Angels and the Bad Man
Chapter 02 – Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Particle Beam
The characters and some scenarios in this story were developed by J.K. Rowling and Hideaki Anno.
- - -
Harry sat upon a rock, looking out upon a field. It'd been three days since the Angel attack, and he had spent most of that time away from the apartment, away from school, away from NERV, trying to get a grip on exactly what had happened to him in the last... week? Maybe not even a week. Between periods of Angel combat-related unconsciousness, trying to figure out if there were even any wizards in this place and time, and why his magic seemed to be somewhat easy to access without a wand, not to mention the crowning moment of confusion, why he was in someone else's body, it was pretty fair to say that he was seriously troubled. Admittedly, he spent quite a lot of that time trying to see what he could and couldn't do without the wand, but he couldn't practice all that time and so the thoughts would return to him.
Who was this Shinji Ikari that he seemed to have taken over? He knew he could understand the local language only because of some vague instinct, and he assumed that his capability to control the giant warmachine people expected him to was also an aspect of this, but what caused it? Did he become this Shinji, or was he just, to use a metaphor that disturbed him, wearing him as a suit, so to speak? If so, where did this Shinji disappear to? Was he dead? That thought only brought up more concepts that Harry didn't particularly want to think of. Was this what it was like to be a ghost possessing someone?
Probably for the good of his sanity, a voice broke through his musings, snapping him out of his consideration. "Ikari-kun?"
Harry blinked, looking toward the voice. The skinny kid from school who hung out with the bigger kid who decked him at school... Kenny? Ken.. Kensuke, that's it. "Uh, Hi," he replied. "How're you doing? The guys at NERV didn't cause you any problems over the other day, did they?"
Aida shook his head as he set down the butt of his mock rifle on the ground, leaning on it a bit. "Not really. They said we shouldn't talk about it to anyone, though I suppose you could be an exception to that," he said with a sheepish grin.
Harry nodded. "I suppose so." He looked over the fatigues-clad teen and asked, "What's with the get-up?"
Kensuke looked at himself. "This? Oh, always liked the military.. the US Army, the Japanese Special Defense Force, all that. Would love to join some day, if I don't become an Eva pilot," He said with a wistful smile.
"Trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be," Harry protested. "I figured you might have guessed that by the other day."
Kensuke shrugged. "I don't care, it's what I've always dreamed of."
Harry had never even heard of the term otaku before, otherwise he would have pegged Kensuke for a stereotypical military otaku right off the bat. He only looked at Kensuke, as he offered, "Come on over, it's getting late anyway, I'd better get some rations on."
–
The night passed in contemplation, as Harry and Kensuke talked, more than a bit awkwardly, Harry would have to admit to himself. It was almost a relief when the two went to sleep, as he was unable to think of many tops that weren't either classified by NERV, dangerous to reveal to muggles, or embarassing to talk about, such as his relatives. Kensuke had Harry pegged as a hikikomori, one of those young recluses who shut themselves away from other people, unable to socialize. If Harry had ever heard of the term, he would have been surprised at just how both wrong and apt it would have applied to him.
The fog was as thick as London's when Harry woke up the next day to the barely heard footsteps from outside. He grasped for a wand he didn't have out of reflex before sitting up. Damn it, he thought to himself. There aren't any Death Eaters here. He paused a moment as Kensuke woke up at his sudden motions, and poked his head out from the tent, looking up at a man in a black suit, one of several surrounding them.
"Uh, Ikari-kun? I think it's for you," Kensuke joked weakly.
"Yeah, probably," Harry replied as he crawled out of the tent.
The man before him introduced himself and his crew as NERV security, and explained that they were to escort him back to headquarters. He nodded. Time to pay the piper, Harry thought to himself as he thanked Aida for the dinner and conversation, before following the suits back to their cars.
–
Katsuragi-san wasn't too happy with Harry as she asked him where he had been the last four days, but he simply explained to Misato that he needed to get away and think things over, see what he had gotten himself into. After all, it wasn't every week that a kid catches a killing curse, wakes up in a giant robot that had gone berserk and tried to tear a massive alien into baco-bits. Not that he said those last thoughts to Misato. No sense getting tossed into what passed for the local loony-bin, after all.
A couple days later, Harry escorted Misato to a recovery facility, where the remains of the 4th Angel were being dissected and examined. It didn't help that the vast majority of what Misato and Akagi-sensei talked about made about as much sense as some of Hermione's rants on ancient runes and archaic theorems. The tea was fairly decent, however, he said, so the trip wasn't a complete loss. And besides the curiosity of Commander Ikari's injured hands, and some harmonics tests, the rest of the day was nothing special. He did end up learning something, however, as Akagi-sensei came over for dinner. Never let Misato anywhere near a stove, oven or any cooking device except for maybe an automatic kettle. He couldn't help but agree with Ritsuko that Misato somehow had the talent to make even store bought foods into culinary atrocities fit for only hospitals or prisons. Before Ritsuko left, she gave Harry his updated identification card, as well as one for Ayanami-san, asking him to walk it by her apartment.
As he approached the apartment complex Rei lived in, he started to have a rather bad feeling about the place, as the neighborhood was a complete rat's nest, which only had the saving grace of being virtually abandoned, rather than a gang territory. It reminded him unpleasantly of his (gratefully) short-lived trip to Knockturn Alley in the summer before his second year at Hogwart's, to such a degree that he practically expected a hag, Death Eater or other unsavory type to pounce at him from each alleyway he passed. He was grateful to have arrived at Rei's apartment complex... for all of about a minute. That minute ended quickly, however, as he walked down the dingy corridors that immediately brought to mind 13 Grimmauld. "How can she live in this hellhole?" Harry asked himself, before knocking upon Rei's door. With no answer, he nervously stepped inside, hoping she was ok.
That hope changed to worry as he looked about. Between the box of bloody rags, the numerous medications, the bloodstained bed, and the condition of the room itself looking like Dudley's room on a rough day, he couldn't conceive of how anyone could live there. His eyes stopped upon a pair of glasses resting upon the nightstand. Curious, he thought. Admittedly, he had not seen much of Ayanami-san, but he didn't believe she wore glasses. Much less broken ones. Before he could stop himself, he lifted a hand and murmured "Occulus Reparo", watching in satisfactions as the cracks in the lenses began to disappear. So distracted by his small success, that he did not notice the sound of a curtain rustling behind him. He was not even aware of his surroundings until a soft voice spoke, "How did you do that?"
Harry spun quickly toward the voice. Too quickly as his foot slipped out from under him, causing him to pitch forward, and before he knew it, he was on his hands and knees on the ground. Except he knew the ground was not that soft, from his observation.
"Would you mind moving?" The soft voice spoke from beneath him.
Harry opened his eyes to see a pair of expressionless red eyes looking back at him. His peripheral vision was also telling him that something else was wrong. He looked down for a moment to realize that Ayanami-san must have just emerged from the shower. That he was on top of her, with a hand where it shouldn't be. He went pale and practically hurled himself off of Rei, looking away. "Oh hell," he barked out in English before he could stop himself. "I'm very sorry, Ayanami-san," he said, returning to Japanese, apologizing profusely, or at least attempting to, as he seemed to be incapable of saying anything coherent at this point.
He stood there, looking away for several minutes and continuing to babble inarticulately, until he heard a door open, then close. "Really great, Potter. Brilliant, even," Harry snarled at himself before moving to follow Rei.
He spent most of the trip to NERV headquarters continuing to spout apologies that seemed to have rolled off Rei like the proverbial water off a duck's back. She seemed to take no notice of him whatsoever, until she ran her security card through a reader at a checkpoint, getting no response several times while he stood there like an idiot. Finally it filtered through why he was at Rei's apartment in the first place and he fumbled Ayanami's replacement card out of a pocket, offering it up.
She took it from him and walked on, ignoring him as she she had for the rest of the trip. He felt like a complete moron and more than a bit of a perv as he stammered out apologies and wishes for luck on the day's activation, only to be stopped only the third sentence Rei had spoken to him all day. "You are Commander Ikari's son, correct?"
The question had so surprised him, that he replied, "No.. I mean yes, I am."
"Don't you have faith in his work?"
Harry blinked a bit. "I wouldn't know. I hadn't seen him before I got here."
Rei looked at him, unable to understand the logic behind that statement, only to fill it in mentally by assuming that he had meant since they were last in contact. With that, she turned back toward the direction of the interminably long escalator.
An hour later, Harry and Misato watched from a catwalk through a window at the orange-painted Evangelion within. Harry was not aware of the entire situation but from what he gathered, something had gone very wrong the last time everyone was assembled here, and Harry could feel the tension permeate the area. It was only after Misato released a relieved sigh that Harry himself exhaled, not even realizing he was holding his own breath. It was only a few minutes later, however, as a klaxon went off that the tension spiked once more.
"Angel attack?" Harry surmised, as Misato nodded.
"Better suit up, Shinji," she replied, and Harry jogged off toward the locker room.
–
Harry took a deep breath of the funny-scented muck as he settled in for launch. The briefing stated that the Angel looked like a diamond floating in mid-air. A bit strange, but at least it didn't look like a greenish blob of crap or the Giant Squid with a gland problem. Of course, he did wonder what the next one would resemble. His thoughts were interrupted, however, as Misato told him he would be launching in three seconds. He braced himself for the sudden acceleration as the Evangelion hurtled toward the surface.
He guessed that he was about three quarters of the way up the launch shaft when Misato let out an urgent cry, warning him to dodge. Um, how? He thought to himself as he realized he was still locked into place on the gurney. The sudden stop shook him, but he could not say anything about that as all of a sudden, pain surged through every nerve. It wasn't the Cruciatis curse, though it sure as hell wanted to be, Harry thought for the split second before he passed out from the pain.
His eyes opened again at the sound of machinery moving. He looked around blearily and muttered, "Potter in a Can?" before relaxing as he was wheeled off to a room. He relaxed for a few moments before seeing Ayanami's face above him. "Uh, Hi, Ayanami-san."
She looks at him. "I am to brief you on the timetable of Operation Yashima." The albino girl withdrew a small booklet and began to rattle off a schedule in a tone that quite honestly made Binns sound animated, before she tossed a bagged up plugsuit into his lap. "I would advice dressing and waking up before reporting."
It was only then that he realized that he only had a sheet barely covering him. He quickly pulled the sheet up and muttered sardonically, "Looks like we're even I guess."
Ayanami gestured to a meal on a rolling cart next to his bed. The concept of food reminded him of how hungry he realized he should be, and how nauseous it actually made him. "I'll pass. Thank you though. I'll be there," He stated as he tore open the wrap around the plugsuit.
Misato and Ritsuko were waiting at the launch cage to fully brief Harry on the situation. The only weapon that NERV was able to scrounge up that might have a shot against the Fifth Angel was an improvised particle cannon they commandeered from the JSDF (Japanese Special Defense Force). It'd take practically all the electrical power output from all over Japan to provide enough kick to, in theory, punch through the shielding and destroy the Angel's core. Because Harry had a better synchronization to Unit 01 than Rei had to 00, he was to be the 'sniper', while Rei was to use a decommissioned space shuttle's hull as a shield in case of a counterattack. Harry and Rei then launched their Evangelions and piloted them to the firing site, shutting down and getting out while waiting for the power to be routed as the midnight start time for the operation loomed closer.
Harry looked at Rei, trying to work up something to say to her as they waited. He then shrugged and said, "So why do you do this?"
Rei did not move, except to say, "I am bound to this."
"Bound?" Harry asked, trying to think of what she could mean. "To who, or what?"
"To humanity."
Harry blinked, gazing at her, before replying. "I'm not sure, but maybe I know what you mean."
"I have nothing else."
Rei did not reply, except to stand and walk to the cockpit of her machine. She paused only to say the word, "Goodbye."
Harry blinked and shivered, as if Rei's 'goodbye' was only part of some unspoken prophecy of doom. He climbed into his own cockpit and tried to shake off the uneasy feeling, as Unit 01 started up. Misato's voice called through the communication system as he slipped into place, preparing for the night's work.
Harry felt the faceplate/targetting display slide in front of his face, characters showing up across it showed a magnetic-resonance-enhanced view of their surroundings, the octahedral angel continuing its inexorable drilling toward the GeoFront.
"Firing sequence ready in ten seconds, Shinji," Misato stated as Harry's hands slipped into the controls.
He braced himself as Misato rattled off the countdown, shaking the last of his odd sense of premonition about Rei as he stared down the sights of the cannon.
"Fire!" Misato barked, and Harry pulled the trigger.
A loud crash reverberated in his ears as an argent beam lashed out toward the Angel. However, with reflexes for which the term fast is woefully inadequate, Ramiel let loose its own nightmarish blast. The two proton beams streaked toward each other, with only one problem: the matching polarities of the two energy weapons caused the trajectories of the shots to skew, shifting wildly, causing both to tear major gouges off of both units.
Harry swore under his breath as he reached his hand to a control, causing the overheated fuse cartridge to eject, a second fuse slamming into place. However, the trigger would not squeeze, as the warnings, "TOO HOT" and "RECHARGING" flickered across his display. He muttered and cursed as he waited for the the indicators to disappear, allowing him to fire once more.
About twenty seconds later, however, another hellish lance of energy hurtled toward him. A particularly vicious oath escaped his lips as he saw his death impending... only to be blocked by the sudden motions of Rei's Evangelion, hurling the spacecraft hull before her, stopping the beam from striking its target, but at a hideous cost, as the hull began to slag down.
"Come on, come on, damn you," Harry swore in English, until the two warnings cleared off his display. With a slight adjustment, Harry pulled the trigger once more. Another siivery beam lashed out from the barrel of the cannon, only to strike true this time, tearing directly through the center of the diamond-shaped Angel.
He did not stay to watch his handiwork, moving toward Rei's nearly slagged down mecha, tearing the protective cover from atop the control plug containing Ayanami-san. He set the plug down before getting out of his own Evangelion, rushing toward the pod. He reached for the control levers, then flinched away at the heat. He paused only a moment before taking a swift step to the right, and snarling a reductor curse, tearing at the plate but only leaving a few gouges, though a pop was heard. He gritted his teeth before shouting Alohamora, causing the hatch to pop off.
Poking his head into the chamber was like sticking his head into a sauna, only less pleasant. "Rei? REI!?" He called to her as he climbed into the tube, moving toward the girl. "Come on, Rei, wake up," he pled, his hand moving to her shoulder.
The girl's eyes opened, but something was not right. From all he had seen of her, her eyes were almost always emotionless, only showing, perhaps a hint of fanatical adoration when near Commander Ikari. But the albino's eyes were filled with confusion as she seemed to struggle to pull herself together. "Wh... where am I?" Even her voice carried a different tenor, carrying a worry, even a fear, that he could not possibly imagine coming from Rei.
"You're safe, Rei, it's over," Harry reassured her.
"Rei? Who's Rei? Where am I? What happened?" Rei asked.
Oh no. Brain damage? Harry asked himself, before going pale as Rei sat up, fumbling for something. "I've got to get back before everyone else dies..." Rei mumbles, struggling in her seat.
"Everyone else di..." He froze as an ugly, terrifying thought came to mind. "Who are you?" Harry stammered.
"Doesn't matter," Rei muttered, "Have to get back to the Ministry."
Harry flinched and placed his hands on her shoulders, pulling her to look into into his eyes. "It can't be... Ginny? Hermione? Luna?"
The girl looked back at him. "How do you know those names? How do you know me?"
Harry looked at her. "It's me, Harry," He stated.
"You can't be Harry..." Rei protested then paused, looking into his eyes. "You are, aren't you? Oh dear," She stated, sitting back into the seat.
Harry was not sure who it was in Rei's body, but he was absolutely certain it was one of his friends. He sat down a bit heavily. "Are you alright?"
"Not quite, but I guess that is quite understandable. I find myself a bit disappointed that the afterlife is so... boring-seeming," She stated.
"Luna?" Harry guessed, looking at her.
"Yes, I am," she said as she turned her head toward him.
"Well, this isn't the afterlife, but we don't have much time. The Search and Rescue teams are coming so I better explain quick. Somehow, when Voldemort blasted me through the veil, I ended up in the body of some kid namd Shinji Ikari. It's about 20 years later, and something terrible happened. You are in the body of a girl named Rei Ayanami. We're both pilots of giant machines called Evangelions that are fighting monsters called Angels. We just ended up destroying one and are now waiting for the medical teams to arrive."
Luna looked at him with an expression of skepticism, and Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of the situation. "No, I'm not nuts, Luna, but we don't have a lot of time. Just trust me for now. You should be able to speak Japanese, and I haven't figured out how that happened, only that somehow we've picked up the skills and memories of the people we're inhabiting. Rei doesn't say much, so if you just answer questions as tersely as possible, we should be able to get through this."
Luna paused, then nodded. "Alright, Harry."
"Just call me Ikari-kun for now. I'll call you Ayanami-san, for the time being," Harry explained quickly, then looked up as sounds from outside indicated that the SAR team had arrived.
