The End of Hedgehog's Dilemma, Part I: Evolutionary Angel (Written for Gob Hobblin)
NGE characters belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 4
One moment, she had this traumatic, sensory-appended vision of her right arm getting split in half.
The next, she was jolting up from where she laid thrashing upon an illuminated spot on the ground, screaming bloody murder:
'-KILL YOU! I'll . . . I'll . . . wha?'
Scrambling back up on her feet, Soryu Asuka Langley looked frantically around, but could see little beyond this focused circle of light she now found herself basking under. Blinking, she covered her right eye, and found the left one –- which should have been debilitated by pain - to be working just fine. Glancing down, she found her arm to be whole and undamaged. Not only that, but she was in casual wear instead of the red plug suit, with her sandal-ed feet now tapping against what looked like a smooth, black floor.
For some reason, the EVA Pilot now was standing under a spotlight, upon some dark place (a stage?), instead of being in the entry plug, battling against the monstrous MP Series together with -
'Mama!' Hurriedly recollecting her wits about, the girl stumbled forward in search of her mother - fighting by her side against those monsters only but moments ago. 'Mama, where are you? Mama?' As she moved, the spotlight followed her, keeping her alit yet also obscuring from her whatever it was beyond the light's boundaries. 'Ma-'
/"Mama . . ."/
' . . . huh?'
At that familiar voice, a 'scene' –- for there was no better way to describe what she saw - came into view some distance in front of her. It was the interior of an EVA entry plug, where Ikari Shinji's frail figure could be seen seated upon the pilot's seat. With his head down, the boy appeared seemingly subdued at first glance; a closer look, however, revealed his fingers to be trembling from where his hands clutched at the controls.
/"This won't work,"/ whimpered the Third Child. /"I don't know what you're trying to make me do, but I can't do it. Even though you've put me in here, I still can't pilot EVA."/ His voice, once meek to the point of cowardice, gradually turned fierce with budding rage. /"Piloting this monster had made me lost the only one who was ever nice to me! I can't keep on piloting this thing; not even if you're in it, not even if it's the only way to save the world . . . "/ Listening to him whine, Asuka could feel her own rage boiling over.
'You . . . idiot!' Was this why she had to fight the MP Series with no backup until the battery inevitably ran out? Because this sorry excuse of an EVA pilot was too busy drowning in feels? To think this was why Unit 02 got defeated and destroyed, again separating her from Mama . . . .
. . .but wait; who was this you? More importantly . . . who was this 'only one who was ever nice to him'?
And just what was this place? What was this surreal-seeming close-up 'scene' (apparition? holographic video?) of Shinji in the plug?
Just what was going on here?
/" . . . you don't understand; you're just not me . . . ."/ Then came a pause in Shinji's monologue of gloom, during which the boy appeared as though he was hearing things (in his head? from some ghost?). /"Yes, I once saved her, and she was nice to me for a while. But Asuka has been pushing me away ever since her synch rate started dropping. Even if I show up trying to help her now, she won't be happy . . ."/
'Of all the excuses . . .' Livid now, the girl stomped up and towards the 'scene', towards this vision of Shinji existing impossibly in the off-ness of this improbable place. 'Shinji, you MORON!' Frustratingly, even though the boy appeared to be right in front of her, he also remained stubbornly out of her reach no matter how much she pushed forward. 'Why?! Why'd you have to give up so easily? Why'd you . . . ?' Choked up, she had to stop and blink hard, to try and force back those seeping, damnable tears.
Why did it have to turn out like this? She had wanted so much to make a comeback by winning against the MP series, so she may again reclaim the status as NERV's top EVA pilot; she would again be superior to Shinji then, same as before. With that, she could . . . she could . . . .
'. . . find the strength to face him again, so you may again be with him.'
Jolting at having her innermost thoughts accurately vocalized by the unfamiliar voice, Asuka whirled around to find a pale young man standing at a distance away, watching her.
'Not as his equal, of course,' continued this rather precocious-seeming youth around her age, his voice as gentle as his words were shrewd. 'You want to be superior to him, to keep him dominated, so the interaction will be completely on your own terms: so you yourself can stay safe throughout the contact.'
' . . . who the hell are you?' asked the girl, hiding her growing wariness behind a tough front as she faced off against the unnervingly omniscient stranger.
Said stranger, for his part, met her guarded glare with a narrow-eyed not-quite smile. 'I'm Kaworu, Nagisa Kaworu. Like you, I too am a friend of Ikari Shinji-kun.'
' . . . do you understand now?'
Intimately entangled from where they were cloaked under thick shadows, the two pulled slightly back from each other's faces, such that they now were nose to nose, eye to eye.
'I had no choice but to do it then, Misato,' muttered the man in sad regret, 'even knowing how it would hurt you . . .'
'I understand . . . .' replied Misato, in a forcedly even voice cracking at the edges, '. . . that you're still that same selfish coward you've always been, Father.'
Fine-featured face dimming further under the theatre's shades, Dr. Katsuragi recoiled slightly from where he had his upper torso protruding grotesquely out from Kaji's lower abdomen; Kagi, who now had his waist arched so far backwards to balance their weights, Pen-Pen now could reach up with his flippers to swap playfully at the back of his dangling ponytail. Impossibly, not only did the two men had their flesh merged together, even their clothes were merged from where the two conjoin in a seamless manner . . .
'Misato-' he started, but was immediately cut off by his daughter.
'Why?' asked Misato, the hurt in her tear-rimmed eyes as harrowing as it was childlike. 'I've gone through years trying to convince myself that I'm not using the men in my life to substitute your presence, that I've erased your shadow from my wants, from the ones I'm with. Now that I'm finally found someone I can be in with love with for real, why'd you have to show up again and RUIN EVERYTHING?!' Visibly crumbled by her words, Dr. Katsuragi hung his head, before raising it again to again reveal Kaji's face; the 'other/real' him was no longer present behind him, leaving a bewildered Pen-Pen gawking at empty air.
'Squawk?'
'Katsuragi.' Kaji's gaze upon Misato was gentle with empathy. 'The Dr. had his soul directly scattered by the original Adam's Wings of Light during Second Impact. He has no means of manifesting except for when he attaches himself to another individual consciousness-' He was then cut off by her slapping him across the face.
'And so you volunteered to be his parasite host? How noble!'
'He is . . . your father,'
'And just what does THAT has to do with you-'
A cough, pointed and crisp, brought their attention towards Ritsuko. The blonde scientist now had come up to beside them, taking in their spat with crossed arms.
'If I may interrupt this little lover's quarrel?' She gestured up ahead and at the large screen. 'Far more important things are happening to our world right now.'
On screen, EVA Unit 01 could be seen bursting through NERV HQ's pyramid structure, resulting in a cross-shaped explosion cutting through the debris-clouded heights. More attention-worthy than the dramatic visuals were those multiple lines of scrolling text framing the screen –- words that bluntly exposed some highly confidential information regarding the Human Instrumentality Project, the Second Impact, and most importantly, SEELE . . .
Already, sounds of outrage could be heard spreading all across the colossal theatre, which appeared increasingly crowded by the moment:
'What the hell?! Second Impact is actually caused by people?'
'I lost my entire family because of some fanatical cult organization lurking behind the UN?!'
'Oh my gawd even the Prime Minister is a frigging lackey of this SEELE!'
'The Colonel had planned on making us cannon fodder from the start!'
'This SEELE was planned on killing us all from the start!'
'We've actually been deployed against NERV on orders to kill everyone on sight –- including the Children –- all to help SEELE bring about the Third Impact?!'
'Look, here are more info on all the top members of SEELE!'
'Damn . . . even the US President is in on this too?'
'Whoa, they got everything on these fuckers, from their alias, their addresses, even their bank account passwords . . .'
'Goddamned bastards . . .!'
'Oh boy . . . .' Distracted into temporarily letting go of her own anger, Misato looked around the rapidly filling rows, and saw how most of the angry audiences were in either NERV or JSSDF uniforms. 'Am I glad I'm not that connected to SEELE to begin with.' Beside her, Kaji's lips curled in his roguish smirk.
'There is no stopping the Truth from coming out now,' mused the murdered triple agent. 'The old men will be in for a nasty surprise once they're to cross over to our side.'
'Turning the Room of Guf into this metaphorical theatre accomplishes two things at once,' said Naoko, who had by now came up to beside her daughter. 'First, it exposes the truth of SEELE to all souls gathered. Secondly, this also gives the 'audience members' something to focus upon. The second is of utmost importance to us here, as mental focus is crucial to our retaining individuality against Instrumentality's blurring mechanism.' In the background, Pen-Pen could be seen having already popped himself down on a seat and intently watching the played 'movie'.
'He planned it so that we'd all be safe from the nothingness of this Impact he's putting us through.' Appearing thoughtful, Misato stepped over to her high-intelligence pet, gently ruffling up his bushy red brows. 'Nagisa Kaworu . . . could he really be . . .?'
'A . . . friend?
'What're you talking about?' Eyes on this Nagisa person –- whose sinister presence unnerved her more by the passing second - Asuka let out a pointed snort from between her clenched teeth. 'I know the idiot had only got two friends, and neither of them are you.'
'It's natural that you don't know about me,' spoke the beautiful yet off-putting young man, in a manner that Asuka would have deemed 'catty' had this been a girl. 'Ours is a friendship that blossomed while you were in slumber.'
'What slum-' The girl then choked upon getting just what he was referring to. 'You . . . how'd you know about . . .'
Nagisa's gaze upon her was piercing as a raised sword. 'Like you and Shinji, I too was one of the selected Children. I came in at Fifth.'
The words washed over Asuka like a bucket of ice. 'You are the pilot they brought in to try and replace me?!' Goose bumps raising on the back of her neck, she shifted warily into a defensive stance – one that she knew would do little against what she was facing off against. 'Then, weren't you really the . . .'
'The Seventeenth Angel,' admitted this pale 'boy' with glinting red eyes, 'namely Tabris.'
To be continued . . .?
Note: I had thought that I would wrap up Part I with this chapter, but it isn't meant to be. Guess there will be at least another chapter or two before I can unveil The End of Hedgehog's Dilemma, Part II: Hedgehog Messiah.
Oh, and about the Dr. Katsuragi/Kaji soul fusion thing? That was totally inspired by the Kaworu-Lilith scene in EoE. Hope you guys like!
P.S. The time it takes for me to update is inversely proportional to the number of feedbacks I get ;-)
