Neon Genesis Evangelion: '2 before 3'
Chapter 03 - Responsibility of the guilty

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This is.. probably. .what would be refered to as a 'Derevative work' of an anime series known as 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' by the company 'Gainax'. Gainax owns all rights to their licenses, copyrights and such stuff.. and wether I or them own the specific rights for this derevative work I don't know. (Copyright laws are funny things.. uhm..)
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Yay. No really. This part was .. difficult.. but also interesting to write.. considering Asuka and her relation with other people - especially people we don't know.
I mean.. either I create characters with personalities and use them or simply just mention them as 'classmates' and try to avoid including them as much as possible.. considering they're not exactly 'important' characters.

I tried my best to portray Asuka and Touji as accurately as I could think they'd be in the following situations.. but I realized it was pretty difficult.. as we only know part of how the characters act and have to do alot of 'reading between the lines'.. I hope I wasn't TOO much off.

Happy reading. -_^

-Kompi
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Asuka walked towards the school building before her, having mixed feelings about having to attend it. She was sure she allready knew everything they could teach her - she had allready passed through college with flying colors. It would be boring - sitting there listening to teachers saying things she already knew - but it would also be interesting to have someone to talk to.. someone her own age for once. In college she had been in her own league - several years younger than the other students; however she had also in most cases been several times their betters. And Misato HAD said school partially for her to have someone her own age to socially interact with. Asuka smiled - the woman had more to her than what could easilly be seen.

"Sohryu?". A female voice derailed Asukas' train of thought and kicked her back into reality. The female was a girl Asukas age with a friendly-looking face.
"Yes?" Asuka asked, though she had a good idea who this girl was.
"I'm Hikari Horaki, Representative of class 2-A. Let me be the first to offer you welcome." the girl said with a smile. Asuka had been right, it was the class rep alright - how else would she have known her name.
"Please, call me Asuka.".
"Only if you call me Hikari.". The girl paused briefly before giving Asuka a bundle of items.
"Here is your key to your shoe locker, along with the number, a login for the laptop you'll find in your bench and a copy of the school regulations.". Asuka accepted the bundle and began sorting out which parts to place in her bag and which parts to hold on to.
"We have about a half hour before school starts. Would you like me to show you around?". Asuka nodded. She had a feeling she'd like this Hikari.

--

When the clock signaled for lunch, Asuka almost felt like falling on her knees and thanking whatever diety she could think of for the mercy - the history teacher they had could be called little more than a 'human sleeping pill' and was so obcessed with the second impact that it was sad.

Unlike most other parts of the class she didn't take the direct path to the door but instead walked over to a certain desk by one of the windows where a pale blue-haired girl covered in bandages was residing.
"Hey first child.". The girl looked up at Asuka, her red eyes having an indifferent yet peircing stare.
"I don't think we've been formally introduced. I'm Asuka, the second child." Asuka continued, holding out her hand towards the first child. The girl just sat there dormant, the same peircing glance. It was uncomfortable, that glance.. It felt like she was staring right into the core of Asukas' soul.
"..Uhm.. you must be Rei Ayanami, right?" Asuka tried, trying to get some kind of reaction out of the pale girl.
"Yes.".
*She talked! She actually talked! Miracles NEVER cease!* Asuka thought sarcastically.
"..Let's be friends.". To her credit, the first child actually blinked once.
"Why?". It took Asuka a few moments to recover from that one. Though she didn't allow it to show past her confident exterior, her mind was in a temporary state of panic trying to dig up a reason why she and the pale girl should be friends.
"Well.. it would be convenient..!" she countered, mentally kicking herself for not comming up with a better reason than 'convenient'.
"If I am ordered to I will." the first child said simply before standing up and walking by Asuka and out of the classroom.
*Ordered to?*. What kind of girl was this? Asuka began to understand why the first child seemed to be treated like nothing more than a tool - she was nothing more!
*Just a puppet.. with someone holding the strings.. A stupid doll for NERV to play with.*. Asuka was suprised at how bitter she suddenly felt.. then she almost remembered and pushed all the thoughts away.
*Fine! I don't want to be friends with a lifeless robot anyway!*.
"If it's any consolation, noone that has tried to talk to Ayanami has had much success.". Asuka recognized the speaker as Hikari. Asuka nodded in reply, it was hard to imagine anyone getting through to the first child.
"It's like she's just some kind of puppet."
"It must be hard on her, not knowing what it's like to have friends.." Hikari said with a sigh. Asuka shot the brown-haired girl a questioning look.
*Try to tell that to her* she thought, but didn't say anything. There was a pause as the two were left to their own thoughts for awhile. Asuka noticed Hikari looking her over.
"..So.. forgot your lunch?". Asukas' mind halted for a few moments before it reminded her of the fact that she would have to bring her own food to eat at this school.
"..yeah.. didn't have to bring our own at my old school." she said sheepishly.
"Oh. Well that's okay. You can have some of mine if you want.". Asuka smiled - she would like that very much.

--

Two weeks had passed smoothly. Her locker had finally stopped spewing her with love-letters each time she opened it a few days ago and she was on fairly good terms with most of the girls in class - the ones remaining that was. During the two weeks the class population had falled rapidly and there had been talk of putting students from other under-manned classes into one larger to make up for this shortfall of people.

All in all, it was alot thanks to the angel attack and the people leaving that Asukas' connection with NERV wasn't common knowledge. Misato had told her about trying to keep as low a profile about her position as a pilot - she wasn't to mention anything about her position as a pilot if it could be avoided and could defenately not reveal anything that might be classified. Asuka was used to that - she had gone through college already with the same rules in mind. Besides the first child only Hikari knew - the girl had been asking about why she had moved to Japan and Asuka hadn't wanted to lie to her new friend; thankfully Hikari had been understanding and didn't press for more information afterwards.

Her train of thought stopped at the end of the track just as she passed the gates into school grounds. She glanced around as she walked, trying to spot Hikari. She had taken on an almost instant liking to class representative Horaki - something the fact that noone else knew Asukas' real reason for being in Japan attested.
Deciding her friend was nowhere to be found Asuka headed for her locker and another day of boring lessons.

--

"Touji.."
"Suzuhara.."
Both Kensuke and the class rep seemed a bit suprised to see him - no miracle there, he'd been gone for two weeks without reason. He sat down on the bench next to Kensuke, in good poisition to sit down on his chair in front of him when the teacher came.
"Did the class population shrink while I was gone or what?" he asked noone in particular.
"Uh.. Most of them moved out.. I guess they never expected the city to become a war-zone." Kensuke answered.
"Yeah.. You are probably the only one that actually wants to stay."
"Mmm-hmm, though I wish they'd show us a bit more of what happened.". Kensuke paused.
"Speaking of which, where've you been? You didn't get involved in all that did you?".
"..no.. but my little sister did... she was crushed under a pile of debris.", Touji paused. He didn't have to close his eyes more than briefly to see her laying there in a hospital bed.
"She's alive.. but she's been stuck in the hospital ever since. Both dad and grand-dad are too busy to get away, so unless I'm there she'll be all alone..". He paused again, feeling that two-week old twinge of anger surface.
"That robot pilot was so stupid! What was he doing wrecking our own city?!" he almost spat out, speaking with fury. If the pilot hadn't been so clumsy, his sister would still be alright.
"Speaking of which, have you heard the rumor about the new transfer student?" Kensuke asked.
"Huh? What transfer student?". Kensuke looked around.
"Her right over there." he said nodding in the direction of a girl who stood out even more than that Ayanami did. She looked out of place with that long fiery-red hair, but Touji couldn't deny that she was pretty.
"She transfered while you were gone - came just after the incident. Odd, don't you think?". It was odd indeed. Only people like Kensuke would actually want to be here after the first attack.. And he didn't think she was by the way she seemed to be chatting with the class rep.

The teacher choose that moment to arrive and thus another school day began at the call of the class rep.

--

It was past maths and into history when it happened. A red 'call' message flashed on the screen of Asukas' laptop, signifying someone was sending her a private message. She shruged and clicked to recieve it.

'Is it true that you're a pilot? : Y / N'

Asuka stared at her monitor. Obviously she hadn't been as discreet as she thought she had been. She catiously looking around, searching for the source. Two girls looked like viable suspects, one leaning over to see the others monitor. They gave her a slight wave when they noticed her stare and one of them started typing.

'You're the one, right? : Y / N'

She looked at the screen. The talk of the pilot had only slightly calmed down recently and had been hot since she came to school. And to think it all, the hero everyone was looking up to was her, sitting right there in the middle of them. Of course, these two kids obviously knew.. Misato had said not to speak too much about it, but if they already knew it couldn't hurt right?

'YES'.

"WHAT?!".
Asuka blinked, shocked. Obviously, the discussion had been less private than she had guessed. She liked being the center of attention but this rampaging class was a bit overwhelming even for her - especially at such close range.
"Really? Wow! How cool!"
Asuka didn't really know what to do.. On one part she wanted to jump up on her bench standing above them and glow radiantly like some savior for them to worship, on the other hand it wasn't break yet and she was sure that if she acted too much on this she'd get on Hikaris' bad side - something she defenately didn't want.

"Hey you guys! Calm down! We're still in class you know! Sit down!" Hikari yelled in a vain attempt to control the crowd. Asuka felt sorry for her - she had even heard a few classmates yell back at the struggling class rep.

They were asking her stuff.. alot of stuff.. she had a slight problem keeping up.
"It's really supposed to be secret, most of it.." she said lamely, more to try to get the crowd under control than anything - she didn't mind her moment of pride but if they were going to ask things it was better if they did it one by one.
"Aww don't be mean..!" came the dissappointed response from several classmates.
"Hey, what's the name of the robot?" one asked. Asuka weighted the pros and cons against eachother and figured it wouldn't hurt too much to slip a bit of information.. it was her pride that was on the line.
"Evangelion Unit-02." she answered, deciding that mentioning it as the first production model would be knowledge off-limits.
"What's its ultimate attack mode?". She felt tempted to say she was its ultimate attack mode - after all she was in control, her mind was the greatest weapon the EVA could have.
"A sort of vibrating knife." she answered, remembering the specifications for the progressive knives the EVA units had in the compartments above their shoulders. It wasn't really a lie - the knife was more powerful than hand to hand combat was.. if one used it properly. She had been tempted to mention the AT-field.. but she knew that would be crossing the line.
"Oh wow! We're so proud of you!"
"Yeah! So cool!"
Asuka silently noted that while the girls were just in awe the boys were having some far-away look, almost drooling. She resisted the urge to frown - this defenately would bring on a new wave of pathetic love-letters assaulting her locker. Atleast this time there hopefully would be noone selling pictures of her.. the first week almost every guy in school had had atleast two of those on them.

Somehow she managed to hear the teacher signaling the end of the day over the loud crowd - followed by more attemts by Hikari to get the mob under control.

--

Asuka was on her way home when someone grabbed her left wrist. She spun around in less than an instant and found herself facing a furious-looking boy her age.. She remember seeing the same person in the classroom earlier. She glanced at his hand holding her arm and then at his eyes, her own face twisted in an ice-cold rage.
"If you weren't a girl, I'd beat you up right here!" the boy said, obviously angry. The parts of her that weren't busy being angry back began wondering whatever she had done him
"Let go." she said coldly, her voice dripping with promise of doom.
"No! My sister is in a hospital because of you!" came the angry reply. Asuka blinked, her anger replaced by thoughtfulness for a second.
"If you hadn't been so clumsy piloting that thing she'd still be alright!".
"And maybe if she'd been smart enough to go to one of the shelters like people should maybe you wouldn't be here blaming me!" she shot back, furious. He had some nerve blaming her for people getting hurt in during the battle.
"Now you listen here~". he growled.
"Or how about if I didn't help you at all - then you'd all be DEAD!" she continued, pressing her offensive. She was winning and they both knew it.

Her face and whole upper body recoiled from the impact, but she kept her footing. The pain didn't come until she already realized what happened.
*He actually hit me!* she thought. She looked up, seeing his shocked face. Obviously, he was as suprised as she was that he actually had done it. He had let her wrist go though. She snarled - he wasn't about to get away with that.
*I'll make you sorry for hitting a girl!*
Her foot made a swift movement and connected nicely with his crotch, sending his hands down to protect the hurt area. She swung her fist around and connected straight with his cheek, sending the boy to the ground. She had trained fighting for years - she wouldn't allow this kind of nobody to cause her any harm without paying for it.

She was aware of someone standing behind her. She swung around swiftly - prepared for trouble - and found Ayanami standing there, the same ever-cold expression on her face.
"We've got an emergency call." she said before Asuka even had time to ask what she wanted.
"I'll go." she continued and ran off before Asuka had time to collect her thoughts enough to say anything. That's when the alarms stared. She didn't even grace her advesary with a last look when she turned to follow the same path as the first child.

--

Asuka was deep in her own thoughts when Unit-02 was launched. Even when Misato was explaining a plan of operations she was hardly listening and only caught part of what the woman said. The earlier words still rang through her head.

'My sister is in a hospital because of you!'

Couldn't they apprechiate that she was up there saving their lives?! They'd all be dead if it wasn't for her! It wasn't HER fault a few of them weren't smart enough to take refugee.

The lift reached the top. The wall in front of her slid open letting in the light.

"Just like we planned now, Asuka." Misato said. Asuka didn't remember what they had planned. All she knew was that she had a rifle in her hands, an angel in the city that wanted to die. She slid out of the building and fired, all almost purely out of reflex.

It didn't work as planned, that was for sure. An AT-field was in the way.. but it wasn't supposed to be in the way! It hadn't been in the way last time! Was it the distance? Did she have to close in.. did she have to 'push' her field forward somehow? She knew her own field was in existance, so why wasn't it working?

Misato yelled something. Asuka didn't hear what - she was too busy observing the fact that two pink glowing .. tentacles .. came flying her way. She fell backwards, her rifle and the building next to her slashed in half.

"I'm sending you a spare rifle!". Asuka saw it.. and the distance to it.
*Not close enough!*. She lept anyway.

She wasn't aware that the thin threads of redish light could be capable of strong pushing but apparently they could. She was knocked of course and into a few stray buildings blocking her flight path. The tentacles struck again all around her and she could feel a slight burning feeling where they had touched her unit-02.

"Umbicial cable loose! Unit-02 has switched to internal power!". Somewhere inside a counter started counting down from 5 minutes.

--

Touji felt.. guilty. What if Kensuke was right - what if he had actually struck a deep nerve with what he had said and done to the female pilot. She had of course hit him back pretty good, but still.. She wasn't exactly winning.
*..if we all die today it could be my fault..*

He forced the thoughts out of his head. Thinking like that didn't help. A shadow appeared over them. Kensuke screamed. When he noticed something large and red comming their way, he joined in.

--

Her back hurt, her head hurt.. most of her hurt. It had been a long fall to land unprepared - even if the damages were minimal and the LCL had dampened inertia she still felt like the air, no, LCL had been knocked out of her. The huge snakelike angel with its 'laser tentacles' loomed towards her, somehow floating above the ground.

She wasn't aware how she saw it, she suddenly just noticed something by her right hand. Part of her display zoomed and showed two kids her age.. One of them being the one who had accused her of hurting his sister. Her eyes shot back to the angel which now was over her, it's tentacles poised to strike..

She caught them with her hands, holding them in a determined grip. She grit her teeth, trying to shut away the feeling of her hands burning. She was going to prove him wrong - she was going to prove everyone wrong! She could do this! She struggled against the red behemoth above her. A quick glance told her the boys still sat in a place between two huge finger marks - not moving.
*Darnit! Get out of the way!*. She couldn't fight back if they were so close.

"Asuka! Let them into the entry plug!" Misato commanded.
"What?!" she replied in sync with Dr Akagi at the bridge. Asuka defenately didn't want those to to watch her battle from the inside. Her mind wondered why they were out there in the first place. "Emergency eject the plug and get them inside. After that head east and pick up a new umbicial cable." Misato said, laying out the plan.

Asukas' world went dark when the EVA did a temporary shutdown and the plug halfway ejected. She heard Misato yell for the two boys to get in and could hear their half-muffled expressions of confusion and protest over being in the LCL-filled entry plug.

The first sign that she was back online was the pain returning to her hands. She tugged at the tentacles, pulling and then pushing with the aid of a foot, actually managing to throw the floating angel away. She stood up, absently noted all the armor on the hands of her EVA was burned away. The controls felt sluggish.. the two children behind her were disturbing her syncronization.

She stared at the angel. She decided it was mocking her.
*I won't fail..!* she thought, looking at it. She repeated the thought over and over, its loud rythm making her unable to hear what Misato and then later one of the boys had said.
*I'll show them all!*
She reached up and grabbed the handle of the progressive knife that slid into place. Holding the knife securely in a position prepared to stab rather than slash she saw the white blade almost begin to glow.

With a low growl she rumbled down the hill.

--

Touji was afraid. He had already cursed himself a thousand times for letting Kensuke drag him into this. If being inside the big robot and having to breathe some odd liquid that made him feel almost ill wasn't bad enough, it seems like the new kid had totally ignored her orders and instead rushed straight towards the snake-like monstrosity before them.

What had she whispered before rushing? 'I'll show them all'?

The strange tentacle-thingies of the monster struck at them.. he suspected they had hit the robot somehow because the pilots face contorted in pain for a moment.

She suprised him when she suddenly roared in anger and the robot lunged forwards. On the display he could see the knife embedd itself in the red orb in the angels 'chest', sparkles flying from the contact. The girls face was placed in some combination between pain, anger and determination. Her breathing was loud and ragged; her eyes burned with a strange blue fire. He wasn't sure which scared him most - the girl in her robot or the monster. They were locked like that for what seemed like an eternity, the monster and the robot: stuck in some sort of death-grip on eachother. The timer on their side counted down the seconds.

The orb before them cracked.

The sparks stopped.

The 'cockpit' went dark.

He could still hear the pilots ragged breaths as they slowly calmed down.

Touji couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

--

"Asuka, are you alright?"
Asuka frowned. Was she really? She had been hesistant to return to school after the last fight.. she wasn't even sure why. Sure, she had probably made an idiot of herself in front of those two classmates that Misato had had the nerve to let into her entry plug, but otherwise she was just fine.
"How long will you keep skipping school?". It had been three days. She had done nothing but being holed up in the appartment.. oh sure she had watched TV and so, but in reality she had done nothing but existed.. .. It was weak to be holed up like this just because some nobody attempted to claim she couldn't do the job she had trained for years to do. And they had pitied her! They hadn't said anything, but she had seen their glances when they got out of the entry plug. If she kept this up they'd pity her even more.. It was a disgrace!
"Not anymore. I'm comming.." she said, trying to push some strength into her voice.

When she did slide the door aside and go out of her room, Misato gave her a proud smile. It lifted Asukas' spirit somehow.. especially after all the complaining the woman had done after her almost-failiure with the fourth angel. Asuka didn't blame her - she was disappointed in herself for almost loosing. It didn't become her - a professional and all. She managed to smile back, suddenly feeling better about herself.
"C'mon. I'll fix you breakfast before you go. And then I'll drive you to school." Misato said.

--

The weather was dark and gloomy, the rain almost looked like it was made out of gray paint: turning the entire world outside to a dull color. Touji Suzuhara was feeling a bit like the weather actually.
"It's been three days.." he mumbled out loud.
"..since we were chewed out?" Kensuke asked, seemingly stuck in his own world of thought.
"No. Since she stopped comming to school.".
"Who's 'she'?". Touji frowned - he was sure Kensuke knew very well who he was talking about.
"The new kid." he replied.
"What? You worried about her?". Touji considered that. Was he really?
"..Well..not exactly 'worried'".
"Touji. For someone being so tactless you can be pretty stubborn at times.". Touji blinked, not sure where this was heading.
"If you'd appologized then you wouldn't have to spend three days agonizing over it."
"..I..". The door classroom door opened, effectively cutting Touji off. But where he had expected an older teacher, the new student was.. looking every bit as confident as she ever had. A collective gasp ran through the class that was there, but noone said anything. The class rep stood up and walked over to the girl to greet her, and the two started talking about something.. Eventually a few other girls joined in, though most students remained in their seats and just looked at the scene. Noone was really sure why the girl had been absent for a few days.
"Well, what are you waiting for then? Or do you wish to spend another day in self-pity?" Kensuke asked with an annoyed tone. Touji sighed as he stood up. Somehow he had a feeling this wouldn't be pretty.

"Uhm..Excuse me.." Touji said as he pushed two girls aside to stand before the new girl, desperately trying to figure out exactly what to say. The angry look he got didn't make things easier.
"I'm.. I .. appologize.. for what I said and did before.. . I .. It was outta line.." he said nervously, fully expecting her to kick him like last time. He didn't expect what he saw - a slight moment of.. gratitude? He didn't have time to consider it as she slapped him.
"Fine. But don't try it again. Ever.". Touji nodded, repressing the urge to grin like an idiot. Try it again? Like hell. It had hurt enough the first time.
He walked back to his desk where Kensuke was staring oddly at him.
"Well. Atleast now it's settled." he said with a smirk, knowing that he probably had a red handprint stuck on his left cheek.

--

Misato looked through the folder, confused. According to the date on the report, they had had it for atleast a month now - yet noone she had heard nothing about it until today. And they had said he wouldn't be called in until Unit-01 was returned from germany.. like they didn't want to prepare him at all.. or like they just assumed he'd be a great pilot from the begining.
What disturbed her most was the way the commander had talked about the boy.. like he didn't know or care about him..
*I know he's cold.. but to be like that to his own..*.
She stared at the picture. The boy looked .. sad.. like he didn't know what it was to be happy.

She sighed, shook her head, closed the folder and laid it back down on her desk. She wondered what Asuka would think of another pilot - she didn't seem very friendly towards Rei. She sighed again.. they had said Unit-01 would be returned in a month or two. All she could do was wait and hope.
*See you then, Shinji Ikari...*

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fWhee. Done. I'm hammering out the ideas for the next chapter right now.. and if all goes as I want it to and there are no major changes in my plans, Shinji should be appearing in chapter 5. But as for chapter 4, I'll try to get Rei to interact with Asuka a bit.. though I can't promise It'll turn out very well.... heh..

And I'll admit: I have no idea how german schools tackle the issue of keeping the students fed.. no less the 'colleges' (I'm sure it's called something else - and that I've heard that term before.. but it was awhile..).. I just decided to assume that german schools provided the students with food. Hope it isn't too far from the truth.

..And yes.. I know Asuka is alot different - battle-wise anyway - .. since she seems to actually like piloting in the series (or the first parts she's in anyway). Now while she'd probably been better off, I don't think she'd done much better than Shinji in the earlier battles.. which is reflected here. And I'd think considering how close her victory over the third actually was that her pride would be a bit easy to crack.. And with her being busy thinking she still has some problems dealing with AT-fields.

'til next time.

-Kompi