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Reviewer corner
Hmm, many thanks friendly reviewing people. ^_^. This may take away from the story a bit but I wanted to answer a few questions before I continued
Q: Is Mana apart of Shinji's fake life, or from the part of his EVA life that he might remember?
A: Let's see if you find your answer in this chapter.
Q: Who do plan on pairing with Shinji in this story?
A: Ah, if you didn't notice already it is going to be Rei. ^_^
Q: Will we see other Nerv members, like Asuka or Misato and Dr. Akagi?
A: I don't know about Misato or even Ritsuko yet, but Asuka is going to be in the story for sure.
Q: Will you explain how SEELE abduct him?
A: Yup, at least I will try.
Q: And what happened to Asuka?
A: You'll see. ^_^
Q: Who the fuck is Mana to Shinji?!
A: Hopefully, you will find out doing this chapter.
About the war/church passage way thing:
A: See I just didn't want it to be passage way in a church for no reason, and making Rei living in a castle alone (in the middle of Japan even) didn't make sense. So I made a little story up about their being a war. It didn't hit me till I was reading your review that I made this horrible mistake. I'll try not to make any other mistakes like that.
Q: Is there an English version of Girlfriend of Steel?
A: The sad truth is that I have not the idea, you could try looking around for a rom or something but finding a working one in English is probably rare if one even exist.
Well thanks for the reviews and I was glad to answer them, now back to the story.
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Warning: I know this story deals with the Rei & Shinji relationship, but this chapter has to do with Mana. I'm not going to beg anyone to read this chapter since I know some people really dislike Mana, but I enjoy using her like any other character.
Strain
"The assassin's cold blade carries sorrow that cuts through all happiness…"
Chapter Three:
The Wings of An Tainted AngelIt was a quiet, cloudless night. Although it wasn't all that dark thanks to the full moon, but despite the beautiful glow of the moon and the absent humming of the insects… in most cases, the activities that went on doing the night were a direct opposite of what went on doing the day
But in some cases, some people worked day and night… doing the same thing be it negative and positive. To these kind of people, the peace of the sunny day and the quiet beauty of the starry nights were not things to be enjoyed… they were views and things that these people longed to see.
It was these kind of people that wanted hear a song that reminded them why the darkness of the night never tainted the moon, and it was these kind of people that wouldn't mind hearing a story about why troubles the mind carried would never burden the soul… because all would be spoken through the heart…
But on this quiet night, it was a lonely woman outside a door… trying to deal with the matters of her heart.
"Mana, w-what are you doing here!?" Shinji asked trying to ignore her last statement…
"Shinji… just come outside." Came the soft reply to his question.
The male took a glance at Rei and then looked back at the door before him. Silently standing getting up from the floor, the young man moved to open the door…
As he pressed the dial in the center of the knob to unlock the door, a question came from Rei's quiet voice, "Who is she to you?"
He paused, but still continued to slowly twist the knob, "My girlfriend…"
Rei could honestly say she wasn't surprised, it was just another barrier SEELE put in place to keep Shinji, and just another barrier she would have to break if necessary…
A cold breeze filtered though the crack in the open door into the hotel room as the boy pulled it back causing more and more of the front of the room to be covered in the cool night air.
"Ayanami… I-I don't care if this is one of their lies or something, but let me do this alone…" Shinji said as he began to walk outside in his dress suit.
"No." Came the sudden reply from the female inside the room.
Nevertheless, Shinji sighed and walked out of the door… only to have the cold metal of a handgun being pressed behind his ear.
"Shinji come with me… I'll make it painless I swear." Although the boy never could recall any of their intimate encounters he felt that he cared for this girl… and the loneliness in her voice hurt him… a lot.
"Mana, why are you doing this?" Shinji calmly asked despite the sweat beginning to form on the edge of his eyebrow.
She smiled… but it was so hollow and fake… he didn't even want to look at it.
"Let me tell you a story Shinji," She reached into her light armor and tore the wire off of her, "I at least owe you this much… Shinji a long time ago, we trained together. You know the weapon handling, torture training, and all that stuff… we was always paired together but everyone could tell that you was taking the training lightly… It was probably because you felt worse pain and probably because you was a pilot, but you was the best…"
"Mana, you don't-"
"I wasn't as good as you so I had to do more training… but you always tried to help me. I started to like you Shinji, but when they finally made us 'work'… I wanted to be with you since we were free but something happened to your memory… It was like you were two different people. An normal guy who thought he was going to work like everyone else by day, and an assassin during the night…."
Rei listened to girl as she leaned on the wall inside the hotel waiting to get involved if she had to.
Mana brought the gun down to her side, "Shinji, it was hard having to become friends with you again…but at about the same time SEELE started using me for missions. You know," She averted her eyes and looked at her boots, "the type of missions where you had to get the target when they wasn't expecting you to."
He felt naïve, mainly because he didn't quite understood what she meant…
"She is saying she had to engage in sexual acts in order to reach her objective." Rei whispered making it completely clear…
"Yea… I didn't think you would want to be with me, so I started to get farther away from you, but then SEELE thought they needed one more backup plan in place… so they made me your girlfriend."
Shinji turned to her, she stood in full combat gear all black except the female model of the suit had more room for their chest and Mana didn't seem to carry the helmet or use it, and her only weapon was the revolver she held in her hand… her brown hair danced in the wind and her soft blue eyes held tears that wanted to fall.
She was the definition of despair, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to… I understand."
"No, I owe this to you Shinji." The girl said as she began to continue, "I wasn't allowed to kiss you Shinji… I wasn't allowed to do anything. They would tell me when to come and when to leave… but as long as I could hold you even for a minute I felt like I was released from them. I felt free… but when they informed me that you was kidnapped I didn't know if I should be scared since you was gone or if I should have been glad that you was being taken away from that… place. I now envy your freedom Shinji…"
"You envy his strength to be able to leave that life behind, it is only now that you realize that it is too late for you to escape-"
"No! I don't mean it that way. I wanted you to escape. As a matter of fact I was planning to leave right when you finished your mission… but they told me that you were 'kidnapped' , but… I have to take your freedom so I can live Shinji. Please die… for me."
She raised the gun…
"I refuse." Rei stepped out of the hotel with her handgun pointed at Mana, "You would take a loved one life just so you can keep killing for an organization that would kill you to clear itself."
"Why are you taking him Ayanami? So you can-"
The blue haired albino stepped forward and stood beside Shinji, "I take him because he doesn't deserve to live that life. If the ones that 'love' him consider being his murderer then Shinji is in much more danger than I thought."
"I… hate you Ayanami, you made it so people like me would have to labor in those mass production factories, then you leave making it so we ourselves have to do your dirty work, and now you want to take away the only thing that gives me any comfort. I don't care if everyone else calls me a slut or a bitch, but as long… as long as he says 'I love you Mana' I would always forget…"
Mana threw her gun on the ground and walked directly in front of Shinji, "But you are probably right Ayanami… I don't want to live anymore. I didn't even get permission to do this mission… I killed the agent they sent and decided to do it myself. If I return they are going to demote me… or kill me, but as long as I saw you Shinji. I just want you to leave… escape. Please don't let them," She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his for the first time… ever. She wrapped her arms around him and forced her tongue into his parted lips so she could taste him.
Mana could feel the heat that came from him as he also pulled her closed and put his arms around her, and she didn't care if he was only doing so out of pity… as long as she shared the moment with him.
"Please don't let them take you away," She smiled… but this one, for once, was real and beautiful, "and please don't ever forget what we shared."
She sat down on the ground, "I'm ready Ayanami…"
The boy quickly looked at both Mana and Rei, "What do you mean Mana?"
Rei stepped forward… with her gun raised, "I understand."
The woman on the ground smiled, "Thank you Shinji."
He blinked as he realized what they were doing, and his voice just came to life on its own, "Wait! Please Ayanami!! What are you-"
The sound of the gunshot soon filled his ears…
~*~*~*~
He looked at the full moon in night sky as he laid in the back of the pickup truck that Rei 'borrowed'… it was hard to get his mind off of her…
Did it hurt this much to lose a person that you cared for?
Even if it was a lie… he cared for her, but Mana loved him.
His heart felt like it just broke into pieces as he watched her slump forward as the bullet went through her head… Shinji wasn't ashamed that he cried, but it made him feel so worthless…
It was only after her death that the 'what ifs' started and the questions about her stated to come.
Rei justified her actions by telling him that she would have rather died that way than by SEELE assassins' hands, and that they had to leave before they arrived.
Shinji kept looking at the stars as his thoughts began to wander towards the albino herself…
Of course he trusted her, but why would anyone in their right mind try to go against such a powerful organization… it only made sense that she had ulterior motives…
Was… was he just something she decided to get along the way?
"Shinji." The soft voice roused him from his thoughts as he set up, and he quickly looked around for a sign of danger only seeing an empty parking lot…
Suddenly an arm appeared out of the darkness of the night and handed him a sandwich, turning his head to see who that arm belonged… his eyes met a pair of ruby red eyes waiting for him to get the piece of food wrapped up in some napkins.
"T-thank you," He quickly said remembering his manners as he grabbed the sandwich out of her hand.
He slid over some to allow her to sit in the truck bed beside him, "Hey Ayanami, w-why did you come for me and what is it you have against SEELE."
It was likely she wasn't going to answer… As a matter of fact he didn't really expect her to, he didn't even see why he-
"I went for you."
Shinji almost dropped his sandwich, "W-what do y-you mean Rei?" he asked expecting her to answer this time.
"Like I already stated, I am willing to destroy that SEELE for what they have done to you, me, and… others." Rei turned towards the young man who was also looking at her, "A long time ago, I informed that the Third Impact was right… but by nearly going through it myself I found out that it was something that humanity should never deal with again, but more importantly SEELE took away the freedom of the people I cared for most."
Shinji paused as the girl covered his hand with hers, "Only in her death did I discover how long that organization can plant seeds of misery and manage to get away with it, and long ago… I vowed that I would rid the world of SEELE even if I have to live with a gun pointed in my direction every hour of the day and every minute of the night."
The young man beside the girl gasped as she rested her head on his shoulder, "Shinji, I only know one person who can take the block out of your mind." She said in the same quiet voice she always spoke in.
Shinji looked up at the sky as Rei began to close her eyes, "Who is that…?"
"Asuka."
Fin
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Ah, the relationship is starting to show, and Rei is becoming more and more OOC… -_-'
Yea, you can throw another brick if you want, but red demon herself is making her debut in the next chapter. I kind of want her to bring some humor into this otherwise depressing story, but she is going to have to bring some of the stuff people read my stuff for… drama. e_e
Okay, I give you permission to hit me for a brick for that one. -_-'
Since I was late updating, I will upload the next chapter as well. o.o
Next Chapter: Gray