Darkness of the Dawn

I don't Own anything having to do with Evangelion GAINAX does.

@@@- (my notes); ****- Flashback/Dream

Chapter 1:

Rei Ayanami stood before the Supreme High Commander of Nerv. She stood perfectly still as she looked at the Commander with no emotion showing on her face. "Major Ayanami; I have been told you have a report to give me." "Yes sir, I may have possible information of Unit 01's whereabouts." Gendo stared at Rei although one of his eyes was scarred, over his steepled finger, which hid the small smirk crossing his lips. "Proceed Major." Rei approached Gendo's desk and handed a folder to him. "These, sir, were recently taken by surveillance satellite 091. The one that we recently were able to bring back online after the damage caused by Third Impact." Gendo opened the folder and looked at the pictures that were inside it. "These photos are not very clear Major." "Yes, I understand sir but they, are the best evidence we have right now. If you look at the third photo you will clearly see the outline of what appears to be the head and upper-body of Evangelion Unit 01." "I see where were these photos coming from?" Gendo smiled a small almost unnoticeable smile. "The former country of Japan. sir." Gendo nodded. "I see you are pleased Commander. I would like to propose a possible course of action." "Proceed Major." Rei stood at attention. "Sir I suggest we assemble a small search party and go to Japan and look for the missing Unit as well as its pilot." Gendo nodded and looked up at Rei. "I see no reason to reject your proposal. Although, the recovery of Unit 01 takes priority over the recovery of the pilot. Is that clear Major?" "Yes, sir." With that Major Rei Ayanami saluted and left the office of the commander. Gendo stood and walked to the window that overlooked the deserts of Nevada. "Soon she will return to me."

Rei stepped out of the office and shook her head. "He still has no care for his own son." She walked down a series of hallways until she met with Touji. "Good afternoon Lieutenant Suzuhara." "Major Ayanami you know I hate formalities." Rei nodded. "Well the commander has approved the expedition to Japan to try and recover Unit 01 and Ikari." "I see, so what is your plan Ayanami?" Rei looked down. "I plan to go to Japan and search for Ikari myself." "With no help?" "Yes." Touji stepped closer to Rei. "But Ayanami you have no idea where to look." Rei just walked past Touji as she said her response. "I'll find him."

(Several Months Later)

Rei arrived on shore near the former city of Tokyo III. "They are close I can feel them." She had finally, after several months of searching, narrowed down the best possible location of the missing weapon and its pilot. "Soon Ikari I will see you again." She began the long walk from the coast to the city where she had once lived as an Evangelion pilot, during the time before Third Impact. (@@@ Just to save myself time "Before Third Impact" will be referred to as "BTI". What can I say; I'm a lazy writer.) She knew this was the place where she would be reunited with the Third Child, the only person to ever care for her. She knew it would be a difficult, but she hoped that she would be able, to convince Shinji to return with her to Nerv and the new Headquarters in Nevada.

Shinji knew something was different about the air. Something strange yet familiar. Even Unit 01 could sense the change. "It seems we may have a visitor." Shinji crawled into, and manually inserted the Entry Plug. Soon the giant began to move and made its way into the remains of the Geo Front. "It's a good thing we were able to salvage some of the old defenses from the city. It makes for a good fence to keep out trespassers." Shinji pulled himself out of the plug and began to plug wires into a small slightly damaged keyboard. He began to input commands into a computer remote center and heard the power generators roar to life. Soon he had already input the commands to arm the remains of the city's weapons. (@@@ Just to clarify Shinji has spent several years alone with only his mother, who was a former scientist, to talk to, he was bound to pick up some computer knowledge as well as a bit of the layout of the Geo Front.) "Who ever our guest is, I'm sure they aren't here for the people." After having the remains of defense set up Shinji returned to the Entry Plug and re-activated Unit 01. He moved the Eva into a surveillance point that could still hide Unit 01 fairly well as well as see almost all possible points that a visitor could come from. He climbed out of the plug and waited.

Rei continued slowly the sun was relentless, that coupled with the lack of vegetation to provide shade meant that her trip would be long and hard. But she was determined to complete her mission or die trying. She looked down into the valley from the hill she had just climbed, it was no doubt the former city of Tokyo III or where it had once stood. All that remained now was scorched earth and several lakes. As if to make the land see more desolate, a harsh wind blew up from the valley sending sand into Rei's eyes. She nodded to herself as she began to descend into the ruins of the city. 'He has to be here. I've looked in every possible place that the photos could have come from.' Rei continued to survey the area but she did notice another attribute of the land that made it an even better place for Unit 01 to be in. She walked slowly up to the giant sinkhole in front of her, only it wasn't a sinkhole it was the footprint of an Evangelion. 'This just confirms my theory about the pilot and the lost Unit. Of course I would have never expected him to come here after all that happened here.'

Shinji still hiding next to Unit 01stood up. He moved forward and squinted his eyes slightly as he tried to focus on the person who had apparently come to looks for something. He noticed the person was in a uniform though he could not make out the type it was. "Well it seems that we are being watched. Apparently some organization has found enough evidence to send someone to come here and look for something." He turned to Unit 01 behind him. "What do you mean that they might be looking for us? Why would they look for us? We're supposed to be dead." Shinji looked up to the sky. "What do you mean they saw you? Why didn't you ever tell me that there was a satellite passing over us?!" Shinji looked back at the intruder. "So, you mean to tell me, that is someone from Nerv? That's not good, let's hope they aren't looking for us." Shinji watched the figure as it came to one of Unit 01's footprints and studied it closely.

Rei stood up and looked around and continued walking soon she noticed a large portion of jagged metal the seemed to have been stabbed into the ground. She approached it slowly, as she got closer to it she noticed that it had some writing on it, written in several languages. She read the ones she could translate and all the messages conferred the same idea. "NO TRESPASSING! PRIVATE PROPERTY! KEEP OUT! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" 'It seems that someone doesn't want any visitors.' Rei looked around the area, trying to find some other signs of life but she found none. So she continued to walk towards the closest lake. After a few steps she heard the unmistakable sound of weapons being armed. She stopped and looked around again; she couldn't help but feel that she was being watched. She still heard noises but couldn't see the source. She began to move again but then she saw a pile of scrap metal to her left move and watched in horror as bullets began to fly towards her. She ran. She ran trying to escape the oncoming bullets only to find that the more she ran the more bullets seemed to fly at her. It was something she had never expected to happen, the Third Child had somehow managed to bring the Defense System of the former city back online. She could feel her body begin to weaken as she ran but she could still hear the machine guns behind her unloading round after round of ammunition at her. She knew she was probably going to die, but she hoped that she wouldn't. 'You knew it wasn't going to be easy to find him. But you never expected this did you Rei?' She couldn't help but think to herself as she found that there seemed to be no place to turn where a shower of bullets didn't try to kill her. She felt the ground beneath her feet as she ran it was very soft and made her speed slow as she tried to run. Then she gave up and fell forward her body spent. Before the darkness consumed her, a thought crossed her mind; 'I'm falling.' and thus she lost consciousness.

Shinji jerked his head up as he heard the sound of gunfire cease. "I guess they were finally killed." Suddenly he heard the noise of rocks hitting the armor of Unit 01. He moved to where he heard the noise and noticed the body of the intruder face down and covered in dirt. He went pale and felt his most recent meal begin to creep up his throat. "No I don't want to see the body up close. It's been too long for me to look at a corpse." Finally he fell to his knees and his lunch was forced through his mouth from several violent movements of his stomach. As he regained what little composure he could he noticed several things. First of all he saw that there was no wound and there was no blood on the body. "I'm sure that if they were shot they would be bleeding.' Second he noticed that the body was still breathing. 'Oh SHIT! They're still alive." Finally he decided that it was too late to hide anymore, the person had to know that he was there, if not from the footprints then the weapons were sure to have been a giveaway that someone was there. He slowly approached the body and turned it over gently. Shinji looked at the prone body before him and screamed in shock, "No NO it..... It..... Can't BE!"

(To Be Continued)

@@@ well there it is Shinji finally sees who it was that was looking around. I guess he was surprised. Well I hope this goes ok with the readers. Please Review, criticism is welcomed but in small supplies. And for those of you wondering YES I PLAN TO WORK ON MY OTHER FIC although Dreams may be dead unless I am given enough reason to continue it I still think it is too WAFFy. But my heaven Fic will definitely be updated soon