Creation began on 12-02-17

Creation ended on 06-28-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

The Beast, the Warrior and the Spy

The streets were a mess! Not a single person was present, but the damage was major! Several streetlights were fallen over, glass from shattered windows littered the pavement, a few cars were either turned over or smashed, and small puddles of blood were present, as though some sort of fight broke out and the participants had gotten away. But if one managed to look for the footprint indentures of a large creature with only three toes on both legs, they'd knew at least the identity of one of the suspects…or at least the boy that accepted them as they are.

-x-

Crash! The blue ninja knocked over a garbage can, angered that the creature got away.

"Relax," said the woman in green to him, leaning against a wall in the alley they hid in, "we'll get it."

"That kid," he told her, "he wouldn't keep away from it, no matter what we did."

"He yelled at us to leave it alone. He'll undoubtedly aid it if we managed to hurt it enough to kill it."

-x-

Shinji didn't have time to worry about the blood Yuki-Onna left behind in the hallways of NERV HQ as he helped her onto his bed.

Yuki-Onna, sporting several lacerations across her back, underbelly and legs, groaned as it hurt for her just to breathe; the woman in green had stabbed her in the chest with her batons, possibly damaging her lungs. She didn't even know she or the man in blue with the sword were or why they attacked her. As Shinji brought out a First Aid kit to bandage her wounds, Yuki-Onna noticed that her blood was getting over his sheets and clothes.

"Friend…made filthy," she uttered as he took out a bottle of iodine and some cotton balls. "Friend…pour it all over, please."

Shinji looked down at himself and threw the cotton ball away.

"I'm not worried about myself right now, Yuki-Onna," he told her, removing the cap from the bottle. "This will sting, just so that you know."

She climbed off his bed and stood as tall as her injuries would permit her to in front of her.

"I trust friend," she assured him. "Do it."

Shinji sighed and poured the iodine over her head, watching it spread across her body.

"RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAHH!" She shrieked loudly as it stung at her injuries, her claws extending as she tried her hardest to keep from hurting Shinji.

Shinji didn't cover his ears, despite the intensity of her yelling hurting his eardrums.

"Aaahh…" He groaned, shutting his eyes.

The iodine covering her lacerations turned white as it fought off the infected and damaged tissue.

Yuki-Onna leaned down against the bed and looked over at Shinji, her pain subsiding.

"Sorry," she uttered.

He nodded as he took her left hand and began applying bandages to her cuts.

"It's okay," he told her.

-x-

"…He wouldn't let the security personnel in?" Misato asked Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki, being informed of the incident in the city recorded from the security cameras.

"Two people attacked the creature, forcing her to fight back and defend herself," he explained. "Shinji brought her back to his quarters and hasn't been out since. When they arrived to confirm his safety, he told them not to come in, as he was taking care of her himself."

"Why would anyone try to fight her?" Ritsuko questioned; if these two mystery people could actually hurt the beast, she'd appreciate it if they could kill her.

"Somebody that has no problem getting their hands dirty," Misato stated. "Was Shinji, at any point during the fight, harmed at all?"

"The two people, a man and a woman, never laid a finger on him," Fuyutsuki explained. "When they were tail-whipped away, he helped the creature get away. They're in the wind for the time being."

"Well, that explains the droplets of blood left in the halls leading towards his quarters."

"Not to mention the loud scream that occurred," Ritsuko added.

-x-

Gendo was looking at photos of the two culprits that attacked the dinosaur hybrid the Third Child associated with, wondering why they would try to kill it instead of making an attempt on the boy's life, rather to capture or kill. If they knew about Ultratech, then it was natural to deduce that they were either affiliated with the former corporation or were probably out to remove any of its remnants. Unfortunately, NERV lacked any information regarding these two individuals, leaving Gendo to ponder their identities and ascertain their objective.

"What are you two after?" He wondered.

-x-

Yuki-Onna awoke in the darkness, feeling a little better from when she was awake earlier. Looking in the room, she saw Shinji, laying on the floor, seemingly in an uncomfortable position due to lacking a pillow and a blanket. She then looked at her arms, seeing them wrapped in bandages and her broken chain shackles still absent after Shinji suggested that she no longer needed them.

"You're not the same as you were before we met," she remembered him saying to her not too long ago. "You're a completely different you now, Yuki-Onna. A new name symbolizes a new start. You're not a thing, or a nonentity or tool, anymore. You're a person, even if you don't look like everyone else. Maybe you should put those in the past, as well."

It was only because she felt something about Shinji that kept her from being predatory towards him like she had been with those teens that were chasing him that compelled her to discard her shackles. She felt freer than she had ever been in many years…and felt more than free with this boy. Something she hadn't felt in a long time: Acceptance.

She got off his bed and dragged over his pillow and blanket.

"Friend…needy," she uttered, putting the pillow under his head.

-x-

"…So, it lives with the boy, who lives in a residential facility owned and operated by this agency called NERV?" The man asked the woman, standing atop a skyscraper rooftop as the moonlight illuminated his sword.

"That's right," the woman answered. "The boy's called Shinji Ikari, the only child of a Yui and Gendo Ikari, and a pilot for something called Evangelion Unit-01. Recently, the boy was called to this city by his father after being abandoned by him for ten years. Prior to coming here, he must've encountered the Riptor and either brought it with him…or it followed him here."

"Either way, the creature's very existence makes it both a threat and a desired bounty for research."

"It was easier facing Fulgore and Glacius than this creature. Every time we fought it, it got smarter…and more vicious."

In their hearts, they had to hope they would find this Riptor and kill it before something worse than itself happened. Facing one was bad enough, but they feared more in the future. This creature was the representation of mankind's manipulation of nature with science gone wrong in many ways. Other things worse than it were the possibility of…other, shadowy echoes from the past forcing their way into the present…and they lacked the strength to contend with such acts if they did occur.

To be continued…