"We have visual confirmation," Makoto cried.
"Target is advancing into controlled airspace!" Maya added.
"All hands, enter condition one battle stations!" Misato yelled.
"Shinji, are you ready?" Misato asked.
Shinji stayed silent in his entry plug, running through the motions.
"Center the target, pull the trigger. Center the target, pull the trigger."
"Shinji? Can you hear me?" Misato's voice came over the commlink.
"You don't have to yell Misato, I'm not deaf," Shinji said.
'He's still in a lousy mood,' Misato thought annoyedly.
"15 years with no sign of them, and now two in three weeks," Makoto said.
"How inconsiderate of them," Misato said, smirking.
The fourth Angel appeared on the command center monitor. It was dark pink and had beady yellow eyes. A bulbous abdomen gave way to a flared-out head, underneath which was the Angel's core, enclosed with wriggling legs. It slowly floated towards the center of the city like an arrowhead.
Artillery batteries opened fire, engulfing the Angel in thick black smoke punctuated with flashes of red and yellow. It had no effect, not even slowing the beast down.
"What a waste of taxpayer money," Fuyutsuki commented.
"Captain Katsuragi, the committee requests immediate deployment of the Eva!" Aoba announced.
"Jerks," Misato said, "we were gonna do that anyway."
"Shinji," Ritsuko said, "Neutralize the enemy's A.T. Field and then repeat fire. Just like in practice, got it?"
"Yes, ma'am," Shinji said.
"Eva-01, launch!" Misato commanded.
Shinji was sent up the catapult, and at the top, he came face to face with the Angel.
"Center the target, pull the trigger," Shinji said.
He fired, shooting directly at the Angel. He didn't let go of the trigger.
"Idiot!" Misato yelled, "You can't see through all that smoke! You've got to stop firing, Shinji!"
It was too late. Shinji's palette gun ran out, and he stood there, panting.
The Angel cut his gun in half with two pink whips, pushing Eva-01 to the ground. Shinji panicked, seeing the Angel looming over him. 'I… I can't do this,' he thought. Unit-01 was launched back again, hitting the ground. The Angel's whip severed his umbilical cable, and the time limit appeared in the command center monitors. Five minutes left.
"Shinji, you have to defeat that thing right away!" Misato cried, "Stand up!"
Shinji slowly tried to get his Eva into a standing position, but the Angel grabbed hold of his ankle and launched him into the air. He was sent flying into a mountainside, crashing into it and sinking deeply before stopping.
"Damage report!" Misato barked.
"None! All green!" Maya said.
-
Shinji rubbed his head, his back aching from the fall. He looked to the side, and saw…
"What?!" he cried.
"Shinji's classmates?" Misato said, "What are they doing here?"
"Shinji, get up!" Ritsuko said.
The Angel approached Shinji once more, its whips flailing and slashing through the air above him. They lashed out to strike him, and he instinctively grabbed them. His hands burned, but he couldn't do anything. He would crush his classmates. As much as he hated them for what they did, he didn't want to kill them. The paint on the Eva's hands began to peel off, the flesh underneath bubbling and fusing with the whips.
"Shinji, focus on getting up," Misato said.
'Easy for you to say,' he thought. 'If I mess up and squash those two… what am I gonna do?'
Shinji made the decision to eject his entry plug and let them inside. At least in there, they would be safer.
"Shinji! What are you doing?! You cannot allow civilians in the entry plug!" Misato yelled.
Shinji didn't listen, and his classmates made their way inside quickly, confused by the LCL.
"We're detecting irregularities in the nervous system," Maya said.
"He's taken on two foreign bodies, that's to be expected," Ritsuko responded.
"Idiot!" Misato yelled at Shinji. "You're supposed to ask me for orders!"
Shinji's eyes narrowed, and he planted his foot against the bottom of the Angel.
"D-dammit!" he yelled, kicking the Angel backward. It slammed into the nearest building, its belly, and core, exposed.
"Now!" Misato said, "Fall back!"
Shinji got up. The Evas hands were exposed, the white fingers and nails covered in blisters. He stood still.
"Hey, Ikari!" the taller classmate said. "She's telling you to fall back!"
"I... I won't fall back," he said quietly.
"What?" he yelled.
"I won't run away for her," he responded. The Eva's shoulder pylon opened, and Shinji grabbed his Prog knife.
"Progressive knife drawn!" Makoto yelled.
"What?!" Misato asked, "Why!? Shinji, follow my orders! I said, fall back!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Shinji screamed and charged towards the Angel. Its whips darted forward and stabbed the Eva through the stomach.
"AUGH!" Shinji cried, feeling his abdomen being pierced by two blazing hot whips.
"I told him so!" Misato said, horrified by the sight. The pink whips wriggled around after piercing through to the other side of the Eva.
"DAMMIT!" Shinji yelled and swung his arms forward. He struck the Angel's core with the knife, sending a torrent of sparks flying from the incision. He pushed and pushed, trying to kill this thing before it killed him.
'What the hell are you thinking, Shinji?' Misato thought.
"Ten seconds active time remaining!" Maya yelled.
"Seven, six, five, four, three, two," the Angel's core shattered, and Shinji's knife was pushed all the way inside. His Eva was deactivated with the Angel's whips still stuck inside. He had barely managed to beat it.
"Eva-01 has deactivated!" Aoba announced, "No sign of activity from the target."
"..." Misato's stony expression did not change.
Shinji sat in his plug, his hands still gripping the control yoke. He was crying, trying to hide it from his classmates.
"Ikari…" they both said.
'Why am I doing this?' Shinji once again thought. 'For who?'
-
"Why did you disobey my orders, Shinji?" Misato asked. Shinji had been sitting on the locker room bench since the battle.
"I can excuse letting them into the entry plug, but what do you think would have happened if you hadn't defeated the Angel?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, Misato," he said.
"Sorry isn't gonna cut it!" she snapped back, "I'm your supervisor. You have an obligation to follow my orders, understand?"
Shinji looked down. "Yeah, I understand," he said bitterly. "I'm your pilot. That's all I am to you," he continued.
"What?" Misato said.
"Did you really just want us to live together so you could keep an eye on me? I mean, that's fine, but I thought at first that you actually cared about me."
"What are you saying?" Misato asked.
"Anyway, I don't see what the big deal is! I won, didn't I? I'll pilot that thing, isn't that all you wanted?"
Misato grabbed him by the collar and stood him up. She glared into his eyes, and he refused to meet her gaze. She let go of him.
"Go home and rest. That's all."
"Yes, ma'am," he said, walking out of the room. Misato sighed.
-
'I'm done with this,' Shinji thought. He quickly walked out of headquarters and boarded a train. It was crowded, but he managed to find a seat. He rode the train, a loop route around Tokyo-3, for hours. He listened to his SDAT, repeating the same songs over and over again. It began to rain, and then to pour. He heard the soft patter of the raindrops on the metal roof and wondered how he was going to get home without an umbrella in this weather.
He decided to wait out the storm, continuing to sit in his seat as the train made its way around the city. The sun set, and he eventually found himself the only one left on the train.
"All passengers, this is the final stop. Please exit in an orderly fashion, and take your belongings. We repeat this is the final stop"
Shinji sat up, taking his bag. It was still pouring, and now it was dark out. He walked onto the platform, grateful there was at least some shelter. He had no hope of going anywhere in this weather. As is, he was still getting pelted whenever a gust of wind picked up. He made his way to one of the vertical metal I beams, trying to sandwich himself inside it and get at least some protection. It offered little, and the cold winds bit deep, making him shiver uncontrollably.
Shinji barely got a wink of sleep that night. He sat, alone and cold, begging for the rain to stop. It never did. As day broke, he was half asleep, but still unable to drift off. He was sniffling and was sure he had caught a cold. On the bright side, the sun had finally come out, and offered him a small comfort. He wearily stood up and headed out of the station.
Shinji trudged through Tokyo-3, ending up in a place he had never been before. A mechanical banging repeated nonstop, giving him more of a headache than the cicadas. He walked past a series of identical concrete apartment buildings, his strength beginning to leave him. He stopped walking, and then fell to his knees. As he lost consciousness, he heard a lone pair of footsteps slowly approach him.
-
"Mh," Shinji mumbled. He stirred, and opened his eyes halfway. He was staring up at a grey ceiling, one he had never seen before. He blinked again and saw a face above him.
"A-n-m-i?" he tried to say, but his throat was too dry. He coughed and felt a cup of warm tea pressed to his lips. He drank and nearly spat it out. It was way too strong and tasted awful, but he would do anything to soothe his throat. He tried to sit up, but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
"Please rest," Ayanami said.
"T-thank you," Shinji said weakly.
"You needn't thank me. You are a pilot, it would be irresponsible to leave you in the state you were in," she said.
"H-how do you do it?" he asked.
"Do what?" she replied.
"How do you pilot? Aren't you scared?"
"I was ordered to. So I will."
"What if you didn't?"
"I would be replaced," she said simply. Shinji didn't know what she meant by that. He felt his eyes grow heavy again and drifted off to sleep.
-
Shinji woke up in his bed. He sat up quickly, wondering how the hell he got back home. Was that… a dream? It couldn't have been. He looked over and saw Misato sitting in a chair across from him.
"Did you get it out of your system?" she asked.
"H-how did I get here?" Shinji asked.
"Rei found you collapsed near her house. She took care of you until Section Two arrived and hauled you home. You were unconscious."
"Oh," Shinji said. "I'm sorry."
"Shinji," Misato said, "what you did was stupid, but I can forgive it. What you said to me hurt, though."
"It's what I felt," he replied.
Misato picked up Pen-Pen, who was sitting by her chair.
"You see him? He was part of an experiment where I used to work. They were done with him, and about to put him down."
Shinji looked at the bird, who sadly squawked upon being reminded of his past.
"Do you know why I took him in? This useless, greedy bird?"
Shinji shook his head.
"I felt sorry for him, sure, but I felt… I felt it would be nice to have someone waiting for me when I come home from work at night. I thought it'd be nice to have a family. I'm not the kind of person who has it together enough to live with a stranger because of pity, or because it's my job. I didn't mean to make you feel that way, and for that I am sorry."
Shinji's eyes began to water. "Misato…"
"I don't want to go back to where I was before," he said. He stood up, and hugged Misato, tears running down his face.
"I-I'm home," he said.
"Welcome back," Misato replied.
-
Fuyutsuki skillfully placed down his rook, trying to catch Ikari in a trap.
"In the end, your son's actions followed the plan to the letter," Fuyutsuki said.
"Yes," Gendo replied.
"But his encounter with the first was unplanned," Fuyutsuki continued.
"I must push them together anyway. There are no concerns," Gendo said.
"Are you not worried you will push them too close?" Fuyutsuki prodded.
"Everything will proceed according to the scenario," Gendo said. He stared forward, not moving a muscle.
Fuyutsuki could not help but let out a small grin.
