Shinji's Bizarre Evangelion

Chapter Two

Two Weeks Later

"Pulse wave set. Eva Synchronization holding at 37%. Status lines green, all clear. Ready for test #28."

Shinji bit his lip as Maya's voice faded from the overhead speakers. He stood across from Rei in Combat Simulator Room 04, fully clad in his new combat gear, forming a protective shell around him from the neck down, white for his torso and arms and deep blue for his legs with some black bits as well, slim armor plating, and an extended Skull Suit now squeezing almost all of his body, which Shinji did not appreciate at all but reluctantly admitted it did a good job of not getting in the way of his movement, and was a little easier to get used to like this. Rei was in a similar setup but in only white, her right arm now only in a sling and not also heavily bandaged, facing Shinji and not any less apprehensive.

"Roger. Preparing to summon Evangelion Unit 00, Codename: 'Fly Me To The Moon'."

Shinji took a breath and was enveloped in green flames, Can't Be Yours appearing in all its' purple and green glory. It was a strange situation the two found themselves in - not a competition, or any kind of duel, but they were definitely fighting each other with as much willpower as they could muster. But this was not a fight with any kind of winner - Rei would release her Stand, be unable to control it, and Shinji would attempt to subdue it with his Stand while Rei tried to resist as much as possible in an attempt to stop it from destroying NERV, though the fact that this was room 04 and they had destroyed two others beyond usability was a pretty good indicator of how this was going. Shinji was at least getting good at not injuring Rei or himself in the process.

Rei focused, herself radiating the green flames, and summoned Fly Me To The Moon - an orange and white semi-doppelganger of Shinji's Stand that immediately leapt forward and struck, only to be met by the orange octagonal AT Field. It briefly struggled before Can't Be Yours rebuffed it, sending the orange giant back and making an advance of its' own. It struck back, hitting an opposing AT Field, but Shinji was ready for it. He forced his own will against it, again trying to ignore this feeling that he was somehow pushing against Rei. Fly Me To The Moon struggled, but Shinji pierced the field and ripped it apart with relative ease, and Can't Be Yours grabbed its' orange opponent and wrestled it to the ground. Rei fell over, both Stands struggled, then she made an unhappy noise as hers dissolved away, recalling back into her.

Shinji rushed over and picked Rei up off the floor. "Are you okay? Any progress?"

Rei coughed into her left hand and groaned. "No. It's figured out how to resist me again. Something is wrong - it feels like it's trying to escape from me."

"Damn… Do you think it will help to keep trying?"

"At this point? No." Rei stood up and brushed a streak of dust off part of her armor. "It's pretty clear violence isn't going to work. I'll have to find some other way to tame it."

"Well, in that case, what now?" Shinji looked at his wrist - they'd planned to be at this for another hour, but he agreed it was unlikely that any more tries were likely to be more successful.

The reinforced blast door opened, and Misato walked through with the strut Shinji came to expect from her while she was on-duty. "I think you two have been cooped up in here trying to kill each other long enough. I'm dismissing you both early. Rei, would you like to come with us for dinner again?"

Rei shook her head. "I actually want to stay and have a talk with Ritsuko about 00. We have to be missing something about why I can't summon it correctly."

"Fair enough. Shinji, go get changed and meet me at parking garage 94. I have some paperwork to finish up so I'll probably be there a little later than you."

Shinji agreed and went to the nearby locker room, happy to get out of the combat gear and into a shower to wash away the layer of sweat that always built up when he did this 'training' with Rei. It was all the more stressful to know that any damage he did to her Stand would also carry over to her own body, which was additional pressure he could easily do without. But now that they'd decided this wasn't working, Shinji was relieved to think that he wouldn't need to be attacking her anymore. He dropped his combat gear into the laundry chute and got his school bag out of the single locker among dozens there were in the room, briefly pausing to think of just how many people NERV expected to be supporting as pilots of the Evangelion Stands.

20 minutes of walking later, Shinji made it to the tiny break room outside garage 94, ordered a coffee from the vending machine, and sat down with his SDAT player for a rare moment of quiet in his life. The craziness of his situation tried to set in, using magic powers to defend Tokyo-3 from aliens, but he'd gotten good at shutting that out of his mind. He sat back and closed his eyes, almost drifting off into an exhausted nap when he heard the sound of Misato's low heels clicking against the painted concrete floor.

"Tired? I don't blame you- these sessions are exhausting to me and I don't even fight in them. Let's pick up something to eat on the way home, I doubt you want instant food again after all that."

"Yeah, that would be nice." Shinji collected his stuff and they piled into her car, only to drive onto a train carriage that started ascending through the geofront back to the surface. Misato's expression turned from cheerful to somewhat serious as she remembered a report that came in during her lunch.

"I heard you skipped homeroom again today. Do I have to order you to tell me why?"

Shinji looked away and shifted in his seat. "I can't deal with Toji. He still blames me for hurting his sister. I don't want to get in a fight with him again."

Misato bit her lip. Section 2 had been reporting that Toji was being very provocative, it was hard for her to blame Shinji for not wanting to deal with him. "Have you tried confronting him about it?"

"He doesn't care. I'm always going to be a fuckup because his sister got hurt. The less he sees of me, the better. I don't even think using my Stand on him would help at this point."

Misato made a silent sigh of relief now that she knew Shinji didn't plan on using Can't Be Yours at school again. She still didn't like him just running away from the problem, but what could he actually do at this point? If the situation got any more difficult, she might have to have Section 2 collect Toji to have a "talk" with him about screwing with their only active combat pilot. She stuffed that thought away - it was to be a last, last resort. But in the meantime, Misato didn't actually know what Shinji could do about it. At least he wasn't skipping all of school, maybe she'd just have to be happy with that.

At 10:04 AM, you would have expected Shinji Ikari to be in class, not on the roof of the school, but here he was, staring into the bright blue sky trying to ignore the perpetual summer heat, earbuds in and yet again thinking about how crazy his situation was. Two weeks ago he was just a normal teenager, albeit living with his teacher. Now, he knew that a bunch of people had supernatural… entities living inside them, and not only was he one of them, he was in command of the most powerful. Shinji barely needed to concentrate anymore, and the 8 foot tall giant in purple armor his father had forced upon him materialized standing on the roof a few meters away, AT Field briefly shimmering in the sunlight, before he relaxed and it dissolved into thin air. It was liberating, in a certain sense, to have this kind of ability and be able to control it so precisely, but he also knew it chained him to this city, and protecting the people in it almost against his will. Even Toji.

Rei suddenly appeared in Shinji's vision, having not made a sound as she opened and closed the roof door and walked up, made all the more impressive with her right arm still in the sling. "I see you're skipping again, lieutenant." She said, sitting next to him and pulling a bento out of her school bag.

Shinji smirked just a little bit. "Are you going to reprimand me, ma'am?"

"With that tone of voice? Maybe. But honestly I needed an excuse to get out of that room, it's way too stuffy in there with Kojisan lecturing." Rei opened her meal and started eating, quite ravenously.

"Did you not have breakfast?" Shinji asked, slightly curious about her morning routine.

"No- I eat five or six times a day. Combination of not being able to eat much in one sitting after I was injured and my appetite getting really big after I was implanted with Fly Me To The Moon. I think I'll get over it a bit once my chest has stopped hurting." She paused to eat a few bites of rice. "Did you start eating more after you got implanted?"

"Not that I noticed. I wonder if that's a difference in our Stands or just random? Did anyone else get more hungry after getting a Stand?"

Rei shook her head. "Just me then, I guess. I'll deal with it."

A few minutes passed in silence, then both of their cell phones violently went off at the same time with the same special ringtone. They pulled them out, a text message from a generic number saying 'POLARIS SCAN POSITIVE - PATTERN BLUE CONFIRMED IN TOKYO-3'.

Shinji was slightly confused. "What does that mean?" He said, wishing he'd paid more attention at the briefing where they explained this 10 days ago.

"It means we have to run." Rei threw her bento back into her bag, grabbed Shinji's hand, and bolted to the roof door giving him just barely enough time to grab his own bag. She stormed through the school, ignoring student and teacher alike that tried to question their presence in the halls. They went through the front doors, where a black car had pulled up on the curb, waiting for them. Rei opened the rear door and pushed Shinji in first, then piled in behind him as the car sped off towards an emergency lift into the geofront. It took barely 5 minutes for them to get all the way to NERV, though the emergency lift down did make Shinji feel like he was going to throw up from the feeling of near freefall. Rei led Shinji to a launch bay that was barely 20 steps away from the emergency lift exit, which was either convenient or just good design, though Shinji still questioned the logic of needing to scramble all the way down through the geofront only to be deployed up above it again.

Misato appeared on the large briefing screen, still in Central Dogma, as a pair of assistants burst into the room and began helping Rei and Shinji into their combat gear. "At 1006 hours, POLARIS satellites confirmed the existence of an organism with blood type pattern blue in Tokyo-3. We don't know how it evaded detection before it got into the city, but it's definitely here now. Tokyo-3 is on alert and is shifting to battle ready status."

"What are our orders?" Rei asked, wincing as her arm had to move quickly through the shirt.

"Shinji will deploy to sector J-3, reconnoiter the situation, and engage the Angel if need be. Rei, you're on standby to act as backup. We don't know what this Angel is capable of, so we'll have to come up with a battle plan as the situation evolves."

Rei, already fully kitted, quickly saluted with her left arm. "Roger". Shinji was still getting literally squeezed into his gear, and briefly wondered how many times Rei had practiced this to be able to do it faster than him with a damaged arm. He got loaded into one of the six launch chutes, and braced himself for now gut-wrenching acceleration upward. The railgun fired, and Shinji shot through the geofront, again just barely seeing what he could only assume were people waving at him from an underground warship. He hit the top of the exit rails, resisted the urge to throw up, and slightly stumbled out of the launch carriage as the restraints released.

"Shinji, proceed north and try to stay out of sight." Misato come in over his earpiece. "It's hard for us to get a precise lock on the Angel's location, so you'll need to scout out the area. If you manage to spot it without getting noticed, don't engage until I order you to."

Shinji silently nodded and moved toward one of the non-retracting buildings that lined the now completely empty and silent streets. He thought it was weird that just minutes ago, the city was bustling, but now everyone was in a shelter or belowground. He came to an intersection and looked around, not spotting anyone else out here, and was about to sprint across the street, when the empty car next to him suddenly exploded. Shinji was thrown to his right, hit the concrete of the sidewalk, and rolled a few times before sliding to a halt on his back, now thanking every deity he could think of for the protection of his armored combat gear.

Misato suddenly yelled in his ear. "Shinji! Summon Stand now!" He coughed, and the purple giant appeared next to him exactly as the purple energy whips that had sliced the car up went for him, bouncing off the orange AT Field at the very last second. He got up as quickly as he could in this winded state, and saw another white-haired, red-eyed young man, this time in a deep red suit, with a similarly red monster behind him. This "Angel" had a very long, cylindrical body with a flat, almost heart-shaped head, creepily moving bone "legs" on its' chest, and the purple energy whips coming out of its' vestigial-looking "arms". It made another lash at Shinji, but again hit the AT Field, though Shinji felt something weird in his chest as it impacted.

Misato shouted an order at Shinji, but he was already lunging forward with Can't Be Yours, grabbing one of the arms of the enemy Stand and pulling it in, then using the other arm to twist the body and flip it over, sending it to the ground with a loud THUD and denting the concrete. But the man in the suit simply smiled, and now that Shinji was further away from his stand, the Angel extended a longer energy whip, cutting through the building to Shinji's left as it reached around the AT Field and grabbed him by the ankle. Shinji didn't have time to respond as he was yanked to his left, narrowly in between the buildings and thrown into the air, towards a nearby hill. Can't Be Yours faded away as he flew out of range, but reappeared holding Shinji from behind as they impacted and slid up the hill a fair ways, protecting him from the worst of the impact.

"Wow! I can't believe you survived that!"

Shinji was horrified to hear a familiar voice, and looked over his shoulder to see Kensuke pointing his camcorder at him, as well as a shocked Toji who was currently unable to speak. "What the hell are you two doing here!?" He demanded of them, but before either could respond, another building was cut to ribbons as the Angel started advancing without regard for what stood in its way.

"We came to cheer you on, Shinji! Or, rather, I forced Toji to come with me. Guess you're in kind of a tight spot!"

Deep in Central Dogma, Misato briefly buried her head in both of her hands. "Shinji, disengage from the Angel and get those two to an emergency shelter. We'll pull back and launch Rei to give you cover."

"Easier said than done, Misato!" Shinji yelled as the Angel destroyed the last building between it and the hill, suddenly moving with great speed to advance at Shinji with whips ready for evisceration. Shinji needed to dodge, to draw it away from the two idiots, but there was nothing he could-

Can't Be Yours raised its' right arm, aiming somewhere at the base of the hill, and a neon yellow-green line shot out of it, caught traction on something, and suddenly pulled the Stand with Shinji along with it rapidly past and away from the Angel. Mid-flight, it then cut the line, turned, and fired a second one at the Angel, simultaneously cancelling its' own motion and dragging the enemy Stand away from the boys. They all landed on the street beside the base of the hill, where the man in the suit had been waiting. He let out a laugh, and spoke in a very deep voice. "Excellent! I was afraid I wasn't going to see your Stand's special ability. A grappling hook is unexpected, but I think I'm done playing with you now. Time to die!"

The Angel started to advance again, but Shinji, mind still reeling, wanted to test something. He used Can't Be Yours to fire another grappling line directly at the Angel's user, then shifted aim slightly and fired the other end of the line behind the man. Shinji had no idea why that plan popped into his head, but it worked exactly as he wanted; the Angel faded away to nothing right when it was about to attack as its' user was shot out of range.

"Well." Shinji said, to nobody in particular, "That was unexpected, but very helpful. Misato, what the hell is going on?"

"The Evangelions must have unique powers like the other Stands. We were never able to test with Rei because it always went berserk! Shinji, move southeast, you'll get away from the kids and enter an area with higher buildings. You should be able to use that grappling hook to gain an agility advantage!"

Shinji gave an acknowledgement and started to jog in that direction, when an explosion from behind reminded him that he had a faster method of transport. He grabbed his stand's arm as it rematerialized around him and fired more grappling hooks, swinging on them like some sort of spider-based superhero through the non-retractable buildings of Tokyo-3. He quickly reached an area that would allow him some vertical movement, and got into cover in an alley between two of the buildings. "What now?"

"We're tracking the Angel moving toward your position now. Shinji, I want you to flank and ambush it. Neutralize the AT Field like you did before and attack the Core."

Rei's voice suddenly came over the comms. "Misato, request permission to deploy and support Shinji."

"Rei? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I can't just sit down here and watch him get hurt! I'll fight my own Stand and make it behave if I have to!"

Shinji didn't hear what Misato's response was, because another building exploded right across the street, the concussive force knocking him over and debris scattering all around him. But by now his luck had run out, and an energy whip darted out from the smoke to impale Shinji in his right calf, causing him to scream in pain and dragging him out from the alley and right under the Angel as its' user stepped out from the dissipating smoke and dust.

"You see, my dear, pathetic Lilin, your Stand is unnatural, crafted by the cold hands of science with no creativity or soul. You had no chance against me. My Stand was made properly. It is unique, individually strong, and has a soul all its' own. I will defeat you here, and then descend through the black moon your kind has defiled, reunite with ADAM and reclaim this planet-"

The besuited young man was cut off as an armored orange fist impacted his chest, sending him flying to his left, and again causing the Angel to fade away as he went out of range. Shinji panted and groaned as the worst of the pain faded from his leg, but he felt a tiny pinprick near the wound as his suit automatically injected a strong painkiller. Rei ran up to him and tried to speak, but Shinji couldn't quite hear her over all the other sensations he was experiencing. However, he quickly noticed something - her Stand wasn't going berserk.

"Rei… Your Stand…" He muttered, the pain just starting to subside.

She smiled. "I figured it out. When I saw you losing, I just thought of how much I wanted to beat the Angel up and protect you, and all of a sudden, I felt it stop resisting me. I guess violence really is the answer this time, huh?"

Before Shinji could respond, the red Angel reformed further down the street, and a loud, annoyed voice boomed after it. "That is ENOUGH! I will not be stopped by you pretenders! It's time for you to die!"

Rei stood up and responded with her own yelling. "I'd like to see you try, you white-haired freak!" Time seemed to slow as she watched the Angel coil back one of its whips, ready to strike at her, but noticed Fly Me To The Moon radiating a strange blue energy before it suddenly appeared right next to the Angel, seemingly without even moving. Rei reacted to this as fast as a fly dodges a swatting hand, and quickly grabbed the Angel, forcing the light of her soul against it. The whips wrapped around her stand, but she ignored the pain, laser focused on breaking the AT Field. It was a matter of seconds before Rei felt the Angel's resistance give way, and with a smirk her Stand punched the blood-red Core once, twice, three times - and it shattered. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment, until an inhuman scream nearly deafened Rei and Shinji as the Angel rapidly expanded in size before detonating in a cross-shaped explosion a hundred meters tall, Can't Be Yours seemingly moving without Shinji telling it to cover them with its' own AT Field.

After what seemed like an hour but was maybe two minutes, the last of the debris fell out of the sky, and Shinji could finally recall his Stand so he and Rei could look at what was left. The answer was not a lot - her Stand was motionless in a crater the size of a large intersection, and there seemed to be nothing left of the Angel or its' user. Rei recalled her Stand, and the two of them collapsed in the street.

Shinji was growing to hate this debriefing room. He was sat right in the middle so everyone could look at him, he wasn't allowed to get up for any reason, there was only a pitcher of water and no food, and this time his right leg was still stinging even after someone in the medical staff had used a pink and blue Stand to close his wound by punching it. They claimed it was healed, but he sure didn't feel like it was. The only two things making these hours in the hot seat bearable were, this time Rei was sitting next to him, halving the amount of questions he needed to answer, and further reducing that was the NERV staff mostly talking between themselves over the recorded footage. They only talked to the pilots when they had a specific question, way better than the government officials second-guessing literally every action he took in his first fight.

"Let's move on to the Evangelions' unique abilities," Ritsuko said, which was about the first thing Shinji understood in the last hour, "Preliminary analysis is complete. Unit 01 has shown the ability to launch a grappling line at least 200 meters in length and with several tons of winching force, enough to send itself flying straight up, and can apparently even fire both ends at two different objects, causing them to be winched together. The longest line lasted for 10 seconds, and there doesn't seem to be a pattern for how long they last after use. We've dubbed this ability 'Super Grapnel'." She sipped her coffee, already long cold. "00, on the other hand, was observed radiating some kind of energy that compressed space-time. When it released that energy, the compression relaxed, and the Stand was recorded moving at 25% the speed of light towards the enemy. Sensor readings suggest this ability could be performed in any direction, not just straight ahead. We've dubbed this ability 'Zero Shift'."

"I think that about wraps things up here", Gendo said, closing his laptop. He got up and stretched, and everyone else starting putting their notes away. "We'll schedule a conference once the MAGI is done with its' analysis. Everyone is dismissed."

Shinji breathed a sigh of relief and slumped very low in his chair. He needed pain medication and to sleep for about a week. Defending the planet from aliens was hard. He heard the familiar click of Misato's low heels approaching him, but this time, also heavy thudding footsteps. He hauled his head up and was somewhat surprised to see Gendo standing there with Misato - Shinji had thought his father had forgotten about him.

"Both of you did extremely well out there." Gendo paused to push his glasses up. "Damage to the city was down by 50% and there were no reported injuries. Our number of operational pilots has doubled and we now know about your Stands' unique abilities. The brass over in Tokyo-2 will be very pleased."

Shinji should have been stunned, high praise from his father was the last thing he expected after doing a good job, but he had little energy to do much more that sit and groan. Rei, thankfully, picked up the slack. "Thank you, sir. I'll do my best to keep the unit functioning at this capacity."

Misato laughed. "I think you're talking this a bit too seriously, Rei. I know we gave you military ranks, but you're teenagers. I want you both to get changed and then we're all going for ice cream."

Shinji laid motionless in his bed, arm covering one eye as his SDAT player went on auto. He'd been here for hours, desk lamp faintly illuminating the ceiling he stared at. His leg still throbbed, and he was convinced it wasn't really healed. The events of the last several days kept repeating in his mind, and he couldn't force them out. He wanted out. Out of this war, out of this city. He didn't know where he would go *to*, but he couldn't imagine anywhere would be worse than this.

Misato walked by the door on her way to bed, noting the faint light coming from inside. She paused for a moment, then knocked on the door. "Shinji, are you still up?" Another moment passed, no response. "I'm opening the door." She did so, and Shinji rolled over so she couldn't see his face. "You did really good out there. You saved your classmates and there was minimal damage to the city. Your father's proud. You should be proud, too."

Misato decided to wait until he responded, a very long period of silence punctuating the end of her sentence. Eventually, however, Shinji did manage to eek out "...I can't do this anymore." Misato stood there a little longer, to see if he had an explanation, then went in and sat at the desk chair.

"What do you mean?"

"Misato… Am I a soldier?"

She was taken aback by the question, and yet another pause preceded her response, dripping with guilt as Misato decided not to lie. "Yes. We need you to fight for us against the Angels."

"I'm just a kid. How can you expect me to do this so suddenly? You think I'm just going to be able to adjust to this like it's normal? Like I'm supposed to be happy about being used by my father because he never needed to before?"

"Shinji, you are strong and brave and have already defended our planet twice. We're here to support you. If you need anything, just tell me and I'll get it approved. I want to see you grow into a beautiful person in spite of what we're doing here."

"...no. I can't. I quit. You don't need me anymore now that Rei tamed her stand. She's the one with all the training. She told me she's fine doing this so I don't have to."

Dammit. Misato was hoping he wouldn't bring that up. She had no answer. Possibilities went through her mind, but she decided reprimanding him wouldn't help. Maybe it was for the best if they didn't make him fight anymore. She sighed. "We can't just let you go. The evangelion has become a part of you, and we can't remove it. The best I could do is take you off the active duty roster and put you on the reserve list. We'd still come get you if there's an emergency, and… You wouldn't be able to live here anymore. You'd be put up in your own apartment."

"That's fine."

The words cut Misato more than she had been prepared for. She swore in her head, wanting to pick the boy up and yell at him for running away. But she couldn't blame him. Not after what she'd done 15 years ago. She got up silently and left, closing the door behind her and going back for her cell phone. No use delaying his decision. She'd call it in now and get the paperwork ball rolling. All she could hope for was that it worked out for him.

Gendo sat at his desk looking through a snail mail letter with a pen, scratch paper, and a one-time pad at the ready. The letter wasn't addressed to him, of course, but a subordinate who ritually scanned every letter he got into an email folder. It was convenient, as it was trivial for the Magi to access the folder while leaving no tracks, and forging letters from relatives was also quite easy, allowing Gendo's spies to send messages without prying eyes being in on it. He found what he was looking for - a paragraph where every third word was six characters long. Gendo used a memorized chart to write down a specific number belonging to each character onto the one time pad, and began decoding the message. "SEELE DEVELOPED BETTER IMPLANTATION TECH". He frowned - this was bad news from Kaji.

One of his desk phones rang, delivering more bad news. "Yes. Take the Third Child off the active duty roster. Put him in apartment complex 21-D under 24/7 surveillance." He pushed the phone's latch to cut the line, then dialed a 4-digit number. "Rei?"

"Yes."

"Shinji is being taken off active duty. You're on point from now on."

"Yes. What happened?"

"You don't need to know." Gendo cut the line again before she could respond, and set down the phone, picking up the second one and dialing another 4-digit number. "Ritsuko. We can't use the third one anymore. Start prepping number five for implantation."

Hikari Horaki, class representative of class 2-A in Tokyo-3 high school, walked through the classroom doors with a spring in her step. As usual, Rei was already there, this time with her right arm not in a sling but still favoring it somewhat. She wondered if Shinji would show up for homeroom this time, a flash of frustration running through her. She plopped down at her desk and pulled out the day's homework assignment, looking it over one more time before setting it aside. Other students began filing in, but not Shinji. Hikari began going through the list of people she could ask to go give him the schoolwork for today, again, but midway through she realized Kensuke wasn't showing up either. Curious, but not unheard of. He skipped class to go gaze at warships occasionally. She turned and spotted Toji behind her. "Hey, Toji, did Kensuke tell you where he was going today?"

Toji woke up from his light doze. "Wha? No, he hasn't talked to me this morning, I assumed he was off with one of his uncles."

Hikari shrugged, and the first teacher walked in. Stand, bow, sit. She tried to pay attention to the lecture, but even she admitted they were dull and good insomnia aids. Homework was collected, the class given new assignments, a routine day. Nothing ever really disrupted the routine.

Except today. Half an hour before lunch, a blonde-haired woman in a dark blue suit suddenly came into the classroom. She handed the teacher a piece of paper, he looked it over, then looked up. "Hikari, you're excused." Hikari didn't know what to make of it, but obediently packed her bag up when the woman gave here a "follow me" signal. They made a short walk downstairs to the principal's office, who hung up the phone as soon as they entered.

"Mrs. Horaki, thank you for coming in. I've got some exciting news. The Speedwagon Foundation has accepted you for their studies abroad scholarship. You're scheduled to leave for Egypt, the country you listed as second preferred, next month on the 12th. Congratulations!"

Hikari let out an excited gasp, covering her mouth with her hands. She'd thought they had already chosen the winners, but this was great! She didn't even care that her first choice had been England. She chatted with the principal about the details well into lunch, got a large information packet, and walked out of the room giddy and a little lightheaded.

Hikari didn't expect to see Rei waiting for her outside the door. "Hikari," She said, with a distinct tone of dread in her voice, "Got any plans for the rest of the day?"

"Ah, not exactly, but I just got accepted into the study abroad program we all applied to a few months ago. I'm going to Egypt!"

Rei suddenly looked very grim. "Look, I need to take you somewhere. Now. I've been given authority to pull you out of school for the rest of the day. There's a car waiting for us at the front of the school."

Hikari tilted her head. "Take me where?"

Rei said as matter-of-fact, "NERV HQ. Under the city." It snapped Hikari out of her elation, and her mind started to race wondering what they could want with her. She voiced and acknowledgement and the two went out the front doors of the school, getting into the black car with NERV's logo on it. After what felt like an interminable ride in the car with barely any talking, getting on no less than five separate trains and two elevators, they finally got out into a parking garage within NERV. Rei handed Hikari a VIP badge, and along with the two men in black suits from the car they being walking into the base proper.

"Um… What's this about?" Hikari finally managed to ask.

Rei looked away. "Hikari, you're my friend. I promise you won't be hurt." That simply made her more nervous. It was a long walk, Rei leading the whole way, until they finally made it to a very specific door past three different security checkpoints. Rei was about to enter a code into the keypad when the door opened by itself, leading to a room with several lab technicians and lots of expensive-looking machinery. The two girls went in and the door closed behind them, locking with a very ominous sound to Hikari's ears. She put her things down on a chair near the door as Rei went and talked to a blonde-haired technician, bringing back a strange looking headset and putting it on Hikari, upside-down and behind her ears. She looked at Hikari right in the eyes and asked "Do you trust me?"

Hikari blinked. She really didn't, but under the circumstances, she didn't think saying no was an answer. "Yes" She said, her voice full of apprehension. Rei turned around, fiddling with something on one of the tables. She said something Hikari couldn't quite hear, then turned back around, holding a gun. Hikari had no time to react, beg, or even scream before she fired. The last thing she remembered before passing out was a feeling of extreme heat from the headset behind her ears.

Several hours later...

Hikari sat huddled under a thick blanket, something she had never really needed to do in the permanent summer post-second impact, but it was cold in Rei's small apartment. Rei herself didn't seem to mind at all, having changed into pajamas that covered little more than a sports bra and shorts would. She walked over from the kitchen area and handed Hikari the latest of several large mugs of hot cocoa, along with another package of dark chocolate, of which the poor girl had gone through ten of already, the wrappers scattered to one side of her. Rei sat to her other side as the opening tones to another Zyuranger episode emanated from the TV. The clock chimed 1 AM.

"Okay." Hikari spoke for the first time in three hours, "I think I've started to process all this. Aliens are invading Earth because they want to kill us all for reasons. Humanity developed weapons called Evangelions that are capable of defeating them, but they need to be implanted into a compatible host to be used as a Stand. And when Unit-05, 'Beauttiful World', or whatever you guys are calling it was created, it specifically called for me before going dormant. So now I'm in control of the most advanced weapon ever created and I have to start fighting aliens to defend humanity from destruction."

"You're also in a squad with another classmate." Rei added.

"Yeah. That too. And we're both in an apartment in an underground base." Hikari sniffed her mug, then downed the entire thing in one go, panting slightly as she finished. "So… What now?"

"Well if you mean tonight, I'm game to keep watching TV with you until we both pass out. But if you mean how much your life has changed, you're going to come with me down here for training and practice three or four times a week, and from now on you'll be alerted the instant an Angel is detected and have to report immediately to fight it. Now, I'm the first one to deploy for the time being, so you'll only be sent as backup if I need it. Though, honestly, I expect that to happen more often than not at this point. But I'll be here to protect you."

"What about my scholarship?"

Rei sighed. "You're not going. I'm sorry. If we had more pilots I might be able to convince them, but we're kind of short on combat strength even with you."

"...so I'm stuck here. I have to fight for the adults because they couldn't get their shit together. As usual."

Rei leaned over and put her arm around Hikari. "On the other hand, we've got super special awesome robots at our back and call. Once you start practicing with them you can be very precise and controlled. ...I may have spent a day or two teaching mine to give me piggy back rides."

Hikari suddenly giggled. "Well that sure is a mental image. Hey, thanks for having me over. This really helped. When do you usually get up for school?"

"Oh don't worry about that for tomorrow, you've been excused already and your family has been informed. We need to spend the day training anyway, so you can summon your Stand at will without needing an evoker. After that we can goof off, and you're welcome to stay over here again or go back home. Sound like a plan?"

"Sure. I think I can actually go to sleep now. By which I mean I'm probably going to pass out as soon as I lie down."

Rei smiled. "Don't worry, I'll clean up. See you in the morning~"

The next day, Combat Simulator Room 01...

Hikari took a deep breath, fighting the compression of her orange and black combat gear, and clenched her fists. She mustered up as much rage as she could, a yell escaping from her lips as the eight foot tall, four-eyed, orange and red armored giant appeared behind her in a whirlwind of green flames. It was getting easier to summon Unit-05, but something about it still felt… off. It was both familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time.

"Good! You were even faster that time!" Rei said from across the room, "I think that's about as much as we can do for today. Next time we'll work on your defenses. Let's get changed and start thinking about getting you home."

Hikari let out her held breath in a loud sigh and slumped quite a bit - this was very draining, but it made sense that it was given that she was summoning a giant robot out of nowhere every five minutes. She wordlessly dismissed her stand and followed Rei to the locker room and was quite relieved when Rei started helping her out of her gear without having to ask. It gave Hikari time to think - she idly counted the lockers, 30 to a row, stacked 3 high, on both sides of the room about 15 meters long. How many people did they intend to have down here? Rei finished getting Hikari undressed, and had already changed back into her baggy t-shirt and cargo jeans before Hikari was done putting her school uniform back on.

"You live in the Primrose apartment building on Ara street, right?"

Hikari perked up, a bit surprised. "Uh, yeah. How did you know? We haven't really talked that much."

"It's in your file. I started reading up on you when I got word you were being called in as a pilot. But that's not important, what is important is that I want to take you for milkshakes before you go home. And also come meet your family, if that's okay?"

Hikari sat with a small thump, still exhausted, and looked at the clock: 1:15 PM. Huh. She assumed it would have been later in the day, but this meant it probably was a good time for milkshakes, and she would appreciate someone to take the hard questions that her younger sister was no doubt going to ask nonstop. "Yeah, sure, let's do both of those" She said with a small giggle.

The ascent out of NERV HQ was no less confusing than when Rei had taken Hikari in the previous afternoon, but this time Hikari could take in the beauty of the geofront without a bunch of anxiety. As they snaked their way through Tokyo-3's public transit network, which Rei had given Hikari an all-access pass for, Hikari noticed they were heading in the direction of the school and was about to say something until Rei had them get off a few stops early. A one block walk and they stopped at an absolutely tiny cafe stand with outdoor-only seating.

"So… What else did you read up on me?" Hikari asked, a bit apprehensively, as they sat down at one of the shaded tables.

"Not a whole lot, actually." Rei took a long sip, very obviously enjoying her shake. "I know you're living with two sisters and both parents are no-shows. You get good grades and get excited about foreign travel. Past that is just what I know from being in the same class as you."

Hikari breathed a small, almost imperceptible sigh of relief, and also started hungrily gulping down her milkshake. It was a lot better than she was expecting, but it could also have been the exhaustion making it seem better tasting. "So, I live with Kodama, who's 20, and Nozomi, who's 12. Kodama got a good job here in the city when she was 18 and has been raising us for the last two years. There's not a whole lot to talk about past that. Nozomi and I go to school, Kodama is almost always too tired to do much when she gets home from work. I've ended up cooking for everyone. Nozomi's been handling the finances for about 6 months."

"What does Kodama do?"

"She's a middle manager for a construction company. I found it kind of odd that they'd hire her right out of high school, but so far it seems to be working out. I know she has a lot of meetings with executives, almost every day."

The name suddenly clicked in Rei's mind. Kodama Hikari - she'd been hired two years ago into the shell company that managed some of the construction within NERV HQ and Tokyo-3 proper. The only reason Rei even knew the name was because her hiring had been ordered by Gendo personally. He must have been trying to ensure Hikari and her family stayed in the city. But why? Rei snapped out of her staring and said "Sounds interesting to me. I'm looking forward to meeting them."

Hikari giggled again, a bit more sincerely this time. "You don't have to lie about it."

Rei was taken aback. "Huh?"

"I can tell you're forcing it. You're not actually interested, but you're putting the effort in anyway. May I ask why?"

"Well, read me like a book, why don'tcha?" Rei laughed. "I'll admit I'm not the most interested in your personal life. But if we're going to be fighting in a squad together, we need to have a strong social link. I want to know about you and be good friends. So, yes, technically I don't want to meet your family on some level, but it's still important to me."

Hikari smiled. "Well if that's the case, then I already feel a bit better about having this giant robot being forcibly implanted into my soul apparently and being made to fight space aliens with it. I think we're going to get along fine, Rei."

One week later…

The clock buzzed 6 AM.

Hikari woke without opening her eyes, but the sunlight filtered through the waving curtains of her open bedroom window still let her know it was time to get up. Unhappy thoughts of not being allowed to sleep in went through her mind, and she cracked an eye open to confirm via her alarm clock that it was, in fact, already after 6 AM, reaching over and shutting it off. Silently rising, she took and held a breath while stretching out her upper body and arms, letting them fall and her breath out with a loud noise, not really a word but an exclamation of existence and awareness.

The empty spot next to the door in her room caught Hikari's eye for some reason, and she had an idea. Not really thinking it through, she began her thought process that summoned Evangelion Unit 05, before it occurred to her that there was not enough vertical space for it to exist here. The ease of summoning her Stand meant it was too late by the time she realized - but it simply appeared from the waist up only, hovering in the air and not touching the ceiling. The gray, pointed helmet armor and single, thin orange line of glass covering the eyes started to creep Hikari out in her drowsy state, so she dismissed it immediately.

Hikari's morning routine included cooking two meals for herself and her sisters, and while she usually made sure there were leftovers of some sort to include for lunch, today did not have such luck. There wasn't always time to cook two meals separately, so she was in her usual hurry getting things prepared and then cooked in the right order. This morning, a rare disaster struck. As Hikari was cutting vegetables for lunch, she heard the pot of sauce begin to boil over. She turned and reached out for the burner knob, knowing it was probably too late to save it-

-but an orange armored arm erupted from her own with a speed she could barely even track, and turned the burner completely off just as the first bubbles made it over the sides of the pot. Hikari stood stunned as the arm faded away, both in what had just happened, but also in realization; if Rei had taught her stand to give her piggyback rides, could Hikari use it as an assistant in the kitchen?

Nozomi, unfortunately, was the first person to find out. She let out a surprised yelp as she rounded the corner of the hallway and saw the orange robot standing at the stove and stirring a pan of vegetables, cupping her hands over her mouth and nose in surprise. Hikari looked up and smiled. "Good morning, sis~ D'you like my new kitchen assistant?"

"W-what do you mean, 'k-kitchen assistant'?" Nozomi stammered, "They t-told us you were going to be using the most advanced w-weapon humans had ever created!"

Hikari was silent for a moment, and realized this was the first time either of her sisters had even *seen* Unit-05. The probably hadn't been told anything past the bare minimum they needed to understand the gravity of the situation. Hikari coughed awkwardly, and the Eva vanished into a few fleeting wisps of green flame. "Uh. Sorry about that. I forgot I hadn't shown you yet."

Nozomi sat down at the table with a huff. "Well it's t-too late now," she said, "It's now stuck in my head that you got two days out of school and inducted into a s-secret chef organization so that you can be in the best in the w-world at cooking". Hikari sheepishly summoned Unit-05 again and had it resume its' cooking just in time for:

"What the actual hell did you bring home, Hikari." A deeper but still feminine voice emanated from the hallway, more of a statement than a question. Kodama passed the table and went to the entrance of the kitchen to the coffee maker, mixing a brew that was probably more milk and sugar than actual coffee. She sat at the head of the table silently, still not awake enough to take in the orange giant standing in the kitchen.

The contrast between the three girls was far more apparent now they were all in the same room. Kodama was the tallest, but Nozomi was a good foot shorter than Hikari despite only being two years younger. The two younger sisters did share the same hair color, but Kodama's was a raven black and much longer than either of theirs. They all shared the same sapphire blue eyes.

Hikari brought breakfast out in short order, but before she could join her sisters at the table, there was a knock at the door. As the girls paused to wonder who it could be, the person knocked again, more incessantly. Hikari, already being up, went over to answer the door, and was very surprised to see Rei standing outside. "Heeeey class rep," she said, "Shinji's been absent for two days and we should probably go check on him. Wanna go with me?"

Hikari tilted her head. It wasn't that the request was unreasonable or out of line. It was just coming from quiet, secluded Rei, of all people. She turned her head back towards her sisters, and Kodama simply waved her off. "I can handle it from here," she said, "Go do your school duty."

"Yeah, uh, okay. Let me go get dressed." Hikari quickly went back to her room and changed into her school uniform with the speed and precision of a regimented soldier, grabbed a piece of toast off the table, and left with Rei on the adventure. They got on the number 71 bus and rode it for what felt like a strangely long time before getting off, then walked half a block to an apartment building Hikari noticed was identical to her own from the outside. On floor 17, a door with "Ikari, S" on a placard on the outside, Rei rang the doorbell and the two girls waited.

And waited. Minutes passed. Rei rang the bell again. By Hikari's watch, ten minutes had passed by the time they heard the latch turn, and a very disheveled Shinji greeted them from the other side. "W-huh?" He blurted out, obviously having woken up from the doorbell, dressed in just a wrinkled blue shirt and his underwear. The sight reignited a certain spark within Hikari, and she sharply inhaled for a speech she was far from giving for the first time.

"Shinji! What are you doing not ready for school!? Are you *trying* to get in trouble? This isn't something you can just shirk because you're new to the city! Get your act together and let's go!"

There was a long pause, and Hikari finally calmed down enough to notice Shinji's eyes. They were very dull, lifeless, and seemingly not focused on anything. She deflated a little, her rage over his slacking off partially fading into concern for his well-being. After what seemed like a very long time, he finally responded.

"Hey, look, I've barely been feeling well enough to get up to go use the bathroom the last few days. I'm sorry I haven't shown up to school. It's just me here. I'll be there as soon as I'm feeling better."

The words cut into Hikari more than she expected. She didn't know *why*, since a lot of boys had acted like this during her reign as class rep. But something about Shinji was different today. She regained her composure quickly and said "Ugh, well, I'll have Kensuke or Toji or someone bring you your homework later today. But you'd better be back soon!"

"Yeah, I know, I get it. I'm gonna go lay back down now." Shinji closed the door and the two girls were left in silence. After a few moments, Rei let out a big sigh.

"Well, I guess that's as good as I should have expected it to go. Come on, let's get to school."

"What *were* you expecting?" Hikari asked as they set off back towards the bus stop.

"I had hoped that being away from NERV would let him un-jelly his jam a little, let him think about things properly after being pressed into service all of a sudden. But I guess not. I think we broke him." Rei seemed particularly sad saying that last sentence. Hikari thought about it - they broke him? What the hell did that mean? Were they going to break *her*? Fears started to quell up in Hikari, but they were stayed somewhat as she remembered Rei's promised that she would protect her. They got to the bus stop and sat on the bench, Rei was visibly distraught and cradling her head in one hand, which made Hikari hesitate about asking any questions, but a rumbling tummy forced her hand.

"Uh, so I didn't actually get breakfast, can we stop somewhere along the way?"

The words seemed to revitalize Rei as she suddenly sat up straight and let a small smile spread across her face. "Sure! I'll take you back to the cafe right near the school. Do you like bagels?"

Later that day...

Hikari swore as Unit 00 seemed to flicker in the air and suddenly appear right next to her Unit 05 after she had just barely managed to gain some distance from it. The Evangelions were all super-strong, super-durable Stands, but there was clearly a ranking among them of the strongest and toughest, and 05 was a few rungs lower than 00. The two orange giants grappled briefly before 00 threw 05 to the floor of the combat room with ease, then followed up with an elbow drop. Hikari felt the blow as a sharp pain on her right side, sharp enough that it knocked the wind out of her and her off her feet, falling over onto the floor with a yelp and holding the area. Both Stands disappeared and Rei rushed over from her side of the room. "Are you okay?" she said, putting her hand on the one Hikari was covering her side with.

Hikari coughed. "Yeah, yeah, I'll survive." She dragged herself to her feet and took a deep breath - no bruise, thankfully. "What is with that instant movement your Stand can do? Is that something I'll learn eventually?"

Rei got a puzzled look on her face, inhaled and opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly stopped herself. She stood like that for a second, then covered her face with her hands. "Oh my god," she said, "We never told you. Because it just came up for us as well and I haven't had a lot of time to think about it."

"Told me what?"

"Okay, so, during the last Angel attack we found out that the Evangelions have unique powers. Or at least, we think they all do. Shinji's got this really cool grappling hook that can winch itself at really high speeds or even shoot both ends off and winch to objects together. I got an ability we're calling Zero Shift. It… does exactly what you've been seeing, I can move short distances in the blink of an eye. So we need to find out what your Eva's ability is. ...But I honestly have no idea how to do that."

"Well, how did you and Shinji discover yours?"

"We, uh… We discovered ours in the heat of combat, as our lives were in danger." Rei shifted uneasily. "But I'd rather not do that on purpose with you. So maybe we just try a bunch of different situations and see what happens?"

"I guess that makes sense. What do we start with?" Hikari asked, which was the exact moment the alarms started going off. Misato's voice came in over the loudspeaker.

"Polaris scan positive: Pattern Blue!" She said, "Both of you get to launch chute 7-Beta!"

Rei took Hikari's hand, and the two girls ran out of the room. Rei led them through identical corridors only marked by alphanumerics that Hikari couldn't decipher, but Rei knew by heart. They made it to the launch chute in two minutes flat, and since they were already in their combat gear, there was actually time to make sense of the situation before being launched headfirst at the enemy. Rei stepped in front of the wall of screens opposite the launch doors. "What's the status of the target?" she asked.

Misato's face opened in a feed, as well as multiple images of a very large, blue octahedron slowly moving along a road cut into the side of some rolling hills outside Tokyo-3. The outline of a person in similarly blue clothes was barely visible underneath it. "Target is approaching Tokyo-3, erm, by foot. City will hold battle position in 20 seconds. Rei, prep for launch, you're being sent out as an advance force."

Rei went to the back of the room and keyed open Launch Chute 0 first, then started to ask questions. "You're deploying me outside the city?" She said, locking her armor hardpoints into the coilgun's carriage.

"You'll emerge 2 clicks from the target. We want you to observe it and defend yourself if necessary. You should be able to use Zero Shift to dodge ranged attacks. Hikari, you're on standby until we have more information."

Rei voiced an acknowledgement and was immediately launched, arcs of electricity following her. Hikari didn't quite know what to do, so she sat down on one of the four tri-cushioned benches in the room. A few seconds later, an additional video feed opened and showed Rei's exit point, the steel doors opening in anticipation of her arrival.

"High energy reaction in the target!" Someone in Central Dogma shouted. "It's charging some kind of particle beam!"

"Rei, DODGE!"

Hikari sat helpless on the bench as time seemed to slow to a crawl, the enemy Stand firing a long range beam right where Rei was about to come out. But, as the carriage emerged from the railgun, Rei herself was obscured by her already deployed Stand, and she vanished along with her restraints in the blink of an eye right as she was about to get hit. A few pieces of metal dropped the sky as the beam died out, coming from a mercifully intact Rei being held by Unit 00, having used Zero Shift to go straight up. Hikari let herself breathe again, the tension of the literal first event in this combat already getting to be too much for her.

"High energy reaction spiking again! Another shot incoming!"

Hikari watched as Rei danced around in the sky, trying to advance on the enemy but getting rebuffed by a very strong AT field every time she got close, and had no window to attempt to neutralize it between beams. This looked bad. It got worse.

"Hikari," Misato broke her out of her trance, "Get in tube 5 and strap in. We're deploying you as backup to create a distraction for Rei."

"A distraction?" Hikari nervously got up and keyed in her code to open the railgun tube, not quite sure she should get in. "What should I do? What if it fires at me?"

"Beautiful World's AT Field should be able to protect you from the attack long enough for you to get out of the way. Just approach the target and attempt any kind of attack on it. Rei will only need a few seconds to pierce its defenses and draw attention from you. Now get in the carriage and lock yourself in for launch!"

Hikari obediently did as she was told this time, and as soon as her arms, legs, and head were tightly held in place, the carriage shot upwards. She tore upwards through the geofront and through an almost horizontal piece of track before being redirected upwards and emerging at the top of a hill less than 500 meters away from the giant, and very deadly, version of one of those dice Kensuke was always playing with. Her restraints released, and almost on instinct Hikari began walking towards it, arms held slightly up in anticipation of something happening.

Her pace picked up as Misato barked orders through the earpiece. 400 meters, then 300, 200, 100. Beautiful World appeared behind her, though she didn't quite remember summoning it herself. She was about to send it forward and attack, but suddenly, she took one step too far and slammed into the orange octagonal AT Field and fell on her butt. The person underneath the Angel turned, and Hikari could swear she heard the blue monster screaming as it charged another attack, pointed at her. She froze, terrified, unable to move or respond to the yelling in her earpiece as the Angel fired.

An orange arm reached out over and in front of Hikari, and a set of rapidly oscillating blue hexagons appeared in front of the two of them. The beam attack met them, appeared to struggle, but didn't go through. When it died down, there was now a huge hole in the upper half of the Angel, along with a long swath of destruction behind it. Nobody said anything for several seconds, until Misato piped up.

"You reflected the attack back at it! Unit-05's ability must be an attack reflector!"

Hikari shakily got to her feet and stared the Angel down. She survived. That was half the battle by itself. Now she just needed to come up with a way to actually hurt it. Which was apparently going to be even harder than it looked, because the hole started closing, healing. If she could get it fire at her again, which didn't seem too hard, she could probably aim the reflection better and knock out the core. That was probably her only shot. A nervous but somewhat confident smile crossed Hikari's lips as she balled her right hand into a fist and pounded on the AT Field still in front of her. "That's all you've got, big guy?" She taunted.

However, any plan Hikari might have had was dashed when she heard the sound of tires screeching. She looked behind her, and was mortified - Kensuke, Toji, and Shinji filed out of the obviously commandeered car, Unit 01 appearing behind Shinji. The Angel immediately turned its attention away from Hikari and towards the newcomer. Hikari ran, trying to put herself between the Angel and Shinji. But she was too far. Within seconds, it fired again. Rei suddenly appeared with Unit 00 in front of Shinji and took the blast. When it died out, the car was gone, the three boys were flat on the ground, and Rei was nowhere to be seen. Hikari still wasn't close enough. She screamed as the Angel began charging up yet again, and could do nothing but watch as it's attack began to close in on Shinji.

Note: The next chapter will come out a lot faster than this one did! I promise not to leave you on this bad of a cliffhanger for long.