Evangelion Fan Fiction
The Once and Future Angel of Humanity
By Kraven Ergeist
Chapter Four
"What's the situation?" Misato demanded.
"Ma'am, the AT field has reappeared, this time at the center of Nagoya," Hyuga reported. "It's confirmed: Pattern white, the same from before."
Misato bit her lip. She had been on active duty since she had been called back from reprieve. "It's getting progressively farther from Tokyo-3. What is this things intention?"
"It's moving!" Shigeru reported. "It's traveling farther away, approaching 150 knots! It's…it's gone! It's out of our range!"
"Out of our range?" Misato gasped. Our range is the entire country of Japan, she though. "What was its trajectory before it left radar range?"
"Bearing 30 degrees west of north, traveling at 158 knots," Maya Ibuki reported.
Misato hesitated before turning her head to the commander. "Commander, this has become a diplomatic situation. We're either going to need clearance to search outside our borders, or we'll have to reply on the UN for support."
Gendo nodded his head. "Understood. I'll take it from here. You'll be notified if we find anything."
With that, the commanders disappeared into the floor.
Misato sighed. "God, I'm beat."
Ritsuko smirked. "Nearly 30 hours without sleep? That's a new indoor record."
Misato shook her head. "I never got so sleep even when I had that reprieve. Too worried about Shinji. So I'm actually pushing 50 hours."
Ritsuko sighed. "They'll find him, Misato."
Misato sighed and turned to go.
Ritsuko frowned. They may be able to find him, but then what? Being privy to intelligence, she knew. Somehow, by some twist of the fates, Shinji had evolved. She had always thought it would be Rei who became an angel. Rei, who was already in her mind, on par with the enemy.
But it was Shinji. Shinji had become the Angel. Shinji had become the enemy. She could not help but feel remorse for him. Going about her duties in silence, she sighed.
When they found Shinji, he would have to die.
xxxxx
Rei awoke in what must have been the third hotel room in as many countries. They had been running for days. First, they had retreated to England, where they registered as visitors from Japan. Shinji had been able to fake a visa, and knew enough English to get by. But almost a day alter, they had been found, not by Section 2, but by UN troops.
From there, they retreated to Australia, sticking to English speaking countries. It would be more difficult to pass of as tourists in America, so they were avoiding that until absolutely necessary. Shinji knew that eventually, they would run out of places to run. That they would eventually be found wherever they went. There was absolutely no limit to the power in which his father wielded. If he wanted something, he would attain it. No questions.
"Did you sleep well?" Shinji asked the girl as she woke.
She nodded, but did not say anything.
"Are you hungry?" Shinji asked. "Do you want to get breakfast?"
Rei shook her head, but mentioning food reminded her of something. "Shinji…I haven't seen you eat a bite of food since we left Tokyo-3. I don't believe that you've been eating."
Shinji caught himself and spread his arms wide. "Do I look malnourished to you?"
Rei shook her head. "No. And it is this that bothers me. Now tell me the truth."
Shinji sighed. "Ok. You deserve that much at least." He swung his legs over the bed facing her from his cross-legged position. "I've told you that I think I've, at least in some way, inherited…something…that has given me…traits that are…similar…to an Angel's."
Rei drew in her breath, but nodded. "We've fought Angels before. That was our purpose at NERV."
Shinji nodded. "I know. Recent events have made me question the morality of our doing so. We can't change the past. But in any case…" Shinji looked away. "The transformation…changed me in more ways than giving me powers. I can't eat. I can't sleep. Don't need to. I put the food to my mouth, and find myself unable to swallow. I lie down and stare at the ceiling simply to submit myself to meditation for the remainder of the night."
Rei was staring open mouthed now. Shinji was sweating, panting with each breath. This was all coming out of him faster and faster.
"I'm scared, Rei…I mean…" Shinji dropped to his knees before her, taking her hand, looking up at her face. "I don't even breath, Rei. I'm not…I'm no longer…human."
He was crying now, his head buried in her lap, dampening her nightgown.
Rei was aghast at first. But the sight of crying boy before her made her sad for him. She reached down and stroked his head, back and forth like a mother and her child.
Shinji sobbed back his tears and looked up to face her. "Do you…want me to leave?"
Rei drew in her breath in ridiculous disbelief. "Why would I want that?"
Shinji frowned at her, tears damp in his eyes. "Because I'm not…human."
Rei sighed and shook her head. Shinji stared at her, befuddled, but she still didn't acknowledge him beyond her continuous ministrations.
"I've given some thought to what you said to me before," Rei said, finally. "About why you chose me. About meaning something to one another. And it occurred to me…that in order to justify this feeling…we must feel it unconditionally." She placed her hands on his face and made him look at her. "Shinji…I don't care if you don't consider yourself human or not. You're human enough to me. What matters is what you've done for me. What you're…still doing for me."
Rei had to hold back tears of her own, now, turning away until she regained herself. "I suppose what I'm trying to say is…what you feel for me…whatever that feeling amounts to…I feel the same way for you."
Shinji was suddenly once again in tears, tears of joy. He was clutching Rei so desperately around the waist, his face resting on her thighs. In that moment, he found contentment. He was content with himself, because he knew that they were together, that they wanted to be, and that they would also, at least, try to be.
"We'll pull through this," he proclaimed, as though Rei's caress of his hair had given him sudden strength. "We'll survive. And we'll be together, if we have nothing else to show for it."
Rei hummed her approval, and continued stroking him, content to remain that way forever.
"I'm…not feeling very hungry anymore…" Rei said, when she felt Shinji begin to stir.
"Then let's just stay in here," Shinji smiled.
Rei hummed in approval, and brought Shinji up from his kneeling position. "Very good, but let us change positions; you're soaking my nightgown."
Shinji looked down and, after a moment, laughed with Rei, as she brought him upon the bed, and wrapped her arms around him.
There they stayed for what seemed like forever. They each drifted off, somewhere in that place between asleep and awake; that place where you can always remember dreaming.
But like so many things, it was not meant to last.
The windows shattered, and Shinji was on his feet before Rei could so much as scream. He put up his AT field just in time to save them from a volley of tranquilizer darts that flew from the muzzles of the UN troops guns.
"Get back!" Shinji screamed, forcing his AT field forward, sending the troops flying out the window whence they came.
He lowered his field and looked back at Rei. "Hurry up and get changed. We're out of here."
30 seconds later, they were flying over the ocean.
xxxxx
Even after Misato got her much deserved R and R, she was not quite sure that it did her any good, as she hauled herself up out of bed, feeling as worn as she had entering it.
When she emerged from her room, she saw Asuka sitting there. Misato looked at the clock. Half past eight. It wasn't that early, but it still seemed liked Asuka had so much more stamina than her.
Misato went to the fridge for her early morning beer. "You sleep at all last night?"
Asuka shrugged. "You know…I'm not actually sure."
Misato laughed. "Well, that's not a good sign."
Asuka snuffed. "I'll live."
There was a pause as Misato and Asuka sat alone, the morning gloomy and dark.
"Hey, Misato? I was just thinking…" Asuka piped up. "Shinji and wonder girl disappeared right when this new Angel started showing up."
Misato nodded. "I know. Of all the times for them to take a day off, it had to be now."
Asuka shook her head. "That's not what I'm saying. What if the angel had something to do with it? What if, say, the angel kidnapped them so that they wouldn't be able to fight? You said before it was a different pattern. Maybe this angel's employing some new tactic."
Misato cursed her previous grogginess. Of course! Why hadn't she seen it before? She had been so out of it, to the point where her entire thinking process was routine based. Asuka may be a snob sometimes, but she was certainly smart.
"You know…" Misato smiled. "You might be right." That's when something else occurred to Misato. "And I think I know just the person who would know."
xxxxx
Ten seconds later, Ritsuko got a call on the phone.
"Hello?" she replied.
"Ritsuko, it's me."
"Oh, hi Misato."
"Ritsuko…these new angel sightings…Shinji and Rei's disappearance. What do you know about it? How are they related?"
Ritsuko held back a gasp. "Why should they be related?"
"I'm not fooling around, Ritsuko," Misato yelled. "I know you know something. Now tell me!"
Ritsuko sighed, giving up the act. "Misato, you know perfectly well that I'm forbidden to divulge such information, even to my closest friend."
Ritsuko could hear Misato crying on the other line. "Ritsuko…Shinji is gone! He was my responsibility, my charge, and damnit, he's become a part of my life! If it turns out he never comes back, just because you couldn't divulge any information, then I don't know what I'd do."
Ritsuko sagged in her chair. She couldn't tell her. Even if she was allowed to, how could Misato bear to hear it? How could she accept the fact that Shinji had been transformed into the enemy?
She still wasn't even sure how it happened. Maybe, by being an Eva pilot for so long, LCL had intermingled with his body so much that he became more in tune with his soul. Or maybe, simply being in Ayanami's presence had triggered it.
Regardless, he was classified as an enemy. And by the very foundation this organization stood for, he must be destroyed.
"I…I can't bear to tell you, Misato," Ritsuko stammered. "The truth…will just be too hard for you to hear."
Misato was breathing so heavily that the other line reverberated with her panting. "Ritsuko, what are you saying?"
Ritsuko sighed. "I'm saying…is that Shinji…who you've known and loved for the better part of a year…has become the enemy."