Once again, my attempt at writing Eva fan fiction. I do not own Evangelion or its characters: If I did, I wouldn't be writing these stories, I'd be working on a new one.
This is the next installment in my "I Didn't Answer" series. I hope you enjoy.
Five minutes.
I know that time is not long since my umbilical cable has been destroyed, but I must cover units one and two while they dispose of the attackers. Preparations for defense have been made, but somehow they've broken through into the Geofront. Our defenses have been able to keep the enemy troops from invading headquarters though.
The pilot of Unit Two is holding her own; there's no need to protect her. The Dummy System Units are being defeated. I have to be here, despite Commander Ikari's orders. More needs to be done. They will not reach Central Dogma.
Crunch!
Damage sustained to left arm. Activating Progressive Blade. I sink the blade into the Dummy Unit's neck, just below its jaw where it is biting me, and pull hard across it. The blade cuts through easily, severing the head, which I peel from Unit Zero's arm quickly with the Progressive Blade.
Dummy Plug.
Moving to immobilize the unit before it can reactivate, I pull the entry plug panel from the unit's back. When the Dummy Plug emerges from its chamber, I pull it out and crush it in my grip: Five more Dummy Units to be immobilized.
Four minutes.
Moving to the next target, which is presently engaged with Unit One, I place myself in between the two, pulling the Dummy Unit off of Unit One. Wrestling with the Dummy Unit, I manage to get it into a headlock. Tightening my grip, I break the Dummy Unit's neck, and its struggling arms fall silent. Once again, I rip the entry plug panel open and crush the Dummy Plug: Four Dummy Units remain.
"Idiot, stay out of my way!" The pilot of Unit Two is handling three Dummy Units, one of which Unit One is moving to engage. She should not be so angry with pilot Ikari: it detracts from combat efficiency. I search for the fourth Dummy Unit, and then spot it, preparing to throw…
Lance of Longinus! Pilot Ikari is in danger. I must defend Unit One!
Throwing myself in between Ikari and the Lance, I allow Unit Zero to receive the full length of it in my chest and neck. Throat hurts. Heart feels damaged.
"Ayanami!"
"Ikari…" I whisper, and then black out as the shock reaches me.
And in international news today, a small office building in Paris was bombed in the evening, leaving three dead and at least a dozen seriously injured…
I am awake. I see white. It's the ceiling. My eyes blink several times, and my head rises to look around. It's painful to move. I haven't seen this place before. It looks like a hospital. A television is on, lying on a nearby table at the foot of my bed, with an attractive female newscaster reporting from somewhere.
Somewhere…
"Where am I?" The words barely escape my lips, but there is no response to my question. I lean my neck to the right. There is a young man, possibly in his late teens, early 20s in the room with me. He looks asleep, resting, but not peaceful. A pair of broken glasses sits on the small table next to him, taped on the nose and one of the legs to hold it together.
Broken glasses…
"Good morning sleeping beauties." Finding the roots of what strength I have, I manage to sit up and look in the direction of the voice. My body stiffens in pain, but I fight the tears and see the nurse, my strength rapidly draining.
The accompanying fall and clatter of the tray she is carrying is the last thing I register before I fall back upon the bed and consciousness slips away.
When I awaken again, I feel the sting of my last physical actions, sharp and merciless in my skin, my weakened muscles, even in the soft flesh of my own breasts. I groan gently, not because of the pain, but because of my inability to move I must have weakened myself too much in that last vestige of movement.
"Look, she's awake again doctor," I hear the nurse, her voice quivering, with fear or excitement I am not sure. The gentle pad of footsteps, and then a light, bright and horribly obtrusive, is shone into my eyes. It hurts, but I can't push the light away.
"Follow the light with your eyes," a male voice instructs me. I do, though the experience is not pleasant. When he pulls the light away, small glares of red and yellow fades as my eyes readjust. The doctor is an older man, with thinning brown hair and thin-frame glasses. He regards me with a cool expression I take to be professional courtesy, but smiles at me when he notices I am paying attention.
"Can you speak?"
"Yes," I answer him weakly, my own throat tight and somewhat hoarse. I am surprised at the sound of my own voice, like finding something I'd lost.
"What is your name?"
I consider this question, tossing it around in my memory. However, I can find no answer to the question, only an empty echo where it should be. Why isn't it there?
"I can't remember." The doctor and nurse exchange looks, and then turn from me to speak in hushed tones to one another, though I can hear it clearly.
"There was no brain damage, I'm sure of it,"
"Doctor, could it be amnesia? We did find both her and the boy over there together, shortly after that nasty catastrophe in Japan. There were head injuries on both patients when we brought them in."
"Well, amnesia is a possibility. Just in case though, I will order a new M.R.I.* for her. I want to be absolutely sure we're not dealing with any form of brain damage."
It is not long before I am taken from my room, laid upon a table, and slowly drawn into an M.R.I. tube by mechanical belt. The medical technician told me to hold as still as I could. I understand and do as he instructs, lying perfectly still as he starts the machine. The drone of the machine is loud and distracting, but at the same time relaxing and the gentle vibrations I can feel soothing, the ache in my body receding. Within minutes, I have drifted off; sleep finding me, even in here.
I can feel it corrupting me, the 16th Angel entering and polluting my entire being. It hurts so much, the rough push of itself into my skin, my veins, and my body. It is an invasion as disgusting as it is terrifying. This is how it will end, how I will end.
Wait! The pain is leaving, but why? I look across the field. Pilot Ikari is here, and it's going after it. Shooting it seems to have no effect. If one of us can't stop it, it will surely corrupt us both. I cannot allow that to happen.
Inverting my AT Field, I give the Angel an opportunity to take me, to corrupt me. Pilot Ikari must carry on, must survive this ordeal. With tears on my face, I prepare to self-destruct Unit Zero, the pain almost too much to bear as I reach for the handle.
"Ayanami, no!" Ikari cries over the com. Unit One rushes forward, coming within radius of where the blast will be. I can't destroy Unit Zero, Ikari and Unit One are in danger.
Ikari has inverted his AT Field as well. The Angel is going after him now too. I try to hold it back, but am already in too much pain to move Unit Zero. I expand my AT Field to overlap Unit One's, and the Angel stops moving, writing against the pull of the field. Pilot Ikari grabs the Angel, and expands his AT Field as over mine as well. What is he doing?
The Angel struggles, but seems to be immobilized by both the inverted fields. It struggles for several minutes, trying to pull free and come after one of us, but it cannot move further to corrupt Unit Zero nor can it attack Unit One. It stops moving for a moment, then detonates, sending both Unit One and I flying. When we land, I hit my head and pass out.
"Alright miss, your test is over. Time to get you back to your room," I hear as I awaken. I am now outside the tube, and a name comes to my lips.
"Ikari," I say aloud. The technician eyes me for a moment, and then helps to sit me up. I am not as strong as I want to be, and my body still aches badly.
"What did you say miss?"
"Ikari. I remember that name. But where from?" As he slips me into a wheelchair, I wonder who Ikari is, what Ikari does, and why that name comes back to me, so familiar, and yet not my own.
"Well miss, just keep trying to remember things. It will all eventually come back to you," he told me as I was wheeled back to my room, which made me feel better, a smile crossing my lips. I feel a little odd doing it, but I guess it's because I can't remember anything.
When we enter the room, I am surprised by what I see. The young man I'd seen earlier is awake, with a weak smile on his face. His light brown hair shines softly in the daylight, and his friendly, intelligent eyes stare at me through his broken frames as the nurse assists me into my bed and sits on the edge of it. Her face is bright and cheery, a nice change from the shock and disbelief of this morning.
"When did he wake up?" I ask her, suddenly very curious. The nurse gives me a look of interest, her eyes glimpsing me, then the young man, and back to me again. Her smile shows a hint of laughter, and I meet her gaze, confused.
"He woke up about an hour before you came back from the M.R.I.," she told me then, taking notice of his gaze, gently nudged me with her elbow, "I think he likes you. He is cute, isn't he?" Her accompanying giggle made her seem younger than her late-twenties, early-thirties appearance.
Cute? Was he? I didn't really know. I had never seriously thought that way about guys, or had I? He did seem nice though, and was definitely interested in watching me. Every time I looked, he met my eyes as if he had something to tell me.
"What's his name?" I ask the nurse. Her smile fades, and she looks to him, slowly turning back to face me. Her face is sympathetic now, her reasoning I am unsure of.
"We don't know."
"Why not ask him?"
"His vocal cords were damaged when we found him. It will take surgery and rehabilitation to revive his voice. Also, he had several spinal injuries when we found him. We've repaired what we could, but it will be a decent amount of time before he writes again, let alone walk. Come to think of it, you were the lucky one."
Lucky one? What did she mean? I give another look of confusion to her, uncomfortable as it is, and she nods with understanding.
"That's right, you have amnesia. Well, we found the two of you four years ago on the coast, shortly after that horrid explosion in Japan. Somehow, you were barely injured at all, just in a coma. This poor young man however, was badly injured; we were barely able to save him. And so it went, the both of you in these very same beds. He came out of coma only two months ago, and, with you being out of coma now, means the two of your have been here for four years in total."
"Four years?" How old am I? I look to him once again, my mind returning to the one memory I still hold.
"Ikari?"
The nurse gives me a new look of surprise, and then looks to the young man.
"Well, you two are just full of surprises, aren't you?" I don't answer, unsure of how to respond. She laughs a little, and then rises from my bed, "I have some more rounds to do, but I'll be back to check on you two later. Have fun kids."
When she leaves, I lay my head against my pillow; is he the Ikari I know? Repeating it in my own mind and placing his image next to it just doesn't fit; he is not Ikari. I feel sleep coming upon me, and I let it take me, my mind awash with new thoughts, ideas, and questions. But, I will save them for tomorrow. Turning my head to look at the young man, I smile, this time more comfortable with it.
"I hope to know you soon," I tell him, and then allow my eyes to shut, falling away into a dreamy state of slumber.
M.R.I.- Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Stay tuned for the next chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far.