DISCLAIMER: I do not own and will in all likelihood never own Evangelion and the associated intellectual properties. They are the property of whoever owns them now or in the infinity of time beyond now.
Warning! This story is a Lemon. We are now seven chapters in, but I am including this warning for the particularly naïve or blind. Though if you are here for the Lemon skip to the end because the first part is just plot and battles and stuff.
Standard:
"This" is speech.
'This' is thoughts.
OPERATION: GRAUPELBRECHER
"Does it have to be so tight?" Toji asked no one in particular as he came into the Matsushiro command post from the on-site locker room.
"You're probably used to the baggier clothes you wear in basketball. You should have been a swimmer or a gymnast." NERV Operations Director, Major Katsuragi said turning around to face him.
"Those aren't really a man's sport." Toji said as he crossed his arms and his face read displeasure.
"Ah, you don't want me to see you in a skin-tight speedo?" Misato said in her most playful voice as she leaned toward him with her index finger on her chin.
"Shinji wasn't kidding about your teasing was he." Toji sweat dropped as he remembered the stories the Third Child would tell him about his home life. "Does it hurt?" Toji said, his tone becoming much more serious as he remembered the strain written on Shinji's face when he and Kensuke were in the entry plug with him during the fight with the Fourth Angel.
"Due to how the synchronization process works you'll feel everything the Eva feels. The higher the synchronization rate, the more responsive your Eva, but also the more connected to your nervous system and its pain receptors." Misato said with her arms crossed in her serious commander voice, letting Toji know honestly what was in store for him once they placed him in the entry plug after the Dummy Plug tests were complete.
"I think Rei knows I'm the pilot, but not Shinji or Asuka." Toji said as he remembered his rooftop conversation with Rei as his brooding did the impossible, killed his appetite.
"You'll tell them when we get back to Tokyo-3?" Misato asked. She'd deliberately not told them Toji was the pilot, she'd worried it be too much for Asuka since she was suspended from piloting and what Shinji's reaction might be to a friend becoming an Eva pilot.
"Yeah. I bet Sohryu will be pissed." Both of them shared a laugh as they imagined the German redhead fuming at the knowledge of Toji, of all people, being the Fourth Child.
"Dummy Plug inserted. Program loading." One of the faceless Matsushiro personnel relayed as remote controlled mechanisms placed the experimental technology in Unit-03. NERV was taking no chances. The entire testing area was fully automated with only a skeleton crew in hardened command and observation posts like the one they were in now.
"Begin initial activation." Dr. Ritsuko Akagi said as she leaned over one of her assistant's monitors to better glean the torrent of data they were receiving.
"Power surge detected!" Someone shouted across the room.
"What's going on!" Misato asked frantically jumping to the observation window to get a better look at the situation.
"Cut the power immediately!" Ritsuko ordered jumping over to the central control station and swiping her ID card to open the emergency shutoff panel.
"The failsafe already did but it isn't stopping!" An orderly anxiously said as Ritsuko repeatedly slammed the big red button to no avail.
"Brace!" Ritsuko ordered just as a bright light engulfed Unit-03 before spreading to the rest of the Matsushiro facility. The staff ducked under their stations while Toji tackled Misato to the floor away from the exposed position she was in, shielding her with his body as the shockwave hit the control center. As the light and shockwave passed an animalistic, primal roar echoed through the devastated facility as an obsidian black entity awoke and began striding towards its singular purpose.
Central Dogma: Ten minutes later
"We've confirmed the Dummy Plug signal in Unit-03 but it is unresponsive to any commands." Lieutenant Hyuga said as Lieutenant Ibuki once again unsuccessfully tried to reestablish control over the errant Eva.
"Evangelion Unit 03 will be abandoned at this time. It will be designated as the Thirteenth Angel." NERV Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari said coolly. His trademarked gloved hands steepled in front of his face hiding his emotions behind well-constructed walls.
"Understood sir." Hyuga said as the Magi changed the designation and tried to establish orange or blue blood patterns for the newly minted angel.
"Deploy Unit-00 to Mt. Nobe as planned." Commander Ikari said as he studied one of NERV's many contingency plans "Rei. Destroy the target." Gendo said, his tone warming slightly as he spoke the First Child's name.
"Yes." Rei Ayanami responded from the entry plug of Unit-00.
Soon Unit-00 was deployed and positioned in an idyllic area of Japan's Post-Impact countryside that lay on the most direct route from Matsushiro to Tokyo-3. The lightly populated towns and farms having been hastily evacuated. The Eva-sized sniper rifle, well really an anti-material rifle but semantics and reality rarely see eye-to-eye, was aiming toward a gap in the mountains that JSSDF Reconnaissance identified as where the 13th Angel would enter the valley that was Rei's field of fire.
Before long, murders of black crows cawed as they flew above the mountains in the afternoon sun disturbed by the approaching black mass. Trees snapped and splintered as Bardiel appeared walking into the open valley. Its black carapace of armor glinting in the sun as it was strewn with fleshy tendrils and mutations, mouth agape and arms at its side as it moved towards its destiny.
The First Child activated her targeting system, the display moving down to in front of her face as she positioned the crosshair on the former Eva's black head.
Rei breathed out, holding her breath as her finger pressed down on the trigger built into the Eva's controls and the neural connectors on her head sent her thoughts to the Eva, whose own trigger finger began to sympathetically depress. But rather than a bang ringing in her ears or the force of a recoil in her shoulder, Rei heard only a terrifying, gut wrenching "click".
It had misfired. A weapon that had taken nigh on a decade of development and collaboration from a half dozen of the world's leading arms manufacturers with a budget large enough to build an aircraft carrier had failed the one time it had been necessary to fire it in anger.
"Wha-!?" Rei began, her usually calm façade broken in the face of the unexpected. But it was too late. The click had given away her position to the Angel and the formerly plodding Bardiel had moved with speed worthy of the angel of lightning and jumped into the sky. With the sun behind it, even the Eva's sensors had trouble discerning its position in the heavens. Rei only barely managed to twist the sniper rifle in her arms and hold it like a staff to block the Thirteenth's strike. Its arms had elongated unnaturally in flight and using the force they offered the Angel twisted the rifle in Unit-00's hands, sending it flying when Rei couldn't keep a firm grip on it. The useless rifle spun three times before burying its muzzle in a nearby hill so the stock was pointed at an angle toward the sky.
Bardiel then grabbed the Eva's hands in its own and backflipped over Unit-00, so that Rei's Eva's arms were behind her and powerless. The Angel then forced the Eva to the ground, the thud sending vibrations for kilometers as metric tons of metal and cloned flesh fell down.
Rei was helpless, her arms held in place and her legs thrashing uselessly. The angel then opened its mouth and putrid, dark, and viscous fluid that smelled of death and corruption poured onto Unit-00's hands, deforming them and causing the veins in both Rei's and Unit-00's arms to bulge in sympathetic agony at the onslaught.
"Mental Contamination spreading!" Aoba yelled as he looked at his monitors at the worrying state of the Eva.
"Sever the arms." Gendo Ikari commanded laconically.
"But sir she's still connected it woul-" Maya Ibuki began objecting to the order she'd been given.
"Do it!" Commander Ikari repeated firmly allowing for no debate.
Explosives positioned at the base of Unit-00's arms detonated, sending indescribable pain into Rei's mind as she curled into a fetal position in the entry plug and filled it with excruciating cries that would make anyone wonder how she could ever be called a doll. Mercifully the Angel seemed to grow tired of its foe now that it couldn't fight back and moved on.
"Instruct UN Secondary Forces to delay the Angel and keep it in the Mt. Nobe area." Gendo ordered calmly, mouth behind his hands, seemingly unphased by the fate of Rei.
"Yes sir!" Lieutenant Aoba said as he opened a channel to the local JSSDF commanders.
"And prep Units 01 and 02 for immediate deployment via heavy air carrier." Supreme Commander Ikari ordered, his hands never moving.
"But sir they're under a freeze order!" Lieutenant Hyuga not quite yelled as his monitor displayed ominous and brightly lit warning text regarding the named units that only Supreme Commander Ikari could override.
"They are all that remains that can stop the Angel." Gendo said with his trademark lack of emotion. Though this wasn't technically true. They could, perhaps, theoretically, continuously drop N2 mines on the angel for the weeks it would take to repair Unit-00 to sortie again. But one only had to think about this option for a moment to realize the impracticality.
"But it could trigger a catastrophic reaction!" Maya Ibuki objected as the next leading scientific expert with Dr Akagi MIA.
"One Eva is clearly insufficient and the danger between activating one or both is insignificant. We are left only with the choice of certain or potential destruction, if we do not chose the latter the former will be chosen for us." Gendo said firmly and paused for a moment to let the weight of the implication sit in the minds of his subordinates before continuing "Now brief the pilots."
Less than an hour later
"That's all the information we have!" Lieutenant Hyuga said through voice only comms into the entry plugs of Units-01 and 02. The units had been activated and placed onto the black flying wings without any incident and NERV personnel were hopefully optimistic this would continue.
"Wunderbar." Asuka said chomping at the bit, happy to be piloting again.
"UN Secondary Forces are ceasing their attacks now. Drop in ten seconds!" Hyuga relayed as the last artillery rounds impacted the ground around the 13th Angel. Now the JSSDF, along with limited supporting forces from the UN, had been engaged with Angels for a while. They had quickly, and painfully, learned that conventional weapons were ineffective in destroying an Angel. So their tactic, instead of the cliched line of tanks and missile launchers directly in the path of a rampaging kaiju was to preposition artillery batteries, which was easy since Angels only ever attacked Tokyo-3 for reasons which the upper echelons of the JSSDF had never been given a satisfactory answer. These batteries were used to bombard the Angel and try and draw its attention toward the threat, sometimes it worked, sometimes not, while tank battalions and VTOLs would use their maneuverability and the natural cover of Japan's mountainous terrain to attack the Angel from different angles. Hopefully drawing the Angel in different directions to either keep it moving around in circles in a particular area or at least attempt to delay the angel long enough for NERV to do something. This tactic usually keeps casualties to a bare minimum, important since the Third Angel alone had rendered combat ineffective close to thirty percent of the JSSDF's mechanized forces.
"Dropping!" Hyuga's voice filled the entry plugs as the clamps holding the Evas released and the red and purple biomechanical units wordlessly fell in unison. The Evas extending their legs in a flying kick reminiscent of their battle with the 7th Angel. The black-armored Angel looked up too late and the perfectly in-synch feet of Units 01 and 02 impacted with a crash against its exposed back. The 13th Angel's spine bent unnaturally as a cry of pain escaped its red-toothed mouth and the Eva units used Bardiel as a springboard to launch themselves spinning over the Angel to land in front of it.
"Guess that synch training is still paying dividends." Asuka said remarking on their first strike as she brought her Eva into a defensive posture.
"Yeah. Just be careful, you saw what it did to Rei." Shinji said as he remembered watching the battle feed from the ready rooms near the Eva cages as he and Asuka were on standby. Thankfully Rei's entry plug had been ejected and was in the process of being recovered.
"Mobility is the key then." Asuka said tensing the muscles on her arms as a feral grin spread across her face.
"Ladies first." Shinji uncharacteristically teased, maybe he was just happy that Asuka was back at piloting, as he pulled out the Eva's progressive knife and Asuka did the same. There hadn't been time to get any pallet rifles or other heavy weapons so these would have to be enough.
"Baka!" Asuka said over their open comm as her mind formulated an attack plan. She glanced over at the power display only to kick herself mentally as it read 9999.99 seconds since her Eva was drawing power from its recently acquired S2 organ. Old habits die hard.
"Engage the Angel." The voice of Gendo Ikari commanded across their comms. Clearly not willing to put up with the pilots usual banter when they were under Major Katsuragi's command.
"Let's see what these can do!" Asuka exclaimed as she commanded her unit to jump into the air above the Angel and stabbed her progressive knife into the left shoulder of the former Unit-03 before leaping away as the Angel roared in pain and frustration as its unnaturally extended arms caught only air in their grasp. The roar turned into a gurgle as Unit-01 used the opening and plunged its progressive knife into the distracted Angel's throat and bright red blood spewed out in a torrent, bathing the right side of the purple mech in speckles and spatters.
Unit-02 took the opportunity to return to its stuck knife and twisted it in the Angel's shoulder, Asuka knowing precisely where the connecting tendons and fibers were, owing to her lifelong obsession with being an Eva pilot. The four eyed red mech pulled at Bardiel's left arm while cutting with its knife. The strain eventually separating the limb from the Angel with a satisfying snap and tearing sound reverberating in the green valley their battle was taking place in. Unit-02 flew back with its prize, Asuka desperately trying to maintain balance while the maimed Angel let out a wail of pain from its bloodstained maw.
Wasting no time Shinji let go of the Angel's other arm he had been holding while Asuka was hacking away and leaving his own progressive knife in the Angel's neck he punched the angel with all the force he could manage, enough to cause several teeth to fly through the air. Sending the less obsidian and increasingly blood-red angel into the strike range of a recovered Unit-02 who used the Angel's own detached arm as a makeshift club to whack Bardiel's head, its cranium cracking at the force the S2 powered arms were able to deliver as Asuka let out a battle cry in the entry plug.
Reeling and its feet wobbly the thirteenth angel was forced to the ground by another punch from Unit-01, who then promptly straddled the Angel and wrapped its hands around its neck, strangling it while in the entry plug Shinji not quite growled as primal rage more than conscious thought guided his actions.
Asuka in Unit-02 discarded the arm and instead furiously kicked at the exposed head of the Angel, deforming it into a mangled mess of fractured metal and flesh. Under such an assault Bardiel had no chance. At the same moment, its neck snapped and skull gave in under the pressure, the formerly animated limbs, well the remaining ones, that had been thrashing about like an animal that knew this was the end, fell limp as the Angel breathed its last.
"So this is the power of an S2 organ?" Sub-commander Fuyutsuki said from behind Gendo with a mix of dread and wonderment. It had been spectacular, but also terrifying, to behold, like watching a furious thunderstorm in the distance. Most of the bridge crew had been gaping in awe at how Shinji's and Asuka's minds were seemingly linked together. Each knowing perfectly when to strike and when to distract the angel to make an opening for the other. Their Evas hadn't even suffered a scratch in the battle. A far cry from their first sortie together. Though none of the NERV personnel watching had any idea as the real reason why Shinji and Asuka had fought so well together.
"Let's be certain." Gendo said, as a small smile crept in under his hands at the result before him on Central Dogma's large screen.. "Remove and destroy the Dummy Plug and open the chest armor and terminate the core." Commander Ikari radioed over the Evas' communications.
"Understood." Asuka said as she lifted up Bardiel's carcass and with the four-eyed Eva's bare hands she began ripping out the protective armor that guarded the entry plug while Shinji retrieved his progressive knife from the snapped and slashed neck and began prying open the chest armor.
Asuka got her prize first, pulling out the long cylindrical tube and holding it in the Eva's hands.
"What?" Asuka mouthed quietly as she managed to read Rei along the side of the entry plug. Her moment's hesitation was interrupted by Commander Ikari:
"Destroy it." Asuka heard in her entry plug and her hands twitched crushing the plug in Unit-02's hands. Just then Shinji opened up the chest armor to reveal a bright orb, like the core found on the other angels they had faced.
"Wha-What's this doing in an Eva?" Shinji asked pausing with his progressive knife above the core ready to strike.
"A result of the Angelic mutation. Like the unnaturally elongated arms." Gendo said as his hands actually went down from in front of his face and rested on the desk in front of him. "As long as it exists the Angel is not truly dead and we are all in danger." Gendo added as Shinji still hesitated for a moment before finally plunging his progressive knife into the core, seemingly eliciting a shrieking sound from it.
'Do all Evas have a core like that?' Asuka wondered as the bright red orb dulled and blackened, not quite convinced it was solely the result of Angel corruption or mental contamination.
'What is going on here?' Both she and Shinji thought as they stood over Bardiel's corpse and looked at the setting sun as the once empty battlefield now swarmed with NERV technicians, clean up personnel and JSSDF.
Conference Room: Later that same day
"The first priority is defeating the Angels." Gendo stated calmly to the gathered group of old men in a dark room lit only by the colored shades of their chairs.
"But you still countermanded a direct freeze order from this committee. You put all of our work at risk!" The old man in the blue shaded chair said in an angry tone, unconvinced by the Supreme Commander of NERV's terse answer.
"The fact remains the Evas were activated without incident and combat effective." Gendo answered the accusation with his traditional nonchalance and steepled hands.
"I am unsure a man of your judgment belongs in that chair!" The blue shaded member continued, openly questioning Ikari's fitness as his emotions got the better of him.
"Enough!" Chairman Lorenz Keel intervened in the exchange before it became too heated to control "Ikari, we will allow the future use of Units 01 and 02 only when all other options have been exhausted." Chairman Keel said trying to keep the committee focused on the primary goal of winning the Angel War by whatever means necessary.
"Considering the damage to Unit-00 and the loss of Units 03 and 04, that is the case now." Gendo said, stating the reality they found themselves in.
"So be it." Chairman Keel acknowledged as Gendo's unmoving projection faded away.
"He must have his own agenda!" The blue lit member nearly raged at the gathered committee.
"Perhaps we could transfer one of the Units from Tokyo-3? Return Unit-02 to Germany so that he doesn't possess such power." The yellow lit member postulated.
"Removing units from Japan is foolish. If the spawn of Adam win then all is lost and our dream of Instrumentality turns to ash." The red lit member cautioned as such a move would leave only one operational Evangelion in Japan, and they had all seen Unit-01's early combat records to know how close those battles had been and how vital having multiple Eva Units was to their victories.
"For now Gendo is our collaborator against the Angels. If he has a scenario of his own in mind, it like ours must wait until the Angels are defeated." Lorenz Keel said. Remembering why they had placed Gendo in charge of NERV in the first place. He was the only associate in Japan who possessed the necessary scientific and organizational skill to do the task while also being aware of SEELE's true intentions and goals. For now they needed him, even if they had doubts about his commitment to their vision of Instrumentality.
"What is the status of Units 05 and 06?" The blue lit member asked, having calmed down from his earlier exchange with Ikari.
"Barely begun. We did not anticipate losing Units-03 and 04 so quickly." The green lit member said with sadness, reminiscing on what those debacles had cost his country, and him personally.
"Maybe we should just scrap them for parts to keep our present Eva force operational?" The red lit member suggested as a way he thought was best to ensure success which was still opaque and muddled. Though the Dead Sea Scrolls had offered useful insights into the nature of the Angels and Instrumentality, they were vaguely worded in the way of all religious texts, and gave more lists of alternatives and requirements rather than a play-by-play prophecy of the future and the form each Angel would take and the date of attack.
"A decision will wait until the tests with the Mass Production Units are completed." Chairman Keel said, holding off a decision until more information made the best path forward clear.
Approximately the same time
"Wha-…wher-…" A dazed Toji Suzuhara mumbled as he came to in a hospital bed, as the last rays of the setting sun pierced their way past the window blinds.
"Toji. You're awake!" A soft excited voice the basketball jock recognized said.
"Shinji?" He asked turning his head. "What happened?" Toji asked as he looked at a Shinji Ikari dressed in his school uniform, the only clothes he had back in his locker at NERV, sitting on a chair next to the bed.
"Unit-03 was infected by an angel so…"Shinji began leaving the rest unsaid but Toji could put the pieces together and understood the implications.
"Guess we won't be teammates then, since my Eva is gone." Toji said, trying his best to remain nonchalant about the whole thing. "Kensuke is going to be so upset when he finds out." Both Shinji and Toji shared a laugh at the expense of their mutual friend.
Just then the hospital door opened and let in a raucous redhead and shy girl with brown pigtails both dressed in their school uniforms.
"Stooge! You've got some explaining to do!" Asuka Langley Sohryu yelled as she entered the room.
"Argghh.!" Toji said through clenched teeth as he tried to sit up only to be stopped by searing pain through his right arm.
"Careful Toji!" Hikari said as she rushed to the side of his bed and helped him lie gently back down on the soft mattress, "The doctors said you fractured your shoulder as you shielded Miss Misato from the blast." Hikari stated, explaining the source of the throbbing discomfort Toji was experiencing.
"Is she okay? What about the others?" Toji asked through gritted teeth. His tone serious and his face hard set.
"They're a bit banged up but they're all alive. Nothing that won't heal." Asuka said summarizing the preliminary medical reports she had seen from her entry plug as she was awaiting recovery. That was actually how she and Shinji had discovered Toji was the pilot as they saw his name while looking for an update on Misato. Legend says the cleanup personnel could hear Asuka's "EYYYY!" throughout the entire valley. As soon as they could both had gone back to headquarters for debriefing and to change. Afterwards Shinji had gone straight to the hospital that was treating the Matsushiro wounded, while Asuka had gone to get Hikari.
"Thank you Toji." Shinji said gratefully.
"But the stupid administrator didn't want to let Hikari in to see you!" Asuka said her indignation clear in her voice.
'That explains the yelling and German cursing I heard.' Shinji mused thinking back to the commotion he heard a few minutes prior.
"If you had just asked nicely instead of threatening to find his address in the NERV database and step on his house during the next Angel attack…" Hikari said quietly, as Toji noticed that she still hadn't removed her hands from his side and shoulder after helping him lie back down after he overexerted his shoulder. He didn't say anything though. It was…nice…comfortable.
"It worked didn't it!" Asuka said with her hands on her hips and very proud of herself. Just then the hospital door opened again and revealed a smiling ponytailed spy in the doorway.
"Hey kids. Good to see you're all alright." Ryoji Kaji said in greeting before delivering the news he had "Misato just woke up."
Misato despite being shielded by Toji had suffered some internal hemorrhaging, as the blast had reopened old wounds from Antarctica and she had needed some minor surgery.
"That's great!" Shinji said, getting up from the chair and headed toward the door, followed closely by Asuka who turned around and said with a sly grin to her friend Hikari:
"Look after the stooge, if we find another Eva we might need him." She said as she closed the door, leaving the two of them together.
"Asuka…" Hikari said quietly as she watched her friend go, only to be brought out of her ruminations by the feeling of something warm and soft on her hand. Only then did Hikari realize she was still touching Toji and that he had covered the hand resting on his shoulder with his own. She tried to pull it away as she embarrassedly said "Ah Toji I..!" But he kept it in place with a firm but not painful grip.
"I…" Toji began quietly, stopping Hikari's protests before continuing, "I know how you feel." Toji said. The words made Hikari's heart stop. Despite appearances Toji was an observant person and had managed to pick up on Hikari's body language when they had gone to Rei's together. "…and I feel the sa-" Toji didn't manage to finish as Hikari threw caution to the wind and pressed her lips against Toji's. His mouth muffled in surprise but soon he closed his eyes and they both melted into each other's embrace. The kiss itself was nothing spectacular, neither used their tongue or moved their lips passionately in the way lovers do. But for a first kiss, it was catharsis, all their pent up emotions and longings were conveyed in a way words could never manage and Hikari absently understood why Asuka always had that dreamy look in her eyes when they talked about her and Ikari's relationship.
Meanwhile
The trio of two Eva pilots and a spy made their way down the halls of the hospital, making their way past hurrying staff who were struggling with the influx of casualties from Matsushiro. Kaji led the way down the hall while Shinji and Asuka walked behind him. Asuka holding her hands behind her head in a relaxed manner as she walked absently stretching the muscles in her back that always ached after sitting in an entry plug, while Shinji kept his hands at his side.
'Usually Asuka is a bit more clingy. Maybe it's the seriousness of the situation? Or she's worried about Misato?' Kaji thought as they approached the room that Misato had been moved to.
"This is it." The unshaven man said as he opened the door to reveal a purple haired woman sitting up on her hospital bed looking out the window at the fading sunset.
"Everyone's here!" Misato said happily as she turned her head and saw people who she truly cared about her and reciprocated the feeling.
"Misato!" Shinji exclaimed. He had read the medical reports and his logical mind knew she was fine, but the relief of confirming it with his own eyes was evident in his voice.
"Everything still in one piece?" The German redhead said trying to appear to be blasé but unable to remove the relieved smile from her face.
"They say everything is fine, but they're keeping all the personnel involved overnight just to be sure." Misato said, relaying what the doctors had told her. "Listen…I…" Misato began wanting to tell them about Toji and explain why she hadn't told them.
"We know Misato." Shinji said before Misato could get the words out.
"Who is running this program if they decide him, of all people should be a pilot?" Asuka asked indignantly, though with some genuine interest as to just how Eva pilots were chosen. Both Misato and Kaji looked at each other nervously.
"All the students in class 2-A are fourth-level candidates. I only just found out recently myself, it was to keep all the potential pilots in one place to increase humanity's chances of survival." Misato said staring at some very interesting part of the hospital room's wall as she told Shinji and Asuka what she had learned from Dr. Akagi.
"All our classmates are…" Shinji began trying to process the information he'd been given.
"…Potential pilots." Asuka said finishing for him equally rendered speechless as the image of Hikari in a plugsuit and gravely injured flashed before her eyes. Her earlier smile gone.
"I know this is a lot to process, but it's still confidential information." Misato said as her two wards looked at the floor, with brooding looks written on their faces.
"So don't go telling Kensuke his dream is closer than he thinks." Kaji said. His attempt to lighten the mood worked and they had a laugh at what they thought Kensuke's reaction would be if he knew he was a pilot candidate.
The two couples, though only half really knew it was a group of two couples, stayed in the hospital room as the sun faded behind the horizon. They discussed various things but chiefly their recent battle which Misato had been absent for. With Asuka recounting their victory against the Angel and even stating that "Baka-Shinji had been useful". Eventually the stars began to come out and a nurse politely informed them that visiting hours were over. Kaji went out with the nurse to discuss something with her.
"Will you two be okay on your own for tonight?" Misato asked as Kaji continued his bargaining with the medical staff. She normally would have had Kaji or someone watch them, but there was something about the maturity both of them had had during the last half hour of conversation that made Misato think they could be left alone. And besides Misato knew Kaji really didn't want to leave her alone, and there was no one else she trusted who could watch the kids on short notice.
"We've managed it before." Asuka said trying not to let her grin get too big as the stars aligned for her and Shinji.
The Katsuragi Apartment: after dinner
The night was now fully in swing and the moon and all the stars Tokyo-3's light pollution would allow had come out and were shining. Shinji was at the sink washing the dishes from the take out that they had gotten, while Asuka was lying on her stomach and looking up at the stars from the living room.
'I wish we could go out on the veranda and sit together.' Asuka thought absently as she remembered the time after the 9th Angel Matarael when she had been sitting between Rei and Shinji. At the time she had preferred the lights of the city to the starlight, but now she wanted to see what Shinji saw in them. Rei had remarked on some philosophical thought about man's fear of the darkness. 'I hope she's okay.' Asuka thought genuinely. Rei hadn't been taken to the same hospital as the others and instead had been sent to the Geofront. Word was she was okay, but still.
It was grating on both of them that they could only be themselves in this apartment when they were alone. They wanted to do things, go places, experience things together. But Asuka knew if they did questions would be asked and actions taken by NERV who had a stake in their existence. 'At the very least the sex would stop.' Asuka thought. She'd always wanted to be thought of as mature and sex is the most mature thing anyone can really do, but with Shinji it wasn't about being mature or relieving the teenage hormones it was about trusting someone enough for you to lay yourself bare before them with no walls or barriers and importantly for them to reciprocate. Sex without that emotional commitment and its reciprocation is just an exchange of bodily fluids. Transactional. 'What was it that weird apparition said, "Become one with each other" or some shit like that?' The German redhead thought back to that bizarre experience she had shared with Shinji.
Asuka's stargazing was interrupted by a hand on her back, she could feel the warmth and dampness of hands that hadn't been completely dried through the thin fabric of her orange tank top.
"Hey." Shinji Ikari said in greeting as he rubbed his hand up and down her back.
"Hey." Asuka returned the simple greeting as she moved from lying down to sitting up. Shinji moved his hand away from her back in response, but did it a bit too quickly and he winced in pain as his shoulders told him he was moving his arm too quickly for their liking.
"You okay?" Asuka asked her voice warm and concerned as she reached out a hand to feel the part of her lover's body that was in pain.
"Yeah, just the muscles in my shoulders are always tense after being in an Eva." Shinji said as he slowly rotated his right arm to work through the discomfort.
"You baka, always hiding how you truly feel behind your shell." Asuka said with one hand on Shinji's shoulder and the other caressing his cheek. They were better at being open with each other, but they were still humans, and humans are flawed.
"I just didn't want you to worry, and besides…others got hurt worse today." Shinji said with a gloomy tone as he thought about the fact that Misato and Toji were still in the hospital along with countless others, so what right did he have to complain about an aching shoulder?
"Don't be dour. We beat an angel today, and no one died." Asuka said remarking on the incredible fact that all the Matsushiro staff survived, all the civilians had been successfully evacuated, and even the JSSDF had engaged the Angel without loss of life. "Now lie down."
"What?" The perpetually perplexed baka asked in a tone worthy of his title.
"I said lie down, on your stomach, and take off your shirt." Asuka said as her brain worked out a way to help Shinji overcome his aches and guilt. 'He's got such a good heart, but it's a double-edged sword, he cares so much it buries him in feelings of guilt and worthlessness.' The thought popped into Asuka's mind unbidden, before she stopped herself 'As if you're any better Sohryu'.'
By the time Asuka's mind had stopped its psychoanalysis Shinji had taken off his pink T-shirt and was lying face down on the carpet in the apartment's living room in nothing but his blue boxers.
She crossed her legs and sat next to his prone form. Her nimble fingers had ample strength despite how delicate they may have seemed. Asuka didn't do anything fancy or special, merely working her thumbs in circles to relieve the built up tension in Shinji's shoulder muscles and getting pleasant groans from Shinji that told her she was doing a good job.
Eventually though her own back told her it didn't like the angle it was stuck at leaning over Shinji and her thumbs also protested at the effort of continued massaging, so she leaned down and whispered into her lover's ear:
"I'm gonna try something." Asuka said quietly as she moved and sat on top of him like one would ride a horse, her buttocks resting on his thighs just below where his boxers ended.
'What could she mean by that?' Shinji's mind began just before hearing fabric crumple on the carpet next to him. 'What the-' he thought as his eyes cracked open seeing some vaguely orangish mass in his peripheral vision. Then he felt two warm, fleshy orbs with hardened tips dragging themselves up and down his back. Shinji's eyelids shot open as his brain registered exactly what was lying next to his face and what was moving up and down his back.
"Asuka-?!" Shinji began somehow being caught off-guard for the millionth time by the German redhead despite knowing better than literally everyone alive or dead how much of a nymphomaniac she was.
"Shhh- Leibling." Asuka said softly as she nibbled on his left earlobe while pressing her chest firmly against his back, sending goosebumps up and down his arms and legs and all the spare blood his heart could muster to the rapidly expanding bulge between his legs.
Bereft of her orange tank top Asuka was left in just her not-quite-tan, not-quite-beige cloth short shorts. The soft material riding up as she continued to massage Shinji's back with her breasts. After one pass her ass stroked lightly against the head of Shinji's raging hard-on that was just poking out from the leg of his boxers. 'Jemandes Blut ist heiß.' The German redhead thought playfully as she internally debated how much longer she should tease him. Although her inner-voice told her that street ran two ways and soon enough the cloth of her short shorts was beginning to dampen with her own desire.
"Turn over for me." Asuka seductively cooed into his right ear, giving a playful bite to the cartilage before lifting herself off of her lover so he could follow her instructions.
Shinji flipped over so that he lied on his back, in the meantime Asuka had gotten one of the nearby bean bag chairs so he could rest his head.
The movement caused his cock to pop through the slit in his boxers and now his shaft was standing upright in all its glory.
Asuka purred seeing Shinji's cock. She reached for the hem of his boxers wanting to see the entirety of his manhood.
"Did someone get a little excited. You pervert." Asuka said mischievously though without malice as she pulled down Shinji's blue boxers past his ankles threw them over in the pile with her orange tank top. The motion caused her breasts to wiggle and shake so seductively that Shinji's cockhead began to glisten as his mind became clouded with lust. Asuka saw Shinji's glazed over eyes and his bulging cock "Is this also aching from being stuck in that tight plug suit all day?" Asuka asked in her tender voice filled with temptation as she wrapped one hand around his shaft while the other ran the tips of her fingers across his balls sending a tingling sensation across his entire groin and Shinji's mouth felt sickeningly sweet as desire took over: "I've got a special massage in mind for it." Asuka finished as she opened her lips wide and took Shinji's cockhead into her mouth.
Asuka started slowly taking only the tip of Shinji's member while her hand only lightly stroked his shaft as her head bobbed up and down. Though soon she went deeper taking first a third, then half, then almost all of Shinji's shaft into her mouth and throat with each bobbing of her head up and down. The sounds of Asuka's slurping filled the living room as she built up more and more saliva in her mouth and the fluid escaped through the gaps between her lips and his shaft coating it in a thin sheen while larger drops made their way to his sack. The combined feeling of Asuka's fingers and the tingling chill of the saliva on his balls caused them to rapidly contract as they readied their load to be fired and Shinji had to consciously hold back cumming to soon, he wanted to enjoy the sensation for as long as he could.
Asuka feeling that Shinji was close to his release stopped her sucking and moved her face next Shinji's cock to look up at his eyes while her hand continued to stroke his cock and she moved her hips up so that her ass was high enough so Shinji could see it wiggling invitingly behind her. The German redhead however hadn't realized just how close her Japanese lover was. The combination of the sight before him and the sensation on his cock was too much.
"Asu-" He began far too late as his balls unleashed themselves and several strong spurts of Shinji's seed shot forth. Some caused white streaks to appear across Asuka's red hair while others landed on the left half of her face, mostly leaving strands of viscous semen on Asuka's cheek and forehead.
Neither of them moved as the cum slowly began to stop dripping down Asuka's face and while it didn't solidify, it had spread enough to where gravity exerted less control.
Finally Asuka made the first move and stood up, Shinji was about to mouth a frantic apology when he saw Asuka hands reach for the hem of her short shorts. As she pulled them down and cast them aside Shinji managed to, somehow despite his status as a baka, notice that a dark splotch covered the most private area on the discarded shorts.
Now when Asuka had gotten up from the living room floor Shinji had also moved to a more sitting position in the yellowish beanbag chair instead of simply lying his head against it. In all the silence and even after releasing a sizeable load Shinji's cock hadn't softened and evidently hadn't satisfied its lust. The ravenous redhead now pushed Shinji further down into the puffy chair as she mounted him.
Shinji felt as Asuka grabbed his cock in her hands and placed it frantically and wordlessly at her opening, more animalistic than he had ever seen her before. He felt as his cockhead penetrated into her, open air being replaced with warm, wet, fleshy constraint. Asuka lowered herself fully onto Shinji's cock and started moving her hips so she was riding him as her hands made their way to his chest and shoulders. The living room filled with the strange combination of Styrofoam beads smashing together and the impacts of their hips.
Shinji looked up into his lover's eyes some deeply buried part of his conscious thinking brain knew that she should be furious with him. Meanwhile in Asuka's own mind she herself had the same thought but she wanted him, and she wasn't about to let the baka doing baka-things get in the way of what she wanted or her name wasn't Asuka Langley Sohryu.
Once Shinji was sure that Asuka wasn't going to murder him in the immediate future he put his hands up to her waist so he could guide her as she rode him. Shinji felt sheer bliss as he looked up and saw her cum-covered face above her bouncing breasts, the brownish nipples pointing toward the sky before coming back down with every thrusting motion she made onto his cock looking for release.
Shinji felt her wetness surround his cock and drops even flowed down his shaft, onto his balls and from there created a stained wet spot on the bean bag that was serving as the location of today's tryst. Asuka angled her hips and gyrated her waist as she kept finding new sweet spots for his rock-hard member in her pussy. Not much more.
Asuka felt the fire build up in her belly and she bit her lower lip in an attempt to prevent a moan from escaping but had limited success. Shinji squeezed her waist tighter in response and Asuka's muted moans added themselves to the orchestra of their love-making. After a few more frantic gyrations of her hips Shinji felt Asuka's walls tighten and close around him and her body shake in his hands as Asuka crested into her orgasm. The German redhead collapsed onto his chest, panting and shaking at the intensity of her orgasm. Her red hair strewn about them, covering the both of them.
Shinji waited for Asuka to calm down before exiting her. But Asuka noticed something strange, usually there was a warmness inside her the feeling adding to and strangely soothing the inferno of her insides. Then the realization hit her:
'He didn't cum.'
Between the load on her face and the alacrity with which she had cum riding him, Shinji, to put it bluntly hadn't had time to reload.
"I want you to finish." The redhead said grabbing his still hard member in her hand as he tried to get up from underneath her and she brought her head from where it had been next to his so she could look into his eyes. They were like that for just a moment but it may as well have been an eternity.
"Flip over for me then." He said cheekily as he nodded echoing her words from earlier.
'Baka, I'm already on my stomach and bent over.' Asuka thought as she positioned herself on the bean bag so her ass was up and he knelt down behind her. Shinji wetted the tip of his cock before placing it at her opening, Asuka seemed to dry up preternaturally fast after she came and he didn't want to cause her discomfort. He pushed his moistened member into Asuka's pussy and began to slowly and rhythmically stroke his cock into her as his hands grabbed the creamy white skin of her ample ass.
This position always made the penetration feel deeper. Soon her pussy instead of being tight had moistened and loosened again as her body's instincts took over and with each thrust Shinji was hilting himself fully into her and her ass was bouncing and shaking at the impacts.
She looked back at him, the sight of her face, still partially covered in his seed and Asuka biting her lip caused Shinji to thrust even harder into her. Her walls seemed to suck in and caress his cock with each stroke and Asuka could see the pleasure on his face as she looked into his eyes and failed again to stop a moan escaping her lips as her face buried itself in the beanbag. As Asuka's muffled moans filled his ears he felt the pressure build in his balls and he knew he was close. Meanwhile Asuka felt another fire build inside her and silently hoped Shinji would last long enough to bring her over the edge again. Eventually she felt the Shinji's thrusts become more erratic, more forceful, and she knew he was about to cum.
His instinct was to thrust his cock as deep as possible into her as he came, a relic of the evolutionary desire to breed and pass on your genes, but as it happened his shaft was only about a third of the way inside her when he came. Ropey cum impacted her walls and pooled near her entrance, only held in her pussy by the dam that was Shinji's cockhead, which was quickly extracted. The cum poured out of her pussy and onto first Asuka's clitoris and then the bean bag underneath her. Shinji saw Asuka shake again as the warm sticky fluid flowing over her most sensitive nub brought her over the edge for the second time that hour.
After they calmed down again Asuka went to clean herself up before joining Shinji on the couch, Asuka placing her head on Shinji's chest while he gently stroked her arm and absently played with the locks of her fiery hair. They laid there simply enjoying each other's presence and letting contentment wash over them.
But while reality can be postponed it can never be halted entirely and Asuka eventually broke the silence with something that had been bothering her:
"The dummy plug had Rei's name on it." The German redhead said without looking at her lover's face as she recounted the sight from earlier today.
"Why?" Shinji asked his face covered in a puzzled look as he brought a finger to her chin and guided her head so they were face to face as they talked.
"Well maybe they're using her as a template. The plug is supposed to allow an Eva to operate remotely. I just can't understand why her, she has the lowest synch score." Asuka said trying to make sense of what she saw, it having only added more questions to the seemingly endless list they had with all the weird things they had seen in the past several months.
"Maybe they're just going in order, she is the First Child after all, and she's been with NERV the longest so maybe they have more data on her." Shinji said offering a somewhat plausible explanation, though Asuka wasn't convinced. She'd been a pilot for the vast majority of her life and her obsession with being the best had given her the synch-test lead for most of that time so greater ubiquity of data didn't seem a likely to her.
"That still doesn't explain why we both felt our mothers in the Evas. Or why the Angel wanted to know about us." Asuka remarked, recalling their surreal experience with the 12th Angel having them relieve the inflection points of their relationship and their mothers' presence.
"We need help on this." Shinji said shaking his head. His face covered in a serious look and his hand clenched and unclenched as the gears in his mind turned. Asuka squeezed the edges of the couch cushions in her hands already knowing the words he would say next: "We need to talk to Misato."
A/N: I am not fully happy with this chapter but deadlines are deadlines. Let me know how it turned out.
So yeah this battle was a beatdown since Bardiel is one of the weakest Angels in my opinion, only defeating Rei due to her unnatural hesitation in the series and beating Asuka solely due to distraction and still losing to a dummy plug Unit-01 despite being in a superior position. So naturally two S2 equipped Units with pilots that don't hesitate are going to beat it in under a minute. Though I had to do a bit of a hand wave with Unit-00 in order to make a situation where they'd be needed. Next chapter will be Zeruel, and that's going to be…interesting.
This is definitely more plot heavy but that's because there are a lot of threads that need expanding on and the narrative needs to move forward.
Also the observant among you may recognize the seed I planted in this chapter. I said this would be less traumatic but not free of it.
Also Also the only Lemon going forward will be AXS, so all of you MXK and HXT will have to find something else.
As always let me know what you think. Are the battles good, is the story proceeding coherently, is there enough lemon? All that fun stuff and thanks for reading.