Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of the works that are cited in this fanfiction or inspired it;

I hope you enjoy this work, please give your thoughts on it. ;)

The Angel Hails - Chapter 2:
The Beast

"Neither pleasure nor pain should enter as motives when one must do what must be done."

― Julius Evola.

"Nothing like the sound of gunfire in the morning."

Shinji deadpanned to himself as he sat at the sidewalk with the picture of the Katsuragi woman. She was supposed to be here by now, but he couldn't judge her considering the warzone that the small city was in the moment. Himself had done as asked just to be answered by a government message in the phonebooth.

When he felt the taste of blood from how much he was biting his lips, he tried to distract himself looking down the road.

His mouth fell open when he saw a red-haired older woman was staring at him. In shock, Shinji only barely managed to twitch his mouth in a nervous smile, being answered with a roll of eyes and a feline grin. When he blinked, she disappeared.

He jumped out of the sight as he looked to the other side. A spindly humanoid giant of thin figure and exaggerated proportions walked upon the streets as missiles and rockets failed to do any damage to the beast and swaying a VTOL who attacked as if it was a fly. The monster invoked a force-field barrier... The AT-Field, so it is true... and...

"Fuck!" Shinji started running down the block, not daring to give a second glance to the combat zone and the monster who was using the AT-Field to jump. "It is true, it is true..." He whispered between breathes, only hearing the explosion cause by the beast's leap.

He only stopped running when a blue Renault Alpine A310 made a brute turn and stood on his front. Opening the door, there was a purple-haired woman wearing sunglasses and a silky black dress who fitted quite nicely on her.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting." Said the grinning woman.

Shinji looked down to the picture and to the woman. "Misato Katsuragi?" When she nodded, he didn't hesitate to jump into the car and abrutly closed the door. For the first time, he checked out the angel as he destroyed more of the city and stood unharmed.

Definitely what I wasn't expecting.

While she had to leave her eyes on the road, specially with a driving that breaks every single traffic law as hers and in a warzone, Misato was taking several glances at the Commander's son. With a deceased mother and being abandoned by the father, they expected a weak-willed manchild, but the man that sat at her side, elbow resting at the car's door and gaze focused on the front, had defiled and shat upon the expectations of herself and of NERV.

Tall and broad-shouldered as the Commander, Shinji wore a dark blue shirt who matched the colour of his eyes and and clung to the well-built body with no tie and a battered all-black suit. In contrast with the fiery gaze, his face was like if built on stone, carrying Gendo's strong complexions, but with a beauty that Katsuragi could only guess that came from his mother, checking out his lips, she leaned a little.

Unless it is a case of "Don't judge the book by its cover", definitely what I wasn't expecting.

He turned to her and made eye contact. "Miss Katsuragi, need anything?"

Misato blinked. Am I that obvious? She adopted a feline grin. "No, you're just less cute than I expected. Also, Shinji, call me Misato. Miss Katsuragi makes me feel old." She looked at rear view. "I was expecting you to ask what that thing was."

He turned to the front with a thoughtful look. "I imagined it was classified."

"Heh, quite cynical, aren't you? That thing is called a Angel."

"Hmmph, not the best sense of humour."

Misato chuckled. "Yeah, I have seen better."

She looked to a hill nearby with a face between a devilish grin and sheer curiosity. The hill faced the town that she got Shinji and thus had a great view of the city. When she relieves her foot of the accelerator for the first time since the Angel attacked, Shinji spoke up.

"Why are we stopping?" Misato pouted at the cold tone of his voice, that, while respectful, made it sound almost commanding, a loss considering the beauty of it.

"Just a small stop to see how things are going back there." She said innocently with a sheepish grin.

If he disagreed, he didn't made any mention of it, rather turning back to the thoughtful look, but this time giving several glances to the battle's direction, a very few to Misato herself. Once they locked eyes and he opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to pull back. Misato was asking herself if she saw a almost transparent shade of pink on his cheeks.

Some time later, they stopped at the hill, while able to see what was happening, Misato wanted a more closer look and went to get her binoculars, while Shinji stayed staring at the peaceful sky, his eyes carrying a glee in contrast with the sarcastic grin he had at the sheer irony of it. However, with the sight of airplanes, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

"Bombing!" He then threw himself over Misato, she making herself smaller as Shinji tried to cover her the most he could when they felt the shockwaves.

"I am sorry for your car."

Misato blinked. After trying his best to protect her at the N2 mine explosion and helping her with her car, he was now here with his eyes fixed on the floor giving a sincere enough apology and, although equally calm, when she tried to think of the Commander doing the same, she could only describe it as in a very thin line between bizarre and funny.

She gave him a genuine smile. "Nothing to worry about, Shinji."

...Then adopted her infamous teasing persona. "I know how anxious you were about being on top of me."

Shinji now had a frown and a small shade of pink on the checks, but he still seemed as distant has he had been the whole trip. That she didn't need to imagine the Commander doing.

Misato hadn't lied about him being anxious, she had seen he bit his lips till blood came out after all, determined to try something, she slowly moves to his side.

"Are you nervous to see your father? I have heard you don't see him since ten years ago."

Shinji was more than surprised to see her getting closer. "I... I really don't know what to think."

"You don't know him well, do you?"

He broke off eye contact, turning back to looking at the ground. "More than I wished to."

"What do you mean?"

"I... I mean that... it was far easier to... to see him as this one-dimensional person, a bad man who had left me. It was far easier to just... hate him, knowing more about him makes everything more complicated."

Misato gave a small sympathetic chuckle as she held her pendant. Since they were barely a open hand of distance of eachother, booth of them had a light shade of red on the cheeks. "I think I can understand that."

"You're holding it upside down."

She looked at him in a mixture of embarrassment and annoyance. "I know!"

Shinji was trying his best to not chuckle at the woman being completely lost. He was pretty sure that they had passed by this place more than once. He would be slightly annoyed if it wasn't funny, since the clumsyness of it was taking a weight of the man's shoulders. He would try to help, but himself didn't remember about the Geofront and it's paths.

He was carrying Uncle Kaworu's old blazer on his arm, hands on the pockets of the pants and the dark-blue shirt buttoned to the penultimate button and untucked.

"Yes!" They stopped in front of an elevator, Misato childishly clicking the button and then looking at Shinji with a cocky grin. "I told you I knew the..."

The elevator door opened, revealing a annoyed faux-blonde scientist wearing a soaked swimsuit and a lab-coat with a name tag that reads "R. Akagi".

"Misato, in this kind of situation and you still get lost?"

Misato had a sheepish apologetic look at her face as she tried to mumble some excuse, while Shinji had a frown.

"So, this is the Third Children?"

Shinji nodded. "Where is he?"

Ritsuko and Misato shivered and looked at eachother. "That is where we are going."

They entered the elevator, Ritsuko pressed the button and they descended to the depths of the place. Shinji felt his hands sweaty as much as he was able to keep himself stoic, so he turned his mind to other matters.

"Where are the First and Second Children?"

"Mister Ikari, I don't think it is the moment to-"

"Please, answer it." Too alike, both of the woman thought as they shivered at the harshness of the man's voice, itself being even more eery than his father's.

Such is the price of a lifetime of hate, said Uncle Kaworu.

Ritsuko shrugged. "The First Children is currently in the hospital after a accident and the Second Children is in the german branch of NERV."

"Hmm." While meeting the Second Children was impossible for the time-being, Shinji made a mental note to visit the First Children.

He clenched his hands and his teeth as they got closer to his father... and closer to his mother. I mustn't run away. He closed his eyes and took a long breathe, then assumed the same posture and look Uncle Kaworu had when they first met.

In the dark, Shinji stood with closed eyes.

The beast that killed Mother,

it carries her soul.

It will be both the horse and the weapon for my Parsifal,

because I shall outgrown the worn out moralities of man,

so I can lose my mankind

and be as human as one can.

He opened his eyes as the lights turned on and he locked gaze with the crimson eyes of the beast.

"This is the Ultimate All-Purpose Humanoid Decisive Battle Weapon developed by humanity. The artificial human, Evangelion. That is Eva-01. Its construction carried out in complete secrecy, it is our — humanity's — final trump."

A hint of Shinji's old hate dared to appear as he saw that only the two women stood by his side. He forced his fingers into his palm in a clenched fist, his nails slowly piercing the flesh, but he continued with Uncle Kaworu's stance. I musn't run away.

"When you invited me to her grave, I hoped you would be by my side." He turned his gaze to the man who now was at a higher plataform, looking at him from above. He could swear he saw his father step back.

"Third Children, you weren't called here for childish revenge, you were called to pilot the Evangelion Unit 01. Your failure to act will mean the complete destruction of mankind."

Misato seemed to wish to speak, both because of Shinji's mention of Yui and him piloting Unit 01 without training, but Shinji spoke first.

"Stop with the 'doing the right thing for humanity' talk, what you're going to do if I don't pilot is to send the First Children in my place. What you're going to do is to send her to die in Mother's grave." Shinji opened his hands and slightly tilted his head down. "Ironically, it is because you failed me in the day you abandoned me that I was able to keep moving forward, despite all the pain. Such was your error that my hate was great enough for me to never stop to improve myself. It was your failure as a man that allowed me to successed as one. Father, for that, I thank you. And again I thank you, because you give me the duty I was born for... and someone to protect. Father, I will pilot the Evangelion Unit 01."

The beast that killed Mother,

it carries her soul.

It will be both the horse and the weapon for my Parsifal,

because I shall outgrown the worn out moralities of man,

so I can lose my mankind

and be as human as one can.

Shinji opened his eyes to the steel capsule he found himself in. To the Eva's Mother, it was her womb. That made him the child.

Giving no attention to the techno-talk of Doctor Akagi and her subordinates, he looked at the ground to see a orange-colored liquid rising up. The blood of the beast shall provide me the breath of life... and to find mother. He bit his lips. It is taking too long. When the liquid found himself at the line of his abdomen, Shinji dipped his head in the LCL, disgusted by the taste of blood, he took a great breath, filling his lungs with the blood of the Beast.

His first instinct was to vomit, but he realized it would not be the best of the ideas. Such was not cause by the taste of the blood, rather by the prospect with speaking with the mother he thought that was dead his whole life.

With a tight grip on the controls, the LCL was electrolysed, the blood becoming transparent, as Shinji focused his thoughts. The conversation shall be on the mind.

"Mother? Mother, are you there?"

He was breathing as if in a race, until...

A warm feeling, one reminiscent of his childhood and of Uncle Kaworu's hugs... A hug, such was the emotion.

"Shinji...? Shinji, can you hear me?!"

Shinji felt his eyes getting watery. Fuck, I am pathetic...

"No, Shinji, you are not pathetic. You have grown up to be a strong person, even with all the..." Yui's voice was a mix of guilt and sadness. "...The suffering that you passed. Shinji, I..."

"Mother... You need to help me. I... I don't care about what you and father did... But I need you."

"Tell me, Shinji, what can I do?"

"Mother... They want to use me and this beast... the Evangelion... is key to both my slavery and freedom. Mother, If you care about the freedom of your son, you must fight at full force... You must accept no other to pilot it but me!"

The feeling of being hugged got stronger as the voices of Doctor Akagi and her subordinates got higher.

"Shinji, are you alright?!" Misato's voice was a strange mix of awe and worry.

"Misato? Yes, I am."

He heard the woman sigh in relief. "It is just... Your Synch-Rate is at the 80%'s, daring to go to the 90%'s. Shinji, Rei's highest was at the 50%'s."

"Rei... Is she the First or Second Children?"

Unseen by the man, Misato blinked. "I... Rei Ayanami is the First Children."

"I see."

"Shinji, are you ready?"

Shinji nodded.

"Launch the Eva!"

Do not be afraid; our fate... said the voice of a Yui Ikari.

As they risen to the surface, Ikari slowsly inhaled and fastly exhaled the LCL.

...Cannot be taken from us... said the voice of a Kaworu Rokubungi.

The metallic doors to the future battle were open.

... it is a gift. said the voice of a red-haired girl.

Sharing the beast's eyes, there was the terrifying site of the great Tokyo-3 at the size of dollhouse.

Moving their head, he looked upon their hand, using the controls to move their fingers.

Thumb, index, middle, ring, little.

Little, ring, middle, index, thumb.

He heard footsteps, then they calmly stopped.

His head weighed the whole world when he dared to look up.

The Angel stared at him as the red irises betrayed the feeling of respect.

With locked gazes, they stood as two duelists for what seemed a eternity. The standoff was terrifying to the people at the Command Center as it was the salvation to a young man and his sister outside the shelters.

Shinji braced his legs in a position suitable for a lunge, still keeping his gaze locked with the beast's.

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom... said the voice of a Shinji Ikari.

The Eva ran in a sprint towards the Angel, its feets piercing deep in the concrete streets.

Shinji used all of their body mass to spear the Angel, pinning it to the ground with the Eva's legs.

The Angel locked gaze as it's left hand found hold in the Eva's head.

The burning feeling of tears went numb as Shinji felt his head being crushed.

"Shinji, the pain isn't real!"

The Eva grabbed the Angel's right arm and started to pull it.

The man screamed as their head was pierced by the angel with it's spike, Shinji's feeling as being bugged out of the head.

With a scream of both man and beast, Sachiel lost it's right arm.

Unit 01 bashed Sachiel's remaining arm with it's lost arm.

One hit after other.

The flesh of both arms was crushed and mingled as Unit 01 took the spiked hand from it's head.

Shinji locked his gaze on the red orb on the Angel's chest.

The path of godhood lies on the Angel's heart...

"The core of the Angel... It bears the S2 engine."

Uncle Kaworu said that the freedom from eternal damnation for the christians lies on the Eucharist, where man eats from the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, accepting His sacrifice.

I am sorry, Mother...

The Eva bite the core.

"Did the Eva went berserk?!"

"No, Captain, the pilot is in total control!"

"Shinji..." She held her greek cross.

"Take control of the Eva." Trying his best to hide his worries, Gendo's voice stormed the Command Center. Upon this moment, both him and the Vice-Commander watched in pure silence the fight. "The pilot has gone insane."

Ritsuko and the Bridge Bunnies turned to work, but their frowns grew deeper and deeper after each failed attempt.

"Commander, it is impossible! Unit 01 is prohibiting us!"

He clenched his hands and his teeth.

"Your son controls a artificial god. How that affects your Scenario, Ikari?"

Gendo frowned. "The old men will be unpleased. The victory against the angel and their despair are our only pleasantries."

Kozo looked at the video of the Eva 01, who, after eating the core, now stood as a conqueror on the street of Tokyo-3. Yui, I can't understand your plans.

"Shinji, are you alright?!"

"I am, Misato." Said the man with a gentle and small smile. "But I have a massive headache, I think I will take a nap..."

"Send the rescue! Recover the pilot!"

Kozo took notice of the Eva's head: It had been crushed and pierced by the Angel, but now looked as if it didn't take a single scar. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death..."

I am sorry for taking so damn long to write this. :P I expect to take two weeks to write the next chapter, as I am in a hybrid system of classes where I have classes on one week and I'm in home in the another. The current week is one of classes.

Please leave your thoughts, good or bad, on the reviews, it is much appreciated.

Also, did Misato and Shinji's interactions turn too Misashin? When reading them, it got me that impression.

The title is based on the title of the Eva episode, but the initial idea was calling it "Vorspiel" after Richard Wagner.