Chapter 8: We've been smeckledorfed.

Fun fact: In ancient Rome it was forbidden to put a slave to death without showing good reason and considered good and proper conduct for an exceptionally well performing slave to be released from captivity and given almost full Roman citizen rights.

It was also seen as dishonourable and unlawful for a gladiator (also usually a slave) in an arena to kill another gladiator even if they was winning, until the audience indicated they could do so.
And a gladiator who won enough battles honourably was given the wooden sword allowing them to be discharged from duty and not having to fight again.

2000 years before the advent of NERV and high tech electronics and robots, primitive barbarians were treating their serving boys with more decorum and dignity than Gendo treated his son. And those weren't even their children, they were "trade goods" bought from a market like objects to be used. Let that sink in.

Asuka POV

Somehow or another, I felt no guilt as I continued to wrest the thin swan-like neck of the blue haired little bastard who I was forced to put up with every day of my miserable, unhappy existence.

The creepy little troublemaker who kept insisting there was "another life outside of piloting" and that Shinji made her feel "warm inside".
Shinji had nothing likeable nor redeeming. So long as he was here, I would never be proclaimed the best pilot.

I'd forever play second fiddle, forced to swallow the unacceptable fact that I was outdone by a mere trainee who hardly touched an EVA for half a day to reach his ridiculously high skill level while I toiled away for years on end just so that there'd be no chance anyone could upstage me.

The one thing Shinji was good for was a good and hearty laugh for me to vent my frustrations upon.
A fragile and defenceless milksop who made for the perfect punching bag who at least knew his place as my expendable underling.
It was only right he do all the work for me and bow down to me. I didn't need him rubbing his greatness in my already tarnished face.

I don't care that I'm second best pilot only second to him. His mere existence offends me and if it weren't protocol that EVA pilots not harm each other, I would happily snap his bones one by one and enjoy hearing his anguished cries all the while.

Screw his attempts at "niceness" and "making me happy". Niceness is a weakness and he should know that in this messed up apocalypse it's kill or be killed.
No great nation in the past survived because it was nice to its enemies. The only way to maintain complete and utter dominance was cruelty and harshness.

Did Caesar grab so much land because he smiled and gave free money to the feeble enemies whose lands he coveted? I think not.

But more to the point. That's not why right here and right now I will show to Rei the full extent of my power and authority as I squash away her last wisp of vitality before his trembling eyes.
The reason why I cannot let him have so much as a single companion who views him as anything but the idiotic scoundrel he is and always will be to me.

It's about keeping him in line. I let one girl begin to regale him with the finer luxuries of human courtship and soon an uncountable number of others will come for him too as he begins to shake of f the shackles I've spent so long carefully constructing knowing this day would come.
I cannot let him realize that life could be better.

For if he realizes happiness and friendship when I could not, then I have failed again.

"Now you die, you disgusting little piece of filth" I gleefully cackle, frothing at the mouth as I prepare the muscles in my arms for the finishing bit of force that will surely end his careless dreams of ever seeing the need for any other than I, his master.

Obey your master Shinji. Forever and always. I destroy my enemies, and if you cross me I will destroy you too. Don't make me destroy you Shinji.

And as for you, Rei Ikari as you dare have the audacity to name yourself, you are beaten.
It is pointless to resist.
No one at NERV will believe that I was the one at fault. Shinji never said a single bad thing about me and he isn't about to change now. He's as mute as a statue and that's how he'll stay. Just as it should be.

Shinji POV

No Asuka. No.
Just no.
No, no and no.

I'm so sorry. I'm so extremely sorry. I am the epitome of apologetic and from the bottom of my heart, I offer to you my sincerest condolences.

You can do all you want with me as it is in my good grace as an EVA pilot to respect my equals and regard them with my utmost courtesy.
I am a coward and an idiot who is unloved by even his father so it is well within your rights to do as you wish with me for I also look deeply up to you as my idol and my aspiration in life.
Your strength and courage and raw prowess is my envy. It was and always will be.

But you can not harm Rei like this. Rei, the remnant of my old world when I had a loving parent who truly saw me as something worth treasuring.
It's in her eyes, her smile, her appearance, her every action.

Somehow inexplicably though I know my mother is dead, when I'm around Rei it feels as if a part of her is very close to me. I do not understand this.
But I know that whatever the reason, Rei is a valuable person worth every bit of joy and laughter life has to offer her.

And she certainly hasn't done anything to deserve your scorn.

I know that Rei wanted nothing but your approval and that she would never lift a finger against you Asuka.
You can break the official NERV rule and use me like a slave because I'm not worthy of anything else.

But Rei is my waifu now. She said so herself. I promised her she would remain so.
It's not in the custom of sons to disavow their parents, the human beings kind enough to birth them into existence.
And it's not in the nature of a good husband to leave his beloved waifu to her fate when he knows that even if he has nothing, he can still offer his useless life.

"Asuka. Understand that I will eternally regret this and that your suffering provides me no pleasure in the slightest." I voicelessly utter as I take one last look to the heavens knowing that even if they existed, I'll not be going there anytime soon.

Goodbye mother. Forever this time. For the horrific crimes upon humanity I am about to commit, can never attain atonement nor forgiveness from even the almighty saint himself.

I lunge for Asuka with every remaining ounce of my strength, hands outstretched and screaming at the top of my lungs feeling every last breath burn up my throat like liquid fire.
So frantic in my desperate barrage, I completely lose coordination and as Asuka turns to face me with look of incredibly mild surprise and shock I've not seen in her stone hard expression ever until that fateful second where time seemed to fade from existence, I slam the entirety of my forehead into her wide agape mouth like a maddened bull.

I let out a guttural growl as my cranium connects with that of hers and every last bone in my body seems to break like glass to a rock.
The last thing I see as darkness takes hold of me, is Rei's pained but blissful relief as she is released from Asuka's fearful grasp and she drops to the gravelly asphalt like a stone.
"Run Rei. Run for your life" I pray as the grim reaper himself arrives to welcome me into the embrace of silence.

Rei POV

Air is coming back into my lungs. I'm falling to the ground.
I'M FREE

But wait. No. NO! Shinji's heroic and valorous assault failed to even faze her!
Her nose isn't even bleeding one bit and there's not one mark on her. No bruise, no scratch no nothing.
In fact aside from dropping me, she seems barely shocked.

She's recovering her pose. She's grinning maliciously. She's holding out her outstretched hands once more to repeat the exchange now that Shinji's fallen and I'm lying here dazed on the asphalt unable to even muster up the strength to get back up.

"Did you really think you could stop me with that?" She straight up insultingly spits at me as she closes in on me once more.
She doesn't even rub the spot on her nose where Shinji hit her.

"Pathetic. Just pathetic."

"Please Asuka stop" I beg, letting out the first heartfelt sob I ever have.

"I just want to be your friend. I just want Shinji to be happy. I just wanted…"

"A-duh duh. I don't want to hear it" She slices me off mid sentence, her cutting edged tone sharper than the katana of the Shogun's finest samurai.

"NERV will punish you when they find out" I try to reason.

"And who's going to tell? Pray tell? You? The idiot? That stupid brown nosed Brit who you decide to waste your precious time hanging out with? Don't make me laugh.
This isn't a crime. This is justified punishment. Your punishment for thinking Shinji needed you when he had someone as great and wonderful as me."

"No Asuka. Please!" I stammer in futility as I'm lifted off the ground once more by my already reddened neck and the sharp grit of the German fashionista's finely groomed nails dig into my already swelled skin.

Mari POV
This…ain't…good. This ain't good. THIS AIN'T GOOD!

We've been duped.
Duped.

Bamboozled!
WE'VE BEEN SMECKLEDORFED!
And that's not even a word.

I run and run cursing every moment of my life up to this point that I spent as an enigmatic bookworm buried in my books instead of exercising my muscles.
I curse every second of every minute I spent practising elocution and diplomacy in favour of barbarism and physical prowess.

They want to kill her. They want to murder Nami Blue in cold blood in the slowest, most torturous way imaginable to the fragile psyche of mankind and when they're done with her… what they have in store for their star pilot Shinji.

I don't even want to think about that. Suffice to say, it's something far, far worse than the most cruel and insufferable fate anyone could possibly imagine and far nastier than anything you could wish upon your most despised enemy.

There was something in the commander's eyes as he called me in for yet another pointless and unneeded discursion in which he outlined in painstaking detail how I was being nothing more than a drag in NERV's forces in spite of everything I had managed to accomplish in my short time here and that it would be better if I simply left, particularly since three pilots was more than adequate for his purposes.

I argued against this decision. That there could easily be more than three Angels attacking at a time and that even if this was not the case, it was good to be able to divide our work around so that at least one of us got to rest at a time. I mentioned that I did not mind the stuffy, stifling confines of the EVA as bad as it seemed to others.

Or that the job of an EVA pilot basically entailed an endless retinue of carnage filled battles more bloody than the worst conflicts mankind had ever suffered in the past.

It was a lot like playing an NES street fighter game, I sentimentally added in my usual attempt to seem tougher and made of sterner stuff than I truly was.
In truth it was terrible but I didn't need my sensitive side exposed to a monster who deserved it not.

"Well my decision is final. NERV's further plans as of this day do not involve you in any significant way and I do not appreciate your unusual obsession with my first child and first pilot Rei.
You are hereby dismissed"

Were his stone cold orders as he ordered me to leave or be escorted out at gunpoint, not even bothering to mention the fact he was due on my paycheque by at least a month.

He looked at me, the room and the door behind me as if they were not really there. The emptiness of his glare was chilling to say the least.

Not that I needed the money since I was fortunate enough to set up a semi profitable online business importing fine tea from one of Great Britian's few remaining independent trading companies after Japan was done taking what it thought was worth taking and left my once mighty home country a police state so heavily guarded that it was no better than a puppet on a string.

The second world war did to England in many ways what the second impact did to planet Earth. Only the conquerers were fully sapient creatures of great intellect with large and developed brains rather than mindless aliens governed solely as far as we knew, by instinct.
It made their actions worse.

But now was not the time for political debates I think to myself as I jump over a train track even as the barriers lower and the train just barely misses me as I make it to the other side in the nick of time.

Its lucky that my rebel friends at the rebel base as we call it, have been hard at work.
For as I left the oppressive edifice that I had been discharged from without fanfare. I received a message. A message on the secure phone I kept on my person at all times which I secured with a twenty character password complete with capitals, numbers and various symbols all to be changed on a week to week basis to reveal the gut wrenching truth they had finally unearthed after months of unsuccessful attempts at hacking impeded by the stalwart magi system NERV implemented on its computers.

The exact details were unspecific but from what their top masterminds could discern, it involved the sacrifice of first child Rei and the "silencing" of their second child who they believed knew too much and had too close a relationship with the first child.

Whatever they had in store for the rest of the organization would leave it a far smaller group than prior. And with no angel incursions in this long stretch of time, Gendo had managed to move his plan far faster than he otherwise could and after seeing a NERV truck full of armed uniformed men speeding down the street on which I was walking, all doubts diffused from my mind that I must act quickly and must act now.

If only I hadn't sent Rei away.
If only Shinji hadn't left in a huff after having his feelings unintentionally hurt by her.

For lack of a better choice of words. We needed to GTHO
The S. Had really hit the fan.

I had finally made it to the canal footbridge that separated Tokyo 3's residential districts from its governmental ones. Hopefully NERV would directly search Shinji and Rei's apartments first while taking a different route.

Wait. Was that Asuka? And Rei.
In Asuka's grasp and looking like the most terrified puppy I'd seen in my life.

And Shinji passed out with a big red gash on his forehead next to them.

Oh Damn.

Damn it all.

Asuka. No.

No. No. No. No. And No.

I truly apologize Asuka. I truly must ask that you excuse the crude and thoroughly unladylike decision you have forced upon me with your inhumanity.

I see a large and jagged rock, rather a brick on a slab of pavement before me.
It seems hard despite being a little old.

I reach down and with a colossal effort manage to lift it both hands held over my head.

Sweat seems to gush out in a furious flood and my entire body groans with chronic muscle pain as I slowly manage to stagger my way forward.

I just hope I'm not too late to save the day this time.

Prepare for trouble Asuka, I murmur inwardly unable to prevent a light grin creasing upon my already drying up lips.

Prepare for trouble and make it double.

To protect the world from devastation, to unite all people within this nation.
To denounce the evil of truth and lie. To extend our reach to the stars above.

For the greater good which I can only pray you will understand in time, Asuka. You must be opposed.

I would prefer to reason. But unreasonable sadists can't be reasoned with.

Rei POV

"It's over Rei. Shinji's mine!" Asuka thunderously announces as I brace myself for the end of all things to come making peace with the fact that at the very least my amorous feelings for my husband were announced to him prior to my passing.
I could but hope that whatever happened, Shinji would go on to live a good life forever safe in the knowledge that one girl in the ranks of mankind once loved him well and truly for who he was.

"Hey. Let the lovebirds have their moment, you unrefined brute." I hear as once more by a divine miracle Asuka's grip on me lightens the slightest bit as heavy footsteps ring out.

"Wilful harm to fellow pilots especially unprovoked is the strictest offence of NERV's code of conduct and must thus be punished accordingly" Mari calls as I recover enough sight in my eyes to see her scoop up a large and jagged brick from the sidewalk beside a broken section of the bridge.

Its clear from her huffs and puffs that she's exerted herself to the fullest running here for a reason I could not imagine and frankly did not care for. What mattered was that she was here and that the three of us as the only three children who cared for one another's wellbeing were here together at last.

"I truly regret this unrefined and ineptly brutish choice of recourse but I must tragically concede that it is a necessary action in light of your flagrant disregard for the wellbeing of those most guiltless and undeserving of your unwarranted wrath" Mari prattles, her voice soft but no less furious as she raises the rock before the only now realizing Asuka and with a final look of pure regret and unwillingness brings it down with incredible force I never thought possible into Asuka's unprotected cranium.

For the first time in forever, Asuka lets out a truly frightened scream as her head of her ironclad body of virtual indestructibility is smashed with full force with a blow that re-vibrates several times as it connects.

And as Mari's hardened slab of concrete is dropped to the ground split in two from the sheerness of the collision even it could not endure, Asuka finally loses her will and allows herself to fall face first into the Earth as a thin trail of blood slithers from her left temple and onto her immaculately polished blue shoes.

"You'll regret this" she whispers menacingly electing not to lose her cool even in the hour of her downfall as she pummels down with a heavy thud that shakes the crust of the planet itself causing me and Mari both to momentarily shudder.

"Mari!" I shout, not caring what she was doing here merely pleased she had come at this critical moment as I immediately shake of any hesitation and rush into her arms.

Clearly tired from the hard work of heaving such a heavy instrument of destruction, Mari nods wearily as she returns my uncharacteristically emotional embrace not usual for a emotionless shell like myself.

It isn't long however before she regretfully backs away and puts back on her face the serious and sullen frown which signals louder and clearer to me than any words that the end of the world or something equally terrible is upon us and that I must hang to every word she is about to say if I am to have any fighting chance of survival.

"We have to go. Now. NERV want to kill you and Shinji and they're coming now. Grab Shinji and we need to get out of here."

"But…"

"QUESTIONS LATER! Please Rei. Your life depends on it."

A heavy diesel powered engine revs into life in the distance getting progressively louder as Mari finishes her sentence. I see it not but I can hear with my sensitive part Angel ears that at least one passenger abroad is unloading a firearm of some sort and that the safety of said firearm is being switched off.

Knowing from years of being dominated by my commandeering superiors when it was time to shut up and move, I nod knowingly as Mari and I work together to heave the unconscious Shinji up between the two of us and manage to make surprisingly good speed as the sound of the powerful engine draws ever nearer.

I didn't know how, but somehow, I knew that we were but inches away from death and that it would take a divine miracle for us to live to see another day.

But at least we had clutched freedom between our hands if only for the brief moment.
And if we remained in Tokyo 3 after today, it would only be in a body bag for Shinji and Mari and in an incubation container surrounded by highly toxic fluid for me.

Thank you everyone once more for reading.
Special thanks to Neo Warkid4, fictionelement777, bandiras2, Rockxy, Zm93, and KySocceRref for your kind and awesome comments, it really helps me out.
Stay awesome and I will see you all next time. Bye!