The Battle was over,
Shinji sat in his eva, barely lucid having just survived a life or death ordeal.
The blood raced in his body as his heart hammerd away, the repetitive beating and thumping barely heard over the roar in his ears,
his face flashed with crimson fire, as the dull taste of copper lingered on his tongue.
A glint in his eye captures his attention as the visage of himself reflected in the building.Shinji awoke with fright,the pristine white ceiling greeted his vision as he sat up at attention, the smell of isopropyl alcohol lingered in the air.
"An unfamiliar ceiling…….."
"good morning mr. Ikari"
In the doorway stood a nurse with a clipboard, she was a young Japanese woman with her hair tied in a ponytail
Her skin slightly tanned as if to denote the time she spends outdoors.
"G-ood morning ma'am" shinji's voice was barely above a whisper
"How are you feeling today, Do you have any pain or stiffness?"
"No, not really…. Actually my face feels weir-" the nurse interpreted shinji's arm as he reached for his face.
"Please refrain from touching your face mr. Ikari"
A pit of panic began to form in his stomach.
A slow spread of realization began to spread in his mind demanding to be known but barely breaching the surface of his consciousness
"Why?"The nurses smiling face became sat in a frown, a look of what can be surmised as deep thought as she thoght of how to broach the topic.
" please tell me, i need to know?"
She closed her eyes for a moment
"Before i do, i need to tell you of your injuries."
She brought out her clipboard
"You have sustained 3rd degree burns on the top right portion of your face going into your hairline and a fractured left arm"
Shinji looked left and sure enough his arm layed in a cast
"The damage was severe, the mid length of your arm was completely crushed and we had to graft a titanium bar and several pins to secure the fragments so your arm can heal"
Shinji paled, irises contracted as the pit began to exponentially expand in his core
Why does his arm feel so heavy?
"The good news is, you're expected to make a full recovery. Your face however will remain scarred"
There it is agan. AH YES HIS FACE!
Realization made itself known
But he had to make sure
"Can i see it, my face i mean"
She nodded as she dug in her uniforms dress pocket, producing a small makeup mirror
Shinji reached for it with his good arm
But she witheald it from him
"I have to warn you its quite gruesome "
He nodded, his actions spoke for him as his words failed.
Slowly reaching again he brought his arm up as she passed the pink colored vanity clamshell to him
He opened it
What he didn't see was his face.
As his eyes roamed his features slowly lingering on the bandage on his forehead
It was the Eva's face as a green inhuman eye stared back into his own.
"the third child woke up, 2 days ago after seeing his face he fainted"
The voice belonged to a head of a faux blonde haired woman,
She took a long drag of her cancer stick,
Long needed after a long day of therapy
"Thats a pretty strong reaction to seeing you're own face"
The voice of a woman came from her office phone as she typed up a report on her computer.
"It wasn't his face he saw misato."
She paused to take another drag
"The feedback from the evangelion was unexpected"
"What do you mean?" " unit 01 synched with his deep inner self and bypassed his brains inner protective functions"
"Ritsuko you're going to have to dumb this down for me".
She finished off her cigarette in one pull
"He had a overreaction to stress stimuli.
He's developing signs of ptsd, several compulsive disorder tendencies, and has been waking up screaming in the middle of the night"
"Can he still pilot?"
"That remains to be seen. Honestly ill be surprised if he evan able to look at an eva without having a mental breakdown."
"It's that serious?"
"Oh yeah,when he looks at his face in the mirror he sees unit1's face staring back.
On the bright side it doesn't seem permanent, slowly he's getting his face back."
"So whats the plan with him?"
"For right now he's in base security's custody and the hospital staff are monitoring him closely, considering what he's been through he's recovering well"
"You didn't answer my question."
"That's because there's no answer to your question. Its the commander's call and he still hasn't made his decision."
"This has been an unexpected development ikari."
"Yes, none of the tests with unit 2 indicated this could have happened."
"Let's not forget the fact you gave the eva to your untrained son."
"What do you have to say for yourself ikari?"
Gendo sat at his desk in a dark room surrounded by black monoliths.
His hands interlocked together hiding his mouth as his eyes were obscured by his orange glasses. He spoke
"There was no way to expect this result.
For 10 years we have inspected, tested and refined any problems, we have done nothing less than be totally transparent and compliant in every way, every inspection and investigation.
Our loyalties are not in question here, the real question is what caused the evangelion to behave in this way."
"And what of you're son ikari."
silence permeated the room, the thought lingered in his mind
"What of him?"
"Drop the act ikari. You mean to tell me you're son just happened to be in Tokyo3 durring the angel attack. Forgive me for being presumptuous but why was your son Tokyo ikari?"
"To emancipate him from me."
"LIES!" "Traitor!"
As the calls of betrayal roared in the room gendo's face tightened. The old men's fury was of no consequence compared to his own, all the years of personal sacrifice,money, sleep ,and time to see his beloved down the drain.
for what, his son causing problems.
"Let us not get to hasty gentlemen." Said seale.1
"Do you have any proof ikari."
"Yes forwarding you the information right now."
Gendo opened a drawer that contained a laptop and started forwarding the documents.
"How do we know this is legitimate?"
"I can vouch for the legitimacy." Said seale.5
"Is that so" asked seale.3
"Yes"
"Well my apologies then ikari."
"Yes mine as well"
Seale.1 spoke again.
"Let us not forget gentlemen we are are all on the same side. Everyone in this organization, for one reason or another we wish to see the instrumentally project come to fruition."
A long pause elapsed to allow for the words to sink in.
"So embrace each other in the bond of comrodey. and cooperation to secure the future."
"FOR THE FUTURE AND EVOLUTION OF MAND KIND."
"-an kind" gendo spoke
The final chant signaled the end of the meeting, as the monoliths disconnected from the call. Except seale.1
"I have great expectations ikari, do not fail me."
The final monolith disappeared
"Those fools,they think of only themselves, of course i know whats at stake."
"You can't blame them ikari, many of these men, have spent their entire lives to see the human instrumentality project become reality. Many never got to come this far to see the fruits of their labor."
"Of course,it matters not in the end if we get to see her."
Oh yes her
"What of shinji?" Feyiskey asked.
"The 3rd?"
"Yes"
"It doesn't matter, he will remain with us until the replacement can arrive."
"Ah, she's expected to arrive next morning while the original shikanami remains in Germany preparing to deploy"
"Whats the expected success rate of the series?"
"Roughly 80%, as long as she's not dissolved in the lcl the unit is salvageable."
"What about yui, will her soul be damaged in the process?"
"No the clone is just a husk with no soul,
A humunchuli, while she may appear to be a normal young girl, she's no different than an animal
"He was running, his feet crushed cars and people alike, one stomp a red skid mark would appear, another and an ambulance is flattened, he stumbles over a buss full of people as his full weight slams into a building.
regaining his footing, he takes off in another dead sprint towards the south
"STOP RUNNING SHINJI, THAT'S AN ORDER!"
"I cant fight that thing! Ive never fought anyone in my life!"
Shinji yells back at the comm.
He's running over a river, but the sea wall collapses under his weight, making him fall again.
"Oh god i cant breath-i-i-think im going to throw up."
"GET UP, DO IT, DO IT NOW. ARNT YOU A MAN!"
The comm unit continues to berate him.
Thumping could be heard as his ender got closer and closer, getting louder and louder until all he could hear was the sound of his approaching doom
Completely drowning out his radio.
Then silence.
He lays on his back, his green and black arms curled up into himself.
Looking back at the trial of destruction left behind in his panicked escape.
People dangled and fell out of the building he had just collapsed onto.
He heard their screaming as they plummeted to their deaths lives of both young and old lost before their time.
Then he saw it.
The familiar visage of unit.01
It stood tall and broad
Then it spoke but no words left it's mouth
Only for the same voice from earlier to come over the radio
"YOU ARE A FAILURE SHINJI!"
He screamed a fairle scream, the scream of trauma being branded into your soul.
"YOU ARE PATHETIC, YOU WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THOSE WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE YOU, DESECRATEAING THEIR HERITAGE!"
his voice was hoarse but he still screamed, he screamed to drown out the voice in his mind, but no matter how much he screamed it never went away.
"AND NOW YOU WILL DIE REMEMBERED AS A WEAK COWARD UNDESERVING OF ANYBODY! HEAR MY CALL FOR YOUR DEATH!"
The eva opens its mouth wider than what was supposed to be possible its jaw releasing a sickening crack as it dislocated and hung down.
"SCREACHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh-
Shinji was already up his heart hammering away like an engine
Left to right he brought his gaze,
gone were the buildings the crushed cars.
The people.
On the tv a Godzilla rerun played, shooting plasma from it's mouth with a dethining screech.
He brought his arm up to inspect his hand, it was fleshy and pale, the skin was smooth and devoid of blemishes.
The same cannot be said about his face .
As he got up to relieve himself,
He stood on shakey legs and gently rested his bad arm on his sling.
Walking to the restroom he was slow to look in the mirror once he did, he sighed in relief.
Gone was the horn,the battle plating,and the cursed green eye from hell.
Instead what he sees is cool cobalt looking back, he knows its his face he remembers the look, the way his jaw looks the color of his eyes the shape of his eyes.
But something new was on his face.
Peeling off the bandage on his head, an angry yellow blister was found he knows it'll scare for the rest of his life, he's ok with that whose going to care if he doe--
BING!!!!
"Coming!"
Rushing over to the door he looked out the peephole an old gray haired man stood beside him a security guard.
"Mr ikari?"
He opened the door
"Yes hello?"
The old man smiled
"Do you mind if i speak with you?"
He made way for the old man but the security guard went first
"Thats quite alright, just stand by the door."
"But sir--"
"Its fine, he's only a boy. Lets continue young man."
"Uh-h yeah."
They walk inside and shinji closes the door
"Now i know you've got some questions."
Over the last week shinji has tried to ask sombody, anybody what happened but all they would say is "its classified" or "i don't know anything about that"
"Yeah.. whats your name?"
"Oh yes, My apologies. My name is vice commander feyiskey, im second in charge of nerve and overseer of this facility,
"O-hhh"
"Now i only have 30 minutes before i have to attend a meeting."
"S-sorry, um whare am i?"
"Your in the medical section of nerve in the geofront, its approximately 3000 meters below Tokyo3."
"Ok, am i allowed to leave?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Because your under medical supervision. Do you know of the evangelion?"
"It's the robot right?"
"Yes the robot, its the synthetic lifeform evangelion, when you sat in the plug your mind melded with the evangelion."
He paused
"Or at least thats how it was supposed to happen."
Shinji stood
"What do you mean!"
"Im only going to say this once young man sit down"
Reluctantly shinji sat
"You have mental contamination, rest assured physically your fine, but your mind however is- different"
The old man shifted to look out the window
"Your psyche is corrupted, a- splt if you will"
He looked back at shinji
"Do you understand?"
"Kinda, but not really."
"A part of the evangelion's psyche lives in your psyche"
"What?!"
"Calm down i wont say it again"
"Im sorry, it's just too much."
"But it's not all of it.
Right now we have you medicated to reduce the influence eva might have on you."
Grim reality began to set in
"Am i still me?"
"That we have no question, However until we understand your mental illness better, you have to stay with us."
Feyiskey stood
"Im asking for your cooperation to help us,
With any luck you'll be able to live a normal life again"
"You really mean it?"
"Of course."
"We've secured his cooperation."
"that's good, certainly makes things less Difficult."
"Indeed it does."
"And ritsuko."
"Yes."
"The 2nd's stand in has arrived, when can we have a test."
"I'll have everything ready in 2 days."
"Make it so"
Ritsuko hung up her phone.
The caller id said vice commander.
'She came here earlier than expected, Maby the shikinami series has progressed farther than we thoght'
As she scrolled through her emails she came across what she was looking for
Shikinami 00-9
This clone embodies the best success the shikinami series have produced, the subject has little to no psychotic tendencies and is more docile than the original, originally the subject was proposed to be the replacement becuse of the 2nd's mental instability however ,the subject lacks a bond to will the eva.
But she can still sync, now the shikinami series are reserved as vessels for the 2nd's soul to transfer in case of her untimely death. Anyway we're sending this one over, do what you will with her.
Just dont send us the leftovers.
Dr.Robert
'What a pleasant fellow'
"Wow.. what pleasant wether"
Said asuka or rather something that looks like her
"Don't be like that."
"Like what?"
"That"
"That what?"
"Now your being annoying."
Kaji reclined in his seat, forced to take public transportation
'If you didn't know you could never tell she had no soul'
Kaji inspected her,
she was so close to the original they had to dye her hair to distinguish her.
"I was kidding,i didn't mean to be annoying."
That's where the similarities end of course.
Turns out people aren't made by genetics.
"So are you excited to go to Japan?"
"No, not really."
She started fiddling with her long black hair
"You get to be away from asuka, that's a plus right?"
The relationship between the two
was always bad.
Becuse of the fact she was designed to replace her and all
"Yeah, its just i never been to a foreign country without her."
"You'll be fine, the Japanese are know for their politeness."
"No its the new pilot, asuka told me he was a nut case."
'That's right i did forword my documents to asuka'
"Listen he's not that off his rocker before they slaped him into an eva he was a normal kid"
She didn't look convinced
"Tell you what, just say hi
If he gives you any trouble give him the asuka treatment."
"You're right, i do come from the best genes around."
Or maby genetics play a part in it after all
Shinji was walking down a corridor,
He has been doing that alot lately.
It wasn't like he had anything else to do.
The medical exams stopped, from what he can gather they ran out of tests to run on him, certainly it felt like that was the case
He stopped to read a sign
'Nerve hq, at least the signs tell me things.'
He began underway again walking to a security checkpoint and scanned his card.
Denied
"Let me see your I'd kid."
Shinji turns and sees one of the many guards scattered around the base
He shows him his id.
"Your card is only a escort card, you can only leave this place with an officer or security personnel."
"O-
"I can take him."
The voice belonged to a young woman looking left he saw her
She was the same hight as him but had long black hair and blue eyes
"My name is shikinami, I'm a fellow nerve pilot."
Her smile was warm and welcoming
"Hi im shinji."
"I know that."
"You do ?"
"Yes everyone does." She said as she took his good hand
"Ltjg shikinami, nerve operations." She held out a card showing her with red hair.
"I neet to get permission fi-" "It should be fine. " she interrupted
Looking back at the guard she began again "you said only officers and security can escort right?"
"Y-Yeah bu-" the guard studded a crucial mistake
"So im not an officer? Because the card i have here says I am."she finished
"O-ok let me look at your card"he said, she hands hom the card as he went through it.
"Whats your date of birth?" He said with a glanced eye
"Are you questionin-" he cut her off but the offend face remained
"Please answer the question. "
"10 oct 1999" "and your nerve id number"
"Ninety seven double o. Can we go now?"
"Why is your hair a different color?" The security guard lowered the id the look of smug victory radiating from his face.
"Because i dyed my hair." Asuka looked in satisfaction as the guard sighed in defeat
'He really thought he figured out the mystery Huh?"
He handed back the card
"You may pass."
"Thank youuu~" she said like she was the most innocent little girl.
She speed walked down the corridor holding shinji's hand, passing technicians and janitorial staff
But shinji can only think of one thing
'She's really holding my hand!
I hope my palm isn't sweat-'
"How was it?" Shikinami's question restarted his brain
"How was what?"he didn't know what she was talking about.
"You know, fighting the angle. Piloting an evangelion into battle! Feeling the kneck of your enemy pop like powder beneath your fingers!" Her face was flushed with excitement her hand squeezed down on his hurting it.
"Please stop your hurti-" his plea was interrupted as her face neared his
"You were the first to fight 3rd child.
With no experience or warning you went out and defeated an enemy that an entire army couldn't scratch."
'It wasn't like that !' Shinji's self deprecating thoughts roared in this mind
'I caused so mutch damage.'
'I wasn't able to walk.'
'I-'
"It wasn't that cool" shinji finally said he felt shame.
"You dont think so?"
"No i don't think so." Shinji said as his head hung low
"Well i think you did good." shinji's head snapped up.
But she started walking turned away from him
"Sorry about the hand. Lets go i want to show you something."
"How's the operation going " feyiskey asked gendo
"All according to plan. As long as the shikinami series grows attached to him she can pilot the evangelion."
"What happens to shinji after the pair bonding experience.".Gendo remained silent
"Its yui's boy."
Gendo stiffened than said
"He'll remain in Tokyo3 to use as leverage against the shikinami series"
"Do i have to keep my eyes closed?"
Shinji says as he blindly stumbles along.
"Of course you do. don't want to ruin the suprise."
She dragged him along for some time.
"Here. Open your eyes."
It was unit 01
"What!"shinji freaked his heart quickened
"Hey are you ok?" she ask with concern
"Yea just give me a minute please."closing his eyes shinji focused on regulating his breathing
"Im sorry i didn't mean to."
"Its fine im just a little scared thats all."
Shinji gave her the best smile he could.
"If you say so."..."Look i need to tell you- im your …...replacement"
She didn't look at him
"You are?" Shinji replies. He doesn't know what to think he expected he should be happy but instead he feels like he failed
The contradicting feelings rage on inside as she continues
"Im doing a test with eva unit one tomorrow."
She looks at shinji
"I would really like it, if you could be there"
The a answer was simple for shinji out of all the emotions and thoughts he came to this one.
"I'll be there ."
"He's here." Risuko stated
"Are you sure it good for him to be here?" Asked misato as she filled out paperwork.
"The commander doesn't care if he's here." She typed the last code before lighting up a cigarette
"Like he would."
"And you do?" Ritsuko accused
"Never said i did."
'Its acceptable as long as the angels are dead' thought misato
"Let's leave him be. Besides it might help her pair bond."As she sat in the plug shikinami's mind was elated 'im finally becoming my own person.no longer will i have to live in that spoiled brats world'
"Are you ready to sync?"
"Im ready"she responded confidently.
" ok, initiating sync."
The plug slid into place and locked inside the evangelion.
"Plug secured. Initiating neural connections."
The plug started to cascade in a variety of colors and imperceptible shapes
"Reaching absolute border line in 3,...2,...1, border line passed"
She did it, she can sync shes just as good as that crybaby,
"Sync stabilizing."
'Here it comes'
"Sync rate is 60%. Ok try to move your right hand"
She clenched her hand
"Congratulations your now an eva pilot"
She couldn't hold it in anymore she started crying years of constant belittling, name calling and insults and she finally became an evangelion pilot.
"We have sombody who wants to talk to you"
"Hi shikinami." Shinji's voice came over the radio.
"I did it shinji."
"Im glad to hear that"
"EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY. SYNC RATE DESTABILIZING"
The bridge team leapt into action
"What's going on!" Shouted ritsuko
"The sync system is reverting. The pilot's at risk for matter deconstruction"
Now she understood she wasn't a real person to began with. No soul no heart like an animal the waves of sadness washed upon her self like the waves of an ocean.
'At least it doesn't hurt' shikinami thought
She moved her arm but her hand remained at the joystick as her arm severed apart. Her blood leaking into the lcl dyeing the amber liquid red
"Hey shinji." She called out to him over the communications window.
His face holds no secret of how he feels
"Was i a good person?"
She never got to hear the answer as she completely desolved in the lcl.
Dear dr. Roberts
The shikinami series expired yesterday,
The subject completely disintegrated into the lcl. No meterial was salvageable as she was totally and completely been reduced to lcl. Attached is all the data leading up to and after the incident.
V/r dr. Ritsuko
Nerve 1
Tokyo3
She pulled out another box of cigarettes from her desk and began packing the box
'This was totally unexpected to so completely and totally, dissolve into lcl'
She pulled out her notebook
'Evangelion 01 has been completely divergent in respect to the previous evangelions produced. the qualities of how it interacts with its pilots is completely unexpected'
She paused to light up a cigarette
'Nerv executive, has high confidence that unit 01 will only function with pilot ikari, as all previous pilots have been disintegrated into the unit '
She took a prolonged pull of the cancer stick
'It remains to be seen if its current pilot will comply.
RING RING
pulling out her phone
"He's agreed to comply."
"How'd you swing that misato?"ritsuko was thoroughly impressed
"It wasn't me, it was the commander." Misato replied
'Oh good lord.'
"What did he say?"
"He threatened to have him thrown into foster care."
'Im going to need more cigarettes'