Disclaimer: Same as Chapter 1.
Chapter 43: Amos
Once the dust cleared on the surface, all that remained of Tokyo-3 was a gigantic hole in the ground. By dropping not one, but a half-dozen of the fallout-clean N2 bombs, NERV's protection of 22 reinforced armor plates had failed. With the enemy's main source of defense rendered irrelevant, the JSSDF now had the opening they needed. At once a group of airlifts, carrying an armored tank each, began slowly descending to the surface of the Geo-Front.
The senior Ikari felt the wave of the blast miles above him, but this far down into Terminal Dogma both he and Kaworu were able to successfully maintain their balance.
Things are starting to worsen, Gendo thought to himself with a grimace. The silver-haired boy looked up with concern etched onto his face.
Asuka...
"Come," Gendo said forcefully to Kaworu, snapping the boy out of his trance. They silently approached the massive steel gate of 'Heaven's Door,' and once they reached the security pad, Gendo took out his access card and slid it through the slot. The device beeped in acceptance as the gate slowly began to groan and screech itself open. Once it had yielded enough to allow entrance, Gendo snapped the plastic card in half and tossed it carelessly into the LCL.
No matter what happens...I'll never be coming back here again.
He didn't bother to shut the gate behind him as he moved slowly towards Lilith along the narrow path above the amber-colored liquid.
Shinji stared at his knees as he sat on the ground. Once the sirens had started going off, he'd instictively started looking frantically for a place to hide. He wasn't sure where exactly he was now, but the dinginess of his surroundings indicated that it was one of the less important parts of the base, so he'd probably have some time before anyone showed up.
So here I am...running away again.
But then he considered the alternative. But could he really go out there in the Eva again, after the last battle? In his head he could see the faces of all the people he'd known over all this time as a pilot. All the people who he'd defended and who were undoubtedly waiting on him at this moment. But what did it matter...if he couldn't even help the person he loved? Why should he pilot Unit-01 if all it did was bring himself and others pain?
Suddenly the clicking of heels on the set of stairs above his head alerted him that someone was there. He shifted his eyes up just enough to see a quartet of armor-clad soldiers standing in a semicircle around him. One of them put his index and middle finger to a headset on his ear, then spoke into it.
"This is Zeta Squad-- we've located the Third Child." There was a pause as the leader waited for a response. "...Captain?" Little to his knowledge, the individual he was trying to reach, not more than a few floors beneath him, was now immobilized in a thick sea of quick-setting Bakelite. "...There's no response from command." He then glanced down at Shinji, who hadn't moved an inch since their arrival.
"...Well, it doesn't matter," the soldier to the leader's left side said evenly as he pulled out a Beretta outfitted with a silencer from its place on his hip. He then pointed the gun directly at the dark-haired boy who sat curled up like a cornered animal. "...Commencing execution."
"Wait a minute, he's just a kid," the fourth one spoke up, a bit of a quaver in his voice.
"You know the orders-- what we want to do about this is irrelevant," said the soldier brandishing the gun. He pulled the hammer back until it clicked, the sound reverberating through the narrow corridor as though it was a death knell. "Sorry, kid. Nothing personal." Shinji said nothing as he turned his eyes away from the barrel only a few inches from his face.
I'm going to die.
And this time there was no one to help him. No Misato or Kaji or Asuka or Rei... He felt so tired, so guilty from everything, that he found himself welcoming the bullet.
Just let it end...And I'll get to see Rei again...
He flinched as the sound of a gunshot rang out in the hall. After a few moments with his eyes clenched tight, he suddenly realized that he wasn't dead.
What...?
He looked up at the astonished looking soldiers, then to his right where they were staring.
Misato was running down the corridor at full speed, firing bullets like candy at the soldiers. They tried to react to the unexpected assault, but by the time she'd gotten to where Shinji was only one remained.
"Who the hell--?" He screamed as he lifted his rifle at the woman's head, but she pushed the weapon to the side and rammed into him with her shoulder, forcing the soldier into the nearby wall. The rifle clattered to the floor as he reached for the hunting knife on his waist. He was paralyzed, however, when he felt the barrel of the Major's gun at his chin and saw the cold fury burning in her eyes. He wasn't even sure that the woman right in front of him was even human; she had killed his comrades too easily to be anything but a demon. Fear overtook him as Misato pressed the weapon deeper into his skin, a mad gleam in her eyes.
"W-wait, please..." he heard himself begging, but Misato merely gave him a vicious grin in return.
"Hey, nothing personal," she said coldly before pulling the trigger and sending a shower of blood onto the wall. Misato stood there over the horribly disfigured body of the dead soldier, taking a succession of deep breaths as the adrenaline began to wear off. Once she was certain that she was calm again, she bent down and rummaged through the dead combatant's belongings until she found another pistol and a few clips of ammunition. After she relieved another of his headset and slid it onto her ear, she turned to her ward.
"...Are you alright, Shinji?" she said gently, but the boy only continued to sit beneath the stairs, as if immobilized. Misato sighed as she stepped towards the sullen boy. "Shinji, we have to get moving. NOW." When the boy still refused to move she glared at him. "IF YOU WANT TO DIE HERE, BE MY GUEST!"
Shinji blinked at the urgency, anger and concern in Misato's voice, then looked up at her. The violet-haired woman grabbed him by the wrist and, with much straining, lifted his arm around her neck while she put the other around his waist.
"Come on," she said as she shifted his weight onto her shoulder and began to walk Shinji back the way she had come.
"...Hello again, Rei."
The pale girl blinked at the sound of her name. It had felt like she'd been sleeping for years and that word was all she needed to wake up. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself in the strangest place she could have imagined.
All around her was only blankness. A white void that stretched on to infinity, yet she could feel something solid supporting her body as she 'lay' on it. Rei's eyes shifted around uncomfortably as she looked for the voice's source.
"W...Where am I?"
"Not heaven or hell, but a place...in between." Suddenly she noticed someone standing just beyond her field of vision. The woman in a long white coat and sporting light-brown hair. Yui Ikari. Rei blinked in surprise at seeing Shinji's mother once again standing before her. She tried to stand but found her legs quite uncooperative.
"It's...you..." she said quietly as the youthful woman looked at her with a sad expression.
"...Why have you come here, Rei?"
"I...I chose to be here because..." Before the girl could finish her sentence Yui cut her off.
"You fool." Rei stared at her in confusion.
"W...what?"
"...If you had only abandoned him...If you had refused to love Shinji at all... then he would not be in such pain now." The pale girl stared bewildered at the woman before her as an undeniable sorrow overwhelmed her.
"I...I'm sorry...I just wanted..."
"...What?"
"I...I wanted...a life...with him. I wanted to...be human..." Rei whispered as she hung her head, ashamed of the secret desire of her heart.
"You knew that you could not be together in this world...yet you still reached out to him. You accepted his feelings and returned them in kind. You wanted to take his burden from him because you cared for him, correct?" Yui stared at Rei intensely, but not coldly as the quiet girl began to tremble. When Rei didn't answer, the woman continued, but her voice was more gentle this time.
"...I, too, wanted to help Shinji. That was why I allowed myself to be absorbed into the Evangelion-- because I believed that as long as I could watch over him...protect him... that no harm could befall him. But now forces beyond my control are at work, and I fear that my efforts will have been for nothing..." A look of comprehension dawned on Rei's features.
...Third Impact?
"But...but that can't be," Rei said desperately. "...Without me, how could--"
"...There are others that can assist in your place," Yui said simply. She allowed a silence to fall between them before she spoke again. "...Instrumentality was fated to occur. It was written into the very fabric of the universe long before any of us came into being. Even before the Second Impact. Shinji will have to make a choice once Instrumentality begins. And as it stands now, the choice he makes will be SEELE's."
Rei stared at the 'ground,' unable to comprehend the vastness of what she was being told.
No...because of me...Shinji will...
Suddenly Yui pulled Rei into another warm embrace.
"...I can no longer help Shinji. The only one who can do that now...is you, Rei." The girl buried her face into the woman's shoulder, surrendering to the maternal love that surrounded her.
"...How...?" Yui pulled away and smiled at Rei gently.
"I can't tell you that, Rei. You have to find your way back on your own."
With that, Yui disappeared, leaving Rei alone with her thoughts. Slowly, she put her hands together and, closing her eyes, focused her thoughts on the Angel buried far beneath NERV.
Mother...help me...
Please...