JUNE 11th, 2015
NERV HQ
7:31pm:
Shinji and the three troops from Unit-74 continued to trek through the halls. The cacophonous sound of gunfire exchange had grown louder and louder the more they walked, meaning they were all getting closer to danger, and therefore more alert. But on the way there, they felt a tremor that didn't quite feel the same as the ones the drills produced in HQ, mostly because the sound of the impact wasn't the same at all.
"What the hell was that loud crashing sound?" Private Daguchi asked. "Did you guys hear that? It didn't sound like a bomb to me..."
The collapse of the autowalk platform had been felt throughout a good portion of HQ. In particular, the squad Shinji was currently accompanying had felt it a lot stronger than most units in the many halls of HQ did. They all knew at this point that they were close to the Command Center, but they had no idea what was going on at its very doorstep.
"Maybe it's another one of those drills the Angels breached HQ with." Suggested Hinode.
"Drills?" Shinji questioned, to which Hinode nodded.
"Yeah. Since the power came back on, other units have reported that some kind of drilling vehicle was used to carve into HQ from below. That's how all these skinjobs managed to even get here. So far, eight drills have been reported in total. We don't know if we're expecting any more."
'Shit, it's worse than I thought. HQ is being absolutely ravished by these things. It's not just another head-on assault... we're completely surrounded. It's even worse than Sai-Kuru.' Shinji thought.
Indeed, this situation was much more dire. Almost every unit that were up on the surface had been called to retreat to HQ because of the threat the Angels posed to it. And based on what Kaji had just told him, Shinji now knew that if they reached Terminal Dogma, it wouldn't just mean the end of Tokyo-3.
It meant the end of the world.
"Alright, judging by the nearby gunfire I'm assuming Unit-01 is encountering an Angel attack right now. We need to find the safest point of entry because we don't know exactly how many of them there are. And something tells me that loud crash we heard had something to do with them, so we have to keep our eyes op- WATCH OUT!"
As they approached a two-way turn at the hall, they spotted the enemy running past, only to spot the four troops who were clearly outnumbered. The Angels fired immediately, causing the four to run for the walls and start firing themselves.
*RR-ATATATATATA*
Luckily, they had managed to snag a few of the Angels first, but more came out as the others were shot down. Shinji only had the PKD Pistol Kaji gave him, so he didn't have much of a chance in supporting the Unit-74 troops.
"Shit, there's more of them than us, we're gonna have to retr-!" Private Oba tried alerting the other three troops before being shot all across the abdomen.
His lifeless body dropped like a ragdoll to the floor, as did his now unattended automatic rifle.
"Oba! Shit!" Daguchi exclaimed.
Hinode threw a grenade towards the Angels as Shinji and Daguchi kept firing as a way to save them time to make a retreat. They knew there was no way they'd be able to eliminate all of them, so their only resort now was to head back and find another way to Unit-01's position.
*KR-PFFF*
"We gotta retreat, come on!" Hinode yelled.
*RR-ATATATATATATATATATATA*
The three made a run for it, but heard additional gunfire coming from the Angels direction. Yet Shinji noticed there were no bullets headed their way, making him wonder if it was another unit that had fired at the Angels. He stopped running and looked back to asses exactly what was going on, in turn making the other two stop. Hinode approached him and yanked him by the arm.
"Come on, we gotta go! There's no time to lose!"
"No, wait-" Shinji said as he pushed Hinode's hand away.
He neared the smoke from the grenade blast to get a better look knowing this was a risk and often greatly advised against in training. But something told him that he was safe, and he didn't know why. It felt like more than a gut feeling, and he felt compelled to go. But Hinode was still confused, focused more on running away from the Angels he still thought were there.
"Ikari! What are you doing? This isn't the time to-"
"Friendly! We're friendlies! NERV troops! Who goes there? Which outfit are you with?" Shinji yelled from his position towards the two-way turn.
"This is Unit-01! Which outfit are you?" A voice came from the end of the hall.
Shinji turned to look at the other two of Unit-74's troops and nodded, finally assuring to them that it was safe to head back.
"Unit-74 here! We've got one of your troops here with us!" Hinode replied.
The coast seemed clear from any more Angels, so they all headed towards each other as the air conditioning cleared the smoke from the halls. Shinji and the Unit-74 boys were under the impression they had just encountered all of Unit-01, but were surprised to see only a handful of the troops. This immediately struck Shinji, as he knew something was seriously wrong.
The first troops he saw were ones he recognized, but didn't really know personally. So he started to worry dearly for his friends.
"Private Ikari?" One of them asked. "Where the hell have you been all this time?"
But the troop had unknowingly alerted two of his closest friends, who were not too far back.
"Wait, what?" Shinji heard a familiar voice ask.
Two troops were seen running towards him, and almost immediately he could tell who they were. Most of the unit's other troops moved out of the way since the hall had kind of cluttered them all together. As he suspected, Toji and Kensuke stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw that it was him, the friend they thought they had lost.
"Shinji?" They both asked in unison. "SHINJI!"
The two gave him a giant hug, being both confused and elated at the same time.
"The fuck happened to ya? Ya've been gone for more than a month!" Toji said with a big smile on his face. "We thought ya kicked it for good, man! We were worried sick! And now yer jus' back 'ere like nothin' happened?!"
"Yeah, and you couldn't have picked a worse time to get back! The Angels have HQ by the balls right now! But, shit... we're more than glad to have you back, man." Kensuke added.
Shinji smiled at the two, happy to know they were still alive and the same at heart.
"Oh and uh, what's with the funky hairdo?" Toji asked.
"Look, it's a really long and complicated story, I'll explain it all later." Shinji said. "But wait, where's the rest of Unit-01? Oh no... don't tell me they're-"
"We don't know for sure, but last we saw of them, they weren't dead. We were split up from them when the Angels managed to bring an entire platform down on us... that's about half the unit that's been separated from the another. Knowing the other half, they should be able to hold them off for some time. But we have to hurry, the Angels are about to invade the Command Center." Kensuke explained.
"Misato's in there!" Said Shinji.
"Yeah, just about everyone important to this organization is. This is some serious shit." Kensuke added.
Shinji nodded.
"Well then we should hurry. Which route can we take to reach the rest of Unit-01?"
"How 'bout the halls where those skinjobs broke in with that drill thing of theirs?" Toji suggested. "By now they oughta be pushin' towards the Command Center... we could try and come from behind so that one half of Unit-01 is shootin' from one side, and we're shootin' from the other."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, actually. Come on, let's get moving." Said Kensuke.
Right before Shinji and his friends got moving with the small portion of Unit-01, he felt a slight tug at his pants. He turned to look at who it was, and found Daguchi from Unit-74 handing him Oba's ADV rifle and his extra ammo. Shinji took it, nodding his head as a thanks.
Daguchi went back to Oba, reaching for and ripping out his dog tag. It served as a grim reminder to Shinji of just what was at cost in this war.
Then Shinji turned back to his friends.
"Let's go."
He and his fellow troops were now on the move again, running to find their way to the location of the Angels' drill. They knew this plan would be a bit of a long shot, but they had no real choice. Asuka was busy leading her own half of Unit-01, so they couldn't rely on her leadership and planning. They were basically on their own.
As Shinji ran along Toji and Kensuke, his mind suddenly went back to Rei.
"Guys, is Rei alright?"
"She wasn't hurt when we last saw her, but she's got no morale left at all." Kensuke recalled.
"What?" Shinji asked in a panic.
"We think it's got somethin' to do with the fact that ya've been gone for a while. She looked real bummed, man. Never seen 'er like that before." Said Toji.
"Well then, we'd better get back there fast."
Then Kensuke reached for his earpiece to deliver Asuka an update of their plan.
"This is Private Aida. Lieutenant, can you hear me?"
"Where the hell are you guys? They're pushing us back into the gates!" She replied angrily.
"We're on our way to regroup with you guys! Toji, Shinji and I came up with a strategy to weaken the Angel platoo-"
"Wait wait wait, what'd you just say? Shinji's with you guys?" Asuka asked, completely shocked and confused.
Asuka, Hikari and Rei were close together at this point behind a wall that put them mostly out of view from the enemy. Both Hikari and Asuka would peak out every once in a while to fire back, while Rei still remained hopeless, sitting against a wall with legs folded upwards and her head buried in her arms.
But once she heard Shinji's name her head shot up and looked towards Asuka in complete disbelief.
"Yeah yeah, he just showed up out of nowhere!" Kensuke explained. "Now listen, Toji suggested our half of Unit-01 take on the Angels from behind, right by their drilling vehicle. That way we can fire at them from both sides. We're making our way there now, we'll let you know whe-"
"Who said you guys were making the orders all of a sudden?" Questioned Asuka.
"Got any better ideas?"
Asuka stood silent for a second. For the first time she could remember, she really didn't have anything better to suggest. By now she could feel her leadership quickly slip out of her hands. And with her most recent battle plan having backfired severely, it was beginning to consume her mind mid-battle.
"Lieutenant? Hello? You still there?" Asked Kensuke.
"Just do it, already!" She said in an attempt to maintain her ground as the sole driving force of Unit-01 that she thought she was.
Then she looked back at Hikari to see if she caught any of her reactions. She was thankful that Hikari was hard at work firing at the Angels. Then she looked over at Rei, whose widened eyes were looking directly at her with a more determined expression.
"The hell are you doing looking at me fo-?"
But then Asuka was quick to realize why Rei had suddenly woken back up from her depressive state.
'Of course.' She thought as she grimaced.
"Shinji's here?" Rei asked desperately. "He's back in HQ... "
"Is that seriously what it takes to get you to snap out of it?! You're fucking pathetic!" Asuka shouted before engaging in the battle once more.
Rei ignored Asuka's short outburst and promptly stood back up, unholstering her pistol. She had finally involved herself in battle again. Even if all she had was a single PKD Pistol, she was willing to use whatever she had left to fight now. It was as if a switch was flipped, her combat skills now as sharp as they had always been.
'Shinji has saved my life twice, now.' She thought. 'He is the most important person in my life. And so... I will to protect him at all costs.'
The smaller half of Unit-01 had slowed there running into a cautious walk as they approached the Angels' breach point. By now, they could hear the gunfire pretty well as the loud sounds bounced off the walls just by the hall that the entirety of the unit had been guarding not too long ago.
"Alright guys, slow down." Warned Kensuke.
With hallways not being the ideal location for a battle, the Angels weren't spread out enough for them to determine exactly how many of them had emerged from the drill vehicle. The firepower they were dispersing was really loud now. The enemy platoon was very clearly just feet away from the small squad at this point. Shinji moved over to rear his head around the corner, but was pulled back by Kensuke before he could do so.
"Hey! What gives?" He asked in a whisper.
"We can't just peak out like that. They might spot us and overwhelm the squad." Explained Kensuke. "We're gonna have to find another way to get a look at what's down this turn. For all we know, the skinjobs could be further down than we'd expect. We don't know just yet if this is exactly where they are..."
"Okay, so how're we gonna do that?" Shinji asked once more.
Kensuke dug through one of his cargo pockets, eventually finding a tiny mirror he always kept with him. Then he took out his combat knife and turned around to the other troops.
"Anyone got gum with them?"
Toji raised his hand and inched closer to him, taking the chewed mush from his mouth and handing it over to him. Kensuke stuck the gum to the tip of the knife, using it as a glue to hold the mirror in place so he had a chance to carefully direct it towards the turn of the hall. He was finally able to see the Angels holding their position, confirming that they were indeed not too far from the squad.
"There they are." He said. "We're gonna have to find a way to clear them so we can attack from behind."
"We could always throw a grenade their way." Shinji suggested.
"We're not gonna be able to jus' chuck it over from 'ere, though. It ain't gonna be a clear throw." Said Toji.
Shinji looked down pensively for a moment.
"Well how about some covering fire, then? Two of us could fire directly at them while one of us steps in their line of sight. Once the blast clears them, we rush them so that they don't get the advantage from the get-go. It's risky but it could work, just as long as we're able to throw it far enough."
Kensuke and Toji looked at each other, then over at the rest of the squad to confirm if everyone else was on-board with the idea. They all nodded.
"Looks like that's a yes... alright, positions, everyone. I'll provide covering fire. Shinji, you back me up." Said Kensuke.
"I'll be the one blastin' the skinjobs." Toji said as he grabbed ahold of one of his grenades, putting his sniper down as well and waiting in a ready position.
Shinji and Kensuke held their ADV rifles in their hands as they waiting right behind the corner of the wall. Toji braced as he waited for their cue. The rest of the Unit-01 squad waited eagerly behind the three boys, whom they were all finding to be strangely good leaders all of a sudden.
"3, 2, 1... covering fire!" Kensuke yelled as he and Shinji peaked around the corner, spraying their bullets.
The Angels were now alert of their presence as Toji quickly ran into place, getting a good aim at the artificial humans as they scrambled for cover. He unpinned the grenade and threw it towards them with all his might, watching as it rolled right into the desired location. Toji quickly ran back for cover with the rest of the troops, the wall behind him receiving new bullet holes.
*P-TAAFFFFF*
A jet of smoke blasted towards them, and the squad quickly got up to rush the platoon of Angels.
"There might be more on both sides, we don't want to be surrounded by them!" Shinji shouted. "The first half of the squad takes the right, and the second half takes the left!"
All the troops yelled something back in compliance, and swiftly did as Shinji instructed them to. Although they were relatively outnumbered, they managed to catch the Angels by complete surprise and wiped most of them out, although the side Shinji, Toji and Kensuke were on were taking most of the heat. The left side had a significant lesser amount of enemies, so they were able to clear the area of the drill pretty easily.
Once the left side was taken care of, they were able to join the right side in taking the enemy from behind. Now both halves of Unit-01 were giving the Angels a fight on two fronts.
"This is Private Aida to Lieutenant Soryu! We're attacking the Angels from behind, start closing in on them if you can!"
"I got it, I got it!" Replied Asuka.
As Shinji and his friends picked enemy after enemy off, a familiar feeling came to him as the heat of the moment intensified. The adrenaline ran through his blood just like all those other battles he had taken part of. But this time it was a little different. He wasn't feeling the adrenaline despite his fear and hatred of battle. Shinji almost felt as if he was enjoying this, similar to when he was on BR-ZRK.
Except this time he wasn't on a kill-driven spree. He felt good about protecting his friends. Shinji finally felt good about what he was doing in battle. He reminisced on his mother's words once more.
"Go back and fight... For your friends, and for the world that is your home."
'Mother was right after all.' He thought. 'I'm not doing this out of hate for the Angels. And I'm not doing this for... him. I'm protecting the ones I love.'
Another Angel taken down, and then another one. And another. And yet another. Not only had he ever felt this good about it, but his performance in combat had never been this excellent. Shinji felt lost in this great sensation that was the push the battle was giving him. And though it still was all nothing but senseless killing in his eyes, he was doing it out of love for the people he cared most about.
These were the people that had shown him true love and compassion, more than he had ever experienced in his entire life.
'This is it, this is where I need to be... I'm home.'
"They're beginning to come out, Unit-01!"
Although the unit had found a way to turn the splitting of their group in half into somewhat of an advantage, they were still outnumbered, only now at a slightly smaller difference than before. The Angels were dangerously close to the Command Center, and they were still the ones that were managing to push Unit-01 back further and further onto the gates.
Shinji's side of the unit resorted to incessantly firing at the enemy's backside to try to push them out of the halls and into the sights of Asuka's half. So far it had mostly worked. However, the battle had been going on for a little while now. If the backup Misato called in for them didn't arrive soon, they'd begin to run out of ammo.
'Where's our backup, damn it?' Asuka thought frustratedly.
Even with the Angels getting slowly but surely forced out of the hallway, it wasn't a sure thing that Unit-01 was going to win this battle. They couldn't just blast at them like Asuka had hoped. They'd have to be more methodical about it.
"Aida, how are you guys holding up back there?" She asked over the earpiece.
"They've moved towards you guys just a little, but they're trying to stall as hard as they can. These fucks aren't going down without a fight..." Replied Kensuke.
'Shit, and still no word from Katsuragi about that backup...' She thought. "Your side still have any grenades on you?"
"I think each of us have just about a few left, but we're too close to the enemy to use them without getting caught in the blast ourselves. We might kill most of them but we'll be goners as well!" Kensuke explained.
"Use your head, dummy! Just have a few of the troops on your side throw a couple grenades towards them all at the same time and quickly back out!" Ordered Asuka.
Kensuke sighed exasperatedly.
'That's one hell of a risky move, but it's all we got.' He thought. "Affirmative, Lieutenant."
Then he looked back at the smaller half of Unit-01.
"Alright fellas, listen up! Throw your grenades at 'em all at the same time and run back immediately! The blast is gonna be big, but it'll likely blow those fucks away. You guys in the back, give us some covering fire as soon as we run over to you. On my mark, you hear?"
A handful of troops replied 'yes' to him simultaneously.
"On go-" Kensuke instructed. "3, 2, 1... go!"
He and two other Unit-01 troops unpinned and chucked their grenades straight towards the Angels, running back as fast as possible to avoid the big ensuing explosion and loads of shrapnel that would likely come their way.
The Angels tried to make a run for it on the opposite direction, but found themselves getting shot at by Asuka's half of Unit-01.
The large blast finally went off, effectively wiping out most of the platoon in a millisecond. This was when Asuka's side was finally able to overwhelm the remaining Angels, gradually picking every one of them off. It looked as if this battle had finally been won.
But HQ was still crawling with Angels in multiple other sectors.
"Aida, you guys can come out now." Asuka communicated to him. "The skinjobs are terminated."
All of Unit-01 cheered at each other, this battle having proved to be their toughest yet, even more than Sai-Kuru. But as always they managed to pull through. And this time not even a single Unit-01 troop was killed in action. They all knew the overall battle for HQ was likely far from over, but they were just happy to still be alive, hence the small celebration they were having among themselves.
But one girl was noticeably more concerned with something else now, as she ran from Asuka's side of Unit-01 over to the smokey halls where she knew Shinji would be.
Rei kept running as fast as she could, even past the carnage that was the remains of the Angels that were blown to bits by the three grenades that had won Unit-01 this battle. She squinted her eyes as she the smoke, still leaving the hallway, was coming out quite strongly because of the air ventilation system.
Back inside the hall, Shinji, Kensuke and Toji all fist bumped each other in a congratulatory manner.
"Holy shit, I sorta can't believe we're still breathin', dudes..." Said Toji.
"Well with this much smoked from all the grenades we used up in here, I share that sentiment." Kensuke joked, making all three laugh for a short moment. "Okay, we should probably regroup with the rest of-"
*RR-ATATATATATATATA*
The three friends immediately ran the opposite way, seeking cover from gunfire that was being directed at them. Toji and Kensuke managed to get away from the assault, but Shinji had tripped on one of the Angel corpses. He grunted as he fell on his side and looked back to see exactly what was happening.
One of the Angels was still alive, but severely wounded.
"N-No!" Shinji exclaimed as he tried grabbing is automatic rifle in time.
But the single Angel had his own rifle pointed at him and ready to fire. Shinji closed his eyes in anticipation of his death, until he heard a gunshot from the opposite direction.
*P-TAU*
The Angel immediately collapsed, dying once and for all.
Shinji was relieved once more, sitting up to catch his breath. His life had just been saved by another troop, and he looked back to see who it was so he could thank them.
But once his eyes found that it was Rei that saved him, they widened.
"Shinji..." She said exhaustively.
"Rei!"
He got up at once and ran over to her as she did the same, both stopping as soon as they embraced each other in a tight hug. Shinji buried his face onto her shoulder as Rei finally smiled once more. This was probably the happiest she had been in a long time. Just like Unit-01, she felt whole again.
They finally broke from the hug, staring deeply into each others eyes.
"Rei... I'm so happy that you're alright." He said.
"Just as I am happy that you're okay as well." Rei said to him. "How is it that you came back? Won't the Commander be upset by this?"
"That doesn't really matter now... let's just say that someone taught me a valuable lesson. One that made me realize..."
Shinji grabbed Rei's hand and held it tightly.
"...that I need- no, want to protect those I love." He said to her. "You just protected me as well, Rei. Thank you so much."
Rei smiled at him again.
"It is my second time doing so, actually. Just as you have saved me twice, now." She said.
But now Shinji was a little confused.
"Twice? But, when did you-?"
Suddenly, it hit him. He didn't know exactly why it made sense to him, but it did. Shinji thought back to the previous night in which he broke away from the core after his mother had told him that another hand awaited him in the real world. He didn't understand why it made so much sense to him at all, but for some reason it just seemed right.
Rei was the one who had successfully extracted him from the core after all.
"The core... that was you?" He asked. "B-But, how?"
Her smile had faded just a little now. There was still some information of which Shinji was not aware of about her. And she wasn't sure how he'd react if he was to find out.
"This... I'm not sure I can tell you right now." She said. "I'm just happy that I could do the same as you have done for me. And most of all, happy to see you again."
Shinji grinned again.
"Guess that makes us even now, doesn't it?"
Rei's smile widened once more.
"I believe that to be true."
They both hugged each other one more time, until they heard a very distinct 'ahem' coming from the end of the hall. The two let go of each other and found Asuka looking at the two with disgust and with one hand on her waist in a very judgemental manner.
"A warzone is no place for your little romance, you weirdos." She said to them before focusing solely on Shinji. "Guess you're not running away after all. So, what made you decide to come back to HQ? Please don't tell me it was the doll..."
"It's... a long story." Said Shinji.
"Yeah, I'm sure it is. Now come on, you two are coming with me."
"Where are we going, Lieutenant?" Asked Rei.
Asuka narrowed her eyes at her, though. She was still disgusted by Rei after all the bitter situations the two had gone through since Shinji's disappearance. But she didn't have the time to think about it right now. There were bigger, better things she found were more worth spending her time worrying over. Asuka was Unit-01's Lieutenant. And that's the thing she really cared most about in her life.
"To the Command Center. I'm going to need to have a little word with the Major."