Everlasting Coda
By ArchangelUK
A/N: Apologies to those who are uncomfortable with Rei being a bit OOC, however up to this current time in the series Rei has been getting more open anyway. Besides after the events of the day before she herself isn't too comfortable either...
I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion. However... I do own various bits of Angel cores that make fantastic paperweights, only £ 5.99 + p&p! Act now and get "Rei Ayanami's Good Housekeeping Guide" as a special introductory bonus ABSOLUTELY FREE!
Part 2: Someone To Watch Over Me
"For the Son of Man is
going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward
each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are
standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in
his kingdom."
~ Matthew 16:27-28 ~
[Insomnia]
Rei could not sleep.
As much as she tried to relax she found she could not, for the music repeated over and over in her brain not that it was the cause of her insomnia. The music on it's own would have soothed her into a restful slumber, but her concern about the player of the composition in question was overriding its calming influence. She had never seen Shinji in that light before, it made her, well, she didn't know the sensation she was feeling. Her stomach seemed to be doing cartwheels inside her, as the more she thought about the possible questions to ask him the more she wanted to ask them now and at the same time the more she was filled with trepidation. She looked upwards at the moon, which was partially covered by cloud and sighed, her breath producing clouds of condensation in the draughty old apartment.
"Why do I seek to ask these questions of him, and yet seek not to as well? Is this what is to be... afraid?"
The moon didn't answer and was completely covered by a bank of dark clouds.
[Recorded Memories]Back at the apartment Asuka shared with Shinji and Misato, the red haired girl chewed her lip thoughtfully. Examining the data chip that Misato had given her in the palm of her left hand, what could possibly have gone on that would cause wonder girl to simply walk out of the debriefing room rather than hear about it again? Part of her was unnerved by what the chip could contain, she was smart enough to realise it was more than likely a compilation of data streams from the three Evangelions and any NERV exterior surveillance cameras that had been active within that area. Misato was busy working a late shift probably supervising the immediate repairs to Unit 01, which she assumed to be the damage visible to her at the time. There was a clunk outside, signalling Shinji's return. Asuka got up and went to check on him, but by the time she opened the sliding door of her room all she got to see was the closing of his. Asuka's teeth ground against each other in anger, how dare he simply ignore her! The least he could have done was said, hello or goodnight... or BOTH. But then again, she was concerned about him. Her anger dissipated when she thought about how he had saved her from the Angel, what was on that chip? Without further delay she let Shinji do whatever it was he was doing and closed her door. Slamming the chip into the data player and making sure to place her headphones in the socket.
DATA TRANSMISSION: CODED SOURCES
A15-6# Alpha
C-14# Gamma
E12/2-0
EVANGELION UNIT 00 - Cam 6, 8, 10
D15-6# Pi
G-14# Omega
S12/6-0
EVANGELION UNIT 01 - Cam 3, 6, 8, 10
A23-2# Sigma
X-41# Beta
E12/2-9
EVANGELION UNIT 02 - Cam 1, 8, 10
STREAM AUDIO/VISUAL - SCRAMBLER CODE 156
CODEX 8/4.2
TRANSMISSION BEGINS 09:41:06
The Angel whirled around at the sound of the Evas arriving, subtlety wasn't a strong point of the Evangelions but then again the same could be said for the Angels. Immediately it began to systematically annihilate any building it came into contact with, Asuka grimaced. "Man! What's this one's problem?"
"It's just levelling everything!" Shinji's image appeared on the lower left hand side of her cockpit. It was joined a millisecond later by Rei's, the First Child spoke.
"Then I suggest we discourage it from doing so." Unit Zero darted forward and tackled the Angel knocking it to the floor, "Quickly!" Rei exclaimed, "Use the knife!"
"Too late!" Shinji cried as the Angel kicked itself back to a vertical base and threw Unit 00 and Rei at Asuka.
"Arghh!" Unit 02 was caught square in the chest by it's prototype counterpart and both crumpled to the ground. Asuka's Eva was face down in a street, with Rei's Evangelion flopped across it, not that Asuka could see much but she was aware of one thing - her external power cable was gone.
"Get off of me you idiot I can't see!"
"My Unit is damaged." Rei stated, "I am trying to move it."
"Well mine's not much better. Come on I've only got five minutes of power left."
Shinji meanwhile was dealing with the Angel on his lonesome; a series of tendrils snaked out of the yellow and orange creature and attached themselves to Unit 01's ankles. Before Shinji even knew what was happening Eva 01 was on it's back and being hit backwards and forwards by the Angel. Shinji thrust his hand forward and in response the Angel received a fierce punch knocking it off of it's feet for a second time. Time was running out - at least for Unit 02. Asuka managed to prise Rei off of her and get up, grabbing her fallen rifle.
"No one hurts my baby!" Asuka snarled and let loose a stream of tracer, the Angel athletically back flipped to avoid it. Landing back on it's 'feet', it swung a tendril outwards and sliced through the rifle barrel, the front portion falling to the street below with a clunk. Asuka looked blankly and the truncated gun and then back at the Angel which seemed to smile at her - whatever kind of creature this was, it was one of the most humanoid angels yet. It had a face, and it was leering at her.
"Forgetting someone?" The Angel spun around to be hit square in the chest by a large steel girder held jointly by Unit 01 and 00. Shinji kicked the Angel backwards and drew his knife, but a tendril flicked it away to bury itself in the street. All three Evas grabbed hold of the Angel, trying to pin it down but it was strong - very strong. With one giant effort the Angel shoved all three units away, throwing Asuka and her Eva into a tall building, which collapsed around it. The impact smashed Asuka's head back into the cockpit wall and she was knocked unconscious, warning lights sounded and the cockpit feed cut out as her battery ran flat.
Now came the bit Asuka had not seen, Rei's unit got up and tried to stab the Angel with it's Progressive Knife. The knife slashed the Angel's chest but did not go near enough to the 'eye' to do any real harm. Shinji and his Eva got back to their feet, but now he had lost his power supply as well. Shinji was gasping in pain, an external shot revealed that something on Eva 01 had exploded or shorted out as hydraulic fluid was leaking from it's right knee. A large purple hand clamped around it to try and stem the flow but it wouldn't be long before that leg ceased up. Eva Zero slammed itself into the Angel again, but again the Angel showed it's amazing strength and athleticism to spin Rei into the other side of the building Asuka was slumped against. The prototype tried to get up but was slapped back down by the Angel time and time again; Shinji jumped on it's back and was instantly flicked over to smash into an old cafe. The data feed from Unit Zero began to get garbled, sparks were flying in the cockpit and a burst of telemetry data showed Rei was fighting to keep her sync ratio even in the mid 20% range. The Angel seemed to sense her trouble and picked the Evangelion up again, throwing it onto the remains of the park. Unit 01 had managed to retrieve it's knife.
"Shinji! Rei! Get up!" Misato's voice cut through the recording.
All three Eva's were down, an infrared camera showed Asuka in Unit Two begin to stir, but this giant Angel was not done with Rei yet. It reached down and sliced through the bottom of a building with it's tendrils, it then picked up the building. It actually picked up a 100 story building and held it above it's head, bits of glass and concrete began to rain down on the roads below but the skyscraper kept it's shape, the Angel looked down at Unit Zero. Inside it Rei was desperately trying to get the Eva to move but the electronics were once again giving problems with power conversion and her harmonics was down another 5%.
Asuka pursed her lips together, Rei looked scared, she couldn't believe it. The Angel made to throw the building onto Rei, her sync ratio kicked up to 37% with the added danger but still she couldn't move. Where was Shinji?
"Ikari!" Rei cried out as the Angel made to hurl the tower. Suddenly a purple blur dived towards the camera knocking the Angel backwards away from Unit Zero. The Angel stumbled and dropped the tower on top of itself, inside of the Prototype Unit Rei gasped and groaned. Somehow she still had her external lead in place.
"Rei? Rei are you okay?" Major Katsuragi's concerned voice once again came out of the speakers; Rei could only nod but appeared to be in some degree of pain. "Shinji?" The camera switched to the inside of Unit 01 but there wasn't much of a picture, "Shinji are you okay?" There was a long pause, far too long for Asuka's liking. A clock in the bottom left hand corner had appeared showing that Unit 01 had just less than two minutes of operation time left.
"No..." Came a very weak reply.
Before Misato could inquire further the Angel partly rose out of the ruins and lashed out a tendril in Unit 00's direction. The core was visible, the Angel's life source, all Shinji had to do was stab it with the Progressive Knife - he was right next to it. Instead Eva 01 dived and sliced into the tendril before it hit Rei and the virtually immobile Eva 00. Asuka froze the image. That was it, what Shinji was punished for, he had had the chance to kill the Angel there and then but he chose to prevent Rei from any further harm. She restarted the recording and Eva 01 rolled into an offensive position, there was less than a minute to go now for the battery on top of Unit 01's back.
This was when Asuka had begun to stir; she knew where she was now.
The Angel howled in apparent pain, clutching the stump of it's severed tentacle. It lashed out at Shinji knocking him to the floor once more, the knife scuttering away from his grasp and it began to march towards Asuka's Eva.
"Shinji! Get it!" That was Asuka's voice, she was definitely conscious now, her voice carried by the backup radio system that did not rely upon the Eva's power supply. The Angel lashed out another tendril at the red bio-machine but Shinji stepped in front and then it pierced his Eva's mid section. The Angel spun around so now Unit 02 was facing it's back, Shinji reached down to the ground, and managed to pick up his rifle. The Angel in return impaled the Eva with it's remaining two tendrils and held it aloft, the scene switched to a camera in Shinji's cockpit that was positioned behind him as he pointed the rifle at the Angel. There was no audio feed from this part of the video but Asuka remembered all too well.
"Come on Shinji, SHOOT IT ALREADY!"
"I can't..." From this viewpoint it was pretty clear why. Baring in mind the Angel's obvious athleticism it might well despite the very small distance, actually be able to avoid the volley and if it did it would have gone smack bang into Asuka. Shinji then did something that Asuka had at the time thought was insane, now with this new information she simply thought it was incredible. With less than twelve seconds left Shinji grabbed the mass of tentacles and pulled himself further and further onto them, so he was almost in reach.
Eight seconds...
Rei managed to retrieve her knife and with a huge effort tossed it to Shinji.
Five seconds...
The Progressive Knife sailed through the air and was caught by Unit 01.
Three seconds...
With one last heave Shinji pulled his Eva into reach of the main body of the Angel and with a thunderous thrust buried the knife into the creature's core.
One second...
The Angel collapsed backwards, pulling Eva 01 on top of it and after a few seconds exploded. Sometime after this Shinji's friend Kensuke Aida would compare this involuntary action to an old Pre-Second Impact soldier throwing himself on top of a grenade to save his fellows. The result was much the same as Evangelion Unit 01 took the full blast of the Angel's detonation, the only structural damage was done to a couple of buildings but the scale was very small. Shinji's Eva seemed to take everything.
That's where the recording stopped.
TRANSMISSION ENDS
Asuka looked blankly at the two words on the screen not overly sure what to do. Part of her wanted to check on Shinji, another part needed something to drink rather urgently as her mouth was dry. Part of her was angry with Misato and Commander Ikari for treating Shinji so bad, another part angry with Rei for again showing that seemingly invisible bond between her and the pilot of Unit 01. She was angry with Shinji for not knifing the Angel when he had the chance, for not shooting the Angel when he had the chance, for inadvertently making her watch this stupid recording. She was also angry with herself. To be so easily dismissed by the Angel, not putting up any real offence and end up slumped against a wall made her feel guilty and not worthy of her Evangelion. She was also annoyed, as Shinji had come to her rescue again. She didn't know what to think, which part of her was angrier with which person. She needed to speak to Misato but she wasn't there, she needed to speak to Shinji but by now he was asleep and after the day he had she didn't want to wake him. She needed - as odd and as potentially awkward as it seemed to her - to talk to Rei; wonder girl had a lot of questions coming her way. She'd ring her, but it would be all too easy for her to get angry with Little Miss Perfect and hang up. She knew herself too well.
Asuka sighed; she didn't have Rei's home telephone number anyway. Did she even have a telephone? Did she even have a home? Asuka didn't know much about Rei, but she was sure most of this she knew and the answer to all this was to do with her. Asuka unplugged her headphones from the socket, and, still wearing them plugged them into her SDAT and switched on the tape she had 'borrowed' from Shinji then laid down on her 'bed'. The hard floor she'd gotten used to by now, although if you had offered her a good old-fashioned bed 'bed' as opposed to the Japanese style she would have jumped at the chance. She would have done anything, even kissed Pen-Pen. Her eyes hammered open - where on Earth had that one come from? Asuka cleared her throat and settled back down again after puffing up her pillow and just lay there listening to the melody. Soon she fell asleep.
Behind her, satisfied with Asuka being asleep a pair of violet eyes ceased watching over her and a hand closed the ajar door.
[A Most Familiar Morning]
The toaster clicked and two slices of the cooked bread emerged, Asuka scowled, she had burnt them again. How Shinji managed to get his toast that delicious golden brown was a mystery, she took a knife and began scraping off the blackened bits. She suddenly remembered that a very annoyed penguin was tapping it's foot behind her, she spun around.
"Oh what is it?" She snapped, Pen-Pen looked downwards at his empty bowl and then back at Asuka. "Alright, I'm sorry here you go." There was a clunk as the bowl was filled; Asuka started scraping the bread again only to be interrupted by an angry honk. She turned around, herself angry and growing increasingly exasperated, "What now?!" Pen-Pen looked at the can of fish that occupied his bowl and again back at Asuka.
"Nu-raaaaaaaa!" The flightless bird glared at her like she had had committed some kind of criminal act.
"Alright! Alright!" Asuka picked up the can, undid it and emptied the contents back into the bowl. Pen-Pen's eyes lit up and he dug into his fish, Asuka was about to resume her scraping when a door opened and Misato entered yawning and scratching her stomach.
"Good morning Asuka."
"Good morning Misato." She replied,
"Good morning Shinji." Misato added as she bumbled over towards the fridge and opened it, sticking her drowsy head right inside.
"Shinji's not up yet." Asuka finished buttering the rounds of toast and placed a slice in front of the Major.
"Oh? That's unlike him."
"Hmm." Asuka sat down in what was traditionally Shinji's seat; there was a hiss as a can was opened.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaw!" Misato cried, burping immediately afterwards. "Now that's the way to wake up in the morning." An empty beer can flew through the air and into the dustbin, Asuka sighed and shook her head. She would never understand Misato's reliance on alcohol; it couldn't possibly be any good for her. "Come on Shinji rise and shine we've got work to do today!"
No response came from Shinji's room.
"Shinji?"
"I'll get him." Asuka groaned and marched over to Shinji's room. "Shinji you idiot wake up! Stupid Shinji..." She muttered flinging the door open. "Shinji!" She roared, "Get up now! Huh?" The bed had been slept in, it hadn't been made but there was no sign of the Third Child. On the small wood table there was a note, for a moment Asuka thought Shinji had run away again but the notes simply read 'Gone to School'. Asuka handed the note to Misato who frowned; indeed Shinji's schoolbag was missing, as was his NERV card and SDAT player. His wallet remained however, and his house keys were gone so he obviously intended to return.
"Why go to school now? At this hour?"
"Don't look at me, after yesterday I just hope he hasn't done anything stupid."
"You watched the data chip?" Misato opened her second beer of the morning.
"Yes."
"And?"
"I still don't think Shinji deserved what he got."
"It is important you understand that Shinji's actions were not acceptable."
"And losing me and Rei is?" Misato did not immediately answer; in fact she had finished her third can when she finally spoke.
"You know the risks." Asuka blinked in astonishment.
"I can't believe you still think that..." She slammed her books into her school bag. "I don't know what he was thinking but I'm sure glad he was because if he had done what you and the Commander consider to be 'right' then he'd be the only Eva pilot left this morning!" She paused by the door, fuming, "And then who would have made your damn toast?" She flung the door open, barging past the surprised Kensuke and Touji. "Out of my way jerk wads!"
"Jeez, what's her problem?" Touji asked as Kensuke helped him up, the other boy repositioned his glasses and grimaced.
"I don't know what happened, but I bet Shinji's in the dog house." Touji nodded and they ventured in via the open door, Misato waved at them.
"Good morning Misato!" They chorused, making her giggle as usual.
"Morning boys."
"Is Ikari around?" Touji asked, pushing forward trying to get more individual attention from the gorgeous Miss Katsuragi.
"No Touji, it seems he went to school early this morning."
"Then what was the snake so angry about?" Kensuke asked, jerking a thumb in the direction the furious Asuka went.
"You mean Asuka?"
"That'll be the one." Touji grinned; Misato allowed herself a small smile.
"She's angry with me."
"With you Misato? Why should she be angry with you?" Kenuske folded his arms, Touji snorted.
"I'm sure it's nothing, just Asuka being Asuka again, no justice in it at all."
"No, and that's the problem." Misato sighed, opening her fourth and final morning beer. "She may just have a point."
[Gossips & Secrets]
"Where is he?" Asuka demanded, pushing past several older girls to get into the classroom. Hikari looked around at her surprised by her abruptness, she was never like that to her even if she was abrupt to everyone else most of the time.
"Who?"
"Shinji."
"Shinji?"
"Is there an echo in here Hikari? Shinji." Everyone was looking at them, Hikari grabbed Asuka's arm and steered her towards one of the windows away from everyone else.
"You want the gossipers to start saying things?" Hikari asked, knowing full well that rumours were already in circulation about the pilots of all three Evangelions and their relationships with each other. Somehow Asuka hadn't heard about those yet, Shinji had most certainly with Aida and Suzahara as his friends. Rei must know by now as well, but she more than likely did not care, Hikari was trying to drum up some courage to speak to her about Shinji though. More for clarification than anything, as no one really seemed to know what Rei Ayanami felt or thought about anything except that she got on with Shinji more than she did with anyone else and that they seemed to understand each other on a level that just did not seem right... even to them. But it could also be used as information for Asuka should she go off on one again about the blue haired girl. "I haven't seen him in two days."
"You mean he's not here?"
"No." Hikari shook her head, as Touji and Kensuke came in to the classroom also minus Shinji Ikari. Touji dumped his bag under his desk, slumped into his chair and stretched his legs. Hikari found she was staring at him again and blushed; realising Asuka was waving a hand in front of her face she snapped out of it.
"Honestly I don't know what you see in him..."
"Huh?"
"Touji. Everyone knows."
"They do?" Hikari squeaked in terror, "D-Does S-Suzahara..."
"That dumbkopf? Fat chance, everyone but those three know - even wonder girl probably. Touji's almost as stupid as that idiot Shinji."
"Why what's he done now?"
"Various things..." Asuka sighed. "He left early this morning before me or Misato were up, we just found a note saying he had gone to school."
"Well, I saw Rei heading in that direction." She pointed in the direction of the school sick bay, "She looked, well, like she was searching for someone too."
"I'm not surprised."
"Why is there something going on?"
"You just never know with those two." And Asuka ran off down the corridor.
To Be Continued...
ArchangelUK 0:o)
