Answers:
Fanus-I know the Eva fanbois are going to hate me for it, but I've never liked the apartment scene (and I'm a Rei Fan!). I've never understood why Shinji's first instinct when making himself a guest in Rei's home is to snatch her property off the shelf and start playing with it, so I really couldn't stop myself from rewriting the scene. But I at least think I did it well, anyway.
Disclaimer: See prologue
Chapter 8: Fire
"Commander, unidentified flying object approaching from the Sea of Japan!"
"Feed reconnaissance data to the MAGI and wait for pattern analysis."
"Video feed established. It looks like a gemstone of some sort."
"Preliminary analysis returning 'Blue'. Tentative identity as Sixth Angel confirmed!"
"Three weeks in between attacks, that was quite the respite." Fuyutsuki mused out loud to his protégé.
"Yes, the next attack was only getting more likely each passing day…Send Unit 01 out to meet it! Unit 00 will be held in reserve."
"A-10 established, are you ready for launch, Shinji?"
"Yeah, ready. Send me out."
Ritsuko got nods of approval from Misato and the Commander. "Launch Unit 01!"
Maya reported. "The Angel's body is opening up…Zooming video…The core is the exact center of the body…It appears to be absorbing some form of energy. The body is forming a parabolic arc behind the core, which must mean it's directing the energy towards the elevator! Dr. Akagi, bring Unit 01's AT field online!"
Maya's analysis proceeded to save the lives of Unit 01 and Shinji. By the time the elevator breached Tokyo-3, the Angel was firing a stream of plasma through several skyscrapers and melting the stone mountainside behind the city.
"Unit 01 AT field is burning!"
"Lower the elevator! Get the Eva back and regroup!" Misato ordered.
Makoto Hyuga reported the collapsing situation, "We can't! The elevator rails are melting! AT Field failure! The plasma is breaching Unit 01's armor!"
Shinji's voice overtook the bridge with an unrestrained scream while Aoba read the latest medical report. "LCL temperature at 100 Centigrade, it's boiling inside the plug!"
"Fire the plug! Get the pilot out of there!"
"Negative," Gendo overruled. "If we fire the plug, the pilot will die and the Unit will be destroyed."
Misato was at a loss while Shinji's screams continued, until a light ignited in her head.
"Detonate the explosive bolts on Shinji's sector! Drop the whole city block!"
Unit 01, Shinji, and a piece of Tokyo-3 fell out of the Angel's stream. It stopped firing and closed back into its diamond shape.
"Extract the core! Engage automatic medical systems! Provide pilot life support!"
Shinji's plugsuit began reading and reporting his vital signs to Aoba, "He's going into fibrillation, give cardiac support!" The suit shocked Shinji through his chest and injected a measure of synthetic adrenaline into his blood. "Pilot pulse and respiration are both weak! Diagnose for advanced hyperthermia! Get him out of the LCL and into a cooling chamber!" Steaming LCL flooded out of the opened entry plug and a nursing crew stripped Shinji of the soaked plugsuit and loaded him into a refrigerated hospital bed to take him into NERV's hospital burn ward.
The Angel reached the Tokyo-3's center city and drew its crystalline body downward into a spiral, cutting through the ground as it rotated.
"All right people, what do we know about this thing?" Misato asked during her briefing. Hyuga and Ritsuko provided the bulk of information.
"Apparently this Angel has two primary forms of attack. Its first is the plasma stream, which casts particles burning at 28000 Centigrade with an estimated range of 19 kilometers; the second is the Angel's crystalline body. It's comprised of a liquid crystal that, when formed into a solid plane, moves higher on Moh's hardness scale than industrial diamond. The Angel is currently using the crystal as a drill to bore into Tokyo-3's shell, and the MAGI estimate all 22 layers of armor to be breached by 2 AM tomorrow morning. Combine the armor with the AT Field, and there is nothing we can use to hit it. Having said that, the body opens up and reveals the Angel's Core whenever it attacks, leaving an opening it its armor to put a precise shot through. The UN is currently pushing to have our HQ self-destruct, as the Level Triple-E charges in the facilities base are enough to destroy it…"
"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard! Don't those idiots know what happens if this base goes up?! What are our other options?"
Hyuga offered an answer. "If we can trick the Angel into opening up for us, we only need to contend with the AT field. We could send a cruise missile barrage with N2 warheads towards it, but there's no guarantee of AT field collapse…Hey, if everything else fails, we could send up a white flag."
"I want to try something else before we pull a France and surrender. What happened to those JSDF research papers we stole?
"We've still got them…you don't really think…?"
"Yes I do. Set me up a hotline to the Army Department's central command."
Shinji woke up in NERV's hospital recovery to the sound of a book being snapped shut. "…Rei, you came to see me in here?"
"I have already received our orders. At 2200 tonight, Pilots Ikari and Ayanami report to the Fukushima substation for presortie briefings. At 2300, Units 00 and 01 are placed into their staging areas. At 00-00 hours tomorrow, Operation Yashima is activated."
Shinji's head flooded with memories of heat and fire. "I…I can't get back in there; all I can think about is everything burning." He looked up at Rei with pleading eyes. "Why am I feeling like this?"
"You can't pilot again?"
"It's not that I can't but, I've never felt like I knew the exact moment I was going to die before…I can't handle that kind of fear. I don't know what to do about it!"
"…If you are afraid of fighting, don't come tonight. I will fight the Angel." She turned and left. "Rei! Wait!"
Professor Fuyutsuki was rather impressed with Misato's solution. "She managed to commandeer a linear antimatter accelerator from the Land Self Defense Force, and wants to build it into the old Naval fortress overlooking Tokyo-3's harbor. She plans to reroute power from substations across Japan into a single point to create a positron stream powerful enough to burn through the Angel's AT field and it's exposed core, if it doesn't cause a planet-wise matter/antimatter collapse first. I am, however concerned with using Unit 01 as the operator. The pilot's mental state is…fragile at best considering the result of the last round of negotiations with our visitor. I doubt he will be willing to climb back in it."
Gendo answered; "If he does not, we will simply use Rei."
"Commander, you know Rei cannot handle Unit 01 yet, her sync with Unit 00 is still too weak to order to cross pilot, and the dummy-plug experiments are failing consistently."
"Then we had better hope that Misato can persuade the Third Child…"
Misato was trying to collect Shinji to leave for the forward base, but he was refusing to move forward with his portion of the operation.
"Misato, if it means my resignation or dismissal, I don't care anymore. I can't handle what happened with this Angel. It didn't just 'hurt'; I wasn't completely safe inside Unit 01 like I was with the other Angels, I was being BOILED ALIVE! That's how they tortured and murdered people in the Dark Ages! You've never had to experience fear like that and then wake up alive afterwards, so no, I can't do it."
Misato had been underestimating the boy's perception quite a bit lately. She knew that everything he said was logically sound and technically correct, but she also knew that the Angels were not enemies that were bound to logic and accuracy.
"Shinji, come with me." She took his hand and started walking him to the express lift. "Everyone who serves in NERV signs a suicide pact with each other. If we should ever fail, should an Angel make it to Terminal Dogma in Level EEE, then the facility activates a network of strategic nuclear warheads and self-destructs. Everybody here is willing to die to save the world from another Impact, and I'm bringing you down here to show you why."
The lift opened up to a massive sea of LCL, with a human-looking giant speared to an iron cross in the center.
"M-Misato, what is that?"
"You're looking at the Second Angel, Lillith. Lillith's DNA is the fabric for every form of life on Earth. We have to protect her. If an Angel unites with Lillith, their resulting hybrid-being will kill every living thing on the planet. NERV will die before we let that happen, and it's been up to you and Rei to keep it from getting that far."
"I understand all of this, but that isn't helping me get over the fear of going back up against the Angel."
"Then don't get over it. You should be doing the exact opposite—embracing that fear. That fear should show you why you need to fight, because you have the power to help other people feel safe from that fear. I know you, Shinji. You don't help people for glory or prize money; you help people because you are (not) alone."
Shinji and Rei were being briefed on the operation at the naval fortress. The Angel could be seen in the background while Ritsuko was filling them in. "Shinji, the Angel can only be eliminated while it's attacking. As such, you will have to wait until after it fires for you to shoot back. We've organized a diversion to get the Angel to shoot at pretty much everything except you, but you must still overcome any fear you have and refuse to move from your sniper post because the positron beam is so delicate that it can be thrown off target by cosmic rays. Just like in the simulator, however, the shooting solution is calculated by the computer and you only have to pull the trigger."
"But even if I get burned again, I can't run away?"
"Don't say things like that. Rei is going to be operating Unit 00 with a portable blast shield. She'll be the one in charge of handling a counterattack. Your purpose, Shinji is completely offensive in nature. It's up to you to put your shot in the core. Now go get plugged, we're activating soon."
He looked over to Rei, who looked like she was staring through Ritsuko, without paying her a bit of mind. "Right."
Rei answered with a quiet "Yes."
The temporary locker rooms were inadequate, to say the least. Shinji could easily see Rei's outline and profile through the flimsy divider, and it made him notice just how uncomfortable and tight his plugsuit was.
"Rei, if either of us gets hurt or killed out ther-"
"That will not happen. I will be protecting you. I will not let you be harmed."
Shinji couldn't keep his own thoughts in his head as they prepared to enter their Units. = She has no concern at all for the danger, but all I can do is worry, how does she handle it? =
"Listen, Rei, why do you pilot your Eva?"
"Because it's a bond."
"…A bond?"
"Yes. It's what joins me to everyone else in our world."
"…Everytime I pilot it, it just feels like I hurt people or drive them away. I wish it could bond people to me."
"It will. Those people you wish to be close to will have to first see what you give them, what you sacrifice every time you fight the Angels."
"…You're stronger than I am, Rei."
"That's because the Eva is all I have. It's time to activate. Goodbye."
He watched, fascinated, as she left for Unit 00. He noticed she was holding those glasses she had in her apartment. = So those things remind her of my dad? =
In NERV HQ, Misato watched as a clock ticked before midnight.
"What's the status on the drill?"
Hyuga gave the latest report, "So far, it's gotten through 19 layers and is boring into layer 20 as we speak."
"Then let's get to it. Blackout the city and charge the Rifle. Begin surface-to-air missile bracketing!"
The missile batteries built into Tokyo-3 launched their weapons in a wave, with the final formation completely surrounding the geodesic Angel, which awakened, opened its core, and streamed plasma into the missile swarm. The fortress's new substation began routing electricity into the mounted cannon, and Shinji slid Unit 01 into a prone position behind it. "Ultra Magnification, 40X. Broadcast A-10 data to MAGI."
Inside HQ, Misato ordered the next wave of diversion attacks while Ritsuko fed Shinji's interface into the supercomputers, giving them the equivalent perspective to Unit 01 at the fortress.
Maya gave the final correction, "Gravity and Magnetism elevation +0.0009. Zero-distance 19 Kilometers."
Misato gave Shinji firing permission. "Unit 01, MAGI have presented a shooting solution. Proceed whenever you're ready."
Shinji fired, the massive cannon burned through the internal fuse while reversing the charge in particles being fed to it. The positron stream exited the accelerator at 99.92% the speed of light, puncturing the Angel's AT field and grazing its core. A torrent of blood spilled out its body and it reformed into a polygonal cone facing the fortress.
"Shot connected, target remains!" Hyuga reported, "The cannon is cooling, target is preparing to return fire!"
"Get Rei in position, protect the cannon!"
Unit 00 moved into the cannon's line of fire and picked up the ceramic heat shield. The Angel released its stream, and Unit 01 was ripped off of the ground and flew into the nearby hillside, landing on its back.
"Status Report: Cannon is undamaged. Unit 00 AT Field is intact, the heat shield is burning. Angel is recharging its stream and preparing to place a second shot." Hyuga reported and Aoba continued "Unit 01 Pilot is shaken but alive, plug LCL temperature is unchanged."
"SHINJI!" Misato yelled "Get it together and get back into position." He struggled to roll to the Eva's chest and began crawling across the ground. = I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. I mustn't run away. =
"This is taking too long. Withdraw Unit 01 and move Unit 00 into the firing position!" Commander Ikari demanded.
Misato was not interested in deference this time. "NO! This is Shinji's role here; he is more than capable of finishing this here and now! I'm asking you to have faith in your own son!"
Commander Ikari scowled and watched as Unit-01 struggled to right itself. "Do as you see fit."
Shinji crawled back into the shooter's post and installed a new fuse. The Angel fired and Rei raised Unit 00's AT field to its highest power, quickly learning why Shinji feared this Angel so greatly.
= High and to the right. I have to compensate for that. =
"Ritsuko, zoom me in as far as you as get me!"
"Pilot has switched to manual targeting." Hyuga determined
= Center in on the target and pull the trigger. =
The cannon fired. The stream drilled through the Angel's plasma, its AT field again, and centered the core. The Angel's plasma halted, its shell closed, and the giant crystalline being exploded. Shinji stripped Unit 01 away from the weapon and ran it out to the bay where Unit 00 was fried in place. "Ritsuko, Unit 00's plug is jammed! Rei's trapped inside!"
"Shinji, tear the shell off the spinal port and pull the plug by hand, get her out of there, Rei is conscious, but her LCL is simmering as we speak."
Unit 01 plunged its knife into Unit 00's backplate, causing the entry plug extend through the damaged door. Shinji grabbed it, extracted it from the Unit, and splashed it underwater, quickly cooling it. Unit 01 laid it on the shoreline while Shinji climbed down and ran up to the hot blast door. He activated the emergency bolts, blowing the door away from the tube when it opened.
"Rei! Rei, are you awake?"
She weakly turned her head to him, only barely still alive."…Shinji, why are you doing all of this…?"
His worry relieved, he smirked and answered, "Because I was mad at you…"
She looked confused by that answer as he continued, "Don't ever say that you 'don't have anything else' again, because I'm going to have to prove you wrong."
He reached his hand to her to help her out of the capsule.
"Shinji, I…I don't know what to say or do…how should I react to all this?"
"Don't do anything, then, just smile because we're okay."
She took his advice to heart, and took his hand and accepted his help out of the plug.
"Come on, NERV has to scrape up the Evas, and we have a long walk back to the fortress." He said as he gingerly helped her climb down onto the sand, neither pilot noticing or caring that they hadn't released the other's hand.
A/N-WOOHOO Episode 6/Rebuild 1 is Down for the count! I'm going to write some filler before we move into Asuka's introduction (I think her rebuild debut is MUCH cooler than her original series introduction) Stay tuned!