Evangelion: Changes. Chapter 4
First of all, I just want you to know that at no time in my life did I ever truly wish to become immortal.
I mean, sure... We've all said, at least once, that we wish we could live forever. It's a common aspiration shared by all of mankind at one point or another in time.
Young people wish they could stay young, old people wish they could be young again. Really, it's not so much about living forever as it is being young forever.
Well, lemme tell you... Looking like a 21 year old is fine.
When you're in your twenties.
It's been 30 years since the events of back then, and I still look like I'm fresh out of college. So does Asuka. So do Toji and Hikari and Kensuke and Rei.
We all hit the peak of our physical maturity...
And good God did those girls peak...
..And then we stopped. We stopped aging like normal people.
Sure, we're going to die one day, we know this. But, we're all convinced that it will happen a long, long, long time from now.
As in, we may live to see the next millennium. Hell, we may live to see the next several millennia.
Asuka even suggested we may live to see the heat death of the universe.
"..."
Wonderful.
All of that aside, it's actually pretty cool being immortal. I mean, I can stab myself with a knife and watch as it wriggles its way out of me, the cut disappearing almost instantly.
Asuka has tried this on me numerous times...
But, as I've said, all of that is for later.
At the moment, I'm crawling over multi-ton blocks of shattered steel and concrete. My Eva is laying behind me, the massive hole in its head still smoking.
For my first battle, I guess it went okay. I mean, I'm alive and the Angel is destroyed.
Sure, there's a massive hole in the roof of the Geofront and several city blocks are flattened, but this place seems like it doesn't have to worry too much about money.
I better be getting paid for this shit...
I straighten and take in my surroundings.
A wall crumbles about 50 feet from me, revealing a hallway of sorts. I slide down the boulder I'm standing on and jog over to the opening.
I step over a small ledge and straight into a puddle of water. I look around, the barely lit hallway stretching endlessly in both directions.
"Hello!," I yell, the echoes bouncing down the walls and disappearing.
Creepy ass hallways: Check.
I stand still for a moment, listening for any sounds.
There comes the sound of clanking metal from my left and my decision is made.
Creepy ass sounds in the creepy ass hallways: Check
I head off, my shoes squeaking and my drenched clothes sticking to every surface. I take my shirt off and toss it away, the wet slap as it impacts the wall echoing down into the darkness.
I come at length to a sign warning me of potential "Organic Radiation" danger.
Whatever the hell that means.
I push on until I come to an intersection, the hallway branching off in opposite directions.
"Crap...," I mumble, rubbing the back of my head, "Hello?"
Yet again, I listen as my voice bounces back and forth into the distance, no sounds coming in reply.
I'm about to go left when a light turns on to my right, a dim, yellow glow.
That isn't foreboding at all...
I still don't know what convinced me to go after that light, I really don't.
Everything in me was screaming to run the other way, but noooooo. I just had to find out what that light was.
I slowly start my way down the hall, the light slowly getting stronger.
As I got nearer, there came to me the sounds of people, a man and a woman. They were singing, I think.
I cautiously crept forward, the voices getting stronger.
I turned a corner and came to a jail cell, a single, solitary jail cell in the middle of the hallway.
A single bare light bulb hung from the ceiling, casting weird shadows on everything.
In the corner of the cell, a man and a woman were huddled together, singing some song I didn't recognize. It was jazzy, and truthfully, a bit catchy. I found my foot tapping out the rhythm and willed it to stop.
"Ummm... Hello?"
The singing stopped and the couple turned to stare at me, the woman's blonde hair stretching all the way to the floor before coiling around itself.
"Who's there?," the man asked, his arm bracing the woman, "Who is that?"
He was speaking English, of which I had only a passing acquaintance.
"Ummm... Hello there," I replied, my English coming through like a hiccuping lawnmower, "My name is Shinji Ikari and I..."
"Ikari?," they both gasped.
"Yes..."
They whispered amongst themselves for a moment before turning back to me.
"Are you... His son?," the man asked, this time in perfect Japanese.
Father...
"Yes. My father is Gendo Ikari and..."
They were up against the bars in an instant, their faces pressed firmly against the steel.
I staggered back, my heart skipping several beats.
"So... It's time, eh? Those creatures have finally started attacking?"
"You mean the Angels?," I asked.
They nodded as they seemed to look me over, appraising me.
"It's about time," he continued, his eyes incredibly deep, "We've been waiting for this for 20 years. Ever since your father and those old men captured and confined us here, we've been looking forward to the day they would let us out. I mean, it's not like we're going to die anytime soon, what with being immortal and all..."
Wait. What?
The woman elbows him hard in the ribs and he doubles over.
"You're not supposed to tell anybody about that!," she says harshly, her voice high and sweet.
He stands back up, straightening his shirt. I notice it's about 30 years out of date, an open vest with a pendant hanging around his neck. He's wearing bell bottoms and platform shoes.
The woman is dressed just as strangely, a pair of overalls with no shirt underneath and a floppy brimmed hat.
They bicker back and forth for a moment before remembering I'm there.
They turn to me and offer shaky grins.
"Sorry about that...," the man speaks, straightening up and sticking his hand through the bars.
"My name is Isaac Dian..."
He gestures to the woman.
"...And this is Miria Harvent. It's nice to meet you, Shinji."
Alright then. So, now you know. But not really. I know. It makes perfect sense.
Okay, not really, but just go with it for now.
It'll make sense later.
Maybe.