Meant for One Another
A/N: OK! Chapter 20! Sorry about the late update, but contrary to my post in the reviews section, I managed to update before the two weeks I had predicted. At last, I have finally gotten to Hikari's reaction to the death of Toji, took a while and got some people asking about it but hey, gotta progress slowly you know? I am fully confident that I won't disappoint your expectations of this story, now enjoy ! Btw, to brighten things up, I've decided to add another St Pika cameo! (Poor guy just doesn't get a break does he?)
Disclaimer: Eh...I don't know...TT
Shinji woke up in his hospital bed, feeling rather hot and stuffy, it was then that he noticed the redheaded girl sprawled across his chest, her flaming red hair tickling his chin. He smiled and tried to slowly move her so he could get up with out waking her. But after a bit she did wake and looked around in the confused state most people are in the minute they wake up.
"Uh....who what where.....?" she mumbled.
Shinji chuckled. "Your boyfriend, you fell asleep, his hospital room." he answered.
Asuka thought for a minute before understanding. "Oh yeah....very funny Shinji."
She sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck, "So, feeling better?"
Shinji flexed his right arm. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Asuka smiled and caught Shinji just staring at her.
"What..?" she asked. "Oh, I'm a mess aren't I!?" she wailed quickly running her hands through her hair.
Shinji grinned, "Course not, I was actually thinking about how great you look for someone who's slept in such an uncomfortable position."
Asuka ginned as seductively as she could, which is on a whole new level from the usual. "Who said I was uncomfortable?"
Shinji laughed and leaped out of the bed and leaned down to kiss her from behind her shoulder. "Then maybe we should do it again tonight..." he said and headed toward the bathroom attached to the room.
Asuka giggled a bit and then a thought hit her, Shinji seemed diffrent...a bit more bold, he seemed to have lost some of that old shyness of his. As she pondered this, he returned and she pushed the idea out of her mind, he had just escaped from being trapped in a giant bio-machine, you had to expect a little change in the person. Shinji put on the clothes Misato had left for him last night as Asuka took her turn to wash her face in the bathroom. Shinji zipped up the duffel bag that had held his clothes and sat on the bed to wait for Asuka so they could get him checked out of there. He took that few minutes to think about being inside that Eva, with his mother, he knew now. The power of the Eva was the soul of his mother, and she would be there for him, always protecting him.
"Why didn't you ever say anything father?" he whispered.
Asuka came out and he stood up, "Let's get outta here huh?" he said holding out his hand.
She took it and nodded.
"Misato! We're back!" Asuka yelled as they came inside the apartment. She got no answer.
"Huh, must be at work." Shinji said and went to dump his bag in the laundry room. Asuka went inside her room to change out of the clothes she had been in since leaving her locker at Nerv last night. She slipped into something more comfortable and went back out only to bump into Shinji as he was about to knock on her door.
"Oh!" she said, startled. "What did you want?"
"Was gonna ask you want you want to order for lunch, don't really feel up to cooking." Shinji said.
"Oh, whatever you want..." she said and patted him gently on the cheek as she went pass him. "Join me in the living room when you're done."
Shinji nodded and went to the kitchen and spotted a flier for a new take out dinner place.
He glanced it over and decided to order the American dinner combo and called the number.
Meanwhile, Asuka settled into her soft bean bag chair and started to channel surf, she heard Shinji making the phone call to order food and flipped a few more channels before getting up to just get a movie as there wasn't anything good on. She opened the cabinet and dug through the many movies they had accumulated over the months and spotted something promising. James "Bond 007: Die Another Day"
"Bingo." she said and put the disk in the DVD player, then she got up over to the kitchen to see if Shinji was done with the ordering. He was, and he was getting some pop out of the fridge for them.
Asuka came up behind him and hugged him, "Come on, I'm starting a movie."
"Alright," he said. "Orange soda? Or coke?"
Asuka responded coke so Shinji got the drinks and went with Asuka to the living room and watched the movie.
Around the time when James was blowing up a hospital in Cuba, the doorbell rang and Shinji left Asuka to go answer it.
Opening the door he saw a blond man with a cart of food in take-out boxes. As Shinji handed him the money and the man unload their food, Shinji asked.
"Have we met before?"
The man looked at him, "Now that you mention it...I think you do look fimilar...."
Shinji then snapped his fingers. "You're the McDonald's guy! I remember you giving me a free Sundae!"
Jason smiled. "Oh yeah...so how are you and her doing?"
"As a matter of fact, we're watching a movie right now." he replied.
"Oh? How nice, good luck kid!" the man said.
"Thanks." Shinji replied.
Just as he was about to leave, a mob of black suits appeared down the hall, their leader, an Asian man with slick hair and a pair of black sunglasses ran toward Shinji and the food delivery man.
"Mr. Emery, we meet again." he said.
"Oh crap!" Jason said and looked around for a way out.
"Did you think you could escape the mainframe?" the black suit said. "We have been watching you Mr. Emery, we know you have been leading two lifes....in one, you are a respected writer on cyberspace and renowned all around...in the other, you pass as a collage geography major who has a taste for brunettes and food-related jobs. One of these, has a future, the other, does not."
"Screw you man!" Jason yelled. "I need a break damn it, all of writing that WAFF has nearly sapped my mind!"
"You have not updated in a while, Mr. Emery..." the leader said. "I'm afraid you will have to come with us..."
"NEVER!!" Jason yelled in defiance and jumped on the food cart and sped to wards the other end of the hall.
The black suit leader growled. "There is no escape...from Agent 'Sith'...." all of the look alikes took out duel red light-sabers and chased after the screaming man riding on the food cart.
Shinji stood in the doorway of his apartment with a boxes of food stacked in front of him, he looked down the hall at the disappearing mob and then to the can of soda in his hand. He quickly chucked the can of Sunkist over the side of the building. And swore off orange soda.
"I like UCC coffee better anyway..." he mumbled as he brought the boxes inside.
They sped the afternoon just laying around and chatting after lunch and the movie. Then Asuka challenged Shinji to several games of poker, which he lost spectacularly and resulted in him owning Asuka a lot of "favors". Asuka decide to exercise her first one by having Shinji give her a back rub and teasing him every second of it, causing even his new attitude to slacken a bit and his cheeks to light up to a crimson that at one point outdid her hair. As the time rolled by, Misato finally dragged herself home at around 6PM, cursing Gendo Ikari, (Who she was fond of calling the motherfucking son of a bitch) and ranting on about how all of Nerv's paper work was centered on her and how Ritsuko left several stacks of forms about getting a few extra zeros in her budget so she could further develop the existing Eva weapons. After half an hour of this the two teens escape to Asuka's room on the pretense of packing for school tomorrow.
"Fast thinking Asuka-chan." Shinji said as they slammed the door behind them.
Asuka gave her famous cocky smile and pushed him playfully on the bed, climbed on top of him and brought her face close. "Remember Third, your girlfriend is a collage graduate, brains, beauty, and the best pilot you can find. You should know how to count your blessings."
Shinji laughed and shook his head. "You won't get no arguments from me Asuka-chan."
Asuka kissed him. "Well, maybe we'd better get packed for real, oh Hikari is gonna-"
They both stopped, and it was then that they remembered about Toji. They felt ashamed that they had forgotten him with all that has happened, and Asuka got of Shinji and sat next to him.
Asuka looked down at her lap. "Shinji....how are we suppose to break this to them....?"
Shinji looked up at the ceiling, he didn't respond for a minute, then he said, "I really don't know Asuka, how do you tell your best friend's girlfriend and your other best friend that he's not coming back?"
He looked down and sighed, "And how do you tell them that you're the one who caused it..."
Asuka grabbed his hand.
"Please Shinji," she said. "We've been over this, it's not your fault!"
Shinji sighed again. "I know...look, I'm tired. Let's just get some sleep."
Before Asuka could say anything else he left her room and went into his. Asuka sat for a moment, then she went out too.
As Shinji crawled under the covers, he tried not to think too much about tomorrow and what to tell Kensuke and Hikari. As he lay in his bed turning it over and over, he felt something at the end of his bed. He lifted his head up and saw Asuka joining him. As she came out of the covers next to him he opened his mouth but Asuka said simply.
"Better if I stayed with you."
Shinji did not protest, but neither did he say anything. Asuka put her arm over him and said.
"Don't think too much about tomorrow, just get some sleep now. It'll come when it comes."
Asuka woke up at around 6:30 am the next morning, she had felt Shinji rolling around last night, a sign of stress that only she knew Shinji displayed. She now looked at her boyfriend, even asleep he looked troubled, his eyebrows were furrowed and his face looked a bit dark. Asuka didn't think it necessary to wake him just yet, so she slipped out of his bed and then his room. She returned to her room to grab her school clothes and went into the bathroom to shower. She came out twenty minutes later, and headed to wards the kitchen. On the way she passed the living room and the drunken forms of the Major and her loyal Penguin, shaking her head, she made her way to the kitchen and set about the task of making sandwiches.
Half an hour later.
"Shinji..."
"Errr..." he mumbled.
"Shinji, wake up."
"Huh...what?" he said as he opened his eyes, and saw Asuka face above him.
"Now that's surely the way to wake up..." he mumbled sleepily.
Asuka groaned and started to shake him, "I mean it, we really don't want to be late after being out for so long."
Shinji finally sat up and rubbed his eyes, "Huh? Yeah...right..ok.."
Asuka dragged him out of bed and into the bathroom, then she turned on the shower but using cold water only, then she pushed Shinji, still dressed in shirt and shorts, into the shower. The shout which resulted was loud enough to wake the dead, and nearly enough to wake the drunk Katsurigi and Pen-Pen but not just quite.
Fifteen minutes later.
"That.." Shinji panted as they ran to school. "Wasn't...fun!"
Asuka smirked. "For me it was, and that's what you get for not waking up when I tell you to! What's wrong with you? Didn't sleep well? You usually get up naturally..."
"Yeah...feel more tired than when I fell asleep if anything..." Shinji groaned.
They reached the gates and just entered the main building when the bell rang.
"Damn." Shinji said and they dashed to the room A-2.
"Stand, bow, s-" Hikari was stopped when the door slammed open and the two pilots fell inside, having collided at the door, the whole class stared at them.
"Err...morning sensei..." Asuka smiled weakly as she and Shinji struggled to get off each other.
"Hmmm, please go to your seats, we're just about to start." the sensei said.
Embarrassed by their entrance, the two made their way to their seats and sat down. As the sensei began he lecture, Asuka caught Hikari looking at her, undoubtedly she wanted to run to Asuka and find out what she knew about Toji's whereabouts.
"Damn..." Asuka muttered under her breath. "Of all the people...she had to choose the jock...and now he's dead..."
At lunch, as Asuka had expected, Hikari ran up to her.
"Asuka! Do you know anything about Toji!?" she asked franticly. "Cuss he doesn't return my calls...and his family won't tell me anything!"
Asuka looked at her friend sadly, "Hikari....lets go out and have a seat first...."
Asuka and Hikari arrived at their usual table and sat down, Asuka took a deep breath.
"Hikari, Toji..he had been hired by NERV." Asuka began.
"I didn't know that..." Hikari gasped. "Why wouldn't he tell me? And what do they have him doing?"
"They had wanted him as a pilot."
"A pilot?" Hikari repeated, then she realized. "For Evangelion?"
"Yes," Asuka continued softly. "Unit-03 had arrived."
"Unit-3..." Hikari trailed off. "But wasn't that the Unit that you guys destroyed a few days ago!?"
"Yes."
"But...but Toji wasn't inside right!?" Hikari asked, almost pleadingly. "He wasn't inside was he!?"
"Yes...he was.." Asuka whispered.
What colored was left in Hikari's face vanished. "But....he was hospitalized right!? Is that why I can't reach him? Oh Asuka! Can you take me to go visit him after school?"
Asuka looked at her friend, who was plainly in denial.
"Hikari...he's not in the hospital..."
"So then he's resting at home? Oh I-" Hikari began but Asuka put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Hiakri...listen to me-" she started but Hikari kept babbling on, determined not to let Asuka say it, as if that would make it not true.
Finally, Asuka lay her other hand on Hikari's other shoulder and gave her a gentle shake, "Hikari, you can go see him...but he can't see you, and he can't ever again....he's not coming back..."
Hikari forced a laugh. "W..why Asuka! What a thing to say! Really, he's not-"
"Toji was killed!" Asuka said firmly. "I'm sorry Hikari..."
Hikari did not change her expression from before, still mouth open in mid sentence. Asuka looked concerned.
"Hikari...?"
Asuka shook her again. It was then that she noticed that Hikari's eyes were glitering...and slowly, they formed into a pool and drops of water began to leak out down her cheek.
"Hikari..." Asuka said.
Finally Hikari moved, she looked down at her lap, and drops after drops of tears began to stain her skirt. Asuka put a hand over her shoulder and held her friend close.
"I'm really sorry Hikari..."
Hikari shook her head angrily. "Why....did ...you....not...get..h..h..him out!?" she yelled through her sobs.
"It happened....so fast..." Asuka said.
Hikari broke out of Asuka's hug and fled the scene, leaving Asuka guilt ridden and close to tears herself for her best friend.
Shinji came over then and sat down next to Asuka, he looked as exhausted as Asuka.
"Where were you?" she asked.
"Kensuke." Shinji respond sadly.
"You told him?"
"Yeah..."
"How'd he take it?"
Shinji turned his face around and Asuka saw a small purple bruise on his right cheek.
"Not good huh?" she asked.
"Nope..."
For the rest of the school day, Kensuke was seen absorbed into his computer, even more than usual and would not interact with anybody, and Hikari had disappeared, claiming a bad case of headache. As the day progressed, the students sat bored in their seats, tuning out the sensei and the same old stories about Second Imapact...that was, until the Angel alarm rang. The class looked at Asuka, Rei and Shinji but they were up and running out of the classroom before their cell phones even started ringing.
"Fucking bastards don't take a vacation." Asuka growled.
"Nor would they give us one..." Shinji added.
"Let's hurry." Rei stated.
The three sped for Nerv and arrived as the Command Center was going through launch prep sequence. They went into their lockers and came out in a few minutes dressed for battle, they were helped into their respective plugs by technicians and quickly inserted into the Evas. Units 00 and 02 were launched, but Gendo would not allow the launch of Unit-01 due to its behavior during the last battle.
"What's the scoop on this one?" Asuka asked Misato through the comp.
"Right," she answered as she appeared on Asuka's monitor. "The Fifteenth Angel has appeared in a stable orbit in the outer atmosphere, it is impossible for Evas to battle there so you must try to destroy it as best you can with long range weapons."
"Space?" Rei asked. She had been included in Misato's transmission.
"Yes, so you should use the same positron sniper rifle that we used in the Fifth's attack."
"Understood." she said, the two Evas had arrived at the top sometime ago and has now reached weapons storage building 5-B.
Rei listened to Misato's advise and took out the rifle, Asuka went with her favorite, long range rocket launcher. They took up positions behind buildings and launched their attack. The sky lit up as the Angel was brutally barraged. But it did not seem to affect it, most of their blast did not even reach where the Angel was, those that did, served only to agitate it. In retaliation, the Angel fired what at first seemed to be an energy beam, it made contact with Asuka's Eva before she could roll out of the way.
"Asuka move!" Shinji yelled to her, as he could see the battle from his left monitor.
But all he got in response were screams.
Back at Central Command, Misato and the bridge had been monitoring the fight.
"Aoba!" she yelled. "What the hell is that!?"
"All scans negative, no thermal energy reaction detected, it can't detect anything but light!" he yelled back.
"Asuka is showing abnormal patterns in her psychograph! Mental contamination will start soon!"
"It's trying to make level one contact with a human!?" Ritsuko gasped.
Back at the battle field...
Rei fired with her rifle but even at the highest output it could not pierce the Angel's AT-Field.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Asuka screamed.
"Asuka, whats wrong!?" Shinji yelled.
"NOOOO!! DON'T SHOW ME THIS!!! ANYTHING BUT- MAMA!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"ASUKA!" Shinji yelled as he struggled to get his Eva moving.
"LET ME GO FATHER!!"
"No." Kozo responded sharply. "This target is one which invades the mind of the pilot."
"We must avoid a situation where Unit-1 is invaded now." Gendo agreed.
"So, you mean it's OK as long as I'm not defeated?" Shinji demanded.
"That cannot be guaranteed." Gendo said coldly.
"If this goes on Asuka will-" Shinji began but was interrupted as Asuka cried out again.
Gendo, who had been watching the whole time stood up.
"Rei, get the lance."
The room looked at him.
Kozo looked at him. "The Lance of Longinus!? Ikari, That is-"
"Sir..." Ritsuko mouthed.
"Sir, if Eva and Adam make contact it could trigger Third Impact!" Misato asked. "It's too risky!"
"We have no other way to destroy a target in orbit, who's AT-Field we cannot reach from here. Hurry !" he said.
"Yes Commander." Ritsuko said.
"So that's a lie too?" Misato whispered under her breath.
"Ikari, I think it is too early to use that." Kozo argued.
"The committee has started the mass production of the Eva series. This is our chance, Fuyutsuki." Gendo said.
"But, I cannot..." Kozo trailed off.
"We cannot make the clock move backwards. But, we can make it move forward with our own hands." Gendo said looking at the old professor.
"The Old Men will not allow it." Kozo insisted.
"We must put an end to everything before SEELE takes action. It's not a good idea to lose Unit-2 right now." Gendo replied.
"But if we use the Lance of Longinus without the permission of SEELE, there will be problems." Kozo warned.
"If a reason exists, that is enough. I don't see anything else to consider." Gendo said firmly.
"Reason ? What you really want is an excuse." Kozo sneered.
Rei and Eva-00 was quickly lowered through access hatch-43 to retrieve the famed lance. As she reached Lilith, Rei took hold of the shaft and yanked the embedded lance out of the Second Angel's torso. As she did, the lower part of the Angel, which had been wounded, healed into a pair of new legs. Rei made her way back up to ground level and saw Asuka still in the Angel's hold.
"AHHHHH!!! PLEASE STOP!!! DON'T INVADE MY MIND!!!!!! DON'T LOOK THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Rei, we're sending Pegasus to help as he's the only unit ready, he should be able to get you within range." Maya said.
"Hai." Rei answered and hopped onto the E.M.A.W.P. as soon as it arrived.
Unused to this rider, Pegasus was a bit hard to handle but Rei managed to get him to carry her to the lower atmosphere, as Unit-00 prepared to throw, the Angel attacked her, taking its beam off of Unit-02 and directing it toward Rei.
"Ahh!" Rei cried as the Angel now unleashed its horrifying attack upon her.
Shinji had seen it all from his Eva, and now his rage was beginning to gather.
"Rei and Asuka....Damn you father...Damn you.....if only...mother..." he stopped and looked around him.
"Mom...." he whispered as he tried to recall how he had felt during that brief time he saw her. "If there's ever a time I need you...its now....please, help me save Asuka...."
Thump.
He opened his eyes...there it was again, the same sound as before...
Thump.
He grinned, "Thank you... "
Eva-01 activated and opened its jaws, letting out a roar. It's orange eyes glanced at the restrains and moving its huge arms, torn loose easily, and smashed its way to the elevators.
"SIR!!" Makoto yelled. "UNIT-01!!....IT'S....IT'S MOVING TO GROUND LEVEL VIA ELEVATOR 6!!"
"What!?" Gendo, Misato, Ritsuko, and Kozo yelled in together.
"Impossible, we had all possible lock and bolt attached to it!!" Ritsuko screamed.
They look back to the monitor as Eva-01 now made its appearance, looking just as wild as it had the last time they had seen it in action. It sprinted toward Eva-02, now free of the Angel's beam, and carried it up and back to the elevator from which Unit-01 had come from. Eva-01 then looked up at Eva-00 and the Angel.
When Rei was hit she was not thrown in the same memory scan as Asuka was, instead she experienced a headache like none she had felt before, even almost to the point where the pain was making her drop in and out of focus. She regained her senses long enough to pull on the reins and making Pegasus dive down toward the ground. As she was within half a mile above the ground she lost consciousness and Eva-00, now a limp doll slipped out of the saddle. Shinji saw as she approached and crouched his Eva down, at the right moment he jumped and snatched the blue Eva out of the air just before it would have crashed into the ground, the lance landed just next to them, piecing the ground. Eva-01 put Unit-00 with Unit-02 and went back to pull out the lance.
"Shinji, how did you-" his com-link buzzed with Misato's voice. "Never mind, nows not the time, you're our only hope, you've got to destroy that target!"
Shinji replied by turning to Pegasus, who had landed on a nearby hill and was staring at him. Eva-01 put up its free hand and did a 'come here' motion with its index finger. Pegasus jumped up and landed next to Unit-01, SHinji got on and shot up to a space near where Rei had been. The Angel fired its beam at the two but Eva-01 guided Pegasus through the air, evading all the Angel's attempts. Then Unit-01 turned in the saddle and flung the lance as hard as possible, sending the red bolt through the Angel and off into space.
As the bridge breathed a sign of relief, Kozo asked Makoto.
"Hows the lance?"
Makoto tapped their satellites, "It seems to have been caught in the moon's gravity and is drawn into orbit, at this point recovery is impossible."
"I see." Kozo said and returned to the command box.
"It's gone." he said to Gendo.
"Excellent." Gendo smiled.
Pilots Sohryu and Ayanami were sent to the hospital, while Shinji was brought to the Commander's office in cuffs.
"What you did today was a clear violation of my direct order." Gendo hissed.
Shinji smirked. "We won."
"But-" Gendo was about to speak but Shinji was faster.
"The end justifies the means father, isn't that what you always say?"
Gendo studied his son, 'What the hell had happened to him, the Shinji he had known for years would never talk to him like this, the boy was afraid of his own shadow, it mush be the Second Child...we'll have to take care of her....she was getting useless anyway...'
Gendo looked Shinji in the eyes. "This will not happen again." he said and turned. The guards removed Shinji's cuffs and led him out of the office. Gendo went to his phone and called up the hospital, "Bring me the Second Child."
In a few minutes Asuka entered the office, still in her plug suit.
She didn't say anything, still too dazed and traumatized by the battle.
"Pilot Sohryu," Gendo said. "It has come to my attention that you haven't had a victory to claim your own in a while."
Asuka said nothing, only looked down. Gendo stared at her, after a while she mumbled a weak "Yes sir."
Gendo nodded, "Then you will understand that we will have to take...certin steps to ensure smooth operation of the Evangelion Unit-02."
Asuka stared "You..."
Gendo was laughing inside. "I'm afraid you will be replaced as pilot for that Evangelion Unit."
"NO!" Asuka screamed and rushed the Commander but two guards appeared from the shadows of his office and dragged the girl back.
"Dear dear," Gendo said. "I guess that last attack had some lasting affects huh? Well, you had better be taken to our psychiatric unit hmmm?"
"You! Don't touch-" Asuka struggled against her captors.
"Get her out of my sight." Gendo said..
"SHINJI!!" she cried.
"We'll see how much of an attitude he has now." Gendo said to himself.
"SHINJI!!!"
A/N: Ah...Gendo, you bastard, how we want to kill you now....I hope you like this chapter, please review! I'll update soon now that Summer School's over.
Later.
A/N: OK! Chapter 20! Sorry about the late update, but contrary to my post in the reviews section, I managed to update before the two weeks I had predicted. At last, I have finally gotten to Hikari's reaction to the death of Toji, took a while and got some people asking about it but hey, gotta progress slowly you know? I am fully confident that I won't disappoint your expectations of this story, now enjoy ! Btw, to brighten things up, I've decided to add another St Pika cameo! (Poor guy just doesn't get a break does he?)
Disclaimer: Eh...I don't know...TT
Shinji woke up in his hospital bed, feeling rather hot and stuffy, it was then that he noticed the redheaded girl sprawled across his chest, her flaming red hair tickling his chin. He smiled and tried to slowly move her so he could get up with out waking her. But after a bit she did wake and looked around in the confused state most people are in the minute they wake up.
"Uh....who what where.....?" she mumbled.
Shinji chuckled. "Your boyfriend, you fell asleep, his hospital room." he answered.
Asuka thought for a minute before understanding. "Oh yeah....very funny Shinji."
She sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck, "So, feeling better?"
Shinji flexed his right arm. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Asuka smiled and caught Shinji just staring at her.
"What..?" she asked. "Oh, I'm a mess aren't I!?" she wailed quickly running her hands through her hair.
Shinji grinned, "Course not, I was actually thinking about how great you look for someone who's slept in such an uncomfortable position."
Asuka ginned as seductively as she could, which is on a whole new level from the usual. "Who said I was uncomfortable?"
Shinji laughed and leaped out of the bed and leaned down to kiss her from behind her shoulder. "Then maybe we should do it again tonight..." he said and headed toward the bathroom attached to the room.
Asuka giggled a bit and then a thought hit her, Shinji seemed diffrent...a bit more bold, he seemed to have lost some of that old shyness of his. As she pondered this, he returned and she pushed the idea out of her mind, he had just escaped from being trapped in a giant bio-machine, you had to expect a little change in the person. Shinji put on the clothes Misato had left for him last night as Asuka took her turn to wash her face in the bathroom. Shinji zipped up the duffel bag that had held his clothes and sat on the bed to wait for Asuka so they could get him checked out of there. He took that few minutes to think about being inside that Eva, with his mother, he knew now. The power of the Eva was the soul of his mother, and she would be there for him, always protecting him.
"Why didn't you ever say anything father?" he whispered.
Asuka came out and he stood up, "Let's get outta here huh?" he said holding out his hand.
She took it and nodded.
"Misato! We're back!" Asuka yelled as they came inside the apartment. She got no answer.
"Huh, must be at work." Shinji said and went to dump his bag in the laundry room. Asuka went inside her room to change out of the clothes she had been in since leaving her locker at Nerv last night. She slipped into something more comfortable and went back out only to bump into Shinji as he was about to knock on her door.
"Oh!" she said, startled. "What did you want?"
"Was gonna ask you want you want to order for lunch, don't really feel up to cooking." Shinji said.
"Oh, whatever you want..." she said and patted him gently on the cheek as she went pass him. "Join me in the living room when you're done."
Shinji nodded and went to the kitchen and spotted a flier for a new take out dinner place.
He glanced it over and decided to order the American dinner combo and called the number.
Meanwhile, Asuka settled into her soft bean bag chair and started to channel surf, she heard Shinji making the phone call to order food and flipped a few more channels before getting up to just get a movie as there wasn't anything good on. She opened the cabinet and dug through the many movies they had accumulated over the months and spotted something promising. James "Bond 007: Die Another Day"
"Bingo." she said and put the disk in the DVD player, then she got up over to the kitchen to see if Shinji was done with the ordering. He was, and he was getting some pop out of the fridge for them.
Asuka came up behind him and hugged him, "Come on, I'm starting a movie."
"Alright," he said. "Orange soda? Or coke?"
Asuka responded coke so Shinji got the drinks and went with Asuka to the living room and watched the movie.
Around the time when James was blowing up a hospital in Cuba, the doorbell rang and Shinji left Asuka to go answer it.
Opening the door he saw a blond man with a cart of food in take-out boxes. As Shinji handed him the money and the man unload their food, Shinji asked.
"Have we met before?"
The man looked at him, "Now that you mention it...I think you do look fimilar...."
Shinji then snapped his fingers. "You're the McDonald's guy! I remember you giving me a free Sundae!"
Jason smiled. "Oh yeah...so how are you and her doing?"
"As a matter of fact, we're watching a movie right now." he replied.
"Oh? How nice, good luck kid!" the man said.
"Thanks." Shinji replied.
Just as he was about to leave, a mob of black suits appeared down the hall, their leader, an Asian man with slick hair and a pair of black sunglasses ran toward Shinji and the food delivery man.
"Mr. Emery, we meet again." he said.
"Oh crap!" Jason said and looked around for a way out.
"Did you think you could escape the mainframe?" the black suit said. "We have been watching you Mr. Emery, we know you have been leading two lifes....in one, you are a respected writer on cyberspace and renowned all around...in the other, you pass as a collage geography major who has a taste for brunettes and food-related jobs. One of these, has a future, the other, does not."
"Screw you man!" Jason yelled. "I need a break damn it, all of writing that WAFF has nearly sapped my mind!"
"You have not updated in a while, Mr. Emery..." the leader said. "I'm afraid you will have to come with us..."
"NEVER!!" Jason yelled in defiance and jumped on the food cart and sped to wards the other end of the hall.
The black suit leader growled. "There is no escape...from Agent 'Sith'...." all of the look alikes took out duel red light-sabers and chased after the screaming man riding on the food cart.
Shinji stood in the doorway of his apartment with a boxes of food stacked in front of him, he looked down the hall at the disappearing mob and then to the can of soda in his hand. He quickly chucked the can of Sunkist over the side of the building. And swore off orange soda.
"I like UCC coffee better anyway..." he mumbled as he brought the boxes inside.
They sped the afternoon just laying around and chatting after lunch and the movie. Then Asuka challenged Shinji to several games of poker, which he lost spectacularly and resulted in him owning Asuka a lot of "favors". Asuka decide to exercise her first one by having Shinji give her a back rub and teasing him every second of it, causing even his new attitude to slacken a bit and his cheeks to light up to a crimson that at one point outdid her hair. As the time rolled by, Misato finally dragged herself home at around 6PM, cursing Gendo Ikari, (Who she was fond of calling the motherfucking son of a bitch) and ranting on about how all of Nerv's paper work was centered on her and how Ritsuko left several stacks of forms about getting a few extra zeros in her budget so she could further develop the existing Eva weapons. After half an hour of this the two teens escape to Asuka's room on the pretense of packing for school tomorrow.
"Fast thinking Asuka-chan." Shinji said as they slammed the door behind them.
Asuka gave her famous cocky smile and pushed him playfully on the bed, climbed on top of him and brought her face close. "Remember Third, your girlfriend is a collage graduate, brains, beauty, and the best pilot you can find. You should know how to count your blessings."
Shinji laughed and shook his head. "You won't get no arguments from me Asuka-chan."
Asuka kissed him. "Well, maybe we'd better get packed for real, oh Hikari is gonna-"
They both stopped, and it was then that they remembered about Toji. They felt ashamed that they had forgotten him with all that has happened, and Asuka got of Shinji and sat next to him.
Asuka looked down at her lap. "Shinji....how are we suppose to break this to them....?"
Shinji looked up at the ceiling, he didn't respond for a minute, then he said, "I really don't know Asuka, how do you tell your best friend's girlfriend and your other best friend that he's not coming back?"
He looked down and sighed, "And how do you tell them that you're the one who caused it..."
Asuka grabbed his hand.
"Please Shinji," she said. "We've been over this, it's not your fault!"
Shinji sighed again. "I know...look, I'm tired. Let's just get some sleep."
Before Asuka could say anything else he left her room and went into his. Asuka sat for a moment, then she went out too.
As Shinji crawled under the covers, he tried not to think too much about tomorrow and what to tell Kensuke and Hikari. As he lay in his bed turning it over and over, he felt something at the end of his bed. He lifted his head up and saw Asuka joining him. As she came out of the covers next to him he opened his mouth but Asuka said simply.
"Better if I stayed with you."
Shinji did not protest, but neither did he say anything. Asuka put her arm over him and said.
"Don't think too much about tomorrow, just get some sleep now. It'll come when it comes."
Asuka woke up at around 6:30 am the next morning, she had felt Shinji rolling around last night, a sign of stress that only she knew Shinji displayed. She now looked at her boyfriend, even asleep he looked troubled, his eyebrows were furrowed and his face looked a bit dark. Asuka didn't think it necessary to wake him just yet, so she slipped out of his bed and then his room. She returned to her room to grab her school clothes and went into the bathroom to shower. She came out twenty minutes later, and headed to wards the kitchen. On the way she passed the living room and the drunken forms of the Major and her loyal Penguin, shaking her head, she made her way to the kitchen and set about the task of making sandwiches.
Half an hour later.
"Shinji..."
"Errr..." he mumbled.
"Shinji, wake up."
"Huh...what?" he said as he opened his eyes, and saw Asuka face above him.
"Now that's surely the way to wake up..." he mumbled sleepily.
Asuka groaned and started to shake him, "I mean it, we really don't want to be late after being out for so long."
Shinji finally sat up and rubbed his eyes, "Huh? Yeah...right..ok.."
Asuka dragged him out of bed and into the bathroom, then she turned on the shower but using cold water only, then she pushed Shinji, still dressed in shirt and shorts, into the shower. The shout which resulted was loud enough to wake the dead, and nearly enough to wake the drunk Katsurigi and Pen-Pen but not just quite.
Fifteen minutes later.
"That.." Shinji panted as they ran to school. "Wasn't...fun!"
Asuka smirked. "For me it was, and that's what you get for not waking up when I tell you to! What's wrong with you? Didn't sleep well? You usually get up naturally..."
"Yeah...feel more tired than when I fell asleep if anything..." Shinji groaned.
They reached the gates and just entered the main building when the bell rang.
"Damn." Shinji said and they dashed to the room A-2.
"Stand, bow, s-" Hikari was stopped when the door slammed open and the two pilots fell inside, having collided at the door, the whole class stared at them.
"Err...morning sensei..." Asuka smiled weakly as she and Shinji struggled to get off each other.
"Hmmm, please go to your seats, we're just about to start." the sensei said.
Embarrassed by their entrance, the two made their way to their seats and sat down. As the sensei began he lecture, Asuka caught Hikari looking at her, undoubtedly she wanted to run to Asuka and find out what she knew about Toji's whereabouts.
"Damn..." Asuka muttered under her breath. "Of all the people...she had to choose the jock...and now he's dead..."
At lunch, as Asuka had expected, Hikari ran up to her.
"Asuka! Do you know anything about Toji!?" she asked franticly. "Cuss he doesn't return my calls...and his family won't tell me anything!"
Asuka looked at her friend sadly, "Hikari....lets go out and have a seat first...."
Asuka and Hikari arrived at their usual table and sat down, Asuka took a deep breath.
"Hikari, Toji..he had been hired by NERV." Asuka began.
"I didn't know that..." Hikari gasped. "Why wouldn't he tell me? And what do they have him doing?"
"They had wanted him as a pilot."
"A pilot?" Hikari repeated, then she realized. "For Evangelion?"
"Yes," Asuka continued softly. "Unit-03 had arrived."
"Unit-3..." Hikari trailed off. "But wasn't that the Unit that you guys destroyed a few days ago!?"
"Yes."
"But...but Toji wasn't inside right!?" Hikari asked, almost pleadingly. "He wasn't inside was he!?"
"Yes...he was.." Asuka whispered.
What colored was left in Hikari's face vanished. "But....he was hospitalized right!? Is that why I can't reach him? Oh Asuka! Can you take me to go visit him after school?"
Asuka looked at her friend, who was plainly in denial.
"Hikari...he's not in the hospital..."
"So then he's resting at home? Oh I-" Hikari began but Asuka put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Hiakri...listen to me-" she started but Hikari kept babbling on, determined not to let Asuka say it, as if that would make it not true.
Finally, Asuka lay her other hand on Hikari's other shoulder and gave her a gentle shake, "Hikari, you can go see him...but he can't see you, and he can't ever again....he's not coming back..."
Hikari forced a laugh. "W..why Asuka! What a thing to say! Really, he's not-"
"Toji was killed!" Asuka said firmly. "I'm sorry Hikari..."
Hikari did not change her expression from before, still mouth open in mid sentence. Asuka looked concerned.
"Hikari...?"
Asuka shook her again. It was then that she noticed that Hikari's eyes were glitering...and slowly, they formed into a pool and drops of water began to leak out down her cheek.
"Hikari..." Asuka said.
Finally Hikari moved, she looked down at her lap, and drops after drops of tears began to stain her skirt. Asuka put a hand over her shoulder and held her friend close.
"I'm really sorry Hikari..."
Hikari shook her head angrily. "Why....did ...you....not...get..h..h..him out!?" she yelled through her sobs.
"It happened....so fast..." Asuka said.
Hikari broke out of Asuka's hug and fled the scene, leaving Asuka guilt ridden and close to tears herself for her best friend.
Shinji came over then and sat down next to Asuka, he looked as exhausted as Asuka.
"Where were you?" she asked.
"Kensuke." Shinji respond sadly.
"You told him?"
"Yeah..."
"How'd he take it?"
Shinji turned his face around and Asuka saw a small purple bruise on his right cheek.
"Not good huh?" she asked.
"Nope..."
For the rest of the school day, Kensuke was seen absorbed into his computer, even more than usual and would not interact with anybody, and Hikari had disappeared, claiming a bad case of headache. As the day progressed, the students sat bored in their seats, tuning out the sensei and the same old stories about Second Imapact...that was, until the Angel alarm rang. The class looked at Asuka, Rei and Shinji but they were up and running out of the classroom before their cell phones even started ringing.
"Fucking bastards don't take a vacation." Asuka growled.
"Nor would they give us one..." Shinji added.
"Let's hurry." Rei stated.
The three sped for Nerv and arrived as the Command Center was going through launch prep sequence. They went into their lockers and came out in a few minutes dressed for battle, they were helped into their respective plugs by technicians and quickly inserted into the Evas. Units 00 and 02 were launched, but Gendo would not allow the launch of Unit-01 due to its behavior during the last battle.
"What's the scoop on this one?" Asuka asked Misato through the comp.
"Right," she answered as she appeared on Asuka's monitor. "The Fifteenth Angel has appeared in a stable orbit in the outer atmosphere, it is impossible for Evas to battle there so you must try to destroy it as best you can with long range weapons."
"Space?" Rei asked. She had been included in Misato's transmission.
"Yes, so you should use the same positron sniper rifle that we used in the Fifth's attack."
"Understood." she said, the two Evas had arrived at the top sometime ago and has now reached weapons storage building 5-B.
Rei listened to Misato's advise and took out the rifle, Asuka went with her favorite, long range rocket launcher. They took up positions behind buildings and launched their attack. The sky lit up as the Angel was brutally barraged. But it did not seem to affect it, most of their blast did not even reach where the Angel was, those that did, served only to agitate it. In retaliation, the Angel fired what at first seemed to be an energy beam, it made contact with Asuka's Eva before she could roll out of the way.
"Asuka move!" Shinji yelled to her, as he could see the battle from his left monitor.
But all he got in response were screams.
Back at Central Command, Misato and the bridge had been monitoring the fight.
"Aoba!" she yelled. "What the hell is that!?"
"All scans negative, no thermal energy reaction detected, it can't detect anything but light!" he yelled back.
"Asuka is showing abnormal patterns in her psychograph! Mental contamination will start soon!"
"It's trying to make level one contact with a human!?" Ritsuko gasped.
Back at the battle field...
Rei fired with her rifle but even at the highest output it could not pierce the Angel's AT-Field.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Asuka screamed.
"Asuka, whats wrong!?" Shinji yelled.
"NOOOO!! DON'T SHOW ME THIS!!! ANYTHING BUT- MAMA!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"ASUKA!" Shinji yelled as he struggled to get his Eva moving.
"LET ME GO FATHER!!"
"No." Kozo responded sharply. "This target is one which invades the mind of the pilot."
"We must avoid a situation where Unit-1 is invaded now." Gendo agreed.
"So, you mean it's OK as long as I'm not defeated?" Shinji demanded.
"That cannot be guaranteed." Gendo said coldly.
"If this goes on Asuka will-" Shinji began but was interrupted as Asuka cried out again.
Gendo, who had been watching the whole time stood up.
"Rei, get the lance."
The room looked at him.
Kozo looked at him. "The Lance of Longinus!? Ikari, That is-"
"Sir..." Ritsuko mouthed.
"Sir, if Eva and Adam make contact it could trigger Third Impact!" Misato asked. "It's too risky!"
"We have no other way to destroy a target in orbit, who's AT-Field we cannot reach from here. Hurry !" he said.
"Yes Commander." Ritsuko said.
"So that's a lie too?" Misato whispered under her breath.
"Ikari, I think it is too early to use that." Kozo argued.
"The committee has started the mass production of the Eva series. This is our chance, Fuyutsuki." Gendo said.
"But, I cannot..." Kozo trailed off.
"We cannot make the clock move backwards. But, we can make it move forward with our own hands." Gendo said looking at the old professor.
"The Old Men will not allow it." Kozo insisted.
"We must put an end to everything before SEELE takes action. It's not a good idea to lose Unit-2 right now." Gendo replied.
"But if we use the Lance of Longinus without the permission of SEELE, there will be problems." Kozo warned.
"If a reason exists, that is enough. I don't see anything else to consider." Gendo said firmly.
"Reason ? What you really want is an excuse." Kozo sneered.
Rei and Eva-00 was quickly lowered through access hatch-43 to retrieve the famed lance. As she reached Lilith, Rei took hold of the shaft and yanked the embedded lance out of the Second Angel's torso. As she did, the lower part of the Angel, which had been wounded, healed into a pair of new legs. Rei made her way back up to ground level and saw Asuka still in the Angel's hold.
"AHHHHH!!! PLEASE STOP!!! DON'T INVADE MY MIND!!!!!! DON'T LOOK THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Rei, we're sending Pegasus to help as he's the only unit ready, he should be able to get you within range." Maya said.
"Hai." Rei answered and hopped onto the E.M.A.W.P. as soon as it arrived.
Unused to this rider, Pegasus was a bit hard to handle but Rei managed to get him to carry her to the lower atmosphere, as Unit-00 prepared to throw, the Angel attacked her, taking its beam off of Unit-02 and directing it toward Rei.
"Ahh!" Rei cried as the Angel now unleashed its horrifying attack upon her.
Shinji had seen it all from his Eva, and now his rage was beginning to gather.
"Rei and Asuka....Damn you father...Damn you.....if only...mother..." he stopped and looked around him.
"Mom...." he whispered as he tried to recall how he had felt during that brief time he saw her. "If there's ever a time I need you...its now....please, help me save Asuka...."
Thump.
He opened his eyes...there it was again, the same sound as before...
Thump.
He grinned, "Thank you... "
Eva-01 activated and opened its jaws, letting out a roar. It's orange eyes glanced at the restrains and moving its huge arms, torn loose easily, and smashed its way to the elevators.
"SIR!!" Makoto yelled. "UNIT-01!!....IT'S....IT'S MOVING TO GROUND LEVEL VIA ELEVATOR 6!!"
"What!?" Gendo, Misato, Ritsuko, and Kozo yelled in together.
"Impossible, we had all possible lock and bolt attached to it!!" Ritsuko screamed.
They look back to the monitor as Eva-01 now made its appearance, looking just as wild as it had the last time they had seen it in action. It sprinted toward Eva-02, now free of the Angel's beam, and carried it up and back to the elevator from which Unit-01 had come from. Eva-01 then looked up at Eva-00 and the Angel.
When Rei was hit she was not thrown in the same memory scan as Asuka was, instead she experienced a headache like none she had felt before, even almost to the point where the pain was making her drop in and out of focus. She regained her senses long enough to pull on the reins and making Pegasus dive down toward the ground. As she was within half a mile above the ground she lost consciousness and Eva-00, now a limp doll slipped out of the saddle. Shinji saw as she approached and crouched his Eva down, at the right moment he jumped and snatched the blue Eva out of the air just before it would have crashed into the ground, the lance landed just next to them, piecing the ground. Eva-01 put Unit-00 with Unit-02 and went back to pull out the lance.
"Shinji, how did you-" his com-link buzzed with Misato's voice. "Never mind, nows not the time, you're our only hope, you've got to destroy that target!"
Shinji replied by turning to Pegasus, who had landed on a nearby hill and was staring at him. Eva-01 put up its free hand and did a 'come here' motion with its index finger. Pegasus jumped up and landed next to Unit-01, SHinji got on and shot up to a space near where Rei had been. The Angel fired its beam at the two but Eva-01 guided Pegasus through the air, evading all the Angel's attempts. Then Unit-01 turned in the saddle and flung the lance as hard as possible, sending the red bolt through the Angel and off into space.
As the bridge breathed a sign of relief, Kozo asked Makoto.
"Hows the lance?"
Makoto tapped their satellites, "It seems to have been caught in the moon's gravity and is drawn into orbit, at this point recovery is impossible."
"I see." Kozo said and returned to the command box.
"It's gone." he said to Gendo.
"Excellent." Gendo smiled.
Pilots Sohryu and Ayanami were sent to the hospital, while Shinji was brought to the Commander's office in cuffs.
"What you did today was a clear violation of my direct order." Gendo hissed.
Shinji smirked. "We won."
"But-" Gendo was about to speak but Shinji was faster.
"The end justifies the means father, isn't that what you always say?"
Gendo studied his son, 'What the hell had happened to him, the Shinji he had known for years would never talk to him like this, the boy was afraid of his own shadow, it mush be the Second Child...we'll have to take care of her....she was getting useless anyway...'
Gendo looked Shinji in the eyes. "This will not happen again." he said and turned. The guards removed Shinji's cuffs and led him out of the office. Gendo went to his phone and called up the hospital, "Bring me the Second Child."
In a few minutes Asuka entered the office, still in her plug suit.
She didn't say anything, still too dazed and traumatized by the battle.
"Pilot Sohryu," Gendo said. "It has come to my attention that you haven't had a victory to claim your own in a while."
Asuka said nothing, only looked down. Gendo stared at her, after a while she mumbled a weak "Yes sir."
Gendo nodded, "Then you will understand that we will have to take...certin steps to ensure smooth operation of the Evangelion Unit-02."
Asuka stared "You..."
Gendo was laughing inside. "I'm afraid you will be replaced as pilot for that Evangelion Unit."
"NO!" Asuka screamed and rushed the Commander but two guards appeared from the shadows of his office and dragged the girl back.
"Dear dear," Gendo said. "I guess that last attack had some lasting affects huh? Well, you had better be taken to our psychiatric unit hmmm?"
"You! Don't touch-" Asuka struggled against her captors.
"Get her out of my sight." Gendo said..
"SHINJI!!" she cried.
"We'll see how much of an attitude he has now." Gendo said to himself.
"SHINJI!!!"
A/N: Ah...Gendo, you bastard, how we want to kill you now....I hope you like this chapter, please review! I'll update soon now that Summer School's over.
Later.