Author's Note: DoaA is set in the Evangelion universe and does follow (in its early stages) the plot of the first episodes, but I will be taking some liberties with the characters, dialogue, details, etc., so don't throw a hissy fit when some all-important thing like a single line gets changed.  There, I said it.  So sue me.

Now for the people that might actually sue me: don't.  I get no money for this.

--Omega

Narration:            Omega wrote about speech types.

Thought:            'This is an unspoken thought.'

Speech:            "Hi!  I'm a sentence spoken out loud."

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Dreaming of an Angel

Chapter One

            The swings.  They rise up and swoop down, never failing in their rider's quest for glory; even during their lowest point, a new ascent was always waiting.  No wonder he loved them.

            A young Shinji Ikari swung back and forth on the beloved swing set.  The wind billowed into his face, then shifted to a gentle breeze upon his back.  Over and over again the cycle continued.  'It's predictable...' he thought.  'Comforting.'

            "Shinji!" his mother lovingly called to him from a distance.  "Time to go!  You don't want to be late!"

            'Late for what?  But does that really matter?  She only wants what's best.  I know she wouldn't do anything to hurt me.  She loves me.  She cares about me.  She's my mother, of course she does.  When you're family, you're loved.'

            He looked up from tying his shoes, glancing over to Yui Ikari, his mother.  She was standing there with that loving smile on her face, as always.  He could see it in her eyes how much she cared, and he knew she could tell the same of him.  He rose to his feet and began to half-walk, half-run toward her; his four-year-old legs toddled furiously.  Yui opened her arms to receive him into her warm, waiting embrace, but a strange thing happened.  With every step young Shinji took, Yui began to fade.  His pace quickened, and so did her disappearance.  Now nearer to her, Shinji was running at full speed.  He felt something hit his right foot and he tripped.  Landing in a dive at her barely visible feet, he clasped them tightly and looked up.  Tears formed from within and streamed down his face.  His mother was no longer smiling.

            Her ever-cheery expression was gone, and in its place a blank, almost hostile stare sat contemptuously.  Shinji's small mouth dropped open as dread overtook him.  This was not his mother.  Her clothing was different; tightly fitting white material was in its place.  Her skin had changed from a healthy rose tone to a deathly pale white.  Most terrifying of all, her face held within it two crimson orbs staring deep into his soul, surrounded by a watery blue frame of hair.  Those piercing eyes bored deeper and deeper into his mind, and for a moment, Shinji Ikari knew the depths of terror.

            Then suddenly it was gone.  Fourteen-year-old Shinji stared upward, not into some spectral pair of eyes but at the ceiling he still barely knew.  He laid there for what seemed like forever.  Eventually gathering the presence of mind to roll out of bed, he did and landed with a soft thud on the floor of the silent apartment.

            "We're sorry.  Due to the state of special emergency, no lines are currently available.  This is a recording."

            Shinji groaned.  This was not what he needed, not now.  'My first day on the job, and I can't even call in for a ride.  Great.'

            Sensing someone near him, Shinji's glance darted from the pay phone over to the nearby street.  There, standing and staring, was the girl.  The one from his dream.  The one who had made him fear.  A small flock of birds stirred overhead.  Shinji looked up and quickly back again.  His eyes widened.  The girl was gone.

            'That's impossible,' he thought.  'She was just there!  ...Is this another dream?'

            A sudden shockwave rocked the street.  Shinji cried out and ducked apprehensively away from the unseen threat.  After a few seconds had passed without incident, he raised up to his full stature again.  That was when he saw it.  A squadron of military aircraft was fleeing from something hidden to Shinji by local foliage.  A moment later it emerged, all two-hundred feet of it; towering above Tokyo-3, the giant monstrosity known to some as Sachiel lumbered through the streets destroying everything that came into its path.  One of the aircraft lagged behind the others.  The Angel aimed its thin, pointy arm and fired a beam of energy into it.  Seconds later, the destroyed vehicle crashed to the ground, taking out an abandoned car close to Shinji.  Red light streamed from Sachiel's mutated body as his colossal foot stomped into the fallen aircraft.  The fuel tanks ruptured and it blew.  Shinji turned to shield his face from the inferno just as a car pulled up.  It could barely be called pulling up; swerving into a turning stop was more like it.  The passenger door opened by the hand of a woman in her late twenties.  From behind her sunglasses, that grinning mouth opened to ask, "Sorry, were you waiting long?"

            As they drove away, Shinji could still hear the unrelenting barrage of gunfire.  They continued for a few miles in silence.  Shinji looked down at the console between the seats and saw his picture along with a pile of papers and an ID for a Captain Misato Katsuragi.  Information about me?  What's that for?

            He didn't have to wait long to find out.  "Yes, don't worry.  His safety is my top priority."  She was talking into a car phone; not a good idea, based on her previous driving without one.  "Look, can you get a car train ready for us?"  A pause.  "Well, I did volunteer to pick him up, so it's only my duty to make sure he gets there.  See ya."  They drove on into a tunnel.  At the end lay a door with some obscure logo and the word "NERV".

            "NERV?" inquired Shinji.

            "It's a secret organization run by the UN," she replied.

            "And that's where we're going?"

            "Of course.  You do know why you're here, right?"

            His gaze lowered.  "All my teachers told me was that it was important to the future of mankind."

            "And your father?  What'd he say?"

            "My father works here?"

            She sighed.  "You really don't have a clue about this, do you?"

            Shinji resumed looking out the window in silence.

            Several hours and countless wrong turns later, they arrived on foot at an elevator.  Misato's finger had barely finished pressing the button when the doors opened to reveal another woman walking out.  She wore only a swimsuit under an open lab coat.  A tired expression rested on her face.  "Why are you wasting my time, Captain?"

"Sorry, Ritsuko," she replied, bowing.  "This is the third child, according to the Marduk Report.  He should fit the job.  What's our status as of now?"  Their voices trailed off as they began to walk again.

            The three of them entered a huge room and were instantly plunged into darkness.  "Hey!  What's going on?" yelled Shinji.  Seconds later the lights switched back on.  Standing there in front of them was a robotic creature easily as large as the monster from outside Shinji's apartment.  He gave a slight yelp and recoiled in fear.  "Wha-what is that thing?"

            "This is mankind's ultimate fighting machine," said Ritsuko, "the synthetic life form known as Evangelion Unit One.  It is humanity's last hope."

            "Is this my father's work?" asked Shinji.

            A monotonous voice sounded from above.  "Correct.  It's been awhile."

            "Father..."

            "We're moving out.  Prepare Unit One for activation."

            Misato flinched.  "Unit One?  But Rei can't pilot yet, and...wait.  You're going to use him?"

            "Of course."  Ritsuko's face never changed.  "All we need is for him to sit in the plug.  That's all we can ask for.  If anyone has a chance of piloting the Evangelion, we have to take that risk."

            "But...but I can't!" stammered Shinji.  "I don't know anything about it!"

            His father again.  "You will be instructed."

            "You expect me to go out there and fight that giant?  There's no way!  I can't do it...I just can't..."

            That cold voice.  "If you're going to do it, then do it.  If not, then leave."

            "...I just can't..."

            He sighed.  "Fuyutsuki."  A nearby monitor switched on, and the man onscreen turned promptly to face the camera.  "Sir."

            "Wake Rei."

            "Can we use her?"

            "She's not dead yet."

            "...Understood."

            The monitor went blank as the sound switched to another source.  "Rei?"

            A frail female voice answered.  "Yes."

            "Our spare is unusable.  You will do it again."

            "Yes sir."

            Back down at the main deck, next to the Evangelion, Shinji stood hanging his head in shame.  'I knew it.  I'm not needed after all.'  A distant metallic clanking sounded throughout the cavernous room.  Three medical personnel wheeled a stretcher down the hall.  As it passed him, he noticed an IV drip leading past the bandages and tourniquets into...her.  'That same girl.  She's everywhere,' he thought.  Yet this time, he felt no fear, no hate.  A strange sort of sadness seemed to radiate from her, and it was then, in that brief second when their eyes met, that he felt her pain and understood.

            The stretcher stopped a few yards later.  The girl rose to a sitting position and trembled.  Even at a distance, Shinji could tell that every movement was agony, every breath, torture.  Muffled shrieks of pain escaped her tightly-clenched lips.  'She has to feel this...because of me?'

            Around them, the ground shook.  The girl's stretcher overturned, and she collapsed to the floor with a dull thud.  Huge metal beams dislodged themselves from the ceiling and plummeted toward the unsuspecting Shinji.  A sound like the noise made by a wave breaking on the beach exploded outward, followed by resonant clanking of metal.  Shinji looked up from his huddled position to see the unrestrained arm of the Evangelion unmoving, yet shielding him.

            Ritsuko's expression finally changed into one of shock mingled with terror.  "That can't happen! The entry plug wasn't even inserted! That just can't happen!"

            'Was it protecting something?'  thought Misato.  'Protecting him?'

            Shinji rushed over to the near-unconscious girl and cradled her in his arms.  She continued to tremble, crying silently.  He looked to the Evangelion for a moment until her cries returned his gaze.  A warm liquid seeped over his hand.  Raising it up to the light, he saw her blood.

            'I mustn't run away... I mustn't run away... I mustn't run away...'  The thought repeated in his head.  'I mustn't run away... I mustn't run away...'

            "I'll do it!" he cried out.  "I'll pilot the Evangelion."

            The cockpit was different than what he Shinji had expected.  More buttons.  A central console seemed to be the main part of controlling the mech, although out of experience he didn't touch anything he didn't know how to work.  A sensation much akin to immersion in water came to Shinji's attention.  He looked down, saw orange liquid quickly filling the cabin, and panicked.  "Yaaaah!  What is this stuff!?" he yelled before taking a large breath and holding it; the liquid was rising above his head.

            A voice came out of the control panel: "Don't worry.  This is called LCL.  Once your lungs are filled with it your blood will be oxygenated directly."

            Shinji couldn't hold his breath anymore and let it out in one big whoosh.  Thick goop forced its way down his throat.  It felt horrible, but he could breathe.

            Out on the deck, Ritsuko and head technician Maya Ibuki finished checking the data on Shinji and the Evangelion.  She nodded to Misato, who spoke into the microphone.  "All systems go.  Launch Unit One!"

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Hope you enjoyed it.  This is my first fanfic in this format, so go easy on the flaming.  But please, do review it.  I'd like to know how I can improve on my writing.  Plot suggestions are welcome, even if they never get used.  Thanks.

And one last time: Omega get no cash for this, you no sue Omega.

--Omega, Moderator at the www.matrixfans.net Forums