Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion, and I doubt I ever will. But I'm okay with that.
Shinji lay over Asuka, body racked with sobs. "I feel sick," the girl said. She quickly rolled onto her side, vomiting into the sand. Finished, she passed out.
Shinji gasped. Blood was pooled in her vomit. More blood began to soak through the bandages warped around her arm and over her eye. Asuka's face was losing its color, and her breathing was growing shallow.
Shinji's tattered mind desperately latched onto purpose. He had to help Asuka. Gathering what strength was left in his tired body, he lifted her in his arms, and began walking. He didn't know where to go. He simply followed hope; hope that he could save one person after this hellish day.
This was the worst day of his life, Corporal Hioshi knew. The slaughter in NERV, the N2 mine, and the fight between the Evas would have just been a bad day. But whatever happened after the purple Eva arrived had shaken him to the core.
His memory was already fading, but he remembered watching his fellow soldiers vaporize before him. After that, he recalled seeing faces of friends and family long dead, of places he loved, and of being…content.
That feeling was lost as soon as he awoke, face down in the street with his rifle next to him. The other two surviving members of his squad had been on the ground too. The three were now riding in a Hummer they found, trying to locate their company commanders.
The rest of their squad had been wiped out when the red Evangelion attacked the military. One of the VTOL attack craft had crashed down on their position, and they were the only ones to walk away.
Hioshi rode shotgun, while Sergeant Yoshihito drove. Private Goro manned the machine gun mounted on top of the vehicle. Goro began banging on the Hummer's roof. "Stop! There're kids out here."
The Hummer braked and all three soldiers got out, approaching the two teens. A boy was carrying a girl wrapped with bloody bandages. Hioshi stepped forward, pulling out his first aid kit. "God, she looks bad," he said. He motioned for the boy to set her down, and began peeling the bandages off her arm.
"Will she be okay?" asked the boy, as he knelt over the girl.
Hioshi was not the squad medic, but the medic had not come out of the battle alive. He did know how to dress a wound, though. He reached into his small med kit and extracted fresh bandages. Looking at the exposed arm, he quietly cursed. "It's like somebody ran a razor up and down her arm," he said. The skin had been neatly sliced at the top and bottom of her arm. "It's not deep, but with the way it's bleeding, her life could be in danger soon."
Hioshi quickly wrapped the arm with fresh bandages. "Sergeant, we have to get this girl to a hospital."
"We can't do that," Yoshihito said.
Hioshi's head snapped around. "Why? She'll die if we don't help!"
"Her life is over, either way," Yoshihito said. He handed his data pad, a sort of toughened PDA, to the corporal. Hioshi looked at the images on the screen. "Second Child – Asuka Langely Sorhyu. Third Child – Shinji Ikari," he read. "Terminate on sight."
The boy, Shinji, gasped. Hioshi looked at him, really noticing him for the first time. The boy's dark eyes held pain and sadness he had never seen before. The pad said he was the pilot of the purple Eva. Whatever had happened earlier that day, he had had the front row seat for it.
The boy's expression changed to weary resignation. He leaned forward and lifted the unconscious girl into his arms, cradling her head into his chest. "I'm sorry Asuka," he whispered. "I failed you again." Tears streamed down his face as he locked eyes with the corporal, waiting for his fate.
Yoshihito stepped next to them and drew his pistol, chambering a round. He lowered the gun toward the boy. Hioshi sprang up, shoving the sergeant back. The gun fired, missing the boy by mere inches.
"What they hell are you doing, Corporal?!" Yoshihito yelled.
"We can't do this, sir!" Hioshi yelled back. "We can't kill a couple of kids."
"We have orders."
"DAMN OUR ORDERS!" Hioshi stepped between the sergeant and the Children. "No more death today."
Yoshihito turned to the third soldier. "Goro, get him out of the way," he snapped. The private hesitated for a moment, then reached forward and grabbed Hioshi's arm. The sergeant started to raise his pistol.
"NO!" Hioshi twisted out of Goro's grasp and leapt at the sergeant, but the gun fired before he could reach him. Hioshi spun toward the children, relieved to see both still alive. The boy stared at him in shock and disbelief.
"Hioshi?" breathed the sergeant. The corporal turned to see Yoshihito and Goro staring at him with equally shocked expressions. He was about to ask what they were looking at when his legs gave out.
Hioshi toppled to the ground, landing on his back. He reached a hand to his chest and felt blood flowing out a hole in the center of his chest armor. There was no pain. This puzzled Hioshi, though he had heard that adrenaline could keep one from feeling these things.
Yoshihito and Goro dropped to their knees over him. "God damn it Hioshi," the sergeant said. "Stay with us."
Hioshi reached up and grabbed the sergeant's collar, smearing his own blood on the Yoshihito's shirt and neck. "Damn you, sarge," he coughed. "Damn you." Hioshi coughed again, choking on the blood pooling in his throat and lungs.
And he died.
For the first time since they had woken in the street, their radios came to life. "All units, cease hostilities immediately. The A-801 has been rescinded. All previous orders are nullified. Cease hostilities and withdraw immediately."
Author Notes:
This is kind of the first fanfic idea I ever had, right after watching End of Evangelion. I didn't know about fanficing back then, or I might have written then. The idea came back to me the other night, and I decided to take the time to write it out.
This piece is only a one-shot, I don't have any plan or desire to expand on it. Especially since I killed the protagonist here. Then again, you never know when inspiration will strike.