Juno had tried hard to remember the code, of course, but she was incredibly stressed and nervous when it was told to her. She knew the numbers. There was a 5, a 6, and two fours.
But the order of which had been lost between the woman's reply and her run for the door.
"Shit…" She whined, looking around, as if anyone was there to help her.
5646? No, the door beeped, but not the kind of beep she wanted.
6544? She was sure that was it. She tried it twice, actually, in case she'd done it wrong.
She couldn't bring herself to run all the way back and ask again, for several reasons, but mostly because she knew how high-stakes this was, and she would be extremely embarrassed for forgetting.
5644. Please.
The door beeped approvingly, pulling each metal half to the side.
Juno's eyes widened, and before even thinking she ran in, eyes searching for anything to point her towards where she needed to be going. Room…fuck, now she couldn't remember the room number either. Her brain wasn't meant for things like this. She didn't work well under pressure. She again questioned why she was even here.
Luckily, the hallway eventually opened up to a wider room with lines of computers, desks, and scientists bustling around the glass-paned exterior. A couple saw her as she walked in, and one ran right for her.
"Are you Juno?" She asked urgently.
Juno just nodded.
"Come with me. Our head scientist wants to talk to you. Actually, so does NERV's head man." She placed a hand on Juno's back that hovered there the whole time they walked across the room, and then down a short hallway into an offshoot space. They went down a stairway and found themselves in a smaller version of the room she'd first walked into: wide, with glass-pane walls looking into the cave system, and computers and scientists frantically buzzing around everywhere. This one, though, looked down into several large containment units, and in the middle of the room stood a podium that looked over them all. A man in an old-fashioned suit stood looking down into them, and he paid no attention to anyone around him.
They bypassed him and headed around the side of the room to another overlook of the containment units. They were enormous, but dark, and Juno couldn't see much inside of them aside from a mess of iron and steel.
A tall woman with short, messy blonde hair was looking down into the space with a worried look. The scientist brought them up to her side and stopped short a few feet from her.
"Dr. Marina?"
The woman looked over at them, hand on her chin. Her face somehow seemed to both brighten and fall when she saw the teen in front of her.
"Ah, you must be Juno! It's nice to meet you. I'm Marina; I'm the head scientist here at NERV."
"It's nice to meet you." Juno said, a little too eagerly. She was nervous, and intimidated, but she got a good feeling from this woman. More than anyone else she'd met so far.
Marina had sad, guilty eyes, but they were soft towards anyone she looked at. She put her hands together and nodded the other worker away gently.
"I understand you haven't even been here a day. I'm sure you're probably really confused."
Juno gave her something like an unfortunate smile, nodding.
Dr. Marina sighed. "Where to start…" Her expression was grim again. "Have you heard of the EVAs before?"
"I…no."
Dr. Marina pinched the bridge of her nose.
As she did so, the facility tremored again. Distant "eegegeehgegege"s were getting louder.
Marina turned and stooped down, holding Juno's shoulders. She didn't understand why everyone in this place was so intent on touching her.
"Juno, that noise above us is an Angel. Angels were the cause of the 1st and 2nd Impacts."
Juno's eyes were staring at Dr. Marina like wet glass. The doctor continued.
"I'm sure they aren't common where you're from, because they only tend to attack places like here at NERV, where they know we're acting against them." Her expression darkened. "Aside from..the major attacks, of course."
"But you've heard of them, right?"
Juno nodded. They were like the monsters from myths of old, except they were real, and they were this humanity's newest worst enemy. Most civilizations moved far away from anywhere angels were known to touch down, but the Impacts…those were indiscriminate. They were so large scale that each one wiped out about a third of the Earth's population. The Second Impact was over 15 years ago, though, so humanity had rebuilt, and been fairly at ease for a while…Except for the residents of this area, apparently.
"Well, we have the power to fight them. With the EVA units. You don't know what the EVA are?"
Juno shook her head.
Marina stood again, shifting over to the control panel along with the line of computers. She flipped a switch, and the dark, open space below them that previously only hosted vague ideas of metal suddenly became alit.
Juno walked over and looked down through the glass, but even from her previous position a few feet away she knew she was looking at something…much bigger than her. Not in size, just…Something far more important than she should ever be allowed so close to.
Before them was a giant humanoid suit of metal. It was strangely thin and elongated, but still remained within human proportions, just blown up to probably 40x the size of a normal man. She couldn't describe it as a robot; it was too disjointed from convention for that. It looked like a giant, sleek suit of armor. But it was static, and silent, and empty.
She looked back at Marina hoping for some kind of explanation. Marina only looked back to the EVA in its case.
"That's EVA Unit 01. It's yours."
Juno whipped around again. "Mine?"
Marina nodded. "You're going to be its pilot. That's what you signed up for, isn't it?"
"I…No- I don't know…" Juno put her hands to her hair, running her hands back through it and letting it fall over her shoulders, over her ears, and back again as she tried to fix her own perceptions. Dr. Marina placed a hand on her shoulder again.
"Hey, don't freak out. It's okay. You haven't been through training or classes or anything like the other pilots had to go through. I'm sure you're very overwhelmed." Dr. Marina's sad eyes were especially evident as she tried to give Juno an encouraging smile.
Juno just nodded, shakily.
"So…I have to pilot that thing?"
Dr. Marina gave a single, succinct nod.
"W…We want you to try to pilot it right now."
"...What?"
Dr. Marina's face tensed for a moment, clearly troubled.
"We only have one other pilot here right now, and he's in no condition to pilot an EVA. I'm sorry, I know this is completely…" She trailed off.
"This is an emergency. The only way to defeat an Angel is with an EVA. You're our only chance."
"Why can't one of you pilot it? I have no idea what I'm doing!"
A few scientists glanced at them at that, side-eyes and inconspicuous glimpses only.
Marina clearly noticed, or at least knew they were looking. She gritted her teeth.
"None of us will have high enough synchronization rates. You have a much better chance of synchronizing with the EVA because of your age."
Juno just stared at her.
Dr. Marina stood up and glared behind her. Several scientists turned their heads, back to work.
Juno could tell there was something deeper than just this going on here, and she did not like it at all. Something was off, in a worse way than just secrets.
Dr. Marina put her attention back on Juno.
"Come here, NERV's leader wants to speak with you."
Dr. Marina led her over to the man she had passed before, the one at the center console overlooking the EVA. This time, he put his cigarette away and looked down at them both, giving them a polite smile before stepping down. He held a hand out to Juno. His voice was gravelly and rough.
"Ah, Juno! It's so nice to finally meet you. I'm Roger. I was a good friend of your father's."
As she took his hand, he tightened his grip on her loose little hold and shook it intently. Juno was confused.
"You know my dad…?"
"Yes, we used to be business partners! He spoke highly of you, you know."
…She was conflicted. And a bit angry, too. Just, confused all around, especially hearing this information now of all times. "Spoke highly of her," sure. From what, the 4 years he actually stuck around? Maybe his memory was foggy after being gone so long. She didn't remember him liking her that much.
"...Mm."
"Well." He cleared his throat. "I'm afraid it's time to get down to business. I assume Marina brought you up to speed?"
"Yea, she did. But I…really don't think I can pilot a giant robot."
Roger shook his head, chuckling a little. "They're way more than robots, kid."
Was that supposed to make her feel better? Because if anything, it made it worse.
"Come on. I'll come down with ya." He stepped over to a door fit into the wall that was apparently an elevator, pressing the button and then a code. It opened quickly, and though small, the three of them piled in.
Juno didn't feel like she had much of a choice. He had the kind of authority you didn't feel allowed to say no to, and he wasn't giving her much of a choice anyway. As they rode down, Juno's pulse just accelerated further.
Once they stopped, the door opened to reveal what was essentially a giant garage floor, and on it, a giant pair of metal feet. Above them towered EVA Unit 01.
"Come here, Juno." Roger called. He stepped onto a platform just a couple inches off the ground, one that was clearly meant to raise up. Juno reluctantly did as he said, then looking back at Dr. Marina. She was still standing in front of the elevator, trying to hold a smile.
Juno felt her heart drop a little. She gave the doctor a pleading look. Dr. Marina knew she wanted her to come, too. She shook her head, then mouthed something Juno couldn't understand.
"Careful, step back a little." Roger pulled her back a bit by her shoulder and then reached over her to shut the gate on the platform. He pressed a few buttons on the control panel and the two of them began to rise, up towards the EVA's threatening frame. Juno didn't even like being close to it. Dr. Marina got further and further away.
Once they reached the height of the EVA's chest cavity, the system rotated around to its back, then rose again. Eventually, they were level with the top of the EVA's back, and the panel lined itself up next to the EVA with extreme precision.
Juno looked down into a large, steel cylinder. It stared back at her emptily.
"This is the entry plug."
He continued as soon as the teen's face looked back at him, eyes wide.
"You'll crawl into it and be lowered into the EVA. The entry plug is extremely safe, it's thick steel nearly a foot thick that protects you no matter what happens to the EVA unit itself. Does that make you feel a little better?"
She nodded hesitantly, but she was lying.
"Now, once you're in the EVA, the plug itself will fill up with LCL. It's a fluid that prepares you for piloting and connects you to the EVA unit itself. It will fill your lungs and bloodstream, but it's oxygenated enough for you to be able to breathe in it even though you'll feel like you're under water. The EVA-"
"Wait, I'll be underwater the whole time?"
He seemed surprised she interrupted him, possibly annoyed. He continued. "Yes, in LCL fluid. You can breathe in it. Now,"
He continued explaining, but through a mixture of pure fear and the constant loop of realizing she'd be underwater the whole time, Juno was almost gone. She was listening somewhat, but it was like reading a whole page of a book only to realize you hadn't comprehended any of it.
She had a terrible fear of drowning. Terrible.
She hated being unable to breathe. She hated being in tight spaces.
She zoned back in somewhere around the word "pain."
"You'll be able to feel the pain of the EVA, but to a lesser degree. This is so that you're aware of what parts of the unit have been damaged or are under attack. For instance, if an angel attacks the EVA's arm, you'll feel pain on your own arm. Understand?"
"...But to a lesser degree, you said?"
"Yes. We don't want pain to distract the pilots too much, so it's dialed down a bit. It's just enough to know where you've been hit."
"...Okay."
"Alright, then. We're counting on you, Juno."
With that, he pushed her shoulder forward a bit towards the entry plug.
Wait. What?
No, wait, this is real. Wait. She couldn't do this.
She was gently pushed along, but the hand was firm, and suddenly her body was following along, stepping into the entry plug and climbing down into the cockpit within it. She found herself sitting in a chair, a safety belt waiting to be plugged in hanging to the side, and controls waiting in front of her.
She would think of all the ways she could have said no to this approximately an hour or so after the entire ordeal was already over.
Even now, as the plug above her shifted aggressively into place and the mechanisms above her closed and locked, all she could think of was how to survive the present. This was especially distracting as soon as the bright orange fluid began pouring over her feet.
"Oh my god." She muttered under her breath, kicking at it uselessly and scrambling up out of the chair, looking around for the exit.
"Juno!"
A voice was coming over a radio somewhere in the cockpit. It was Miss Rena.
"Sit down and fasten your safety belt. That's just the LCL. You can breathe in it, remember? You won't drown. I promise."
Though she didn't have much of a connection with the woman, she trusted her more than Roger. They had other pilots. This had to be real. It had to be true, right?
She continued standing on the chair, breathing heavily. The LCL was at her knees now.
"Juno?"
That was a different voice.
"It's Dr. Marina. I know this is scary. Just trust us, okay? Lean down and breathe some of the LCL in while you still have air if you want to know it works so bad, alright?"
Well, that sounded logical enough. Except that she was scared out of her mind and being able to breathe in a liquid made absolutely no sense. Despite that, she found herself sitting down, the LCL up to her chest. She took a deep breath, and slowly put her head under. Her nose was so close to the surface that she could pop up and breathe for real at any time.
After a few agonizing seconds of waiting, she took a very small breath. Of course, all she did was choke on it, stand up, and begin to panic again.
The facility was struck again and shook heavily, her unit included, LCL fluid sloshing around the plug violently.
"You have to let it saturate your lungs, Juno. We promise."
'We promise, we promise.' She wouldn't trust these people to hold a pack of gum for her. She was completely convinced this was where she was going to die. The LCL continued to rise, and now that it covered her face and hair she could smell it: something like antifreeze and doctor's offices. It was so strong and sterile that it almost burned her nostrils. She coughed a few more times, looking down into the orange pool with mouth agape.
The facility was hit again, but hard this time. She heard something completely detach and crash, but not before the EVA was shaken so violently that the LCL fluid became a harsh wave in the small, pill-shaped entry plug that she was completely enveloped in it, dragged under and thrown against her chair. She gasped, unwittingly, and a mouthful or more of LCL went straight to her lungs. She tried to regain her footing, tried to get above the surface again, but she was turned around and disoriented in the almost carbonated nature of the orange chemical liquid.
She struggled to breathe at first, like she really was drowning, but then, slowly, just a bit at first, she felt the feeling of having just taken a small breath. Then, a full breath. Stuck there against the chair, she realized she didn't feel the need to breathe. She just felt…alive.
"Juno! Are you alright?" It was Dr. Marina and Rena.
Could she..speak, in this stuff?
"Uh…yes.."
"Oh, thank god. We just got hit hard. Part of the ceiling collapsed up here. Are you alright? It looks like you got knocked around."
"...Yea, I'm…"
She finally pushed herself out of crevice she'd gotten stuck in, sitting herself down in the cockpit. Even if she hadn't been able to breathe, the entire compartment was full now.
She plugged herself in and looked around. It was…fairly dark.
"Alright. I'm afraid we've wasted enough time already. It's time to start the EVA. Turn the red switch to the right of you."
Juno breathed in. She grabbed it, twisted it, and the EVA roared to life.
Literally.
"AAAAAAAAAAEEEEHHHNN"
Why could a robot…speak?
The curved screen before her became alit, showing the view of the garage from the EVA's eyes. It covered even her peripheral vision. The control panel lit up and the LCL suddenly felt as if it carried an electric charge, one that wasted no time invading every limb and inch of her body. She shivered, and couldn't stop shivering.
"What…"
A strange feeling entered her, like she wasn't alone. But more than just being visited. She felt completely enveloped. But the feeling, it felt…nice.
She felt tears welling up in her eyes.
"Huh…?" She brought a hand up, shaking severely, and attempted to wipe her eyes. She nearly poked her eye out with the mock Parkinson's that suddenly had come over her. She kept trying to wipe her eyes away, but they continued to well up, and tears floated off her face into the LCL. Surprisingly, she was a bit sad, but mostly she felt…happy? Nostalgic?
Like she was crying of joy.
Outside the EVA in the main room, Rena and Marina were looking at each other with perplexion.
Rena spoke. "This…hasn't happened before, has it? She's crying, but she's…smiling."
Dr. Marina cleared her throat. "We've had pilots cry before, but…not like this. I'm not sure why she's smiling."
She pressed the button to speak.
"Juno? Are you okay?"
Brought back to reality, she wiped her face with her arm instead, finally calming down. But the presence was still there.
"Yea. I'm fine."
"..." The line was still on, but silent.
Rena lightly elbowed Marina's side. Marina grimaced, but put on a happy voice.
"Alright. We're going to send you up now. Get ready, okay?"
She wanted to be terrified, and she should be. But every time fear welled up inside her, it was as if the presence cooled it down. All she could feel was the charge of the LCL.
There were a few loud sounds of mechanics, and then the ground beneath her began to rise, and she watched as the screen before her showed cave, cave, cave, and suddenly metal, then the metal spreading, daylight breaking, and she was in an open area beside the town.
Before her was a monster about half the size of an EVA, but with the presence of a god. It stopped whatever it was doing to the ground there and turned to look at her. It looked like a large wooden carving of a rounded spirit, two holes serving as eyes, no mouth, no nose, no face. It moved far too smoothly, and it stood to stare directly at her.
"Ramiel."
A/N: i meant to get a bit more done in this chapter- like, actually starting the fight with ramiel, but i got a bit carried away writing the details of the EVA startup. I hope you enjoy anyway.
please leave a review if you can. anything helps- pointing out a typo, saying what you like or don't, or even just saying that you like it at all. i dont have a beta reader or anything, as this is just for fun for me, but its still nice to get feedback. thanks gang. see you soon
p.s. - i changed juno's last name. "nishimaka." it kept showing up in a dream i had, so i felt like i had to change it.
p.s.s - i know perplexion and tremored aren't words but they should be. its MY fanfic and I get to make up words!