Chapter Three

In all the commotion, no one had noticed that Rei had returned to school, and that suited her just fine. She was still feeling an ache in her wounded arm in its cumbersome sling, and the bandages and medical eyepatch she was forced to wear irritated her greatly. She let none of this show, of course, instead studying the tree out in the courtyard, beyond the classroom. She never once wondered why she was forced to attend school with the rest of these children, for it was the word of the Commander and thus inviolate. She did incline her head slightly to the new pilot, the Commander's son, as he walked past her and sat down in an empty seat.

Rei had heard, or rather read, of people possessing an innate ability to know when they were being watched. Metaphors were employed to describe this phenomenon, such as the interested party's eyes boring or drilling into one's skin, or feeling the gaze of another person. She had never considered what those sensations actually meant, that they could be a real thing, until she realized that Shinji Ikari was looking at her.

He was not his father, and yet they were remarkably similar. He moved with a casual sort of confidence, as if his body compressed within itself enormous potential and he knew it. When he sat down behind her he did not lean lazily or affect a casual posture, he simply was, radiating a calm sense that he sat the way he did because he felt like it, and for no other reason. He pulled out the pristine school laptop he'd been issued and slowly opened it, watching her all the while. She gradually turned until she could see him more clearly, gaze at him under the bangs of her silvery-blue hair. She had always maintained the most functional haircut- long enough to identify her as a girl yet not so long as to require extensive styling or get in her eyes. Similarly, she avoided her schoolmates' inane attempts at makeup when they were outside the classroom and ignored such things as perfume or jewelry.

For some reason, when he looked at her, she felt an unusual sensation. Without quite knowing why, she lifted her good hand and flicked some of her hair out of her eye, although it did not really need it. She subsequently stared at her hand for a moment, earning a few curious stares from some of the less subtle classmates in the room around her. She quickly resumed her normal posture. The teacher, an elderly man with poor eyesight, seemed to be considering why she had not opened her laptop to take notes, but ignored her and began to drone on about whatever topic would ultimately digress into Second Impact in today's inane lecture.

She continued to observe him from the corner of her eye. He was doing something on the laptop, his brows furrowing slightly as he clicked around, probably working out the basics of the operating system and logging himself in. He sat back in surprise slightly, probably as one of the dozen hacked chat programs opened on his laptop. He considered the screen for a moment, typed in a terse reply, and then looked around, not necessarily in surprise, per se, but with a certain amusement as every single member of the class save Rei herself and the Suzahara boy leapt to their feet. Even Horaki, the shrill and irritating class representative, was on her feet, berating the other students for their lack of respect.

From their questions, Rei was quick to deduce the nature of the conversation. Someone had asked him if he was the pilot of Unit One and he had replied in the affirmative. She would have to inform the Commander. Likely, no disciplinary action would be taken; she had never been explicitly instructed not to reveal her status, and she doubted that he had, either. Nevertheless, it was something of a breach of protocol. After several minutes of his terse refusal to answer their questions with anything more than monosyllabic affirmation or denial and the occasional "I don't know," Horaki finally got the class back into their seats. The teacher never particularly noticed.

Every student in the class continued to stare at him. Rei noticed that the majority of her female classmates had flushed faces, and their eyes were unable to settle on his face, or any one particular area of his anatomy, for that matter. After some consideration, she concluded that they were "checking him out". Curious as to why, she did the same thing. He was in remarkable physical condition for a boy their age, that was sure. He probably needed to purchase a slightly larger shirt, for that matter. She considered noting this in her report to the Commander on his behavior. She decided not to, as he might draw an incorrect conclusion about her interest in his anatomy.

Something about that decision startled her, but she could not say what. She realized that she, too, had color in her cheeks, and that the Aida boy, seated next to Suzahara, was staring at her. Her eyes flicked to him and narrowed.

He looked to the taller boy next to him. "These are the end times," he whispered.

Rei did not understand the connection between her blushing and the prophesied biblical apocalypse. She considered that he knew something of the Scenario and decided to pursue this line of inquiry further, but with a great deal of skepticism. Also, she was staring at Shinji again and did not know why. She quickly turned, rested her hand on her palm, and stared out at her favorite tree.

It was markedly less interesting.

The day continued without incident, with the exception to the delayed reaction to the lunch bell as the portion of the class still staring at and chatting about Shinji moved more slowly than usual. When he realized the bell indicated dismissal from the class, he stood and walked out without ceremony, small lunch box under his arm. Rei slowly rose and, avoiding being jostled by the press of the student body leaving the room, walked towards the courtyard.

She paused when she saw Aida and Suzahara approaching Shinji, who sat on one of the concrete steps shoveling what appeared to be cottage cheese into his mouth, and occasionally sipping from a container of liquid. He closed the cap on his beverage and took the last bite of his food as the two boys approached, and rose.

"Hey," Suzahara called. "Hot shot. What do you think you're doing poaching all the girls?"

Shinji said nothing. Aida slowed his step and looked around warily, as if he expected trouble. Rei looked around and noted the distant Section 2 detail, who would step in to prevent grievous harm to Shinji's person if he were assaulted. She had a feeling they would not be necessary.

Suzahara had several inches of height on him, and loomed over Shinji when he stopped, fists planted on his hips. "I asked you a question, new kid."

Shinji remained silent. He looked up at the taller boy and squared himself. Rei noticed that his back flexed slightly, but this did not appear to be some sort of affectation.

"Don't make me hit you," said Suzahara. "I always hit the new guys."

Shinji leaned forward almost imperceptibly and said, very softly, "Don't start something you're not prepared to finish."

Suzahara blinked in surprise and rocked back on his heels as if he'd been nudged backwards. Rei tilted her head as she observed. His reaction was curious; he grew flushed, and his body posture changed. He began laughing, nervously at first, and then more jovially as Shinji, to her surprise, joined him. Aida stared at them both as if they were insane. When their chucklings subsided, Shinji said, "I'm Shinji."

"Toji."

"Excuse me," said Shinji. "I have something to do."

He scooped up his box and his drink and took another long sip, then started walking towards her. She evaluated him for a moment, her eyes occasionally flicking to the two boys behind him, who were commenting between themselves about his actions, too softly to be heard. He upended and finished his drink as he neared her, and she realized that her heart was beating slightly faster, enough that she could feel it in her chest.

"Are you Rei?"

"Yes."

"Misato told me about you. You're hurt."

"I will heal."

"That which does not kill you makes you stronger."

She considered his words for a moment. The cadence of his voice suggested they were a quotation. She was about to ask him where he had heard this phrase when he said, "Who did this to you?"

"No one did this to me. I was injured in the activation test of Unit Zero."

"I see. My father-"

"Saved my life." She cut him off curtly.

"You don't sound happy about that."

She was about to tell him that she was indifferent when the alert siren spooled up, and the phone in her pocket began to ring. She pulled it out and listened to the pre-recorded message. He simply glanced at his own phone and slipped it back into his pocket.

"We must report to headquarters. They will send a car."

He said nothing, falling naturally in step beside as she walked to the rendezvous point where the armored Section 2 limousine would retrieve them. Nervertheless, she felt a certain quiet calm radiating from him, and yet his right hand flexed and unflexed, his fingers working nervously.

She noticed the tic and said, "Does being asked to pilot again upset you?"

"No," he said flatly. "That's not it."

She did not ask him for clarification, preferring the silence as they rode in the back of the car.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Kensuke said for the ninth time as they headed up the tunnel from the shelter to the hillside overlooking the school.

"I can't believe she bought that line about using the bathroom," Toji replied, ignoring his plea. "Hikari can be so oblivious sometimes."

Kensuke snorted. Toji batted the back of his head.

"Do you think he's really the pilot?"

"Yeah." Said Kensuke. "Sure, why not? The giant robot shows up, he shows up, it makes perfect sense."

"Yeah, but you'd think they'd use, you know, an adult or something. The idea of a kid trying to pilot it is kind of weird."

"I want to know who designed the emergency shelters without bathrooms."

The sun was soon to set, and when the two young men set eyes on the creature coming over the hills into the city, they both froze. Kensuke glanced at his friend and realized they were probably thinking the same thing. This was a mistake.

It was long and serpentine, its body the color of a livid bruise. It glided over the rooftops of the buildings that hadn't retracted, emitting a curious keening sound as it did. Its upper body resembled a caterpillar, with many tiny waving legs, and two long whips of light that danced to and fro in front of it. It had markings on its upper body not unlike the false eyes of some types of moths, with no visible facial features except for the outline of a plague doctor mask on its back. It was long and sinuous and snakelike, and curled up like a cobra before crying out and lashing with its whips, neatly dividing a skyscraper in front of it with an x-shaped cut that sent it tumbling to the ground below.

The robot emerged. It was bigger than he thought. He'd seen specifications listed on a bulletin board that put it at eighty meters, but it looked closer to one hundred. There was something bestial and graceful about the Evangelion as it moved, stomping away from the platform where it had ridden a set of retracting rails to the surface.

It did something they did not expect.

It screamed.

The Evangelion threw back its head and let out a thundering, high pitched wail, like some sort of antediluvian sea serpent in its death throes. The roar mingled somehow, a lower, lesser sound warbling through it and intertwining with it, like a dissonant note in a piano chord. It sounded disturbingly human. When the sound rippled over Kensuke he stiffened, and he saw as Toji did the same his eyes widening. He practically felt the sudden dump of adrenalin into his system as it skipped fight or flight and went straight into naked terror, the sort that simply froze them in place like statues.

The realization hit him immediately. This was wrong. These things were not part of the world. They did not belong here. He fought conflicting urges as he watched them move, the desire to watch and the desire to run away. Neither he nor Toji spoke.

The Evangelion dropped into a crouch and sprinted forward, cable trailing behind it like a tail. The burning whips wrapped around and around it, and smoke and steam rose up where they touched. The Evangelion let out a reverberating grunt and shoved the monster backwards, towards the Ashii lakes. It planted a hand on either side and drug it to the ground, flipping it over like a wrestler. They dropped into the ground together as the Evangelion mounted it and began pounding with its fists. The creature let out a scream and bucked underneath it, trying frantically to shake off its attacker. It wrapped the whips around the Eva's throat, and the machine grabbed them both with one hand, twisted them around its fist, and pulled.

The creature's scream as they tore free echoed across the valley. Kensuke was on his hands and knees before he even realized it. He fought down bile in this throat, and forced himself to look, to see. He watched the Evangelion tear the angel apart, pull it into great meaty pieces that it threw over its shoulder, almost casually, until the thing went still. The Eva lifted a great red sphere in one hand, lifted it high overhead, and smashed it down, shattering it across its own knee.

Toji was shivering. "Let's go back inside."

"Yeah."

"My God," Fuyutsuki whispered. The replay of the action from the point of view of the pilot's gun camera aboard the Evangelion turned Gendo's expansive office red as he spoke.

"Yes," Ikari said flatly, leaning back in his chair.

Fuyutsuki looked away. "Enough, turn it off."

"This is completely at odds with his psychological profile. It's only two years old. He should be timid, reserved."

"By the look of it," Fuyutsuki opened his eyes as Gendo slid the screen back into his desk, "we're lucky he didn't start eating it."

"The most disturbing news comes from Akagi, not the action footage. Did you see the synch reports?"

"Yes. Intermittent feedback on the primaries. He and the Evangelion are feeding into each other. Do you think he's contaminated?"

"Unlikely. We would have detected it by now. "

Gendo turned his chair around to face out his window, and propped his chin on one hand. "Our intention was that his emotional distress would awaken her when he lost consciousness, but this, it's as if he's bringing her near to awareness without losing consciousness himself. A controlled berserk."

"The Committee will not be pleased," Fuyutsuki mused.

"They are already displeased. They've begun pestering me about budgets. The damage to Unit One is superficial and the damage to the city itself is fairly contained, but everything within blocks of the battle was obliterated."

Fuyutsuki sighed and turned to join his pupil.

"What do we do?"

"He can be controlled. He will form attachments we can manipulate. If worse comes to worst, there is the secondary scenario."

"Kyoko's girl? She's as bad as he is, in her own way."

"Superficially, but her pathology is much more… pliant. She craves attention. He apparently craves tearing living things apart, with his bare hands."

Both men shuddered.

"Does he know? Does he remember somehow?"

"Perhaps. If he does, I can use that to my advantage. I won't be outsmarted by a fourteen year old."

Misato was still shaking, and had to hold her own hand when she went looking for him. Again, he'd eluded her after the battle. She expected to find him in the weight room again, but he wasn't there. One of the technicians told her he'd already finished there and had apparently headed to the Section 2 barracks. She was a little disturbed by what she found.

Shinji, in his school uniform sans belt and shoes, was rolling with the Section 2 agents. Literally. The combat instructor was taking him through the basics of their combat system, based on the one used by the United States Marines, much to the amusement of the gathered agents, who all looked remarkable less impressive without their black suits and sunglasses. As she watched, the instructor took him through the basics, and she felt a little queasy when she realized the movement he was learning would be perfect for gouging out an eye. He noticed her, said something to the instructor who nodded, and then bowed politely, pointedly keeping his eyes on the man. No doubt they'd already been through that clichéd exchange.

He trotted over to her, carrying his shoes in hand.

"What are you doing here?" she said.

He seemed a little brighter than usual. "I got bored with 'center the target, pull the switch'."

"I like your initiative," she said, then chewed her lip in thought.

He seemed fine, as he slipped into his shoes and put on his belt. He seemed quite at ease, actually, the way a cat carries itself walking in the sun. If he had a tail, it would have been arched up defiantly. He damn near strutted as he walked beside her to the elevator. He pressed the button before she even had a chance and leaned confidently against the wall. Something about his manner seemed oddly familiar, and there was the way he was wearing his hair.

She caught herself. No. That is just weird.

"I'm supposed to chew you out," she said, and it came out a little higher pitched than she'd intended. "You disobeyed my orders. Sort of."

"You said 'attack'." He said, smirking.

"I meant shoot it. Not… that. You attacked that thing like it was going out with your sister."

"I don't have a sister."

She glared at him. "You know what I mean. I hate them as much as anybody, but…"

"I don't hate them."

"You… you don't? You sure act like you do. I think that thing was afraid of you."

"Good," he said.

The elevator clicked, and the doors opened. She sighed. "Go ahead home. I'll be there in an hour or so. I've got to fill out some forms."

"Okay."

She watched him walk away, then reluctantly pushed the button to close the doors. Her hand was still shaking a little. He was genuinely starting to worry her. She hovered over the button that would take her to the floor where her own office resided, thought better of it, and went to see Ritsuko instead. She found her old friend hunched over some report or other. She sat down in a chair backwards, and immediately started spinning in lazy circles.

Ritsuko sighed. "Don't you have work to do?"

"Yeah," she said.

"You're not doing it."

"Your powers of observation astound me. We should nominate you for the Nobel Prize."

"They should, actually," Ritsuko said, slyly.

"Oh shut up," Misato snapped.

Ritsuko sat up, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her fingertips. "What's wrong?"

"I'm worried about Shinji."

"I'll say," Ritsuko snorted.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, so far, every time I've seen him you've been mooning over him like a teenager with a crush." Ritsuko smirked.

"That is not true!"

"Is too."

"Is not!"

"Is too."

"Now who's being immature?"

"Touché."

"You saw what he did today," Misato stopped spinning the chair. "It scared me a little. I didn't expect him to be so… nasty with it."

"I'm a little concerned myself," Ritsuko admitted. "We need to watch him carefully."

"Oh?"

"When he pilots the Evangelion, he synchs with it. His mind merges with it a little bit. Part of the danger is that the Eva will mess with his mind."

"Yeah, yeah, contamination, I know. You said he's clean."

"He is. I don't think we anticipated the pilot being so… intense. I've gone over Asuka's performance, and it's different. She's more precise, controlled. It fits her personality. Shinji's psych profile describes him as depressed and listless with an inferiority complex. How did he turn into a raging berserker?"

"I should probably ask him," said Misato. "Maybe I should get him drunk."

Ritsuko eyed her.

"I'm kidding!"

"Sure you are," she turned back to her reports. "Just remember he is the Commander's son. I'm not bailing you out on this one."

"Bitch," Misato muttered with a smirk.

Ritsuko waved her away. "Begone. I have repair orders to sign off on."

With a sigh, Misato briefly considered actually doing her work. However, the post-battle euphoria was still within her, and she decided, based on a reasonable set of principles, to go home and get drunk instead. She put thoughts of Shinji's mental condition from her mind and half skipped to her car. Paperwork and crazy pilot and creepy bosses aside, she knew one thing: another one of the bastards was dead.

The light was on in the apartment when she pulled into the parking lot. Sometimes, it bothered that they had the whole building to themselves. She wasn't worried about crime, it was just a little weird to come home to an empty building every day. Hopfully, after the war, more people would move in. It would be the new capital, after all. She felt a strange pang when that thought crossed her mind. Some part of her believed the war would end.

"I'm home," she said with a yawn as she walked into the apartment.

"Welcome home," Shinji replied. He was sitting in the living room, reading a book. A quick glance at the cover told her it wasn't schoolwork, but she let it slide. He'd earned it. Besides, from the dishes piled up in the sink, he'd already fed Pen Pen, her penguin. The kid kept up on the chores.

She slipped into the kitchen, cracked open her first beer, and sat down at the table, a sudden rush of tiredeness falling on her like a weight, as if it would drag her down to the floor. The beer's biting bitterness brought her back around as she drained it halfway. She glanced at Shinji, and worry bubbled through her mind once again.

"Hey kid," she said. "C'mere."

He looked up from his book, studied her blankly for a bare second, and then gently set it aside on the couch before padding over to her.

"Yes?"

"What'cha reading?"

"Philosophy."

"Sounds boring. Want some beer?"

He tilted his head. "I'm too young."

"Not with adult supervision." She smirked, waving the can in front of his face.

He snatched it from her. "Fine."

He took a short sip, then a longer, slower pull, his brows furrowing. He handed the empty can to her and stood there for a moment, his eyes darting here and there, in thought. Then he belched. Misato burst out laughing and stood up, heading for the refrigerator. She grabbed two beers this time and headed for the couch. "You can have your own. Just one, though. Will it bother you if I watch TV while you read?"

"No," he said, taking the beer. He cracked it open, took a drink, then set it on the floor while he picked up his book and curled his legs under himself. Misato went into her bedroom, changed, and plopped down on the other end. Shinji continued to read intently, taking a drink now and then. A while after he'd finished, the book dropped out of his hands as he fell asleep. She slipped a piece of paper in to mark his page and put it on the side table, then pulled a blanket out of the closet to cover him. He was too heavy to move. Before she went to bed herself, she brushed the hair out of his eyes.

"Mom," he whispered.

Author's Note: I noticed a minor continuity error in Chapter 2, which stated that Shinji came to school the day after he arrived and when segued to the same events "One Week Earlier". That has now been corrected.