Homecoming
A Neon Genesis Evangelion story by Andrew J. Talon
Disclaimer: Gainax owns it, I don't. I'm not making any money off this story either.
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The rest of the journey to NERV was relatively uneventful, the Renault holding together surprisingly well under the circumstances. Shinji and the Doctor made suitably impressed noises as they looked out into the Geofront, though Misato could tell Shinji was more impressed. The Doctor seemed more... Concerned than anything else.
It seemed like smooth sailing from there, except for one little problem.
"Gah... Why the hell hasn't anyone put up any signs?!" Misato demanded of no one in particular. She looked at a map of NERV with a scowl. "Who the hell designed this place?!"
"Um... Misato?" Shinji asked. Misato waved her hand and smiled back at Shinji.
"Don't worry, don't worry, we're fine, we're fine!"
"Just what exactly are we supposed to be looking for?" The Doctor asked. He pulled out a stethoscope and began to press it against the walls, listening intently.
"What are you listening for?" Misato asked back incredulously. Shinji coughed, and took Misato's map from her. He then turned it around, and handed it back. Misato looked down. She had been holding it upside-down. She looked up at Shinji, who shrugged and smiled weakly.
"Um... Just... You know..."
She blushed back and gave a thankful smile back. "Thanks... Okay..." She pointed down one corridor. "This way!"
"Oh, good!" The Doctor said with a smile, taking off his stethoscope and putting it back in his coat pocket. Shinji looked at the Doctor, who shrugged back as they both fell into step behind Misato.
"Anything interesting?" Shinji asked in a low voice. The Doctor put his hands in his pockets.
"A few things... A few..."
They caught up with Misato at an elevator, which they promptly entered. Misato sighed and glared impatiently at the floor counter. The Doctor and Shinji leaned against opposite walls of the elevator, both trying to relax.
Abruptly, the elevator came to a halt, and the doors opened. Stepping into the car, Ritsuko Akagi gave the cringing Misato a stern look, before her gaze swept to the youngest passenger.
"This is the Third?" Ritsuko asked, eyeing Shinji.
"Yep, checked out by the Marduk report and everything!" She was happy Ritsuko had gotten right to business, and hadn't mentioned how late she was. She didn't need to be dressed down in front of the new pilot and his… Friend.
Ritsuko's gaze moved to the Doctor's with a frown. "And this? "
"Oh, hello! I'm the Doctor," the Doctor answered with a grin.
"He's Shinji's friend, he was at the train station, I couldn't just leave him behind," Misato explained.
Ritsuko narrowed her eyes at the Doctor… And smirked.
"Which one?"
"Oh… I'm partial to the Tenth myself," the Doctor said with a wry grin.
"Huh?" Misato replied intelligently.
Ritsuko took in the man's dark gray hair, dark brown eyes, simple pin-stripe suit underneath his trenchcoat, and his overall lanky build. She chuckled.
"You look nothing like him."
"Well, I'm not a cosplayer… Just my name," the Doctor replied.
Shinji rolled his eyes.
"His father had high hopes for him…"
" Well Doctor, you can get off the elevator here," Ritsuko said simply.
"Huh?" Shinji asked. The Doctor's grin faltered just a bit.
"Oh really?"
"Yes. Really. Authorized personnel only beyond this point."
"But, Misato!" Shinji looked imploringly to Misato, who shrugged.
"I'm sorry Shinji, but… Well, she's right."
"Yeah, but he's a minor," the Doctor said. He then produced some papers and brandished them in front of Ritsuko's eyes. "And, legally and technically, I am his guardian."
Shinji's eyebrows raised, but he said nothing. The Doctor hadn't told him that, but given the situation they were in, he didn't argue.
" Now, I'm sure he'd love to go with you two lovely ladies all by himself, but I really must insist," the Doctor concluded.
"He is now an employee and asset of NERV, of which you are neither," Ritsuko responded in a dismissive, business-like manner.
"Well, I'm not going if he's not with me," Shinji stated flatly.
"Shinji, c'mon, this is serious!" Misato pressed. "We need you, and you can see him again afterwards!"
"You can speak with him after we're finished here. This is not a favor or a request," Ritsuko added.
"Yeah... But... You need me, right?" Shinji asked.
"Yes. You. Not your so-called guardian," Ritsuko stated, glancing at the Doctor with a slightly condescending look. The Doctor merely smirked back.
"Shinji, look, we need you right now. We don't need him. No offense Doctor, but right now we need to-" Misato began, but was cut off as the walls rumbled. Faint, but audible in the tiny elevator.
Ritsuko looked up with a calculated expression.
"It seems the Angel is beginning to move." She stepped into the elevator and pressed a button, closing the doors.
"Huh... And we're, what? 1,700 meters down right now? Doesn't sound good," the Doctor stated.
"Approximately," Ritsuko confirmed, as the descent begins anew.
"Look, Doctor, I can appreciate your concerns but we really need Shinji and-" Misato began again, but was cut off by Ritsuko.
"It can't be helped. Just drop it for now," the blonde doctor said.
"Oh, don't mind me, I won't make a fuss," the Doctor cheerfully answered.
"You had better not," Ritsuko said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Just out of curiosity…" The Doctor began.
"Yes?" Ritsuko asked.
"Is that standard office attire?" He asked, glancing at the labcoat she wore over a one-piece bathing suit with a clinical expression. Shinji sighed.
"Doctor..."
"I'm just asking," the Doctor replied innocently. Ritsuko's response was cool.
"I just finished with a swim when I came to find you three."
The Doctor sniffed the air.
"Not water... High-iron content, newtonian fluid. Organic."
"She's been swimming in blood?! What does my dad do here anyway?!" Shinji gasped.
"He's an evil vampire lord," Ritsuko deadpanned. She gave the Doctor a look, not in the least impressed.
"Blood of virgins to keep himself young?" The Doctor asked with a wry smile.
" I thought that was that Countess?" Shinji mused.
"Wha? What are you talking about now?" Misato asked.
"With how he acts, Countess is a good title for him," Ritsuko murmured. The Doctor snickered as Shinji turned to Misato.
"Uh, he means the Countess Bathory, known as the female Dracula. She bathed in the blood of virgins to keep her skin young."
"So, difficult employer then?" The Doctor asked.
"Oh, you'll probably find out soon enough," Ritsuko stated, her gaze on Shinji as the elevator came to a stop. "We're here."
"Okay... So... Now that we're here..." Shinji said, holding up the booklet Misato had handed him, "What exactly does NERV do? And what do you need me for?"
"Well... We're about to show you," Misato said. The doors opened into a vast, dark room, the tiny light of the elevator making no dent in the abyss beyond.
Ritsuko walked over to a console, across a long, narrow catwalk, and hit the lights.
The Doctor and Shinji's reactions were pretty much the same: Total silence. Slowly, Misato following behind, they walked out onto the catwalk, and took in the purple behemoth before them.
Shinji blinked, and then looked at his information booklet. "Huh?!"
"You won't find anything about it in there. This is mankind's greatest weapon against the Angels. The Evangelion," Ritsuko said, with quiet drama.
" ... It's... Very… Purple," Shinji said, for lack of anything better to say. The Doctor hummed thoughtfully and walked closer to the massive form, dark eyes scrutinizing every visible inch of the robot's surface.
"We've brought you here to pilot it," Ritsuko finished.
"I-Huh?! Pilot it?!" Shinji gasped incredulously. Ritsuko nodded
"Now, wait just a moment," the Doctor began, spinning around and fixing Ritsuko and Misato with an affronted scowl. "You're sending my charge out in a giant robot that he's never seen before, that he hasn't trained for, to fight a giant monster that the whole UN military can't even dent?"
"Has my dad been watching Martian Successor Nadesico or something?! I can't pilot this thing!" Shinji shouted.
"Shinji, we need you to! You're the only one who can!" Misato said.
Shinji sighed, and glared sullenly at the Doctor.
"So... This is what my dad brought me here for?"
The Doctor shrugged back, sticking his hands in his pockets.
"Blame me for being optimistic why don't you?" He then promptly pulled out a roll of cash, and tossed it to Shinji. Both Ritsuko and Misato blinked.
"Are either of you two getting this?!" The Captain asked in disbelief. Before she could continue, once more, she was interrupted. This time by a different voice.
"You will pilot it."
All eyes swept up, to Gendo Ikari, standing primly in an armored glass observation box. Shinji's glare deepened as he saw his father, and he actually snarled up at him.
"This is what you brought me here for?!"
"Yes," Gendo replied simply, brow knitting slightly. Otherwise, he gave no other tell.
"Why?" Shinji demanded.
"Our other pilots are either on the other side of the world, or too injured! Shinji, c'mon, the Angel is getting closer!" Misato pressed, reaching out to rest a hand on his shoulder. Shinji ignored her, gritting his teeth.
"You are in no position to say otherwise. If you decline, then the blame for all that follows will fall squarely on you," Gendo replied, his cold voice sending a shiver through Shinji's spine. He didn't look away though.
"Oh really? So, the giant monster won't destroy you too?"
Gendo's glance shifted minutely, to rest upon the Doctor. The man was rapping his knuckles against the armor plating of the Evangelion, but his narrowed eyes were on Gendo's.
" Interesting statement. You could have brought him here any time in the last decade for training as a pilot, yet you haven't. Instead, you just throw him into this giant raver of yours." The Doctor rapped his knuckles against the armor again, and hummed thoughtfully.
"Hmm... Depleted uranium mesh underneath a polyceramic plating... Very nice."
Ritsuko's eyebrows rose slightly in response at this. Very few people knew what was involved in the construction of an Evangelion, and this man had determined it just by tapping the material?
"All he needs to do is sit inside the plug," Gendo spoke.
"And why is that?" The Doctor asked.
"That is none of your concern," the Commander stated.
"I'm his guardian, I damn well think that is all of my concern," the Doctor retorted.
A condescending aura of contempt radiated from Gendo. The Doctor glared back, meeting Gendo's eyes with a steely expression.
"Your concerns are moot," Gendo said. He looked from the Doctor to Shinji, as though the former was an insect to him. Shinji kept scowling.
"Why do I only need to sit in the plug?" Shinji repeated. There was another tremor. Misato's hand gripped Shinji's shoulder more tightly. The boy looked back at the Doctor, who shrugged and said nothing. Shinji sighed, and slowly looked back up at his father.
"I…" He steeled himself. "I'll do it… Under one condition."
Shinji pointed at the Doctor. "The Doctor is involved in everything I do here at NERV, and is present for anything I have to do. He is my guardian, and he will be present for everything I do, right alongside the Captain, Doctor Akagi…" He took a deep breath. "And you."
Gendo was silent for a long moment, before he nodded.
"Agreed."
Shinji slowly nodded back, and turned to look at Misato. He took another deep breath. "Let's go…"
Misato nodded, and led him towards the Eva. The Doctor walked up to Ritsuko with raised eyebrows. The blonde returned the look.
"Well then… Allon-sy, and all that," he said. Ritsuko shook her head and turned to walk back towards the elevator, the Doctor right on her heels.
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Next bit to come soon. Hope you're enjoying the show so far. Reviews are the lifeblood of an author, so please, review!