Hey guys, I'm back. This is an action based chapter.
It might take a while for the next update due to my exams, but I digress.
Special thanks to everyone who reviewed, I appreciate any and all feedback.
Here's chapter 5 "Scream"
"Rei... I never liked it when she screamed. She didn't see herself as a person at first, just as another tool. Something that no one would miss. I understood that because I felt the same way. That was why, at least in the beginning, I could help her. Eventually, I made her smile."
- the broken man
Nerv HQ.
Deep into the underground levels of Nerv, inside the Geofront, Shinji put on his plugsuit and interface helmet. The boy stood, too nervous to sit, awaiting his orders.
Rei was in another changing room across from his. She was on standby, as she had not fully recovered from her injuries. The higher-ups wanted her close and ready for deployment as a backup.
Shinji took a deep breath and stepped out of his changing room, noting that Rei did the same, before heading towards the monstrously large Evangelion Unit 01.
Glancing to his side, he saw Unit 00 for the first time. He had never actually encountered another Eva Unit before, but now he was in front of two of them. The massive machines made an intimidating sight, manmade titans to rival the Angels, yet somehow he knew these Units would never hurt him.
What a strange feeling? Shinji thought. He didn't understand it, but he felt it in his bones. A bond with the machine. It was different than Unit 00, that Evangelion gave him nothing. That white colossus of human engineering stood cold and indifferent to him, perhaps it had a bond with Rei as he had a bond with 01?
Somehow, he didn't think so.
Even now, he felt Unit 01's presence. As if the machine was looking at him, colossal alien eyes that bored into him. They weren't hostile, he could tell and he didn't know how that made sense but it did. His Eva was waiting patiently for him.
I can feel it... Unit 01... like it's almost alive... he thought.
"Releasing 01's Entry Plug," Ritsuko's voice called over the communication unit or 'comm' for short. The radio system Nerv used was a military grade tool that let them all talk seamlessly across vast distances.
"Let's get this over with," he muttered to the empty room.
...
He got in the Entry Plug, and the cockpit was flooded with LCL. Shinji remembered to breathe as the strange liquid filled his lungs. He closed his eyes and unconsciously entered an almost prayer-like state as the plug reinserted itself into Unit 01.
His comm went off again bringing him out of his nerves, and Misato's voice filled his ear.
"Hey. Sorry, I'm late but I'm here now. There are two Angels out there."
Judging from her voice, Shinji thought she was doing her best to sound calm.
He winced stammering out, "two... two Angels."
"We're prepared this time. You won't be going in empty handed, remember your simulation training. We'll be sending you weapons, and you'll have some defensive structures up to help," Misato said over the comm.
"Right, just like the simulations. What about the civilians?" Shinji asked over the comm.
"Evacuated into their shelters. We've been over this, the city's defenses are fully operational now."
Ritsuko's voice cutting in over the comm surprised him, but he figured it was only natural for the head scientist to chime in from time to time. He would just have to get used to Misato and Ritsuko in his ear.
Tokyo-03 had been built to handle Angel attacks, several of its building and city blocks were retractable, able to sink into bunkers buried underground, and other buildings contained launch ports and weapons caches for the Evas. In addition was the implementation of defensive structures, such as pillars and walls, which also surfaced onto the city during an attack to provide Eva Units with potential cover as needed.
Sadly, the previous Angel attack had come before the city's defenses had been completed. Now, the city was ready.
"We're sending you up. Rei is on standby, but she's still recovering. Try to finish this on your own if you can," Ritsuko called.
As if I needed to be told.
He looked through his display to see Rei sitting near her Eva calmly. The pale skinned girl didn't seem nervous at all, a collected soldier awaiting orders. "How does she do that?" Shinji whispered, thinking aloud.
The boy's ponderings were cut short when the order came.
"Launch!" Misato ordered from the command room.
Shinji braced himself, holding his breath, and Eva Unit 01 shot upward with a deafening mechanical roar. In a second that seemed to stretch for an eternity, the world turned dark and he rushed from the underground to the surface. One moment, that's all the time he had to steel himself up. The eternity ended, and his world filled with sunlight and a collection of city fortifications.
He and his Eva emerged onto the city above the Geofront.
Tokyo-03.
Surface.
"I don't see anything," Shinji said over the comm as he looked around with Unit 01.
He took in his surroundings and found the city empty except for its defensive structures and weapon caches. And then he heard them. One had been bad enough, but the sound of two enormous creatures moving through the city was terrifying.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
Two pairs of colossal footsteps that reverberated throughout the city.
The boy raised his Eva's newly equipped rifle, looking for a target but found none.
"To your left," Misato said via the comm.
He turned and saw movement between two pillars that had been sent to the surface upon lockdown. The Angel was a curious thing, snake-like, and it seemed to slither on the air itself as it moved back and forth between the buildings. The creature was taller than his Eva, thin and flexible, and with an armored faceplate.
Shinji aimed the rifle as the Angel began to raise itself in an upward position, like a snake coiling to strike, and its belly unfolded revealing strange glowing bone-like structures.
Like the last one, he thought.
This Angel, however, moved its strange weapons like tentacles, the numerous things spreading out in several directions at once. He fired a shot, then another, and the Angel fled back as it was struck twice in the torso.
The rounds clanged harshly against the creature's alien mixture of skin and armor. A shimmer of light trailed after its body.
"You need to take down its AT Field," Ritsuko called.
Shinji slowly began walking his Eva forward, rifle raised as he hunted for the Angel slithering around the city. He could hear his own heavy breathing as he stalked the streets. He moved carefully through the buildings on edge, a chill running down the back of his neck.
"Be careful. There's still another Angel out there," Misato called into his comm.
"... Roger," he said shakily. He spotted the snake Angel slithering between two exposed building and fired another warning shot.
He heard movement through the artificial nervous system of Unit 01 and tilted his head back to see another Angel. The new creature was beast-like, short but stocky, and moving on all fours towards him from an empty street.
The Beast Angel. It looked like a hairless gorilla armored in scales, bulging with muscle, and a hardened faceplate, ghost white and menacing.
Suddenly hearing something via the Eva, he turned to see the snake Angel slithering up and unfolding its tentacles nearby.
Nervously Shinji fired two shots in rapid succession, one towards each target.
Both missed.
Shinji cursed as he struggled to keep an eye on both Angels. They circled around him and his Eva like a pair of vultures.
"Don't get boxed in," Ritsuko called via the comm.
Shinji stepped backward, careful not to fall, as the two Angel slowly made their way towards him.
Two? Two?! What do I do?! Shinji thought. He began to shake. Unit 01's grip on the rifle tightened as it reacted to its pilot's nerves. The machine only responded to the young pilot on edge at his foes.
The snake Angel suddenly sped up, slithering through the air like some twisted nightmare as its tentacles unfolded stretching out further and further, coming for him.
Shinji immediately aimed his rifle and began firing, he pulled the trigger and didn't let go as the massive bullets collided with the Angel... only for it to slither away before it took too much damage.
He took a second to stop firing. Many rounds flew off into the distance.
Shouldn't waste ammo like that, he thought nervously.
No. You shouldn't. They outnumber you. Keep your distance for as long as you can.
This again? What-
"Look out!" Ritsuko and Misato called over the comm.
The Beast Angel suddenly leaped, using all four of its limbs like some twisted cross between wolf and ape out on the hunt. It emerged flying over one of the defensive pillars, Shinji turned the rifle towards it and fired frantically as its shadow loomed over him.
He realized too late that it wasn't enough and tried to step back.
The Angel collided with him full on, tackling him and the Eva to the ground. Shinji felt his world flip as he and Unit 01 were brought to the ground with an enormous thud that echoed through the city and picked up huge puffs of smoke.
CRACK.
The street beneath them fractured as both Eva and Angel landed hard.
The Beast Angel had suffered wounds along its belly, strange luminous Angel blood appeared to weep from the creature, but it barely seemed to notice as it opened its mouth and bright red structures erupted from its gums in a shower of blood. Teeth, it had ripped open its own flesh to bare its fangs.
Shinji tried to fight, to get up, but the Beast Angel had him under its weight. The monster snarled bringing its strange teeth to Unit 01's armored chest and bit in, actually managing to pierce the heavy plate armor of the Eva.
He screamed as he felt the phantom sensation of fangs beginning to rip into his chest.
It's not real! It's not real! My chest is fine! Shinji thought furiously as he screamed. He forced himself to look down at his own chest, at his plugsuit, and he saw that it was fine.
He could distantly hear Misato yelling his name via the comm, but he couldn't focus. He couldn't get up, the Angel was too heavy, and it was already beginning to tear into him. Or rather into Unit 01.
"No!" Shinji yelled managing to free one of the Eva's hand. He balled it into a fist and swung for the Beast Angel's face... only for the Eva's hand to get struck by a tentacle.
"Ah!" he cried, feeling like he'd been whipped.
Unit 01's free arm was slammed onto the ground. The Snake Angel emerged, wrapping tentacles around his Eva's arm while the Beast kept him on his back.
Shinji lay pinned by the two Angels.
"Do what you did last time! Go to 91% sync ratio! Break free!" Ritsuko called.
Last time... last time I found the strength to rip an Angel's flesh apart, Shinji thought frantically. He closed his eyes trying to concentrate, accepting the pain for now and fighting back, trying to force the monstrous creatures off of him.
… and found that he couldn't do it.
"What are you waiting for?!" Ritsuko shouted into his comm.
"I... I can't! I don't know why?!" Shinji stammered before breaking into a scream. His eyes watered as he felt the phantom sensations of being eaten alive by the Beast Angel.
Nerv.
"Control center, this is Deputy Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki. Send in Rei with Unit 00," a new voice called into the comm.
"She's hurt, you can't-" Misato began.
Only for Fuyutsuki to cut in, "Commander Ikari is away, that puts me in charge. Your objection has been overruled, deploy Rei."
Ritsuko began briefing Rei of the situation via her comm unit. Misato watched from up high as the pale-skinned young girl listened carefully. The Entry Plug of Eva Unit 00 opened for the injured pilot, and Misato grimaced at the sight.
"Rei, be careful out there," she called signaling her comm to switch to the girl's channel.
"Understood," Rei called back quietly. The girl got to her feet, adorned in her white plugsuit, and headed for Eva Unit 00.
Back with Shinji and Unit 01.
Above the Geofront, on the empty streets of Tokyo-03, Eva Unit 01 lay pinned to the ground by the Angels. The Beast bit in deeper, trying to eat its way through the Eva's plate armor.
Shinji's hands balled into fists as he screamed. The result was that the boy pulled the trigger of the rifle without meaning too, the recoil of the gun moved its barrel, and the bullets grazed the Beast Angel's stomach.
The Beast flinched, its weight shifting off of him for the briefest of moments.
Sensing it was his only chance, he brought his other hand free out from under the creature's weight and slammed his fist into its face. He had to let go of the rifle to do it, but the strike sent the Angel stumbling back.
Have to get free!
Shinji fought the tentacles holding his other arm. The snake Angel brought its tentacles up, tugging on the Eva's arm, resisting his attempts to free himself. He hissed from the strain as the snake-like monster tightened its grip and slithered towards him. He grabbed the rifle again.
He fired off a quick burst.
The Angel hissed as the bullets slammed into its torso, and released its grip on his Eva's left arm. Shinji took the opening and crawled backward firing warning shots to keep the snake Angel at bay. Cars were crushed under his frantic movement, but he didn't have time to worry about that.
The boy in the Entry Plug wheezed, struggling to breathe, his heart pounding in his chest.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
The Beast Angel was on the move, running on all fours towards him at a frightening speed. Shinji trained the Eva's rifle towards it and panted as he fired a quick burst at his target.
Click.
Click.
His rifle was out. The clip was empty.
The Beast Angel roared as it stumbled back, luminous fluid trailing down its torso, and Shinji brought the Eva to its feet. He raised his rifle like a club, only to stumble back as he was struck by something hard slashing into his side.
Shinji's rifle was cut in two as the snake-like Angel appeared again, slashing at him with its tentacles.
This is too much... fighting two Angels at the same time!
He gasped, shuddering deep heavy breaths. His hand shook and he dropped the rifle and stumbled backward trying to get a defensive pillar between him and the Angels and buy some time.
"We're sending you another rifle," Misato said over the comm.
Before he could reply he had to brace himself as the snake Angel appeared and seized Unit 01, its tentacles wrapped themselves around his limbs like living ropes. 01 was brought to its knees and he was pulled down with the Eva.
Shinji fought back, trying to grab hold of the tentacles and rip them off, but the Beast charged forward on all fours again.
I can't get free! Shinji thought in a panicked frenzy. He was once again pinned and facing two Angels.
BANG.
One of the tentacles released Eva Unit 01's arm and a splatter of Angel blood hit the floor.
Unit-00 emerged from inside the city, rifle up and aimed carefully.
Pilot Rei Ayanami had been deployed.
… You shouldn't be out here in your condition, Shinji thought.
Unit 00 fired another round, aiming carefully and freeing Unit 01 of another tentacle. The Beast Angel snarled as it came to a stop before turning towards Rei and her white Eva.
Shinji fought to break free of the remaining tentacles but instead found himself and the Eva being lifted into the air. He gulped bracing himself as he realized what was going to happen.
The snake-like Angel lifted him far above itself, before twisting and throwing him from the battle. Eva Unit 01 flew far away from the city, the massive titan of human engineering catapulted through the air.
Shinji closed his eyes tight and cried out as the phantom sensations hit him. Unit 01 fell on an open stretch of land. Upon impact, upturned patches of car-sized dirt and grass sprang into the air as the Eva landed, and the machine left a crater in its wake.
He groaned as he felt the Eva's damage as his own.
The collision sent him flying up from inside his Entry Plug, his safety harness kept him from hitting his head on the ceiling, but he landed hard on his back.
The young teen panted at the pain, both his own and from the phantom sensations of the Eva, and shuddered at the realities of this fight.
He had to finish this, but it hurt... he didn't want to be here... he didn't want to do this.
"Shinji! Shinji, report in! Your power cable has been disconnected!" Misato called via the comm system.
My power! Shinji thought as he fought through the pain. He widened his eyes in shock and looked at his display seeing that the flight had ripped his power cable out.
He had five to seven minutes of power left.
"Shinji, listen to me. Your cable fell nearby, it's been damaged, but the Magi calculates that if you reconnect it, you'll get roughly 72.4% power flowing into Unit 01," Ritsuko said into his comm.
Meanwhile.
Rei fired in small but blind bursts with her rifle. The snake-like Angel backed up behind the propped up defensive pillars for cover.
Unit 00 stood still and calm, the white Evangelion holding its ground. Rei coolly surveyed the area, working the controls despite her injuries. Her Eva never lowered the rifle as she searched for the Beast Angel. The strange creature was still out there stalking its prey.
The pale girl spared a quick glance in Shinji's direction, before moving on in search of the threat. Both of them.
...
"Okay," Shinji said panting as he took deep breaths in and out to steady himself.
"Careful. There are civilians nearby. Two… there are two kids down there. What the hell are they doing?!" Misato called into his comm.
Shinji turned his Eva's head and zoomed in on his display. Two kids from his school were cowering in fear below 01's hand. If he had landed just a little further, then the fall would have crushed them into bits.
"Toji…" Shinji said recognizing the jacket.
Why?! Why are those two here! he thought nearly screaming under the stress, frustration, and pain.
"Command, I am attempting to lure the two Angels away from pilot Ikari and the civilians. I suggest the retreat of Unit 01 and the civilians," Rei said over the comm. The quiet girl sounded surprisingly calm despite the situation.
Retreat?! But Rei... you can't handle this on your own! Especially in your condition! Shinji thought, remembering how she'd struggled to cut her food up at lunch with only one working arm.
"Rei's right. Shinji, open your Entry Plug and get those stupid kids in there. It's the only place to keep them safe for now. Then retreat, Rei will buy you as much time as she can," Misato said, her frustration audible even from the comm system.
Retreat? I can go back and rest? He thought. A part of him felt a wave of relief. Then another wave came that brought his prior thoughts down and filled him with shame.
Rei...
He felt his body ache, the guilt ate away at his heart for wanting to retreat. At his desire to run away and leave all this behind him...
"Are you crazy? We can't just let those kids into the Entry Plug? That's completely unauthorized access to the Eva!" Ritsuko was saying back at the command center.
"I'm authorizing it. We can't have civilians caught in the crossfire. Forget the regulations," Misato countered.
"I agree with Captain Katsuragi. Get those kids to the safety of the Eva," Deputy Commander Fuyutsuki called as he emerged into the command center personally. The older man made quite the scene as he did so.
Ritsuko stared at the old man, he'd almost never entered their workstation personally, nor had Gendo, the two men in charge had often stayed in their stations above them. The other Nerv staff glanced in surprise at the old man's presence but returned to their work almost immediately.
...
"Uh, hello. Command?" Shinji called over his comm.
He brought Unit 01 into a kneeling position before his cowering classmates.
"Shinji? Is everything alright? What is it?" Misato said.
"I'm okay, and I'm putting my classmates into the Entry Plug. But I can't retreat, Rei is still out there and I... I'm sorry, but I can't leave her like that."
The comm system was filled with the hissing sound of compressed air being released as Unit 01's neck was left momentarily exposed, and the Entry Plug slid out.
"What?! No, Shinji retreat!" Misato shouted.
Only for the hiss of the Entry Plug to drown out her words. Almost as if the boy had planned that.
Shinji opened the hatch and felt the fresh air of the outside brush upon his face as he did so. Panting, he looked down at the two boys on the ground, they were staring opened mouthed at him with traces of tears in their eyes. In shock from the terror of almost dying.
"Get in!" Shinji called to his two classmates.
He felt raw and exposed like this, but even with the Entry Plug out in the open, he operated Eva Unit 01. He picked up his two classmates with its massive hands and carefully brought them over.
"Ahh," the boys whined as Shinji brought the Eva's hand to a hover above his seat in the cockpit of his Entry Plug.
"Just jump, we don't have much time!" Shinji cried.
"Screw it!" Toji said, and the boy grabbed Kensuke by the arm jumping down from Unit 01's hand.
The two boys landed roughly inside the Entry Plug, colliding into Shinji as he braced his own arms over his head. He grunted as the two boys fell atop him before sliding off on either side.
Shinji closed the hatch and hurriedly entered commands into his controls, sending the Entry Plug back into the neck of Unit 01, where it was secured underneath several layers of plate armor.
Toji and Kensuke knelt from their spots in the Entry Plug and watched in awe as they were sealed in the Eva along with Shinji.
"Shinji! Retreat now!" Misato shouted into his ear via the comm.
He winced at the sound and glanced at his display seeing that he had an estimated four minutes of power remaining.
Back with Rei.
Elsewhere, Rei and Unit 00 were struggling to keep their distance from both Angels as she fought them alone as Shinji had.
Rei's movements were stiff due to her injuries, and by extension, Unit 00 was rigid. She had re-engaged the Angels and kept moving, never stopping for fear of being boxed in and overwhelmed as Shinji had been.
Unit 00 used its shoulder to help balance the weight of the rifle, and it leaned more on its left leg than the right. All the while Rei tried to use the defensive pillars for cover against her enemies.
Rei fired warning shots towards her targets, attempting to lure the two Angels away from Unit 01, doing her best to keep her distance, all so Shinji could retreat along with the civilians.
Only something happened that didn't make sense. Something unprecedented.
Both Angels stopped following her. Instead, the snake-like Angel slithered away from her, ignoring her warning shots completely. The Beast Angel turned on all fours and leaped away heading for the other direction.
Rei blinked in surprise. She tilted her head perplexed as to what had happened.
"Command, the Angels have abandoned their chase of me," the pale girl called into the comm.
The Magi supercomputers chimed in alarm as the multiple processing cores analyzed the available data and projected the most likely outcome of the change in tactic.
Ritsuko stared at the calculated result frowning.
"The Angels are heading for Shinji," the doctor called.
"What?!" Misato said hurrying to glance over Ritsuko's shoulder at the results. Sure enough, based on their current movements the Angels were indeed heading for Unit 01.
Kozo Fuyutsuki stared curiously at the Magi supercomputers' calculation. They were rarely wrong, and they didn't seem to be here, but this was curious indeed.
"I am pursuing the Angels," Rei called into the comm suddenly.
"Shinji! Both Angels are coming for you! Retreat now!" Misato shouted into his comm.
Shinji, however, was struggling to catch his breath as his two classmates sat unsure of what to do. The news that the Angels were coming for him snapped him back to attention.
"No. I'm sorry, but I can't leave this to Rei all by herself."
He spotted the remains of the damaged power cable lying nearby.
"Shinji, no! I am ordering you to retreat now!" Misato called into his ear screaming in panic as the Magi showed an Angel nearing the boy's position.
Shots echoed through the city as Rei fired after the Beast Angel, aiming for its knees to stop its approach on Unit 01. Rei had tried to stop the other one too, but it had been moving too fast, and she'd determined that if she tried to stop both, then she'd ultimately stop neither.
Rei knew that Shinji would have to stop the other one on his own.
Experience told her that it was easier said than done.
Back with Shinji
Before Shinji could reach the fallen power cable, the snake-like Angel slithered out in front of him, emerging like some twisted nightmare from the line of trees.
The Angel rose, and once again unfolded its belly as strange tentacle-like structures came whipping wildly for Unit 01.
Shinji raised the Eva's massive hands and grabbed the tentacles before they could wrap around him again. The phantom sensations of Unit 01 made his arms feel weak and heavy.
"It's the kids! Their presence is messing with the Eva's artificial nervous system interface," Ritsuko called over the comm.
Not helping... Shinji thought, gritting his teeth as he fought to hold the Angel at bay.
"Ahhhhh!" he screamed as he felt the phantom sensations sting his hands.
Unit 01's hands burned from holding the Angel's tentacles, steam rose from the Eva's palms. The Angel tried to yank its tentacles free, yet Shinji refused to let go. Toji and Kensuke watched nervously as the young pilot screamed, and pulled the Angel towards himself proceeding to headbutt it.
SMACK.
The Angel's faceplate cracked from the impact and Shinji, knowing the Eva's hands wouldn't last much longer, whirled and threw the monstrous thing back on the floor.
93 seconds of power left! Shinji thought, glancing at the display.
His hands felt like they were raw and exposed as if the skin had been burned away by acid, his chest felt like it was bleeding, his head was pounding, and his bones ached via a mixture of the phantom sensations and his own.
Shinji pulled free the Eva's prog knife from its slot beneath the armor on his side. The huge metallic blade emerged in 01's hand as he moved for the wounded enemy before him.
The snake-like Angel tried to slither away, its tentacles moving to help propel it forward, but Shinji was faster as he raised the knife and stabbed the blade into the thing's head. The tentacles wrapped around his neck trying to pull him off. Shinji pulled the knife free and stabbed it back into the monster's faceplate again and again.
He gasped from the sensation of his neck being crushed... only for the Angel to stop moving.
Shinji had managed to break through and shatter the Angel core.
The creature withered before him, its tentacles dissolving into luminous Angel blood before his eyes, and its body seemed to deflate and crumple on the ground.
Shinji panted feeling tears in his eyes as the Angel lay dead at his feet.
I did it... I killed the Angel, he thought weakly.
In the haze, he wobbled in his seat, almost falling over inside his Entry Plug, momentarily lost to the world.
"Pilot Ikari, run!" Rei suddenly shouted into his comm.
He had never heard Rei shout before. That unsettled him more than anything else, and it brought him back to where he was.
The Beast Angel had arrived and proceeded to leap over the tree line and land atop Eva Unit 01, pulling him and the Eva to the ground with an earth-shattering thud.
Shinji weakly raised 01's knife and slashed the Beast across the eyes as he fell, greatly reducing its vision. His last act before he was pinned by the roaring Angel.
The Beast Angel slammed its fists down into Unit 01, an act which left Shinji winded as his two classmates cried out in terror.
"Got to fight," Shinji murmured accidentally biting his tongue so hard that he bled. He tried to move his Eva but the cockpit of his Entry Plug went dark, and a moment later the emergency lights came on. A fine red beam illuminated the cockpit as the Eva ran out of internal power.
...
"Unit 01 is out of power!" Ritsuko called from the command center as the staff, and namely, Misato panicked unable to do anything.
I guess... this is... this is it... Shinji thought grimly. So tired that he barely even cared.
The Beast Angel raised its fists and slammed them down into Unit 01's armored chest a second time, then a third and then a fourth. Shinji winced, eyes wide, as he felt the agony of his ribs cracking under the assault.
He shook from phantom pain that somehow still lingered, and the Beast opened its mouth, baring its strange luminous fangs. The Angel craned down to bite into Unit 01's neck, only to slide off of its prey as a hail of gunfire slammed into its side.
Rei Ayanami emerged from the tree line with Eva Unit 00, rifle in hand, having finally caught up to Shinji and the others.
"Pilot Ikari, evacuate," Rei said over the comm as she kept her Eva moving forward unloading round after round into the Beast Angel.
The Beast slid further back, raising its arms to protect itself even as it fled from Unit 00. It kept its arms up, using them for cover given its damaged eyes.
Click.
Rei had run out of ammo. The barrel of her Eva's rifle glowed bright red and smoked under the strain of having emptied the rest of the clip into her target.
The Beast raised itself on its wounded limbs and tried to charge forward, using the sound of the empty rifle as a guide, only for Unit 00 to brandish the rifle like a club and hit the Angel over the head.
"Rei..." Shinji called weakly, nearly out of breath.
Rei battered the Angel with her Eva's rifle, again and again, the gun dented further and further from the force of the blows until it snapped in two.
The Beast Angel, heavily wounded but still standing, reached out latching onto Unit 00. The Beast pulled the Eva towards itself teeth bared. Rei tried to fight its embrace, but her own wounds from days earlier stopped her from escaping.
"Ahhhhhhhh," Rei cried over the comm as the Beast Angel sunk its teeth into her Eva, the phantom sensations brought the pain to her nervous system.
"No... Rei..." Shinji murmured weakly as he and his Eva lay unmoving on the ground.
He felt tears that were his, yet not his, stream down his face.
Shinji cried as his head throbbed in more pain than he'd experienced in years. He shouted unable to talk as blood slid down his nose. It felt like tiny blades were circling around from inside his skull, cutting through his brain tissue. He hadn't felt this in years, yet piloting seemed to make it worse. He never actually suffered brain damage from an 'incident' but it always felt like he did.
Get up...
I can't... I can't... need my meds, he thought.
GET. UP. The voice in Shinji's head stirred again. Harsh but not unkind words.
Through the pain, blood, and tears Shinji felt a strength he didn't know he had flare within him.
Nerv Command Center
"The Magi supercomputers give Rei a 32% chance of survival. We need to drop an N2 mine and salvage what we can," Ritsuko was saying to the deputy commander.
Misato only stared at the vitals of the two Eva pilots projected on the big screen for them to see. Then suddenly the boy's sync ratio began to change. It started slow, increasing little by little until it started rising fast.
"Look! Shinji's sync ratio is climbing!" Misato called out pointing to the screen.
40%.
45%.
52%.
58%.
63%.
Before the ratio stopped at 67%.
Ritsuko and the others stared at the screen, watching as somehow, even without any power to move, Eva Unit 01's sync ratio with its pilot had increased.
"That's impossible! Unit 01 shouldn't have any power left..." Ritsuko gasped.
"Shinji!" Misato shouted into her comm.
The reply that came back was a strained heavy breathing as Unit 01 pulled itself slowly to its knees.
"Retreat! Get the hell out of there!" Misato called.
No response came as Unit 01 crawled on all fours, dragging its massive body through the terrain as Shinji's pained breaths filled Misato's comm.
Shinji ignored the blood trailing down his face and fought to move the Eva. He wasn't sure how, but he could still do it.
It was incredibly difficult, the Eva felt heavy and stiff, unlike any other time he'd ever piloted in combat or simulation. But he could crawl. He could crawl.
Eva Unit 01 came to a stop at the damaged power cable. The cable that had come loose, and now he'd found it again.
Shinji groaned and blood fell into his mouth, it tasted like iron, and he picked up the cable. He forced his Eva to its knees and raised the power cable over Unit 01's body, and re-inserted it.
"Eva Unit 01's power cable has been reconnected. Power flow is at 71.4% efficiency. The kid is a genius!"
There was a round of astonished cheers throughout the command center. Nerv staff raised their hands in triumph as Ritsuko shook her head in amazement. Mr. Fuyutsuki smirked in respect at the young pilot.
The only one not to join in was Captain Misato Katsuragi. She stood stiff and silent as she heard 01's young pilot breathing heavily and obviously in pain.
She felt her lips tremble at the sound of it.
What we make these kids do, she thought.
"Shinji, great work! As soon as you can you need to get out of there-" Ritsuko started to say via the comm.
"I can't," Shinji wheezed back into the comm.
"Please, Shinji just-" Misato pleaded before the boy cut in again.
"I won't abandon Rei."
"I won't abandon Rei," Shinji said in a low, weak voice.
It took a few moments, but he brought Eva Unit 01 back to its feet. The machine was easier to move now that it had power flowing back through its massive body.
Shinji turned the Eva towards the struggling Unit 00 and the Beast Angel. He gritted his teeth and took a step forward, and then another one, and another towards his foe.
Rei was struggling against the Beast, fighting to break free of its embrace by using her good arm to pry it off. The pale girl had little success. Shinji heard his fellow pilot hiss in pain over the comm. The Beast Angel dug its fangs harder into Unit 00's armored torso refusing to let go.
"Rei. I'm here," Shinji called into her comm suddenly.
Unit 01 appeared beside her, and the Eva slammed a fist into the Beast Angel's neck. The Angel immediately released its grip on Unit 00, winded from the blow.
Rei pushed the monster back using her good arm. Shinji grabbed the Beast's head with both arms, together Unit 00 and Unit 01 pried the monster away. The Angel fought back, trying to break free but Rei rushed forward tackling the Angel and bringing it down as Shinji did the same.
Together, Evangelion Units 00 and 01 pinned the Beast Angel to the ground.
Rei used her good arm and reached for her Eva's prog knife, the massive blade popped out of its socket on her Eva's side.
The Angel snarled bringing its teeth to Unit 00's hand, but Shinji grabbed hold of its mouth and forced it back. Rei slammed the prog knife down towards the Angel's heavily damaged eye, only for the blade to clang as it came to a halt.
An AT Field materialized into existence above the Beast Angel's faceplate. It didn't seem to have the strength to protect its entire body, only its head.
Unit 00 struggled, with Rei fighting to pierce her prog knife through the shield. A brilliant blur of colorful lights shimmered as the massive blade fought against the field to cut through.
"Together," Shinji called into her comm.
He raised Unit 01's hand and placed it on top of Unit 00's. Both Eva Units grasped the hilt of the prog knife.
The Beast Angel struggled under the strain of maintaining the partial shield while being pinned.
Shinji pushed down on Unit 00's knife, adding his weight to Rei's as they stabbed the blade down together. The knife cut entirely through the Beast Angel's AT Field and slammed into the exposed and heavily damaged eye. The blade pierced all the way through and destroyed the Angel core.
A perfect strike.
The Beast Angel withered before their eyes as it died, its body twitching before coming to a stop on the ground.
Eva Unit 01 released 00's knife, its hand leaving the other's, as Shinji moved his Eva into a sitting position by Rei's. 01 looked curiously human as Shinji took deep breaths, thoroughly exhausted, physically and mentally.
"Pilot Ikari... Shinji, the targets have been eliminated," Rei called over the comm breathing a small sigh of relief. Her Unit stood while his Eva sat.
Shinji however, could barely hear her as he slumped into the seat of his Entry Plug. He tried to catch his breath even as blood and dried tears slid down his face.
...
The two other schoolboys, Toji and Kensuke, sat barely holding it together as their hearts pounded from the mixture of terror and elation at having survived. At having seen what battling an Angel was like first hand.
And yet neither could even compare their experiences to that of the pilot, Shinji Ikari himself.
The young boy sat nearly broken from the day's trials unable to even speak. Toji saw the trembling boy sitting in the cockpit, barely holding it together, dried blood trailing down his face, and he remembered punching Shinji for trying to help his sister in the hospital.
Toji awkwardly raised a hand and patted Shinji on the back. That was the last thing Shinji felt before he lost consciousness.
Later.
The Vision.
Rei screamed... I never liked it when she screamed.
Uh. What? What's- Shinji thought.
I couldn't save her... I couldn't save anyone... not Rei... not 'her'... in the end, I couldn't even save myself.
Shinji didn't know where he was. It was so dim that he couldn't see anything. Some dark void that he went to at the height of his madness.
Why... why am I so sad? He thought
Memories.
I don't understand... I... I'm crying right now... why? Why am I crying? Shinji thought. He could feel the small, feeble tears trailing down his face. But when he brought his hand up in the dark to wipe them away his face was dry.
You're not. I am.
I can feel it... I can feel tears...
Can't be helped. It's your fault as much as it is mine. I lost the ability to cry a long time ago... you're the one who brought that back.
I don't understand.
… You make me... 'feel'... again. You have no idea what it's like to no longer feel. To go on, to survive, but not to live. I... I'd forgotten what it was like to feel this.
I'm sorry, but I don't- he thought.
Thank you, Shinji. You have no idea what that meant to me...
I'm talking to it. I'm not supposed to talk to it. Dr. Page told me never to speak to it, Shinji thought. He clutched his head in the dark. This place had to be a dream. It couldn't be real.
I know. I said I'd leave you alone, but you just had to do this. You had to make me interfere. Regardless, you killed Shamshel and Armaros. That was all you.
Shams- what?
The Angels you killed.
Angels have names?
Everybody's got a name. The Angels are no different. They have names, they have language.
I... this isn't right! I'm not supposed to talk to it.
Then don't. You can end this, just wake up.
How is this happening? Am I dreaming? What's going on?
You said you didn't want to talk to me. So don't. Wake up.
What? I... I don't understand.
Open your eyes, Shinji.
My eyes are open.
No, mine are. Your eyes are closed.
That doesn't make sense!
Open your eyes.
Am I going crazy again?
OPEN YOUR EYES.
The hospital.
When Shinji Ikari awoke, he found himself laying in a hospital bed. He was inside another of the white rooms that he so disliked yet again. He groaned, opening his eyes. His world shifted from an odd blur of various shades of white into a hospital room.
"Not again," he muttered. Slowly, he raised his aching body into a sitting position and almost immediately regretted that decision.
"You should not move so quickly."
Shinji jumped and turned to find Rei sitting in a chair propped up against the wall of his room. The enigmatic young girl was wearing her school uniform, but her bandages had been redressed and she sported a full orthopedic cast on her arm.
"Rei? I- wait. Your arm?! What happened to your arm?!" Shinji said sitting up even further. His bed sheets slid off him as he did so.
He winced feeling his chest ache again.
"My arm was further damaged by the fight with the Angels. Had it been fully healed, I would have still suffered damage," Rei said. She tilted her head at him and raised her cast for him to see.
"Then, you're okay?" Shinji asked. He remembered how she had screamed when the Beast Angel had bitten into her Eva, how it had pulled her into its deadly embrace.
"I am fine," Rei answered simply. It was true, while her recovery from her previous injuries had been delayed, she would heal and was relatively mobile.
"Oh. ...I'm so glad," Shinji said breathing a sigh of relief.
"Your arm is more damaged than mine," Rei pointed out.
My arm?
He glanced down to see that his right arm had been placed inside a partial cast, the plaster was wrapped around him from above his wrist onward to his elbow. To add to that, the nurses had apparently applied some gauze bandage around his chest, wrapping it around his torso.
Wait a minute... Shinji thought as he noticed that he was only wearing a thin hospital gown and that Rei could probably see more than she wanted to. That she could see 'below the belt' so to speak.
He felt his face grow warm and he grabbed the bed sheets pulling them over himself again.
"How long have you been here?" Shinji asked now that he was covered again.
"3 hours today. I was told to watch over you," Rei answered simply.
"... Why?" Shinji asked blinking in surprise.
"Because your injuries were more severe than mine," Rei said blankly.
He noticed that he barely felt them, no doubt due to the painkillers the nurses had put him on.
"I'm sorry they made you pilot in your condition," Shinji said awkwardly.
Rei studied her fellow pilot and frowned.
"Why did you not retreat? I am expendable. You should not worry about me," Rei said.
Suddenly, Rei felt her face grow warmer as Shinji inexplicably took her hand in his good one. She felt the warmth in his hands envelope hers as he intertwined his fingers with hers, and it made her feel emotions she could not explain in words.
"Don't ever say that. You're not expendable. You're a person, not a tool," Shinji said, showing a maturity in his eyes that no child should be capable of.
Rei opened her mouth unable to speak. She blushed and looked away focusing on her hand inside of Shinji's.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I won't do that again," Shinji said awkwardly.
He let go of Rei's hand.
"You embarrass me," Rei said suddenly.
Shinji awkwardly ran his good hand through his hair, he was never good with women. How could he be? The last female friend, hell the last friend, he had had was years ago and she had been in a mental ward just like him. There was a reason he didn't talk to most people, girls in particular, his age.
"I'm sorry-" Shinji stammered out.
"That is fine," Rei cut in quickly, unable to meet his gaze.
Silence filled the room. It seemed neither pilot knew what to say.
"Uh... How are Toji and that other boy?" Shinji asked to break the silence. He couldn't explain why he had done what he did, but something inside him felt drawn to Rei. Either way, he decided he should probably change the subject, and he genuinely was curious.
"They came to visit but left after seeing you asleep. Physically, the boys are unhurt," Rei answered simply.
Shinji laughed in spite of everything saying, "I'm glad they're okay."
"Ikari... Shinji, you talk in your sleep," Rei said suddenly.
Do I? Shinji thought uneasily.
"Who was crying? You said my name?" Rei said slowly. She looked as uncomfortable as he felt.
Thinking quickly, Shinji ran his good hand through his hair saying, "just bad dreams."
He ran a hand across his face remembering the tears on his face in the dream. Or vision. Or whatever the hell it was. But the tears had felt so real... he had felt himself crying... and he'd felt such sorrow that he could not explain... but his eyes were dry now. Why had he cried?
"Were the dreams bad because I was in them?" Rei asked quietly.
Shinji blinked at her in surprise.
How could she think that?
He stammered out a response, "uh? No! Rei that's... that's not what I meant-"
The door opened, and a nurse entered the room.
The two Eva pilots looked up to see a young girl, maybe a little younger than Misato, beaming at Shinji.
Her again... Shinji thought, remembering the nurse he'd snapped at on the roof.
"Well, Mr. Ikari. Little over a month later, and you came back to pay us a visit. I thought you said you didn't like hospital rooms," the nurse said coming in to check on Shinji.
"I don't," he said flatly.
"Then maybe you shouldn't keep landing in the hospital," the nurse chirped. She began to prep a bag of IV and glanced at Shinji's vitals.
It's not my idea, he thought bitterly.
"And hello there, young lady. I'm happy to see you stayed with him all this time. You really have to give your boyfriend a talking to. He keeps getting himself hurt," the nurse said smiling softly at Rei.
Shinji choked and stammered out a hurried, "no. It's not like that." Stupid adults, always thinking they know everything, he thought.
"We are not romantically involved," Rei deadpanned.
The nurse looked at Shinji and Rei in turn, giving the two teenagers a coy look that clearly said that she didn't believe either of them.
Rei Ayanami found that she did not like this nurse.
"Well then, I'm sorry miss. But I need to examine Mr. Ikari now that he's up. I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave the room. Every patient needs their privacy," the nurse said surprisingly cheerful in spite of the attack earlier.
Rei rose from her chair saying, "I will call Misato and let her know you are awake. She will most likely come to pick you up shortly."
"I... thanks Rei," Shinji said as his fellow pilot left the room.
The nurse pulled the curtain up to give him an extra sense of privacy, then got to work.
An hour later.
Misato's car.
After the nurse had examined Shinji, an uncomfortable experience that he should have been used to by now but wasn't, they'd wanted him to spend an extra night at the hospital. Nerv however, had apparently pulled some strings to get him released early.
Misato picked him up at the entrance after he'd gotten his things back and changed into his street clothes.
Still... something about his appointed guardian was off. Shinji thought she was mad about something; the way she was so quiet. That was strange for Misato.
He sat in the passenger seat watching the night sky as they drove on in silence.
"Why are you mad?" Shinji asked, finally breaking the silence as Misato kept her eyes on the road.
"... I'm not mad," Misato said.
"You are," Shinji said, tearing his gaze from the window to look at her instead.
Misato tsked in annoyance. She abruptly changed lanes at the intersection and went down an unfamiliar road, Shinji frowned not sure what was going on.
She ended up driving to the parking lot of a mostly empty store. Almost no customers or cars in the lot. Misato parked in one of the many empty spots, then turned to Shinji so they could speak.
"You disobeyed orders!" Misato said nearly shouting at him.
Shinji flinched back as if struck. He had been yelled at by adults before, in his years in the ward, yet he had never thought Misato would too... she wasn't like the other adults.
"I'm sorry," he said. He did what he always did when adults yelled at him. He looked away and buried his feelings down and spoke plainly, completely deadpan.
"I'm the one giving orders here! I was put in charge of operations by the commander. Do you understand?!" Misato said grabbing him and forcing him to look at her, taking the boy by complete surprise.
"Yes," Shinji deadpanned. He'd played games like this before, but he hated it when it was Misato.
"Are you even listening to me?!" Misato said not buying it. She knew he was just saying whatever words would make her stop yelling. She'd done something similar when she was a kid getting yelled at, though for vastly different reasons.
"Yes."
"No, you're not getting out of this by saying 'yes' all the time!" Misato said shaking Shinji by the collar of his shirt.
"What does it matter? We killed the Angels. Isn't that enough?" Shinji said softly.
"That's not the point. You get into the Eva with that attitude, and you'll end up dead!" Misato said getting more frustrated by the second.
"No one would miss me," Shinji said flatly.
His voice was empty, no sorrow, no pain, no angst, just pure fact. Something he seemed to have accepted a long time ago, and for some reason that made Misato even sadder than if he had screamed at her, that was just... she didn't even know where to begin with that.
Misato sighed, her anger stifled by the boy's words.
Tell her the truth. Better that way.
He winced from the twinges of pain within his skull but pretended to wipe something off his face to cover it up. He needed his pills, but for now, that would have to wait.
"I wouldn't leave Rei behind. She's hurt, and Nerv made her pilot anyway. I'll just have to do until she gets better. And then... I don't know," Shinji said never once breaking eye contact with his guardian.
Funny how he seemed to be two different people at times, Misato noted.
"I... Shinji..." Misato groaned. She comically banged her head into the steering wheel of her parked car.
"Everything okay?" he asked frowning.
"It's fine. Just- just don't say things like that! Damn it, you're a kid! You shouldn't talk like that. You have to care about yourself, don't just go off on your own like that again," Misato said sounding more tired that she would have cared to admit.
Shinji made to speak, but Misato put a hand on his shoulder saying, "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"You're not mad?" Shinji asked surprised.
"No. I think you need to follow orders. But I also think you have a good heart. A heart that's in the right place," Misato said as she restarted the car.
"... thanks, I guess," Shinji said not sure what to make of that.
What does that even mean, 'heart in the right place'? he thought to himself frowning.
It means that she likes you. Stop taking your pills. I'm leaving you alone from here on out.
Shinji held in his flinch but only just, running a hand through his hair awkwardly to cover any strange reactions he had showed. Misato didn't seem to notice.
Acting so mature one minute, then a kid again in the next. What a strange boy? Misato thought, shaking her head with a chuckle.
Misato put her car in drive and left the parking lot once again heading for the road. They drove in silence, but different than the one before. A comfortable silence between friends? Roommates? Legally appointed guardian and child? Boss? Shinji sometimes had trouble defining their relationship, but he cherished it nonetheless.
Shinji checked his bag pretending to look for his SDAT player while he was really counting his remaining pills. He was running dangerously low... and his problem wasn't going away. If anything, piloting the Eva seemed to make it worse. It worried him, but he couldn't get more without Misato noticing.
And if she knew then everything would change.
"Is it there? I can swing by the hospital?" Misato called.
Shinji panicked saying, "I found it, just making sure."
He looked up from his bag to see Misato driving them on a familiar road, for now, all he could do was enjoy the moment. He'd have to figure something out, and if not, then he only hoped she would try to understand that he wasn't as bad as he used to be. That he wasn't going crazy again, that he wouldn't allow himself to go insane a second time.
"Let's go home. It's been an exhausting day," Shinji said.
Meanwhile.
Nerv HQ.
Dr. Ritsuko Akagi sat in front of her workstation going over the Magi supercomputers' reports. Specifically, the analyzed data from the most recent Angel attack as well as from the previous attack. Her eyes lingered on the entry of Shinji's first ever piloting run, the day the boy had achieved a sync ratio of 91%.
Taking a sip of her coffee, only one of her many cups this evening, Ritsuko glanced over Shinji's vitals from both incidents. How they had changed throughout both battles, how some anomaly had allowed the boy to do the strange things he could do with Unit 01.
On her workstation sat yet another memo from the commander's office detailing that her request for a second look at Shinji Ikari's medical files was denied. The boy's files had essentially been sealed by the higher-ups at Nerv.
"What effect does the mental stability of a pilot have on the Evas?" Ritsuko muttered to herself.
For now, she would have to make do with the Magi's provided data and the simulations, but she would look into this further. Why had the Angels ignored Rei and gone after Shinji instead? There had to be a reason.
An unprecedented event that broke all known patterns.
She knew that the boy wasn't receiving his medicine anymore, now that he was living with Misato. For whatever reason, the boy's guardian had never bothered to look into his past nor had Shinji encouraged her to do so.
"What makes you so special?" Ritsuko murmured at the display of Shinji's vitals in the dark empty room.
This chapter was quite long eh? That's why I had to split the previous one.
I liked writing the differences between Rei's piloting and Shinji's, with Shinji being less trained and more clumsy, while Rei being more experienced and calm throughout the fight despite her wounds.
Shinji is a complex character, I wanted to show that he doesn't always listen to his own advice because he's human(what he told Rei).
Anyway thanks for Reading and please Review!