Disclaimer: see chapter 1.
Folded Wings
By Random1377
Chapter 14
Things… were strange. Shinji found that he could not sit still in his morning classes, stealing repeated glances at Hikari's profile as her cryptic message 'don't leave when it's lunchtime' echoed in his mind. This simple directive had been delivered in the form of a small, carefully folded note, dropped onto Shinji's desk when the class rep had entered the room.
Something was definitely afoot.
Shinji's eyes were drawn to his school laptop screen as a message suddenly appeared.
SAL What's going on with Hikari, do you know? She's acting all weird.
Glancing at the redhead from the corner of his eye, Shinji found her staring straight ahead. Trying not to be obvious, he entered his reply.
IS I don't know. Sorry.
SAL Don't apologize, God I hate that!
IS Sorry. Why do you think I would know, anyway? I thought you were her friend.
SAL I am, but she's been all moody this morning, and she keeps looking at you. And since you guys DITCHED ME for lunch yesterday, I thought you might know what's going on.
IS I don't. Sorry.
SAL Stop saying sorry!
Shinji sighed. The Second had been irritable for a couple of days herself, though she had never given Shinji a clue as to what was annoying her. Maybe it's something to do with today's activation test, he mused as he looked up at the clock, everyone seems to know more about it than I do. I'm always the last to know things.
Folding his laptop closed as the bell rang, Shinji stretched his arms up over his head and let out a tired yawn.
I wonder what Horaki wants, he thought. When she dropped that note on my desk, she looked really mad… but she was staring at Ayanami. And speaking of Ayanami, I wonder how she got that little bruise on her cheek. It almost looks like she got into a fight.
Reaching under his seat, he pulled out his bento and set it on his desktop, waiting for Hikari to tell him what to do.
As it turned out, he did not have to do anything.
"Can I have everyone's attention?"
The hustle and bustle of the classroom died off as Hikari rose to her feet.
"There's something I want everyone here to know," she said, calmly making her way over to Shinji's desk. "Before any rumors get started, and just so everyone's clear, Ikari and I are dating."
Shinji's – and just about everyone else's – jaw fell open, and he fumbled for something to say… but before he could push out so much as a jumbled, 'huh?' Hikari was speaking again.
"And just so it's perfectly clear…"
Amidst a smattering of gasps (one of them very clearly Asuka's) and a handful of cheers, Shinji found himself being pushed against the back of his seat and kissed rather roughly on the mouth. Before he could understand what was happening, it was over, and Hikari was standing next to his desk… though a quick, stunned glance up showed that she was looking towards the back of the class with an open expression of defiance.
Who…?
Following her gaze, Shinji found Rei staring at the spectacle with fixed, unblinking eyes – almost like a statue – as Hikari stared her down. Shinji had never considered himself a very smart man… but he was quick enough to pick up on the fact that he had just been used as an instrument of revenge against the First Child.
Why, on Earth, Hikari would have a grudge against Rei, Shinji had no idea… but there was no question in his mind that he and Hikari were absolutely not dating, and that – as pleasant as it had been – she would not be kissing him again.
Some students rose to their feet, sure that the show was over… but butts were returned to seats very quickly as Asuka made her presence known.
"What in the good holy HELL was that?"
"Pst."
Shinji nearly jumped out of his skin as a soft hiss came from the vicinity of his left elbow.
"Pst, Ikari – let's get the hell out of here."
Nodding in shocked silence, Shinji allowed his rescuer to tug him out of his seat. Hikari and Asuka were standing toe to toe, and while they were shouting at each other at the top of their lungs, Shinji's mind couldn't process what they were talking about. He grasped that he was the topic, but since he was so stunned, and since every second word out of Asuka's mouth was a German curse word, he had no grasp for what, exactly, was being said.
"Wow, dude," Kensuke – of course it had to be Kensuke, Shinji's mind observed, Touji was out again – said as they finally got into the hallway, "what's up with all that?"
"I don't know," Shinji confessed, glancing back at the classroom door. "I honestly… don't know."
"But… you're dating Horaki?" Kensuke pressed. "Since when – and you're already kissing? Man, I thought we were friends! You didn't tell me anything."
Shinji's shoulders slumped. "There's nothing to tell," he said hollowly. "I'm not dating Hikari… she just kissed me to make someone mad."
"Well, she certainly got Souryu all pissed off," Kensuke snorted, "which doesn't make any sense either. Why should she care if… whoa, wait a minute!" he gasped. "Does… are you dating Souryu, too?"
A sharp pain shot through Shinji's skull. "I'm not dating anyone," he groaned. "Well… I did… have dinner with Ayanami, but I-"
"Ayanami?" Kensuke exploded. "Damn, man, when did you become Don Juan?"
"None of it's real."
"Huh?"
"None of it's… real," Shinji repeated, leaning tiredly against the wall as students finally began leaving the classroom. "It's all just… none of it's real at all."
Grasping his friend's shoulders, Kensuke said, "Ikari, stay with me – you're not making any sense. Hikari kissing you? That was real, trust me. Souryu freaking out? Yeah, she's still yelling in there. Ayanami? …well, I don't even know what that's all about, so I can't say anything about it, but this is all real, man, all of it."
Shinji scrubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah, I know it's real," he said quietly, "but none of it's real."
"Huh?"
"Never mind," Shinji whispered, "just… it's too complicated, forget it."
"Nah," Kensuke said, shrugging slightly as he grabbed his friend by the arm, "can't do that. Come on, let's get out of here."
Shinji blinked. "Get out of here?" he echoed. "But we've got physics after lunch, and I-"
"Screw it," Kensuke cut in, dragging him down the hallway towards the exit. "You need to get some fresh air. Let's get a beef bowl or something and just cut class – I'll even pay – and you can tell me all about it."
Feeling pathetically grateful, Shinji allowed himself to be led out of the school, glancing back only once to see if he could catch sight of any of the three girls currently occupying his mind.
He couldn't.
( 0 0 0 )
"An explosion at Matsushiro?" Shinji's voice crackled over the tac-net. "Is Misato ok?"
Rei sat in her entry plug, halfheartedly listening to the pre-battle chatter and running over the events of the past twenty-four hours in her mind.
Things were definitely not going the way she had planned.
I have… miscalculated, she mused, absently running a forefinger along her bottom lip as she waited for combat instructions. I did not anticipate that she would take it so poorly.
To say that her discussion with Hikari on the topic of dating was a failure would be putting it mildly. The bruise on her cheek, and the class rep's childish display earlier that morning, were proof enough of that.
It was my own fault, Rei told herself, I misinterpreted her reply.
Another understatement.
"You… you WHORE!" she could hear Hikari's shriek echoing in her ears. "Get the hell away from me!"
No, it had not gone well at all.
For some reason, what filled her with shame the most was the Commander's cool gaze, followed by his softly murmured, 'Do I need to intervene in this matter?' as she had headed towards the locker rooms.
It almost would have been better had he said, 'Didn't I tell you moving in with that man would be a mistake?'
Only… he hadn't said that at all.
There must be some reason, Rei thought, trying to refocus her attention on the upcoming battle as Aoba announced that they would have visual on the target soon. Why is he so… unconcerned…?
It was easier, she found, to think about why the Commander was so blasé about her staying with Mister Kaji than to think about why Hikari had slapped her as hard as she could. She was not at all convinced that Hikari and Shinji were dating – she was smart enough to tell the difference between desire and spite – but she was a little concerned that Shinji might not know what was going on, and decided that she would need to explain to him what had happened between her and Hikari before things grew too confusing.
For everyone.
"Later," she told herself, turning her eyes to the screen as the visual feed of the target was established. "It will wait until later."
Rei did not cry out as Shinji and Asuka did at seeing Evangelion Unit 03 lumbering around the mountainside, nor did she panic or ask how her orders would change based on this latest turn of events.
She knew her orders. This was an angel. It was to be destroyed.
Suzuhara…
Perhaps, had she not moved in with Mister Kaji, she may have raised her weapon immediately… however, one of the side effects of self-discovery (for her, at any rate) was a desire to understand things before springing into action. As a result, rather than lifting her pallet rifle and stepping into the open, Rei edged Unit 02 a bit closer to the mountain it was hiding behind in an attempt to better assess the situation.
This simple move afforded the First Child the barest fraction of added reaction time… and allowed her the luxury of jerking the control yokes to the side in utter surprise as Unit 03 abruptly leapt backward, crashing down on the spot her own Unit had just vacated.
"Target has engaged Unit 00," Ibuki's voice announced tensely, "she's lost her rifle."
Indeed, Rei had not been entirely successful in evading Unit 03's wild leap, and had lost her grip on the pallet rifle that was supposed to be her primary offense weapon.
Had she been the swearing type, this definitely would have called for a few choice words.
As it was, Rei backpedaled, trying to keep the rogue Unit in her sights as it roared its outrage at her escape, smashing her pallet rifle against the side of the mountain before dropping to all fours and charging at her like a renegade steam train.
"Rei, watch out!"
A grunt of pain burst from Rei's lungs as Unit 03 hit her mecha low and inside, pitching the blue machine high up into the air and sending it crashing down on its back. In an instant, the black Unit was on her again, trying to pin her to the ground as a thick, blue liquid oozed from its jaws.
Rei twisted Unit 00 onto its side, narrowly evading a large glob of the viscous fluid (acid, she assumed) and kicking out with one leg, catching the possessed EVA by surprise and sending it flying backward.
Suzuhara, she thought suddenly, Suzuhara may still be inside…
Wrenching Unit 00 to its feet, Rei threw the machine clumsily at the black mecha, straddling the machine before it could push her off. With no time to think, she grasped Unit 03's wrists, slamming them up over its head as it bucked and snarled, trying to throw her off.
Time was short. Options were limited.
If Touji really was still inside of Unit 03, Rei could not risk killing it.
Hikari would cry.
However, Unit 03 was clearly more powerful than 00, and it would only be a matter of moments before it shook her free… unless she found a way to immobilize it.
"Unit 00's progressive knife has been activated," Hyouga's voice reported, "Unit 02 is inbound – ETA, fifty seconds."
Fifty seconds, Rei thought coolly, all I need is to confine it for fifty seconds…
Without an instant's hesitation, she grasped both of Unit 03's wrists in her right hand, seized her progressive knife with the left… and quickly drove the humming blade through the back of Unit 00's hand, pinning Unit 03 at the wrists.
The pain was immense, but Rei gritted her teeth, pushing the knife to the hilt in the back of her own machine's hand as the black Unit howled its outrage.
This way, she reasoned, even if it bucked her free, Unit 03 would still be held down.
"Scree!"
Rei cried out in surprise as Unit 03 brought its foot up at an impossible angle, kicking her Unit in the back of the head and knocking it forward onto its face. Shaking herself, the confused First Child rolled Unit 00 onto its stomach, trying to understand how the black machine had managed to make its leg move that far.
In spite of her lack of fear, Rei still found her mouth going dry as she saw Unit 03 rising to its feet, its arms stretching grotesquely until they were twice their normal length. In that moment, she knew that pinning the rogue machine's hands to the ground meant nothing.
It would still kill her.
As quickly as she could, she grabbed the hilt of her progressive knife, trying to yank it free as Unit 03 loosed a roar of triumph.
Another miscalculation, Rei thought as the leering monster loomed over her, seemingly savoring its victory for a moment before tearing her to pieces. How… unlike me…
"Head's up."
Rei blinked at this sudden, almost flippant warning… though in a moment it became clear to her that it was not intended for her.
One minute, she was staring into the gloating eyes of the angel-infested Unit 03, and the next – as if by magic – she was looking into Unit 02's quadoptic face. For a moment, it looked as if someone had taken Unit 02's head and placed it on Unit 03's body. Upon closer inspection, however, it was clear to see that the head of Unit 02 did not quite line up with Unit 03's body… and whoever had attached it had done a poor job, because suddenly, Unit 03's neck was erupting with blood.
"And that's how we do it."
Slowly, Unit 03's headless body collapsed, soaking the ground in front of it in what seemed like a river of crimson.
"Souryu…"
Rei looked up at Unit 02's blood-stained visage, taken by how casually the pilot had slung the mecha's axe over its shoulder.
"You're welcome," Asuka's sarcastic voice came to her. "Good thing the Commander ordered me to take this instead of my rocket launcher," she observed dryly, "it would've been such a shame if you'd been hit by a stray shot."
Though she really intended to ask why the Commander had ordered the sudden change in weaponry, Rei instead found herself saying, "The pilot…"
"Ahh crap," Asuka groaned, "is he in there? He is, isn't he? Crap!"
Rei willed Unit 00 to its knees as Asuka radioed a call for help. The battle was over, it seemed… she only hoped that she had been successful in saving Suzuhara's life.
In spite of Hikari's childish behavior, Rei really did not want to see her cry.
Continued…