Mute Shadows
Shortly after being introduced to Rei Ayanami, Major Simon Greene, and the Sixth Training Yard, Asuka and Shinji were on the track, running. Or trying to. The Major laughed as they completed their third lap, and reminded them that they had six more to go. On the sideline, Rei watch impassively.
-
After their briefing, they had been shown into separate changing areas attached to the weight room. Locker rooms. They had exchanged their starchy NERV uniforms for tank-tops, running shorts, and the small shoes Shinji had noticed on the Major. Running shoes.
Shinji had changed quickly, not liking the too-large locker room. The floor was cold, and Shinji felt acutely alone, something he had not felt since first stepping off the maglev in the Geo-Front's Understation.
He had emerged from the locker room very aware of his bare arms and legs. He felt underdressed. Rei appeared from the girl's changing room. Shinji had not seen her go in. She had shed her uniform pants and issued shoes for clothing identical to Shinji's. She made brief eye contact, then sat on a bench and lowered her gaze to the floor.
"Hey, idiot, are you out there?" Asuka's caustic voice floated out from the girl's changing area.
Shinji examined his feet. Sat on the bench opposite Rei.
"Ikari?!" the voice was getting louder. God.
"Yes Pilot Sohryu, I'm here." He didn't know what else to say. His compassion for Asuka's physical state was running low. She must have gotten dressed and seen herself in the mirror all... what was the word. Emaciated? Thin. Weak-looking.
She had been in that red Eva, and something had happened to her. Shinji did not know what, but it had shrunken her… and she was too proud to show it, too proud to come out in shorts and a tank-top. He'd known her for two days, and already understood that.
Shinji did not relish the idea of confronting Major Greene, but knew what was coming.
"Go tell Major Greene that I am… that I want to discuss something with him."
Shinji looked at Rei for… something. The girl met his gaze and stood.
"Pilot Sohryu," Rei began. "If Pilot Ikari engages the Major in conversation on your behalf, he will be punished. You were given orders by a superior officer, to change and be ready for the first half of your daily exercise regime. Are you disobeying those orders?"
Shinji waited. No sound came from the change room. Pressing either side of his head in an attempt to stave off his growing headache, Shinji turned and opened the door. Go get Major Greene. Fine!
"Wait dumkoff," Asuka's voice came from behind him. Shinji turned.
She stood just in front of Rei, dressed just as the white-haired pilot was. She had one leg on a workout bench, tying her running shoes. "You go out ahead, that mean bastard will take it out on us."
The clothes had not been kind to her, as Shinji had feared. He knew in a glance that if he got a clear view of her, he wouldn't be able to look away.
They left the weight room, all three of them together. Gone to the meeting room. Major Greene was already there, feet up on the table, three folders in front of him.
"Okay kiddies," the man growled. Rei translated. "This here is your physical workup the hospital just copied over."
The large man had brushed Rei's to one side, "Already know what is in here, already know it's outta date."
He had picked up Shinji's folder and opened it, "Hmm let's see. Shinji Ikari, 15 years old, blood-type O negative, yaddah yaddah yaddah." The Major flipped through several sheets. "Looks like they got you baking on the same chemical shit as everyone else, terrific."
The Major had closed Shinji's medical history and tossed it on the table. Snatched up Asuka's.
"Mmm hmm, pre-menstrual, 14 years, Military Designation A0-blah blah blah…" he turned the page, then another, and then something caught his eye. He looked up and appraised his new female student more closely.
"The Hell?" the Major muttered, turning the next page. He appeared to read the whole page, then turned to the next page and skimmed it, and the page after that. Then he closed the folder and stood.
"You, whatsyourname, you come with me," he gestured to Asuka, and then to Rei "and you, Miss Ayanami, since our drama queen don't know the English good."
Major Greene took both girls in to his office, leaving the door open. Shinji started to get up, but the Major's bellowing voice had kept him in place.
"This ain't your affair, Mister Ikari, you will stay put," came Rei's softer translation.
After five minutes the three re-emerged, Asuka with a bandage on her arm. She absently touched the gauze, winced. Shinji finally allowed his gaze to linger on her in those moments before she sat down, when she seemed more concerned with staring straight ahead than noticing him. Her wrists… they were so much thicker then her arms… her joints bulged out like a doll's. Shinji barely tore his gaze away, and felt sick.
After ridiculing them for another five minute, the Major had taken them down to the training yard proper, and instructed them to run three miles.
-
Now Shinji was drenched in sweat and freezing, each step shooting pain up his legs, each rapid breath burning in his chest. The Major was yelling at him to slow his breathing down, but Shinji couldn't. If he didn't keep breathing as fast as possible, he was pretty sure he'd die. Ahead of Shinji, on the outside curve of the track, Asuka was throwing herself forward. Shinji could hear the constant stream of German coming from her, but was very quickly losing interest in it, and her, and everything else around him.
They completed the sixth lap. The Major was screamed that if they did not wrap it up in six minutes, he'd make them run another mile.
There was no way, no way Shinji could keep on going. The pain in his chest was there to stay now, not just when he breathed. He began to imagine the bones in his legs splintering apart like shale rock. His emotions began to rage, from hate to fear to something poetic, but all totally random, just his brain trying to keep him awake and moving forward.
They completed the seventh lap. The Major was looking at his stopwatch and shaking his head. Rei was now standing beside him and leaning forward against the rail that separated the sandpits and pole-vault inside the track from the track itself. Noticing that took too much effort for Shinji.
His name was Shinji, right?
Ahead of him, Asuka was still throwing herself forward. Shinji noted the red stain on her arm, blooming beneath the gauze of her bandage…
…like a flower, a pretty, pretty flower.
No more flowers, no more plants, no more Mother, no more Sun…
Just run shut up and run, you idiot!
Shinji wasn't sure, but thought the Major had probably screamed that last fleeting thought. Maybe he was talking as he ran, he couldn't tell anymore.
Eighth lap. Shinji could tell because the Major's screaming got louder, then diminished.
The lights in the yard, the hally-ogen, were too bright. Burned his eyes. His body was now going from cold to hot and back to cold. Motes of light danced in front of his eyes, and he felt his stomach heave. The casserole, wanting out. Just a bit more, a bit more…
Hey hey hey hey
"Hey! I said stop, dammit!"
The world focused, and Major Greene was kneeling in front of him, staring. Shinji was on the ground. Could not recall how he had gotten there. Somewhere off to the side, Asuka was cursing loudly. Major Greene looked away from Shinji for a moment.
"Thank you Miss Ayanami, please help whatshername to the kitchen."
Major Greene turned back to Shinji and tapped his chrono. Held up two fingers. Two hours.
Then, he got up and walked away.
-
Asuka had not been awake on the last lap of Major Greene's merry little jaunt. The steroid cocktail he had given her had kept her going, even when her legs began to itch and turn blue. As she struggled just to stand against Ayanami, Asuka could only think about how much she wanted to kill Greene. Through her pain and utter exhaustion, she saw herself kicking his teeth in and drowning him in the pool, or spraying his brains all over with a pistol from the firing range, maybe after taking out a kneecap or two and letting that crazy, sadistic fuck enjoy a sucking chest wound for a while.
Asuka squeezed Rei's shoulder until the girl stopped, and turned to look at Major Greene, who was kneeling in front of Shinji. Her violent fantasies seemed to come to life around his image, and suddenly it was too much for her to bear. She lurched forward, pushed Ayanami away, and staggered into the weight room.
She went for the changing room. Stumbled over a workout bench and fell. Crying silently now, hissing through her teeth, Asuka pulled herself up and forward. From behind her Rei reported that training would resume in two hours' time.
Asuka kept her face away from the First Child, and staggered in to the changing room.
She was completely drained, and confused. For a moment, when she had looked at the Major, she had felt his skin twitch and part beneath her hands. She had felt the blood splash on her skin. Could smell it steam off her body. It had seemed so real.
It frightened her.
Her legs hurt, her chest hurt, her joints were even more swollen then before. She was covered in a cold sweat that felt like slime. Her flesh felt ready to drip off her bones, like warm wax.
She lean-walked down a row of unused lockers, to the communal shower room. She sat on the changing bench and quickly undressed, trying not to look at her diminished thighs and the downy blonding red hair between them. Pushed off the wall, walking arms out to balance, she made it to one of the metal columns that rose from the ground and twisted the handle built into it at waist level. Hot water gushed out, not just from the spigot above her but from every showerhead in the column. She slowly fell to the base of the column and let the warmth wash over her.
This was too much. She was pushing herself far too hard. But it had to be done. Why? She couldn't say. Only that it made sense. Only that it was right.
That damned idiot and his casserole. She could feel it turning over in her stomach, sticky and cold.
Shinji Ikari. Huh. He was the type of guy that survived because of the UN. Survived because he was sheltered, not because he had value, or the means to shelter himself.
Strange, thinking about him now. Was the nudity that did it, and the openness of this damned shower. Probably the adrenaline from Greene's steroid shot too.
Guys and girls. Get close to one another. Natural. There had been so few children after-Impact. So few people to pick from. He was an example of that. Of the breeding pool.
An unexpected realization. It passed quickly. Disgusting.
And being here. In this place. Even though it was tearing her apart. Even though it wasn't doing her any good at all. Its...
Like...
-
The kitchen would have interested Shinji. Really. If only the stupid thing would stay still long enough for him to get a decent look at it. His vision still swam, and the only way he could get his feet to stop hurting was to put them up in the chair on the other side of the table. God, he wanted this to be over.
It took a while for his curiosity of the kitchen to outpace the physical discomfort of walking. But eventually he did get to his feet and totter over to the shelves. Took in the cardboard boxes and small things in shiny wrappers. He selected two C-rations. Wrapped in aluminum, the size of a large book, C-rations were the only familiar thing he saw. Or thought he saw. Short term memory was a bit of a problem at the moment.
Shinji tore in to the aluminum apart and was surprised to find some crackers, jam, a small block of cheese, a tin with an English label, and several bars of something.
A C-ration contained a block of cheese, some powdered milk, and sometimes crackers. Shinji yanked the aluminum wrapper close to his face and tried to get the letters to stop spinning.
Oh, it was an MRE. A pre-Impact ration.
"Good enough," he muttered, and ate.
-
After informing Pilot Sohryu of her schedule, Rei Ayanami had gone to the pool, put on a bathing suit, and floated at the surface for a time. She had eaten before the other two pilots had arrived, and eating again would only cause her sickness. Swimming was a low impact activity that would not leave her too tired if the Major decided she too needed to run three miles, though he might not ask her to do anything at all today.
The other pilots confused her. She had never been around other people her own age before, and was mystified by their behavior. The girl, Sohryu, was doing herself great harm in coming today. Rei was certain the Major was not happy with her condition, and would have sent the girl back to her residence immediately had his own program forbidden him from doing so.
The point of this program was to make them physically fit. They were a prototype for future classes that would contain the entire youth population of the Geo-Front, eventually. The Second Child, for whatever reason, had made the decision to hinder the project by damaging herself, which would make things more difficult for all three pilots in the future.
The Commander's son, the Third Child, was an equal mystery. He was unlike his father. From his seaweed-colored hair flecked with white, to his sad, haunted expression. He seemed to dislike confrontation, or perhaps just social situations in general.
Such unknowns there were with these new people. Up until today, Rei's solitary interest had been working with Major Greene, and in doing so avoiding Doctor Akagi and Unit Zero. Ikari and Sohryu were... interesting.
-
Asuka stormed into the kitchen with surprising ferocity and tried to kick Shinji out.
"Time's up, Third… Shiebe! Did you leave any for the rest of us?" She exclaimed, seeing the four empty MRE packets on the table.
Her hair was dark now. Shiny. Wet? Shinji was still a little out of it.
"Nevermind, get out, my turn now."
She sunk into the chair next to him and picked up the foil, then muttered something in German. Shinji took another bite of an MRE cracker and looked at her, knowing he shouldn't. Asuka dropped the foil and stared straight ahead moment, then quietly said, "Just leave, Third Child. I told you to leave. Get out of here and…" here her voice rose, "stop looking at me!"
Shinji kicked his chair back a pace. Asuka sneered.
"You like this, don't you? You like being the strong one. You think I'm weak and stupid, don't you," She hit the table with a closed fist, much harder then Shinji would have thought possible. "They told me you saved me from the Leviathan. Well, don't get used to it. You won't be the strong one for much longer, asshole. Now get out of here and leave me alone!" She shrieked the last, and Shinji got up and started for the door, stopped, then went to the cupboard and retrieved two MREs. These he placed in front of Asuka. Then he did go to the door.
"I don't…" he began, but couldn't think of anything else to say. He left.
-
With no desire to return to the track, and a grim foreboding of the weight room, Shinji opted to spend the rest of his time in the pool. He had another forty-five minutes before Major Greene got to torture him again, and the pool might relax his now-stiffened muscles. Additionally, he had only swum once before, and wanted to be certain he could still get in a pool without drowning.
And he did not want to sit around and think. He did not want to think about his father, or the Evangelion, or worry about Asuka killing him in his sleep. "I shouldn't even care what she thinks," he muttered as he walked across the yard.
Shinji walked through the pool room and changed into a swim suit before he noticed the face bobbing in the water. Rei was hovering in the middle of the pool, eyes closed. Shinji briefly considered just leaving, but decided that he had run enough today.
"Uh… Pilot Ayanami? Do you, uh… want privacy?" Shinji stammered, remembering Major Greene had said the girls were to have privacy if they wanted it.
"No. You may join me if you wish, Pilot Ikari," the girl murmured, not opening her eyes.
Shinji slid into the water at what he thought was the shallow end. It was not nearly as shallow as he had expected, and he totally submerged before grabbing the wall and hauling his head above the water.
He kicked underwater, and let go of the wall. Then he started for the opposite side of the pool. He was traveling along the short side, wanting to give Ayanami as much space as possible. Halfway through his clumsy lap, his left side seized up.
Suddenly, Shinji wanted very much to be a cook again. Forget piloting that monstrosity, he'd be lucky to live through the next few hours!
Paddling one-handed, Shinji made it to the other side of the pool and hauled himself out of the water. Then he curled into a ball on the cold, wet cement and found himself, once again, waiting for the pain to go away.
"You just ate, correct?"
Shinji rolled over to face Rei, who was now treading water. Looking at him.
"Yeah. I forgot, stupid thing to do." Shinji answered. "I think this whole place is trying to kill me."
Rei did not register amusement. "Major Greene will not kill you, Pilot Ikari," she said, coming over to the side and raising herself out of the water and seating herself beside him. "It would probably be acceptable to render you comatose for a time, however."
Shinji's side finally began to loosen. He unfolded from the fetal position.
"This bad. Was it this bad for you?" he muttered, squeezing his temples to ward off the returning headache.
"Yes, I think so. The first day was my worst." Rei was staring at him. "Why are you here, Pilot Ikari? Why did you agree to pilot Eva? Why do you continue to do things that harm you?"
Shinji stared at the ceiling, pondering the question, surprised that Rei would provide such a welcome distraction.
"I do not understand you or Pilot Sohryu. Eva is all I have ever known, and I cannot imagine someone volunteering for it. Does it satisfy you? Are you doing it because the Commander told you to?"
His father. They were treading quickly towards the train of thought Shinji had come to the pool to avoid. He answered her, anyway, because someone taking an interest in him was a rare thing.
"I'm doing it because it is my job. I was a cook, now I pilot an Eva. This," he indicated the room, "is apparently part of all that. If you do not do your job, you are worthless. People grow food, people make clothes, people build machines. I pilot Eva. I don't really have a reason, or..." he fumbled, suddenly ashamed of what he was about to effectively articulate, "I guess I don't really need a reason, either."
Rei was quiet for a moment. "I… do not understand. You are an individual. Like me. You embody a complex set of processes which include guiding mechanisms. Pain reception. Capacity for avoidance. Learned experience. And yet you still wish to pilot Eva."
"I... I haven't had much experience," Shinji stammered, trying to work through the First Child's dense statement. "And anyway... wait. No. I don't 'wish' to pilot Evangelion. I'm doing it because... dammit." His side seized up again. "Well, like I said, its my job. And. And my father. Well, I didn't really have a choice in the matter, see?"
"Yes," Rei said.
Their watches beeped. Rei stood.
"We have to be in the weight room in five minutes, Pilot Ikari. You should get dressed."
-
The weight training was not nearly as bad as Shinji had feared. Major Greene had started him off with two ten pound weights and had him curl them twenty times. That had been a bit painful, but nothing like the ninth lap on the track, which Shinji suspected would qualify as a near-death experience. Then the Major had demonstrated the bench press, the side-curl, and three other techniques. He had demonstrated how to use the various equipment that resembled torture devices. The Greene had given the three pilots each a routine and settled into a folding chair with a book called "The Preserve".
It had not been pleasant, but it hadn't been as bad as the run, either. It did allow him to distance himself from Asuka, who now seemed to know whenever he was staring in her general direction.
The workout took thirty minutes for Rei, and an hour for Shinji. When Shinji was finished, the Major told them to go out in the yard and see how high they could pole vault. He also mentioned that the both of them would have to run another mile once Miss Whateverhernameis finished her weight routine. Shinji's stomach tightened up.
-
Misato smiled and stared blindly at the Source through thick polarized lenses. "Nothing creeps out the mole people like a decent tan," she'd argued. And now here they were, on a hill in the Middle Sector with reflective panels and as little clothing as possible. Ritsuko had insisted on a green one-piece, while Misato was wearing a black and white bikini.
"I still think you're just doing it to get under the Third Child's skin," Ritsuko muttered, licking a finger and turning a page in the novel she was reading. "Are you sure you are completely done with the promotion work? No more forms to fill out? All your t's crossed and i's dotted?"
"Nope. All done." Misato stretched with a smile. "Besides, I deserve a vacation, right? I did flawlessly repel the first major incursion on the Geo-Front in a decade."
"No, the Third Child did. You just exhausted our conventional arsenal and wrote a shitty incidence report." Ritsuko was smiling. "But I wonder, is the Third Child enjoying himself as much as you are?"
-
Shinji bent over the toilet and retched. One does not run a mile on a full stomach, apparently. The casserole he had eaten earlier hadn't come up, but all those MREs sure had. He tried not to look in the bowl and flushed, wiping his mouth off with a bit of toilet paper and throwing it in the sluicing water.
Sick stomach aside, the last mile had been much easier then the first three. Perhaps it was Rei, who finished faster then he did, and fared much better afterwards, that did it. She knew how to run, and was not simply throwing herself forward. Running behind her made it seem less like torture, and more productive.
Shinji left the restroom and went to the open shower area. He quickly stripped down and turned on the water. A fresh bar of soap and a full bottle of shampoo were affixed to the shower column, next to the water control, and he used these. The water steamed up the area, and the shampoo ended up partially blinding him. That, and for no other reason, he would later reassure himself, was why he did not hear the other shower column come on.
Rinsing the lather away, Shinji checked his hands and was surprised to find none of his hair had fallen out. Usually he had to pull it out of the drain. He closed his eyes and rinsed again, running a hand through his hair and tugging experimentally. Then he opened them and saw that someone had joined him.
Major Greene stared into the mirror set in to the side of the shower column and carefully ran a safety razor under his neck. He caught Shinji staring and spared him a glance.
"This is a communal shower, Mister Ikari. There ain't no privacy here." The man finished shaving and then lathered up his armpits. "But if you keep staring at me, we are going to have a problem."
Shinji understood the tone, at least. And tore his gaze away, face hot.
This place was crazy.
He quickly rinsed off, then hurried over to the changing bench, grabbed a towel and his clothes, and retreated deeper into the changing room.
-
Major Greene had given them another two hours to do whatever they wished before finishing for the day. "Just remember," the man had said. "Tomorrow will be much harder, and it will last much longer."
Shinji had spent thirty minutes in the shower before Greene had chased him out. He found it hard to believe, but the chrono didn't lie. Not worrying about water rationing was spoiling him. Instead of changing back into his workout clothes, he dressed in his uniform pants and the gray tank-top. He tied his jacket around his waist, as Rei had when they had first met.
Whatever he was going to do for the next hour and a half, it was not going to involve food or sweat. The shower had calmed Shinji's stomach, but it still throbbed dully with the promise of more spasms.
Asuka was not in the weight room. Nor was she in the yard. Shinji looked in the pool room and only found Rei doing laps. The girl made brief eye contact, but nothing more. He did not hear shots from the firing range, so surmised that Asuka was not there either, and so it would be safe to enter.
Shinji did not like guns much. Up until he came to the Geo-Front, his world had been a cramped one. The few times he could remember being present when a weapon was fired, he recalled the sound being as deadly as a ricochet. He had vague, uncertain memories of a man knocking him to the ground to shield him and unloading a shotgun angled downward in a narrow corridor. He must have been very small at the time, because the black blood that has splashed him after the discharge had seem to come in waves.
The firing range was indeed deserted. Shinji put on a pair of the muting headgear as soon as he was inside. He picked up the pistol Major Greene had used earlier, pointed it downrange, and found he couldn't pull the trigger.
He put the gun down where he had found it. Then he removed his headgear and left. Went to the track and walked it, trying to make time pass and not think.
It didn't work.
Now that he was piloting Eva, were they expecting him to... what? All that power. He could remember it. But, violence...
The Third Child wasn't certain he could handle violence. He couldn't even stand the sight of his own vomit. In Evangelion he had, he remembered doing... ripping something apart. Something alive. And it had felt good and right. But now the very idea sickened him. It was like he had been someone else altogether.
The Lieutenant had told him NERV was going to rebuild the world… had she meant that, or were they expecting him to tear it apart for them?
He did not want this uncertainty. He wanted to treat piloting like cooking. Just a... just a job. This stuff about changing the world, it sounded... it was too big. If it was real, he wouldn't be a part of it.
Another thought crossed through his mind, and everything else stopped. Mother.
He had memories of his mother, before she and his father had left him in the First Shelter. He remembered dark brown hair and blue eyes, like he used to have. He remembered a smile and gentleness. And it was gone now, all gone, and he had no idea why. It was hard to feel loss for something he could not clearly remember in the first place, but...
Father, where had he been when mother needed him? Why had he let her die?
Across the yard, the weight room flew open and banged against the wall. Shinji looked up and saw Major Greene, who was frowning at him.
-
"You should be thanking me, dumpkoff, he did let us out early," Asuka muttered. "Enjoy this while you can Ikari. Like I said, it won't last."
Shinji was supporting Asuka as they made their way out of the Outer Sector. He was counting lefts and rights in his head, making sure they could get back the next day on time.
Asuka sported a new bandage on her other arm, and a second wind that she was using mostly to insult Shinji. The girl had long ago passed beyond Shinji's ability to comprehend.
They exited the Outer Sector and into the green of the Middle Sector. Shinji had the sudden urge to take off his shoes and walk in the grass, but now without a wall to support her, Asuka was crawling on his back and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Forward, Cheval," the red-head ordered.
If Shinji fell backwards, on top of her, he'd probably shut her up. He'd probably also get in a lot of trouble. He carried her towards the Lieutenant's apartment complex and tried to tune Asuka out.
He wished Rei could have accompanied them, but she had not emerged from the pool. Shinji wondered what she thought of the Middle Sector, how her pale skin would look in the source. The girl had told him of nothing that gave her any pleasure in life, perhaps the Middle Sector was it. Shinji could not imagine how it would fail to lift the girl's spirit.
Outside the apartment, Asuka got off him, straightened her uniform, and entered ahead of Shinji, who was by this time panting and sweaty.
Misato and a blonde woman Shinji recalled seeing on the bridge shortly before being thrown into Eva for the first time were drinking the whiskey the Lieutenant had hidden in her room. They were sipping from tiny glasses, and had formed a small tower of those glasses between them.
As soon as Shinji and Asuka entered, the blonde - Doctor Akagi, Shinji remembered – immediately put on her jacket. Aside from loose-fitting and identical gray pants, the two only wore swimsuits above. Misato was wearing a bikini top, which she made no obvious attempt to cover.
"Oh, hey guys. Greene let you out early, huh?" Misato slightly slurred her speech as she greeted them.
"We…" Asuka began.
"You…" The Second Child seemed to be struggling to control herself.
"..drinking games?" She finally managed.
Misato gestured to the mostly-empty bottle of whiskey and the tower of shotglasses. "This? No, just some friendly conversation with the good doctor here."
Shinji was not staring at Misato's bust. He wasn't because both women were looking at him, and if he did that, well, it would just be stupid. He was not noticing how large her breasts were, or how little of them the triangles of fabric actually covered. Shinji closed his eyes and squeezed his temples. The headache he'd been flirting with all day was back.
Asuka was still in front of him, grasping and un-grasping her hands. If she went ballistic, Shinji was not going to intervene. Confronted with a body as trim and fit as Misato's, after being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, Shinji was pretty certain the straight-backed soldier in Asuka was being throttled by whatever inner demon made her the way she was.
"Ma'am… permission… to… retire." Asuka bit out each word. She was shaking.
"Hmm," Misato was pouring another shot for herself, Ritsuko indicating she didn't want another. "Check your watch? Face black?"
Shinji checked his watch. The face was black. Asuka showed hers to Misato.
"Oh, still pretty early. I guess Greene decided to call ahead and have them do that. You guys have fun?"
"Permission to retire, ma'am." Asuka's voice had lost its tone. Shinji edged backwards.
"Uh… yeah, sure. Go ahead." Misato waved a hand at Asuka's door. "The chrono should wake you. You'll have an hour to get to the training yard."
Asuka walked stiffly past the two women, giving no sign of fatigue. As she disappeared, Misato called after her "Sleep well, dream of something nice!"
-
Shinji lay in his own bed, breathing the cool air. His muscles were sore, but it was a feeling he could sleep with.
He had thought he was exhausted beyond the point of sleep. He had been worried that he would have to sit, alone with his thoughts, until the chrono shocked him awake. Instead, Shinji was surprised to find he was already drowsy and nodding off before he even got into bed. Misato had stocked the cabinet behind the mirror in Shinji's bathroom with some medicine, and he had taken a painkiller as soon as he had excused himself from Misato and the doctor.
Sleep found him quickly.
-
When Shinji woke up, the lights were out. He got out of bed and dressed in the darkness, sure his chrono had woken him. When he opened the bedroom door, he was surprised to find the light was out in the hallway as well. Feeling his way forward, past his own mostly-empty and unused kitchen and living room, he walked to the girl's side of the apartment. Their living area looked as deserted as his own. Then he looked closer, the room just faintly illuminated by the source.
The source…
Shinji looked to the balcony, where the source should be, burning like a sun. Instead he saw only shadows. How he could see in the darkness without any apparent source of light, he did not know. He opened the sliding glass door that led to the balcony, expecting to find a drape or some other material blocking his view of the Middle Sector. Instead, there was only icy cold air, and a sense of vast distance outside. There was still no obvious source of light.
And then there was something on the balcony with him.
A body pressed against his. He felt what might've been small breasts, pushed against his back.
The presence wrapped around his side.
Now it was in front of him, and the strange ambient light seemed to grow brighter.
It was Asuka. It had been Asuka, anyway. The whites of her eyes were red, her irises jutted outwards strangely. She worth no clothing, and pressed her meager, bare chest against him. She smiled, and her mouth was full of long, thin teeth, and blood.
"You tried to kill me," she hissed.
He woke up screaming.