Alright guys, this chapter took way longer than expected even though I already had part of it written when I uploaded chapter 1. The damn thing kept writing itself, finally deciding to stop at 27,236 words.
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Anyways, I got a couple reviews after uploading Chapter 3, two of which were from Satanic Park Of Madness, so I guess I'll do a review response. Before the chapter is where we're supposed to do them, right?
Anyways, Satanic Park Of Madness, first of all, I wanted to thank you for taking the time out of your day (Or night if you're like me) to read my fic. (That goes for everyone. I'm very grateful for every person who reads this.) I'll admit, starting from the very beginning isn't very creative of me. And, I won't deny that (for now) this fic is running heavily concurrent to the anime. However, I would like to use this review response as an opportunity to bring forth some more of my sinister plans. (BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOAT! Just kidding.) Um, I guess first of all, to hopefully ease your concerns, I do have a drastically alternate ending somewhat planned out but, It's nowhere near cohesion. On top of that, I was considering turning the alternate ending into a completely different piece of fiction that picks up somewhere during this story (It will be good.) so that I can exaggerate on it even more. (It will be bad.) I was sort of thinking of naming it Evangelion 1.11 A Journey Of Hate, Power, and Love. You Can (Not) Rebuild. (I might drop the "Of hate power and love" part and just make it Evangelion 1.11 You Can (Not) Rebuild.
Anyways, That concept is very far away in the future. (I'd be betting a year if I can finish this story in the next six months, and then get on with planning it out seriously)
Back onto the topic of this story. Yes, it is literally going right along with Evangelion. However, I guess, what I sort of planned on doing with this story was including a bunch of side stories in between the angel fights. I mean, Eva takes place over what? A year? What else where they doing besides fighting the angels? That's what I wanted to cover. And, I plan on introducing a bunch of other story arcs in between the angel fights. So, hopefully, it's not just going to be a text version of Evangelion, but more of a retelling with a bunch of hopefully dramatic stories in between. That's what I was hoping to do with chapter five, It's just going to be a bunch of characterization between Shinji, Rei, and Misato. Though, it's not going to be as complex or dramatic as some of the later inserted stories, it'll give everyone a taste of what I want to do. On top of that, I'm also trying to get Asuka into the story ASAP because...I love her...and Rei...and like...every girl from Evangelion.
Also, I will go read The Many Relationships of Shinji Ikari as you suggested, Satanic Park Of Madness. I had it open on one of these tabs of mine but I didn't get around to reading it yet. Oh, where did it go?
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And here's chapter 4.
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Text Guide
Standard Wording
"Spoken Dialogue/Speech"
'Internal Dialogue/Thoughts'
(Flashbacks)
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[Slash denotes scene transition for the moment; this may be changed in the future so as to become more visible.]
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Disclaimer: I do not own or profit off of Neon Genesis Evangelion, End Of Evangelion, or the Rebuilds of Evangelion. I do not own Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley Sohryu, or any of the other characters/ideas from the Evangelion intellectual property collective. All licenses remain with the proper license holders. If asked to, I will formally remove this story from the hosting website.
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*Cruel Angel's Thesis and Eva intro starts playing*
Neon Genesis Evangelion
A Journey of Hate, Power, and Love
Chapter 04
Forward to and Beyond Tomorrow
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Shinji had gotten out of bed relatively early this morning. He had slept well the night before but for some reason he had just woken up earlier than usual. He tried going back to sleep at first, but that wasn't working for him due to how well rested he actually felt. So, he decided to just get up and start working on breakfast.
He started Misato's coffee brewing and then got out some pickled vegetables and started steaming some rice before going to work on the miso soup that he'd gotten rather good at making recently. Considering Misato couldn't cook very well, he sort of had to learn how to cook. Well, maybe he didn't really have to, but he wanted to, for his own sake at least if not for his guardian's. She somehow managed to even make instant noodles taste like crap. So, while he regretted having cooking duty for the majority of the week at first, he'd very soon been thankful for it.
As he finished making the soup, he decided he'd go wake Misato up. He opened the door from the kitchen and went into the living room where the entrance to Misato's room was. He knocked and heard heavy breathing on the other side of the door.
"Ooh," Misato suddenly sounded out.
"Um, Misato, is everything alright in there?"
"Oh, ooh, yeah. I'm just uh...ooh"
"Just what?"
"I'm just, OOH, having some trouble getting my clothes on. I'll be out in a minute. Oh! Oh, yeah! Mmm!"
"O-o-oh, um, okay, um. Yeah. I'll just, uh…yeah." He said walking away from the door awkwardly as though someone were actually looking at him.
'Having trouble getting her clothes on? What does that mean?' Shinji wondered, convincing himself of his naivety.
He went back to the kitchen to get the table ready for breakfast. He got a couple bowls and small plates out of the cupboard and placed them on the table and then got Misato's coffee and brought it to her usual seat. Then, he went back to the countertop and got the pickled vegetables and the rice which had finished steaming and put some on both plates. After that, he grabbed a ladle and brought the soup to the bowls on the table and put a couple cup's worth in each bowl. Sufficiently pleased with how the table looked, he brought the soup back to the kitchen and set it on the counter.
Misato came out of her room just as Shinji had put the pot of soup back on the counter. Her eyes looked as distant as the stars and there was a twinkle in them to match. She looked very flushed; her entire face was pink and sweaty. And, as she was finally entering the kitchen, Shinji noticed there were strands of something sticky running from finger to finger on her right hand.
"Um, Misato, are…are you sure you're okay? You look ill," he said as she was sitting down.
"Actually Shinji, I feel really great. I was having a nice dream. Anyways, I'll get a shower after breakfast, so let's eat."
'Oh god, I hope he doesn't notice my hand. Hopefully I can just play this off like nothing happened. Gosh, if only there were a sink in my room…'
She picked up her spoon with her sticky right hand and dipped it into her soup methodically, trying unnaturally hard to act normally natural. She brought the soup filled spoon to her face, but the miso wasn't the only thing she smelled. The scent of sex infiltrated her nostrils and a very slight smile crossed her face as she blushed a little deeper as her honey pot became hot and wet enough to start dripping in between her legs and onto her chair.
'I'm gonna have to clean this up later but I don't care. Oh god, why am I so horny right now?' Misato wondered before coming to the obvious conclusion, 'Of course, it's because I haven't had sex in...years.'
Misato slowly put the warm spoon in her mouth, enjoying the clashing between the perfume of her sex and the savory miso soup cascading through her mouth. She felt so hot right now and she impulsively licked and sucked on her sexed up fingers rather lewdly before she realized what she was doing.
'I hope Shinji didn't see that. Mmm, it's been awhile since I tasted myself. Good thing I still taste like I did eight years ago,' she thought, finishing her breakfast in silence before going off to shower.
/
-Most Mysterious-
/
"So, this is what the enemy looks like up close," Shinji said looking up at the giant angel he had last defeated.
"Magnificent," Ritsuko said to herself in awe, digging around and collecting samples from the angel's corpse, "Everything but the core has been left completely intact."
"Hey, thanks. This'll be a great help," the false blonde shouted from the catwalk elevated next to the angel's massive corpse.
"Okay. So, have you found anything new yet?" Misato shouted back up to her from next to Shinji
"Not yet. We only just got the angel moved into the facility. But, I'm gonna take these samples down to the lab and get them tested right now," Ritsuko said making her way down from the catwalk, "You're welcome to come along if you like."
Misato looked at Shinji and gave him a smile that told him it might be interesting. And so, the two of them followed Doctor Akagi through the long hallways of NERV.
After about ten minutes of walking, the trio arrived at Doctor Akagi's lab.
"You two go ahead and make yourselves at home while I get some tests done on this real fast," she said, walking over to a strange machine and placing one of the samples she took into a compartment at the top.
She then walked over to her computer as Shinji and Misato were wondering around the room looking at all of her lab equipment. She then started a program that was associated with the machine she had put the sample in. A prompt that said, "scan" came up on her computer and she clicked on it,
The computer attempted to evaluate the substance but it wasn't having much luck. Ritsuko looked at the screen, expecting more to an extent, but the computer eventually displayed the number 601 on its screen.
"What's that mean?" Misato asked, leaning over the false blonde's shoulder.
"That's our computer's code number for cannot be analyzed."
"You mean that we have no idea what this is?"
"Yeah. What we do know is that the angel is composed of a type of matter characterized by both particulate and waveform properties."
Everyone was quiet for a moment thinking about what she said as though they actually knew what Doctor Akagi was talking about.
"We've at least found its power source though, right?" Misato asked
"Something like that. But, we haven't been able to figure out how it operates at all."
Shinji and Misato both stared at Ritsuko before Katsuragi decided to point out, "So, we've found something outside of human experience."
"Yes, it's a whole new world of mysteries. For example, take a look at this."
Ritsuko brought up another window on her computer that displayed some kind of coded graph and gestured for Misato to have a look.
"Ooh?" Misato expressed in wonder
She looked at the computer and saw many lines composed of the letters A, G, C, and T. She figured that she was being shown DNA, remembering from high school that the letters represented the four nucleotides that make up the DNA of all living things on the planet; Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, and Thymine.
"What about it?" the babe asked.
"This is human DNA. And in comparison-"
Ritsuko brought up a separate window showing another graph
-"This is the angel's inherent waveform pattern. Although they're composed of a different kind of matter, their actual composition, in terms of the arrangement and coordinates of the pattern, is a 99.89 percent match to our own DNA structure."
"99.89 Percent? Wow!" Misato said, not knowing exactly what Ritsuko meant, but realizing that angel and human may have more in common that she had initially thought.
"Yes. Once again, we must acknowledge how limited our understanding of the universe really is," Ritsuko said with a slight smile on her face.
Shinji wasn't paying too much attention. He was still in school himself and figured he probably wouldn't understand what the genius Ritsuko was talking about. So, he occupied himself with thoughts of Rei. How beautiful her hair was; how beautiful her eyes were; how beautiful her body was; how beautiful she was as one entity. Rei was probably the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Even if here phenotype was strange or even completely inhuman, he couldn't help but be drawn towards the unnatural color of her hair, which he'd first passed off as dye. Or her eyes; as deep and red as they were. He supposed it was possible they were just colored contacts. But the more time he spent observing the girl, the more he felt there was something more to her.
She was mysterious. She was alluring to more than the eye. She wasn't exactly warm or friendly, but her hair and eyes invited Shinji to wonder exactly what else could be different about the girl.
And besides that, Shinji felt some form or kinship towards the girl and had found himself thinking of her often during the past days. While he hadn't really talked to her, just his first meeting with her in the Eva hanger was enough to make him feel like she would probably play some significant role in his life.
'I wonder if this is what it's like to have a crush. Maybe I should talk to her. It might help me decide what I'm feeling. I mean, I don't think I love her. I don't even know her. …She is really pretty though. And I've never seen anyone like her before. ...We're both Eva pilots, so I guess it would make since to try to get to know her.'
But, Shinji became startled when he saw his father walk by the doorway of the room. He was at immediate attention in preparation for his father possibly noticing him. But he did not, and the Commander continued walking passed the door.
Just as his father was about to be hidden behind the wall, Shinji noticed something about the Commander that he hadn't before. Shinji walked over to the door and peered around the corner at his father trying to get a better look at what he thought he noticed. And, as he looked intently at his father as he walked away, he had seen that his father was indeed not wearing gloves and that the palms of his hand had brutal burn scars all across them.
'I wonder when that happened. How? Why?'
"What's wrong?" Misato asked, as she saw the boy leaning out of the door of Ritsuko's makeshift office.
Shinji jumped and turned around seeing both Misato and Ritsuko staring at him.
"Huh? Well, uh…nothing," Shinji mumbled before looking at the floor with his patented depressed gaze.
"Hmm? Shinji," Misato started, sounding as though she were about to accuse him of something, "Are you aware that when you say nothing in that sort of tone, you might as well be begging for us to pay attention to you? Nothing draws attention like evasive action."
Shinji was embarrassed to be put on the spot once again. He never liked being the center of attention. He thought Misato knew that, but it didn't matter now. She'd already made him the star of his own little show.
He barely looked up from the floor and started, "Well, it's just that…it seems my father burned his hands and I only just now realized that's why he wears gloves all the time."
"Burned them?" Misato thought aloud as she put a curious finger on her chin.
"I was just wondering how it happened is all," Shinji mumbled, grinding his foot on the ground in a shy disposition.
Ritsuko perked up realizing that this was something she could explain, and probably should explain to the young Ikari.
"It was before you joined us," Ritsuko stated, "Unit-00 went berserk during an activation test, kind of like Unit-01 did when you first got in it. It was pretty bad. The emergency eject wasn't working properly and the pilot was trapped in the Eva for a while."
"You mean Ayanami? That's how she got injured?" Shinji exclaimed.
"Yes. And, Commander Ikari was the one who came to her aid. He opened the superheated entry plug with his bare hands."
"My father…did that for someone?" Shinji asked surprised, sadness and jealousy making themselves known to him.
"Yes, he really did. It was omitted from the case file, but I saw it happen. I couldn't believe what I had seen if I'm being honest."
Shinji was hurt. His father would probably never do that for him. And yet, he would do it for someone else. As always, he had a lot to think about and remained silent until Misato was finished talking with Doctor Akagi.
'I guess I really am worthless.'
/
The next day at school, Shinji as had been the case of late, was thinking about Rei. She had finally been rid of all her bandages and was left unrestrained in preforming her daily tasks and school work. And, Shinji finally got to see her at full capability.
All through class, he paid almost no mind to the lesson at hand and spent an entire 3 hours looking at her until it was time for the students to go outside for their P.E. class where he sadly had to divert his attention from her so that he and the other boys could run laps around the track while the girls got to swim. That didn't stop him from thinking about her however.
Kensuke and Toji were talking about a video game that was coming out some time in the next year as they jogged around the track with Shinji not paying any attention to what they were saying.
"Yeah, and with the VR headset, it's gonna be awesome," Kensuke exclaimed, "It'll be like you're really in the cockpit of all those sweet airplanes."
"Man, Kensuke, I've never been into that military stuff, but this Ace Combat 7 sounds pretty damn cool, especially with the VR stuff you were talking about. You know, I wonder if they'll ever do a Final Fantasy with VR. Probably not. I don't see how it would work really."
Toji, Shinji, and Kensuke had all finished their final lap for the day and went to go sit on the bleachers until it was time to go back to class. Shinji immediately looked at the pool as he sat down trying to spot Rei. It took him all of one second to find her and begin staring at her once more. Her curves really showed through when she was wearing her swimsuit.
'She doesn't even look human,' Shinji thought to himself as he looked at the girl in awe, 'but she's still so beautiful somehow. I wonder if she has a boyfriend. She always seems so alone. Maybe it's because no one likes her. Maybe everyone thinks she's weird because of the way she looks. Maybe I could be friends with her. If she really is alone...maybe she'd like to have a friend. I mean...no one really likes being alone, right? Not all the time at least? And she's always alone. I don't ever see her speak to anyone.'
He was ripped away from his thoughts and Toji nudged him in the side and began talking to him with, "Hey, you've been pretty distracted today. Whatchya looking at?"
"Wha? I'm not looking at anything!"
"You don't have to lie to us, Ikari. We're friends now. Besides, we've both seen how much you've been staring at Rei," Kensuke chimed in.
"I was not!"
"Oh, yes you were!" Kensuke retorted.
"Haha, yeah, we saw you looking at her titties," Toji laughed.
"Her silky thighs," Kensuke egged on.
"Her naughty bits!" They both exclaimed in unison.
"What? N-no, I was just…I was just wondering why she's always so alone."
"Hmm... come to think of it, she hasn't had any friends since she started here in the seventh grade," Toji realized.
"There's just something about her that makes her hard to talk to and drives people away I guess. It's like she's in her own little world; kinda like how you've been all this week. Huh, Shinji? Haha," Kensuke continued.
"Maybe she'd just got a lousy personality or something? You're both Eva Pilots, right? You should know her better than we should."
"Yeah, I suppose I should, but we don't talk."
"Well, hey, maybe you should. Maybe she's really lonely. You could show her some Shinji love. You might get laid. You never know," Toji said about to laugh his ass off at his comment about "Shinji love."
"G-g-get laid?! Well, um…I…"
Shinji was at a loss for words as he pictured the two of them in bed together, Rei on top of him, both of them in a cocoon of warm bedsheets.
'I really should think about her this way. I don't even know her.
Toji and Kensuke examined Shinji as they saw a bit of blood dripping out of his nose. He looked to be in a total daze. Toji brought his hand in front of his face and snapped his fingers. There was no response until Shinji fell over unconscious.
"Um…you think we should take him to the nurse?" Toji asked as he poked Shinji trying to find out if he was still alive.
"Yeah, probably ... in a few more minutes. It'll give us an excuse to get out of math class next period for about ten minutes."
"Great Idea. I'm down to wait a bit. It's almost passing period anyways. And, I'm sure Hot Stuff over here wouldn't mind, now would you, Shinji?" Toji said elbowing his friend's unconscious body.
/
"What is THIS STUFF?" Ritsuko said, disgusted as Shinji was setting the table and getting everyone their food that Misato had "cooked".
"It's curry!" Misato said excitedly!
"You mean you're still eating this instant crap? It's been almost a decade, Misato!"
"Look, you're my guest, so you got no right to complain. Just chill out. It'll be just like eight years ago."
"That's what I was afraid of."
"Hey, Shinji, get some of that stuff and put it on some of this stuff."
Shinji looked down into the pot full of curry and then at the cup of instant noodles Misato was holding up.
"Uh, you can't be serious, can you?" Shinji said, starting to feel a little disgusted himself.
"Oh, come on. It's yummy to the max. Just trust me."
"Oookay, if you say so."
"Ordinary curry flavored ramen can't be this good. Now, LET'S EAT!" The babe said mixing the ingredients around in her little cup.
Ritsuko looked down at her bowl, and she swore she heard the screeching violin from Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho as she slowly brought the food to her mouth. She stopped the food just before her lips and looked at Shinji, seeing he had the same fear in his eyes. She nodded at him subtly and opened her mouth to receive the food.
'If we lose our pilot from food poisoning Misato, I swear I'll strangle you,' She thought just before the food touched her tongue.
The curry hit her mouth and a wave of nausea overcame the false blonde.
'Only you could make instant ramen taste this bad, you crazy purple haired bitch.'
With that assumption in mind, Ritsuko asked, "Misato cooked, right?"
"You can tell?!" Misato asked, thrilled that someone could recognize her handiwork
"Of course I can," She choked, "Next time you invite me over, make sure it's Shinji's turn to cook."
"What? But Ritsu, it's gooooood!"
Doctor Akagi was paying no attention to Misato however. She had turned her attention to Shinji to give him some lifesaving advice.
"You know, Shinji, you really should consider moving out. You shouldn't let one bad roommate ruin your entire life. I know I'm still trying to recover from the time I spent with Misato when I was younger. It was very traumatic for me. I still have nightmares to this day."
"Now, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Misato interjected and Ritsuko giggled
"But, I guess I'm used to it now so, it's not a big deal," Shinji said responding to Ritsuko.
"He's right, Ritsuko. Never underestimate the ability of the human animal to adapt to its environment," Misato slurred, suddenly slightly more drunk than she wasn't ten seconds earlier.
Misato realized she had run out of beer and stopped talking to ask Shinji to get her another.
"Misato, how many of these did you just drink? I just brought over five cans."
"See what I mean, Shinji? Her drunken nature will be the end of you," Ritsuko teased once more.
"It would be hard for him to move out now," Misato said, continuing her previous conversation, "He just got his permanent security card. He'd have to go through an awful lot of red tape just to get away from my booze. Besides, what kid would want to move away from easy access to alcohol?"
Ritsuko's thoughts had been caught on something Misato said, and she was trying to figure out what.
"OH, SHIT, I forget to give Rei her renewal ID," she remembered, "Shinji, do you think you'd be able to give it to her?"
She reached into her bag and fumbled for a few second.
"Here it is; her brand new security card and yours too. What do you say? Would you mind delivering it to her before you go up to HQ?"
"Uh, sure," he said taking the cards and looking at the ever captivating face of Rei Ayanami.
"Oh, Ritsu, did I tell you Shinji has a crush on her?"
"What? N-no I don't," Shinji said blushing.
"Oh, yeah?" Misato retorted, "Then why were you staring at her picture?"
"I was not!" Shinji said becoming redder by the second.
"Ooooh, yes you were, Shinji. I saw you looking at her. Ooh, I bet you'd just love to fuck her and I bet she wouldn't mind either."
"OH, MY GOD! MISATO!" Shinji said with blood leaking from his nose.
Even Ritsuko was smiling a bit now wondering what kind of interaction Shinji would have with Rei
Misato put her hand up to her mouth to stifle her laughter.
"Hehehe, I think I embarrassed him. Hmm, now you have an excuse to go over to cute little Rei's place, don't you? Maybe you could sneak in a little kiss while you're there. I'm she's a good girl, right Shinji?"
"AH, URGH, I HAVE NO IDEA, MISATO!"
Ritsuko looked over towards Shinji as she was laughing and saw he had a hard on which caused her to blush just a little.
"Oh, Misato, stop teasing the poor boy. You're gonna give him a heart attack."
"Heeheehee, but I love teasing him. He goes so ballistic."
"Ah, so you're saying he's like you?"
"Hey, What's that supposed to mean?"
Shinji suddenly broke into their conversation.
"I just find it strange that I know so little about her even though she's my fellow pilot."
Ritsuko spoke up in response.
"She's a nice girl. Not like Misato put it but she is a good girl. She's a lot like you're father, though. She's not very adept at…"
"Not very adept at what?"
"Living, I guess..."
Everyone was quiet and continued eating their food for a few minutes before Doctor Akagi spoke up again.
"Well, I have a date tonight so, I've got to get going."
"Ooh, who you going out with Ritsu?"
"No one, just some guy. You probably know him, but you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Wait! Who? Ritsuko?"
Ritsuko was already rushing towards the door realizing she might have said a bit too much but before she walked out she said, "Hey, make sure Shinji cooks next time. I'm serious!"
"Fuck you too, bitch," Misato whispered under her breath, "Hmm, I wonder who she's dating… Who cares, haha. It doesn't matter because I know who you're dating, isn't that right Shinji?" she said making a mock kissing face at the third child.
"MISATO!"
/
Shinji had decided he'd politely excuse himself from the apartment and go for a walk after Misato hadn't quit teasing him for an entire hour after their meal until the very second he closed the door to the apartment sending him off with, "Don't get too feisty with Rei when you drop her card off. She's just a little angel after all."
Shinji thought Misato's word choice had been a bit unnerving; calling her an angel, the same name as their enemy. He knew she probably didn't mean it like that, but the word "angel" frightened Shinji. He was the one who had to battle them face to face.
He tried to get the thought out of his mind. He didn't want to think about angels unless he had to. So, instead, he thought about Rei.
'I wonder if she ever thinks about me. Does she think about me as much as I think about her? I wonder what she's like. Everyone says she doesn't have a personality, but that's not true. Everyone has a personality, right? Even if it's not an interesting one, they still have one.'
He thought back to when he first met her.
'She was so light. Before I got in my Eva for the first time, when I picked her up, it was like she didn't weigh anything. I'm not even that muscular and it was like picking up a feather.'
Shinji stopped wondering aimlessly for a moment and pulled her sleek new security card out of his pocket to stare at her picture once again.
"I guess I should take this to her. I don't have anything else to do right now. And, maybe it'll give Misato some time to knock off the teasing. Her apartment isn't too far from here anyways."
With that decision made up in his mind, Shinji Ikari began navigating his way towards the western run-down district of Tokyo-3 where Rei Ayanami resided.
/
Rei was sitting on her bloodied bed sheets simply pondering the world as she very often did. She was anxious about the next angel attack; not very anxious, but anxious nonetheless, though she would never show it. She wondered if Commander Ikari would call on her to fight the next angel. Her wounds were healed now and she saw no reason why she wouldn't be ordered to fight. Though, the real reason she was concerned about the next angel wasn't because of her own safety or well-being. No, she was worried that Unit-00 would malfunction again and that she would not be able to perform her given duties. She had passed her reactivation tests with no problems, and she was confident in herself. But worry still gently nagged at her ever dedicated heart.
"It is hot," she observed more than complained.
Rei's apartment was almost as run down as you could find in Tokyo-3. She had no working air conditioner, and so her room was constantly humid, stuffy, and scorching hot. She had a washing machine, but it wasn't very powerful and so it couldn't handle heavy loads of clothing. Though, she only owned a couple pairs of school uniforms, so it wasn't a problem for her attire so much as it was just extremely troublesome to wash her bed sheets. Her door buzzer was broken, though she never really cared who came and went from her apartment. Rei didn't even have a working refrigerator, so she couldn't even have iced drinks unless she traveled four floors down to where the ice machine for her apartment complex was. However, Rei did not mind any of this very much. She was content with her way of living for the most part. And, when she wasn't, she simply accepted it and made do.
"Shower. I should shower."
Rei had been thinking for a while and in her hot apartment, she had been sweating. She was going to NERV later and figured it would be proper to cleanse the perspiration from her body.
She began removing her clothes, sighing in a relaxed way realizing she wouldn't have the insulated clothing over her body for a short while. She took her socks off first, and then her dress and shirt. She unclasped her bra and it fell to the floor with a soft pat. She paused as she reached her fingers under the waistband of her panties though. Something had crossed her mind. She thought for a moment before she remembered.
'Medication.'
She walked over to the only table in the room and she grabbed one of the pills laying on it and held it out in front of her breasts. She looked down at it suspended in front of her cleavage and took a shallow breath before placing it on her tongue and swallowing.
'Now shower.'
She stuck her fingers under the hip of her panties, slid them off, and walked to her shower calmly. After arriving in the bathroom she stepped into the shower to turn on the water and then stepped back out while she waited for the stream to heat up to a more comfortable temperature. Some of the cold water splashed on her leg and gave her a chill but she didn't really mind. She turned around to look into her cracked mirror to examine her body and see how well she had healed.
There were no visible abnormalities with her body as she flexed her arms and spun her wrists to test the dexterity and responsiveness of her previously broken bones. She took a deep breath to expand her ribs against the soft lean flesh of her chest. Once again, no one could see that they had been broken. She twisted around a little and bent over. She was pleased there was no longer pain in her movements.
'This is me,' She looked into the mirror intently, "I am Rei, Rei Ayanami; Pilot of Evangelion Unit-00. I am Rei. Rei is determined. Rei has a purpose. Rei is loyal. I will not fail. I must not. I will defeat the angels. I will make him proud.'
With her right hand, she reached up and touched the mirror, running her thin and nimble fingers across the branching cracks. And with her left hand, she made a fist and placed it between her breasts. She looked intently at the cracks.
"Am I whole?"
She stared at her separated reflection gazing back at her red eyes as she continued to run her fingers across the broken surface.
"This is me, yes?"
She felt a slight burning sensation in her fingertip. Realizing she had cut herself on an edge from a missing piece of the mirror, she looked down at her hand.
'Blood. My blood. Red. Red like my eyes.'
She removed her right hand from the mirror, seeing the vermillion liquid seeping down the reflective surface. She brought her extremity to her face and closed her eyes, then touched her cheek with her fingers, smearing the blood over her jaw delicately and thoughtfully.
'Red; the color I hate.'
Red flooded her mind. Red rose petals fluttering against a clouded sky, blood seeping from someone who was just shot through the chest, rubies on a golden necklace, strawberries being bitten into, red nail polish on a woman's fingers, a red sunset, a red moon, a red ocean, a red sky; all of them like-
"My eyes…"
She opened her eyes slowly and looked back at her reflection; the heartless, soulless, fake reflection of all that she was.
"Am I so different from them?"
She frowned only slightly and raised her hand back up to the mirror. She looked at the dead clone of herself in the glass and finally touched the mirrored eyes with her finger. She paused one last time to look into her eyes, and then she pressed onwards, slowly smudging her blood across the reflection's eyes so that she could not see them any longer.
She frowned a little more noticeably and looked at the blood streak.
'I am replaceable. But, I am me.'
She glanced down at her finger, and then to the shower as her frown waivered. Then, deciding she'd sorted through her confusing feelings enough for now, proceeded to position herself under the spitting showerhead.
She relaxed and found she quite enjoyed the warm water running over her skin. It was soft and soothing and didn't smell like the metallic iron her blood smelt like. A hardly noticeable smile came into existence on her face.
'I love it. I love water. It is beautiful. It washes away my blood. It makes me happy.'
She cupped her hands under the falling water and let it pool. She opened her fingers and let it flow through them. Her smile grew bigger as she closed her fingers again and let more water gather in her palms. Then, she lowered her face into her hands as her nose and cheeks pushed some of the clear liquid aside and over her fingers. She began blowing bubbles into the little ocean with her nose. She smiled as much as a crescent moon could as the bubbles floated up over her eyelids and popped just below her brow.
She lifted her head from her hands and giggled quietly. Yes, Rei Ayanami was very happy by anyone's standards, though she'd never actually show this kind of emotion to anyone. Even by herself, she had a hard time truly expressing herself. Even now as she was caught up in her watery world, she was only barely laughing. The only time she had to sort through her emotions was when she was by herself. Any other situation would usually distract her from discovering and exploring her being. And still then, being the emotionally repressed child she was, she had incredible difficulty representing her feelings. But, there were certain things that could coax them out of her, like water and blood.
She grabbed her torn washcloth happily and put some inexpensive unscented soap on it. She slowly washed the remaining blood from her face and moved the cloth down her neck and over her right shoulder. It felt good having the soft and warm cloth resting on her, and she left it there for a moment as she wet her hair under the showerhead. She let out a short soft moan of satisfaction and grabbed the cloth again. She scrubbed over her tone back and slowly moved down to her shapely butt. The torn rag glided over her the excessively smooth skin of her buttocks and continued down to her thigh and calves.
Rei brought the cloth back up and started washing the front of her body. She ran the soapy fabric over her collar bone and then down to her cleavage. She traded the rag between her hands and brought it over her breasts, squirming some as the rag almost gave her a tickling sensation as she dragged it over her nipples. She moved the rag further down her body, over her stomach, rubbing in large circles over her abdomen.
'So pleasant.'
She smiled, thoroughly enjoying the simultaneously numbing and tickling feeling the cloth emitted onto her lean belly. Eventually, she moved to her lower body, and scrubbed the sides of her hips before continuing inwards towards her flower. She always enjoyed cleaning herself in and around her lips. It brought her such pleasurable sensations. However, she usually did not spend any more time on it than she needed. And today was no exception. She let the fabric part her folds gasping a little as it slid over her clitoris.
She continued and rung the soapy water from the washcloth when she finished and then rinsed the bubbles from her own body. Rei then hung the rag up and grabbed for some more soap to wash her hair with. Rei, being a minimalist, didn't possess a variety of soap. And so, she used the same one as before, squeezing the bottle to get a nicely sized puddle of soap in her hand. It was still enjoyable for her. She drew much joy from the simple act of feeling her hair filled with soap as the strands slid through her fingers. She once again giggled just a little bit as she moved her digits up and down massaging her scalp. It wasn't ticklish to her, she just very much liked the pleasing feeling.
But, Rei was not one to waste time on herself and she soon decided it was time to end her shower. She washed the soap out of her hair and contemplated turning off the shower. However, she decided to try just one little thing before she went to NERV. She stood under the warm water and grabbed ahold of the temperature knob and twisted it, turning it as far to the cold side as she could. She was fascinated as she felt the warm water running over her gradually turn very cold. She abruptly shut the flow off once she'd felt sufficiently chilled and stepped out of the shower grabbing a towel from the rack on the wall. It wasn't a very good towel. It was had strands of loose threading almost falling out of it and it looked like it had been in a shooting with how many holes were in it. But, it was Rei's towel and it would simply have to do. She dried off slowly but stopped as she heard the door to apartment number 402, her apartment, open and close.
"Uh, hello there? Sorry for intruding."
Rei had heard the voice, but saw no reason to respond. She didn't really care if someone entered her apartment. She had very little sense of personal space and didn't very well understand the idea of intrusion.
"It's uh, me…Shinji Ikari."
Rei, still in her bathroom, simply acknowledged his presence without saying anything and continued drying off. She'd just finished her torso and decided to quickly dry her legs off a little and leave her hair wet to air dry. She folded what was left of the ragged thing she called a towel and placed it back on the rack before pulling aside the curtains and stepping out of her bathroom to see the young Ikari wearing one of her most prized possessions.
/
"What a rundown part of the city. Who would want to live here?"
Shinji was walking down an empty street as the hot sun of Tokyo-3 beat down on him with is solar rays. The echoing sounds of machinery surrounded him and dust filled the air. All around him, the entire district was being torn down by construction workers, building by building. Some of the structures had already been demolished. To the right of the street he was currently walking down was nothing but rubble; broken concrete and bent steel beams. Off in the distance, a crane had just toppled a building with a wrecking ball.
'It's so dangerous here. Why does she live out here? She could get hurt if she accidentally ends up under one of these buildings when they get knocked down.'
He continued making his way to Rei's apartment. He eventually spotted it through the hot dusty gloom. Arriving on the property, he checked her room number and address on her card.
"Room 402, that would put her on the fourth floor, wouldn't it?"
He looked around and spotted an elevator. But, he realized it had no power after pressing the call button.
"Guess I'll be taking the stairs…" he sighed.
He'd been walking for a while, and his feet were aching, but he didn't really have any say in his fate at the moment, and began walking up the four flights of stairs. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he walked a couple doors down until he saw number 402. He looked down at her mail slot. It had been completely stuffed with unread new letters and magazines.
"I guess she doesn't like visitors?"
He spotted her door bell and pressed the button to ring it. Waiting a couple moments, he got no response. Frowning, he reached for the door handle to see if it was locked. Twisting it, he found it wasn't and the door was left ajar.
'Well, I've already opened the door. Guess I should go inside. Gosh, I feel so weird for doing this, but she'll understand, won't she? She needs her ID card.'
He slid his fingers into the crack between the door and its frame, and peeked inside.
"Uh, hello there? Sorry for intruding," he called out uneasily.
He continued to pull the door open and stepped inside. He removed his shoes after entering so that he wouldn't track any dirt inside the residence.
"It's uh, me…Shinji Ikari," he spoke again, trying to ensure that he wouldn't be unannounced if the blue haired girl was indeed home.
He made his way into Rei's hot, stuffy, and dark living room, if it could be called such a thing. The place was almost completely barren. A bed with bloody sheets, a couple cabinets, a cardboard box full of blood stained bandages, and a small white table with a beaker and medication sitting on it was all that occupied the small room.
'This is a girl's room?' he thought, appalled that anyone, let alone a woman, could occupy such a domain.
He looked around, not seeing Rei anywhere. Something on her cabinet caught his attention though.
"Glasses? I didn't know Rei wore glasses."
He walked over to them, picked them up, and observed the spectacles.
"They have a crack in them. Maybe that's why I've never seen her wear them?"
He put them on in an attempt to evaluate the damage further, but right as he did, he heard something move behind him. He slowly turned around and just about had a heart attack. He couldn't see very well with the glasses blurring his vision, but he was relatively sure he saw a completely naked Rei Ayanami facing him. Though he couldn't make out her finer details, such as her facial expression among other things, judging by the way she was intently walking towards him, he assumed she was not pleased. He started stuttering out apologies as she closed in on him and gained a clearer view of her body as she drew near.
"R-Rei, I-I didn't mean to. I swear, I wasn't snooping. I was just-"
He now had a clear view of her face and could tell she was upset with him. She reached up, and placed her fingers on the nose of the glasses, attempting to grab them. Shinji, being the anxious boy he was, attempted to back away from the gorgeous girl. However, his legs had gotten caught in hers and he ended up falling into her and pushing her down.
Shinji was horrified. He had just fallen onto a completely nude and underage girl. He stared into her dark red eyes for a long time, silently pleading with her, hoping she'd understand that this was all a mistake.
"Will you get off?" she said in her usual monotone but still soft voice.
He felt something soft and fleshy in his left hand. He looked down, and realized he had placed his palm right over her smooth breast. He gasped and immediately removed himself from her.
"Oh, god. Rei, I am so sorry!" he said, tears threatening to fall from embarrassment.
She got up, not paying him any mind and began dressing herself. She turned away from him, picked up her cotton panties, and slid them up her legs, bending over slightly while doing so and inadvertently flashing her lips at him through her thigh gap, not really caring that he could see. She could feel his eyes on her though, and figured she should inquire.
"What?" She asked as plainly as though she dressed in front of him every day.
Shinji, realizing she knew he was staring despite the fact she wasn't even facing him, averted his gaze and began lamely stuttering out his excuse.
"Uh, Ritsuko, she uh, she asked me to, um…"
He trailed off, and was once again captivated by her body as she fitted her bra back over her breasts.
Rei, not satisfied with only half a sentence of explanation and stuttering, simply asked him to, "Continue, please."
Shinji dragged his eyes away from her and back to the wall as he continued trying to explain himself.
"I was asked to, uh, you know, um. Uh, what was it? Oh, th-the card. You have a new card and Doctor Akagi forgot to give it to you, and so she asked me to… to give it to you instead," he finished, gulping as Rei put on the last of her clothing, Shinji still attempting to not look at her.
Rei picked up the glasses off the ground while Shinji was staring at the wall, placed them into their case, set it back down on her cabinet, and then proceeded out her door to NERV HQ.
"Uh, Rei?"
He quickly followed after and trailed behind her, navigating through the demolished buildings with her until she got to the train station. She patiently waited for a train to arrive while Shinji attempted to keep his distance from her figuring she was probably angry with him. He felt like such a creep for following her, but he still hadn't given her card to her and he assumed she'd really need it.
A train had finally arrived at the station, and Rei boarded it shortly followed by Shinji. As she sat down in one of the seats, Shinji attempted to move a little closer to her; though, it really wasn't close enough to have a conversation just between the two of them.
Within ten minutes, the train had stopped at the next station which had access to a Geofront sub-terminal. Rei got off the train and transferred to a train car that would take her down to the Geofront. Shinji struggled to follow her in the crowded station, but her blue hair and excessively pale skin stood out in the crowd. Every time he lost sight of her, he managed to find her again a few seconds later. Finally, they had gotten on an empty car, just the two of them, and began making their way past the armor belts and into the giant subterranean structure below.
/
Rei arrived at the personnel clearance gates a few moments before Shinji. She ran her security card through the card reader, but in response, she received an access denied chime. Shinji watched from behind her as she tried again to slide her card through the verification system, and again failed to gain access. She was about to try again, but Shinji walked to the gate next to her and used her card, pulling it through the reader. The door in front of her opened and she looked at him.
"Heheh, like I was trying to say, they issued you a new ID card. Ritsuko asked me to give it to you," he smiled at her, but it was quickly wiped away as the blue haired girl snatched the card out of his hand.
Rei continued forward as Shinji opened his own clearance gate and followed after her. Catching up to her as she walked down the hall, he remained silent for a while. He wanted to speak to her but he didn't really know what to talk to her about. Eventually, he decided the best course of action would be to apologize to her again.
"Hey, Rei, um… sorry about earlier."
"For what?"
"For, um…you know…"
'Okay, so that wasn't a great way to start a conversation,' Shinji thought, disappointed at his awkwardness.
He thought for a little longer, trying to come up with something, anything else to talk to her about. It was hard though. He barely knew anything about the girl. He didn't know what she liked or didn't like; what could make her laugh or what could make her cry. He finally thought of something though as he remembered Ritsuko talking about Ayanami's activation experiment and how she was injured during it.
"Hey, um, Rei, aren't you scared at all?"
"About what?"
"About…getting into the Eva again."
"Why?"
"Well, I heard you got hurt pretty bad during your first activation test," Shinji said with mild concern evident in his voice, "So, I was just wondering if…if you were still okay with piloting it."
"Yes, I'm fine."
"But, you don't know when it might go berserk again, right? Aren't you worried? What if it happens in the middle of a battle with an angel and we all die?"
"Tell me, you are Commander Ikari's son, are you not?"
"Yes…"
"Then why are you afraid? Don't you have faith in your father's work?"
"No! How could I? I mean, how could anyone?"
Rei stopped walking and turned around to face him with her soul piecing red eyes. She simply stared at him, unmoving, unblinking; sharp ruby judgement spearing lonely dark blue. He couldn't tell what she was thinking, but he realized he must have upset her again.
"Rei? What's wron-"
Before he could ask, she frowned and raised her hand, then struck him across his face, glaring at him. She turned around, and continued onwards as Shinji stood in silence with his hand over his burning cheek.
'Why can't I be better?' he thought as he watched her walk away down the hall
/
Shinji was absently wondering around NERV. He didn't really know what to do. After Rei had hit him, his motivation and consciousness had slowly been leaking out of his body, and so he just aimlessly meandered down the cold, subterranean, metal hallways waiting for something to grab his attention.
'Why did she hit me? I don't understand. I'm not angry with her, but…why? What made her want to? Was she just fed up with me for the day? Was it because I touched her? Was it my father? Mmm…whatever it was, I probably deserved it.'
He looked at the walls of the hallway. So dull, even with the bright white lights shining down. So cold; he ran his fingers against the surface as he continued walking.
'I don't like this place. It feels so...sterile and rigid. It's not comfortable, not even as a place of work.'
He stopped and looked up at yet another unfamiliar ceiling.
"Misato…should be here. Her shift started a little while ago. Maybe I should go look for her."
The Third Child then headed off to the more likely places he would possibly find her. He started his search in the Eva cages. Upon entering, he didn't see her on the umbilical bridge in front of the eva. He glanced around the hangar, checking the catwalks and the observation room above the Eva's head, but he still didn't see her.
'Would she be at the command bridge?" he wondered, with his next destination in mind,
Shinji hadn't been on the command bridge very many times, and as a pilot and a child, he felt a little out of place in contrast to all the adult tech workers. He didn't really know how to start a conversation with them. But, he was going to have to because Misato wasn't here either. He walked up to Lieutenant Ibuki, since she seemed the friendliest out of everyone on the bridge.
"Oh, hello Shinji. Can I help you with something?"
He was slightly startled as she turned around and noticed him before he could say anything.
"Oh, well, um, I was wondering if you'd seen Captain Katsuragi anywhere around. I wanted to talk to her if she had the time."
"Oh, yeah, I just saw her. She was down in the wreck room. If you hurry, you might still catch her."
"T-thank you, Miss Ibuki," he bowed, and ran off towards the wreck room.
/
"Ah, I do love a nice cup of iced raspberry lemonade before starting the day's work," she said licking her lips while lying on a couch with her feet kicked up on the table in the wreck room. "And air conditioning. Gotta get that AC."
"Misato?"
That voice; that shy, reserved, little voice. It could only belong to-
Misato turned her head and gasped, "SHINJI!"
She set her lemonade on the table in front of her, jumped up, and made her way towards him with a bounce in her step.
'What is she doing? Why is she so excited? Why are her boobs in my face?'
She hugged him, squeezing the breath out of him, and began shaking him back and forth.
"M-Misato," he choked out from between her tits, "I-I can't…I can't breathe."
"Oh, haha, sorry about that," she let him go and dragged him back over to her the couch with her, "So, how'd your date with Rei go."
"I gave her card to her, and, uh…"
"Yeah, yeah? Spit it out," Misato said, totally engrossed in her excitement as though she were a preppy school girl and Shinji was about to tell her some juicy bit of gossip.
"I touched her boobs."
"You… you what?" she asked as her face went as blank as a sheet of paper.
"I, uh…touched her boobs…"
"Oh, no, I heard you. It's just…I didn't really expect you to go out and hit second base with her on your first try. You realize all those times I talked about you getting it on with her, I was teasing you, right?."
"Oh my god, Misato, it wasn't like that!"
"Oh yeah, then what was it like?"
"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"
"Ah, got a bun in the oven, I see. So, you did get it in her coochie, then?"
"OH MY GOD, MISATO, I FELL ON TOP OF HER!"
"My ex-boyfriend used to fall on top of me all the time too," she winked, "It felt so good when he slammed into me. It was a little surprising the first time it happened though. I didn't know what to expect and it hurt a bit, but I got used to it. He fell on top of me for an entire week after that."
Somehow, Misato had the inhuman ability to twist any given sentence into something sexual; Shinji knew that well enough considering she'd been doing it for an entire hour beforehand when they were still at the apartment. He didn't know if he really wanted to say anything else, fearing it would be turned into a weapon and used against him. So, he sat there glaring at her with his mouth agape, trying to find something to say.
"Urgh, uh, ugh," he growled in frustration.
"Where those the sounds you made when you were screwing little Rei up the walls?"
"OH MY GOD, MISATO!"
"And that's what you'll be screaming after you and me get home tonight," she winked again and stuck her tongue out in a playful way.
"Please, don't," Shinji said exasperatedly.
"Please, don't what? Please, don't stop? Don't worry, I won't."
Shinji sighed, "This is too much for me to take."
"That's what she said."
"I'm serious, Misato."
"I'm serious too; seriously horny."
"Okay, Misato," Shinji said awkwardly.
He stood up from the couch and started walking towards the exit of the wreck room. Maybe Misato wasn't the best person to ask for help.
"Shinji, wait, I'm sorry for teasing you."
He stopped and looked back at her, examining her to make sure she was being serious.
"Just…come sit back down. We'll talk about it, okay? Just tell me what's wrong."
Shinji looked a little surprised, but complied with her request and sat back down next to her.
"So, what was so bad about touching her?"
He frowned a little, thinking Misato might start up the teasing again, but when he looked up at her, she expressed genuine concern.
"It's not that. It's just that she seems angry, which is obvious I guess, but it's in a really weird way. I just can't tell what exactly she's upset about. At first I thought it was because I touched her, but with the way she acted after…I'm not so sure."
"Well, what happened exactly?"
"Well, um, I walked to her apartment and rang the doorbell, but no one answered. But, I thought that getting her card to her would be important though, so I tried opening her door and it was unlocked. So, I walked in but, didn't see anyone. I looked around a little bit and noticed a pair of glasses and I was confused because I didn't think she wore glasses. And, I started fooling around with them, but then she walked out of her bathroom and she was completely naked. She walked towards me and took the glasses from me and then I kind of tripped and I…fell on her."
Misato looked at him and raised an eyebrow, but didn't voice her thoughts.
"Anyways, she got dressed right in front of me and then we both came here.-"
Misato's eyebrow rose even further, 'So, he walks into her apartment unannounced, somehow pisses her off, has sexy time with her, and then they just walk to the most advanced military base in the world. Kids nowadays certainly have a weird idea of what romance is.'
"-And we talked a little bit about the Evas and my father and then she just slapped me," Shinji finally finished and took a deep breath.
Misato was thoroughly confused.
"Wow," she said, trying to think of something to say, "Well, um, you said she took the glasses back from you?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, I really have no idea what's going on between you two, but I'm going to guess she's upset over the glasses."
Shinji frowned at the floor.
"But, why? You're a girl, Misato. You've got to have some idea."
"I guess she's…self-conscious…maybe?"
"Misato," Shinji started with an unimpressed look on his face, "…she dressed herself right in front of me. She didn't tell me to get out, she didn't tell me to look away; she didn't even try to hide herself. I literally saw…everything. I don't think she's self-conscious."
"Well, that's my best bet, I really can't help with that. …I do know something I can help with though," she cooed as she placed her hand on Shinji's pants.
His eyes widened and he glanced at Misato with a blush on his face.
"It's been...awhile. You know? Like... awhile awhile. And, I know you're lost right now. And you're just trying to find out where you belong. I think...maybe this could help both of us," Misato said as she stared at Shinji with a smile
Shinji put his hand around her wrist and gently tried to push her hand off him.
"Um, M-Misato, I don't think this is- I don't think- This place isn't-"
Shinji words slowly began failing him and he began to get jittery and nervous
"Aww, it's okay. You don't need to be shy. I'm a pro at this sort of thing, so you can just sit back," she put her hand on his chest and pushed him into the couch before dropping to her knees, "and relax," she finished as she undid this zipper and reached in to his pants to pull out his phallus.
Shinji didn't know what to do right now. His brain was a complete amalgamation of thoughts and emotions. He wanted to disappear. He wanted to tell Misato that even though he wasn't comfortable with this, he still wanted it to happen. But mostly, he just wanted to run away. He couldn't really think of anything else. He was a virgin and he'd wanted something like this to happen for awhile now. But, here of all places? He wouldn't even be able to focus on the act with the constant fear of someone walking into the room.
"Listen, Shinji, I know we've only known each other for a month or so, but our fates are tied together now. I'm your guardian, and you're my Shinji. You're going to save the world for me, okay. So, maybe, I owe you a favor. Just, don't tell anyone, okay," she finished with a wink.
"Misato, this isn't a good place! Please!"
"Oh, don't worry. I know how you boys are. It'll be done fast, I promise. And besides, if someone walks in... it'll just make it more exciting."
She lowered her head between his legs and Shinji gripped the cushions of the couch so hard his knuckles became white as he felt Misato kiss the tip and slowly slide her lips over his head and swirl her tongue around while sucking him.
"Gah, Misato," he gasped, causing Misato's heart to flutter a bit realizing that she had maybe just found a way to bring the pathetic boy some happiness.
Her accomplishment was brought to a heartbreaking halt though as alarms began sounding throughout NERV HQ.
As though their minds where one, they both thought, 'Oh, god, an angel.'
Misato stood up, her previously lust filled face was replaced with one of grim determination.
"Shinji, get to the Eva cages now," she said in a quiet and breaking voice.
She leaned forward and kissed him on the lips, and then again on his cheek.
"We'll finish this later," she said as she stroked his face with red warning lights flashing all around.
Soon, she pulled away, leaving the speechless Shinji on the couch and walked out into the hall as a few tears fell down her face.
'Don't die out there, my little Shinji.'
/
Misato had just arrived on top of the command bridge. It felt sort of like a throne to her; the perfect seat of power for the Operations Director. There were voices shouting all around her as she proudly strided over the cold steel floor of her domain, her previous tears leaving no trace they were ever there.
"The object under surveillance has crossed the Odowara defense line," Maya announced
"Target analysis of unknown object complete. Pattern blue; it's an angel," Makoto followed up.
Commander Ikari and Subcommander Fuyutsuki had just arrived on the command bridge, emerging from their private elevator.
"As expected, it seems the fifth angel has finally arrived," Fuyutsuki said in a tired but still down to business type voice.
"So it does; let's send Unit-01 out to meet it."
Fuyutsuki stepped forward and voiced Commander Ikari's order.
"Captain Katsuragi, sortie Unit-01."
"Yes, Sir."
She redirected her com to Shinji's plug, "Shinji, prepare for launch. We're sending Unit-01"
Shinji wasn't particularly pleased with the decision, but decided not to complain. He probably deserved whatever was coming for him after whatever he'd done to anger Rei.
Lots of people were talking over the coms. So many things to be said, so many orders to give and receive, so many procedures to follow
The Eva was slowly transported to the catapult. Shinji always hated this part of pre-launch the most. Sure, getting shot up the catapult wasn't Shinji's definition of comfortable, but the tension and suspense before him launching chewed at his heart, making it ache and pound in his chest.
Back on the command bridge, Misato was trying to figure out exactly what in the hell the angel was as she looked at the screen in front of her.
"A big fucking…thing. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. Are we really fighting this; just a big fucking blue thing?"
Ritsuko walked up besides Misato, obviously amused at her description of the angel.
"I believe the word you're looking for, Misato, is octahedron. It's a big fucking blue octahedron, as you would so eloquently have put it."
"Haha, what's it gonna do to us? It doesn't have any arms or legs. It doesn't look like it can really stand up against an Eva, even if it is pretty big compared to the last two angels."
"I wouldn't be so quick to assume, Captain. Like I said the other day, we have no idea what the angels could be capable of."
"Eh, I guess you're right. Probably shouldn't get too cocky."
"Target entering Lake Ashi airspace," Shigeru informed Misato
"Eva Unit-01, equipped and ready to launch," Makoto affirmed.
"Right then," Misato said with a more serious look on her face now, "Eva Unit-01, launch."
The Eva was propelled towards the surface at hundreds of feet per second, and the lights of the catapult shaft blurred past like speeding cars.
Maya watched the diagrams and charts on her monitor, just like she always did. So many graphs to look over; pilot life signs, maps, sync ratios, AT field strength, energy spikes from the enemy-
'Whoa, wait, energy spike? Oh, god!"
"I'm getting a huge build-up of energy from inside the target," Maya gasped.
"Wait, what? It's charging an attack?" Misato asked astounded.
"Oh no, it can't be," Doctor Akagi shouted.
/
'I really should find some way to make it up to them,' Shinji was lost in his thoughts. He was very embarrassed about what happened between him, Misato, and Rei; and it had been distracting him much more than was safe for him considering there were more important things going on around him at the moment. But, it was still going to be a few more seconds until he reached the surface, and so he let himself be distracted.
A distant voice.
"Shinji."
Echoing towards him.
"Shinji."
Getting louder.
"Shinji."
"Misato?" he whispered back quietly enough that the coms wouldn't pick it up.
He finally broke out of his thoughts, not realizing until now that his Eva had arrived at the surface. The angel loomed over the bay and began changing its shape, splitting and morphing into a pair of rectangular prisms with its core floating perfectly between the two figures as energy dashed along its sharp edges.
"SHINJI, MOVE. GET OUTTA THE WAY!" Captain Katsuragi desperately screamed over the coms.
He gasped, but there wasn't much he could do at this point. The angel screeched as its core immediately lit up and a beam of highly concentrated energy burst out of its center. The beam shot through almost eight buildings, vaporizing one massive hole after another through each of the structures and melting most of what it didn't immediately obliterate. And after all that, the beam had lost almost none of its integrity as it came into contact with Unit-01's AT field and quickly burned its way through the opposing barrier like a blow torch and started melting away Unit-01's chest armor.
Yellow warning lights flashed inside Unit-01's entry plug and a high pitched alarm sounded as the display began to glitch out and falter under the extreme heat. The LCL inside the plug began getting hotter rapidly as it started to evaporate. Shinji felt like he was over a bonfire as his chest was burning. He clutched his hands over his sternum and groaned as the dull burning sensation seeped further into his chest, eventually manifesting as deep as his lungs.
"This is really bad. Lower the sync rate," Doctor Akagi ordered to her faithful protégé, Maya.
"DEPLOY THE BLAST SHIELD!" Misato shouted out to Hyuga.
"On it!"
A giant wall of metal lined with reflective panels burst up between the Evangelion and the Angel, interrupting and scattering the energy of the beam. The energy dropped off in intensity as the air around the blast shield steamed and warped from the intense heat.
The glow from the angel's core faded and it began reconfiguring itself, the shapes that made up its body rearranging themselves into what resembled a rough cross with its core as the center point. It paused for a moment, letting the entire world bask in its shapeshifting magnificence. But soon, more energy began shooting across the arms of the cross and gathering at the angel's core. It screamed in a shrill tone that echoed and shook through all of Toyko-3 and it let loose a massive menagerie of energy easily ten times the intensity of the previous assault. The torrent of energy made contact with the blast shield guarding Unit-01 and tore it to pieces. The Eva was almost completely unprotected now with the exception of its AT field.
The entire command bridge staff was frantic. People were shouting back and forth giving and receiving orders in chaos and confusion
"What the hell are we fighting?" Misato stared wide-eyed at the screen in disbelief, "Execute emergency recovery of Unit-01. Abort the attack," she yelled.
"We can't! THE CATAPULT HAS MELTED!" Hyuga shot back.
"What about the AT field," Ritsuko referred to Maya
"It's been deployed to maximum allowed potency, but it's only barely managing to hold up."
Inside the Eva's entry plug, the LCL was boiling while Shinji was screaming until he was out of breath and then screamed some more. His entire body felt like it was burning worse than fire could ever hope to hurt him. The general sensations on top of the pain would be enough to drive many people to insanity. Hot bubbles rose up over Shinji's open eyes and floated through his hair. Emergency warnings flashed and sounded everywhere inside the plug. It was a complete sensory overload for the fourteen year old.
"AHHHHHHHHH, SOMEONE, PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP! I'VE HAD ENOUGH! LET ME OUT OF HERE! AH, AHHHHHH!"
Barely able to stand listening to the boy's agony any longer, Misato made a decision.
"Scrap the mission, prioritize pilot safety. Eject the entry plug."
"No," the calm voice of the Commander creeped across the bridge, "cancel that order."
Ritsuko continued where the Commander left off, "If we were to eject the plug now, the Eva's AT field would vanish and Unit-01 would probably be destroyed with how much energy is being emitted. We'd be placing ourselves in a near hopeless situation."
"Yes, but…"
Misato could barely think with the boy's screams filling the air. The pain must be unimaginable, and his suffering was distracting her from thinking as his pain infiltrated her thoughts. She barely managed to come up with the next course of action.
"It's forced our hand. Okay, okay, there's no other choice. FORCIBLE RECOVERY OF UNIT-01. DETONATE SUPPORT BOLTS H-13 THROUGH H-22!"
"A-are you sure?" Makoto asked.
"YES, GODDAMNIT. DO IT NOW!"
"Yes, Ma'am."
And just like that, an entire district of Tokyo-3 fell thousands of feet down to the first armor belt of the Geofront. Shinji felt the freefall lurch at his sense of weight before he passed out feeling like his skin was peeling away in the heat.
NERV techs began sounding out over the coms and loudspeakers.
"Target has ceased attack."
"Unit-01 recovered. Transferring Eva to emergency cage 99."
"Medical teams, stand by."
Ritsuko activated her com, "Top priority goes to cooling the LCL inside the entry plug."
"I've got a pulse, but it's faint," notified Makoto.
"Give him a cardiac massage with the life support systems," Doctor Akagi ordered back.
He did so and responded, "Looks like his vitals stabilized."
"Okay, force eject the plug. Get it out now. And then preform an emergency pressurized drain of the LCL."
Misato had just about four phones in her hands trying to orchestrate the chaos the entire facility was in right now.
"GET HIM A MEDICAL TEAM NOW! YES, I KNOW THE CHESTPIECE NEEDS TO BE REPLACED! NO, I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WE'RE GOING TO DEAL WITH THIS, BUT WE HAVE MORE PRESSING MATTERS RIGHT NOW."
Everyone on the command bridge went silent as every eye was drawn towards the massive screen in front of them and what was displayed on it.
"What's it doing?" Maya asked in awe.
"Is it…" Ritsuko didn't finish her sentence though as she simply watched the angel float directly over NERV HQ and start twisting a ginormous blue drill bit out of its bottommost vertex .
The drill kept twisting out of the angel as it slowly lowered itself and made contact with the streets of Tokyo-3
"What the hell is this thing? How is it capable of all this?" Misato asked in reverential fear.
Ritsuko sighed, "This is going to be one hell of a night, isn't it? So much for my date. I'll go get us some instant coffee and dark chocolate."
/
-The Long Night-
/
Doctor Akagi and Captain Katsuragi had just arrived in the mission planning room; a dark little place, barely big enough to hold twenty people on top of the illuminated mission design table at the center of the room which currently showed a map of Tokyo-3, the surrounding countryside, mounted artillery positions in and around the fortress city, and the location of the most recent angel. Around the table were cheap, cold, collapsible, metal chairs; enough to seat a dozen people. And, of course, Misato's favorite part of the room was the giant air conditioning vent which she quickly brought a chair in front of and sat down in.
Ritsuko was carrying two cups of black coffee, one for her and one for Misato, and had some dark chocolate in the pockets of her lab coat. She sat down in the chair next to Misato and gingerly handed her one of the hot cups.
"Ugh, it's black? Don't you have some milk or cream?"
"No, I don't," Ritsuko said, holding her hand out offering Misato a piece of chocolate.
"And what's this? Dark Chocolate?" Misato asked, giving Ritsuko a look that said, "You really don't know me, do you?"
"Don't give me that look. The bitterness and the caffeine will keep you awake."
"Heheh, in that case, I think your bitter personality would have been enough," Misato chuckled.
Ritsuko looked annoyed for a moment, but then smiled a little realizing Misato wasn't being serious right now.
"I'm just looking out for you, Misato. That's what friends do."
"Right, Thanks."
Misato closed her eyes and brought the hot coffee to her air-conditioning chilled face. She felt the steam rise up over her eyelids and forehead and pressed the edge of the cup to her lips taking in the burning and bitter liquid. The vent blowing the cold air behind her made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, but she enjoyed the clashing of hot and cold as the coffee warmed her throat also.
There was so much on her mind right now; the big fucking blue angel, her little bit of fun with Shinji, the overload of bitterness on her tongue. She knew she should talk to Ritsuko, not just because she was her friend, but because the woman was very smart. Though she did have a little trouble relating to and examining people emotionally, she was still Misato's best choice for sorting through her predicaments.
"Hey, Ritsu?"
"Hmm?" she looked up from her notes.
"What do you do when you, uh…do something stupid?"
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, "You're being very vague. What kind of stupid?"
"Uhhmmmmmm…."
"Ahh, I see. You mean something very stupid."
"Now, I wouldn't call it that…okay, maybe I would. But, I was trying to…fix something."
"You trying to fix something? Isn't that why boyfriends exist? Unless you're me of course."
She considered telling Ritsuko that's not what she meant, but decided it would be better if she left it in a more…figurative context.
"Yeah, I was trying to um…fix my…table…No, I mean my sink faucet.-"
Ritsuko looked at her even more confused than before, afraid to comment.
'Oh, god. I sound so stupid right now. Where am I going with this. I should just shut up,' Misato thought, trying to hide her tension and embarrassment.
"See, um. My sink wasn't working. But, I don't really know how to fix a sink."
"So, why didn't you just hire a plumber then?"
"Weeeeellll, a couple weeks ago, I bought this limited edition lingerie…and two dresses, so…I don't really have money to hire someone, and yeah…"
They both stared at each other in silence until Ritsuko asked, "So, what went wrong then? What was the very stupid thing I'm sure you did to fix your faucet?"
"I, um…Okay, this is going to sound reeeaaallllly weird, but just stick with me. I put my mouth around the head…of the sink and tried…sucking…the water out…yeah."
The Doctor could only stare at the Captain awkwardly.
"What?" she finally managed to cut through the thick awkwardness that Misato had created.
Misato was starting to regret her decision to tell Ritsuko about her little problem with Shinji. However, she had just found a way out. She smirked at Ritsuko before using her Trump card.
"Haha, pretty kinky, right? HAHAHAHA, you uh…you saw what I did there, right? Because the…the water…and it's…it's not flowing."
"HAHAHA, Ooookay, that was pretty good," she said as she choked on some accidentally inhaled coffee, "but I don't know if I want to hear any more of your sex puns."
'Oh man, that was close. Luckily for me, I'm just a total sexual whit master. If I wasn't, I actually would have had to explain myself to her, and I don't know how she'd take that,' Misato thought rather proudly, though she was still bothered by her earlier actions.
"You sure you don't want to? I could keep going all day; just like in college."
"Oh, I'm sure you could, but really, I'm fine. Right now isn't the time to be making jokes anyways."
The door to the room opened and some other NERV personnel entered, including Shigeru who had ordered Pizza Hut and was carrying the boxes above his shoulders.
"Just thought I'd get everyone a little something to eat since we're gonna be partying hard tonight. Man, I should have brought my guitar too, play a couple victory strings once we bring down that angel," he said smirking, trying to lighten everyone's grim mood, though he was having a hard time convincing even himself that they were going to live through tonight.
"Is everyone here?" Misato asked, grabbing for a piece of pepperoni Pizza with cheese-stuffed crust.
"Looks like it," Ritsuko replied, reaching for a thin-crust cheese slice.
"Okay, People, your analysis reports; gimme something to work with," Misato said and took a bite of her slice.
"The target is drilling into the Geofront from directly overhead, as most of us should already know by now," Makoto stated.
"So, it's looking to invade and attack us directly on our home turf." Misato thought aloud.
Shigeru spoke next, "Based on our findings from earlier target data, we've surmised that the target automatically attempts to eliminate anything it perceives as hostile as long as it's within a certain range. We believe it is capable of long range engagements, being able to defend and offend against us from upwards of five miles."
"Okay, then close quarters combat with the Evangelions is gonna be pretty much impossible. There's no good way to send Unit-00 out there into the thick of it. But, if we can't get overlap between the Eva's AT field and the angel's to neutralize it, then it's going to be extremely hard to overcome it," concluded Misato as she took another bite from her piece of pizza.
Maya chimed in next, "On top of all that, even if we could get a sufficiently protected Eva near it, its phase pattern is constantly shifting. It would be extremely difficult to neutralize it with it changing the way it does."
"So, this thing is an absolute master of change. Changing its shape, changing its AT field, changing its tactics," Misato said while sorting through all the information she'd been given.
"According to the magi's calculations," Makoto began, "It's theoretically possible to breach its AT field using an aerial delivery of N2 bombs. However, a blast of the magnitude required would decimate NERV Headquaters as well."
Ritsuko added onto Makoto's observation as she flipped through some notes, "Yes, Magi-II in Matsushiro came to the same conclusion. And, the Japanese government along with UN forces are both proposing attacks that involve NERV Headquarters self-destructing."
Misato frowned and threw her head back, "That's ridiculous. They obviously don't understand what's at stake. If this place goes, it's all over for everyone."
Makoto spoke again, "It may already be too late though. The latest reports show that the target has already penetrated armor belt two and is making inroads into belt three with no signs of slowing or stopping. There are twenty-two armor belts between us and the surface. If the angel continues at this rate, final penetration will occur tomorrow morning, six minutes and fifty-four seconds past midnight. That's less than ten hours and fourteen minutes from now"
Maya once again voiced her findings, "On top of which, Unit-00 hasn't been calibrated, so it's not battle ready yet, and the earlier damage to Unit-01 means it won't be fully operational for quite some time. We don't even know if we'll be able to use it again in this this given situation."
"So, things aren't looking so bright, huh?" Misato sighed, "Guess we'll just have to make our own little miracle happen."
"What do you mean?" Maya asked, leaning away from her laptop, "We're completely out of options."
"We could try sending up a white flag," Makoto offered jokingly.
"Haha," Misato laughed, but only slightly, "Now there's a thought. But, before we try that, there's one more thing I want to look into," She turned to face Makoto with a slight smirk on her face, "Those papers from the SSDF research institute, intelligence still has 'em, right? "
/
"It's so beautiful," Misato sighed as she looked out the window of the airship.
"What is?" Ritsuko asked, looking up from the same notepad she'd been studying all evening.
"The city, the lights, the lake, the mountains and the sunset; it's all beautiful. We live in an amazing world, don't we, Ritsu?"
The Captain quit looking out the window when Ritsuko didn't reply and turned to face her with a somewhat sad expression in her eyes.
"We'll protect it, right, Ritsu? We're strong enough aren't we?"
Ritsuko didn't know exactly what to say. She didn't want to lie about something like this, but she knew that, deep down, Misato was looking for encouragement.
She was the Operations Director, and she had to remain confident and faithful in herself and in her plans. She was in charge of many people; people with similar visions and people with different visions, people who were good at some things and bad at others. But, there was one thing that all the people under her command shared; their hate, their love, their dedication, their will to keep fighting, their unbroken resolve, their fates, and their hearts. And with all that brought together under the lone heartbeat of Misato Katsuragi, together they shared the potential to change the world they lived in.
Ritsuko knew what to say.
"You know, Misato, with you leading us," she gently tilted her head toward the woman beside her and smiled just a little bit, "I think we just may have a chance," she said as her lips grew into a genuine smile.
Misato smiled back at her and then looked back out the window, seeing the place where she was going to stage her operation come into view.
"There it is."
Ritsuko now looked out the window also, "Ah, Fortress-2, Futago Mountain. What a marvel. It's a shame it's never been used for any major operations before tonight."
As the airship touched down at the giant stronghold, Ritsuko spoke again in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"You know, I've got to hand it to you, Captain Katsuragi, you've come up with some pretty crazy plans before tonight. But, I think this one tops them all."
"Really, Ritsuko, really? You call me crazy when you should be calling me a fucking genius. It's executable in nine hours and it at least gives us some sliver of a chance against this thing; this big fucking blue fucking thing. So, what part about that is crazy exactly?
"Well, let's see; Operation Yashima. You're requisitioning and redirecting electricity from all over Japan so that you can power a high intensity, high accuracy, self-propelled, AMAC positron cannon; a top secret piece of prototype machinery and military hardware that you've somehow managed to commandeer from the SSDF Research Facility. It's not exactly…complete, so to make up for its lack of a targeting system, you're going to use one of our Evas to man it as a marksman. Nothing crazy sounding about that. I swear, the UN forces are one thing, but I'm amazed you were able to talk the people at SSDF internal affairs into this desperately maniacal scheme of yours."
"Well…they owed me a few favors," Misato said as she brushed the hair out of her face and into the blowing wind. Ahead of her, across Lake Ashi, was Tokyo-3. The sun was setting and the lights in the city were starting to glimmer, though they wouldn't be on for very much longer.
'Sorry Shinji, there won't be many lights in the city tonight,' she frowned a little before heading to the makeshift command center, trying to relax as the wind blew through her hair and up the hem of her dress.
On her way to the command block, she saw an inspiring man motivating everyone to work harder. He was dragging a huge cable across the ground while singing, convincing a couple other men to sing and move the cable with him as the sun fell lower in the horizon. It made Misato smile realizing that if everyone worked together tonight, they might live to love another day; another terrible day, another quiet sunrise, one more lonely evening.
She finally drew near the command center and saw Makoto waiting outside the door. He perked up as he noticed her and walked over to greet her.
"Evening, Captain. I think everything is shaping up nicely."
"Haha, see, that's what I tried to tell Doctor Akagi, but she called me crazy."
Misato started laughing and Makoto followed, her laugh causing him to laugh after her as Ritsuko let out an amused chuckle under her breath.
"Okay, you two, come on. We need to get a sit-rep," the false blonde said with a smile still on her face.
She disappeared around the corner leading into the command room with Misato and Makoto following in short order.
Arriving in the command center, she saw a young female NERV tech and asked her in no uncertain terms, "How's the power system coming?"
The lady responded with a serious look on her face, "Power system will be supplied directly from the New Gotenba substation and two other auxiliary locations. We're currently laying superconductive energy supply cables towards Lower Futago Mountain. Full transformer arrays and all lines are expected to be online by 2250 hours tonight."
"And the Positron cannon?"
Shigeru responded this time, "It's starting to come together. It'll definitely be operational before the deadline."
"What about Unit-01?"
Without looking away from her monitor, Maya answered, "Currently refitting with Type-G Marksman equipment. Estimated time of completion should be just under two hours."
"Right, then that just leaves the pilot."
"You really think he's willing to get in again?" Ritsuko glanced at her with an unsure expression.
"I…I don't know. But, we… no, the entire world needs him now."
'I need him now,' she finished in her head before wondering just how she's going to convince the third child to pilot the eva again.
/
"Please be advised. Tonight, from midnight until dawn, there will be a large-scale nation-wide power outage. We ask all citizens for their cooperation during this time. Repeating," loudspeakers echoed across the city.
A little blue haired girl was making her way towards NERV hospital. Earlier in the day, it had been requested of her that she watch over a timid unconscious boy and be there when he woke up. She had been given the responsibility of informing the boy of his part in the coming operation. She walked calmly down the lonely sidewalk that had been painted golden with the setting sun. Everyone but her and a few other people had already evacuated the city in preparation for the battle that would happen tonight.
"Please be advised. Tonight, from midnight until dawn, there will be a large-scale nation-wide power outage. We ask all citizens for their cooperation during this time. Repeating."
She didn't find it particularly odd, even in a large city like this, that there were no cars or people. Sure, everyone had been evacuated, but most people would still find an empty city strange, or perhaps even haunting had anyone been there to see the emptiness. But not her. It didn't bother the blue haired girl in the least.
"Please be advised. Tonight, from midnight until dawn, there will be a large-scale nation-wide power outage. We ask all citizens for their cooperation during this time. Repeating."
She turned to look at the automated loudspeaker, her eyes shifting from ruby to a blood orange as she looked in the direction of the evening light. Rei Ayanami became almost ethereal in the light of the sun set. Her porcelain skin seemed to glow with golden light and her blue hair almost looked as though it were made of fine strands of sliver threading.
She turned back towards the hospital, which she was only about fifty feet from the entrance of now, and made her way inside with finding the Third Child's room being her biggest priority.
The hospital, like most, had white everywhere. White ceilings, white walls, white polished floors; the few nurses and doctors who remained were dressed in white. As she walked down the hallways, she wondered why they did it. It was generally assumed that white was considered clean and sterile. She knew this because she was taught this. But why? How exactly did it come to mean that. She didn't understand. Colors meant different things to different people. Rei hated red. What if someone hated white? Surely, a person wouldn't feel comfortable in a hospital if they hated white. Why not make it purple or green or-
'Red. I would not like it if it were red.'
Wouldn't it be better if the hospital just didn't possess any color then? It wouldn't be able to give or take visual pleasure then.
'Then no one would see their way. If everything was transparent, there would be no way to guide our steps.'
So, what did a hospital hope to accomplish by making everything white? Did they want to influence people? Cause them to all love and hate the same things? Cause everyone to love white? No, that wasn't right. It was only a hospital after all. It would be futile to force everyone to love white by making the walls that color when someone could just walk outside and see all the other colors the world had to offer.
'He is different than me. They are different than me'
The red eyed girl stopped, broken from her thoughts upon realizing she was in front of the hospital café.
'He will probably require nutrition. I should bring him nourishment.'
/
A burning sunset, the sound of a train rattling, seats with cheap cushions, humid hot hair. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. Fear. Loneliness. Pain.
"I don't like it; being an Eva pilot. It's expected that I always do well, so no one ever thanks me for it. And if I fail, everyone hates me, unless I get killed. So, why do I keep piloting it when I'm not cut out for this? I only came because I thought something might change; that something good might happen. I didn't come here to feel miserable."
Soft voice, blue hair, serenity.
"Is that really how you want to keep living your life? Running away from every unpleasant experience?"
"My life…why am I alive? Being alive is pointless. No one needs me. Not father, not Misato, if I'm not in the Eva, I'm not needed at all. That's why I have no choice but to pilot the Eva. But, when I pilot the Eva-"
The boy woke up with a gasp, embraced by a cradle of white sheets and golden sunlight streaming in through the wide windows granting a view of the city below.
"The same ceiling again," he frowned, a bitter taste seeping its way into his mouth with the recognition, "This is all I get when I pilot the Eva."
The boy twisted his body and looked out his window to the dark empty streets paved over the mountains beyond.
'It's sunset, why is the sun always setting here?'
He shifted back onto his back, feeling somewhat sick with himself. But as he returned to his previous position, he noticed someone sitting next to his bed.
"Rei?"
She stared at him, blinking once.
"How long have you been here?"
The blue haired beauty didn't answer. She closed the book she was reading, and began the recital she was tasked to give Shinji.
"Listen, tomorrow at 0000 hours, Operation Yashima is scheduled to commence. Pilots, Ikari and Ayanami, will report to terminal two at 1930 hours today. 2000 hours, The Evas will be transported to the depot hangars. 2005 hours, we accompany the Evas to staging ground by train. 2030 hours, we arrive at Fortress 2, Futago Mountain. After that, standby for further orders. Tomorrow, when the date changes, the operation will commence."
She got out of her seat and reached for the disgusting cold hospital dish she brought for him, offering it with a simple, "Your meal."
"No thanks, I'm not hungry," Shinji responded quietly.
"We're departing in 90 minutes," she informed him, not caring for his distress.
"They expect me to get back in that thing? After everything that's happened?" he said quietly.
"They do."
"It's too much, I don't ever want to be that scared again. Not like that; where I can't even run away."
"You're scared of the Eva?" She asked, and waited for the boy's response, but it never came, "Fine, stay in bed."
"Stay? But, Rei?" the young Ikari asked, becoming more animated and worried for the girl who had only recently finished healing from her previous injuries.
"I will pilot Unit-01 myself," she said assuredly and walked out the door.
Shinji called out to her before the door closed, "Rei, wait!"
She paused outside the door to the room, "Goodbye," she said with some distaste; her back to him as the automated door slid shut.
Shinji tried to get up and follow the ethereal girl, but he was nude and the phantom sensations from his last battle started to burn under his skin. He didn't want Rei to pilot the Eva alone, but the pain that was presenting itself was starting to convince him that he should just stay in the hospital until everything was all over.
'God, no, please, not this again,' he cried in his thoughts as the burning across his body grew worse, 'Anything but this.'
It felt like his flesh was peeling away from his bone and that magma was flowing in his veins.
"I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore."
He started scratching and swatting at his skin as though he were actually on fire.
"I DON'T WANT TO PILOT THE EVA ANYMORE! PLEASE, I DON'T WANT TO PILOT THE EVA ANYMORE! AHHHHHH, AHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed before passing out.
A little ways down the hall, Ayanami heard the boy's heart-wrenching agony as a middle aged doctor rushed past her and ran to his room. There was nothing the blue haired girl could do for him however, and so she kept walking.
/
"Alright ladies and gentlemen, I want a Sit-rep," Doctor Akagi shouted over all the chatter of the temporary command room.
All over the room, NERV tech workers began sounding out their latest reports.
"Enemy drilled has penetrated armor level seventeen. Four hours and fifty-five minutes until it breaches the Geofront."
"The New West Hakone line and South Tounosawa Aerial line three are now operating at maximum capacity."
"Bank 16 substation is being brought online and installment of the five hundred thousand volt normal transformers are on schedule. However, transformer array twenty eight has arrived 5 minutes late. If the coordinators work on getting them connected quickly then, no changes will need to be made to the time table."
"Commencing preliminary stage 4 simulations for ultra-high voltage transformer arrays and rechecking backup recovery systems."
"Beginning successive operation validation starting with convergence system one."
"Switch tests complete for all super conductive ultra-high voltage terminal transformer arrays; no problems found."
"Long distance transmission system operating at full capacity."
"Assembly of Positron Cannon complete."
"Ulta-high voltage discharge arrays are all in place. Checking discharge plug alignment with the Positron Cannon."
"AMAC Positron cannon emplacement in position and anchored."
"All right, very good everyone," Ritsuko said proudly, "I'm gonna be outside for a minute if anyone needs me."
Ritsuko grabbed her cup of coffee from her desk and got up out of her chair before walking towards the exit.
'I need to stretch for a little bit.'
The false blonde strode out of the command room and out into the sixty degree chill of the night.
'We might just pull this off, Misato,' she said looking up at the stars and sighing before lowering her gaze and sipping her coffee. She swung her eyes towards the massive rifle, looking on and seeing everyone clambering over the metal of the gun, all of them working together to create a new tomorrow.
Looking down from its barrel, she saw Maya and Makoto obviously working on calculations for the titan piece of equipment. The blonde made her way over to the two tech workers as they were engrossed in their work.
"Evening, you two," Ritsuko blurted, slightly startling Maya
"O-oh, good evening to you too, Doctor Akagi," the short haired brunette greeted back.
"So, this is the prototype Anti-Matter Adjustable Charge Positron Cannon?" Makoto said, looking up at the bottom of the barrel in awe.
"It's a hasty construction job, but the design is theoretically sound," Ritsuko said before glancing down at her note pad for the thousandth time that night, "The research papers said that it's capable of firing a shot off with a minimum charge of fifteen thousand gigawatts. We're going to need at least a hundred eighty thousand to break through the Angel's AT field given our most recent diagnostics. And, with the current internals installed on it, the maximum charge capacity stands at two hundred twenty thousand gigawatts. Though, this also doesn't take into account that we're going to need to create the antimatter on the spot and that takes up no small amount of energy in itself. But, if our calculations hold, then that would mean we have a forty thousand gigawatt surplus of offensive energy, which is great of course; more power to us. However, that wouldn't even be a megaton of energy if we weren't using an anti-matter particle-beam accelerator… on top of that; the beam is of course going to be a lot more concentrated than any nuclear detonation would ever be. So, we should have enough firepower."
"And the Ægis should be arriving soon also. So, that'll give us the best mobile defense on the planet. Still, it makes you wonder… will we really be able to take on this thing?" Makoto asked with a hint of uncertainty and fear in his eyes, realizing these could be his last few hours alive.
"I don't want to get cocky, but yeah. I think we're gonna be able to pull this off. Everything is checking out in the math department and we're actually ahead of schedule with assembly."
"We'll be forcibly linking the Zero-Point control to Unit-01's G-Type Marksman equipment. That way, Shinji won't need to do all the aiming himself. I've written a custom program to plug into the on-board computer systems to help with fire guidance solutions," Maya said in an attempt to impress her mentor.
"Well, guess we'll be counting on you, Maya," Makoto said with a smile on his face as he continued to gaze upon the cannon.
"Now if we could say the same of our pilot. Let's just hope… that Misato can bring him around," Ritsuko said to herself before taking another mouthful of coffee and sighing as her breath condensed in the abnormally cold air of the night.
/
Misato arrived at NERV hospital only to find that Shinji was not in his room. This had almost given her a panic attack. Her entire operation had been riding on Shinji playing offense and Rei defending him. If Shinji didn't participate, they'd be cut down to one pilot, meaning she'd have to sacrifice one position. And the only one she could really afford to lose was the defending position. But, leaving the Positron Cannon defenseless would be a huge risk; possibly akin to something suicidal.
She hated to do it, but she figured she'd have to call Section 2 to get Shinji's whereabouts.
The woman pulled the phone out of the back pocket of her dress and dialed in a few numbers.
"This is Katsuragi. The third child, where is he?"
A man with a gruff voice answered from the other end of the phone.
"One floor above you. The bridge connecting the two main buildings. He's been there for about forty minutes."
"Alright, thanks," she hung up the phone as a shiver ran down her spine. It was unnerving to her that not only did Section 2 keep constant surveillance on the children, but probably on her too if any of the higher-ups ever ordered them to.
Though she didn't like it, she had to admit that they came in handy for situations like this.
Shaking off her discomfort, she made for the nearest stairwell and upon reaching the next floor, sure enough, peering through he windows on the side of the hospital, Misato saw Shinji looking out over the city and the dark countryside.
She cautiously approached him and calmly addressed him, "Here you are. What are you doing? You missed the rendezvous time."
She looked down at the young Ikari, waiting for him to respond as he turned to face her. He had an upset look accompanying him, as though he may have been thinking too hard for the past half hour.
"Listen, you made up your own mind to be a part of this. Now you need to do your job like you said you would," Misato chided.
"I just… I'm scared, okay? You all have it so easy. You're always safe underground giving out orders. I'm the only one in real danger." Shinji said becoming angry, "You wanna tell me how that's fair?"
He glared at her and the purple haired babe didn't really know how to answer, but she tried her best.
"Listen, Shinji, do you remember when I told you about the lights a couple weeks ago?"
"Yeah," his glare softened a little.
"And you remember how I said that you could be the brightest light of them all?"
"I guess."
"And remember how I said that all the lights have to shine brightly, together as one?"
The distraught young man didn't reply.
Misato's eyes softened a little bit and she took a breath. She grabbed Shinji's hand, forcing him to follow her.
"Come with me for a minute."
The two walked off the bridge and took an elevator down to the bottom of the hospital. The doors of the elevator slid open as it reached the parking garage and the boy became uneasy knowing what was going to happen next.
'I know she's only going to try to convince me. I should just tell her. I should tell her I don't want to pilot the damn Eva anymore,' Shinji thought as Misato led him to her car.
As Misato drove out of the parking garage and onto the empty streets of Tokyo-3, Shinji finally managed to speak up.
"Listen Misato, I'm sick of the Evas. I don't want to be the brightest light; I don't want to be any light."
Misato abruptly stopped the car in the middle of the desolate street and looked at him, about to cry.
"Shinji, listen, I know it's a lot to ask, and I know you have the biggest responsibility of us all, but I'm relying on you. I need you tonight. NERV needs you tonight. The entire world needs you tonight. Are you really just going to… leave us in the dark like this? If you don't pilot, we'll probably all die. Are you really okay with that?"
"Yeah, I am."
"WELL, I'M NOT, DAMN IT!" Misato said, leaking tears from her delicate jewels now, "I WANT TO LIVE. I WANT TO SEE ANOTHER SUNRISE. I WANT TO LOOK FORWARD TO AND BEYOND TOMORROW, EVEN IF IT'S JUST ONE TERRIBLE FIGHT AFTER THE NEXT. I DON'T CARE. I WANT TO LIVE, SHINJI! I WANT TO LIVE AND I NEED YOUR HELP TO DO IT! I'VE WORKED SO HARD TO MAKE A MIRACLE HAPPEN TONIGHT, SO PLEASE, SHINJI, PLEASE. IF YOU WON'T DO IT FOR YOURSELF, THEN AT LEAST PILOT FOR ME. PLEASE, JUST ONE MORE TIME, AND THEN YOU CAN GO AND YOU'LL NEVER HAVE TO PILOT AGAIN."
The poor woman was crying hysterically over her steering wheel now; little crystal tears dripping onto her dress and thighs. Still though, she tried to regain her composure so that she could at least speak with wavering lips and a heaving chest.
"If we fail, you'll die anyways. Please, Shinji, there's nothing to lose. I know it'll probably hurt a lot but… please. Just… at least let me show you what I wanted to show you before you make up your mind."
Shinji didn't want to cave to the woman's request, but she was so desperate, it hurt Shinji to just plain out say no to her.
"Fine," he said looking out the car window with a very powerful look of discontent.
"Shinji?"
He looked back to face her only to be met with her lips on his. He could feel her hot tears being shared between both their faces now as she continued to cry. She brought one of her hands to his cheek and she put the other behind his head, pulling him closer so that she could deepen the kiss. She started to push her tongue past his lips and moaned just a little bit.
Shinji was very uneasy. He'd always had a hard time interacting with people in this fashion or anything even remotely similar. He didn't relax, in fact, he couldn't even bring himself to put his arms around the older woman, but eventually, he managed to close his eyes and tried to enjoy the kiss despite how wrong it felt to him.
She broke the kiss jerkily with her hands still around his face. Her eyes were still closed, squeezing tears out the corners, and she was biting her lips to try to hold back her sobbing.
"Thank you, Shinji."
She threw her arms around him, falling onto the boy's chest as she cried onto the white shirt she'd bought him a few weeks ago.
"Thank you for giving me a chance."
As always, Shinji didn't know how to react to this kind of physical interaction. He had never been kissed; he had never been hugged. He'd never been shown appreciation his entire life. He didn't really understand how he should feel with someone showing him this kind of intimacy. And so, he lamely let it happen without reacting too much to any of it.
"Misato," he started with a small blush across his face as he looked down at the woman crying on his chest, "I… I think we should go."
The woman sniffled a couple times, "Yeah, yeah, you're right," and then got off the boy's chest, "It's not far from here. We just need to get back to NERV. There's a train right around the block that heads down there. It won't be too long."
She put the car back into gear and started driving. She didn't want to smile just yet, but for some reason, she couldn't help but let one wrap around her face.
"I don't know if Ayanami told you earlier, but I'm gonna be getting electricity from all over Japan to make this operation happen. Pretty crazy, huh?"
"I guess," Shinji said, not really in the mood to talk right now.
Misato frowned a little at his response, but realized he was probably extremely stressed and had a lot on his mind. They both remained quite for the next ten minutes as they went down into the Geofront and entered NERV HQ. Misato held the boy's hand as she guided him down the halls and into an elevator. She pressed a button and swiped her card through a reader, and the elevator began going down.
"Fifteen years ago, in the Second Impact, half of humanity was wiped out. If we fail, and the angels bring about the third impact now, the human race won't survive; not one single soul," the woman says solemnly.
"I already know all this. I don't need to hear it again," Shinji said sounding somewhat annoyed with the older woman
They remain silent for a couple seconds, Misato staring at the walls, trying to think of what to say next as the lights in the elevator flicker and change from white to red.
"Listen, Shinji, if an angel should manage to get past our defenses and make its way all the way down here to Level-EEE, this whole place is set to automatically self-destruct. Even if it costs us our own lives to kill the angel, we will prevent third impact from happening. Every man and woman in this organization is prepared to pay that price," she says as the doors of the elevator open and a dark barely lit hallway stood ominously ahead of the pair.
Misato took a step out of the elevator dragging the boy with her as she held his shaking hands in her own.
"Listen Shinji, I'm about to show you something. And, I don't want you to go around telling everyone. It's not the most secret thing around here, but I still don't want everyone hearing about this okay? I'm showing you this because I want you to understand something, and I trust you, and I feel you deserve to know."
Shinji mumbled a quiet affirmative moan to Misato as they continue down the shadowy hallway. After another twenty seconds of walking, a door with a lit control panel showed itself in the darkness.
"This is terminal Dogma. It leads to Central Dogma... There are a lot of secrets here, some of which I don't have access to. But… I can show you this," she said as she slid her ID card through yet another card scanner.
Ahead of her, the giant door began opening as complex locking mechanisms slide and moved out of the way, revealing a giant cross, with a the upper half of a huge pale looking body that looked as though it were made of clay. Where the lower half of the body should have been where numerous smaller legs sticking out of the lower torso and pierced through the center of the body's chest was a gargantuan, vermillion, spiral bident.
"Is that…It can't be…an Eva?" Shinji asked, scared and not entirely sure what he was looking at.
"No, what you're seeing is the key to the end of all life on earth; the first angel, Adam," Misato said in a more calm voice than she felt.
"Adam?" shinji asked as though he didn't hear the first time.
"Right. It's the trigger that will set off the third impact. We have to protect Adam. That's what the Evas are for. And piloting one is something only you can do. Essentially, we've entrusted the future of mankind and all life on earth to you and the Evas."
"But, that's so much to ask. I don't understand, why me?"
"There is no why. That destiny just happened to be yours, that's all," she looked down at the boy by her side and smiled at him, "However, I want you to understand that you're not the only one risking your life in this fight. We're all in this together."
Shinji looked to the floor, finally having made his decision, knowing in his heart that Misato had won before she'd even tried convincing him.
"Alright, I'll try; I'll pilot the Eva."
The purple haired woman reassuringly squeezed the boy's hand, before she bent over in front of him and gave him a short kiss.
"Thanks again, my little Shinji."
She stood back up and started tugging the confused and lost boy back to the elevator so that they could head to Futago Mountain. The operation would be starting soon, and she obviously needed to make sure that they were both there.
Having gotten back on the elevator, Misato had seen Shinji was obviously still not pleased with piloting.
'Poor little boy. I hate myself for putting him through this.'
She put her hand on his shoulder and tried to speak to him to hopefully reassure him.
"Everything is going to be okay, Shinji. Just one shot. That's all it's gonna take, okay."
"One shot with what? No one has told me exactly what I'm supposed to be doing yet."
"Oh, you're going to love it. I got my hands on a positron cannon. And, like I said earlier, we're using the entirety of Japan's electrical supply to power it. It's totally strong enough to get through the angel's AT field. And one shot is all it's gonna take," she said with a smile on her face, 'One shot, I hope. There's so many things that could go wrong. That is the whole reason I enlisted Rei in this operation. But, he doesn't need to know that right now. And who knows? Maybe he will get it in one shot.'
Shinji probably still wasn't pleased, but at least now, his frown had been replaced with something more awestruck as he looked up at the older woman.
She looked down at him and smiled a little; putting her hands on his shoulders and pushing him against the wall of the elevator.
"Just one more time, okay Shinji? I don't know if I'll get another chance to do this tonight," she whispered to the boy before she pressed her lips to his, 'I don't know if I'll get another chance to do this ever. And I don't want to die alone if I die tonight.'
She forced his back into the cold metal of the elevator and pushed her breasts into the smaller boy's chest. Her breathing became harder and she repositioned her hands from his shoulders to his cheeks, pulling him; bringing his lips closer to hers until they touched.
The elevator doors opened and the babe straightened her dress out before turning to face the boy and fix his shirt some while he was dazed.
"Well then," she smiled at him, "Come on!" and giggled.
"Uh…huh," Shinji managed as the older woman once again began dragging him along with her.
/
Misato had arrived at Futago Mountain not more than two minutes ago and her women's intuition had already seemingly magically guided her to Rei and Ristuko like a compass unlike it usually did. It was a good thing too, because midnight was approaching fast and she direly wanted to give the two pilots their final briefing before the operation was due to start. She gathered the two pilots and the good doctor away from the loud machinery working around the deadly cannon and began her recital.
"Now then, you each have a specific role to perform in in this operation. Now Shinji." Misato said confidently before the two pilots before her.
"Yes?"
"You'll be the gunner in Unit-01."
"Right."
"Rei, You'll be in charge of defense in Unit-00 with the Ægis ."
"Yes, Ma'am." Rei affirmed stoically.
The sky above was dark, and the stars glimmered in the distance, hinting of the possibilities tomorrow may offer.
Ritsuko took her turn to speak, "This operation will require a high degree of precision. There's no room for error. That being the case, since Unit-00 hasn't been calibrated yet, Unit-01 gives us a greater advantage, even in its damaged state. Listen, Shinji, positrons are affected by the earth's rotation, magnetic field, and gravity, so they won't be projected in a straight line. You shouldn't need to compensate for that by yourself, because the on-board computers should be functioning and providing fire guidance solutions, but if worse comes to worse, you should know what you're dealing with. Obviously, when you fire, make sure to hit the core. Also, there is only one terminal convergence point for the power. Therefore, Unit-01 cannot move once it's in firing position."
"Meaning…I can't retreat."
"Correct" Ritsuko stated, confirming what might be the boy's worst fears.
"But, what if I miss? And the angel fires back?"
"No. Don't concern yourself with what if's right now. Concentrate on destroying your target in a single shot."
"Because if I miss, we're screwed. Is that it?" Shinji said to himself more than anyone else, trying to come to grips with the situation.
Rei broke into the conversation, "So then, I just have to protect Unit-01, is that right?"
"Right"
"I understand," the little blue haired girl said, barely visible determination glinting in her eyes.
"It's time. You two get changed," Misato said to the two pilots.
"Right," the two children said in unison before heading off to the makeshift changing rooms.
The Doctor and The Captain watched the kids walk off together for a moment before Ritsuko spoke up.
"I wonder how they're going to do. This is their first time piloting together after all."
"Oh, gosh, I almost hate to think about it. I don't think they're going to have any problems. Rei follows orders extremely well, and…I think Shinji is determined enough. But still, I would cry so hard if something went wrong on a night like tonight. …And, I am a little worried about what happened between them earlier today," the babe sighed.
"What happened?"
"Oh, Shinji had sexy time with Rei..."
"WHAT?" Doctor Akagi exclaimed, surprised she hadn't heard about this beforehand.
"It wasn't anything too serious. He just got to fondle her a bit. And, it sounded like the whole thing was an accident if what he says is true."
"Well, that's…exciting…" she said, obviously wondering how something like this could even happen between the two kids.
"Hehe, hey Ritsu, how much you wanna bet they're doing something naughty in the changing rooms right now?"
"Not a penny."
The two women sat in silence for a moment, looking onwards across the dark concrete of the mountain stronghold.
"Um, Ritsuko, there's something I need to tell you."
"Not another one of your sex jokes, I hope."
"Ehehe, something like that."
"Well, I guess go ahead and spit it out."
"Spitting is quitting. I always swallow."
Ritsuko gave the Captain a, "Yeah, I'm sure you do," kind of look but chose to remain silent.
"Anyways, um…so, uh, remember how I was telling you about my sink?"
"Yes?" Ritsuko said raising an eyebrow.
"Well, it uh… wasn't my sink that I sucked."
Ritsuko's mouth opened a little as a guess came to mind as the two women stood staring at each other.
"Oh, Misato!"
"What? I haven't even said anything yet," though, The Captain knew Ritsuko was no fool, and probably knew by now what Misato was going to say.
"You didn't, did you?"
"What? I haven't even gotten a chance to say my piece yet."
"Misato, he's the Commander's son! What were you thinking? You could be imprisoned!"
"Now, I didn't even say who I sucked off yet."
"Then who, Misato? Who did you preform fellatio on if it wasn't Shinji?"
They both stared at each other for a very long moment, Ritsuko ready to accuse and Misato trying to stall. The babe finally admitted to her crime however, realizing there was nowhere to run.
"…The Commander's son."
Ritsuko's eyes sharpened for a moment, but soon she just sighed, letting it go knowing there were more important things.
"Listen, Misato, I won't tell anyone if we live through the night considering what you've done for us here. But…I really think you need to take a look at your life. Please, don't hold what I say against you. I'm just…watching out for you like I always do. I don't exactly want to see you imprisoned after what you've managed to accomplish tonight."
"T-thank you…Ritsuko," Misato said feeling quite ashamed of herself.
"Do I need to check him for any STD's?"
"No, I've already been checked. I don't have anything. The only way he'd have caught something is if he was already…before I…"
"Okay, Misato, listen, for a woman, I think you're very good at compartmentalizing. So, for everyone's sake, I need you to focus on our operation right now, okay? This is your operation, Misato. It was your idea. It's only right that you lead us. I don't think you've done any permanent damage to him, so there's nothing to worry about."
"Y-yes, Ritsuko. …And thanks, again."
"Oh, Misato," She sighed and then embraced her friend, both of them seeking comfort from the dread of the coming battle.
/
Shinji had just pressurized his plugsuit. A thin curtain separated the two pilots; there was about six inches of clearance from the hem of the curtain to the surface of the floor. Ikari had sat down on the bench on the changing room, waiting for Ayanami to be finished. Looking under the curtain, he'd seen her brassiere drop to the floor, followed by her panties slipping over her ankles. The shadow cast on the curtain showed Ayanami's petite curvy body was currently slipping into her tight white plugsuit.
"You know, there's a chance we could both die on this mission," the boy said, attempting to start some kind of conversation between him and the quiet girl.
Rei pressurized her plugsuit and flexed her fingers, still paranoid the previously broke bones in her arms would fail her. She confidently responded to the fearful Ikari, "You're wrong. You won't die… because I will protect you."
She swung aside the curtain between the two and stared at Ikari.
"But maybe I'm not worth protecting," he said quietly, looking at the ground.
"It does not matter. I was ordered to and I will do so."
"Rei?" The boy looked into her red eyes, mesmerized by them, seeing so many things in them that he'd probably never understand.
"Come with me," she demanded, "There is something I wish to show you."
Shinji remained seated, somewhat surprised by her words.
"Come," she said again when he didn't move.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
He stood, and the two left the changing room. Upon exiting, Shinji saw Misato and Ritsuko hugging in the distance.
'They must be really scared. I…I mustn't run away.'
Rei continued to lead the two of them towards a depot with a giant white tarp far too large to effectively pick up. She stopped the other child in front of the white sheet as she stared at it for a moment and then faced Shinji. He looked at her and she looked right back at him.
"Stay here."
It was a simple request. Shinji was admittedly curious about what was under the giant white cloth. Though, he obviously wouldn't have to wait long to have his answers. Rei had walked off to a side of the depot that had some crane controls. The girl moved the levers and with them, the tarp covering the object. Before long, it was lifted away from the object and before Shinji was a diamond studded shield of epic proportions.
"This is the Ægis ," the girl had arrived back by his side, "It will protect you. It is an extension of myself, just like Unit-00 is an extension of me. Therefore, I will protect you with myself. Are you at ease?"
"Rei, I…"
"You have nothing to fear. I will not fail. I will not disappoint my Commander. Will you?"
"I…I don't know. I'll try not to though."
The red eyes of Ayanami peered accusingly into his soul. She seemed to be silently threatening him, daring him to run away; to falter in his will or in his actions, and making sure to let him know that if he did, there would be hell to pay.
She quit glaring at him and began walking away from him
"Rei, wait!" Shinji said, chasing after her.
She continues over the cold concrete, the darkness of the night trailing closely behind her white plugsuit. Following behind her, Shinji noticed the shapeliness of her entire backside. Her protruding shoulder blades, the crease in her tone back where her spine was, and the perfectly bubble-round butt she possessed. He watched as her thighs and butt cheeks slid back and forth, accentuated by and squeezed into her skin-tight plug suit. She walks out from under the canopy of the depot and out into the moonlight.
"Hey, Rei, wait, there's something- ooh"
Rei had suddenly stopped, finally acknowledging Shinji. But, with as quickly as she stopped, he didn't have time to stop himself and walked into her.
"Oh, um, sorry. I didn't expect you to stop so fast," the boy said, a blush creeping across his face in the pale moonlight; pale like Rei.
"Why? What are you sorry for?" she asked, turning around to face him.
"I uh…um…well, listen, um, there was something I wanted to show you also," he said smiling sheepishly at her while she only stared back at him.
"Show me, then."
"Oh, yeah, of course, follow me."
The boy headed to the edge of the mountain fortress, where the Evas were being kept, with the little blue-haired girl in toe close behind. Upon arriving, he sat down next to the lift that would bring him to his entry plug and gestured for Rei to do the same. The obedient girl did as she was told and sat next to her lift.
"Look out there, Rei," Shinji said as he pointed across Lake Ashi, past Mount Kamiyama, and directly to the heart of Tokyo-3, "That's our home."
The stoic girl remained as quiet as ever.
"Isn't it beautiful? All the lights, I mean."
"I suppose."
Shinji frowned at her response, knowing it would be hard to start a conversation with the girl. The two sat in silence together for a few minutes. Over the hills, they saw the lights starting to go out across Japan; first the streets lights leading to Tokyo-3 and then eventually all the buildings and signs within it. Soon, the entire country of japan had gone dark. Far above the two pilots, the stars and the moon where the only things left illuminating the planet. Shinji gazed upon the heavens, swearing that he'd never seen such a crisp view of the stars before. The boy smiled, despite the fear that had been ripping at his heart the entire night.
"Look, Rei! Look up there," the boy said pointing to the sky, towards the colossal and vast expanse of dust and gasses that that signaled towards the center of the Milky Way galaxy, "That's our home too."
"I see," the girl said, not understanding the sentiment, and not quite impressed with his observation.
"It's nice, isn't it? I don't know if I've ever seen something so beautiful."
"It is sufficiently pleasing, I suppose."
Shinji was downcast from his failed attempt to start a conversation with the girl, not yet understanding her mannerisms and thought process. If Shinji had understood the degree to which she was detached, he would have known she was agreeing with him as opposed to thinking she didn't want to speak. But, they had only started socializing earlier in the day, and so, the poor boy didn't understand a single thing about the girl which only encouraged his curiosity even more.
"Listen, Rei, why do you pilot the Eva?" Shinji asked in a last ditch effort to speak with her.
"Because it's a bond."
"A bond?" he asked, not quite understanding what she meant.
"Yes, a bond."
"With my father?"
"With everyone, for life is most precious," she corrected him.
Shinji sat in silence for a moment, thinking about what the girl said. She spoke strangely for someone her age, and so he didn't exactly understand if there was something else she was trying to get across of if she was just being concise. However, he quickly let the thought go. He wanted to speak to her, to anyone, before the coming battle.
"You know, you're stronger than I am."
"That's because… I have nothing else," she paused midway through her explanation, thinking about her words.
The young man wasn't expecting her to say that. He turned to look at her, some surprise evident on his features.
'She's the same as me. She has no purpose in life other than the Evas. That's what she means, right?'
He suddenly felt very sorry for her, realizing that she was indeed stronger than him. Still, he tried to converse with her, perhaps feeling as though he recognized something they shared, and knowing that they may be able to relate with other things.
"It's pretty quiet out there isn't it?"
"I believe this is what they call the calm before the storm," she stood up and glanced down at the boy, "It's time. We should go."
Shinji looked up at the resolute girl; the moon silhouetting her figure. And he wished he could be as strong as her.
"Goodbye," and with that, she turned on her heels and went to the lift that would bring her to the hatch of her entry plug.
Shinji silently stared at her, watching her climb atop her Eva as dread began to set in realizing he'd have to do the same any minute now.
/
-This Minute, This Second-
/
A random female voice sounded out in the command room and over the coms, "Counting down to Midnight. All units are in position. Final seconds before operation commences."
A timer in the command room counted down the last five seconds before midnight, and then it let out a small chime letting everyone in the command room know it's time.
"Here we go, it's all you, Captain," Makoto sighed.
Misato wasn't entirely ready for this, but she knew she has to do this. She picked up a microphone to give Shinji one final bout of encouragement.
"Shinji, look, whatever happens out there, I'm grateful to you just for trying. Thank you."
She set the com back down and took a deep breath. This might be the most important battle mankind had ever fought, and she was the one directing it. It felt good, but she was also scared; scared for the people under her command, scared for her friends, scared for her mother whom she hadn't seen or talked to in many years. She was scared for Shinji, scared for Rei, scared for herself. She was scared for the tomorrow which may never come. She could swear, everyone in the command room could hear her heartbeat. She was horrified, but she had to do this. The next words she uttered would be the either the saving grace or the total annihilation of humanity.
"Commence Operation Yashima. Prepare to fire the positron cannon. Initiate stage one connections," she said trying to contain her anxiousness.
All around her, the chatter of the command room could be heard as it came back to life after awaiting her order.
"Roger. All regions switching on primary and secondary substation systems. Throwing all switches. Initiate connections."
"Every power generator facility operating at maximum capacity. Point seven until maximum output limit."
"No problems in power supply system."
"Frequency transducer capacity expanded to sixty five million kilowatts."
"All inverters operating normally"
"Stage one breaker systems now activating."
"Districts one through eight o three, open all transition lines," Misato heard Makoto say through all the other voices.
"Voltage stable. System frequency holding at fifty hertz."
"Alright, stage two connections, activate," Misato ordered over all the noise.
"New Gotenba and New Susono substations coming online," Maya informed the purple haired Captain
"New Yugawara auxiliary substation also coming online, Voltage fluctuations within expected range."
"Stage three connections," The Captain ordered again.
"Converting all power to the expanded Futago mountain substation," Makoto said.
"Power transmission systems maintaining maximum voltage. All coolant systems operating at maximum output. Superconductive transformers coming online. Flywheel starting up," Maya says, the poor girl obviously in charge of a lot of information as usual.
"Frequency and converted power from Western Japan holding at maximum levels."
"Stage three connections looking optimal," Makoto said directly to The Captain.
"Then we're ready. Radio in to Fortress Four and Five. Commence operation as scheduled. Order all observation planes to pull out." Misato said, ready as she'd ever be for whatever happened next, "ARTILLERY POSITIONS ONE THROUGH THRITY-THREE, FIRE!"
Guided Missile pods all around the mountains of Tokyo-3 began firing dozens of missiles at a time. Shinji looked around inside his Eva and saw the missiles racing towards the angel. He turned his gaze back towards the angel and saw it start to morph just like it had when he fought it earlier. The angel separated into hundreds of little shards and begins firing off multitudes of small beams, lighting up the sky like a light show. Every beam the angel shot off hits every missile that was heading towards it, leaving a fiery and smoky halo around it for miles and miles.
But that wasn't enough for the angel. Unsatisfied with only the destruction of the missiles, it changed shape again and fired concentrated beams at all the offending artillery, destroying it all within seconds.
"Ground attack system three was vaporized."
"Then it'll know where we fire from. Don't give it any time to learn. NEXT VOLLEY, ARTILERY BATTERIES FORTY THROUGH SIXTY, FIRE," Misato said, trying to stay in control of the situation.
Autocannons lining the mountains began firing at the angel. Shot after shot flew through the air, but the angel erected its AT Field and the rounds ricocheted off of it, flying off at seemingly random angles into the sky and the buildings surrounding the angel. The angel once again shifted its form and shot another massive beam of concentrated energy at the guns, blowing them to pieces.
"Batteries forty two through fifty seven, hit," Makoto shouted to Misato.
"VLS array 8, vaporized," followed Maya.
"ALL REMAINING ARTILLERY UNITS, COMMENCE ATTACK!" Misato's voice screamed through everyone's coms.
All across the mountains around Tokyo-3, hundreds of missiles and bullets started sailing through the air towards the angel's location. None of them are able to touch that angel however.
"No effect on target."
"Positron accelerator charging. Plus one tera. Convergence holding at thirty eight thousand revolutions."
"Cannon cycling up"
"Compression density increasing. Approaching firing readiness."
"Transmission output increasing."
"Operational voltage conversion rate reaching point oh one nine percent."
"Stage four connections normal, Captain," Maya shouted over the rest of the bridge crew.
"FINAL SAFETIES, RELEASE!" Misato once again yelled over all the chatter.
"Engaging cannon, loading fuse," Makoto confirmed.
The G-Type Marksman equipment on Shinji's Eva activated and a giant head-mounted scope lowered in front of Unit-01's right eye.
"Commencing final entry of fire guidance solutions. Compensation for georotation, geogravity and geomagnetism at plus point zero zero zero nine. The fire control targeting system is tracking the target. Positron cannon magnetic acceleration field stable. Positrons accelerating. Zero point two until critical. Looking good, Shinji," Maya said to the boy, trying to inform him and reassure him at the same time.
"STAGE FIVE, ACTIVATE FINAL CONNECTIONS!" Misato ordered as all the energy in Japan met its penultimate convergence point.
"All power to ultra-high voltage discharge array. Discharge plugs one through nine, ready to go. All he's got to do is pull the trigger," Hyuga said with a determined smile on his face.
Shinji sat in the entry plug as mortified as one human being could be. He'd just watch the angel miles away from him destroy basically everything that attempted to attack it, and he didn't want to be the next thing it decided to fire at.
He thought to himself, terrified, 'I don't have Rei's determination. I'm not sure I have any qualities that would make me a good eva pilot. So why? All I did was get it to move and now I'm protecting mankind. This is such a huge thing; I can't even wrap my mind around it. Why me?'
(Misato's gentle eyes looked down at the boy.
"There is no why. That destiny just happened to be yours, that's all.")
"Right," he whispered to himself, trying to psych himself up.
Back in the command room, it was Déjà vu. Maya detected the angel charging energy up. They didn't have much time if they were going to make this miracle work.
"CAPTAIN, THE ANGEL. IT'S GONNA FIRE!" Maya screamed.
Misato looked at The Lieutenant with a look of horror and activated her com as fast as she could, directing it to Shinji's plug.
"SHINJI, FIRE NOW!"
The boy was ripped from his thoughts by the desperation in Misato's voice. Upon realizing what she said, he willed his Eva to pull the trigger. He wasn't ready for this, but he couldn't just stand around and wait anymore. Behind the Eva, the discharge plug arrays shot all the energy they had to the electrical receiver on top of the cannon, the energy flowing though the circuitry before the cannon fired.
The top of Mount Futago lit up as the Cannon fired in union with the angel. The two beams met each other over the waters of Lake Ashi, disrupting and warping each other's trajectories, sending them both off into different directions than where both parties had intended them to go.
The beam from the positron cannon swerved into the water of the lake, causing a huge explosion of steam clouds almost two hundred feet in diameter to burst into the air while huge waves almost fifty feet tall erupted from the point of impact. The beam from the angel was directed head first into mount Kamiyama slightly in front of Futago Mountain, melting half of it away in a matter of seconds. The concussive blast from the angel's beam managed to sweep over the entirety of Fortress Two, but did no real damage.
"Whew, that was…way too close," a relieved Misato sighed.
"CAPTAIN, IT'S CHARGING AGAIN! ENERGY READINGS RISING!" Maya once again screamed.
"WHAT? ALREADY? EVERYONE, BRACE FOR DIRECT IMPACT!" Misato yelled and everyone in the command room grabbed ahold of whatever they could.
Shinji had heard Misato's order from inside his plug, but he was completely lost in his thoughts once again.
'I failed. We're all going to die. The cannon can't fire again yet and the Angel is…it's already…'
The boy watched, horrified as the angel transformed into a giant five point star with its ugly blood red core at the center. Rings of light gathered and spun around the core before falling into the bloody sphere and being shot back out as an extremely condensed laser. The radiant streak of light shot into what remained of Kamiyama, melting a hole straight through it before the beam continued onwards to Futago Mountain behind it.
/
Red warning lights were flashing everywhere in the command center with quiet alarms sounding along with them.
"How…How's the power system?" Misato asked, sore from falling and straining to get up from the cold floor.
"It's still online. Looks like it's already starting to recharge," Makoto said almost in a daze.
"And the positron cannon?"
"Minor damage. It appears to be mostly superficial. But, I don't know for sure if we'll get another shot out of it."
"No time to wait, we'll just have to hope it works," Misato said, and then directed her com to Shinji, "Shinji, are you alright? Hurry, get Unit-01 back into firing position, now."
Shinji was hurting. The new burns he'd just felt, the phantom sensations he'd already been feeling, all of it was searing across his body in unimaginable ways. He was afraid. The terrified boy sat in a fetal position inside the plug, hugging his legs together as his pained tears floated around him and clung to his eyelids in the LCL.
"I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore. I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore. I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore. I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore," The boy recited in an infinite loop.
"SHINJI!?"
The shaking boy wanted to respond to Misato. He wanted to so badly. But, he couldn't.
"I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore. I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore. I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore. I don't want to pilot the Eva anymore."
Suddenly, he heard his father's voice over the coms, and he became very quiet.
"Effective immediately, the Unit-01 pilot is relieved of duty. Order the Unit-00 pilot to take over the gunner position."
Back at NERV HQ Subcommander Fuyutsuki was questioning the Elder Ikari's orders, "But, Sir?"
"You heard me. He's clearly useless. Pull him out."
Suddenly, Misato's face showed up in a window on the screen in front of the Command Bridge where Ikari and Fuyutsuki currently resided.
"No, commander, wait. He could have run away but he got in the Eva. As long as he still chooses to fight, we should trust him to see this through."
Miles away from NERV, Shinji painfully reached for the control yokes through the LCL, motivated by the exchange between Misato and his Father that he could hear over the com.
'I've got to do this. She's relying on me. Everyone is relying on me. …I won't let them down,' the boy thought to himself, still crying in his plug.
"I'm asking you to have faith in your own son," Misato said trying to sound as convincing as possible, "Have faith with me that he is the Unit-01 pilot."
Gendo thought for a long moment, his hands over his pursed lips.
"I'll leave it to you then. Do as you see fit," The Commander finally replied.
"Thank you, Commander," Misato nodded and cut the connection, her display disappearing from the Command Bridge.
"Misato!" Shinji strained to say though the pain as he hefted the cannon.
"Yes, Shinji, I'm here, I'm here."
"Let's… let's just finish this. Please, I don't want to be in here anymore," the boy cried.
"Of course. One more time then?"
Ritsuko cut in, "Shinji, the discharge plugs should already be charging. So, just get the cannon back into position. Everything still seems to be working. So, all you need to do is pull the trigger."
The Eva continued to carry the massive cannon across the stronghold, its barrel steaming in the cold night air.
'I've just gotta… take a couple more steps,' Shinji thought, trying to motivate himself as the burning pain startied to get under the boy's skin.
The Eva repositioned the cannon, shuddering in pain as its pilot did as well.
"Yes, Shinji, Yes! You can do it!" Misato cheered him on as he got the Eva back behind the cannon.
Back in the makeshift command room Maya screamed again as the angel once again began gathering energy, "NO, CAPTAIN, IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!"
"WHAT? NO!"
Shinji yelled in his plug as he saw the core of the angel light up again. He shielded his eyes from the blinding light and braced for the new wave of superheated pain he'd surly feel within the next moment. But, it didn't come.
He slowly and shakily moved his hand from in front of his eyes and saw Unit-00 standing in front of his Eva with the magnificent Ægis shield. He watched the beam deflect off the shield and high into the sky leaving a glowing streak ascending hundreds of miles to the heavens as the angel stopped firing its beam.
"Damn, we're lucky. That energy beam didn't look as powerful as some of the others and the Aegis was able to deflect it. Maybe it knows we're capable of piecing it's AT field and it was trying to stop us before we fired off another shot. Unlucky for it, the discharge arrays are fully primed. Take this opportunity, Misato," Ritsuko said, advising the Captain.
Misato's voice roared over the coms, "SHINJI, DO IT! FIRE NOW BEFORE IT CAN CHARGE AGAIN!"
Shinji grunted in pain as Unit-00 moved out of the way and he forced his eva to pull the trigger. Once again, the discharge plugs directed thousands upon thousands of gigawatts to the Positron Cannon. And once again, the cannon shot its particle beam across Lake Ashi, creating giant ripples in its wake. Shinji watched in disbelief as sure enough, the beam struck through the Angel's AT field, but his heart sank seeing what he saw next.
As the beam made contact with one of the angel's vertices, it split; rendering the Cannon's shot completely harmless as the now separated beam shot through the atmosphere in thinner beams. But, before it could dissipate, the angel changed into a five point star again and started gathering the energy the cannon had just attempted to assault it with on top of charging its own energy.
Misato looked on in fear, "What...what the hell is it doing?"
Ritsuko made a split second deduction and yelled out to The Captain, "MISATO, HAVE THE CHILDREN SPREAD THEIR AT FIELDS TO MAXIMUM, NOW!"
"SHINJI, REI, YOUR A.T. FIELDS!"
"Got it," Shinji managed to speak.
"Right," Rei followed.
The angel finished charging quickly with the energy it had stolen from the positron cannon and within a few moments, it would be firing an immensely powerful beam back at it in an attempt to destroy it once and for all. Rei moved her Eva Back in front of Unit-01 just before the angel fired, raising her hands and bringing up her AT field. The beam made contact with her field, hexagonal waves of light spreading over the mountain as she also held her shield in front of her. Shinji tried to move from behind the cannon, but Rei's AT field shattered before he could help her. Both of the evas where flung back across Fortress Two as burning flames consumed them.
/
-The Road Untraveled | You Are (Not) Alone-
/
"God damn it, this is it. We're dead. I was so consumed with finding a way through its AT field, I didn't even stop to think about its physical properties," Misato said hysterically as she lay on the floor from the shockwave of the blast
Ritsuko stared down at the woman, a pang of sadness burning in her chest as she watched the crushed woman start crying silently. The Doctor kneeled down next to her, placing a hand on her back.
"Listen Misato, you tried your best and you came farther than anyone else could have."
"It's not good enough. I put Shinji through all this for nothing," the poor woman cried, barely containing her sobs.
Ritsuko sighed and then started again, "Listen, Misato, just take a moment. I'm gonna check on some things."
The Blonde Doctor stood up and looked over the command room, noticing everyone looked rather sad, realizing it was probably too late.
"Doctor," Maya started, looking up at her mentor, "The angel…it's…it's gotten to the last plate of belt armor. It's almost through."
Ritsuko sighed, "Alright, how's the discharge array?"
Maya was on the verge of tears herself, but she held them in, "It's still functional, but, it can't take another hit. They're about to melt. Even if they don't get hit by the angel's beam, they weren't designed to fire this often, so we're probably only going to get one more shot out of it."
"And the power system?"
"Everything is still connected, but Doctor Akagi…"
"Meaning that no matter if we win or lose, this is our final shot," Ritsuko looked down at Misato, "Misato, get up. This isn't over yet."
The purple haired Captain looked up at her, tears flooding out of her eyes.
"Get up Misato, I have an idea. But, we have to hurry. We don't have another chance at this."
The Captain slowly got up, trying to wipe the tears out of her eyes.
"Now, listen, Misato, Shinji isn't going to like this. But, this is our last chance. You've noticed how every time it's fired at us, it's exposed its core."
"Yes."
"That is the only chance we've got to hit it. But, to do that, it's going to have to fire its beam, which it will probably do again any second now. That means…that Shinji and Rei are going to have to act as bait."
"But that didn't work. Last time, it just disrupted the beams."
"That's exactly what I'm counting on. Hopefully, Unit-00's shield and the discharge from the cannon will disrupt the angel's attack and allow the positron cannon to hit the core of the angel."
"Wait, so they're actually going to need to sit there in the beam…while it's firing? I thought you meant…Oh god, Ritsuko, I don't know if I can ask them to do that again."
"Misato," the Doctor stared sadly into the Captain's eyes, "there's so much more for you to show him. Do you want him to see tomorrow?"
Captain Katsuragi nodded, whipping away more tears.
"Then, you know what you have to do," Ritsuko said solemnly as she placed her hand on the other woman's shoulder.
Misato picked up her com with unsteady hands.
"Shinji?" she asked with her breaking voice.
"I'm here," Shinji said so quietly and painfully that the coms almost didn't pick it up.
"One more time, with all the power of japan behind you; all of our hopes, our future, our lives, along with the lives of every creature on this planet; It's all in your hands now," she said pressing her cross necklace to her lips and kissing it, "Do your best."
"Right," Shinji just barely managed to say through all the pain.
He once more forced his eva to get up and grab the cannon, struggling to carry it back across the fortress again. He set it down gently, but his eva dropped to its knees from his exhaustion, causing even more pain to shoot through his legs and body.
"Unit-01 has discared Type-G equipment. Switch all final firing systems to manual. All further error compensation will be left to the pilot's manual controls," Maya informed everyone over the coms.
Misato began trying to explain Ritsuko's plan to Shinji, but tears streamed down her face and her words kept catching in her mouth, "Shinji, listen. We…, need to wait for the angel to fire back at us. You and Rei are going to take the full brunt of it. I'm so sorry, but you cannot fire until after the angel has already shot at you. Also, you can't fire after it shoots at you either. It has to be during, okay?"
Shinji didn't answer, frowning inside his entry plug, and Misato knew he would. She knew the boy didn't want to do this anymore.
"Oh, god, Shinji, please, I'm so sorry," she said over the com as her voice broke again and tears trailed down her face anew, "Oh, please forgive me, my little Shinji."
"I'll do it, Misato," the boy growled.
She gasped, "Thank you… for trying to give me tomorrow... and all the days after."
Suddenly, another set of red warning lights turned on signaling that the angel had breached the last armor belt between it and the Geofront.
"Oh God, hurry up with the third round," Misato yelled over the command room
"Fuse exchanged. Barrel cooldown complete," a random technician shouted.
Maya yelled again, "CAPTAIN!"
"I know," Misato said realizing what was about to happen, 'I'm sorry, Shinji.'
The angel transformed again, screaming, and fired off its beam.
"SHINJI!" Misato screamed, seeing the beam shoot towards the Eva from across the lake.
Shinji closed his eyes as tight as he could and grit his teeth, bracing himself for the heat of a thousand suns. However, just as Ayanami swore she would, she made Unit-00 step in front of Unit-01 at the last moment; the Eva holding the shield before its body, and taking on a defensive position, grinding its feet into the ground, trying to keep from being pushed back.
"REI! REI! AYANAMI!" Shinji screamed her name, a few bubbles floating out of his mouth and into the LCL.
'I will not fail him,' Rei looked out of her Eva, squinting to see past the beam through the eye slot of the magnificent shield.
'I won't fail them,' Shinji looked onwards at the unfaltering Evangelion in front of his. But, he gasped as a layer of the shield was torn away.
"That shield isn't going to hold!" Ritsuko realized, her eyes widening.
"Can we fire yet?" Misato screamed in a pleading voice.
"Twenty more seconds," Makoto said, not sure whether to give up or keep trying
"Hurry," Shinji whispered into the blood tasting LCL around him.
Another layer of Ayanami's shield broke to pieces.
"Hurry up," he said again, gritting his teeth in pain as the phantom sensations consumed his body.
The last layer of the shield was vaporized, exposing Unit-00's arm to the terrible blood-curdling heat. But the unyeilding Ayanami didn't flinch even once; holding off the entire beam all with only her willpower, her AT field, and her Eva's arm.
Shinji was becoming desperate and cried into the LCL, "COME ON, HURRY, DAMN IT!" tears mixing with the fluid in the entry plug.
Shinji heard Rei moaning in pain over the coms as her Eva's armor melted away from its arm, exposing the flesh underneath. But, not once did he hear her scream.
"AYANAMI! REI!" Shinji called out to her once more.
"MISATO, THE CANNON!" Ritsuko yelled, notifying her.
"SHINJI, DO IT ALL FOR US. FIRE!"
Rei dropped her AT Field so that the shot could pass uninhibited and Shinji groaned in pain as he pulled the trigger frantically. The giant gun recoiled, pushing against the shoulder of the Unit-01 while discharging between the legs of Unit-00 still guarding with her forearm. The energy shot from the cannon built up in front of it, but the angel's offensive finally wavered and the last shot tore through the angel's beam. It screamed across the Lake and made contact with the very center of the angel's core, burning it and splitting it to pieces.
The angel changed back to is octahedral shape, but it was too late; the damage was done and its life could not be saved. It screamed and transformed one last time, spreading hundreds of long, jagged, crystal-like protrusions from its core; the entire angel looking somewhat like a diamond flower before bursting into LCL
The entire command crew stood silent, surrealness washing over them, not believing that Shinji had just defeated the angel.
"YES, HE DID IT!" Misato cried and hugged Ritsuko.
Shinji made Unit-01 push the cannon aside and get up, running towards Ayanami's Eva, which was shaking on the ground, suffering in great agony from the extreme burns inflicted on it.
"REI, REI!" Shinji screamed, hoping she'd answer. She didn't.
Unit-01 picked up Unit-00 around the chest, hefting it into a sitting position
"REI, SAY SOMETHING!" he cried, tears slipping from his eyelids again.
Shinji drew his Eva's progressive knife, and shoved it into the back of Unit-00, trying to carve it's entry plug out of it. He removed the paneling over the insertion dock, and the entry plug shot out, spraying LCL out from the emergency release ducts.
The boy gently had his Eva grab the entry plug and set it on the ground of Fortress-2, and then ejected his own plug and climbed down the deployable ladder while coughing out the LCL in his lungs. Misato, Ritsuko, and the rest of the command crew walked outside to see the brave boy struggling to open the entry plug. The two women watch him in awe as he wrapped his fingers around the handles of the hatch even tighter, despite the burning heat scalding his hands.
"Urgh, grrrr, GRAAH!" the boy growled as he finally tore the door open
"REI! REI, ARE YOU ALRIGHT? REI!"
The blue haired girl had almost passed out, but Shinji's screaming had started to bring her back to reality. Her fingers twitched in the puddle of LCL still lining the bottom of the plug. Her hair was wet and stuck to her face and she slowly awakens, her unfocused eyes eventually finding Shinji.
"You have nothing? Really? You were just… gonna leave me on that?"
The small slender girl stared at the boy in disbelief, not saying a thing, not believing what she thought he did as he stepped into her plug slowly
"And that whole dramatic goodbye thing? Don't do that again, okay?"
All the memories and experiences of the night, all the emotions hit Shinji like a freight train and he bent over, his face in his palms as he began crying.
"Why are... why are you crying?" the little blue haired Eva pilot asked, very confused. She looked at the boy for a couple moments, feeling bad, as though she hurt him somehow. But, the girl got no response from the weeping pilot.
"I'm sorry; I guess I… don't know what to do in situations like this," Ayanami said as she looked towards the ground, feeling somewhat guilty and upset with herself.
The boy stood back up and looked at her with a grin on his face despite the tears still falling from his eyes, "Well, you could start… by smiling."
The girl's red eyes widened as she gasped and looked back at her fellow pilot, her mouth agape. But, quickly, she blinked away her surprise and smiled a soft smile at the boy, her ruby red eyes not seeming so cold all of the sudden.
The boy took a few careful steps towards the girl, making sure to not slip on the wet metal underneath his feet, and he held out his hand to the girl.
"Come on, Rei. Let's go home."
And the girl reached up to take Ikari's hand as they both continued to smile at each other. He guided her out of the entry plug and saw Misato running towards them. She jumped at them and hugged the both of them, Shinji in her left arm and Rei in her right.
"Oh, I'm so glad you two are alright," she said as she cried into both their shoulders.
"Um…why are…why are you embracing me," Rei said confused, obviously not familiar with the normal human heart.
Misato started laughing through her tears, "Because Ayanami, you saved us. Both of you did."
Shinji looked over the back of Misato's neck, and saw Rei still smiling, somehow not able to stop herself from doing so at the other woman's warm embrace.
'This feels nice. I enjoy this. Is this…comfort?' The girl wondered to herself before looking at the smiling Shinji.
Shinji looked away from Rei to glance at the moon. It seemed to be getting darker, fading to black. The boy felt dizzy. His knees were weak and he slipped out of Misato's embrace as the entire world went black.
/
A hot sunset, the rumble of a train, humid air.
Red eyes, a soft voice.
"Shinji… Shinji…Shinji…Shinji…Ayanami. Rei…Rei…Rei…Rei...Ikari. No…Rei-"
Darkness, a girl's face.
"-Ayanami."
/
Shinji Ikari's eyes shot wide open. He once again realized he was in the hospital.
"Shinji, you're awake!"
The boy turned in his bed to see Misato and Rei behind her. The older woman leaned over his bed and hugged him.
"Oh, goodness, I was still expecting you to be asleep for a couple more hours. It's only three in the morning. You've only been asleep for a little while."
"Then we…we defeated the angel, didn't we?"
Misato smiled, "Yes, you did."
"Hey, Rei…why are you here?" the boy said, slightly confused.
"I…came of my own free will. I decided it would be…appropriate after what was accomplished tonight."
Shinji's heart jumped a little.
'A bond with everyone, huh?' the boy thought to himself, 'Guess that includes me now.'
He turned to face Misato, and looked at her with tired eyes before starting, "Can we…can we get out of here? I really don't want to be in the hospital."
Misato smiled even wider, "Of course, Shinji. I've already signed most of the papers, so I just need to sign you out. I'll go do that right now." She got up, and left the room to go to the counter.
Rei stared at him with her indecipherable eyes. Shinji wanted to say something to her, but he didn't know what exactly.
"Hey, Rei?"
The girl continued to stare at him, waiting for him to continue.
"Um…do you think…"
She blinked at him.
"-we could, uh…spend some time together…since we're both…pilots and we just saved the world?" he finished awkwardly.
"If that is what you would prefer, Pilot Ikari…" she said, looking at him blankly.
Shinji looked at her surprised, not entirely sure he had heard her correctly.
"Wait, really?"
"Yes."
"Then, um, what about tomorrow? I know that we were supposed to have school tomorrow, but, I don't think that that's really gonna be the case after…after what happened… I could come to your place so you don't have to walk."
The girl just barely smiled back at him, "That would be fine, Pilot Ikari," she finished just as Misato had walked back in.
"Alright, Shinji, you're good to go," she saw the two pilots looking at each other contentedly and raised an eyebrow, "You two didn't do anything while I was gone, did you?"
"What?" Shinji asked embarrassed.
"Yes, Ma'am. We did," Rei stated, taking Misato's question too literally.
"Um…what did you do?" Misato asked, not sure who to trust.
"We talked," the girl stated plainly
"About what?" Misato asked.
"Spending time together, Ma'am. Pilot Ikari will be coming to my residence tomorrow since school will most likely not be in session."
"Oh…" Misato said confused, but then started laughing, "Haha, come on Rei. We need to let Shinji get changed."
/
The trio had just walked out of the hospital. Guided by Misato and her superior sense of direction, they only got lost two times on the way out. Walking into the parking lot, Shinji was hoping Misato wouldn't get lost again on the way to the car considering it was one of only a few still at the hospital during this hour. The exhausted boy didn't know how much longer he'd be able to stand, and the blue haired girl next to him didn't look much better. Luckily for Rei though, she wouldn't have to wait for Misato beyond here. Unlucky for her though, the nearest train station was two miles away and may not even be working after the fight with the angel. Regardless, the girl started to make her way off into the darkness as soon as they had gotten out the front door.
"Rei, wait," Shinji called out to her and the girl stopped, "I know you said you were going to take the train, but I really think you should let Misato and I take you home. You'd get home sooner, and you'd get more rest."
"I am fine, Ikari. If I went with you, I would only be a burden to Captain Katsuragi."
Shinji looked up to Misato with pleading eyes, and she smiled down at him before speaking to the girl.
"Miss Ayanami, I'm your Superior Officer and I am ordering you to accompany me so that I may take you home. As someone under my command, it is my duty to make sure you are well rested."
"Yes, Ma'am," the girl said, and walked back to Shinji's side.
Shinji looked at Rei, and then back to Misato with an awkward look, silently telling her that wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he'd enlisted her help. But, Misato only looked down at him again with an even bigger grin than before as they made their way to her car.
The drive to Ayanami's house had been mostly uneventful with Misato singing songs from the eighties, Shinji fading in and out of consciousness, and Rei sitting patiently in the back seat pondering the great many things that Rei Ayanami would think about, albeit quite sleepily as she rested her chin in her palms.
Upon arriving at Rei's apartment, she stepped out, but so did Misato as she swept the tired girl off her feet and carried her bridal style up the four flights of stairs to her room, using the light of the moon to guide her way. Shinji looked at the highly confused expression on Rei's face and laughed a little at the always spontaneous Misato before passing out in the car seat.
Misato came back to her car and opened the door to see her Shinji fast asleep. She stepped in and shut the door as quietly as she could before pulling out of the dusty parking lot. She began humming and staring at the stars as she drove slowly down the still empty streets of Tokyo-3
"It's been a very long time since I've gotten to see them this bright."
She smiled a little wider and hummed a little louder and continued to drive to her apartment. She looked at Shinji and stroked a finger across his cheek as he slept.
"Thank you again, Shinji."
She eventually got to her apartment, and pulled the unconscious boy out of his seat before carrying him up the stairs the same way she carried Rei. She struggled to open the door to her apartment a little, but she managed. Misato continued to carry the boy as quietly as she could down the unpowered and unlit hallway, across the kitchen, through the living room, and finally set him down on his mattress in his room.
It was hard to make out where he was in the dark after setting him down, but she found his face and stroked it one last time.
"Good night, my little Shinji."
*Eva credits roll and Fly Me to the Moon plays*
.
"Hi guys, it's me again, Misato Katsuragi. And, I'm here to give you a little hint of what's to come.
Shinji sleeps until late in the day after battling the fifth angel. He wakes up to find me drunk and sad as I express my deepest apologies to him. He heads over to Rei's place, probably to do something naughty. Just kidding...well, not completely. He ends up convincing her to go on a shopping date with him and they talk about their future as eva pilots, and what a future it will be. It's all going to be in the next chapter of Neon Genesis Evangelion: A Journey of Hate, Power, and Love; You Don't Have to Walk Alone.
And as always, there'll be more fan service to be had if you stick around."
.
Okay, so, maybe I lied a little tiny bit when I said this wasn't a Misato x Shinji fic. It's certainly not the primary pairing, but I wanted to show that she was lonely and fucked up just like the kids are. Though, I'm probably gonna deal with her guilt in the next chapter.
Um, besides that, My Evangelion Manga just came in, so I'm going to try to be reading that during the day, and the hopefully writing this at night. Also, I'm still trying to find a safe place to download the Evangelion Re Take Doujinshi (I totally don't have anti virus software so If anyone would be willing to point me to a safe place to download the adult version of it, that would be epic and I'd be forever grateful and I'd love you because I really want to read it and the sooner I can download it, the less time I can spend searching for it, and the less time I spend searching for it, the more time I have to write and so on and so forth.) So, it might take a little longer to get chapters out for a while depending on how I allocate my time.
Also, I hope you all absolutely loved Misato's sex jokes. I had such a fun time writing those, you have no idea.
I've been getting a couple questions about Rei's hospital color thought scene and I just wanted to clear that up a bit. First of all, Rei is difficult for me to write unless I'm in her shoes and going through her thought process. So, that scene was an exercise for me. I wanted to help myself define her thought process a little more in myself so that I can hopefully write her better and make her more believable. Now, as for the actual dissection of the scene, I wanted to illustrate that she thought logically but in a totally different logic than what most of us humans use (or don't use in some cases). I wanted her to think differently. I wanted her to be able to separate the colors form their counterparts. Brown may be associated with dirt, black with void or emptiness, white with sterility and vastness, red with passion be it anger or love, blue with calmness, grey with loneliness, green with life, and yellow with happiness or summertime; That's probably a fair assumption for most people. However, I wanted Rei to strip away the confines of the colors and their associations, and see them as just what they are. (I plan on this being a way for Rei to become closer to Asuka later on. She'll use the same line of thinking to examine Asuka and her inherent...redness. Hopefully that's not too spoilery.)
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Update: Alright, I just finished reading the Evangelion Manga. It was pretty awesome, though it moved along a bit faster than expected. Anyways, I'm gonna read one more piece of fiction and then I'm gonna get on writing Chapter 5 full time. Thank you for your patience, everyone!
Update: I plan on adding a little more to the Hung-over Misato scene in chapter three, so go back and read that if you want. And, then, I'll hopefully be working on chapter five full time after that. Also, I may go back and label scene transitions just to make everything more clear. I don't want anyone getting too lost.
Update: My New Production Cut of Evangelion came in, so I'm going to take a break from writing tonight (7/20/2016) and I'm going to be watching those episodes. Then, I'll get right back on chapter five.
Update; Okay guys, just thought I'd let everyone know I'm still here. I know it seems like chapter five is taking a long time because of me taking the time to read the manga and watch the new production cuts. It should be out in a couple days though. So, no worries. I'm still here, everyone.
Update: I really don't know why chapter five is taking so long. I'm going to fix this guys. I'm going to talk to a doctor and see if I can get some amphetamine prescribed to me so I can focus on this really hardcore-like. Hopefully I'll be able to just pump out absurd amounts of words with an unmatched quality.
Update: Just thought I'd let everyone know I'm still here and working on chapter five. I've been a little quiet and I didn't want anyone to think I'd just up and disappeared.
Final Update: CHAPTER FIVE IS UP!
