Well, the long wait is over. Time for the next chapter.
Chapter 2: More Than Human
In the commander's office at Nerv HQ, Gendo Ikari and his second-in-command, Kouzou Fuyutsuki, were viewing data on unit 00's current condition. They were interrupted by a woman's voice,
"I'm here with the status report, Commander."
Walking through the office door and up to the commander's desk was Ritsuko Akagi. Under her arm were several folders containing information on the test results of the P.E.C.T.
"Dr. Akagi. What is the status of the P.E.C.T.?" asked the commander.
"Well the results are in. A whole bunch of students have qualified to be future Eva pilots. However two stand out from the others. One is your own son with a score of 95%, which I'm sure you already know."
"And the other?"
"The other happens to be the new student that transferred from Tokyo 2. Arika Shimizu."
"And her score?"
"Her score couldn't be better. She has a 99.5%, which by all means is a 100% compatibility to the Lilith DNA."
With this statement, the commander under his steeped hands grinned.
"Excellent. File her as the primary test subject to become unit 01. Dispatch a group of section 2 agents to her home for her capture, once the school day ends. Then wipe all data and records related to her from the city."
"What about your son's score? He's also qualified for the Project: Evangelion Conversion Test, if I'm correct? " asked Fuyutsuki.
"Should the third child become a problem in the future and we're in need of another evangelion, then he'll become it."
"Ikari, are you also aware of the bond forming between your son and the test subject?"
"I was not. However, this will not to a problem because I'm sending him back to stay with his teacher while unit 01 is finalized. Enough about the third child! Back to the matter at hand. Dr. Akagi?"
"Yes sir?"
"In the meantime, you are to prepare the second test cage for the test subject and unit 01. Have the Lilith DNA injection and tranquilizer sedative ready. I want the B type equipment finished by the time the transformation stage is complete."
"What about the core?"
"We've taken care of that already. I'm warning you Dr. Akagi. Make no mistake with the tranquilizer sedative. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Then you are dismissed."
Ritsuko exited the office with haste. The commander grinned under his steeped hands and muttered,
"Good. With this, the child will be even further broken for the scenario by the disappearance of his new friend."
It was afternoon of Arika Shimizu's second day at Tokyo 3 High School, and she was feeling pretty good. During the day between classes, she talked to Shinji to try to encourage him out of his shell. She even joined him on the roof for lunch. Overall, she thought that Shinji was a good person, but he needed some social attention and to not bottle up all his emotions all the time. With her guidance and encouragement, he would be out of his shell in no time. Despite it being only her second day around Shinji, she was starting to feel a small attraction to the boy, an attraction that could only described as two lost souls coming together for the first time and finding each other to be their salvation.
After a final goodbye to Shinji, Arika headed home. As she walked, she thought about how yesterday she had not only saved someone's life but made a new friend in the process. She also felt good because she was positive that she passed the test with a really high score. However, this brought her mind back to the questions she had to answer.
"Now that I think of it, many of those questions were rather bizarre. I know simple athletic questions are understandable, but questions about my genetic makeup, a more detailed approach on appearance and thought process? Isn't some of that a bit… too much?!"
With a sigh, she shook her head and continued walking until she got home, not noticing the men in black suits hiding in the shadows.
Arika walked up the front steps and put her school bag down. Bending over and reaching into the bag, she searched for her door key. Finding it, she moved to unlock the door, only to find it slightly ajar. Now suspicious, she slowly opened the door the rest of the way. Looking into the house, her expression changed from one of caution to outright disbelief. Everything was gone. All of her and her grandmother's belongings had vanished. The walls were bare, and the floor clean where the furniture used to be. Nothing was left except for a coffee table in the living room. In the middle of the table was an envelope with her name inscribed on the front. She picked up the letter, quickly tore it open, and read the message inside aloud.
"Dear Shimizu Arika,
Congratulations on passing the Physical Evaluation Capability Test. Because of your exceptionally high score, you have been selected to be the primary candidate for Nerv's new top secret program. I'm sure you're wondering where everything in your house has gone, along with your grandmother. Well, she and it have been relocated to an onsite apartment. This is to make carrying out the operation will be easier.
You may wonder what the operation is about. To get straight to the point, because your score results were very high, you are now classified as the primary test subject for the Project: Evangelion Conversion Test. otherwise known as the P: E.C.T. By the time you finish reading this letter, Section 2 will be there to bring you into our custody. Farewell Shimizu Arika.
Forever may your world be changed.
Supreme Commander Gendo Ikari and P: E.C.T. Head Dr. Ritsuko Akagi."
As she read the last line, shaking with denial, she felt two people grab her from behind. She tried to escape them, but to no avail. In the scuffle, she dropped the letter and yelled in anger,
"No! You can't take me! Please! I don't want to be a part of this! I have a life worth living!"
The Section 2 agents forced her to the ground, their iron grip causing her great pain.
"Uoff! Mmhmhmm… No! Shinji needs me! Mmhmm … Stop! Mmhmhmm … STOP! … mmm … Help me! Somebody hel …"
An explosion rang in her head and everything faded to black for Arika.
"There. That'll take care of her," said the agent who had struck her with a blackjack.
"Orders are to take her to HQ for the procedure." said the head agent.
"Inform commander Ikari that the test subject is captured and is in route to Nerv."
A few hours later in the brig at Nerv headquarters, Arika began to stir. She slowly opened her eyes to find that she was in a dark cell. There was not much to look at in the small room. Four steel walls surrounded her, one with a reinforced door. On one side was a toilet with a sink and mirror next to it, and on the other, attached to the wall, was the rather uncomfortable bed she found herself on. She went to move a stray hair from her eyes only to find that her hands were cuffed behind her back. Pulling at the bonds, she found, was futile.
She heard multiple footsteps approaching her cell. The door was thrown violently open, and since she had no way to cover her eyes, the light from outside blinded her. Two Section 2 agents entered, grabbed her, and dragged her out into the light. When she could finally see again, there was a crowd around her: six agents in total, four guards, and a blond scientist in a lab coat. No words were exchanged among the group, but at a glare from the blond women, everyone moved. One of the guards jabbed their gun into her back, forcing her forward, and the whole group began marching through the halls of Nerv.
They marched until they reached a set of elevators. While waiting for an elevator to arrive, they stopped next to a room with caution tape spread across its large doorway. Peering through the doorway past the tape, Arika saw multiple consoles that were lit with only warning lights.. Beyond them was an observation window that had equipment thrown about behind it in a chamber with something that looked like blood covering some of the walls. Next to one of the doors was a chart of names, a brief description of the project they were conducting, and a stamp that read FAILED at the bottom of the page. Three things caught her attention in the description and made her remember what Shinji told her about his mother's death.
"He said that his mother died in a car accident and that they tried to revive her, but the project failed," she thought. The project title on the sheet read Yui Ikari Eva Core Revival and Retrieval Test, and judging by the stamp, the project didn't end well.
"He also said that his mother's name was Yui Ikari."
Putting two and two together, she realized with a shudder that that was the room where Shinji's mother had officially died.
The elevator then arrived, and the group filed on. As they descended, she could only think about the kinds of tests they were going to perform on her.
"What on earth are they doing here? What are they planning to do with someone like me? I mean, as far as I know, I'm not really special for the field of science, except for my mutated hair color. And that's not very interesting...'
Her thoughts were interrupted when the blond scientist said something about taking a route through the first test cage. This brought her attention to the now opening elevator doors. Passing through, she found herself in a giant chamber that was many stories tall. The catwalk they were walking on spanned the space. On the far side of the room, in restraints bolted to the wall, was a gigantic, humanoid shaped being, covered head to toe in thick yellow and white armor, with one eye. The scientist then spoke,
"This here is the first prototype of humanity's ultimate weapon of defense: Evangelion unit 00. Unit 00 is imperfect in a few ways, however. It deteriorates when put under major physical stress and has to be serviced and maintained frequently. To solve these problems, we created a new method of constructing an Evangelion. Using DNA mutations, we scale an already stable organism up to size."
"And what is this stable organism you speak of?"
"You'll find out soon enough."
The group continued to cross the catwalk. As they walked, aside from feeling the eyes from the guards behind her, Arika could also feel the stare of a greater presence. Glancing back past the guards and over the catwalk, she saw the prototype unit staring back at her with a warning look. She shivered and turned back as the group arrived at another set of elevators. One was labeled Test Cage 1 and another Test Cage 2. The blond scientist opened the Test Cage 2 elevator, and the group entered. When they reached the bottom, they stepped out into the large cage. As Arika looked around the great open space, she wondered, ''Why go through all the trouble of locking me in a cell, just to bring me here to an extremely large space where I could possibly escape?'
Her eyes then landed on a single metal chair bolted to the floor in the middle of the cage. Next to it were two tables, one with two different-sized syringes and a jar with biohazard labels on it. The other had a thick, rubbery looking wetsuit laid out on it with an opening in its back. She glanced down at herself, and saw she was wearing a similar, but thinner, version of the suit. She suddenly realized that she was practically naked, and her face reddened with embarrassment. The blond scientist moved to the table with the thick suit and then stood in front of Arika, with it in her hands. Realizing what was going to happen, With all her might, Arika tried to break free from the agents' grasp, but to no avail. The rest of the agents took hold of her or a part of the suit and forced her in. Her struggles only grew more futile as the parts of her in the suit were nearly impossible to move. The blond scientist stepped back once Arika was fully in the suit.
"There. With the malleable cybernetic contact and armored surface suit on, your movements are now mostly restricted for the next part of the procedure."
She then moved over to the other table, opened the biohazard jar, and filled the large needle completely with fluid. With a frightened voice, Arika asked, "What are you going to inject into me!?"
"I'm injecting a liquid sample of 100% DNA from the second angel, called Lilith to be specific. The DNA will change your biology to make you capable of fighting the rest of the angels in the future."
As the blond scientist came closer with the needle, Arika tried to resist and screamed in protest, but the doctor drained the entire syringe into her shoulder. Section 2 agents then moved to restrain her. Once Arika was strapped down in the chair, the fake blond grabbed the other needle. Infuriated form being stabbed once, Arika with the last of her strength tugged at the restraints, bumping into the doctor's arm with her head. Knocked off balance from the head-butt, the doctor dropped the syringe, which tumbled out of her hand and hit the floor with a crash.
"Shit! Damn you, you little brat! Everyone, evacuate the test cage immediately! The test subject hasn't been tranquilized!" she yelled.
As the group fled for the exit, Arika suddenly felt her strength triple. With a few tugs, she broke the straps as if they were thin as paper. Now free, she ran after the group, yelling, , "Come back here! I'm not letting you get away with this!"
"You're gonna payyyyyyoooow!" she cried, only getting a few feet\ before stumbling and falling to her hands and knees in pain. Struggling to get up but failing, she shouted, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME YOU BITCH! Why!?"
Looking down, she noticed that the ground was starting to move further and further away from her face. She closed her eyes tightly as another intense wave of pain hit, lasting for a few minutes. Finally. when the pain had mostly stopped, she opened her eyes to find that she was now the size of a humanoid giant. An image of Unit 00 flashed through her mind, making her realize her fate. With this, she collapsed and fell into a deep sleep.
Back on the surface, walking to his new home after stopping at a convenience store to get food for dinner, Shinji reflected on the day spent with his new friend Arika. How they ate lunch together, how she would try to lighten his spirits, how they talked about each other's pasts. He just couldn't get her out of his head.
"She's being so nice to me. I wish there was something I could do to pay her back."
After he thought for a bit, an idea struck.
"Maybe I should make her a bento, since she doesn't seem to like the school's lunch. Yeah."
So the next morning, Shinji made a lunch to give to Arika. However, when he arrived at school, she wasn't there. He waited the whole day. and still she didn't show up for class. This left him concerned.
'Maybe she's sick? If she is, I hope she gets well.'
The next day, she still wasn't at school, and the next. With each day, Shinji became more and more worried. As he approached the mailbox to the apartment he was sharing. he thought, 'What if something happened to her? Where could she be?'
He noticed a letter sticking out of his mail slot. Taking the envelope, hoping it was from Arika, he opened it only for his heart to sink. In the letter, written in the center was 'Go back to live with your sensei. Signed Gendo Ikari.'
Meanwhile, more cybernetics were being implanted throughout Arika's newly massive body. An entry plug port was installed in her back just below her neck. To top it all off, restraints and many layers of armor were placed on her; transforming her into a titan with purple, black, and neon green highlights. Also, there was a helmet with a jagged tooth line and a single horn rising above the eyes, covering her head completely. All that was missing was the complex layered chest plate armor. Today, the core would be installed, and her transformation into an Eva would be complete. Technicians moved the core into a cavity cut in the middle of the chest. Within seconds the flesh around the red sphere bonded to it and healed around it. What they weren't expecting was that once the area had fully healed, the titanic being suddenly lurched to life.
It struggled to move, making its bonds begin to crack under pressure. One by one they broke, nothing keeping the beast at bay. It then roared an ear piercing, unholy, roar to the heavens. The berserker known as Unit 01 was born, full of pain and hatred.
Next: Chapter 3: Enlightenment I