Creation began on 11-07-15

Creation ended on 11-09-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Beast watches over the Boy

It was creepy. It was all anyone could think or say whenever they saw Riptor in the same room with Shinji as he recovered from the battle with the Third Angel. Creepy because of the way it watched over him, and creepy because of the way it looked at others that might've tried something. The creature even laid on the floor across the room from his bed, and it scared the Hell out of the doctors and nurses.

But what really disturbed them was that the boy would probably be waiting to see it when he woke up. They found out how the Third Child, before he even agreed to fight to the Angel, didn't want any of the NERV personnel trying to hurt it. They thought the boy was insane, but it was even crazier that the creature could speak coherently, which should've been impossible for it…when it wanted to, that is.

GASP! It heard Shinji as he woke up, drenched in sweat, and raised its own head up to look at him.

Shinji, having escaped his nightmarish hallucination of a grotesque creature that looked like an Eva without armor chasing him, looked in front of him and saw Riptor.

"You're still here," he sighed.

Riptor then got up and slowly approached him, moving a chair out of its way…just to pat Shinji on his head like before.

"Eh-heh," Shinji chuckled; this had to be its way of showing affection. "Thank you."

-x-

"…Is this even possible, Ikari?" One of the five men bathed in red light in the meeting questioned him. "This animal can't possibly be one of theirs."

"We checked the records we could salvage from the aftermath of Second Impact," went Gendo to them, "and it's likely that this creature is from the Ultratech corporation."

"Ultratech?" A man bathed in green light questioned. "That company that tried to revolutionize the medical and military powers of the world? They became nothing more than ancient history after Second Impact."

"Yet, this could only show that their research, or rather, the results of their research, didn't follow the corporation to the grave," a man in blue light uttered. "Just how many experiments were they running before they were put out of business?"

"They were running over twenty different projects," Gendo explained. "I believe this…creature that the Third Child has become attached to is a remnant of Project Riptor, a experiment that dealt with creating reptilian assassins with human intelligence."

"Project Riptor?" The man in white light, Kiel Lorenz, uttered. "Of all their experiments, that one may have been the most unstable because it dealt with creating creatures that were unpredictable."

"And yet, one of these creatures has ended up as your son's pet?" The man in yellow light asked.

Gendo didn't say anything about that; just the mere thought of the creature with the Third Child was disturbing enough to him.

-x-

"…I can't imagine how he can stand being in the same room as that thing," a female nurse muttered to a male nurse outside Shinji's room as he redressed in his casual clothing.

"I can't understand why that thing hasn't tried to eat him yet," the male nurse responded.

In the room, Shinji had finished putting on his shoes, with Riptor being ever watchful over him. It was when they both stepped out of the room that the constant whispers and murmurs ceased from the medical personnel. Shinji could see that they were afraid of the beast, something he could understand, since he had been afraid of it, as well. But only for a little while.

"Uh, hey, there, Shinji," went Misato, there to greet the boy, but her hesitation to get any closer to him because of the beast was something the boy noticed.

Shinji looked at Riptor, and Riptor looked back at him, and then at Misato…before moving away to a row of chairs and sat on the floor beside them.

"How can you stand to be around it that and not be afraid that it's gonna eat you or something?" Misato asked him.

"She," Shinji sighed.

"Huh?"

"She. 'She' as in female…as far as I can tell. Not 'it'."

"She?" Misato looked at the beast, and couldn't see anything about it that indicated it was of the life-bearing sex. "Okay, well, you don't know what the Hell she's thinking, if she even thinks at all…or even what the Hell she is."

Shinji frowned at her and expressed, "She's probably the only friend I'll ever have in this life, Ms. Katsuragi. If it's between any of you and her…then I'll take my chances with her until God-knows-when something else happens."

She looked at him and then at the she-beast, which was looking at them with a rather blank expression on its reptilian face. She considered Shinji being a fool right now for thinking he could be fine in the presence of a rogue animal that just couldn't be part of the world without people from long ago making it the way it was.

"You're crazy," she called him.

"Maybe I am," he didn't fault her, "but I've been patted on my head five times by her, and it's not something I find crazy."

-x-

"Doctor Akagi wasn't happy when she had to test the urine sample left by that creature that left with the Third Child," Makoto Hyuga explained to Misato in Central Dogma. "But it did reveal something that makes what he said to you accurate."

"Which is?" Misato asked him.

"That thing's definitely more female than male at the moment."

"Huh?"

-x-

The walk in the park was quite soothing at the moment for the boy and the beast. The warm sunlight and the cool breeze. And the lake they were walking beside seemed tranquil.

Riptor then, surprising Shinji, jumped into the lake.

"Gah!" He gasped, running to the edge of the lake. "Oh!"

Burst! Riptor jumped out of the lake, with a large fish in its snout.

"Grr!" She growled, her claws holding another large fish.

Shinji was curious, but that stopped when Riptor started handing it over to him.

Gulp! She had swallowed the fish whole.

"Friend," she uttered, offering him the fish.

"Thank you, but I can't eat it like that," he told her. "I mean, I could, but I shouldn't. You go ahead and eat it."

Riptor looked at the fish, and then the ground and some of the trees…and got an idea.

"Grr," she growled and ran over to the trees.

Shinji saw her as she ripped some bark and branches off. Then, the she-beast made a small circle on the ground, gathered the bark into a pile, took a twig and started to rub it in between her claws.

Is she…is she trying to build a fire? Shinji wondered.

A full minute later, Riptor had managed to create fire and jammed the fish into a branch, setting it to be roasted by the flames.

"Grr!" She pointed at her success.

"Eh-heh-heh," Shinji chuckled. "That's great. Thank you."

-x-

"So, they don't want to live together?" Ritsuko asked Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki as they walked through the halls on their way to Central Dogma.

"Ikari has, more or less, expressed no desire to be near his son," the elder explained, "nor does he wish to be near what he's convinced is a salvaged relic from Ultratech."

"Ultratech? That corporation's ancient history."

"But one of its experiments is far from ancient history. Project Riptor."

"And the Third Child seems to have obtained it, her, as a pet of sorts."

"According to Captain Katsuragi, he referred to the creature as his friend, which is higher than pet."

"Could he be persuaded into letting her be dissected as a research specimen?"

"You would probably get a negative response from him. He's, apparently, grown fond of her."

"But we don't even know if she can be controlled. We don't know if he'll even cooperate with NERV on an extended basis."

"I don't believe it's about control. It's more about acceptance and tolerance."

-x-

When word got out that a man-sized dinosaur was wandering Tokyo-3, not many people were comfortable with the fact that it was living with a kid that it seemed fond of. Some even had to wonder how something like this was possible, that a dinosaur could be around.

Unfortunately, Shinji, who resided in one of NERV's empty dorms with Riptor, didn't feel comfortable with being separated from the very creature that called him a friend.

"You can understand me, right?" Shinji asked her.

Riptor looked at him, and nodded in the positive.

"You're not a killer, are you? I mean, you don't eat people, right?"

She tilted her head to his right and slowly raised her claws up to hold his face.

Shinji was tense by this, but Riptor kept her talons away from his hair.

"No…kill," she uttered. "Not threatened. You not hurt. I no kill. Not necessary."

To be continued…

A/N: I bet it surprises you readers out there that Riptor in this story is capable of speech and is capable of understanding Shinji. What do you think will happen later?