Blood Red
Episode 2
New Horizons
Chapter 9: Emotions laid bare
Village hospital, early in the morning after Shinji's attack
Toji was in his office going through the inventory of medical supplies, marking which ones they were low on as he thought:
"Even though the Slayer got back those supplies for us, it's still not enough to make ends meet I believe.
Ugh, let's just hope that the Wunder stops by sooner than later."
Suddenly he heard something hitting the window of the room and, but he didn't give it any attention, until he heard it again, this time a bit louder.
He got closer to the window and opened it, finding Asuka standing nearby, hidden behind some pieces of metal.
He looked around, noticing that no one was in sight and since the hospital was empty, he gave her a sign to come in through the backyard door.
Just as he opened it though, he jumped in the air to find the Slayer with Rami resting on top of his head.
The redhead appeared soon after as she said to the man:
"Don't worry, I'm safe with him."
The Slayer nodded and waved goodbye at Toji, then Asuka got inside and closed the door behind herself.
"You want to check your lungs I believe?"
She nodded and so they walked together to an empty bed, where he then got the machines ready.
But just as he was to attach her to them, she asked:
"Can I go see Hikari later? I've got something to ask her."
"Sure, she's probably taking care of Tsubame at the moment. Yesterday she hurt her ankle during the earthquake, so she can't go to work today."
"Where does she work? I never see her around the village."
"She's a lot more talkative than usual…" Toji thought as he said:
"We have a small shed behind our house, where she likes to work on some small wooden statues, then she sells them to Kazashi and he puts them up in his shop."
"I never knew that she had such a passion."
"It's not your fault, you two didn't talk much when we went to school right?"
"Not really. I mean we were friendly to each other, but the circumstances stopped us from…"
"Yeah I understand.
It's a thing that she learned to do through the years and now she's gotten really good at it, I think she even illustrated you guys in some of them."
"Really?"
"Yep, I'm sure that she'll like to show it to you."
She nodded and finally relaxed as he did his work.
Twelve minutes later
As the redhead walked through the forest, she moved some foliage from in front of her, Suzuhara's house was near now.
With only around thirty meters left, so she used this occasion to reflect on what she had been told.
" 'Your lungs have healed very well Shikinami, I'd give you around three days before you can go back to your previous life'.
Finally, I was starting to think that they would have stayed like that forever. I can't wait to see Misato's happy face when I tell her that I'm almost ready to fight again!
'Try to make yourself happy first.' " The Slayer's sentence echoed in her mind as she thought:
"Shut up shut up shut up! I don't have to listen to you!"
Without noticing, she had already reached the front door, so she knocked on it and waited, yet no response came.
The door opened anyways and as she looked down, she immediately noticed the contrasting pale skin and black plugsuit.
"The hell are you doing here Doll? Weren't you supposed to take care of the kids today? You kept saying it all the time yesterday like a broken record."
And so Rei said:
"I know, but unfortunately upon seeing me, the women of the farm turned hostile. This was probably caused by the Slayer's intervention yesterday when he killed that civilian.
Once I arrived in fact they associated me with him and began throwing rocks at me.
Thankfully Hikari was kind enough to offer me a safe place to stay and treat my wounds."
"...Damn, that's one rough morning."
"You may come inside now, she has taught me how to make tea."
The redhead stepped inside and closed the door behind herself, making sure that no one had seen her.
Thankfully the streets were pretty deserted after what happened the day before, with the inhabitants very much scared about the possibility of the Slayer still being around.
Once inside, she sat down in the dining room and she was soon joined by Hikari with a cruch and Tsubame right behind one of her legs,with a small cute smile on her face.
The kid then waddled over to her and greeted her by grabbing her leg, reminding Asuka of how Pen Pen used to act at times.
"Dammit I hate babies so much." She thought as Tsubame's small hands played around with the purple fabric around her leg.
Then as she sat down Hikari siad:
"I'm glad you came around Asuka, we don't really see each other that much, but hey, at least these fewer moments are more precious!
Now, what brings you here?"
"I've got a...Personal thing to ask you and I'd also like to see your wooden statues that your monkey told me about."
"You never get tired of that nickname do you? Alright.
Rei, could you please leave us alone for a moment? You can come back later."
"Sure, come with me Tsubame." And so she exited the room after giving them their tea, with the small baby following after her.
The two girls took a sip and then Hikari said:
"She's getting better at it hehe! Now what was your question?"
"I… Hikari…
Do you consider me a friend?"
"Oh? Of course I do, we might not see each other very often, but it's a joy to have you here when you can. Where does this question come from?"
"Well you see…"
That night, shortly after Shinji was sedated
"He could… Still hear my screams?" Asuka said with the Slayer who crouched next to her.
After some silence he said:
"Asuka… I know that you might not want to do this,and I won't force you, but can you tell me what you saw from unit 03?"
"I… The only few things that I remember apart from the pain was seeing unit 01 stopping to fight and the Dummy plug activating.
That stupid Brat didn't have the guts to do anything and so I had to almost die for that! I hate him when he just sits around and does nothing!"
"Then do you hate him now? That we drugged him and bound him up so that he can't do anything?"
"... No. But even during these attacks, his mind just sits down and lets this Kaworu take full control!
And now he doesn't even want to see anyone as if we're the ones who attacked him!"
"Don't lie to me Asuka."
"What!?"
"We both know that he's not powerless in this state. There's that accident in the bathroom, the one in Kensuke's living roo-."
"Okay okay. I understand… Just…"
"I won't leave you alone, if that's what you were trying to say."
She felt a chill run down her spine from having been predicted so easily, but then she was surprised when he let out a sigh and said:
"Tell me Asuka, how many people do you know that would take a bullet for you?"
She stayed silent as he continued:
"Look, Shinji is a boy who's fighting for his sanity and I don't know if he can do that by himself. He's mentally weak and not too smart, so what I'm asking you is to make sure that he stays with us.
After all, you still want to be praised for completing the mission right?"
That last sentence cut through her like a hot knife on butter. She wandered for a moment of he could read her mind, but in doing so her response came up as she asked:
"Why specifically me? Why not Kensuke, or the Doll? She's his half sister dammit.
Actually, why don't you do it? Or VEGA, or even Samuel!? Why do I have to take care of that idiot after all he's done to me?"
"Because you are the only one who can. You're the one who has been hurt by him the most, Asuka."
"Wait what ar-"
"He needs to realize his errors, Asuka, and you're the only one who knows all of them. You're the only one who knows how to make him learn to take responsibility for his actions.
It will hurt him a lot and Kaworu will probably try to use this to his advantage, but you'll need to press on. It's the only way he will survive in this hell.
Do you accept?"
"... Who tells me that this is going to work?"
"It did on me. That's all I'm going to say."
"Well I don't accept that, tell me more now."
The Slayer stood silent for a moment before he got up and said while leaving:
"No."
Suddenly VEGA said:
"I think I heard someone coming, it's best if you two go inside the house while you Slayer go into the forest. Rami, you follow him okay?"
The matriel replied with "Taka-taka!" and a small mod before running behind the man who had already disappeared from the area.
"Asuka, Rei, go check up on Shinji. Me and VEGA will send them away."
Kensuke said as the steps were getting louder and louder, so the girls got back inside and reached the unconscious boy.
After a while of listening to the outside conversation without understanding anything, Asuka sat down on the ground at the end of the corridor.
She had the right wall to her back, with Shinji's fixed bed right in front of her.
And as her eye moved to the side to look at what Ayanami was doing, she asked her:
"So, about that conversation-"
"Not now, he can hear us." The girl replied, surprising Asuka a bit as she wasn't used to an Ayanami series speaking up or interrupting others.
But given that almost her entire experience of these clones was spent fighting them, she decided to postpone the topic.
"Dammit I even left the Wonderswan in the entry plug."
She signed as her hands moved up to grab her cap from her head while her eye looked at the two roundels on it.
" 'It did on me, that's all I'm going to say'
Just what kind of shit did he go through?"
Back in the present, Hikari's living room.
"Oh my God! So he's at Kensuke's house now?"
"Yes, he should wake up in a couple of hours.
Anyway, I believe that you understand why I'm here now,so let me ask:
How was Shinji before I arrived in Tokyo 3? Like at school or around the city and things like that."
"Well… It was various years ago, but from what I can remember, if it wasn't with Toji or Kensuke he never left the apartment and the two of us only met at school.
There he was his usual self, all closed in and silent, but he did seem to open up during lunchtime."
"Yes, I can remember it quite clearly too.
Say did he have any crushes that you knew about?"
"You're giving me the impression you want to track down and take out the competition Asuka, eheh."
"W-No of course not! Just tell me, come on!"
"Eheh. Alright. He didn't have any crushes with people in the school" 'until you came at least' She whispered at the end.
"Hey what did you just say?"
"Nothing! Anyway the closest thing he had to that was his relationship with Rei, but I guess that he was more curious about her than anything else. Now that I know who Rei really was, I understand why they looked so nice together sometimes, they're a good pair of siblings!"
Asuka didn't reply to that, she simply kept her gaze immobile like before, letting only her chest show some movement.
"That's all I can remember Asuka, I hope that it was helpful in some way."
"It was, thank you Hikari."
"I'm glad and hey if you ever need anything else be sure to come back, you three will always be welcome here.
Anyway you wanted to see my collection of wooden statues, right? Then follow me."
A couple of moments later, inside Hikari's workshop
The couple entered the room, trying to not make too much noise as Tsubame was currently sleeping.
They were enveloped by the darkness until Hikari flipped a switch and the light was turned on, revealing all the shelves, tables, tools and whatnot inside it.
"Ah there we go, follow me I'll show you around."
She approached the largest table which had a wooden chair next to it covered in pieces of wool while the table was filled with all sorts of modeling equipment for working on wood along with a couple of small paint containers with some brushes next to them.
"This is where I worked for the past five years. I never knew I would get such a hobby, but hey, I guess that there are things that you discover while growing up.
Here, I'll show you some of the things I made that I decided to keep for myself."
She approached a tall shelf and grabbed the first small statue from the left that was sitting on it.
Asuka immediately recognized it, it was Sachiel, the first angel ever taken down.
"Now this lil guy right here let me tell you almost cost me an arm and a leg eheh.
It was the first really complex project that I tried to do and well, it was mostly trial and error, but in the end I think that it came out quite well!"
The small colored statue was in fact highly detailed for its size and the colors were both precise and vibrant too.
Then she grabbed another one and said:
"I'm sure you remember this one too, eh? I was in class when Ramiel first arrived, and during the battle all of our class had gotten on top of a nearby building to watch it!
I didn't show it back then but I was so excited that I could barely keep myself standing!
For this in particular I decided to represent the moment he fired in his star form, I can't tell you how many times I had to reattach that beam heh."
Asuka felt her covered eye get warmer than before as she thought:
"Happy to see all the ones of your species we've killed? Damn you're a strange one."
Her eye twitched a bit while Hikari grabbed Clokiel's statue.
"I only saw this one from a recording since you took it out so fast Asuka, but it was so fun to make! All the small little details in the legs and the mask were truly a pain though ahah."
To grab the next statue she used both of her hands given how big it was.
"Big ol' Sahaquiel. To make this guy I had to use up a bit more than two chopped logs! I mean I still can't believe you three killed something this big."
She then continued to the next angel, when Asuka noticed her hand stop moving for a moment, right in front of an empty space.
And as she moved her good eye around, she found that a statue of Bardiel was missing from her collection.
"I guess that she just couldn't make one given what you did to me."
Her eye suddenly got colder as Hikari showed Zeruel to both of them, recreated in great detail with all its tendrils and skull mask.
Next to Zeruel Asuka noticed that there was another statue, which Hikari grabbed after putting the angel of might back in his place.
The new statue was similar to the matriel that she had seen following the Slayer around, however it's proportions were different and it also had a differently colored base.
"This one's Matarael, the angel that still lives around here. It was a challenge to make him since I'm pretty scared of spiders, but I got it in the end!"
The woman moved her hands forward to let Asuka have a better look at the wooden sculpture. It had four very long black legs which were very very thin.
These legs started from an elliptical base before turning downwards after a certain height and becoming a little bit wider as they touched the ground.
Back at the base, it was divided in black and orange triangles with each of the former having an eye on them. Meanwhile the surface itself was covered by a sort of armor made up of what looked like crystals.
Finally, on top of the base a large brain rested, with a single gigantic eye inside of an inverted triangle.
"It really looks like a mutated spider to me." Asuka said and Hikari replied:
"Well it's what it is basically. A supernatural one at that, but still a mutated spider."
Asuka's covered eye flared blue with joy while Hikari continued to illustrate to Asuka various works that she had done over the years and after a while, they reached her favorite statue.
"W-What is this supposed to be?" Asuka asked as she looked at the group of wooden teenagers that her friend had built, where two of them especially were smiling while holding hands.
"You two dummy! I made this thinking that… If all this supernatural stuff in our world hadn't happened, who knows… Maybe the school gossip would have come true."
"...
Well that's just what it is, wishful thinking. Unfortunately we're stuck with the Evas with no way of getting rid of them."
"Well, sorry for trying to imagine a world without evangelions, Asuka. But still could you imagine if they hadn't existed at all?"
"No… Because my life is tied to them."
She thought as her free eye moved to the statue again, focusing on Shinji's bright wooden smile. Visions of the photograph in her jacket appeared in front of her eye as she quickly looked away, to stop those feelings before they could get control over her.
"I'll be going now. Thanks for everything Hikari."
"No problem Asuka, you're welcome to come back at any time that you want.
Oh and one more thing before you leave!"
The girl stopped right as she was about to cross the door and turned around, so Hikari said:
"When he wakes up and you'll do… What you have to do. Keep in mind that even if it's for his own good, there's still just a boy on that bed."
Asuka looked at the woman for a moment in absolute silence before she closed the door and began heading out.
Hikari looked at the small sculpture with her, Toji, Asuka and Shinji on it as she thought:
" I saw your blush Asuka… Who knows, maybe I was right already all those years ago."
Just outside of Hikari's house
"I didn't expect to find you here, doll."
Asuka said as she closed the door to the backyard behind herself and stared down at Rei who was sitting on the grass outside.
She was currently focused on observing a butterfly, but she was still able to talk as she said:
"I can't help anyone at the moment and my presence in the village is unwelcome. So I decided to turn my attention towards the nearby nature.
I think that this one is called a butterfly."
"It is. Anyway I'm going back to Kensuke's house, I'll probably play a bit and prepare for Shinji's first session."
"I must inform you that I will not hesitate to harm you if any physical damage is inflicted to him."
"Of course you won't, it's written inside of you after all."
"I have less than a week left."
"Wait w-wha-"
"Earlier when I was putting Tsubame to bed, I had another malfunction, very similar to what happens to you when you strain your respiratory system too much.
I saw another version of me floating in the LCL for a few moments and with a timer next to it which said: "three days"
It was the same LCL I was born from, so I believe that NERV is trying to force me to change my body so that I can be under their control again."
"Shit… Is there anything we can do to prevent this?"
"I don't know. However, I have been told how my soul's transportation works…
Basically in NERV there is a machine that can catch my soul once I die and insert it in a new body. My soul automatically flies towards NERV as this machine works just like a large magnet.
Once there, it has most of its memories erased and is put into a new body.
Do you have to take LCL baths to keep your AT field intact too?"
Asuka frowned a bit as she was reminded of her true nature, but she let it slide since Ayanami had only asked a question:
"No I don't. Unlike you I was made to last as long as possible.
And I will.
Anyway, from what you told me, couldn't there be a way to keep your soul fixed in one place after you die?"
"That… would certainly bring the creation of the next clone to a halt, which means that commander Ikari wouldn't be able to start another impact.
However, I do not know how that would be possible."
"Let's go ask VEGA, I need to go to Kensuke's house anyway."
At the same time, near the communication equipment
"*Bzzt* Oh hello VEGA, how are you doing?" Hyuga asked from behind the screen and the drone replied:
"Everything is fine, I wanted to update you on Ikari's condition as there have been some… Serious developments."
"I'll call the captain then as she isn't on the bridge at the moment, actually she hasn't been seen outside her quarters for the entire day."
"Of course, take as much time as you need. One question though, are you the only one on the bridge at the moment?"
"Yep, we're all having lunch right now so this place is quite deserted."
"I know the feeling." Samuel suddenly said.
"Ah glad to see you too, mister Hayden. You're here to tell us about your drones?"
"Yes."
"Okay, I won't leave you guys waiting then." He said as he got up from his station and exited the room.
"He seems a lot happier than the rest of the crew." VEGA said and Samuel added:
"Perhaps it's because he was by himself? It's probably hard to keep a happy attitude in their situation.
I wonder how Misato really is when she isn't in her role of captain."
"You already want to get into her private life already? You two haven't even met Samuel."
"H-Hey what are you implying with that!"
The sound of a door being opened was heard and soon Mari walked into the frame of the camera as she said:
"Oh hi guys, nya! How's it going?"
"All well, we're here to talk with the captain about some developments with Shinji."
Samuel said while VEGA tried to look for a reflection that showed him her back, but the light was too dim to produce anything useful.
"Oh! Did the puppy get hurt?"
"Not… Really, it's a complicated situation, you can stay to listen to it if you want.
However, why did you enter in the first place? I thought that it was lunchtime at the moment."
"Well you see yesterday evening I lost an earring after I entered the bridge for a second time, but I only noticed now so I'm searching for it.
Oh and also because I heard someone talk about a possible crush on our captaaain! Nya!
I can't blame you though Sam, she's a gorgeous woman."
"For a second time I am NOT in love with Katsuragi!"
"Too bad that I know a certain redhead that talks like that." Mari replied.
"Ah God dam-" *video and microphone off*
"Don't worry, he'll come back in a moment.
You can search for your earring now while we wait for Misato to arrive."
"Will do." She said as she went out of the frame of the camera by looking under Hyuga's desk.
"Oh! Maybe it's this? Hmm, no…
Ow!"
Suddenly VEGA's feed began to lose connection and stability, but it ended a moment later as Mari stood back up and said:
"Sorry about that, I thought that I had seen it, but it wasn't and I hit my head pretty hard on some cables of this console that I almost unplugged them."
"Don't worry, the problem is gone now."
"Well, I'll keep searching away from you then."
Captain's quarters
*driing* *driing*
'Ugh five more minutes Kaji' Misato whispered in her semi asleep state as she tried to get up from her first hangover in over ten years.
"Really shouldn't have let Mari hand me that beer, ugh." She thought as she slowly walked towards the front door in her still unchanged clothes and once she opened it, she found a surprised and blushing Hyuga.
"Oh hey Hyuga, you're up early today, what time is it?"
"I-It's almost two in the afternoon, captain."
Misato's still asleep brain took around two seconds to process the sentence, but once it did, she immediately slammed the door in front of him as she ran all around her room to change herself as fast as possible.
She quickly put on the first set of pants that she could find, then grabbed her red jacket and helmet. She rushed into the bathroom to splash some fresh water onto herself and put some quick perfume before immediately going back to the front door while trying to make her hair keep its shape.
Finally she walked out to find Hyuga again and before he could say anything she asked:
"Alright this better be important."
"Y-yes, captain. Ahem, VEGA and Samuel are waiting for you to discuss some developments in Shinji's situations, which seem quite drastic for how they talk about them."
"Alright that's all, now go back to the cafeteria with the others.
Oh and not a word to anyone of this incident or I'm dropping you off in the middle of the ocean, understand?"
"Y-yes sir!" He said before turning around and walking away.
Once he was nowhere to be seen, Misato let out a sigh of relief as she began to walk towards the bridge, but something felt off. Like she had forgotten something in her room.
And as she checked around her body to see if anything was missing, she suddenly noticed that her cross necklace was missing, so she rushed back inside to grab it.
Once inside she found it near a portrait that had been flipped over, so she decided to move it up again. However Misato immediately regretted the decision as Kaji Jr's bright smile sent spears through her heart.
She immediately grabbed the necklace and ran away, before it became too much for her to bear.
Wunder's bridge
"Glad you finally arrived, captain, nya!"
"Spare me your antics Mari, I was just having another very important meeting."
"With your bed if I have to guess." Mari replied, pointing to her open jacket which showed her blue pajama that had 'rest well' written on it.
She immediately turned around to fully close herself as she shouted:
"You three saw nothing!"
An embarrassing moment later, she was sitting on the chair, looking at both VEGA and Samuel.
"Alright. So, what's going on with Ikari?"
VEGA then said:
"Last night Ikari attacked us in our sleep, however his main objective seemed to be killing Asuka-"
"Wait wait wait wait whaaaat!?" Mari shouted as she almost jumped on top of the desk, when she was quickly pushed away by Misato who said:
"Explain yourself immediately."
"Of course. It was only thanks to an intervention by the Slayer that he was subdued and failed his attempt.
After that we were able to interrogate him and, based on previous similar events, we concluded that the soul of his co-pilot of unit 13 Kaworu Nagisa is currently possessing his mind."
Misato flinched at that name as VEGA continued, oblivious to the rage that it created inside her.
"It seems that in moments of low brain activity, like when he sleeps or falls unconscious, Kaworu is able to override his brain and take control of the exoskeleton to do everything he wants.
At the moment it seems that his current objective is killing Shikinami, which is why he is currently being held captive inside Kensuke's house."
"Wait, how are you holding him down if you said that only the Slayer was able to stop him?" Misato asked.
"We removed the exoskeleton's energy source and gave Shinji some strong sedatives to make him avoid any dreams while sleeping. We did this because we believe that Kaworu is able to not only communicate with Shinji, but he can also make him see and remember things.
The sedatives allow us to forcibly shut down his mind, protecting him from Kaworu's malicious intentions."
"Okay… Do you have any plan on how to get that bast-Kaworu out of there?"
"Unfortunately no. But we have developed a strategy which, if it works, will make Shinji's mind strong enough to mostly resist Kaworu's influence."
"That's great nya! What do you have to do?" Mari asked with a smile on her face, which quickly disappeared as VEGA said:
"Shikinami will have to… Emotionally hurt him. By trying her best to make him understand all the wrong things that he has done in life."
"Wait a second, 'hurt him'? And why Shikinami?" Misato asked without hiding the worry in her voice.
"We chose her because she's the one who has been hurt the most by his actions…
Or lack thereof."
A heavy cold silence fell between them, where only Misato's next question and VEGA's answer were able to pass through.
"What about this...Method… Do you have any proof that it works?"
"It was the Slayer that proposed it to us. He said that it had been used on him in his childhood once.
Only once."
Further silence followed, with a growing feeling of dread forming between them. But thankfully Samuel was able to free them by saying:
"I will take the word now… If that's okay with you."
"Sure, go ahead." Replied a loomy Misato.
"Ahem.
I've finally been able to enter the main pyramid, where I discovered that the base is protected by a strong shield… Which I believe is what you called AT field. This field is maintained by what seems thousands of white evangelions stored in the craters of the black rock.
The drones are thankfully small enough to fit through some of the gaps in this field by digging through the rocks itself.
However my analysis shows that the system is not at full power yet, also indicated by the fact that a large part of the craters are still empty.
On another note, there also seems to be what looks like a moon sized object right under Tokyo 3's surface. I detected it after trying to analyze a recent earthquake. Do you know anything about this?"
"It's the geofront, the natural cavity from where NERV was built. There is an exact copy of it at the epicenter of the second impact in Antarctica. Unfortunately that's all I remember at the moment, Ritsuko remembers things better than me so you should ask her later."
"I will, thank you."
Misato's posture changed, turned more rigid and nervous as she asked:
"About, your… 'method' for Shinji, I was thinking, isn't it the same thing that Kaworu would do if he was let off the sedatives?"
"There's a difference that I didn't tell you about, sorry.
While the plan does imply that Shikinami will have to make him remember every time he has hurt others, I've also told her to try her best to make him try to amend for his mistakes, even by the tiniest amount.
For example, for this first session Asuka is going to make him prepare for her some coffee, on her own request.
I believe that she has something on her mind."
Misato let out a defeated sigh as she said:
"Alright look. Can you, like, move the camera around so that we see how Shinji is doing?"
"Hmm, maybe. Let me try."
After that the video feed remained offline for a while, with various metallic sounds being heard across the channel.
Once it turned back on, the camera had now been placed on top of the drone as VEGA said:
"Alright I've been able to achieve a stable connection, now the camera can move around with losing signal as I'm the one transmitting it."
He then flew closer to one of the windows near him, showing them the sedated and tied up boy.
"Aww, poor puppy, let's just hope that the princess doesn't play with him too hard."
Mari said, placing a hand on the desk to support herself.
"Actually I'll go search for her right now, just to see if she's filled in on everythi-zzt."
"Hm? VEGA your screen just glitched for a moment there, is everything alright with the connection?"
"I wouldn't worry Samuel, It's probably because of the camera being where it's not supposed to be. After all, it's something I did in only a minute or two."
"If you say so."
Suddenly VEGA stopped, pointing the camera at a fixed point deep into the woods.
Then he said:
"Do you guys see that too? There seems to be a face there."
"VEGA, I'm not seeing anything." Samuel said and Mari added.
"Neither are we."
"Strange, I'm looking at it right now and…
It's looking back at me. Wait, it just disappeared?"
A whoosh sound was heard from his left, towards which VEGA turned immediately as he said:
"Samuel it's getting closer… I-I'm not liking the situation."
"VEGA we still don't see what you're talking about? Where is this face?"
"Right over there, behind that tree I'm looking at."
"VEGA there's nothing there. Hold on I'll try getting a visual by climbing higher with the ship, do I activate the guns?"
Samuel asked as he pushed the ship upwards at full throttle.
"No, we're too close to the house a- *bzzt* it *bzzzt* Samuel *bzzzt* closer-*bzzz* herp*bzzt*"
"VEGA? VEGA, respond to me! VEGA, VEGA, Agh God dammit why can't this damned ship climb faster!"
Misato and Mari stared silently from the Wunder as brief incoherent sounds were heard from VEGA's channel while Samuel too had become impossible to understand given how much noise the ship's engines were making.
Finally, as he broke through the clouds, right at the edge of the atmosphere, he was able to use the ship's scouting telescopes to see what was going on at the village.
And as he zoomed in to see what was affecting VEGA he found… Nothing.
The only thing in the vicinity was the drone itself, which seemed to almost be convulsing on the ground.
He zoomed in closer, being able to notice that some 'dark lightning' was going all around the drone's surface.
He didn't know how it was possible, or what was causing it, but he had to do something, anything to help him out.
Just as he began transferring what he was seeing to the Wunder and Asuka and Rei finally arrived, the lightning disappeared, along with the drone's strange moments.
Then it deactivated, severing the connection with both him and the Wunder.
Samuel took a step back in what was to him complete silence, despite the ship's roaring engines.
And as his metal foot made contact with the ground, it felt to him like he had just fallen off a mountain.
"W-what just happened with VEGA?" He asked himself, but instead of an answer, he found only guilt, for not having been able to help his friend in any way.
"Is this how Shinji feels?"
Kensuke's house, after a conversation with the Wunder.
"It appears that he is still unconscious, Shikinami. I will guard him until he reactivates, you have a duty to fulfill now."
"You don't have to remind me." Asuka replied as she walked into the house while thinking:
"Just what could have gotten him to scream so loudly?
Ugh, anyway. Time to get dirty."
She grabbed the plate of nutrient bars that had been left for him before reaching the door to his room, where a timer had been placed that had thirty seconds left on it.
Nothing passed through her mind as the actions she had planned blocked every other thought from going even from a neuron to another.
*ding*
She opened the door and walked in, finding him just in the middle of waking up from the sedatives.
"It looks like our prince has finally risen to protect the princess. Oh how thankful she should be towards him, right?"
"L-leave me alone Asuka. I-I don't want to see anyone anymore."
"No.
Here's something to eat, since you still have to, Brat."
"I don't want it. I just want to be left alone." He replied, trying to curl up in a ball, but failing since all of his limbs were still tied up.
"I told you to eat." She replied, with anger starting to rise inside her.
"What good is that? If I eat I'll just keep living and as long as I'm alive I'm going to hurt people!
I just want to die alone, Asuka!"
" 'I won't die, I'll survive against everyone else! So that mommy will be proud of me!'"
And as that sentence echoed in Asuka's head, her plans for the day were gone as she gripped a protein bar so hard that it almost turned into dust.
Then she got on top of him and forcibly opened his mouth.
He tried to protest, but he was too weak to resist her actions as she pushed the tasteless food down his face while shouting.
"You. Fucking. Weak minded child!
You are so fucking pathetic that you would rather kill yourself than atone for what you've done!
You're a spineless coward who believes everything he is fucking told- Because your stupid fucking mind is too weak to even consider the concept that you could be wrong!
You're path-
-etic Shinji!"
Her mind didn't register her voice cracking in that moment as slapped him hard in the face. Then she grabbed his jaw and made him start chewing on the protein bar while she continued:
"You've always been selfish Shinji, even back in school you only looked at Ayanami! Leaving everyone behind!
And I'm the example of that! You left me to die by the Dummy plug when I was trapped in unit 03! And you didn't even fucking ask if I was alive or not, you bastard!
Now I'm stuck in this painful existence where I can't even fucking enjoy most things! And it's all your fucking fault!
So tell me that you're going to get off your sad crying ass and actually try to do something!"
As the food went down Shinji's throat and his mouth was finally free, Shinji looked at Asuka only eye with his face covered in tears as he said:
"That's not going to do anything! You just want me to rot away in a cell!"
"You fucking idiot none of us wants that! What's going to happen is that you're going to work as hard as you can and then even more until you've repaid us all the years of torment we had to go through!
And if you can't do that. Then you might as well go back to NERV and cry to your asshole of a father to put you back inside a damn eva.
It's not like it will do something useful anyway."
She finally got off the crying boy as she took out a small knife and freed his right hand.
Then she said:
"Use that hand to eat, if you get out I'll tase you and tie you up even tighter than before."
He didn't move as more and more memories of what Asuka had told him came up in his mind, intensifying his cry so much that he soon felt all of his energies leave his body.
He fell asleep still crying, emitting so many tears that the bed would need to be changed soon.
Asuka let out a small sigh as she turned around to leave, but as soon as he was out of her sight she heard the trail being moved up and the food falling to the ground.
She turned around just in time to block it from hitting her head, making it fall to the ground and produce a lot of noise.
Asuka locked eyes with the boy, noticing that his retinas were now a bright red, a special red that she hated more than anything else.
She stomped over to the boy, grabbing him by the plug suit and looking directly into his red eyes.
Then, as the anger flowing through her made both of her own eyes glow a bright blue, she said while gritting her teeth:
"Leave. My. Idiot. Alone."
The boy smirked and she recognized immediately whose it was before Shinji fell back to sleep and went limp.
She took out some sedatives and gave them to him, then she left the room after putting his food and water back in its place.
Once the door was locked, the timer restarted with a small beep.
She was going to have to do it again the morning after this, given that this second tranquilizer was more powerful.
And as the effects of guilt started to weigh on her soul, Asuka rushed outside the house and into her entry plug, then after closing it, she took the small doll in one of her hands.
"Asuka you did a good thing today, Shinji is going to feel better after this." The doll said in its joyful and always happy tone.
"Yet he was crying, I made him cry." Asuka replied and so the doll said:
"You simply said the truth Asuka, it was a conversation that you two needed to have at one point."
"I know… It's just that I can't get this bad taste off my mouth now."
"Try encouraging him more next time! That's surely going to work!" The small doll said and Asuka replied:
"You're right, maybe tomorrow morning I can do that."
"That's the spirit!
You're a good girl Asuka, you're helping someone and you should be happy about it." The doll said as it moved down to hug her.
"Y-yeah. M-maybe I truly am worth something. Thank you, Asuka."
The doll with 'Asuka' written on it fell off her hand as she hugged it tightly in the total darkness of the plug.
She didn't know, or care, if this was considered normal. Because she had lost count of how many nights that doll had accompanied her through, eventually becoming her closest friend.
And right now, it was the only thing that could bring some warmth to her heart.
Outside of Kensuke's house, near the communication equipment.
Rei had been sitting there on her knees, holding the deactivated drone in her arms as she waited for Shikinami to come back.
She could hear the screams coming from inside, but they were muffled and incomprehensible.
Still at one point they ended and she saw Asuka run outside of the house and into her entry plug.
She was going to ask her what she was supposed to do, but just as she was about to get up, VEGA reactivated.
Like a scared cat, he immediately jumped out of her arms and went to hide under an elevated section of the house, where he then started looking around while constantly shaking.
Rei approached him and said:
"Why are you acting like this VEGA?"
As he locked eyes with her he let out a scared screech and retreated deeper into his hideout.
Rei tried various things to get his attention again, but nothing seemed to work. Then he remembered Samuel saying that VEGA had been assaulted by a dark figure and then she looked down at her dark plugsuit.
VEGA continued looking in her direction, getting anxious when he saw the black figure finally disappear again even if he had a blurry visor.
Suddenly, a pair of pale white arms invited him to come out and, not without some hesitation, he approached them.
They grabbed his drone and brought him outside, where a shining pale figure was looking at him with a pair of blurry red eyes.
Suddenly he saw one of the hands move towards his back and then felt it apply pressure somewhere.
He couldn't say anything as his screen glitched for a moment before he was finally able to see clearly again.
And as he looked up at Rei's face, she said:
"Can you hear me? You seem very confused."
"Yes I do… Where's that creature?"
"There was never a creature, you were only seeing it in your visor. Samuel himself confirmed this."
"Oh alright… Thanks I guess."
"You seem troubled."
"It's… It's just that I remembered some things that… I don't like very much."
"Is that how it feels to have long term memories? To remember unpleasant things?"
"No… It's a mix of emotions that changes from person to person.
There might be some memories where you were happy when you experienced them, but in retrospect they might sadden you, or there might be some memories where at the time you were unhappy, but thinking back on them brings a smile to your face."
"Hm… Okay.
Tell me VEGA, I have a request for you."
"...Yes?"
"Without a proper bath in LCL my AT field has started to deteriorate and soon it won't be able to maintain my physical form anymore.
If that were to happen, NERV would be able to clone me again and I would become your opponent again.
And I-... I don't want that.
So, my question is if you knew of a way to store my soul somewhere else so that NERV cannot clone me anymore."
The drone sat there in silence for a moment before saying:
"Well… There could be a way to-"
Suddenly Rei hugged him really hard as she shouted:
"Thank you! Thank you, thank you! Thank you VEGA!"
The drone looked at her again as he noticed what looked like tears forming in her eyes as he said:
"Wow, I didn't expect you to be so emotional about this. In a good way of course! I'm saying that you seem to have developed a lot.
Unfortunately there is a small problem."
"Huh?"
"This method can only work with an artifact that is inside our ship, so to bring it here would mean endangering everyone as we wouldn't be able to jam NERV anymore."
"Oh no… I-" A tear fell down her face as she said: "I'm sorry for asking then."
"No wait. I didn't say that this wasn't an option."
"W-what do you mean?"
"As far as I know you're the only human pilot that NERV has, right? And you are by far the most skilled from what the Wunder crew has told me."
"That is correct."
"That's why leaving them without you would be a huge loss for their forces and if we have to resume this war to accomplish this… Then we might as well be ready for a fight.
I'll talk about this with Misato and Samuel later. They might want to hear from you too so I'll call you when I do it."
"I… You'd really do that for me?"
Screams of pain and suffering souls from a long forgotten past echoed inside VEGA's head as he replied:
"Yes."
He moved backwards as Ayanami jumped in the air out of excitement and as he turned around something clicked inside his head.
"Uhm Ayanami?"
"Yes?"
"Why the hell are you naked?!"
She giggled as her heart bathed in the newfound warmth that her robotic friend gave her.
At the eastern edge of the village, right after Asuka entered Toji's hospital
The Slayer nodded as he closed the door, leaving Asuka alone with the doctor to check out her lungs.
He looked down at the small creature near him as Rami climbed once again on top of his head.
He had a destination to reach that morning and as he headed towards the eastern end of the village through the woods, he could see a lonely house far away from all the others.
And as he walked through the woods, he found a path that had been carved out with what looked like a knife which went in the direction of Kensuke's house.
He also noticed that there were boot marks on the terrain under him, even Rami saw them as he said:
"Taka taka."
"Yeah I'm not liking this either.
Or at least I think that's what you said."
The Slayer thought as he finally came out of the woods, standing in front of the back entrance of the house.
He noticed that there was some text in English carved in a plank of wood near the door and as he got closer it read:
"Knock five times if you've received a brick."
And so he did, then he waited there as some sounds could be heard from inside.
The door was opened by just a little bit, where the Slayer noticed a single brown eye staring at him through the darkness.
Then the door was shut again as the man behind it began to unlock it.
Finally it opened, revealing to the Slayer who sent him that message.
The man introduced himself from his wheelchair as he said in fluent American:
"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Slayer.
I'm John Davis, your local crippled American refugee who took one bullet too much during the war in Afghanistan."
He extended a hand forward and the Slayer looked at it for a moment, before replying to the gesture and shaking it.
"Please come in, I'm sure that we'll get to like each other very soon."
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N: Hey there, so…
Yeah it really took me a while to write this chapter, with school and a small writer's block in between certainly not helping.
Still, I managed to get it out anyway and the next one is basically already planned too, though I have to see if I have time to publish at my old rate with school getting more intense.
Well, only fate will tell I guess, but until then, see ya!
Oh and leave a review if you want, bye!