Hey everyone, its Halloween...well okay it just turned halloween fourteen minutes ago according to my clock. So yeah I'm posting this very early...because I'm declaring this Double Sunday. (Dragon Ball Z anyone?) So I'm actually releasing two chapters today, the first this obviously and the second one well...I've only gotten five pages out of...twenty-five? I'll try to get it out around two, (Pacific time) but I'm not making an promises. I actually had to help with a friends haunted house yesterday and pulled an all nighter at his house to finish this...Yes I'm very tired. I have not slept yet. There is something oddly fun about dressing up as a clown and scaring little kids though. I don't know...maybe its cause I'm reading It right now. (Stephen King)
Okay so few quick things. Number one is that chapter twelve is...not really halloween themed, but its certainly horrifying and gruesome enough in its own right. So thats kinda my treat to everyone. Number two: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT BOAT LOAD OF REVIEW. I had so many reviews/favs/alerts that it started going into my spam box for my email. Anyway this is getting long winded and what not so I'm gonna end it here. Also at the end of this will be a brief preview of the next chapter..just the first two paragraphs. Read at your own risk!
Shinji could feel that something had changed, both inside and outside.
He spent much of the next day at Nerv, cooped up in the room with nothing to look at but white walls. He felt like he was some experiment that they had locked up and were now running tests on. When he asked Ritsuko why he had to be kept there for an extra day, and why he would occasionally have to be taken to another room where he would be hooked up to all sorts of computer equipment, she simply said it was to be sure he hadn't been contaminated in any way. Did they consider him stupid?
He had noticed a change in the personal the moment he had left his room; they shunned away from him. Small things he would notice, like lack of eye contact, or jitteriness whenever he would get near to somebody. Bottom line was, he suspected they had suddenly become afraid of him. And a part of him couldn't blame them, if what Asuka had said was true, which he highly doubted after seeing this.
Above all else, he had noticed a change within himself. He seemed more sensitive to his environment, and specifically the facial features of people. His visions had gotten stronger to the point of several minutes of time passing when he couldn't remember what he had been doing minutes before. He felt no change in his physical body, and yet felt that he had grown...an extension of some kind. Like he could project it if his thoughts willed it to.
Something had happened, he was sure of that. Try as hard as he might, he was not able to remember anything from his time enclosed inside of Unit 01. Occasionally he thought he got brief flashes of things that had either happened inside the entry plug, and outside the entry plug. And yet, he felt there was a gap of some kind that was missing. He kept thinking of the ocean and how the sand felt as it crunched between a persons toes.
It was the lowest point he had reached while he had been a pilot at Nerv. The only thing that he found remotely enjoyable was the fact that Asuka seemed to have spent every moment that day by his side. Granted, she was forced to go to school by Misato since they had missed so much recently, but besides that, she had been by his side when he had awoken in the morning, and when she had left late that night. He was even visited by Rei, during the time Asuka was at school and spend a few hours with her. It never occurred to him to ask why she wasn't at school herself.
All in all it had been a hectic day for Shinji and he was immensely glad to be back at Misato's apartment a day later. Well, standing on the door step felt more accurate to say as he hadn't even put his hand on the doorknob yet. Though he was saved the trouble as the door was thrown open, during which Shinji got an eye full of bright, strawberry colored hair, before he was wrenched into the open door and greeted by raucous group of people.
"WELCOME BACK SHINJI," was hollered so loud that Shinji was sure the neighbors below them would call the police.
A large group of people had been crowded into the small kitchen that Shinji thought could never house so many people.
Asuka, Touji, Kensuke, Hikari, Rei, Misato, and a man that Shinji didn't recognize, were grouped around the small kitchen table, all with beaming faces and holding some kind of drink. In Misato's case it was a beer can.
Shinji stood dumbstruck in the doorway, attempting to take in the scene before him, but failing miserably, and it was only thanks to a sudden bark like cry from Touji that he was able to speak.
"...Everyone...you didn't have to do-"
Misato cut him off quickly, saying, "Don't worry about anything. We heard that you would be let out early and just thought to throw this surprise party is all. You gave us a real scare Shinji."
"Even so," mumbled Shinji as he looked at the streamers that hung from the ceiling and the balloons that floated on the back of the chairs, "isn't this going a little overboard?"
"I tried to tell her that, but she couldn't help herself," sighed Asuka.
Misato shot her a frown with a raised eyebrow and said, "What are you talking about? The entire party was your-"
The rest of her sentence was cut off as Asuka planted her hand over Misato's mouth, silencing her instantly. Though Shinji got the gist, and felt oddly touched by the thought. He didn't think he would have felt the same if it was anybody other than Asuka.
"We've got food and drink Shinji," barked Touji who Shinji suspected had tagged along largely for the food, but was all together glad that him and Kensuke had made it. But did that mean that-
"...I'm surprised that you guys are here anyway," said Shinji as he reached for a glass of punch. "I thought you weren't supposed to know about the-"
"Well...we don't know why you had been hospitalized, but we understand that something went wrong with your Eva and you were trapped inside it," said Kensuke
Shinji almost spit out his punch at this blatant release of Nerv information. Glancing at Misato, slightly worried, he whispered back, "Did she find out?"
"I think she's known for a while," said Touji without any worry about whether he could be heard or not. "We asked Asuka what happened to you yesterday at school. Predictably...she told us to go fuck ourselves. She was in a particularly pissy mood yesterday and almost broke a desk over another students back for making fun of you. I think she should have actually...would have been funny as hell."
"Then what about Hikari?"
"Huh, her? She just sorta tagged along after she heard that we were going to ask Misato personally. I have no idea how much she knows about the Eva's though."
Shinji stole a glance over by Hikari and Asuka who were both leaning against the fridge and talking. With Shinji's heightened perception he was able to catch Hikari's eyes flickering over to them occasionally and thought he kinda knew why as her eyes seemed to be directed at Touji. He even caught Asuka's eyes flickering over to himself a few times.
"So then what? Misato just told you guys about the Eva's?"
"Well, she seemed to already guess that we knew too much and just blatantly said that you had been kept at Nerv because of an experiment problem with the Eva's."
Shinji was rather taken aback. He would never have guessed that Misato would have blatantly spoken about the Eva's as though it was suitable for everyday conversation.
"What about this party then...?"
Kensuke paused for a minute before looking over at Asuka. Determining that she wouldn't be able to hear him talking, he said, "She'll deny it, but the entire thing was her idea. I guess she heard that you would be released later today and forced Misato to drive her downtown to pick up a few things. Later she called me, Touji, and Hikari and told us that you would be arriving soon. So, we hurried over here..."
Kensuke left his sentence dangling as he went back for more punch with Touji following him, his thoughts wrapped around seconds.
Shinji stole another glance in Asuka and Hikari's direction, though this time his sights were solely set on Asuka. She seemed to catch him starring though, because she turned her head towards him before grimacing slightly. Throwing her hair behind her back, she turned around so Shinji would have to settle for a rear view. God she liked to tease him.
"Not a bad party," said someone suddenly to his left.
Turning towards the sound of the voice, Shinji saw a man with brown hair tied back in a pony tail and a few stubbles where a beard would have been. He was wearing a blue work shirt with matching blue jeans. Like Misato, he had a beer in his hand.
"Kaji," he said while holding out his hand to shake Shinji's.
Something seemed to dawn on Shinji as he grasped the man's hand and said, "Aren't you Misato's-"
"Not since our college days."
Understanding that the subject wasn't one he'd want to elaborate on, he asked instead, "Misato went to college?"
"Yeah. It was me, Misato, and Ritsuko. Course we all split up and worked on our own things. Though somehow we all ended up returning to Nerv."
"...You work at Nerv?"
"Yes...but what I do...I can't tell you. I've heard plenty about whats happened since I've been gone. How many angels? Four? I can't understand why they chose now of all times to attack. Though it seems like we don't have to worry with the children piloting the Eva's. We found you, the First Child, and then Asuka, the Second Child was brought here also."
Something about the way he said Asuka's name seemed to strike a nerv in Shinji.
"Do you know Asuka?"
"Sorta...I was stationed at the German branch of Nerv for a while and got to know her. I was like a guardian of some kind to her."
Shinji felt a twang of jealousy hit his nerves, but passed it off. Really, thinking about them in any sort of relationship was just being paranoid.
Draining the last of his beer, he clapped Shinji on the shoulders and said, "Well, keep up the good work. Everyones depending on you and the other two to defeat the angels."
As Shinji watched Kaji's retreating back, he was reminded again of why he had chosen to fight. He still couldn't answer that question. He knew that only the generation born after Second Impact was able to control the Eva's. So the adults who helped initiated Second Impact now relied on the younger generation to protect them when retribution came. How foolhardy could they be? Everyone was depending on him, Asuka, and Rei? What if they started rejecting Nerv's orders? Would they be replaced? This thought had never occurred to Shinji before and he wondered what made him suddenly think about this.
"Shinji!"
"What," he snapped back without thinking.
Asuka was looking at him with a frown on her face, but Shinji thought that he could detect hurt in her eyes and suddenly rebuked himself for snapping at her.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "I didn't mean to snap at you. Just...thinking about some things."
Shrugging, Asuka said, "Forget it and come have some cake."
"...Huh?"
"Cake moron, Cake! We bought it at the store for you-"
Touji at this point stuck his head over Asuka's shoulders and said, "Liar. You made that cake yourself Asu-"
Asuka quickly silenced him by stabbing two of her fingers directly into Touji's eyes. Howling with pain, his eyes watering, Touji managed to shout back, "Damn it! What the hell was that for!"
"For being an annoying shit," yelled Asuka as she brought her fist down on top of Touji's head.
Shinji couldn't help it, he laughed at Touji's misfortune for upsetting the demon. Though if Touji was correct in what he had been saying...well. Shinji glanced at Asuka out of the corner of his eyes, only to see that her cheeks had turned a light shade of pink.
"Oh forget it," hissed Asuka as she hit Touji upside the head one more time for good measure. Turning towards Shinji, with her forehead slightly creased as though she wasn't sure what she was doing, she grabbed him by his wrist, and dragged him over to the chocolate cake that she had painstakingly made.
Grabbing a plate and jamming it into Shinji's hands, she mumbled, "Here," before spinning around, her hair whipping Shinji across the face, and walked back over to where Hikari was standing.
'She could have at least waited till I told her what I thought about it,' sighed Shinji as he scooped a piece of it into his mouth.
It was good. Far better than he had expected actually, which he thought seemed a little rude.
Finishing up his cake he looked around the kitchen, his eyes falling once again on the balloons and streamers. A smile spread across his face.
'Really,' he thought as he stepped out of the shower later that day. 'It wasn't so bad I guess...having everyone over.'
Everyone had left sometime ago and Shinji felt immensely better after stepping out of the shower. He felt like he had been contaminated in someway by staying at Nerv all of yesterday, and was just now getting the smell off his skin.
Looking at himself in the mirror, while he dried his hair, he once again found himself looking at the scars that painted his arms. Holding one arm up so that the light hit it better, he frowned at the difference between the pearly white skin, and the slightly tanned sections. He had wondered about it, but never had enough time to check.
Tracing a finger over one of the scars, he measured the length of the scar and then turned his arm over. Measuring the rudimentary line between two scars, each on other sides of his arm, he came to the conclusion that the two scars were from the same piece of glass. But then...how can that be?
The pilot and the Eva are connected through the power of synchronization. Thoughts, willpower...whatever. He knew this much. But if an Eva suffers a wound, and it is in turn transferred to the pilot, does the size of the wound get transferred to the pilot? He understood that his case was a rarity, but did that mean that his body could be dismembered, just because the Eva's was? It wasn't a happy thought, but it was one that held meaning nonetheless. He certainly didn't want to imagine himself in a scene where Unit 01 was decapitated, and suddenly his head just popped off like a dolls.
"You need to stop worrying yourself so much," he mumbled to the empty bathroom. "Nothing has changed that makes you any diff-"
His thought process froze.
He had been looking at himself in the mirror, when...no...trick of the lighting. Why would he think his eyes all the sudden flashed scar-
"Shinji! You done in there!"
Asuka's voice came loud through the bathroom door, and rather anxious at that.
Jumping at the sudden volume in her voice, he snapped his head around, but in his enthusiasm to reply, managed to slip on the wet floor, and went tumbling down on his back with a loud thud.
"Shinji? ...Oi Baka! What the hell just happened in there!"
As Shinji groaned at the pain of his back which had hit hard against the marmoleum floor, he heard a click of the doorknob being turned and realized that he hadn't locked the door.
"Shinji, what the hell-WHAAAH!"
Asuka took one, maybe two steps into the bathroom, before skidding on the wet floor, and falling backwards on her butt. Opening her eyes tentatively, and wincing slightly at the pain that had coursed through her as she hit the floor, she looked at Shinji who was just propping himself up on his elbows. If she had noticed earlier...well, things would have turned out differently, instead she grimly yelled, "You idiot! Why the hell did you flood the bathroom!"
Shinji stubbornly retorted back, "This always happens. That damn shower doesn't drain the water all the way so some of it comes out onto the floor."
"I never have any problems with it!"
"Which amazes me because you spend almost an hour in there everyday. Its probably clogged from your hair anyway."
Asuka's anger overflowed here. Standing up briskly, she stood over a naked Shinji who had nothing but a towel covering his privates, bent down, and glared at him before saying, "...It was Misato's hair..."
The two of them stared at each other for a moment, silence passing between them. Shinji had thought that she was going to step on his unprotected privates, and was still now, unsure of how he should react. Instead, Asuka took the lead.
Standing up straight, she sighed at him and said, "Whatever, just get the mop and fix this m-m-me-me-WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!"
Realization had struck Asuka none to gently, as Shinji made to stand up, and only then noticing that the towel was no longer fastened around his waist. Glancing up quickly, he saw a bright red Asuka, who seemed to be frozen in place, with her eyes nothing but sunken sockets. Had it really been that traumatizing?
"Asuka-"
His voice seemed to send her out of her own world, as her face turned a darker shade of red. Breathing heavily, her entire face flushed, she started mumbling uncontrollably under her breath.
"...Asuka?"
"...Oh God I think I'm gonna puke..." was all she managed to say before she ran out of the bathroom. Shinji could hear retching sounds coming from the kitchen and knew he'd be the one to clean it up later. Wrapping the towel around his waist more securely, he had to admit that he had gotten away with nothing more than a brief outburst.
Asuka meanwhile was hovering over the sink making fake retching noises. She did not want Shinji to see her in such a state, even if it killed her. She had actually been pretty close to puking when she had seen...no...don't think about it. Nothing! Nothing at all. She found it easier to fain ignorance, and just act on emotions. And there were a lot of emotions running through her.
Looking up as she heard the bathroom door close, she stole a glance behind herself, in time to see Shinji walking down the hallway with a towel wrapped around his waist. She didn't know what she felt, but it was both disgusting and pleasant. Disgusting because it was new to her and because she felt weak because of it, but pleasant because it made her shiver, and not a bad shiver. It was like the kind that goes down your spine; that made you feel suddenly cold but inexplicably warm afterwards.
Turning off the fossett, she let out a weary sigh before slinking into the living room and sinking onto the soft couch.
'What is wrong with me?' Why does that idiot always resurface in my mind every time I push him away?'
Rolling over, she intended to flip on the T.V. and absorb herself in whatever was on, when she felt a soft flop somewhere over by her legs, and a shift in the couch cushions. Craning her neck upwards, she saw that Shinji had plopped himself directly in between her spread out legs, with a book in one hand, and his SDAT laying across his knee.
It was a mark of how used she was to his presence that Asuka didn't immediately chase him out of the room. She had even...what? Become so used to it that it was enjoyable to be with him? ...Where the hell did that idea come from?
As her eyes strayed over his body, they fell on the fact that his hair was still dripping wet, his clothing consisting of a pair of shorts and a loose tang top. And-
'Enough!' Asuka bellowed in her mind. 'Stop looking at him like that!'
Shinji seemed to notice the sudden changes in her facial features out of the corner of his eye. Plucking the earbuds out of his ears he asked, "Something wrong?"
"Not at all," she said testily as she turned her head back to the T.V.
Shinji frowned, hoping that her mind wasn't trapped in a time loop that consisted of those few seconds in the bathroom when she might have gotten a glimpse of his...well, best not to worry about that.
Sinking more comfortably into the couch cushions, Shinji brought his feet up and rested them on the edge of the couch cushion he was on. If only he could have seen Asuka's face as it turned several shades of pink before becoming a dark maroon. The ankles of Shinji's feet were making contact with one ofAsuka's ankles.
Asuka had surprising control over her body, (though a complete lack of control over her emotions) as she was able to prevent her body from twitching or becoming completely rigid. Though she felt like her head would soon explode if she didn't do something about his ankle touching her ankle. It felt to similar to footsie.
Trying as naturally as possible, she pulled herself up and into a sitting position on the couch, effectively moving her legs a good distance away from Shinji's. He didn't even spare her glance as she did this, his mind entirely focused on his book. Though something he had been meaning to tell her seemed to be nagging at the back of his mind. But he couldn't quite remember-
'Oh...right,' he thought suddenly.
Putting his book down and sliding the SDAT off his knees, he turned to Asuka and said, "I had forgotten about it until now, but I had ment to say thank you for the party earlier."
Asuka, who had tensed up slightly when she heard his voice, relax immensely and replied back, "Don't worry about it. Misato helped plenty so you should really be thanking her-"
"...But you're the one that planned everything and called Touji and the others."
"You make it sound like I did all the hard work. I did all the easy stuff and let Misato do the hard stu-"
"And the cake. That cake you made...it was really good, far better than any you could have found at the store."
Silence passed for a minute, during which Asuka struggled to get her face a normal shade of color. She was pleased, even grateful for the praise that he had for her. It had honestly been her first time making a cake and she found herself going over in her mind all the ingredients she had used, being sure that she had not forgotten a step.
Getting her emotions under control, she turned towards Shinji and said as cooly as she could muster, "Flattery will get you nowhere."
"...No...I just, thought I'd let you know. ...Thanks."
Abandoning her coolness, Asuka grinned back at him and said, "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're back."
"You're just glad that you didn't have to eat Misato's cooking."
"Well, there's that, and..." Shinji only caught the first part of this as Asuka trailed off at the end, leaving her sentence hanging.
Though something else was still bothering him. What was it? He knew it had something to do with Asuka...but what?
Germany! And then it clicked.
"Asuka...who was that guy at the party?"
"..."
"Asuka!"
"What!"
"Who was that guy I didn't know at the party?"
Asuka seemed as though she would like nothing better to whack Shinji in the head then for interrupting her program. Why was he asking something like that when she had seen them talking?
"You already know who he is. His name is Kaji, Kaji Ryoji. You talked to him so why are you asking that? Its irritating."
"...No...just that when I talked to him, he seemed to know you...because of Germany. So I just wondered..."
Asuka was able to abandon the T.V. completely this time and frowned back at Shinji. Was she understanding this correctly? Was Shinji acting jealous?
"What are you implying?" She said with her eyes narrowed. While she was somewhat pleased that he was acting jealous, he felt that it was directed at someone...who just the idea of being with made her want to puke. Kaji was attractive...you know, to people of Misato's age.
"...Nothing," said Shinji hurriedly. "I just wondered-"
"Then you can stop worrying about something nonexistent. He was someone like a father figure, nothing more. So stop being jealous."
"Jealous? I'm not jealous of him!"
"Well you sure do a great job of play acting then," grimaced Asuka. Now she was just irritated by his irrational thoughts. God he could be so infuriating sometimes.
"You know what, forget I said anything."
"I'll do just that," said Asuka without another thought on the matter; her previously emotions replaced by ones of annoyance.
Annoyed with Asuka's misunderstanding, Shinji stalked off into his own room.
'Jealous,' he thought somewhat savagely. 'No way in hell I'd be jealous because of that.'
'Ah, but you felt something while talking to Kaji,' a voice in his head whispered.
Ignoring the voice in his head, Shinji laid down in his bed, and turned towards the light of the open window.
"..."
At what point his thought became dreams, and sleep became a reality, he had no idea. He only knew that it felt as though minutes had past since him and Asuka had parted on a not so friendly note, when he felt himself being shaken awake by Misato.
"Shinji...Shinji...wake up."
Blinking in the dim light of his room he saw Misato leaning over him with a worried expression on her face. In the doorway of his room, he could see a fully dressed and anxious Asuka standing there.
"Whazthematter," he managed to mumble back in his dream like state.
Misato's words sent his eyes wide open.
"Angel attack. Its due to land in another-," glancing at her watch she said, "-hour. Hurry up. This was totally unexpected and I hate to admit it but caught us completely off guard."
Without any sign that he had two girls in his room, Shinji started flinging clothes in every direction as he hurried to get dressed.
"Where is it coming from?" Asked Shinji as he finished buttoning his shirt up.
"...We picked it up just outside the stratosphere."
"Space?"
"Thats what it seems like. Its body's diameter is about the size of Tokyo-3. We believe that it plans to fall on the city, destroying it instantly."
Shinji starred wide eyed back at her. It could crush it all in seconds unless they did something.
"What are we supposed to-"
"I'll explain on the way. Just get in the car already."
Without giving her another reason to badger him, Shinji hurriedly followed Asuka's retreating back out the door.
An angel attack at one in the morning? Shinji had never heard of anything stranger. He could imagine every citizen in Tokyo-3 being woken by the lady with the annoying voice to telling everybody to evacuated to the shelters. He could just picture Touji's face as he was told he had to go out into the freezing cold night. It made him smile...though it was only for a moment.
The fact was they had a crisis on there hands. The angel had caught them so off guard that they barely had time to prepare for anything. Then there was the fact that the commander, Shinji's father, was not there. He had left for Antarctica apparently to search for something. What it was, Shinji had no idea.
Something that worried Shinji the most though, was that this would be the first time that all three pilots would be working together. He didn't find this as a problem...but he certainly thought that Asuka did. She had been pissed when Misato had explained the plan, putting great emphasis on the fact that all three Eva's would have to work together in order to defeat it.
It seemed like suicide, but it was feasible. The angel was the size of Tokyo-3...and that proved a problem. Misato, however, had come up with a bold plan to combat the sheer size of the angel, dubbed Sahaquiel. The three Eva's would work together to produce one large AT-field to slow the angel down. Then the other two Eva's would project a strong enough AT-field, that would open a small hole that one of the Eva's would be able to tare through. The Eva (and here, Shinji felt that it would be his job ultimately) that was chosen for this last part, would produce a cone like AT-field to slash the angel in two, and destroy the core. At least, this was how it was supposed to work in theory.
Now, Shinji found himself in the entry plug of Unit 01, and had to force himself to pilot it, after he had been inside of it last time.
'Relax,' he told himself. 'Just picture this as another synchronization test.' Then he remembered what had happened with the last test, and quickly abandoned that thought.
Stepping onto the elevator that would take him to the surface, he glanced at Unit 00, and 02. All three of them were being sent up at different points. The exact spot that the angel would land was still being determined by Nerv computers. The idea was that, if they were sent up at all different points, either one of them would be able to reach the angel before it landed.
Misato's voice suddenly came over the intercom, "We have determined the strike point of the target. Distance is 20,000 meters...Asuka you will be the nearest to the crash site. Be the first one there."
"I'd naturally be the first one there even if I wasn't the closest to it."
Misato ignored her comment.
"Okay then...Unit 00 send up elevator shaft number one. Unit 01...elevator number five, and Unit 02...elevator shaft number three. Mission start!"
Feeling the familiar jerk behind his navel, Shinji rocket up several hundred feet before striking the surface. The umbilical cord immediately became detached and Shinji rocketed forward.
He had never moved this fast while in Eva, and admittedly he was the furthest from the strike point. The feet of Unit 01 dug up such large quantities of dirt and debris, that it seemed as though its feet was one large shovel.
Skidding to a sudden a halt, Unit 01 kicked off against the ground again, change it direction to the strike point. Soaring over power lines, shattering windows, sending cars flying. Shinji wondered how much they were really saving the city. Surely it costed millions if not billions of dollars to repair everything that they destroy during an angel attack.
As Shinji got closer to the strike point he looked up at the sky and finally saw the angel. It looked like a giant eye, but with wings...or feathers? Shinji wasn't really sure what was the better description. However his thoughts were suddenly shoved aside as he heard Misato's worried voice on the intercom.
"Targets position has been revised, change point to five kilometer east of its original position.
"Not good! I won't be able to make it in time!" Asuka yelled over the intercom.
"Shinji!"
"...I can make it. Give me the position, Misato."
With the coordinates relayed, Unit 01 took off at an amazing speed, creating a jet stream behind itself.
Shinji could now definitely see that the angel had changed its position, but was still worried that he might no be able to make it.
Putting on another burst of speed, Shinji ripped through the pavement of Tokyo-3, no longer carrying about the power lines. Wild life and even trees seemed to serve out of his way, as he crossed a mountain and entered the East side of Tokyo-3.
Skidding down the face of the mountain, he had Unit 01 dig its heels into the ground, slowing it down quickly. Now Shinji could almost see directly underneath the angel and knew that he was almost at the crash site.
Slamming to a sudden halt, he looked directly up into the eye of the angel and saw a brief flash of orange before the angel created an AT-field. Mimicking its movements he shouted, "AT-field. Full power!"
The ground beneath Unit 01 crumbled and flew into the air before being disintegrated by the clash of the two AT-fields. A large shockwave went flying in all directions, ripping apart the foundations of nearby buildings, and taring the roots of trees out of the ground.
Shinji could feel that he was being pushed to the ground though, and confirmed this thought as he felt one of Unit 01 legs collapse and go kneeling to the ground. Feeling a sudden pain shoot through his own legs, he hoped that he his bones didn't just snap in two also.
"Shinji!"
Asuka came flying into view from the West, before standing next to Shinji and projecting her own AT-field, effectively enabling him to stand up again.
"You idiot, don't go killing yourself before I get here."
"Forget it and just concentrate."
"Don't tell me what to-"
Her words were silenced as the angel gave a large jolt, and propelled itself closer to the ground. Both Eva's sank to there knees suddenly and Shinji felt pain in his legs again.
"Damn it!" Yelled Asuka. "Where is the pet!"
"Ikari-kun..."
Unit 01 with Rei came in from the North before standing on Shinji's left, projecting her own AT-field. The combination of the three sent the angel reeling backwards for a second, before rightening itself and continuing the assault
"So where all here...now what!"
"One of us has to destroy this thing while the other two give them a window to attack."
"Okay you two do that. I'm gonna destroy this thing."
"No, I'm doing it," Shinji yelled back at Asuka.
"Who the fuck decided on that!"
"Just hurry...already..."
Shinji thought he heard a strain in Rei's voice. He hadn't considered her thoughts.
"Asuka just let me do this!"
"Damn it! If you die I'll swear on your fucking grave that I said I'd do it."
'I'll remember that..."
Releasing the AT-field for no more than a few seconds, Shinji gave Asuka and Rei more than enough time to carrying out there own steps.
Separating the one AT-field into two different ones, Asuka and Rei slammed the two AT-fields into the angels, both focusing on a different part. The angel was forced to focus on separate points in the AT-field, moving the brunt of its power to the points that Asuka and Rei were working on, making the dead center weak.
Disengaging both their AT-fields simultaneously, Asuka and Rei created one large one, and wrenched open a hole in the dead center of the angels before it was able to react.
Shinji moved suddenly to that with a flash of scarlet in his eyes.
Meanwhile, in the command center, Ritsuko showed Misato something confusing just before Shinji started his attack.
"Misato...you might want to see this..."
"What?"
As Misato walked over to the computer she glanced at the monitor of the Eva's exactly thirty-seconds remained in the activation period. 'It should be enough time,' she thought.
As she reached the monitor Ritsuko was examining though, everything else left her mind, and she realized the danger in the numbers.
"This was the recorded plug depth during the last synchronization test of Unit 01, which was unusually high at the time."
The number read sixty.
"This is the current number...and its still climbing."
The number read eighty.
"...Shinji's entering the contamination zone...but why? Is he choosing to on his own?"
"Its the only reason that I can understand."
"But why? There's no reason for doing something like this. If he continues on he wont remain-"
"-human," asked Ritsuko with no expression on her face.
Misato frowned heavily at Ritsuko. Did she know something that she didn't know about Shinji?
Back at the battle, Shinji had just disengaged his attack as Asuka and Rei rushed in. If it had to be someone...it might as well be him.
'An angels AT-field is an extension of itself, and if my body is an extension of the Eva's...then does that mean that I have an AT-field? Do all humans have an AT-field that lets them distinguish themselves from other humans?' For some strange reason he thought he has had a similar discussion like this before.
His eyes flashed scarlet for a brief moment as he thought this and briefly sensed a changed in the LCL fluid in the entry plug. It became more dense, like it actually had a definable substance.
Looking up he quickly caught Unit 00 and 02 movements and reacted instinctively at that.
Shoving one arm of the Eva up to its elbow, into the small window that he Asuka and Rei managed to create, he projected a large cone that covered everything from the Eva's elbow and below to the tips of its fingers.
Forcing the AT-field open was only the first part. Next, Shinji put all of his thought into widening the cone like AT-field and separating the angel in half. He got about as far as that when a new AT-field of the angels suddenly slammed into the cone like one, shattering it instantly.
Unit 01 went stumbling backwards as Shinji screamed in pain as he felt the ends of the Eva's fingers snap.
Asuka and Rei rushed forward but were sent kneeling to the ground as the full might up the angels AT-field was sent crashing down on top of them.
As Shinji looked back at the angel, hopelessness started to settle in the bottom of his stomach. Could they even win against something this powerful? Would it even matter? Surely another stronger angel was sure to come after this one and they be facing the same problem.
"Shinji, what the fuck do you think you're doing!"
Asuka's mad voice seemed wake him up and he blinked his eyes open as he saw Unit 00 and 02 go crashing to their knees. He could see the veins around the Eva's arms and knew that the contamination had started.
But what was he supposed to-
"Shinji damn it! You said you could handle this, so back your fucking words up with your actions."
...She was right. What was he doing? He said he would handle it and now he was running away. Just like he had done with everything else in his life.
As Asuka and Rei were tossed aside, Shinji's eyes turned to the color of blood red.
The plug depth had just passed one hundred.
Rushing forward, Shinji slid underneath the angel and extended both the Eva's arms and projected a dome like AT-field over himself, the other two, and all within a two kilometer radius.
The angel stopped dead in its tracks and jolted backwards for a second. Following up on his initial attack, Shinji forcefully created another AT-field, separate from the first one, and opened up a small hole at the top of the dome like first AT-field. Just by thinking it, he was now able to achieve what he wanted.
Forming it into a small spherical shape, he sent it flying straight through the hole that he had made moments before, ripping apart the outer layer of flesh of the angel. A small trickle of blood started to flow out of the wound that the angel had suffered. But why should it worry about something so minuscule.
Next second a large chunk of the angels flesh was blown away, as the spherical AT-field erupted inside of it. Blood and organs slithered out of the open wound, painting the streets and buildings of Tokyo-3 scarlet. If the angel had a voice, Shinji was sure that it would be shrieking in agony.
Before it was able to regenerate, Shinji slammed Unit 01's hand into the bloody pocket of flesh and blood that he had created moments before. And created the cone like AT-field that he had original tried, except now it was as large as the angel.
Tendons, nerves, and tissue were able to be seen as the angel split in two separate part, before exploding in a large burst of blood and gore. Shinji felt the wave of gore engulf him, as it flew in all directions, turning Unit 01 into colors suitable for Unit 02.
Breathing heavily, he looked at the sea of gore splashed in all direction and finally knew that it was over. But what happened exactly?
His eyes were back to there usual brown color.
...Had he done this? If he had to describe it, it looked like something out of a very gory slasher film. He could remember watching it, but it felt like he had been seeing it all from a third perspective. What had he done? He remembered Asuka yelling at him...and then what? He had moved with such ease that it felt as though it were floating. He thought what he wanted, and it happened. But then...the two AT-fields. Had he created one of those himself? Was it because of being inside Unit 01 that he was able to? Maybe an Eva was able to generate two AT-fields...
"I don't...know..."
What the fuck was happening to him?
"...Shinji..."
"I don't know damn it. Leave me alone already..."
"Ikari-kun?"
"Don't talk to me! I don't want to talk to anyone! Just leave me alone!"
"Shinji, wake the fuck up!"
Shinji opened his eyes. He was crying.
"...You defeated it...its gone..."
Why was he crying?
"You can stop now!"
Why should he be crying over something so insignificant?
"Stop destroying what remains of it damn it!"
Why the fuck should he be crying over the remains of an angel!
Tears streaked down his face as he repeatedly pummeled and tore apart the bones and organs of what remained of the angel.
'Why am I crying?' He wondered. 'I should be glad that this is over, not sad. I could have died. Everyone could have died. Yet why the fuck am I crying over an angels corpse!'
"Shinji enough already," said Misato over the intercom.
"Cut all power and synchronization between Unit 01 and the pilot. If this continues on he may be permanently contaminated," said Ritsuko.
Shinji suddenly felt Unit 01 shudder violent, and everything went black.
Yet...everything was still black...
Wait, no, that wasn't quite right. A light was coming from behind him, and a very bright light at that.
The room slowly came into focus and Shinji started to become aware of his surroundings. He was laying down on the couch in Misato's apartment, and seemed to be tucked warmly under a blanket while a pillow was propped behind his head.
Sitting up slowly, he winced as pain shot through his fingers and knees, though it wasn't as bad as he might have expected.
Looking around the first things that he recognize was that: The T.V. was on and muted, second: Asuka was sitting in a chair that looked to be from the kitchen, and facing the T.V. Though she certainly didn't seem to be awake In fact, her head was drooping off to the side a little.
Even though the lighting was a bit weak, Shinji was still able to see Asuka's beautiful face as she slept with a smile on her face. He then noticed that no matter what her face looked like, it seemed that she had spent several anxious hours sitting on that chair. Her hair was a disheveled mess, while the baggy shirt she was wearing was hanging halfway down one of her shoulders, enabling Shinji to see the white bra strap underneath. He had a sudden strange urge to lean over and tuck a locket of her hair behind her ear.
'...Where the hell did that come from?' He wondered.
Sitting up more promptly he looked around the room a few more times, (his gaze resting on Asuka several times) before he looked down at his own hands. Why did he feel so...revolted? Was it because of his thoughts earlier, of how it might have been possible to save the angel. Had anybody ever thought that it was just one giant misunderstanding between the human race and the angel? Of course not, because it was, 'they exist and are evil. We exist and are righteous.' The thought made him sick.
Sinking back down into the couch cushions he turned his head towards Asuka, only to receive a shocking revelation that her eyes were open, and her forehead was pressed lightly against his. She didn't look to thrilled though to see him awake.
"...Ahh...hey Asu-"
"FUCKING MORON!"
Shinji received a hard jab to his ribcage and doubled over in pain. What the hell had he done to deserve this?
"Bastard! Ass-hole! You've been completely unconscious for over a day and you just sit up and say hey?"
"...Over a day?"
"Yes over a day you fucking idiot. I've left this chair for two reasons, one: to go to the bathroom, and two: to get food and bring it back here. My eyes are blood shot from watching T.V. and jerking around every time you mumbled in your sleep or changed your body positions. Do you have any idea how stressed out I am right now!
"No...but I think my ribs do."
"I swear to God, I am going to beat you within an inch of your life, spare you, and then repeat the same thing over the next day."
"I don't think my body will hold up even after one day."
"I've slept an entire two fucking hours since yesterday!"
"I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I did nothing but sleep for an entire day."
"I wouldn't call it sleeping so much as a coma. We weren't sure if you had been contaminated or not."
"Well I'm fine, so you don't have to get so anxious."
"Do you even care how I felt?"
"Course I do. But I'm fine so I don't see a need to overreact-"
"Overreact? This is normal! Anybody would have been worried about someone that-"
"-means a lot to you?"
Asuka paused for a minute, before taking in a deep breath and saying, "Yes...okay. You mean a lot to me, damn it."
"And you mean a lot to me too Asuka."
The sharp intake of breath was all Shinji need to know that Asuka had heard him correctly. But God was he feeling tired again.
"Hey Asuka..."
"What?"
"...Thanks."
"Whatever...at least I can sleep better tonight since I know you haven't turned into a corpse."
"Speaking of sleep, I feel tired again."
"What? You just slept for an entire day. How can you still be tired?"
"Well it is night so its natural that I'd sleep."
"I suppose. Well, I'm sleeping in my room tonight. That chair gives me back pains."
Asuka turned to get up, when Shinji grabbed ahold of her wrist."
"Wha-"
"Stay here for a while..."
Asuka's face flushed pink for a second before turning back to its usual color.
"Fine," she sighed. "But only for a little while. I want to sleep properly tonight."
"Hmm. Okay."
Shifting into a more comfortable position, Shinji looked at his hands once more before turning to Asuka and holding out the hand closest to the edge of the couch.
Raising an eyebrow, Asuka said, "What?"
"...Just hold my hand for a while."
"...You sound like a child...but all right, whatever."
Grabbing Shinji's hand none to gently she frowned down at it for a minute before deciding where to place it. Cupping his hand in both of hers, she gently rested them on her lap.
Neither of them moved from that spot that night, and yet, she was still able to get a good nights rest.
Chapter 12: Hurtful Changes
When Shinji woke up that morning, he had no idea that everything would from today onwards, would start to spiral out of control. If he had known the horror, traumatic event that he would eventually stop, things would have certainly changed. But most likely, in the end, his angels blood would have awoken anyway.
It was bright that morning, very bright. And yet, by the end of the day, the weather seemed to be foretelling a change in everything.