Work of fanfiction

Blades and Love

"Okay," said Misato as she dropped the cell phone from her ear, "Touji and Hikari will be getting transport back. We're about ten minutes away from the nearest car train to NERV HQ, though I guess we'd better rename that Tokyo-3 HQ."

Shinji sighed. Damn, why couldn't the Angels be the end of it? He smiled as Rei squeezed his hand, obviously noting his agitation. He pulled her close to him, stroking her hair. "Thank you," he whispered to her.

She snuggled closer to him, a far cry from the girl he had piloted to spare. "You're welcome."

Misato drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "Looks like we'll have to stay at NERV tonight." She sighed. "Damn the stupid bastard who decided to go rouge. If it's not Angels it's humans. I just don't know what to do."

"Prepare," said Rei, "We can do nothing else."

"Right. You're right."

"Well, here's the place we'll be staying in tonight." Misato keyed in the code she had been given.

The door opened to…a two-bed room. It was not very large, and part of it was being used to store a bunch of pamphlets. Misato's eyebrow twitched. "This could be trouble."

"No it won't," said Shinji, walking into the room.

"Look, Shinji, I realize that you two are now an item, but I'm not letting you two sleep in the same bed."

Shinji turned around and shot a nasty look at Misato before taking his sakabatou and saya out of his obi and sitting down against the pamphlets. He propped the sword up on one shoulder and put his arm around it, holding it in place. "I'll be just fine."

Misato just stared at him. That kenjutsu training had brought out a different side of him. He had already nodded off.

Rei stepped inside, removing her gi and hakama, before slipping under the covers of one of the beds, sword still in hand.

Misato looked at the two before shaking her head and lying down on the other bed, still fully clothed. She would need the sleep in the morning.

Asuka paced back and forth in the small cabin of the F-type transport wing. They had been aloft for nearly a day and a half now, and she was getting seriously agitated. What was worse was that she couldn't do anything. She shuddered. One of the original combat pilots, the great Asuka Langley Soryu, and she couldn't do a thing. The enemy EVAs had ripped Klaus to bloody shreds as he bought time for her to retreat. She should've been the one to save him, but he had been stupid, charged ahead and…well, Asuka mused, acted a hell of a lot like she had back when the Angels were still coming.

Asuka was not an idiot. She knew she had that problem. It had taken Klaus's death to drive home the point, but she knew it now. She sat down and sighed. Klaus…he had been a perfect specimen of what in 1942 was called an 'Aryan'. Strong, tall, blonde with blue eyes, fairly smart…and completely in love with Asuka. Or so he had said. The auburn-haired girl suspected that it was a crush, if a monster of one. He was very devoted to the new world that had sprang up after the Angels, very devoted to piloting.

Come to think of it, once he felt strongly about something, he was nearly unshakable in his defense of it. Or pursuit, even if he was polite about it. Once Asuka had turned down his initial offer for a relationship, he had done his damnedest to be a sweet and gentlemanly friend.

She just couldn't let herself get into a relationship yet. Not after what she had gone through with Shinji.

"Asuka, I lo…" And a spurt of blood as some shrapnel went through his neck. Asuka shook her head violently to clear the image from her mind. That was something else that went under the heading of 'painful memories'. She kicked the wall. Damn it! Damn it all to hell! Four EVAs. Where had they gotten four EVAs?

"Ma'am, we'll be landing in about ten minutes."

"Thank you," said Asuka, still pacing, "Do you think I should get into 02?"

"No ma'am. They should be friendly and carrying a manned Evangelion could be seen as an aggressive act," said the copilot. "Besides, we haven't been running power to it."

"Why?" asked Asuka, rather pissed. "If we came under attack…"

"The power delivery system isn't working," answered the pilot, tapping a MFD readout, "We're not idiots ma'am. Besides, we should be getting an escort from Tokyo-3 soon."

"Right…" Asuka grasped the sword and dagger Klaus had taught her to use.

"Asuka!" The half-German girl looked up to see a familiar purple-haired woman waving at her. She walked over to her, still holding the sheathes of the European-style weapons, her duffle bag slung over her shoulder. "It's good to see you again, even if it is for this."

Asuka smiled a bit. "Good to see you to Misato. Packed a little less than last time, though."

Misato gave another smile. "Definitely."

Asuka looked around. "Where are Shinji and Wondergirl?" Her old name for Rei no longer seemed to carry the derisive tone from back when the Angels were attacking.

"Still sleeping, I think. You want to go see them?"

"Yeah."

"Then we'll have the debriefing."

"The pilot and copilot know more than I do."

"Yes," said Misato, "But I don't trust them as much as you." The women both smiled and walked off towards the section of NERV given over to living space.

Rei was just getting her hakama and gi from where she had placed them yesterday when the door buzzer sounded. She draped the gi around herself before she opened the door to see Misato and Asuka standing there. "Good morning, Misato, Soryu."

"Wondergirl? What are you doing dressed like that?"

"I just woke up."

"Where's Shinji?"

"Right here," said the swordsman as he stood up. He placed the sakabatou in his obi and walked to the door. "Good to see you again, Asuka."

"Likewise. But what's with the samurai outfit?"

"More comfortable than a school uniform. Misato, what are we doing for breakfast?"

Misato grimaced. "Cafeteria." The NERV cafeteria was infamous for its bad food. If Shinji didn't know better, he would say her job was really as the cafeteria's cook. The only safe thing was the rice.

"Yay," grumbled Shinji, "an all-carb breakfast."

The pilots and Misato got a happy surprise when they got into the cafeteria. It seemed the cook had finally been fired, and replaced them with a new one. They were free to eat whatever they chose without risking food poisoning!

Anyway…

Shinji and Rei did look extremely out of place in the NERV cafeteria, Asuka only a little so in her NERV uniform with Berlin patches, but they were all far beyond caring. They just wanted food, and answers.

As Asuka finished chewing a bite, Misato put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Asuka, what happened?"

Asuka swallowed and drummed her fingers on the table. "I really don't know. One day four EVAs just attacked. Klaus and I sortied…"

"Klaus?" asked Misato.

"MP11's pilot. It was obvious we were out of our league so he held them off while I escaped."

"What happened to him?"

"He's dead. I think the EVAs were 03, MP02, MP16, and I'm pretty sure on MP19." The MP was somewhat of a misnomer. The original mass-production series had been scrapped and a new di-model series was built. The designs were based on 02, or 03/04. The five original EVAs (00 to 04) were separated from the rest by the resetting of the numbers and the adding of MP.

"Huh," grunted Misato, "That's the two from Massachusetts, New York, and a Canadian EVA. Well, they have at least five EVAs now."

"What?" asked Shinji.

Misato looked over at Shinji. "You can regrown a destroyed EVA, Shinji, remember?"

"But what about pilots?"

"Not impossible to find. If this Klaus wasn't dead, they'd probably try and convert him though," said Rei.

"Wouldn't have worked," said Asuka, "They would've just shot him."

"Right. Well, we've got someone playing EVA Risk, and we'd better get ready if we want to stand up to him."

"Misato," said Shinji, "I've got a nasty feeling that it won't be just one person for long. I'm going to the gym." He stood up and grabbed his sword. "Care to join me Rei?"

She nodded and grabbed her sword, standing up as well.

"Hey," said Asuka, "You two mind if I join you? I'll try not to kick your asses too badly." Her voice carried a bit of her old arrogance.

"Sure," said Shinji, smiling a bit.

"Misato, would you take my bag to wherever I'm staying?" Asuka picked up her blades and moved towards the exit.

"Have fun." Misato watched as the three EVA pilots walked off to the gym, blades in hand.

Another one done. Next on Blades and Love: the gym. Swordfights between all three pilots! Plenty of sword-swinging action, and more Rei/Shinji interaction, to Asuka's…acceptance!? What's going on!? Find out next time.