her eyes, her body tensed up as she remembered the battle with the last Angel.
She felt a cold shiver as she remembered how Unit-01 devoured the angel alive, as well as the memory of he blood-curdling roar released from it's bloody maw. She remembered the shock she felt as she looked inside the entry plug for the first time after the battle. It was the memory of the anger that directed at those she deemed responsible for her lost and the disappearance of Shinji which was easiest to remember, since she still felt that same anger right now. Even after 30 days of explanations, simulations and excuses on the part of Ritsuko and the crew, her anger with there mistakes and secrecy could never be forgotten. She once again focused on her destination.
She had found her way through the corridor without any trouble. The room was up ahead, but before one could get to the room from the corridor, one had to pass the catwalk in front of Unit-01. Thirty-one days ago, she wouldn't have paid much mind to it. But with the memories of what happened thirty days ago echoing through her mind, she couldn't help but pause in front of Unit-01. It's face had finally been fully repaired, it's eyes once again blanketed in darkness. The monstrous green shine of insane animalistic rage would not show itself, something Misato was truly grateful for. She grasped the cross around her neck tightly, the face of the monster not helping her calm her nerves. She closed her eyes and silently prayed, holding the cross tightly. When she finally finished, she opened her eyes and let the cross settle on her chest. She proceeded onward to her destination, constantly under the unnerving gaze of the commander.
=====================
=====================
As Misato and the others fought to bring Shinji back, another struggle was going on inside of the monster called Unit-01. Within the Evangelion was Shinji, his mind a jumble of energy and thought. He felt nothing in this odd state, and without a body or knowledge of where he was, all of his thoughts swirled around him as the bled into each other. Strange visions of the past and present plagued him in ways beyond description. He could see so many things through the blindness of his partially-alive state. His conversations, the reactions and actions of the people around him, his accomplishments, and his failures. He floated in the void, weighted down with the truth of his own existence. He just wanted everyone to be nice to him. His life goal, a concept so simple, yet ended up being so complicated.
Suddenly, within the void materialized the three most important people in his life. The mixed concoction of his jumbled memories and realized truths seemed to clear away at the sight of the three. They came to him, one after the other, naked and bared in their seeming purity.
"Tell me Shinji. Do you want to be one with me?" asked Misato, her voice like honey, strong and delicious. "To be of one mind and body? It could be very nice. Ask me any time, I'm always ready."
"Ikari-kun. Do you want to be one with me?" asked Rei, her voice like sugar, sweet and soft. "To be of one mind and body? It could be very... pleasant."
"Hey, Shinji-baka. Don't you want to be one with me?" asked Asuka, her voice like spice, strong and demanding of the senses. "To be of one mind and body? It would be awesome. You ought to appreciate your good fortune. Come on!"
"Shinji, Do you want to become one with me?" asked Misato with a seductive voice.
"To be of one mind and body and soul?" asked Rei with an innocent tone.
"It could be very pleasant," said Asuka with a suggestive voice.
"Relax and free your soul..." they said in unison, their voices merged and hypnotic.
=====================
=====================
Shinji's mind was racing everywhere, yet got nowhere. What did he want? WHOM did he want? He couldn't choose between them, since he wouldn't, no, couldn't hurt the others for the sake of one. He felt as if he was being pull in all directions, no decision coming to him. Each woman had a place in his heart. He trusted and cared about Misato. She was the closest person in his life since his first day in Tokyo-3. Asuka was also in his heart, even if it pained him like daggers every time she lashed out at him. But there those rare occasions, the few times she let herself go without insulting those around her, and would end up renewing Shinji's attraction. As he was mesmerized by Asuka when she showed her true emotions, Rei also had a similar hold on His heart. Rei had a special place in his heart, the strange calm around her entranced him at times, her silent beauty attracting his heart, pure as a child's dream. When he was with her, he felt as though he knew her from another time in the past, almost as though they were supposed to be together. After brooding between thoughts, he had a answer, one which ended the inner-conflicts of having to choose. He now couldn't believe how easy it was to decide this, but those thoughts were put to the back of his mind as he answered with a simple "Yes".
Then it hit, a blast to the senses which ripped him from his last thoughts. Outside they were starting the
retrieval process.
=====================
=====================
The room was in an uproar, technicians dashing from console to console, taking their places in the end of their seemingly frantic movements. Everyone was in participating in this fully organized madness, all except Misato Katsuragi. She stood still amidst the technicians and scientist, staring at the entry plug with hope in her eyes. There was good reason for all the running about. They were about to attempt to reconstruct the body and soul of the pilot. Before, it had seemed like an impossible task, one which had failed last time. But now they possessed the MAGI, a factor that gave them a chance of success. On most of the faces in the room, a cool calm seemed to possess them. But the reality was that, inside, everyone was a powder keg of emotion, ready to explode. They worked non-stop for a month, working around the clock to perfect any bugs they found with the assistance of the MAGI. Constant theories and plans were made and destroyed, routes of action raised, questioned, and usually dismissed. Now came the moment of truth, the climax of all their work. Everyone checked and rechecked systems, even if everything seemed perfect, until the operation was ready.
And so it began.
"Roger. Signal-1 is sent."
"Eva received the signal."
"Signal-2 and signal-3 are now sent."
"Subject's catharsis is normal."
"Destrude isn't detected."
"Roger. Move the target to stage-2," ordered Ritsuko, directed them the same way that the MAGI simulations planned
out.
"Come on Shinji..." Misato whispered under her breath, subconsciously fondling the cross.
=====================
=====================
Shinji gasped each time he heard the voices calling for him. He could hear everyone calling for him over and over again, there voices mixed and unsynchronized. He could not make sense of it all, the voices constantly speeding up and changing, morphing into even stranger gibberish, almost as though to make it even harder for him to decipher their sources. He couldn't take anymore of it, the voices and hopes hammering into his mind. He had to escape from this place. His decision was made, and he came to a choice of action. He had to runaway.
=====================
=====================
There are things that you know by instinct. Even if you don't have a clue what was going on, scientific explanations aren't needed when people begin to shout frantically, darting from here to there, all while several red lights claiming errors and warnings of scientific gibberish. Things like this let instinct know that something had gone wrong.
"It's no good! His ego border is in a fixed loop!" Maya exclaimed in a reserved shout.
"Try to radiate all wave patterns from all directions," Ritsuko barked back, trying to remain calm.
"Hai!" Maya responded, typing her commands as fast as she could.
"No good. The radiated signals are captured in Klein space!" Ritsuko yelled, losing her calm in the calamity.
"What does that mean?" asked Misato. While she could have guessed that it was bad, she still wanted to know what exactly was going on.
"It means... we failed," she Ritsuko stated in a cold and defeated tone. "Stop the interference. Reverse the tangent
graph, and set the addition value to 0."
"Hai." Maya answered, her voice going calm as she concentrated on doing the new orders.
"Destrude reaction is detected in Q area. Pattern is sepia," Shigeru reported.
"Changes detected in the core pulse. Plus 3 is confirmed," Makoto stated.
Maya glared at the plug monitoring system, her eyes beginning to widen at one particular meter."The LCL temperature is rising. Entry plug's inner temperature at 36 degrees.....wait! Now at 38...41...58,76, 97, 106... inner plug temperature will soon hit critical levels!"
"Maintaining the present condition is top priority!" Ritsuko exclaimed in an almost frantic tone that was unlike her. 'This is too close, it must be stopped' she thought to herself. "Prevent flow-back at all costs!"
"It's going over the estimated value! It's reaching dangerous levels!"
=====================
=====================
"What do you desire?" said a naked Misato.
"What do you wish for?" said a naked Asuka.
"What do you wish need?" said a naked Rei.
From the bleak nothingness came a dark figure, draped in a mixture of shadows and lights, obscured to the point he looked like a warped human's silhouette. Even with it's appearance, no fear was invoked in Shinji. It reached towards him, lanky ethereal arms lifting at the boy."
"What do you want, Shinji?" said the form.
=====================
=====================
In the real world, not too far from the plug in which Shinji's soul went through it's questioning, everyone was at a lost as to what had gone wrong. They had tried everything and more, planning everything ahead with simulations, checks and double checks, tests of everything from the equipment to the staff members themselves. Now they faced a situation they had come to fear over the past few days. Not only did they fail, they could not stop it from continuing.
"Oh my.....Plus 0.5, 0.8... it... I can't stop it! My God! The EVA is rejecting the signal!" Maya screamed, her eyes wide in shock as the meters went past the safety boundaries, the bars on the monitor glowing red.
"Don't you want to come back?" Ritsuko asked under her breath, looking at the Eva with a questioning gaze.
"Shinji's ego formation in the LCL is breaking up!"
"The pressure inside the plug is increasing!"
"Abort all operations! Cut the power supply!" Ritsuko ordered, trying to stop the disaster that she knew would come.
"Too late! The plug has activated!" Maya reported as she snapped her head up to look upon EVA-01.
Misato gasped, the scene etching itself into her memory as she yelled out, "Shinji!"
The hatch of the plug opened, the LCL pouring out of the hatch. Shinji's plug suit floats out of the stream of orange, wavering in the LCL as though to show it held no one within. Silently it glided down to the side of the catwalk, pushed by the waves. Misato was already down to the catwalk by the time the plugsuit got near the catwalk. She ran to that side of the catwalk, clutching at the plugsuit. The sight of the emptiness of the suit knocked both the wind and the strength from her, causing her to fall to her knees. She grabbed the suit with a trembling hand, and clutched it close to herself as soon as it reached her hand. She sat there weeping as she clutched the plugsuit.
"What's good with your god damn science it can't even save one small life!" she yelled, half-muffled by the plugsuit as she bore her crying face into it.
"GIVE ME BACK MY SHINJI!!!!!" She yelled out to the EVA, "GIVE HIM BACK!!"
=====================
=====================
He was back. He knew this place. He could understand the images. They became distinguishable, their familiarity returning to him. He was with the EVA, but did he come back? Why was he gone? What happened? The question bombarded his aching mind as images and memories came before his eyes. Memories of Misato and her ways, Asuka and her comments, Rei and her silent disposition flowed threw him.
He suddenly felt another. Soon the other took a form of light. The light was warm, giving him a nostalgic feeling, a memory of someone from days long past. It fed the senses, one after the other. A voice too muffled from the time it was last heard. The light was too bright to find a face, but a sense which most wouldn't identify a person by came up. This person had a familiar smell, one of familiarity, maybe even family. 'Could it be Misato?.......No, it's closer. It's almost like Ayanami, but not quite...Of course.' It came clear to him, in a single word. Mother. Then he remembered something. A memory which was from years ago, one which could not have been his own. His heard his mother and father talking like parents, like they did before she passed away. It was a conversation about what to name him. 'That's before I was born, so this has to be the memory of another...' It dawned on him immediately. The light which gave him nostalgia of his mother, the memories that were not his own. All pointed to one answer, one reality. He knew where and who he was with. 'Mother....'
Suddenly, a voice pierced through his thoughts, one which he knew he had to respond to. "SHINJI!!"
'Misato's voice...I must go back...' thought Shinji. And so he began his return, his decision still made, and made to be carried out.
=====================
=====================
A low hum echoed off the walls, it's source seemingly the Eva's core. Suddenly, a bright light filled the room, blinding all the eyes of the room, both those of the people as well as those of the MAGI's monitoring cameras. Misato uncovered her eyes, only to see a sight which made her jaw slack. On the ramps and unconscious laid three bodies. What really made her jaw slack was that all three looked exactly like Shinji. Less than a minute later, while she still sat in awe at the sight, men rushed in wearing contamination suits and pushing stretchers. They gathered the unconscious forms from the platform and towed them onto the stretchers, neither of the three stirring from their apparent slumber. The men did this with little attention to Misato, who now stood up to gaze upon the three once more. As they carted away the three, she could only stand there, trying to figure out what had just occurred. One could say she failed to manage it as she fainted.
=====================
=====================
Through a mental haze, she could hear a familiar voice calling her name. She felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her violently. Her eyelids fluttered open, the world coming back into focus. She turned her head to the offending hand to see Ritsuko, who stopped her shaking with a relieved smile.
"We thought we lost you there for a second, Misato," she said in an almost whimsical voice.
"Huh...um...what?" said Misato, her words stumbling as her mind tried to focus on where she was and what had happened.
"You were out of it for some time," said Ritsuko, looking at her watch as though to confirm it. "The first wave of tests should be done by now."
"Tests...?" Misato's memory came back, which almost caused her to snap her neck when she turned her head to the place where the three were. It was vacant now, LCL samples being collected by scientist." What about tests? Where are they? Are they ok?"
Ritsuko gave a nod, and held her hand out to her friend. "I'm guessing you want to see them?"
=====================
=====================
It was a fairly normal sight for Misato. Shinji was in a isolation room sleeping. Every time he had a possible contact with a Angel or had a problem with his Eva, he was in one of these rooms shortly after. The only difference in this situation which Misato could note was that, while she saw Shinji as usual here, there were two other Shinji in two different
rooms to look at as well.
"What are they?" Misato asked, regretting the use of the word "what". 'It is Shinji, but...'
They walked on, ending up in Ritsuko's office. Misato leaned against a wall while the doctor was sitting in her chair behind her desk. The room smelled of coffee and cigarettes.
"All of the first wave tests showed them all to be matches of Shinji. We are currently running a DNA analysis to do a final confirmation of whether or not they are Shinji, as well as a check to make sure that there is no Angel or EVA contamination."
"Which one is the real Shinji?" interrupted Misato, her questioning not letting up.
"My guess is that if they have the same DNA and memory, anyone of them can be called Shinji. This is totally new to me," she lied, knowing very much of this kind of subject. She had researched it for so many years with the development of the dummy-plug system.
Misato answered with silence, think over what had happened. 'I have to be positive. Shinji's alive. But in this condition...he may never be the same, ever again.'
"When will we have the results of the tests?" asked Misato, snapping out of her brooding.
"Tomorrow. No earlier, no later. I'll inform you when they come in from the lab," Ritsuko looked at her friends weary face. "You should go home."
"No, I want to be here when the test are done," stated Misato, her desire to know pushing out the answer. Ritsuko gave her a small nod of understanding, then left the room and headed down the hall. For Misato, this had been an emotionally draining day. Concluding that they would wake her up when the test results were in, she wandered into an infirmary and dropped into a bed, followed shortly thereafter by a deep slumber.
=====================
=====================
"Hey, wake up," Ritsuko said as she shook Misato awake. "Don't get used to me shaking you awake like this. I'm tired of it already."
"What? Why?" Misato grumbles through a haze of drowsiness, stirring in the bed.
"As I recall, you wanted to see the results. Well, they're in," informed Ritsuko.
Misato shots up at the news like a rocket, her eyes fully aware. She jumped off the bed, up and standing in no time.
"What are the test results? Are they really Shinji?" she asked in rapid succession.
"The DNA matches perfectly for all three," Ritsuko stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
So, they were Shinji. Her Shinji. "Do they... remember anything?"
"Their memories are probably intact, and there is no brain damage. But we have to wait for them to wake up to confirm their memories. They are still unconscious."
"When will they wake up?"
"They should be wake in the morning. Most likely their bodies are simply exhausted. We will be moving them out of isolation before they wake. You can visit them then after that."
Misato's spirits became a bit higher at the last statement.
"How long was I out?" Misato asked, realizing her body was still tired.
"Well you slept for a day," Ritsuko answered with a light smile.
"WHAT?!" Misato yelled, looking at her friend with heavy disbelief..
"Actually, you should be proud. I would sleep for a week after a month like this in your shoes. I'm going home, and I would suggest you do the same."
"Yeah, home..."
Misato and Ritsuko left the room and out of the infirmary. Misato mind was eased now that the anger, fear, and sadness were overshadowed by the return of Shinji. However, the suspicion remained, her questions need answers and she knew who could give them to her. Misato had a meeting to make; Kaji was going help her get her answer. Ritsuko had a few hours of rest and she was going to use them. While she rested, Misato would be getting closer to the truth.
=====================
To Be Continued...
=====================
Authors Soapbox:
This prologue is finally done. This in all respects will be the last revision. I hope... Anyway, I've tried to write something that will lead to more than one Shinji coming back from Eva. I was watching episode 20 when I thought about what could have happened if Shinji answered Rei, Misato, and Asuka with a 'Yes'. I will try to explain what happen to multiply Shinji the next chapter. From what I can tell, this is uncharted territory for Eva fics and that means that I have no reference to compare how everything is progressing.
If you have comments, criticism or even flames you can E-mail me at:
mind_raider@yahoo.com
leave a E-mail address so I can reply.
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Mind Raider
M R X Fanfiction
http://www.geocities.com/mind_raider2000/mrx.htm
M R X Fanfiction, Mind Raider 2000 © Mind Raider, 1999-2002. All rights reserved.
NGE: The Splitting of the Soul
By Mind Raider
http://www.geocities.com/mind_raider2000/mrx.htm
Revised by Babel Matrix
http://www.ifihadasite.com/itwouldbeabout/explodingsquirrels.htm
DISCLAIMER: All characters are the property of Gainax Inc. I'm just borrowing them.
Author's notes: It starts at the end of Episode 20 when they try to get Shinji back. I will try to keep them in character but I reserve the use of creative license.
Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted;
persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
By Order of the Author
Mark Twain, "Tom Sawyer"
=====================
Prologue: In the beginning...
=====================
Deep within the Earth, in the cavern NERV called home, the command room was filled with noise as they prepared to retrieve the pilot of Unit-01. Misato walked down a corridor to reach the room where she first learned what happened to her Shinji, a room which she was hoping would save him. It was not the first time she had lost him, but it was the longest. It had been a month since Shinji was lost in Unit-01, yet the memories etched into her mind could be summoned up like it was yesterday. As she closed her eyes, her body tensed up as she remembered the battle with the last Angel.
She felt a cold shiver as she remembered how Unit-01 devoured the angel alive, as well as the memory of he blood-curdling roar released from it's bloody maw. She remembered the shock she felt as she looked inside the entry plug for the first time after the battle. It was the memory of the anger that directed at those she deemed responsible for her lost and the disappearance of Shinji which was easiest to remember, since she still felt that same anger right now. Even after 30 days of explanations, simulations and excuses on the part of Ritsuko and the crew, her anger with there mistakes and secrecy could never be forgotten. She once again focused on her destination.
She had found her way through the corridor without any trouble. The room was up ahead, but before one could get to the room from the corridor, one had to pass the catwalk in front of Unit-01. Thirty-one days ago, she wouldn't have paid much mind to it. But with the memories of what happened thirty days ago echoing through her mind, she couldn't help but pause in front of Unit-01. It's face had finally been fully repaired, it's eyes once again blanketed in darkness. The monstrous green shine of insane animalistic rage would not show itself, something Misato was truly grateful for. She grasped the cross around her neck tightly, the face of the monster not helping her calm her nerves. She closed her eyes and silently prayed, holding the cross tightly. When she finally finished, she opened her eyes and let the cross settle on her chest. She proceeded onward to her destination, constantly under the unnerving gaze of the commander.
=====================
=====================
As Misato and the others fought to bring Shinji back, another struggle was going on inside of the monster called Unit-01. Within the Evangelion was Shinji, his mind a jumble of energy and thought. He felt nothing in this odd state, and without a body or knowledge of where he was, all of his thoughts swirled around him as the bled into each other. Strange visions of the past and present plagued him in ways beyond description. He could see so many things through the blindness of his partially-alive state. His conversations, the reactions and actions of the people around him, his accomplishments, and his failures. He floated in the void, weighted down with the truth of his own existence. He just wanted everyone to be nice to him. His life goal, a concept so simple, yet ended up being so complicated.
Suddenly, within the void materialized the three most important people in his life. The mixed concoction of his jumbled memories and realized truths seemed to clear away at the sight of the three. They came to him, one after the other, naked and bared in their seeming purity.
"Tell me Shinji. Do you want to be one with me?" asked Misato, her voice like honey, strong and delicious. "To be of one mind and body? It could be very nice. Ask me any time, I'm always ready."
"Ikari-kun. Do you want to be one with me?" asked Rei, her voice like sugar, sweet and soft. "To be of one mind and body? It could be very... pleasant."
"Hey, Shinji-baka. Don't you want to be one with me?" asked Asuka, her voice like spice, strong and demanding of the senses. "To be of one mind and body? It would be awesome. You ought to appreciate your good fortune. Come on!"
"Shinji, Do you want to become one with me?" asked Misato with a seductive voice.
"To be of one mind and body and soul?" asked Rei with an innocent tone.
"It could be very pleasant," said Asuka with a suggestive voice.
"Relax and free your soul..." they said in unison, their voices merged and hypnotic.
=====================
=====================
Shinji's mind was racing everywhere, yet got nowhere. What did he want? WHOM did he want? He couldn't choose between them, since he wouldn't, no, couldn't hurt the others for the sake of one. He felt as if he was being pull in all directions, no decision coming to him. Each woman had a place in his heart. He trusted and cared about Misato. She was the closest person in his life since his first day in Tokyo-3. Asuka was also in his heart, even if it pained him like daggers every time she lashed out at him. But there those rare occasions, the few times she let herself go without insulting those around her, and would end up renewing Shinji's attraction. As he was mesmerized by Asuka when she showed her true emotions, Rei also had a similar hold on His heart. Rei had a special place in his heart, the strange calm around her entranced him at times, her silent beauty attracting his heart, pure as a child's dream. When he was with her, he felt as though he knew her from another time in the past, almost as though they were supposed to be together. After brooding between thoughts, he had a answer, one which ended the inner-conflicts of having to choose. He now couldn't believe how easy it was to decide this, but those thoughts were put to the back of his mind as he answered with a simple "Yes".
Then it hit, a blast to the senses which ripped him from his last thoughts. Outside they were starting the
retrieval process.
=====================
=====================
The room was in an uproar, technicians dashing from console to console, taking their places in the end of their seemingly frantic movements. Everyone was in participating in this fully organized madness, all except Misato Katsuragi. She stood still amidst the technicians and scientist, staring at the entry plug with hope in her eyes. There was good reason for all the running about. They were about to attempt to reconstruct the body and soul of the pilot. Before, it had seemed like an impossible task, one which had failed last time. But now they possessed the MAGI, a factor that gave them a chance of success. On most of the faces in the room, a cool calm seemed to possess them. But the reality was that, inside, everyone was a powder keg of emotion, ready to explode. They worked non-stop for a month, working around the clock to perfect any bugs they found with the assistance of the MAGI. Constant theories and plans were made and destroyed, routes of action raised, questioned, and usually dismissed. Now came the moment of truth, the climax of all their work. Everyone checked and rechecked systems, even if everything seemed perfect, until the operation was ready.
And so it began.
"Roger. Signal-1 is sent."
"Eva received the signal."
"Signal-2 and signal-3 are now sent."
"Subject's catharsis is normal."
"Destrude isn't detected."
"Roger. Move the target to stage-2," ordered Ritsuko, directed them the same way that the MAGI simulations planned
out.
"Come on Shinji..." Misato whispered under her breath, subconsciously fondling the cross.
=====================
=====================
Shinji gasped each time he heard the voices calling for him. He could hear everyone calling for him over and over again, there voices mixed and unsynchronized. He could not make sense of it all, the voices constantly speeding up and changing, morphing into even stranger gibberish, almost as though to make it even harder for him to decipher their sources. He couldn't take anymore of it, the voices and hopes hammering into his mind. He had to escape from this place. His decision was made, and he came to a choice of action. He had to runaway.
=====================
=====================
There are things that you know by instinct. Even if you don't have a clue what was going on, scientific explanations aren't needed when people begin to shout frantically, darting from here to there, all while several red lights claiming errors and warnings of scientific gibberish. Things like this let instinct know that something had gone wrong.
"It's no good! His ego border is in a fixed loop!" Maya exclaimed in a reserved shout.
"Try to radiate all wave patterns from all directions," Ritsuko barked back, trying to remain calm.
"Hai!" Maya responded, typing her commands as fast as she could.
"No good. The radiated signals are captured in Klein space!" Ritsuko yelled, losing her calm in the calamity.
"What does that mean?" asked Misato. While she could have guessed that it was bad, she still wanted to know what exactly was going on.
"It means... we failed," she Ritsuko stated in a cold and defeated tone. "Stop the interference. Reverse the tangent
graph, and set the addition value to 0."
"Hai." Maya answered, her voice going calm as she concentrated on doing the new orders.
"Destrude reaction is detected in Q area. Pattern is sepia," Shigeru reported.
"Changes detected in the core pulse. Plus 3 is confirmed," Makoto stated.
Maya glared at the plug monitoring system, her eyes beginning to widen at one particular meter."The LCL temperature is rising. Entry plug's inner temperature at 36 degrees.....wait! Now at 38...41...58,76, 97, 106... inner plug temperature will soon hit critical levels!"
"Maintaining the present condition is top priority!" Ritsuko exclaimed in an almost frantic tone that was unlike her. 'This is too close, it must be stopped' she thought to herself. "Prevent flow-back at all costs!"
"It's going over the estimated value! It's reaching dangerous levels!"
=====================
=====================
"What do you desire?" said a naked Misato.
"What do you wish for?" said a naked Asuka.
"What do you wish need?" said a naked Rei.
From the bleak nothingness came a dark figure, draped in a mixture of shadows and lights, obscured to the point he looked like a warped human's silhouette. Even with it's appearance, no fear was invoked in Shinji. It reached towards him, lanky ethereal arms lifting at the boy."
"What do you want, Shinji?" said the form.
=====================
=====================
In the real world, not too far from the plug in which Shinji's soul went through it's questioning, everyone was at a lost as to what had gone wrong. They had tried everything and more, planning everything ahead with simulations, checks and double checks, tests of everything from the equipment to the staff members themselves. Now they faced a situation they had come to fear over the past few days. Not only did they fail, they could not stop it from continuing.
"Oh my.....Plus 0.5, 0.8... it... I can't stop it! My God! The EVA is rejecting the signal!" Maya screamed, her eyes wide in shock as the meters went past the safety boundaries, the bars on the monitor glowing red.
"Don't you want to come back?" Ritsuko asked under her breath, looking at the Eva with a questioning gaze.
"Shinji's ego formation in the LCL is breaking up!"
"The pressure inside the plug is increasing!"
"Abort all operations! Cut the power supply!" Ritsuko ordered, trying to stop the disaster that she knew would come.
"Too late! The plug has activated!" Maya reported as she snapped her head up to look upon EVA-01.
Misato gasped, the scene etching itself into her memory as she yelled out, "Shinji!"
The hatch of the plug opened, the LCL pouring out of the hatch. Shinji's plug suit floats out of the stream of orange, wavering in the LCL as though to show it held no one within. Silently it glided down to the side of the catwalk, pushed by the waves. Misato was already down to the catwalk by the time the plugsuit got near the catwalk. She ran to that side of the catwalk, clutching at the plugsuit. The sight of the emptiness of the suit knocked both the wind and the strength from her, causing her to fall to her knees. She grabbed the suit with a trembling hand, and clutched it close to herself as soon as it reached her hand. She sat there weeping as she clutched the plugsuit.
"What's good with your god damn science it can't even save one small life!" she yelled, half-muffled by the plugsuit as she bore her crying face into it.
"GIVE ME BACK MY SHINJI!!!!!" She yelled out to the EVA, "GIVE HIM BACK!!"
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He was back. He knew this place. He could understand the images. They became distinguishable, their familiarity returning to him. He was with the EVA, but did he come back? Why was he gone? What happened? The question bombarded his aching mind as images and memories came before his eyes. Memories of Misato and her ways, Asuka and her comments, Rei and her silent disposition flowed threw him.
He suddenly felt another. Soon the other took a form of light. The light was warm, giving him a nostalgic feeling, a memory of someone from days long past. It fed the senses, one after the other. A voice too muffled from the time it was last heard. The light was too bright to find a face, but a sense which most wouldn't identify a person by came up. This person had a familiar smell, one of familiarity, maybe even family. 'Could it be Misato?.......No, it's closer. It's almost like Ayanami, but not quite...Of course.' It came clear to him, in a single word. Mother. Then he remembered something. A memory which was from years ago, one which could not have been his own. His heard his mother and father talking like parents, like they did before she passed away. It was a conversation about what to name him. 'That's before I was born, so this has to be the memory of another...' It dawned on him immediately. The light which gave him nostalgia of his mother, the memories that were not his own. All pointed to one answer, one reality. He knew where and who he was with. 'Mother....'
Suddenly, a voice pierced through his thoughts, one which he knew he had to respond to. "SHINJI!!"
'Misato's voice...I must go back...' thought Shinji. And so he began his return, his decision still made, and made to be carried out.
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A low hum echoed off the walls, it's source seemingly the Eva's core. Suddenly, a bright light filled the room, blinding all the eyes of the room, both those of the people as well as those of the MAGI's monitoring cameras. Misato uncovered her eyes, only to see a sight which made her jaw slack. On the ramps and unconscious laid three bodies. What really made her jaw slack was that all three looked exactly like Shinji. Less than a minute later, while she still sat in awe at the sight, men rushed in wearing contamination suits and pushing stretchers. They gathered the unconscious forms from the platform and towed them onto the stretchers, neither of the three stirring from their apparent slumber. The men did this with little attention to Misato, who now stood up to gaze upon the three once more. As they carted away the three, she could only stand there, trying to figure out what had just occurred. One could say she failed to manage it as she fainted.
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Through a mental haze, she could hear a familiar voice calling her name. She felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her violently. Her eyelids fluttered open, the world coming back into focus. She turned her head to the offending hand to see Ritsuko, who stopped her shaking with a relieved smile.
"We thought we lost you there for a second, Misato," she said in an almost whimsical voice.
"Huh...um...what?" said Misato, her words stumbling as her mind tried to focus on where she was and what had happened.
"You were out of it for some time," said Ritsuko, looking at her watch as though to confirm it. "The first wave of tests should be done by now."
"Tests...?" Misato's memory came back, which almost caused her to snap her neck when she turned her head to the place where the three were. It was vacant now, LCL samples being collected by scientist." What about tests? Where are they? Are they ok?"
Ritsuko gave a nod, and held her hand out to her friend. "I'm guessing you want to see them?"
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It was a fairly normal sight for Misato. Shinji was in a isolation room sleeping. Every time he had a possible contact with a Angel or had a problem with his Eva, he was in one of these rooms shortly after. The only difference in this situation which Misato could note was that, while she saw Shinji as usual here, there were two other Shinji in two different
rooms to look at as well.
"What are they?" Misato asked, regretting the use of the word "what". 'It is Shinji, but...'
They walked on, ending up in Ritsuko's office. Misato leaned against a wall while the doctor was sitting in her chair behind her desk. The room smelled of coffee and cigarettes.
"All of the first wave tests showed them all to be matches of Shinji. We are currently running a DNA analysis to do a final confirmation of whether or not they are Shinji, as well as a check to make sure that there is no Angel or EVA contamination."
"Which one is the real Shinji?" interrupted Misato, her questioning not letting up.
"My guess is that if they have the same DNA and memory, anyone of them can be called Shinji. This is totally new to me," she lied, knowing very much of this kind of subject. She had researched it for so many years with the development of the dummy-plug system.
Misato answered with silence, think over what had happened. 'I have to be positive. Shinji's alive. But in this condition...he may never be the same, ever again.'
"When will we have the results of the tests?" asked Misato, snapping out of her brooding.
"Tomorrow. No earlier, no later. I'll inform you when they come in from the lab," Ritsuko looked at her friends weary face. "You should go home."
"No, I want to be here when the test are done," stated Misato, her desire to know pushing out the answer. Ritsuko gave her a small nod of understanding, then left the room and headed down the hall. For Misato, this had been an emotionally draining day. Concluding that they would wake her up when the test results were in, she wandered into an infirmary and dropped into a bed, followed shortly thereafter by a deep slumber.
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"Hey, wake up," Ritsuko said as she shook Misato awake. "Don't get used to me shaking you awake like this. I'm tired of it already."
"What? Why?" Misato grumbles through a haze of drowsiness, stirring in the bed.
"As I recall, you wanted to see the results. Well, they're in," informed Ritsuko.
Misato shots up at the news like a rocket, her eyes fully aware. She jumped off the bed, up and standing in no time.
"What are the test results? Are they really Shinji?" she asked in rapid succession.
"The DNA matches perfectly for all three," Ritsuko stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
So, they were Shinji. Her Shinji. "Do they... remember anything?"
"Their memories are probably intact, and there is no brain damage. But we have to wait for them to wake up to confirm their memories. They are still unconscious."
"When will they wake up?"
"They should be wake in the morning. Most likely their bodies are simply exhausted. We will be moving them out of isolation before they wake. You can visit them then after that."
Misato's spirits became a bit higher at the last statement.
"How long was I out?" Misato asked, realizing her body was still tired.
"Well you slept for a day," Ritsuko answered with a light smile.
"WHAT?!" Misato yelled, looking at her friend with heavy disbelief..
"Actually, you should be proud. I would sleep for a week after a month like this in your shoes. I'm going home, and I would suggest you do the same."
"Yeah, home..."
Misato and Ritsuko left the room and out of the infirmary. Misato mind was eased now that the anger, fear, and sadness were overshadowed by the return of Shinji. However, the suspicion remained, her questions need answers and she knew who could give them to her. Misato had a meeting to make; Kaji was going help her get her answer. Ritsuko had a few hours of rest and she was going to use them. While she rested, Misato would be getting closer to the truth.
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To Be Continued...
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Authors Soapbox:
This prologue is finally done. This in all respects will be the last revision. I hope... Anyway, I've tried to write something that will lead to more than one Shinji coming back from Eva. I was watching episode 20 when I thought about what could have happened if Shinji answered Rei, Misato, and Asuka with a 'Yes'. I will try to explain what happen to multiply Shinji the next chapter. From what I can tell, this is uncharted territory for Eva fics and that means that I have no reference to compare how everything is progressing.
If you have comments, criticism or even flames you can E-mail me at:
mind_raider@yahoo.com
leave a E-mail address so I can reply.
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