Ok time to finally find out why this story is called Boy and the Beast. I hope you are guessing who's the Boy, but who's the Beast? Anyways enjoy this chapter as things finally start to unfold!
Key: "speech" 'thought' (flashback)
What oddities are happening at NERV? And what's with all the romance? But who cares as this chapter we see the BEAST AWAKENING!
He looked at the familiar ceiling. He heard the familiar music. He touched the familiar pillow. He was home. Slowly unplugging himself he got up and went around the flat. Even the smell was familiar to Shinji. A faint smell of whisky – Misato's room, but she wasn't there. A smell of lavender – Asuka's room. Empty as well, odd. The essence of penguin – had to be the kitchen. Clean smell of mint – the bathroom. Just what he was looking for. And inside there was a steaming bath. At least his fears of him being abandoned were over – the girls were so thoughtful they left him a bath, how nice. Shinji took of his shirt and his shorts. As he was about to take off his underwear he noticed something odd. His belly button has changed. He remembered it perfectly sealed, but now it was a gaping hole. 'How come? But oh well probably an accident when I fell…' he continued to take off his pants, when a brown haired head appeared from the depths of the bath. Gasping for air she immediately checked the clock lying by her. Then however she noticed a half-naked Shinji looking at her naked body and taking off his pants.
"GET OUT YOU DAMN HENTAI DUMPKOFF!!!!" In her rage Asuka grabbed the small wooden clock and launched it at the surprised boy. SMACK! Blown away to the other room. Shinji checked his hand. Both the nude girl and himself were surprised at what just happened. With amazing speed Shinji blocked the wooden box with such force it went out of the bathroom. Shinji checked his hand. It was normal. He closed and opened it. It was as he remembered it.
"Um Shinji…" Asuka's vein was showing again.
"Huh?" still looking amazed at his hands. Then acknowledging the situation he immediately pulled up his underwear, his face scarlet.
"GET OUT!" This time no projectiles followed, but Shinji still ran for his dear life. But this strength, was it a fluke? Or was it for real?
Human nature is unavoidably based on attachment. Lilim become attached to anything. To their possessions, to their homes, to their countries and even to each other. And the longer do humans build their attachments the more painful it is for them to release them. But they re-establish new attachments quickly, trying to cover up the pain. However hope always remains, eternal hope that something lost can be reclaimed. And as we see 40 days after Zeruel's attack the citizens of Tokyo started to return. A sort of security was established. Some even thought the alien threat was over. Slowly Tokyo-3 regained its populace, the streets became crowded, the damage repaired. For once there even was a normal day at school.
Aida looked around. Everyone was there. Rei as mystical as usual staring at the window. Asuka lying bored on her desk, probably sleeping. Touji back with his mechanical leg, parading it around. Hikari leading the class, often glancing at Touji with glee. And Shinji back healthy and unusually smiling. Since he came back there was something different about him. 'At the track we had a combined athletics competition. The girl's were doing really well cos the guys we're so distracted by their short shorts. But Shinji was on fire. He won nearly every event…'
NERV HQ:
In the lift. Misato was annoyed. Akagi sent for her with serious news concerning Shinji. This being after she hijacked him for 5 days of extreme testing. Together with the other Eva pilot tests today was the only day he was able to leave NERV. But in the pilot tests he did exceptionally well. Unknown how but he was able to excel Asuka and Rei in sync ratio by miles. She had a bad feeling about this though. And also this sudden call was interrupting something she thought was far more important. The door slid open. Deep in thought she accidentally bumped into the person walking in. "Hi!" Having turned around she saw Kaji waving at her between the closing doors. At the same time she realised an oddity. Her left jacket pocket was heavier than her right.
"Misato, I'm glad you could come," the meeting was seriously high profile. Apart from Ritsuko and Maya, there was only the Commander and the Deputy Commander. "We have discovered something new. The recent dealing with the Commander's son was mysterious and has led to unusual readings. Primarily I have to state that the salvage operation was a failure and that the Third Child's body was recovered by a serious of speculative events. Secondly with the rebirth the Third Child had changed. We are doubting he is still human," Misato was not surprised anymore. "After running some tests," 'ye right some,' Misato restricted herself from saying it aloud, "I have come to the conclusion that Shinji is an Evion."
"Explain yourself Doctor," the Commander interrupted with his cold voice.
"Effectively he has become an Evangelion without any link to an Angel life form, thus I have called him an Evion. We can only speculate how exactly this happened, but effectively EVA Unit-01 gave birth to the new Shinji."
"You mean to say he is not the real Shinji," this time Misato interrupted, her voice no less cold than the commander's.
"No the real Shinji has been dissolved in the LCL of the entry plug and subsequently spilled all over the NERV facility. However his body has been reconstructed by the EVA and it was able to attach his soul to his new body. But because of the actual re-'birth' half his chromosomes are EVA."
Back at school:
Aida kept on looking at Shinji, 'But he didn't win them all. On the 200m event he was running at a blazing speed, the rest were miles behind him. But on the 150th metre he collapsed unconscious, the momentum carried him forward at breakneck speed, dragging him along the ground, his body spinning like a rag doll. Me and Touji went with him in the ambulance. His pulse was so weak the doctors thought he was dying, his injuries seemed brutally lethal. But after he was hooked up to the life support for 8 hours, he woke up and was energetic as if nothing happened. Seems as if his injuries healed as well. He gained super strength and agility, but was it at a cost? What happened when No14 went down the shaft? I know Shinji faced that Angel, and seems to have been victorious, but I am sure I am missing a huge event that happened down there.'
NERV HQ:
"That's not all. Evangelion exist because they're a stable structure. They contain biomechanical elements – the Evion part – a biochemical system – the Angel part – and a soul that stabilises the two and creates a union. In this way Shinji is unstable in that his human part does not balance out the Evion part, and I am not sure how long his soul can handle it. Also as an Evion his mechanics are similar to that of an Evangelion. He does not need much food as his stomach has been modified to yield a lot more energy from little food. But at the same time his somatic patterns have been completely disrupted. He effectively has chronic insomnia. He can't 'turn off' unless he runs out of energy. And just like an EVA unit the time he stays 'on' depends his activity level. This is extreme and rather sporadic as there is no accurate way to predict it. By my rough estimates having eaten a bowl of cereal for example he can easily have 48 hours worth of energy of an inactive lifestyle, however maximum an hour of intensive action. As we have seen in the case of the sports event, the damage caused can be very severe if Shinji deactivates at the wrong time. However he regenerates quickly if left to rest. That is all we have gathered to this point."
"Thank you doctor, we shall see how he will react from now on and explore his uses. Potentially he can be another powerful weapon against the Angels," with that the commander left the room, followed by Fuyutsuki.
Misato stood defiantly in the middle of the room staring at Ritsuko, "Maya could you please leave us. I would like a personal chat with the good doctor."
"Yes Major Katsuragi!" the door shut behind the worried Lieutenant.
"So do tell me Ritsuko, what can happen if Shinji's soul can't maintain the balance between his human and 'Evion' sides?"
"Well it may collapse or tear effectively ending Shinji's existence or…"
"Or the body will most likely try to balance out the 'Evion' side!" she was holding in her hand a security disk.
"What are you implying Misato? Do you mean to say that I turned him into a monster? The possibility of such an error was there ever since he began to pilot the EVA?"
"Oh so you know already! All I'm saying is you're the one who started the whole salvaging operation, so you should be the one to deal with the consequences!" with that she marched out the door, nearly hitting Maya out cold with the door on the way.
Ritsuko sighed, "This has become problematic. Maya tell Section 2 to keep a close eye on the children. We have to figure out how to deal with the situation." 'I just hope he doesn't find out…'
"Welcome home!" Shinji came to greet Misato while holding Pen-Pen, Asuka looked out from her room.
"Shinji, we need to talk," the Major's expression was as grave as ever, as she took Shinji by the hand into her room.
Asuka stared at them with absent eyes, it was the first time she saw Misato with such an expression, 'Looks like Superboy got into trouble. Oh well not my worry.' She thought again of what happened today in the bathroom, 'I must look real beautiful to get such a reaction,' she smirked, "It's natural of course. I am the most pretty girl in the whole of this city and probably country." Then something shiny caught her eye, 'Is that a disc?' a glint of curiosity flashed in her blue eyes.
They sat in silence. Misato still glaring at Shinji with her cold look. Shinji with his head down showed no sign of life."Do you hate me?"
Misato's eyes unfroze, the seriousness faded, the question took her off guard.
"Do you hate me?" Shinji slowly raised his head, his face serene with a faint smile. "You hate the Angels don't you Misato. They're not human. Now I'm not really human either."
Her eyes were trembling, "Shinji…"
"Do you hate me?" he stood up and slowly walked towards her.
She was confused. Her resolve, which was so strong before, was wavering. It was Shinji. Shinji. Why was it him?
"Do you hate me, Misato?" he was standing bent over where she was sitting, face to face.
The child that was discarded by his father as an object. She took him in. He was almost a son to her. But now…
"Shinji I don't…"
He leaned forward. Both her reflexes initiated for an instant. But then both her tongue and her hand stopped.
"Hey Misato, what the hell is this movie, I don't…" the sliding door triggered the hand. SLAP!
Shinji touched the red mark on his face. He was not crying. His face was solemn and filled with remorse. Asuka stared stunned at the whole spectacle. Misato was crying.
"So it is true," Shinji slowly walked towards the door, Asuka silently stepping aside, "Your RaCe is intolerant to OtHeRs."
With that he ran out, out of the apartment, out of the building, out of the area.
Asuka came up to Misato, "Misato what happened? What's wrong?" She tried to comfort the crying woman.
"Shinji…" the Major sobbed, "We lost Shinji!" So she sat there with the older woman, trying to understand what happened to Shinji, to Misato, to the world. And what was that recording of?
He kept on running. His thoughts confused. So that's how it is then? He was half Evangelion and half human…no not even that. He know understood it was Mother who always comforted him in Eva Unit 1. It was she that gave him a second birth. But he was still confused about himself. Was it him that properly kissed Misato? Was that him talking to them? Who was he know?
'ShE wAs FiNe.'
'Who is this?'
'Oh We HaVeN't MeT yEt, BrOtHeR.'
'Brother?'
'YeS, bRoThEr We'Ll Be SwApPiNg ToMoRrOw.'
'Swapping? What do you mean?'
'BuT tHe OnE wItH bLuE hAiR iS bEtTeR.'
'Who are you talking about!?'
Then he saw black. His legs stopped obeying. The momentum carried him forward over the hard shoulder of the highway. He fell 10 metres and landed on the concrete in front of some derelict apartment blocks. His eyes slid closed…
Well there you go. Have fun speculating of what's going go happen next. I'm off for a vacation, so I'm not too sure the next chapter will be up soon. But of course I'll try ! Have a fun summer, read and review!