CHAPTER 39: TRAPPED SOULS, PART 2
He heard a siren; neither loud, nor distant. It was almost muffled. The next thing he felt was pain in his hip. A sharp, jabbing pain. When he opened his eyes he saw a paramedic leaning over him. Her purple latex gloves had blood on them and there was one small dot of blood on her glasses. Her sky blue eyes were pretty, as was her long brown hair. She was really cute.
"Try not to move, okay?" She softly said to him. "You've lost a lot of blood." That's when he realized that he was in an ambulance. "What's your name?"
"W-what happened?" He asked as he felt weak.
"A motorist found you on the side of the road…" she explained. "What's your name, kid?"
"It's…" he struggled to recall his name as he began to slip off back to sleep. "Sh…Shinji…Shinji Ikari…" As he drifted off he thought he saw someone with platinum hair and a black watch cap sitting next to him.
XXXXX
Shinji was discharged later that day, his cousin Asuka came to pick him up since his guardian, Kaji Ryoji, was being interviewed by the police. "So you don't remember anything, huh?" She asked him as she pushed him out in the wheelchair. His legs worked, but hospitals had some weird ass rule. "Stupid Shinji, sleepwalking again."
"Where's the other guy?" Shinji asked.
"What other guy?" Asuka asked.
"He…I didn't get a good look at him but, he was in the ambulance with me." Shinji explained. "I thought maybe he was the one who called 911?"
"You're crazy, Shinji," Asuka shook her head. "It was just you and the paramedics."
"Oh," Shinji said meekly as he looked over to the side. He saw a familiar pony-tail haired man speaking with a uniformed police officer and another man in a casual suit. "Why's Kaji being interviewed by the cops?" He asked her as they got to the curb.
"Well the doctors said a motorist found you on the side of the road," Asuka explained dug her car keys out of her pocket. "With a .22-caliber bullet wound in your hip, the cops think someone shot you but…"
"'But' what?"
"They didn't find any bullet or bullet fragments. Nor was there an exit wound." She stepped around the wheelchair. "I mean, the damage is all there, powder burns, torn tissue, even a chunk of your hip bone was chipped away…but…no bullet." She then walked off to get the car leaving Shinji to his own devices.
As he waited he noticed someone on the bus stop bench to the side. He looked over and the first thing he noticed was her hair, sky blue. The next thing he noticed was that she bared a strong resemblance to his therapist, Dr. Yui. "Hey," he said getting her attention. "You look…familiar."
'Lame line, Shinji.'
"Yeah, you too," the girl said, her voice soft and almost dove-like. "What's your name?"
"Shinji Ikari."
"I'm Rei Ayanami," the girl smiled softly.
"You, uh, you wouldn't happen to be related to Doctor Yui, would you?"
"I don't know who that is. My family moved in just last week."
"She's uh…for-forget it," Shinji waved it off.
"What'd they get you for?" Rei asked him next.
"Huh?"
"You're in a wheelchair and in hospital greens…" She smiled softly.
"Oh…they…they don't know." He shook his head. "They think I was shot…but…they didn't find a bullet."
"Well that sounds more exciting than my story," Rei chuckled.
"Yeah?"
"Flu shot." Asuka pulled up just then. She got out and helped him to the passenger side door. "Take care, Shinji!"
"Thanks!" Shinji said before Asuka could close the door. As she walked around to the driver's side Asuka shot Rei a cold, almost jealous glance.
Kaji Ryoji, his legal guardian since his father, the school headmaster, declined legal custody when his mother disappeared when Shinji was four, carefully examined Shinji's wound when he got home. Kaji was one of the phys-ed instructors at the school. He was also the swim team coach and was therefore lifeguard certified. He used to date the school nurse, Ritsuko, but now was dating Shinji's literature teacher.
After dinner, needing some time alone, Shinji went to go read on the porch. His literature class had to read Ender's Game and give their thoughts on the story as they go. He was reading about Ender's fight with Bonso in the shower when his eyes noticed someone else on the porch with him.
Looking up, Shinji saw a man. He was soaked to the bone. His platinum-white hair hid his facial features. He was wearing black cargo pants, a green fleece jacket and black wool watch cap. There was a thunderclap in the distance as Shinji just stared at him. "Twenty-eight days…" the man said in a grim, echoing voice. "…six hours…forty-two minutes…twelve seconds…"
"Huh?"
"That is when the world will end…Return the Artifact…" he turned to leave, fading into nothingness.
"The…'Artifact'?"
Shinji woke up in the recliner, Ender's Game had fallen to the side. "You were talking in your sleep," Kaji said as he removed his hand from Shinji's shoulder.
"I-I was?" He said as he picked up the book, dusting off the dirt.
"Yeah you were saying 'Blackhat'…"
"Blackhat?" Shinji immediately thought of the strange man. He looked over where he had been standing. "He…he was standing right there."
"Oh," Kaji groaned as he stood up. "Make a new friend, did you?"
"Shut up," Shinji smacked him away as Kaji laughed. 'Twenty-eight days…' Shinji said to himself.
XXXXX
Twenty days left…
A week later Shinji was back in school. Naturally all his classmates wanted to hear all about the 'Ghost Bullet'. Thankfully, his literature teacher, Misato, squashed all inquiries for his sake. That didn't mean he wouldn't get any reprieve from her later. Ever since she started dating Kaji she had taken to the 'motherly' role towards him with a passion.
As class was about to start, they were going to speak on their interpretations of the book Ender's Game, when the door opened. "Sorry I'm late," Shinji heard a familiar voice. He turned to see Rei standing there in a uniform that was from another school. "I'm a new transfer and they put me in the wrong class."
"You look like you belong here," Misato said as she casually leaned back in her chair. "What's your name?"
"Rei, Rei Ayanami."
"Well, Rei, Rei Ayanami," the teacher chuckled. "Since we rarely get any fresh blood around here, I'm going to let you choose."
"Choose what, Miss Katsuragi?"
"Where do you want to sit?" She then waved her arm across the class. "Let me make a suggestion," she held her finger up as if a light bulb had turned on. "Sit next to the boy that you think is the cutest!" A few whistles and cat calls followed but were cut off. "Shut it!" Fate smiled upon Shinji as Rei's eyes immediately went to his desk. Her eyes were followed by the rest of her as she sat in the empty desk next to his. "And the taught love affair begins," Misato grinned as Shinji turned a beat red. A few of the students chuckled and one or two whistled.
That night, a lone figure walked into the school, armed with a hammer. He walked with singular purpose towards the counselor offices. He opened the office door labeled 'S. Tokarev'. The figure stepped onto the desk and removed a ceiling tile next to the fire sprinkler. He then took the hammer and, with one strong hit, shattered the water pipe.
Though soaked like a drowned rat, his mission was accomplished. He didn't know why he told him to do it, but Blackhat said it was important. And since Blackhat warned him about the end of the world, Shinji felt compelled to do as he was told. The next day, as the authorities were investigating the water damage, they discovered a hidden compartment in the wall containing ten kilos of cocaine.
XXXXX
Nineteen days left…
"Gyah!" Shinji screamed as he woke up with a start. He was sweating profusely and panting as if he had just sprinted a hundred yards in 105-degree heat. After making sure he was in his own bed, in his own room, with the Godzilla movie poster on the far wall, he lay back down. He looked over at his alarm clock, 01:32. He rubbed his sore flank, where the 'bullet wound' was healing.
"Shinji?" He heard a muffled voice through his door. The door opened and cracked slightly so Kaji could stick his head in side. "You alright, kiddo?"
"Yeah," the teen said as he covered himself back up. "I'm okay." Kaji nodded and went back to his room.
A week later, Shinji had an appointment with Dr. Yui. As soon as he saw her, Shinji once again thought the resemblance between her and Rei was amazing. He told her more about his dreams. "Tell me about your last dream," Dr. Yui asked. "Were you walking through smoke again?"
"Yes," Shinji said. "But this time…I…I had a gun…"
"A gun?"
"Yeah, you know…like the ones the bad guys carry in the action movies? The scary looking one with the curved clip?"
"Why do you think you're carrying such a gun?" She asked as she made a note on her pad.
"I…I don't know," Shinji said. "But…it was the bad guy's gun…I don't know why I was carrying the bad guy's gun."
"A gun is just an object, Shinji," Dr. Yui said. "Do you think there's such a thing as a 'bad guy's car' or a 'bad guy's plane'?"
"I'm not sure what you're getting at, Doctor…"
"You sound like you weren't scared of the gun," Yui explained. "You're afraid of what it symbolized. The 'bad guys'…" Shinji looked down in his lap. "Do you think you're a bad guy?"
"No!" Shinji snapped. "I-I mean…I don't want to be a bad guy!"
"Then why be worried about the gun?" She asked, leaning forward. "I'm going to tell you something my grandfather once told me when I was about your age. He was a World War II veteran, on the American side. Many Japanese-Americans who served were sent to Europe and he fought in Italy with the 10th Mountain Division. He told me that 'some view destruction as a form of creation'."
"Sounds like a contradiction in terms," Shinji observed.
"At first, yes," Yui nodded. "But after a forest fire, a force of destruction, the forest grows anew, fresh and healthy. And when someone breaks their arm and the bone heals, the spot on the arm where the break occurs, where the healing occurs, becomes the strongest part on the bone."
"Hmm," Shinji hummed to himself. "I never really thought of it that way." He shook his head. "But, what does a forest fire or a broken bone have to do with me?"
"That brings me to the second part of what my grandfather told me. He said 'that it's actually a two-sided coin…power to protect or the power to destroy…Whether it's one or the other comes down to personal choice'." She gave Shinji a moment to let that soak in. "You say that you don't want to be the bad guy and yet, in your dreams you're carrying the, quote-unquote, 'bad guy's gun'."
"But, you said it's just an object and that your granddad said that it comes down to personal choice!" She leaned back and smiled as he put two and two together. "So…what you're trying to tell me is…"
"It's only the 'bad guy's gun' if it's in the hands of a bad guy," Yui explained. Shinji smiled somewhat at that.
"You know," Shinji chuckled. "I like you better than Doctor Akagi…"
Doctor Naoko Akagi, the mother of the school nurse, used to be Shinji's therapist. She also dated his father around the same time. But, then out of the blue, Naoko committed suicide. Some thought it was the result of her affair with her father; that he ended it and she killed herself because of it.
"What didn't you like about her?" Dr. Yui asked next. "Did it have something to do with your father?" If Shinji had been paying attention to her tone, he'd have noted the disgust in her voice.
"No," Shinji growled. "She was just…creepy, I guess," he explained growling. "We have this new guidance counselor at school," he went on to describe the Russian man. "He reminds me of her."
"How so?"
"I don't think you'd like him. He says 'everything in this world dies alone'. He also says there's no such thing as good or evil, black or white. That everything is gray. And that the only reason something seems evil is because of personal perception."
"A nihilist, then. What do you think?"
"I think he's an asshole," Shinji snapped. "I don't care what part of the world you're from or how you were raised. There are some things that are undeniably evil. Like…I don't know…name any serial killer who targets kids; or child rapists."
"So you think evil is a very real thing that must be confronted?"
"Absolutely," Shinji nodded. "To ignore it, to sit back and allow it…its willful negligence!"
"And if someone doesn't do it…" Yui spoke up, reading his signals. "Who will?"
"Exactly! No one confronted Hitler when he took over Czechoslovakia! What good did that do!?"
"This counselor," Yui said, going back to the original subject. "He wouldn't be the…"
"Yup," Shinji confirmed. "He's the guy the police are looking for because of the drugs in his office."
XXXXX
Ten days left…
About a week later, Shinji was called into his father's office. He hated coming here. His father seemed to have a phobia about bright lights in his office. And he was always sitting behind his desk, fingers interlaced, it seemed. "The school has narrowed the list of suspects in the water damage down to six or seven."
"Well, which is it?" Shinji asked sarcastically. "Six or seven?"
"That depends," Headmaster Ikari replied. "The suspects are all students who have had public disagreements with Mr. Tokarev."
"I don't understand why the school is so concerned," Shinji complained. "I mean, the bastard was hiding cocaine in his office. Or did the 'Drug Free Zone' policy get revoked?"
"Regardless of what crimes Mr. Tokarev has been accused of, significant damage was done to the school. And you were the student who had the most verbal disagreements with Mr. Tokarev."
"Sorry if my honesty pissed him off."
"Did you or did you not break the sprinkler? I'm only trying to look out for you, Shinji."
"Strange, for someone who claims to be 'looking out for me', the only times we ever talk are in your office and only when you have something to criticize me about." Shinji then got up and left the office, he was going to be late for class.
Fire trucks responded to a blaze at the school that night. More drugs were found hidden in the walls damaged by the fire. The evidence was piling up that there was a drug running operation being run through the school.
XXXXX
Seven days left…
With the school closed for repairs, Shinji was left to hang out with his friends. And hang out with Rei. He really liked her. The two were planning a double date along with Kaji and Misato. Rumors were going around that the two adults were on the verge of getting engaged.
But, right now, Kaji wasn't very happy with Shinji. That's because he had found a pair of gloves that had some charring on them hidden in Shinji's closet. It had been Shinji who set the fire. "Why did you do it, Shinji!?" He shouted at his charge. "Do you realize what kind of trouble you caused?"
"I told you I don't even remember doing it!" Shinji shouted back. "I woke up in the backyard and the gloves were in my pocket!"
"Goddamnit!" Kaji swore. "The drugs and the smuggling ring are all over the news. Now we're going to have to start all over again."
"What!? 'We'?" Shinji was confused. He shot to his feet and glared at his guardian. "Who's 'we'? Are you part of the smuggling ring?"
"No!" Kaji shouted, forcing Shinji to fall back into his chair. "I…" He took a deep breath and then slowly took his own seat. "I've been working for the DEA for the past year," he explained in a hushed tone.
"DEA?"
"Yes. We've known that your old man and his enforcer Tokarev were part of the ring," he leaned back in the chair. "But they're just middle-men. We've been trying to follow them to the suppliers and their bosses. Naoko Akagi was investigating it too. Trying to get close to your father but…"
"You think he…?"
"We don't know…and we can't prove it, but it stands to reason that he found her out and 'suicided' her. And now with the fire…"
"Now everything is exposed…" Shinji felt terrible. "Shit. I'm so sorry…I-I didn't…"
"Forget it…" Kaji waved it off. "There was no way you could've known." He sighed heavily. "You and Rei still on for this weekend?" He decided to change the subject.
"You need to ask?"
XXXXX
Six hours left…
Shinji woke up from his nap. He had another violence dream. It was really disjointed. One second he was blowing up some armored vehicles in a parking lot. Another second he was breaking the neck of a soldier in a bathroom. In one more he was piloting a giant robot that was grappling with a pair of humanoid monsters. Then in another he was stabbing Tokarev in the arm with a knife.
"Yo, Shinji!" He heard Misato cheer out, sing song-like, as she entered the house. She was wearing a violet cocktail dress in preparation for their double date. "Look at you!" She folded her arms.
'Shit,' Shinji swore to himself. 'She's gone into 'mother-mode' again. I hate it when she does this.'
"You got a hot date with Rei in about an hour and you're still wearing your pajamas?" She shook her head, but was still smiling.
"I'm a guy," Shinji said. "I don't need two to three hours and four sets of hands to get dressed for the evening."
"That's sexist!" Misato snapped pointing a hostile, accusatory finger at him. "I only need two sets of hands!" They shared a laugh that was cut off by, "Get your fucking clothes on now, mister!" Now she was in Drill Sergeant-mode and shouting him towards his room.
"Beast Mode!" He shouted back at her.
Two hours left…
They had gone to the new theater in town. It was a place where they sat behind a bench-type table, ordered real food, not just popcorn and hot dogs, while they watched the movie. It was your run of the mill romantic-comedy of a seemingly mismatched couple and the shenanigans of their dysfunctional relationship that gradually built into true love. They say there's nothing new under the sun. And apparently that was the case for much of Hollywood.
Kaji and Misato decided to stay out late so Shinji walked Rei home. "I really enjoy being with you, Shinji," Rei said as they stopped at the walkway to her house.
"Me too, Rei," Shinji said. "Want to hang out tomorrow night?"
"Sure," Rei smiled as she walked up to her front door. "Same time same place?"
"It's a date." Rei smiled again and entered her house.
Shinji turned to leave and was immediately knocked to the ground. After shaking the stars form his eyes he saw an angry figure standing over him. "End of the line, junior," Tokarev growled.
"T-Tokarev?"
"I know it was you who flooded my office," he said kicking him back to the ground. "My bosses are angry that our network has been exposed. They're blaming me. And the only way I can get back on their good graces is if I ki-!" Shinji shot to his feet pushed the Russian back into the lamp pole. Tokarev shoved him off and drew out a pistol.
Shinji grabbed the gun arm and wrenched it to the side as a round went off in the direction of the house. Despite having never taken a karate lesson in his life, Shinji was able to throw Tokarev off balance by sweeping his left leg behind the Russian's. He then drove his left palm into the adult's chest, cracking a rib and knocking his center of gravity back and slamming his head onto the bottom lip of the street lamp. Tokarev was out cold.
"Shinji?" He heard a soft voice mutter off to the side. Looking up he saw that Rei was standing outside her house again. Her blue and white dress had a large red stain on it around the mid-section. Her hands were at her left hip, trying to keep the blood from pouring out.
"Rei!" Shinji ran up to her as her legs lost their strength. He caught her before she could fall to the ground. "No, no, no…Rei!"
"Shinji…I…" she was starting to slip off.
"No! Just…just hang on Rei!" He picked her up in his arms and dashed down the street to Misato's car. She always left the keys in it.
Shinji sped towards the hospital at almost twice the legal limit. It became triple as they passed the school. In the distance he heard police sirens. Then he heard screeching tires. He looked up in time to see the lights of the car just one second before it t-boned them.
Fifteen minutes left…
When he came to the first thing Shinji did was check Rei. She was still alive, her pulse confirmed that. But she was looking paler. With the car totaled he knew he wouldn't be able to get her to the hospital in time. That's when he saw the undamaged wing of the school…the wing that held nurse Ritsuko's office.
He climbed out through the broken windshield, and that's when he noticed that the stitches on his wound had ripped open. He was starting to bleed out now too. He also had numerous smaller cuts along his face from broken glass. As he climbed to the ground Shinji looked at the other car. Specifically, he saw the driver. It was his father. In the passenger seat, broken open by the crash, was a briefcase filled with money. "Father?" Shinji muttered. His dad's form stirred and Shinji heard him mutter something.
"Y-Yui…"
"Yui?" 'My therapist?'
"C-cellar…cellar door…" and with that his father fell unconscious. Remembering Rei, Shinji ran back to the car and picked her out of it. Ignoring the pain in his own body, he ran inside the school. He did not notice the police cars that swarmed the accident, the same cars his father had been fleeing. Nor did he notice the angry vortex forming above the school.
Five minutes left…
As he entered the school Shinji saw someone opening the door to the school's basement. It was dark, but the light from outside and from the moon allowed him to recognize her. "Doctor Yui?" She headed downwards. "Doctor Yui!" He chased after her. When he came to the door he looked down but did not see her. Carefully shifting the still breathing Rei in his arms to turn on the lights. "Doctor Yui!" He yelled out as he went down after her.
When he reached the bottom he noticed a door off to the side that read 'Cellar'. Seeing as how it was the only door down here, Shinji gently set Rei down against the stairs and went to open the door. The latch undid itself the instant he touched it. Inside he found a large white cylinder lying on the ground. It looked almost like a missile, only it had no fins and had what looked like a hatch on it.
"Hello, Shinji," a voice startled him and he whipped around to see Doctor Yui standing by Rei.
"D-Doctor Yui," Shinji caught his breath.
"What happened to you and Rei?" The kind woman asked softly as she knelt down to look over the injured girl.
"H-How did you know her name? I-I never told you about her." Shinji knelt down as well, confused by Dr. Yui's sudden, almost ghostly appearance and aura.
"And just why wouldn't a mother know who her child's been dating?" She rested her hand against Rei's forehead, checking her temperature.
"Wait…your child?" Shinji was really confused. "But…she said she didn't know you."
"I wasn't talking about her," Yui shot a soft smile up at him as she gently caressed his cheek.
At that moment of contact, Shinji felt a lifetime of memories flood into his brain. All his dreams, they weren't dreams at all. They were memories of this life he had in another reality. The real reality, the Primary Universe. He also remembered things he had long since forgotten. When he really first saw Unit-01…meeting Ritsuko's mother…seeing NERV HQ back when it was still called GEHIRN…everything.
"M-mother," Shinji muttered as he felt the building shake.
"We don't have much time," Shinji heard Blackhat's voice in his head. "You must return the artifact…" Shinji heard the Entry Plug open up behind him. The Entry Plug was the portal in and out of this world, this world inside Unit-01. Looking down at Rei, Shinji saw her eyes flutter open.
"Sh-Shinji…" she muttered weakly.
"It's going to be okay, Rei," Shinji said as he picked her up. He couldn't help her here. But, back in the real world, back at NERV…"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise." He gently placed her in the entry plug. There was only enough room for one of them, and he had sworn to save Rei. Easy decision.
"Shinji?"
"I'll be along soon, Rei," he said before gently kissing her on the lips. "You and Asuka hold down the fort for me, yeah?" And with that, he closed the plug and watched as the vortex ripped the ceiling open and took the entry plug up and towards the light.
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Everyone in the cage heard the splash and looked to the EVA to see Rei's nude form on the floor in front of the core. "Medics!" Misato shouted as she saw red blood pooling beneath Rei. She ran up to the girl, rolled her onto her back and applied pressure to the… "Gunshot wound?"
"Mmm," the albino girl groaned as her eyes opened ever so slightly.
"Rei," Misato whimpered. "Don't worry. You're going to be fine."
"Sh…Shinj…"
"Shinji? Rei," her eyes pleaded with the girl. "Where's Shinji? Please?"
"Sh-Shinji…" The girl was incredibly weak. "Shinji…Shinji saved me…" Rei passed out as a single tear rolled down from her eye.
As the medics took Rei away a small object fell from Rei's grasp. Misato spotted it and quickly retrieved Shinji's shark tooth necklace.
A/N: Just in case it needs to be said (lawyers can be such douchebags sometimes) I do not own Donnie Darko. Oh, and the characters and places in this FanFic are entirely fictional; any similarities to any person or place, either real or fictional, is entirely…blah, blah, blah.