Disclaimer: I do NOT own Evangelion; Anno does...

Chapter 04: "The angle on the Angel"

In a secluded part of NERV, that used to be one of the Eva's testing rooms, a large group of workers were in the process of freeing Unit 00 from its bakelite prison, and getting it ready for its upcoming reactivation tests.

"Ayanami, Rei. Fourteen years old" Dr, Akagi sighed as she glanced at her laptop "The first test subject chosen in accordance with the Marduk report…the first child…designated pilot of the Evangelion unit 00…no more is known about her…her past has been erased same as any other information…"

"So…What was the cause of the accident during the last test?" Asked Maya as she approached the doctor.

"The cause is still unknown…" she replied "However, we believe that mental instability form the pilot was the main cause."

"Mental instability? In Rei?" Maya asked a little surprised.

"Yes…" the doctor said "Her mind became more disturbed than we anticipated"

She explained "we don't know what could have happened…"

A huge group of NERV's Scientifics and other techs and engineers were working hard cleaning and collecting data from the last battle's site, Misato was there to inspect the work, and Shinji having nothing better to do, decided to tag along.

"So, this is our enemy?" Shinji whispered as he looked at the gargantuan corpse of the last angel. "Cool"

"I see…" muttered Dr. Akagi as she wrote some notes in her clipboard. "Everything except the core is intact, this is a perfect sample; thank you" she said turning to Shinji and Misato, "This will help us a lot."

"So…" replied Misato a bit annoyed that she was missing her free day, "did you find anything new?"

"Follow me" she said leading them to her cubby-hole.

"601?" muttered Misato reading her friend's computer, "What does that means?"

"That's the code for it can not be analyzed," answered Ritsuko.

"In other words, you don't know…" Sighed Shinji, unenthusiastically

"In short…yes," said the doctor, "what we know is that the Angel is composed of a matter characterized by both patter and wave form properties similar to solidified light."

"Did you find its power source?" asked the curious captain.

"Something like that…" replied the doctor. "But we haven't discovered any of its operational functions, however…" she said motioning her companions to look at her screen, "we discovered the Angel's inherent wave pattern."

"Really?" Asked Misato as she leaned forwards to get a better look, "Could it be…?"

"What? Hey let me see!" said Shinji as he tried to look at the computer. "Cool…what does that mean?"

"Even if they're composed of a different matter, their actual genetic structure is 99.98 similar to that of a human being."

As both women continued discussing, Shinji noticed some movement outside of the cubby-hole, peeping outside he saw none other than commander Ikari, his father, supervising the recently extracted core. He couldn't help but notice the nasty looking burnt scar on his hands.

"Hey Shinji, what's wrong?" asked Misato as she approached him.

"Ah what?" gasped the surprised kid. "N-no, Nothing, hehe"

"Mmh I don't believe it…Spit it out"

"It's nothing…" he replied, "I was just wondering were the old fart got those burn marks."

"Burns? Do you know anything about it?" asked Misato turning towards her friend.

"It was before you joined NERV," she explained. "Unit-00 went berserker during its fist activation, you've heard about it right?" seeing his affirmative nod she continued, "the pilot was trapped inside it…"

"Was it that girl you were talking about?" he interrupted, "Rei wasn't she?"

"It was Commander Ikari who rescued her; he opened the super heated hatch with his bare hands."

"The old fart did that?" he whispered, looking once again to where his father was examining the remains of the core.

It was a PE class Tokyo 3 public High School; some of the guys were playing basketball, while the others are waiting at the side of the court for the coach's instructions. Shinji completely distracted by his boredom, found himself, inadvertently watching in the direction of the pool, where the girls were taking their swimming class.

"Man, they've all got such incredible breasts…" muttered one of the boys that were also looking at the pool.

"Hey, big shot!"

"Ah wha…?" Shinji was distracted of his musing by his fiend Touji "What do you want?"

"What are you looking at so intently?" his friend asked in a teasing voice.

"I think you're looking at Ayame aren't you?" Said Kensuke; joining the conversation.

"Say What?" Shinji yelled blushing slightly.

"Oh, c'mon!" said Kensuke. "I'm not that stupid!"

"Or maybe…" Touji interrupted, "you were looking at Seiko's boobs."

"Or Yusuke's thighs…"

"Or Saori's calves…"

"Or Rina's Ass…"

"Or Hikari's feet!" Touji said excited, getting odd looks from his stooge friends. "What?"

"So…" Kensuke muttered, "What where you thinking about anyway?"

"Not much…" Shinji replied "mainly about this Rei girl, you know her don't you?"

"You mean Ayanami?" Touji inquired "Let me guess, those thoughts involved whipped cream, a water bed and some aphrodisiacs?" he asked with a wide grin.

"W-what! H-how could I! I don't even know her!" Shinji denied, blushing heavily.

"Eh? You don…"

"Ok kids!" said the coach. "Do three warm up laps around the court, now!"

"How could you not know her Shinji?" asked Kensuke. "You're both pilots, you should know her better that any of us."

"Well, she had some sort of accident with her Eva and has been in the hospital ever since."

"Hey Kid! Look out!"

"Eh?" Shinji turned around just in time to see the brand of a baseball before it collided with his forehead.

"What is this thing?" Asked Ritsuko at the foul substance that Shinji had server her.

"Just some nice tasty curry!" a slightly drunk Misato, exclaimed happily.

"You're still eating this instant crap?"

"You're eating for free, don't complain."

"Misato…" said Shinji after finishing with Dr. Akagi's plate.

"Put it in here sweetie!" said Misato motioning to her instant soup cup.

"You sure?"

"You have no idea how good this is!"

"If you say so…" he muttered as he dumped a generous ration of curry in the recipient.

"Ok now let's eat!" cheered Misato as she started to devour her dinner.

Both Shinji and Ritsuko exchanged glances before tentatively trying the food, they quickly regretted it as they felt the over-spiced curry burning their tongues.

"You made this…thing…didn't you Misato?"

"Yep!" she answered happily. "How can you tell?"

"By its taste…"

"Oh? Pretty unique isn't it?"

"Yeah, thank god…" muttered the good doctor after swallowing half a glass of water. Next time invite me when it's Shinji's turn to cook, at least his food is edible."

"Don't complain…" he said after reeling his tongue back, "I have to deal with this every Thursday…"

"You should try to move," Ritsuko replied, "don't let a bad roommate mess up your life."

"Meh…I'm used to it"

"Yeah Ritsu, never underestimate the human's adaptability, besides, he would have to go through a lot of red tape, and update his security card."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Ritsuko suddenly said reaching into her purse. "Shinji, could you do me a little favour?"

"Sure."

"Could you deliver Rei Ayanami's new card? I keep forgetting it."

He didn't say anything as he took the card and examined it. However, this didn't go un-noticed by certain purple-haired woman. "Shinji, why are you looking so closely at Rei's picture?" she asked in a very innocent tone.

"W-what?" he stammered. "I'm not!"

"Yes you were" she smiled slyly. "You've got a perfect excuse to meet her…just the two of you, alone, no one to interrupt…"

"Oh! C'mon! Cut it out!" pleaded a slightly annoyed and very embarrassed third child.

"But you're so fun to tease!" the captain giggled, "you fall so easily!"

"Just like Misato."

"Wha…?"

"You know…" Shinji interrupted, "it's funny how we're supposed to have the same job and not know each other…"

"Rei is a nice girl…" said Ritsuko, "but she's just like your father…"

"How come?"

"She's not very adept at living…"

It was 7:30 in the morning, Misato asked Pen-Pen to wake Shinji on time so he could make some breakfast and deliver Rei's card on time. And since the penguin didn't want to eat Misato's leftovers so early, the Third child was rudely awaked by a hungry warm water bird. And now, here he was, in a half demolished building, standing in front of a rusted metal door with the number 402 on top of it.

"Hellooo, anybody there?" he asked as he tentatively opened the door. "Its Shinji Ikari, your co-worker!" he said a bit louder. "Such a wonderful place…" he muttered full of sarcasm "and I thought that Misato was a slob…" he thought as he checked the bedroom.

The walls were barely painted, bandages where scattered across the floor with trash conveniently everywhere except for in the trash bin. The small kitchen looked like it hadn't been used or dusted in years and yet; the sink was still piled high with chipped and dirty dishes. The bed was crumpled and looked oddly damp, with the bedspread tossed around and badly unkempt.

Shinji yawned as he walked around a bit through the apartment, covering his mouth with his right hand and stretching his left to his side, but was rudely stopped in mid yawn as he felt something press against his palm. He was paralyzed, "Please let it be a wall, please let it be a wall, please let it be a soft, warm and somewhat wet bump in the wall!" he mentally cried as he felt his hand instinctively close around the still unknown, round object. "Y-you are not a wall, are you?" he tentatively asked, now fearing the worst.

"No, I am not." Came the soft reply.

He spun around and found himself caught in the red eyed stare of Rei Ayanami, who had just came out of the shower. "Err...H-hi?" he gulped loudly at the awkwardness of the situation.

"Will you please let go of me?"

"Wha…?" he asked confused, then glancing down, he noticed that his hand was still groping the girl's breast very tightly considering how nervous he was "Ah! Sorry!"

He abruptly removed his hand from her and turned around. "I-it was an accident! I-I didn't mean to! I-I well…Please don't kill me!" he had a sudden flashback of the previous day at school, some guy accidentally brushed the back of his hand on a girls ass, who was coincidentally the one he had a crush on. The poor boy spent the rest of the day in the nurse office. And now, he had just touched, in a very improper way, a girl he has just met, in a very private part of her body, and they were alone in a abandoned building in the less populated part of the city.

He was trapped.

He was at her mercy.

Rei didn't say a word as she closed the door of her apartment.

He was completely alone. "…the hell?"

They walked silently to NERV, Rei minding her own business and Shinji a few steps behind trying to digest the events of earlier that morning. Eventually they reached one of the NERV access elevators, Rei swiped her card through the reader and…

Access denied

She looked at her card and tried again, getting the same result, she was about to try again when Shinji beat her to it. "Here's your new card, that's why I was at your apartment this morning." he said as he handed her the ID. She looked at it for a second before snatching it from his hands. "You're welcome…" he muttered as he swiped his own card and followed her to the elevator.

"I…I'm sorry…" Shinji said as they descended on the escalators.

"Why?"

"For earlier this morning…I guess…" he said, "Hey, aren't you…nervous?"

"About what?"

"I've heard about your accident in Unit-00," he replied, "and I thought that you may be scared about getting in that thing again."

"Aren't you the commander's son?"

He blinked, "Yeah.."

"Don't you have faith in your father's work?" she asked without turning back

"To tell the truth, no," he answered, somehow hurt, "The old fart never gave me any reason to do so…"

He was cut off as Rei turned around and approached him; she stared at him for a second before slapping him, and without saying a word, she turned around again.

"Hey! What was that for?" he asked rubbing his cheek. "Was it for what I said 'bout the ol...commander?"

She hesitated a second before answering "He raised me."

"Really…?" he asked softly, a feeling of rejection starting to boil inside of him, but he pushed it aside "He took care of you? As in 'adopted' you or something?"

She didn't reply.

"That means that we're siblings then! Well, kinda…" He concluded cheerfully.

She was a bit surprised when they reached the bottom of the stairs she found him smiling at her "Good luck on the test sis!" He said hugging her and then turned away.

She watched cautiously at his retreating form before turning towards her changing room to suit up for the tests.

"Pulse and harmonics are normal!" said Maya through the intercom.

"No problems detected!" Added Makoto.

The Unit-00's re-activation had begun a little while back; Ritsuko, Gendo and the bridge crew were monitoring it from the test control room. Misato was looking at it from one of the observation rooms along with Shinji.

"In Synch. All links completed"

"Check list is satisfactory up to 2590," reported Maya, "Approaching the critical mark. 2.5 More."

Everybody tensed up a little during the countdown until finally the Eva was active and fully in synch with Rei.

"Ikari," said the sub commander, "an unidentified object is approaching, it may be the fifth angel."

"Stop the test, go to first stage alert," ordered Gendo.

The diamond like form of the new angel silently floated towards the centre of the city.

"Unit-01 ready for battle!"

"Launch!" Ordered Misato.

"We're detecting a high energy reaction from within the target" reported Makoto.

"What?"

"It's accelerating and massing upon itself!"

Suddenly the energy seemed to reach critical mass, causing a bright glow to start emanating from the front of the Angel. From that glow a beam of pure light streaked out, heading directly for the exit from the Geofront Unit-01 was about to appear out of at any second.

At that moment, the elevators door opened and the Eva reached the surface "Quick! Dodge it!" Shouted Misato, but was already too late, as the angel's particle beam melted its way through a building and collided with the mecha's chest

"Unit-01 is fighting the restraints!"

"Retrieve him! Hurry!"

"Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!" Shinji thought in anger and desperation as the over heated LCL boiled him alive "DAMNAAAARRGGHHH!" and with a final scream he felt the darkness consume him.

Can you feel it? The heat?

"I wonder why no one cleans up that spot…" When Shinji woke up, he found himself in a familiar hospital room "…how did I get here anyway…" his thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and someone pushing a trolley entered the room, "Oh, Hey Rei"

"I'm here to brief you on the Operation Yashima Timetable," she replied, reaching for a little schedule on her pocket. "It will begin at midnight 0:00 hours. Prior to that Pilots Ikari and Ayanami will arrive at the cage at 17:30. At 18:00 Units 00 and 01 will activate, at 18:00 both Units will be deployed; they will arrive at the temporary base on mount Futago at 18:30. There they will await further orders."

Putting aside the schedule she reached for the bottom of the cart, "This is your new one." she said tossing him a spare plug-suit. Shinji sat up, looking at the plug suit on his lap. "Don't show up looking like that."

"What?" He looked down at himself, noticing his state of nakedness, he yelped, and pulled the blankets to cover up, "sorry!"

"What for?"

He sighed, resting his head on his knees. "So, I have to pilot again?"

"Yes, you do." Rei answered coldly.

"Oh joy…" He muttered. "I don't really feel like doing it again…"

"Then you can stay here."

"What?"

"I will pilot Unit-01," she replied, "Doctor Akagi already prepared to rewrite the personal data files for Unit-01." He was surprised to hear that they were already prepared for any eventuality. "I'm leaving now. They are waiting for me at the cages."

"Hehe…I said that I didn't felt like doing it, never said that I wasn't going to…" he whispered after she left, and noticing the tray on top of the cart "oooh…fried chicken."

"Kinda ironic, don't you think?" Shinji said after pressurizing his suit. They had just got the battle plan to defeat the angel, he was to shoot, and Rei was to play defence. "The first day we met may be also our very last…"

"You won't die" she replied after suiting up "I will protect you…"

Houses, buildings, cities and towns, a whole country-wide blackout went through Japan, all for the sake of mankind.

"Hey, why do you pilot this?" Asked Shinji from their view point of the city; besides their Evas.

Rei seemed to think a little about her answer. "because I'm bonded to it" she said "a bond to all people"

"That's pretty noble."

"I have nothing else…"

"What do you mean?"

"Its time. Let's go." she replied, ignoring his question. "…Goodbye."

"Shinji, we're entrusting you with the energy of the entire nation of Japan!" Said Misato through the intercom "We're counting on you!"

"Ok!"

"Initiate primary conections!"

Turbines roared, little parts of the forest burned around the over heated connection cables, Unit-01 lay flat on its stomach, waiting for the right time to shoot.

"Error correction for Earth rotation and gravity is 0.0009."

Shinji awaited. Anxious for the aiming computer to lock on the target.

"Transmitting all energy to the positron rifle."

The countdown started, the tension grew between the staff. "High energy output detected inside target!" Informed Maya alarmed.

"It can't be!"

"…three…two…one…"

"Fire!" ordered Misato; both titans fired their weapon at the same time, the beams twisted and turned around each other, the little temporary base rocked violently at the explosion shock wave. "Shinji! Did you miss?"

"By Faaar…" he responded, watching the explosion, miles away from the angel.

"Get a second shot ready! Hurry"

"The electromagnetic field of the angel's weapon is interfering with the computer!" informed Shigeru, "we'll need one minute to fix it!"

"The target is ready to shoot again!"

"No! Not now!"

"Oh crap!" Shinji said when he saw one of the angel's corners shinning brightly. He thought he was done for, until he saw the back of Unit-00 blocking the attack with the shield.

"Rei!"

"That shield wont last long!"

"Are we ready yet?"

"Forty seconds 'til the computer is ready!"

"This thing already cooled of!" Said Shinji "I'm shooting!"

"No!" protested Ritsuko "We can't risk missing again!"

Shinji glanced at the yellow Eva, both the shield and armour were melting under the enormous pressure and heat of the angel's attack. "But Rei won't last that long!"

"Just thirty more seconds!"

"Listen! I just found out I have a sister here and I'm not gonna let her die dam it!" he snapped, "Have faith in me…please…" with that, he closed the communications with the

base, and pushed the special aiming helmet back to its place behind the seat. He closed one of his eyes, trying to pin-point the angel through the blinding light "…C'mon…don't fail me now…" and pulled the trigger.

Unit-01 jerked a bit at the kick-back of the rifle, the beam soared through the angel's, penetrating its body, killing it almost instantly.

Shinji quickly moved towards the lowered Unit-00, extracting the over heated entry plug and placing it carefully on the ground.

"Who…was…the…idiot…who…designed…these…things!" Shinji groaned, pulling the handles of the plug's emergency hatch. Finally, the door opened "Rei! You Alright?"

She slowly opened her eyes and looked up to see his teary face, "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" he scolded, though relieve that she was apparently alright was clear "And don't you ever say that 'i have nothing else' crap again! It's not true!"

She couldn't help but to be surprised by his outburst, no one has ever shown any concern for her well being; except commander Ikari, could it be, that his son, this boy before her, was showing the same kind of feelings to her? "I'm sorry…" she replied after a little while "…I don't know what I should do or feel at times like this…"

"What about a smile for your good old brother then?" he said softly, grinning at her.

She stared at him, the warm feeling she suddenly got from him; she had got them from only one person in her life, in a rather similar situation to this one, she understood now, and she couldn't help but smile.

To be continued…

Well, as they say...
zOMG!11!one1! IT'S TEH REI!11!1
or something like that ;
anyway, before you say it, yes, this chapter is VERY similar to the actual episode, it was done like that in purpose. Why? Simple, Even though this Shinji is diferent to the series one(read happier), he doesn't come without flaws, i mean, you don't get abandoned by your dad at a 5 years old age, and then come to find that he took care of some other random kid instead of you and don't feel at least sad, right? Also, same as the original Shinji, he didn't holded it against Rei(the "random kid" in this case) and instead had a ...i dunno conection with her or something
Anyway, enough crap :P

Thank you to all who bothered to read this thing! And, for those who asked, i'll try to keep everyone as much IC as i can...at least for a while ;
And also thanks to my prereaders Cavalier, Stormofdragons, Eva-01X and Dark Machine!

Any opinion, coment, etc. just let me know. 'Til next time!

Edit: I hate the Quick edit option!