Michael staggered backwards, clutching for something to steady himself. Blood flowed from his nose, dripping into his mouth, onto his naked torso and the tiles of the changing room. Reflexes pushed him into action, and he tackled the Chinese boy in front of him. His hand grasped the enemy's neck, ready to tear-
NO.
His hand relaxed, and Michael stood up.
"And what precisely was that for?" he asked, forcing himself to ignore the blood pooling in his mouth.
"You let her die," Li snarled. "You didn't want to waste ammunition, did you? So you just helped out your sister and her boyfriend and LEFT THE REST OF US TO DIE!"
With a snarl, Li flicked his wrist. A knife slid into his hand, and the boy lunged for Michael's throat.
Shinji stood up, leaving the bouquet of flowers on his mother's grave, forcing himself to ignore the pain in his hands. He hadn't let Doctor Akagi treat his wounds before flying out here in a NERV VTOL, and he was sure to pay the price later.
Like the millions of other graves stretching out over the valley, the grave was a simple post hammered into the floor, with a small plaque bearing the deceased's name, date of birth and date of death. There was no body beneath the post; these were the graves of those who left none behind. The posts were packed tightly – Shinji barely had enough room to crouch – and few had flowers adorning them.
"Shinji," said his Father.
"Father," he acknowledged.
"It's been a while," Gendo said.
"Four years," replied Shinji. "The last time I came here. When I ran away."
"Indeed."
The two fell silent for a time. The wind blew softly through the artificial valley, and Shinji brushed his hair absently. He noted it needed a cut soon; the ends were getting frayed and split. The thought sparked something in his brain, and he mentally reviewed some designs he had planned out earlier. That, in turn, led to more thoughts, and soon Shinji was lost in the rabbit-hole of his own mind.
"Shinji," his Father prompted. Shinji came back to reality, and turned to look at his Father.
"She would have wanted you to have this," Gendo continued, holding out a small tape player. Shinji took it, confused.
"What is this? Why now?" he asked.
"Yui always used to listen to this, when nothing else needed her attention," his Father replied.
For a moment, Shinji thought his Father looked almost... wistful?
"I never found out what was on it. Even after she died, I never listened to it. She told me it was meant for her child. Besides, I never had any headphones."
The ghost of a smile crossed the man's face. "I thought it best to give it to you before one of us died in this war," he finished.
Shinji stared at the cassette player, noting the name. It was, apparently, a "Super Digital Audio Tape". He'd never seen something like this before; he used a fully-digital system for convenience's sake. A VTOL's roar forced him to surface to reality yet again. His Father was walking towards the landed transport as Rei disembarked.
"Dad!" Shinji called. Gendo turned, an eyebrow raised imperceptibly. "Thank you. I'm glad we talked."
The Commander stared for a moment.
"So am I," he said. "You did well out there."
Rose fell, clutching her forearm close. Li's knife had bit deep, tearing a gash right through the limb, but at least it hadn't hit its intended target. She was vaguely aware of Michael stepping in front of her. His eyes glanced over her wound quickly, then turned back to face Li.
"-overlook this just," her co-pilot was saying. The pain in her arm mingled with the pain on her right shoulder, and her eyes wouldn't focus. She strained to focus on Michael's words. "-understand that you were close. Do not take your need for revenge out on us."
He's so damned calm. Bastard. She chuckled weakly. Maybe next time I won't save him. The look on his face would be priceless.
"You are dismissed, Sergeant Jian. As are the rest of you."
Rose closed her eyes as the other pilots left. It would be so nice to just sleep here, she thought. It would be so nice to not have to face tomorrow.
"There's no time for that, Lieutenant-Commander."
She forced her eyes open. Michael's face loomed in front of her – he couldn't be more than a few inches away. He smiled, and took her arm. Pain flashed out from the wound, and she screwed her eyes shut. She nearly missed the strange look on Michael's face; was that concern?
"This isn't too bad," he said. "A few more centimetres down and he'd have cut right across a vein. This should be alright with a bandage or two, and maybe an LCL pack."
She nodded off into unconsciousness as the boy picked her up and slung her across his shoulder. This time, she missed the faint smile that spread across his face.
"And so the LORD sent his most loyal, most powerful servant to hunt the traitor. For centuries they searched, and for millennia the traitor evaded their pursuit. It came to pass that the LORD's servant came to rest in the Garden of Eden, far to the East."
The words boomed through Michael's mind, and he staggered out of the door to NERV's hospital wing. He forced himself to stand; he no longer had time to waste being hospitalised, with all the work he needed to get done before the next Angel attacked. He flexed the fingers on his left hand, hoping there'd be something wrong with the repaired prosthetic. Anything to take his mind off of the constant visions and voices.
Nothing seemed wrong with the arm, at least. Akagi had done a good job, considering the state he'd given it to her in. If anything, it was more responsive than before. She'd even installed a wireless connection.
He connected back into NERV's internal network as he strode towards the conference centre he'd commandeered so long ago. Some of the paperwork could be dealt with that way, although he still had to whisper anything he wanted sent as text.
This, of course, meant a certain Asuka Langley Sorhyu was rather freaked out as she walked past the Captain, who seemed to be talking to himself. Especially when he didn't seem to notice their near-collision. She had intended to ask him to put her on the front lines next time, and maybe not steal any chance for glory from her. Now, all she wanted to do was to get away from him before he turned into a psychotic typhoon of death again.
"Pilot Sorhyu," said Michael, snapping his fingers. Fate, it seemed, had other ideas. "A quick word?"
Shinji is quieter than usual. I doubt raising the subject of what he said during the last battle will achieve the results I need. Rei had hoped this would not be the case. Some small part of her told the rest of her that if she let things proceed as they were, she would not like the result. Of course, the notion that she was partially responsible for the boy's state did not cross her mind. I will raise the subject after we leave the area.
Her mind turned to other things, with that decided. These markers are sorted into alphabetical order. Katsuragi's car is parked at the "A" end of the "I" row. We are currently in the "H" area. There are approximately six hundred and seventy-six markers from here to the end of the "A" section – ten point eight three million total markers, twenty-six letters in the Roman alphabet by which this graveyard is sorted, then each letter is sub-divided into twenty-six letters again, and we have one-quarter of the row between us and the end of the "A" section.
If Shinji is upset, I should probably try to help. The thought broke through her calculations, and she stopped for a second. Shinji carried on a few steps before noticing his companion was no longer walking beside him.
"Are you alright, Rei?" he asked.
He is worried about me. I should assuage him. Rei gave him a smile. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
"Oh? You know, I'm kind of interested in what you're thinking about when you space out like that. You do it in class, as well." Shinji smiled back, and a familiar warm feeling spread through Rei's body.
"I was wondering what I should do next," she said. "I thought we could watch some films back at the apartment."
"I'd love to." Shinji reached out, and took Rei's hand.
"So, with Unit 09 destroyed, you're going to be on Unit 05's patrol schedule. I'm replacing Unit 09 with Unit 06 on Unit 08's. I'm going to be making a few more changes to the shifts, mostly so that you lot can keep going to school." Michael rolled his eyes at that. "Tell the others. I need to upload a bunch of stuff to the MAGI, work out a shift rotation with Katsuragi, find out what the hell happened to my gun out there, and on top of that find time to oversee repairs to Unit 07. I want it made clear that I do not have time for any more drama between the pilots."
Asuka glared at Michael. "You did get Mei killed. I'm not going to forget that, and neither will the others." I am not going to let this psychotic shit-head keep telling me – ME – what to do.
"Mei was her name?" Michael shrugged, dismissing the issue. "I think I met her... once? Saw her a couple of times too. Not that it matters."
"You really don't care, do you?" seethed Asuka. Just like Dad. It doesn't matter how many you lose, so long as you can plant your flag at the end of the day.
"Of course I care. I've lost one-eighth of my force. That means I'll have to defend my actions in an international court-martial at some point – hopefully after we've killed all the humanity-ending giant monsters – and I'm going to have to scrape the bottom of the barrel trying to find replacement pilots and Evas."
Captain Ayanami sighed, frustrated, and leaned against the wall.
"That's not getting into the political ramifications. Whatever happened out there, when my gun blew up on me, is going to make my life really complicated for the foreseeable future. On top of all that, I've got you lot complaining that someone died. Did any of you think for one minute that we were going to get through this without any casualties? Ikari's nearly died at least six times, Rei managed the singular feat of getting injured before combat even began, Li seems to insist on killing the Angels in the most spectacular way possible, and people keep trying to kill me. I had to convince my own fucking co-pilot to not shoot me! I'm amazed it's taken this long for one of us to die!" Out of breath, Michael ran through his breathing exercises and forced his fists to unclench.
"Aren't you supposed to be acting like some chivalrous officer or some bullshit like that?" Asuka fired back. This shithead is really beginning to piss me off. It's a pity I can't take him hand-to-hand, that damned arm of his gives him too much reach. "You're such a fucking hypocrite."
"I am whoever I need to be in order to win this war," Michael replied, calm. "Pass my messages on. I will be in my office if I am needed."
"The headlines this morning: The war against the Angels sees its first Evangelion casualty with the loss of Unit 09. International bodies call for an investigation into allegations of incompetence on the part of the head of the Royal Navy's Evangelion Task Force. Preliminary investigations into the terrorist attacks on Tokyo-3 and Okinawa Beach find links to the group that highjacked Unit 03 and launched a large-scale attack on the Middle East three years ago. The African Union has been permitted to outfit two Evangelions for combat, in an amendment to the Vatican Treaty ratified by the United Nations in an emergency session last night."
The television at the front of the classroom blared out the news, and the boy sitting in front of one of the many desks sighed.
Everything still hurts. I really, really wish Misato had been able to swing me just one more day off of school. Shinji absently rested his head in the palm of his left hand as he thought, and immediately regretted his decision. It turned out that the brain really didn't know the difference between a psychosympathetic wound and a real one. Anxious to take his mind off the pain, he opened the lid on his school-issued laptop. Again, he immediately regretted his decision.
Messages filled his screen instantly, ranging from questions about his injuries to congratulations on getting a girlfriend. It seemed that someone – probably Asuka – had told the entire class. I suppose it takes their minds off of what happened. On the other hand, it does make it difficult to think. He closed the vast majority of the chat windows without replying, and kept his replies to his friends brief. He didn't feel like socialising today; even his walk to school with Rei had been quieter than normal, not that there was much of an observable difference.
It seemed that nearly all the other pilots felt the same way. The exception, of course, was Asuka.
"You're serious, right? You're dating HIM?!" she was shouting. "I mean, Wonderboy and the Doll I can kind of understand, but you and the Jock?"
Wonderboy? That's her nickname for me? When did she come up with that? Hell, when was the last time I even had chance to come to school? Shinji zoned out again, trying to forget the past few days.
"Stand! Bow! Sit!" Hikari's voice rang out. Shinji ignored her; if she had a problem with his attitude, she could take it up with his giant robot. I've still got that fucking seminar tomorrow, plus patrol later, plus training in the morning. On top of that, I've got to think of a place Rei would actually like to go on a date. I suppose I could take her to the museums or something? Maybe I could take her shopping again, although I have no idea what she'd end up buying.
"Captain Michael Ayanami, of the Royal Navy's Evangelion Task Force, is here to make an announcement." Those words brought Shinji out of his thoughts, and he looked up in surprise. Sure enough, there was the familiar blue hair and red eyes. The boy was leaning heavily on a cane, his prosthetic arm no-where to be seen.
"Thank you, sir," Michael said. "I believe I will simply cut to the chase. Due to the loss of Evangelion Unit 09 and its pilot, the forces defending this city find ourselves overstretched. We need more pilots. Therefore, as part of the new amendment to the Vatican Treaty, I have been empowered to conscript any potential pilots and train them to combat status. Every student in this class has scored highly on the Mills-Brenner scale, which as you all know determines an individual's potential for Evangelion pilot status. As such, every student in this classroom who is not already an Evangelion pilot has, as of right now, been conscripted into the United Nations Evangelion Reserve."
A wave of shock spread throughout the class. Shinji looked around at the stunned faces, and back at the Captain at the front of the classroom. A small smile had appeared on Michael's face, and he spoke again:
"Welcome to the war, kids."
It's time for the Author's Corner, with your gracious host: Me!
Okay, yeah, I just don't like the term "Author's Notes". It feels a bit weird.
Regardless, there's a point in this chapter - just before the last scene - where I finally managed to watch Rebuild 3.0. Those readers who haven't yet seen it and don't want to be spoiled should probably just close the window or hit the "next chapter" button, assuming the next chapter's up.
For the record, I actually kind of liked it; I went in with minimal spoilers and no expectations (don't even ask how I managed THAT) and thought it was classic Anno Hideaki. I was reminded of a certain line from a certain television series: "If you thought this was going to have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." More importantly, it gave me a few ideas, some of which might make it into this story.
So, join me next chapter, where an eighty-year timeskip leaves all of the characters you've been reading about dead except for Shinji, and then see his slow descent into insanity culminating in a moment where he ends the world (except for the little bit of it he's standing on) by doing something he was explicitly told NOT to do.
I am, of course, kidding - I've got at least three more chapters to go before I can actually turn the "fuck you" dial that high - but you should all be ready to call me out for being an unoriginal hack as soon as you can.