THIS WAY IKARI, WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME...
Shinji continued to follow the advice of Rei, all while thinking about how Misato had lied to him about her, and with such a horrid calmness cloaking her words.
'how...how could she do that to me', he thought miserably.
Wait no-no he couldn't think about that now, quickly shaking away his thoughts, Shinji continued to follow Rei's advice.
"Unit one, whats the situation on the east side brig!?", Misato asked her crew.
"It's an Eva, commander, we are unsure of its current motives for the attack.", answered Makoto as levelly as he could with the situation being so dire.
"Damnit", she snarled in response.
'fuck, couldn't this have waited until we at least got our repairs finished first?', she thought in a pitiful attempt of lightening the situation for herself.
The crew was jarred by another violent quaking as the attacking eva ripped away yet another one of their defense barriers.
"Shit, Mari!?", yelled Misato to her only available pilot.
"aye aye, captain!",responded the unorthodox twin-tailed brunette all while sporting a salute on her monitor.
"Are you ready to deploy?", Misato asked ignoring her underling's snideness, not really knowing how to deal with Mari...not that anyone really did.
"well, just give me a little sec okay...", she responded with a tad of embarrassment.
"Explain your reason's.", Misato Demanded with a face that was all but prepared to turn into a nasty pinch after hearing what she had to say.
"Well...I've noticed how well...uh...", She started to trail off.
"What is it, Mari?", Misato asked, starting to feel genuine concern for what this problem could be.
"Well...you know Asuka got to...", she further trailed off into some unknown galaxy far-far away.
"Asuka got to what, we don't have much time here, lieutenant".
"You never asked me if I wanted to meet the puppy!", she blurted out in such a way that Misato thought for sure that she heard the word 'baka' at the end.
"What...what puppy?", Misato asked bewildered while trying to scramble her assertiveness back.
"The puppy boy we just got."
It instantly clicked for Misato as to what exactly Mari was inquiring about.
"Lieutenant, this is not the time for jokes, now get ready to pilot damnit", She said getting slightly irked that she just called Shinji...puppy...just what the hell.
The two's conversion(if that's what you call it) was bluntly interrupted by Nazumi bursting through the command doors.
"COMMANDER", she blurted out with what little was left of her ragged breath.
"What is it, Nazumi, we don't have much time here?", a confused and already irritated Misato inquired.
"Its Shinji, he's gone", she answered, fear and worriedness practically dripping down her pore's.
That caused a brief silence to fall over the previously busy and bustling command center, with all its inhabitants bursting at the seams with the desire to question the young woman.
Where is he?
Where the hell was security!?
We have to get him back, damnit!!!
Those questions and many, many more were on everyone's mind and already practically coming out of their mouths when their commander spoke.
"Ritsuko, with me, we're going to collect our guest", Misato spoke out with a level tone truly befitting that of a leader.
"Wh-what should I do...commander", Nazumi said with a slight tremble from the fact that Misato didn't even mention anything about what she should do.
'didn't even ask if I wanted to help with finding Shinji', She thought while holding back the slight desire to inform her higher up to who exactly has the job of looking after the boy.
"Do whatever you want", Misato responded quickly while already running to the point of the Eva's contact, as she believed that that was where Shinji would most likely be.
"O-okay", Nazumi said while not bothering to follow Misato to question her further, while standing still she overheard some of the crew's chatter.
Chatter that made her realize that she didn't know either.
"hey.", a black, bald man said while staring at his workstation.
"what is it?", a number of the other crew responded.
"You ever wonder why the commander doesn't just kill that kid already?",he said while making a face that was a mix of wonder and discomfort at the thought of the two possibly know each other.
"Who knows man, maybe she got a soft spot for kids, after all, it's not like shes completely heartless", a pink haired girl said while thinking about their commander's brutal work hours.
Nazumi decided that now was not the time to listen in on meaningless chatter, especially not when she had to get Shinji back.
Though before she left, she noticed that two workers who would usually never shut up about the commander were being unusually quiet during this discussion.
No-no-no-no, this wasn't the time to think about random stuff, quickly gathering her stamina back up, Nazumi ran down another hallway then Misato had run down in order to spread their pin-in-a-haystack search area.
COME HERE IKARI...
This was Rei's final command to Shinji...but could he really follow it. Yes, he could, after all, what the hell did he have here anymore.
But Misato and Asuka might be mad...
Fuck them, they're just going to kill you or keep you here like a dog.
But Nazumi seems to like me...
How the hell do you know if that wasn't just their plan, make you think that way just to keep you in their little box.
bu-
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a voice ripple through the air.
"Don't move, Shinji."
Shinji whipped his head around only to see Misato and Ritsuko staring him down.
With Misato holding the trigger device in her hand...like she was taunting him with the fucking thing.
Shinji's eyes narrowed at the sight of Misato and the device.
"Why...WHY SHOULD I!?", his voice turned out uneven through the blistering air.
Rei cut in with another command but Shinji ignored it.
"Because we will ensure your containment", Misato didn't really know what to say so she just said what made sense to her right now.
Containment? Not safety. Not holding. No, just containment. Shinji was livid after hearing that.
"Containment, Misato?", he mumbled.
"Yes", she replied levelly.
Shinji didn't know what he wanted to say, all he knew was that he wanted to hurt Misato. The sadness and grief of losing everyone he ever knew and knowing that it was his fault were just too much for him.
So he said the simplest insult he could think of, it was something that a temper tantrum having 7-year old would say just to get a reaction. But anyone who even remotely knew Shinji never would have thought he would say that.
"I...I fucking hate you.", Shinji said weakly, hoping to keep his pathetic sobs at bay.
Misato was shocked to hear Shinji say that, some of her hurt showed through as her mouth opened slightly and her eyes widened...not that anyone noticed.
Shinji turned to the eva, not wanting to see their faces, and started to walk to Rei...to the only person who might care about him.
Misato wanted to yell at Shinji for trying to leave the ship-her.
She wanted to run out and throw him to the ground to hold him down and force him to stay on the ship-her.
But Nazumi stole her chance.
"NO SHINJI!!"
"Huh", but he didn't have time to do anything as he was flung to that ground.
His head making a dull clack sound as it bounced into the metal floor.
The last thing Shinji saw before he was pulled into darkness, was the sight of Rei's eva leaving him, and the wobbly, burning feeling of tears leaving his eyes.
END