Disclaimer: see part 1.
Touch'
By Random1377
Part 5 – The Subtleties of Love
Humming softly to himself, Shinji reached into his closet and pulled out a rather worn sweatshirt, considering it for a moment before nodding and tugging it over his head. Everyone has a shirt or pair of pants – usually both – they consider work clothes, and this shirt happened to be Shinji's. He only pulled it out if he was planning to get dirty or dusty, an event surprisingly infrequent considering Misato's notoriously poor housekeeping skills.
Today, though… today Rei was moving into one of the apartments on the next floor down from Misato's, and he anticipated pushing heavy furniture and lots of boxes.
If Asuka was any indication, he thought wryly, it could take most of the day.
When Asuka had moved into the apartment, her boxes had taken up the entire hall.
Some of them were still unopened.
God help you if you suggest that they might not be that important, though, Shinji reminded himself, recalling the explosion when Misato had suggested just that, you'd think they had pirate gold in them. Hell, for all I know they DO have pirate gold in them – they're heavy enough.
Pausing at Misato's room, he gave the door a hesitant knock. "Misato?" he called softly, "are you up? Rei will be here soon… I'm going to help her, ok?"
He waited for a moment, then shrugged and turned away. If Misato was in her room, she was either asleep, or pretending to be asleep – probably the latter, Shinji thought, as she had spent pretty much every waking second since the last angel attack avoiding Asuka.
No idea what happened between them, but I'm GUESSING it wasn't good.
Making his way into the kitchen, Shinji found Asuka carefully folding eggs in the skillet… and cursing to herself in German.
"I said I'd cook," Shinji pointed out timidly, "Rei's not here yet, you know."
"Oh just go away," Asuka murmured, showing none of the affectionate kindness she had displayed when he was in the hospital, "you'll drop everything the moment your little doll shows up… I might as well stick with it until it's done."
Shinji blushed. "I wouldn't do that," he said awkwardly, "I mean… I said I'd help her, but I'm sure she could wait while I finish cooking."
Folding the eggs again and making a neat roll, Asuka muttered, "Well now you don't have to, it's done. That idiot friend of yours better appreciate this, Third Child."
"You could have said no," Shinji pointed out, holding his hands out in front of him as Asuka rounded on him. "I mean, umm, you could have brought him in some takeout or something! He just said he wanted something better than hospital food! …don't hit me."
Asuka rolled her eyes. "I won't hit you," she grumbled, turning back to the skillet and clicking the heat off under it, "geez… two days ago you were fighting an angel and now you're cowering like I'm gonna beat you down. How… disgusting."
And two days ago you were being nice to me, Shinji thought, shuffling his feet as Asuka reached out to scoop up the eggs, did I do something wro-
"Ow – shisse"
Shinji jumped as Asuka cried out and yanked her hand away from the stove, clutching it to her chest. "What? What happened?"
"Burned myself," Asuka hissed, "my wrist touched the edge of the skillet – man that hurts!"
His brow furrowing with concern, Shinji hurried to her side. "Let me see," he whispered, reaching out and turning on the sink with his free hand. "It doesn't look too bad," he said critically, "let me get the water warm."
"Warm?" Asuka gaped, "Make it cold!"
Shinji shook his head, leading Asuka's arm under the faucet. "If it's cold it'll hurt your skin," he said calmly, "warm water stops the burning without damaging anything."
"Hmm," Asuka said thoughtfully, allowing him to tend her wound without protest, "you really know a lot about it."
Shrugging, Shinji murmured, "I've burned myself enough times to check into it."
Asuka leaned a little closer. "Clumsy. If you didn't get hurt so much, you wouldn't need to know that… but then I guess you wouldn't be able to help me."
Shinji frowned, sure that if he looked up quick enough, he would find Asuka's gaze on him… but as he lifted his eyes, he saw that she was simply staring at her wrist. Funny, he thought as he turned off the water, I could have sworn she was looking at ME a minute ago…
"You should put some aloe on that," he said, grabbing a clean dishrag out of the drawer by the sink, "it'll make it feel better."
Brushing past him, Asuka smirked. "Thanks, doc – I think I'll live now."
Shinji chuckled, pushing the idea that Asuka had been staring at him out of his mind.
"If you wanna wait a little while, I'll go with you to see Touji."
"Nah," Asuka yawned, rattling around in the cupboards for a clean bento, "I'll just drop this off and head back home – not like I'm gonna hang with the stooge or anything."
"O-oh…"
Glancing at him over the edge of one of the kitchen chairs, Asuka murmured, "Problem?"
"Hmm?"
"You look confused."
Shinji scratched his head. "Well, I guess I was just wondering… are you guys like, friends now, or…?"
Asuka snorted. "We're associates," she said coolly, "that's all. I have to work with him, so I have to get along with him – and he's a pilot, so I can't really ignore him."
You do with Rei, Shinji thought, wisely biting his tongue before he could voice this observation.
"'Friends' is too strong," Asuka continued, finally pulling a bento out of the cupboard and putting it on the table, "but I can stomach him, if that's what you mean."
Shinji managed a weak chuckle. "I'm sure he'll be glad to hear it."
The conversation lapsed, and after a moment of silence, the doorbell rang.
"See you later," Asuka said smoothly, snapping the lid onto the now-full bento.
"Umm yeah."
Still puzzling over Asuka's intentions towards Touji, Shinji hurried to the front door, pulling it open to find Rei waiting patiently on the other side with a small, nondescript brown box in her arms.
"Hey," he said, slipping into his shoes, "I'm ready!"
"Ready for what?" Rei asked quietly.
"To help you move in," Shinji laughed, "is all your stuff downstairs, or what?"
Rei glanced down at the box, then back up at Shinji. Silently, she offered him the box, waiting until he had taken it before murmuring, "This is my stuff."
Ignoring his look of shock, she turned and started towards the elevator. As they went down to her new apartment, Shinji kept kicking himself mentally. Of course, he thought, felling very stupid, her apartment building was leveled – this box is either all she could save… or everything she bought since moving in with Father.
Astutely, he guessed it was the latter.
"This is it."
Shinji nodded. "Thank goodness… this was getting heavy."
Rei glanced at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was joking or serious. Once she was sure that he was teasing her, she favored him with one of her rare, nearly infinitesimal smiles. "Welcome to my home," she said quietly, keying the door open and gesturing for him to go in before her.
Shinji bowed and walked in, finding the apartment nearly a perfect replica of Misato's. "Wow," he said, "it's in great shape. A little… er, hot, but…"
"The air conditioning unit is not working," Rei said, stepping into the apartment and allowing the door to slide shut behind her. "I have called the repairman, but he will not be around until later. Would you care for a drink?"
"Sure."
Shinji followed her into the kitchen, setting the box on the table and glancing around at the dusty surfaces with a slight frown. Dust motes swam lazily through the air, drawing a light cough from the boy, but all in all, it was not a dump.
Not like her last place.
"I will… clean later," Rei said, clearly wanting to impress him. "I simply have not had time."
"No," Shinji said quickly, "of course not – when would you? I was just thinking I could help, that's all."
Rei nodded. "I would like that."
Quietly, the First opened the box and pulled out a brand new set of glasses, unwrapping and rinsing them under the faucet before pulling the freezer open.
"I wouldn't use that ice," Shinji warned as she reached for a small, blue plastic tray, "who knows how long it's been there?"
"Oh, right," Rei whispered, frowning faintly as she regarded the still-empty glasses.
Shinji smiled reassuringly. "It's ok if it's a little warm," he said gently. "Really."
Nodding, Rei filled the glasses and handed him one. Silence fell as they drank, gazing thoughtfully at each other in the apartment's oppressive heat. The longer the quiet stretched on, the more Shinji found himself shifting, and the more he noticed that there was a single, solitary bead of sweat on Rei's collarbone, slowly, slowly slipping down the front of her shirt.
Don't stare, he told himself, setting his glass on the table and trying not to stare as the droplet slid down between the inviting valley formed by Rei's breasts – barely visible through the open top buttons on her shirt, but undeniably tantalizing to the eye. Don't stare, don't stare, don't… stare. We haven't even kissed since… well, since I kissed her and made her lip bleed – don't think about… about THAT stuff. It's too soon…
Rei, it seemed, noticed the attention, averting her eyes as the faintest hint of pink tinged her cheeks. So far, Shinji had not kissed her since she had agreed to continue seeing him, and while it had only been a couple days, she was starting to wonder if maybe she had not done something wrong.
Perhaps he is still thinking about my… background, she thought hesitantly, setting her glass in the sink, he does not seem to want to look at my body anymore…
Cautiously raising her eyes, Rei whispered, "Would you… like to join me for dinner?"
Caught off guard – as he had fully expected her to ask him to stop looking down her shirt – Shinji said, "Y-yeah, I'd like that…"
"Alright."
The silence that fell next was so tense and charged with sexual energy that both pilots felt it, shuffling their feet and playing idly with their buttons until finally, Shinji realized he could not take it anymore.
Tentatively, he picked up his glass and came around the table, reaching past Rei to set it in the sink. Rei tensed, planting her hands flat on the fridge to keep herself from touching him – just in case he was still having issues with her origins… though she did run her tongue unconsciously around her lips and tilt her head back minutely, closing her eyes halfway and glancing discretely down at the front of his pants.
It came as rather a shock to her to realize that she was incredibly aroused.
"So," Shinji whispered, pulling his hand back and 'accidentally' brushing Rei's shoulder to see if she would flinch away, "you umm… you're comfortable here?"
Rei nodded, keeping her eyes on his as he stayed very close to her. "I… believe I can be," she said softly, wishing very much that he would break the barrier of implied personal space and touch her again like he did when they were first dating. "It will take some time, though."
Edging discretely closer, Shinji said, "Yeah, I... I heard that things that are worthwhile take time."
"Oh?" Rei murmured, pushing subtly away from the fridge as her eyes fixed on his lips. "I had not heard that."
Shinji let his breath out very slowly to keep it from coming out in a rush. "It's true," he said, speaking so quietly that Rei could hardly hear. "It said that the best things in life are the ones you have to work at…"
Staring into his eyes, Rei quietly replied, "I see…"
After another moment, Shinji was standing in front of Rei with his hands pressed against the fridge on either side of her waist, trapping her with his body as he slowly drew closer and closer, making no attempt to hide his intentions.
A second before their lips met, Rei closed her eyes.
It was worth it.
Shinji meant it to be a chaste, gentle little make-up kiss – he really did… but somehow between putting his hands on the fridge and staring into Rei's eyes, things changed. In his defense, it started out exactly as he had planned, but when they were still kissing several minutes later, it was anything but chaste. Over and over, their lips collided, dancing briefly before pulling back as their hands – no longer idly resting against the fridge – physically drank in details of each others bodies long forgotten.
A hip, a shoulder blade, a breast – everything seemed new and exciting as their movements became wilder, filling the room with the silken sound of palms on fabric, too uncertain, even then, for either of them to try undressing the other.
Finally, due to the heat of the apartment, and the heat they were generating, they parted, wiping sweat from their faces as they struggled to catch their breath. Slowly, as their panting faded away to deep, even inhaling, their eyes met.
Rei leaned her head back against the fridge as Shinji wrapped his arms around her, moving his mouth right next to her ear and sending a powerful shockwave through her with five, simple words.
"Can I see the bedroom…?"
( 0 0 0 )
"God, this sucks!"
Asuka pursed her lips, kicking Touji's bed with her heel as she replied, "Then choke down the shit they feed you here, you ungrateful bastard!"
Touji winced as the bed shook. "Not the food, dumbass," he groaned, holding his ribs with one hand as he tried not to spill his bento, "being cooped up all the time! God, don't be so damn touchy!"
Folding her arms, Asuka leaned back in her chair, looking at the far wall as she muttered, "Be more specific, idiot – you can't take a bite of something I came all the way here to bring you and say 'God this sucks' and expect me to think you're talking about something else."
Sticking his chopsticks back into the bento Touji braced himself. "Oh the food sucks too," he said dryly, earning him a nasty glare, "so I guess it all works out."
"Prick."
"Whore."
Abruptly, Asuka shot to her feet, and loomed over a suddenly nervous-looking Fourth Child. "How's your lunch, Suzuhara?" she grated dangerously.
Wisely, Touji lowered his eyes and mumbled, "It's umm… really good…"
"That's what I thought."
The conversation lapsed as Touji dug into the bento, keeping his mouth occupied to keep his foot out of it. Man, he thought darkly, Shinji has to live with her – that poor sap! Sure, she's easy on the eyes, but that temper! God… I'd be dead in a week.
After some time, Asuka's brow finally cleared. "I swear," she muttered, lounging back in her chair and eyeing the young man critically, "you and Shinji… two peas in a pod. Neither one of you has an ounce of subtlety or tact. It's a wonder you haven't like, slipped on a banana peel and broken your neck."
Touji pretended not to hear her. "Yes sir," he said a little too enthusiastically, "this food sure is good."
Asuka waved one hand. "Shinji made it," she said lightly, "he figured you'd want something better than the garbage they call food in this dump."
"Well tell him I said thanks."
"Sure."
After several moments of quiet eating, Touji murmured, "Something on your mind, Souryu?"
"What makes you ask that?" Asuka wondered, absently rubbing at the corner of one eye.
Touji shrugged. "I dunno," he said evenly, "just seems like you got something you wanna say."
Asuka rose to her feet and brushed off the back of her skirt. "Not to you," she mumbled. "Enjoy the food, Suzuhara."
"Hey, wait," Touji called quickly.
"Huh?"
"Can you, umm… stick around a while?" Touji asked hesitantly. "This place really does blow…"
Considering the request for a moment, Asuka frowned. Back home there was only Misato, who she was not exactly on the best terms with, PenPen, who seemed to somehow know that she wasn't getting along with his owner (not that she really cared, but he had tried to peck her twice in the last few days), and Shinji… who was probably at Wondergirl's anyway.
"I could," she said finally, stretching her arms up over her head, "but I'd hate for you to get the wrong impression."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Touji demanded indignantly.
Asuka smiled slyly. "It means I don't dig stooges, stooge."
Coloring, Touji muttered, "Well good – saves me the trouble of having to tell you I'm not interested when you throw yourself at me."
"God," Asuka sighed, rolling her eyes as she settled back into her chair, "having a conversation with you is like exfoliating with a cheese grater… but since you're so desperate to have me stick around, I guess I can spare you a few minutes."
Touji was just opening his mouth to tell her that maybe he'd changed his mind when abruptly, the lights went out. "What the…?"
In the distance, an air raid siren began to wail, echoed almost immediately by a sharp ringing sound. Asuka's hand shot into her pocket as she rose to her feet. "Sorry, Suzuhara," she muttered, turning for the door as the hospital's emergency lights came on and flooded the room with red light. "Duty calls and all tha-"
Asuka came up short as a thick, steel bulkhead slammed down in front of the door, blocking her in. On the inside of the door, in huge, yellow letters, she read, 'For your safety, please remain in your bed – a hospital staff member will assist you as soon as this emergency has passed.'
At the same time, her cell phone issued a sullen beep, and when Asuka lifted it, she found a small notice on the screen, reading, 'Signal strength insufficient.'
Letting her arm fall to her side, Asuka slowly turned to face the wide-eyed Touji, whispering the only words she could come up with for her current situation.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me…"
( 0 0 0 )
Ritsuko came onto the bridge with a slight flush on her face, pulling the sleeves of her lab coat down to hide the welts on her wrists.
"Status?" she demanded tersely, trying desperately not to feel hatred as the Commander walked in a tasteful distance behind her, showing not so much as a single hint of what they had been doing on his cool, collected face.
"The angel has already breached the Nagataki defense line," Aoba replied, keeping his eyes on the readout in front of him. "It's practically here."
"Shinji and Rei are in the cages," Hyouga chimed in, trying to stay cool, "but I can't raise Asuka. We had her on the line, but the connection was lost…"
"Keep trying," Ritsuko ordered, glancing over her shoulder as the door to the command deck hissed open. "You're late, Major!"
"Sorry," Misato panted, resting a hand on the back of Maya's chair. "What's the status on Unit 01?"
"It's in the AT neutralization zone, Major…" the brown-haired tech said reluctantly.
"…but the right arm hasn't been fully regenerated yet," Ritsuko concluded, shaking her head in disgust.
"So it's not ready for combat," Misato frowned. "Ok, there's no time to get anyone to the surface, so position Rei for combat inside the Geofront, directly in front of headquarters. I want her to snipe the target as soon as it penetrates… I want this ended as fast as possible."
"Yes ma'am!"
Down in the cages, Rei acknowledged the order, waiting patiently as Unit 00 was moved to one of the catapults. Now is my opportunity to protect you, she thought as her mecha was shot to the interior of the Geofront.
In her mind's eye, she could already see the angel falling. There could be no other outcome, she decided as she quickly arranged the weapons Misato had sent in a rough circle around her Unit. No, with as good as she felt right then; there was no way she could lose.
Love was her armor – conviction, her sword.
For the one she cared most for, she would not fail.
"Prepare a dummy plug for Unit 02 as a precaution," Gendou's voice crackled over the tactical network. "And establish contact with the Second Child. I am going to the cages to oversee the plug's installation…Fuyutsuki, you are in charge."
Rei nodded to herself, agreeing with the Commander's tactics, but in an uncharacteristic display of bravado, she told herself that they were completely unnecessary.
"The angel is almost through," Misato's voice reported over the communications network, "I'm counting on you, Rei…"
"Understood…"
Tightening her hold on the control yokes, Rei watched for the angel, a faint smile curving her lips as she recalled the heated encounter in her new apartment. I was not aware it could be so… satisfying, she mused, mentally comparing this latest experience with her first. How odd… it seems so long ago, yet it has been less than-
She cut this thought off as the armor plates above her finally gave way. "Here it comes," she whispered, her face going back to its usual neutrality as she braced Unit 00 for the coming battle. She waited patiently as the angel – an ugly, black eyed behemoth with a wide, gaping maw – pushed its way into the Geofront, its stubby arms barely squeezing through the narrow gap.
Rei watched her HUD, carefully aligning the triangular targeting sights until they were locked directly onto the angel's core.
"There."
Without any further hesitation, Rei bore down on the control yoke's trigger, keeping a steady bead on the angel as the rifle in Unit 00's hands stuttered out a flood of depleted uranium, armor piercing rounds. If the angel was concerned about the stream of gunfire washing over it, it made no sign, descending into the Geofront and hovering several feet off of the ground, staring impassively at Unit 00 as if trying to decide what to do with it.
Rei's brow creased in an uncharacteristic frown as the rifle clicked dry. "Next…" she whispered, willing her Unit to grab a pair of rifles from the pile of weaponry. She brought them around to bear and depressed the triggers, not bothering with the targeting computers this time, as the angel was now close enough to see with the naked eye. "I am neutralizing the AT field, am I not?" she said to herself, feeling a slight edge of disquiet worming through her stomach as the twin rifles also ran out of ammunition.
Unit 00 seized two rocket launchers next, awkwardly bringing them to bear as Rei whispered, "Why will you not collapse?"
Had she not been in a pressure situation, she may have paid more attention to the rage building inside of her. Emotions were still foreign territory to the First, but given a few seconds to think about it, she may have questioned why, exactly, she was getting so frustrated. As it was, she merely opened fire with the launchers, her brow coming down in a faint scowl as the rockets seemed to splash harmlessly against the angel's thick hide.
As the rocket launchers ran out of ammunition, two long sheets of thin material unfurled from the angel's shoulder pods, dangling down to the ground and swaying in the faint, underground breeze. As Rei leaned forward to get a better look, the sheets whipped up, lashing out and catching the blue mecha at the exact point where its arms met its torso. In less than a second, the sheets moved almost effortlessly up and down… and Unit 00's arms were severed in a gout of blood.
Rei's scream echoed through Central Dogma.
"Damn it!" Misato cried over the tac-net. "Get her out of there! Eject her now!"
"No good," Maya's voice replied frantically, "there's too much biofeedback – I can't get the signal through!"
In the entry plug, Rei's world was a haze of pain. "Nnn" she groaned, clutching her shoulders in agony as she tried to form a plan – any plan – to keep fighting. She had to… she simply could not give up when so much was at stake.
"Shinji," she gasped, forcing her hands to close on the control yokes once more. "Shinji… I won't… fail you…"
"Rei, no!" Misato cried in disbelief as Unit 00 began to charge the angel, "Disconnect her nerve connections now!"
Rei's eyes widened as one of the angel's arms bunched up and shot towards her Unit's neck… and then… everything went black.
( 0 0 0 )
"OPEN THIS GODDAMN DOOR!" Asuka raged, pounding on the sealed bulkhead as her own words echoed snidely in her ears.
'Evacuation training? What are you stupid? That stuff's not for pilots like us…'
Touji leaned up against the wall, holding his sides carefully as he watched the redhead resume battering at the door. "I thought we were supposed to be the best," he said ruefully, "and we can't even get out of a hospital room to get to the EVAs." He shook his head, "We should have left as soon as the alarm went off."
"It wasn't our fault," Asuka muttered, running her hands around the doorframe for any kind of crack she could put her fingers into, "they sealed the room before the alarm sounded – and cut off the stupid phones! What kind of hospital is this, anyway? What if someone was coding or-"
She was cut off by a massive crash. Instinctively shielding Touji's body with hers, Asuka coughed as the room filled with dust and debris, waving her hands to clear the air as she searched for whatever had caused the momentous explosion, her streaming eyes going wide as she finally realized what had happened.
"Mein Gott…!"
Not ten feet from where they stood, half in and half out of the building, was the severed head of Evangelion Unit 00.
Touji's mouth hung open as he stared at the huge, monoptic intruder… and at the pulped remains of the bed he had been in less than five minutes before. "Holy shit," he gasped, shaking all over as the full implications of what he was seeing hit him. "Ayanami… that's Ayana-"
"Stay here," Asuka said flatly, squaring her shoulders as she eyed the hole in the hospital's wall.
Touji grabbed her hand before she had taken two steps. "No!" he said firmly, "I'm coming with you. You can't just-"
He cut himself off as Asuka gently covered his hand with her own. "I have to get to Unit 02," she said levelly, looking him dead in the eye as she carefully pulled his hand away. "You'll just slow me down, Suzuhara…"
Touji fidgeted with his hospital gown. "Such a goddamn showoff," he muttered bitterly. "You're not as bad ass as you think, Souryu…"
Smirking, Asuka dropped him a wink. "Yeah, I am," she said, taking a step, but coming up short as a thought occurred to her.
"What?" Touji frowned as the girl shot him a sharp, dangerous look.
Pulling her lips back from her teeth, Asuka started towards Unit 00's head, studying it for the best footholds as she muttered, "If you look up my skirt, I'll fucking kill you…"
( 0 0 0 )
"The angel is moving past Unit 00," Hyouga reported, his voice shaking as the huge invader glided silently past their only line of defense. "It doesn't look like it's going to attack again."
"What about Rei?" Misato asked tensely, praying that she had cut the girl's nerve connections in time.
"She's alive," Aoba reported. "Her heart rate's up pretty high… well, pretty high for Rei, I guess, but she's definitely alive."
Misato nodded. "What's the status on the insertion for Unit 02's dummy plug?"
"It's a no-go."
"What?"
"You heard me," Ritsuko said, leaning over Maya's desk and typing so fast her fingers seemed to blur, "there's some kind of pulse-flow negation error."
"What the hell does that mean?" Misato demanded.
"It means 02 is dead in the water."
Misato ground her teeth, pounding her fist into Hyouga's desk and making him jump. "Where the hell is Asuka"
( 0 0 0 )
As luck would have it, Asuka was not as far away as Misato thought. "Wow, Wondergirl," she panted, staring in awe at the decimated ruins of Unit 00, "you really got your ass kicked, didn't you?"
At her best guess, she was still a half mile away from the closest entry point to NERV central – an easy sprint… for someone who had not been running for fifteen minutes already. Good thing I'm in decent shape, she told herself, wiping sweat from her brow as she eyed the terrain and began to prepare for her end run. Time to save the day, I gu-
"Well, if it isn't the famous Second Child."
Asuka's head whipped around. "Kaji?" she asked in surprise, taking in his unkempt beard and the watering can in his hands before rubbing her eyes to ensure that she was not hallucinating. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same," Kaji replied lightly, showing no signs of fear as a salvo of heavy artillery rocked the hillside less than a mile from where he was standing. "Shouldn't you be piloting or something? Last time I checked, that angel over there was looking mighty crabby."
Asuka looked back at the shattered remains of Unit 00, her face flushing deeply as she muttered, "I… I got lost."
Kaji blinked. "Come again?"
"I made a wrong turn, ok?" Asuka shot back. "Geez! Everyone is going to die, and I made a wrong turn! Can you help me out here a little, you think? Maybe, drag yourself away from whatever it is you're watering over there and help me, oh, I don't know, save humanity?"
She stood as tall as she could, her nostrils flaring as she glared at him.
To her surprise, Kaji laughed. "You're cute when you get angry," he said with a wink, setting his watering can down and brushing some dirt off of his pants. "I was actually just about to ask if you needed a… ride…"
Asuka turned, curious to see what had stunned the unflappable Ryouji Kaji into silence.
She gasped as she caught sight of Unit 01 rising majestically out of the ground.
"That idiot!" she blurted, "Where's his rifle?"
( 0 0 0 )
In Central Dogma, all eyes were locked on the main screen as the purple mecha charged forward. "Shinji!" Misato yelled, "Return at once, Unit 01 isn't ready for-"Ritsuko cut her off. "Good Lord – he's got an N2 mine!"
They all watched in stunned silence as Unit 01 reached the angel and brought the mine down in an overhand arc – stabbing it like a knife at the angel's core.
In Unit 01's plug, Shinji's face was set in a grim mask of determination as the mine came in contact with a glowing hexagonal barrier. "AT field… full power…" he whispered to himself, focusing all of his energy on punching through. "This is for Rei, you son of a bitch!"
The angel's field shivered and gave way, allowing the mine to fall towards the core.
"HA!"
Shinji's cry of victory was short-lived, however, as a thick shutter abruptly snapped closed over the angel's core, shielding it less than a second before the mine went off.
"UH!"
"Get down!" Kaji yelled, throwing himself against Asuka and carrying them both into a nearby ditch as the N2 mine went off, praying that the shallow indentation would be enough to shield them from the blast.
Their luck held.
Hot wind tore at their clothes, momentarily sucking the air from their lungs as the explosive force of the mine washed over them, leaving unharmed, but coughing for air.
After a moment of dazed silence, Asuka softly whispered, "Kaji… we don't really have time for this right now."
Kaji, who had reflexively closed his eyes against the blast, looked down, gaping as he found his right hand resting squarely on Asuka's soft breast.
"Ahh!"
Asuka grinned as he leapt off of her. "Now I can die happy," she said dryly, hoisting herself to her feet and dusting off her clothes "So… how about that ride?"
Her smile faded as Kaji once again stared at the combat zone.
Don't look, her mind advised, don't look – it's worse than you think… don't look!
In spite of this mental warning, she turned… just in time to see the angel's right arm shoot out, catching Unit 01 directly in the face and splitting its armor clean in two.
"God…"
As the purple machine fell to the ground, Kaji's paralysis finally broke.
Asuka was on his heels every step of the way as he raced towards his car.
( 0 0 0 )
No good… no GOOD! Misato thought. Two EVAs down… one we can't start… damn it – we're screwed!
"Status on Unit 02?" she snapped, listening as another explosion rocked the installation. "Try the dummy plug again, for Christ's sake! We-"
"No time!" Hyouga's voice was close to hysterical as he scanned his screen. "That hit was to the foundation – the last plate of armor has been vaporized!"
"Damn!" Misato cried, "It's open – the main shaft is completely open!"
"The angel is descending rapidly," Aoba announced clearly trying not to panic as he looked to Misato for guidance, "none of the defenses are even slowing it down."
"Where is it going?" Misato asked tensely, dreading the response… knowing the response.
"It's advancing towards Central Dogma."
"Then it's coming here," Misato said, feeling cold all over as she raised her voice, praying she was not too late. "Evacuate! Everyone get out of here – now!"
"All personnel evacuate at once," a surprisingly soft feminine voice began announcing, contrasting sharply with the alarms blaring all around, "there has been a perimeter breach… all personnel evacuate at once… repeating…"
Misato's eyes widened as the huge monitor on the wall suddenly shivered.
We're too late…!
The wall shivered again, buckling under the immense pressure behind it as an enormous foot hammered through it, followed immediately by the monstrous shape of the Angel of Might.
Misato stared up at it, her teeth clenched so tight that she was sure she'd cracked a molar.
This is it… she thought, clutching her cross tightly in her uninjured hand as the angel tilted its head to the side, its deep, bottomless black eyes growing slowly brighter and brighter.
Oddly, it was Shinji that Misato thought of in what she was sure would be her last seconds alive. I'm sorry, Shinji… she thought as the angel's eyes glowed brighter, becoming almost blinding, Asuka was right… I was nev-
There was a tremendous crash as the wall to the angel's left gave way and a gigantic red fist slammed hard into the angel's face, sending it staggering back and immediately snuffing that horrible brightness from its eyes.
"Unit 02?" Misato breathed in disbelief, "Asuka"
The red mecha continued forward, wrapping its hands around the angel's shoulders and using its momentum to shove the invader back through the breach it had created, landing on top of it with a monumental crash.
Never letting up, Asuka brought Unit 02's fist back, fully intent on crushing the angel's skull as the fear and fury of powerlessness were channeled into her will to fight. Before she could swing, however, the angel finally recovered its wits, turning its eyes on Unit 02 and cutting loose with a concentrated blast of energy, hitting the mecha square in the upper arm.
"AHH!"
Asuka screamed as Unit 02's arm was severed just above the elbow, crashing into the gantry where Commander Ikari stood calmly watching the fray and dousing him nearly from head to foot with Unit 02's purple-ish blood.
Kicking the angel with all of her might and forcing it back towards the wall, Asuka never noticed the expression on the commander's face – an expression that surely would have caused her to pause, and possibly lose the fight.
Commander Ikari was smiling.
"Not what I had in mind," he murmured under his breath as Unit 02 drove the angel back, "but I suppose it can be worked with."
With a triumphant cry, Asuka finally succeeded in getting the angel where she wanted it. "Misato!"
Immediately seeing the redhead's plan, the operations director whipped around, leveling a finger at Maya.
"Launch the fifth catapult!"
Asuka rammed the angel's face up against the wall, grinning cruelly as the catapult was triggered, sending them rocketing towards the Geofront. "You like that?" she hissed between clenched teeth, exerting even more pressure and keeping the angel's face tight against the wall as sparks and smoke flew from the point of contact. There was a moment of nauseating vertigo as they reached the surface… and then they were falling, twisting in midair as they both struggled to regain their equilibrium.
Asuka was rocked as Unit 02 came down hard on the angel, but she shook it off, screaming as she brought her Unit's remaining fist down again and again on the angel's face.
Deciding that this was not enough, she reached out, grabbing the angel by the mouth and eyes and pulling back as hard as her Unit could. "Time to die," she grated, grinning insanely as the servos in Unit 02's arm whined under the stress. "Sayonara motherfu-"
Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Unit 02 abruptly sagged forward.
"No," Asuka gasped, tugging futilely on the controls as the 'Out of Power' warning tone sounded behind her. "No… no it's impossible! Not now… not NOW!"
Unit 02 shook as the angel wrapped its whip-like arm around the mecha's head, hesitating for a moment as if savoring the victory, then tossing it aside like a sack of rice. There was a momentary sensation of free-fall, followed by a sickening impact as the machine slammed into the mountainside; rattling Asuka's teeth in her head and making her eyes water as she struggled to shake it off.
On the ground, the bridge crew exited the elevator they had taken to reach the surface just in time to see the angel blast Unit 02 with its eye-beam, shattering its chest armor in a single blow.
"What is… that…?"Misato whispered, staring at the dull, red orb in the giant's now-exposed chest.
No one replied as the angel drew back its arm and began hammering on the sphere, seemingly enjoying the slow death it was giving its opponent.
Within the plug, Asuka was in a panic. "Move!" she screamed, pulling frantically on the control yokes. "Move, move, move, move, move, move, move, move! You've got to move now, or there's no point to any of this!" Cracks began to form in the plug as the angel continued to pound relentlessly on the Unit's core. "You've got to move!" Asuka screamed, clenching her eyes tightly closed as tears of rage began leaking from the corners of her eyes. "Move now or everyone will be killed! Oh God, I'm sick of it already! I'm sick of it all! So MOVE YOU GODDAMN MONSTER!"
Thump, thump…
A sound echoed through the Unit, freezing the air in Asuka's lungs.
Thump, thump…
Slowly opening her eyes, Asuka stared in dazed wonder as a soft blue glow filled the plug. "What's… happen- ahhh!"
Pain, unlike any she had ever experienced before, ripped through the Second Child's body, tearing at her senses as the blue light seemed to pierce directly into her brain, searing every nerve ending until finally, blackness swam up to claim her, and blissfully… Asuka felt nothing more.
( 0 0 0 )
Maya Ibuki had seen many strange and terrible things since coming to NERV. An untested Unit with a rookie pilot fighting an angel with nothing but a knife… a homemade program forcing an alien virus to hyper-evolve into extinction… a trio of determined teens emerging from a dusty ventilation shaft in the nick of time and saving the lives of thousands of people.
…none of these sights compared to the spectacle she witnessed that day.
The angel was poised with its arm bunched to shoot forward again, seeming to savor the last, killing stroke, clearly confident that Unit 02 – with its missing arm and it's spider webbed core – was in no position to defend itself… when suddenly, the prone mecha's four eyes sprang open, lighting from within with an unholy red glow.
As the angel moved for the kill, Unit 02 extended its hand, spreading the fingers and catching the angel's arm as it struck, splitting it neatly into five pieces before bunching it into a fist and yanking the angel off of its feet, sending it flying through the air with the force exerted.
"Unit 02 is… reactivated…" Maya whispered, watching in awe as the machine in question lashed out with its foot, kicking the angel squarely in the chest and tearing its left arm clean off.
Awe turned to disgust as the red mecha pressed the torn flesh up against the stub of its own missing arm… and the two became one, the angel's tissue merging and mutating into the EVA's until they were inseparable.
Unit 02 threw its head back and howled – a piercing, inhuman wail that reverberated throughout the valley, setting everyone's teeth on edge. The angel's remaining arm shot up from where the creature had fallen, but the red EVA merely put its hand up, spreading its AT field between itself and the angel – effectively slicing the angel's arm at the midpoint.
A beep from her laptop diverted Maya's attention from the gruesome spectacle. "No way," she whispered, turning to her superior in stunned disbelief, "how can Asuka's sync ratio be over four hundred percent…?"
"So it's finally happened," Ritsuko whispered, ignoring Maya entirely as Unit 02 dropped to all fours and advanced on the angel, its jaw restraints cracking open as it drew nearer and nearer.
"She's awakened…"
( 0 0 0 )
"So, it has begun…" Fuyutsuki muttered, looking over the Commander's shoulder at the horror out on the Geofront, "but wasn't it supposed to be Unit 01 that gained the Fruit of Life?"
Gendou stared intently as Unit 02 leaned down and tore a chunk of the angel free, chewing it with clear abandon as the angel continued its feeble struggles. "The vessel doesn't matter," he replied finally, "and the prophecies still hold, just with slight modification."
"What about the damage to the First and Third Children?" the sub-commander asked softly. "You know that they retrieved them both and that initial reports indicate that the Third is-"
Gendou waved a hand dismissively. "He's alive, isn't he? So long as he can still pilot, he will prove useful." He turned and smiled at his old teacher. "He may even prove to be more useful in this condition than before."
Fuyutsuki frowned. "Don't you care at all about what happened to him?" he murmured. "He is still your son."
Gendou scowled until the other man dropped his eyes. "He's not dead," he repeated, looking back out the window as Unit 02 rose from its gruesome meal and howled like a wolf baying at the moon. Yui would understand, he told himself firmly, and before too long… I will be able to discuss it with her personally.
Continued…
Author's notes: You know, I actually don't have anything I feel a driving need to explain or note on this chapter. Go figure.
Thanks to LeperMessiah pre-reading. In exchange for removing suckage from this fic, he said that I have to plug evafics(dot)org and pretentiouscryptoleage(dot)us. Fun sites, both – and I'm not just saying that because I happen to contribute to both… honestly.
Feedback is always welcome on any page with reviewing capabilities or by e-mailing me directly at random1377(at-sign)yahoo(dot)com.