10:00pm, Tokyo-3, fortified position 21
It had taken an hour and a bit to move the Evas into position. Both Units had been mobilised, even before Shinji had agreed to resume active duty. Clearly NERV didn't do anything by half measures. In the distance, roughly a kilometre away, the lights of Japan's capital city illuminated its occupier. The occasional flaring of orange light indicating it was still cutting into the earth below it.
Still driving towards what he'd seen in Terminal Dogma.
Everything was in place, the time of engagement would be 10:30pm, and he would be the person to pull the trigger of the weapon which NERV had procured scarcely hours before.
The positron rifle.
A weapon which apparently would have taken the entire power supply of Japan to fire in years gone past...
Upon a raised concrete artillery emplacement, the young man in question was sitting with his arms folded around his knees. To his left, sat his comrade, Pilot Rei Ayanami.
He was still fearful of what duty had outlined for him, and Shinji reckoned he'd always be afraid of it. But Misato, NERV, humanity, and the strange girl that confounded him so, needed him to do it. Or else everything died.
Before him resided a lying down Unit 01, positron rifle placed in its hands. Just behind one of the nearby hills, crouched the gold and white armoured giant designated Unit 00, a great shield held in its right arm. One which had been apparently made from the underside of a NASA space shuttle...
Super weapons, monsters in the basement, and now a damned Space Shuttle. Just what the hell doesn't NERV have?
The stars twinkled away in the night sky, their usual brilliance being useful as something to distract him from the momentous task he was to commit himself to.
The task of slaying a demigod.
And as if to add to that, he now knew full well the consequences of defeat.
We can't fail.
His eyebrows narrowed for a moment, before he turned his gaze upon Rei.
They both wore plugsuits with their ever present itching. These days Shinji only occasionally scratched uncomfortable places, whilst his comrade appeared unaffected. She just sat there, in her skin tight white suit that would have sent most of Sengokuhara High's male students into a blushing frenzy. To him however, she was not "sexy" or "attractive." For you see, in the pale moonlight, the girl who could be regarded as his sister, was nothing but stunning to him.
Rei hadn't spoken a word since their brief conversation in the hospital, and now was no different. She stared off into the distance, at her Eva, at the stars, or at the Seraph, he didn't know.
"So...how are you holding up?" He said nervously to all that was left of his mother.
No, she's not mother...she's Ayanami-san.
"My previous injuries are no longer problematic. I shall be operating at maximum efficiency." She said blankly.
As was to be expected.
Shinji shook his head and laughed under his breath. However, Rei had good hearing.
"What is so funny?"
"Oh...i-it's nothing. Really."
Her expression remained blank but directed at him.
"Fine...I just think it's incredible how you're so...fearless." He said quietly, trying to find the appropriate words.
"Fear is irrelevant to me. I must carry out the duty for which I was created."
Whilst a little part of him seethed with anger over whatever father had conditioned her to think, Shinji could not help but find such sentiment...admirable.
"You're a lot stronger than me, Ayanami-san." He said in some disbelief.
"How?"
Her simple word of response stumped him for a second, as he stumbled over what to say next. As if his pathetic nature had ever needed explaining to anyone.
"Well you aren't a coward. Or dishonest, or sneaky, or a wimp. Anyone else in the world has more strength than me, but you...considering what they ask of you...you're inspiring."
"Why are you lying?"
"What?"
"You are not a coward. If you were, then the 4th Seraph would have succeeded. A coward would not have tried to shield me from falling debris with their own body, nor challenged their own father on behalf of a stranger. Neither would they have continued to put themselves in life threatening situations on behalf of others."
The orphaned and abandoned child stared on in a dumbfounded manner as Rei continued.
"You have never been dishonest with me, nor sneaky. And I doubt you ever will. Your temperament is...not adequate for it." She looked thoughtful for a while, in as much a person such as the albino could.
"I feel nothing except my purpose. You're strength is different to my own, but it is still there. You feel many things, fear being the most prevalent. And yet you push past it in the fulfilment of your duty. That is an admirable quality to many." Rei stood up and walked over to the building's railings, placing a hand upon them.
"What is it like? To feel fear?" She inquired.
His mind taken off the task at hand, Shinji spent a few moments opening and closing his mouth before speaking.
"I'm not sure how to describe it...it's like this bottomless feeling in your stomach that you get when you think something is about to go wrong. That's the best I can do."
She remained silent for a while before speaking again.
"I have never felt such a thing." Her back was turned to him now.
"But you feel it now though, do you not?" She added.
Shinji had never lied to her so far, and he intended to keep it that way. And with his gaze fixed on the great floating octahedron which had nearly snuffed out his life some eight hours ago, fear had a terrible grip on his heart.
"Yes." He nodded.
But even if I am scared...I will do my duty. For Japan, my people, my Emperor, my schoolmates, those soldiers I met all those weeks ago, Misato,...and you. He drank in Rei's image, not in a perverted manner, but in one of fond affection.
He hoped it would not be the last time he felt such things. But mixed in within those feelings, he found something bizarre to himself. After talking to Rei, he felt a burning desire to cave in the face of anyone who laid a finger on her. Although he didn't understand them, it would not be the last time Shinji's big brother instincts would be kicking in...then a feeling of wetness on his cheek caught his attention.
Realising that unnoticed and unwanted tear was trickling down it, he frantically wiped it away before she could notice.
The bluehead became silent for a full minute straight after that.
I do not wish for you to feel fear...I know not why I care for you, maybe it is because of my progenitor or how you have treated me. It is irrelevant. The fact is...that I do.
In the light of the moon, a light which made her ethereal yet beautiful young skin glow, and her hair shine like starlight, she turned her ruby red gaze upon him, a gaze many would think incapable of displaying emotion. But, today a small spark of compassion could be detected within them.
You strange alien creature...you who have shown me compassion even though you know my origins. Not once have you looked down on me for it, or been repulsed. Even if the thoughts of others matter little to me...I am glad to have met you, Shinji Ikari.
"You need not feel fear, Ikari. I shall protect you, with my life if it must be so." Her gaze flashed back over to Unit 00.
The boy in question stared on, aghast. The thought of someone vowing to give their life for his own pointless one, was nigh incomprehensible to him.
"It is time. Goodbye..." She began to walk away, not before he managed to snap himself out of his stupor and stand up, stammering out a few words.
"No. This...this isn't goodbye, Ayanami-san. Alright? We'll...protect each other."
His words earned a quick glance of acknowledgement from the albino in question, before she leaped over the railing, and landed perfectly on the ground some five metres below them.
Despite all the tension he was feeling, Shinji couldn't help but chuckle in disbelief.
He'd heard clones could be modified to be superior to ordinary human beings, but even then, that was impressive and seemed quite in character for her.
"Incredible." He shook his head before turning his own cerulean gaze upon Unit 01, his expression becoming grim.
Well...shall we try this again?