Disclaimer is in chapter one. So hush if you wanna bug me about copyright laws. Your lawyers can't touch me!!! *poke poke* eh? WTF?! *gets dragged away from the computer* oh oh... I think I pissed somebody off saying that...
Oh and believe it or not but I actually thought up some fitting Omakes... go figure...
So if ya liked the earlier chapters great! For this chapter I'm dimming down the lighting to give it a bit more of a dark feeling.
My oh My,
what could they dreamt?
Oh what could ever it be?
'...' stands for thought
"..." stands for talking
--?--?-- stands for beginning and end.
~~...~~ stands for author interruption(Me, making myself heard)
--- stands for... I guess the next Scene
#...# stands for the current dreamer's thought process
*Shinji* stands for someone referring to Asuka in Shinji's body
*Asuka* stands for someone referring to Shinji in Asuka's body
Enjoy!
DrunkDrake
World from the eye's of Another
04: Memories of a broken heart / Shifting paths
--?--?--
Shinji rested his head on Asuka's pillow. Asuka's room was much like Shinji's, only messier with an extra drawer for storing the 'essentials' as she called them. 'Why do girls shop for some much clothing anyway?'. Shinji stared at a ceiling that should have been familiar to Asuka's sapphire blue eyes. Sadly Shinji had never set foot in Asuka's room before now, so now Asuka's blue eyes studied a ceiling that they had memorised before but not in this boy's memories.
Shinji sighed as he turned over again and studied the room. It was about Shinji's room size but it was more crowded with some of the moving box's still stacked in a corner, the closet door was open displaying a wide array of colours from dresses to blouses. There was even litter, torn magazine pages, dirty clothing in some corners and even an over full garbage can.
"What a difference to my room" Shinji muttered as her turned and faced the wall. He paused and looked again and wondered why he felt so comfortable here even without his SDAT playing it's soothing musics.
---
"Dumb baka. Not even a poster or teen magazine... what does he do while he's in here?" Asuka rolled over from the wall and wondered why she didn't bring something with her when she came in in the first place. The ceiling was bare just like in her room but it held a sort of forlornness to it that seemed to project the idea that she's alone. Alone in a barren world. 'Couldn't he have atleast put up a poster or something for me sheesh'. Asuka looked around the room 100th time and rested her eye's on his desk.
"There's Gotta be something to do here. He won't mind if I root around" Asuka whipped off the blankets and treaded to the desk. Upon it, hidden out of her sight earlier, was a little mini disk player.
"Shinji's SDAT?" Asuka looked at it for a moment and then picked it up "Well, I may as well play my part" she sat on the foot of the bed inserted the ear plugs and played the first recording.
"No wonder the baka's always such a downer, if he listens to this depressing junk" She sprawled herself across the bed and closed her eyes as the music's melody hummed in her ears. She studied the room and made some comments about his choice of music as time went along. That was until she found one that truly seemed to fit her.
"Ode to joy" She muttered as the music's cheery chorus wrapped her head in a soothing embrace and settled her off to sleep. She didn't even register when the SDAT begun to rewind after finishing track 26.
---
Looking around, a dark hallway ending with a white door with a golden doorknob looms overheard. Standing up a voice slowly starts to make itself heard.
"Momma!"
Looking back away from the door, the dark hallway's other way is faded to darkness with no light no shadow in them.
"Look at me! Look at ME Momma!!!"
The voice is now accompanied by hurried footsteps. Someone's running. The noise is picking up it's pace and is noted as the sounds of perhaps a 4 year old's feet running across a polished wood floor.
"I'm an E~Leet pilot now!!"
The darkness retracts and a figure is running towards the door. The figure turns out to be a child after all. The child's feet furiously beating across the floor as it made it's way towards the door, panting with a smile over it's mouth as it raced.
"I'm ok now, even without Papa"
The door looms farther and farther overheard as the child nears it. Dread seems to radiate from behind the door. I screamed a warning to the child, not to enter it but...
The rapid foot falls stopped...
"Please look at me Mom~ma!"
The door was flung open and the child stopped.
The child's panting stopped...
The child's voice silenced...
The child's smile faded...
The child's mother hung from the ceiling...
With a smile on it's twisted face.
The child stared at the hanging figure, it's smile barely even remembered. It's eye's wide tearful and hurt. The child looked away from the once living person, and looked away towards the window of the room. The window was the only thing that wasn't green. The tree's and the grass somehow seemed to cheer the child. 'I just imagined it...'.
A single thread of a spiders web slowly danced to the wind from the window. It was no spider's thread. It was a string... In the shape of a noose... with cotton bits clinging to some of it's surface. A single puff of cotton drifted off the slow dancing string noose and fell lazily to the floor, almost as if it was happy or cheerful to be away from the string. It lightly fluttered across the room and landed on the torn corpse of a doll. The doll had been ripped into two halves. It lay directly under the trailing cotton falling from the string noose.
'Momma, thought the doll was me...'
The doll's lifeless button brown eyes stared at the child's own pair. It's brown mat of hair mockingly similar to the child's own.
'Momma, was going to kill me...'
Shinji stared down at the 4 year old version of himself as it picked up the doll's head and silently swore never to cry after this time.
Shinji didn't understand what happened, he didn't understand why it happened, he didn't understand how it happened. Yet now he watched as his mother hung behind himself while the child cradled the doll's head as it's final tears fell to the floor.
#This... I... don't remember this... this is only a nightmare... it's too cruel to be true... isn't it... mother?#
---
A child sat in the lap of a father. A father that was willing to give the world to his child and his wife. The child giggling slightly as the father gently placed the it on the floor. With both hands empty he steepled them together and rested his nose on his knuckles as the child skipped around the room, merrily viewing the world with 2 innocent eyes.
"This place isn't a daycare you know"
A room came to sight. A fairly large room... very cluttered very messy.
#It almost looks like one of the test facilities, only that some of the walls didn't seem completely covered#
Some of the computer terminals were still being wired together and that there wasn't even the usual white paint job. Everything had a fiendishly metallic accent, even the smell.
"Don't worry I brought only brought my child"
The child hadn't been paying attention to anyone however that voice immediately had the child plastered against a floor to ceiling glass wall, waving merrily as mother stood on the other side. Father sat at his desk and his smile went unnoticed behind the hands. The child was the very definition of innocence. It's blue eye's looked over the world and barely paid heed to anything that went along. It's eye's dazzled by flashing colours and following scrolling text but not bothering with the significance any of it really held.
"Shinji, step back from there. You might cause trouble"
'The grey figure beside father questioned mother? Why would someone question mother?' The child waved more vividly and mother smiled and back.
"It is to show my child that we will have a bright future. A future, for my child"
Mother waved around herself and the child saw she was standing on what was a massive collection of wires and metal plates. 'Almost as messy as my room. Oh yeah, mother said she wanted me to clean my room when I got home!' The child paused for a moment before remembering the other half of his mother's lecture "You should always be nice to other people. You weren't nice to our neighbour before she left" The child's eye's looked around the room again before settling on the messy place mother stood on. Logic didn't do anything but a feeling over came just then.
#That's... my eva?... No... that's my future eva...#
"Begin Activation"
The child had been distracted and had not noticed that mother had entered a tube of some sort. Mother had waved just before disappearing. The child stayed leaning against the glass as the metal monster begun to move.
"Something's wrong! Syncro-ratio is fluctuating!"
"Cut the power! Stop the experiment!!"
The child had no idea what lady had said but it must have been important because father spoke up. The child watched as all the other people backed away from the child. Suddenly father spun around.
"ASUKA MOVE!"
'Why did father yell at me? Did I miss behave... I... I...'
A sudden boom followed by the sounds of a thousand crystals cracking erupted from behind the child. Panic filled eye's snapped over to the impervious glass wall that once supported the child. Cracks radiated from a centre that dangerously leaned inward. Suddenly the glass was darkened as it once again erupted in noise and the glass cracked again. A giant fist had indented the glass, and did so again. One more punch would have sent the shattered glass windows, sending the shards into the people inside like a million razor knives.
The child watched as the monster stared right at him.
Blue eyes to emerald green.
One pair with horror...
One pair with rage...
The child didn't even cry out as it saw the fist again close towards it.
Closer...
closer...
closer...
'Mother?'...
The monster suddenly spasmed and clutched it's head as if in pain.
#Momma?#
The innocence in the child's eyes was forever stolen. The child watched the monster tear it's claws across it's own head, spilling blood over it's own body.
The monster stopped suddenly, it's eyes dimmed, yet watchful. Father had ran towards the monster. He looked in the tube mother had been in but stopped and cried.
'Father never cries... where's momma?'
The world faded from view as voices slowly picked up speed. The world revolving around the child.
'Mother... has left us...' "Why did she leave! Was it because I wasn't nice!"
'She disappeared during an experiment...' "I promised I'd clean my room and have her inspect it! I'll wait for her! I'm a good child!"
'I can't keep you any longer...' "Was it because, I wasn't nice! I promise to be nice! I'll be nice to everyone! Please don't leave!"
The father was seen walking away from the child. The child held it's eye's closed as the father's shadow faded behind a corner.
"When, I'm not nice people leave me... They hurt me when I'm not nice..."
"So I'll be nice..."
Asuka watched as her younger version went to sleep under an unfamiliar ceiling in a house that was a relative's.
#I don't want to be alone#
"I don't want to be alone..."
---
Waking up in a cold sweat Shinji stared at the opposing wall. The dream was a nightmare, simple as that. However he'd never had anything like that before in his life. Nothing was as horrifying as that in Shinji's memory.
"I can't even remember my own mother's face, yet I could dream something like that in vivid detail..." The dream still lingered on his memory, the doll's twin button orbs hovering in his vision.
"That doll... I might start hating dolls almost as much as Asuka at this rate" Shinji lowered himself back to the bed and rolled over.
"4:19?..." The dream had woken Shinji up indefinitely. Seeing the time he decided sleep was a hopeless cause. Rubbing his eye's open, he made his way through the apartment to a light that was on in the kitchen.
'Who else would be up at this time of night...' Shinji paused for a moment '...err morning?'
Faint muttering could be heard and from the language used it was undoubtable the German fireball Asuka. Shinji rounded the corner and found the fridge door wide open spilling it's light over a male's backside. Shinji silently sat at his usual spot at the table and watched as the figure continued to mutter to itself in German as it rooted out something.
"Ha, thought you could hide from me?!" Shinji nearly fell off the chair at the ex-red head's sudden call. Actually Shinji did fall off the chair, the thud from his landing scared the oblivious girl thus the newly found orange juice she searched splashed across the floor.
"Shinji?" Asuka blinked at the fallen boy as he picked himself up "What are you doing scaring me like that!" she looked at her watch before adding "And at this hour no less!!"
"Sorry, Icouldn'tsleepsoIdecidedtogetanearlystart" Shinji fast forwarded his speech when he noticed he started it with the wrong word. Asuka glowered oh so slightly before shrugging it off.
"Yeah, me too..." Asuka pondered for a moment if she just said that, but came to the conclusion that admitting a very small weakness with Shinji isn't so important. Right now, they're both screwed.
"...Don't you usually sleep in till 10 or something on Sunday's?"
"I figure that without my body, I don't need to worry so much about beauty sleep. Least not with this ugly thing" Asuka indicated herself.
"Sorry..."
"Stop saying sorry damn it!" Shinji avoided the usual reply to that and left the silence to retake the air around them. Asuka sat across from Shinji sipping the remaining orange juice. Asuka was a little glad that she had Shinji here with her now. The nightmare she just had was weird. For some reason it struck down to her very core and she really didn't feel like being alone... worse was the fact that she and Shinji got stuck in each others bodies. Only 3 other people currently knew their secret and they should all be sleeping at this time. This really made the world feel a lot more empty.
"So Shinji..." Shinji turned his head to face his companion. His new found red locks teasing his vision.
"Yeah?" Shinji watched as Asuka gained a bored look and fiddled with her half full~~or half empty for you darkfic readers, HAHA, I made a funny!~~ glass of orange juice.
"Any idea's of how to fix this little problem of ours?" Shinji stared at Asuka for a little while, his own mind had given up(or forgotten) to look for a way to fix this. His head gave the negative motion.
"Me neither... This is beyond us... Well not me... but..." Asuka sipped the orange juice before gently placing it on the table and locking gazes with Shinji.
"Well... as fun as it is to be you, Asuka. I'd rather be myself" Asuka nodded in agreement. It was annoying how all the simple stuff that was second nature now are mostly mute. She almost missed having her little habits.
"Well then how should we go about it?"
"Misato"
"Gee, how could I have ever guessed?" Asuka gave a mocking voice "You've only been on my case from day one. I honestly thought you'd want to tell Penpen first!" Leave it to Asuka to coat every word from her mouth with enough sarcasm to drown a desert.
"Well then who do you recommend we tell?" Shinji had crossed his arms a-la-Asuka(TM)
"Well, Misato is a good choice. But We'll obviously need Ritsuko's help" Both shuddered at the thought of Ritsuko putting them through all sorts of tests.
"Good, when Misato awakens we'll tell her"
"You realize it's gonna-be hella-hard to convince her" Asuka nodded along with Shinji.
"You've been around your stooge Jock friend too much, your starting to pick up his accent"
"Sorry..."
---
"YEEEE-HAAAAAAAA" Shinji and Asuka barely even blinked in Misato's direction. She slammed the can down and reached for another Yebisu before looking over her charges. *Asuka* was cooking breakfast as *Shinji* was lying upside down on the couch watching the world flick by on the TV.
"This is strange..."
"Hmm? What is Misato?" Misato plunked down the second empty on the table as *Asuka* turned around from her cooking.
"Well, why are you doing the cooking *Asuka*?" at that *Shinji* righted himself and turned the TV off. *Shinji* sat beside an already seated *Asuka* and the two looked at each other for a moment.
"Misato..."
"Yeah, *Shinji*?" This was really odd, Shinji never starts a conversation~~If you noticed she's still correct~~
"Remember the angel attack from before?" Misato nodded before *Asuka* continued.
"It has some... side effects... serious side effects" Misato began to worry 'Mental damage! bad memory?! Wrinkles!? what could it be!'
"Well... what are the side effects?" Misato watched as *Shinji* nudged *Asuka* and said
"you tell her Shinji"
"Asuka... well... Misato we're sort of in the wrong... bodies..." Misato blinked a few times before nodding her head and laughing.
"Ah god I hate hang-overs. The weirdest things seem to happen at this time. Yesterday I could have sworn I saw pink flying elephants running through my halls" Misato guzzled the third can of Yebisu as Shinji and Asuka stared at Misato.
"and to think I thought I heard you say you switched bodies! Ha what a laugh! So what did you say!" Misato's mirth died when she saw both of her roommates look downcast.
"Oh shit, you actually said that..."
The morning quickly disappeared as Asuka and Shinji retold of their little adventure.
---
Gendo walked through the halls of NERV and pondered the latest turn of events. He had just returned from another meeting with the council and it was obvious that they were trying to figure out what Ikari's plans were.
"Waste of time wasn't it?" Gendo didn't bother to slow down nor acknowledge his new companion, sub commander Fuyutsuki.
"The old men once again think that I have a plan of my own" Fuyutsuki grinned as Gendo continued his walk though the empty hall.
"Just because you do have one doesn't mean they'll learn about eh?" Gendo's eye's flickered over to his companion and uttered a grunt but otherwise nothing was spoken.
"Arael's delayed defeat, was one of the possibilities that the Dead Sea Scrolls hinted at"
"Oh and what would be effected if it came to surpass? As it did might I add"
"It hinted that the challengers to accept Arael's trial shall face themselves" Fuyutsuki chuckled lightly at Gendo's rehearsed speech.
"You've already told me that. If fact that was word for word of what was originally said. Perhaps the meaning has changed?"
Gendo once again spared his sub commander a glance.
"Both pilots are perfectly fine. whatever happened in that battle started and ended there"
"Don't be too sure of yourself professor, there is one difference between Arael's defeat and Arael's delay"
"Angelic destruction? Unholy demons? an uncontrolled 3rd impact?" Fuyutsuki had wondered why Gendo was so talkative. Even to his longest acquaintance, Gendo rarely talked so freely, even if it was about instrumentality.
"The fall of the second is predicted now as the bond with the third" Fuyutsuki nodded slowly understanding. If the second child doesn't fall that would give them a better chance against the last few angels however it also means instrumentality will either be sped up or prevented.
"So now we walk on the tip across the spiders web, one way leads to the hunting spider the other leads to an unknown end..."
Gendo merely pressed the button to call the elevator as his response. As Fuyutsuki pondered silently
"If only life were so simple. A spider I could crush with a newspaper. However SEELE is our spider waiting for us on one of those strings"
---
"So lemme get this straight... Your Shinji and your Asuka..." Misato's drunken haze has now become yesterday's news as the 3 address the issue's of the mind switching.
"Yes. For the third time, yes Misato" Misato held her head in one hand and sighed into her palm.
"How did this happen?"
"The angel did something to us, that pulled us out of our bodies or something. Then, when that's over, we wake up in the hospital staring at our new found figures" Asuka claimed waving her hands. 'this has got to be the third time, she's explained this' wondered Shinji.
"Shinji go get me a beer please..." Misato gladly takes the beer.
"Thanks *Asuka*" Misato pauses as she notices the children staring at her "Err.. Shinji! Yeah sorry forgot already..."
Shinji sat down next to Asuka who wore an odd mixture of blue jeans, a red under shirt with an unbuttoned white long sleeve shirt over that. Somehow Asuka has adapted to male fashion, something even Shinji couldn't do in his life time, yet she did in 2 days.
"What?!" Apparently Asuka noticed Shinji staring.
"Oh don't worry Asuka, Shinji probably finds you all the more sexy wearing his clothing" Shinji blushes but the sheer absurdity of Misato's comment demanded a response, regardless if it's from either or both.
"MISATO THAT'S GROSS!!!" It was from both. Misato just grinned as she sucked back her last beer for the morning. Leaving the somewhat squabbling roommates behind Misato heads for the phone.
"So guys, head on out and wait by the car ok? I'm going to call Ritsu and have an emergency Sync-test set up" Asuka and Shinji paused eye's wide. The thought of the eva's hadn't quite crossed their minds as they thought about it. Asuka was in a panic to say the least.
"OH MY GOD! I TOTALLY FORGOT TO THINK IF MY EVA WOULD EVEN RECOGNIZE ME!" she was racing around the room nervously clutching her fingers together "A DUMB BAKA LIKE YOU BETTER NOT COST ME MY PILOTING ABILITIES FOR UNIT 02!!!"
She continued to fret and pace across the room as Shinji attempted(thought poorly) to calm her down.
"Asuka don't worry that's why Misato calling Ritsuko... calm down..." Asuka spun like a soul possessed pointing her finger at Shinji as if it was a loaded gun. The leer on her face didn't help either.
"Yeah that's right. Nothing to worry about... It's just a mindless toy after all... Calm down Asuka" Asuka seemed to paused and draw the air around her like a flame would. She opens her eye's and looks to be almost at peace.
"The eva's are more then mindless toys Asu..." Shinji's little babble was cut short by the hurricane that was Asuka.
"SHUT UP BAKA YOU'LL JINX ME OR SOMETHING!!" She let go of Shinji's arms that she had clutched so tightly, and Shinji held onto the nearby table to balance himself after being rattled so badly.
"Asuka mind if you lend my SDAT player back? I feel as if it's gonna be a long sync-test"
"This is gonna be weird... what? Your silly little SDAT? Sure here" Asuka pulls the player out of here open shirt pocket and handed it to Shinji. He only wonders for a moment why Asuka would carry the thing around with her, but he just assumes she's playing her part 'perhaps too well...'.
"Oh and by the way... nice choice of music..." Asuka walked towards the apartment door and leaves. Shinji blinks pausing to insert the first ear plug. He wasn't sure if she was sarcastic or sincere. He settled on the latter and left after her to wait by Misato's car.
Misato's line finally went through after the door closed behind Shinji.
"Hello?" Ritsuko's voice through the other end. She sounded tired and maybe even cranky.
"Hey ya there Ritsuko" Misato gave her best impression of being in a good mood. Oddly enough she surprised herself and sounded the part.
"Oh it's you Misato..." Ritsuko picked up on Misato's chipper mood and felt like mud in comparison. 'Working these... 2 a day triple shifts ain't fun. Even then I'm still behind...' Ritsuko felt that she stated the actually number of work shifts but she didn't feel like wasting the brain power.
"Oh it's me!? What about me?!" Misato slightly fumed at being taken so lightly.
"This better be important because 'our' project is falling behind schedule..." Ritsuko's voice was slightly punctured by the rhythmic typing on a keyboard.
"We sort of have a situation with the pilots..." Ritsuko didn't bother typing until Misato told her everything. Ritsuko then looked on her current 'project' and wondered just what the hell this 'situation' is going to screw the hell up.
"If your joking that's cruel but if your being sarcastic that's even worse..."
--?--?--
And so ends the this chapter! I'm planning to finish off another chapter before School starts ;_; but it'll be a tight fit...
You may have noticed this(or not) but I added a touch of darkness into this chapter. The whole dream thing may have been weird, but it does make sense. I'll explain this in the next chapter cause next chapter they go under the knife!!! RITSUKO'S KNIFE!!!!! (And then there was much screaming)
So you've read it, so review it! Flame it, torch it, hold it out for the world to see, whatever tickles your fancy(who came up with that term anyway? If Shinji said it, Asuka would call him a pervert in no time flat) REVIEW IF YA KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR ME!?!
Next chapter 'Bet ya didn't eva think of that either huh?' we'll have both our Heroes deal with Ritsuko. Rei will make herself heard and Gendo makes plans for a new end. So until I get that next chapter off Here's some...
OMAKESSS!!!!!(I just thought these up as I typed and I liked them but I knew, they'd never fit anywhere so...)
--?--?--
Toji sat up awake all night thinking about Shinji and Asuka's 'little problem'. It sure looked like hell. Toji rolled over and wondered what it would be like to be a girl. It would not be something he'd get used to immediately...
"There's Gotta be an up side of this somewhere..." Toji rolled over again and his thinking once again took off.
"If I was a girl would I feel myself up?... Nah... too weird..." Toji kept thining back to the shopping mall where he saw Asuka looking at herself in a mirror. His hormones kicked in just then and the dress disappeared.
"AH MY EYES!!!" However he remembered an earlier talk with Kensuke at his door.
(flashback) "and if you were a girl?" Toji paused at his friends question...
"Thats easy... I'd strip down and stare at myself in the mirror all day long!"
(end flash back)
"Ikari you luck dog..." Across town in M. Katsuragi's apartment a figure stood in the nude in front of a mirror.
"HOT DOG!!!!! SHINJI'S REALLY GOT A HELL OF A PACKAGE!" Asuka stared at the mirror as Shinji innocently slept the night away.
--- I nearly wet myself When I rethought up this scene.
"Angelic destruction? Unholy demons? an uncontrolled 3rd impact?" Fuyutsuki had wondered why Gendo was so talkative. Even to his longest acquaintance, Gendo rarely talked so freely, even if it was about instrumentality. Maybe it was cause it hurt so much.
"The fall of the second is predicted now as the bond with the third" Fuyutsuki nodded slowly understanding. If the second turd doesn't fall that would give them a better chance to make it to the next meeting in time.
"So now we walk on the tip across the spiders web, one way leads to the over flowing bowl the other leads to an end..."
Gendo merely pressed the button to send his 'business' down the drain. Fuyutsuki sat in the next stall and wondered why they didn't discuss here more often. 'Hell they say a man does his best thinking on his throne of the souls...'
*Flush*
--?--?--
I must be truely sick... Ah well. I'm too busy reading fics and typing my own!!
Oh and believe it or not but I actually thought up some fitting Omakes... go figure...
So if ya liked the earlier chapters great! For this chapter I'm dimming down the lighting to give it a bit more of a dark feeling.
My oh My,
what could they dreamt?
Oh what could ever it be?
'...' stands for thought
"..." stands for talking
--?--?-- stands for beginning and end.
~~...~~ stands for author interruption(Me, making myself heard)
--- stands for... I guess the next Scene
#...# stands for the current dreamer's thought process
*Shinji* stands for someone referring to Asuka in Shinji's body
*Asuka* stands for someone referring to Shinji in Asuka's body
Enjoy!
DrunkDrake
World from the eye's of Another
04: Memories of a broken heart / Shifting paths
--?--?--
Shinji rested his head on Asuka's pillow. Asuka's room was much like Shinji's, only messier with an extra drawer for storing the 'essentials' as she called them. 'Why do girls shop for some much clothing anyway?'. Shinji stared at a ceiling that should have been familiar to Asuka's sapphire blue eyes. Sadly Shinji had never set foot in Asuka's room before now, so now Asuka's blue eyes studied a ceiling that they had memorised before but not in this boy's memories.
Shinji sighed as he turned over again and studied the room. It was about Shinji's room size but it was more crowded with some of the moving box's still stacked in a corner, the closet door was open displaying a wide array of colours from dresses to blouses. There was even litter, torn magazine pages, dirty clothing in some corners and even an over full garbage can.
"What a difference to my room" Shinji muttered as her turned and faced the wall. He paused and looked again and wondered why he felt so comfortable here even without his SDAT playing it's soothing musics.
---
"Dumb baka. Not even a poster or teen magazine... what does he do while he's in here?" Asuka rolled over from the wall and wondered why she didn't bring something with her when she came in in the first place. The ceiling was bare just like in her room but it held a sort of forlornness to it that seemed to project the idea that she's alone. Alone in a barren world. 'Couldn't he have atleast put up a poster or something for me sheesh'. Asuka looked around the room 100th time and rested her eye's on his desk.
"There's Gotta be something to do here. He won't mind if I root around" Asuka whipped off the blankets and treaded to the desk. Upon it, hidden out of her sight earlier, was a little mini disk player.
"Shinji's SDAT?" Asuka looked at it for a moment and then picked it up "Well, I may as well play my part" she sat on the foot of the bed inserted the ear plugs and played the first recording.
"No wonder the baka's always such a downer, if he listens to this depressing junk" She sprawled herself across the bed and closed her eyes as the music's melody hummed in her ears. She studied the room and made some comments about his choice of music as time went along. That was until she found one that truly seemed to fit her.
"Ode to joy" She muttered as the music's cheery chorus wrapped her head in a soothing embrace and settled her off to sleep. She didn't even register when the SDAT begun to rewind after finishing track 26.
---
Looking around, a dark hallway ending with a white door with a golden doorknob looms overheard. Standing up a voice slowly starts to make itself heard.
"Momma!"
Looking back away from the door, the dark hallway's other way is faded to darkness with no light no shadow in them.
"Look at me! Look at ME Momma!!!"
The voice is now accompanied by hurried footsteps. Someone's running. The noise is picking up it's pace and is noted as the sounds of perhaps a 4 year old's feet running across a polished wood floor.
"I'm an E~Leet pilot now!!"
The darkness retracts and a figure is running towards the door. The figure turns out to be a child after all. The child's feet furiously beating across the floor as it made it's way towards the door, panting with a smile over it's mouth as it raced.
"I'm ok now, even without Papa"
The door looms farther and farther overheard as the child nears it. Dread seems to radiate from behind the door. I screamed a warning to the child, not to enter it but...
The rapid foot falls stopped...
"Please look at me Mom~ma!"
The door was flung open and the child stopped.
The child's panting stopped...
The child's voice silenced...
The child's smile faded...
The child's mother hung from the ceiling...
With a smile on it's twisted face.
The child stared at the hanging figure, it's smile barely even remembered. It's eye's wide tearful and hurt. The child looked away from the once living person, and looked away towards the window of the room. The window was the only thing that wasn't green. The tree's and the grass somehow seemed to cheer the child. 'I just imagined it...'.
A single thread of a spiders web slowly danced to the wind from the window. It was no spider's thread. It was a string... In the shape of a noose... with cotton bits clinging to some of it's surface. A single puff of cotton drifted off the slow dancing string noose and fell lazily to the floor, almost as if it was happy or cheerful to be away from the string. It lightly fluttered across the room and landed on the torn corpse of a doll. The doll had been ripped into two halves. It lay directly under the trailing cotton falling from the string noose.
'Momma, thought the doll was me...'
The doll's lifeless button brown eyes stared at the child's own pair. It's brown mat of hair mockingly similar to the child's own.
'Momma, was going to kill me...'
Shinji stared down at the 4 year old version of himself as it picked up the doll's head and silently swore never to cry after this time.
Shinji didn't understand what happened, he didn't understand why it happened, he didn't understand how it happened. Yet now he watched as his mother hung behind himself while the child cradled the doll's head as it's final tears fell to the floor.
#This... I... don't remember this... this is only a nightmare... it's too cruel to be true... isn't it... mother?#
---
A child sat in the lap of a father. A father that was willing to give the world to his child and his wife. The child giggling slightly as the father gently placed the it on the floor. With both hands empty he steepled them together and rested his nose on his knuckles as the child skipped around the room, merrily viewing the world with 2 innocent eyes.
"This place isn't a daycare you know"
A room came to sight. A fairly large room... very cluttered very messy.
#It almost looks like one of the test facilities, only that some of the walls didn't seem completely covered#
Some of the computer terminals were still being wired together and that there wasn't even the usual white paint job. Everything had a fiendishly metallic accent, even the smell.
"Don't worry I brought only brought my child"
The child hadn't been paying attention to anyone however that voice immediately had the child plastered against a floor to ceiling glass wall, waving merrily as mother stood on the other side. Father sat at his desk and his smile went unnoticed behind the hands. The child was the very definition of innocence. It's blue eye's looked over the world and barely paid heed to anything that went along. It's eye's dazzled by flashing colours and following scrolling text but not bothering with the significance any of it really held.
"Shinji, step back from there. You might cause trouble"
'The grey figure beside father questioned mother? Why would someone question mother?' The child waved more vividly and mother smiled and back.
"It is to show my child that we will have a bright future. A future, for my child"
Mother waved around herself and the child saw she was standing on what was a massive collection of wires and metal plates. 'Almost as messy as my room. Oh yeah, mother said she wanted me to clean my room when I got home!' The child paused for a moment before remembering the other half of his mother's lecture "You should always be nice to other people. You weren't nice to our neighbour before she left" The child's eye's looked around the room again before settling on the messy place mother stood on. Logic didn't do anything but a feeling over came just then.
#That's... my eva?... No... that's my future eva...#
"Begin Activation"
The child had been distracted and had not noticed that mother had entered a tube of some sort. Mother had waved just before disappearing. The child stayed leaning against the glass as the metal monster begun to move.
"Something's wrong! Syncro-ratio is fluctuating!"
"Cut the power! Stop the experiment!!"
The child had no idea what lady had said but it must have been important because father spoke up. The child watched as all the other people backed away from the child. Suddenly father spun around.
"ASUKA MOVE!"
'Why did father yell at me? Did I miss behave... I... I...'
A sudden boom followed by the sounds of a thousand crystals cracking erupted from behind the child. Panic filled eye's snapped over to the impervious glass wall that once supported the child. Cracks radiated from a centre that dangerously leaned inward. Suddenly the glass was darkened as it once again erupted in noise and the glass cracked again. A giant fist had indented the glass, and did so again. One more punch would have sent the shattered glass windows, sending the shards into the people inside like a million razor knives.
The child watched as the monster stared right at him.
Blue eyes to emerald green.
One pair with horror...
One pair with rage...
The child didn't even cry out as it saw the fist again close towards it.
Closer...
closer...
closer...
'Mother?'...
The monster suddenly spasmed and clutched it's head as if in pain.
#Momma?#
The innocence in the child's eyes was forever stolen. The child watched the monster tear it's claws across it's own head, spilling blood over it's own body.
The monster stopped suddenly, it's eyes dimmed, yet watchful. Father had ran towards the monster. He looked in the tube mother had been in but stopped and cried.
'Father never cries... where's momma?'
The world faded from view as voices slowly picked up speed. The world revolving around the child.
'Mother... has left us...' "Why did she leave! Was it because I wasn't nice!"
'She disappeared during an experiment...' "I promised I'd clean my room and have her inspect it! I'll wait for her! I'm a good child!"
'I can't keep you any longer...' "Was it because, I wasn't nice! I promise to be nice! I'll be nice to everyone! Please don't leave!"
The father was seen walking away from the child. The child held it's eye's closed as the father's shadow faded behind a corner.
"When, I'm not nice people leave me... They hurt me when I'm not nice..."
"So I'll be nice..."
Asuka watched as her younger version went to sleep under an unfamiliar ceiling in a house that was a relative's.
#I don't want to be alone#
"I don't want to be alone..."
---
Waking up in a cold sweat Shinji stared at the opposing wall. The dream was a nightmare, simple as that. However he'd never had anything like that before in his life. Nothing was as horrifying as that in Shinji's memory.
"I can't even remember my own mother's face, yet I could dream something like that in vivid detail..." The dream still lingered on his memory, the doll's twin button orbs hovering in his vision.
"That doll... I might start hating dolls almost as much as Asuka at this rate" Shinji lowered himself back to the bed and rolled over.
"4:19?..." The dream had woken Shinji up indefinitely. Seeing the time he decided sleep was a hopeless cause. Rubbing his eye's open, he made his way through the apartment to a light that was on in the kitchen.
'Who else would be up at this time of night...' Shinji paused for a moment '...err morning?'
Faint muttering could be heard and from the language used it was undoubtable the German fireball Asuka. Shinji rounded the corner and found the fridge door wide open spilling it's light over a male's backside. Shinji silently sat at his usual spot at the table and watched as the figure continued to mutter to itself in German as it rooted out something.
"Ha, thought you could hide from me?!" Shinji nearly fell off the chair at the ex-red head's sudden call. Actually Shinji did fall off the chair, the thud from his landing scared the oblivious girl thus the newly found orange juice she searched splashed across the floor.
"Shinji?" Asuka blinked at the fallen boy as he picked himself up "What are you doing scaring me like that!" she looked at her watch before adding "And at this hour no less!!"
"Sorry, Icouldn'tsleepsoIdecidedtogetanearlystart" Shinji fast forwarded his speech when he noticed he started it with the wrong word. Asuka glowered oh so slightly before shrugging it off.
"Yeah, me too..." Asuka pondered for a moment if she just said that, but came to the conclusion that admitting a very small weakness with Shinji isn't so important. Right now, they're both screwed.
"...Don't you usually sleep in till 10 or something on Sunday's?"
"I figure that without my body, I don't need to worry so much about beauty sleep. Least not with this ugly thing" Asuka indicated herself.
"Sorry..."
"Stop saying sorry damn it!" Shinji avoided the usual reply to that and left the silence to retake the air around them. Asuka sat across from Shinji sipping the remaining orange juice. Asuka was a little glad that she had Shinji here with her now. The nightmare she just had was weird. For some reason it struck down to her very core and she really didn't feel like being alone... worse was the fact that she and Shinji got stuck in each others bodies. Only 3 other people currently knew their secret and they should all be sleeping at this time. This really made the world feel a lot more empty.
"So Shinji..." Shinji turned his head to face his companion. His new found red locks teasing his vision.
"Yeah?" Shinji watched as Asuka gained a bored look and fiddled with her half full~~or half empty for you darkfic readers, HAHA, I made a funny!~~ glass of orange juice.
"Any idea's of how to fix this little problem of ours?" Shinji stared at Asuka for a little while, his own mind had given up(or forgotten) to look for a way to fix this. His head gave the negative motion.
"Me neither... This is beyond us... Well not me... but..." Asuka sipped the orange juice before gently placing it on the table and locking gazes with Shinji.
"Well... as fun as it is to be you, Asuka. I'd rather be myself" Asuka nodded in agreement. It was annoying how all the simple stuff that was second nature now are mostly mute. She almost missed having her little habits.
"Well then how should we go about it?"
"Misato"
"Gee, how could I have ever guessed?" Asuka gave a mocking voice "You've only been on my case from day one. I honestly thought you'd want to tell Penpen first!" Leave it to Asuka to coat every word from her mouth with enough sarcasm to drown a desert.
"Well then who do you recommend we tell?" Shinji had crossed his arms a-la-Asuka(TM)
"Well, Misato is a good choice. But We'll obviously need Ritsuko's help" Both shuddered at the thought of Ritsuko putting them through all sorts of tests.
"Good, when Misato awakens we'll tell her"
"You realize it's gonna-be hella-hard to convince her" Asuka nodded along with Shinji.
"You've been around your stooge Jock friend too much, your starting to pick up his accent"
"Sorry..."
---
"YEEEE-HAAAAAAAA" Shinji and Asuka barely even blinked in Misato's direction. She slammed the can down and reached for another Yebisu before looking over her charges. *Asuka* was cooking breakfast as *Shinji* was lying upside down on the couch watching the world flick by on the TV.
"This is strange..."
"Hmm? What is Misato?" Misato plunked down the second empty on the table as *Asuka* turned around from her cooking.
"Well, why are you doing the cooking *Asuka*?" at that *Shinji* righted himself and turned the TV off. *Shinji* sat beside an already seated *Asuka* and the two looked at each other for a moment.
"Misato..."
"Yeah, *Shinji*?" This was really odd, Shinji never starts a conversation~~If you noticed she's still correct~~
"Remember the angel attack from before?" Misato nodded before *Asuka* continued.
"It has some... side effects... serious side effects" Misato began to worry 'Mental damage! bad memory?! Wrinkles!? what could it be!'
"Well... what are the side effects?" Misato watched as *Shinji* nudged *Asuka* and said
"you tell her Shinji"
"Asuka... well... Misato we're sort of in the wrong... bodies..." Misato blinked a few times before nodding her head and laughing.
"Ah god I hate hang-overs. The weirdest things seem to happen at this time. Yesterday I could have sworn I saw pink flying elephants running through my halls" Misato guzzled the third can of Yebisu as Shinji and Asuka stared at Misato.
"and to think I thought I heard you say you switched bodies! Ha what a laugh! So what did you say!" Misato's mirth died when she saw both of her roommates look downcast.
"Oh shit, you actually said that..."
The morning quickly disappeared as Asuka and Shinji retold of their little adventure.
---
Gendo walked through the halls of NERV and pondered the latest turn of events. He had just returned from another meeting with the council and it was obvious that they were trying to figure out what Ikari's plans were.
"Waste of time wasn't it?" Gendo didn't bother to slow down nor acknowledge his new companion, sub commander Fuyutsuki.
"The old men once again think that I have a plan of my own" Fuyutsuki grinned as Gendo continued his walk though the empty hall.
"Just because you do have one doesn't mean they'll learn about eh?" Gendo's eye's flickered over to his companion and uttered a grunt but otherwise nothing was spoken.
"Arael's delayed defeat, was one of the possibilities that the Dead Sea Scrolls hinted at"
"Oh and what would be effected if it came to surpass? As it did might I add"
"It hinted that the challengers to accept Arael's trial shall face themselves" Fuyutsuki chuckled lightly at Gendo's rehearsed speech.
"You've already told me that. If fact that was word for word of what was originally said. Perhaps the meaning has changed?"
Gendo once again spared his sub commander a glance.
"Both pilots are perfectly fine. whatever happened in that battle started and ended there"
"Don't be too sure of yourself professor, there is one difference between Arael's defeat and Arael's delay"
"Angelic destruction? Unholy demons? an uncontrolled 3rd impact?" Fuyutsuki had wondered why Gendo was so talkative. Even to his longest acquaintance, Gendo rarely talked so freely, even if it was about instrumentality.
"The fall of the second is predicted now as the bond with the third" Fuyutsuki nodded slowly understanding. If the second child doesn't fall that would give them a better chance against the last few angels however it also means instrumentality will either be sped up or prevented.
"So now we walk on the tip across the spiders web, one way leads to the hunting spider the other leads to an unknown end..."
Gendo merely pressed the button to call the elevator as his response. As Fuyutsuki pondered silently
"If only life were so simple. A spider I could crush with a newspaper. However SEELE is our spider waiting for us on one of those strings"
---
"So lemme get this straight... Your Shinji and your Asuka..." Misato's drunken haze has now become yesterday's news as the 3 address the issue's of the mind switching.
"Yes. For the third time, yes Misato" Misato held her head in one hand and sighed into her palm.
"How did this happen?"
"The angel did something to us, that pulled us out of our bodies or something. Then, when that's over, we wake up in the hospital staring at our new found figures" Asuka claimed waving her hands. 'this has got to be the third time, she's explained this' wondered Shinji.
"Shinji go get me a beer please..." Misato gladly takes the beer.
"Thanks *Asuka*" Misato pauses as she notices the children staring at her "Err.. Shinji! Yeah sorry forgot already..."
Shinji sat down next to Asuka who wore an odd mixture of blue jeans, a red under shirt with an unbuttoned white long sleeve shirt over that. Somehow Asuka has adapted to male fashion, something even Shinji couldn't do in his life time, yet she did in 2 days.
"What?!" Apparently Asuka noticed Shinji staring.
"Oh don't worry Asuka, Shinji probably finds you all the more sexy wearing his clothing" Shinji blushes but the sheer absurdity of Misato's comment demanded a response, regardless if it's from either or both.
"MISATO THAT'S GROSS!!!" It was from both. Misato just grinned as she sucked back her last beer for the morning. Leaving the somewhat squabbling roommates behind Misato heads for the phone.
"So guys, head on out and wait by the car ok? I'm going to call Ritsu and have an emergency Sync-test set up" Asuka and Shinji paused eye's wide. The thought of the eva's hadn't quite crossed their minds as they thought about it. Asuka was in a panic to say the least.
"OH MY GOD! I TOTALLY FORGOT TO THINK IF MY EVA WOULD EVEN RECOGNIZE ME!" she was racing around the room nervously clutching her fingers together "A DUMB BAKA LIKE YOU BETTER NOT COST ME MY PILOTING ABILITIES FOR UNIT 02!!!"
She continued to fret and pace across the room as Shinji attempted(thought poorly) to calm her down.
"Asuka don't worry that's why Misato calling Ritsuko... calm down..." Asuka spun like a soul possessed pointing her finger at Shinji as if it was a loaded gun. The leer on her face didn't help either.
"Yeah that's right. Nothing to worry about... It's just a mindless toy after all... Calm down Asuka" Asuka seemed to paused and draw the air around her like a flame would. She opens her eye's and looks to be almost at peace.
"The eva's are more then mindless toys Asu..." Shinji's little babble was cut short by the hurricane that was Asuka.
"SHUT UP BAKA YOU'LL JINX ME OR SOMETHING!!" She let go of Shinji's arms that she had clutched so tightly, and Shinji held onto the nearby table to balance himself after being rattled so badly.
"Asuka mind if you lend my SDAT player back? I feel as if it's gonna be a long sync-test"
"This is gonna be weird... what? Your silly little SDAT? Sure here" Asuka pulls the player out of here open shirt pocket and handed it to Shinji. He only wonders for a moment why Asuka would carry the thing around with her, but he just assumes she's playing her part 'perhaps too well...'.
"Oh and by the way... nice choice of music..." Asuka walked towards the apartment door and leaves. Shinji blinks pausing to insert the first ear plug. He wasn't sure if she was sarcastic or sincere. He settled on the latter and left after her to wait by Misato's car.
Misato's line finally went through after the door closed behind Shinji.
"Hello?" Ritsuko's voice through the other end. She sounded tired and maybe even cranky.
"Hey ya there Ritsuko" Misato gave her best impression of being in a good mood. Oddly enough she surprised herself and sounded the part.
"Oh it's you Misato..." Ritsuko picked up on Misato's chipper mood and felt like mud in comparison. 'Working these... 2 a day triple shifts ain't fun. Even then I'm still behind...' Ritsuko felt that she stated the actually number of work shifts but she didn't feel like wasting the brain power.
"Oh it's me!? What about me?!" Misato slightly fumed at being taken so lightly.
"This better be important because 'our' project is falling behind schedule..." Ritsuko's voice was slightly punctured by the rhythmic typing on a keyboard.
"We sort of have a situation with the pilots..." Ritsuko didn't bother typing until Misato told her everything. Ritsuko then looked on her current 'project' and wondered just what the hell this 'situation' is going to screw the hell up.
"If your joking that's cruel but if your being sarcastic that's even worse..."
--?--?--
And so ends the this chapter! I'm planning to finish off another chapter before School starts ;_; but it'll be a tight fit...
You may have noticed this(or not) but I added a touch of darkness into this chapter. The whole dream thing may have been weird, but it does make sense. I'll explain this in the next chapter cause next chapter they go under the knife!!! RITSUKO'S KNIFE!!!!! (And then there was much screaming)
So you've read it, so review it! Flame it, torch it, hold it out for the world to see, whatever tickles your fancy(who came up with that term anyway? If Shinji said it, Asuka would call him a pervert in no time flat) REVIEW IF YA KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR ME!?!
Next chapter 'Bet ya didn't eva think of that either huh?' we'll have both our Heroes deal with Ritsuko. Rei will make herself heard and Gendo makes plans for a new end. So until I get that next chapter off Here's some...
OMAKESSS!!!!!(I just thought these up as I typed and I liked them but I knew, they'd never fit anywhere so...)
--?--?--
Toji sat up awake all night thinking about Shinji and Asuka's 'little problem'. It sure looked like hell. Toji rolled over and wondered what it would be like to be a girl. It would not be something he'd get used to immediately...
"There's Gotta be an up side of this somewhere..." Toji rolled over again and his thinking once again took off.
"If I was a girl would I feel myself up?... Nah... too weird..." Toji kept thining back to the shopping mall where he saw Asuka looking at herself in a mirror. His hormones kicked in just then and the dress disappeared.
"AH MY EYES!!!" However he remembered an earlier talk with Kensuke at his door.
(flashback) "and if you were a girl?" Toji paused at his friends question...
"Thats easy... I'd strip down and stare at myself in the mirror all day long!"
(end flash back)
"Ikari you luck dog..." Across town in M. Katsuragi's apartment a figure stood in the nude in front of a mirror.
"HOT DOG!!!!! SHINJI'S REALLY GOT A HELL OF A PACKAGE!" Asuka stared at the mirror as Shinji innocently slept the night away.
--- I nearly wet myself When I rethought up this scene.
"Angelic destruction? Unholy demons? an uncontrolled 3rd impact?" Fuyutsuki had wondered why Gendo was so talkative. Even to his longest acquaintance, Gendo rarely talked so freely, even if it was about instrumentality. Maybe it was cause it hurt so much.
"The fall of the second is predicted now as the bond with the third" Fuyutsuki nodded slowly understanding. If the second turd doesn't fall that would give them a better chance to make it to the next meeting in time.
"So now we walk on the tip across the spiders web, one way leads to the over flowing bowl the other leads to an end..."
Gendo merely pressed the button to send his 'business' down the drain. Fuyutsuki sat in the next stall and wondered why they didn't discuss here more often. 'Hell they say a man does his best thinking on his throne of the souls...'
*Flush*
--?--?--
I must be truely sick... Ah well. I'm too busy reading fics and typing my own!!