Disclaimers:
Neon Genesis Evangelion and all related characters, concepts, etc. are
Property of ADVision and Gainax. I only *wish* they were mine.
Please try to be good to me; this is my first stab at an Evangelion "Only" Fic.
If you have read this whole fic, I do state now this is a Waffy fic, with a bit of action as well!
Thanks to Andre Laval for pre reading this chapter!

"" ""= a telepathic conversation.

( )= a person's thoughts

Sibling Bonds

Chapter #11: Loss and Contemplation

Will the pilots be revived in time or will Touji, who has no real battle experience,
in a new and unstable Eva have to confront two Angels by himself?
And if they make it, what does Shinji have planned for his father and for SEELE?

Subconscious Conversations

As the pilots entered one of Nerv's entrances, Touji was racking his brain at the current situation.
Asuka, Shinji, and Rei were laying down in an ambulance unconscious while he and Misato rode with them.
Touji finally remembered that he had dreamt of seeing all three on a train and discussing their current situation.
Then he fell over unconscious. "Oh now not all of them, God!!" was all Misato could say
as she tried to wake the now knocked out Touji Suzahara.

Touji slowly looked through the haze as he found himself in that familiar train again
although this time he saw Asuka and Shinji sitting down in front of where he was standing
holding each other in their arms. They looked up in surprise as Touji knew he had the same look on his face.
Then he felt his hand being entwined by a smaller and daintier one.
He looked towards his right and saw Rei holding his hand and looking up at him with those blazing crimson eyes.
She had a slight smile as she looked at him. He was, of course, mesmerized.
Then he came out of his trance when he realized where he was, and why.

""Damn, we have to wake up NOW!"" Touji yelled as it startled all three of them.
""What do you mean Touji-kun?"" asked Rei.
""There's two Angel attacking Nerv right now and we're all knocked out!""
""You've got to be kidding, right stooge?"" said a disbelieving Asuka.
""Now Demon girl, I'm serious!"" yelled back a now peeved Touji.
""But, how are we unconscious? I mean we come here when we sleep, not like this,"" said Shinji.

""Look, some goof ball tried to off you guys in front of the apartment building with a truck.""
""You mean, ... we're dead?"" said an angry Asuka.
""No, ding wit, you produced an ...a ... AT-field to stop the truck, at least that's what Misato said.""
The three pilots then pondered the news Touji had given them.
Shinji then smiled and shook his head up and down slowly. As in the realization of an idea.
""Then we'll return and surprise not just the angel, but ...my father as well.""
He then smirked in a similar way to that his father had done before. That sent shivers down the others backs.

Asuka then squeezed his hand and after his eyes were on her, she asked;
""What are you planning my baka?"" she said with a smile. (But inside she was a little unnerved by his smirk.)
""We'll split into two teams, you did say there were two Angels right Touji?""
""Yeah, but I didn't get the details yet,"" replied Touji.
""Ok, then we'll ....."" Shinji then related his plan to his friends.
Then after they understood his little scheme, they all concentrated to return the the real world.

When the awoke they were all in their respective Evas, though still in their street clothes.
"Oh thank God you're all awake!" said Misato. "What the hell happened back at the apartment?"
She looked at them very angrily. "I want an answer now," yelled an exasperated Misato.
"Not now Misato, you've have to brief us on the Angels," stated a very Gendo-esque Shinji.
That threw Misato for a loop for a minute, but then the crashing of the 14th Angel
as it was making it's way to the Geofront, focused her back into her strategic mode.
"Units 02 and 04 will converge on the surface with the palette guns to shoot at the 15th angel
while Units 00 and 01 will meet the 14th on the Geofront proper."

"Why split me from Shinji, Misato?" asked a puzzled Asuka
"You and Shinji have the most experience, so you will take the lead up top,
while Shinji has the better chance at hand to hand will the Angel down here.
Rei has the weakest Eva so she'll back the strongest."
(Asuka hrummped at that comment) "Touji has the least experience so he'll back up our best pilot."
(That comment was Misato's way to appease Asuka's ego.)
"Since he has to learn from the best."

The Evas made their way to their assigned catapults, and after a quick recheck of their systems
by Ritsuko and the bridge crew, they were shot up to their destinies and fates as they faced the two Angels.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Dual Angel Battle

As soon as Asuka and Touji hit the surface, they made their way to the nearest armaments buildings and set up the now compact

pallet guns and set their sights to the floating ethereal Angel twenty miles up above Tokyo-3

As they prepared up top, Shinji and Rei had made their way to the front of the Nerv's headquarters' pyramid.
An array of mechanical and hand weapons were spread out around them.
While Rei with the single armed Unit-00 set up to the side of where Shinji was,
Shinji placed himself right in front of the pyramid.
He was thinking about the plan he had reviewed with the other pilots, as a loud explosion rocked the Geofront.
Then from above and slowly descending was the 14th Angel who seemed to be taking it's time in getting to the bottom of the
hemisphere-like expanse that made up the Geofront. Shinji didn't wait for the Angel to initiate contact,
he started using all of the weapons with projectiles, then finally took out a prog knife, and an axe similar to Asuka's.
Then a loud scream came from the comm system and within seconds everyone knew who it was.

Back above, the 15th Angel emitted a bright shaft of light at the red Unit-02.
Asuka was now in screaming agony, as were the other three pilots to a much lesser extent,
since they all now shared a psychic link to each other.
So as Asuka bore most of the agony, the others helped her lessen her pain by taking in some of what she felt.
As all this was going on the 14th Angel had finally engaged Unit-01 in hand to hand combat.
While it seemed even at first, the Angel got the upper hand literally when it let lose
one of it's thin and serrated arms and cut off one of Shinji's arms.
A second wail joined Asuka's whimpering agony as Shinji felt his arm being cut off due to his high sync rate.
Then he was starting to lose the battle Rei ran in and shoved an N2 mine into the Angel.
She ran back trying to take the injured Unit-01 with her, but he shook her off and mentally told her to go to the surface
to help Asuka and Touji. Rei tried to talk him out of what she suspected he was going to do, but the Commanders voice silenced
her doubt. "Rei, go get the lance, give it to Shinji, then go help Units 02 and 04," was all he said.
Everyone was aghast at the Commander's comments, but continued on.
After a nod from a still besieged Shinji, Rei left to retrieve the lance.
In the time Rei took to get the lance, Asuka had been under the 15th Angel's mental attack for close to three minutes.
As Rei returned to the Geofront a bright light filled the area, as the embedded N2 mine exploded.

When the smoke cleared all that stood was the angel who had deployed it's AT field,
and the single armed Unit-01 slumping down. It had deactivated and was helpless
as the 14th Angel started to pummel and strike it. Rei then did what she could for her now stricken brother
and using the lance broke through the Angel's AT field and injured it. But with only one arm Rei was struck down
and as the Angel advanced on her she knew it was her time to sacrifice this body for humanity, or more to the point for her
brother,... and for another above fighting his own battle. But as it turned out that was the best it could be. As Shinji was
struggling with Unit-01's controls to help Rei's Eva, he became more insenced that another that he cared for, his sister was
about
to die horribly in front of him.
"YYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHH" was all that was heard at central command as Shinji's Eva's sync rate skyrocketed.
As Ritsuko asked the sync rate percentage, Maya Ibuki was rattling off the rate as it rose.
"It's climbing Ma'am, 200, 260, 300, 365, ... my god it just passed 400% Ma'am!"
was all Maya could say as a pair of hands steadied her.
She looked up at a face framed with a pair of square shaped glasses.
A smiling Kensuke was there helping in his own way to calm the Tech.'s nervous shoulders.
She smiled back weakly, and then turned around more self assured as Kensuke stayed at her side.

As bedlam reigned below, ... agony was all there was as Touji tried several times to stand in front of the red Eva
only to have himself shoved out of the way by the stubborn Second Child.
She wasn't going to have Touji's mental well-being on her conscious, as she battled the demons of her past.
Though the other pilots had siphoned off some of the stress of the Angels attack,
on her mind Asuka still was reliving that most agonizing moment of her life.
Just as it was getting to her trying to open the room where her mother was, there was a yell like none before
as even Asuka in her agonizing position heard her love's scream. "Shinji!"
His immense anger, she could feel it though the link, as Rei and Touji did as well.
They knew half the battle would be over very soon, as they felt the exhilaration as
Unit 01 began to systematically tear the Angel of might to bloody torn shreds and pulp.
As Rei witnessed this she heard again the wails of her friend.
Without anyone to tell her, she left the carnage that Unit-01 was making, Grabbed the lance
and used another catapult to reach the surface.

When she got there she ducked as Unit-04 sailed passed her. She surveyed the scene
and saw that Asuka was trying to take all the psychic punishment herself.
She wasn't going to lose another friend to this, so she took the lance she had retrieved as
Unit-01 dined on the 14th Angel and tried to balance the lance with her one hand.
Then she was caught off guard as Unit-04 took the lance from her and started running to the edge of the city.
As Touji got to it he literally ran up the mountain side and launched himself into the air.
Then two great metallic wings sprang out from the silver Eva's back and the Eva and the lance made it's way
into the sky and toward the 15th Angel two miles up.
"Touji, no! You'll never make it back before your internal battery runs out,"
was all Misato could say from the control center, as the silver Eva had already made it 20,000 feet up and accelerating.
"I ...know that Misato, ... and I understand," was Touji's reply.
"Touji-kun, ...please don't do this," was said by a now blank faced Rei. She looked from the ground next to the still
wrenching Asuka. Her agony was about to end soon, but Rei's was beginning. She had finally understood the feelings she was
having for this Fourth Child. He was sacrificing himself, ....but was it for humanity, ....or something more
.... maybe ...someone else?

As Touji contemplated his predicament as he was rushing headlong towards the high flying angel,
Rei mentally called to him.
""Why did you do this Touji-kun?""
""Because, I want to protect you guys ...the way you tried to protect me.""
She then remembered back to the battle with the 13th Angel.
He was trying to repay them for saving him from being killed in the Angel infested Eva.
""But, what use is this act of self sacrifice, if you are not here to live the life we helped save?""
Touji looked down then shook his head. "Damn! I always seem to react before I can think things out."
Then Rei asked a question she had been contemplating since their meeting earlier at the lookout.
""Are you doing this ...just for humanity, or is there something, ... or someone more?"" conveyed Rei mentally.
Touji, sighed, then collecting his courage he replied; "Yeah, there's someone, ... and that someone ...is...you, Rei-chan."
was all Touji said as he then saw the Angel coming up fast .
As Rei watched now nervously in the viewing monitor within her entry plug, Touji brought the Lance up to slice at the Angel.
At the moment he began his attack, the bright psychic light stopped on Asuka and her Eva slumped down to the ground.
Rei, with her one arm, helped Asuka's Eva towards a elevator transport platform, and away from being attacked again.
As she helped her fellow pilot, Rei again kept looking at the fierce battle being fought above them.
Touji now was the target of the Angel's psychic light attack. But it was short lived.
Touji swung around using the remaining manuvering thrusters in accord with his wings and then circled the ethereal Angel.
slicing the lance at the Angel with everypass. As this dissection was happening Rei still kept watch through her internal viewier
in her plug. Then the final stroke by Touji finally cut off the S2 organ from the Angel, and it simply ... disintegrated.

Then Touji lost control as his Eva was drawn toward the disembodied S2 organ.
With the last of it's power (The Eva's 5 minutes was finishing up)
it lunged and caught the now frozen organ and simply swallowed it as Touji was thinking

""What the hell?!?!?""

The silver Eva let out a roar that was silent since they were closer to space than atmosphere.
Touji was having a strange feeling in his head as he tried to make some sort of contact to Rei.
""Rei. Something's happening here, I can't ....""
Then silence, his psychic presence was simply ... not there anymore.
This made the normally stoic Rei cringe. His essence simply disappeared. She could not ... feel his presence anymore!
As this was happening, the now pilotless Unit-04 turned around and with it's jets kicking out the last of it's fuel,
headed with wings spread back towards Tokyo-3.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Consequences

As Touji's Eva made a three point landing next to Rei's and Asuka's Evas, with the lance in it's hands there was concern as
Maya again alerted Dr. Akagi. Touji's sync rate had hit 200% on the way down.
Yet again another accident has happened. A similar one had happened eleven years earlier at Nerv Germany.
"Make sure that Pilots Suzahara and Ikari aren't moved from their Eva's nor their plugs drained, got me!"
shouted Ritsuko as she made her way towards the rescue teams attending to Units 04 and 01.

After a few minutes Asuka was sitting on a platform off from the elevator that was delivering
her red Eva back to the cages. She was sitting, cordon offed off within a square area bordered
by yellow tape stating that possible contamination could have occurred. Rei walked up behind her,
with an arm in a sling as she observed the pilot of Unit-02, slumped over and crying.

"Asuka-san, I am glad you are all right," said Rei.

Those words stirred up so much in the Second Child's heart.

She meant to erupt into a backlash of bitter anger, to question how the First Child could still be so stupid at a time like this.
She meant to spit her hate at the Angel for soiling her mind.
She meant to curse the fact she couldn't feel her Eva anymore and that above it all, ... that Shinji had been taken from her.

But all she managed to muster was a hateful look to kill the First Child's approach.

She meant to say so many things.

I hate this,

I hate Nerv,

I hate you!

I hate Shinji,

I hate the world,

I hate myself!

But she couldn't, her soul was so shaken, she couldn't say anything.
She finally broke down and just sobbed and whimpered on the hard ground, helpless and beaten.

Rei without blinking crosses the yellow tape,
then kneels down and lays her sobbing friend,
with her good arm to her chest and remembering how she was comforted before
.... by her brother, she tried to do the same for Asuka.

They stayed like this for about five minutes.
Then finally, Asuka stopped crying and looked up to see Rei
.... with silent tears streaking down her cheeks.

"Shinji's not the only one missing, right?" asked Asuka in choked sobs.
She pulled herself up to face her fellow pilot. Rei shook her head to confirm Asuka's statement.

"Touji-kun's body is still in Unit-04's entry plug, ... but there is no brain activity," she sighs,
looks down to her lap and then continues.
"He tried to sacrifice himself ... to save us," Asuka with concern now clearly in her voice skakily asked;
"Did his sync level reach 400%, ... like Shinji's?"
"No, ... only 200%, but it seems ... that his mind, his ...soul has joined with his Eva,
..... while Shinji-kun's body, and soul is now one ... with his Eva."
Asuka nodded, and after Rei offers, and helps her up, they walk through the yellow tape,
....breaking it, as they go.
They then head to Misato's apartment, but in a round about way.

Surprisingly, no one made any attempt to stop the girls. Not any security there, nor any Section 2 agents.
They walked side by side in their plug suits the long way to their home in silence.
They walked passed familiar now ignored areas to them;

The Junior high school they attended,
the green grassed look out over Tokyo-3,
their favorite walk up Ramen Bar near there,
the local park they frequented near the apartment
They walked through all this without saying a word, ... both had much on their minds.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dealing with ... loss!

For Rei, there was the potential loss of her brother, whom she cared for more than even the Commander now.
Simply because he was caring, honest to her, and showed affection for her with no strings attached.
He became her only real family and his disappearance within Unit-01 was ..... disturbing.
The loss was becoming overwhelming to her. She had never experienced this before.

Added to this was the loss of Touji's mind to his Eva that disturbed her in a ... different way.
That happy, wise cracking and thick headed third stooge were all accurate descriptions of Touji Suzahara.
But, the caring, honest, and loyal person that he was to his closest friends is what Rei understood him to be now,
.... in her eyes. She missed that and though she felt for him in a different way than Shinji,
she missed him as much as her brother. She now sat up on the bed she had slept in since she moved into Misato's apartment.
Thinking of both lost boys, and the impact they had on her. Their loss would have a most opposite impact on her
.... and her soul.

In the next room Asuka had laid down with her own thoughts on the day's losses.

First, was the knowledge and helplessness of her past ripped open in her mind by the 14th Angel.
It had been those memories that had made Asuka what she was, but that was no more.
Those suppressed memories having a detrimental affect on the now mentally fragile Second Child.

After the attack was stopped by Touji's Eva, Asuka couldn't hear or feel the presence that had been with her
so many times before. She knew that to be the soul of the Eva, but she really hadn't a clue who's soul it really was.
She cried first for the innocence lost back then, ... and again today. She cried for the soul of her mother,
which she now knew was wrenched from her body so long ago. Touji's predicament showed that to be true.
The person who committed suicide wasn't her mother, just a deranged and tortured shadow of the original.
That was clear now, and even though it still hurt, it was ... comforting to know that her real mother
wasn't the one who died in front of her. The image of that hanging doll wasn't as devastating as before,
....now that she knew what had happened to her mother. (Though she will later find the real truth!)

Next came that stooge, Touji. The Fourth Child.
Though not a fond aquaintence, she saw the sacrifice he made as a honourable one,
and for that she would be more patient with him, ... when he came back.
She had to believe that ... or Shinji wouldn't come back either, and she couldn't live if he didn't come back.

Her Shinji.

A few weeks ago she couldn't stand him, always getting her temper raging with his apologies.
Being so timid that it did make her day to see him squirm under that glare of hers or Misato's teasing.
Yet, when he had confessed about trying to find out about Rei's background,
and her own, she saw a new side of him. A determination she admired and she finally saw
the strength hiding deep within the normally weak and timid outer shell Shinji had always shown to the world.

Since that fateful night, she had fallen deeper in love with him than with anyone she knew or had known before.
His loss echoed in her heart. She slowly started sobbing at first quietly, then with more volume.
In a twisted deja vu, Rei had heard the wailing from Asuka and came to check on her.
She found her in a fetal position in the center of the bed she went to her to try and help her again.
As the night progressed, they slowly let their defiant and emotionless walls drop between each other.
Both girls slowly calmed each other down and tentatively, talked about the two boys in their lives.
Their heart wrenching feelings of their loss to them, and the hope that their retrieval would be ... attainable.
These thoughts of anguish were expressed to each other mentally, and verbally.
Then slowly the conversation ebbed, as exhaustion crept into their eyes,
both did what would have been impossible weeks or even days before.

Both girls looked at each other, at their tear stained faces and at the red eyes now cried out and tired.
Then as they mentally sighed they took up positions on the bed Shinji and Asuka shared
for these many weeks and then they fell asleep in each other's arms, not as a show of lust or love per say,
but rather of affection and comfort to each other as a way to cope with their losses.
Only time would tell if the boys would come back to them, so they needed each others physical touch
to reassure themselves of what they wanted to happen. They finally fell asleep.
But for now this new friendship would help them cope until their loved ones would return to their loving arms.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Will both Shinji and Touji return, or will one never come back?
How will Rei and Asuka cope as the slow process of waiting for
reintegration to succeed, will it drive them, and those around them nuts?
What about Kensuke? Is he breaching the emotional wall put up by a now shaken Maya?
Well, if you want this answered, then keep an eye out for;
Chapter 12: Living on!

**Small author's Note: If someone objects to a Kesuke/ Maya pairing, well there's a point to that we'll see later. And why does
Unit-04 have wings? Well the MP Eva's that came in EoE, they were based on the "Final" Production model which was
Unit-04, right! And even if I'm wrong, to me that means that the Americans would have loved to put an original idea to their
Eva ...
like wings!
Nuff said! Dennisud