REBUILD OF

EVANGELION

2.15: SECOND CHILD

Asuka immediately grabbed my arm and started dragging me off towards the Eva. Seeing that there was no protesting, I decided to simply follow along. Misato would probably want us to launch anyway. She ran back under the covering and picked up a small bundle next to the Eva.

"Come on, idiot!" she ordered, grabbing my arm again. As she did so, a piercing alarm rang out, causing me to cover my ears. Asuka, however, began dragging me again, this time in a different direction.

"Hey, where are we going?" I asked.

She sharply jerked me around, and came to a stop in front of a door that led into the interior of the ship. She turned around to look at me.

"Just wait here a second," she warned sharply. She immediately turned and ran again, this time in the door and down the stairs, leaving me standing in the doorframe looking confused.

"What's going on…" I wondered aloud.

Man…she's irritating…and loud…

I slowly began to follow her inside, and saw her disappear behind the turn of the staircase. I peeked around the edge, just in time to see Asuka's yellow sundress pulled over her head, underwear on full display. I gulped, and found myself turning bright red. I slunk back behind the wall, praying she didn't see me…but not before noticing certain aspects of her body. I didn't want her to get angry, though, so I turned back and waited.

For all her attitude…there's still something about her…meh. I don't get it. Oh well. I just need to concentrate on what's going on now. The Angel.

I sat there and waited for a few minutes, concentrating on thinking only of the Angel. After about five minutes, I decided that she'd had more than enough time to change her clothes.

It only takes me about thirty seconds…she's gotta be done by now!

I peeked around the wall again, with fully innocent intentions, only to hear Asuka scream.

"Don't peep, you pervert!"

"Sorry!" I stammered.

Jeez…

I could hear Asuka muttering to herself about how perverted boys were, as I sat and sighed, embarrassed. After another five minutes, I finally heard the hissing of air that the plugsuit makes as it tightens.

Finally…

"Here we go, Asuka…" I heard her whisper to herself.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

I heard the blast of four missiles, one right after another. I assumed that the military was attempting to destroy the Angel on their own, like they always did.

They don't realize that it's useless…

I glanced over at Asuka, now that it was safe to do so, and I saw a determined look on her face. She began running back towards the Eva, and I followed behind.

--

I caught the red plugsuit with both hands, cringing as I did so.

"Come on, let's go!" she said anxiously.

Eh?

She pointed at me with a disdainful look in her eyes, like she was talking to a child.

"You're coming with me."

EH?

I looked down at the plugsuit and understanding flooded into my brain. I cringed even more.

Oh no. OH NO.

--

"Hey…why did we change into these plugsuits?" I called to Asuka, who was climbing up her Eva, towards the Entry Plug. I now had a new understanding of the word "embarrassment" as well; wearing this plugsuit was perhaps the most embarrassing thing I had ever been forced into. It gave my body the appearance of a girl. Oddly, though, Asuka didn't even mention this fact. I had expected her to make a mockery of it every chance she got.

"Anta baka?" she said, "What else? We're going to beat it with my Unit-02!" The Entry Plug shot out of the Eva's neck as she said so. I knew this was the right thing to do, but I didn't exactly feel motivated to do anything while I was wearing this plugsuit. So I protested.

"No way! Do you have permission from Misato-san?"

"I can get permission after I beat it," she replied matter-of-factly. Exactly what I expected as a reply, and what I was secretly thinking as well. She tapped a button on the side of the plug, and it opened up.

"Now I'll show you how magnificent my piloting is, up close and personal!" she said as we climbed inside, "Just don't disturb me."

But…you've never battled anything real in your life. How can you be so confident? Do you actually enjoy piloting?

Just then, I heard another crash. Another ship must have sunk. The door to the Entry Plug closed over us, and it shot into the Eva, locking in place. Asuka began the startup sequence, having immediately rushed for the pilot seat. I was positioned uncomfortably behind the chair. The familiar many-coloured lights flashed in front of me, and the Eva began starting up.

"LCL füllong,"she said.

What is she saying? Is she speaking in German? It sounds so bizarre.

"Anfang der Bewegung. Anfang des Nervenanschlusses. Auslösung von Linkskleigung. Synchro-start."

All I understood was the last bit, but the interface obviously understood as the images began flashing over the viewscreen, as they did when I started Unit-01. However, after a few seconds, a beeping noise began coming from the speakers, and the word "Fehler" appeared all over the viewscreen. I guessed that it meant "error."

"Program error? What happened?" I asked.

"Thought noise! I told you not to disturb me," she said.

But I didn't do anything!

"What do you mean?"

"You're thinking in Japanese, aren't you? Think in German!"

But I don't know German! Erm…

"Oh, okay. Baumkuchen…"

"Idiot!" she yelled, "Just forget it. Switch the base language to Japanese."

Couldn't you have just done that from the start…?

The startup sequence began again, and the lights flashed. The viewscreen cleared, and then the Eva was active.

"Evangelion Unit-02, activate!"

--

As the Evangelion activated, I expected the familiar feeling of losing myself in it, and forgetting what was my body and what was the Eva's. Instead, however, I experienced no such feeling at all. Not even the familiar pressure in the side of my head. I assumed that it was because I wasn't wearing a headpiece, so there was nothing to transmit my thoughts, or however it worked. In any case, I felt like a helpless bystander as Evangelion Unit-02 slowly stood up.

The Eva had only been active for about ten seconds when a voice yelled at us from the speakers. It was that of the captain.

"No, abort the activation sequence! Reset it!" he ordered.

Is he dense? Nothing else is working, obviously…

As if on queue, Misato's voice cut in and spoke for us.

"Don't worry about him, Asuka! Just launch!"

Like we were going to stop anyway…

The captain wouldn't give up, in any case. "What are you saying?!" he yelled again, "You can't just violate my command authority over the Eva and its pilot!"

"What are you talking about? This is an emergency! Who gives a damn about your procedures?"

I sighed, and looked over at Asuka. She wasn't even paying attention. A look of calm pride had come over her face. She stood the Eva up on the deck, and I looked out over the carnage. Half the fleet had been decimated by now. Smoking, half-submerged ruins were everywhere. A sort of wave rushed around the fleet, similar to the wave that a boat makes as it speeds through the water, except the thing that made it was hidden. Whatever it was, it was big.

All of the sudden, I realized the obvious flaw in this battle. The Eva was a land-based weapon. This enemy was a fish.

"Wouldn't it be bad if we fell in the sea?" I asked.

Asuka didn't even flinch, or give any impression that it mattered.

"So we don't fall in," she answered simply.

I supposed that Misato was able to hear me, as she addressed me for the first time.

"Shinji-kun, are you in there too?"

"Yes."

"Two kids…" the captain muttered condescendingly.

"Good chance to test it…Asuka, LAUNCH!" Misato finished enthusiastically.

The Angel must have noticed us finally, as the wave turned our way and began rushing towards us. Even from inside the Eva, I could hear the sound of water rushing our way. It was moving that quickly.

"It's coming," I muttered.

"Here we go."

Without so much as another word, Asuka leaped from the ship we were standing on, causing a rather large amount of destruction to the carrier below. She landed on a battleship nearby, crushing it and possibly injuring the people inside. She didn't notice any of this, of course. All she was focused on was killing the Angel.

"Where is it?"

I twisted my head around, in time to see the wave change direction and rush towards us again.

"That way!"

The timer beeped, and I remembered that the Eva wasn't plugged into any external power source.

"We've only got 58 seconds left!" I warned.

"I know that," Asuka said, "Misato! Get the external power supply onto the deck."

The Angel rushed towards us even quicker; I looked to Asuka anxiously, wondering when she was going to move.

"Understood."

"OK, we're going to jump!" Asuka said.

"Jump?"

Without another word, the Eva leaped again from its current spot, the canvas tent covering still draped around the Eva like a cloak. It crashed onto a nearby ship, destroying its deck as it landed. I swore that I heard someone scream "Run!" as it landed. She immediately leapt again, throwing the canvas off as she did so. Twice more she leaped, and finally came to rest on the deck of our original ship, the Over the Rainbow. I was incredibly dizzy by this point, and was clutching Asuka's seat for balance. An alarm went off, and railings were lifted up onto the deck, as if they would do any good.

"Eva-02, landing on deck!" Asuka exclaimed, obviously enjoying every bit of this.

This landing was a rough one, and the ship almost tipped all the way forward, into the ocean. All but three of the aircraft on deck were lost. I felt sure that somewhere, Kensuke was weeping manly tears.

I looked around for the Angel, and finally saw its wave.

"It's coming! Port, 9 o'clock!"

"Switching to external power!" Asuka said. She picked up the plug that had been rushed out on deck and plugged it into the Eva's back. The timer stopped beeping. One less distraction to deal with.

Now for the Angel itself.

"Switch completed."

I then realized another flaw. We had no ranged weapons; nothing with which to shoot the Angel from land. The progressive knife would be useless if we couldn't get close. I voiced this concern to Asuka.

"The prog knife will be more than enough," she responded confidently, drawing the knife.

OK…show me.

Eva-02's progressive knife was also different. This one extended like a razor, and glowed purplish-pink as opposed to the green of Eva-01's knife. The Angel raced towards us, and its body became visible at the same time. It was very similar to a shark; its sleek white body cut through the water easily.

"It's pretty big," I commented.

"That's what I figured!" Asuka replied.

Does ANYTHING bother her?

She stood, progressive knife extended, waiting for the Angel to attack first. I bit my lip; should the Angel decide to simply destroy the ship instead of jump for the Eva itself, we were done for. We'd lose our power source; not to mention Misato, Kensuke, and Toji's lives. Luckily, however, it took the bait and jumped for us, onto the carrier's deck. Most of the remaining aircraft were destroyed in the leap. If Kensuke hadn't yet, he surely just suffered a heart attack.

"Good work stopping it, Asuka!" Misato exclaimed happily.

She…did it…she's really good.

I could hear the captain yelling in the background angrily ("That's not funny! The flight deck is a mess!"), but he was ignored as usual. Asuka raised the progressive knife over the Angel, preparing to finish it, but at the same time she was struggling to keep it from pushing her off the carrier. The Eva's foot slipped backwards and pushed inwards on a retractable portion of the carrier. It tripped, tipping the carrier. Man and Angel toppled into the ocean, falling rapidly towards the bottom.

"Asuka!" Misato said, worried, "It's impossible to fight underwater with type-B equipment!"

That's right…the Evas are equipped with B-type armour by default…the stuff's heavy. It makes it impossible to move.

"You never know until you try," Asuka said, the picture of calm.

She has no idea…

She was still holding onto the Angel, and it dragged her down farther, smashing into the old, pre-Second Impact city ruins. We were almost to New Yokosuka, apparently. These were the remains of the old city, untouched for fifteen years.

The umbilical cable was still attached, and it unreeled as the Angel dragged us farther and farther from the carrier. We were going to run out, probably sooner than later. And Asuka didn't realize that combat was literally impossible.

"I've got to do something…" I muttered.

"The cable's going to run out! Brace for the shock!" Misato warned.

Almost immediately as she said so, the cable did run out. I heard a grinding noise from the back of the Eva, a painful-sounding grinding of mechanical parts. We were jerked backwards, and forced to let go of the Angel.

"Shoot!" Asuka said.

Now what?

I began to look around for the Angel again, but there was no need. Its dark outline was directly in front of us, turning around to face us.

"It's coming again!" I warned.

"I'll finish it off this time," Asuka said confidently.

No you won't…

She pulled the handle-grips backwards, as I did when concentrating on righting myself. However, as I expected, the Eva didn't even move in the slightest. Asuka's mask of confidence seemed to shatter before my eyes. Her face contorted, first into surprise, then into rage.

"W…what?! It's not working!" she stammered.

"That's because this is B-type equipment."

As expected, she turned angrily to me.

"What're you going to do?!"

"What am I supposed to do?" I replied, the tiniest hint of condescension in my voice.

"You're pretty pitiful for being the Third Child!" she answered, pouting.

I ignored her, and turned to look at the Angel, which had begun its approach.

"Here it comes!"

The Angel swam towards us, and its long, thin snout opened, revealing an enormous mouth, lined with pointed teeth.

"A mouth?!" Asuka screamed.

Still searching for a way to survive, I noticed that its core was at the very center of its mouth, smaller than the other Angels', but still the core.

"Well, it is an Angel…" I said, mostly to myself.

The Angel swam directly at us, and before we could even attempt to move, bit down hard. Half of the Eva's body was inside the mouth, and its teeth were crushing the Eva. I noticed Asuka wince in pain as the Eva was bitten, and she grabbed her side with her hand, and she wasn't moving. She seemed to have lost all her fire, and given up. I leaned over and grabbed the controls, attempting to establish some sort of synchronization with the Eva and perhaps find a way out of this.

The result, however, was mixed. I felt a strange, out-of-body sensation, as if I was half inside my body and half-inside the Eva. I could look down and see both myself, leaning over Asuka to wrench the controls from her, as well as what I was seeing inside my body (Asuka's shivering legs and the floor of the Eva cockpit). It wasn't synchronization, for sure. In fact, it almost felt as if something was blocking me from the Eva. I hadn't time to dwell on it, however. I blinked and shook my head, returning to my body, having given up trying to synchronize.

"We're in a bit of a pinch right now…"

"Shut up!" Asuka retorted, as if I had insulted her. I heard her gasp, then she pushed me away with, "Hey, get off me already, you pervert!"

Is that really what she's thinking right now? Her modesty, over her life?

"But we've got to free ourselves somehow."

"Asuka, do you read me?" Misato's voice from the speakers, "Don't let go, no matter what!"

Eh? Don't let go? It's trying to eat us! Shouldn't we want to get out of its mouth?

"What does she have in mind?" I asked, mostly to myself.

"I have no idea!" Asuka said, still shoving me off. I finally gave up, and allowed her to push me off to the side. Wasting energy was not a good idea.

It was a good minute or two before we heard from Misato again. It was probably the longest minute or two of my life; sitting inside the mouth of an alien shark with no one but a red-haired German girl who hates my guts for company, but she finally spoke again, this time with a plan.

"We're going to reel in the umbilical cable, pulling you and the Angel up. Meanwhile, we're scuttling the two remaining battleships and then sending them down the line of the cable, heading straight for the Angel's mouth. Meanwhile, you two have to get the Angel's mouth open so the battleships can get inside, fire their cannons, and self destruct, destroying the target. All you have to do is just get the mouth open. Got it?"

"That's…impossible!" Asuka retorted, incredulous.

"It's the only way," Misato said.

Asuka's face fell, obviously in disagreement with Misato's plan. I took this as an opportunity to reassert myself in the seat of the Eva, concentrating all of my mental strength on establishing some form of connection, just enough to get its mouth open.

Concentrate…

But getting past that mental barrier was nearly impossible, and it didn't help that Asuka was screaming in my ear and hitting me in the head, refusing to allow me to try anything.

"Hey! Don't use Unit-02 without my permission!" she was saying adamantly.

"Do the two of you understand the operation?" Misato asked.

"I'll do my best," I replied, voice strained as Asuka as currently yanking on my ears and hair.

I wish she would just sit down and let me save us both! She's so irritating! Doesn't she realize that she is going to DIE?

My thoughts were immediately interrupted as the cable was pulled back. It had begun being reeled in by the machine. The machinery inside the Eva made more grinding noises, obviously strained almost to the breaking point. It held, however, and we began moving upwards, towards the surface.

I concentrated harder, but I still was getting nowhere. The mental barrier wouldn't even bend.

"Hey, how long are you going to stay there? Get off me already!" Asuka said.

WE…ARE GOING…TO DIE…

"But we've got to pry open its mouth soon, or we'll be killed too!"

I heard a sharp intake of breath, and a suppressed sniffle. Her grip on my hair relaxed, and she slumped back in the chair.

Finally.

I continued to concentrate, staring intently at the core of the Angel, praying that I could somehow get it to work.

If Asuka would just cooperate, this would be easy…what's WRONG with her?

"It's not working!" I cried, hoping to get her to help.

"There's no time left!" Asuka said.

Her face hardened, and some of her old confidence came back. I pulled the controls back, and extended the upper handles, which she grasped, over my hands. As she did so, the mental barrier completely disappeared, and I felt the sensation of falling through the air, to finally land in a pool of warm water. I was finally able to synch with the Eva. It was not as crisp or clear as with Unit-01, but Asuka was there as well. I could feel her. And it would be enough.

"You're not going to make it! Hurry!" Misato implored.

"Don't get any strange ideas," Asuka said.

"About what?" I replied, face strained and contorted from concentration.

"Anyway, just focus your thoughts."

"I know!"

I concentrated on nothing but opening its mouth. I repeated the word over and over in my head, pushing up with all my strength. I somehow sensed Asuka doing the same. And I could feel the jaw finally moving. Slowly but surely. We pushed as hard as we could, using the control as a focus, repeating the word.

Open! Open! Open! Open!

As we did so, my individual feeling completely went away, and there was no distinction of where I ended and Asuka began. We were one, focusing on but one thought: Opening its mouth. And with this feeling came new strength. The mouth was opened and the battleships, mere feet away at this point, rushed into its mouth, ripping it apart. There was a series of explosions, and the Angel itself exploded in a rain of blood and flesh. The Eva itself was flung to the surface of the water and into the air, landing on a nearby carrier. It deactivated on impact. Asuka and I both sighed.

"We did it…"

"Yes, it's over. Now GET OFF!" Asuka screamed, for the thousandth time.

I did so, chuckling as I leaned back against the wall of the cockpit, remembering the feeling of synchronization mere seconds ago. Maybe she wasn't that bad. Maybe. She probably was, though.

--