A Soul Possessed

Chapter 6: Shift

By: Lord Legato Deathscythe

It had taken Asuka nearly an hour to calm Shinji down enough so she could get him to sleep. He had finally passed out on the couch from exhaustion after being lead there by the Second Child. Now all Asuka could do was wait. She had tried to reach Misato, but for some reason their guardian's cell phone was out of range. Asuka didn't think it a good idea to call Ritsuko yet, or Rei. So Asuka watched Shinji as he slept.

Why was she helping him? Why had she even cared about whether he was alright or not? This was just Shinji, just plain old Shinji. One glance at the boy's now longer black hair proved otherwise. What was happening was absolutely terrifying. Even now as she watched Shinji, Asuka could see some subtle changes in his face. The minor shifting of his jaw line, the slight widening of his eyes. Though none of it compared to the shock she had when she looked into once dark blue eyes now bright green. His eyes…

Asuka shuddered as she remembered the look in Shinji's eyes. It wasn't the usual open look he always had. Nor had it been the look of anger she was so used to seeing in her own. There was nothing there, nothing but pure terror.

Asuka ran her fingers through Shinji's hair, pulling it away from his face. In this sleep devoid of dreams and nightmares, of pure fatigue, the child that Shinji and herself had been denied shown through. Asuka could see it. It almost made her wish she could see this side more often. She wanted to see the side of Shinji Ikari that didn't need to apologize to the point of blaming his own existence for pain. It was the side that wasn't a warrior for humanity. Who didn't have to go through something so inconceivable even by their standards that the terror ate into his very soul. It was the side that was just a boy, nothing else but that.

The sound of the front door opening startled Asuka from her reflections. Misato had finally gotten home from work. Asuka made her way to the door as quickly as she could, but when she got there what she saw didn't encourage her. Misato looked horrible, her eyes were red and she looked more like she had just been through the worst heartbreak in her life. Asuka didn't have the luxury of giving Misato a chance to rest just yet.

"Misato, we have a problem."

"Asuka, now isn't a good time to talk about your sync scores," Misato said tiredly, assuming this had to do with Asuka's recent drops during the tests.

"This isn't about that. It's about Shinji. Something is seriously wrong with him."

Asuka seemed genuine about the situation. She was agitated but her worry for Shinji in anyway didn't compute in Misato's brain really. However, what she had seen earlier gave cause for the Major's concern.

"What's wrong with Shinji?"

"I can't tell you, you have to see it for yourself."

Asuka lead Misato to the living room and let her get a good look at Shinji as he slept. Misato was shocked at what she was seeing.

"He came in earlier tonight from somewhere and went to the bathroom. I was about to go to sleep when I heard him scream. I found him staring at himself in the mirror looking exactly like this. Even his eyes were different," Asuka broke off.

This could only get worse.

"You seem awfully worried about this Asuka. I'm surprised you even care."

"You didn't see what I saw Misato. I looked into his eyes, and I have never seen the kind of fear I saw in his eyes tonight. Hell, I've never seen anything like this in my life either. What the Hell is going on?"

"Asuka..." Misato took a deep breath. "I don't know what's happening myself. All I know is that something... something happened that month when he was trapped inside the EVA. I don't know what happened, but we are going to find out."

"Do you think this might…," Asuka didn't even want to finish that sentence.

"I hope not," was all Misato said before she laid a blanket over the boy. Neither of the two women dared move him for fear of waking him back into this living nightmare.

So there Shinji slept a restless sleep, while Asuka kept her silent vigil into the night.

--

The rain fell in sheets over Tokyo-03, while the light rapping of each drop resounded to form a sort of staccato thrumming they could not blot out the sound of the Angel alarms. The city had been totally deserted as the civilians ran for their shelters, giving Tokyo-03 the feel of a land not of people, but of death.

Unit-03 remained unusable as Section-1 still had yet to finish repairs. They had been slower then usual due to fears that the thirteenth angel could be revived. All Touji could do at the moment was sit in Command watching as Unit's 00 and 02 were prepared for launch.

Shinji was sitting in Unit-01's entry plug, but the Eva had not been activated. Due to its consumption of the fourteenth's S2 organ, no one knew what would happen if the Eva was activated. And without a failsafe to cut the power off, no one dared risk it unless they absolutely had too.

"Rei, I want you to take point on this. You're the best with the long-range shots. Asuka, you back her up. And I don't want to hear any arguments about it."

If Asuka didn't have other things on her mind, she may have argued more. As it was all she did was acknowledge the order and prepared to launch. She just couldn't get that morning out of her head.

--

Asuka had woken up slowly, her neck and back both protesting her position in the recliner as she stretched out her body. She had slept there all night keeping a silent vigil over the Third Child in case something else befell him. It had seemed warmer then she thought it should be, until she saw the blanket that had been carefully draped over her. The couch was empty, leaving Asuka to conclude that Shinji must have covered her up.

The sounds of rain falling outside, and running water were the only sounds that came to her ears. Dark storm clouds hovered over the city, mirroring the mood that had settled over the small apartment. The lights had been left off, leaving the entire room in a dim murky illumination from what little sunlight had filtered through the clouds. Only a ray of light from the bathroom broke the dull atmosphere.

Asuka followed the light to its source, and found Shinji starring at himself in the mirror. Even with what she had seen last night, it was still a shock to the young woman to see him as he was now. Now that she could take a longer look at him without the urgency she had felt last night, she noticed something very important.

Despite the change in his hair color and the shifting of his jawline, the face was still Shinji's. With all the small differences that had changed, they hadn't taken from the face she knew. If anything, the new changes had enhanced what had always been there.

She didn't move, didn't make a sound, just watched as Shinji splashed some cold water over his face. After he wiped the water from his eyes he just stared at himself in the mirror. His hand went to his face and slowly ran across the now rough patches of hair growing there.

"I'll have to shave this off, can't end up looking like father." he muttered.

"I don't know, like that you look more like Kaji then the commander," Asuka said. Shinji didn't jump at Asuka's voice, and to his credit just keep looking himself over.

"I'm defiantly going to need a haircut. I don't want to have hair like Misato's."

"Well, you could always just wear it in a pony tail like Kaji. He seems to handle his hair just fine."

"I'm not Kaji though..." Shinji said, his voice rising at the idea he should be someone he wasn't.

"No, you aren't. You aren't the Commander either, you're just who you are."

Shinji let out a low chuckle of contempt, "No, I'm not either of them, and looking in the mirror now I don't even know if I am who I am. The face in the mirror doesn't look like me."

Asuka walked up beside him and looked in the mirror as well. She couldn't see through Shinji's eyes, but what her eyes showed her set her course of action. She stood behind him, and softly laid her hands on the sides of his face.

Shinji almost jumped at the soft touch he was so unused to. The look on Asuka's face however reassured him she wasn't going to attack him. She just ran her fingers over the features that she saw. Slowly she became familiar with every aspect of this face.

"It's still you, nothings really changed. It's just enhanced in a way, enough to where you look different then you did yesterday. But it's still you, right down to the tip of your chin," she said, keeping her voice quiet.

"But what did this? Why? Why are my eyes different now?"

Asuka turned him around and looked in his eyes. Even though the color was different now, she could see the same look in them they always had before today.

"They are the same, just the color is different. I don't know what's happening, I don't think I would even understand it if I did. But I do know that you won't have to deal with this alone. We haven't always been friends, but we've never really been enemies. Whatever happens, I'll stand beside you as best I can."

Shinji's lips curved up into a light smile as a single tear ran down his cheek, "You mean that?"

Asuka pulled him into her arms, trying to give him some of the strength she felt herself, "I promise."

--

"Unit-02, in position," Asuka reported. Unit-02 had been launched to the west side of the city while Unit-00 was in the center. Both of the Evangelions had been armed with positron rifles, and now drew their targets on the Angel currently in orbit. Unfortunately the Angel had remained outside of firing range.

"Keep sharp, as soon as the Angel comes into range open fire," Misato said over the com system. Asuka just kept her eyes on the Angel.

It was in it's own way beautiful, Asuka thought. The shape of a snowflake almost that glowed in the night. She kept her eyes on the range finder as the Angel began to move. Before Asuka knew it she was engulfed in the brightest light she had ever known. Then the memories began assaulting her, one after another. The last thing anyone in Command heard from her that day was the sound of her screams as the Fifteenth Angel began to rape her mind.

--

Shinji couldn't bare this anymore. He was kept powerless to help Asuka as she was assaulted by one bad memory after another. He fought to keep his calm as he pleaded to be sent up to the surface. The Commander's response had done nothing but anger him.

"We cannot risk contamination to Unit-01," he had said.

Yui could feel the rage building in her son as she watched from her place in the back of her mind. She didn't want to make him endure this, but she also knew there was nothing to be done. He couldn't just go up there, he'd become a target himself.

What happened next shocked the ghost of Unit-01 as well as everyone in NERV Central. Unit-01 activated, and began straining against the restraints holding it in place.

"How is this possible?" Yui thought franticly.

"Unit-01, stand down now!" Commander Ikari ordered.

"Command, you have a problem. You see, my friend is up there getting her mind torn through. Now you have two choices, one is to launch me up there so I can do something. The other is to deal with the repair bill when I get free. Unit-01 out," Shinji said.

Touji watched the screen as the deck began to shake from Unit-01's attempts to escape. Everyone was in a commotion as he walked over to Misato's side.

"How did he activate his Eva himself? I didn't think he was suppose to be able to do that," Touji asked in awe.

All Misato could say was, "I don't know."

--

Commander Ikari was enraged at the insubordination the Third Child was displaying. Unit-01 was too valuable to risk just for the Second Child. She wasn't important. However, the continued shaking of the deck plates told him he had to do something.

"Cut off all connections between Unit-01 and the Pilot," Ikari ordered.

"Negative, we have no control over the Eva!" Dr Akagi franticly reported.

Fuyutsuki bent down and spoke into Ikari's ear, "We have to clear him for launch. If we don't he could bring the entire command center down around our ears."

Ikari thought for a moment, "Do you think this is because of the oddity we've been detecting during the last few battles?"

"It's quite possible. Let him launch, we'll record the telemetry from Unit-01 and go through it later. I have a theory as to what is responsible but I don't have time to go into it now. Launch him, or we're all going to be in a lot of trouble," the old professor said.

"Very well. Clear Unit-01 for launch, put him on the far side of the city opposite Unit-02. Rei, get the lance," Gendo ordered.

"The old men aren't going to be happy that we used the lance," Fuyutsuki warned.

"We don't have a choice."

--

Yui was scared for her son. She couldn't understand how Unit-01 was responding without her direct influence. She was the key to the Beast this machine was, there was no way Shinji should have been able to activate it without her consent. It wasn't possible!

Unit-01 shot up on the opposite side of Tokyo-3, facing Unit-02. Shinji crouched down, preparing for a run at Unit-02. One day while watching sports with Touji he had see an American football game. He was going to tackle Unit-02.

"Misato, I need a clear line between me and Asuka. NOW!" he said.

Buildings began descending as Shinji prepared for his run. Once the last building had recessed, Shinji ran for all his worth. He had begun running so fast, anyone at ground level would have been swept away in the wake of his Eva.

As he ran he heard Asuka's words from that morning in his mind.

"Whatever happens, I'll stand beside you as best I can..."

"I promise..."

"I'll stand beside you too. I promise," Shinji said quietly as he ran for all he was worth to save the girl he hoped to call his friend.

--

The rifle was empty, and Unit-02 could not protect her from the onslaught of images attacking her mind. Over and over she kept reliving the worst day of her life. The day she had found her mother hanging from the ceiling, and the doll that she had thought was Asuka with it's head torn off.

The only thing she could hear were her own screams, nothing more. She was curled up in the entry plug, trying to fend off the memories to no avail.

"Get out of my mind," she kept saying, her words now masked by the uncontrollable sobbing the attack had forced on her.

"Asuka!"

She heard her name called from far away. She couldn't tell who was calling to her, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to disappear from this nightmare. She wanted it to end, even if she had to die for the nightmare to be over. She didn't know that that call would be her only warning.

Shinji had launched himself towards Unit-02, and for an instant was enveloped by the same light that had Asuka. In the span of only a few seconds they both shared their own nightmares with each other. The worst day of each of their lives was lain bare before the other, forcing them to share something they couldn't even share with themselves. It felt like an eternity in what was truly only a few seconds.

Unit-01 grabbed Unit-02 and dove down, rolling out of the light and picking up her fallen comrade. With Unit-02 firmly in grasp, Shinji ran as fast as he could to the nearest retrieval point. Over his com he could hear the cheering in the command deck as he began his decent back into the bowels of NERV.

He hadn't even seen Unit-00 reappear on the surface. Nor did he see Rei launch the Lance of Longinus into space, killing the Angel of Truth and sending the Lance irretrievably towards the moon.

To Be Continued...

Authors Notes: Sorry for the extended delay on this one. I've been trying to get the feelings and images I wanted to get across organized in my mind. It's very difficult to get these things from my mind onto the screen, so it does take a long time if I want to make this work right. I do want to try to get the next chapter out much more quickly then this one came. However, I am trying to get several other fics done as well. But I've got three months where I won't have anything to do in my off time BUT write.

Next Chapter: Unit-00 has been destroyed. Rei III has been awakened, and the dark secret of her origin's soon will be reveled. However, with the arrival of the Fifth Child and the continued conspiracy between the living and the dead, will Yui be able to help her son and her Allies uncover the truth. And what will happen as two children caught in the middle start to share more then just respect for each other.

Next Chapter: The Thin Line Between Darkness and Light.

Pre-readers: King Alar, LeperMessiah, Isamu, Shinguru, Jama

Later.