Episode 2: Berserk

10 Years Ago

It was a rather cloudy day. The sun was blocked out, and it had rained earlier in the day. Because of that, it smelled of fresh water. Nobody was outside, and it was peaceful.

Except for the sound of a young boy's tears, screaming "Father! Father!" over and over again.

"This is for the best of both of us. Good luck son." Gendo entered the train and left Shinji on the side of the train. Alone, with no mother to care for him. He was abandoned. Nobody cared about what to him, he thought.

That thought stayed with him for the years to come.

Now

"Father..." Shinji said to himself. He had not seen his father since he was 4. He would never forget the fact that he left him with nothing. He hated him for that, no, he despised.

"Captain, it's time to move out," Gendo said to Misato. Shinji looked at Misato. She was a captain? He thought she seemed so calm and laid back, she didn't have to personality of a Captain.

"But Unit 00 isn't even working yet! Wait a minute, you're using Unit 01?!" Misato yelled, "But we don't if it works!"

"We have to try anyways!" said Ritsuko to Misato, "We have no other choice. The UN forces can't dent the damn thing and we need to protect Central Dogma!"

"I know that... but we don't have a pilot! Rei is still injured and the Second Child is still in Germany!"

"Well we just got one."

"No... no you can't be serious! He hasn't had any training at all, no sync ratio tests, no nothing!"

"Captain, I suggest you stand down! You know better then anybody that we need him to pilot!" Misato opened to say something, but stopped herself. Fighting would do her no good against Ritsuko.

"Yes ma'am," she said sadly.

"Shinji Ikari?" Ritsuko said to Shinji. Shinji looked up nervously. He had a feeling that he knew what she was going to ask. "You are the new pilot."

"What?" said Shinji, though in reality he wasn't really that surprised. Shinji looked up at his father, "Is this why you sent for me?"

"I think it has been made clear why you were sent here," Gendo replied in his usual stoic, expressionless manner.

"But why me? I'm just a kid!"

"Because you are the only one who can."

"But I can't! I've never even seen one of these things before! There's no way I can do this!" By this point, Gendo was visibly frustrated.

"If your going to do it, do it now! If not, then leave!" His voice echoed throughout the whole facility. Shinji stayed quiet for a bit. What if he did pilot it? What would happen then? No, he couldn't pilot it. He didn't even know what the damn thing was!

Suddenly, a shake came over above. In the city, the Angel had fired one of it's attacks, resulting in a cross shaped explosion.

"It's getting closer..." mumbled Gendo to himself. He looked back down at Shinji. Was he going to pilot?

"Shinji... please. We need you," Misato was begging Shinji by this point.

"But I've don't even know how to pilot the thing!" yelled Shinji, "Why did I come anyways?"

"Why did you come here?" asked Misato. Shinji looked surprised by the question. Usually he just did what people told him to do. That's why he came. "You mustn't run away, Shinji. You must confront this."

"I know that! I just... can't." Misato was out of options. She just turned her head over to Gendo and shook it. Gendo contacted Fuyutsuki over the intercom.

"Wake up Rei," Gendo ordered Fuyutsuki.

"Can you use her?" Fuyutsuko asked.

"She's not dead yet."

"...Understood sir."

Shinji could hear the Evangelion start to power down as it's eyes stopped glowing yellow. Ritsuko yelled some sciencey techno babble, and Misato left.

Shinji came to realization that he wasn't even needed here. They had another pilot! Did his father just bring him to make fun of him? He didn't really care about him at all. Neither did anyone else in this hell hole.

Just then, a group of doctors came out from the elevator with a injured girl on a dolly. The girl had blue hair, bandages everywhere, and piercing red eyes. So this is the Rei they were talking about, Shinji thought. She reminded him of his mother from some strange reason.

The doctors quickly unhooked her from the hospital equipment and left the premises. As Rei attempted to stand up, emphasis on attempted, she groaned in pain and started breathing heavily. Even breathing seemed hard for her.

Shinji stood in shock. How could this girl pilot? She was incredibly injured, and looked so fragile. She just...couldn't!

He knew what he had to do.

"I'll do it!" he yelled, "I'll pilot it!"

"Inserting entry plug!" yelled one of engineers working the Evangelion. Shinji only saw black. It was completely dark inside, with no visible light with the exception of the flashing buttons. Shinji wondered why he was doing this. Was it for a sense of entitlement? Is it pity for that girl? Or was it... for his father.

Shinji shook his head at the thought. No, he thought, I never do anything for my father. He still felt resentment towards him for leaving.

Suddenly, the lights began to turn on. And this reddish-orange liquid began to fill the tank.

"Ah!" yelled Shinji, "What is this stuff?"

"It's ok Shinji," Ritsuko said on the other end, "It's LCL, a breathable liquid. You'll get used to it." Shinji started breathing it in. It tasted like blood. Yuck.

Then, out of the blue, he could finally start to see though the cockpit. It was rather natrual too, like it was his own 2 eyes.

"Sync ratio at 41.3%," he heard Maya, one of the technicians, say over the speaker. That must be the way I control the Eva, Shinji thought.

Technicians and mechanics from all sides prepared the Eva for launch. As the Eva rose up from it's platform, Shinji could see more of NERV. It was pretty complex facility, with lifts and cranes everywhere. Shinji couldn't whether the place was still in production or it just needed these to get everywhere. Everything was so... confusing to him.

He heard the Eva grind to a halt. Lock bolts grinded into place at the bottom of the platform and the gates opened up.

"We are go for launch!" he heard Ritsuko yell on the other side. He also heard a bit of conversation between Misato and his father, but couldn't make a lot of it. Stuff about how "unless we defeat the Angels, we have no future."

"Eva Launch!" yelled Misato.

Suddenly, the Eva rose up and Shinji felt the shock go through him as he was lifted up. And then, out of nowhere, it all just came to a screeching halt. Shinji saw the Angel first hand and saw it's red core light up.

"Ok Shinji," said Ritsuko to a confused and utterly terrified Shinji, "Just concentrate on walking for now."

Shinji just thought about walking towards to the Angel. The Eva took one step forward. The ground shook as it walked and a phone booth near it cracked. Shinji decided to take another step forward. This time however, the Eva lost balance and fell flat on it's face. Shinji felt the pain from that fall. How he could feel it, he thought.

"Shinji, are you alright?" asked Misato worriedly over the com, "Hurry! You need to get up!" Shinji looked up and saw the Angel hovering above him.

The Angel grabbed the skull plate of the Eva with one hand. It's other hand grabbed onto the Eva's arm. It pulled on it, causing massive amounts of pain for Shinji. He screamed. The pain was unbearable.

"Calm down Shinji, that's not your real arm!" Shinji paid no attention to Misato.

The Angel stopped pulling and began to squeeze instead. In fact, it squeezed so hard that the Eva's arm snapped. Then, with it's purple lance in it's arm, began to stab through the Eva's head.

Shinji's grabbed his head in pain. Blood started coming out of his eye, and trickled down his face. The screen in the front began to crack. Then the spear went through the Eva's head and it flew back and the Eva hit a skyscraper. The spear retracted and the Eva's head began spout blood. Shinji fell unconscious.

"The pilot has become unresponsive!" yelled Makoto.

"Status report!' yelled Misato at the 3 technicians.

"The circuits are breaking off! No life signs detected!" Maya screamed.

"Unit 1 has gone 100% silent!" Aoba exclaimed. Misato and Ritsuko had no idea what to do. Rei couldn't pilot, and Shinji was unresponsive.

"We have no choice..." Misato said, "Abort the operation! Rescue the pilot at all costs!"

"We can't! It's not accepting the signal!"

"What did you say?" On the screen, they saw the Eva reactivate. The Eva's eyes glowed yellow and it's mouth opened. The entire headquaters were in shock. The unthinkable just happened.

"Berserker..." whispered Ritsuko.

The Eva roared and got on it's hind legs. It jumped up and launched itself forward towards the Angel. It landed to top of it and started hit it. The Angel sent it back, but the Eva landed on the ground in front of it, sending debris and concrete up into the air.

The Eva turned around and began to run towards it. The Angel had an AT Field, however, and it stopped the Eva dead in it's tracks.

"No, not now!" yelled Misato.

"It can't get near it now!" responded Ritsuko.

The Eva held out it's arm and it regenerated itself. The arm was good as new! It then grabbed hold of the Angel's AT Field and began to rip it apart.

"The Eva has activated it's own AT Field! It's neutralizing the faze space!" yelled Maya.

The Eva ripped the AT Field in two. The Angel now had nothing to defend itself. The Eva grabbed both of it's arms and broke them in half. Blood poured out of the wounds. It kicked it back where it crashed into a building.

Out of control, the Eva ran towards the Angel and launched it backwards, taking it and the building with it. The Eva, now on top of the Angel, began punch at the pulsing red core. Unable to do anything, it ripped open the Angel's chest and grabbed one of it's teeth. Ripping it off, it began to use it like a spear and tried destroy the red core. When it began to crack, the Angel screeched and wrapped itself around the Eva. It began to glow.

"It's going to self-destruct!" exclaimed Misato.

The Angel exploded, causing a giant purple cross to form where it once was. After a few seconds, the brightness died down. On the screen at NERV, they saw the Eva, partly destroyed, walking towards them.

"Is that..." whispered Ritsuko.

"...Eva's true form?" Misato replied back.

Shinji woke up to the sound of talking. People were saying on how that his life signs were returning, or how they need to get him out of the Eva soon. All he heard though was a massive crash. He looked to his right and saw the unthinkable.

There, in the reflection of a skyscraper, stood the face a creature. What creature, he could not say. Was that the Eva, he thought.

The creature's side began to slide open. A round, green object appeared, with a giant black hole in the middle. The stared at Shinji until three more black dots appeared.

And then, all the city heard, was the scream of a boy in the night.