-1Lite Up

Chapter 5: Severed Ties

By: shinjitheassassin

Akanes cell phone rang, waking her up from the dream she was having. She let out a few curses before picking it up and answering.

"Hello?" she said in a sleepy voice.

"What is taking so long?" the voice on the other end harshly greeted her.

"Do you have any idea how early in the fucking morning it is over here?" she spat back looking at her alarm clock which read just passed five in the morning.

"Either way, you are taking too long, We are sending another to speed up the process. Do you understand?"

"Yes." she answered and hung up the phone. "Fucking bastards, they're always so damn pushy" with that she laid back down and fell back asleep.

Shinji and Asuka woke up early the next morning, despite coming in late the previous night.. Being her usual self, Asuka rushed to be the first one in the bathroom to start her own routine before anyone else got the chance. However she did pause a moment to give Shinji a quick kiss good morning, which he gladly returned. It wasn't until Asuka got in the shower when she remembered why the back of her neck was sore. 'This is going to be an interesting day' she thought to herself. Hikari would definitely flip out when she saw the tattoos. She then begin to contemplate how she should show her tattoo, her long hair covered it. After a few seconds she came to a solution. Since the new seating arrangements Hikari now sat behind her, this would be a perfect opportunity. Letting out a soft snicker she quickly finished up with her shower.

While Asuka took her shower, Shinji set to work making their breakfast and preparing their lunches, though he had a feeling they wouldn't be eating them. He then quickly finished off his own breakfast. When Asuka got out of the shower he set her plate down for her and quickly made his way to the bathroom to do his own routine. Not taking any longer then fifteen minutes he quickly hurried up. Re entering the kitchen where Asuka had finished her own breakfast.

"So how many people do you think are going to be upset about our new art work?" Asuka laughed.

"At least three that I can think of right off the bat, Touji, Kensuke wont like it too much I know, and we both know Hikari will have a cow about it." Shinji replied.

The two laughed at this, for some reason the just wanted to piss the world off today. Cleaning up the table the two set off towards school. As usual they met up with Akane and Rei half way there. Akane was wearing her hair up, for obvious reasons. The four of the conversed amongst themselves as they continued to walk to school. Upon arriving at school the for of them were confronted by Hikari, who was not to pleased.

"You two were supposed to serve detention this Saturday, where were you?" she glared at Shinji and Akane

The two shrugged her off as Akane answered back. "We had, better things to do."

Asuka let out a small laugh at this. Hikari then turned her attention to Asuka. "What is so funny?"

"You" Asuka replied, "You make such a big deal out of the smallest of things, its kind of funny."

"Asuka, why are you acting like this?" Hikari asked "Its like you and Shinji are completely different people now."

"Look, we Eva pilots may die in the next Angel attack, so I say we might as well live life to its fullest." Asuka stated "Come on guys, lets go, we're going to be late for class" she mocked Hikari. With that the four continued on their way, brushing past Hikari. This is when Hikari noticed three of the four tattoos.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" she exclaimed "WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE THOSE?" clearly out raged by the markings on the back of Shinji, Rei, and Akanes necks. Akane turned around and smirked.

"Its our gangs symbol" she said this knowing it would piss off the class rep to no end. There were two things that would set Hikari faster then a firecracker, one being drugs of any kind that was not over the counter, the second of course being gangs and anything associated with them, including tattoos. Though Akane really didn't view the four of them as a gang. The four left Hikari there. Hikari then came to relize that she didn't see a tattoo on Asuka. This gave her hope, perhaps her and Asuka could still restore their friendship that Akane had destroyed. She couldn't believe Shinji being in a gang of any kind, but what surprised her even more was Rei, Shinji was actually somewhat social to a select few but Rei seemed to have been void of all emotions until recently, now she was smiling and laughing with the others. Not to mention the tattoo on the back of her neck and joining this gang.

A few minutes went by before the first bell rang, signaling all the students to head to their homerooms.. Hikari was the last one to enter the class room, as she was making sure all the others were in first. She then took her seat behind Asuka. With a sigh she leaned forward some to speak with Asuka.

"I don't mind that you have some fun, but I am glad you are not part of this gang Akane has." she stated

Asuka only smiled at this, though Hikari couldn't see. She then turned around to face her.

"But I am." she smiled then turned back around parting the back of her long hair, exposing her own tattoo. Hikari leaned back into her seat in disbelief, not even doing her stand and bow routine when the teacher came in the room, not like he would have noticed anyways. But Touji did. It was no secret that he liked Hikari, though he would deny it if asked. He didn't like how things were turning out. He figured the source of the problem was Akane herself, but he couldn't confront her about this, he had a code, never hit a woman. The next obvious step was to talk to the only man in their circle, Shinji. Class slowly crept by as the teacher rattled on and on about how life was before the second impact and how his old home was now completely underwater. The four did as they usually did, chatting amongst themselves through the class chat rooms. Hikari didn't even bother monitoring it this time, it was pointless, they weren't careless enough to expose what ever they were doing, all they did was talk about hanging out after school, going to the mall, or one of their newest topics was starting a band. Finally the lunch bell rang after what seemed like years. The four of them gathered their lunchs and made their way out of the class room, heading outside towards their usual tree hang out.

"Hey Shinji!" Touji called out from behind them, standing there with his arms crossed over his chest. Shinji looked over his shoulder at him. "What?"

"I'd like to have a word with you."

Shinji shrugged and walked over to where Touji was, followed by the three girls.

"Alone please" Touji looked at the girls.

"Nope, what ever you have to say to him you can say it in front of us." Akane shot at him.

"You're the cause of all this!"

"Look, you called me over here to talk to me, so talk to me, not them" Shinji put in, setting his foot down for Touji to get to the point.

"Look, I don't like the way you have been treating Hikari, you've been showing a lot of disrespect towards her." Touji said "Now when she tells you to do something, I expect you to do it." he tried to intimidate Shinji, but it was obvious it wasn't working. Touji could see very clearly now that Shinji had changed considerably since over the weekend.

"Look, Hikari is just going to have to understand that she cant get everything her way, just because you jump whenever she calls doesn't mean the rest of us have to."

Touji frowned at this. "Look, none of us are liking this new attitude of yours. You skip class, you ignore what your being told, and you constantly blow off Hikari, show her the respect she deserves."

"I got an idea." Shinji smiled

"And whats that?"

"Why don't you go shove your dick into her ass, so she wont be such a pain in mine." Shinji retorted. This caused the other three girls to burst out laughing, but Touji had heard enough. Clenching his fist he lurched himself forward toward Shinji in anger. However over the passed weeks time, Shinji had changed considerably, he was no longer the frail, gentle pilot he once was. Now he wasn't afraid to put forth the hand to hand combat the Nerv training had taught him, seeing the punch coming he simply leaned back just far enough out of range. It was at this time, both Akane and Asuka jumped into action, each positioning themselves on either side, and bringing forth their knees with great speed into Toujis sides. This sent Touji to his knees before Shinji, whom took this opportunity to kick him in the face, blood splattered onto the ground. Even Rei got a kick in before Kensuke and Hikari came around the corner looking for Touji. Seeing his limp body lying on the ground they rushed to his side.

"What the hell happened?" Hikari yelled at them as she looked down at Touji, tears filling up her eyes.

"He tried to hit me" Shinji answered.

Kensuke looked over the group, trying to figure out what happened. Shinji may have been telling the truth, Touji was always quick tempered, but he was also a big guy, no way Shinji could have taken him down himself, this lead to the conclusion that the girls must have jumped in as well. This angered him. Without thinking Kensuke clenched his fist and threw a wild punch at Shinji. Shinji already saw this coming and evaded it with ease, bringing in his own fist and burying it deep within Kensuke stomach. Kensuke fell to his knees feeling like someone had thrown a baseball into his belly, this caused him to throw up some blood and bits of what was left of his breakfast. Hikari looked on in horror, then back up to Shinji.

"As you saw it was self defense, he tried to attack me." Shinji replied without even looking at her. With that the four walked away. Finishing the rest of the lunch break at their usual tree, just off school grounds. The rest of the school day went on without any further incident, soon the final bell rang. The four got up and made their way out of school. Shinji agreed to call Akane as soon as they were done, then parted ways. It wasn't long before the three Eva pilots stood in front of the large doors the lead into the main hall of Nerv, letting out a sigh the three entered and made their way to the debriefing room, as ordered. They each picked their seats and waited for it to begin. They didn't have to wait long, five minutes went by before Dr. Akagi entered the room carrying four folders,each color coded, followed by a young girl around Shinji's age with short red hair and blue eyes. Misato followed in behind the others. The girl took a seat across from the others, looking a little shy.

"This is our new pilot, Mana Kishiarama, she was transferred her from America so please welcome her."

The young girl gave the other three a silent nod in greeting, which was returned.

"Now todays test is just a simple sync test to see how far you've come in the passed few months.." Akagi began "So into your plug suitsand report to your Evas."

With that the four pilots got up and exited the room. It was at this time Akagi noticed the tattoos on the backs of Shinjis and Reis neck and gave Misato a glare, which usually meant they had to talk. After the pilots left the room Akagi turned to Misato.

"Please tell me those are fake tattoos the children are wearing."

"No, their real." Misato answered with a sigh "Asuka has one too."

"How the hell could you let them do something like that."

"I didn't, they got them done one night while they were out. I don't think it will affect their ability to pilot Eva though."

Moments later the pilots were in the entry plugs waiting for further instructions. Asuka, Shinji, and Rei opened their communication channels and began to chat amongst, careful to what they were saying. Mana just listened in, a little interested in what they were saying and laughing to herself at the jokes they told. Finally Akagi and Misato showed up and began the test. Akagi scanned the monitors making notes of the sync ratios each pilot held. She was impressed at Manas score, as it held just above average. She then to the others scores and nearly fell over, Each of three pilots held a score between 70 to 75. This was the first time she had ever seen the three hold such a high score.. She then began to ponder what could cause such an increase, she decided she would have Mana hang out with them, perhaps they could also raise her score as well.. At last the tests were over and the pilots found themselves back in the debriefing room..

"Incredible results," Akagi began "You all broke your previous sync ratio records. This concludes the tests. Dismissed."

The four got up to leave the room before Akagi stopped them "Rei, I have another test for you to take."

Rei let out a slight sigh and nodded. Akagi didn't take note of the sight as she turned to the remaining pilots "Could you and Asuka please show Mana around the city to get her familiar with it?" with that Akagi turned and walked down the corridor to the elevator

"Yes ma'am" Shinji answered. He then walked over to Rei and handed her his cell phone "Call us when your done, we'll be waiting for you." With that they went their own ways, Rei following Akagi.

Akagi and Rei took the elevator down to the lower levels of Central Dogma where Gendo awaited them in a large room with a cylinder tube filled with LCL in the center of it, connected to a large machine.

"Remove all of your clothing and enter the tube" Akagi ordered Rei. Normally Rei would do it without question, but she hesitated, looking to the commander for a second before complying. Entering the tube she let out a sigh, which could only be noted by the bubbles that came from her mouth. Gendo watched on as the test proceeded over the next hour.

Meanwhile Asuka, Shinji and Mana made their way out of the Nerv building. Mana following behind the two.

"So um, where are we going?" Mana asked in a shy voice.

"To a friends house to hang out while we wait for Rei." Shinji answered, turning around to glance at her. He couldn't help but notice how cute she was, no where near as attractive as Asuka but at the same time would still be able to give her some competition.

"oh, ok" Mana replied. Looking at the two in front of her, she noticed how close they seemed, much like a family would be. She also noticed the tattoo on the back of Shinjis neck, and only part of Asukas. She then began to ponder if Shinji was single or if one of the other pilots, or another girl had already set their claim on him. She may be an Eva pilot but that didn't mean she couldn't have herself a boyfriend. She became lost in her own thoughts not paying attention to where they were going until they stopped in front of an apartment door. Shinji knocked on the door, then entered not waiting for an answer.

"Akane?" Shinji called out.

"In the kitchen" a voice came from another room, then came the person to which that voice belonged to. Seeing Mana she froze a second in shock but quickly shook it away before the others would notice. "Did Rei dye her hair?" she asked

"No, this is Mana she's the new Eva pilot we got today, Rei will be by later, she had more tests to do" Shinji answered.

"Oh, hi" Akane greeted her with her usual cheery voice

Back at Nerv the test was finally concluding as Akagi looked over the final results. She then looked up to Rei.

"Ok, we're finished" she said

Gendo looked on at Rei and smiled "Lets go eat" he stated as Rei got out of the tube.

"I have previous arrangements" Rei answered as she began to put her cloths back on.

"Then you will cancel them."

Rei paused for a moment before looking to the commander "No, I will not" she said, her voice more defiant. Then turned around to finish dressing. She smiled to herself, as she had did this for one major reason, much like Asuka, was to show off her tattoo. And it succeeded as Gendos eyes went wide when she defied him. Even more so when he saw the tattoo. He then looked to Akagi.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"All the pilots have it" she simply answered "However I must say all three pilots sync ratios are impressive despite the fact."

"Rei, you will have that mark removed" he ordered.

Rei looked back at him. "No" she stated . She then reached into her pocket and took out the cell phone Shinji gave her and dialed Asukas cell phones number. The phone rang for a second before Asuka answered laughing. However the phone was on speaker phone so even Gendo and Akagi could over hear the conversation without any effort.

Hello?

"I'm on my way" Rei said into the phone

Greeeeeat! HEY WATCH WHERE YOUR STICKING THAT THING!

HEY NO FAIR, TWO AGAINST ONE Rei could hear Shinji yelling in the back as Mana and Akane had pinned him to the floor ASUKA HELP!

Rei couldn't help but laugh at this as she pictured the event in her mind, then blushed as her thoughts took a side street down Hentai Avenue. She then quickly left the room, leaving both Akagi and Gendo in a stupor, more so at the fact that Rei had actually laughed, as well as her defiance.
"This was not in the scenario." Gendo commented as he regained his composure. "She will be punished for this disobedience"

Rei hurried over to Akanes as fast as she could not to keep them waiting any longer then they already had.

"Hey Rei" Akane greeted as she entered the apartment, "Glad you could make it, hurry up and join in, we're about to start." Rei nodded and hurried to a spot near Shinji as they all sat down. Mana followed, unknowingly sat in the circle as well. Akane then produced an already loaded bowl and a lighter. Firing it up she took the first hit and passed it to Shinji on her right. The process continued until it reached Mana, she knew what to do but was struggling within herself wheather or not she should have do it or not. Reaching a decision she placed the pipe up to her lips and fired it up, inhaling and holding it in for a little bit before starting to cough, then passed it, completing the circle. It wasn't long before the bowl was empty and the five of them were sitting around laughing about the days events. Mana went on about how when she was on the ship a gust of wind came up and gave its crew a free show for a second. Asuka laughed the loudest as she could relate to this, as she told Mana the same thing happened to her.

"So. Shall we make another visit to my room?" Akane asked with a grin.

"What about Mana? We cant just leave her out here." Shinji commented.

"She's invited too"

"You sure about this?" He asked looking at the girls in front of him.

"Look, I can see she has a crush on you, shes been staring at you off and on the whole time. Not to mention you've been looking her over too. So yeah, we can include her, after all she's one of us now."

Asuka and Rei didn't really mind, Asuka had the home field advantage. Mana looked over the group unsure of what was going on while Shinji worried about having four girlfriends. Never in his life would he have ever dreamed of this. But soon they all found themselves in Akanes bedroom. Akane was the first to get the ball rolling, pushing Mana into Shinji.

Authors Notes: Well that's it for chapter 5. For those who wanted me to include Mana in this, there ya go. Now I wonder how will Gendo punish Rei for her sudden disobedience? Anyways, I only had up to chapter 5 pre written so may take a little longer to get chapter six up and going. I write my fics in two forms, first draft in long hand, and I do my editing while typing it up. On to the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: As everyone knows, I do not own Evangelion or any of its characters. Gainax and all respected affiliates do.