Chapter 3

Shinji didn't know what to do. He had an extremely rare day off from training and tests due to maintenance that needed to be done on Eva Unit-01 and the Magi. He was psyched to actually get some free time and get a chance to be a normal high school student. He didn't know if he should just head home, do his homework and relax or if he would rather go and do something with Kensuke and Touji. Before he could decide on anything the sirens began to go off all over Tokyo-3. Shinji's heart began to sink as he heard the sirens; he had gone through enough of these drills that he knew he had to report to Nerv. This must've been why they told him there would be no tests or training today, because of the emergency drill.

Shinji made his way to Nerv on his own since Rei wasn't at school today nor had she been home for the last few days, Misato had told him there was an activation test for unit-00 a few days ago but no one had told him about what had happened afterwards. He had been worried about Rei and tried to see if she was in the medical ward at Nerv, but he couldn't find her anywhere. He had gotten a few blocks from the school when Misato's blue sports car came to a screeching halt in front of Shinji. The door opened up and Misato sat there with a casual smile on her face.

"Sorry I'm a little late Shin-chan but could you get in, we're in a hurry." Misato told him.

"It's ok Misato-san, I was going to just head over to Nerv on my own. These drills are such a pain in the ass. I actually thought I was going to get a day off today too."

A sad expression washed over Misato's face as Shinji told her this.

"B… Bu… But… But… I actually don't mind… These drills can sometime be pretty fun."

If Shinji had thought that sitting in Eva was actually fun, then he probably wouldn't have minded.

"I wish that I could take the burden of piloting Eva from you Shinji, I really do."

Shinji was a little taken back by this comment, it wasn't something he had ever heard from Misato. He didn't know what to make of it. Misato quickly rushed them to Nerv, the rest of the car ride was in silence. Instead of the usual drill of getting into his plug suit and sitting on standby in Unit-01, Misato instead took Shinji to the Command deck. The rest of the Nerv personnel were already there on standby. The main monitor was on, the display showed what looked like a giant black humanoid robot with a white face and a shiny red sphere embedded into its chest. UN Air Force ships were flying around the giant unloading their weapon payloads on the unidentified attacker. Missiles and high explosive rounds were being fired at the monstrosity. The munitions were impacting the intruder, consuming it balls of fire. Unfortunately for the UN aircraft, their weapons did nothing to stop the giant from advancing.

Commander Fuyutski was sitting on a pedestal above the other Nerv personnel, Yui Ikari was standing beside him. Fuyutski smirked as he watched the UN forces fired useless rounds of ordinance into the giant. The airships around the giant suddenly scattered leaving the area.

"I see their finally going to resort to an N2 mine. They can't penetrate the angel's AT field," Fuyutski said smugly.

Suddenly there was a giant explosion that consumed the Angel and the entire area around it.

"Shockwave approaching."

Static suddenly covered the entire monitor. The Commander continued to calmly watch the monitor.

"Well let's see if the UN's trump card was actually able to get through the Angel's AT field."

"Sensor's restored, energy reading from the explosion's epicenter. Visual restored."

The Angel was standing tall as if nothing had happened. A second face began to grow from underneath the original face and was pushed to the side of the monster. The phone in front of Commander Fuyutski began to ring and he answered it formally.

"This is Fuyutski. Yes, I understand."

He calmly hung up the phone and stepped down from his pedestal with Yui and approached Shinji.

"Shinji-kun, I wanted you in here so that you may at least witness what it is that you will be fighting against. All of your training up until now has been for this day. I need you to, No, the whole world needs you to pilot Unit-01 and fight the Angels."

Hearing the Commander's words Shinji's body shook with fear. He wasn't a soldier, he hated Eva, he didn't want to go out there and fight.

"You can't expect me actually beat that thing with Eva? I could get killed out there!"

"Shinji, please understand that you are the only one that is capable of piloting unit-01. It kills me to send my only son out there to fight, but we don't have any other options," Yui said as she looked at him with pleading eyes.

"There's no way…" Shinji said as he was on the verge of tears.

"If Shinji won't pilot then we'll have to use Rei, go wake up Rei"

Ritsuoko gave the order, "Restart Unit-01's core unit to L-00."

They wheeled Rei into the room on a gurney, she was already in her plug suit and bandaged up. She had taken some serious injuries and had not fully recovered. There was suddenly an explosion that shook the entire building and Rei fell out of the gurney. Shinji ran to her and held her limp body in his young hands.

"Rei! Are you alright?" Shinji said as he could feel blood soaking through the bandages. "I'll pilot… I'll pilot Unit-01!"

Shinji sat in the entry plug wearing his plug suit. He sat there nervously awaiting the battle that would eventually take place. Shinji had never been in a fight in his life, he was always humble and timid and tried to avoid confrontation with other kids his age. Any time someone had tried to bully him Touji would jump in and keep him from getting beaten up. Shinji was scared for his life.

"Just remember your training Shinji, and everything will be fine," Misato tried to tell him reassuringly.

"Thanks Misato-san," Shinji responded with a nervous tone in his voice.

Shinji sat in the entry as they prepped Unit-01 for its first real battle against an angel. They quickly had Unit-01 ready to go and had it at the catapult awaiting launch orders.

"Are you ready Shinji?" Misato asked him as if it mattered.

"Yes, I'm ready." Shinji replied

"Very well, Launch!"

The catapult launched Unit-01 several kilometers per second towards the surface, Shinji squeezed the Eva's control yokes as hard as he could and kept his eyes shut as the G-forces pressed down upon him. Eva unit-01 reached the surface in almost no time at all, and came to an abrupt halt as the shock system caught unit-01. When Shinji opened his eyes when he felt that the G-forces were no longer pushing down on him, he saw the same giant black angel that he had seen on the main screen of the command deck. He felt the locking mechanisms of the catapult release him giving the freedom to move, but he was too scared to do anything. His heart was racing, breathing was heavy, and his palms were sweaty from squeezing the control yokes.

"Shinji! What are you doing? You need to attack!" Misato screamed at him over the communication system.

Misato's order's knocked a little bit of sense into him, but he was still nervous in his first fight against an angel.

"Large energy source building up in target!" Aoba hollered.

Shinji saw the Angel's eyes flash and in that brief moment his training took over and Unit-01 tried to jump to the side to dodge the energy attack. A cross shaped explosion erupted from where Unit-01 had been standing. Shinji was a little too slow in dodging the attack and was still hit by the explosion but avoided taking any serious damage. Unit-01 flew through the air a few hundred meters and several buildings. Shinji could feel pain throughout his body from the explosion and all the buildings that he had flown through. He slowly got up and tried to find where the Angel was. Shinji didn't see the Angel anywhere in sight, he happened to look up and saw that the Angel was soaring high above Unit-01 and was coming down towards him very fast.

Unit-01 rolled out of the way to prevent the Angel from landing on top of him, but Unit-01 was still in arm's reach and the Angel grabbed him by the head. The Angel picked him up by his head and an energy spike from the angel's hand began banging against Unit-01's cranial armor. The pain was unbearable for Shinji and he was screaming in pain. As the Angel held Unit-01 in the air, Unit-01 began kicking the Angel in its chest where the shiny red sphere resided. With Shinji kicking the Angel's chest, the Angel's grip on Unit-01 slowly began to loosen and with one final kick, the Angel let go of Unit-01's head. The Angel was thrown back from the force of the last kick and Shinji flew back and landed on his back.

As Shinji lay on his back, he began losing consciousness and could also feel the awkward familiar presence fighting Shinji for control. Shinji fought for control like he had to so many times before during his training and tests. He realized that it was either fight or die, and his fear was kicking in overdrive. Shinji quickly got up and was panting heavily. He didn't feel the pain as badly anymore with all the adrenaline running through his body. Unit-01 stood with a hunched back, when its jaw broke through the armor holding it together. Unit-01 and Shinji roared in unison and started to charge the Angel as it was recovering from the kicks to its chest. Unit-01 collided hard with an orange hexagonal barrier.

"Let me in you bastard!" Shinji screamed.

Unit-01's AT field began to expand and started eroding away at the Angel's AT field. Once the Angel's AT field was completely gone, Unit-01 threw a right straight at the Angel's chest and followed it with a kick. The Angel flew back and crashed into another building before it came to a stop. Shinji jumped at the Angel and pulled out his prog knife as he flew through the air. Unit-01 landed atop of the Angel and plunged the sonic vibrating knife into the Angel's core. Sparks began showering the area all around, this didn't last long though. The Angel suddenly wrapped itself around unit-01's head and turned into a black sphere. A large explosion consumed Unit-01 and a square kilometer area around them.

The explosion erupted into the air forming a giant cross of energy.

"Shinji!" Yui yelled as she saw the explosion consume the 2 monsters fighting.

"Shinji are you ok?" Misato tried communicating through the come system. "Do we have communication with Unit-01?" Misato asked with a concerned tone in her voice.

"Negative, the explosion is disrupting the communication lines," Hyuga responded.

"Signals read a pattern emerging from the blast," Maya informed the command deck.

On the screen a single monstrous shadow stepped out from the explosion as if it were completely unaffected from the blast. The figure of Unit-01 could be seen on the screen walking away from the explosion as if the exploding angel had not even phased Unit-01.

Yui Ikari smiled with pride for both her son for having defeated the angel successfully and for her creation. The Evangelions truly were man's greatest creations, and with them they would crush the Angels.