Foreword: Well, this chapter really doesn't have much romance in it at all actually. Just a lot of bickering between the pilots, some fighting, and a bit of frustration from yours truly. =) Just a friendly warning. Next chapter, there'll be enough love for *everyone*!

Hopefully.

Forever Rei

Chapter 4

The sound of the helicopter's rotor blades were getting progressively louder and louder as the aircraft got closer to its destination. Inside of it were two of NERV's most important assets and the destined saviors of mankind.

"Uh… Misato-san?" Shinji piqued.

"What is it Shinji-kun?"

"What exactly are we doing on a helicopter in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?"

"We're going on a little vacation!"

"Vacation? Where?" Rei spoke for the first time during the flight.

"Down there of course!" Misato replied, pointing to the now visible armada of the UN's Pacific Fleet. Countless cruisers and battleships sailed towards Japan, all assigned to protect the newest addition to the NERV weapon collection, as well as another of NERV's soon to be assets.

"Wow! Kensuke would faint if he were here from the sheer size of it all!" Shinj said looking down at the fleet.

Misato just grinned. "I thought you two deserved a little break after the defeat of the 5th Angel, and this opportunity presented itself!"

"Captain Katsuragi, what if an angel attacked while we were gone?" Rei asked, always the voice of reason.

"Commander Ikari is prepared for such a situation, so don't worry about it! Anyways, we'll just be gone a few hours longer." This seemed to put Rei's  concern to rest, and she went back to thinking in her own little world. "Anyways, I wanted you two a chance to meet your new teammate before she arrived in Tokyo-3."

"A new pilot? What?"

"Yep! The designated pilot of Unit 02. Her name is…."

--

Asuka Langely Sohryu stood and watched from an overlook as the NERV helicopter descended and landed on the deck of the UN flagship Raiden.

"Aha! They're here. Now for those *other* pilots to meet their new leader! They'll be absolutely amazed by the sheer perfection I have at piloting my Eva!" Asuka said to herself, showing off her quite egotistical nature.

"Don't you think you're judging the other pilots a bit early, Asuka? Shinji Ikari is supposed to be on that helicopter, and I hear he's quite the pilot. Even beat the first angel without any training at all." Kaji Ryoji, Asuka's guardian for the trip, said as he walked up the stairs to where Asuka was standing.

"No doubt beginner's luck, Kaji-san! Soon they'll see the excellence that is Asuka Langely Sohryu!"

--

The three NERV employees got off the helicopter together and proceeded to walk down the deck to the control room to report in. As Shinji walked by, he noticed the entrance to the ship's hold where several soldiers were guarding whatever was inside.

"That's where they keep the new Eva, Shinji. You'll see it in time, trust me." Misato said, noting Shinji's interest in the hold.

"Oh. What about this Asuka person? Where is she?" he asked.

"She should be here somewhere. Hmm…" Misato replied while she scanned the deck for the Second Child. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a bright red haired girl walking towards them. "Ah, there she is now. Asuka!"

"Misato! How nice to see you again!"

"My, how you've grown since the last time I saw you in Germany." Misato replied.

"Yep, I'm much more stunning now than I ever was!"

"Asuka, I'd like to introduce you to Rei Ayanami, the pilot of Unit 00 and Shinji Ikari, the pilot of Unit 01. Rei, Shinji.. this is Asuka Langely Sohryu, the new pilot of Unit 02."

"Nice to meet you Asuka." Shinji said, while all Rei did was give a slight nod.

"So this is the famous Ikari Shinji I've heard so much about. Pfft. Doesn't look like much. I won't have any problem beating your piloting skills." Asuka said. All Shinji could do is sputter a bit.

"I can assure you, Ikari-kun is quite a capable pilot. He should provide some competition if you so desire." Rei told the redhead. This proved to shock Shinji and make Misato smile.

"I'm sure I won't have any trouble beating your score either, Rei."

"We shall see."

--

Shinji and Rei sat in the cafeteria alone, after the humorous meeting between Misato and Kaji. Misato had left them to find a source of beer to calm her down and Kaji had gone off somewhere with an overexcited Asuka following him around.

"What do you think of the new pilot, Ikari-kun?" Rei asked him, after a long silence.

"Umm… she's quite sure of herself isn't she?" Shinji answered her, still in shock from Rei's defense of him and the fact that she had actually spoken to him of her own free will.

"Yes, I noticed that also. She seems to have something to prove."

"I really don't know. Something tells me she will turn out to be very… unpredictable..."

"I suppose she might, but I won't allow her to get in our way."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll find out soon enough, Ikari-kun." Rei walked away, leaving Shinji to figure out what she meant.

--

"You two! Come here! I need to show you something!" Asuka called out to the two pilots, later on.

"What is it Asuka?" Shinji asked.

"Just come with me, baka!"

Shinji sighed "Might as well. Are you coming along, Rei?"

"I suppose." Rei responded, following Shinji to wherever Asuka was taking them.

--

"My Unit 02 is the first *real* Evangelion! Unit 00 and Unit 01 were…" Asuka droned on while she was showing the new Eva to her teammates.

"Asuka? What's the point of showing us this?" Shinji called out to her.

"To show you two how much better I am than you!"

"Whatever you say, Asuka."

"Don't you dare use that kin…" Asuka was cut off by Rei.

"I felt something." Rei told the other two.

"What?" Asuka asked her.

*RUMBLE*

"Ah! What was that?!" Shinji yelled.

At that moment, alarms started to sound in every ship of the fleet. The three pilots ran out of the hanger to one of the overlooking decks and saw a large object moving towards them at a great speed. They looked at each other quizzically as they each began to understand what exactly was going on.

"An angel!" Asuka suddenly let out. "Great! I'll show all of you how great an Eva pilot I am!"

"What do you mean? What are you going to do??" Shinji asked her, quite confused.

"I'm going to fight that angel, baka!"

"I wouldn't suggest that." Rei told her.

"What did you say??"

"The Eva isn't equipped for underwater combat."

"I'll still beat it! I'll show you and this wimp how to pilot an Evangelion!" With that, Asuka ran to her Eva and began to prepare for the battle.

"Asuka! Don't!" Shinji called out, but it was no use.

--

"What's going on?!" Misato yelled at the bridge officers in the control room of the ship they were on.

"It seems one of your "angels" have attacked our fleet!" one of the officers told her.

"What? An angel?? Here? That's not possible!" Misato retorted.

"Well, it's a possibility now."

"Sir! The Evangelion has been launched!" One of the technicians told the CO.

"But, how?!"

"Patch me through to the Eva! NOW!" Misato yelled at the officer.

"Ye.. yes." He replied, a bit frightened of the NERV Captain at the moment. He proceeded to connect Misato to Asuka.

"Asuka! What are you doing??"

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm defeating the angel, of course!"

"But.. but… *sigh* I guess we have no choice. Asuka, remember that you only have 5 minutes of active power unless you can get to the umbilical cable on the deck!"

"No problem, Misato-san! Just put it out and I'll get to it!"

"Get that cable out there, now!" Misato commanded to the other people in the control room.

"Yes!"

--

"Rei? Do you think she will win?" Shinji asked Rei as they stood watching the battle from one of the other rooms on the ship.

"She may. She is very arrogant, but she is strong."

"But why are they attacking us? I thought they only attacked Tokyo-3?"

"There must be something on one of these ships that they must be after."

"But what could they possibly want? All there is here is Unit 02!"

"I don't know what they want, Ikari-kun. All we can do is hope that Pilot Sohryu defeats the angel." Rei told him, but she knew perfectly well what was on the ship that the angels wanted.

Adam.

 The Second Angel.

--

/writer agony mode on

Argh, I'm never going to finish this. I need some sort of motivation. Anything. At all.

*sigh* I need to get this whole story done before the literary magazine deadline or I'm going to have to create an entirely new one that's going to have to be original to boot…

And I'm getting behind in schoolwork so I'm not going to go to my first choice colleges, so I'll end up a drunken hobo on the streets of DC wondering what the heck I did in high school that gave me a one way ticket to this god forsaken world…

And I'm never going to figure all this stuff out that's going on in my life, and that just depresses me and I can't decide what I'm going to do about my projects or my papers that are due soon even though I've had them for like a stupid month… even longer probably. I'm suffering from insomnia too!

And finally, I can't figure out.. ja, I already said that. Jeez, I'm losing my short term memory too! Grah! I can't even keep up with his own schoolwork even though I'm supposed to be some kind of "genius"…

*groan*

/This last section was typed completely out of frustration and the author would like to apologize for any offense taken by the reader because anyways, he has to apologize for everything else because he's a foolish wimp who can't stand up for him..

*SLAP*

Thanks. I needed that.

Back to writing I guess.

/starts to play Ayumi Hamasaki's new album

Ah… bliss.

/writer agony mode off

--

As the battle raged on the sea floor with the angel clearly winning, Misato was busy trying to come up with a plan to destroy it, since nothing seemed to work. They had no weapons, were quickly running out of ships, and the power cord was eventually going to be broken. Nothing came to mind, until…

"Asuka! Watch out!" Misato cried out, as the angel came straight at Asuka, engulfing it inside of its huge mouth.

"Aaaaaah!" screamed Asuka, as all outside light disappeared inside of the Eva and the only thing visible was the Angel's S2 organ. "This is gross!"

To Misato, on the bridge, it looked as if the Angel were some sort of huge fish and Unit 02, with its umbilical cord trailing behind it, acting as some sort of bait….

"Wait! Fishing!" Misato suddenly exclaimed. "That's it! Asuka!"

"WHAT?"

Misato cringed at the anger of the young pilot, "I have an idea! When I give you the mark, open the Angel's mouth!"

"What?? How is…"

"Just do it, okay??"

"Alright…"

The older woman turned to the rest of the crew in the room, "Listen! Start evacuating two of your gun ships, and when I give you the go ahead, scuttle them! Do you understand?"

"But… sir?" one of the senior officers seemed confused by this plan of the Captain's "What are you going to do?"

"We're going to sink the two ships down at the Angel and once Asuka gets its mouth open, send them inside of it and self-destruct the ships with guns blazing! Is that clear?"

"Yes! Very!"

"So do it!"

--

"Uh? What do they think they're doing?" Shinji asked, seeing the ships being evacuated and preparing to dive.

"It seems as if they were going to use those ships as a weapon, Ikari-kun." Rei responded.

"But, how? What are they going to do with them?"

"I don't know. Let's wait and see."

--

All the while, Asuka was vainly trying to get the huge mouth open, but it was much too heavy for her.

"Come on! Open, you overgrown trout!" Asuka growled at the Angel, but it seemed it wasn't quite in the mood to listen. "Arrrrrrghh! I can't be beaten on my first mission! I CAN'T! I WON'T!"

Images flashed through her mind from her past;

The slow descent into madness her mother suffered after her synchronization accident.

The ragged doll that replaced her.

Her mother's wish to die, taking Asuka with her.

Her selection as an Eva pilot when she was just a little girl.

The silhouette of her mother hanging from the ceiling, a victim of suicide.

Her mother's funeral, where she refused to cry.

Her first meeting with her father's new wife.

"NO! I will not die! I don't want to die, Mama!!" Asuka suddenly screamed. This new found sense of vitality gave her more strength than she needed to open the Angel's mouth.

"GR! OPEN!" she yelled, and her Evangelion threw the orifice wide open, leaving the path wide open for the ships to enter.

"AHHH! Misato! NOW!" Asuka cried out to her superior.

"Send the ships in!" Misato told the bridge crew. A few seconds later, they were inside of the enemy.

"Discharge all weapons! Self-destruct the ships!"

As soon as the ships were destroyed, the Angel seemingly was being torn apart from the  inside and suddenly exploded, causing a massive explosion underwater.

"Asuka! Are you alright?" Misato called out to her subordinate over the Comm.

"YEAH! I beat it! No angel can stand up to Asuka Langely Sohryu!" the pilot answered, obviously excited over her first victory.

"Great." Misato exhaled, "*sigh* This isn't going to be fun for me once we get back to headquarters."

The bridge crew let out a collective breath, all the while with Asuka gloating over her win.

--

 "I wonder if she's going to be like that every time we beat an Angel." Shinji said.

"Most likely, Ikari-kun." Rei told him.

"Great. Just what we needed. An Eva jockey." Shinji rolled his eyes.

Rei couldn't help but smirk at that.

--

Author's Notes: Jeeez. That wasn't a fun 3 weeks. Not one of my better writings, eh? Oh well, at least it's over 1,000 words this time. =) *HOPEFULLY* next chapter will be even more of a divergence from the series.

Yeah, I missed Toji and Kensuke too. =) And, I really didn't think it was all that important that Asuka and Shinji weren't in Unit 02 together. *shrug* So Asuka beats an angel *almost* by herself. *shrug* She still didn't defeat it without help, so it isn't that big of a deal.

Until next chapter, sayonara!

-Hikaru

P.S Oh… hehe. Don't worry about that little author rant. I was just frustrated. =)