Neon Genesis Evangelion: More Than Meats the Eye
Copyright: Unfortunately Evangelion and the TransFormers still don't belong to me, and suing me won't do you any good. I'm poor.
By the way, the Evangelion parts of this fic contain both segments from the anime and the manga story lines, I just put in whichever works best or easiest for this fic.
Note from the Author: In this chapter you will see what happened to Megatron, and in whose possession he's in. Answers to Optimus Prime's and Megatron's immense change in size from will be explained, and how the presence of Prime will now effect NERV.
In the last chapter, the wording I used for Prime's size was that he was 'nearly' the size of an Eva; The Transformer leaders (both Optimus and Megatron) are now about ¾ the height of an Eva. Still a huge leap from their original G1 size, but as I said before, this will be explained later in this chapter.
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Chapter 3:Of Robots and Dolls Part 1
"Cool, cool, cool, cool, COOL!!!" Kensuke squealed in delight as he and Toji watched the footage he had recorded three days ago. Unfortunately for him his camera had been ruined by the LCL bath he and Toji had taken that day, but the disk inside was in near perfect condition. Now they were watching it in Kensuke's bedroom, the excitement of the smaller boy very apparent.
"Incredible! How could NERV make something that possibly make something that immense, that complex, that powerful, and that cool!!" exclaimed Kensuke, his face less than six inches from the screen of his TV as he watched Optimus Prime transform from truck mode back to Robot mode.
"I don't know," Said Toji, pushing his friend back so he could see the footage on the screen. "What I don't get is why it turns into a truck."
"What do you mean?" Kensuke said, tearing his gaze away from the television and towards his friend.
"What I mean is why not turn into a tank, or a fighter jet, or some kind of military weapon that you're always yappin' about?"
Kensuke sat back, thinking.
"I don't know, why don't we ask Shinji? After all, he works at NERV, he's bound to know something!"
Toji shifted uncomfortably on Kensuke's floor. Noticing this, Kensuke gave his friend a stern look.
"You need to apologize to him, you know."
"I know, I know! I'll do it in a couple of days, Okay?"
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2 days later.
The two teens stood outside of the apartment where Shinji and his guardian lived. Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets. Pressing the doorbell, they waited for someone to answer.
Much to Toji's and Kensuke's surprise, a beautiful woman answered the door.
"--Shinji!! Oh!" a startled Misato exclaimed, who obviously was expecting someone else.
The two parties stared at each other for several seconds, then a barrage of apologies and questions about Shinji's whereabouts were quickly made by the to boys (well, mostly from Toji), and a mildly flummoxed Misato did her best to answer them.
"-and we came to see if he was okay."
"Yeah!" said Kensuke, happy to get a word in edgewise. "Here are the printouts that were building on Shinji's desk." He handed the papers to Misato, blushing slightly.
"I'm sorry," said Misato, taking the papers from Aida, "but, uh, Shinji's at the NERV Training Facility right now."
"I see," said Toji, disappointed.
"Sorry for your trouble," said Misato, who was about to say goodbye to the teenage boys when Kensuke suddenly piped up.
"Wait, uh, I mean, um, I have a question to ask, if its not any trouble," stuttered Kensuke.
"Oh! Well, what is it? She asked.
"Well, I was wondering, uh, we, were wondering, what that Robot was we saw the other day, and I was also wondering-"
"I'm very sorry," said Misato, " but that is classified information, and I'm not authorized to let it out to the public." In truth, she had yet to learn anything about Optimus Prime either.
"Oh," said a disappointed Kensuke. "Thanks anyway."
"Yeah, tell Shinji we came by," said Toji.
"I will. Bye!" Misato sweetly smiled and waved as she closed her door.
As the boys turned and started on their way home, they considered this latest development.
"She was a real babe, wasn't she?" sighed Toji wistfully.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Kensuke, who was still a little disappointed. "Ikari sure is lucky, to live with someone like her!"
"I'd say!"
Dropping the subject, the freckled boy adjusted his glasses, and looked over at his tall friend.
"By the way, I'm goin' camping tomorrow, do ya want to come?"
Toji smirked at his friend.
"Going camping on one of your military outings again, Kensuke? Aren't you a little old to be playing war?"
"Hey! I just happen to like to 'play war'! It's fun!" growled Kensuke defensively.
"Okay, okay!" laughed Toji. "I'm sorry."
"Well, are ya?"
"Nah, I gotta check up on my sister tomorrow, remember?"
"That's right!" Kensuke said, snapping his fingers. "Sorry about that."
"No problem," yawned Toji. "Well, I gotta be gettin' back home. See ya!"
"Bye!" said Kensuke as the two boys parted ways and went to their respective homes.
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Location: unknown
Within a dark room, they gathered. Not as people normally do when summoned to a meeting, but rather as a meeting of voices, voices that plotted, made plans, and spoke of dark secrets. They were SEELE, the force that backed and financed NERV, a group of powerful men that gathered together not to save the world, but to destroy it in a Third Impact. Now, they had come together to discuss the latest development at NERV: Optimus Prime.
Kael, the head of the Committee, spoke first.
"This-was a unforeseen chain of events. We never could have predicted this."
"Agreed. This was not in the scenario we had laid out."
"It was a mistake to entrust NERV to Ikari, wasn't it?
"Yes, but there was no one else that could have carried out our plans."
"But now he has this 'Optimus Prime' in his control, and is disrupting the scenario to the point of-!"
Kael interrupted the other voices.
"Yes, he does; but still, we have to thank him."
A chorus of angry voices sounded their outrage and disbelief at Kael's words. After several minuets of cursing and yelling, the members of SEELE calmed down.
Kael continued.
"Ikari might have hidden truths from us, and plotted against us; but now he has exposed himself, and has unknowingly provided us with much needed information."
Kael smiled, an unpleasant sight.
"After all, Ikari isn't the only one with one of these machines at his disposal."
In the middle of the room, a holographic image appeared. There, standing like a proud general, stood Megatron. Completely rebuilt from the damage he had received from Optimus Prime and his crash, the Decepticon leader stood at attention, his body lifeless. The symbol of the Decepticons gleamed evilly on his white metal chest. Only the black cannon normally found on his right arm was missing.
"Ikari, as I have said, has not only provided us with crucial information, but also a means to finally bring our own weapon back to 'life'."
The other voices murmured and agreed, the anger towards Kael forgotten.
"Yes, of coarse. In case this 'Prime problem' gets out of hand, we can always send out ours to dispatch him."
"Ikari may think he has something over us, but he won't for long."
"No indeed," hissed Kael, the cruel smile on his face growing wider. "As soon as our spy delivers the information he need, the sooner we can activate our own machine and bend it to our will; the will of SEELE!"
The voices chuckled in the darkness, one by one they slowly faded away and left the room silent once more. In the end, only Kael remained, the leader of SEELE still smiled as he was left alone to his own thoughts.
"Soon, Ikari, you will learn what it means to be punished for sinning against the will of SEELE. Very soon."
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The next day
Location: Several miles from Tokyo 3
Shinji was warming himself by the fire, eating some of the food given to him by Kensuke. Shinji had been spending the last few days wandering around Tokyo 3, wasting time and avoiding Misato and NERV. He had run away after Misato had pretty much torn him apart for disobeying orders. After wandering around aimlessly through the countryside outside the city, Shinji had stumbled across his classmate Kensuke, who appeared to be training for guerilla warfare. The two boys spent a couple hours talking, or rather Kensuke talked, saying how he enjoyed the quiet of camping, how Toji's little sister chewed him out for beating Shinji up, and how he envied Shinji. This last fact startled the timid boy.
"Why?"
Kensuke looked up and grinned.
"Because, you're a pilot! And you get to live with such a beautiful woman, and you get to work at NERV. Man, I wish I could pilot the Evangelion, or work on the Robot NERV has. By the way, what is that thing? Do you know how it was able to turn into a truck, and how-"
Shinji interrupted.
"I'm- not sure how it works. I left before I got a chance to find out."
"Left? Why did you leave? And do you know anything about it? Anything at all?"
Shinji looked over at the other boy, who was practically begging for information.
Looking down at his now empty plate, the young Ikari let out a soft sigh.
"I left because- because I needed some time to my self, you know, just get away from it all and try to figure things out. And to answer your other question- I, I don't know much about it, other than it's name is Optimus Prime, and I think- I think it's some kind of self piloting machine, I'm not entirely certain."
Despite the small bit of info, Kensuke appeared to be impressed. Ecstatic, even.
"Wow, a self piloting robot! I didn't think that technology was that advanced yet. This is so cool! I can't wait to tell Toji!"
Alarmed, Shinji started to wave his hands.
"I wouldn't do that! For all I know, that information might be classified, and if NERV found out you or anybody else knew about it, who knows what NERV would do with them!"
Dejected, the freckled boy sat back.
"Oh well, should have known something like that would be classified."
Looking at his watch, Kensuke got up and stretched.
"Well, guess it's time to turn in for the night. You want to stay the night? I don't think you'll make it home at this hour."
"I, I don't want to intrude-"
Kensuke waved his hand, brushing it off, saying, "Forget about it, it's not a problem. I brought out another sleeping bag just in case Toji made it out here. But, since he didn't make it, you can use it."
"Th-thank you."
As the to boys turned in for the night, Shinji couldn't help but ask Kensuke a question.
"Do you, do you do this sort of thing often?"
"Sure, all the time!"
"Is it some sort of training for guerilla warfare?"
"What, with these toys? Nah, it's just for fun!"
"Oh."
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Several hours later
It was during the next morning when the NERV personnel came. The day was foggy, and no one could see more than thirty in any direction.
"Shinji Ikari?" asked one of the men gruffly.
"You are to come back with us, to NERV."
"-yes, sir."
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Thirty minuets later
Location: NERV storage room
Sitting in a dark storage room, the logo of NERV behind him on the wall, Shinji waited for the arrival of Misato, the sick feeling in his stomach growing with the passing of every second. He had been placed there just in case he tried to run away again. Misato was probably livid, and was probably trying to come up with a suitable punishment for running away, thought the young Ikari. Letting out a soft sigh, Shinji kept his head lowered, his eyes looked unseeing to the floor in front of him.
"What's on your mind, Shinji Ikari?" a deep metallic voice asked softly.
Startled, the young boy jumped up looking around the room franticly. He was sure he was alone when he came in here--
"I'm over here, not that hard to miss actually.," the voice chuckled.
Looking over to his right, Shinji saw two glowing blue lights over on the far side of the room. Forcing his eyes to adjust to the darkness around him, Shinji tried to make out the owner of the voice. Much to his surprise, the lights above him came on without warning, and blinded him for a moment. When he could see again, he looked up- and let out a startled yelp.
There, where the blue lights had been, was the robot, Optimus Prime. Sitting up against a wall, he had his knees drawn up, and his arms were resting on them. The Autobot looked at Shinji intently. All around him, hanging on the walls where spare parts and weapons for Unit 00. To Prime's left, a massive metal door stood, big enough for an Eva to walk in and get what ever equipment it needed if and when necessary. Now it and several other such rooms were being used by Optimus as a place to 'live'.
Shinji stared at the giant red and blue Autobot in awe, a wave of fear and excitement flowing through him. Then, realizing something, he snapped back to reality.
"W-wait a minuet, you talked to me!"
Optimus laughed again.
"Does this surprise you?"
"Yes! I mean, no! I mean- uh what I mean to say is, er- sorry, I didn't mean--"
Optimus raised a giant blue hand, silencing the babbling boy.
"No need to apologize. I'm used to that kind of reaction from humans that just met me and my kind."
"Your-- kind? You mean there are more like you?"
Optimus shifted around a bit and nodded. "Yes, I am a Cybertronian, or Transformer, as some people like to call us. My name is Optimus Prime, an Autobot." Prime pointed to one of the strange symbols on his arm.
Shinji gaped. "Cyberwha-, an Autobot?" he said, confused. "Wait a minuet, how did you know my name?"
Optimus chuckled again. "Miss Ritsuko gave me detailed files on you and all other members of the organization of NERV. Well, almost everybody."
Shinji blinked at this.
"Oh."
"By the way, thank you for helping me dispatch that creature the other day." Prime touched a shallow gash on the side of his head. It had been caused by the Angel's energy whip, a very minor injury.
"You-your welcome," mumbled Shinji, who was unused to being thanked for anything.
Studying a rifle made for Unit 00, Optimus asked the young pilot softly, "You don't like doing what you do, do you, Shinji Ikari?"
Shinji jumped. "Don't like what?" he asked nervously, though he knew the answer.
Optimus looked over at the human beside him. "Piloting the Evangelion, Unit 01. You don't like piloting it, do you?"
Hanging his head, Shinji replied softly, "No, I don't."
Realizing that Prime was waiting for him to continue, he went on.
"I don't like to pilot because, because of the pain it causes. Not to myself, but to others. The first time I fought an Angel, I ended up hurting some people, including a classmate's little sister. But I also don't like being someone else's tool."
"So why do you pilot?" asked Optimus, intrigued.
"I- I want to feel needed, wanted. I thought that if I piloted Eva, then maybe people would notice and like me. Maybe, maybe my father. . . would. . ."
"Maybe he would see you as his son, right?" said Prime.
Looking up, Shinji smiled sadly.
"Yeah. Pretty lame excuse, isn't it? To pilot Eva for such a shallow reason. Pretty. . . lame."
"No, it isn't."
Surprised, Shinji stared at the giant Robot.
"It isn't?"
Shaking his head, Optimus replied softly, "No, it isn't 'lame', as you put it. It's normal for any being to want positive attention from others, especially from their parents or leaders. The fact that you put yourself in danger for others, no matter how ungrateful they are, or how much pain what you do causes to yourself, the fact that you pilot if only just for their attention and respect, it's not a 'lame excuse', but a noble one. You should be proud of yourself and what you do, young Ikari."
Shinji stammered, "Th-thank y-you, Optimus." He whispered.
No one had ever spoken to him in such a kind way, at least for as long as he could remember. His Aunt and Uncle, who taken care of him when his father had gave him away to them, had only just tolerated him. They hadn't even called him since had left. Even Misato, though a great person in many ways, saw him as a tool. It was nice to have someone speak to him as a friend, not a superior.
Optimus got up, his metal body whirring and humming as he moved.
"I must get going. I need to be recharged, and I think I sense Captain Katsuragi coming this way."
"Can't you stay?" pleaded the boy.
Shaking his head, Prime open the giant door. "No. Though you did help me on the battlefield (and I am grateful for that), you disobeyed the orders of a superior officer, and now you must face the consequences for it. I'm sorry."
Nodding his head, Shinji smiled at the Autobot.
Optimus walked out of the room, his gigantic feet gently hitting the ground so as not to create a disturbance around him.
"Optimus!" The Autobot turned towards Shinji.
"Yes?"
"Thanks again, for. . . everything."
Prime nodded his head, and left Shinji alone to wait for Misato.
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1 day later.
Misato Katsuragi sat at her kitchen table, beer in hand, and alone. Just last night she had told Shinji to go home. If piloting the Eva just hurt him, then she had no business making him pilot it.
She could still see his shocked face in her mind, telling him to go home.
Misato snorted and shook her head. She might as well had told him that he was no longer of any use. Of coarse, that wasn't the only thing that happened that night. Taking a swig of her beer, Misato recalled the other conversation she had. . .
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The previous night.
Misato was walking down the halls, away from the room that she and Shinji had talked. Telling him to go home hurt, but she didn't want to see him suffer. In the end she ended up yelling at him, telling to leave NERV, that they didn't need people with his attitude. He acted like. . . that if he died in battle, it wouldn't matter. Like he didn't matter.
Lost in thought, she was on her way to speak with Ritsuko, and was passing by the storage room that held the extra armor for Unit 01, when a deep voice from above spoke to her. (no people, not God)
"Have you finished speaking to him?"
Whirling to her left, she saw the red and blue Robot that she was going to talk Ritsuko about. She had already acquired some info from the Doctor; mostly about the fact that he was a self-aware machine of unknown origins, that he agreed to help them in the war against the Angels, and to tell them everything about himself and his kind at a later date. Still, despite the fact that Ritsuko seemed to trust him, Misato couldn't help but feel uneasy as the hulking machine looked down at her.
Swallowing the small knot of fear in her throat, Captain Katsuragi nodded. She couldn't help but feel like she was in the presence of a superior officer. Weird.
"Yes, I have."
Prime folded his arms across his broad chest.
"But did you have to say it in such a cold manner?"
Jerking her head up, Misato glared at him.
"What do you mean, cold? And how do you know if I sounded cold of not?! I'll have you know that I told him to leave for his own good! Furthermore-"
"Captain Katsuragi!" Optimus almost yelled, his voice echoing down the hall, his form looming above Misato like a mountain.
Misato jumped despite herself, the robot's voice cutting through her rant like a knife.
"I'll answer your second question first; I was able to listen in on your conversation by hooking up to the communication system in this building. Before I answer your first question, tell me, Captain, how many years did you train for your job at NERV?"
"Eight years, sir," Misato said, confused.(1)
"And how long has Pilot Ikari trained for his job?"
". . .a few weeks. . ." she meekly replied, realizing were this was going.
"Do you expect him to Pilot Eva, protect the world, make life or death decisions, put up with people who see him as little more than a tool, do all of this without prior training, and take it all in stride?"
". . ."
Shaking his head, Optimus Prime sighed.
"Disciplining a soldier is one thing, ridiculing someone who was placed in a position like Shinji was is entirely different. Think about his life, Misato, the one you read in his file. Has his father ever bothered to call? How about his Aunt and Uncle? Does he ever bring friends over to your apartment? Ever? He thinks no one cares about him, not even you."
Shocked, Katsuragi stared at him. 'Shinji thinks that. . .'
Bending down, Prime spoke softly to her. "Please, think about it. Right now, he needs friends. He needs a family, for Cybertron sake! Someone that cares for him."
Turning around, Optimus walked down the cavernous hallway, his back to Misato.
"I must be leaving now. Good night, Captain Katsuragi."
So he left her, all alone with her thoughts.
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Looking down at her near empty beer can, Misato let out a sigh. She didn't get a chance to apologize to Shinji; he had left for the train station before she got up.
Looking to her right, she saw Pen-Pen, a warm water penguin, her household pet and animal friend. Picking him up off the floor, she scratched him on the back of his head. She remembered the look on Shinji's face when he first saw him, so shocked that he dropped the groceries he had carried into the apartment. . .
Misato closed her eyes and shook her head. She was such an idiot. . .
Just then the doorbell rang. Still holding Pen-Pen, she went to answer the door. She was surprised to see Toji and Kensuke standing there.
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minuets later. . .
"WHAT!?! You mean he left?!" Toji yelled out, shocked beyond belief. He and Kensuke had come over again so he could apologize to Shinji.
"We haven't notified the school yet, and. . . he should be at the train station now."
Toji was shaking his head, disbelief etched all over his face.
"Isn't this a bit abrupt?! He got fired, just for disobeying orders?!"
Misato smiled sadly and said softly, " No, it's not like that. . ."
"So you mean he quit, just got fed up with pilotin' Eva or somethin'?"
Kensuke was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "You know, Shinji's been acting strange lately. . ., he was okay the other day, but he didn't act normal during that battle. . ."
Toji and Misato looked at the sandy haired boy, confused and questioning looks on their faces.
Adjusting his glasses, Kensuke continued. "At school, he acted as if nothing got to him, not even when Toji beat him up." At this point, Toji shot Misato a guilty look, " But for him to show emotion like that, it was almost like he was deliberately disobeying you, kinda like a, I don't know, like a spoiled kid."
Misato blinked, realization dawning on her. Everything that Prime had told her, everything Shinji said and did finally made sense; Shinji had come to her thinking that maybe, just maybe, someone cared about him. 'He must have seen my notebook on his progress here, and thought. . ., no, realized different.'
-'I'm just your subordinate, jut a tool to you.'-
-'He needs friends. He needs a family, for Cybertron sake!'-
"Oh Shinji." Misato whispered, guilt flooding her mind. Still holding Pen-Pen, she dashed out the door past the two teens, and towards the stairs.
"Hey, what's the matter?! Where're ya goin'?!"
Looking over her shoulder as she ran, Misato called back, "If I hurry, I can still make it to the train station, and see Shinji off!!"
Toji and Kensuke both watched Misato race off to her car, blinked, looked at each other, and ran after the violet haired Captain of NERV.
Misato jumped in her car, set Pen-Pen in the passenger seat, put their seat belts on, and sped off towards her destination, leaving Toji Suzahara and Kensuke Aida behind, forgotten.
As she disappeared from sight, Toji waved his arms and shouted:
"HEY!! What about us?!"
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Location: Tokyo 3 train station
Shinji was about to get aboard the train when the sound of screeching car tires caused him to stop. Looking towards the disturbance, he saw Misato running towards him, Pen-Pen tucked in her arm.
Huffing and puffing as she came up to him, she waved of the two NERV security guards that had escorted the young Ikari to the Station.
Catching her breath, Misato looked Shinji strait in the eye. "There's. . . there's something I forgot to tell you. You see Pen-Pen here?"
As Shinji glanced down at the penguin in the woman's arms, she continued.
"He- he was being used in an experiment where I used to work. They were through with him, and I got him just as they were about to put him to sleep. Do you know why I took him in? such a useless, greedy bird? For one thing, I felt sorry for him, but. . ., also, I, I have always lived alone, and I thought it would be nice to come home and have someone waiting for me, someone there to greet me after a tiring day of work. In short, I- I wanted a family."
Misato looked Shinji strait in the eye and smiled gently.
"I'm. . . not the kind of person who would live with a stranger out of sympathy, or because of my job," looking down, she continued. "Shinji, I didn't mean to. . ."
She was interrupted as Shinji let out a choke; tears were streaming down the sided of his face.
"I- I don't want to go back to were I was. . ."
As the train took off beside them, Misato gathered the poor boy up in a hug, embracing him and stoking the back of his head, whispering softly all the while, " I'm sorry, I'm sorry. . ."
Meanwhile, Toji and Kensuke had just jumped out of a taxi, and where now watching the departing train through a chain link fence.
"We. . . we didn't make it," Kensuke said.
As the train's final car had left the station, they quickly noticed Shinji and Misato standing at the gate, hugging each other.
Toji grunted in jealousy as he and Kensuke ran around the fence to greet them.
"Sheesh, don't they have any shame?" he mumbled shaking his head as he went to apologize to Shinji Ikari.
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Part 2
Location: Outskirts of Tokyo 3
2 days later.
"So this is the Enemy up close, huh?" Shinji murmered as he looked up at the dead body of the Forth Angel(2). All around him, scientists and laborer's of NERV scrambled around the Angel, studying this, moving that, reminding Shinji of ants on a sidewalk, moving around in a madcap race to do everything, whether it be useful or not. To his right, Misato was going over some notes, while Ritsuko was busily examining the Angel's pinkish flesh.
"Dr. Akagi, where do you want this?" Optimus Prime boomed as he held out the shattered Core of the Angel he had just painstakingly cut out of its body with a borrowed Prog Knife.
Glancing up from her work, Ritsuko pointed to a patch of ground to the left of Prime.
"Place it there, Optimus, Commander Ikari said he wanted to examine it when he gets here."
Nodding, Prime put the damaged Core on the ground gently. For the past couple of day, the scientists of NERV had studied Optimus when he was not doing something for Ritsuko, which namely involved Setting up the temporary shelter around the Angel, and moving heavy equipment for the blond woman. Everyone there was still fascinated by the giant Robot, workers stopped to stare at the Autobot, sometimes even engaging in friendly conversation with him. The scientists were both amazed and baffled; Optimus had transformed for them several times, yet no matter how many times they were shown, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. He proved over and over how limited their understanding of anything really was.
"Incredible," murmured Ritsuko, who was still examining the Forth Angel. "With the exception of the Core and the left appendage Optimus cut off, this is a near perfect sample." She looked over at Shinji and Prime and thanked them both.
"So," said Misato, her hands on her hips, "Have you found anything new yet?"
Minuets later, Ritsuko, Optimus Prime, Shinji and Misato gathered around Ritsuko's computer as it analyzed the new data; Misato and Shinji stood behind a seated Ritsuko, while Prime stood some twenty feet behind them, watching the tiny screen of the computer with the advanced vision of his Cybertron optics.
After several minuets of waiting, the computer placed the number '601' on its screen.
"What does that mean?" inquired Misato as Ritsuko let out a small sigh of frustration.
"601 is the code number for 'can not be analyzed,'" explained Ritsuko.
"So we don't know what this is?"
"Yeah, but what we do know is that the Angel is made of a type of matter that has both particulate and waveform properties."
"But you have found out what it's power source is, right?"
"Something like that, but we haven't figured out how it operates yet," Ritsuko said sadly, a hint of disappointment on her face.
"So we found something 'else' outside our experience," said Misato, turning her gaze towards the giant robot behind them. "Neither you or our big friend here have told me where he came from, or what he is or anything!"
Just then, Commander Ikari walked passed the small group. He went unnoticed by the two women, but was watched carefully by Shinji and Optimus as the 1st Commander of NERV walked over to the shattered Core of the Angel.
Optimus made a sound that sounded like he was clearing his throat(or the robotic equivalent of it) and addressed the small group of humans that stood at his feet.
"I apologize for not telling you anything about myself before," Optimus Prime said softly. "But I wanted all of you together to hear it, because we are all now comrades in arms against the Angels, and I did not what to say the same story twice, for it is a long, long tale."
For the next several hours, the Autobot told them about the Autobots and the Decepticons, going over the most crucial parts of their history, why they were enemies, about the Decepticon leader, Megatron, and about their home planet, Cybertron. He told them about how he and his friends crash landed on the planet Earth into a volcano, and how he, his friends, and a group of the Decpticons that were inside their ship, the 'Ark', were rendered unconscious for countless millennia.
Optimus went over almost everything that happened after they were all revived, everything from the making of the Dinobots to the moment of his own death. He went on to tell them how the Quintessons,(the multi-faced creators of the Transformers) had resurrected him not once, but twice; the first time as a robotic zombie reactivated to destroy the other Autobots. The Second time he was revived he was brought up in the middle of the Hate Plague incident, and he told them how he unleashed the power of the Matrix to cure the universe of the Plagues infection. Finally, he got to the part about when he and the newly remade Megatron battled each other, being sucked into the wormhole Megstron created, and crashed into this new world.
After he had finished, Optimus looked over the group of people who had listened to his tale. Shinji sat on a chair, looking at Optimus with wide eyes. Misato and Ritsuko were looking at him with awe, and a lot more respect. Unbeknownst to all except Prime, Gendo Ikari had listened in as well.
"Amazing!" whispered Ritsuko. "Parallel dimensions, robotic wars, lifesaving Autobot artifacts, and subspace pocket transformation! If I wasn't here to see and listen to all of this, I would say that this was a story strait from the heart of science fiction."
"But what about your size?" asked Shinji, somewhat confused. "From what you told us, in your dimension you guys are only somewhat larger than the machines you represent. You turn into a semi truck, but I have never seen a truck that was big enough to bulldoze an Angel!"
"Yes, now that you mention it, that is something I would like to know as well," said Ritsuko, rather surprised that Shinji picked up on that while it hadn't crossed her own mind.
"I. . . I'm afraid I do not know," replied Optimus Prime. "Despite everything we Transformers know, I have no idea as to how Megatron's and my mass increased to such immense levels. Obviously something about the crossing though of the wormhole had something to do with it. If Preceptor were here (one of our lead scientist in Autobot City), I'm sure that he would come up with an answer, or a sound theory on the subject. What I do know is that along with the increase in size, there was a massive decrease in energy as well."
"Do you think that if you were to repeat the process, only going from this dimension to yours, that perhaps you would revert to your original size?" prodded Ritsuko, the scientist part of her mind already pondering the possibilities of this new knowledge.
"Again, I do not know," replied Prime. "For all we know, every time one goes through one of these wormholes, his mass continues to increase. Then again, like you said, going in one way would increase while going back through the other way would decease. I don't know. All I know is is that I need to find a way to get back, before the Decepticons find a way to defeat my comrades and conquer that dimension's Earth."
"By the way," asked Misato, a disturbing question looming in her mind, "what happened to Megatron? You said that he came over into this, er, dimension as well. If this guy is even half as bad as you say he is, then the idea of anything or anybody that sadistic here on this planet is. . .terrifying." The violet haired woman shivered at the thought of something that was probably more dangerous than an Angel.
"I. . . I don't know," rumbled Prime, his optics dimming slightly. "After I awoke from my own crash, I did a mental scan of a 50 mile radius around me to find him, but. . . I couldn't sense him. He may have been completely destroyed, but Megatron's a survivor; the idea of him actually dying in his crash is illogical. Also, he was the one who created the wormhole into this world with his anti-matter blast. Without him, there might be no way for me to return to my own dimension, and I would not return to it unless I was sure that Megatron were truly dead, or in my custody."
"We did a complete and thorough sweep of the ocean floor within a 200 mile radius of where you were found," Ritsuko stated. "We had hopes to find more machines like you, but all we turned up was some scrap metal here and there, but we didn't turn up anything like Megatron. I'm. . . sorry, Optimus.
"What happened to the Matrix?" Shinji suddenly piped up, breaking up the disturbing mindset of a missing Megatron, out loose somewhere in the world.
"That is something I would like to know as well," replied Prime. "I awoke knowing that it was missing, but do to the battle with the Forth Angel and the work around here, I haven't had the time to inquire about it."
Ritsuko smiled. "The Matrix is being held in a high security room in NERV headquarters. When we get back, we'll get it back to--"
"We'll return it to you after the last of the Angels has been defeated," a deep voice stated.
All heads, metallic and organic, turned towards the speaker, who turned out to be Commander Gendo Ikari.
"May I ask why I can not get it back now instead?" growled Optimus, his blue optics burning.
"We are going to keep this 'Matrix' until the Angel are all defeated, to make sure you stay here to fight until that time," smirked Gendo, surprisingly arrogant for a man who could had been easily squashed like a bug by the metal giant.
"I have all ready said that I would fight the Angels, and my word is my bond!" said Prime. "If I have the Matrix in my possession when the Angels attack, then---"
"As I have said, Optimus Prime," replied Gendo, his hands in his coat pockets, "The Matrix will remain in the custody of NERV until further notice." With that, the Commander of NERV turned and left, leaving a livid Optimus Prime and gaping group of NERV personnel.
Ritsuko turned to Optimus and gave him guilty look.
"I'm. . .sorry, Optimus. Normally I would give you back the Matrix without a second thought, but Commander Ikari, well, he can be difficult at times. . ."
"Difficult?!" shouted Misato. " What you mean is that he can be a total #@$%@&* when he wants to be, which is all the time!"
"The point is," Ritsuko stated, shooting her friend a cold glare, "is that I can't give you the Matrix unless the Commander allows it, doing so without his authorization would most likely cost me my job, and also put me in jail for a long, long time."
"I understand," Prime growled, a fearsome sound. "Though I do not like the idea of the Matrix being out of my own protection, I think it will be safe until this is all over."
Prime knew it would be pointless to threaten or to hurt Commander Ikari for the Matrix, no matter how just it may be. It was against his programming to hurt or kill anything without just cause. He had killed off many Decepticons in his life, but not because he wanted to; sometime one must kill to protect himself or his friends, or kill out of the necessity of war, but to kill for no good reason was just blatantly wrong.
"Well, better turn back to the task at hand," sighed Misato, trying her best to forget the hateful thought s she had for her boss. "The Commander said that the Matrix would be returned to you after all the Angels are gone, so we had better get to work and find out as much as we can about these things." She finished by jerking her thumb towards the dead body of the Angel.
Nodding their heads, everyone went back to work, but the thoughts about Gendo and the Matrix failed to leave anyone's mind.
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Several days later, shortly after the 'Rei' incident
Location: NERV headquarters
NERV was in an uproar. Built like a gigantic clear blue cube, the Fifth Angel had arrived, coming just after the successful activation of Unit 00. Shinji had been sent up in Unit 01 to dispatch the Angel, only to get shot by an intensely powerful blast from the Angel. Several layers of armor were melted almost instantly, and Pilot Shinji Ikari had been rendered unconscious by the immense pain from the blast. Shinji was placed in ER, and all anybody could do was pray that he would wake up in time.
The Angel was built almost perfectly offensively and defensively. Several attacks were made on it by standard weaponry, with no effect.
Now, the Angel was drilling through the ground and shields that protected the NERV geofront, and NERV had less than 10 hours to destroy the Angel before it finally dug it's way through and blasted NERV off the face of the Earth. It was Captain Katsuragi that came up with a 'plan' to destroy the Angel.
"The 'Position Rifle', Captain?! Have you gone crazy? It's only a Prototype!!" Ritsuko shrieked, causing Misato to step back and plug her ears. "Do you realize that it has never been tested before? Especially with the power that you say is going to be behind it?"
"Yes, I know that! But the Magi said that it was the best chance we had at getting past that A.T. field! Besides what else do we have? Besides I already got permission from the Commander," Misato exclaimed, shaking her head. They had thought about sending Optimus up, but Gendo insisted that they couldn't afford to lose him should the Angel be able to kill him with its own weaponry.
'Sure, but we can afford to lose Shinji, can't we, you #@$%@&*!' thought Misato darkly, finding yet one more reason to loath Commander Ikari.
Ritsuko sighed and looked at the group that had gathered: herself, Captain Katsuragi, Maya, Shigero, Matoko, Rei Ayanami and Optimus Prime had gathered to discuss the battle plan.
"Alright everybody, think! We may have a weapon powerful enough to kill the Angel, but chances are that the one firing the Position Rifle may miss, and it takes 20 seconds for the barrel to cool. We don't know how long it will take the Angel to recharge itself, but we have to assume that it will take less than 20 seconds. According to the Magi, we have only two shots; we will not have chance at a third."
Maya spoke up. "Right now, the best thing we have to delay the second blast is a 'shield' made from the bottom of a single-stage-to-orbit rocket that now has a ultra-electro magnetic coating. It should last 17 seconds."
"How do we know that we have enough power to penetrate the A.T. field?" asked Shigero. "Sure, we have all the power of Japan backing this thing up, but still. . ."
"That will not be a problem," said Prime. All heads turned towards Optimus.
"What's on your mind?" asked Misato, intrigued by the Autobot's sudden statement.
"Simple. I'll rig up two Energon booster batteries for your rifle. Each booster will contain 30 or more cubes of Energon for each shot. With this, the blast from the Position Rifle should be more than enough to pierce the A.T. field. Also, I can reinforce the barrel of the gun so the cooling process can be shortened down to 18 seconds rather than 20."
"Brilliant!" Misato said, the words from the Autobot leader boosting her confidence up a notch. Sure, 2 seconds may not seem like a whole lot, but in times of war, every second counts. "By the way, what's the Third Child's status?"
"According to the doctor's report, he stable, and should regain consciousness soon," replied Matako.
Nodding her head, Misato turned to Rei.
"Rei, I want you to check up on Pilot Ikari for the next several hours. When he wakes up, take him some food and give him an update on what's happening."
"Yes, Captain," the blue haired pilot replied, her soft voice little more than a whisper. As she left, the others were quickly breaking up into groups and set out to do the tasks required to win this fight against this Angel.
*********************** ************************** *******************************
Rei Ayanami walked down the hallway towards the hospital room that held Pilot Ikari, her foot steps echoing softly off the walls. The young girl was lost in thought as she thought of the events of the past several weeks.
She remembered when Pilot Ikari first came. She knew he had refused to pilot the Eva when the came to get her. Up until that point, all she knew about Shinji Ikari was that he was Commander Ikari's son, and a potential Pilot. Nothing more. Then he did the unexpected: he became a pilot so she didn't have to that day.
Rei remembered what it felt like to be held in his arms after he caught her. Despite the pain that was wracking her body, it felt. . . good, safe to be held in those warm, caring arms.
She of coarse did not voice her opinion on this. It did not concern Eva, after all.
Then came Optimus Prime. The Giant Robot was as much of an enigma to her as she was to everybody else. From what she was taught, robots were machines, and machines didn't think, or feel, or make their own decisions; yet, Optimus Prime did, disrupting everything she had been taught on the subject.
The contact between the albino girl and the Autobot had been very limited. They had been introduced, and they saw each other at NERV at times, but they hadn't talked to each other as of yet. Commander Ikari had not said that she couldn't, but he didn't say that she could, either.
Rei narrowed her red eyes slightly, going over her thoughts carefully. She had been told the Autobot's story by Misato and Dr. Akagi, who had told the abridged version of the tale to her and the bride bunnies. From what she had been told, Optimus's history was a complex one, one that was built up around war. If what she had heard was true, then Optimus's life was a hard one, not to unlike her own.
Making a note to herself, Rei took it upon herself to have a talk with Prime, and see if the life of Transformer was anything different from that of a human.
Stopping by the NERV cafeteria, she picked up a tray of food, and resumed her trek to Shinji's room.
*********************** ************************** *******************************
Several Hours later
Location: Within Tokyo 3
Standing on the roof of the junior high school, Kensuke checked his watch for the umpteenth time in the last two minuets, the group around him getting restless. He told his classmates about the last battle of the Evangelion, Unit 01, and the robot Optimus Prime. Though there was no doubt the Eva's existed, most of them scoffed at Kensuke and Toji when they told them about Prime. Until Kensuke showed the disbelieving class of room 2-A the footage of the battle that he had recorded. Even then, although most now believed the two boys, there were some who still doubted. One of these was the Class Representative of room 2-A, Hikari Horaki.
"Well, Kensuke, where are the Eva's and robots you promised would be here?" someone asked one of the doubters mockingly.
"They'll be here. I hacked into my dad's data files. According to the info, they should be here any minuet."
"I. . . don't know," said a tense Hikari, the freckled girl playing with the hem of her shirt, and tossing an occasional glance at Toji, who was leaning on a guard rail. "Maybe we should go to the shelter's."
"I thought you wanted to see the robot," said Toji, looking over his shoulder at her.
"I do, sort of, just to prove you two wrong!" retorted Hikari. The only reason she was up there in the first place was that after she had seen the disk of the previous battle, she still disbelieved Toji's and Kensuke's story. She said while the Eva was probably real, the robot was probably something Kensuke had made up on his computer and added to the disk. An argument broke out among the three teens, with Hikari saying that she would stay out of the shelters and watch the next battle to prove that the two boys were lying. So there she was, on the roof of her school, regretting every minuet of it.
Just then, they all heard a rumbling of to the west. Turning towards the sound, the saw the side of a mountain open up.
"The. . . the entire mountain is moving," said Toji, awed that man could make such a thing possible.
Within seconds, the purple Unit 01 appeared, drawing cheers from the group of kids, which only got louder as a yellow Eva, Unit 00, came up behind the other Eva, carrying what appeared to be an enormous shield. The group when silent as the robot Optimus Prime came up as well, carrying the black gun he had discarded in the last fight. The shrieks and cheers of awe and delight nearly deafened Kensuke as classmates started slapping him and Toji on the back, some even apologizing for doubting them.
As the children continued to cheer, the three titanic guardians made their way to Mt. Futago, going on their way to battle the latest threat against humanity.
************************ ***************************** ***************************
Two Hours later Location: Base at Mt. Futago
At the base of Mt. Futago, Pilot Ikari, Pilot Ayanami, and Optimus Prime stood by the Position Rifle waiting for the rundown from Captain Katsuragi. On the road leading up the mountain were several miles of generators, each plugged into the one in front the other, all of them channeling all the power of Japan into the Rifle.
The two Pilot's stood in front of Misato and Ritsuko, while Prime sat on a small hill near by.
"All right, you three, listen up," said Misato, her voice bringing them all to attention. "This is the Position Rifle, an experimental weapon that NERV requisitioned from the 'Japan Strategic Self Defense Force Research Labs'; according to the Magi, the blast fired from it should punch thought the Angel's A.T. field." At this point, Ritsuko walked over to the Rifle and gestured to two metal boxes, each the size of a bus, hooked up to the left side of the big gun. She addressed the two pilots.
"These two devises you see here are Energon booster batteries that Optimus whipped up for us," said Ritsuko, glancing over at Prime. "Each one of these contains 35 Energon cubes. Though the Magi calculated that all the electricity of Japan had a 90% chance of breaking through the A.T. field, each of these batteries will bring that percentage up by 40%, greatly increasing our chances at success."
"Now, Shinji, I need you to listen carefully to this, because you'll be the one firing the Rifle," said Ritsuko, the tone in her voice telling the Pilots that there was no room for error. "The positrons fired by the Rifle will be affected by the Earth's rotation, magnetic field, and gravity, so they won't travel in a strait line." Shinji started to protest, but Dr. Akagi raised her hand, silencing the boy. "Don't worry. Just pull the trigger when the markers line up on the target. The computer will do the rest."
"Al. . . alright, but why am I firing the Rifle?" inquired Shinji.
"Because, between you and Rei, you have the highest sync ratio; Rei will be backing you up."
"Okay, but why isn't Optimus Shooting it?" Shinji turned towards the Autobot. "From what he told us, he's had a 'lot' more experience at this than me, so I was wondering. . ." he trailed off, at a loss of words.
Before either of the two women could answer, Optimus spoke up.
"The reason I won't be firing the Rifle is because it was built to be used by an Eva, not me. As you can see, compared to Unit 01's arms and hands, mine are to short and bulky to use the weapon, and we didn't have the time to modify it for me to use. Otherwise, I would do it. For now, I am to serve as backup as well should Pilot Ayanami fall before the second shot."
"Which brings us to one last issue," said Ritsuko. "If for some reason you miss the Angel, you'll have to change the fuse and wait 18 second for the barrel to cool. During that time, Pilot Ayanami will defend you with her shield. According to our calculations, the shield should hold up for 17 seconds; after that, that gives you 1 second to shoot again before Unit 00 gets melted down."
"All right you guys, It's time. Move out." Misato ordered.
"Yes ma'am"
************************* ******************************* **************************
Dressed in their plug suits, Shinji and Rei sat on their respective metal platforms beside the heads of their Eva's, waiting for the power of Japan to be rerouted to the Position Rifle. Shinji had his knees drawn up to hi chest, glaning over at Ayanami every now and again. Optimus stood some distance behind them, out of the range of the Angel so he wouldn't be detected.
As the lights of Tokyo 3 slowly went out, Shinji let out a soft sigh.
"I guess we may be dead soon."
"Why?"
Looking over at the blue haired girl, Shinji couldn't help but ask, "How can you be so calm? You've been put through so much danger already. Why do you pilot it?"
Not bothering to look at the boy, Rei answered. "Because, it is my bond."
"To my father?"
"To all people. I was born to pilot Eva. If I didn't pilot, I would have nothing else. For me, that's the same as being dead."
Shinji let the air blow slowly out of his lungs. "The same as being dead, huh?" Shinji shook his head and smiled at the girl.
"You're very strong, Rei."
"I. . . have nothing else," she whispered, a hint of sadness in her voice. Glancing at the electronic clock on the right hand of her plug suit, she got up to her feet.
"It's time. Ikari?"
"Yes?"
"You will not die."
"Huh?!" gasped Shinji, shocked at her words.
"I'll be protecting you," she said softly. "Goodbye."
With that, she climbed up into the entry plug of Unit 00, leaving Shinji to wonder at her parting words.
************************* **************************** ****************************
It happened so fast even Optimus, with all the sensors in his head, barely had time to react. Shinji had willed Unit 01 to fire the gun, just as the Angel retaliated by firing it's own weapon. Despite the fact that Shinji's blast was the more powerful of the two, when the two beams of energy came at each other to the point of colliding, they seemed to slow and. . . warp, twisting around each other, and missing their intended targets, Shinji's destroying part of the city while the Angel's disintegrated part of the mountain side.
As Shinji changed the fuse in the Position Rifle, the Angel fired again. Rei Ayanami barely had time to block the blast with her shield. Almost instantly, the shield started to melt like butter before a flame. At the same time, the Angel's drill broke though the final layer of armor, continuing it's decent towards the building of NERV.
Optimus looked at the two Eva Units and weighed his options. He could get in front of Ayanami and help block the blast, but risk being destroyed in the process, or he could away from the Eva Units and distract the Angel into blasting him, or rather at him.
Running away from the scene in front of him, he sped around the Angel, covering 20 miles in only a few seconds. Raising his gun up level with the Angel as he ran, he shot several rounds of yellow Energon at it.
The Angel may have been built like a fortress, but it wasn't completely invulnerable. Though most of the energy from Prime's shots were deflected by the A.T. field, some of them got through, putting small dents in the Angel's body.
Like NERV's Position Rifle, the Angel's own weapon was flawed as well. While the Position Rifle required time to cool before it could fire again, the Angel couldn't shoot at two things at once. It could either destroy the immediate threat(Shinji and Rei), or it could destroy the possible threat(Optimus Prime). After it received several more injuries from Prime, it redirected it's beam of destruction at Optimus, who Transformed into truck mode and went at full throttle, staying just ahead of the beams destructive path.
Shinji took this opportunity to get around Unit 00, who despite the shield, still received heavy structural damage, and took aim at the cube shaped Angel. Shinji ticked off the last few seconds, each one seeming to take an eternity to pass. As the computer finally locked on the Angel, Shinji pulled the trigger, the remaining Energon battery flaring as he did so.
Unhindered by the Angel, the Positron Rifle's blast tore clean through the Angel like it was tissue paper. Immediately, the forth Angel's drill stopped, only a few hundred meters above NERV Headquarters.
*********************** ************************** *****************************
Unit 00 slumped to the ground, dropping what remained of the shield in the process. Fearing the worst, Shinji willed Unit 01 to rip off the back cover to Unit 00's Entry Plug. Forcing the Plug out of the yellow Eva, Shinji had unit 01 gently set it down on the ground. Within two minuets, Shinji was out of his Eva and was trying to open the super hot Entry Plug with his hands, the plastic of his plug suit quickly melting. At last, despite the pain racing up his arms, the young pilot pried open the door.
Quickly he got inside, fully expecting to find Rei badly injured, or. . . dead.
So it was perfectly natural to panic when he saw the unconscious Rei, slumped in her seat. Gently shaking her, he yelled out her name, hoping she would wake up.
Slowly, Ayanami opened her ruby colored eyes, slowly focusing them on the young Ikari.
'This is the second time he has come for me' her mind whispered, her heart pounding a little harder.
"Ik. . .Ikari. . ."
"Ayanami! Are you alright?!" A smile came to the boy's face, tears started to run down his cheeks.
"Why, why are you crying?" asked a puzzled Rei , wondering why Ikari would something like that at a like this. "Why are you so sad?"
" 'Sniff', dummy. I'm not crying because I'm sad; I'm crying because I'm happy. . .happy your alive!"
Looking down at her lap, Rei Ayanami closed her eyes. "I'm. . .sorry, but I do not know what to do, although I should be happy. . ."
"Well," sniffled Shinji, wiping his eyes, "if your happy, you should. . . smile."
Rei looked at him as he offered her his hand to help her out of her Eva. Slowly, a small smile crept across her lovely face.
Shinji gaped at her, thinking 'She-she's so beautiful when she smiles. . .'
"Pilot Ikari! Pilot Ayamani! Are you to all right!?!"
Startled, Shinji looked out the door of the Entry Plug, and saw Optimus Prime kneeling down and looking at them with concern.
Smiling, Shinji waved at the Autobot.
"We're fine, we just need some rest, that's all!"
"Good to hear," said Prime, relieved. He held out his right hand, gesturing for the two pilots to climb aboard. "We'll retrieve your Eva's tomorrow. Right now, Captain Katsuragi is going crazy with worry for you two!"
As the to Children got up into Prime mighty hand, Shinji turned to Rei.
"Ayanami?"
"Yes, Pilot Ikari?"
"You. . .you should stop saying 'goodbye' before you leave on a mission. It's just to sad!"
Rei looked over at her companion as they were lifted up. That small smile appeared once more.
"Very well. . . Ikari."
As the two Pilots sat next to each other in silence, Optimus Prime smiled inwardly as he tromped his way towards the nearest retrieval route to NERV, and just hoped that tomorrow would be a brighter day for all of them.
To be continued. . .
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Well, that chapters finally over! Sorry folks, but besides work and all the other thing of life, I got a really bad case of writer's block on this chapter. Well, how'd I do on this one? God, bad, what? Please, Read and review to let me know!
Alright, now to explain some things. Ahem.
I received a lot of e-mails concerning Optimus Primes size, and all I can say is. . .oops. Sorry folks, but it has been a really, really long time since I have seen any of the original cartoons. And to top it all off, just before I came up with the idea of this fic, I purchased the novel 'Transformers: Hardwired' (found at a 'Barnes and Noble' store sear you). The Author of this story (Scott Ciencin) made all of the Transformer characters in this story WAY bigger than they were in the cartoon. Read it, and you can see why I was confused. Forgive me! Giant rooms in NERV. Before anyone tells me whether or not such rooms exist or not in the Evangelion series, I took the liberty of making these rooms for this fic. Why? Because Optimus needs somewhere to go, and I couldn't come up with anything better. Megatron. I really wanted to introduce back into this story line, but I felt it wasn't time yet, so I gave him an honorable mention instead! Sorry!(Minor Spoiler!! Don't read if you want to be surprised!) As you have read, Megatron was purchased by SEELE. Well, believe you me, when Megatron comes back online, he is NOT going to be pleased being SEELE's puppet in their plans! Oh, poor SEELE, I pity you! ;D Okay, some good news and some bad news. The good news is is that I'm going to continue this fic, and it's most likely going to be way longer that five or six chapters, I just don't see how I can make this story work otherwise! Now the bad news: Chances are really good that, if you don't see this updated by the twelfth of this month, then it won't be updated till the after the first of the year. Why? Every year, my family and I go and spend the Christmas holiday with my Grandparents for a couple of weeks. (
Well, that's it for this chapter. Remember read and review, and have a
Merry Chistmas!
Copyright: Unfortunately Evangelion and the TransFormers still don't belong to me, and suing me won't do you any good. I'm poor.
By the way, the Evangelion parts of this fic contain both segments from the anime and the manga story lines, I just put in whichever works best or easiest for this fic.
Note from the Author: In this chapter you will see what happened to Megatron, and in whose possession he's in. Answers to Optimus Prime's and Megatron's immense change in size from will be explained, and how the presence of Prime will now effect NERV.
In the last chapter, the wording I used for Prime's size was that he was 'nearly' the size of an Eva; The Transformer leaders (both Optimus and Megatron) are now about ¾ the height of an Eva. Still a huge leap from their original G1 size, but as I said before, this will be explained later in this chapter.
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Chapter 3:Of Robots and Dolls Part 1
"Cool, cool, cool, cool, COOL!!!" Kensuke squealed in delight as he and Toji watched the footage he had recorded three days ago. Unfortunately for him his camera had been ruined by the LCL bath he and Toji had taken that day, but the disk inside was in near perfect condition. Now they were watching it in Kensuke's bedroom, the excitement of the smaller boy very apparent.
"Incredible! How could NERV make something that possibly make something that immense, that complex, that powerful, and that cool!!" exclaimed Kensuke, his face less than six inches from the screen of his TV as he watched Optimus Prime transform from truck mode back to Robot mode.
"I don't know," Said Toji, pushing his friend back so he could see the footage on the screen. "What I don't get is why it turns into a truck."
"What do you mean?" Kensuke said, tearing his gaze away from the television and towards his friend.
"What I mean is why not turn into a tank, or a fighter jet, or some kind of military weapon that you're always yappin' about?"
Kensuke sat back, thinking.
"I don't know, why don't we ask Shinji? After all, he works at NERV, he's bound to know something!"
Toji shifted uncomfortably on Kensuke's floor. Noticing this, Kensuke gave his friend a stern look.
"You need to apologize to him, you know."
"I know, I know! I'll do it in a couple of days, Okay?"
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2 days later.
The two teens stood outside of the apartment where Shinji and his guardian lived. Outside, the rain was coming down in sheets. Pressing the doorbell, they waited for someone to answer.
Much to Toji's and Kensuke's surprise, a beautiful woman answered the door.
"--Shinji!! Oh!" a startled Misato exclaimed, who obviously was expecting someone else.
The two parties stared at each other for several seconds, then a barrage of apologies and questions about Shinji's whereabouts were quickly made by the to boys (well, mostly from Toji), and a mildly flummoxed Misato did her best to answer them.
"-and we came to see if he was okay."
"Yeah!" said Kensuke, happy to get a word in edgewise. "Here are the printouts that were building on Shinji's desk." He handed the papers to Misato, blushing slightly.
"I'm sorry," said Misato, taking the papers from Aida, "but, uh, Shinji's at the NERV Training Facility right now."
"I see," said Toji, disappointed.
"Sorry for your trouble," said Misato, who was about to say goodbye to the teenage boys when Kensuke suddenly piped up.
"Wait, uh, I mean, um, I have a question to ask, if its not any trouble," stuttered Kensuke.
"Oh! Well, what is it? She asked.
"Well, I was wondering, uh, we, were wondering, what that Robot was we saw the other day, and I was also wondering-"
"I'm very sorry," said Misato, " but that is classified information, and I'm not authorized to let it out to the public." In truth, she had yet to learn anything about Optimus Prime either.
"Oh," said a disappointed Kensuke. "Thanks anyway."
"Yeah, tell Shinji we came by," said Toji.
"I will. Bye!" Misato sweetly smiled and waved as she closed her door.
As the boys turned and started on their way home, they considered this latest development.
"She was a real babe, wasn't she?" sighed Toji wistfully.
"Yeah!" exclaimed Kensuke, who was still a little disappointed. "Ikari sure is lucky, to live with someone like her!"
"I'd say!"
Dropping the subject, the freckled boy adjusted his glasses, and looked over at his tall friend.
"By the way, I'm goin' camping tomorrow, do ya want to come?"
Toji smirked at his friend.
"Going camping on one of your military outings again, Kensuke? Aren't you a little old to be playing war?"
"Hey! I just happen to like to 'play war'! It's fun!" growled Kensuke defensively.
"Okay, okay!" laughed Toji. "I'm sorry."
"Well, are ya?"
"Nah, I gotta check up on my sister tomorrow, remember?"
"That's right!" Kensuke said, snapping his fingers. "Sorry about that."
"No problem," yawned Toji. "Well, I gotta be gettin' back home. See ya!"
"Bye!" said Kensuke as the two boys parted ways and went to their respective homes.
***************************** *************************** ************************
Location: unknown
Within a dark room, they gathered. Not as people normally do when summoned to a meeting, but rather as a meeting of voices, voices that plotted, made plans, and spoke of dark secrets. They were SEELE, the force that backed and financed NERV, a group of powerful men that gathered together not to save the world, but to destroy it in a Third Impact. Now, they had come together to discuss the latest development at NERV: Optimus Prime.
Kael, the head of the Committee, spoke first.
"This-was a unforeseen chain of events. We never could have predicted this."
"Agreed. This was not in the scenario we had laid out."
"It was a mistake to entrust NERV to Ikari, wasn't it?
"Yes, but there was no one else that could have carried out our plans."
"But now he has this 'Optimus Prime' in his control, and is disrupting the scenario to the point of-!"
Kael interrupted the other voices.
"Yes, he does; but still, we have to thank him."
A chorus of angry voices sounded their outrage and disbelief at Kael's words. After several minuets of cursing and yelling, the members of SEELE calmed down.
Kael continued.
"Ikari might have hidden truths from us, and plotted against us; but now he has exposed himself, and has unknowingly provided us with much needed information."
Kael smiled, an unpleasant sight.
"After all, Ikari isn't the only one with one of these machines at his disposal."
In the middle of the room, a holographic image appeared. There, standing like a proud general, stood Megatron. Completely rebuilt from the damage he had received from Optimus Prime and his crash, the Decepticon leader stood at attention, his body lifeless. The symbol of the Decepticons gleamed evilly on his white metal chest. Only the black cannon normally found on his right arm was missing.
"Ikari, as I have said, has not only provided us with crucial information, but also a means to finally bring our own weapon back to 'life'."
The other voices murmured and agreed, the anger towards Kael forgotten.
"Yes, of coarse. In case this 'Prime problem' gets out of hand, we can always send out ours to dispatch him."
"Ikari may think he has something over us, but he won't for long."
"No indeed," hissed Kael, the cruel smile on his face growing wider. "As soon as our spy delivers the information he need, the sooner we can activate our own machine and bend it to our will; the will of SEELE!"
The voices chuckled in the darkness, one by one they slowly faded away and left the room silent once more. In the end, only Kael remained, the leader of SEELE still smiled as he was left alone to his own thoughts.
"Soon, Ikari, you will learn what it means to be punished for sinning against the will of SEELE. Very soon."
*************************** ************************** ***************************
The next day
Location: Several miles from Tokyo 3
Shinji was warming himself by the fire, eating some of the food given to him by Kensuke. Shinji had been spending the last few days wandering around Tokyo 3, wasting time and avoiding Misato and NERV. He had run away after Misato had pretty much torn him apart for disobeying orders. After wandering around aimlessly through the countryside outside the city, Shinji had stumbled across his classmate Kensuke, who appeared to be training for guerilla warfare. The two boys spent a couple hours talking, or rather Kensuke talked, saying how he enjoyed the quiet of camping, how Toji's little sister chewed him out for beating Shinji up, and how he envied Shinji. This last fact startled the timid boy.
"Why?"
Kensuke looked up and grinned.
"Because, you're a pilot! And you get to live with such a beautiful woman, and you get to work at NERV. Man, I wish I could pilot the Evangelion, or work on the Robot NERV has. By the way, what is that thing? Do you know how it was able to turn into a truck, and how-"
Shinji interrupted.
"I'm- not sure how it works. I left before I got a chance to find out."
"Left? Why did you leave? And do you know anything about it? Anything at all?"
Shinji looked over at the other boy, who was practically begging for information.
Looking down at his now empty plate, the young Ikari let out a soft sigh.
"I left because- because I needed some time to my self, you know, just get away from it all and try to figure things out. And to answer your other question- I, I don't know much about it, other than it's name is Optimus Prime, and I think- I think it's some kind of self piloting machine, I'm not entirely certain."
Despite the small bit of info, Kensuke appeared to be impressed. Ecstatic, even.
"Wow, a self piloting robot! I didn't think that technology was that advanced yet. This is so cool! I can't wait to tell Toji!"
Alarmed, Shinji started to wave his hands.
"I wouldn't do that! For all I know, that information might be classified, and if NERV found out you or anybody else knew about it, who knows what NERV would do with them!"
Dejected, the freckled boy sat back.
"Oh well, should have known something like that would be classified."
Looking at his watch, Kensuke got up and stretched.
"Well, guess it's time to turn in for the night. You want to stay the night? I don't think you'll make it home at this hour."
"I, I don't want to intrude-"
Kensuke waved his hand, brushing it off, saying, "Forget about it, it's not a problem. I brought out another sleeping bag just in case Toji made it out here. But, since he didn't make it, you can use it."
"Th-thank you."
As the to boys turned in for the night, Shinji couldn't help but ask Kensuke a question.
"Do you, do you do this sort of thing often?"
"Sure, all the time!"
"Is it some sort of training for guerilla warfare?"
"What, with these toys? Nah, it's just for fun!"
"Oh."
**************************** *************************** **************************
Several hours later
It was during the next morning when the NERV personnel came. The day was foggy, and no one could see more than thirty in any direction.
"Shinji Ikari?" asked one of the men gruffly.
"You are to come back with us, to NERV."
"-yes, sir."
**************************** **************************** **************************
Thirty minuets later
Location: NERV storage room
Sitting in a dark storage room, the logo of NERV behind him on the wall, Shinji waited for the arrival of Misato, the sick feeling in his stomach growing with the passing of every second. He had been placed there just in case he tried to run away again. Misato was probably livid, and was probably trying to come up with a suitable punishment for running away, thought the young Ikari. Letting out a soft sigh, Shinji kept his head lowered, his eyes looked unseeing to the floor in front of him.
"What's on your mind, Shinji Ikari?" a deep metallic voice asked softly.
Startled, the young boy jumped up looking around the room franticly. He was sure he was alone when he came in here--
"I'm over here, not that hard to miss actually.," the voice chuckled.
Looking over to his right, Shinji saw two glowing blue lights over on the far side of the room. Forcing his eyes to adjust to the darkness around him, Shinji tried to make out the owner of the voice. Much to his surprise, the lights above him came on without warning, and blinded him for a moment. When he could see again, he looked up- and let out a startled yelp.
There, where the blue lights had been, was the robot, Optimus Prime. Sitting up against a wall, he had his knees drawn up, and his arms were resting on them. The Autobot looked at Shinji intently. All around him, hanging on the walls where spare parts and weapons for Unit 00. To Prime's left, a massive metal door stood, big enough for an Eva to walk in and get what ever equipment it needed if and when necessary. Now it and several other such rooms were being used by Optimus as a place to 'live'.
Shinji stared at the giant red and blue Autobot in awe, a wave of fear and excitement flowing through him. Then, realizing something, he snapped back to reality.
"W-wait a minuet, you talked to me!"
Optimus laughed again.
"Does this surprise you?"
"Yes! I mean, no! I mean- uh what I mean to say is, er- sorry, I didn't mean--"
Optimus raised a giant blue hand, silencing the babbling boy.
"No need to apologize. I'm used to that kind of reaction from humans that just met me and my kind."
"Your-- kind? You mean there are more like you?"
Optimus shifted around a bit and nodded. "Yes, I am a Cybertronian, or Transformer, as some people like to call us. My name is Optimus Prime, an Autobot." Prime pointed to one of the strange symbols on his arm.
Shinji gaped. "Cyberwha-, an Autobot?" he said, confused. "Wait a minuet, how did you know my name?"
Optimus chuckled again. "Miss Ritsuko gave me detailed files on you and all other members of the organization of NERV. Well, almost everybody."
Shinji blinked at this.
"Oh."
"By the way, thank you for helping me dispatch that creature the other day." Prime touched a shallow gash on the side of his head. It had been caused by the Angel's energy whip, a very minor injury.
"You-your welcome," mumbled Shinji, who was unused to being thanked for anything.
Studying a rifle made for Unit 00, Optimus asked the young pilot softly, "You don't like doing what you do, do you, Shinji Ikari?"
Shinji jumped. "Don't like what?" he asked nervously, though he knew the answer.
Optimus looked over at the human beside him. "Piloting the Evangelion, Unit 01. You don't like piloting it, do you?"
Hanging his head, Shinji replied softly, "No, I don't."
Realizing that Prime was waiting for him to continue, he went on.
"I don't like to pilot because, because of the pain it causes. Not to myself, but to others. The first time I fought an Angel, I ended up hurting some people, including a classmate's little sister. But I also don't like being someone else's tool."
"So why do you pilot?" asked Optimus, intrigued.
"I- I want to feel needed, wanted. I thought that if I piloted Eva, then maybe people would notice and like me. Maybe, maybe my father. . . would. . ."
"Maybe he would see you as his son, right?" said Prime.
Looking up, Shinji smiled sadly.
"Yeah. Pretty lame excuse, isn't it? To pilot Eva for such a shallow reason. Pretty. . . lame."
"No, it isn't."
Surprised, Shinji stared at the giant Robot.
"It isn't?"
Shaking his head, Optimus replied softly, "No, it isn't 'lame', as you put it. It's normal for any being to want positive attention from others, especially from their parents or leaders. The fact that you put yourself in danger for others, no matter how ungrateful they are, or how much pain what you do causes to yourself, the fact that you pilot if only just for their attention and respect, it's not a 'lame excuse', but a noble one. You should be proud of yourself and what you do, young Ikari."
Shinji stammered, "Th-thank y-you, Optimus." He whispered.
No one had ever spoken to him in such a kind way, at least for as long as he could remember. His Aunt and Uncle, who taken care of him when his father had gave him away to them, had only just tolerated him. They hadn't even called him since had left. Even Misato, though a great person in many ways, saw him as a tool. It was nice to have someone speak to him as a friend, not a superior.
Optimus got up, his metal body whirring and humming as he moved.
"I must get going. I need to be recharged, and I think I sense Captain Katsuragi coming this way."
"Can't you stay?" pleaded the boy.
Shaking his head, Prime open the giant door. "No. Though you did help me on the battlefield (and I am grateful for that), you disobeyed the orders of a superior officer, and now you must face the consequences for it. I'm sorry."
Nodding his head, Shinji smiled at the Autobot.
Optimus walked out of the room, his gigantic feet gently hitting the ground so as not to create a disturbance around him.
"Optimus!" The Autobot turned towards Shinji.
"Yes?"
"Thanks again, for. . . everything."
Prime nodded his head, and left Shinji alone to wait for Misato.
*************************** ******************************** ***********************
1 day later.
Misato Katsuragi sat at her kitchen table, beer in hand, and alone. Just last night she had told Shinji to go home. If piloting the Eva just hurt him, then she had no business making him pilot it.
She could still see his shocked face in her mind, telling him to go home.
Misato snorted and shook her head. She might as well had told him that he was no longer of any use. Of coarse, that wasn't the only thing that happened that night. Taking a swig of her beer, Misato recalled the other conversation she had. . .
------ ------- --------
The previous night.
Misato was walking down the halls, away from the room that she and Shinji had talked. Telling him to go home hurt, but she didn't want to see him suffer. In the end she ended up yelling at him, telling to leave NERV, that they didn't need people with his attitude. He acted like. . . that if he died in battle, it wouldn't matter. Like he didn't matter.
Lost in thought, she was on her way to speak with Ritsuko, and was passing by the storage room that held the extra armor for Unit 01, when a deep voice from above spoke to her. (no people, not God)
"Have you finished speaking to him?"
Whirling to her left, she saw the red and blue Robot that she was going to talk Ritsuko about. She had already acquired some info from the Doctor; mostly about the fact that he was a self-aware machine of unknown origins, that he agreed to help them in the war against the Angels, and to tell them everything about himself and his kind at a later date. Still, despite the fact that Ritsuko seemed to trust him, Misato couldn't help but feel uneasy as the hulking machine looked down at her.
Swallowing the small knot of fear in her throat, Captain Katsuragi nodded. She couldn't help but feel like she was in the presence of a superior officer. Weird.
"Yes, I have."
Prime folded his arms across his broad chest.
"But did you have to say it in such a cold manner?"
Jerking her head up, Misato glared at him.
"What do you mean, cold? And how do you know if I sounded cold of not?! I'll have you know that I told him to leave for his own good! Furthermore-"
"Captain Katsuragi!" Optimus almost yelled, his voice echoing down the hall, his form looming above Misato like a mountain.
Misato jumped despite herself, the robot's voice cutting through her rant like a knife.
"I'll answer your second question first; I was able to listen in on your conversation by hooking up to the communication system in this building. Before I answer your first question, tell me, Captain, how many years did you train for your job at NERV?"
"Eight years, sir," Misato said, confused.(1)
"And how long has Pilot Ikari trained for his job?"
". . .a few weeks. . ." she meekly replied, realizing were this was going.
"Do you expect him to Pilot Eva, protect the world, make life or death decisions, put up with people who see him as little more than a tool, do all of this without prior training, and take it all in stride?"
". . ."
Shaking his head, Optimus Prime sighed.
"Disciplining a soldier is one thing, ridiculing someone who was placed in a position like Shinji was is entirely different. Think about his life, Misato, the one you read in his file. Has his father ever bothered to call? How about his Aunt and Uncle? Does he ever bring friends over to your apartment? Ever? He thinks no one cares about him, not even you."
Shocked, Katsuragi stared at him. 'Shinji thinks that. . .'
Bending down, Prime spoke softly to her. "Please, think about it. Right now, he needs friends. He needs a family, for Cybertron sake! Someone that cares for him."
Turning around, Optimus walked down the cavernous hallway, his back to Misato.
"I must be leaving now. Good night, Captain Katsuragi."
So he left her, all alone with her thoughts.
------------ ------ ---------
Looking down at her near empty beer can, Misato let out a sigh. She didn't get a chance to apologize to Shinji; he had left for the train station before she got up.
Looking to her right, she saw Pen-Pen, a warm water penguin, her household pet and animal friend. Picking him up off the floor, she scratched him on the back of his head. She remembered the look on Shinji's face when he first saw him, so shocked that he dropped the groceries he had carried into the apartment. . .
Misato closed her eyes and shook her head. She was such an idiot. . .
Just then the doorbell rang. Still holding Pen-Pen, she went to answer the door. She was surprised to see Toji and Kensuke standing there.
***************** *********************** ****************************
minuets later. . .
"WHAT!?! You mean he left?!" Toji yelled out, shocked beyond belief. He and Kensuke had come over again so he could apologize to Shinji.
"We haven't notified the school yet, and. . . he should be at the train station now."
Toji was shaking his head, disbelief etched all over his face.
"Isn't this a bit abrupt?! He got fired, just for disobeying orders?!"
Misato smiled sadly and said softly, " No, it's not like that. . ."
"So you mean he quit, just got fed up with pilotin' Eva or somethin'?"
Kensuke was rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "You know, Shinji's been acting strange lately. . ., he was okay the other day, but he didn't act normal during that battle. . ."
Toji and Misato looked at the sandy haired boy, confused and questioning looks on their faces.
Adjusting his glasses, Kensuke continued. "At school, he acted as if nothing got to him, not even when Toji beat him up." At this point, Toji shot Misato a guilty look, " But for him to show emotion like that, it was almost like he was deliberately disobeying you, kinda like a, I don't know, like a spoiled kid."
Misato blinked, realization dawning on her. Everything that Prime had told her, everything Shinji said and did finally made sense; Shinji had come to her thinking that maybe, just maybe, someone cared about him. 'He must have seen my notebook on his progress here, and thought. . ., no, realized different.'
-'I'm just your subordinate, jut a tool to you.'-
-'He needs friends. He needs a family, for Cybertron sake!'-
"Oh Shinji." Misato whispered, guilt flooding her mind. Still holding Pen-Pen, she dashed out the door past the two teens, and towards the stairs.
"Hey, what's the matter?! Where're ya goin'?!"
Looking over her shoulder as she ran, Misato called back, "If I hurry, I can still make it to the train station, and see Shinji off!!"
Toji and Kensuke both watched Misato race off to her car, blinked, looked at each other, and ran after the violet haired Captain of NERV.
Misato jumped in her car, set Pen-Pen in the passenger seat, put their seat belts on, and sped off towards her destination, leaving Toji Suzahara and Kensuke Aida behind, forgotten.
As she disappeared from sight, Toji waved his arms and shouted:
"HEY!! What about us?!"
************************ **************************** ******************************
Location: Tokyo 3 train station
Shinji was about to get aboard the train when the sound of screeching car tires caused him to stop. Looking towards the disturbance, he saw Misato running towards him, Pen-Pen tucked in her arm.
Huffing and puffing as she came up to him, she waved of the two NERV security guards that had escorted the young Ikari to the Station.
Catching her breath, Misato looked Shinji strait in the eye. "There's. . . there's something I forgot to tell you. You see Pen-Pen here?"
As Shinji glanced down at the penguin in the woman's arms, she continued.
"He- he was being used in an experiment where I used to work. They were through with him, and I got him just as they were about to put him to sleep. Do you know why I took him in? such a useless, greedy bird? For one thing, I felt sorry for him, but. . ., also, I, I have always lived alone, and I thought it would be nice to come home and have someone waiting for me, someone there to greet me after a tiring day of work. In short, I- I wanted a family."
Misato looked Shinji strait in the eye and smiled gently.
"I'm. . . not the kind of person who would live with a stranger out of sympathy, or because of my job," looking down, she continued. "Shinji, I didn't mean to. . ."
She was interrupted as Shinji let out a choke; tears were streaming down the sided of his face.
"I- I don't want to go back to were I was. . ."
As the train took off beside them, Misato gathered the poor boy up in a hug, embracing him and stoking the back of his head, whispering softly all the while, " I'm sorry, I'm sorry. . ."
Meanwhile, Toji and Kensuke had just jumped out of a taxi, and where now watching the departing train through a chain link fence.
"We. . . we didn't make it," Kensuke said.
As the train's final car had left the station, they quickly noticed Shinji and Misato standing at the gate, hugging each other.
Toji grunted in jealousy as he and Kensuke ran around the fence to greet them.
"Sheesh, don't they have any shame?" he mumbled shaking his head as he went to apologize to Shinji Ikari.
**************************** **************************** **************************
Part 2
Location: Outskirts of Tokyo 3
2 days later.
"So this is the Enemy up close, huh?" Shinji murmered as he looked up at the dead body of the Forth Angel(2). All around him, scientists and laborer's of NERV scrambled around the Angel, studying this, moving that, reminding Shinji of ants on a sidewalk, moving around in a madcap race to do everything, whether it be useful or not. To his right, Misato was going over some notes, while Ritsuko was busily examining the Angel's pinkish flesh.
"Dr. Akagi, where do you want this?" Optimus Prime boomed as he held out the shattered Core of the Angel he had just painstakingly cut out of its body with a borrowed Prog Knife.
Glancing up from her work, Ritsuko pointed to a patch of ground to the left of Prime.
"Place it there, Optimus, Commander Ikari said he wanted to examine it when he gets here."
Nodding, Prime put the damaged Core on the ground gently. For the past couple of day, the scientists of NERV had studied Optimus when he was not doing something for Ritsuko, which namely involved Setting up the temporary shelter around the Angel, and moving heavy equipment for the blond woman. Everyone there was still fascinated by the giant Robot, workers stopped to stare at the Autobot, sometimes even engaging in friendly conversation with him. The scientists were both amazed and baffled; Optimus had transformed for them several times, yet no matter how many times they were shown, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. He proved over and over how limited their understanding of anything really was.
"Incredible," murmured Ritsuko, who was still examining the Forth Angel. "With the exception of the Core and the left appendage Optimus cut off, this is a near perfect sample." She looked over at Shinji and Prime and thanked them both.
"So," said Misato, her hands on her hips, "Have you found anything new yet?"
Minuets later, Ritsuko, Optimus Prime, Shinji and Misato gathered around Ritsuko's computer as it analyzed the new data; Misato and Shinji stood behind a seated Ritsuko, while Prime stood some twenty feet behind them, watching the tiny screen of the computer with the advanced vision of his Cybertron optics.
After several minuets of waiting, the computer placed the number '601' on its screen.
"What does that mean?" inquired Misato as Ritsuko let out a small sigh of frustration.
"601 is the code number for 'can not be analyzed,'" explained Ritsuko.
"So we don't know what this is?"
"Yeah, but what we do know is that the Angel is made of a type of matter that has both particulate and waveform properties."
"But you have found out what it's power source is, right?"
"Something like that, but we haven't figured out how it operates yet," Ritsuko said sadly, a hint of disappointment on her face.
"So we found something 'else' outside our experience," said Misato, turning her gaze towards the giant robot behind them. "Neither you or our big friend here have told me where he came from, or what he is or anything!"
Just then, Commander Ikari walked passed the small group. He went unnoticed by the two women, but was watched carefully by Shinji and Optimus as the 1st Commander of NERV walked over to the shattered Core of the Angel.
Optimus made a sound that sounded like he was clearing his throat(or the robotic equivalent of it) and addressed the small group of humans that stood at his feet.
"I apologize for not telling you anything about myself before," Optimus Prime said softly. "But I wanted all of you together to hear it, because we are all now comrades in arms against the Angels, and I did not what to say the same story twice, for it is a long, long tale."
For the next several hours, the Autobot told them about the Autobots and the Decepticons, going over the most crucial parts of their history, why they were enemies, about the Decepticon leader, Megatron, and about their home planet, Cybertron. He told them about how he and his friends crash landed on the planet Earth into a volcano, and how he, his friends, and a group of the Decpticons that were inside their ship, the 'Ark', were rendered unconscious for countless millennia.
Optimus went over almost everything that happened after they were all revived, everything from the making of the Dinobots to the moment of his own death. He went on to tell them how the Quintessons,(the multi-faced creators of the Transformers) had resurrected him not once, but twice; the first time as a robotic zombie reactivated to destroy the other Autobots. The Second time he was revived he was brought up in the middle of the Hate Plague incident, and he told them how he unleashed the power of the Matrix to cure the universe of the Plagues infection. Finally, he got to the part about when he and the newly remade Megatron battled each other, being sucked into the wormhole Megstron created, and crashed into this new world.
After he had finished, Optimus looked over the group of people who had listened to his tale. Shinji sat on a chair, looking at Optimus with wide eyes. Misato and Ritsuko were looking at him with awe, and a lot more respect. Unbeknownst to all except Prime, Gendo Ikari had listened in as well.
"Amazing!" whispered Ritsuko. "Parallel dimensions, robotic wars, lifesaving Autobot artifacts, and subspace pocket transformation! If I wasn't here to see and listen to all of this, I would say that this was a story strait from the heart of science fiction."
"But what about your size?" asked Shinji, somewhat confused. "From what you told us, in your dimension you guys are only somewhat larger than the machines you represent. You turn into a semi truck, but I have never seen a truck that was big enough to bulldoze an Angel!"
"Yes, now that you mention it, that is something I would like to know as well," said Ritsuko, rather surprised that Shinji picked up on that while it hadn't crossed her own mind.
"I. . . I'm afraid I do not know," replied Optimus Prime. "Despite everything we Transformers know, I have no idea as to how Megatron's and my mass increased to such immense levels. Obviously something about the crossing though of the wormhole had something to do with it. If Preceptor were here (one of our lead scientist in Autobot City), I'm sure that he would come up with an answer, or a sound theory on the subject. What I do know is that along with the increase in size, there was a massive decrease in energy as well."
"Do you think that if you were to repeat the process, only going from this dimension to yours, that perhaps you would revert to your original size?" prodded Ritsuko, the scientist part of her mind already pondering the possibilities of this new knowledge.
"Again, I do not know," replied Prime. "For all we know, every time one goes through one of these wormholes, his mass continues to increase. Then again, like you said, going in one way would increase while going back through the other way would decease. I don't know. All I know is is that I need to find a way to get back, before the Decepticons find a way to defeat my comrades and conquer that dimension's Earth."
"By the way," asked Misato, a disturbing question looming in her mind, "what happened to Megatron? You said that he came over into this, er, dimension as well. If this guy is even half as bad as you say he is, then the idea of anything or anybody that sadistic here on this planet is. . .terrifying." The violet haired woman shivered at the thought of something that was probably more dangerous than an Angel.
"I. . . I don't know," rumbled Prime, his optics dimming slightly. "After I awoke from my own crash, I did a mental scan of a 50 mile radius around me to find him, but. . . I couldn't sense him. He may have been completely destroyed, but Megatron's a survivor; the idea of him actually dying in his crash is illogical. Also, he was the one who created the wormhole into this world with his anti-matter blast. Without him, there might be no way for me to return to my own dimension, and I would not return to it unless I was sure that Megatron were truly dead, or in my custody."
"We did a complete and thorough sweep of the ocean floor within a 200 mile radius of where you were found," Ritsuko stated. "We had hopes to find more machines like you, but all we turned up was some scrap metal here and there, but we didn't turn up anything like Megatron. I'm. . . sorry, Optimus.
"What happened to the Matrix?" Shinji suddenly piped up, breaking up the disturbing mindset of a missing Megatron, out loose somewhere in the world.
"That is something I would like to know as well," replied Prime. "I awoke knowing that it was missing, but do to the battle with the Forth Angel and the work around here, I haven't had the time to inquire about it."
Ritsuko smiled. "The Matrix is being held in a high security room in NERV headquarters. When we get back, we'll get it back to--"
"We'll return it to you after the last of the Angels has been defeated," a deep voice stated.
All heads, metallic and organic, turned towards the speaker, who turned out to be Commander Gendo Ikari.
"May I ask why I can not get it back now instead?" growled Optimus, his blue optics burning.
"We are going to keep this 'Matrix' until the Angel are all defeated, to make sure you stay here to fight until that time," smirked Gendo, surprisingly arrogant for a man who could had been easily squashed like a bug by the metal giant.
"I have all ready said that I would fight the Angels, and my word is my bond!" said Prime. "If I have the Matrix in my possession when the Angels attack, then---"
"As I have said, Optimus Prime," replied Gendo, his hands in his coat pockets, "The Matrix will remain in the custody of NERV until further notice." With that, the Commander of NERV turned and left, leaving a livid Optimus Prime and gaping group of NERV personnel.
Ritsuko turned to Optimus and gave him guilty look.
"I'm. . .sorry, Optimus. Normally I would give you back the Matrix without a second thought, but Commander Ikari, well, he can be difficult at times. . ."
"Difficult?!" shouted Misato. " What you mean is that he can be a total #@$%@&* when he wants to be, which is all the time!"
"The point is," Ritsuko stated, shooting her friend a cold glare, "is that I can't give you the Matrix unless the Commander allows it, doing so without his authorization would most likely cost me my job, and also put me in jail for a long, long time."
"I understand," Prime growled, a fearsome sound. "Though I do not like the idea of the Matrix being out of my own protection, I think it will be safe until this is all over."
Prime knew it would be pointless to threaten or to hurt Commander Ikari for the Matrix, no matter how just it may be. It was against his programming to hurt or kill anything without just cause. He had killed off many Decepticons in his life, but not because he wanted to; sometime one must kill to protect himself or his friends, or kill out of the necessity of war, but to kill for no good reason was just blatantly wrong.
"Well, better turn back to the task at hand," sighed Misato, trying her best to forget the hateful thought s she had for her boss. "The Commander said that the Matrix would be returned to you after all the Angels are gone, so we had better get to work and find out as much as we can about these things." She finished by jerking her thumb towards the dead body of the Angel.
Nodding their heads, everyone went back to work, but the thoughts about Gendo and the Matrix failed to leave anyone's mind.
************************ *************************** *******************************
Several days later, shortly after the 'Rei' incident
Location: NERV headquarters
NERV was in an uproar. Built like a gigantic clear blue cube, the Fifth Angel had arrived, coming just after the successful activation of Unit 00. Shinji had been sent up in Unit 01 to dispatch the Angel, only to get shot by an intensely powerful blast from the Angel. Several layers of armor were melted almost instantly, and Pilot Shinji Ikari had been rendered unconscious by the immense pain from the blast. Shinji was placed in ER, and all anybody could do was pray that he would wake up in time.
The Angel was built almost perfectly offensively and defensively. Several attacks were made on it by standard weaponry, with no effect.
Now, the Angel was drilling through the ground and shields that protected the NERV geofront, and NERV had less than 10 hours to destroy the Angel before it finally dug it's way through and blasted NERV off the face of the Earth. It was Captain Katsuragi that came up with a 'plan' to destroy the Angel.
"The 'Position Rifle', Captain?! Have you gone crazy? It's only a Prototype!!" Ritsuko shrieked, causing Misato to step back and plug her ears. "Do you realize that it has never been tested before? Especially with the power that you say is going to be behind it?"
"Yes, I know that! But the Magi said that it was the best chance we had at getting past that A.T. field! Besides what else do we have? Besides I already got permission from the Commander," Misato exclaimed, shaking her head. They had thought about sending Optimus up, but Gendo insisted that they couldn't afford to lose him should the Angel be able to kill him with its own weaponry.
'Sure, but we can afford to lose Shinji, can't we, you #@$%@&*!' thought Misato darkly, finding yet one more reason to loath Commander Ikari.
Ritsuko sighed and looked at the group that had gathered: herself, Captain Katsuragi, Maya, Shigero, Matoko, Rei Ayanami and Optimus Prime had gathered to discuss the battle plan.
"Alright everybody, think! We may have a weapon powerful enough to kill the Angel, but chances are that the one firing the Position Rifle may miss, and it takes 20 seconds for the barrel to cool. We don't know how long it will take the Angel to recharge itself, but we have to assume that it will take less than 20 seconds. According to the Magi, we have only two shots; we will not have chance at a third."
Maya spoke up. "Right now, the best thing we have to delay the second blast is a 'shield' made from the bottom of a single-stage-to-orbit rocket that now has a ultra-electro magnetic coating. It should last 17 seconds."
"How do we know that we have enough power to penetrate the A.T. field?" asked Shigero. "Sure, we have all the power of Japan backing this thing up, but still. . ."
"That will not be a problem," said Prime. All heads turned towards Optimus.
"What's on your mind?" asked Misato, intrigued by the Autobot's sudden statement.
"Simple. I'll rig up two Energon booster batteries for your rifle. Each booster will contain 30 or more cubes of Energon for each shot. With this, the blast from the Position Rifle should be more than enough to pierce the A.T. field. Also, I can reinforce the barrel of the gun so the cooling process can be shortened down to 18 seconds rather than 20."
"Brilliant!" Misato said, the words from the Autobot leader boosting her confidence up a notch. Sure, 2 seconds may not seem like a whole lot, but in times of war, every second counts. "By the way, what's the Third Child's status?"
"According to the doctor's report, he stable, and should regain consciousness soon," replied Matako.
Nodding her head, Misato turned to Rei.
"Rei, I want you to check up on Pilot Ikari for the next several hours. When he wakes up, take him some food and give him an update on what's happening."
"Yes, Captain," the blue haired pilot replied, her soft voice little more than a whisper. As she left, the others were quickly breaking up into groups and set out to do the tasks required to win this fight against this Angel.
*********************** ************************** *******************************
Rei Ayanami walked down the hallway towards the hospital room that held Pilot Ikari, her foot steps echoing softly off the walls. The young girl was lost in thought as she thought of the events of the past several weeks.
She remembered when Pilot Ikari first came. She knew he had refused to pilot the Eva when the came to get her. Up until that point, all she knew about Shinji Ikari was that he was Commander Ikari's son, and a potential Pilot. Nothing more. Then he did the unexpected: he became a pilot so she didn't have to that day.
Rei remembered what it felt like to be held in his arms after he caught her. Despite the pain that was wracking her body, it felt. . . good, safe to be held in those warm, caring arms.
She of coarse did not voice her opinion on this. It did not concern Eva, after all.
Then came Optimus Prime. The Giant Robot was as much of an enigma to her as she was to everybody else. From what she was taught, robots were machines, and machines didn't think, or feel, or make their own decisions; yet, Optimus Prime did, disrupting everything she had been taught on the subject.
The contact between the albino girl and the Autobot had been very limited. They had been introduced, and they saw each other at NERV at times, but they hadn't talked to each other as of yet. Commander Ikari had not said that she couldn't, but he didn't say that she could, either.
Rei narrowed her red eyes slightly, going over her thoughts carefully. She had been told the Autobot's story by Misato and Dr. Akagi, who had told the abridged version of the tale to her and the bride bunnies. From what she had been told, Optimus's history was a complex one, one that was built up around war. If what she had heard was true, then Optimus's life was a hard one, not to unlike her own.
Making a note to herself, Rei took it upon herself to have a talk with Prime, and see if the life of Transformer was anything different from that of a human.
Stopping by the NERV cafeteria, she picked up a tray of food, and resumed her trek to Shinji's room.
*********************** ************************** *******************************
Several Hours later
Location: Within Tokyo 3
Standing on the roof of the junior high school, Kensuke checked his watch for the umpteenth time in the last two minuets, the group around him getting restless. He told his classmates about the last battle of the Evangelion, Unit 01, and the robot Optimus Prime. Though there was no doubt the Eva's existed, most of them scoffed at Kensuke and Toji when they told them about Prime. Until Kensuke showed the disbelieving class of room 2-A the footage of the battle that he had recorded. Even then, although most now believed the two boys, there were some who still doubted. One of these was the Class Representative of room 2-A, Hikari Horaki.
"Well, Kensuke, where are the Eva's and robots you promised would be here?" someone asked one of the doubters mockingly.
"They'll be here. I hacked into my dad's data files. According to the info, they should be here any minuet."
"I. . . don't know," said a tense Hikari, the freckled girl playing with the hem of her shirt, and tossing an occasional glance at Toji, who was leaning on a guard rail. "Maybe we should go to the shelter's."
"I thought you wanted to see the robot," said Toji, looking over his shoulder at her.
"I do, sort of, just to prove you two wrong!" retorted Hikari. The only reason she was up there in the first place was that after she had seen the disk of the previous battle, she still disbelieved Toji's and Kensuke's story. She said while the Eva was probably real, the robot was probably something Kensuke had made up on his computer and added to the disk. An argument broke out among the three teens, with Hikari saying that she would stay out of the shelters and watch the next battle to prove that the two boys were lying. So there she was, on the roof of her school, regretting every minuet of it.
Just then, they all heard a rumbling of to the west. Turning towards the sound, the saw the side of a mountain open up.
"The. . . the entire mountain is moving," said Toji, awed that man could make such a thing possible.
Within seconds, the purple Unit 01 appeared, drawing cheers from the group of kids, which only got louder as a yellow Eva, Unit 00, came up behind the other Eva, carrying what appeared to be an enormous shield. The group when silent as the robot Optimus Prime came up as well, carrying the black gun he had discarded in the last fight. The shrieks and cheers of awe and delight nearly deafened Kensuke as classmates started slapping him and Toji on the back, some even apologizing for doubting them.
As the children continued to cheer, the three titanic guardians made their way to Mt. Futago, going on their way to battle the latest threat against humanity.
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Two Hours later Location: Base at Mt. Futago
At the base of Mt. Futago, Pilot Ikari, Pilot Ayanami, and Optimus Prime stood by the Position Rifle waiting for the rundown from Captain Katsuragi. On the road leading up the mountain were several miles of generators, each plugged into the one in front the other, all of them channeling all the power of Japan into the Rifle.
The two Pilot's stood in front of Misato and Ritsuko, while Prime sat on a small hill near by.
"All right, you three, listen up," said Misato, her voice bringing them all to attention. "This is the Position Rifle, an experimental weapon that NERV requisitioned from the 'Japan Strategic Self Defense Force Research Labs'; according to the Magi, the blast fired from it should punch thought the Angel's A.T. field." At this point, Ritsuko walked over to the Rifle and gestured to two metal boxes, each the size of a bus, hooked up to the left side of the big gun. She addressed the two pilots.
"These two devises you see here are Energon booster batteries that Optimus whipped up for us," said Ritsuko, glancing over at Prime. "Each one of these contains 35 Energon cubes. Though the Magi calculated that all the electricity of Japan had a 90% chance of breaking through the A.T. field, each of these batteries will bring that percentage up by 40%, greatly increasing our chances at success."
"Now, Shinji, I need you to listen carefully to this, because you'll be the one firing the Rifle," said Ritsuko, the tone in her voice telling the Pilots that there was no room for error. "The positrons fired by the Rifle will be affected by the Earth's rotation, magnetic field, and gravity, so they won't travel in a strait line." Shinji started to protest, but Dr. Akagi raised her hand, silencing the boy. "Don't worry. Just pull the trigger when the markers line up on the target. The computer will do the rest."
"Al. . . alright, but why am I firing the Rifle?" inquired Shinji.
"Because, between you and Rei, you have the highest sync ratio; Rei will be backing you up."
"Okay, but why isn't Optimus Shooting it?" Shinji turned towards the Autobot. "From what he told us, he's had a 'lot' more experience at this than me, so I was wondering. . ." he trailed off, at a loss of words.
Before either of the two women could answer, Optimus spoke up.
"The reason I won't be firing the Rifle is because it was built to be used by an Eva, not me. As you can see, compared to Unit 01's arms and hands, mine are to short and bulky to use the weapon, and we didn't have the time to modify it for me to use. Otherwise, I would do it. For now, I am to serve as backup as well should Pilot Ayanami fall before the second shot."
"Which brings us to one last issue," said Ritsuko. "If for some reason you miss the Angel, you'll have to change the fuse and wait 18 second for the barrel to cool. During that time, Pilot Ayanami will defend you with her shield. According to our calculations, the shield should hold up for 17 seconds; after that, that gives you 1 second to shoot again before Unit 00 gets melted down."
"All right you guys, It's time. Move out." Misato ordered.
"Yes ma'am"
************************* ******************************* **************************
Dressed in their plug suits, Shinji and Rei sat on their respective metal platforms beside the heads of their Eva's, waiting for the power of Japan to be rerouted to the Position Rifle. Shinji had his knees drawn up to hi chest, glaning over at Ayanami every now and again. Optimus stood some distance behind them, out of the range of the Angel so he wouldn't be detected.
As the lights of Tokyo 3 slowly went out, Shinji let out a soft sigh.
"I guess we may be dead soon."
"Why?"
Looking over at the blue haired girl, Shinji couldn't help but ask, "How can you be so calm? You've been put through so much danger already. Why do you pilot it?"
Not bothering to look at the boy, Rei answered. "Because, it is my bond."
"To my father?"
"To all people. I was born to pilot Eva. If I didn't pilot, I would have nothing else. For me, that's the same as being dead."
Shinji let the air blow slowly out of his lungs. "The same as being dead, huh?" Shinji shook his head and smiled at the girl.
"You're very strong, Rei."
"I. . . have nothing else," she whispered, a hint of sadness in her voice. Glancing at the electronic clock on the right hand of her plug suit, she got up to her feet.
"It's time. Ikari?"
"Yes?"
"You will not die."
"Huh?!" gasped Shinji, shocked at her words.
"I'll be protecting you," she said softly. "Goodbye."
With that, she climbed up into the entry plug of Unit 00, leaving Shinji to wonder at her parting words.
************************* **************************** ****************************
It happened so fast even Optimus, with all the sensors in his head, barely had time to react. Shinji had willed Unit 01 to fire the gun, just as the Angel retaliated by firing it's own weapon. Despite the fact that Shinji's blast was the more powerful of the two, when the two beams of energy came at each other to the point of colliding, they seemed to slow and. . . warp, twisting around each other, and missing their intended targets, Shinji's destroying part of the city while the Angel's disintegrated part of the mountain side.
As Shinji changed the fuse in the Position Rifle, the Angel fired again. Rei Ayanami barely had time to block the blast with her shield. Almost instantly, the shield started to melt like butter before a flame. At the same time, the Angel's drill broke though the final layer of armor, continuing it's decent towards the building of NERV.
Optimus looked at the two Eva Units and weighed his options. He could get in front of Ayanami and help block the blast, but risk being destroyed in the process, or he could away from the Eva Units and distract the Angel into blasting him, or rather at him.
Running away from the scene in front of him, he sped around the Angel, covering 20 miles in only a few seconds. Raising his gun up level with the Angel as he ran, he shot several rounds of yellow Energon at it.
The Angel may have been built like a fortress, but it wasn't completely invulnerable. Though most of the energy from Prime's shots were deflected by the A.T. field, some of them got through, putting small dents in the Angel's body.
Like NERV's Position Rifle, the Angel's own weapon was flawed as well. While the Position Rifle required time to cool before it could fire again, the Angel couldn't shoot at two things at once. It could either destroy the immediate threat(Shinji and Rei), or it could destroy the possible threat(Optimus Prime). After it received several more injuries from Prime, it redirected it's beam of destruction at Optimus, who Transformed into truck mode and went at full throttle, staying just ahead of the beams destructive path.
Shinji took this opportunity to get around Unit 00, who despite the shield, still received heavy structural damage, and took aim at the cube shaped Angel. Shinji ticked off the last few seconds, each one seeming to take an eternity to pass. As the computer finally locked on the Angel, Shinji pulled the trigger, the remaining Energon battery flaring as he did so.
Unhindered by the Angel, the Positron Rifle's blast tore clean through the Angel like it was tissue paper. Immediately, the forth Angel's drill stopped, only a few hundred meters above NERV Headquarters.
*********************** ************************** *****************************
Unit 00 slumped to the ground, dropping what remained of the shield in the process. Fearing the worst, Shinji willed Unit 01 to rip off the back cover to Unit 00's Entry Plug. Forcing the Plug out of the yellow Eva, Shinji had unit 01 gently set it down on the ground. Within two minuets, Shinji was out of his Eva and was trying to open the super hot Entry Plug with his hands, the plastic of his plug suit quickly melting. At last, despite the pain racing up his arms, the young pilot pried open the door.
Quickly he got inside, fully expecting to find Rei badly injured, or. . . dead.
So it was perfectly natural to panic when he saw the unconscious Rei, slumped in her seat. Gently shaking her, he yelled out her name, hoping she would wake up.
Slowly, Ayanami opened her ruby colored eyes, slowly focusing them on the young Ikari.
'This is the second time he has come for me' her mind whispered, her heart pounding a little harder.
"Ik. . .Ikari. . ."
"Ayanami! Are you alright?!" A smile came to the boy's face, tears started to run down his cheeks.
"Why, why are you crying?" asked a puzzled Rei , wondering why Ikari would something like that at a like this. "Why are you so sad?"
" 'Sniff', dummy. I'm not crying because I'm sad; I'm crying because I'm happy. . .happy your alive!"
Looking down at her lap, Rei Ayanami closed her eyes. "I'm. . .sorry, but I do not know what to do, although I should be happy. . ."
"Well," sniffled Shinji, wiping his eyes, "if your happy, you should. . . smile."
Rei looked at him as he offered her his hand to help her out of her Eva. Slowly, a small smile crept across her lovely face.
Shinji gaped at her, thinking 'She-she's so beautiful when she smiles. . .'
"Pilot Ikari! Pilot Ayamani! Are you to all right!?!"
Startled, Shinji looked out the door of the Entry Plug, and saw Optimus Prime kneeling down and looking at them with concern.
Smiling, Shinji waved at the Autobot.
"We're fine, we just need some rest, that's all!"
"Good to hear," said Prime, relieved. He held out his right hand, gesturing for the two pilots to climb aboard. "We'll retrieve your Eva's tomorrow. Right now, Captain Katsuragi is going crazy with worry for you two!"
As the to Children got up into Prime mighty hand, Shinji turned to Rei.
"Ayanami?"
"Yes, Pilot Ikari?"
"You. . .you should stop saying 'goodbye' before you leave on a mission. It's just to sad!"
Rei looked over at her companion as they were lifted up. That small smile appeared once more.
"Very well. . . Ikari."
As the two Pilots sat next to each other in silence, Optimus Prime smiled inwardly as he tromped his way towards the nearest retrieval route to NERV, and just hoped that tomorrow would be a brighter day for all of them.
To be continued. . .
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Well, that chapters finally over! Sorry folks, but besides work and all the other thing of life, I got a really bad case of writer's block on this chapter. Well, how'd I do on this one? God, bad, what? Please, Read and review to let me know!
Alright, now to explain some things. Ahem.
I received a lot of e-mails concerning Optimus Primes size, and all I can say is. . .oops. Sorry folks, but it has been a really, really long time since I have seen any of the original cartoons. And to top it all off, just before I came up with the idea of this fic, I purchased the novel 'Transformers: Hardwired' (found at a 'Barnes and Noble' store sear you). The Author of this story (Scott Ciencin) made all of the Transformer characters in this story WAY bigger than they were in the cartoon. Read it, and you can see why I was confused. Forgive me! Giant rooms in NERV. Before anyone tells me whether or not such rooms exist or not in the Evangelion series, I took the liberty of making these rooms for this fic. Why? Because Optimus needs somewhere to go, and I couldn't come up with anything better. Megatron. I really wanted to introduce back into this story line, but I felt it wasn't time yet, so I gave him an honorable mention instead! Sorry!(Minor Spoiler!! Don't read if you want to be surprised!) As you have read, Megatron was purchased by SEELE. Well, believe you me, when Megatron comes back online, he is NOT going to be pleased being SEELE's puppet in their plans! Oh, poor SEELE, I pity you! ;D Okay, some good news and some bad news. The good news is is that I'm going to continue this fic, and it's most likely going to be way longer that five or six chapters, I just don't see how I can make this story work otherwise! Now the bad news: Chances are really good that, if you don't see this updated by the twelfth of this month, then it won't be updated till the after the first of the year. Why? Every year, my family and I go and spend the Christmas holiday with my Grandparents for a couple of weeks. (
Well, that's it for this chapter. Remember read and review, and have a
Merry Chistmas!