Chapter 14: Brothers in arms

"Unit 06 has finally arrived, an Eva built by Seele themselves. Are you sure we should give it to that kid? He's been here for 3 months yet we know nothing about him, are you sure it's safe?" Fuyutski asks. "The fifth child is no different from the other pilots, merely a pawn to use for our gain. If anything he may be more beneficial than we first thought, he seems to be very dedicated to helping the other pilots. That should make him easy to manipulate if the need arises." Gendo explains. He then gets into his signature pose and small smirk appears on his face. "Don't you fear Kozo nothing will prevent me from returning to my precious Yui." He adds.

Misato's apartment

"I just got the reports from Ritsuko, good job on the high synchro rates you two." Misato says as Mari and I walk into the house. "Oh piloting an eva was so AWESOME!" Mari yells at the top of her lungs. Ever since my interrogation I've always been a bit wary around Mari, she's just so hard to read now that I know she act or not can be really intimidating when she wants to be. "Nice to see another competent Eva pilot on the team." Asuka says while patting Mari's shoulder, Jesus when did she get here. "It's just too bad we have these stooges as our allies." she comtinues. "*Cough*Gaghiel*Cough*" I retort.

I could only assume she wasn't too happy with that comment when the nearest object in this case a chair came flying at me. Mari and Misato just laugh at the ordeal.

"So how did it go?" Shinji asks. Eventually I had gotten away from Asuka and walked into the living room that was currently being inhabited by Shinji, Touji, Kensuke, Rei and Pen pen who was sitting on Rei's lap. Rei actually seems to be the only one that Pen pen actually likes, besides Misato obviously. I wonder if she's just a pet person, I try to imagine Rei petting a dog but eventually go back to talking with Shinji.

"It was just like any other Synch tests only with slightly different scenery." I shrug. "So what did it look like?" Kensuke asks. "Dark blue with some of the edges being gold." I say still not really sure why Kensuke was so into this stuff. The conversation didn't really go in any interesting direction after that.

That Night

As I lay in my bed I begin to think about what's happened so far, have I been having a positive impact on these guys, have my actions caused repercussions that will drastically effect events later on Then there's Mari, honestly I just can't read her I have no idea what her motives are. Hell I don't even know what her personality is, is it the cheerful flirt or the terrifying bad cop. I sigh, you'd think knowing everything about this universe would make this easier.

Suddenly my door opens, I was expecting a sleep walking Asuka, that's happened before since mine and Shinji's rooms are right next to each other. Those incidents always ended up with me having a black eye. My expectations were crushed though when the possibly bipolar chick walked into the room.

"What is it Mari?" I whisper not wanting to wake everyone up. "Oh come on is that how you treat a girl sneaking into your bedroom in the middle of the night?" Mari asks with a wink. And then suddenly my face was red, not only because I was blushing but because of anger as well. I knew she was just fucking with me and that pissed me off.

"What do you want Mari?" I reiterate while trying to hide the discernable growl in my voice. "We need to start making plans don't we?" Mari states. "Yeah but wouldn't it be better to do this oh I don't know in a secure location?" I reply. "Wouldn't it be a bit weird if we just kept sneaking off from the group, they'd surely get suspicious eventually. Especially since you sicked Touji and Kensuke on me." Mari states. Suddenly my feet were very interesting. I scratch the back of my head, "Yeah sorry for that." I apologize. "Apology accepted now are we going to plan or what?" Mari says hurridely. "Oh uh sure." I say.

After that we discuss everything, I have to repeat what happened, discuss plans of attack, and had to deal with Mari and all of her (possibly) bipolar wonder. After we all that we got...jackshit. I get up and stretch, "Ugh it's 6 in the morning and we made no progress." I complain. "Well Shinji's father is a mastermind, did you seriously expect to just swoop in and save everyone like a shining knight?" Mari questions.

What WAS I expecting, did I think of myself as a knight in shining armor that would save the "Kingdom" of Tokyo 3 on a majestic steed? I sigh, great not only do I know nothing about her now she's playing mind games. Mari and I walk out of the room to go do...something.

I walk into the kitchen to go grab breakfast and see Shinji. That's odd even for Shinji 6 am is pretty early, maybe Asuka just slept in his bed again. "So what's up Shinji?" I say trying to make small talk. "Oh you're up early, and was that Mari who came out with you?" he asks. I yawn, "Yeah neither of us could get any sleep last night so we played some video games." I partially lie.

"Speaking of what got you up so early?" I question before Shinji presses the issue further. "Oh I just figured I'd get up earlier to cook everyone's lunches for the day." Shinji explains. "But isn't it the weekend?" I reply. "Oh is it? I thought it was Monday." Shinji says. I squint my eyes a bit, someone as organized a Shinji would never make a mistake like that. I don't press the issue though, the kid already has enough problems as it is without his friend pressuring him on menial things like this. "Well everyone makes mistakes." I assure him.

A few hours later

It's about ten now and everyone's woken up and had breakfast at this point. Everyone's in the living room watching a movie that is (loosely) based on our adventures in the Eva's. "I am not that whiny!" "I would never be caught dead flirting with that idiot!" "I'm not that nerdy!" were some of the common complaints.

After the movie was over I decided to talk to Rei, everyone seems to have been ignoring her lately. "So how have you been adjusting?" I ask. "The living conditions are more acceptable than before." Rei states. "Oh, that's good." I say. After that I had a feeling that the conversation was over.

"What was that, an angel above the atmosphere, come on guys!" Misato yells. We all get into the car and drive to Nerv HQ. "So it's been aiming it's shots towards Tokyo 3." Misato states, the fact that she's talking on her phone while driving just made her driving even worse.

Nerv HQ

"What, you want us to catch it?!" Asuka yells. "Yep, I want you to get close to the angel and expand your At field effectively catching it and stopping it's descent." Misato states calmly. "Can this even be considered a plan?" Touji asks. Misato just chuckles a bit. "So what's the success rate?" Shinji asks. "It's probably best if you don't know that." Misato replies.

With that we were put into the Eva's, with six of us here this shouldn't be a problem. We were launched up to the surface. "We are leaving the rest of this operation to your judgement, and whatever happens I just want to say that I'm grateful to you for trying." Misato says.

The power cords are unlocked and all six of us start running towards the angel, knocking over houses, trees, power cables, whatever stood in our way. Suddenly the angel begins to change, I knew it would change but I wasn't expecting this. Sahaquel suddenly splits into three, "Damnit!" Touji's voice rings through the entry plug.

"We have to split up into three groups of two!" Mari yells. Nobody objected to the plan. The groups we split into are Shinji and Rei, Asuka and Touji (much to Asuka's anger), and Mari and I. I run right under one of the bodies, "At field expand!" I yell and the Eva obeys. Despite being split into three each body still dwarfs the Eva's.

The Unit 06 holds it's hands out and catches the angel. The force is too much though and Unit 06 is slowly pushed down onto one knee. I can barely concentrate from the crushing pain. Suddenly I have a vision of a white haired, red eyed, teenager.

"K-Kaworu?" I whisper, suddenly I get a burst of strength. Eva unit 06 suddenly begins to lift the angel up mcuh to Mari's surprise as she slips under the body. "Where did that come from?" She asks. "Can we talk about this later!" I yell. "Sure." she says as she takes out her progressive knives and stabs the core. All three bodies of the angel explode, I guess everyone else succeded too. I take a look over at the pink Eva beside me, I guess she's more trustworthy than I thought.

It's the (belated) anniversary of the story, the story recently reahced 1000 views, I finally gave "myself" some more character, and it was gendo's first line in a chapter. So yeah it's a big day.

In all seriousness though sorry about the delay again I meant to write/post this yesterday since it was the one month anniversary of when I started this story but I just couldn't be bothered. Thanks to everyone who's actually stuck around for this so far. Feel free to comment and such.