Chapter 87: Evolving Nightmare
The following day proceeded as normal as possible. Going to school was similar to yesterday except with Toji present in the morning. Sitting at his desk, he was talking with Kensuke.
"Shinji is not here," Aida mentioned adjusting his glasses a little. "Is he still doing tests at NERV?"
"The last time I saw him, yeah. He was still at NERV," the Fourth Child stated as calmly as possible.
"Now that you are an Eva pilot, did you get informed on what really happened to his eyes?"
"What really happened?" the jock repeated feeling a little tense from the information behind the subject. "Didn't Shin-man state it was from a previous Angel attack and was recovering from it?"
"He did. Just curious if you had more info regarding about his recovery."
"…" Toji replied thinking about it. He then saw Asuka starring daggers at him.
"Other than possibly surgery for his eyes, I do not know any more than that."
"That would put him out for a bit to recover. At least he will be able to see again, right?"
"Yeah man. He will recover from it," he said a little quieter.
Lying about the Third Child was putting weight on his conscious. Looking at the other Eva pilots, both Rei and Rana were busy looking up something. They seemed very engrossed with what they were doing. They didn't react initially when their names were called during the attendance. Despite that oddity, they were still a bit distant to everyone. The Second Child ignored him and continued to talk with the Class Rep. Wondering how NERV would keep the death of the Third Child a secret, he tried avoiding talking more about it.
During the course of the day in the large Eva cage, the mental link conversation between Eva-01 and Eva-03 continued. The sounds that came from it were torture, slaughter, brutality, screaming, and horrid waves of death and hell. The onslaught of horror were going on fast forward; however, there were variations. When the conversation would repeat, it changed to have alterations. It didn't matter as the subject matter and sounds were still the same.
Despite all this, the spirits in the other units felt that they started changing. With the exception of the soul in Eva-03, Naoko and Kyoko felt safe from the evil and murky voice in Unit-01 and Unit-03 the previous day. Now for some reason, it was as if both voices' presences were closer to them. Looking at the Evas in the cage, they haven't moved from their spot.
When the evening came by, the technicians were out doing another wave of contamination screenings and monitoring on the Evas. Looking up at the control room window, the spirits could see the female twin staring down at them. When the First Child came into view, the spirit in Unit-00 became a tad annoyed. If the madness wasn't being constantly sent mentally through the comm-link channel, she would have been more than irritated. The mental sounds incoming distracted her greatly as the sound of something being ripped apart blared through her mind.
"…" Rana said as she stood watching at the observation window.
"I read a couple of references regarding what happens to a soul once it leaves its body," she stated quietly knowing that Rei was standing nearby at the window. "Most are from religious beliefs stating that a soul may or may not remain. Did you find anything different?"
"No, I have come to the same conclusion regarding the same subject," Ayanami replied stoically blinking and staring.
"…" the female twin stated grimacing a little and releasing a heavy sad sigh quietly.
"…" Rei commented glancing over at Rana. Her split mirror image of the Third Child with more feminine characteristics still made her do a double take. Thinking about how the twin's normal demeanor and behavior would be compared to now, she was still emotionally strained and stressed. Feeling similar still, the First Child didn't feel too alone to deal with the emotions she had.
"…I can't prove it," the female twin continued. "But I believe souls do exist."
"…" Ayanami responded. Blinking, she looked back at the window.
"You can't see them…it is more of a feeling."
"A feeling?"
"…yes…" Rana said quieter taking on hand to hold to her chest. "I am a part of Shinji as he is a part of me. I should be able to sense him if he is still here."
"…" Rei replied feeling her hands fidget from what the female twin stated. Irritation grew inside wanting to counter what she said. The second-version of herself inside halted her.
'Stop this frivolous impulse tirade child,' the other Rei thought to her. 'This conversation is pointless. I can take care of that err of emotions you have. I can make them all go away…just bend to my will and purpose.'
'…'
'Fate had shined fortune upon us. That lilim is dead.'
'…stop it…' Ayanami thought back feeling her hands clench into loose fits.
'Throw away all what the lilim gave you…it only made you weak and pitiful.'
'Stop…it…now,' the First Child mentally voice in a glaring and threatening tone.
'You should listen…child. You are becoming unstable and weaker. You are my puppet. You are nothing but an empty doll. Know your place.'
'GO AWAY!' Rei mentally exploded with anger.
Rana heard small amounts of fabric being clenched and glanced over at the First Child. Blinking in surprised, the Eva pilot's hands were in murderous fits with an unpleased expression on her face. About to voice a question, the female twin kept her mouth closed. Turning back to the window, she looked back at the Evas.
'You are still there…aren't you Shinji?' she thought staring at Unit-01. Closing her eyes and concentrating very hard, she hoped that she would be able to detect something. A soft pin sounded in her head that made her eyes open up.
"…?" she said blinking in confusion a little. A part of her suddenly felt a subconscious draw to the dark blue unit.
'…that feels odd…it emits the same aura as Eva-01…Shinji does have a similarity to the evil clone…but…no…that can't be him,' Rana thought.
[No abnormalities in Unit-02 torso. Moving to the lower ligaments] a tech lead from below stated through his headset. The sudden statement made both Rei and Rana get out of their mental stupor. Ayanami recomposed herself while the female twin shook her head a little.
'…Shinji…I…I don't want to be alone anymore...come back,' Rana thought feeling her eyes starting to feel wet. Wiping her face with her hands, she saw the blue-haired female pilot offer her a handkerchief.
"T-Thank you Ayanami," she said taking the cloth and wiping her eyes.
"…" Rei said blinking then looking back at the window.
"Do…do you think," the female twin asked turning back to the window. "He is in there…somewhere?"
"…" Ayanami replied feeling two sides of her answer at the same time. One stated that it was very improbable that his soul remained from exploding into a liquid. The other emotional side held onto hope that there was a possibility regardless of how small of chance there was.
"…I…do not know…" she answered quietly and blinking. "I...want to believe…in the possibility…Ikari is there...despite the chances."
"…" Rana said feeling a little better from hearing her say that loud enough to hear. Both continued to watch until they were ordered to go back home. Walking away, a whisper of a cackle ringed in the air.
"…!?" Rana said stopping and spinning around.
"...?" Rei said stopping and turning around. There was nothing at the observation window.
"…" the female twin said blinking then turned back around. "Sorry…I thought I heard something."
When the hour of midnight struck, the mental communication firestorm changed. The spirits could not disable the comm-link channels from Eva-01 and Eva-03 anymore. They were constantly on and open. Insanity started taking hold of the spirits in Unit-00, 02, and 03. Mental conversations were at random now. Some of the back and forth was in slow motion while others were in a sporadic frenzy. The flow of sounds and words were chopped up as if several different topics and torture were cutting each other off. It was as if a waterfall of sounds was falling down with no organization or linkage.
Hours upon hours passed as conversations became more morbid and intense. The sounds of killing and grotesque torture started to overtake the randomness of words and discussions. By the afternoon of the following day, all that was heard was full blown slaughter and psychotic laughter. Only Unit-01 was emitting even stronger vibes of eeriness and vileness as it mentally cackled over and over again. Its humanistic mirth became lower in pitch and more monstrous as it continued. The murky spirit in Eva-03 produced a lesser degree of evilness; however, it sounded as if it was killing the Angel spirit ten times over again and again. It did not utter a voice anymore and just kept on attacking and brutalizing the frantic and delusional Angel that sounded in more than just agony.
By the evening, the mental insanity marathon shifted. The variety of what the voices from Unit-01 and Unit-03 stated became only a constant. They were repeating the same phrases over and over. Sometimes, the phrase would be chopped up and scrambled as if encrypting a message. However, the conversation was the same thing still. Naoko, Kyoko, and the prisoner spirit in Eva-03 were mentally holding their heads and screaming, pleading for the two entities to stop. Their fear of them had increased. For some odd reason, they felt that the two demented souls were now standing in front of them. They could taste their actions of their sounding gore-fest, feel the breath of their candid words, and mentally see what they were doing. A hailstorm of morbid, distorted, and surreal imagery infested their amorphous existence in their Evas.
"Dr. Akagi, there is a call from the tech lead," a monitor staffer stated. Turning to the faux blonde woman, she nodded and walked toward her.
"Dr. Akagi speaking," Ritsuko stated after putting the phone to her ear.
[I have an issue Dr. Akagi…more than half of my workers refuse to go into the Eva cage now.]
"Refuse?"
[Yes.]
"Any lead on why?"
[More than half of them reported in the past couple of days about feeling evil and haunting vibes from the Units. Especially Eva-01 and 03.]
"…that is true…I did see in your report of those statements by the techs."
[The remaining half of my team is still willing to go in and continue with the de-contamination proceedings. The process of completion will be curtailed by half or more at this current rate. Shall I continue with the work with what team I have?]
"Can you validate what your staff reports?"
[…to be honest…the environment in the Eva cage would make a skeptic of supernatural wonders convert into a believer. That's just me personally.]
"…" Ritsuko said blinking then turned to the observation window. "I will be down there in a bit. From what I assess, we will proceed afterwards."
[Copy that. Me and my team will be here when you arrive. How many contamination suits should I get?]
"…" Dr. Akagi said looking back at the four Eva pilots and the Major. "Get 6 ready."
[Roger] the tech lead stated then ended the call.
"What's going on with the tech staff?" Misato asked seeing her place the phone down and turned to her. Without saying anything, Ritsuko motioned her follow her. Blinking and walking, both stepped outside into the hallway and discussed for a minute. The four Eva pilots were standing at the observation window looking at the Evas.
"Where are they at with decontaminating?" Toji asked.
"Unit-00 has been screened. Unit-02 is almost completed," Ayanami answered neutrally.
"If they are that concern of contamination, they should quarantine Unit-03 and separate the rest," Asuka commented with her hands on her hips. "If the Angel is still dormant, they should just detonate it to kill it."
"Hey," Toji said irritated. "That is my Eva. Ain't nobody blown it up."
"Really stooge? You'd rather risk everyone so that you don't lose an infected unit?" the Second Child questioned with a smirk.
"Bet you'd say the same thing about your rust bucket if it was yours that was infected."
"It ain't a rust bucket jerk. It is superior to yours anyway."
"Mine was made in America so top that," the Fourth Child claimed with a smug on his face.
"That a challenge stooge?" Asuka stated getting in front of him. He didn't back down.
"When mine gets back to normal, I'll show you who is superior," he replied placing hands on his hips and confronting her.
"…" the control room staff commented. Glancing over at the two pilots made them feel a little entertained from the back and forth.
"…" both Rana and Rei responded as they were looking down at the Eva cage. Seeing movement in the reflection, Ayanami saw both Dr. Akagi and the Major come back in from the hallway. They were heading towards where they were. Turning around, both adults stopped.
"Hey guys, do mind coming with us?" Misato asked.
"Where to?" Toji asked breaking away from the staring contest with the redhead.
"I need to verify something in the Eva cage below," Ritsuko stated with a neutral expression. "I would like you four to come with me and validate as well."
"…!?" Rana reacted and turned around. "I'll go."
"I will as well," Ayanami stated.
"Sure," the jock stated.
"…" Asuka stated feeling caught. She really didn't want to go near the barbaric purple unit or the dark blue one. However, her Eva was trapped with them. Sighing out loud, she kept her hands on her hips.
"Fine. Whatever."
Getting everyone onboard to go, the group went down to one of the walkway entrances to the Eva cage. Meeting up with the tech lead, he had the contamination suits ready for them. After each was helped getting their yellow rubber suit on, they were escorted into the Eva cage. When the large group entered and the sliding doors closed, the atmosphere was eerie, vile, and malicious.
'We aren't even in a quarter of the walkway in,' Misato thought feeling apprehensive. 'Unit-01 is on the opposite side of the cage…its admitting this much of that horrible vibe?'
[Hell no! I'm staying any longer in here!] Asuka stated through the helmet and began walking back to the doors.
[What…what is that?] Toji asked looking around feeling goosebumps flare all over his skin.
[That is…Eva-01's aura] Ritsuko replied carefully. She was surprised that this was the environment the technicians were working in.
[Dr. Akagi…may I go further?] Rana asked containing the fear that she felt.
[If you can, then just to the half way point.]
Watching the female twin walk not even halfway, she fell on her hands and knees. The sound of her breathing was heavy and had picked up pace a little. Only Rei was able to go as far as Rana did. Toji, Misato, and Ritsuko were at a third of the walkway section. All three were standing there uncomfortable and beginning to feel fear and paranoia festering inside them. Watching Rei slow down and gingerly help the female twin back on her feet, they started heading back to the group.
All the sudden, the corrupted and morbid vibes in the Eva cage grew. Looking to the unit near them, it was Eva-03. Realizing what was causing the aura to be felt from entering, it was the dark blue unit that was emitting the same aura as Unit-01. A sharp cold shiver went down their spines as they slowly made their way back to the entrance doors. Both Rei and Rana recognized what the aura's that both units were emitting.
As much as Ayanami wanted to destroy that evil presence, it felt morbidly different. Before, it was callous and crude. Now, she felt a reverberation of its vileness and viciousness from across the Eva cage. It kept her from having another emotional outburst given that the vibes were coming from two sources now. Staring hard at the dark blue unit, something about it was emitting a slightly altered vibe. In a strange sense, it gave off a vibe that seemed vaguely familiar.
Rana felt more discourage now knowing what was occupying both Evas. The thought that only the evil clone was left felt revolting. Part of her falling down was from not feeling anything but the dark clone's presence. While walking back at the group, she glanced at the dark blue unit. Feeling a lesser version of the eerie aura, she stared hard at it hoping to get something out of it.
Not clear on why, she felt its presence switch quickly. She didn't know if her mind was playing tricks on her from desperation, the vile aura slowly seemed more murky than eerie. Unable to go toward it, the group passed through the sliding doors. Once closed, the group removed their helmets. The tech lead came to them and saw all of them looked disturbed in varying degrees. Seeing Dr. Akagi turn to him, he straightened himself and paid attention.
"I have confirmed what your techs have been stating. We will place the Eva cage on lockdown until further notice," she stated feeling her nerves starting to relax.
"What about continuing the contamination proceedings?"
"We shall do what we can with the mechanical arms and computer system. Until I deem the Eva cage ready enough for your team techs to continue, no one is allowed to enter the cage."
"Roger. I will inform the techs about the new status," he complied and left.
"Rits, isn't the dummy plug system suppose to offline?" Misato asked remember it was emitting the same behavior vibe as in the Angel battle.
"It is offline. The only supply of power it can use is the emergency batteries. There is no bypass for it to use just battery power. As far as we can conclude, it could be the Angel doing this being microscopic."
"I say we blow up Eva-01 and 03 and be done with it," Asuka stated getting out of her rubber suit.
"That might be an option if we cannot determine why both Units are acting and behaving the way they are," Ritsuko replied. Getting out of the de-contamination suit, the others followed suit. After all six removed their hazmats, they handed them to a couple of the technicians on standby. As the group walked back to the control room, both Rei and Rana were trying to figure out what the visit to the Eva cage signified. When the six entered, Ritsuko walked to a terminal phone and made an overhead announcement.
[Attention staff. The Eva cage will be placed on lockdown until further noticed. I repeat…]she orderd as the loudspeakers repeated what she stated. Both Rana and Rei went back to the observation window and looked down at the Evas again. Suddenly, the blast shutters were coming down. Taking a last look, both heard a deep low decibel of vibration followed by a mental scream that all became a distant shrill into nothingness. Misato gathered and took the teens home for the remaining of the day.
Over the course of the next two days, Ritsuko and her staff prohibited anyone from entering the Eva cage. Continuing with the contamination screening and testing from mechanical arms, Unit-02 was cleared of contamination. The prisoner spirits in the Evas became paranoid when they heard the lockdown being placed on the Eva cage. Unit-01's sudden shrill went passed the human hearing threshold and continued getting higher and higher. When it reached mind piercing and started to cause distorted vibration in their Eva prison, it went silent.
[…] Naoko, Kyoko, and the spirit in Eva-03 thought waiting for the barbaric barrage to continue.
An hour passed since Unit-01 had said anything. All three became stressed from trying to anticipate when it would shout again; however, it still remained quiet. Throughout the day, the purple unit didn't utter a sound. Unit-03 became quieter and quieter until only one voice was sounding through the comm-link channels. The Angel kept talking itself. It continuously mumbled about escaping, being superior, stating what its purpose was again and again while calling someone the anti-Angel.
In the middle of the afternoon of the 1st day, Unit-01 started mentally talking again. However, its voice changed. Various voices were speaking as if there were more than one person. Oddly, the eerie voice was not using its own but mimicking other individuals voices to close similarity. The spirits in the other units were getting different conversations specifically at them. It didn't take them long to figure out what was being told to them.
'…no…' Kyoko thought hearing the voices from the past start to come alive. Trying to block out the sound and close the comm-link, she was unable to do either. Mental scenes were forming into her prison space of Eva-02.
'…' she thought cringing as the image of hospital came to mind. Static and white noise was seen and heard for a second before the visual changed.
'STOP IT!' the spirit yelled in her mind from seeing the point of view from sitting in hospital bed. A glitch happened in which now there were two people standing inside near the door of the hospital room.
'LEAVE ME ALONE!' Kyoko pleaded seeing a small child holding a doll at her bedside. Looking down on the bed, there was a small doll with red hair. Apprehension gripped in essence immensely as the plush doll's mouth moved. The voice that came out shook her hard.
[ M#$ #$^ A #$^ MMMMMMMMMMMMM #$%& $%&AAAAAA!] a monstrous voice blared from the doll's mouth as the imagery exploded like a sheet of glass falling to the ground.
In Unit-00, the late Dr. Akagi was glaring at a small girl that was standing nearby. It kept repeating a phrase to her over and over with a smug look on the child's face. Tensing up with anger, static passed her vision. When it stabilized, her hands were strangling the small child. However the kid continued repeating the phrase while the smug turned into a grin. Becoming angrier, Naoko lifted the child by the neck. Shaking the girl hard, her grip strength increased until the child's neck gave.
'…!?' she said realizing what she did again.
A glitch occurred where the girl lied lifelessly on the cold metal floor. It still had a grin on its face as drool started coming out of its mouth. Despite being dead, the little girl looked alive still. Taking steps back from reliving a past memory, the level of shock from the first time was still overwhelming. Tripping backwards, she felt herself starting to go over the edge of the terminals.
'…' she said waiting for her to fall to her death.
However, she felt small hands holding her. Feeling the hands push her back to standing, a wave of fear washed over Naoko. Blinking and slowly turning around, the small girl was staring at her with a broken neck. The atmosphere it had before was night and day from what it was emitting now. Its crimson eyes were glowing eerily and hauntingly.
[ #$^ #$PLAY# $^ #$WITH $%& $%&MEeeeeeeeeeeeee OLD HAG!]
The prisoner spirit in Unit-03 was the most rattled. From the slaughter sounding over the comm-links to the live stalking and brutality hunt evolving around her, there was no place to run and hide. Strangely though, the murky voice that was tracing the Angel did not harm or seek her. Thinking that it was part of the Eva captor, it wasn't. Suddenly, the imagery around her faded into darkness. Trying to look around her, she only saw pitch blackness. Without warning, the space around her turned to static for a second before showing a familiar apartment.
'…this looks like…it is,' she thought to herself slowly moving forward only to be frozen. The imagery glitched in rapid sections were each one was a scene change. Seeing life events flashing by her, the ones leading up to her fatal end started being repeated over and over.
'…no…not again…I'm sorry…I'm sorry!' she mentally shouted as the scene changes did not stop.
The familiar voices came in making the surreal visual excruciating. Crumbling in her own amorphous state, she repeatedly apologize over and over again. No matter how much she pleaded, the imagery continued. Unable to get passed the sense of shame and guilt, the spirit didn't hear the soft cackling in the background or the small puddles of crimson in various spots of all the scenery.
For each spirit, they couldn't escape their new mental prison. The verbal telling of their past only repeated the painful, regrettable, and shameful memories over and over again until they became numbing. When the next day started, all of them felt more than lifeless. Part of their essence felt rotten from the emotions of self-loathing and guilt. At the same time, both voices in Unit-01 and 03 started to change a little.
Slowly, they would change little pieces of the past memories. After repeating one alteration so many times faster and faster, a small variation would be added. Again, both repeated the stories, the voices, and the fluctuation of voices faster and faster. Unable to block it out and not listen to the lies being told, the spirits felt their personal hell was being lived in different ways and settings. The constant barrage of repeating altered memories started to overtake their recollection of what actually happened. The three slowly felt themselves changing despite hanging on desperately to what they know was their true past.
During both of those days, the observation window in the control room had the blast shutters closed. It prevented anyone seeing inside the Eva cage from the windows. Ritsuko also prohibited the Eva pilots from being in the control room until the lockdown was lifted. Though Rana was furiously angry, she kept it to herself. While being at Misato's apartment, the Major noticed a bipolar shift in the female twin's demeanor. Instead of having the defeated and depressed demeanor, she was more on edge, impatience, and irritated. Stating that accepting what happened is difficult, Rana stated that she will never give up on him. Leaving her be, Rana went back to her apartment and stayed there alone.
On the start of the 3rd day of the lockdown, no sound was heard despite the comm-link channels still being active. Painstakingly and nerve racking, the prisoner spirits heard no sound from either Eva-01 or Eva-03 except for mild vibrations. Listening to the overhead announcement, the lockdown was lifted. Seeing the rotating red lights turn on, the blast doors starting retracting. Once everything was back to being in normal operations mode, the technical staff in contamination suits came back in.
Looking down at them, they walked to all units. The ones heading toward Unit-01 and 03 did so with caution then started doing their work. Oddly as much time passed, they seemed to be doing their work a bit easier and less stressed for some reason or another. The vibes that both Unit-01 and 03 produced were not present or there anymore. There was no vileness, evilness, eeriness, or viciousness.
Despite the aspect that the prisoner spirits could relax, the amount of tension between them through the open comm-links kept getting thicker and more unnerving. It kept them on edge for the entire day. Even at night, there was nothing said or sounded from either Unit's comm-link channels other than a mild hum of vibration. Thinking that the Eva pilots would show up, the female twin or the other pilots never showed up.
At the very beginning of the next day, the comm-links to both Unit-01 and Unit-03 were suddenly disabled. The tension that was there for the past week was severed giving both the souls in Eva-00 and Eva-02 immense relief. From time to time, they would look back at the two war machines to notice that both were offline completely. Each time they checked, the purple and dark blue unit would remain dormant. Slowly relaxing and feeling like the terror was over, a part of them tried to figure out what was the significance of those two Eva's actions.
By the evening of the same day, the comm-links suddenly became enabled. Fear crept up on the spirits when only one message was sent to all. It was very faint and weak with too much static in the background.
[…ple #$%& #$… #^ #$please #$^ kill…me…] the Angel thought as quietly and as smallest as possible before white noise consumed it.
The comm-links were disabled and all was silent again. About to relax, the spirits noticed that both the purple and dark blue unit was staring at them. The immense evil aura the purple war machine had suddenly became much stronger than before to almost terrifying them immediately. Looking at the dark blue unit, something deep inside of it was beating like a heartbeat. Both continued to stare for a period of time without voicing or sending a thought to them. By nighttime, the two units started watching the technicians walking around them. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to any of them despite the immensely morbid aura both units were producing. Waiting and watching in apprehension, both spirits couldn't shake the feeling that something was brewing deep inside the dark blue unit.