AN: Man, I guess I can't say the story is in high demand, but it looks like I have a lot of competition. People are releasing stories to get voted into the Takoballs while your boy Chibi isn't even a Darkscribe yet. o.O
I mean I can hardly get this story to stay on the first page. Anyway, I hope you people enjoy this chapter
Strain
"The assassin's cold blade carries sorrow that cuts through all happiness…"Chapter Two:
For You I Kill…"Sir!"
A man at a desk sighed, "What do you have to report?"
The solider stood at attention and began to repot, "This morning, he was followed and had to engage in combat with the invader, however a third party became involved in the matter."
The solider held out his hand waiting for his boss to accept the picture.
"S-she is supposed t-to dead!" The man shouted aloud in his office as it echoed throughout the large room.
The blue eyed solider overlooked the comment and went on, "He was abducted and now we have reason to believe the two are preparing to fight with our forces, which are trying to retrieve him."
"Proceed." The man in the darkness ordered as he sat back further into the darkness.
He quietly waited as the young man bowed and promptly left the office, "They are not going to like this."
~*~*~*~
As the door opened, both Rei and Shinji held their breath… both of their firearms aimed towards the doorway waiting for an armed man to walk into the room only to meet an untimely demise.
For the one second, time seemed to just come to a halt…
Rei stood with the automatic rifle at the ready, her eyes waiting for the target to walk through the door…
Shinji also stood at the ready, however his hands shook as firmly grasp the handgun between his palms ready to shoot at a moments notice.
For that brief period, the only thing that could be heard was the faint sound of the rain hitting the windowpane and the rattling of a gun in shaking hands…
And then he came.
Or, however, it came…
The little device bounced along the ground, coming to a stop not far from Shinji.
"Cover your eyes!" Came the sharp and uncharacteristic shout from his normally quiet companion.
A brilliant bright light filled the room, but thankfully because of his reflexes, Shinji managed to avoid being blinded for a brief period of time.
Again, Shinji's reflexes came into play as he hit the ground as gunfire erupted overhead. He could feel pieces of wood from the wall and glass from the window falling on top of him and he could also hear it falling to the floor.
As he lay pinned to the floor, he took a look at Ayanami who simply stood directly in the center of the chaos…
Yes, she stood in the center of the room as the bullets barely missed her, the gun smoke making it hard to see the complete form of her figure but he could still make out her nearly emotionless eyes…
And as she pulled the trigger, her rifle let loose the hungry bullets that would feast upon the blood of her victims and those unlucky enough to be in her way…
She looked like an Angel of Death.
As the sound of shooting ceased on the other side of the door, Shinji slowly got up…
To say the least he was embarrassed…
Ayanami fearlessly gunned down multiple gunmen, where as he only laid his cowering ass on the floor, making her do all the work
."Ayanami… I'm… I-"
"Ikari, " she interrupted regaining her quiet, subtle voice, "I… I promise I will protect you." She vowed as her eyes betrayed her lock on her emotions.
Silently, she walked over to the duffle bag and softly threw it at Shinji, "They are still coming, we have to make haste."
As they stepped outside her doorway, Shinji was shocked to see how many men were lying on the ground lifeless… in a church no less…
Drawing his attention towards Ayanami, he noticed she was going upstairs instead of outside, "Shouldn't w-we go out a back-"
"Get down!" she shouted again as she whipped out a handgun and shot the oncoming men with incredible aim.
Shinji gasped as a hand landed on his shoulder… and a body fell on top of him.
Slowly rising his head to see if anyone behind him was alive, Shinji got up and ran up the steps as fast as he could, "S-so why are you going upstairs." Shinji shivered trying to forget the feel of a dead body pressed up against him…
"This church was used as a fort during a war a long time ago, as their forces were being defeated the ones who stayed at the church started to doubt they would win and made a secret escape passage…" Rei walked into the third door on their left at the top of the stairs.
"W-What happened to them?" Shinji asked finding the back-story of the church quite interesting.
"One of the captured soldiers lead the enemy here and gave up the secret in order to save his own life," she paused as she examined the gigantic cross on the wall behind the bed. Ayanami pulled a switch under the bed, "It is said that he was killed nevertheless."
Shinji watched as the cross began to fall to the floor, exposing the passage behind it… He could tell from where he was that the only way they could possibly make it through was to side step since it wasn't wide enough for them to just walk straight through.
"Go." She directed as she held dual handguns aimed at the door.
"Wait…"
Rei turned her head towards waiting for him to continue.
"I… I don't see why you are risking your life for me… I'm just some guy who works in a cubical," He paused again and looked her dead in the eye, "I don't… I don't even know you."
"It doesn't matter if you don't remember, but… a long time ago you told me something." She didn't have to look at him to see that he was scared, "What you told gave me a reason to live, this is how I will repay you…"
"Ayanami, I-"
"Start walking Ikari, the sooner we reach our destination the sooner I'll begin to answer your questions."
Once again, he listened to the albino girl before him and start to side step through the narrow path… It was cold and silent; the only sounds that could be heard were coming from his breathing and footsteps. Not wasting any more time to talk, he kept moving and Ayanami later joined him in the passage as the 'door' began to close making it even darker than before…
Now they were moving down a thin passageway in total darkness…
Shinji could have swore he almost had a heart attack as he could hear the men in the room talking about where they could have disappeared to.
It started to feel like they were repeating the same process over and over again, Shinji would put his hand out to see if they arrived at the exit, slide his foot against the ground to make sure it wasn't any holes or anything, and then take another step…
Then he could see some light coming from above…
"This is the well in the courtyard." Rei whispered as Shinji began to climb the ladder.
As he reached the top, he was surprised to find that no one was near the well… or even in the courtyard.
Sadly, the young man didn't see the butt of a rifle closing in on the back of his head…
~*~*~*~
"You have one hundred and thirty seconds. Start now."
Shinji instantly grabbed the pieces of metal and laid them out in front of him, both carefully and quickly the boy began to assemble the handgun.
His eyes looked at the timer in front of him every few seconds, and sweat started to form on his forehead…
But the boy made a grave mistake… in his haste to put the gun together he knocked one of the smaller parts onto the floor.
Wasting valuable time, the boy reached his arm out to pick up the piece and almost instantly put it inside the gun.
"You have ten seconds left." Said the man beside him.
The pressure was getting to him… his hands were starting to shake…
But he was so close! It was only three pieces left!
"Five."
Shinji sighed with relief as he put the last part onto the gun and lifted it up, showing the man that it was done.
"The gun is incomplete." The man said in the same deep voice, and pulled out his gun and placed it directly behind his ear, the cold metal digging into his skin…
"You are dead."
"I… I don't understand. I did it right!" Shinji exclaimed as he slammed his hands on the desk and got up.
Only to be knocked to the floor by a punch, "Dead men don't talk."
"Had this been the normal exercise I would have been required to kill you." The man pulled a piece of metal out of his pocket.
"You should be glad." the man flashed a bizarre smile…
"You have a second chance," he threw the missing part at the boy who still laid on the floor, "I normally do this just to kill the little bastards."
~*~*~*~
His eyes snapped open as something cold was applied to his forehead…
It was kind of a blur at first but he could see the outline of a person tending to him.
Instantaneously, the past event flooded into the Shinji's mind… and at about the same time his vision cleared and he could now make out the face of… Ayanami.
Now noticing the person in front of him, his eyes searched around for clues to help him identify where he was…
"Ah… What happened Ayanami?" he asked as she placed the bag of ice on his head.
"I apologize Ikari… I failed to protect you like I said I would."
As he sat up, he noticed that they were indeed in a hotel room, "I don't think you did so bad Ayanami. I'm still alive." He ended the statement with a smile… that put her worries at ease.
Shinji's expression quickly changed as he lay back down, "Do… do you think we can talk now?" he questioned her and once again waited for the simple answer that may be a no.
She walked towards the window and took a peek out of it, "Ikari, you were an Evangelion pilot." Rei stated as her attention fully shifted to him.
"What is that?" he could honestly say he didn't remember every piloting anything…
"Evangelion, also know as Eva, was the… living machine that was owned by a organization called Nerv. Your father, Gendo Ikari, was the commander and organized the operation against the enemies called Angels who were beginning to invade Tokyo-3," she paused as Shinji continued to listen, but she could tell that he was beginning to disbelieve her, "You came to Nerv because of your father's request and became the pilot of Unit-01,"
"But… I… my father died when I was thirteen and I lived with my uncle till I went off to college…"
"Shinji, tell me what college your dropped out of." She commanded.
As the young man's mind started to sink into deep thought, Rei kept asking questions she already knew the answer to…
"What company do you work at?"
"What is your apartment address?"
He opened his mouth to speak… but he was sure that it was at the tip of his tongue…
"Don't bother, you never went to college, and I don't think what you do can actually be labeled as a profession." Rei looked at him as he began to shake his head from side to side, "Shinji you have a mental block. They figured it would be easier to have a weapon that didn't think."
She stepped closer towards Shinji, "After you became a pilot, we successfully stopped the Third Impact… but the organization that funded NERV was furious. That organization, SEELE, took your father prisoner and they also kidnapped you."
"You… you are going too fast. What do you mean we stopped the Third Impact… and who exactly make up 'we'?"
"It was five Evangelion pilots. Two survived, or one depending on your information source, and the pilots worked together to prevent the Third Impact." Shinji slowly nodded, "Despite their failed attempt, SEELE is trying to plan for another Third Impact, but they need the money to fund their plans and they don't have that kind of money. In order to get that money, SEELE became an organization that deals with the assassinations of political rivals and in exchange for silencing their opponents, people send them money."
Rei hesitated for a moment, "Shinji… you are their best assassin."
Shinji simply closed his eyes, "…That's all… I want to know." He said softly as he turned on his side.
"You don't understand Ikari, you know much more… it's just that we have to remove the mental block," She sighed, "It is only one person I know who can do that."
"I… I don't want it out Ayanami… I just want my life to stay how it is. I don't want to be a killer, I just want to go to work like a normal person and get the stuff I want."
"I expected more from you Ikari. Why do you want to remain ignorant, you will only be-"
"I want it to be that way because that is what I am used to!" Shinji yelled, "I don't want to be a killer! I never asked for," The boy started to trail off as both him and Rei turned towards the door, "this…"
The knocking continued, yet neither of them moved.
Shinji quickly grabbed Ayanami's hand as she reached for her gun, "Maybe it's just room service or something…" he whispered feeling awkward recalling the fact that he was just yelling not to long ago…
"Room service call before they knock." Rei replied just as quietly.
Suddenly the soft knocking came to a stop, "Yea, it was probably just a joke or something…" Shinji signed as he got off of the bed to peek out the eyehole in the door.
"Shinji," called out a familiar voice on the other side of the door.
The young man nearly tripped before he reached the door, "Mana!?"
Rei tighten her grasp on the gun in her hand…
It was a brief pause, "I'm… I'm here to take your life."
Fin
__________________
Interesting, I bet somebody was expecting Asuka.
*CF gets hit with a brick.
Thanks for bringing me back to reality -_-'
Seriously though, I was really against putting Mana in the story at first but like always it is easier to use a known character (even if she isn't canon) instead of using a ACC or something.
And I should have come up with something better than, 'Mental block'. -_-'
Nevertheless, the story is coming along exactly as I planned it.
For a drama/action/dark/bit of romance story, I'll have to say that it isn't that cheesy in my opinion.
I guess that's it for now.
Next chapter: The Wings of a Tainted Angel