You Wish! Productions Presents...

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Cross

By: Blue Taboo

Chapter 2- Hell in The Waiting Room

Shinji sat quietly in a rather uncomfortable blue chair, waiting. He was still in his plug suit, for as soon as the stretcher passed him, he couldn't help but follow. Whether he was compelled by fear, awe, or compassion, or something else, he wasn't quite sure. His brain really wasn't functioning now. He had been sitting there for hours, he didn't know how many. The image of the screaming girl haunted his mind. It was all he knew.


Then he looked up as a woman sat down next to him. She had violet hair and wore a silver cross around her neck. Wait. He knew her. Misato, his guardian. His mind slowly came out of its daze, but he found that he couldn't speak, so he just stared at her.


"Shinji..." she began slowly, also seeming at a loss for words.


They sat there in silence, the only two people there, waiting.


"Why?" he began as he felt tears come to his eyes, "Why did this happen, Misato?"


"I don't know," she admitted, "Ritsuko won't say anything, and I think she has the answer, but she's just as freaked out as the rest of us. I don't even think that Commander Ikari knows anything."


Shinji tore his gaze from her to the floor. "They were such different people! Things like this can't happen!"


"Don't talk about them like they're dead and gone!" Misato scolded him, but then realized that he could be right, "Ritsuko will figure something out..." she added more to comfort herself than him.


"I just don't understand...I haven't understood anything since I came here. Sometimes I wish I'd just wake up and that this, Evas, Angels, today, was a nightmare..." Shinji confessed.


"I think we've all wished for that at some point," Misato said as she took his hand and tried to calm him down.


Shinji looked at her quickly then back at the ground. He blinked away the rest of his tears and stayed silent for a while. He bit his lip, turned his head away from Misato, and decided to ask the question that had been plaguing him. "How is...she..." he inquired in a soft and shaky voice.


"They had to knock her out...." Misato told him in an equally quiet voice, "In order to do some tests. It's very strange...half of her DNA is Rei's and the other half is Asuka's, but we have no idea of who she really is, in her mind that is."


Memories flashed through Shinji's mind.


Rei smiling in her entry plug.


Asuka smacking him before they'd even spoken with each other.


Rei saying, "I will be protecting you."


Asuka calling him an idiot.


Rei talking to his father.


Asuka sleeping next to him.


Rei staring at him.


Asuka standing on the bench ranting about Rei and Misato.


A single tear slid down his cheek.


"Will things ever be the same again?" he found himself asking out loud.
Misato looked at him then away. She let go of his hand, finding that it wasn't doing anything for either of them. They were a mix of emotions. Misato was angry at Ritsuko, who seemed to be hiding something behind her fearful exterior, but she felt guilt on her part somehow, as if she could've stopped it. Shinji was worried about the girls to the point where he didn't notice anything more than that. He wanted Asuka to call him a name, Rei to stare at him in that strange, soul piercing way, but most of all, he wanted to wake up now drenched in sweat and have everything secure, in some way, with or without Eva and these people.


A deep voice startled Shinji out of his trance. A doctor had walked up to them and was talking to Misato. "The only physical injuries we can see are those tiny cuts and they're all over her, but they're just like paper cuts. It's quite strange. I hope you don't mind me saying this, but, as horrible as this whole incident was, it's a great scientific discovery," he said, almost making it sound positive.


"Scientific discovery my ass," Misato growled, "Those are two human beings we're dealing with. I don't think that any discovery should be paid such a high price. Where is she and when will she wake up?"


The doctor seemed a bit surprised by the Major's dark reaction. " S-she's in room 103. She'll be up in a few hours. Y-you can see her if you like."


Misato nodded, stood up, pushed past the doctor, and then looked to Shinji. Her eyes conveyed not a request, but a command for him to come with her. He gulped as he suddenly felt fear and uncertainty rise up from the pit of his stomach, but he followed all the same.


They walked down the ever increasingly familiar corridors of the infirmary and Shinji began to feel even sicker. He had never liked hospitals, whether he was in one because he had to be or he was just visiting, he hated it. The almost non-present smells of filtered air, new plastic, and ailing bodies made him feel ill himself. Finally, they got to the room that the doctor had designated as housing that which was only being called 'she' at the moment. It seemed a sin to called it by one of it's names, or even by both, for no one really knew if they would still fit.


They walked through the door, and Shinji practically had to drag himself to the other side. He wanted to run away again, but, instead of wasting time telling himself that he couldn't, since it was obvious, he forced himself on. He looked up with curious and worried eyes to find the prone form of the girl on the bed with no monitors connected to her except that which told that her heart was still beating. Only a sheet covered her up to her neck, some of the long blue hair overlapping it. Shinji wanted to turn away, but he felt compelled to look.


She seemed unhappy in her sleep, no, more like she was at war, even if she wasn't moving. Asuka moved in her sleep, I should know that...Shinji told himself, NO! Asuka MOVES in her sleep. They can't be gone...they just can't...


The mysterious tiny cuts were only little pink marks that irregularly dotted her face. Shinji is right...Misato thought to herself, This is like something out of a nightmare, but it's real. We've been living a nightmare since the Second Impact...


Shinji felt as if he was really going to throw up. All the thoughts and emotions he was having were enough to make someone as cold as his father sick. He finally tore his eyes from her. "Misato...can we please go home? I-I really don't feel well," he said just above a whisper.


"Yeah," she agreed, still looking at the girl, but slowly turning away,

"Let's get out of here. It's been a long, horrible day."


They quickly exited the room, each having their fill of horror for the past 24 hours.


"Shinji...Ikari-kun..." the girl mumbled as she twisted over on to her side.

-Blue Taboo