Disclaimer: NGE and all related characters are the property of their respected creators and companies. I own only, and I stress only, the original characters and scenarios I have presented herein.
Author's Notes: Questions that arose last chapter will be answered, Shinji and Misato hash out what happened and work through some very awkward feelings, Shinji meets Rei for the first time and introduces himself, and Unit-00's upgrades begin, along with more shenanigans! Now, unto "Flash-Backs, Flash-Forwards, and Just Plain Flash".
Misato was ashamed of herself. She had just woken up from a very pleasant sleep which was brought about by a very passionate love-making session with the transformed Shinji Ikari. She had taken advantage of him, a teenager, even though he looked like an adult! He become quite beautiful after his most recent transformation, but when she had teased him with some rather intimate touchy-feely, she had flipped her proverbial lid and screwed his brains out and vice versa. She had never felt so thoroughly pleasured, but now she wishes she could take it all back. Shinji had literally swept her off her feet (okay, a cold concrete floor of an old warehouse) and had taken her to a small but well kept motel, where things got hot and heavy and very very real. He had waited on her hand and foot afterward, but he tried to avoid eye contact as much as possible. Like he was the one at fault.
She could never blame him.
She knew about that stupid hormone thing long before. She should have acted like a grown up and not teased Shinji like that. She had read a small novel sized file on Shinji's changes. His hormones were in such constant flux, the slightest stressor or stimulation causes incredible mood swings that Shinji can only control through massive doses of psychotropic drugs, in the form of blue-green gel capsules he takes every week. When he takes his medication, his behaviour is rather normal, if not a bit surly, but what teenager isn't?
Unfortunately, without said pills, the kind of berserker event that Misato witnessed when Shinji piloted Unit-01 for the first time would be a frightening norm. Now he'd never be able to be himself around her, always being reminded of their little tryst, which really wasn't little at all. He'd always be walking around on eggs shells whenever she was around him, and he'd feel like the guilty party for this whole mess.
'Way to go, Katsuragi! The poor kid can barely keep these crazy mood swings in check as is, but now you've thrown a whole sacks of monkey wrenches into carefully prepared plans to help Shinji through it all. What's your next trick? Getting the kid killed?! You've ruined a good part of his life that he's never going to be able to take back or do over. I hope your proud of yourself!' Misato angrily chastised herself.
She was sat up in bed while Shinji napped in a chair across the room, fully clothed. She admired just how handsome he was; swept back, spiky hair that was, somehow, inky black again. High cheek bones accentuated by a sharp, strong jaw. Almond shaped eyes beneath razor sharp eye-brows and a straight, elegant nose which rested above a full, sexy mouth that Misato remembered quite vividly was gifted at kissing. A long limbed, muscular physique that belonged to a body-builder/super-model. The ghostly white skin made him all the more eye-catching. Appearing around his early twenties, Shinji was going to be fending off young women with a baseball bat!
If Shinji never found that special someone, or that someone never showed him any appreciation, Misato thought greedily, than she'd be happy to be show Shinji the kind of affection he deserved on a more permanent basis. A small, but very adamant part of her brain screamed, "MINE!" She was sorely tempted to listen. She also knew that if anything, anything at all was going to come of this, then she would let it happen in its own time.
If it happened at all.
Speaking of Shinji, he was stirring in his chair, a deceptively peaceful smile on his handsome face. He opened sleepy eyes and focused them on the woman who sitting up in bed and had the bed sheets pulled to her chest. He smiled a lazy wicked grin at her and licked his lips, like he was planning on eating her. He stood to his full height which now well over six and a half feet tall. Considering his size, physique, and the combination of faded and torn Denim jeans, black biker boots, white tank top, with black leather armbands around both biceps, he pulled off "bad boy" very well. His eyes were...'oh no!'
Misato started as she realized that the whites of Shinji's eyes were now oily black again. He noticed how upset she had suddenly become, walked over to the dresser near the bed, looked in the attached mirror and growled low as he swore.
"Goddamn son of a bitch! Just once, I'd like my eyes to go back to being normal again and stay that way!" As Shinji dropped his face from his reflection, Misato couldn't help but notice how his body had tensed up and his muscles seemed to go taut. She slid out of bed, wrapping the sheet around her body as a make-shift robe and walked behind the troubled super human teenager. She leaned against his back and wrapped her arms around his waist, rubbing his stomach in a way she hoped conveyed sympathy, not arousal. Shinji growled low and softly whispered, "I'm okay Misato. You don't have to worry; this is something I've had yo put up with for a few years now".
Misato responded with a bit more venom than she had meant to when she said, "You shouldn't have had to put up with this shit in the first place!"
Shinji turned to look at the lovely Captain from over his shoulder and clasped his larger hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. He turned around and returned her embrace with a gentle hug. He lifted her eyes to his and saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes and softly wiped them away with a knuckle of his hand. He lowered his head till their foreheads touched and he whispered, "Thank you Misato for caring about me. For simply giving a damn; you have no idea how much that means to me". He then released her and took several steps back. Misato thought she had done something wrong again, but Shinji lifted a hand to stop her.
"Misato, if we both don't stop, we're just going to be at each other again, and this time I don't know if I can control myself enough to stop myself from hurting you...again".
Misato had no idea what he was talking about. He had been aggressive, but not hurtful, passionate, and yet gentle. When had he hurt her?
"When I lost control before, I ended up screwing your brains out. If I lose control again, I won't be able to stop, or even slow down. I will become like an animal, and that is NOT innuendo. I could end up seriously hurting you, and that is something I will not let happen. You may say this wasn't my fault, but I should never have let you get so close. I know you were only teasing, but instead of just backing off, I acted like a douche and thought with my hard-on instead of my head. I'm sorry". Shinji spoke softly, his arms wide, like he was praying, his eyes cast downward. He felt a gentle hand touch his face, and had to fight like a bastard not to lose control.
Misato made him look up into her eyes, and Shinji thought to himself, "I could get lost in those chocolate brown peepers". She smiled warmly and said, also softly, "You have nothing to be sorry FOR. Please remember that". She slowly turned away from him and went over to the small bureau where her clothes had been neatly folded and lain. She smiled as she kept thinking about how considerate Shinji was to her. She heard his heavy footfalls as he left the room to give her some privacy, but if she had been really honest with herself, she would have demanded he watch. She watched him through the window of the room as he stepped outside onto the motels second floor balcony. He stood ramrod straight and tilted his head back, as though letting out a long, frustrated breath. Misato continued to get ready as he stood outside.
Misato, while a bit melancholy, still managed to smile as she thought about how she got to this particular point.
She also wondered what everybody else was doing.
Shigeru Aoba was not a happy man. His broken arm was now out of that impromptu sling and now in a proper cast, while an antiseptic-laced bandage was tightly wrapped around his left knee. It had been well over a day since he had been injured, but the memory was still very fresh. While he now had some time off of work, he was still rather angry. Not simply mad, but downright angry. He and the American Section 2 agent Forbes had gone to Maya Ibuki's apartment the day after she had angrily stormed out of a Nerv briefing about Dr. Akagi's apparent acts of betrayal and her subsequent abduction and murder.
Sufficit to say, she was in no mood for visitors when they arrived at her apartment, especially the American for whatever reason, though he had a few ideas initially, and now understood quite well, thanks to said American.
Shigeru had been installed at Nerv by order of the Seele council to keep a close eye on the goings on there, as per Chairman Lorenz Keel's direct orders. They were a good crew to work with, but when you work for Seele as a spy, you had better get your head clear, or you'd well end up dead.
As his cast-immobilized arm continued to itch like crazy, Shigeru being unable to scratch it, he tried to distract himself as he thought back as to how he had gotten hurt in the first place...
Yesterday Afternoon...
Shigeru had just picked up Forbes, the American Section 2 agent from Nerv headquarters and was now heading towards Maya's Apartment building, hoping that they would be able to calm Maya down. Shigeru had always had a gift for getting inside of peoples heads without them knowing, and after giving Maya a quick read as she flipped her lid at Commander Ikari, he got a bad feeling in his stomach that she was going to do something rather drastic. Maya had always been a demure, soft spokemn young women who, Shigeru was quick to admit, at least to himself, that he had a rather substantial crush on. He knew that Maya's heart belonged elsewhere though, but as long as Maya was happy, he could live with it. Now that person was gone and Maya was a wreck. He may work for Keel, but when he got the chance, he'd gut that murder happy freak.
Forbes was an odd duck, to be sure. His ghostly white skin and hair (not to mention those frigging weird eyes) made him look like something other than human, though he still was, just not a normal one. He had heard whispers of what theses so-called Nephilim could do, but instead of scaring him, he got a big kick out of it. Genuine super powers, man! He wish he could get in on that shit! He wondered what it was like, a being that transcended regular humanity?
He decided to try breaking the ice with the American.
"Any idea what we're going to be running into when we get to Maya's apartment? She seemed really upset, and that is as blatant an understatement as I can make. What's your take?"
The American seemed rather reluctant to give any kind of answer, but when Shigeru thought to just drop the matter, Forbes spoke up, "Lt. Ibuki lost someone very dear to her, from what I've been told. If you had seen what was left of Doctor Akagi, you'd probably understand her rage better, but there's no helping it now. She was missing all of her limbs...she had been mutilated, and she was still alive, only kept that way by Frankenstein life-support equipment. I put her out of her misery, and now Maya has to suffer because of it. I hate myself, and will until the day I die. I'm almost fifty years old", that last statement making Shigeru jerk and quickly glance at the Nephilim, "but I look way younger, thanks to that accident at the old Gherin base back home. I look like a fallen angel, one pretty young thing had said to me. My Wife thought I was the devil and took our kids and ran"
Shigeru had no idea what to say to that, so when Forbes started talking again, he decided to keep quiet.
"Maya, ya see, she sees me as what took her mentor, her mother-figure away from her. She's got a lot of reasons to hate my guts".
"I disagree".
Shigeru's simple statement made the Nephilim whip around and look at him incredulously.
"I heard what you said, quite clearly, but listen: if you did not regret what you did, then she'd have a bunch of reasons for hating you, but you regret what you did. You hurt yourself to put an end to someone else's pain. You didn't want to do it, but you saw it as necessary. I saw the video feed from the rescue teams helmet cams. I did see what was left of Dr. Akagi. If placed in your position, I would have made the same choice and accepted Maya's hatred myself. I know this isn't going to make you feel all rainbows and sunshine, but please man, think about what I said".
Shigeru, having said his piece, went back to driving the Nerv SUV down the busy streets. He didn't expect Forbes to sigh and smile at him.
"Thanks kid. That means a lot to me, it really does. How'd you get so smart?"
"Just attentive, I guess", Shigeru replied with an easy smile, wondering what Forbes would think if he told him it was in his job description as a spy. The uncomfortable air being displaced, the two men relaxed a bit as they planned how they were going to approach the distraught Lieutenant. They had several ideas, and if anyone else had heard them, they'd have thought the two men were going to commit a serious crime or two!
Simply knocking on her front door seemed like such a straight forward idea, but Forbes had a very unique ability among the many he had acquired which, quite remarkably, was the power to actually read a persons mind. Telepathy! Wow! Shigeru thought it was rather cool; what Forbes saw in Maya's mind, which he relayed to Shigeru, was most certainly not.
Maya was going for a gun.
After Shigeru heard that, he stomped on the accelerator and tore through traffic like a man possessed. After almost causing several accidents (and outrunning the police!) the two men arrived at Maya's apartment building and nearly tore the doors off the SUV they leapt out so quick. They sprinted through the door, almost bowling over a young couple, the boyfriend mouthing off at the two nerv personnel who paid them no heed and stormed upstairs to the floor where Maya's Apartment was located. Forbes and Shigeru almost smacked into each other when Forbes screeched to halt in front of Maya's door. He held up a hand and Shigeru got the idea.
Something was up.
Forbes slowly slowly approached the door, but as he did, a horrible stench hit his enhanced sense of smell like a hammer. He had to fight down his gag reflex and force himself to approach the door. Using his amazing mind powers, he scanned the room, looking for anything alive. He was very relieved to find that Maya was still alive, though her mind set was so particualrly disturbed, Forbes closed his minds eye and shook his head, instantly realizing that Maya was not going to be alive for very long.
He quickly gestured for Shigeru to come up to the left side of the door while he moved off to the right. He knocked on Maya's door and called out tot her.
"Lt. Ibuki? This is Forbes, you know, the Section 2 guy that..."
Blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!blam!
"STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, YOU BASTARD! YOU MURDERED SEMPAI!"
Shigeru and Forbes had dove for cover the moment the shooting started. Shigeru was cursing the air blue while Forbes looked ready to kill somebody, and Shigeru had a pretty good idea who. Shigeru started to ask just what the Hell they were going to do now, but gasped as he saw Forbes' shirt stained with his own blood – purple blood – several large holes punched through his chest by large caliber hollow point slugs. Forbes had started to carefully move toward the door as he spoke; he had expected Maya to react harshly, but to actually start shooting? He should have kept mind scanning!
He staggered backward and was just about to fall over the railing when Shigeru dove for him and grabbed his hand to yank him back toward the landing. Unfortunately, Forbes' weight and more shots proved Shigeru's undoing, one cliping his left knee, sending both men over the railing.
Thankfully for Shigeru, he wasn't hit anywhere vital and landed on Forbes who hit the stairs with a sickening thud. Unfortunately for Shigeru, they both flopped and careened down the steps, Shigeru's hand going for the rail, but when Forbes smacked into him from behind, his arm was snapped at the elbow with a horrible crack! Shigeru screamed in agony as he finally stopped falling and hit the bottom of the steps, other injuries added to his now uselessarm.
Forbes was perfectly still for a moment, but suddenly shot into a sitting position, snarled like an animal and rocketed to his feet, launching up the stairs again, taking them five at a time. As Shigeru struggled to get to his feet and go after the pissed-off Nephilim, he could swear he heard animal growling noises.
Forbes was in no mood for any more shinanigans.
Not in the slighest.
He got back to Maya's door, whipped his leg back, and promptly kicked the door right out of its frame, Maya screaming in fear and anger at Forbes' savage entry. She fired at him again. The heavy gun jumping around like a wild frog, but the shot were blocked by an AT-Field.
An AT-Field being generated by Forbes, his eyes glowing a murderous red.
Instead of normally walking toward Maya, he levitated off the floor and floated over to her, even while she continued to try to shoot him. When the gun ran out of ammo, she reared back and tried to hit him with it, but it bounced off his AT-Field, which he promptly dropped, whipping out his hand, snatching the gun out of a startled Maya's hand, crushed it like so much aluminum, and slapped her hard acrosss the face.
Maya was stunned, and in more ways than one. She staggered and fell over, slowly wiping a small trickle of blood off of her now swollen lip. She had heard that these super-people had abilities similar to the angels, but to be able to generate an AT-Field? As curious as she was, she was angrier still. She tried kicking him in the groin when she shakily got back to her feet, but he snapped his legs together like a vice, not only stopping her kick, but throwing her off balance as he twisted to one side, then whipped back the other way. He opened his legs and let go of Maya, sending her hard into the wall. She bounced off, back toward Forbes, who reared back his arm and clothes-lined her to the floor. He glared down at the now-unconscious girl and walked away, meaning to check on Shigeru.
He need not have bothered as he found Shigeru right behind him, hobling after him thanks to his damaged knee. Shigeru looked at Forbes, then at Maya, looked back at Forbes with a decidedly unfriendly look, and cold-cocked him right between his eyes with his working arm.
Forbes staggered a step back, shook his head, and in a rather surprisingly calm tone of voice asked this question: "Um, shouoldn't you be punching her?" He then pointed at the groaning Maya Ibuki.
"Goddammit, man! You could have just taken the gun away from her! You didn't have to hurt her!"
"Yeah, right!" Forbes suddenly snapped, "Jesus Christ, kid, you and me fell down those steps and you got yourself a busted arm and what else, I don't know. I'm amazed you managed to get back up here! I'm sorry, alright! I got pissed off, okay? She SHOT me! She almost killed you! Listen, I appreciate you trying to save me from fallin' over the rail, but I've got these crazy healing powers; I can handle wounds from HEAVY MACHINE GUN FIRE, never mind falling down a flight of stairs! You can't!"
Shigeru wasn't sure if he wanted to punch the man again or apologize for punching him and cussing on him. Both men decided to call it a day and make sure Maya was okay and clean her up. Shigery had made the off-color remake that the place smelled like somebody took a dump, and then realized that Maya had fallen into such a depressed state after losing Doctor Akagi that when she had come home, she had slumped against a wall and cried until she was empty, not even caring if her bladder lost control and she soiled herself; which is precisely what happened.
Shigeru hoped that Maya wouldn't wake up and start screaming "RAPE!" because Forbes and Shigeru had to strip her down to clean her properly after Forbes ran a hot bath for her.
Shigeru had always wanted to get Maya naked, but not like this certainly!
Forbes looked after Maya as he had calmly - yet sternly – stated, that he had bathed his own kids, and even his best friends kids, so he'd do it. Shigeru was actually glad, because with all the anger at Maya blended with concern for Maya screaming through his system, he really didn't trust himself right now.
Ten minutes later, Shigeru was sorely wishing that he had been cleaning Maya, because he heard Maya screaming bloody murder from the bathroom, a crunch of cartiladge, some muffled swearing, a sound like ribs being hit with a good amount of force, but also a strange sound like fabric tearing. Or was that flesh tearing?
What really clinched it for him was a beastial roar so loud, it knocked him off his feet. When he got back to his feet, he hobbled to Maya's bathroom as fast as his damaged knee would allow...and froze.
Maya was as white as a sheet as she looked up at a fang-toothed, clawed, winged version of Forbes snarling down on her, naked in the bath tub. His head looked bizarre, too. It was like the sides of his head were pushing outward. Shigeru's attention was drawn by Forbes voice, which had taken on such an inhuman quality that it made the long-haired Nerv Bridge tech want to bolt.
"I'f you ever do anything like that to me again, I promise you I will..."
Forbes tilted his head back, making a humming noise, like he was thinking up what he'd do. The raven-winged man chuckles sent a wicked chill up and down Shigeru's spine when he finished his threat.
"I will strip down myself, hop into that bath tub with you, and do something very...ungentleman-like. For a start. Do I make myself very clear, little lady?"
Maya's only response was to nod rapidly.
"Now listen up! You hurt your colleage as well as me! He came over with me to try to help you, to talk to you, but your tried to put hot lead into both of us! My Mama always told me never hit a lady, but you are seriously testing me, girl. Now you didn't know he was here, but that's no excuse for going off like you did either which way!
"Now finish getting yourself cleaned up. There are people back at Nerv who are worried about you and keeping 'um waitin' is rude".
Forbes seemed to slump a bit after he finished talking, and even as he walked away, the wings that had somehow sprouted from his back were shrinking and folding back into his back through what looked like specially designed folds in the back of his coat. By the time he reached Maya's ruined door he looked normal. Well, normal for him. Unfortunately, the police had finally caught up to the two men, but after a lot of explaining, the police checking their identities and calling Nerv, the two men plus Maya were free to go, but on the condition they all come the police station later to explain what exactly went on here today. Afterward, they took shigeru's car and headed for Nerv headquarters, but were diverted to the exact same warehouse they had found the late Dr. Akagi via text messages on their cell phones.
Maya looked like she was going to be sick when she heard that.
"D-Do with have to go there right now?"
Maya was patching up Shigeru with a med-kit that had been stored in the back of the SUV. She had a guilty expression on her pretty face as ashe worked, and with good reason! Shigeru thought to himself. He was in no condition to drive injured as he was. Forbes had set and splinted his arm, which hurt like a sonovabitch, and Maya was tending to his injured knee. Thankfully no major ateries or veins had been hit and the joint was undamaged, so it was all soft tissue.
'Yay, for me', Shigeru thought bitterly as he watched Maya work. After hearing the orders to divert to the warehouse where they had found Dr. Akagi, Maya looked ready to either bolt out of the moving SUV or throw up; maybe both.
Forbes felt sorry for the girl, he really did, but orders were orders and besides, he kind of had an idea of what was going on. He decided to not comment, but simply said, "Orders are orders, sweety. We're almost there, anyhow".
"Oh. Okay. Um, Agent Forbes?" Forbes noticed from Maya's tone she seemed a fair bit hesitant, and he had a very clear idea as to why. He left out a heavy breath he had no idea he had been holding, composed himself and began to explain himself.
"Did you know that everybody who was exposed to Transcendance radiation has the power to transform? We can actually control the transformations, but for some reason or another Shinji, Dr. Carmine and especially Dr. Gannon can't control it. They each have to take dangerously high doses of specially designed meds to not only control the transformations, but to keep their brain chemistry stable. To illustrate what happens when you have that kind of problem, have a look at this".
Forbes pulled a photo out of his jacket pocket and handed it back to Shigeru who, after looking at the picture, sucked in a whole lot of breath and whispered harshly, "What the fuck is that thing?!"
"That thing", Forbes snarled back at him, "is Dr. Emil Gannon, you little twerp! You better watch yourself, boy, or I`m gonna come back there and beat your punk ass!`He`s stuck like that, maybe forever, but he`s a descent guy who`s been there for me ever since my wife ran off with our kids, and I WILL NOT tolerate him being disrespected, we clear?"
Maya all but jumped out of her skin at Forbes angry snarling, and Shigeru froze. "That's Dr. Gannon? How...?"
"I have no idea", Forbes replied, "I have never lost control of MY transformations except when I'm really angry. Maya can atest to that".
As Maya guiltily averted her eyes, she felt the SUV come to a complete stop. Forbes quickly put on the parking brake and said, "We're here".
Maya felt her stomach twist into knots, but she also realized that her Semapi was gone. It was just a warehouse. Just a warehouse where her beloved mentor died. The back door opened and Forbes held out a hand to Shigeru who tried to get out on his own, but not quite successful, so Forbes scooped him up and out of the SUV and gently placed him on the ground. Shigeru injured knee complained immediately, but he staggered through it, while Maya slowed inched out of the back seat, honestly debating if she could make a break for it, but she felt a presence behind he and turned to find Forbes watching her intently, a sombre expression on his strikingly handsome face.
"I can understand you wantin' to be somewhere other than here, darlin', but if you don't face this now, it will eat you up inside, and you'll just end up back where me and Lt. Aoba found you earlier. You owe your mentor more than that". Maya stared at Forbes for a second before her face took on a determined look, though not quite convincing, and said softly, "Alright, I'll try"
Forbes said through a genuine smile, "Well alright! Lets get to it".
After they got in the door, Maya came to a screeching halt as she observed the large LCL-filled glass chamber in the middle of the floor, a distinctly familiar female form floating within. Forbes and Shigeru were actually staring at what appeared to be Captain katsuragi having sex with the attractively transformed Shinji Ikari. Forbes and Shigeru were making comments but Maya's attention was completely drawn to the high-tech chamber, and realized who was floating inside it, smiling back at her with an oddly red, but warm and gentle gaze.
She felt like weeping as she fell to her knees, whispering, "Praise God, Praise God! You gave me my Sempai back!" He eyes drooped closed before she passed out, a joyous smile spread across her pretty face. Forbes quickly caught her and swore, then said, "After all the crap she put us through, now she decides to pass out?!"
Shigeru hauled off with his good arm and punched the Nephilim man right in the back of the head as he scooped Maya into his arms.
"OW! Hey! You want me to drop her or something?"
"What would it matter? YOU already clothes-lined her, smacked her around a bit, and tried to scare her to death. Whats a little drop, eh?"
If looks could kill, Forbes glare at Shigeru would have vaporized him and the wall behind him.
The two men had their attention drawn when a very naked Shinji Ikari, carrying an equally naked (and flushed) Misato Katsuragi or his shoulder walked past the two, but not before quickly fishing the SUV keys out of Forbes jacket, muttering a quick, "excuse me", and then walking out the door, gently placing Misato in the passenger seat, walknig around the to the driver side, getting in, starting the engine, releasing the parking brake, and hauling ass out of the parking lot like his life depended on it.
As the two men, now joined by a transformed Dr. Gannon watched the SUV tear away at break-neck speeds, Shigeru spoke up, a surprising amount of mischief in his voice.
"I dare anyone to report this to Commander Ikari!"
The nephilim man and whatever Dr. Gannon had turned into chuckled at what would happen when the Commander caught up to his errant son and Operations Director. Shigeru had jumped a bit when he caught sight of the transformed Scotsman, but after dealing with the weirdness today, he was surprisingly rather well braced.
"Well, lads", the monstrous Scotsman suddenly quipped, making Shigeru jump somewhat, "It's time for the REAL work to begin".
As the three walked back into the warehouse, Forbes still carrying Maya, Shigeru wondered to himself, 'the real work?'
Dr. Joseph Carmine smiled a nasty smile as technicians and mechanics operated the equipment that was being used to upgrade Unit-00. It had taken more than a week, but using a great deal of experimental hardware the he and Dr. Gannon had developed, they had completely emptied what had been termed the 'Eva Graveyard' for failed experimental prototypes, and converted the entire cavernous chamber into a massive surgical theatre, but on the scale of the Evangelions.
Unit-00 had its armor completely removed as technological upgrades were implemented, beginning with extensive hardware upgrades using what had been dubbed the "Morphix System", a nanotechnology-based molecular matrix composed of nano-scale robots which self-integrated into the molecular structure of inanimate materials, allowing for real-time and all but limitless metamorphic transformations. The Morphix System, which application to Unit-00's machine components was now complete, would allow the existing hardware components to absorb and assimilate all of the new hardware to be installed. A simple systems check was all that was required to make sure everything was going to work the way it was supposed to, plus a small-scale demonstration. Since Unit-01 had the exact same hardware upgrades, Carmine merely saw the systems check and demo as unnecessary, but officially required formalities.
The Magi-2 on-board computer was already installed, along with the ultra-compact cold-fusion reactor. When all of the hardware and firmware enahncements were complete, Carmine would begin the biological upgrades. While the biological enhancements were technically being accomplished by the adaptors integration processes which wove billions of nano-scale circuit and artificial machine muscle fibres into Unit-01's musculature and nervous system, He was going to install some systems that he was sure were going to get him in a great deal of trouble. Thanks to the skeletal armoring, all the new hardware had something more substantial to put roots down into.
After five more minutes, the hardware upgrades and installs would be complete.
Carmine had the nasty grin on his face because, earlier in the day, he realized just who, or should he say what the empowering soul of Unit-00 came from. His stomach had yet to stop doing angry flip-flops. He snickered in a mean sort of way as he psychically mocked the soul within, which was now powerless to stop any of the transformative work he and his crew were carrying out thanks to the locking plug inserted into the plug port at the base of Unit-00's neck, no matter how much it raged.
"You can kick and scream and put up a fuss all you damn well want, but you ain't being set loose. Your getting' the damn boot up your narrow ass. I know who you are! Your were just a pawn, but you can't even get along with one of your own! We know what happened all those years ago, and me and my friends are puttin' the brakes on right now. We got a little somethin' to make the Eva work just fine without you, so say sayonara".
"No! You cannot do this! I must have my revenge! He will ruin all!"
"Yeah, I think I got it. See, there's too much at stake to just let you go bat-shit crazy all the time, and now we have a way to make sure it never happens again. You don't have to worry anymore. He's already been taken care of".
The presence within Unit-00 was surprised at that, even curious. It was unsure of what the strange man had meant, but when it tried to look deeper within the man's mind, it was strangely rebuffed. The man chuckled to himself as he wagged a finger in front of the paralysed Evangelion prototype. He turned to the side as someone spoke to him, diverting his attention for the moment as one of his subordinates told him "the hardwrae installations were now complete and system checks were almost finished".
The prescence within Unit-00 didn't know that meant; well, not entirely. It knew the humans were installing new machine components into the Eva's body, but what confused it was what the strange man had meant by "gettin' the damn boot". Sudddenly there was a strange feeling that rose from within the Evangelion, a bizarre energy that at the same time was empowering...and deathly.
The prescence stasrted to panick as it felt its connection to Unit-00 begin to slip away. It clawed and thrashed at its prison of flesh, trying to make it move, to kill those that tried to kill it, but it was useless. The prescence detected another soul within, but how could that be?! It examined the soul and saw that it was newly born, only beginning to come into being. It lashed out at the new soul. It damaged it, but did not kill it. It tried again, but the new soul responded with a primal violence the Prescence was not expecting at all. It tore and snapped and raged at the original, more instinct than actual thought, but the Prescence soon realized that even though it was the more experienced combatant, the fledgling soul would win out. Something had now severed its connection to the Evangelion prototype. It was losing ground faster and faster as the fledgling soul began to focus its attacks, becoming more aggressive, but also more coherent and focused as well..
What disturbed the Prescence most of all was that the fledgling soul was laying down roots in Unit-00's core as its own were being violently uprooted. It felt a strange warmth as it looked, for the last time, through Unit-00's single eye upon the strange human, who it realized was helping the fledgling soul, teaching it, comforting it as it went. The Prescence realized that it could no longer fight, but instead of anger, or hate, it felt a great sadness. It HAD indeed cause great harm in trying to settle olds score with the betrayer, but now it could let go. It saw within the man's mind that old scores had indeed been settled, and now there was now real hope were before there was empty desperation.
"I am sorry. Forgive me".
"Hey, you couldn't help it. You never really had any control of your own life; you were just a puppet, but your sister will have the opportunities in life that you were denied. I sorry too, for bein' so cruel".
After years of loneliness and pain and hate, Rei 1 could finally let go. She apologized to the fledgling soul that now empowered Unit-00, its physical body twitching and jerking as it integrated its new owner. She wished she could take away its pain, saddened that her last act in this life was to cause even more pain.
As her essence wafted out of Unit-00 like a mist, she felt the fledgling soul near her, but now it was calm, maturing into something incredibly aggressive no thanks to her, but yet surprisingly gentle. It didn't blame her for attacking it, she could sense. It spoke to her simply, like the child it was, but with no trace of malice or anger Rei 1 thought it every right to feel. It only wished her happiness, and was genuinely sad she was going.
"BYE-BYE. BE GOOD, BE HAPPY...BIG SIS".
Rei 1 was so shocked she almost forgot her manners, as they were a big part of her upbringing originally. She realized this new soul, no, new sibling was strangely male in the structure of its soul. She didn't mind.
She had always wanted a brother.
"Sayonara, Ni-Chan. Live a long and happy life".
With a happy sound that only the new soul and Dr. Carmine could hear, a sound like a final breath being exhaled, Rei 1 vanished into the ether, finally at rest.
Rei Ayanami suddenly awoke, her good eye that was not covered over with bandages blinking several times as she slowly sat up in bed in Nerv's medical ward. She felt a strange, but very pleasant absence of pain. She felt, in fact, a great energy she had not felt before. What she also felt was a prescence right next to her.
There was a tall man sitting in folding chair next to her bed, reading what looked like an adult magazine. He had ghostly white skin, was surprisingly attractive with spiky jet black hair that had been messily swept back. He wore what one would call biker clothes and glanced over at her.
"Well, sleeping beauty finally wakes up? And I didn't even have to to kiss you. Damn".
Rei arched an eye-brow at the unusual man as he put down his magazine on the end table near her bed, turned to face her completely and chuckled as he extended his hand in the form of a greeting.
"Hello, Rei Ayanami. You picture doesn't do you an ounce of justice. I'm Shinji Ikari by the way. Nice to meet you!"
As Rei realized that this man had introduced himself as the Third Child, she just began to process his unusual greeting.
"What?"
Author's Notes: Well everyone, I would first like to apologize for not getting this one out faster. Secondly, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. I'll see you again next time in "Fourth Period, Fourth Angel, Fourth Child". TTYL!