SHINJI'S DECISION

Shinji sat next to Kinana faced down and worry all over his face. His friend, yes he comfortably calls her friend,was lying on a small bed clearly in pain and breathing heavily. She tossed and turned a little from time to time;clearly she was having nightmares and all Shinji could to do was to be next to her. He didn't want to be anywhere else right now.

Kinana had been the person who found Shinji when he found himself in this world.

It took some time to piece together from his memories, but after fighting and destroying all seventeen Angels with his Eva unit NERV was assaulted by Japanese military and murdered almost everyone mercilessly. All his pain and hell he was put though was ultimately for nothing. They had no use for him and now he would be finished by same humans he had supposedly be protecting.

He would have accepted being killed but even that was taken away when Misato forced him to pilot EVA-01 again and watched Asuka and his unit torn apart by these white,flying EVAs he had no idea about.

Kinana took care of him when he was a total wreck. He felt happiness in what seemed like forever all because of her and even confided with her his past life. She listened patiently and never judged or counted him. She promised to keep it a secret until he was ready to tell others in the Guild eventually.

Now being close was the least he could do for her. But it still made him miserable that he was unable to actually help her. Dark thoughts would come about his worthlessness but he kept fighting them off.

'I'll never run away again. Not from you. I promise'

Two mages were walking by when they stopped by the room's door. They could see Shinji in a slump and looking down while sitting next to a virtually comatose Kinana.

Despite his mind struggling with his thoughts he could hear them standing outside.

"He's been like this for days. He should have some food at least."

"Not the time Droy. Let him be. Both of them are very close after all"

Shinji recognised the voices belonged to Droy and Jet respectively. The two men were part of Levy's team and Levy McGarden was one the missing Guildmembers from Tenrou Island who had returned recently.

"Is there something we can do?"

"You heard the master. Taking on the infinity clock is mostly likely to help Kinana. There has to be a relation to what is happening outside and her condition."

Shinji's eyes widened on hearing this as gears began to shift in his head.

He heard footsteps of them walking away with Jet saying

"Come on. Ichiya and the team to rescue Lucy will be leaving soon. We're fighting for them as well"

Shinji made his decision. He wouldn't let his friend suffer any longer.

A/N : Wow! My very first fanfic and I'm revisiting it after over 2 years. A lot has happened which can be summed up in 2020. COVID Pandemic, BLM protests, US elections. Hope next year would be less crazy than this one.