A/N: I was told the last chapter was rushed. The thing is, ideas are not very good at staying in my mind. So I put them down as fast as I can. So I'll try to develop as fast as I can. I go fast because of lack of memory/creativity.
Now on with the story!
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Next Morning
Shinji Ikari woke up on the couch. He checked the time. It was only 6:30am. He still felt Asuka's weight on his body. He noticed with great shock that Asuka had moved farther up his body while she was sleeping. She now had her cheek pressed against his!
'I'm dead for sure," he thought. 'She'll immediately jump to a conclusion the minute she wakes up.'
He could do nothing. So he tried to go back to sleep. But to no avail. Asuka kept moving around so it was impossible for him to sleep again. She had been sleep-talking most of the night too. Sleep talking about him and herself. He maybe got 3 hours of sleep. So he just sighed and let the time pass by.
To make time go by, he thought about everything that had happened since he began fighting the angels. There was his very odd meeting with Misato, his father, piloting Unit 01 for the first time, Ayanami, the first meeting with Asuka, the synchronization training, Asuka's lesson on thermal expansion, her magma dive, that kiss…
When he really thought about it, he had spent a lot of time with Asuka. Sometimes he wondered to himself why he put up with all her insults, slaps, punches, and anything else she could do to put him down. He basically assumed he loved her. And maybe she did too. She would never admit it out loud to ANYONE. But Misato once told him that the sub-conscious can reveal the truth about an individual, whether they like it or not.
Shinji checked the time again. It was 7:30am. He heard a door open. It was Rei.
"Good morning Pilot Ikari," she said as she made her way into the kitchen.
"G-good morning Rei," said Shinji. Suddenly Asuka began to stir. In desperation, he shut right back up.
Zack was soon to follow. He could only look at Shinji and laugh. He also then went into the kitchen.
Shinji was hungry. But he couldn't get up because Asuka was on top of him, and he did not want to take a chance at waking up. He then noticed Misato coming out of her room, with a very familiar feeling. Yes! She was hung over again! 10 seconds later…
"YYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"Uh Misato. For Shinji's sake, think you could keep it down?"
"Why Zack?"
"Come here, I'll show you."
Shinji assumed Zack was going to lead Misato back to the TV room to see Shinji in his latest predicament. Misato looked surprised at first. But when she saw Shinji's look of distress on his face, she was trying to hold in the laugh.
Misato spoke up shaking off the laugh. "Okay. I have to go to NERV and take care of some stuff. Zack and Rei. Here's a grocery list. Go down to the store and get everything on the list." She handed them a list. "And as for you Shinji. Good luck," she said with a wink." She went to her room, got dressed quickly, and left.
Zack took this chance to speak up next. "Well Shinji, as much as I'd love to help, waking an ill-tempered girl is not on my list of priorities. Laters."
Rei did not say anything and followed Zack to the grocery store.
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Streets of Tokyo-3
Zack was now laughing out loud because they were long out of range and he thought it was fun to watch Shinji squirm as he tries everything possible not to wake up Asuka. Rei was observing their shopping list. After reading the list, she chose to ask Zack about Shinji and Asuka's odd relationship.
"Pilot Harper. Why does Pilot Sohryu sleep with Pilot Ikari? I thought they were not on very good terms."
Zack tried his best to explain. "Well you see, Asuka always pretends to be really tough and cruel. But when push comes to shove, you notice she gives up and takes off. If you look at her hard enough, you can see a scared little girl in need of love behind all those walls she has put up."
"Walls?"
"Emotional walls to protect herself from harm or rejection of love. She craves for any kind of love. That's why she sleepwalked to get the Shinji doll and that's why she's sleeping on top of him on the couch. Her sub-conscious craves the love that she probably has never had. As for Shinji, he probably wants to get closer to Asuka, but she usually pushes him away. And every time Asuka advances on him, he gets scared because the girl that's rejecting him is coming closer to him, so he doesn't know how to react."
Rei was content with the answer they got. She concluded that love was a very strange and mysterious feeling. She did not have any more time to ponder her thoughts as they had arrived at the grocery store.
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Back at Misato's apartment
Shinji was still having no luck with Asuka getting off him. He checked the time. It was 8:30am. He thought he would never get out of this alive.
But then, he had an odd feeling in his nose. He knew what was going to happen in about 10 seconds! SNEEZE! The vibration resulting from that would definitely wake Asuka!
"AHCHOO!"
He was right. Asuka began stirring. And she yawned. He pretended to be sleeping.
Asuka yawned as she woke up. She at first realized she wasn't in her room. She figured that she must have passed out last night. She then realized where she was! On top of Shinji!
'He must have done this to me!' she immediately thought. But then she quickly realized she was so on top of him that he couldn't move, otherwise wake her up. She noticed he was still sleeping. 'Well, I gotta admit, he wasn't a bad dancer. He may be an idiot. But he's my idiot. I gotta shower!' Without further hesitation, she decided to take a shower.
Shinji breathed a sigh of relief. Six hours in the belly of the beast, or in his case, six hours with the beast on top of him were finally over. He got up, and went into the kitchen. Checking his ingredients, and his cravings, French toast became the Second and Third Child's breakfast that morning.
"I wonder how Zack and Rei are doing?" he said aloud. He shrugged his shoulders. Zack could turn any bad situation into a good one. He just had to watch his mouth.
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Grocery Store
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT COSTS THAT MUCH?" Zack was getting into an argument with the store manager in the grocery store. Apparently, Zack did not like the price on the kind of meat he was supposed to buy. "I could give my guardian's car a lube job at a price like that? How the fuck do you stay in business?"
Now the store manager was angry and stepped in. "Young man. I don't care if you're an EVA Pilot or not. You will calm down or else."
"Or else what?"
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Outside the store
"You fucking son of a bitch!" shouted Zack at the manager. A bunch of security guards had come at the manager's order and escorted Zack back outside. "Wait till I tell NERV! Then you will be sorry asshole!" Turns to look at Rei. "Alright Rei. You'll have to finish our shopping. I'll wait here and help you carry the bags. If anyone gives you trouble, I'll come running."
"Understood. But I doubt it will be necessary." She went back inside.
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NERV HQ
Misato was feeling pretty embarrassed as she watched the NERV cameras. It was Ritsuko who originally suggested she come look at it. The cameras were showing Zack mouth off at some people in the grocery store, only to get thrown out and have Rei do all the work. Rei had come out 25 minutes later with a ton of bags in her hands. Zack took half the bags she was carrying and they both walked home. She had come in to do her usual procedures. (What she does is classified to us commoners) Later today, the kids would come in for their sync tests. And then she planned to go visit Kaji. Ritsuko had told her that Kaji had just come back from being overseas and Misato was just dying to see him again.
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Later that day
Ritsuko Akagi was doing another procedural sync test with the six EVA pilots. Many would guess that nothing would go wrong as they were all in the best form they could be in. But, when it came down to crunching the numbers, if one number did not turn in your favour, it could be catastrophic.
"Well, well. Not bad. Asuka and Toji's sync levels have gone back up," said the doctor.
Misato wanted to know how they did. "So what are their scores?"
"Rei is at 75. Asuka is back up to 61. Shinji's score is 86. Toji is doing better, but still not great. He's at 47. Ivana and Zack hold strong at 71."
"By the way. Is Unit 01 out of cryo-stasis yet?"
Ritsuko shrugged. "Not for another 3 days. Or if we have to go to 3rd Stage Alert." She went back over to the mike. "Okay kids. We're done now."
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Outside NERV
The kids were walking home. Misato had gone back to Kaji's. (I think we all know why she went there. And since this fic is T-rated, I'll stay away from Kaji's place for now) They had already passed by Toji's house and he had gone home. Now it was just the others. So Zack had decided to test how Asuka felt about Shinji. "Hey Asuka. How are you and Shinji coming along?"
Asuka was of course angry because of the content of the question. "Why would I want anything to do with that spineless wimp?" Pointing at Shinji, "He's a poor excuse for a male!"
Asuka had quickly overlooked two things with her blunt reply. She failed to realize Zack's hand was a little better than her hand. Zack took this moment to expose Asuka's alleged jealousy.
"So Ivana. What did you and Shinji talk about the other day? You know, a couple days before we fought the EVA Series.
Ivana was quick to catch on. She spoke proudly and somewhat boastfully in her thick Russian accent. "Ah, we talked about lots of things. We talked about relationships, emotions, what it would take to be in one, our future hopes and dreams. All sorts of things along that line."
Now Asuka was angry. To everyone's surprise, she made another outburst without thinking. "Stay away from my idiot you bitch!"
Zack was convinced now. "Come on Asuka, you know it better than we do! You LOVE Shinji!"
Her reply was blunt. "How could I ever love that useless turnip? I can't stand him!" And with that she stormed off towards home.
Shinji was speechless and slightly embarrassed that he was used as a catalyst to test Asuka's thoughts.
'Just as I expected,' Zack thought. 'Very possessive and in constant denial.'
They had passed by Ivana's complex. She waved goodbye and went home. This only left Zack, Shinji, and Rei to walk the rest of the way home. It was a fairly silent walk home.
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Some time later. Now Early June (Time to fast forward time!)
Because of 3rd Impact, the kids were let out of school early for the year. Their report cards had come in to Misato. She looked them over, curious to see how her kids were doing.
A/N: I will only report grade averages. Use your imagination about what they got in each class.
Ayanami, Rei: 93
Harper, Zack: 85
Ikari, Shinji: 69
Sohryu, Asuka: 75 (Asuka said she had trouble writing and learning what all the letters meant anyway)
Misato quickly decided the kids were off the hook for any bad punishment that could take place for anyone unfortunate to have low grades. Shinji and Asuka had been through a hell that no one else could have or should have gone through.
She pondered the past few weeks. It had been same old, same old. Rei being silent unless spoken to. Shinji listening to his SDAT, or taking tough-guy lessons from Zack. They were paying off, as Shinji was more confident than he was before. Zack was either training Shinji, sparring with Ivana when she came over, or trying to piss off Asuka, with many successes. And Asuka, who was still a basket case. That girl had real conflicting thoughts, so you could never tell if she was really happy, or sad or just right out angry.
Shinji still though, despite his training, you could tell he was easily depressed. Asuka had pulled another cruel move on Shinji. She had rejected him again. She told him she was downright sick of him, and how pathetic he was after he tried asking her out again.
A/N: Watching Asuka be cruel to Shinji is not fun to read. So the psycho-bitch will not get a scene with her rejecting Shinji for the umpteenth time!
Suddenly, the really loud citywide alarm went off. Everyone knew what this was to mean. Time to race down to NERV! (Zack is in the lead, followed by Asuka, Shinji and Rei. Misato crashed her car and is far behind.)
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NERV -Battle station
The NERV people could not believe what they were seeing. It was something that looked like an EVA. At first they thought it was the EVA Series, but better reports proved otherwise.
Ritsuko put all the information they had into the MAGI to see what the three supercomputers would come up with. She was shocked at the results. "I don't believe this. It's the Jet Alone!"
"How can that be?" asked a very confused Misato. If it was the Jet Alone, it meant bad news. The Jet Alone was equipped with a nuclear reactor. Destroying it in Tokyo-3 would mean total annihilation of the city.
"Go to Second Stage Alert," came the Commander's monotone order. Suddenly Gendo's desk phone rang. After 1 ring, he answered the phone.
A/N: Gonna use script format for a second to record this call.
Gendo: What.
: Am I speaking with Commander Gendo Ikari?
Gendo: I'm busy. What is it?
: It's the President of Japan. Someone hacked our computers and took control of the Jet Alone Mk II! We have no control over that thing! They intend to use it to destroy Tokyo-3!
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NERV- EVA launching bay
Misato was briefing the pilots on the Jet Alone. "Okay. This time, it's not walking aimlessly. It's being controlled by an outside source, so it CAN fight back. We must intercept it before it reaches Tokyo-3. It's coming from Tokyo-2. We'll intercept it here. (Points at a point on a map. 55 miles outside Tokyo-3) There are umbilical cables there, so you will have more than 5 minutes to stop it."
"So who's going on this mission?" asked Zack.
"We've decided that Shinji, Asuka, and Rei will go and intercept at the 55-mile mark and try to stop it from advancing while our hackers try to stop it. Toji, Ivana and Zack will wait at the 50-mile mark. If the Jet Alone gets to the 50-mile mark, you are to destroy it, and take the chance of a nuclear disaster."
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55 miles outside Tokyo-3
Asuka was thinking again. A very large portion of her mind told her that she couldn't stand Shinji. But a small portion of her mind said he's not the bad guy she's making him out to be. She had to snap back to reality.
"I gotta concentrate! I can't stand that idiot anyway! He's done nothing for me besides whatever is for lunch!" She looked ahead. "There's that stupid Jet Alone thingy!"
Ahead of them was the Jet Alone. It was approaching them slowly. Rei decided to shoot it with the positron rifle she was holding. The shots were well placed and would have hit home, but it was completely unharmed!
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NERV- Battle station
Shigeru read back the data he had. "AT Field detected! The Jet Alone has an AT Field!"
"No way!" Misato was shocked. It was just a giant robot with a nuclear reactor. How could it have an AT Field?"
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Battlefield -55 miles outside Tokyo-3
Asuka had engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the robot. Their orders were not to destroy it, but keep it at bay, until NERV could hack into its programming and shut it off. To Asuka's surprise, the robot fought rather well for being a stupid looking piece of junk.
Shinji was to watch Asuka's back should she take a hit and go down. Rei was to fire shots at it every now and then with the rifle. The shots weren't powerful enough to destroy it, but the shells could still stop it in its tracks. And buy the NERV hacking crew the time it needed to shut down this terror.
"Dammit you bastard! Stop fighting!" said a frustrated Asuka.
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NERV - Battle Station
"We haven't been able to hack its programming yet," said a member of a team of technicians responsible for trying to hack into the Jet Alone. "Even with the passcodes, we cannot access it. The codes have all been changed."
Gendo stood up. "This is obviously SEELE's work. Get out of the way. I will shut down this walking meltdown."
Everyone watched as the Commander walked over to where the technicians were. Gendo sat in front of a computer and began trying to access the Jet Alone's program. He typed at a furious speed, doing his all to save Tokyo-3 (or just himself). The technicians were given the boost of confidence they needed by watching their commander in action. They went back to their computers and redoubled their efforts.
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Battlefield
Asuka was getting tired. But there was no way she would yield to Shinji. That defeat would nearly be as bad as the 15th Angel. She doubled her efforts to continue the struggle of girl (bitch) vs. machine.
To her surprise, it suddenly countered Asuka's punch and kicked her Unit 02 flying. It crashed into a mountain.
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NERV- Battle Station
Gendo continued to type away. Ritsuko's staff were observing the battle.
"We're picking up a high concentration of energy coming from the Jet Alone! It's an extremely power laser cannon!" said Makoto. "It's got enough power to penetrate her AT Field!"
"No! Asuka!" shouted Misato.
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Battlefield
Asuka looked at the target. It's right arm had changed into a laser cannon. In an instant, the Jet Alone Mk II fired its cannon at her. She flinched, waiting for the impact and what would probably be an extreme amount of pain and a burning sensation.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes. She did not see the Jet Alone. She saw a giant purple thing. She quickly realized it was Shinji and Unit 01! Shinji was going to take the hit for her!
The only thing anyone could hear was a boy screaming in extreme pain.