There was a ripple in the black shadow that was the entrance to the Dirac Singularity, then nothing.
"Shit. It failed," Misato turned to give new orders to Ritsuko and her staff when Asuka called out.
"Look!" A purple fist had punched through the side of the sphere, and then followed by a second purple hand, had grasped the edges and ripped.
/\ PoC /\
Earlier:
The cluster of TSFs and one Evangelion floated close to each other. The TSF's engines didn't seem to provide any thrust in this strange space, so all of the units held on to each other to avoid drifting off.
"So what next?" came one voice.
"And who are you, anyway?" called out the commander of the TSF with the Katana.
"Uh, I'm Shinji Ikari. I'm an Evangelion pilot, from an alternate realty, I guess." Shinji wasn't certain what to say, but before he could think of anything else, a bunch of small objects appeared in the Dirac singularity. 'Hello. What are those...' '"Those are N2 mines!"
He clawed his way forward, putting Unit 01 between the group of TSFs and the string of black pearls that were the N2 mines, and raised his AT field to max, "brace for impact!"
BOOM
The blast of energy splashed against the AT field before spurting out through the tear that the TSFs had entered through, cauterizing it shut.
"That's some force field you have," came a woman's voice.
"There!" Shinji could feel something – it must have been where the N2 mines had appeared from, for the blast had set up ripples there.
He dropped the reactor and punched out at the ripple, grabbing it with both hands and pulling. As he did, the closest TSF grabbed hold of Unit 01's shoulder pylons, so as not to be left behind.
/\ PoC /\
'He's alive!' Asuka watched as Unit 01 tore its way out of the Angels body. A sense of profound elation flooded through her, to be quickly followed by confusion as a half dozen mechs followed Unit 01 out of the collapsing singularity, "Baka! What did I tell you about bringing home strays?"
She would let Ritsuko figure out what the heck those were. At this moment, she didn't care. She was still giddy with relief.
"Um, Misato, I have some refugees from another earth here?" The way Shinji spoke made it sound as more of a question than a statement. The TSFs carefully landed and the one carrying the troop transport set it on the pavement as they were promptly surrounded by the flotilla of VTOLs that had been hovering over the Angel.
"This is commander Ikari of the NERV defense organization." Came a commanding voice over the radio, "All mech pilots are to land and disembark. You will be treated as refugees under the Geneva convention of 2001. And welcome to my Earth."
Shinji watched in fascination as the TSF pilots followed instructions. As they disembarked, most looked confused – they had just been fighting for their lives ten minutes ago, and now they were in a different world, surrounded by a superior military force - and they lacked the crisp military composure that they usually displayed. Shinji saw a woman pilot with short white hair climb out of the larger twin cockpit TSF, but he could sense Inia was still on board. 'That must be Cryska, her twin.' Shinji tried to communicate with Inia, but the sensation now that they were physically so close together was different – it felt more primal, like he was sense emotions rather than logical construct (words).
And that was when Unit 01 ran out of power. Shinji's view screens went dark.
/\ PoC /\
"Baka! Baka! Baka!" It was an hour later, and the area had finally cleared out enough for NERV to be able to get Shinji out of his shut down Evangelion. As soon as his feet had touched ground, Asuka had flung herself at him. She continued to hug tight to him as she called him an idiot.
"I see you went on a little vacation while we were working, over here," Misato joked as she approached the incapacitate pilot.
"Uhm," Shinji wasn't quite certain what to do with his arms, so he held them out from his body slightly, "It wasn't a vacation, really. They were in the middle of a battle against alien invaders there as well." Asuka finally let go, and took a step away, trying to look nonchalant, as if she hadn't just exposed her emotions for the world to see. And been rejected.
"Well, Ritsuko is on cloud nine, as she is interviewing the technicians that you brought over. And everybody else is talking about visiting alternate worlds. This is the biggest thing to happen to the world since Second Impact." Misato talked excitedly. As Asuka tried to take a step away from Shinji, he quickly snatched her hand. Asuka's face lit up for a moment before she brought it under control.
"Anyway, there will be an official debriefing in an hour. So go get cleaned up and get something to eat."
/\ PoC /\
"Hello, Mister Ikari" Shinji was sitting in an empty room, surrounded by holographic blocks that represented interviewers who were interacting via tele-presense, as well a several actual people standing in the shadowed margins of the room. It felt like an interrogation. The only thing that kept Shinji from completely panicking was Misato standing at his shoulder.
"Please commence with your description of events." Monolith 02 stated.
Shinji began a stilted retelling of what had happened. Here, his fear actually served to his benefit, as he had to talk slowly to keep from stuttering. That gave him time to choose his words – he didn't want these people to know about his telepathic communications with Inia. He didn't want Ritsuko dissecting his brain. And she would. That woman scared him (honestly, most women scared him, but for a different reason).
When he got to the part for how he found the exit from the Dirac Singularity, he just said that he felt a ripple there. He tried reaching out to Inia again, to make sure that she would know not to tell NERV anything that would put her in danger of being treated like a lab rat. But again, he got nothing. He just had to hope that she wasn't too trusting. But this was Inia, who personified warm and cheerful. Maybe Cryska would guide her.
"Dr. Akagi. Explain," Monolith 02 commanded.
"Dirac Singularities exist outside the confines of the universe – any universe. But according to the multiverse hypotheses - which IS supported by string theory, by the way – there are an infinite number of almost identical universes out there. Pilot Ikari's observation of the singularity collapsed it to those worlds that most closely fit his observed frame of reference, ie our world. So in another words, he reached out the the BETA earth through pure happenstance."
"So there is no way to return to that 'BETA Earth', even if we could access a Dirac Singularity?" Monolith 03 asked.
"Correct."
Even Shinji could tell that Ritsuko was bull shitting, and that in reality she had absolutely no clue.
"Is it possible that this whole episode was a delusion, caused by the Angel contaminating Pilot Ikari's' mind?" Asked a querulous voice from monolith 05.
"We have the TSFs as evidence to the contrary, as well as technology that, while obviously of human origin, is alien to our reality" Commander Ikari countered.
"And how advanced is the technology in question?"
"We have not had a chance to study it in depth, but it appears to be roughly equivalent to ours, except in terms of miniaturization of the electronics. The TSFs are not much different from the JET ALONE project. One place where BETA earth does excel is computers – theirs appear to be somewhat more advanced." Commander Ikari dismissed the topic casually.
"Can we reverse engineer them? A generational advance in computing will be very profitable." Monolith 03 took the bait as expected, and the interrogation was derailed for the next half hour before the leader – Monolith 02 – could bring everybody to heel.
The interrogation continued in this fashion for two hours, and Shinji was exhausted when he stumbled out of the room (the committee asked Misato to stay for further questioning.)
"Hey, Baka, how did it go?" Asuka pealed herself away from the wall where she had been waiting.
"Uhm, ok. Have you been here this whole time?"
"Yeah. I figure you're my boyfriend. I don't want to misplace you accidentally or something."
Shinji smiled feebly, "Come on, lets go home. I am exhausted."
/\ PoC /\
Next day, as Shinji and Asuka walked to school, everybody they passed was talking about the event of the previous day.
"Do you think people are going to pester me for details?"
"Most likely - you're a celebrity now, you know." Asuka replied airily, watching Shinji's face contort as if it was being sucked out the back of his head. "Hey, don't worry. It won't be that bad."
Actually, Shinji was confident that it probably would. To distract himself, he grabbed Asuka's hand, "Maybe if it was you - you like talking to people."
Asuka looked down at the hand, and then at the people around them, and smiled, "It's a deal, I'll cover for you until lunch, but then you have to give me the low down."
/\ PoC /\
"So how much of their world is over run with these BETA things" Asuka asked as she sipped her soda. They were sitting under the oak tree, having lunch. Despite the simple location, Asuka was so focused on Shinji it didn't matter – they might as well have been in their own booth at a fancy restaurant.
"Uhm, they didn't say. A lot?" Shinji was uncomfortable. He liked Asuka, but he wasn't certain he wanted her to know about the telepathic link to Inia. Not that the link was working. Shinji had tried reaching out to Inia several times, and nothing. "Why, you think you want to move there?"
"If we could, why not? Their Earth hasn't been tanked by Second Impact, and from the way you described the BETA, a couple of Evangelions could roll them up."
"Until they ran out of power and were swarmed by the BETA and EATEN!" Shinji replied vehemently. This world might suck, but at least he knew his place in it. Sure, he had to fight an Angel once in a while, but at least they weren't going to try to eat him.
"Maybe. Hey, do you wonder if there is a Shinji Ikari in that world?" Asuka changed the topic.
"Actually, that never occurred to me." Shinji smiled sheepishly. If there was, he had probably gotten eaten by the BETA.
"Well, there's no way that there is an Asuka. I'm one of a kind." Asuka raised her nose imperiously into the air (which incidentally stuck out her chest).
Before Shinji could reply, Kensuke interrupted "Hey, what are you two love birds up to out here?"
"What are you doing out here?" Asuka demanded. Did the nerd think he could just wander wherever he wanted, spoiling her afternoon? Speaking off spoiling... "and where's the jock?"
"I just came to say 'hi' to Shinji. Toji got called to the principals office, and hasn't come back."
"Is it his sister?" Shinji asked before Asuka could snark something. Inia had told him repeatedly that it wasn't his fault, but he still felt guilty over Toji's sister getting injured during his first battle against an Angel.
"I don't know. It could be he's getting a talking to because his grades are in the toilet," Kensuke shrugged, "You know, the principal could be threatening to take him off of the basketball team and stuff. Oh, that looks good." Kensuke sat down and grabbed a rice ball from the open bento.
Asuka's expression darkened so that it matched the color of her hair, but this loser was Shinji's friend, so she paused to consider her words before screaming him. She didn't want to offend Shinji.
"Uhm, Ken, how about we hang out after school?" Shinji quickly interjected.
Kensuke nodded happily.
"That means you have to leave, now," Asuka elucidated.
Kensuke finally glanced over at the redhead and paled as the projected waves of anger slammed into him. He swallowed reflexively, "Um, yeah. I'll be going now."
Asuka sat sulkily for a moment before getting up as well, "Let's go back to school, Baka." The mood was spoiled.
/\ PoC /\
Asuka was depressed. For the first time in what felt like weeks they didn't have training or harmonics tests or anything after school, and Shinji had to go hang out with the nerd. And Hikari ditched her in favor of helping the jock deliver some school papers to Rei.
Now what was she supposed to do? School was out, and she had nothing. Well, there was homework. Asuka flipped through her phone when an idea came to her.
/\ PoC /\
"Kaji! Your good at Japanese literature. Can you help me with this section here?" Asuka plopped her book back down next to Kaji's desk as she burst into his office.
The older man smiled and quirked an eyebrow in his usual fashion, "Hey, kiddo. Can we do that later? I have some work I need to finish up." He closed the lid on his laptop.
"What, you haven't called or anything in weeks. Except to talk to Misato."
"You're a little young for me, carrot top," he smiled and reached out to ruffle her hair.
Asuka took a step back, out of reach. Why did this jerk have to think everything was about dating? He was a friend, maybe a mentor. "Hey… why does that have four sets of sync scores?" she scooped a piece of paper off of his desk.
Kaji quickly took it back, "Technically, this is private information, you know, kind of like doctor/patient."
"I'm a pilot. I'm cleared for all that secret bull-hooey. Did you find another plot? Are they going to be replacing Wonder girl?"
Kaji sighed, "doctor patient, remember? I can't tell you any more."
"Fine." Something about Kaji rubbed her the wrong way. She couldn't believe she used to like him…. as a mentor.
/\ PoC /\
"Oh, so you're home." Asuka greeted Shinji, "where's Misato?"
"She just called – she has to supervise something in Matsushiro. She won't be back until tomorrow evening."
"Oh," Asuka breathed, as the implications sank in. "She doesn't know we're dating, does she?"
Shinji shrugged, "I don't really tell people stuff about my life." 'Well, except Inia. But that was over now.' She had probably been whisked away to some UN facility to be interrogated about BETA earth, and he would never talk to her again.
"And she doesn't listen when *I* talk." To be fair, Asuka mostly complained about Japan, Japanese apartments and Japanese boys to Misato, so the older women could be forgiven for tuning out 90% of what her charge said. "So what are we going to do?"
"Dinner and a movie?"
"Works for me." Asuka smiled.
As the movie finished, neither wanted to leave the couch, so they fell asleep with Asuka curled up on Shinji's lap.
/\ PoC /\
RING, RING, RING
BANG, BANG, BANG
"What's going on?" Shinji staggered up, Asuka following close after. The cacophony was so loud and sudden that they forgot to be embarrassed at waking up together.
A man in a dark suite stormed into the apartment. "We have an emergency, sir. You have to report to NERV immediately."
"Oh, crap. I knew we'd eventually get one in the middle of the night," Asuka muttered as she staggered over to the coffee pot.
"We don't have time for that, ma'am," continued the agent. "I have a couple of cans in the car."
"This sucks," Shinji expounded.
/\ PoC /\
"So what is the Angel like?" Shinji yawned. They were in the mountains west of Tokyo-3. Unit 01 had been sent out to cover the left side of a pass, while Asuka was on the right (with Unit 00 as sniper, on an overlooking bluff). He wasn't certain if he had dozed through the briefing, but he had no clue what he was facing. Of course, Misato wasn't there – his father was running the operation himself for once, and he apparently sucked at organizational skills. Plus Shinji was pretty certain that his dad didn't care if he died or not.
"You will make contact with the angel in 30 seconds at it's present rate. It is progressing along the Kenashi route 112."
"Oh, crap," came the whispered response from Asuka. She had a better vantage point, so she was the first to see the figure shambling towards them along the highway. "That's an Evangelion!"
Gendo did not deny it. "That unit has been infected and taken over by an Angel. We have designated it as the Thirteenth angel. "
"But is there a pilot in there?" demanded Shinji. "How can we fight it if there is a person in there?"
"Our orders are to.." began Rei.
"I don't care what our orders are! I'm doing this to protect people. Not kill them!" Shinji almost sobbed. Protecting people was the one justification that let him fight and still hold onto the corners of who he was, his identity. The only other alternative was to run away.
"Activate the Dummy plug prototype in Unit 01," Gendo commanded Makoto.
"I'm sorry sir. We removed it to install the dual cockpit."
Gendo frowned – he had forgotten Ritsuko had mentioned something about that. He should never have let her do it, but he had been distracted when she brought it up (it had been during one of their late night 'work' sessions that involved him, her, and a desk). So he had ended up indulging her curiosity. He wouldn't make that mistake again.
"Eject the pilot!" demanded Shinji.
"Don't give orders, Pilot" Commander Ikari countered in annoyance at the same time as Maya said,"we've been trying! But something is jamming it in place."
Shinji was just about to argue some more when he felt a tug. His head whipped around. It was Inia: She was inside that thing!
"Engaging Thirteenth Angel" Asuka proclaimed and open fire.
"No, close to melee range and remove the entry plug!" Shinji called out. Asuka kept firing. But the Angel moved with a surprising, almost fluid speed, pouring down the road before it leaped at Asuka.
"Grab it!" Shinji yelled as he bolted towards Asuka's position.
Before he could get there, the Angel smashed Unit 02's pallet rifle into the Eva's torso and spun the Evangelion to the ground before leaping high into the air, landing on top of a surprised Unit 00.
"Rei, hold on to the Angel!" Shinji called out, "Asuka!" He glanced over to see that Unit 02 was back on it's feet, "Immobile the Angel, I will cut out the entry plug."
"Negative," Gendo pronounced, "prioritize destroying the Angel before it contaminates Unit 00."
Asuka glanced at Unit 01, and then at the radio. "Ok. Let's do it."
Unit 02 bounded up the slope and leaped onto the Angel's back, but it twisted liquidly, so that Asuka couldn't get a good grip.
"Shinji and Asuka are both running sync scores in the upper 80's." Shigeru pronounced. The kids were 'in the zone' on this one!
As Unit 01 came running up with its progressive knife out, the Angel released Unit 00 and grabbed hold of the red Evangelion. Or it tried to, but Asuka managed to deflect its arms. The arms moved like half melted taffy, making it impossible for Unit 02 to get a solid hold, but Asuka had enough presence of mind to keep deflecting them. The Angel was just about to jump up and onto Unit 02's back when the prone Unit 00 grabbed it's leg, slowing it, so that Unit 01 could tackle the angel to the ground before it could leap away.
"Steady it!" Shinji called out as he readied his progressive knife. The entire back of the angel was spidered with ropey tendrils, several of which crossed over the half-ejected entry plug. As Unit 02 pressed down hard on the Angel, Shinji slashed through the cords and pulled out the plug, "Got it!"
As he yanked the plug out, the Angel threw Unit 01 off and turned back towards the prone Unit 00, but Rei had managed to swing her sniper rifle around, and as the semi-solid angel wrapped its arm around Unit 00's neck like a rope, she fired from point blank range, right into the armpit.
As the arm came off, Asuka whirled around and slammed the Angel to the ground. "Again!"
Unit 00 fired twice more, shattering the angel's core
/\ PoC /\
"You disobeyed my direct order." Shinji was standing at attention before an extremely angry Gendo.
"Because you gave the wrong order." Shinji countered, "I was on the battlefield, not you. I made a decision based on what I saw. And it worked."
The rest of the bridge crew looked on at the confrontation. Nobody had stood up to Gendo like this before. But then again, Gendo had never lost his cool this badly before either.
"That is not under discussion. Your insubordination is."
"No, that is exactly what is under discussion. My mission is to save lives. If a commanding officer gives an order that conflicts with that, it is an illegal order." Shinji stung together half remembered military rules that Inia had mentioned. "Besides. We won. And we saved the pilot's life."
Gendo glared at Shinji. "we'll see about that."
Shinji's heart skipped a beat, "Is the pilot ok?"
Gendo smirked as Shinji's composure broke. He glanced at the rest of the staff who were assiduously pretending not to be listening in. It was hard to argue with success, but at least he had asserted himself over the Third Child. "You are suspended from piloting for 10 days. Dismissed." He turned and walked calmly to his office.
"What about the pilot?" Shinji repeated.
"She's alive." Maya took pity on Shinji, "She's being checked out at the base hospital."
Shinji nodded.
/\ PoC /\
Shinji walked towards the door. He had gotten directions to Inia's room from the front desk, but now he didn't need that. From this close, he could sense her presence even without the amplification of the Evangelion.
But now that he was here, what should he do? He had never pretended to be other than what he was – a short, skinny, and rather plain teenager - but he was certain that she would be disappointed with him anyways. He had seen her twin as she debarked from her TSF – Cryska was a very self possessed older woman, and rather well endowed. He tried to imagine having the sort of conversation he did with Inia with somebody like Misato. It just wasn't possible. But he couldn't run away – this was the woman who had, in many ways, saved his life. He had to go in.
Shinji took a breath and opened the door.
And stopped in confusion. There was no 19 year old Misato.
Instead there was a stunningly gorgeous girl his own age with long white hair sitting in bed reading. She looked up as he came in, and a look of recognition spread on her face, quickly followed by horror as she pulled the covers up over her head.