Chapter 14: Puppets Have Emotions
Rei was still digesting what Shinji said. Fearing a little of what happened in her daydream had become true, it was possible that something else happened. She looked back at the storage armory room. Going to the window and peering inside, she saw a drawer that was slightly ajar. Thinking it was the items he used, she tried the handle.
It flashed red at her. Retracting her hand, she realized that it was keycard operated. Getting out her NERV card, she remembered that Eva pilots did not have authorization to enter armories or storages of ammunition. Blinking and tilting her head, questions came to her mind of how the Third Child accessed it. Trying her NERV card, the handle didn't give a light indication. Instead, the door slowly opened to ajar.
'…' she thought. Blinking and still tilting her head in perplexed, she stared at the door.
'Why did the door do that? Was it not closed all the way when Ikari came out?'
"…" Rei said. Narrowing her eyes, new set of questions developed that she couldn't answer.
Opening the door more, she went to the drawer that was open ajar. Pulling it open, it had the gun that he cleaned. She grabbed it and walked back to the table. Placing it on the table, she sat and stared at it seeing if any answers would come from it. All she could see was its cold, emotionless metal stare back at her.
Some time passed by as she kept staring at the pistol with emotionless eyes. From time to time, she would hold the weapon in her hands then put it back on the table. When she picked the pistol one last time, a thought came over her. Gripping the handle, she stood up and walked over to a booth. Reaching one in the middle, she stepped forward.
Staring at the target at the end, she looked at the weapon in her hand. An image of how the Third Child held the gun in the survival course came to mind. She mimicked his pose for a right-hander and pointed the gun at the target. Adjusting till the sights from front and back were level, it reminded her from using the AI in the Eva for weapons. Believing that the weapon was not loaded, she pulled the trigger.
BANG!
Startled that the weapon went off, she brought the gun to her chest by the light recoil. She looked at the gun and saw that it was depleted with a slight scent of gunpowder. Believing that Shinji didn't leave anything in the weapon, there seemed to be one bullet was left. Not finding a logical reason on why, she looked at the target. Not seeing if she hit it or not, something red caught her eye.
At the corner of the booth's table shelf, there was a button. Curiosity made her press the button as the pulley system activated. Seeing the target moving closer, she waited feeling tense for some reason. As the object came to a stop nearby, she saw a human figure board. Seeing a single hole in it, the bullet had hit the center of its head.
For some reason, she grabbed something from the shot. Walking back to the storage armory, she put the handgun back. Closing the drawer and exiting, she closed the armory door. Looking at the keycard pad, the handle lights flashed and the latch engaged. Blinking, she left the shooting range.
Rei walked a bit down hallways till she came to a large window that showed the surroundings of the Geo-Front. Time passed as she stared out at the wilderness while arranging her questions and curiosity in her mind. It only structured her questions and hypotheses more about the Third Child. Observing the time, the mission was near commencing. Turning around, she began heading toward the locker room.
'Pilot Ikari is not what the Commander predicted he would be,' she thought. Being the only one in the hallway, footsteps echoed.
'People treat him for his mental disorder...but they do not at the same time,' Ayanami pondered while stepping into an elevator. The doors closed and the lift went down. Only going a couple floors lower, the doors opened.
'What is Pilot Ikari?' she thought then she walked out. Heading toward the locker room, she tried answering that question. Even when entering the space and going toward her locker, no answer came to mind. She began to change her cloths to her plug suit.
'What is Pilot Ikari?' she thought again. Gripping the switches on her suit's wrists, it tighten to her skin. She stared at her locker then closed it. Hearing a nearby locker room door open and close, she looked around but saw no one enter. Ayanami walked out and turned left to see someone walking away. It was the Third Child and he was in his plug suit.
'Pilot Ikari is…unpredictable,' she thought. Following him, she did not feel satisfied by that answer.
On the surface, two male teens were standing on a roof top. More to the pleading of the military enthusiast, the two students hadn't head to the shelters yet. A helicopter went over Neo-Tokyo announcing a large power outage and thanking the citizens for their cooperation.
"All right already. We get the idea! They don't have to keep yakking about it," Kensuke said.
"Yo Kensuke! You sure about the time? We're supposed to be evacuated now." Toji said.
"I took a peek at dad's data. This is definitely the right time!" he said. Both heard and saw large gates opening by nearby mountains.
"Kensuke!"
"I see it," Aida stated. Seeing Unit-01 rising out of the gates, he got his video recorder going. Eva-00 rose behind it with a large shield on its left arm.
"There it is! An Evangelion!" he said with glee. "Wow, there's Unit-00, too! Awesome!"
"So Ayanami's with him this time," Toji said to himself. Thinking about the two pilots, he threw a fist into the air.
"Ayyyyyy! Kick some ass!" he shouted while Kensuke continued video recording. Suddenly, Shinji appeared in front of Toji which he blinked. He saw him bow.
'Very well, Mr. Suzuhara.'
After rising from bowing, the male pilot was gone in another blink of an eye. Toji looked frightened for a while at the large purple humanoid. Blinking and feeling goosebumps on his arms, he tried to figure out what he just saw. The Ikari he saw didn't look the same. It had silver eyes and was grinning mischievously at him. Snapping out of it, both went to the shelters. The jock decided to not watch any late night movies for a while.
The Fifth Angel continued to drill and drill throughout the day and night with nothing disturbing it much. Throughout its life, it only had one purpose which was to get his brethren's mother back from lilins. The encounter with the war machine didn't hinder that purpose. But when it felt the presence of someone piloting the huge humanoid, it stopped doing its purpose for a moment.
It knew there were many humans in the world. Almost all were running around much smaller than the Angels were. Strangely though, the one piloting the purple abomination was an interesting child. It felt that the lilin was already one of them with no thoughts, no emotions, and just one purpose through their life. When the child broke through its barrier and felt its might, it caught a glimpse of the human's mental state.
It was startled. It had been long dead from its original state. Living in its mind were fractures of itself yet a dead shell took over. Mulling over and over what it felt and saw while drilling, Ramiel finally understood why the child felt so familiar in the first place. But, one thought stuck in mind while drilling. The Angel questioned it over and over again almost breaking its purpose repetitively.
'Individuality…one's self for only one's self.'
Across the large lake nearby, an army of mobile power stations laid on the mountain side. NERV had set up a portable command post equivalent to the command center at HQ. One of the bridge monitors was monitoring the Angel's drilling progress.
"Enemy bore has breached number 13 armor plate!" Shigeru stated.
"Five hours fifty-five minutes until it reaches HQ!" Makoto stated.
"Transmission link-up from Shikoku and Kyushu complete!"
"Begin test run on all cooling systems!" said an engineer. The coolants in each power station hummed their own orchestra of the same note loudly. Near the center of the command post, five people were standing near a large monitor. The Captain was accompanied by Ritsuko and Maya while giving details to the two Eva pilots.
"All right, listen carefully to what we're about to say," Misato started. She stood in front of the screen with two images on it. Around them was a lot of writing which seemed like jargon information.
"This is a positron rifle. NERV requisitioned it from the Japan Strategic Self-Defense Force Research labs; it's still pretty much an experimental weapon though. According to our calculations, it can punch through the enemy A.T. field even at this range. However, it's a precision instrument. It was not intended for field operations and it is a system we've thrown together in a big hurry."
"The Shield, we've jury-rigged it from the bottom of a single-stage-to-orbit rocket that was given an ultra electromagnetic coating. It can withstand the enemy's beam for 17 seconds."
"..." Both Shinji and Rei stated. They stared at Misato, not looking at the two things she mentioned.
"Shinji will be the gunner in Unit-01," she said looking at him. Seeing him only blink, the Captain hated that response but let it slide off her shoulders.
"Rei will handle defense in Unit-00."
"Yes ma'am."
"Rei, this is because the synchronizing between Shinji and Unit-01's is higher. Precise operation is absolutely necessary this time."
"Now Ikari, positrons are affected by the earth's rotation, magnetic field, and gravity. They won't travel in a straight line. Don't forget to correct for that," Ritsuko stated.
"Do you wish me to use the computer Dr. Akagi?" Shinji asked.
"...?" Ritsuko and Misato said blinking and looking at him. Questioning in their mind what he said, Maya looked confused and Rei looked at him.
"I don't believe you can calculate the shot from this range without the computer. Besides you haven't trained for this type of field work so use the computer," the scientist stated looking and sounding slightly annoyed.
"Is that an order?" he stoically asked without blinking.
"Pilot Ikari! This isn't the time or place to be asking stupid questions!" the Captain retorted at him.
The Third Child didn't flinch. Moving his eyes slowly to Misato, Maya felt shivers go down her spine. The lavender haired woman kept her stern face as well as Ritsuko; however, they were detecting that he wasn't joking with them. Ayanami felt a question pop in her mind and wasn't going to mull it over and wait.
"Why do you not want to use the AI Ikari?"
"..." Shinji said. Blinking, he turned his head towards her.
"I do not need it," he stated expressionlessly. Turning toward the scientist, he bowed slightly.
"Very well, forgive me of my selfishness," he said.
Leaning back straight, he saw different emotions. The lieutenant looked more confused while an irritated expression were on the operation's director and lead scientist's faces. Rei was about to rebuke him. She felt that the male pilot was being illogical to not use the Commander's hard work when he spoke first.
"Is there anything else you wish to tell us?"
"..." Misato said. Keeping her annoyed face, she turned to something else.
"In case you miss, it will take twenty seconds to cool, recharge, and fire the second shot. We anticipate a counter-attack within that time. If you can't dodge it, it's all over. In the last extremity, Rei's shield will have to protect you."
"..." both pilots stated and stared at her. Suppressing an irritated sigh, she felt that they were ready.
"It's time. Get ready you two."
"..." the Third Child said bowing.
"Yes ma'am," the First Child said. Both turned around and started to walk toward their Evas. Not getting too far, they heard the Captain speak out.
"Shinji…eh, don't leave the city in ruins okay?" she stated.
It caused the other three women's head to turn toward her startled. Seeing him stop, he slowly turned around without swaying. It was almost like he was levitating above the ground at a centimeter level. Despite keeping a stoic expression, his face was shadowed by a sky light nearby. His eye color stood out making his aura murky and dark and seemed to unsettle the women near him.
"Is that an order...Miss Misato?" he asked. His stoic tone did not ease the grave atmosphere he emitted. The scientist saw the Captain flinch and decided to find out what happen.
"Okay Ikari, tell me what happened when Misato talked to you after this morning's attack," she asked. The male pilot saw Misato's shocked face but did not look at her.
"H-Hey Rits. Nothing happened when I talked with him. We just talked, came to an understanding, and we parted. That was all!" she said with a plastered smile.
"Oh really?" Ritsuko stated not convinced. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she looked at the male pilot with a stern face.
"Ikari."
"Very well," he said with a slight bow. The women could see Misato's face pale a little and she backed off. Turning around, she began to head back to the main operations center.
"Captain Katsurgai asked me why I did not follow her orders. I stated that I was doing what the job requirements were. That an Eva pilot was to protect the city and the citizens. The only damage done was one or two buildings and a mountain being destroyed."
"She said that saving the Eva and pilot were more important than the city. I asked her to wait a moment. I looked through the NERV manual book to locate what the purpose of an Eva pilot was," he said with a slow blink. Maya kept listening while Rei already knew as well as Ritsuko.
"The only requirement that an Eva pilot has is to silence an Angel. There are no descriptions of protecting a city that I could find."
"…okay so what was the problem?" Maya asked. The Third Child slowly turned toward her.
"I told Miss Katsurgai that she was correct and that I made a mistake. I then asked her what the city was used for during an Angel attack."
"...!" the lieutenant said a little startled by the comment. The scientist narrowed her eyes. She was about to get angry if the lavender haired woman said something stupid.
"And what did she say?" Ritsuko asked and saw the male pilot turn toward her.
"She did not say anything. I asked her if it was used only for a battleground when an Angel was found. She continued to say nothing. I then asked her were the lives of people not important during an Angel attack. She continued to not say anything but disliked my question. I asked her if I should disregard the destruction of buildings and/or killed civilians that were in my way of stopping an Angel. Her answer was a slap to my face."
Ritsuko and Maya went a slight pale color in surprised. However, they could understand why Misato would slap him. Rei didn't because he was asking similar questions that she would ponder. Despite the array of questions she had of the male pilot, she seemed more and more intrigued by his thought process. His answers were similar to what she thought.
"Her response after that was asking me who I thought I was. I told her that I was Shinji Ikari, age 15. Occupation Eva pilot/middle school student. She didn't like my answer and told me that my body was NERV's and not mine."
"..." Silence went on as Ritsuko contemplated that it was somewhat true, Maya looked to the ground seemingly ashamed. Ayanami just blinked and continued to watch him.
"Anything else happened?" Ritsuko asked a little nervous.
"I said I understand now what an Eva pilot was and thanked her. I asked if there was anything else. She said that was all and I bowed. We both left. Is there anything else you wish to know Dr. Akagi?"
"No. Both go to your Eva now, we've wasted enough time talking," she stated. Turning around and walking away, Maya followed her.
"..." Shinji said and bowed. Standing back straight and turning his head, The First Child was staring at him.
"Shall we Miss Ayanami?"
Blinking, she nodded and both left toward their Evas. Walking in silence, they reached the catwalks that would take them to where the entry-plugs were. Everything was set up and all they had to do was step inside when the time was ready. Reaching the platform of each of their units, they sat down and waited to be instructed.
Both have been there for about an hour which both didn't move from their spots. They already saw the city go into a blackout to direct electricity to the power stations. Shinji had lied down on his back with hands at his side. Looking from one star to the next, his voices were telling him of when he did the same thing at a younger age. It was followed by a flashback of a child screaming. Even when the metal was being inserted into his flesh, no one came. He felt small gravel under his hands and rolled them back and forth. It helped distract the phantom sensation of a scalpel cutting his skin open.
Rei was sitting with her knees up. Her arms hugged them as she clasped her hands in front of them. She was debating on what she heard an hour ago to either talk to the Third Child or not. Her questions she thought of could remain in mystery, solved, or lead to more questions. Deciding that being frustrated was not helpful, she decided to talk.
"Pilot Ikari," she said while staring at the black out.
"Yes Miss Ayanami?"
"You said that you didn't wish to use the AI in the Eva. Do you not have faith in the Commander's work?"
"The Commander's work is accurate. I only have faith for myself."
"…Why?"
"You know the answer yourself for you only have faith in the Commander and no one else," he answered calmly.
"..." she said. Blinking, she glanced at him to see him staring at the stars. She turned back to the blacked out city.
'I know the answer?'
'I have faith for the Commander…because he has been the only one that looked and took care of me…that is my answer.'
'Ikari only has faith in Ikari?'
'Why does he have faith in only himself…I don't understand.'
"I do not understand your reason Ikari," the female pilot stated coldly. Moments went by when nothing was said. She turned her head toward him and saw him staring at her. An eerie shine was in his eyes. Seeing him blink, he slowly turned back to the blackened sky.
"I see."
Time passed where her question was still not answered. Frustration built faster in her in not getting more answered. Yet she didn't express it or moved from her sitting position staring at the Angel far away from their current location.
"Pilot Ikari…" she asked as she turned toward him. He turned his head toward her and blinked.
"What was the answer to your understanding of piloting?"
"How do you wish me to answer your question Miss Ayanami, brief or explained?" Shinji asked. As he started to get up. Rei's timer went off. It signaled that the next step in the mission was coming up.
"Brief," she said.
Standing up and turning towards him, he was looking at the Angel. In his head, one voice was making his appearance. It went ballistic in his head causing a large migraine to pulse at his temple. Despite the intense pain, the male pilot only blinked. The voice continued as he turned to Ayanami and bowed.
"Very well. An Eva pilot is much of a thoughtless puppet controlled by an individual in power. Their bodies are important because of its only used as a vessel in an Eva to activate it. Their minds are not important for their reasons and opinions are meaningless to the individual in power. Their only purpose is to stop the Angels and nothing else. The purpose of them living will cease when all Angels have been eliminated."
Despite it being dark, Shinji saw a mixture of expressions forming on her face. All the voices except the child voice, made loud and long "oh" calls of hearing the dissing. They laughed behind the Third Child while the child silhouette frowned.
'A thoughtless puppet…' Rei thought while she unconsciously clenched her hands into fists. Her body started to shake and she felt something that she didn't feel for anyone. Anger rushed over her body.
"I am not a puppet Pilot Ikari," she answered coldly. A scowl appeared on her face.
"I never said you were Miss Ayanami," he replied stoically.
Ayanami blinked and stopped shaking. Recalling what he said, he never addressed her specifically only the position. Frowning less and less, she processed what he stated. What he understood about an Eva pilot to be, as an individual, was similar to her thoughts. Strangely, it surprised her to know that someone else understood and thought the same as her.
"If you wish to discuss this further, you can ask me afterwards. We must be underway with our mission," Shinji said. Giving a slight bow, he turned toward his Eva.
"Goodbye," Rei said turning towards her Eva.
Before she got in, she looked back at him getting into the entry plug. The female pilot felt something change on her face. Corners of her mouth were turned up slightly. As she got into her Eva, she couldn't understand why her lips did that. It was a strange feeling. Almost like what he said eased her mind a little.
'He is willing to explain…his proposal is acceptable,' Rei thought as the small smile died away. Once both were in and ready, a timer hit 0000 hours starting the operation.
"This is it," Misato stated. She stood with her arms across her chest gripping her jacket nervously.
"Shinji, all the power of Japan is in your hands."
[...I see...] came the calm reply over the comm-link. It only added a level nervousness for her.
Both Evas headed toward where the positron rifle was. Unit-01 picked it up and headed for the vantage point. Reaching the spot that looked out to the city, the Fifth Angel could be seen still drilling through the street and underground plates. Shinji laid down on the ground and got into a prone sniper position. Rei kneeled behind him concentrating on her part of defense.
"Commencing primary connections. Begin transmission of power," Misato stated. Generators came alive humming another tune as the near mountain side lit up.
"Commence Operation Yashima!" the Captain ordered. The procedure of getting the energy in the rifle went on. Back in Unit-01, Shinji heard the raging voice calm down. It eased the harsh migraine it was giving him.
"Trigger happy," it said evilly eyeing the experimental rifle.
"LET'S PARTY!" the voice shouted and laughed like a madman.
When the voice heard Shinji agree to him, he roared with joy. In the subconscious hospital hallway of the pilot's mind, the fragment rushed down the long hallway in his physical form. The only sound was the slapping of running feet on the cold tile floor. He opened then closed the double doors at the end of the hallway quietly. No sound was made despite only using its feet.
'What do you suggest? I do not wish to use the computer but I am order to,' Shinji asked as the voice was now in his conscious.
"HeE hEe HeE-bUrN BaBy-BURN!" the mad voice spoke in emphasis. The Third Child figured what he said and bowed. The energy generated was collected into the positron rifle signaling it was ready.
"Pull the hammer!" Makoto said as he noticed the male pilot did what he asked. The computer system was engaged and a headset started protruding from the back of the cockpit seat. It went over Shinji's head and the AI came online.
[Target locked] the AI stated on the computer instantly. Ritsuko seemed to be the only one shocked in hearing it.
'…He…he didn't need it?…he knew!?…but how?!' she thought looking baffled and frightened. 'It's inhumanly possible to aim at this distance!'
The countdown for the discharge commenced. All was well until Ramiel spotted an energy surge at the other end of the lake. It powered up as well. Oddly, it felt something else from the charge. A familiar sense stating that it was that lilin from this morning. A feeling of going to die went through it but it continued to charge.
The mad voice laughed out loud echoing through Shinji's head. It lurched forward grinning evilly at the Angel. So lost in what he was going to do, he made low growling sounds while foaming at the mouth. Outside, the Eva's eyes glowed then went black. Rusty copper irises appeared behind the armored mask.
Shinji lifted each foot of Unit-01 and slammed it into the ground. It created crude divots to provide a hold during the recoil. The voice then did blood lurching screams and manic laughter. It was enjoying what would happen when the gun draw commenced.
"High energy reading within the target!" Maya shouted.
"Eva Uint-01 sync ratio is stabilized at 132.4%!" Makoto shouted in shock. Everyone in the room gasped in shock.
"How," Ritsuko muttered then heard trembling noises behind her. Turning around, she saw Misato leaning against the wall then sliding down to the ground. She was shaking visibly. The Captain put her hands on her head and bit her lip to keep her in focus. However, what she saw after Shinji left the locker room terrified her.
Everything that was happening felt like déjà vu. It came to this moment where Shinji pulled the trigger and the beam shot out. At the same time, the Angel shot its own beam. When both beams came close together, both bounced off each other. The Angel's beam went toward the mountains and Shinji's beam headed toward the city.
When the beam landed, it exploded like a nuke was dropped. The only difference was the whole city went up in a dust cloud sending fierce shockwaves everywhere. When the force hit the tent commander center, everyone got swept. She felt the rumbling and people's cries as she fell to the floor shielding herself from falling and incoming objects. When the rumbling stopped, she unshielded herself.
Pushing a couple of objects out of the way, she stood up and looked around her. A new wasteland was in front of her. The devastation wiped out everything. She looked to her left and saw Eva Unit-01 gazing at her with red eyes. It had a hideous grin on the behemoth's face.
Misato turned back to where Neo-Tokyo was and saw Shinji standing a distance away from her looking at the ground. She tried calling him but her voice sounded muffled. However, it did grab his attention. Seeing him look up slowly, he began levitating at the same time. He started floating slowly to her.
Her body jerked in fear as the boy suddenly came faster and faster to her. Only taking a step back and blinking, Shinji was in front of her face. His eyes were wide open and a ghostly expression remained. His skin was pale and decaying with some chunks of skin missing. Shaking hard all over, terror ripped through her body and registered on her face.
Without warning, he materialized a bloody ax from behind and swung down at her. When she screamed and closed her eyes, she didn't feeling the blade cut her. Slowly opening her eyes, Misato found herself in the locker room. Looking like she tripped backwards, she was covered with cold sweat. Putting her hands on her face and breathing, she removed them to see herself back at the tent commander center. Looking up from her sitting position, she saw the countdown ended. Fearing the worst, she shouted.
"Fire!"
Shinji kept his stoic face and pulled the trigger while concentrating his energy flow into the rifle. Ramiel fired first then a second later the rifle shook violently. Two beams burst out of the muzzle and spiraled together. When the beams came close to each other, the Angel's beam and one of the rifle's beams bounced off course. Both beams hit the mountains far away from civilization and exploded like an N2 mine.
The remaining beam rocketed forward. It was being pulled and pushed by the electric particles from the Angel's beam fading tail. Ramiel continued to drill then stopped feeling its attempts were futile. Breaking its purpose, it decided to feel the lilin's energy weapon. A second later, the beam slammed the Angel with tremendous force.
The crew at HQ and at the base on Mt. Futago watched in shock at the display of raw power the beam packed. It passed through the Angel's AT-field and body with little effort. Some of the crew saw that from the impact, the Angel's drill shaft was buckling. The street started to shake. Cracks started forming on the concrete road as well as the drill.
Milliseconds later, the drill shaft snapped off shooting the diamond shaped Angel back. Ramiel started flipping backwards with great speed. Its broken drill hit the street a couple of times causing huge divots in the road. A couple of buildings were damaged as well from the rapidly dying Angel. Hitting the outskirts of the city, a steep mountain stopped the Angel causing a small quake to rattle the land. The floating diamond enemy went silent with an astonished and feared feeling. It would never be able to tell the others of what happened.
"..." Misato said. Standing up and looking at the screen, she saw the Angel was out with one shoot.
"We did it!" she stated out loud. Jumping up and cheering for her nightmarish daydream didn't come true, everyone else joined as well.
"The enemy bore has stopped at armored plate #21! It's fallen silent!"
"That kid is amazing," Misato shouted in happiness. Shigeru looked back at his screen. His smile was replaced with horror.
"Combustion forming inside the positron rifle!" he shouted.
"What! But that means…" Misato trailed off.
"Cut the neural…" Ritsuko started to say when a large and loud explosion occurred. It was where the positron rifle was as well as Eva Unit-01 lying on top of it. Data flowed in like a waterfall with danger signs of damage.
"Multiple puncture wounds in the eyes and throat area. Mild cranial damage!" Maya said.
"Punctures in the entry-plug!" Makoto shouted.
"Ejected it!" Misato ordered.
"Eva's none responsive, entry-plug won't eject!" Maya stated.
"Damn it! Rei! REI!" Misato called.