We do what we always do, the biomechanoid responded to its pilot with a chuckle, we do what needs to be done.
We need to contact General Mitchel first, he answered his partner.
"Are you sure it was wise to send Unit Omega to deal with the situation?" came the questioning voice of Gold as General Jason Mitchel stood before the tribunal.
"Sir, with all the knowledge that we have at the moment, we didn't have much to go on, and sending in the unit seemed to be our only option, it also has gained us a way into NERV, at least temporarily."
"We understand that General, but we felt the need to remind you that NERV and whoever is pulling its strings is not to be trusted," Silver interrupted as calm as ever.
"Captain Ikari has been a great asset to this, and with Unit Alpha taking its final tests as we speak, we should be operational soon," Bronze continued, "How goes the construction of Units Beta and Gamma?"
"The last two of the Four Horsemen are all but completed, their core personalities still need to choose pilots and be implanted in the Units," Mitchel answered as calmly as he could, "I would like to recomend promoting Shinigami to Major to lead the team."
"That is a good suggestion, inform Captain Ikari of his promotion when he contacts you," Silver said with a smirk, "Also, as soon as the cores are implanted into the last two units, send War to join Death, we suspect that he will soon require backup if left alone for to long."
"What is it that you suspect?"
"A group Intelligence has been interested in for some time has become more active, especially in their connection with NERV."
"Yes Sir," Mitchel responded with a nod, "I'll inform Death and War that they will be assigned to aid in the protection of Tokyo 3."
And with that the meeting was over.
He walked calmly through the facility with the escort they had provided, his flight suit still in place, helmet and all. A stylized skull on an almost featureless helmet, just above the visor on the glossy metal. His callsign on the pocket tab, american flag on the right shoulder, and a logo displaying the Four Horsemen unit patch with crossed Scythes and the title Death.
Shinigami was nervous, just as he usually was when he wasn't airborn or piloting Azrael, but this had a couple of added hitches to it, namely being back in Japan and the proximity to the bearded bastard that was his biological father.
Once he had been Shinji Ikari, but that had changed when he was thirteen. The training had started then and he had flown a cobat mission in a fighter as part of a squadron sent to deal with a hostile group. That mission had energized him, and made him the only living fighter Ace in the world, fifteen gun kills in three minutes as swarms of enemy fighters seemed to appear out of the sands. He'd later learned that they were stolen Harriers, but that hadn't really been a problem as the two six fighter flights of Raptors engaged at point blank range above a city with their other weapons spent in hammering the enemy. He had been the only survivor of his flight when a combination of low fuel and enemy weapons had decimated the fighters. And even then, he only survived because he managed to eject.
He was almost above everything else a survivor, and a damn good one at that. According to what some of the maintenance crews had said, he was basically thought of as somehow related to a cockroach in that nothing managed to kill or cripple him. And that was saying something with some of the disasters he'd been involved in.
His attention snapped back to the present as he entered to command center and bit back a snarl at the sight of the person he hated with all his being, his father.
AN: Didn't really avance the plot much, but I haven't had much writing time recently, and this is the current idea as to what I'm working on. I do have a Naruto idea bouncing around in my head that wants to be written as well. Anyway, this does give a little bit more into Shinigami's backstory, not a bunch, but some of it. And it gives a few other things to think about.
I'm saving his encounter with Gendo for the next chapter because it's still being worked on in my head, but it won't be quite what many would expect, especially since he's pretty much covered head to toe with little visible, and nothing to make Gendo think that he is Shinji.
Review Responses
GhostDragon: Thanks, this is fun to write parts for, but the scenes for setting things up are rather hard to write.
Smiley Face3: Thanks
Deathzealot: What was the name of your friends fic, and where could I find it if it's still up? I would like to read similar ones, part of the reason for writing this is because I didn't see anything like it.
Innortal: Thanks. That's a wording I had been trying to remember for a while.
sorcere86pt: Yeah he would act a little odd, and as for anyone trying to analyze Azrael, well, I am going to have her try and Azrael will get his revenge... And thanks for catching the slip up, I have fixed it now.
maleficus-lupus: Here's an update for you!
DerektheRogue: Here's some more.
Yo: I know it would be a stretch for the canon Shinji, Shinji "Shinigami" Ikari is a whole other kettle of fish, basically a big chunk of his past is that Unit-01 was being transferred by ship from the original testing facility (Can't remember if the canon version was tested at NERV or not, but here it wasn't when the incident with Yui happened) and a terrorist attack by a rogue element of SEELE sunk the ship. The US military recovered the remains of the Eva and used it as a basis for a new weapons platform while thinking that the original was some enemies secret weapon. The guy who raised Shinji after Gendo abandoned him was hired by the US and there was an incident where Unit-Omega (Which contains most of the wreckage of Unit-01) and activated it while bonding with Azrael around the age of 7. He was then trained by anyone the government could get to teach him to be the best, especially after it was discovered that only young kids, ones who have a empathic talent, could sucessfully bond with their new craft, only four were comissioned (Other than Unit-Omega the prototype, but why there are now only four currently in existance/in construction will be explained later.) and the project was called Project: Four Horsemen. Each of the Units has an AI named after an Archangel. But, anyway, during the incident where Azrael was first activated, the unit suffered extreme damage and thus Shinji was sent to be trained elsewhere for that time. Azrael and Shinigami were sent to Japan to intercept the Angel as soon as it was spotted and reached it just as it got to Tokyo-3. Whew, and that's an abreviated backstory.
sleepykitty: They aren't really Archangels, it was just what the Four Horsemen project units are named after. And other than a few missiles and light chainguns that aren't helpful as more than an occasional distraction, Azrael is best at close combat. But when Unit-Alpha (AI named Michael) shows up, you'll see one geared for ranged combat.
Endermon: I hope it remains interesting, I want to keep writing this until it's finished.
HolyKnight: I'm planning on writing more of some of them, but I can't really focus on keeping them going at the moment, currently my mind is stuck on NGE and Naruto, but I have plans to continue some of them.