Neon Genesis Evangelion
Pilot's Table
By D.A.
0
0
Title: Home
Prompt: Set 30-b/ Prompt 019 (found)
Word Count: (2500+)
Rating: T
Summary: The NERV crew makes one more attempt at getting Shinji back.
Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything connected to it.
Notes: Well, this is my first fiction written out of country. I'm on deployment, and oddly enough feel more like writing now than back in the states. 2013-Jan/Feb Also, I've lost my file of prompts, so I had to get a new set. Starting with this chapter, I'll be using the 100-prompts tables from Still aiming for a Min of fifty, but we'll see.
Partly inspired by the Harry Potter soul-bond fanfic "H. J. Potter" by S.M wane.
Part three of the "Returned" story arc.
0
0
"Are you sure you didn't miss any notes?" Kensuke asked again, almost absentmindedly.
"No sub-commander, I didn't miss any notes, and I've rechecked all the calculations." Maya Ibuki said, sighing. With several more years, and several more PhDs under her belt much like her senpai, Maya was the picture of calm and wise. "Relax, Kensuke. The only way this won't work is if Dr. Yui actually fights it or Shinji refuses to leave."
"Yui is the one that worries me." Kensuke almost spits the name, "its why I asked Asuka to be here. Maybe her presence will give Shinji the boost he needs to get passed his mother..."
"If we fail, the depression it could cause her to fall into might be almost instantly fatal." she whispered.
"I know. I spoke with Hikari, Asuka has basically been the walking dead since she came back to Tokyo-3. We essentially lost Asuka the day we lost Shinji." Kensuke gestured out the observation window at the catwalk Asuka was standing on, "heartless as it sounds, we either try to get him back, or start planning Asuka's funeral."
000
"Can you hear me, Shinji..." the redhead whispered.
The thirty-four year old young woman stood patiently on the catwalk before the behemoth. Despite the years since she last stood there, she looked very much as she had then. Perhaps more mature physically and mentally, with the barest hint of wrinkles across her forehead, but the same crystal blue eyes and blazing copper-red hair. The years seemed to have almost passed her by.
"Stupid question... I know you can, you told me you heard Misato when she called you back then."
-Asuka, we're about to start the recovery program.-
"Alright, I'm ready." she looked up at the control room to see Maya and Kensuke looking down to her, then turned back to the Evangelion as faint a whirring and beeping started to pick up.
"I need you Shinji, I never got a chance to tell you."
-Link established, beginning command reroute.-
"I can't live with just a ghostly visit every few years when your mom decides to let you out." Asuka tuned out everything else, focusing only on talking to Shinji. And reaching out with her AT-Field. "I know you can hear me, and I'm begging you to come back. Please Shinji, don't-"
She stopped, her eyes locked with the suddenly glowing ones of the Eva. She noticed, in the back of her mind, that the talk coming from the control room was panicked, but paid that no mind. Like last time it would be Shinji and his mother, not the machines, that decided if he returned.
"Please, Yui, give me the love of my life back..." tears now coated her cheeks, her hands gripping the railing in a white knuckled hold as she raised her voice to yell, "damn it, give me back my Shinji!"
A ripple flowed over the surface of the S-2 organ in the center of the Eva's chest. Asuka gasped, hands to her mouth as she hoped against hope and took one step back. Another ripple, and the form of a young man was visible in the dull glow of the sphere.
"Shinji..." she whispered, then a faint orange glow reached out from the core and entwined with the glow from her hands, and all went black.
000
"Hello Asuka."
The gentle voice of a woman behind her caused Asuka to open her eyes upon a blank orange vista, devoid of any features. Turning, she finds herself face to face with a woman the spitting image of a brown haired and green eyed Rei. Yui Ikari, Shinji's mother and bonded soul of unit-01.
"Hello Yui."
"I'm sorry you've been hurt for so long." And the look on the woman's face, a face not any older than Asuka's, and the tone of her voice tell Asuka she truly regrets the pain Asuka has endured. "It's so hard to connect with the outside, I never knew the passing of time was so quick compared to what I can perceive here."
"What about Shinji's visits, hm?" Asuka demanded, "explain how he can visit me and see the passing of time, yet you still keep him to yourself!"
Yui flinched at Asuka's tone, wrapping her arms around herself.
"I never knew he was visiting you. Perhaps he didn't really know either..."
"I want him back, Yui!" Asuka screamed.
"Asuka...?"
The quiet, awed whisper of her name was like a roar in the silence after her cry, and she whipped around fast enough to lose her balance.
Only to be caught in the strong arms of a very familiar young man about her age. Looking up passed those arms to the face she could recall perfectly from her dreams and the apparitions she'd glimpsed, tears began pouring down her cheeks.
"Shinji..." whispered, hopeful and almost desperate, voice and tone twisting at the young man's heart, Asuka dared to believe what she saw.
"I'm here, Asuka." he whispered, his eyes tracing over every inch of her face as he helped her to stand and face him.
Crying his name over and over, voice filled with relief and joy, Asuka threw herself into his arms and held him with everything she had. Shinji returned the embrace, relief relaxing his frame as he whispered her name in her ear every time she spoke his. After what seemed to be hours yet at the same time seconds, Asuka pulled back from Shinji enough to look up slightly at his face.
"I love you."
Their words, spoken in-synch, mingle and mesh. And as they register what the other has just said joy lights their faces. Both of them grinning like idiots, Asuka presses her lips to his, and the world around them fades out of their awareness with only faintly spoken words following after.
"I'm sorry, my son, for what you and she endured because of my folly. I can only spend the last of this curse's power to grant the two of you a blessing and time."
000
From their vantage point in the control room, with all their attempts to recover Shinji failing faster than they can keep up, Kensuke and Maya see the orange glow flow from Asuka. As they watch, a second glow pushes out from the Eva and connects with hers, wrapping her in a rapidly brightening orange glow as the tones quiet and lights dim.
With a flash of near blinding orange light, the cage was empty of all but a pair of small bodies laying on the catwalk. Where the Evangelion had stood was now an empty suit of armor and the cracked red sphere that had once been an S-2 organ.
"What's" Maya cleared her throat, blinking to clear her vision, "what happened...?"
"I don't know, but that better be Asuka and Shinji down there..." Kensuke grabbed at his wrist, activating the small communications bracelet there, "Medical team to the Evangelion cage, two down on catwalk seven."
Putting a hand on Maya's shoulder, Kensuke run out of the room.
000
Light forces its way into his eyes, and the cold panelling of what he is laying on tells him he is not in bed. Forcing his eyes open, blinking at the brightness, Shinji's first sight is the smooth face and red hair of a young woman he knows well. A face he was so very afraid he would not get to see again.
"Asuka...?"
His voice is hoarse, scratchy, but it is enough. Asuka stirs, her eyes fluttering open as she adjusts to the bright cage lighting. She freezes, her eyes widening, the instant she sees him staring at her.
"Shinji..." hesitant, tears in the corners of her eyes as a fragile yet hopeful smile touches her lips, she reaches out and cups his cheek, blinking away more tears as she feels the warmth of his skin against her palm, "you're really here... I got you back..."
"I'm here, I came back." a smile splits his face as he assures her, and with a cry Asuka grabs him close. With Asuka pressing her face into his chest as she sobs, telling him between gasps how much she missed him, neither of them notice when Kensuke runs up to them on the catwalk and gasps.
000
Laying on the catwalk before Kensuke, holding each other so close they looked like they'll never let go, are two people who look barely out of their teens. Even so, Kensuke recognizes them both, and drops to his knees. It never really hit him how much he missed his best friend til now, and he was willing to bet that even Touji would be in tears at seeing Shinji back.
Running up behind him, Hikari gasps as well, dropping to her knees next to him and whispering Shinji's name.
"He's really back, Asuka got him back..."
000
Tears slowed, breathing evened out, Asuka lifted herself up slightly and looked down at Shinji. He looked younger than in the Eva's dream world, but he was there, and her heart told her it was Shinji.
"I love you." she said, grinning, "I think I loved you since you talked to me after the 14th, when I told you to leave and you ducked under the tape and held me anyways."
Shinji returned the grin with his own soft smile, "I loved you since we piloted your Eva together against the sixth."
"You look beautiful," he murmured, brushing his fingers through her hair, "almost like the day I asked you to the dance, before-"
Asuka did not let him finish, pressing her lips to his in a kiss both gentle and so full of emotion it stopped all thoughts in his mind.
000
"Asuka."
Hikari's gentle call startled both pilots. Shinji and Asuka bolted upright and turned to face the other two on the catwalk, but stayed pressed against each other's side, unwilling to put any more distance between themselves than necessary.
"Let's get you both dried off and in some clean clothes." she smiled, gesturing towards them, and they both suddenly noticed they were drenched in LCL.
The group stood, and with Shinji and Asuka hand in hand, they left the cage for the old pilots changing room, walking right passed a gaping medical team. Kensuke and Hikari separate from the two at the doors to get uniforms for them until they could get their own, while Asuka and Shinji enter the curtain divided locker room.
Quickly showered and wrapped in towels, the two pull back the curtain in perfect sync and sit side-by-side on the bench on the male side of the locker room. Shoulder to shoulder, fingers meshed together, the two relax and enjoy the presence of each other.
*I could sit here with you forever*, Asuka thought as she turned enough to look at Shinji's face.
"Same here Asuka." Shinji spoke quietly, glancing at her and smiling.
"Same what?" she questioned, startled slightly, "I didn't say anything..."
A slight frown marred his features as he titled his head to the side, "I'm sure I heard you say you could just sit with me forever."
Eyebrows drawn together in contemplation Asuka focused on Shinji, covered his eyes, and thought, *Don't open your mouth Third Children. Just tell me you love me*
*How am I supposed to tell you I love you if I don't open my mouth...*
Asuka's eyes widened, "Shinji, pay very close attention to how you hear what I say next."
"OK...?"
*I want you to tell me how you hear me right now.* Asuka thought, then lowered her hands to her lap.
"It...was in my head...?" Shinji answered hesitantly, earning a grin from Asuka as she nodded once in confirmation.
"We can hear each other's thoughts?" his eyes lit up as he watched her for her reaction.
"So it seems my baka." she grinned, leaning into his side again and sighing.
This was how Hikari and Kensuke found them, leaned into each other and occasionally chuckling.
000
"Well, it seems you're both perfectly healthy twenty-something year olds." Looking at the surprise on Asuka and Shinji's faces, Maya chuckled, "I don't understand it either. Just be glad you've both got an extra ten to fifteen years added on."
"That's not all." Asuka commented, then glanced meaningfully at Shinji.
"We can hear each others thoughts if we're directing them to each other." Shinji spoke, seeming a bit hesitant, "we don't know the range yet, we kinda don't feel too eager to test how far we can get just yet."
Shinji's ending comment earned a chuckle from Maya and an elbow to his ribs from Asuka.
"Well, if the de-aging and telepathy are the only effects of getting you back and drenched in both LCL and a powerful localized AT-Field, then you're free to go." Maya smiled, "just stop by the sub-commander's office before you leave."
"Will do, see you later Maya." grinning, Asuka grabbed Shinji by his wrist and dashed out of the med-bay, leaving a content Maya and Shinji's parting goodbye in her wake.
000
*You didn't have to run all the way here* Shinji thought to Asuka with a chuckle, *I'm sure Kensuke isn't going anywhere for a bit.*
*Relax love, I haven't been able to run like that in years, and you haven't had a chance to either* she returned, laughing out loud in the corridor as she tapped the call button to let Kensuke know they were there.
Shinji smiled at her, warmth filling him at her use of the endearment, *I know*
"Come in!" Kensuke called, his joy evident in his tone, even muffled by the door.
Opening the door and stepping into the office, Shinji quickly spots the small markers that say this was most definitely his friend's office. A few ship models rest on a book shelf that holds a mixture of military and NERV manuals and history books. On his desk stood action figure sized models of unit-01 and unit-00. The sight of unit-zero draws a twinge of pain in Shinji's chest. He knows his half-sister died the day he was absorded into unit-one, when she rejected Gendo's plans and stopped Seele.
"So, how are you Shinji?" Kensuke asked, smiling at his two friends, "eager to get home and to bed I suppose?"
"Yes, but I have a favor to ask first." Shinji says, grinning at his friends inuendo.
"Anything Shinji, just ask." the sincerity in Kensuke's voice tugs at Shinji's heart, drawing his attention to just how much he was missed, and not just by Asuka.
"Do you know any good jewelers?"
Both Asuka and Kensuke share a confused look, before Kensuke grins, then laughs. Asuka huffs in annoyance, knowing she is now the only one clueless, a state she never enjoyed.
"You don't waste time now do you?"
"I've been gone for over twenty years, right?" Shinji replies, smiling, "I have no excuse for taking my time."