Disclaimer- I don't own Evangelion, property of Studio Gainax, Anno-san, plus a bunch of other people and associations.
Chapter 5 Weaving A Story: Addendum
There were days when Misato Katsuragi felt like crawling back into bed and sleeping for a long, long while.
Then there were days like these. When she wanted to curl into fetal ball, scream and tear her hair out, and commit spontaneous acts of violence, all at the same time.
Thankfully, she suppressed the urges, taking command of the situation in a cool, calm, orderly manner. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LOST SHINJI!"
Well, not so much orderly, calm, and cool as furious and frightened at the same time.
As the agents scattered around her, beginning a useless sweep (he had evaded them when he was fourteen, he could do so now), Misato's eyes softened and her fist clenched. "No... not again." She whispered quietly.
Something felt wrong with her... as though she was only half of what she used to be...
A name passed through her lips.
"Sh-Shinji..." Misato Katsuragi's eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright in her bed. "SHINJI!" she screamed, looking about wildly for the Third Child.
"Major Katsuragi." A familiar voice said quietly.
She turned to see Makoto standing there, looking nervous with a bandage over his forehead and his arm in a sling. "It's good to see you alive Major." He said genuinely.
Misato smiled back, shifting slightly as she felt a sharp pain in her back. "Same to you." She replied sincerely. "What happened?"
As though relieved, the Lieutenant began his report. "NERV has lost nearly 90 of its personnel and equipment to the JSSDF attack. Our defenses are blown to Hell," Makoto continued, running his free hand through his hair, "If Unit 02 and Unit 01 hadn't intervened when they did, we'd all be dead. And we still lost Unit 02 to the Eva Series..." he muttered.
The Major's face filled with joy. "Then Shinji found it in him to fight at last." She said, a proud tone in her voice. At least she hadn't screwed up the kid even more... "Wait. What did you say about Unit 02?" she back up, her voice full of sharp fear. "Is Asuka-"
Placing his hands in the air in a reassuring manner, Makoto responded, "No, she's alive. She's badly injured though... it may take her weeks to wake up. And her body's been pretty badly damaged by those fake Lance of Longinus. One of her eyes was almost beyond repair..."
Misato sighed, knowing this would hurt the fragile ego of the girl further. "Well, at least she's alive... speaking of injuries, how come I'm still alive?" she asked curiously. "Not that I'm complaining, but..."
Makoto looked indescribably guilty and pressured at this. "You were knocked into an LCL holding vat by the explosion. It managed to keep you sustained until we could get to you... but..."
When he was finished, Misato's fists were clenched, and Makoto thought she might cry.
But then, her face quirked into a strange smile. "Well, I'm alive again then, am I..." she whispered quietly. "It's better than being dead at least."
Makoto coughed, and looked downwards, his face and voice full of caring hesitation. "I'm sorry to bring nothing but bad news Major... but there's one more thing..."
This time, she did cry.
There were days when Fuyutsuki really, really wanted to retire. Days like today, for example. "I understand your concern, Katsuragi, but Section Two will find him." He said, in a patiently suffering tone.
"THEY COULDN'T FIND HIM WHEN HE WAS FOURTEEN! WHAT THE HELL CHANCE DO THEY HAVE NOW!" his second in command screamed through the phone, so loud that he had to pull his ear away and could still hear every word.
"Calm down commander. Nothing will happen to him." At least, he hoped so. Without giving the near hysterical Misato time to respond, he put the phone down, rubbing his temples wearily.
So close.
So close to the end game. And now, now he was staring down Seele, and so far, his eyes were the ones twitching.
Fuyutsuki leaned forward, and sighed. Only moral duty, to finding another way to save humanity, had kept him this long in this tiresome game of playing God with the Earth.
"Goddamn morals," the Commander muttered, and looked up slightly. They always seemed to get him in the worst situations.
This, Fuyutsuki decided, had to be the worst play for a scapegoat he'd ever seen. The United Nations had dragged him out before a tribunal, hoping to make an example of him, desperate not to make themselves look more incompetent after the assault on NERV.
He could have run, could have used the contacts he'd built over the years to hide.
But no, here he was, staring down the leaders of the world, and holding just one card in his hand, with everyone else having a full deck.
A grin threatened to cross his face, despite the fact that he was walking a thing line.
It was good to hold on to old things...
Like a certain disk he'd kept, which held just about everything on the Second Impact and Seele.
What he'd threatened to do to Ikari once was about to come to life.
The representative of the United States, the head of this tribunal, coughed, and looked at him gravely. "Mr. Fuyutsuki, do you-"
An aide rushed in, and ran in, whispering into the ear of the representative. A few whispered words and the man's eyes widened.
His voice had changed, becoming nervous and sweaty. "This tribunal is hereby suspended, pending investigation in light of certain... evidence."
Fuyutsuki allowed himself a triumphant grin. It pays to have an ace in the hole.
There was something very, very unsettling about waking up when you didn't know how you got there, Touji had decided, seven years ago.
It still rung true today.
His eyelids had the telltale heaviness of being under anesthesia, something he was quite familiar with. "Oh shit... what the hell happened to me?" Touji murmured, trying to move his arms, and finding them sluggish, unresponsive.
"You got shot." Hikari's familiar voice drifted down to him, and her worried face came into view, veiled by the ethereal lights of the hospital.
Pausing, Touji chuckled, and the brown haired woman looked at him with mild curiosity.
"What's so funny?" Hikari asked, raising a bemused eyebrow.
"This seems familiar..." Touji responded, a smile quirked on his lips. "Wouldn't you agree?"
Hikari paused, thinking, and then she blinked and chuckled. "You're right... but this time, you're a bit better off, I think."
Frowning, he tried to remember what had happened. Loud shouting... then a bang... then... blank.
"What happened?" he asked, eyelids fluttering between dream and wake.
Hikari paused, and frowned, looking away. "You... you got shot. You took a bullet for Shinji."
Touji's eyes snapped open, and he nearly shot upwards, raising himself violently. "Shinji! What happened to him!" he demanded.
Two smooth hands placed themselves against his chest, and Hikari gently pushed him backwards, looking concerned. "Shinji's fine, Touji." However, she seemed to pause, and some tightness in her face caused him to doubt.
"What aren't you telling me?" Touji asked, having known the girl for most of their lives. "I know you're hiding something."
Hikari looked down at her hands, which had folded in her lap as she sat back down. Her voice was low and quiet. "Shinji ran away again."
"DAMN HIM!" Touji roared, slamming his fist, his real fist into the whitewashed wall of the hospital room. The nurses scattered away, not eager to deal with the angry fourteen year old.
Closing his eyes, he let his battered knuckles fall next to his hips, and clenched them tightly. "That bastard... how could he-" a growl escaped his throat, and the knuckles would have turned white, if they were not already red. "How could he just leave?" the voice was a strangled whisper, denying everything that had been told here.
"So then, you heard." Kensuke's thin, reedy voice drifted into the room, and the spectacled boy was leaning against the door. He was looking away, out into the window, eyes shielded from the world by glass. "I thought he was done running."
Touji didn't answer, just standing there, feeling nothing but anger toward his friend.
Ex-friend, he told himself. No real friend would abandon everyone who cared about him like a coward.
Kensuke placed his hand on Touji's shoulder, and the boy's eyes were tired. "Come on Touji... let's get you out of here." He said wearily, tugging him along.
Without protest, Touji nodded, and allowed himself to be led away.
Rei paused. "He has run away again." She murmured softly, tilting her head as she leaned into the wall.
It was coming, she knew. Felt it, deep in her soul, in that part of her that was once not hers.
But she was Rei Ayanami. She might not have been human... but she was no doll.
"This is what you were created for." Gendo Ikari said softly, yet his voice was the same iron, heartless tone as ever. "Now, take me to my Yui." He reached out, his hand moving as if to grope her breast.
And Rei stepped away, her eyes open, truly open for the first time since she, the third Rei Ayanami, had been released from her prison.
"I am not your doll." She whispered softly, but it was strong. Strong because she had defined what Rei Ayanami was.
Rei Ayanami... was Rei Ayanami. Nothing more, nothing less.
"What... what are you doing! Rei!" Gendo's words were harsh and pleading, at once demanding and weak.
She stepped away, and began her slow march to the surface. Behind her, the Commander and Lilith called.
She didn't refuse to answer.
She chose not to.
"I will not be your pawn. I am my own person." Rei said, her final words of farewell. She didn't look back.
In her heart, that heart that was mother to a child and Mother to All, felt the suffering madness of Shinji Ikari. And she began to step toward that child.
"Shinji... be strong." The words were hers, and yet not. They were the words of a mother.
As Rei left, she dimly heard the gunshots.
Asuka frowned, listening with half an ear to the report. "So the idiot's run away again..." she murmured, absentmindedly swirling a cup of half cold coffee she had no intention of drinking.
Really, it was none of her business. A few days ago, he could have been dead for all she cared to know. And before that, well, she couldn't have called them friends, back during the Angel war. They...
Well, he was Shinji. She was Asuka. They were pilots. They lived together.
That was about as far as it went, really. There was no deep romantic connection, no meaningful friendship, no comradery between soldiers.
Just... living together.
She owed him nothing.
He owed her everything.
Scowling, she stood, setting the cup down with a half hearted slam. When the agent looked up at her, mouth opened for a question, she glared at him.
"I'm going to find the Third." Asuka said, her tone brooking no questions whatsoever.
"BASTARDS!" swinging the stolen blade of one of the Eva Series, Unit 02 was met head on by its ivory doppleganger. Their blades met, sending sparks the size of human beings flying through the air.
Asuka's eyes narrowed, and she spun, the force of the movement sending the other Evangelion staggering backwards. With the same movement, she bisected the ivory monstrosity.
Even as the two halves of the Dummy Plug controlled Eva crashed to the floor, another stood across the way from her, seemingly staring her down.
A smirk crossed her face, a confident smirk that would never be the same after today.
"DIE!" Asuka roared, and her Eva roared with her, tearing through the space between the two Evangelions. The white Eva charged her, blade raised and at the ready.
Their blades met in one violent crash, both giants struggling to overpower one another. Asuka snarled as she felt the ground beneath her Eva begin to give way, and pushed harder.
A terrible whistling noise cut through her concentration, a noise that would haunt her dreams for years to come.
Using one hand to hold off the first Eva, Unit 02 turned, just in time to see another blade come hurtling through the air, intent on piercing crimson Eva. Narrowing her eyes, Asuka summoned forth the AT field.
Her mother would protect her.
Even as the orange hexagons began to flash and glimmer in the air, the blade strained against it, as though it were possessed by some malevolent, vicious spirit.
The next moment was something that would change everything for her. For everyone.
It changed, becoming a very, very familiar two pronged spear, with a helix shape for a handle.
She screamed, and the world went dark as a searing, all consuming pain tore into her eye, and her soul.
As she lay there, helpless, clutching one eye with an arm, she struggled to move. Her whole body, her entire soul was bent on destroying her enemies.
"Kill you... kill you... kill you... kill you..." Asuka chanted, in so low a whisper in was inaudible to anyone but her.
Above, the Eva series circled above her, vultures waiting for the next piece of carrion to devour.
The sunlight was hatefully blinding, and she stared up into it, her unreachable goal.
And then...
And then the world exploded in a whirlwind of sound and dust. Over the com, she could faintly hear, through the blood pounding in her ears, the panicked shouts of the remaining soldiers as they marshaled their forces.
Loud, banging footsteps hurtled towards her... she couldn't move.
"Asuka! Asuka!" Shinji's panicked, frenzied voice seemed to be mocking her.
She tried to stand... and couldn't. Instead, Unit 01's visage appeared over her, arms outstretched, blocking the sun.
Shinji the Invincible... her lips curled in disgust, a pained grimace.
"You... you bastards!" Shinji roared, and his Evangelion roared with him. The true Lance tore through the air to land in Unit 01's waiting palm.
Her body gave out.
The last thing she saw his Eva charging, the last sounds his angered shouts.
Shinji sucked in labored breath after labored breath, feeling the sweat fall from his forehead in a low, lazy roll. Unable to hold himself steady any longer, he fell to the ground, letting the soft grass cushion his body.
Funny, how he had ran here.
Funny, he'd ran here the last time too.
The mountains hadn't changed... that was something he was rather grateful for.
It made him feel like he was still fourteen... still clean of murder and war.
NERV would find him. It always did. But for right now, Shinji needed a break.
He knew he'd have to return to Tokyo-3, both when he left, and right now. There was no escaping the fate that awaited him.
He'd known that since the Fourteenth Angel. The moment he'd declared himself the Pilot of Unit 01, he was bound to the Evangelion. Forever.
There was no more running. He'd bought himself seven years of borrow time, and he'd scraped by an existence one might call pathetic.
But no more.
Shinji had seen his friends, seen what Eva, what he'd done to them. He'd made a sort of peace with them all, even Asuka.
Now there was only one more thing he needed to do.
Because it would be in the next few days that the end would come.
Humanity would either live or die in the next hours.
And win or lose, live or die, Shinji Ikari would be there for the end of days.
He would make his peace with the world, with himself, and with those he'd hurt.
And then... and then he would die.
It wasn't some preordained fate, it wasn't destiny. It wasn't even a gut feeling.
No, Shinji planned to die.
Author's Notes
All a bit confusing, isn't it? I had thought to write one more memory, from Shinji's POV, but at this point, its moot. You might be a little confused as to the ending. I won't give it away, though. You'll have to keep reading.
Also, in the first upload, I completely forgot I hadn't added Rei's section in. That was my mistake.