6
AN: As I'm already changing things (and because I don't have my episode guide handy), I'm going to assume this is before Touji's called to be the next Child. If it's after it… oh well.
(School)
"So, how is Shinji, Asuka?" She looked up at the speaker and saw that it was Hikari, her friend, and that she looked genuinely concerned, "I… I thought he would be back by now."
"The Baka IS back, Hikari, but there's something even more wrong with him now than usual so he's at the base hospital." She smirked and went back to typing, "Still, it doesn't matter – NERV still has its best pilot ready to go."
Off to the side, the Stooges, the bane of her existence, snorted, "Yeah, and what're you doing while Rei's on stand-by?"
Asuka growled as a few of the students in class chuckled, "Shut it, Kensuke! That Doll isn't any better than me."
"Methinks the lady doth protest too much," Kensuke whispered to Touji, who looked at him blankly for a moment before Kensuke sighed and looked at Hikari. "Class Rep, I think you need to train him better – he's slipping."
Hikari looked at Kensuke oddly, "Since when do you quote Shakespeare, Kensuke? I thought you were more… you know, military minded."
Kensuke nodded, "I am, but have you read the last act of Macbeth? It's FILLED with intrigue and murder…" The spectacled boy sighed and adjusted his glasses, "Good stuff."
"Idiot," Asuka growled, her temper starting to get the better of her, "and Rei's by the Baka's side for some reason. Maybe she thinks that he'll notice she's female if she sticks around him long enough…" As soon as this comment left her lips, though, Asuka remembered something – the Baka wasn't the stick boy he used to be, no, he was hot, older and decidedly nice… when in a good mood. Damn it, the Doll was getting a leg up on her…
"So when is he going to be back?" Asuka snapped out of her worry and looked at Hikari, who looked genuinely curious, "IS he coming back?"
Asuka shrugged, "I don't know, but if he does, the Baka will still be his spineless self, not worth anyone's time."
A dark look crossed Hikari's face, "I don't see why you put him down like that, Asuka. Shinji's… a nice guy." A rosy blush started to fill Hikari's cheeks, "Some girls might find him attractive if you didn't constantly berate him."
Inside of Asuka's chest, her heart clenched even as her mind started to go into spin control, "'Some girls'? Who'd what a loser like him? All he does is clean and cook! He's not even much to look at." 'That's right, Hikari, take the bait… don't go looking for MY Shinji…'
Hikari's hands balled up and went to her hips, "THAT is exactly what I'm talking about, Asuka. Can't you ever say anything NICE about him? After all, you live with him and he was fighting those Angels long before you got here."
Asuka sniffed, "He wasn't that good."
Kensuke stood, his hand held high and a finger pointed, "I beg to differ, Asuka. From what I've read, he'd never been in an Eva before he got here and he STILL beat the thing."
"And got the Third Stooge's sister hurt," Asuka snapped out, something she almost regretted as Touji growled and stood up. "If he'd been trained even a TENTH as good as I was, nobody would have been hurt."
"Shut your mouth, Asuka," Touji growled, his eyes burning. "Me and everyone here have had it up to HERE," he went on, raising his hand up to his eyebrows, "with you and how 'great' you supposedly are. If you're so damned good, why in the hell are the Angels still attacking? Why don't you take the fight to them? Or CAN you?"
Asuka rallied, her blue eyes spitting fire of their own, "Look, STOOGE, my job isn't as easy as you think!"
"Then stop making like you're the end all, be all of things!"
Asuka opened her mouth to give a scathing rebuttal when the door opened and the Sensei walked in, which lead to Hikari going through their ritual, "Stand, bow, sit," motions and class beginning. Stupid Stooges. Stupid Hikari. Stupid Doll. Baka Shinji…
(NERV Medical)
"Charge to 300!"
BA-WHAP!
"Still in V-Fib!"
Ritsuko growled and pulled the paddles away, "Push another ampoule of insulin and put the paddles at full charge." She watched the ampoule being forced into the central line that they'd put into the Commander not ten minutes ago and watched his blood sugar levels, which had gone hay-wire twenty minutes ago, which had sent his pulse into the high one hundreds and stayed there, "Clear!" Everyone pulled away as she pressed the paddles to the man's chest and triggered the paddles.
BA-WHAP!
The Commander's body surged off of the table, arching up, and for a brief instant his vitals stopped dead cold, but soon they started back up again and began to surge up, "Shit! Alright, give me the black vial, we're doing a controlled kill." A controlled kill was just that, a controlled way of stopping a person's heart and brain function for a short period of time so that whatever was causing them to go into shock or arrest could be taken care of, but it was risky in that if it was held too long the person would just stay dead.
Off to the side, in his medicated state, Shinji was grinning even as Misato watched in horror as her boss was being killed to save his life.
On the other side of the observation glass, Rei Ayanami reached into her school dress and gripped a source bottle that she had pulled from the medical ward. Her orders had been quite clear as to what was to be done, but to watch things happen like this… it almost made her want to cry.
"I'll take that, Rei." She looked up at the Sub-Commander, who had a grim look on his face, "Your job is done."
Rei nodded and handed over the source, "Sub-Commander, was this necessary?"
He nodded and looked at the husband of his dead student as his chest was being cracked open by Doctor Akagi, "I believe it was, Rei, but even if it was not, we had our orders."
Rei nodded, "Very well. May I be excused to pursue Pilot Ikari, then?"
Kozo Fuyutsuki looked at her with an odd look, "You DO realize that he's at least a decade older than you, right?"
Her red gaze unnerved him slightly, "As you were at least two decades older than Yui Ikari, Sub-Commander."
He winced, "Point. Give him time, First Child, let Shinji stabilize before you make any decisions."
Rei nodded and neither said anything until they heard Doctor Akagi, an hour later, sigh, "Call the time."
"Midnight."
"Let the record show that Commander Gendo Ikari is being pronounced dead at 12 midnight…"
AN: Alright, I lied – in a few reviews, I said I had at least four pages (and I do, barely), but given where the next part is going, I'm chopping this one off as a stand-alone filler/semi-chapter. Reviews, please.