Evangelion Wing
Episode 1: The Beast
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Heero Ikari leaned against a street light with one folded around his chest and the other in front of him that held a letter accompanied by a picture. All that surrounded him, though in one of the largest cities in Japan, was nothing but empty streets and a metallic buildings. No cars, no people, no nothing; as if humanity had ceased to exist. But that could not be because he was still there, silently reading the letter.
'Heero, I'll pick you up at the building across from airport.'
Though it had an illegible signature at the bottom, the picture of a woman had the name 'Misato Katsuragi' was printed below it. The woman from the looks of the picture was quite attractive with her dark purple hair, jeans, t-shirt, and revealing position.
Heero looked up from the picture and spotted a red a red car in the distance. It must be her because there weren't any other cars around.
The red vehicle screeched to a stop in front of Heero. The door opened by a young woman that had an identical resemblance to the picture except different clothes.
"Captain Katsuragi," Heero said.
She smiled at him and nodded. "Yup! Get in."
Heero opened the door and climbed in. Almost instantly, the car snapped alive to race down the road.
"Just call me, Misato. I'm guessing your Heero Ikari?" Misato asked, turning toward him.
"Yes," came the curt reply. The cars breaks were put on full power in instance, whip-lashing it and almost ramming him into the glove compartment.
"Get out! Hurry!" Misato cried out.
He jumped out along side her to the right side of the car. "What?"
"Look!" She pointed to a huge unknown being with a figure taller than an skyscraper in Tokyo-3. Though its long arms, legs, and miniature face mask in its chest were easily visible, everything was of an alien texture and substance.
"...Sachiel." Heero said quietly to himself, too soft for Misato to hear.
Misato forced Heero to duck his head and yelled, "Get down! Incoming N-2 bomb!"
An explosion cracked the earth, lighting up the area in a flash of white. The white faded in streaks of red, orange, and yellow when the effects took place immediately after. Winds of gigantic altitude tipped over their cover with little effort, although the wide side provide them with more cover. Moments past until it stopped.
"Come on," Misato finally said to Heero after recovering, "help me tip the car back over."
The two of them did so and immediately continued on.
Misato looked at him oddly out of the corner of her vision. "You don't look very surprised," she commented.
"I was informed of this earlier."
The Captain lifted her eyebrows. "Really?"
"Yes."
She said nothing after that, probably pondering on what he had said. They reached their destination: a large building shaped like a pyramid. Entering after Misato used her ID card, they walked to an escalator that took them down slowly.
Misato took out a brochure of some sort. "Here. It'll tell you more about NERV, the organization your Dad works for."
Heero took it as they stepped onto an escalator lead further into the earth. Glancing at it, he pocketed it for later.
Minutes of silence passed until Misato broke it. "You don't talk much do you, Heero?"
"......" Heero answered, or rather, didn't answer ironically.
'Geez...' Misato muttered in her thoughts.
A little after the long escalator ride, they found themselves coming to another mode of transportation. It seemed to Heero like she was lost. An attractive woman walked out of the elevator. Her blonde hair highlighted the rest of her acute figure. She wore dark stockings, black miniskirt, and a tight blue top. The white lab coat that was dressed over her other clothing gave the woman a scientist look to her.
Misato gave her a nervous smile. "Um, hi, uh, Ritsuko." The woman, Ritsuko, paused in her movements to give Misato a dry look. "What are you doing here, Captain Katsuragi?"
"I got lost again..." She answered sheepishly.
Ritsuko turned to observe the boy residing by the captain. "Is this the boy?"
"Yes," Misato replied, "the Commander's son."
Heero stared back at her, unblinking.
"I'm Dr. Akagi," she said to him. "Come with me."
Misato and Heero followed the doctor through a maze of passages until they came about the place where he was suppost to meet his father. The narrow pathway stretched across the gigantic hall of metallic struction. A strange pinkish water was below him like a dead sea. It reminded him of Antartica. As he was escorted by two good looking women, one a blonde scientist and the other a spunky captain, he noticed a monstrous purple machine standing in the odd liquid. Its purple patches of solid skin ran across its monstrous body with its head sitting oddly on top of its shoulders. The horn stuck out like a battle calling and the eyes, though no pupils or any other sign that they were actually eyes, gave him an unmoving glare of silence. Already a few feet into the and Heero was very feeling uncomfortable. The purple giant had a weird sense of familiarity to him which set him uneasy even more. It was no doubt the Evangelion as described by his superiors. Behind the synthetic lifeform, high above the it, his father stood in an open corridor staring down at him.
He walked to the middle of the bridge with his arms at his sides and his hands clenched in solid fists. He himself wore a dark green tanktop and tight black shorts that showed he was quite athletic. His brown bangs covered most of his forehead, hovering over his dull, emotionless eyes.
"It's been a while," his father, Gendo Ikari, said.
"......" The young boy said nothing.
Gendo grinned smugly and ordered, "We're moving out."
"Moving out?!" Captain Misato Katsuragi yelled out. "Unit 00's still in cryo-stasis, isn't it?" She paused to glance at the Evangelion and her eyes widened when she came to a realization. "Wait a second...You're going to use Unit 01?"
"There's no other way," Dr. Ritsuko Akagi said grimly.
"Now wait...Rei can't do it yet, can she?" Misato asked. "We've got no pilot!"
"One's just been delivered," Ritsuko stated.
Misato stared at her. "Are you serious?"
Ritsuko turned to the boy beside her who's head was facing downward with his bangs covering his face. "Heero Ikari..."
The boy still did not look up.
"You will pilot it."
He didn't say anything, but the Captain answered for him. "But...even Rei Ayanami took seven months to synchronize with her Eva."
"He just has to sit in the seat," Ritsuko replied. "We don't expect more than that."
"But..."
"Repelling that Angel is our ultimate priority," Ritsuko persisted in a firm voice. "If putting someone who has a chance of synchronizing into an Eva unit gives us even the slightest chance, then we have to do it. You do understand that, don't you, Captain Katsuragi?"
Misato could no longer find any more reasons to protest. "I guess..."
He kept his head down still. "Did you bring me here for this, Father?" Heero asked, his voice showing no emotion.
His father, Gendo Ikari, nodded solemnly. "I called you because I have a need of you."
He needs me, Heero thought ironically. He brought his head up after a moment, revealing the cold, stoic face from before. "Mission accepted."
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He found himself inside the cockpit of the Evangelion, in the seat of the pilot.
"Now don't worry worry about the LCL fluid. It will take you a while to get used to but it won't harm you," Misato informed Heero.
He sucked in the odd substance like air and continued to breath normally.
Behind the speaker, Misato asked, "Geez, this kid must swim a lot huh Ritsu?"
Ritsuko shrugged.
Unit-01 was being brought up to the surface in order to do battle with the Angel. His lieutenant's voice, Misato Katsuragi, came through the speaker as he reached ground level. "Heero, when you get to the surface we'll walk you through one step at--hey! Are you listening to me?!"
Heero remained silent while he drove his Eva foward with a trained smoothness and precision. The screen inside the cockpit caught a heat signature within its range and locked onto it. He ordered Unit-01 to release the progressive knife out of its shoulder blade and grab it with its hand. The Eva did so quickly as it continued running in the process. The Angel --tall as Unit-01, humanoid, but with mutated proportions-- caught sight of Heero's Eva immediately after it passed a building and walked into a wide empty street. Both charged at each other and attacked with the bloodlust of wolves in a way that seemed almost natural instinct.
Everyone within NERV Headquarters gaped at the screen with the exception of Gendo and Futsuyuki.
"H-How can he move like that without any training?!" Misato exclaimed. "And the progressive knife isn't even finished yet! It's only a proto-type! Hell, how did he even know about it!?"
Unit-01 and the Angel exchanged heavy blows, throwing each other upon building and abandoned cars.
"Th-this can't be right!" Maya cried out.
Misato whipped her head to Maya. "What is it now?"
"His synchronization ratio is at 45% and rising!" Shigeru answered for her.
"That's impossible," Ritsuko muttered in disbelief as she stared at the steadily increasing figures. "How can it be so high?! This is supposed to be his first time piloting an Eva!" Behind and above them, Gendo narrowed his eyes while Fuyutsuki's was slightly wide.
"The boy cannot have possibly piloted this well on his own," Fuyutsuki commented.
Gendo nodded. "This was...unexpected."
"...SEELE perhaps?" Fuyutsuki questioned.
"Perhaps," he replied.
They turned their full attention back toward the screen.
The Angel grabbed a hold of the Eva's wrists in a vice grip, twisting its knife out of its hand, and tried to shove it backwards. Unit-01 pushed back with a larger amount of force and had the Angel falling back a few steps. The battle took turn for the worst when the Angel decided it was time to press its secret advantage. It channeled a charge of AT field through its palms into the limbs of the Eva. Charge after charge, the spears of the AT field rammed through the armor plating of Unit-01 while the Angel jerked it around roughly. The armor eventually cracked with a geyser of red liquid.
Misato winced as Heero made muffled gurgling sound of pain through the speaker, but was surprised when the purple Eva instantly regeneratated its forearms after breaking out of the Angel's grasp. "How did he do that!?"
"Synch ratio at 68% and still rising!" Makoto gasped.
Ritsuko remained silent, but gritted her teeth in frustration. Not only could the boy use his AT field effectively and battle the Angel with what seemed like years of experience, but he was also doing all of this while fully conscious. Heero knew these skills by heart.
Unit-01 picked up the knife of the ground and stalked toward the Angel. The Eva thrust the weapon forward, but this time was met by flickering barrier. The knife slowly, but surely, eroded the AT field in moments and went straight to the top of the Angel's torso where a red orb lay. The began to crack after the third stab and it didn't look like it would last much longer. The Messenger of God, Sachiel, forsaw its death for it sprung forward and encircled itself around Unit-01 and self-destructed its core. A second later, a massive column of extreme heat and fire surrounded the Evangelion. It remained where it stood, unwavering. There was no sign at all of the Angel.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Inside the cockpit, Heero cackled endlessly like a mad man with his symbiot screeching inhumanly at the sky simaltaneously. The crew and staff shuddered as the hallow laughter of victory echoed throughout the halls of the NERV.
"My God...it's a monster," Misato said a queasy voice. Despite the reference, she was uncertain of whom she was describing. Everyone beside her felt the same way.
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Snapping awake, he sat up in the bed. It looked like he was in hospital room though none like he'd ever seen. The whole room was white with light coming in from the light on the ceiling and through the windows to his left. Heero guessed that the Angel did do more damage than he had estimated it would.
Falling back on the pillow, he stared mindlessly at the ceiling above him.
"The ceiling is unfamiliar."
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Heero pressed his hand against the window, looking out to the vegetation outside. A door creeked open. A girl with strange blue hair, wrapped in bandages, was being wheeled through the long corridor in a stretcher. Their eyes locked for a brief moment. Her eyes were crimson,
detailed with a distant, cold attribute. So much like his. He watched her until she disappeared through a door that lead into another hall. He turned back to the window and continued to watch the scenery.
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Misato lounged back in the seat of the truck that drove toward NERV. "Air conditioning has just got to be mankind's greatest treasure. It's the triumph of science over nature."
Ritsuko hung up the car phone and reported, "Heero's woken up."
Misato looked out the window. "And...how is he?"
"No external injuries," Ritsuko replied while she began typing on the internal computer of the vehicle. "The only reason he was hospitalized was because his cranial nerves were too strained and couldn't handle the impact of the explosion the Angel created."
"...I still don't get it. How did he learn how to pilot an Eva so well?"
Ritsuko remained silent and typed.
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Fully recovered, Heero was exiting NERV's internal hospital. He pushed the button for the elevator and waited. The elevator came seconds later and its door opened. His father stood there, staring at him expressionessly. Heero glanced at Gendo with a likewise expression for a moment before deciding to ignore him and walk into the elevator. An odd silence passed as the elevator zipped through the floors of NERV. It stopped after passing several floors and Gendo stepped out.
"Report to my office in thirty minutes," his father said without turning.
The door slid closed without Heero acknowledging Gendo's words.
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Heero awaited for further orders after reporting his battle with the third Angel. Gendo sat in a chair with his hands clasped under his chin.
"Your performance was beyond my expectations, Heero," he said, a subtle praise and hidden meaning behind the statement.
Heero was silent.
Immediate and straight to the point, Gendo asked, "Who trained you?"
"You already know, Father."
Gendo said nothing, but that in itself was an answer. The two of the same blood stared at each other, waging a silent battle of wills until finally Heero turned to exit. He stopped once he came to the door.
"Where am I to stay?"
"The keycard and directions to your apartment are in your locker, in the suit up room."
Heero had never been there before but he would find his way there sooner or later. He started to walk again, but stopped in mid-step when his father spoke again.
"Did they force you to work for them or did you volunteer?"
Heero glanced over his shoulder to meet Gendo's cold eyes with his own. "It was of my own free will when I learned something."
Gendo nudged the bridge of his glasses up. "But how much of what they told you were lies and half-truths?"
He narrowed his eyes. "I know enough. And in any case, I will learn for myself eventually. The only thing important is that I do not fail my mission." He left once that was said.
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"Eh?! What do you mean he left already?" Misato asked. "I thought I was supposed to escort him to recieve orders."
"I'm sorry, miss, but he left before you got here and has already recieved new orders from the Commander," the officer said.
"Where is he now?"
"He is currently stationed at his designated residence: District-F, the 6th block." The officer walked off to complete his other duties.
"But...alone?" Misato said to herself.
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The apartment was small with all the necessary appliances to survive: a toilet, sink, shower, bed, dresser, and a man-sized box that held the few things he owned. It must have been delivered from where he formerly lived. Only two rooms: a bedroom and a bathroom. The walls were crusty with dust with minature cracks embossed on sides of the apartment.
Walking to the box, Heero opened it. The box contained a small assortment of clothes. There were his clothes --a second pair of his tanktop and shorts, a formal suit, a school uniform, and one pair of casual clothing--, an advanced computer with all its accesories, a bag that held school supplies, his DAT player --the only fundamental property he owned--, and his handgun.
He took out the DAT player and put the headphones in his ears before closed the flaps of the box. Starting the music, he flopped down on his bed, laying motionless. He stared up at the powerless light, unblinking, while "Just Communication" boomed in his head.
Another unfamiliar ceiling, he thought. Of course. In this whole city, there's no place that's familiar.
The DAT player paused while it repeated the same track.
In this whole earth, there's no place that's familiar to me.
But how much of what they told you were lies and half-truths?
What more does Father know that I don't? Heero thought to himself. He's right though. I know that what I've learned is probably only partly true. If I've been lied to, I'll find out. I must.
He fell asleep shortly after that thought. He was going to sleep rather early, but it didn't matter since he had no further instructions until tommorow other than go to his new home.
...Home. He had no home. "Home was where the heart was" he had once heard before. His heart was not in this rundown apartment. His heart was with the passion of battle. Every battle that brought him closer to his dream, closer to completing his mission. Maybe once his mission was finished he could have a home. But not now. For now, his home was in battlefield and his new apartment was only shelter. Shelter was necessary to survival, and survival was crucial to being able to accomplish his goal.
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He snapped out of sleep suddenly. Heero glanced at his watch. 11:27 it read with the seconds constantly ticking away to the right of it. A creek of an opening door came to his ears, warning him of another presence. That must have been what woke him up. By the volume of the
sound, it came from the neighboring apartment to his left. That couldn't be right though. To his knowledge, the whole building was private property of Nerv and abandoned. He doubted it could be a homeless person because all doors in the complex were locked.
He slid out of bed and creeped quietly to the door, taking his gun out of the box on the way. Opening the door to his own apartment and neaked to unlocked door. He twisted the knob that opened the door and peered through. A slim blue haired girl around his age, dressed in a school uniform, was beginning to take off the bandages that covered various parts of her body. It looked like she had been in an accident of some sort, but...she was the same girl from the hospital. NERV's personal hospital.
Heero's eyes narrowed when he discovered something. Though the room was still rather vacant, there was a bed at the end of the room and next to it a short dresser with a glasses case on top of it. The girl stopped suddenly and he decided to make his entrance.
He targetted her with his gun and asked, "Who are you?"
She turned around slowly and locked eyes with him. For some reason, the odd blue hair did not look so alien on her now when accompainied with those dead eyes. If she was startled by his appearance and his gun, she hid it well. When she gave no answer, he asked, "What are you doing here? Answer me or I'll destroy you."
"I live here," she said simply.
"This building is abandoned and the doors are kept locked," Heero informed her.
"I know." She began unwrapping her bandages again.
"Then how did you get in?"
"I was given a keycard," she answered in a monotone.
The answers were too vague for his liking. He caught a glimpse of an I.D. card inside the bag below her. He started forward and picked up the bag without the girl's permission. Taking out the card, he observed it with no surprise. It was all very logical to him. She had been the only girl his age he had seen in all of NERV Headquarters and only children born within weeks of the Second Impact could pilot Evangelions. It said that her name was Rei Ayanami, age fourteen, and that she was the pilot of Eva 00. No surprise at all. He knew from SEELE that there were currently only two other Eva pilots, one in Tokyo-3 and the other in Germany. That was all the information he was supplied with so he had no idea what either of the pilots looked like until now.
Heero read the name out loud. "You're Rei Ayanami, the First Child."
She didn't answer because it wasn't a question.
When he looked up the bandages were in the garbage beside the bed and her blouse and skirt were on the floor. "...what are you doing?" Heero asked, his gun lowering slightly.
"Changing." Her bra and panties were now piled on top of her other clothing, leaving her completely naked. Her figure was petite with smooth pale skin and ample curves shaping her body.
"Why?"
She put on a long shirt that fell to the middle of her thighs before facing him completely. "To sleep."
She was changing to go to sleep. She posed no danger anyhow. That was all he needed to know. "What are you doing here?" Rei asked.
He didn't have to answer, but he supposed neither did she when he asked. "I heard a noise and I decided to investigate. I will be living next door to you from now on." Heero turned around, seeing no more reason to be here. "I am the pilot of Unit-01." He started to leave, but was stopped when she caught hold of his arm.
"You are Commander Ikari's son?"
"Yes." He roughly unattached the grasp and went back to his room and resumed his sleep.
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"Class, I would like to introduce a new student," the teacher said, "Heero Ikari."
Heero bowed stiffly.
"You will sit over there."
He recieved a few curious stares as he walked to his desk near the window and sat down. The teacher continued on with his lesson plan and explained the effects of the Third Impact. It was boring listening to things he'd already learned. He stared in a hypnotized manner at the screen of his desk computer, the cursor blinking for eternity. The cursor vanished to a line below when a new message appeared.
/Are you the new pilot?/
Heero glanced around the classroom for the sender and noticed a couple of girls together at a computer, smiling at him. He pondered on what to type. He hadn't recieved any orders to conceal his identity as a pilot, though attention would most likely be brought of answering truthfully. Attention was, at best tolerated, but avoided if possible. However, with how much the media already knew, he wouldn't be surprised if he was suddenly on the front page of the newspaper. After all, the world had to know who was saving the planet. He felt it better if he'd let a small class know and let it trickle out as opposed to everybody knowing at once.
/Yes./
"WHAT!?"
The entire class bolted up out of their seats, quickly surrounding Heero, and assaulted him with a dozens of questions all at once. He could barely seperate a single word from the blur of sentences. The teacher stood there, twitching, and began ushering the students back to their seats. While he ignored most of them, one girl out of the mass caught his eye. It was Rei Ayanami. Oddly, even though she should have stood out like a sore thumb with her blue hair and being the only one not crowded around him, the girl seemed to blend into the background with a natural camoflauge. She stared outside the window, ignoring all the antics around her.
A tall boy pushed his way through the crowd, clouding his view of Rei. His face looked angry and his hands were knotted in fists. Heero calmly looked at him, wondering why he was angry, until the bell abrubtly rang.
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The boy named Toji glared at Heero. "Because of you my sister's in the hospital."
Heero stood passively while Toji held his fists in the air. "What are you talking about?"
Toji only became angrier. "When you were using that robot of yours to destory buildings, my sister got hurt because she was in one of them you idiot! I...I couldn't protect her and its your fault!" He jumped forward at Heero, swinging his fist.
Heero narrowed his eyes at Toji, catching the punch easily. "It couldn't be avoided."
"Bullshit!" Toji yelled out, squirming as Heero grip tightened.
"Ikari."
"You are to report at NERV Headquarters immediately," she said. She started away from them with her order fulfilled.
Heero dropped his trained combat stance at once and turned to comply with the order, following the retreating form without hesitation. Heero halted for a moment and turned to look at the boy Toji. Toji glared back at Heero. He saw hate. Pure hatred.
"...." Heero turned away and ran to catch up with Rei.
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"A synch test?" Heero asked, after meeting up with Ritsuko.
"Yes," Dr. Akagi replied.
"...." Heero kept his thoughts to himself. 'SEELE did not inform of this, meaning Gendo scheduled this himself...'
"Step inside that room." She pointed to the room across from him.
Walked through the doorway but no before catching a glimpse of his father with Fuyutsuki and Rei staring down at him from an office above. Once inside he was ordered to stip bare and proceed to the synch capsule. The insides were the same as a normal Eva as was the LCL liquid. Ritsuko started the synch test.
.........40%............................................................44%.......................................................
.....51%...............................................................56%........................................................
...........62%...............................................67%......................... . . . . . .
Heero could no longer see anything. Everything was pitch black. Footsteps echoed behind him suddenly. He whipped around but was not prepared for the sight before. Few things could surprise or confuse Heero Ikari, but this was one of them. A child version of Heero stood in the middle of the black, his mouth have open with tears rolling down the side of his cheeks though his face strangely showed no emotion. It was as if the child had experienced a mental break down and was now in shock.
"...Momma..." Heero whispered to himself. The footsteps became louder, revealing the source from a tiny dot in the distance. "...Momma...gone...?"
A window torn out of the black and displayed Gendo looking strangely sympathetic and sad. "Momma...is gone now...she will not be coming back." The window vanished leaving the child Heero murmuring to himself.
The teen Heero watched and remembered this day. The day his mother had died.
The foosteps were creeping up behind the child Heero, the source being a tall man with a strange visor covering his eyes. He put one hand on the child's shoulder.
Little Heero looked behind with large innocent eyes.
The man smiled at him, though perhaps trying to look kind the smile appeared sinister on the aged man. "You must have many questions as to why your mother left you."
Curiousity over wrought depression for the moment, and Heero nodded.
"Did your father tell you what happened to your mother?"
The child shook his head "no".
The red light coming from the man's eyes mesmorized Heero as the stranger stared at him. "Did you ask, young Heero?"
A nod.
Baring his teeth, the crooked smile became one fitted to a carnavour glaring greedily at its meat. "I can give you answers. Ones that your father would not answer and why. All you must do is come with me little Heero. Will you come with me?"
Silence met the question.
Sensing the hesitation, the man added, "What would you do if you knew your father was responsible for your mother's disappearance?"
Heero's pupils shrunk into tiny dots and his mouth hung wide open, shaking. His tiny hands clenched into stone fists, marking him set in his decision.
The two faded away in smoke leaving the older Heero alone once again in the darkness.
"...reveal to you who your true enemies are...show you your destiny..." The unrecognizable voice echoed in his mind as a distant memory. The Epyon-Zero Cockpit. A device that guided him to the path he took now and one that continued to do so.
Another younger version of Heero reappeared, perhaps one or two years older than before. He was being lead by two SEELE agents into what looked like an altered Evangelion cockpit.
"This is the Epyon-0," the agent informed him. "Seat yourself within the cockpit and follow our intructions." With that, the younger Heero was shoved inside and the door locked shut. The room was dead, dark, and silent for a few minutes. Only the sound of breathing was audible.
The cockpit lit up without warning, the brilliant colors momentarily blinding him. As his vision adjusted, he heard the voice of one of the leaders of SEELE. This test must be significant because they rarely made personal appearances before except when giving him important orders. Otherwise, it was usually by video, phone, agents, and such.
"This cockpit shall improve on your piloting skills. This is a simulated combat test. Eliminate as many targets as possible. Begin." The SEELE leader's voice faded and was replaced by a mechanical female voice.
.......5.......
.......4.......
.......3.......
.......2.......
.......1.......
.....BEGIN.....
The screen before him lit up with bright neon dots that raced toward him in a blur. It took him a short time to realize that the dots were actually Evangelions of some sort, though they all had the same design and white color. Whipping out his rifle, he headed toward the one furthest to the right of him rather than waiting for all of them to attack him at once. Taking them out systematically would be much easier.
As soon as his crosshairs locked onto the enemy, he unleaded several rounds of ammunition at it, aiming particularly at the core of it. It was slowly halted in its advance while the bullets pounded on it like a jackhammer, the seemed unaffected. Heero's sensors turned red and alerted him that several other of the enemy Evas were close on him back. He should of fell back so they wouldn't surround him but something... something inside of him simply didn't care. Throwing down his useless rifle, he took the progressive knive and slashed at the enemy Eva in front of him. It blocked it with its forearm and used its free hand to smash it into his head. It seemed to him as if the cockpit had just rocked in reaction to impact. Another one from behind him bumrushed him and sent him flinging into surrounding buildings.
At that moment, something inside of him, the same thing that disreguarded his usual common senses, snapped. A fury he had not known he contained was let loose. He screamed in rage while he lunged forward grabbed a hold of the closest Eva. Glaring at the Eva, he began to crush its head within his iron grasp.
His vision seemed to blink with darkness suddenly, distorting his vision, he didn't not release its head still. The head he clutched gradually faded into the image of his father. Crimson blood trickled down his torn up face, but even as the horrid image appeared before him, he squeezed even harder, raged at the image of his father. The eyes of Gendo bulged out with each squeeze until he finally crushed the head entirely. The head was no more than a limp piece skin now. Heero turned to face his remaining enemies. However, this time they were not his father, but the SEELE leaders.
"AAAAAHHHH.....DIE!" Heero screamed.
The battle was of no contest to Heero.
"...cut the..."
"...hurry before he..."
"...CUT THE POWER! NOW!" Misato screamed at one of the operators.
Ritsuko stared aghast at Heero. "What the hell is happening?!"
"All circuits have been cut ma'am!"
Inside the cockpit, Heero gasped for air, swallowing the LCL liquid as if it were. Breathing heavily, darkness engulfed his vision.
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Last Updated: 06/07/04
Changed: Editted some bad typos.
Episode 1: The Beast
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Heero Ikari leaned against a street light with one folded around his chest and the other in front of him that held a letter accompanied by a picture. All that surrounded him, though in one of the largest cities in Japan, was nothing but empty streets and a metallic buildings. No cars, no people, no nothing; as if humanity had ceased to exist. But that could not be because he was still there, silently reading the letter.
'Heero, I'll pick you up at the building across from airport.'
Though it had an illegible signature at the bottom, the picture of a woman had the name 'Misato Katsuragi' was printed below it. The woman from the looks of the picture was quite attractive with her dark purple hair, jeans, t-shirt, and revealing position.
Heero looked up from the picture and spotted a red a red car in the distance. It must be her because there weren't any other cars around.
The red vehicle screeched to a stop in front of Heero. The door opened by a young woman that had an identical resemblance to the picture except different clothes.
"Captain Katsuragi," Heero said.
She smiled at him and nodded. "Yup! Get in."
Heero opened the door and climbed in. Almost instantly, the car snapped alive to race down the road.
"Just call me, Misato. I'm guessing your Heero Ikari?" Misato asked, turning toward him.
"Yes," came the curt reply. The cars breaks were put on full power in instance, whip-lashing it and almost ramming him into the glove compartment.
"Get out! Hurry!" Misato cried out.
He jumped out along side her to the right side of the car. "What?"
"Look!" She pointed to a huge unknown being with a figure taller than an skyscraper in Tokyo-3. Though its long arms, legs, and miniature face mask in its chest were easily visible, everything was of an alien texture and substance.
"...Sachiel." Heero said quietly to himself, too soft for Misato to hear.
Misato forced Heero to duck his head and yelled, "Get down! Incoming N-2 bomb!"
An explosion cracked the earth, lighting up the area in a flash of white. The white faded in streaks of red, orange, and yellow when the effects took place immediately after. Winds of gigantic altitude tipped over their cover with little effort, although the wide side provide them with more cover. Moments past until it stopped.
"Come on," Misato finally said to Heero after recovering, "help me tip the car back over."
The two of them did so and immediately continued on.
Misato looked at him oddly out of the corner of her vision. "You don't look very surprised," she commented.
"I was informed of this earlier."
The Captain lifted her eyebrows. "Really?"
"Yes."
She said nothing after that, probably pondering on what he had said. They reached their destination: a large building shaped like a pyramid. Entering after Misato used her ID card, they walked to an escalator that took them down slowly.
Misato took out a brochure of some sort. "Here. It'll tell you more about NERV, the organization your Dad works for."
Heero took it as they stepped onto an escalator lead further into the earth. Glancing at it, he pocketed it for later.
Minutes of silence passed until Misato broke it. "You don't talk much do you, Heero?"
"......" Heero answered, or rather, didn't answer ironically.
'Geez...' Misato muttered in her thoughts.
A little after the long escalator ride, they found themselves coming to another mode of transportation. It seemed to Heero like she was lost. An attractive woman walked out of the elevator. Her blonde hair highlighted the rest of her acute figure. She wore dark stockings, black miniskirt, and a tight blue top. The white lab coat that was dressed over her other clothing gave the woman a scientist look to her.
Misato gave her a nervous smile. "Um, hi, uh, Ritsuko." The woman, Ritsuko, paused in her movements to give Misato a dry look. "What are you doing here, Captain Katsuragi?"
"I got lost again..." She answered sheepishly.
Ritsuko turned to observe the boy residing by the captain. "Is this the boy?"
"Yes," Misato replied, "the Commander's son."
Heero stared back at her, unblinking.
"I'm Dr. Akagi," she said to him. "Come with me."
Misato and Heero followed the doctor through a maze of passages until they came about the place where he was suppost to meet his father. The narrow pathway stretched across the gigantic hall of metallic struction. A strange pinkish water was below him like a dead sea. It reminded him of Antartica. As he was escorted by two good looking women, one a blonde scientist and the other a spunky captain, he noticed a monstrous purple machine standing in the odd liquid. Its purple patches of solid skin ran across its monstrous body with its head sitting oddly on top of its shoulders. The horn stuck out like a battle calling and the eyes, though no pupils or any other sign that they were actually eyes, gave him an unmoving glare of silence. Already a few feet into the and Heero was very feeling uncomfortable. The purple giant had a weird sense of familiarity to him which set him uneasy even more. It was no doubt the Evangelion as described by his superiors. Behind the synthetic lifeform, high above the it, his father stood in an open corridor staring down at him.
He walked to the middle of the bridge with his arms at his sides and his hands clenched in solid fists. He himself wore a dark green tanktop and tight black shorts that showed he was quite athletic. His brown bangs covered most of his forehead, hovering over his dull, emotionless eyes.
"It's been a while," his father, Gendo Ikari, said.
"......" The young boy said nothing.
Gendo grinned smugly and ordered, "We're moving out."
"Moving out?!" Captain Misato Katsuragi yelled out. "Unit 00's still in cryo-stasis, isn't it?" She paused to glance at the Evangelion and her eyes widened when she came to a realization. "Wait a second...You're going to use Unit 01?"
"There's no other way," Dr. Ritsuko Akagi said grimly.
"Now wait...Rei can't do it yet, can she?" Misato asked. "We've got no pilot!"
"One's just been delivered," Ritsuko stated.
Misato stared at her. "Are you serious?"
Ritsuko turned to the boy beside her who's head was facing downward with his bangs covering his face. "Heero Ikari..."
The boy still did not look up.
"You will pilot it."
He didn't say anything, but the Captain answered for him. "But...even Rei Ayanami took seven months to synchronize with her Eva."
"He just has to sit in the seat," Ritsuko replied. "We don't expect more than that."
"But..."
"Repelling that Angel is our ultimate priority," Ritsuko persisted in a firm voice. "If putting someone who has a chance of synchronizing into an Eva unit gives us even the slightest chance, then we have to do it. You do understand that, don't you, Captain Katsuragi?"
Misato could no longer find any more reasons to protest. "I guess..."
He kept his head down still. "Did you bring me here for this, Father?" Heero asked, his voice showing no emotion.
His father, Gendo Ikari, nodded solemnly. "I called you because I have a need of you."
He needs me, Heero thought ironically. He brought his head up after a moment, revealing the cold, stoic face from before. "Mission accepted."
================================
He found himself inside the cockpit of the Evangelion, in the seat of the pilot.
"Now don't worry worry about the LCL fluid. It will take you a while to get used to but it won't harm you," Misato informed Heero.
He sucked in the odd substance like air and continued to breath normally.
Behind the speaker, Misato asked, "Geez, this kid must swim a lot huh Ritsu?"
Ritsuko shrugged.
Unit-01 was being brought up to the surface in order to do battle with the Angel. His lieutenant's voice, Misato Katsuragi, came through the speaker as he reached ground level. "Heero, when you get to the surface we'll walk you through one step at--hey! Are you listening to me?!"
Heero remained silent while he drove his Eva foward with a trained smoothness and precision. The screen inside the cockpit caught a heat signature within its range and locked onto it. He ordered Unit-01 to release the progressive knife out of its shoulder blade and grab it with its hand. The Eva did so quickly as it continued running in the process. The Angel --tall as Unit-01, humanoid, but with mutated proportions-- caught sight of Heero's Eva immediately after it passed a building and walked into a wide empty street. Both charged at each other and attacked with the bloodlust of wolves in a way that seemed almost natural instinct.
Everyone within NERV Headquarters gaped at the screen with the exception of Gendo and Futsuyuki.
"H-How can he move like that without any training?!" Misato exclaimed. "And the progressive knife isn't even finished yet! It's only a proto-type! Hell, how did he even know about it!?"
Unit-01 and the Angel exchanged heavy blows, throwing each other upon building and abandoned cars.
"Th-this can't be right!" Maya cried out.
Misato whipped her head to Maya. "What is it now?"
"His synchronization ratio is at 45% and rising!" Shigeru answered for her.
"That's impossible," Ritsuko muttered in disbelief as she stared at the steadily increasing figures. "How can it be so high?! This is supposed to be his first time piloting an Eva!" Behind and above them, Gendo narrowed his eyes while Fuyutsuki's was slightly wide.
"The boy cannot have possibly piloted this well on his own," Fuyutsuki commented.
Gendo nodded. "This was...unexpected."
"...SEELE perhaps?" Fuyutsuki questioned.
"Perhaps," he replied.
They turned their full attention back toward the screen.
The Angel grabbed a hold of the Eva's wrists in a vice grip, twisting its knife out of its hand, and tried to shove it backwards. Unit-01 pushed back with a larger amount of force and had the Angel falling back a few steps. The battle took turn for the worst when the Angel decided it was time to press its secret advantage. It channeled a charge of AT field through its palms into the limbs of the Eva. Charge after charge, the spears of the AT field rammed through the armor plating of Unit-01 while the Angel jerked it around roughly. The armor eventually cracked with a geyser of red liquid.
Misato winced as Heero made muffled gurgling sound of pain through the speaker, but was surprised when the purple Eva instantly regeneratated its forearms after breaking out of the Angel's grasp. "How did he do that!?"
"Synch ratio at 68% and still rising!" Makoto gasped.
Ritsuko remained silent, but gritted her teeth in frustration. Not only could the boy use his AT field effectively and battle the Angel with what seemed like years of experience, but he was also doing all of this while fully conscious. Heero knew these skills by heart.
Unit-01 picked up the knife of the ground and stalked toward the Angel. The Eva thrust the weapon forward, but this time was met by flickering barrier. The knife slowly, but surely, eroded the AT field in moments and went straight to the top of the Angel's torso where a red orb lay. The began to crack after the third stab and it didn't look like it would last much longer. The Messenger of God, Sachiel, forsaw its death for it sprung forward and encircled itself around Unit-01 and self-destructed its core. A second later, a massive column of extreme heat and fire surrounded the Evangelion. It remained where it stood, unwavering. There was no sign at all of the Angel.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"
Inside the cockpit, Heero cackled endlessly like a mad man with his symbiot screeching inhumanly at the sky simaltaneously. The crew and staff shuddered as the hallow laughter of victory echoed throughout the halls of the NERV.
"My God...it's a monster," Misato said a queasy voice. Despite the reference, she was uncertain of whom she was describing. Everyone beside her felt the same way.
================================
Snapping awake, he sat up in the bed. It looked like he was in hospital room though none like he'd ever seen. The whole room was white with light coming in from the light on the ceiling and through the windows to his left. Heero guessed that the Angel did do more damage than he had estimated it would.
Falling back on the pillow, he stared mindlessly at the ceiling above him.
"The ceiling is unfamiliar."
================================
Heero pressed his hand against the window, looking out to the vegetation outside. A door creeked open. A girl with strange blue hair, wrapped in bandages, was being wheeled through the long corridor in a stretcher. Their eyes locked for a brief moment. Her eyes were crimson,
detailed with a distant, cold attribute. So much like his. He watched her until she disappeared through a door that lead into another hall. He turned back to the window and continued to watch the scenery.
================================
Misato lounged back in the seat of the truck that drove toward NERV. "Air conditioning has just got to be mankind's greatest treasure. It's the triumph of science over nature."
Ritsuko hung up the car phone and reported, "Heero's woken up."
Misato looked out the window. "And...how is he?"
"No external injuries," Ritsuko replied while she began typing on the internal computer of the vehicle. "The only reason he was hospitalized was because his cranial nerves were too strained and couldn't handle the impact of the explosion the Angel created."
"...I still don't get it. How did he learn how to pilot an Eva so well?"
Ritsuko remained silent and typed.
================================
Fully recovered, Heero was exiting NERV's internal hospital. He pushed the button for the elevator and waited. The elevator came seconds later and its door opened. His father stood there, staring at him expressionessly. Heero glanced at Gendo with a likewise expression for a moment before deciding to ignore him and walk into the elevator. An odd silence passed as the elevator zipped through the floors of NERV. It stopped after passing several floors and Gendo stepped out.
"Report to my office in thirty minutes," his father said without turning.
The door slid closed without Heero acknowledging Gendo's words.
================================
Heero awaited for further orders after reporting his battle with the third Angel. Gendo sat in a chair with his hands clasped under his chin.
"Your performance was beyond my expectations, Heero," he said, a subtle praise and hidden meaning behind the statement.
Heero was silent.
Immediate and straight to the point, Gendo asked, "Who trained you?"
"You already know, Father."
Gendo said nothing, but that in itself was an answer. The two of the same blood stared at each other, waging a silent battle of wills until finally Heero turned to exit. He stopped once he came to the door.
"Where am I to stay?"
"The keycard and directions to your apartment are in your locker, in the suit up room."
Heero had never been there before but he would find his way there sooner or later. He started to walk again, but stopped in mid-step when his father spoke again.
"Did they force you to work for them or did you volunteer?"
Heero glanced over his shoulder to meet Gendo's cold eyes with his own. "It was of my own free will when I learned something."
Gendo nudged the bridge of his glasses up. "But how much of what they told you were lies and half-truths?"
He narrowed his eyes. "I know enough. And in any case, I will learn for myself eventually. The only thing important is that I do not fail my mission." He left once that was said.
================================
"Eh?! What do you mean he left already?" Misato asked. "I thought I was supposed to escort him to recieve orders."
"I'm sorry, miss, but he left before you got here and has already recieved new orders from the Commander," the officer said.
"Where is he now?"
"He is currently stationed at his designated residence: District-F, the 6th block." The officer walked off to complete his other duties.
"But...alone?" Misato said to herself.
================================
The apartment was small with all the necessary appliances to survive: a toilet, sink, shower, bed, dresser, and a man-sized box that held the few things he owned. It must have been delivered from where he formerly lived. Only two rooms: a bedroom and a bathroom. The walls were crusty with dust with minature cracks embossed on sides of the apartment.
Walking to the box, Heero opened it. The box contained a small assortment of clothes. There were his clothes --a second pair of his tanktop and shorts, a formal suit, a school uniform, and one pair of casual clothing--, an advanced computer with all its accesories, a bag that held school supplies, his DAT player --the only fundamental property he owned--, and his handgun.
He took out the DAT player and put the headphones in his ears before closed the flaps of the box. Starting the music, he flopped down on his bed, laying motionless. He stared up at the powerless light, unblinking, while "Just Communication" boomed in his head.
Another unfamiliar ceiling, he thought. Of course. In this whole city, there's no place that's familiar.
The DAT player paused while it repeated the same track.
In this whole earth, there's no place that's familiar to me.
But how much of what they told you were lies and half-truths?
What more does Father know that I don't? Heero thought to himself. He's right though. I know that what I've learned is probably only partly true. If I've been lied to, I'll find out. I must.
He fell asleep shortly after that thought. He was going to sleep rather early, but it didn't matter since he had no further instructions until tommorow other than go to his new home.
...Home. He had no home. "Home was where the heart was" he had once heard before. His heart was not in this rundown apartment. His heart was with the passion of battle. Every battle that brought him closer to his dream, closer to completing his mission. Maybe once his mission was finished he could have a home. But not now. For now, his home was in battlefield and his new apartment was only shelter. Shelter was necessary to survival, and survival was crucial to being able to accomplish his goal.
================================
He snapped out of sleep suddenly. Heero glanced at his watch. 11:27 it read with the seconds constantly ticking away to the right of it. A creek of an opening door came to his ears, warning him of another presence. That must have been what woke him up. By the volume of the
sound, it came from the neighboring apartment to his left. That couldn't be right though. To his knowledge, the whole building was private property of Nerv and abandoned. He doubted it could be a homeless person because all doors in the complex were locked.
He slid out of bed and creeped quietly to the door, taking his gun out of the box on the way. Opening the door to his own apartment and neaked to unlocked door. He twisted the knob that opened the door and peered through. A slim blue haired girl around his age, dressed in a school uniform, was beginning to take off the bandages that covered various parts of her body. It looked like she had been in an accident of some sort, but...she was the same girl from the hospital. NERV's personal hospital.
Heero's eyes narrowed when he discovered something. Though the room was still rather vacant, there was a bed at the end of the room and next to it a short dresser with a glasses case on top of it. The girl stopped suddenly and he decided to make his entrance.
He targetted her with his gun and asked, "Who are you?"
She turned around slowly and locked eyes with him. For some reason, the odd blue hair did not look so alien on her now when accompainied with those dead eyes. If she was startled by his appearance and his gun, she hid it well. When she gave no answer, he asked, "What are you doing here? Answer me or I'll destroy you."
"I live here," she said simply.
"This building is abandoned and the doors are kept locked," Heero informed her.
"I know." She began unwrapping her bandages again.
"Then how did you get in?"
"I was given a keycard," she answered in a monotone.
The answers were too vague for his liking. He caught a glimpse of an I.D. card inside the bag below her. He started forward and picked up the bag without the girl's permission. Taking out the card, he observed it with no surprise. It was all very logical to him. She had been the only girl his age he had seen in all of NERV Headquarters and only children born within weeks of the Second Impact could pilot Evangelions. It said that her name was Rei Ayanami, age fourteen, and that she was the pilot of Eva 00. No surprise at all. He knew from SEELE that there were currently only two other Eva pilots, one in Tokyo-3 and the other in Germany. That was all the information he was supplied with so he had no idea what either of the pilots looked like until now.
Heero read the name out loud. "You're Rei Ayanami, the First Child."
She didn't answer because it wasn't a question.
When he looked up the bandages were in the garbage beside the bed and her blouse and skirt were on the floor. "...what are you doing?" Heero asked, his gun lowering slightly.
"Changing." Her bra and panties were now piled on top of her other clothing, leaving her completely naked. Her figure was petite with smooth pale skin and ample curves shaping her body.
"Why?"
She put on a long shirt that fell to the middle of her thighs before facing him completely. "To sleep."
She was changing to go to sleep. She posed no danger anyhow. That was all he needed to know. "What are you doing here?" Rei asked.
He didn't have to answer, but he supposed neither did she when he asked. "I heard a noise and I decided to investigate. I will be living next door to you from now on." Heero turned around, seeing no more reason to be here. "I am the pilot of Unit-01." He started to leave, but was stopped when she caught hold of his arm.
"You are Commander Ikari's son?"
"Yes." He roughly unattached the grasp and went back to his room and resumed his sleep.
================================
"Class, I would like to introduce a new student," the teacher said, "Heero Ikari."
Heero bowed stiffly.
"You will sit over there."
He recieved a few curious stares as he walked to his desk near the window and sat down. The teacher continued on with his lesson plan and explained the effects of the Third Impact. It was boring listening to things he'd already learned. He stared in a hypnotized manner at the screen of his desk computer, the cursor blinking for eternity. The cursor vanished to a line below when a new message appeared.
/Are you the new pilot?/
Heero glanced around the classroom for the sender and noticed a couple of girls together at a computer, smiling at him. He pondered on what to type. He hadn't recieved any orders to conceal his identity as a pilot, though attention would most likely be brought of answering truthfully. Attention was, at best tolerated, but avoided if possible. However, with how much the media already knew, he wouldn't be surprised if he was suddenly on the front page of the newspaper. After all, the world had to know who was saving the planet. He felt it better if he'd let a small class know and let it trickle out as opposed to everybody knowing at once.
/Yes./
"WHAT!?"
The entire class bolted up out of their seats, quickly surrounding Heero, and assaulted him with a dozens of questions all at once. He could barely seperate a single word from the blur of sentences. The teacher stood there, twitching, and began ushering the students back to their seats. While he ignored most of them, one girl out of the mass caught his eye. It was Rei Ayanami. Oddly, even though she should have stood out like a sore thumb with her blue hair and being the only one not crowded around him, the girl seemed to blend into the background with a natural camoflauge. She stared outside the window, ignoring all the antics around her.
A tall boy pushed his way through the crowd, clouding his view of Rei. His face looked angry and his hands were knotted in fists. Heero calmly looked at him, wondering why he was angry, until the bell abrubtly rang.
================================
The boy named Toji glared at Heero. "Because of you my sister's in the hospital."
Heero stood passively while Toji held his fists in the air. "What are you talking about?"
Toji only became angrier. "When you were using that robot of yours to destory buildings, my sister got hurt because she was in one of them you idiot! I...I couldn't protect her and its your fault!" He jumped forward at Heero, swinging his fist.
Heero narrowed his eyes at Toji, catching the punch easily. "It couldn't be avoided."
"Bullshit!" Toji yelled out, squirming as Heero grip tightened.
"Ikari."
"You are to report at NERV Headquarters immediately," she said. She started away from them with her order fulfilled.
Heero dropped his trained combat stance at once and turned to comply with the order, following the retreating form without hesitation. Heero halted for a moment and turned to look at the boy Toji. Toji glared back at Heero. He saw hate. Pure hatred.
"...." Heero turned away and ran to catch up with Rei.
================================
"A synch test?" Heero asked, after meeting up with Ritsuko.
"Yes," Dr. Akagi replied.
"...." Heero kept his thoughts to himself. 'SEELE did not inform of this, meaning Gendo scheduled this himself...'
"Step inside that room." She pointed to the room across from him.
Walked through the doorway but no before catching a glimpse of his father with Fuyutsuki and Rei staring down at him from an office above. Once inside he was ordered to stip bare and proceed to the synch capsule. The insides were the same as a normal Eva as was the LCL liquid. Ritsuko started the synch test.
.........40%............................................................44%.......................................................
.....51%...............................................................56%........................................................
...........62%...............................................67%......................... . . . . . .
Heero could no longer see anything. Everything was pitch black. Footsteps echoed behind him suddenly. He whipped around but was not prepared for the sight before. Few things could surprise or confuse Heero Ikari, but this was one of them. A child version of Heero stood in the middle of the black, his mouth have open with tears rolling down the side of his cheeks though his face strangely showed no emotion. It was as if the child had experienced a mental break down and was now in shock.
"...Momma..." Heero whispered to himself. The footsteps became louder, revealing the source from a tiny dot in the distance. "...Momma...gone...?"
A window torn out of the black and displayed Gendo looking strangely sympathetic and sad. "Momma...is gone now...she will not be coming back." The window vanished leaving the child Heero murmuring to himself.
The teen Heero watched and remembered this day. The day his mother had died.
The foosteps were creeping up behind the child Heero, the source being a tall man with a strange visor covering his eyes. He put one hand on the child's shoulder.
Little Heero looked behind with large innocent eyes.
The man smiled at him, though perhaps trying to look kind the smile appeared sinister on the aged man. "You must have many questions as to why your mother left you."
Curiousity over wrought depression for the moment, and Heero nodded.
"Did your father tell you what happened to your mother?"
The child shook his head "no".
The red light coming from the man's eyes mesmorized Heero as the stranger stared at him. "Did you ask, young Heero?"
A nod.
Baring his teeth, the crooked smile became one fitted to a carnavour glaring greedily at its meat. "I can give you answers. Ones that your father would not answer and why. All you must do is come with me little Heero. Will you come with me?"
Silence met the question.
Sensing the hesitation, the man added, "What would you do if you knew your father was responsible for your mother's disappearance?"
Heero's pupils shrunk into tiny dots and his mouth hung wide open, shaking. His tiny hands clenched into stone fists, marking him set in his decision.
The two faded away in smoke leaving the older Heero alone once again in the darkness.
"...reveal to you who your true enemies are...show you your destiny..." The unrecognizable voice echoed in his mind as a distant memory. The Epyon-Zero Cockpit. A device that guided him to the path he took now and one that continued to do so.
Another younger version of Heero reappeared, perhaps one or two years older than before. He was being lead by two SEELE agents into what looked like an altered Evangelion cockpit.
"This is the Epyon-0," the agent informed him. "Seat yourself within the cockpit and follow our intructions." With that, the younger Heero was shoved inside and the door locked shut. The room was dead, dark, and silent for a few minutes. Only the sound of breathing was audible.
The cockpit lit up without warning, the brilliant colors momentarily blinding him. As his vision adjusted, he heard the voice of one of the leaders of SEELE. This test must be significant because they rarely made personal appearances before except when giving him important orders. Otherwise, it was usually by video, phone, agents, and such.
"This cockpit shall improve on your piloting skills. This is a simulated combat test. Eliminate as many targets as possible. Begin." The SEELE leader's voice faded and was replaced by a mechanical female voice.
.......5.......
.......4.......
.......3.......
.......2.......
.......1.......
.....BEGIN.....
The screen before him lit up with bright neon dots that raced toward him in a blur. It took him a short time to realize that the dots were actually Evangelions of some sort, though they all had the same design and white color. Whipping out his rifle, he headed toward the one furthest to the right of him rather than waiting for all of them to attack him at once. Taking them out systematically would be much easier.
As soon as his crosshairs locked onto the enemy, he unleaded several rounds of ammunition at it, aiming particularly at the core of it. It was slowly halted in its advance while the bullets pounded on it like a jackhammer, the seemed unaffected. Heero's sensors turned red and alerted him that several other of the enemy Evas were close on him back. He should of fell back so they wouldn't surround him but something... something inside of him simply didn't care. Throwing down his useless rifle, he took the progressive knive and slashed at the enemy Eva in front of him. It blocked it with its forearm and used its free hand to smash it into his head. It seemed to him as if the cockpit had just rocked in reaction to impact. Another one from behind him bumrushed him and sent him flinging into surrounding buildings.
At that moment, something inside of him, the same thing that disreguarded his usual common senses, snapped. A fury he had not known he contained was let loose. He screamed in rage while he lunged forward grabbed a hold of the closest Eva. Glaring at the Eva, he began to crush its head within his iron grasp.
His vision seemed to blink with darkness suddenly, distorting his vision, he didn't not release its head still. The head he clutched gradually faded into the image of his father. Crimson blood trickled down his torn up face, but even as the horrid image appeared before him, he squeezed even harder, raged at the image of his father. The eyes of Gendo bulged out with each squeeze until he finally crushed the head entirely. The head was no more than a limp piece skin now. Heero turned to face his remaining enemies. However, this time they were not his father, but the SEELE leaders.
"AAAAAHHHH.....DIE!" Heero screamed.
The battle was of no contest to Heero.
"...cut the..."
"...hurry before he..."
"...CUT THE POWER! NOW!" Misato screamed at one of the operators.
Ritsuko stared aghast at Heero. "What the hell is happening?!"
"All circuits have been cut ma'am!"
Inside the cockpit, Heero gasped for air, swallowing the LCL liquid as if it were. Breathing heavily, darkness engulfed his vision.
================================
Last Updated: 06/07/04
Changed: Editted some bad typos.