Neon Genesis Evangelion and all characters from therein are
the property of Gainax. They are used without permission
and we beg the kind and benevolent creators of the glorious
show not to sue us. ^_^
Chain lightning Studios Presents
Together We Stand
By T. L. Webb
Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on
Goodbye blue sky
Pink Floyd, The Wall
[]================[]
Book 1 Part 1
[]================[]
With a heavy heart, Shinji Ikari walked to school alone.
It wasn't entirely by choice-- if asked he would say that
he would prefer to walk with someone else. The problem was that
he didn't really know anyone at his new school. Another part of
said problem was that he hadn't been able to make any friends
since he had started attending two weeks before.
It was not as if he didn't _want_ to have friends; he did,
so badly it hurt. He just didn't know how to behave around
people. Growing up with his uncle, he hadn't had contact with
people his own age often. Interacting with so many people at
once had put his head in a spin the first day; he had almost ran
back to the apartment a dozen times just to get away from it
all.
He had often heard the phrase 'alone in a crowd' but until
that first day he hadn't understood it. He sat there day after
day and listened to the others talk, and as much as he wanted--
needed to join in, he couldn't relate to anything they were
saying. They would talk about TV show and movies he had never
seen, people he had never met and events he had never witnessed.
It constantly drove home how different he was from everyone
else.
He even felt isolated from Misato. True, he had grown
closer to her over the past few days. However the woman seemed
to be out of her mind half of the time, and he still didn't
understand how she could be so different at home than she was at
work.
Work... Nerv... the Eva... his father...
It all was so far beyond him, he couldn't really say he
understood the war even in part. Why was he fighting? They
wouldn't tell him. What was he fighting? They didn't know. What
was he fighting _in_? That was classified. Why had the Eva
reactivated during the fight? Just thinking about that was
classified.
Nerv and Eva were also part of the problem-- he couldn't
really just walk up and say 'hi I pilot that big robot that
trashed downtown a couple of weeks ago'. No one would ever
believe him. To make matters more complicated; he wasn't
particularly fond of doing it in the first place.
How could he possibly talk to anyone about it if he didn't
understand it himself? If he started talking about the Eva, he
would have to eventually talk about his father and that was just
not something he was prepared to do.
As he walked into the classroom he nodded hello as the
class representative said good morning. He wanted to say more,
but as he tried to speak his throat locked up. He knew this
reaction far too well. He just couldn't talk to people; he
didn't know what to say. He would try to start talking then he
would freeze up. Compounding this problem was that the class rep
was a very attractive member of the opposite sex.
He could hardly think straight when Misato was around, but
at least she was easier to talk to. He knew she was only teasing
him when she flirted. Sometimes she seemed to less mature than
his peers. It was strange see her like that, and then remember
how she was at work.
But school was a whole other world, and girls his age were
like a force of nature. He had no way of holding a coherent
conversation with one of them-- much less think straight when
they were around. This had never been a problem back in
elementary... back then he had only vaguely understood there
_was_ a difference between the sexes. Now the differences were
becoming painfully obvious ever time he turned around. It was
hard enough just talking to someone else-- having his heart
start to pound and his ears and cheeks begin to burn in a fierce
blush every time a girl spoke to him made it almost impossible
He was so afraid that if he opened his mouth something
stupid would come out. That he would embarrass himself and they
would laugh. The easiest way to keep that from happening was to
say nothing at all.
Which was why instead of trying to start a conversation
with one of the other students-- Shinji Ikari went to his desk,
pulled out his SDAT and tuned out the world like he had done
every day for the past two weeks.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Hikari Horaki was tired.
This was mostly because she had been up half the night
trying to catch up with her homework. Along with her general
duties as class rep she also had been tutoring several students
in her class. In addition to that she had her duties at home
which included laundry, making meals for her sisters, and
cleaning up the house. Things were adding up and she was
beginning to feel the strain. She was beginning to think that
she had bitten off more than she could chew.
The worst part was that all the extra work was cutting in
to what little social life she had. Other than the students she
was tutoring she really hadn't spoken with anyone other than
Kensuke in the past couple of weeks. She had no idea how Touji
was, and that was starting to worry her. No one was returning
calls from his house and she hadn't been able to make the time
to go over in person. Having Kensuke assigned to drop off their
friend's paperwork had been the only idea for checking on him
that she had been able to come up with.
The whole mess was getting to the point where she was
either going to have to cut back on her extra work or drop class
rep, and she wasn't about to do that. She wasn't about to back
down yet. Even so she was beginning to feel the effects of her
long hours. She hadn't even been able to make time to talk with
Ayanami as she had intended.
Once she finished her morning update; she stretched and
looked around the room. Shinji and Rei were tuned out as usual.
Shinji was siting there with his music, and Rei was focused on
something outside the window. If she hadn't known better she
would have suspected the two were related.
She worried about those two-- particularly Shinji. He
seemed to be holding something inside, something that was
hurting him badly. She could see it in his eyes every time he
looked around the class. The longing look in his eyes when he
watched the others talk was painfully obvious, she had seen it
before in other shy kids.
The others were milling around catching up one the latest
gossip. Sadly there were about half as many students than there
had been three weeks ago, and more were signing up to transfer
out.
She hoped there wouldn't be any more attacks.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Kensuke Aida was having fun.
He had just finished a model kit of one of the UN VTOL's
the night before and he was amusing himself by making a
documentary of its maiden voyage. Holding the model in one hand
and his camcorder in the other he expertly maneuvered the craft
through a series of complicated stunts. (Accompanied by sound
effects courtesy of his own mouth.)
Just as he finished putting the VTOL through another barrel
roll, someone stepped into the frame; effectively ruining his
shot. Frowning slightly he lowered the camera to find Hikari
Horaki standing in front of him with an annoyed look on her
face.
"What's up class rep?" he asked, deciding not to complain
about his ruined footage.
"Did you drop that printout off at Suzuhara's place like I
asked you?" she asked sternly.
Kensuke blinked and tried to keep his face neutral as he
realized he had left the printout in question sitting in his
desk all week. Reaching back quickly he made sure it was out of
sight before stammering a weak excuse.
"Um... well I went by... but there didn't seem to be anyone
at his place."
This was true enough; he had simply left out the part about
having the printouts with him. Touji was his friend, and he was
starting to worry since he hadn't even heard from him since the
war in the city.
Kensuke knew that wasn't so strange that neither of them
had heard anything. Nerv was a large organization, and the
secrecy surrounding it was phenomenal. Despite the fact that
most of the kids in their school had parents who worked in or
around Nerv related projects, few of them had parents who worked
together. He had known Touji since first grade, and they had
been friends almost from the beginning, but their dads worked in
completely separate departments and learning what had happened
to his friend was beyond even _his_ considerable information
gathering talents.
"Kensuke," Hikari said-- her voice softening, "you're his
best friend. Haven't you heard from him at all?"
"No... and I'm starting to think he might have been hurt in
that fight with the robot."
Hikari's eyes widened at this. "But the news agencies all
said no one was seriously injured!"
Kensuke sighed. Sometimes Hikari could be really naive. He
supposed it had to do with her position as class rep-- part of
her job was to follow instructions from the school board. She
just wasn't as used to questioning authority as he was.
"Are you kidding?" he said, trying to break the reality of
the situation to her as gently as he could, "you saw what was
left after that explosion didn't you? And that's not counting
all the other parts of town that were wrecked and the bomb they
set off a few hours before the fight! They didn't just send in
the troops from Iruma and Komatsu, but they even called in the
reserves from Misawa and Kyusho. I bet several dozen people were
injured and with blasts like that rocking the city there had to
have been at least a couple of fatalities."
As he said that the door to the class opened and a tall boy
with short black hair and a grim expression walked into the
classroom.
Hikari and Kensuke both let out sighs of relief as they
greeted their friend.
"Touji!"
"Suzuhara!"
The taller boy nodded hello, and walked into the room.
Kensuke noticed something right then-- his friend was in a foul
mood. Touji didn't so much walk into the room as stormed in.
When he finally reached his seat and sat down on top of his
desk, it was as if he was restraining himself from throwing the
table across the room.
Kensuke was just about to start filling his friend in on
the latest news when Touji spoke up.
"Last time I checked we had a lot more people in the
class," he said with a frown, "what happened to everyone?"
"It's was the fight," Kensuke explained "a lot of people
just packed up and ran. I'm not really surprised though, I mean
its not like most people are going to hang around with a war
going on in the middle of downtown."
"I guess... then again unlike you not everyone wants to
watch a real war going on from the front row."
"True..." Kensuke said with a shrug. He knew he was a
military nut, he'd never tried to hide it, and wasn't the type
of person to be ashamed of it. "How have you been? We haven't
seen or heard from you since the incident, did you get involved
in the fighting?"
Touji's eyes darkened and his frown turned to a scowl. For
a moment Kensuke thought he wasn't going to say anything at all
but finally he started speaking a low, harsh voice. It seemed as
if it was all Touji could do to keep from yelling.
"No I didn't get involved... but my sister wasn't as lucky.
She--she was crushed... under a pile of debris. She survived,
but she's been in the hospital ever since." He paused for a
moment and his eyes softened "my father and grandfather's
departments are working around the clock since the fight and
they can't make it to visit... so unless I'm there she's all
alone."
Touji closed his eyes and his entire body seemed to tense
up as his earlier anger returned in full force. "That Robot's
pilot has to be some kind of moron! It just pisses me off... I
mean, he's supposed to be protecting us and then he goes and
trashes half the city? What the hell was he thinking?"
Kensuke was so caught up with Touji's news he had almost
forgotten to tell him about his theory on the new student.
"Hey on that note, did you hear the rumors yet?"
"No... what about?"
"The new transfer student."
Touji looked around the room until he spotted the
unfamiliar face in the room. The boy was sitting alone listening
to something on SDAT.
"Who? Him?"
"Yeah, he transferred in while you were gone." Kensuke
paused for effect then let out the interesting part "do you
realize that he came in just after the big incident? And that
there are twice as many of those creepy security guys around the
school now? Awful big coincidence don't you think?"
For a moment Kensuke thought he might have slipped up
because his friend shot such a fierce look of anger at the new
kid that Kensuke would not have been surprised to see the boy
spontaneously combust under the glare.
Fortunately for all of them the teacher picked that moment
to arrive and Hikari started into her duties as class rep.
[]====[]
[]====[]
An hour before lunch, the teacher set down his lesson plan
and the moment the students dreaded arrived. It was time for the
teacher's lecture.
As the teacher began to drone on Kensuke let out a sigh.
The same thing... again. Every morning and again at the end of
the day, the same boring speech over and over. It was getting to
the point that most of the class was using the time to catch up
on sleep. So with nothing better to do he decided to see what
was going on in the classroom chat. He would have to thank
Hikari someday for letting them use it during class; it was a
small escape but a necessary one when you had to listen to the
old guy drone on day after day. He had been afraid at the start
of they year when they had appointed her-- the stories of her
older sister's reign of terror as class rep were legendary.
The main chat room was full of the usual inane banter. Some
of it was the same gossip about the new student that had been
going on for weeks. He was rather disappointed-- nothing new on
that front. One would think that in two weeks someone would have
found _something_ out. Amateurs-- all of them.
Other than that the only thing of note was the occasional
dare for one of the guys to go talk to Rei. Kensuke grinned at
that. Rei was undeniably attractive, but if any of the guys
actually got up the nerve to talk to her he would eat his
camera. On the rare occasions when she actually paid attention
to something other than the window, it had unnerved even the
teacher himself.
Not finding anything overly interesting in the main room's
conversation, he activated a program he had 'borrowed' and
started flipping through the private messages. Unfortunately
other than useless gossip and other mindless chatter there was
nothing going on.
He was about to shut it down and take a nap, when he
noticed that the new kid had just received a message.
Intrigued he opened the file and watched the exchange.
[Are you the pilot? Y / N]
Well, well, well, it seemed that he wasn't the only one who
thought that the kid worked for Nerv. Out of the corner of his
eye he saw the boy looking around with what might have been
panic. As he turned back to his screen, Kensuke saw that he had
received another message.
[Its true isn't it? Y / N]
Kensuke turned all his attention to his monitor. This was
it, the moment of truth; his suspicions were about to be either
confirmed or dashed. Sure enough after a brief pause, he heard
the clicking sounds of the boy's keyboard and the message went
out.
[Yes.]
Kensuke had never considered himself much of a hacker-- his
skills were nowhere near the level that he felt would earn that
title. He had, however, taken a great deal of pride in figuring
out how to program his laptop to read private messages that were
sent around the room. It had been a great accomplishment in his
book.
As the entire class went nuts upon Shinji's reply, however,
Kensuke let out a sigh of disappointment-- apparently he wasn't
the only one who had figured that little trick out.
[]====[]
[]====[]
"Thank you for making our teacher deaf as a brick wall."
Hikari muttered quietly as she watched the entire class rush
Shinji Ikari.
It was ridiculous-- everyone was clustered around the poor
kid shouting questions at him and demanding answers right away.
To make matters worse the teacher was still in the middle of his
speech.
She had known of course that someone had opened a dialogue
with him. Her laptop had a program that allowed her to monitor
all private messages if she so chose. Generally she didn't do
that-- she felt she owed the class a little privacy during the
teacher's monologues.
She would have to crack down now and she hated doing that.
Standing and turning she frowned and shouted over the din.
"Hey you guys, you're still in class you know! Sit down and
keep quiet! Show some respect!"
This didn't faze the mob in the least. One girl did
apparently hear her, as she turned and spoke up
"Oh get off it, you're always trying to boss us!"
"Just ignore us," another student tossed in her direction.
Hikari recoiled at that and frowned "I wont ignore it,
this is my job!" she said, a little hurt at the sheer disrespect
that her friends were showing not only her, but the teacher as
well.
Her attempt at reason wasn't working and the questions
continued despite her protests.
"How were you selected?"
"Did they put you through any tests?"
"What's the cockpit like?"
"Were you scared?"
Shinji didn't seem to be enjoying the attention in the
least; actually he seemed to be trying to disappear into his
desk. Hikari felt sorry for him-- even a person who enjoyed
being the center of attention would have been unnerved by that
mob.
"I-I-I'm not supposed to talk about classified stuff like
that," he said weakly.
His protests were paid roughly as much attention as
Hikari's and the questions continued.
"What do they call it? Does it have a name?"
Trying to keep up with the barrage of questions Shinji
stammered an answer, "I-I'm not sure... but everyone calls it
Eva or-or U-Unit One"
"Eva huh? What's its best attack?"
A glance over at Kensuke showed that he was listening with
rapt interest as Shinji tried to explain about some type of
vibrating knife. At least a couple of students were still in
their desks she noted with a sigh.
"That's amazing! We are so proud of you!"
"Awesome!"
The bell finally rang and the teacher turned from the
window to find the class clustered around Ikari. He looked up at
her with a helpless expression, but all she could do was shrug
weakly and hope he understood that it was out of her hands.
The whole thing was humiliating-- she had been doing so
well with the class and now this. Where had she gone wrong? Her
sister had never let anything like this happen. Had she been too
lax with them? Was it because she had gone too far the other way
rather than following her sister's example?
"Well... that's all for this morning" the teacher said as
Hikari tried to at least get the class to bow like respectable
people. She didn't have much more luck.
"Where do you live Ikari?"
"Is it near the old section of the city?"
As she shouted a final time for the class to bow, she
noticed two things.
The first was that Rei hadn't even moved during the entire
incident, she sat in her seat and looked out the window as she
had every day since Hikari had known her.
The second was that Touji was watching Shinji with an
expression not unlike a predator preparing to strike its prey.
[]====[]
[]====[]
As Hikari picked through her lunch a little later, she
tried to get her mind off the incident in class.
They had embarrassed her. That was pretty much the long
and short of it. To make matters worse-- not only had they
disrespected her, but they had also insulted the teacher. It
wasn't something that he was going to overlook-- no mater what
the circumstances. She was going to have to work hard to make it
up to him.
Pushing the shameful outburst of her classmates from her
mind, she soon found herself trying to figure why a meek boy
like Shinji was the pilot of the robot. She just couldn't
picture it somehow. She had heard the stories about the fight,
and from the descriptions after a rough start the thing had
fought like a wild beast. She didn't see that kind of violence
in Ikari.
As she was pondering these things, she heard a shout from
outside the window. Taking a quick look, she could see Touji
walking toward Ikari, who apparently had been sitting in the
shade of the building with his music. He had been sitting in the
same spot for two weeks and she had been considering joining
him-- she was getting tired of the classroom.
As Touji drew closer she remembered the glare that had
given the new student mere minutes before... and suddenly she
was very worried for Ikari. Touji was not a mean person, but he
had a short temper and was very, very protective of those he
cared for. If he believed that Shinji was responsible for his
sister's injuries then the encounter that was about to take
place was not going to pleasant.
Opening the window, she watched as Suzuhara hauled Shinji
to his feet and-- to her shock-- he punched him in the face.
"Touji?" she whispered. She hadn't expected him to hit the
kid, shake him around a bit maybe, but not a full-on punch to
the face.
As the smaller boy lay on the ground rubbing his cheek, she
could hear the voices drift up from below as she watched on, too
surprised to even move.
"Sorry new kid, but I had to hit you. Wouldn't have been
satisfied till I hit you."
Even though she couldn't believe that her friend had just
said that, she couldn't completely bring herself to be angry
with Touji. She knew how much his sister meant to him. She was
however very disappointed in him. She would have to rake him
over the coals for this.
Down below Kensuke was making a rather feeble attempt to
explain what had just happened to a very confused Shinji Ikari
"His sister was hurt pretty bad last time you and your
robot fought, well that's his excuse anyway." He said as he
shrugged and began walking away with Touji following.
She was about to run down to see if Shinji was alright and
make an attempt to apologize more tactfully than Kensuke had
when she heard Shinji almost growl a response.
Had the acoustics between the buildings not been what they
were she would have completely missed his words.
"I didn't have a choice, they made me pilot the damn
thing."
Hikari bit her lower lip lightly as another piece of the
puzzle that was Shinji Ikari fell into place. She didn't have
long to consider it however as she saw Touji tense up at that
and turn. He stormed back over to where Shinji lay on the ground
and lifted him back up so they were face to face. Shinji didn't
even look him in the eye as Touji pulled back and hit the
smaller boy a second time.
"Oh that does it." Hikari muttered as she ran out the door-
- fully intent on knocking some sense into Touji. There was no
call for any of that, especially the last part. She was going to
have a long talk with her friend followed by several hard smacks
on the head, then he was going to apologize to Shinji. As she
ran down the stairs, however, those plans were put on hold.
The emergency sirens chose that moment to begin ringing
out.
There was another attack beginning.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Ever since Tokyo 3 had finished its first stages of
construction the population had been required to train for rapid
evacuation to the closest shelters. Hikari wasn't sure just how
well protected the others were, but she knew that in the
school's case the walls were more than five feet thick. Added to
that was the fact that they were fairly deep in a hillside with
several meters of rock and dirt covering them and three blast
doors between them and the outside. Inside most of the shelters
there was room for a couple hundred people without being
cramped.
As she tried to organize the class, she kept an eye on Aida
and Suzuhara. She would have to talk with them soon or she would
be too angry with them to think straight. The more she thought
back to what had happened she angrier she became. Both of them
had been her friends for years and she didn't want to lose that,
but something had to be said and done about this.
Thinking back to what Shinji had said as he lay there on
the ground she realized that while it explained some things
about the boy, it raised many new questions.
Obviously he didn't want to do it-- he had said as much by
implying they had forced him into it. But why did they do that
in the first place? Why not just find someone who was willing?
And for that matter, why a fourteen year old kid? Wouldn't it
have made more sense to use a professional soldier?
She understood more of why he seemed so hurt and afraid
now. She had heard stories from her uncle about the wars that
followed Second Impact. Her uncle had been involved in the
fighting, and she knew from his tales of battle how horrifying
combat could be. Kensuke's military obsession notwithstanding, a
person her age would be hard pressed to deal with the stress of
a war.
As she was thinking of this, she heard Touji hollering her
name from where he and Kensuke were sitting.
"Hey class rep, we both gotta go to the can!"
As much as she appreciated them letting her know where they
were going, she really wished that Touji had selected a quieter
method of informing her. Touji never had been very strong in the
tact department. She let out a sigh of annoyance, and yelled
back.
"Is there some reason you didn't go before like you're
supposed to?"
"Aww comeon! We gotta goooooo"
"OK already!" she yelled, "but hurry, we need to follow procedure,
this isn't a drill"
The two boys got up and ambled off to the restrooms, and
she turned back to try to keep the class together. As the
military began opening fire on the surface, she shuddered.
This was for real.
"Be careful Shinji," she thought as the ground shook
slightly.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Meanwhile Shinji Ikari was sitting in the entry plug of
Unit One failing at an attempt to fight off a powerful wave of
depression.
Shinji knew it was his fault. If he had just gotten into
this damn thing from the beginning and not tried to run then the
other boy's sister wouldn't have been hurt. If he had _tried_ to
pilot the damn thing instead of quaking in fear no one would
have been hurt.
He wouldn't have been hit.
"Its my fault... all my fault." He thought as the Eva was
prepared for launch. "What if I do it again? What if someone
else gets hurt this time?"
"Why am I doing this again?" he muttered aloud, "even after
I was hit..."
He was almost as afraid as he had been the first time.
He didn't want the guilt; he didn't want the
responsibility. He didn't want to be depended on for all of
this, but he didn't have a choice. If he didn't do it then they
would make Ayanami do it, and she was nowhere near ready. If he
stayed he would be hurt, and through his actions others would
likely be hurt. If he left then she would be hurt and more
people would die if she failed because of her injuries.
He had no choice. He had to focus; he had to pay attention.
He had to do this right.
"Target the center, pull the switch," He chanted over and
over, trying to pretend he wasn't afraid.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Hikari frowned as she took another glance at the restrooms.
Those two had been in there for awhile now. Much too long
actually. Sighing in annoyance, she turned to one of the other
girls and asked her to look after things while she went to check
on the idiot duo.
Making her way across the floor an unpleasant suspicion
entered her mind. This was followed by a series of even more
unpleasant realizations.
Kensuke was a military nut.
He had his camera with him.
There was a war going on outside right that moment.
Two plus two equals four.
"Oh hell..." She whispered as she doubled her pace and ran
down the hall that contained the restrooms. As she rounded a
corner she saw the thin slant of sunlight, and her heart leapt
into her throat. The little twerps had gone out to see the
fight! She ran to the large door and looked outside-- sure
enough she could see the two making their way up the stairs to a
hillside shrine that overlooked the city.
"Y-you-you _morons_!" she yelled, despite the fact they
were well out of earshot. She realized that if she went back for
someone older or in authority she might lose them, so against
her better judgement she made her way up the path after the two.
They had been much further along up the stairs than she had
expected, and it took awhile for her to reach the top. When she
did she found them standing by a bush watching as a giant red
and maroon shape reared back in the middle of the city. It was
hundreds of feet tall and had two glowing tendrils lashing at
its sides. It looked a bit like a snake, but the resemblance was
merely a passing one.
Suddenly there was a loud booming crash, and then the side
of a building nearby the monster began to open. As a shimmering
heat distortion faded, she was left speechless as an enormous
shape began moving inside the shadow of the skyscraper.
It was almost as tall as the cobra-like monster, and easily
as frightening. She was too far away to make out many details
other than the horn on its forehead, the wing-like extensions on
its shoulder, and its green, purple and black color scheme.
As she watched, the Eva quickly whipped around the side of
its building--opening fire on the monster with an enormous
rifle. She had never seen anything like it, and for a moment she
fully understood Kensuke's total fascination with such things.
She couldn't believe how _fast_ it moved! And so fluid too-- not
at all like she would picture a robot's movements. As the
thunderous sound of the gun finally reached them, she covered
her ears and watched on in awe.
Kensuke meanwhile was shouting in rapture at the footage he
was getting.
"Oh wow, " he said in with tears in his eyes, "I've been
waiting for this moment all my life!"
He would have been nowhere nearly as excited had he known
that this phrase had snapped Hikari back to reality and reminded
her of why she was out there in the first place. Scowling she
began stalking towards the two.
Meanwhile the monster was making its counterattack on what
she remembered Shinji refering to as Unit One. The robot had
leapt out of the way as the whip like arms of the monster shot
out, cutting through everything in their path. Unit One was now
lying on the ground as if frozen in place.
"He's losing already?" Touji said as Hikari made it to
where the boys stood.
"It's not a problem," Kensuke replied, not knowing that
Hikari had just grabbed Touji by his ear.
"Ow ow ow owowowow!" Touji yelped as Hikari pulled him face
to face with herself.
"Eep!" was his only reply to her furious glare.
"I'm telling you its gonna be..." Kensuke trailed off as he
turned to find Hikari standing next to him with one hand on her
hip and the other wrapped around Touji's ear.
"Just what the _hell_ do you two think you're doing?" she
yelled as Touji squirmed under her grip. "Listen up you idiots--
You two come with me right _now_ or else I am going to have to
get violent. You know I _hate_ being violent so that should give
you an idea how angry I am."
"But it's an important..." Kensuke began; not yet realizing
that Hikari was in no mood to debate the issue. She actually
grabbed him by the hair and hauled him to his feet as the fight
rumbled on in the distance.
"Shut up and follow me Aida! I don't care if it's your
last, your first, or only chance to see one of these fights, you
are going back to the shelter NOW!" she screamed at him, having
reached the end of her patience with the two. "I'm not going to
tell you again!"
As Hikari continued to chew them out-- Touji was leaning
his head back to lessen the pressure on his ear. Having done
this, he was in a unique angle-- and a perfect one to see the
giant purple robot sailing through the air.
Right towards them.
The pain in his ear was forgotten as he let out a scream of
pure, unrestrained terror.
Hikari had let go of Touji as soon as he started to scream,
but before she could ask what was wrong an enormous shadow
passed over them. Looking up she saw what Touji had and she
released a similar shriek of terror. The three of them were
frozen in horror as Evangelion Unit One slammed into the
mountainside.
Their inability to move probably saved their lives.
As the huge robot crashed into the hill, the shockwave
threw the three of them off their feet. When the earth finally
stopped shaking, Hikari realized that she was still alive and
let out a deep breath. This breath stopped midway out of her
lungs as she opened her eyes. Less than two feet from her face
there was a large purple wall.
Shaking her head and trying to clear her thoughts she took
another look and realized that it was part of the giant robot's
hand. Another look around revealed that they were between the
enormous fingers of said hand.
It wasn't until the red monster began to float towards
them that she and her friends broke from their shock, and
started to scream again.
[]====[]
[]====[]
As the Eva smashed into the hillside, Shinji tried to
remain in control. He was seconds from freaking out and he knew
it. He had to concentrate! Shaking off the last of his
disorientation-- he looked around to get his bearings.
That was when he saw the frightened figures huddled
together mere feet from the Eva's hands. Shocked that he had
almost killed someone, he flipped the magnification up and
received yet another surprise. He knew the three; they were in
his class. One of them was the boy who had hit him.
Fighting back the urge to panic-- he looked back to see the
Angel floating towards him. It was obviously intending to
continue their battle.
[]====[]
[]====[]
In the Command center of Central Dogma, Misato Katsuragi
was in total control. People who knew her well were always
surprised to see this side of her; it was a sharp contrast to
the way she behaved off duty.
Barking orders left and right, she was like a master
conductor in an orchestra. It was an inspiring sight to see her
like this, to see her at her best.
Bringing her headset up to her ear she tried to get
Shinji's attention. The boy was under a great deal of stress,
and she knew that there was only so much more of this he could
take in his current state. She also knew that they had little
choice but to use him for the time being.
"Shinji! Are you ok? Respond!"
Seeing that the pilot was still disoriented she turned to
the three technicians nearby.
"What's his status? Any damage?"
"Negative" Makoto quickly replied "it's still operational"
Then, just as Shinji was increasing the magnification on
his screens, the computers displayed three photos and sets of
information.
"Shinji's classmates?" Misato said in slight confusion. She
didn't have time to figure out the 'why' of the kids being
there. She simply accepted it and factored it into her battle
plans.
Ritsuko didn't think like Misato, so in contrast to
coworker's cool reaction-- her mouth fell open as she yelled,
"What the hell are they doing out there?"
[]====[]
[]====[]
Meanwhile, Shinji was doing his best to simultaneously fend
off another attack and prevent the Eva from crushing his
schoolmates
As he grabbed one of the glowing tentacle whips the Angel
was lashing at him-- he could hear shouting from his external
pickups.
"Why isn't he fighting back?" the tall boy who had hit him
yelled as the girl he now recognized as the class representative
tried to pull the two away from the fight. He gritted his teeth,
steeling himself against the synthetic pain he felt as the whips
were beginning to burn into the Eva's hands.
"He can't because we're here!" the kid with glasses yelled
back over the crackling sound of the Evas burning hands, "he's
trying not to fall on us"
'Come on Horaki,' Shinji thought, 'get em away before I
lose power!'
Over his communication link he heard one of the bridge crew
announce that he only had three minutes of time left.
Suddenly, to his relief, Misato opened a channel and
informed him of the new plan.
"Shinji! Let them into the entry plug with you. After
they're safe retreat... we'll try this again with full power."
In the background he could hear doctor Akagi yell at his
guardian. "Just what makes you think that unauthorized civilians
can be allowed into the _entry plug_?"
"I'm authorizing it" Misato said coolly
"You're exceeding your authority _captain_" Ritsuko
replied. He could hear the annoyance in the doctor's voice as
she put an extra emphasis on Misato's rank, and wondered what it
was about the plan was so upsetting to her.
As the technician announced the remaining time again Misato
came back across the channel with his orders.
"Lock in the Eva's current commands and eject the
Entryplug, and hurry, we don't have much time!"
[]====[]
[]====[]
"Look!" Kensuke shouted as Hikari tried to pull them away
from the dueling titans.
Despite the fact that she was trying to get her friends as
far away from what was going on behind her, she risked a glance
back and was just in time to see the Eva's head lean forward as
its back opened up. A white cylinder spun out of the body and a
loud, commanding female voice came over a speaker somewhere on
the machine.
"You three get inside now!" the voice shouted over the din.
Not knowing what else to do the three raced up to the now
open hatch on the cylinder. To his credit Touji helped her up
and over into the hatch where she suddenly found herself neck
deep in some type of liquid. She didn't even have time to scream
because as Touji jumped in, the hatch closed and the liquid rose
to the top, covering her entirely.
Trying to hold her breath and keep from screaming in
terror, she was a bit surprised to hear Kensuke scream quite
clearly.
"My camera, my camera!"
What was this stuff?
"What is this? Water?" Touji yelled, completely confused as
to how he was able to breathe.
Hikari looked down and saw Shinji Ikari looking up at a
display screen with a grim look on his face. Realizing that he
was breathing the liquid stuff, she closed her eyes and took her
first breath. For the first few seconds it felt like someone had
poured ice water into her lungs, and she had to fight not to
vomit. The second breath went better, and by the third she found
that while the stuff was unpleasant to smell and taste-- it
didn't seem to be hurting her
She began to hear shouts of panic over a radio as someone
said something about loosing nerve connections and too much
thought noise.
The Eva reactivated and Shinji's shoulders tensed up as the
Eva threw the Angel down the hill. His eyes looked more than
haunted now; they looked completely hollow. He was chanting
something under his breath that she couldn't make out.
The woman who had ordered them in the cylinder shouted for
Shinji to retreat and began giving directions. Shinji just
looked out at the Angel as the Eva stood with a look on his face
that she realized she had seen before. It had been weeks ago
after his first day in school, and he had been watching the city
transform to battle formation. That same lost look...
"New kid, hey new kid! She said retreat! You gotta run!" Touji
shouted, lost in panic.
For the moment she was in total agreement with Touji-- her
top priority was getting her friends away from the giant red
monster.
"Shinji, you gotta go, hurry, please..." she started, but
suddenly trailed off as she heard Shinji' voice.
She could hear him much clearer now that she was used to
the liquid, and could just make out the words as he chanted them
like a mantra growing louder and louder with each repetition.
"I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away."
"Shinji?" she said hesitantly. This was, to say the least, odd
behavior for a combat pilot.
Something moved on the Eva, and as strange as it seemed,
she could almost feel it. At the same time a display that said
'progressive knife engaged' lit up in the corner of the screen.
Over the radio the woman was shouting for Shinji to retreat
over and over, but Shinji seemed to ignore this. From one of the
screens she could see the Eva reach up and pulled the blade from
somewhere on its shoulder.
A timer in another corner went red and displayed a
countdown, and Shinji's chant reached its peak. Suddenly, with a
wild look taking hold of his face, he launched his body forward,
gripping his controls and letting out a blood-curdling scream.
As the three passengers backed away from the front of the
cockpit in fear, the Eva leapt down the slope, its knife at
ready as the monster attacked with its tentacles. The woman in
charge screamed for him to stop as the tentacles struck the Eva
in the abdomen. Other than a small grimace of pain, this didn't
even seem to faze Shinji-- who put everything he had into
driving the knife into a red sphere in the center of the
monster's 'chest'.
His screams driving him forward, Shinji pushed the knife
deeper into the monster as Hikari and the two boys cowered to
the back of the cockpit, almost as afraid of the enraged pilot
as of the monster he was attacking.
Finally just as the timer hit zero, the monster seemed to
slump forward. The Eva did likewise and the two giants stood
there, locked into place, each bracing the other.
After what felt like an eternity, Hikari pulled herself
away from the other two and climbed up to the front where she
found Shinji sobbing against the controls of the robot. He
seemed to have lost whatever had possessed him moments before.
As she watched him, she thought of the look in his eyes as he
had attacked at that last moment. She had never in her life seen
anything close to that level of anger and rage. It frightened
her, and she couldn't think of anything to do or say. Feeling
something move beside her, she turned and found Kensuke and
Touji had joined her at the edge of the pilot's seat. The guilty
look on Touji's face gave her a touch of relief-- but it didn't
get him off the hook. He was going to make up for what he had
done... or else.
[]====[]
[]====[]
With a heavy heart Hikari Horaki walked to school in the
rain.
It had been three days. Three days since they had climbed
into that thing and watched Shinji fight. She still felt angry
with herself for not trying to comfort him afterwards-- he had
needed someone to help him at that moment and she had backed
away. What about it had frightened her so much? The actual
fight? Or was it seeing the quiet boy she had met a few days
before change so dramatically in the heat of battle? That might
have been it-- it was never pleasant to see the kind of anger
people kept locked away be released.
They hadn't been left in the plug very long. Once the thing
that Shinji called an Angel had been confirmed dead-- a
helicopter had been sent out to pick them up. Shinji had been
little more than a ghost during that ride back. Even when
Kensuke tried to talk with him the boy simply didn't respond.
When they landed a woman in a red jacket had spirited him away
as the rest of them waited in a small office. Eventually a blond
woman in a lab coat had come to see them, but why she was there
Hikari never found out. She had taken a blood sample from each
of them and left just as quickly as she came.
When the woman with the red jacket finally returned she
identified herself as Captain Misato Katsuragi of Nerv. Hikari
recognized the name immediately; the woman was Shinji's
guardian. After going over each of their stories fifteen times,
she began to chew the boys out. Kensuke looked absolutely
heartbroken to find that she was considering placing the
incident in his permanent record. If that happened then all his
dreams of military schools would be dashed.
The woman had yelled at them for another hour, but the people
from Nerv hadn't punished them. That was going to come when the
school board called her in for a review in a few weeks. She was
fairly certain that she would be stripped of her position. Touji
and Kensuke felt terrible about it, and had promised to make it
up to her somehow-- but she had told them in very sharp angry
words that it wasn't her that they should make anything up to.
Touji had promised to apologize to Shinji, but he was going to
have to wait. Ever since the fight Shinji had been absent from
class.
As she walked into the classroom she checked her mail and
rested her head in her hands. An indefinite amount of time later
she was awakened from her nap by the sound of Touji and Kensuke
talking.
"Three days counting today..." Touji said in a voice that
reflected the day's weather: gloomy.
"Since we got chewed out?"
"No... since he came to class."
She was a little surprised-- Touji was a very stubborn
person, and despite his promises to apologize to Shinji-- for
him to drop his ego so quickly and be concerned was a little
unusual for him.
"So you're worried?"
"Well I wouldn't exactly say worried..."
Then again, maybe not.
"Look Touji..." Kensuke said reaching into his bag and
removing a slip of paper, "for someone who makes such a habit of
being as tactless as you tend to be, you're being pretty hesitant
here, aren't you? If you had just apologized after the fight
you wouldn't be moping around like this."
Hikari smiled-- Kensuke had come through after all. He
might be a pain, but she had to admit, he knew his way around a
computer.
"Look... this is the new kid's number. Why don't you call
and ask if he's OK? Then you won't have to be worried about the
whole thing, and you won't drive me crazy by pretending you
aren't."
Touji took the slip of paper and looked at it for a moment
before standing and heading to the door. As he passed Hikari she
gave him a smile and a nod, letting him know she was proud of
him.
"I'll call him after lunch" Touji said dismissavly.
Hikari frowned at that. She knew the boy too well-- he was
going to put it off and forget about it. Kensuke was just as
bad; he still had half of Touji's paperwork in his desk. She
decided that she was through playing around with these two and
stood up.
"Suzuhara, you are going to go right out to that phone and
call Shinji this moment or your going to be on cleanup for the
rest of the year! Or do you need _another_ dozen knots on that
head of yours?"
Touji flinched at that. We and Kensuke were already
sentenced to a month of cleaning duty for their little screwup,
and the only reason Hikari hadn't made it for longer is that she
didn't think she would be around to enforce it after the review.
Of course, that hadn't stopped her from punishing them in other
ways.
As Touji stepped outside to make his call, she turned to
Kensuke.
"And as for you..." she said sternly, as Kensuke shrunk
back into his desk, "when Shinji comes back I want you to try
and be nicer to him, your little 'that's his excuse' bit was the
lamest thing I've ever heard you say. I don't care if you just
do it because he's the pilot, but try to be his friend. You and
Touji have known one another since you were kids, but in his
case I don't think he's had a friend like that before."
"You're kidding?" Kensuke said with no small measure of
surprise, "come to think of it that would explain a lot... don't
worry class rep, I accept my mission"
"Don't salute me again-- I still haven't let you off the
hook. What are you doing this weekend? Still going out to the
rice fields?"
"You know me too well Hikari," Kensuke said with a grin.
"If you see Shinji, invite him along. It might do him some
good."
Well that solved one problem. She didn't like ordering
people around like that but if she didn't do something then the
idiot duo would find a thousand reasons to avoid their
responsibilities. Hopefully Shinji wasn't too disgusted by them
to accept their friendship. Hopefully somehow this would help
her feel better for shrinking away from him when he had needed
her help. Hopefully he was going to come back.
Looking out at Touji standing by the phone in the hall, she
hoped he made good on his promise to make up with Shinji, she
had never met anyone in such desperate need of friendship.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Several blocks away in the apartment of Misato Katsuragi, a
cellular phone sat on a desk beside a note and an ID card. The
phone began to ring, but there was no one there to answer.
[]=====================[]
To be Continued...
[]=====================[]
Authors incoherent babbling:
Well there's part one.
Yes, yes I _know_ this is mostly a novelization of episode
three with a few changes. I'm afraid that it had to be that way
in order to set up the rest of the story. What I am trying to do
here is to start slowly and build as I go. The changes will
begin to add up as the story progresses. Be patient grasshopper.
So what is to be expected in this new timeline? Well I'll
give ya a hint; some events are far too huge for this to have
any effect, other events will be dramatically altered due to the
changes. I don't see anything here stopping Angel attacks, but
personal stuff? That's all free game. Shinji and Hikari... a shy
quiet young man and a sweet cheerful young lady. What effects
will her friendship have on Shinji? Will their growing
relationship be the tiny element that makes a difference in the
scheme of things? Could something so simple as this alter the
fate of the world?
Let's find out shall we?
For those who are wondering, the exact moment I'm breaking
the timeline is when Hikari sees Touji hit Shinji. It's a subtle
thing... but I felt it was an appropriate catalyst for the
story. From this point all bets are off for domestic and school
scenes. Some will still follow the same path, such as Asuka's
introduction. Only after time will the changes in Shinji's
behavior begin to affect even Der Redhead. As the story
progresses the changes will grow. Hopefully we can give a ray of
light and hope to some kids trapped in a no-win scenario
Hotwire
Chain Lightning Studios
http://hotwire182.freyellow.com/chainlightning.html
the property of Gainax. They are used without permission
and we beg the kind and benevolent creators of the glorious
show not to sue us. ^_^
Chain lightning Studios Presents
Together We Stand
By T. L. Webb
Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on
Goodbye blue sky
Pink Floyd, The Wall
[]================[]
Book 1 Part 1
[]================[]
With a heavy heart, Shinji Ikari walked to school alone.
It wasn't entirely by choice-- if asked he would say that
he would prefer to walk with someone else. The problem was that
he didn't really know anyone at his new school. Another part of
said problem was that he hadn't been able to make any friends
since he had started attending two weeks before.
It was not as if he didn't _want_ to have friends; he did,
so badly it hurt. He just didn't know how to behave around
people. Growing up with his uncle, he hadn't had contact with
people his own age often. Interacting with so many people at
once had put his head in a spin the first day; he had almost ran
back to the apartment a dozen times just to get away from it
all.
He had often heard the phrase 'alone in a crowd' but until
that first day he hadn't understood it. He sat there day after
day and listened to the others talk, and as much as he wanted--
needed to join in, he couldn't relate to anything they were
saying. They would talk about TV show and movies he had never
seen, people he had never met and events he had never witnessed.
It constantly drove home how different he was from everyone
else.
He even felt isolated from Misato. True, he had grown
closer to her over the past few days. However the woman seemed
to be out of her mind half of the time, and he still didn't
understand how she could be so different at home than she was at
work.
Work... Nerv... the Eva... his father...
It all was so far beyond him, he couldn't really say he
understood the war even in part. Why was he fighting? They
wouldn't tell him. What was he fighting? They didn't know. What
was he fighting _in_? That was classified. Why had the Eva
reactivated during the fight? Just thinking about that was
classified.
Nerv and Eva were also part of the problem-- he couldn't
really just walk up and say 'hi I pilot that big robot that
trashed downtown a couple of weeks ago'. No one would ever
believe him. To make matters more complicated; he wasn't
particularly fond of doing it in the first place.
How could he possibly talk to anyone about it if he didn't
understand it himself? If he started talking about the Eva, he
would have to eventually talk about his father and that was just
not something he was prepared to do.
As he walked into the classroom he nodded hello as the
class representative said good morning. He wanted to say more,
but as he tried to speak his throat locked up. He knew this
reaction far too well. He just couldn't talk to people; he
didn't know what to say. He would try to start talking then he
would freeze up. Compounding this problem was that the class rep
was a very attractive member of the opposite sex.
He could hardly think straight when Misato was around, but
at least she was easier to talk to. He knew she was only teasing
him when she flirted. Sometimes she seemed to less mature than
his peers. It was strange see her like that, and then remember
how she was at work.
But school was a whole other world, and girls his age were
like a force of nature. He had no way of holding a coherent
conversation with one of them-- much less think straight when
they were around. This had never been a problem back in
elementary... back then he had only vaguely understood there
_was_ a difference between the sexes. Now the differences were
becoming painfully obvious ever time he turned around. It was
hard enough just talking to someone else-- having his heart
start to pound and his ears and cheeks begin to burn in a fierce
blush every time a girl spoke to him made it almost impossible
He was so afraid that if he opened his mouth something
stupid would come out. That he would embarrass himself and they
would laugh. The easiest way to keep that from happening was to
say nothing at all.
Which was why instead of trying to start a conversation
with one of the other students-- Shinji Ikari went to his desk,
pulled out his SDAT and tuned out the world like he had done
every day for the past two weeks.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Hikari Horaki was tired.
This was mostly because she had been up half the night
trying to catch up with her homework. Along with her general
duties as class rep she also had been tutoring several students
in her class. In addition to that she had her duties at home
which included laundry, making meals for her sisters, and
cleaning up the house. Things were adding up and she was
beginning to feel the strain. She was beginning to think that
she had bitten off more than she could chew.
The worst part was that all the extra work was cutting in
to what little social life she had. Other than the students she
was tutoring she really hadn't spoken with anyone other than
Kensuke in the past couple of weeks. She had no idea how Touji
was, and that was starting to worry her. No one was returning
calls from his house and she hadn't been able to make the time
to go over in person. Having Kensuke assigned to drop off their
friend's paperwork had been the only idea for checking on him
that she had been able to come up with.
The whole mess was getting to the point where she was
either going to have to cut back on her extra work or drop class
rep, and she wasn't about to do that. She wasn't about to back
down yet. Even so she was beginning to feel the effects of her
long hours. She hadn't even been able to make time to talk with
Ayanami as she had intended.
Once she finished her morning update; she stretched and
looked around the room. Shinji and Rei were tuned out as usual.
Shinji was siting there with his music, and Rei was focused on
something outside the window. If she hadn't known better she
would have suspected the two were related.
She worried about those two-- particularly Shinji. He
seemed to be holding something inside, something that was
hurting him badly. She could see it in his eyes every time he
looked around the class. The longing look in his eyes when he
watched the others talk was painfully obvious, she had seen it
before in other shy kids.
The others were milling around catching up one the latest
gossip. Sadly there were about half as many students than there
had been three weeks ago, and more were signing up to transfer
out.
She hoped there wouldn't be any more attacks.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Kensuke Aida was having fun.
He had just finished a model kit of one of the UN VTOL's
the night before and he was amusing himself by making a
documentary of its maiden voyage. Holding the model in one hand
and his camcorder in the other he expertly maneuvered the craft
through a series of complicated stunts. (Accompanied by sound
effects courtesy of his own mouth.)
Just as he finished putting the VTOL through another barrel
roll, someone stepped into the frame; effectively ruining his
shot. Frowning slightly he lowered the camera to find Hikari
Horaki standing in front of him with an annoyed look on her
face.
"What's up class rep?" he asked, deciding not to complain
about his ruined footage.
"Did you drop that printout off at Suzuhara's place like I
asked you?" she asked sternly.
Kensuke blinked and tried to keep his face neutral as he
realized he had left the printout in question sitting in his
desk all week. Reaching back quickly he made sure it was out of
sight before stammering a weak excuse.
"Um... well I went by... but there didn't seem to be anyone
at his place."
This was true enough; he had simply left out the part about
having the printouts with him. Touji was his friend, and he was
starting to worry since he hadn't even heard from him since the
war in the city.
Kensuke knew that wasn't so strange that neither of them
had heard anything. Nerv was a large organization, and the
secrecy surrounding it was phenomenal. Despite the fact that
most of the kids in their school had parents who worked in or
around Nerv related projects, few of them had parents who worked
together. He had known Touji since first grade, and they had
been friends almost from the beginning, but their dads worked in
completely separate departments and learning what had happened
to his friend was beyond even _his_ considerable information
gathering talents.
"Kensuke," Hikari said-- her voice softening, "you're his
best friend. Haven't you heard from him at all?"
"No... and I'm starting to think he might have been hurt in
that fight with the robot."
Hikari's eyes widened at this. "But the news agencies all
said no one was seriously injured!"
Kensuke sighed. Sometimes Hikari could be really naive. He
supposed it had to do with her position as class rep-- part of
her job was to follow instructions from the school board. She
just wasn't as used to questioning authority as he was.
"Are you kidding?" he said, trying to break the reality of
the situation to her as gently as he could, "you saw what was
left after that explosion didn't you? And that's not counting
all the other parts of town that were wrecked and the bomb they
set off a few hours before the fight! They didn't just send in
the troops from Iruma and Komatsu, but they even called in the
reserves from Misawa and Kyusho. I bet several dozen people were
injured and with blasts like that rocking the city there had to
have been at least a couple of fatalities."
As he said that the door to the class opened and a tall boy
with short black hair and a grim expression walked into the
classroom.
Hikari and Kensuke both let out sighs of relief as they
greeted their friend.
"Touji!"
"Suzuhara!"
The taller boy nodded hello, and walked into the room.
Kensuke noticed something right then-- his friend was in a foul
mood. Touji didn't so much walk into the room as stormed in.
When he finally reached his seat and sat down on top of his
desk, it was as if he was restraining himself from throwing the
table across the room.
Kensuke was just about to start filling his friend in on
the latest news when Touji spoke up.
"Last time I checked we had a lot more people in the
class," he said with a frown, "what happened to everyone?"
"It's was the fight," Kensuke explained "a lot of people
just packed up and ran. I'm not really surprised though, I mean
its not like most people are going to hang around with a war
going on in the middle of downtown."
"I guess... then again unlike you not everyone wants to
watch a real war going on from the front row."
"True..." Kensuke said with a shrug. He knew he was a
military nut, he'd never tried to hide it, and wasn't the type
of person to be ashamed of it. "How have you been? We haven't
seen or heard from you since the incident, did you get involved
in the fighting?"
Touji's eyes darkened and his frown turned to a scowl. For
a moment Kensuke thought he wasn't going to say anything at all
but finally he started speaking a low, harsh voice. It seemed as
if it was all Touji could do to keep from yelling.
"No I didn't get involved... but my sister wasn't as lucky.
She--she was crushed... under a pile of debris. She survived,
but she's been in the hospital ever since." He paused for a
moment and his eyes softened "my father and grandfather's
departments are working around the clock since the fight and
they can't make it to visit... so unless I'm there she's all
alone."
Touji closed his eyes and his entire body seemed to tense
up as his earlier anger returned in full force. "That Robot's
pilot has to be some kind of moron! It just pisses me off... I
mean, he's supposed to be protecting us and then he goes and
trashes half the city? What the hell was he thinking?"
Kensuke was so caught up with Touji's news he had almost
forgotten to tell him about his theory on the new student.
"Hey on that note, did you hear the rumors yet?"
"No... what about?"
"The new transfer student."
Touji looked around the room until he spotted the
unfamiliar face in the room. The boy was sitting alone listening
to something on SDAT.
"Who? Him?"
"Yeah, he transferred in while you were gone." Kensuke
paused for effect then let out the interesting part "do you
realize that he came in just after the big incident? And that
there are twice as many of those creepy security guys around the
school now? Awful big coincidence don't you think?"
For a moment Kensuke thought he might have slipped up
because his friend shot such a fierce look of anger at the new
kid that Kensuke would not have been surprised to see the boy
spontaneously combust under the glare.
Fortunately for all of them the teacher picked that moment
to arrive and Hikari started into her duties as class rep.
[]====[]
[]====[]
An hour before lunch, the teacher set down his lesson plan
and the moment the students dreaded arrived. It was time for the
teacher's lecture.
As the teacher began to drone on Kensuke let out a sigh.
The same thing... again. Every morning and again at the end of
the day, the same boring speech over and over. It was getting to
the point that most of the class was using the time to catch up
on sleep. So with nothing better to do he decided to see what
was going on in the classroom chat. He would have to thank
Hikari someday for letting them use it during class; it was a
small escape but a necessary one when you had to listen to the
old guy drone on day after day. He had been afraid at the start
of they year when they had appointed her-- the stories of her
older sister's reign of terror as class rep were legendary.
The main chat room was full of the usual inane banter. Some
of it was the same gossip about the new student that had been
going on for weeks. He was rather disappointed-- nothing new on
that front. One would think that in two weeks someone would have
found _something_ out. Amateurs-- all of them.
Other than that the only thing of note was the occasional
dare for one of the guys to go talk to Rei. Kensuke grinned at
that. Rei was undeniably attractive, but if any of the guys
actually got up the nerve to talk to her he would eat his
camera. On the rare occasions when she actually paid attention
to something other than the window, it had unnerved even the
teacher himself.
Not finding anything overly interesting in the main room's
conversation, he activated a program he had 'borrowed' and
started flipping through the private messages. Unfortunately
other than useless gossip and other mindless chatter there was
nothing going on.
He was about to shut it down and take a nap, when he
noticed that the new kid had just received a message.
Intrigued he opened the file and watched the exchange.
[Are you the pilot? Y / N]
Well, well, well, it seemed that he wasn't the only one who
thought that the kid worked for Nerv. Out of the corner of his
eye he saw the boy looking around with what might have been
panic. As he turned back to his screen, Kensuke saw that he had
received another message.
[Its true isn't it? Y / N]
Kensuke turned all his attention to his monitor. This was
it, the moment of truth; his suspicions were about to be either
confirmed or dashed. Sure enough after a brief pause, he heard
the clicking sounds of the boy's keyboard and the message went
out.
[Yes.]
Kensuke had never considered himself much of a hacker-- his
skills were nowhere near the level that he felt would earn that
title. He had, however, taken a great deal of pride in figuring
out how to program his laptop to read private messages that were
sent around the room. It had been a great accomplishment in his
book.
As the entire class went nuts upon Shinji's reply, however,
Kensuke let out a sigh of disappointment-- apparently he wasn't
the only one who had figured that little trick out.
[]====[]
[]====[]
"Thank you for making our teacher deaf as a brick wall."
Hikari muttered quietly as she watched the entire class rush
Shinji Ikari.
It was ridiculous-- everyone was clustered around the poor
kid shouting questions at him and demanding answers right away.
To make matters worse the teacher was still in the middle of his
speech.
She had known of course that someone had opened a dialogue
with him. Her laptop had a program that allowed her to monitor
all private messages if she so chose. Generally she didn't do
that-- she felt she owed the class a little privacy during the
teacher's monologues.
She would have to crack down now and she hated doing that.
Standing and turning she frowned and shouted over the din.
"Hey you guys, you're still in class you know! Sit down and
keep quiet! Show some respect!"
This didn't faze the mob in the least. One girl did
apparently hear her, as she turned and spoke up
"Oh get off it, you're always trying to boss us!"
"Just ignore us," another student tossed in her direction.
Hikari recoiled at that and frowned "I wont ignore it,
this is my job!" she said, a little hurt at the sheer disrespect
that her friends were showing not only her, but the teacher as
well.
Her attempt at reason wasn't working and the questions
continued despite her protests.
"How were you selected?"
"Did they put you through any tests?"
"What's the cockpit like?"
"Were you scared?"
Shinji didn't seem to be enjoying the attention in the
least; actually he seemed to be trying to disappear into his
desk. Hikari felt sorry for him-- even a person who enjoyed
being the center of attention would have been unnerved by that
mob.
"I-I-I'm not supposed to talk about classified stuff like
that," he said weakly.
His protests were paid roughly as much attention as
Hikari's and the questions continued.
"What do they call it? Does it have a name?"
Trying to keep up with the barrage of questions Shinji
stammered an answer, "I-I'm not sure... but everyone calls it
Eva or-or U-Unit One"
"Eva huh? What's its best attack?"
A glance over at Kensuke showed that he was listening with
rapt interest as Shinji tried to explain about some type of
vibrating knife. At least a couple of students were still in
their desks she noted with a sigh.
"That's amazing! We are so proud of you!"
"Awesome!"
The bell finally rang and the teacher turned from the
window to find the class clustered around Ikari. He looked up at
her with a helpless expression, but all she could do was shrug
weakly and hope he understood that it was out of her hands.
The whole thing was humiliating-- she had been doing so
well with the class and now this. Where had she gone wrong? Her
sister had never let anything like this happen. Had she been too
lax with them? Was it because she had gone too far the other way
rather than following her sister's example?
"Well... that's all for this morning" the teacher said as
Hikari tried to at least get the class to bow like respectable
people. She didn't have much more luck.
"Where do you live Ikari?"
"Is it near the old section of the city?"
As she shouted a final time for the class to bow, she
noticed two things.
The first was that Rei hadn't even moved during the entire
incident, she sat in her seat and looked out the window as she
had every day since Hikari had known her.
The second was that Touji was watching Shinji with an
expression not unlike a predator preparing to strike its prey.
[]====[]
[]====[]
As Hikari picked through her lunch a little later, she
tried to get her mind off the incident in class.
They had embarrassed her. That was pretty much the long
and short of it. To make matters worse-- not only had they
disrespected her, but they had also insulted the teacher. It
wasn't something that he was going to overlook-- no mater what
the circumstances. She was going to have to work hard to make it
up to him.
Pushing the shameful outburst of her classmates from her
mind, she soon found herself trying to figure why a meek boy
like Shinji was the pilot of the robot. She just couldn't
picture it somehow. She had heard the stories about the fight,
and from the descriptions after a rough start the thing had
fought like a wild beast. She didn't see that kind of violence
in Ikari.
As she was pondering these things, she heard a shout from
outside the window. Taking a quick look, she could see Touji
walking toward Ikari, who apparently had been sitting in the
shade of the building with his music. He had been sitting in the
same spot for two weeks and she had been considering joining
him-- she was getting tired of the classroom.
As Touji drew closer she remembered the glare that had
given the new student mere minutes before... and suddenly she
was very worried for Ikari. Touji was not a mean person, but he
had a short temper and was very, very protective of those he
cared for. If he believed that Shinji was responsible for his
sister's injuries then the encounter that was about to take
place was not going to pleasant.
Opening the window, she watched as Suzuhara hauled Shinji
to his feet and-- to her shock-- he punched him in the face.
"Touji?" she whispered. She hadn't expected him to hit the
kid, shake him around a bit maybe, but not a full-on punch to
the face.
As the smaller boy lay on the ground rubbing his cheek, she
could hear the voices drift up from below as she watched on, too
surprised to even move.
"Sorry new kid, but I had to hit you. Wouldn't have been
satisfied till I hit you."
Even though she couldn't believe that her friend had just
said that, she couldn't completely bring herself to be angry
with Touji. She knew how much his sister meant to him. She was
however very disappointed in him. She would have to rake him
over the coals for this.
Down below Kensuke was making a rather feeble attempt to
explain what had just happened to a very confused Shinji Ikari
"His sister was hurt pretty bad last time you and your
robot fought, well that's his excuse anyway." He said as he
shrugged and began walking away with Touji following.
She was about to run down to see if Shinji was alright and
make an attempt to apologize more tactfully than Kensuke had
when she heard Shinji almost growl a response.
Had the acoustics between the buildings not been what they
were she would have completely missed his words.
"I didn't have a choice, they made me pilot the damn
thing."
Hikari bit her lower lip lightly as another piece of the
puzzle that was Shinji Ikari fell into place. She didn't have
long to consider it however as she saw Touji tense up at that
and turn. He stormed back over to where Shinji lay on the ground
and lifted him back up so they were face to face. Shinji didn't
even look him in the eye as Touji pulled back and hit the
smaller boy a second time.
"Oh that does it." Hikari muttered as she ran out the door-
- fully intent on knocking some sense into Touji. There was no
call for any of that, especially the last part. She was going to
have a long talk with her friend followed by several hard smacks
on the head, then he was going to apologize to Shinji. As she
ran down the stairs, however, those plans were put on hold.
The emergency sirens chose that moment to begin ringing
out.
There was another attack beginning.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Ever since Tokyo 3 had finished its first stages of
construction the population had been required to train for rapid
evacuation to the closest shelters. Hikari wasn't sure just how
well protected the others were, but she knew that in the
school's case the walls were more than five feet thick. Added to
that was the fact that they were fairly deep in a hillside with
several meters of rock and dirt covering them and three blast
doors between them and the outside. Inside most of the shelters
there was room for a couple hundred people without being
cramped.
As she tried to organize the class, she kept an eye on Aida
and Suzuhara. She would have to talk with them soon or she would
be too angry with them to think straight. The more she thought
back to what had happened she angrier she became. Both of them
had been her friends for years and she didn't want to lose that,
but something had to be said and done about this.
Thinking back to what Shinji had said as he lay there on
the ground she realized that while it explained some things
about the boy, it raised many new questions.
Obviously he didn't want to do it-- he had said as much by
implying they had forced him into it. But why did they do that
in the first place? Why not just find someone who was willing?
And for that matter, why a fourteen year old kid? Wouldn't it
have made more sense to use a professional soldier?
She understood more of why he seemed so hurt and afraid
now. She had heard stories from her uncle about the wars that
followed Second Impact. Her uncle had been involved in the
fighting, and she knew from his tales of battle how horrifying
combat could be. Kensuke's military obsession notwithstanding, a
person her age would be hard pressed to deal with the stress of
a war.
As she was thinking of this, she heard Touji hollering her
name from where he and Kensuke were sitting.
"Hey class rep, we both gotta go to the can!"
As much as she appreciated them letting her know where they
were going, she really wished that Touji had selected a quieter
method of informing her. Touji never had been very strong in the
tact department. She let out a sigh of annoyance, and yelled
back.
"Is there some reason you didn't go before like you're
supposed to?"
"Aww comeon! We gotta goooooo"
"OK already!" she yelled, "but hurry, we need to follow procedure,
this isn't a drill"
The two boys got up and ambled off to the restrooms, and
she turned back to try to keep the class together. As the
military began opening fire on the surface, she shuddered.
This was for real.
"Be careful Shinji," she thought as the ground shook
slightly.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Meanwhile Shinji Ikari was sitting in the entry plug of
Unit One failing at an attempt to fight off a powerful wave of
depression.
Shinji knew it was his fault. If he had just gotten into
this damn thing from the beginning and not tried to run then the
other boy's sister wouldn't have been hurt. If he had _tried_ to
pilot the damn thing instead of quaking in fear no one would
have been hurt.
He wouldn't have been hit.
"Its my fault... all my fault." He thought as the Eva was
prepared for launch. "What if I do it again? What if someone
else gets hurt this time?"
"Why am I doing this again?" he muttered aloud, "even after
I was hit..."
He was almost as afraid as he had been the first time.
He didn't want the guilt; he didn't want the
responsibility. He didn't want to be depended on for all of
this, but he didn't have a choice. If he didn't do it then they
would make Ayanami do it, and she was nowhere near ready. If he
stayed he would be hurt, and through his actions others would
likely be hurt. If he left then she would be hurt and more
people would die if she failed because of her injuries.
He had no choice. He had to focus; he had to pay attention.
He had to do this right.
"Target the center, pull the switch," He chanted over and
over, trying to pretend he wasn't afraid.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Hikari frowned as she took another glance at the restrooms.
Those two had been in there for awhile now. Much too long
actually. Sighing in annoyance, she turned to one of the other
girls and asked her to look after things while she went to check
on the idiot duo.
Making her way across the floor an unpleasant suspicion
entered her mind. This was followed by a series of even more
unpleasant realizations.
Kensuke was a military nut.
He had his camera with him.
There was a war going on outside right that moment.
Two plus two equals four.
"Oh hell..." She whispered as she doubled her pace and ran
down the hall that contained the restrooms. As she rounded a
corner she saw the thin slant of sunlight, and her heart leapt
into her throat. The little twerps had gone out to see the
fight! She ran to the large door and looked outside-- sure
enough she could see the two making their way up the stairs to a
hillside shrine that overlooked the city.
"Y-you-you _morons_!" she yelled, despite the fact they
were well out of earshot. She realized that if she went back for
someone older or in authority she might lose them, so against
her better judgement she made her way up the path after the two.
They had been much further along up the stairs than she had
expected, and it took awhile for her to reach the top. When she
did she found them standing by a bush watching as a giant red
and maroon shape reared back in the middle of the city. It was
hundreds of feet tall and had two glowing tendrils lashing at
its sides. It looked a bit like a snake, but the resemblance was
merely a passing one.
Suddenly there was a loud booming crash, and then the side
of a building nearby the monster began to open. As a shimmering
heat distortion faded, she was left speechless as an enormous
shape began moving inside the shadow of the skyscraper.
It was almost as tall as the cobra-like monster, and easily
as frightening. She was too far away to make out many details
other than the horn on its forehead, the wing-like extensions on
its shoulder, and its green, purple and black color scheme.
As she watched, the Eva quickly whipped around the side of
its building--opening fire on the monster with an enormous
rifle. She had never seen anything like it, and for a moment she
fully understood Kensuke's total fascination with such things.
She couldn't believe how _fast_ it moved! And so fluid too-- not
at all like she would picture a robot's movements. As the
thunderous sound of the gun finally reached them, she covered
her ears and watched on in awe.
Kensuke meanwhile was shouting in rapture at the footage he
was getting.
"Oh wow, " he said in with tears in his eyes, "I've been
waiting for this moment all my life!"
He would have been nowhere nearly as excited had he known
that this phrase had snapped Hikari back to reality and reminded
her of why she was out there in the first place. Scowling she
began stalking towards the two.
Meanwhile the monster was making its counterattack on what
she remembered Shinji refering to as Unit One. The robot had
leapt out of the way as the whip like arms of the monster shot
out, cutting through everything in their path. Unit One was now
lying on the ground as if frozen in place.
"He's losing already?" Touji said as Hikari made it to
where the boys stood.
"It's not a problem," Kensuke replied, not knowing that
Hikari had just grabbed Touji by his ear.
"Ow ow ow owowowow!" Touji yelped as Hikari pulled him face
to face with herself.
"Eep!" was his only reply to her furious glare.
"I'm telling you its gonna be..." Kensuke trailed off as he
turned to find Hikari standing next to him with one hand on her
hip and the other wrapped around Touji's ear.
"Just what the _hell_ do you two think you're doing?" she
yelled as Touji squirmed under her grip. "Listen up you idiots--
You two come with me right _now_ or else I am going to have to
get violent. You know I _hate_ being violent so that should give
you an idea how angry I am."
"But it's an important..." Kensuke began; not yet realizing
that Hikari was in no mood to debate the issue. She actually
grabbed him by the hair and hauled him to his feet as the fight
rumbled on in the distance.
"Shut up and follow me Aida! I don't care if it's your
last, your first, or only chance to see one of these fights, you
are going back to the shelter NOW!" she screamed at him, having
reached the end of her patience with the two. "I'm not going to
tell you again!"
As Hikari continued to chew them out-- Touji was leaning
his head back to lessen the pressure on his ear. Having done
this, he was in a unique angle-- and a perfect one to see the
giant purple robot sailing through the air.
Right towards them.
The pain in his ear was forgotten as he let out a scream of
pure, unrestrained terror.
Hikari had let go of Touji as soon as he started to scream,
but before she could ask what was wrong an enormous shadow
passed over them. Looking up she saw what Touji had and she
released a similar shriek of terror. The three of them were
frozen in horror as Evangelion Unit One slammed into the
mountainside.
Their inability to move probably saved their lives.
As the huge robot crashed into the hill, the shockwave
threw the three of them off their feet. When the earth finally
stopped shaking, Hikari realized that she was still alive and
let out a deep breath. This breath stopped midway out of her
lungs as she opened her eyes. Less than two feet from her face
there was a large purple wall.
Shaking her head and trying to clear her thoughts she took
another look and realized that it was part of the giant robot's
hand. Another look around revealed that they were between the
enormous fingers of said hand.
It wasn't until the red monster began to float towards
them that she and her friends broke from their shock, and
started to scream again.
[]====[]
[]====[]
As the Eva smashed into the hillside, Shinji tried to
remain in control. He was seconds from freaking out and he knew
it. He had to concentrate! Shaking off the last of his
disorientation-- he looked around to get his bearings.
That was when he saw the frightened figures huddled
together mere feet from the Eva's hands. Shocked that he had
almost killed someone, he flipped the magnification up and
received yet another surprise. He knew the three; they were in
his class. One of them was the boy who had hit him.
Fighting back the urge to panic-- he looked back to see the
Angel floating towards him. It was obviously intending to
continue their battle.
[]====[]
[]====[]
In the Command center of Central Dogma, Misato Katsuragi
was in total control. People who knew her well were always
surprised to see this side of her; it was a sharp contrast to
the way she behaved off duty.
Barking orders left and right, she was like a master
conductor in an orchestra. It was an inspiring sight to see her
like this, to see her at her best.
Bringing her headset up to her ear she tried to get
Shinji's attention. The boy was under a great deal of stress,
and she knew that there was only so much more of this he could
take in his current state. She also knew that they had little
choice but to use him for the time being.
"Shinji! Are you ok? Respond!"
Seeing that the pilot was still disoriented she turned to
the three technicians nearby.
"What's his status? Any damage?"
"Negative" Makoto quickly replied "it's still operational"
Then, just as Shinji was increasing the magnification on
his screens, the computers displayed three photos and sets of
information.
"Shinji's classmates?" Misato said in slight confusion. She
didn't have time to figure out the 'why' of the kids being
there. She simply accepted it and factored it into her battle
plans.
Ritsuko didn't think like Misato, so in contrast to
coworker's cool reaction-- her mouth fell open as she yelled,
"What the hell are they doing out there?"
[]====[]
[]====[]
Meanwhile, Shinji was doing his best to simultaneously fend
off another attack and prevent the Eva from crushing his
schoolmates
As he grabbed one of the glowing tentacle whips the Angel
was lashing at him-- he could hear shouting from his external
pickups.
"Why isn't he fighting back?" the tall boy who had hit him
yelled as the girl he now recognized as the class representative
tried to pull the two away from the fight. He gritted his teeth,
steeling himself against the synthetic pain he felt as the whips
were beginning to burn into the Eva's hands.
"He can't because we're here!" the kid with glasses yelled
back over the crackling sound of the Evas burning hands, "he's
trying not to fall on us"
'Come on Horaki,' Shinji thought, 'get em away before I
lose power!'
Over his communication link he heard one of the bridge crew
announce that he only had three minutes of time left.
Suddenly, to his relief, Misato opened a channel and
informed him of the new plan.
"Shinji! Let them into the entry plug with you. After
they're safe retreat... we'll try this again with full power."
In the background he could hear doctor Akagi yell at his
guardian. "Just what makes you think that unauthorized civilians
can be allowed into the _entry plug_?"
"I'm authorizing it" Misato said coolly
"You're exceeding your authority _captain_" Ritsuko
replied. He could hear the annoyance in the doctor's voice as
she put an extra emphasis on Misato's rank, and wondered what it
was about the plan was so upsetting to her.
As the technician announced the remaining time again Misato
came back across the channel with his orders.
"Lock in the Eva's current commands and eject the
Entryplug, and hurry, we don't have much time!"
[]====[]
[]====[]
"Look!" Kensuke shouted as Hikari tried to pull them away
from the dueling titans.
Despite the fact that she was trying to get her friends as
far away from what was going on behind her, she risked a glance
back and was just in time to see the Eva's head lean forward as
its back opened up. A white cylinder spun out of the body and a
loud, commanding female voice came over a speaker somewhere on
the machine.
"You three get inside now!" the voice shouted over the din.
Not knowing what else to do the three raced up to the now
open hatch on the cylinder. To his credit Touji helped her up
and over into the hatch where she suddenly found herself neck
deep in some type of liquid. She didn't even have time to scream
because as Touji jumped in, the hatch closed and the liquid rose
to the top, covering her entirely.
Trying to hold her breath and keep from screaming in
terror, she was a bit surprised to hear Kensuke scream quite
clearly.
"My camera, my camera!"
What was this stuff?
"What is this? Water?" Touji yelled, completely confused as
to how he was able to breathe.
Hikari looked down and saw Shinji Ikari looking up at a
display screen with a grim look on his face. Realizing that he
was breathing the liquid stuff, she closed her eyes and took her
first breath. For the first few seconds it felt like someone had
poured ice water into her lungs, and she had to fight not to
vomit. The second breath went better, and by the third she found
that while the stuff was unpleasant to smell and taste-- it
didn't seem to be hurting her
She began to hear shouts of panic over a radio as someone
said something about loosing nerve connections and too much
thought noise.
The Eva reactivated and Shinji's shoulders tensed up as the
Eva threw the Angel down the hill. His eyes looked more than
haunted now; they looked completely hollow. He was chanting
something under his breath that she couldn't make out.
The woman who had ordered them in the cylinder shouted for
Shinji to retreat and began giving directions. Shinji just
looked out at the Angel as the Eva stood with a look on his face
that she realized she had seen before. It had been weeks ago
after his first day in school, and he had been watching the city
transform to battle formation. That same lost look...
"New kid, hey new kid! She said retreat! You gotta run!" Touji
shouted, lost in panic.
For the moment she was in total agreement with Touji-- her
top priority was getting her friends away from the giant red
monster.
"Shinji, you gotta go, hurry, please..." she started, but
suddenly trailed off as she heard Shinji' voice.
She could hear him much clearer now that she was used to
the liquid, and could just make out the words as he chanted them
like a mantra growing louder and louder with each repetition.
"I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away."
"Shinji?" she said hesitantly. This was, to say the least, odd
behavior for a combat pilot.
Something moved on the Eva, and as strange as it seemed,
she could almost feel it. At the same time a display that said
'progressive knife engaged' lit up in the corner of the screen.
Over the radio the woman was shouting for Shinji to retreat
over and over, but Shinji seemed to ignore this. From one of the
screens she could see the Eva reach up and pulled the blade from
somewhere on its shoulder.
A timer in another corner went red and displayed a
countdown, and Shinji's chant reached its peak. Suddenly, with a
wild look taking hold of his face, he launched his body forward,
gripping his controls and letting out a blood-curdling scream.
As the three passengers backed away from the front of the
cockpit in fear, the Eva leapt down the slope, its knife at
ready as the monster attacked with its tentacles. The woman in
charge screamed for him to stop as the tentacles struck the Eva
in the abdomen. Other than a small grimace of pain, this didn't
even seem to faze Shinji-- who put everything he had into
driving the knife into a red sphere in the center of the
monster's 'chest'.
His screams driving him forward, Shinji pushed the knife
deeper into the monster as Hikari and the two boys cowered to
the back of the cockpit, almost as afraid of the enraged pilot
as of the monster he was attacking.
Finally just as the timer hit zero, the monster seemed to
slump forward. The Eva did likewise and the two giants stood
there, locked into place, each bracing the other.
After what felt like an eternity, Hikari pulled herself
away from the other two and climbed up to the front where she
found Shinji sobbing against the controls of the robot. He
seemed to have lost whatever had possessed him moments before.
As she watched him, she thought of the look in his eyes as he
had attacked at that last moment. She had never in her life seen
anything close to that level of anger and rage. It frightened
her, and she couldn't think of anything to do or say. Feeling
something move beside her, she turned and found Kensuke and
Touji had joined her at the edge of the pilot's seat. The guilty
look on Touji's face gave her a touch of relief-- but it didn't
get him off the hook. He was going to make up for what he had
done... or else.
[]====[]
[]====[]
With a heavy heart Hikari Horaki walked to school in the
rain.
It had been three days. Three days since they had climbed
into that thing and watched Shinji fight. She still felt angry
with herself for not trying to comfort him afterwards-- he had
needed someone to help him at that moment and she had backed
away. What about it had frightened her so much? The actual
fight? Or was it seeing the quiet boy she had met a few days
before change so dramatically in the heat of battle? That might
have been it-- it was never pleasant to see the kind of anger
people kept locked away be released.
They hadn't been left in the plug very long. Once the thing
that Shinji called an Angel had been confirmed dead-- a
helicopter had been sent out to pick them up. Shinji had been
little more than a ghost during that ride back. Even when
Kensuke tried to talk with him the boy simply didn't respond.
When they landed a woman in a red jacket had spirited him away
as the rest of them waited in a small office. Eventually a blond
woman in a lab coat had come to see them, but why she was there
Hikari never found out. She had taken a blood sample from each
of them and left just as quickly as she came.
When the woman with the red jacket finally returned she
identified herself as Captain Misato Katsuragi of Nerv. Hikari
recognized the name immediately; the woman was Shinji's
guardian. After going over each of their stories fifteen times,
she began to chew the boys out. Kensuke looked absolutely
heartbroken to find that she was considering placing the
incident in his permanent record. If that happened then all his
dreams of military schools would be dashed.
The woman had yelled at them for another hour, but the people
from Nerv hadn't punished them. That was going to come when the
school board called her in for a review in a few weeks. She was
fairly certain that she would be stripped of her position. Touji
and Kensuke felt terrible about it, and had promised to make it
up to her somehow-- but she had told them in very sharp angry
words that it wasn't her that they should make anything up to.
Touji had promised to apologize to Shinji, but he was going to
have to wait. Ever since the fight Shinji had been absent from
class.
As she walked into the classroom she checked her mail and
rested her head in her hands. An indefinite amount of time later
she was awakened from her nap by the sound of Touji and Kensuke
talking.
"Three days counting today..." Touji said in a voice that
reflected the day's weather: gloomy.
"Since we got chewed out?"
"No... since he came to class."
She was a little surprised-- Touji was a very stubborn
person, and despite his promises to apologize to Shinji-- for
him to drop his ego so quickly and be concerned was a little
unusual for him.
"So you're worried?"
"Well I wouldn't exactly say worried..."
Then again, maybe not.
"Look Touji..." Kensuke said reaching into his bag and
removing a slip of paper, "for someone who makes such a habit of
being as tactless as you tend to be, you're being pretty hesitant
here, aren't you? If you had just apologized after the fight
you wouldn't be moping around like this."
Hikari smiled-- Kensuke had come through after all. He
might be a pain, but she had to admit, he knew his way around a
computer.
"Look... this is the new kid's number. Why don't you call
and ask if he's OK? Then you won't have to be worried about the
whole thing, and you won't drive me crazy by pretending you
aren't."
Touji took the slip of paper and looked at it for a moment
before standing and heading to the door. As he passed Hikari she
gave him a smile and a nod, letting him know she was proud of
him.
"I'll call him after lunch" Touji said dismissavly.
Hikari frowned at that. She knew the boy too well-- he was
going to put it off and forget about it. Kensuke was just as
bad; he still had half of Touji's paperwork in his desk. She
decided that she was through playing around with these two and
stood up.
"Suzuhara, you are going to go right out to that phone and
call Shinji this moment or your going to be on cleanup for the
rest of the year! Or do you need _another_ dozen knots on that
head of yours?"
Touji flinched at that. We and Kensuke were already
sentenced to a month of cleaning duty for their little screwup,
and the only reason Hikari hadn't made it for longer is that she
didn't think she would be around to enforce it after the review.
Of course, that hadn't stopped her from punishing them in other
ways.
As Touji stepped outside to make his call, she turned to
Kensuke.
"And as for you..." she said sternly, as Kensuke shrunk
back into his desk, "when Shinji comes back I want you to try
and be nicer to him, your little 'that's his excuse' bit was the
lamest thing I've ever heard you say. I don't care if you just
do it because he's the pilot, but try to be his friend. You and
Touji have known one another since you were kids, but in his
case I don't think he's had a friend like that before."
"You're kidding?" Kensuke said with no small measure of
surprise, "come to think of it that would explain a lot... don't
worry class rep, I accept my mission"
"Don't salute me again-- I still haven't let you off the
hook. What are you doing this weekend? Still going out to the
rice fields?"
"You know me too well Hikari," Kensuke said with a grin.
"If you see Shinji, invite him along. It might do him some
good."
Well that solved one problem. She didn't like ordering
people around like that but if she didn't do something then the
idiot duo would find a thousand reasons to avoid their
responsibilities. Hopefully Shinji wasn't too disgusted by them
to accept their friendship. Hopefully somehow this would help
her feel better for shrinking away from him when he had needed
her help. Hopefully he was going to come back.
Looking out at Touji standing by the phone in the hall, she
hoped he made good on his promise to make up with Shinji, she
had never met anyone in such desperate need of friendship.
[]====[]
[]====[]
Several blocks away in the apartment of Misato Katsuragi, a
cellular phone sat on a desk beside a note and an ID card. The
phone began to ring, but there was no one there to answer.
[]=====================[]
To be Continued...
[]=====================[]
Authors incoherent babbling:
Well there's part one.
Yes, yes I _know_ this is mostly a novelization of episode
three with a few changes. I'm afraid that it had to be that way
in order to set up the rest of the story. What I am trying to do
here is to start slowly and build as I go. The changes will
begin to add up as the story progresses. Be patient grasshopper.
So what is to be expected in this new timeline? Well I'll
give ya a hint; some events are far too huge for this to have
any effect, other events will be dramatically altered due to the
changes. I don't see anything here stopping Angel attacks, but
personal stuff? That's all free game. Shinji and Hikari... a shy
quiet young man and a sweet cheerful young lady. What effects
will her friendship have on Shinji? Will their growing
relationship be the tiny element that makes a difference in the
scheme of things? Could something so simple as this alter the
fate of the world?
Let's find out shall we?
For those who are wondering, the exact moment I'm breaking
the timeline is when Hikari sees Touji hit Shinji. It's a subtle
thing... but I felt it was an appropriate catalyst for the
story. From this point all bets are off for domestic and school
scenes. Some will still follow the same path, such as Asuka's
introduction. Only after time will the changes in Shinji's
behavior begin to affect even Der Redhead. As the story
progresses the changes will grow. Hopefully we can give a ray of
light and hope to some kids trapped in a no-win scenario
Hotwire
Chain Lightning Studios
http://hotwire182.freyellow.com/chainlightning.html