Disclaimer: Well, I still don't own Gainex…so yeah…
This was pre-read by my first ever pre-reader WarShadow! Thanks a lot my good man.
Fourth Chapter- Mother's Elementals.
Asuka awoke the next morning feeling that a travel bus hit her. She shook her head to try and rid it of some of the heaviness that was still there from her sleep but found that she had a headache. As she tried to swing her legs over the side of her bed, she found that her left arm would not obey her.
Looking at it she found that it was wrapped in bandages, and any attempts to touch it were stopped by the sudden sharp, burning pain she felt. When she cried out she heard her door open up and looked to see Shinji standing there. He walked in and stood over by her side, then bent down. Without and preamble he lifted her, bridal style much to her displeasure.
"Hey! What the hell do you think your doing with me, pervert?" she cried out.
"It hurts for you to move, doesn't it? This way you get a free trip to the living room and you wont feel any pain." He said while navigating through the clean apartment.
" Hey Shinji," Asuka began. "What the hell happened yesterday with that old man, why the hell did I pass out, what the hell are these bandages covering, and why is my entire body in pain?"
Shinji gently sets her down on the couch and makes sure that she's comfortable before sitting down himself. Asuka looks over at him and sees that he has a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Well to start off, I would say that in a way you were branded. Calm down." He tells her seeing the anger on her face. "Not in the way you were thinking Asuka."
"Well then enlighten me as to which way I was branded Baka!" she yells at him.
Shinji sighs and shakes his head for a moment. "Look remember that night when that gang tried to kidnap me for ransom?" he asks.
She nods slowly thinking back to that night and how he single handedly took them all down. "What about that night?"
"Well you remember when they told me what they were going to do to you and Rei?" She nods once more. "Well the next thing you saw was my right eye glowing. Well when I talked with Father, the last thing I remembered was Father placing his hand over my right eye and then nothing else."
"So you're saying that I'm going to have two half moons facing each other on my left shoulder?" she asked.
"I'm not entirely sure if it will be like mine or different, but I was told that it will stop hurting after a few hours and you can take the bandages off then."
"Wait…didn't you have bandages covering your right eye the day that I knocked you out? How were you able to get up and run about like that?" she asked confused.
"Well from what I know, when I woke up that morning, I thought that I was blind in my right eye. I guess that I was so panicked about that, that I never felt the pain until a certain redhead decided that I needed more sleep."
"I already apologized!" she said indignantly. "Anyways what's for breakfast?"
"Same thing we were going to have yesterday but you decided to kiss me before Misato right when she took a gulp of beer."
"Heh heh…sorry about that, speaking of which," she grabbed his arm and pulled roughly making him cry out in surprise as he dropped to his knees in front of her. His brain once more short-circuited, not expecting the kiss that she gave him. "I always expect a kiss each and every morning, especially if you're going to wake me up."
"Yes my princess." He said smiling, while walking into the kitchen for her breakfast. Coming back out he placed a plate in front of her and walked back into the kitchen to grab his own plate.
"Shinji, do you know what it is that I'm going to be controlling?" Asuka asked as he sat down beside her and began to eat. "Fire, your element is fire." He said with a little bit of a grimace, which didn't get by Asuka unnoticed.
"And what's so bad about me being able to control fire, hmmm…?" she asked him.
"Asuka a lot of this control is through emotions. Sure your going to be able to do different stuff and what not, but if you get to angry, annoyed, depressed, and so forth, it will literally consume you and then explode outward."
She had a thoughtful look on her face when she spoke next. "You sound like you know this from experience." She saw him shudder at this.
"Did you hear about the block that was destroyed in the abandoned part of Tokyo-3?" he asked with a dark look in his eyes. He watched her nod with confusion and then her face light up with realization.
"T-that was you?" she whispered. "How?"
"That was at the beginning of my week long training. I was at the top of a building, when some thugs decided to mess around with me and see if I could survive a death drop. Next thing I knew I was shoved off of the roof and plummeted twelve stories before I was able to slow my decent and floated the other eight stories down safely. When I touched the ground, the four guys who shoved me came out of the building, and needless to say they were scared shitless when they saw me unmarked, my symbol glowing gold, and extremely pissed. All I could remember after a few minutes was an ass load of wind screams and explosions. The following day it hit me that I killed those men without even knowing it.
Asuka was silent through all this contemplating all that he was telling her about her newfound powers. "So your saying that I'm going to have to calm down a considerable amount in order to ensure that this wont happen to me?" she asked him.
"Yeah, you will, but don't worry too much about that. You'll eventually run into Mother and Father again, and when you do she will do something to you."
"Care to elaborate a little more, baka?"
"Well, when I last say her before yesterday night, was on the school basketball courts. There she kind of uploaded information into my brain. It showed me thousands upon thousands of fighting styles I can use that are compatible with my air control. Most importantly though, It seems that I've come to terms with my demons, along with helping me control my emotions."
Asuka seemed to like this whole idea about coming to terms with their demons. "Do you have anymore nightmares or anything?" she smiled when he shook his head.
"So do you have any idea why we're given such powers? Do you think that we could use them in the Eva's?" she asked him.
"Shinji frowned a little bit at her first question. "You know…they never did tell me why they're doing this except for it being important to the survival of humanity."
"Wait, you're telling me that this is more important than the angels?" Asuka asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, that's what I got from the memories."
They sat eating breakfast in silence going over what Shinji just said, until something dawned on Asuka. "Hey Shinji, when you were telling me about the four men that you accidentally killed," she saw the relief in his stature when she said this. "I thought that your symbol thing is dark blue, not gold."
"I'm not quite sure how that happens but my guess is that under extreme emotions, it does turn gold." He explained frowning.
All conversation was halted by the timely, or untimely, arrival of a certain Major in desperate need for her morning beer.
"Don't tell her a thing about this okay? The less people that know than the better it will be." Shinji whispered to Asuka who nodded in agreement.
After her morning beer and complimentary whoop, Misato turned to her two charges.
"You both have harmonic tests today in the afternoon so only a half day today." She smirked at the groan coming from the two teens. "I'm jumping in the shower so-" she was cut off suddenly by the angel alarms going off.
-o0O()O0o-
The command center was at full alert by the time Misato finally arrived. The bridge bunnies were trying to get the sensors to pick up anything else about the angel, in order to help out the pilots.
When Misato finally came rushing through the doors, Ritsuko yelled out at her. "You're late Major!"
"Sorry! What's going on? The Fuji Observation Center-"
"It never detected it Major! So far its blood pattern is currently reading orange." Shigeru reported.
"Is it a new type of Angel?" Misato asked Ritsuko.
"The Magi are withholding judgement about it. We wont know unless it deploys an A.T. Field."
"Launch the Eva in a tri pattern over the city. Tell them that they are only to gather data about it right now." Misato ordered.
"Yes Major."
-o0O()O0o-
"Okay guys this is literally all the Intel that we have on the angel so be careful." Misato told the three Eva pilots.
"Yes ma'am!" came the uniformed reply.
"I'll take point Misato." Shinji said shocking everyone in the command center.
"What! No Shinji Asuka is going to take point on this one."
"It's alright Misato, I agree letting him take point, I mean he is after all the highest sync-ratio holder out of the three of us." Came Asuka's equally shocking reply.
"What…but…" she sigh and shook her head. "Fine Rei back up Unit-01"
"Yes Major." Came the silent reply from Unit-00.
-o0O()O0o-
Shinji moved Unit-01 forward and hid behind a building. He peaked out behind the building to watch the black and white striped ball, slowly float toward the geo-front.
"Asuka, Rei, are you both in position yet?" Shinji whispered through the comms.
"No." Came the short reply from Rei.
"Not yet, you know an Eva can't move that fast honey." Asuka whispered back. Just as she was rounding another building, she stopped suddenly as her cable was caught. 'Damn!' she ejected the cable and pulled a new one out of a cable supply storage in the road. "Hang on Shinji, I'm trying to get there as fast as possible.'
Shinji was growing more and more restless as his two co-pilots were trying to get into position. His hand, which was clenching and unclenching ball a fist as he thought, 'Fine!' He turned the corner of the building and brought the Eva sized handgun he was wielding around and fired three shots at the ball.
"MAJOR! Blood pattern changed to Blue! Now classified as the twelfth angel!" Makoto yelled out.
Before he had a chance to react, the angel disappeared and all throughout the command center, alarms went off. Shinji looked around until he saw a shadow suddenly spread outward under his feet. Unable to move he was slowly pulled under.
"What the- Asuka, Rei, a little FUCKING help would be greatly appreciated here!" Shinji screamed out while he continued to fire shot into the shadow without any effect.
Asuka started to run towards Shinji position and then sprinted when she saw his screen go blank then fill with static.
Rei braced herself and locked onto the ball that reappeared after Shinji disappeared, and fired, destroying anything that wasn't bolted down. As before, the shadow disappeared, but instead of coming under Unit-00 it appeared under Unit-02.
"Asuka! Watch the shadow!" Ritsuko screamed. Asuka looked under her and screamed. She hefted the axe that she was holding and slammed it into the building beside her and used this as a foot hold. She did the same thing with her prog. Knife and stood on top of the building.
"I'm going to get him!" she said, and spread her arms out preparing to dive into the black mass.
"No Asuka!" Misato said, but was ignored. "Shit, retract her cable now!"
Maya entered the command and just as Asuka was at the height of her jump she was forcibly pulled backwards, sliding across the ground to safety.
'Asuka please forgive me.' Misato silently pleaded.
-o0O()O0o-
"At 0947 hours this morning an angel appeared in Tokyo-3 bypassing the Fuji Observation Center. At 1051 hours this morning all three Evangelion's were launched to intercept the target who's blood type was still blue. At 1100 hours the Third Child, who was point, fired three rounds towards the target, which vanished. A shadow extended 600 km outwards and is an estimated 2 km deep."
Misato walked over to Ritsuko who was standing over to the side talking on a cell phone giving a report to the commander. When Misato stopped beside her, Ritsuko hung up and turned to face the Major.
"So what's the plan to get Shinji out of there?" Misato asked with a slight amount of worry in her voice.
"Commander Ikari ordered all 992 remaining N2 mines be dropped into the shadow in order to destroy the angel."
Misato's eyes went wide at this and with a resounding SLAP! She smacked her old friend…hard.
"Ritsuko almost fell down from the hit, but was able to keep her balance. Standing up straight while holding her cheek she glared at Misato. "Your being too damn emotional right now Major! As of this moment I'm taking charge of this operation." She stalked off and pulled out her cell and began to order the appropriate forms for the operation.
'Asuka…she isn't going to enjoy this at all.' Misato thought sadly.
-o0O()O0o-
The teen in question was currently leaning against a military hummer while waiting for orders. It had been twelve hours since her Shinji had been taken into that thing and not a damn thing has been tried.
"Pilot Sohryu."
Asuka opened her eyes to see Rei standing in front of her, not giving anything away behind the emotionless face of hers."
"Yeah Wondergirl what is it?" she asked with out any of her usual fire behind the name.
"I noticed that you seem to be in distress ever since Ikari has been taken into the angel."
'This is the most I've ever heard her talk in one sentence.' Asuka thought in surprise.
"It's because I care for him, Wond…Rei. Last night we decided to start going out." Once more Asuka was surprised by how nice she was being. 'Where the hell did all the damn anger and resentment go towards her?'she asked herself.
Rei cocked her head to one side in a confused gesture. "Going out? I am not sure I understand this meaning. Do you and Ikari always go out together?"
"Going out can also be meant as a relationship Rei."
"So you and Ikari have started a relationship together." Rei stated.
"Yup, and it hurts to know that he's trapped in there and I'm out here but cant do a damned thing until those morons over there get any ideas." She said jerking her head towards the bridge bunnies and Dr. Akagi filling out some type of form.
"They are not morons Pilot Sohryu, they have all finished college and Dr. Agaki has a PHD."
"I was being metaphorical Rei."
"I see."
-o0O()O0o-
Shinji was curled up in a ball in the seat of the entry plug. He uncurled himself and pressed the switch on the right handle and watched as the plug around him, changed into different patterns, until he was able to see.
"Nothing but white as far as the eye can see, and no noise. Still nothing on the sensors as well. He re-clicked the switch and watched as the Eva unsynchronized with him.
"Asuka…I'm sorry that I'm putting you through all this pain." He said to no one in particular. "I never knew that doing nothing could be so exhausting.." He re-curled into a ball once more. "I'm hungry." He said before he fell asleep.
-o0O()O0o-
"Wait just a damn second," Asuka yelled. " This is the best plan you came up with in sixteen hours?"
Ritsuko waited until she was done before she answered. "Are you through yet?" When she didn't get a reply she continued. "As I was saying, it is 2 km deep so if we drop all the remaining N2 mines into it while the EVA's are neutralizing the angels A.T. field. Does anyone have any questions about this operation?" seeing that no one had any she ordered them to their places to wait for it to begin.
-o0O()O0o-
Shinji opened his eyes to find that the LCL in the plug became cloudy as the purification system died. "just one more minute until I die. Asuka if only I could see your face one last time…I hope you eventually find happiness in your life." With a heavy sigh he re-closed his eyes once more and didn't see as the monitor on his plug-suits hand blinked once, twice, and then faded into nothing.
-o0O()O0o-
"Okay, are the Eva's in position?…good. Tell them to spread their A.T. Fields in ten seconds." Ritsuko said into her cell phone.
Asuka and Rei were currently across from one another facing the gigantic shadow on the ground. Both looked up to see hundreds of aircraft above them, each holding ten N2 Mines.
"Asuka, Rei, in ten seconds deploy you're A.T. Fields." Makoto told the two pilots.
Asuka didn't respond to the order but was still prepared to act it out.
'I'm sorry Shinji…I cant believe that we only had two weeks together…who knows, I might see you soon, my love.'
When the timer that was set up hit four seconds though the shadow began to tremble. In front of them the ground began to splinter with red cracks spreading out everywhere and some parts blew upward. In the sky, the part that was designated as the angels shadow turned all black and also began to tremble. As this went on for a few seconds it began to expand outwards, and grew twice its size before exploding. In a rush of air Unit-01 landed amidst a tornado of blood and gore, its eyes glowed gold through the red mist. With a final roar into the sky, it died and slumped to the ground, and the tornado ended.
-o0O()O0o-
"Shinji! Shinji!"
Shinji opened his eyes a little to find that Asuka had collapsed on top of him crying her eyes out. Misato was kneeled next to him holding his hand also crying.
"I…just wanted to…say…g-goodbye once more." He whispered before he fell unconscious
-o0O()O0o-
Shinji woke up once more to a white, tiled ceiling. Moving some of his red hair that was in his eyes…wait he didn't have red hair. Looking to his left he saw that Asuka was curled up beside him gently purring every so often, with a small smile gracing her features. Shinji smiled and shifted some of her hair out of the way and gently laid a kiss on her lips.
Asuka began to slightly stir and eventually woke up. Blinking away the bleariness in her eyes she noticed that she was being kissed. Knowing only one person who would do that, she began to kiss back.
"How are you this fine morning?" Shinji asked after he reluctantly broke away from the kiss they shared.
"I'm fine but I should be asking that question to you baka." Asuka said glaring at him.
"I'm sorry that I worried you so much last night." He sighed.
"Shinji it's been two days since the angel attack. When the plug was free and you were out of it, the medics said that your heart actually stopped beating." Asuka told him with tears forming in her eyes. "Our only plan to destroy the angel was to drop almost a thousand N2 Mines into the angel," the tears broke free from her eyes and she clutched his hospital gown tightly, and buried her head in his chest.
"You were going to die if you hadn't destroyed the angel right then. All I could think about was 'I'm so sorry' and that I would join you soon."
Shinji held her to him and let her cry it all out. He didn't voice that he wasn't in control of the Eva at the time though. "Shhhhh, it's alright now. I'm here and nothing will ever take me away from you, this I promise you." He told her gently rubbing her back in circles.
"P-promise?" she asked sounding hopeful, looking up at him with red swollen eyes.
"Promise." And he sealed this with a kiss that she gladly joined.
-o0O()O0o-
It had been one week since the twelfth angel had attacked, and Rei Ayanami was seen walking back to her apartment after a trip to the grocery store. As she passed an alley way she noticed an old couple calmly walking towards her. For some odd reason she felt drawn to them, as if she knew them from some point in her life but couldn't remember. As she took a step towards them though, NERV security came out of hiding and blocked the path between Rei and the two.
"Were sorry Pilot Ayanami but these two are extremely dangerous. If you will please continue on your way." One agent said.
Before Rei could acknowledge this though she noticed that the man in front of her froze in place. Now that she thought about it she didn't hear anything as well. Looking around her she saw that everyone was frozen in place.
"I'm sorry about having to meet you like this daughter."
Rei whipped around when she heard the old woman talk right behind her. Taking a cautious step backwards Rei studied the couple. They certainly didn't look dangerous or anything of the sort.
"I am sorry but what is a 'daughter'?" Rei asked in her quiet manner.
The old woman smiled warmly and looked down at something on the ground. Rei followed her gaze and saw that she had dropped a can of vegetable soup. The old woman bent down to pick it up and stayed down a little longer than necessary. As Rei looked down once more she saw that the old woman had grabbed her ankle in a surprisingly strong grip.
"Please remove your hand from my ankle ma'am." Rei requested.
"After a moment young daughter. Once you awaken seek out Shinji Ikari and tell him about his meeting. From there he will help train Asuka Langley Sohryu and you to harness your powers …also don't be worried about your emotions." With this being said Rei collapsed downwards but was caught by Father.
He carried Rei in his arms without showing any sort of strain whatsoever. Walking away, he was soon joined by Mother who picked up Rei's bags, and after they were into her apartment the world unfroze, and the Section 2 agents all thought that Rei was back at her apartment, without seeing Mother and Father.
-o0O()O0o-
Back at Rei's place, Father had just gently laid the unconscious teen on her bed. Mother conjured a bandage from a flower that was in her hair and wrapped it around Rei's left ankle.
"You know Mother, we have really got to work on improving our technique." Father said as he wrote a note and placed on her door so when she goes to exit she would see it.
"I know Father but at least they do get it back, eventually."
Father chuckled at this. "Remember Fire's reaction to her transfer?"
"Heh heh." Mother giggled, how could I forget.
-o0O(FLASHBACK)O0o-
"Asuka had dragged Shinji out shopping because she was annoyed by him only wearing his school uniform all the time. As they left the tenth shop, with Shinji's wallet considerably thinner and carrying all the bags, Asuka saw Mother and Father. Seeing that they were waving them over, the younger couple made their way through the crowd towards the food court.
"Hi Ma and Pops!" Asuka said enthusiastically when they reach the elders.
"Father chuckled at her manner of saying their names. "'Ma and Pops' heh, I like it."
Asuka grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that."
Mother shook her head, "We don't mind being called that at all. Now, Asuka dear I have something for you."
Asuka brightened at the possibility of getting another gift from the couple. She took a few steps towards Mother and stopped when she was in front of her. Mother placed her hand on her cheek like she did with Shinji and like Shinji, Asuka also subconsciously moved into the touch.
All-of-a-sudden she stumbled backwards and would have fallen on her butt if Shinji hadn't caught her in time.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Asuka screamed at the old woman, who was currently giggling.
"YOU THINK IT'S FUCKING FUNNY GIVING PEOPLE MIGRAINES THAT SIZE OF JAPAN?"
"Um, Asuka calm down a little. You know the whole emotion's going haywire, and can possibly destroy this mall thing?" Shinji said while rubbing Asuka's back.
She immediately cooled off at the thought of her mall being destroyed. She bowed deeply at Mother while apologizing profusely.
-o0O(END FLASHBACK)O0o-
"Well she's all bandaged up Father so I think that we can leave now and begin searching for your son." Mother said standing up and taking one last look at the blue haired, red eyed, albino.
"Yes, and after we find him, the trouble begins…" With this both stepped out of the apartment, and a little boy and girl swore to each of their parents that two old people disappeared into nothing.
-o0O()O0o-
A/N: Right so the fourth Chapter is done and over with. I must say that originally I was going to have Water and Earth found in the same chapter, but after I through in the angel battle it kind of got a little too long. So last chapter when I said not to expect every chapter to be this long, I guess I lied. So from now on I wont go by that stupid 3,000 words only rule that I made.
Next chapter will be the coming of the Last elemental, Earth, and the new battle that the four will have to fight. By the way, when or if you review tell me if you want Touji to be Earth or an OC because some people told me that Touji would suck at it.
Ummm, if you have any questions or would like to pre-read this story then just give me a shout.
One last thanks to my first ever pre-reader…WarShadow! Thanks for helping out man.
Until next time my good people,
Dragonmage182