Hey guys and girls, this is a pretty quick update.
I don't think I'll be able to update this quickly very often, but for now enjoy.
This chapter is kinda long and mostly from Shinji's POV.
Here's Chapter 2 "Tokyo-03"
"To live is to suffer. Pain is a part of life. If you never learn to move past it, you will never accomplish anything"
- The Broken Man
Shinji Ikari sat alone in his room, the lonely fourteen-year-old was atop his bed thinking things over. His teacher and caretaker was out; Shinji was considered responsible enough to take care of himself while the adult was away.
His teacher wasn't around as much as one would think, the man taught Shinji and did take care of him, receiving a generous salary from Shinji's father, but he also made time for himself. Time away from the odd boy living in his apartment.
Shinji didn't mind. He liked his teacher, but at times he did wonder just how much his teacher actually cared for him beyond collecting a check. The thought had crossed his mind more and more lately, ever since he'd gotten the letter from his father.
"Come."
That was all the letter had said. The envelope had come with an ID card with Shinji's picture and name on it, as well as a photo of a woman who had volunteered to pick him up once he was inside Tokyo-03.
Shinji glanced at the letter on his bedside, he had reread the single word many times over.
It had been years since Shinji and his father had even spoken to each other. Gendo Ikari had never once visited the ward. Had never once gone to visit his only child, his son who had so many problems in his head that he had to be locked away for five years in a mental ward.
Why? Why now of all times? Shinji wondered.
He had read stories and seen movies about fathers and their sons, about the bond between child and parent. Somehow, Shinji thought he had missed out on that.
Part of him didn't even want to go. The message Misato Katsuragi had left with her photo mentioned that he would be staying in the city for some time, but she hadn't said for how long.
"It's not like I have much going on here anyway," Shinji said talking to himself. He did that occasionally, a bad habit from having spent years in a mental ward with few people to talk to.
Teacher wouldn't mind if I went. He has a life here. And me? I go to school and do any chores. No other friends or family, just school and then home again. Same as every other day, he thought.
He knew that most kids had their routine as well, but for Shinji... it felt different. He felt different. As if he was walking through life and missing a piece of something that everyone else seemed to have.
"Maybe father wants me to move in with him… No, I doubt that," Shinji muttered to himself.
He sighed, leaving his room and walking to the medicine cabinet. He grabbed the various pills that he took every day. The ward, or perhaps Dr. Page herself, sent him the medicine. He had never bothered to think about it too much, he was still sick in the head and he needed his meds.
He's my dad, he has to care about me. He has to care even a little, doesn't he? Shinji thought as he swallowed his prescribed pills.
More than anything else, that was what drove Shinji to travel to Tokyo-03. To see if his father really did care for him at all. He told his teacher and caretaker, the man agreed with little fuss, and within 3 days they had arranged travel for him.
It would be a one-way trip, at least for a while if Misato Katsuragi was to be believed.
Three days later
Tokyo-03
The alarms had finally stopped ringing.
For over twenty minutes those blasted things and their high pitched ringing had aired followed by a pre-recorded message. A standard issue message informing citizens to remain calm and seek shelter.
However, a single fourteen-year-old boy had completely ignored said alarms.
The streets were empty when Shinji finally got to the public phone, part of him knew he shouldn't be out here during an emergency. But his father had sent for him. That meant that he had to try… right?
"We're sorry. Due to the state of special emergency, no lines are currently available. This is a recorded message."
The voice was a pleasant sounding automated tone, it played on repeat when he picked up the phone.
Shinji sighed, he put the public phone back on its hook. He'd arrived in the city hours ago and made his way to the pick-up spot, only to find that this 'Misato Katsuragi' wasn't there waiting for him.
Somehow, he'd had a feeling this would happen.
He had waited even as the alarms had started and people had begun clearing the streets. He'd heard about the alarms before, but he hadn't spent much time out in the real world. He didn't know where a shelter was, and he didn't know what else to do, so he had decided to just wait.
Wait even as everyone in the area had evacuated.
I was supposed to meet her here. I double checked and everything, Shinji thought.
He pulled the pictured they'd sent him out of his pocket once again. A picture of a young beautiful woman in a striking pose.
"Figures, guess we won't be meeting. Maybe dad didn't want me here after all," Shinji said in a low quiet voice.
He considered trying to book passage back to his caretaker's house, but it would have to wait until the alarm was lifted.
"I should look for a shelter," he muttered to himself as he heard distant booms far off, no doubt the military.
From what Shinji understood, once the citywide alarms went off it meant the military was on the move. He'd seen movies about the military, formally known as the JSSDF, deploying from the televisions in the ward, but he'd never seen them in person before. He'd never seen a variety of aircraft, from fighter planes to attack bombers, going through the sky and seeming to roar through the air as they went.
The boy watched the aircraft soaring above and beyond him, like manmade birds of steel flying in formation. It left him with a mixture of awe, curiosity, and if he was being honest... a little nervous.
To think, all this because the woman that was supposed to pick him up was running late.
She will be here.
Shinji froze.
Not again, and why today of all days... he thought anxiously.
The sickness was coming back; thoughts that didn't seem to be his own were coming back. Not 'just' a voice in his head, more like instincts that were not his. This madness from inside his head that stirred when he didn't take his medicine.
Shinji checked his watch and then reached into his pocket pulling out his meds.
"Take your pills," he muttered to himself as he acted on autopilot and swallowed the handful of pills given to him by the doctors over the years.
The white pill he took to help him sleep at night, the blue pills he took to stop his head from hurting, and the red pills he took because Dr. Page had told him to. Supposedly the red ones were the most important. Lastly, in his backpack was a bottle of black pills used only under emergency situations, only when Shinji had been suffering nosebleeds or else having frequent blackouts and loss of memory.
In total, he'd packed enough of his meds to last him 32 days. He hadn't known how long he'd be there for so he'd packed enough to be safe. Months ago, Shinji had been deemed responsible enough to handle his meds with the guarantee his school and household would be given a stash of pills for backup.
"Taste awful," Shinji muttered. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself, it wasn't a good sign when he had to take his pills this early.
THUD
THUD
THUD
An Angel had appeared... far off into the distance. Monstrous, tall, and alien it loomed over the city.
Shinji snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of monstrously huge footsteps echoing across the entire city. He starred in awe from his place on the open street, transfixed at the Angel walking forward as various armored helicopters and planes hovered in attack formation above.
The military aircraft surrounded the Angel, forming a kill zone where their target could not escape, where no space was left empty, where all gunners would hit their mark.
Angel... Shinji thought, his eyes wide as the military aircraft fired their missiles.
The lone boy watched as the creature was struck by every missile in the kill zone, watched as the enormous monster was engulfed in a bright fireball of white.
He raised his hands to cover his eyes at the sheer force of the explosions, even miles and miles away, the aftershock whipped across the empty streets shattering glass across its path and striking him so hard he stumbled back and fell to his knees.
And as Shinji fell, his medicine, his prescription bottles, fell onto the open street.
No. I need those! Shinji thought even with the shock of seeing an Angel in person.
Car alarms began going off as Shinji got to his knees... only to find that the military's firepower had minimal on the Angel. The hulking beast stood tall, Shinji watched as it lifted its monstrous hands and shot a bright beam of light at the aircraft before it.
Shinji saw rather than heard the impact, saw the aircraft struck by the blast and explode upon impact. The explosion sent smoke and shrapnel everywhere. The other aircraft scattered, leaving their formation behind as the Angel continued walking.
THUD
THUD
THUD
The Angel, almost humanoid except for its size, color, and the width of its shoulders, strode forward undeterred by the military. Its gigantic feet shook the ground. Explosions could be heard off in the distance as the creature stepped over cars and trains, igniting their engines in the process but it barely seemed to notice.
Shinji stared at the Angel in complete shock, until finally, the sound of a car approaching from behind got his attention. The car slid across the road, the driver barely managing to control it as the car swerved to a stop just before him.
"Sorry, I'm late," a young woman said opening the passenger door for him.
Misato Katsuragi, the woman I was supposed to meet here. The woman who was supposed to take me to my father? Shinji thought as he recognized the lady from the picture.
And she was beautiful, she was tall with dark purple hair. She carried with her a strange sense of calm and perhaps silliness even amid all the danger.
"Get in," Misato said surprisingly calm despite the ongoing fight between the Angel and the military nearby.
Another explosion sounded off in the distance shaking the ground around them, and Shinji quickly got to his feet. He stumbled as he reached down for his fallen prescription bottles, grabbing what he could.
BOOM.
Another explosion sounded off in the distance. Shinji flinched at the noise and abandoned his medicine on the street, grabbing what he could before hurriedly rushing into Misato's car.
I didn't get all my pills back… he thought somberly.
"Great, let's get going," Misato said, and before he had even closed the passenger door she drove off.
I haven't even closed the door yet! Shinji thought in a panic as they started moving.
He managed to grab the door handle and swing the door closed as Misato took off down the road from where she came. The ground shook again as the Angel continued onward. Yet Misato didn't even seem to care, the woman simply drove, gunning her car to its max speed.
"Take a moment to catch your breath. It's okay," Misato was saying, how the pretty woman could be so calm right now he didn't know. They drove without talking for a long time, leaving the Angel and the military to their battle.
Once they'd driven a good distance from the battle, Misato stopped the car to Shinji's surprise.
"Don't freak out, just need to check how things are going," she said when he stared.
There's an Angel in the city and she wants to see how the fight's going? Is she insane? Shinji thought. But then some small part of him felt guilty, Misato had saved his life. And from what Shinji remembered of his mother, she had told him to always be kind.
Shinji kept his thoughts to himself.
Misato didn't seem to notice, either way. She pulled out a pair of binoculars and looked out into the distance from the safety of her car. A safety that didn't last long.
"Shit, they're gonna use an N2 mine. Those idiots!" Misato said with such shock that Shinji snapped up to look at her. She turned to him and shoved him down into the seat, her body falling over his as she tackled him into laying down.
What- the boy thought.
"Get down!" Misato cried.
Shinji never saw the flash of light, he only heard the boom and felt the waves of kinetic energy slam into the car sending them flying and rolling over.
I'm gonna die... I'm gonna die! Shinji thought as they rolled with the car. Dirt went flying everywhere, some of it getting into the car and onto both of them.
He didn't know how long the car rolled for, but when it stopped he felt like he was going to vomit up his meds. But he couldn't do that, at least not with Misato on top of him, so he held it in even as the crazy woman got off him.
It took a few moments for Shinji to realize that their car had landed on its side. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he distantly heard Misato saying that they needed to get out and flip the car.
Misato helped him climb out.
"We're gonna have to tip it over, only way to get back on the road," she was saying. Shinji only stared off into the ruins of the city blocks around him. City blocks that had been intact minutes ago… now completely ruined.
The N2 mine... it did all this. The military caused more damage than the Angel did, Shinji thought. The boy stumbled forward, Misato's voice in the background, and stared with wide eyes, mouth agape at the scene around him.
In a span of a few minutes, he had nearly died twice.
Distantly, he heard Misato talking to him. But he wasn't paying attention. All he could do was stare at the downed Angel in the distance, the monstrous titan brought low by the military and their bomb.
"Hey!"
A hand shook him by the shoulder, and Shinji snapped out of it. He turned to look at her.
"The Angel's not down. We have to get back on the road. Come on, give me a hand," Misato said sounding much more serious than he'd ever heard her.
Shinji turned seeing the Angel slowly getting to its feet again in the distance, it had been burned but not killed. Pulling himself together, he turned to help Misato.
"1, 2, 3 push!" Misato chanted as she and Shinji put their backs to the car. Together, they forced the toppled car back onto what was left of the road. With a heavy thud, the car landed back on the road.
"You alright?" Misato said wiping sweat from her brow.
"Yeah... but my mouth is full of dirt," Shinji said, he didn't know how he was holding it together but he was.
"Eh, you'll be alright," Misato said slapping him on the back affectionately.
Shinji felt his face warm at her touch, he didn't have much experience with women since Mari had left the ward without him. He barely heard Misato as she dragged him back into the car saying they needed to move.
Amazingly, Misato's car started up again and they drove off. Shinji forced himself to keep his eyes ahead, he didn't want to look back at the seemingly unkillable Angel...
They drove on, eventually reaching beyond the blast radius of the N2 mine and finding the strange line where the ruined terrain transformed into a perfectly intact city. An empty city, with the population hiding in their shelters, but a city nonetheless.
"Don't worry, his safety is my top priority. Can you get a car train for us, an express one? I did volunteer to pick him up after all," Misato was saying over the phone to someone or some people that Shinji didn't know.
He barely paid attention, only looking at the somehow intact window of their car, how strange it was to have crossed from a ruined city to an empty one, to watch as the landscape went from a battered bombed out road to a fully functional highway.
Later
NERV headquarters
The way through NERV headquarters took them longer than it should have. It was a long trip through the many twists and turns of the underground facility known as the Geofront.
Misato had given him a NERV manual to read on the way as their train car, which surprisingly was an actual train that transported their car, brought them to where they needed to go.
They hadn't talked much on the way. Shinji had trouble talking to anyone, especially women. He'd spent so much time isolated and without many friends except for Mari, and his first few months free of the ward didn't help much either. Yet Misato seemed friendly... and not in that faked sense of nervousness that people adopted around him when they found out he'd been in a mental ward.
Somehow, Shinji didn't think Misato knew much of his past. He didn't think she knew of his mental health issues.
Walking the halls of NERV after getting rides on the transit system proved to be a nightmare, Misato had forgotten the way and even with a map they'd gotten lost.
That way.
Shinji flinched and froze in his tracks.
No... no that can't happen. I took my meds, I took my pills... why?
"Shinji?" Misato said turning to look at the shuddering boy before her.
"Nothing, I... just got cold is all," Shinji said quickly. Misato treated him pretty normally, and he didn't want to lose that. He didn't want to see her grow stiff around him and nervously try to be friendly to him, the stigma of his past always did that to people.
I can last a few hours. I'll have to take my pills again later, probably all the excitement is all. The thing in my head will go away, it will, he thought desperately.
"This is the wrong way, not there. Over here," Shinji said suddenly.
Misato turned to the boy about to tell him that she knew what she was doing, but he had already started walking off without her.
"Hey, don't just- … I think you're right... " Misato said as she realized that Shinji was actually going the right way.
Reaching the elevators that they were looking for, Shinji was surprised when the doors slid open before he could press the call button. Another doctor, he'd gotten used to doctors over the years, wearing a lab coat was already inside.
The doctor, a pretty blond woman, blinked in surprise at the sight of him just as Misato called out to her.
"Hello," Shinji said in an awkward greeting.
The doctor looked him up and down, and he wasn't sure if he liked her or not.
Misato, who had been trailing behind Shinji, stiffened comically at the sight of her longtime friend.
"Hey. Sorry, we're late, but I got lost. Shinji here actually found the way," she said.
"Always running late, tsk. You do realize we're short on manpower right now?" the doctor said to her friend. The woman shook her head.
Shinji watched as the doctor before him smiled artificially, and knelt so that he didn't have to look up at her.
"Hello Shinji, my name is Dr. Ritsuko Akagi," she said in a falsely, and very forced, tone.
Shinji didn't respond, he hated it when people did that to him. Treating him as if he could have a breakdown if they weren't too careful around him.
Just like Dr. Page. Trying to be nice... but it feels fake. She knows. Shinji thought. He recognized the act, the act all doctors put on for him, all trying to be his friend and keep him calm at all cost.
Ritsuko had read the files on Shinji, he could tell. She knew what his psychological evaluation was over the years, and that made him timid.
"He's the third child. This is Shinji Ikari, he'd kind of quiet like his father," Misato said breaking the awkward silence
"I know. Come on, we have little time," Ritsuko said waving them back into the elevators.
...
Shinji stayed silent as they rode the elevator up several stories. He could tell Ritsuko was being careful with him, a bit stiff, or maybe that was just the way she was. He opened up the NERV manual and pretended to read, he already felt too much like a third wheel with Misato and Ritsuko.
"How's Unit 01? Is it operational, it hasn't ever worked before right?" Misato was saying as Shinji pretended to read his manual.
"It's in refrigeration and no, it still isn't working. The possibility of Unit 01 operating is 0.0000000-" Ritsuko began.
"I get it, it's a really really long shot," Misato cut in.
Shinji couldn't help but overhear the two women chat. He got the feeling that Ritsuko didn't like being interrupted, but that Misato had done it so much that it was a common occurrence. A strange friendship to be sure, it was another one of those things that Shinji had never really learned. Too much of his childhood spent in the ward.
Unit 01? I wonder what that- he thought
It's waiting for you. Don't be scared. 01 will never hurt you, but others might. The Thing in his head stirred.
Shinji flinched inwardly.
Misato didn't notice as she spoke with Ritsuko about today's events, but the doctor knew what she was doing apparently, she spared him a very controlled glance but said nothing.
She knows. The voice in his head stirred in agreement. That terrified Shinji even more, and he fought hard not to wince in shock.
The elevator pinged as it reached the floor they were looking for. They stepped outside finding a seemingly large space with no lights at all, once the elevator doors closed again they were engulfed in complete darkness.
Don't shout, they're watching you.
Need my pills, Shinji thought even as the lights suddenly switched on revealing a hulking beast, a machine clad in purple armor. A strange mix of machine and nature.
"A… a robot?" Shinji said in awe, he brought up the NERV manual again looking for an explanation.
"You won't find the Eva in that manual," Ritsuko said suddenly. Shinji looked up at her, she had been watching him it seemed, wanting to judge his reaction to unit 01.
Ritsuko gestured to the monstrous machine, almost like an Angel in its own way, saying "mankind's ultimate fighting machine. Evangelion Unit 01. Built here in secret. Mankind's last hope."
Misato muttered something, and he didn't quite catch it.
Shinji stared into the Evangelion's face and the thing seemed to stare back at him with cold lifeless eyes that were larger than his whole body. It felt like the Eva was watching him.
The boy looked away... unable to hold its gaze.
He realized that they were inside a hangar of some kind, the room was enormous, more than large enough for the Eva, with multiple floors and rooms along with a handful of lifts for transport.
"Is this my father's work?" Shinji asked. Before Ritsuko could answer, a voice from above called out to all three of them, a voice Shinji hadn't heard in years.
"Correct."
They turned and Shinji gazed unblinkingly at the man standing in the lift above them. Gendo Ikari, his father.
No, not a lift. A command center? Shinji thought.
He saw his father looking down on him. Now that the lights were on, he could see that there were additional walkways and floors to the space where Unit 01 was stored. Technicians and other staff worked from up above them, but most had turned their gaze towards Shinji. This hanger that they were in was even bigger than Shinji had thought.
"We're moving out," Gendo said staring back into his son's gaze with cold indifference.
Misato stepped forward saying "what?! But Unit 02's still in Germany? How- wait! Wait! You're going to use Unit 01… but I... Rei can't pilot it."
"Shinji will pilot 01," Ritsuko said as Gendo nodded.
"I… you're serious about this? He just got here! It took Rei months to sync with her Unit," Misato said gaping at Ritsuko and Gendo as if they had lost their minds.
"It's the only way. Shinji Ikari, you will pilot Unit 01," Ritsuko said turning a cold stare to Shinji as she spoke.
"That's impossible, he just got here-" Misato stammered.
"Stopping the Angel is more important than us playing it safe. Even if he can only sit in the pilot seat, it's enough. It's our only chance," Ritsuko replied.
Shinji however, hadn't said a word as the two women argued over him, hadn't said a word even as he realized the stakes of what was happening. He only stared at his father standing above them.
"Why did you send for me?" Shinji said his voice quivering. He wasn't used to raising his voice, wasn't used to speaking to his father at all.
Misato and Ritsuko stopped their bickering and turned to the young boy as he stared down his father.
"You know why I sent for you. Because I have a use for you," Gendo Ikari said without a hint of emotion.
"After all this time. Why? You... you left me in the ward for all those years and now... and for what? Because you have a use for me?!" Shinji said his hands balling into fists.
"Do not weep like a child, you were well cared for. Doctors and treatments that many would not have had access to. A roof over your head, an education, and specialized care whenever needed," Gendo said.
He sounded so heartless, as if he was reading off a series of conditions on a list to be checked off, conditions that needed to be fulfilled for some trivial task... Shinji looked down at his shoes, he could feel Misato's gaze on him even as his own father looked down at him with indifference.
"Why me?" Shinji asked in a barely a whisper.
Gendo said nothing.
"Why me?!" Shinji said louder, almost shouting at his father.
The ground suddenly shook and the others stumbled, but Shinji barely moved.
"The Angel's getting closer, it must know our location," Ritsuko said almost swearing.
Even if you don't, he'll send out Rei instead. We don't matter to him, Shinji. Never have. We're just pawns in a much bigger game.
This time, Shinji didn't flinch. He knew this was a bad sign, the thing in his head, he needed another dose of his medicine but there was no time. He held everything in, making no obvious reaction to what had happened again. Yet somehow, he thought Ritsuko knew.
"Shinji, I know it's hard but you musn't run away-" Misato began as she knelt down trying to calm him down, but before she could finish Gendo spoke.
"Because there's no one else," Gendo called back in answer to Shinji's question.
"... Liar," Shinji whispered slowly, his words seeming to carry over the room bringing an unexpected tension.
Misato blinked in surprise as Ritsuko raised an eyebrow, even other staff members milling about above them froze at Shinji's words. No one had ever spoken like that to the infamously cold Gendo Ikari.
Gendo narrowed his eyes, his voice growing colder, saying "what did you say?"
You called him a liar.
"I called you a liar," Shinji said again.
...
Ritsuko stared at Shinji noticing that the young boy had balled his hands into fists. The doctor considered that, before turning to look at Evangelion Unit 01… and saw that its hands had balled into fists too. Mirroring the boy exactly.
Amazing she thought.
...
Gendo Ikari scoffed at his son.
"How disappointing. Dr. Akagi, our spare pilot is useless. Prepare Rei instead," The man said.
"Roger that. Re-configure Unit 01's system to Rei and then activate!" Ritsuko called to the other staff above.
So he did lie. I knew it. Shinji thought bitterly. He turned away from his father's disapproving gaze, he didn't want to be here, he wanted to be alone but at the same time he didn't, he felt like he'd been alone for most of his young life.
"Shinji," Misato said carefully, he knew that she didn't know what to say.
For his part, Shinji stayed silent but turned when the doors from another hallway opened and a team of nurses emerged. They pushed a stretcher carrying the body of a young girl into the room.
It's her... Rei.
"Rei," Shinji whispered.
Misato blinked, taken aback by his words.
The girl in question was still recovering, bandages covered her arms and even her head, one of her eyes covered in the medical wrappings.
My father… he's going to send her out like that? How could he be so cruel? Shinji thought. Misato was saying something to him but he wasn't listening, he only stared at the poor girl in the stretcher.
BOOM
Another explosion sounded off, this time so close that they could actually hear it even deep underground. The force of the explosion shook the ground and ceiling around them, the nurses stumbled back and the stretcher flipped over.
"Rei!" Shinji said rushing forward to catch the falling girl.
He didn't notice the lights above them detached from the ceiling, damaged from the force of the explosion.
"Shinji look out!" Misato cried.
Suddenly, Evangelion Unit 01 moved. The Eva's arm shot out, emerging from the pool of liquid used to store it, and with a single hand, it caught the falling lights before they could land on top of Shinji and Rei.
SPLASH
THUD
The room stood silent, the adults seeming too scared to breathe. The liquid that submerged most of the Eva had spilled onto the hangar, littering the floors, along with dust that had emerged when the lights had detached from the ceiling.
Eva Unit 01 held the debris in the palm of its hand, protecting those below.
"The Eva activated by itself!" one of the technicians cried out in shock.
"That's not possible, that can't happen!" Ritsuko said in awe. The doctor stared at the Unit's hand, then stared back at Shinji holding Rei.
Shinji was just as shocked as any of them. He didn't understand what he had happened... he'd only been trying help Rei and then... the Eva.
"It's him," Misato said in barely a whisper. She stared open-mouthed at him.
Shinji barely paid any attention to them, he only looked at Rei in his arms. He'd caught her before she fell, and then they'd both needed saving. She didn't look too good, she was wincing in pain at the slightest touch and she barely seemed aware of his presence at all.
I can't let her go out there. Was this a plan? Did father want me to see her?! Shinji thought angry.
"Fine. I'll do it," Shinji said helping Rei back onto her stretcher.
Misato beamed at him and Ritsuko snapped her attention back to him saying "what?"
"I said I'll do it. I'll pilot Unit 01. I just have to sit in it right?" Shinji said. He didn't look up at his father, but he felt the man's eyes on him all the same.
Eva Unit 01 moved its massive hand, setting the fallen lights down a safe distance away from all the people in the hanger. Shinji glanced at it nervously, unsure of all this. Even the adults were staring at the machine and its unexpected behavior.
Some time later
"What is this stuff?" Shinji asked nervously.
He was sitting in the pilot seat of Eva Unit 01's Entry Plug. After he had agreed to pilot the Nerv technicians and Ritsuko had given him an interface headset, but not much else. He'd manage to stay pretty calm until the strange liquid had started pouring into his Entry Plug.
Shinji panicked as the liquid poured in faster, beginning to submerge him.
They're gonna kill me! He thought, panicking before Ritsuko spoke on the comm system.
"Just breathe it in. That's LCL, once it fills your lungs, you will be oxygenated directly."
Breathe. The thing in his head stirred.
Shinji breathed despite the LCL completely submerging his body, the strange orange, or perhaps amber, liquid seeping into his mouth and nose. He managed to stay calm and relax, and his discomfort vanished almost immediately.
...
"The kid's a natural, didn't even flinch once he breathed it in," a technician said impressed.
"Dr. Akagi look at this! His sync ratio just passed 50% and it's still rising!" another technician called out. Ritsuko rushed over watching as Shinji's sync ratio came to a halt at 63.6%.
"That's incredible," the doctor murmured barely believing it.
Damn. Misato thought with a grin.
"Prepare to launch."
"Have I… have I been here before?" Shinji found himself whispering. The question nagged at him, a lingering thought this place was familiar.
He closed his eyes in an almost prayer like mentally.
Shinji hardly noticed as the bolts that restrained Unit 01 were removed, hardly noticed as the safety locks were disengaged, and hardly noticed as Unit 01 was transferred to a launch pad.
"Launch!" Misato called, and Shinji opened his eyes.
With a huge mechanical roar, the Eva Unit was shot up from the launch pad. Heavy sparks, metal riding on metal, trailed behind the Eva as it was sent up. The massive machine emerged onto the city above the Geofront, emerged into the night sky along the Angel's path of destruction.
There it is, the Angel from before, Shinji thought.
Being in the Eva was strange, it was like he could feel himself as him in the pilot seat, but also the Eva's body as his own too. He could even 'see' or sense things from the Eva's point of view, despite the display screen in the entry plug, and he shuddered as he stood before the monster.
"Just try to walk for now," Ritsuko called to him from the comm system.
And that's what Shinji did. He moved Eva Unit 01, the massive machine taking careful steps forward.
THUD
THUD
THUD
THUD
Unit 01's footsteps echoed just as the heavy thud of the Angel's had. Shinji stumbled as he walked the Eva, he faltered, but he did not fall.
"Shinji watch out!" Misato's voice roared in his ear. The comm system relayed the woman's cry directly into his ear, and he winced even as he saw the Angel coming towards him.
His heart started pounding as the Angel charged him. Shinji raised Unit 01's hand not sure what to do.
The Angel tackled him.
Shinji coughed violently as he felt the wind knocked out of him, felt the pain as if the Eva's body was his own. Yet somehow Shinji kept his feet planted and did not fall, as if his feet had acted of their own accord and not his.
For a brief moment, the Angel did not stop. Then both titans were forced forward with a screech of sparks. Eva Unit 01 and the Angel slid down the streets of Tokyo-03.
Shinji raised the Eva's hand, balled it into a fist, and slammed it down on the Angel's head, trying to stop them as the monstrous beast carried them both through the city. In response, the Angel stumbled back but grabbed Unit 01's arm with one hand and 01's head with the other.
"Ack!" Shinji groaned as he felt his own body being pulled as the Angel tugged on the Eva's limbs, forcing them outward as if trying to rip the Eva in half.
Distantly, he could hear the metal plate armor of the Eva rattle. The Angel was actually trying to rip the marvel of human engineering apart with its bare hands. Shinji wanted to scream. The sensation of being torn felt all too real... despite it not being his 'real' body.
"The pain isn't real. It's only because you're connected to 01. Fight back!" Misato shouted into his comm channel.
My arm? Shinji thought. He looked down and saw that his own arm was fine, but he could feel 01's arm breaking. He could actually feel the tendons ripping apart. He let out another agonized scream as he felt his arm being literally ripped off, phantom sensations from the damage the Angel did to Unit 01.
To live is to suffer. That's part of life. There will always be pain, best get used to it.
Need my meds, Shinji thought even as the thing inside his head stirred.
The Angel lifted Unit 01 off the ground, and Shinji felt himself lifting his legs and kicking the Angel across its chest with both of the Eva's feet.
BANG
The Angel flew back as if hit by a cannon, and the monster was forced to release 01 as it was thrown across the city streets.
Eva Unit 01 fell on its back, unmoving.
THUD
The sound of the Evangelion landing on its back echoed throughout the city. Massive puffs of dirt and chunks of pulverized concrete flew up in response.
Shinji panted heavily and touched his real arm from the relative safety of the Entry Plug, it was undamaged.
Phantom pains? He thought. He had to get used to pain or else he was done for.
He looked at Unit 01's left arm, the arm that the Angel had nearly ripped off. He saw that it was bent oddly, broken and dislocated but still attached.
Cable.
Somehow, Shinji felt that he had to get up. Not just to fight, but because of the power cable that was the Eva's power source. Again, somehow he knew that if the Angel were to break or disconnect the cable then he'd only have a few minutes to finish the fight.
The hulking figure of Eva Unit 01 stirred, getting to its knees before stumbling up to stand. Several cars on the empty streets of Tokyo-03 were crushed in the process, the metal popping like soda cans under the weight of the Eva. Shinji looked up, the Eva's head doing the same, and he saw the sheer damage he and the Angel had done to the city.
He hadn't just kicked the Angel back; it had flown back colliding into the side of a building as well as completely wrecking street lights along its path before falling. The building the Angel had hit looked like something out of a cartoon, a rip along its side where the creature had destroyed office space and shattered windows across multiple floors.
The offices would have to be closed, people would be out of a job, and it could take months to repair the building.
His heart pounded in his chest as he saw the Angel getting back to its feet. Eerily inhuman, the monster rose.
Shinji had to end this, but he had to be careful not to destroy the city in the process.
"Don't be scared," Shinji whispered to himself.
That was what Mari had always told him when she brought him on another of her adventures in the ward, her adventures that often meant breaking the rules or doing something dangerous. The memory brought a brief smile to Shinji's lips, but he couldn't linger on it. He had a job to do.
He ran towards the Angel, the Eva moving its heavy legs with frightening speed.
The Angel crouched low as Shinji approached it, it raised its arms and strange lance like structures of light erupted from its forearms.
What the he- Shinji thought as he was impaled by the Angel's lances. The bone-like structures of light struck him in the chest and pierced deep, but they didn't go through completely. The weapons, whatever they were, had gotten stuck somewhere inside 01's torso.
"Ahhh!"
Shinji screamed as the sensation of being stabbed sent him nearly over the edge. The 14 year old threw his head back in shock, eyes closed tight in pain.
He could distantly hear Misato calling out to him from the comm system, but before he could respond through the haze of pain, the Angel had lifted him off the ground.
"No!" Shinji screamed as he used Unit 01's good hand and punched the Angel across the face.
SMACK.
The Angel stumbled back as Shinji kept punching it, bringing the Eva's fist down onto the Angel again and again. He had a lousy technique but the force of the continuous blows forced the creature back.
CRACK.
Shinji actually cracked the faceplate of the Angel, exposing a more organic-looking layer of massive flesh. But the Angel swung its arms and threw Unit 01 back, removing its lance-like bones from the Eva's chest and flinging Shinji away.
Eva Unit 01 crashed into the streets, colliding with various city lights, lamp posts, and power lines along the way. The various pieces of infrastructure were torn from the ground and went flying wide into the night sky before crashing down with heavy thuds elsewhere. Glass shattered and car alarms started off in the distance.
Shinji brought the Eva to its feet again even as the Angel ran after him. Its lance-like bones held outward for another stab.
Have to end this fast! Shinji thought.
He gulped at the sight of the monsters rushing for him, lances raised.
To live is to suffer. Accept the pain, accept that you're going to get hit, and make an opening.
"What the hell are you doing!" Misato yelled into his ear via the comm system.
Shinji didn't even try to move Unit 01 out of the way, he waited for the Angel to reach him and crouched knowing he was about to get hurt. He let the Angel get close and allowed himself to get impaled by the strange lance-like bones…
The boy screamed and forced Unit 01 to grab the Angel by its wide shoulders.
He forced the Angel down as he brought Unit 01's knee up, and hit it square in the face. The blow shattered more of the monstrous thing's faceplate.
The Angel stumbled dazed as Shinji brought 01's knee into its faceplate, again and again, cracking it more and more, and exposing more of its flesh.
Shinji struggled as the Angel forced itself back, breaking free of his grasp, but he used 01's damaged hand to grab one of the lance like structures. They had pierced into his Eva's armor but had never gone completely through, and now he was getting his revenge for his damaged arm.
The Angel did break free of Shinji's grasp, but he ripped out one of its lance-like bones along the way. Angel blood that almost looked like LCL seeped out of its wound and Shinji and his Eva stumbled back holding the strange weapon in his hand.
"Shinji. It's forming an AT field!" Ritsuko yelled into his comm.
Sure enough, when Shinji tried to strike the Angel he found his Eva's fist repelled by flashes of light that rippled in strange patterns upon impact.
The Angel was dying and doing its best to protect itself.
Meanwhile, in the NERV headquarters, Ritsuko was called by one of her technicians saying "Dr. Akagi! Shinji's sync ratio is rising! 68.9% now! He's repairing Unit 01's hand and negating the Angel's AT field!"
Ritsuko and Misato watched nervously as the fight between Angel and boy waged on.
This will hurt.
"This really hurts," Shinji said as blood trailed down his nose.
He didn't know how, but the Eva's damaged hand felt better. The boy gasped feeling something inside of him, an instinct he didn't know existed, and he plunged his other good hand into the Angel's AT Field and found that he could pierce it.
Now. The voice rasped.
Shinji winced from the strain as he literally pulled the Angel's AT Field apart with 01's good hand; then he used his damaged hand to stab the lance-like Angel bone into the monstrous beast's head.
"He used the Angel's own weapon against it... " Ritsuko murmured in awe.
Mutters filled the command room.
Shinji felt resistance even as he stabbed the lance-like bone directly into the Angel's exposed organic-looking layer of flesh where its brain should have been. He groaned putting all his strength into it and forced the bone deeper and deeper.
The Angel tried to resist, it reached upward throwing its arms around Eva Unit 01 and wrapped itself around the Eva.
"It's going to self-destruct!" Ritsuko and Misato shouted into Shinji's ear via the comm system.
Shinji released his grip on the lance-like bone as the Angel drew Unit 01 closer and closer into its embrace. The Angel's arms transformed, stretching and forming into strange threads of flesh that wrapped themselves around the Eva.
"I can't break free!" Shinji panicked as he tried to rip his arms free but found that he couldn't
Throw it.
I can't! Shinji thought. His heartbeat was rising, he could feel the pounding in his chest. He didn't belong here, he was just a kid. He didn't know what he was doing.
You can.
"Dr. Akagi, it's happening again! Shinji's sync ratio is raising! 70%! Now 75%! It keeps growing!"
"How? That doesn't make any sense?"
You can break free.
"I can break free!" Shinji yelled as blood trailed down his face.
He found a strength he didn't know he had and then ripped Unit 01's arms free. The Evangelion tore through the Angel's flesh, ripping its arms free of its foe, and a shower of blood splattered to the floor.
Shinji grabbed the now arm-less Angel and lifted it above himself.
"Dr. Akagi! The boy's sync ratio is at 91%!"
Throw him away from the city.
"I'm throwing him away from the city!" Shinji said nearly screaming as he sensed blood in his mouth and tears in his eyes. His head was hurting so much he thought he would pass out, but he ignored it for now.
Eva Unit 01 swung the arm-less Angel, throwing the beast high into the night sky, throwing it as far from the city as he could manage.
BOOM!
The Angel self-destructed before it even landed, exploding into a bright cross-shaped figure of fire in mid-air as it soared over empty terrain outside the city.
Unit 01 slumped to its knees as Shinji breathed out heavy haggard breaths, and he slumped into his seat from inside his Entry Plug. He spat out blood from his mouth and brought a hand to his face finding more blood, his blood.
He'd had another nosebleed it seemed, a violent one. And his head was throbbing in so much pain he felt tears in his eyes.
"Shinji, you did it! It didn't get much of the city!" Misato cheered into his ear via the comm system.
Need my meds. Take your pills, Shinji. Take your pills... he thought weakly, his mind a haze of sensations.
His eyes felt heavier and heavier. His vision grew into a blur of color, his lower face dripping down blood as he blinked.
"Shinji? Hey, is everything alright? Shinji? Shinji!" Misato called after several moments of silence.
The fourteen-year-old boy passed out.
...
Later, that's how the recovery team found Shinji. Unconscious and still slumped into the seat of his Entry Plug, dried blood covering his face and old tears sliding down his cheeks.
He wouldn't wake until the next day in an empty hospital room.
Little bit of divergence here, and there will be more.
Mostly told from Shinji's POV but it will switch up a bit later on.
I wanted to make Shinji still an uncertain kid more than anything else, a lonely guy who just wants people to be nice to him like in the series.
He's been altered and at least for now he doesn't have 'the Beast of Unit 01' or 'Berserk Mode' to help him when he loses control. He has do more things on his own, so I had him actually win his first fight on his own but it wasn't easy.
Thanks for Reading and please Review