Author's Note: So sorry about being behind on the update. My school counsellor said that I shoulnd have contact with computers for a while, and my Grandma agreed. Anyway, here's the next one! Chow!
A State of Mercy
Chapter 9: Aftermath and Into the War
SS/NERV MEDICAL FACILITY
Rei slowly opened her eyes to see the white ceiling of a hospital room. The constant beep of a heart monitor filled her ears. "I'm alive," she whispered, mostly to herself. A hand touched her's and she looked over to see Shinji with tears streaming down his face.
"I'm sorry Rei. I'm so damn sorry," he said and nearly collapsed.
She remembered him fighting against two people as they cut her up and raped her. He couldn't free himself though. "Shinji, it's okay," she said and raised his chin to look at her. And she smiled.
Behind Shinji stood Simon, still in his Nomex suit, goggles on his forehead. His eyes were bloodshot, like he hadn't slept in a long time. Next to him was Maya, looking much better in the ocular area than her boyfriend.
"I take it that I should thank you, Simon," Rei said. Simon nodded to her and managed a weak smile.
Maya stepped forward and filled in what Simon probably meant to say. "Rei, I'm glad that you're alive," she said.
"Indeed," Gendo said from where he stood at the back of the room.
"Leave," Rei said quietly to the older Ikari.
"I'm gone," Gendo replied as he left, "In due time, dear child."
As he entered the hallway, Gendo ran into Sean who was coming out of the room across the hall. His legs were bandaged and he walked with a limp but it hadn't stopped him from staying with Asuka all night in her hospital room.
"How is Soryu?" Gendo asked.
"Asuka's doing fine. She'll be back out in three days."
"Good. Until then Aida will be the designated pilot of Unit 02."
"Asuka will be pissed," Sean said.
"Who gives a shit," Simon said as he walked past the two to his car with Maya right next to him.
"I care!" Sean shouted at him.
Simon stopped and turned around and in the lowest growl possible said "She's lucky I didn't slit her throat and write NAZI over her head in her own blood."
Sean went pale white. Simon turned back around and left.
THE HOUSE
Pen-Pen's life was one filled with boring, meaningless hours of watching TV. When he wasn't doing this or sleeping for hours on end, he was playing with the members of the house. Now he couldn't do any of these things because of the yelling coming from the kitchen. "What the hell were you thinking?!" Misato screamed.
"I wasn't thinking anything! When someone whom you have a very stimulating platonic relationship is cut up, raped and thrown in a corner, you tend to lose yourself!"
"But was shooting Sean necessary?"
"Fuck yes in was necessary!"
"How so?"
"He's an asshole!"
"So are you!"
"But I'm the good kind of asshole!"
"Even you have to realize how much sense that doesn't make!"
Misato stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Look, we need your help. Asuka needs a lawyer-"
"No."
"God damn it, Simon! How do you know that's what I'm saying?"
"I'm not calling them. No."
"Then you're off the combat roster."
"Say's who?"
"Say's Commander Ikari."
Simon sighed and pulled out his cell phone and black book. He flipped to the S pages and found the name 'Shore, Alan.' "Damn you to hell Misato," Simon said and dialed the number. He put the phone on speaker and set it on the kitchen table.
After three rings a male voice answered. "Hello?"
"Alan?"
"Yes and why am I on speaker?"
"You're on speaker because my boss here is paranoid."
"Right. I suppose this is about the Asuka thing?"
"You supposed right."
"Yea I'm not doing that."
"Good. Then put Denny on the phone."
"Okay, here he is."
There was a moment of muffled voices in the background, then another, much deeper, voice spoke up. "Simon! I'll try your case! Can I sleep with the client?"
"Yes to all of that."
Misato glared at Simon.
"Good! I'm flying in tomorrow! No need to pick me up, I just want to get it done. Denny Crane: professional."
"Right. I'm sure you will. Good night Denny."
Before Simon ended the call he heard Denny talking about Asuka's ass to Alan. "Will he really try to sleep with her?" Misato asked.
"Yea. But don't worry, he looks like a fat old Captain Kirk."
THE NEXT DAY
"Shinji! On your six!" Kensuke screamed over the com line. Unit 01 spun around on its heel and unleashed a volley of shots from its Pallet rifle into the melee Harvester's torso, opening it up and allowing a surge of blood to splash all over the street. The Harvester started falling toward Shinji and he rolled out of the way to prevent being corpse-tackled.
"One down," Shinji commented.
"Yea, and four more to go," Kensuke countered. Unit 02 fired three quick shots from its shotgun into a building that a rifle-toting Harvester was hiding behind. The Harvester sprang from cover on the opposite side of the building from where it'd taken cover behind and shot Unit 02 in the chest.
Kensuke screamed and fired the rest of his ammo back at the target, causing it to take cover again. "Where the hell are Simon and Sean?!" he screamed.
Back on the bridge, Misato grabbed a headset from Hyuga. "Simon is coming as fast as he can and Sean won't be joining you today," she explained. Just how the hell is Unit 01 even moving without a soul? she asked herself before accessing the cage on her headset. "Maya! Where's Greymarch?" she asked.
"Launching now!" Maya told her.
"Confirmed, he's coming up lift twelve now," Aoba said from beside Misato.
"Cameras up on number twelve's exit point, now!" she ordered. The main viewer showed Greymarch snap into place at the top of the lift. It wasn't brown anymore, but instead was colored black. The large mound on its back that contained the nuclear reactor was gone as well.
Misato spun around to look up at Gendo. "What the hell is it running on?" she asked.
It was Yui who answered over the headset. "It's running on an S2 engine. We just finished it yesterday," she said. "And decided not to, y'know, notify you at all."
"And where are the jumpjets?" Misato wasted no time asking.
"In the storage room. Now I use these to fly," Simon responded and two armored bat-like wings extended out of its back.
"And your AT Field assists them," Maya corrected.
"Why wasn't I notified about these upgrades?" Misato asked.
"Because it wasn't necessary," Gendo replied, his voice sounding remarkably like that of God. Up top, Greymarch 2.0 reached over and took a new rifle out of a delivery bin. The new rifle was larger than the Pallet rifle but obviously still meant for a general combat roll.
It was designated WOLF RIFLE PROTOTYPE on the main control screen. Simon snapped it into its place at his shoulder and unleashed a barrage of shots at the Harvester that Kensuke'd been fighting with. The weapon fired slower than the Pallet rifle but also fired rounds the size of sniper rifle shots. Twelve rounds hit their marks and pummeled the Harvester's head into chum.
The weapon's kick forced Simon to lean into the recoil more than he'd ever had to with the Pallet gun. There'd be no dual wielding this new piece of equipment. "That'd be only three more, Kensuke," Simon said with a grin. He punched the context sensitive stereo and the song A Hard Day's Night started playing in the combat line's background.
"What the fuck kind of combat music is that?" Simon groaned.
"The good kind," Sean's voice filtered in over the radio as Cerebrus entered the battlefield via lift nineteen. Simon looked at him over the holo-screen.
"You okay?" he asked, genuinely concerned.
"Yea, I'll be fine," Sean ignored the pain in his casted legs.
"Then let's get to work," Simon said and moved out.
The next voice to overlap Paul Mcartney was Misato's. "Sean, there's a rifle for you coming up the bin now. Good luck."
"Yea, I've got it right here," Sean said, pulling the Wolf Rifle into place. Across the city from him, Unit 02 was repetitively slashing a downed Harvester with a short sword, Kensuke punctuating each slash with a different curse word. "Fuck, damn, bitch, shit, cock, dick, twat, snatch, cunt, you sperm guzzling mother fucker!"
Unit 02 stood up and looked over at Simon. "Hey, I got a kill!" he said. Just then a Harvester tackled him. Simon and Sean shot the Harvester multiple times until it went still and they could pull it off Kensuke.
"One more at this point," Sean said.
"Yea, now where the hell is it?" Simon asked. He was soon answered by Unit 01 throwing the last Harvester through a building onto the street, a prog knife jammed to the hilt in its forehead.
"I'd say that pretty much answers your question," Sean commented.
"Yep. Good work Shinji," Simon said.
"Really?" Shinji asked. Then the presumed dead Harvester leapt up and tackled Unit 01.
"Temperature in the target increasing!" Hyuga shouted to Misato.
"God damnit! Get out of there!" she screamed over the radio.
"Negative! Expand your AT Fields around Shinji, it'll contain the blast!" Simon shouted. Everyone did, and when the Harvester self-destructed the explosion doubled back and forth a hundred fold inside the AT Dome that had been erected around it. When the dust cleared, the Harvester was gone but Unit 01 was still intact, though a bit burned.
"My God, Shinji are you okay?!" Misato yelled.
The response came through barely in a wave of static. "Yes. I feel like shit and my external cameras are gone, but other than that I'm fine," he said quietly.
In the cage, Yui let out a breath she'd been unconsciously holding for too long. It felt strange to not be in combat with her son anymore and instead be forced to sit and watch.
She looked over at Maya, who'd been watching her the whole time. "You get used to it," the younger woman said.
Yui only managed a nod. "I hope so, Maya. I hope so."
BACK AT THE HOUSE
"WHAAT!" Asuka screamed over the phone when Sean told her the new Score Chart.
Aida, Kensuke 1
Ayanami, Rei 9
Kirby, Simon 21
Ikari, Shinji 7
McKay, Sean 12
Soryu, Asuka Langley 7
"You mean that little pervert is tied with ME?!" she screamed.
"I'm afraid so," Sean replied.
"And another thing: why should Kensuke get a kill when he was using MY UNIT 02?!" she shrieked in his ear.
"I don't know Asuka," Sean replied.
"YOU DON'T KNOW!? Well of all the-"
"Uh, Asuka, I've got to go," he said, looking for a way out.
"Fine! I don't want to talk to you anyway!" she yelled back and hung up.
"Shit," Sean said under his breath.
"She's nuts," Simon said from where he was leaning against the kitchen counter.
"You know what? I'm starting to agree with you," Sean replied.
Simon shrugged in response. "So, like, we're cool right?" he finally said after a bit of a silence.
Sean looked down at his bandaged legs. The doctor's had repaired both of them and he'd be able to take off the casts in two days. He looked back up at Simon; "I'm kind of starting to get where you were coming from. Not the part about shooting me exactly, but the whole thing about shooting Asuka. Yea, I think we're cool."
Simon gave him a small, non-sarcastic, smile and walked off down the hall to his room. He opened the door and let out a holler. "God damn, man! Asuka's not even home and you're still jacking it in my bed?! What the fuck is it with you?"
Shinji stumbled across the hallway into his own room, pulling his pants up along the way. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he pleaded as he was running/stumbling.
"Do that again and I'll shoot you. And this time it won't e a beanbag round!" Simon promised. Sean let out a small laugh that progressively turned into a much bigger one. It was the first time in a few days that he'd been able to laugh at all.
RECORDED PHONE CONVERSATION BETWEEN SIMON KIRBY AND GENDO IKARI
Gendo: It's me.
Simon: Figured that since your name came up on my cell as GENDUDE.
Gendo: Green pulled out.
Simon: You mean he-
Gendo: Yes. We're now separate from them.
Simon: And the rest?
Gendo: They've pulled out too.
Simon: Build up time?
Gendo: Yes.
Simon: I'm giddy with excitement.
Gendo: You'll also need to do that first thing.
Simon: Got it. I'll do that soon enough.
END OF CONVERSATION
