Disclaimer: I don't own NGE
Chapter 2: Deja-vu
- Somewhere near Tokyo-3 -
It was getting late as the sun offered less and less red rays of light to brighten up the sky. And there, under the red light, on a lone road weaving through fields and the occasional mountain, was a lone blue car, driving at less than legal speeds. Were it not for the battle raging in the distance, it would have been a calm end to an otherwise long day.
"So, you are telling me, that they just put you on a plane to fly you to Tokyo-3?". Misato was angry. Not at the fact that he was supposed to be flown to Tokyo-3, it would have been faster that way. No, she was angry that no one deemed it necessary to inform her about such a change of plans.
Originally Misato was driving to the harbor where she would have picked up the boy. At the speeds she was going at, it would have still taken an hour to get there and an other two to get back to the HQ.
'The angels come back and the first thing the UN does is to run off to do their own thing, without telling anyone at that.' With "anyone", she meant herself, for that matter. Still, it had been a blessing in disguise that she wasn't informed. After all, the VTOL he was on had crashed. So, she was not only saved him from a rather unsavory end on a literal battlefield, but also managed to pick him up quicker than anticipated, which bought NERV valuable time.
Misato let out a quiet sigh while she barreled down the highways in her blue steed. Talking to Shinji was a chore. Not that he was unfriendly, it was just that he seemed to be unable to engage in a conversation. When asked anything he'd just give the absolute bare minimum of an answer to any question before retreating back into his corner of the car.
'He's kind of like Rei in that regard' she mused, 'though Rei is still much colder when she talks, he at least feels like a human being'. Speaking of Rei, the boy in her car was like her in more regards than the way he answered questions. He had pale skin. Again not quiet to the same degree as Rei, but he was a close second. Though unlike Rei he had gray hair and gray eyes. Needles to say, when Misato first took a closer look at him, she thought he was blind, which, luckily, didn't turn out to be the case. As for his clothes, he wore a purple uniform, the likes of which she had seen the janitors back at HQ wear. 'Guess that explains what he was doing at the harbor'.
Her thoughts were abruptly ended as the sky was fully lit for a split second. 'Shit'. She floored the brake and practically threw herself on top of the boy next to her. It didn't take long for a shockwave to reach them. And when it did it flipped the blue car like it was made out of paper instead of metal.
And for a while silence filled the area as the car's occupants regained their bearings.
"Are you okay?" Misato asked, still slightly dizzy, while extracting herself from the wrecked car.
"Y-Yeah" Shinji stammered out before asking a question of his own: "W-What was that?". All the while he too crawled out of the car.
"An N² Mine, humanity's second greatest weapon. It means that the military is getting desperate, which, in turn, means that we should get going." She looked at her blue steed "aww, and I only had 29 payments left".
Taken aback by the woman's sudden shift in attitude, Shinji also took a look at the car. It was currently flipped on its roof. All windows were either broken or filled with enough cracks to make any spiderweb jealous. The blue pain didn't fair much better as it was scratched or completely gone in some places, leaving only the dented metal beneath to be seen.
"Could you help me?" Misato asked as she walked next to her car to try to flip it back on its wheels.
"Oh, s-sure" Shinji got into position next to her to help her.
And together they succeeded. Or, well, not really together, as Misato had mostly been leaning against the car instead of trying to flip it and by the time she registered that the boy was in position to help, the car was back on its wheels.
As for Shinji, his feet were sunken into the ground and he was panting heavily from exerting so much of his strength to flip the car.
'How- ' Misato really wanted to ask, but for now all that mattered was that they got to the Nerv-HQ. Getting back into the car, she tried to turn it on.
And the car refused her.
An other sigh of defeat escaped her as she let her head hit the steering wheel. "You wouldn't know how to fix my car?". She asked him only because at this point she was out of options.
"Oh. um, I may know"
Misato waited in silence for a few second before giving up on him going on. "Elaborate". 'It's like he never had a conversation with anyone before. At least he's not panicking, given the circumstances'.
Unbeknownst to Misato, however, Shinji was very much panicking. He was just good at hiding it. 'Damn it, why can't I see a clue when its right in front of me? Of course she was waiting for me to elaborate, why else would she just sit there and wait for me to speak. Now she's probably angry at me for wasting her time'. "Um, at the harbor vehicles broke down all the time and I sometimes helped to fix them"
His voice was still shaky, however his brain slowly began working normally again as it recovered from the shock of him being plucked out of his life, the shock of being in a plane crash, the shock of seeing the beast that caused the crash... and the list went on. Perhaps he was just getting used to this seemingly perpetual state of being in the unknown.
"I could take a look."
By the time Shinji finished speaking, he was already standing in front of the car's engine.
"And? Can you fix it" Misato asked. 'Not all may be lost yet'
"Maybe" Shinji began "Though I'm afraid I'll have to void some warranties in the process"
Misato chuckled at what she believed to be some dry humor. "That's fine, I didn't have any to begin with". Humor really went a long way in situations this dire. "And while you are at it, I have some calls to make"
- NERV HQ, Bridge -
"THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" One of the generals screamed. Before them the Bridges large display showed the third angel. The third angel that was just hit with an N² mine and lived to tell the tale.
"It's no good" An other of the three generals offered, decidedly unhelpfully.
A phone rung and was picked up by the last of the trio. No words were exchanged, except an "understood" at the very end of the call.
"Gendo" the general spoke "The UN has granted Nerv full authority over the battle and has preemptively sanctioned the use of any weapons in your or the JSSDF's arsenal to take out that monster."
Behind his hands, Gendo smiled. All was going as expected.
"Can you do it?" an other of the three generals asked.
"Defeating the angels is the reason for Nerv's existence" Was all Gendo offered. Not necessarily lying, but not telling the full truth either.
"very well, then we will take our leave"
And with that, the generals, as well as the UN's control over NERV that they represented, were gone.
"As expected, conventional weapons were useless against the angel. No doubt the work of an AT-field." It was Fuyutsuki's turn to speak.
"Indeed" Even when he was only observing, Gendo's presence dominated the bridge "what is the status of the third child?"
"Currently unknown, Captain Katsuragi has yet to-" Makoto was cut off by a phone on his console ringing. "ah, it's Capt-" Once again he didn't get to finish as now Gendo interjected.
"patch it trough to the main display"
The live feed on the third angel disappeared and was replaced with a "Sound Only" message that looked too similar to that on the Seele monoliths for Gendo's liking. The call would now be for all to hear.
- ? -
Somewhere, far away from prying eyes, four figures stood on a concrete platform. The room they were in was build like a colosseum, with a lowered floor in the center that housed a holographic projector while along its perimeter endless workstations and consoles were stationed. All of them were manned. The platform itself was like a balcony, coming out of the rooms wall. It sat above anything else there, allowing its occupants to oversee all that happened in the room. On the far side of the room, opposite of the platform there was a large screen mounted on the wall, similar to that in NERV's bridge.
The room was only dimly lit by red lamps, as to not interfere with the hologram. The only other source of light in the room being the various screens in it. The room, however, did not feel cramped, by virtue of its size. It was easily 100 meters in diameter and had a domed ceiling at least a dozen meters high.
The hologram currently showed the area between the third angel and Tokyo-3, while the screen displayed a live feed of said angel. Unlike the feed in NERV, however, it did not come from a plane or observation post, but from the indifferent eyes of a weather satellite. The feed's grainy state reflected that fact.
"AEGIS has confirmed: pattern blue!" Someone called out.
"So they truly have returned" One of the four, wearing a black lab coat spoke.
"Indeed, and now it is upon us to ensure that they are destroyed" The one in the center of the group said. He was wearing a simple business suit with a name patch on it. It read "07".
"Alongside the fools who summoned them when they tried to play god" The third, wearing desert camo, added.
"But was it wise to reveal ourselves this soon?" the final one asked. He wore an admiral's uniform. "The Iconoclast isn't finished, the replicas aren't ready for mass production and it is still too early to deploy and thus reveal the Red Right Hand. As it stands only the weapons devised during project Soulstorm are available to us."
"Your concerns are valid, however our hand was forced" the one in the business suit began "due to Nerv's failure in obtaining the third child ahead of time and due to the unexpected arrival of the third angel, we had to take the necessary actions to get the third to Nerv as quickly as possible."
"I am very well aware of these facts, however I still believe that faking an official order from UN high command to move the third by plane was too overt."
"In that regard I have good news" the one in desert camo spoke as he tapped away on one of the consoles lining the platform they stood on "Delta 2 and 7 were able to quickly collaborate and make the order seem not like an order but as a simple case of miscommunication.".
"What about Theta? If we deploy weapons of the soulstorm type, it will be through them." The labcoat clad one asked.
"They are on standby. Theta 1 and 2 at Khartoum airbase, Theta 3 at the New Nairobi airfield and Theta 4 here."
"Keep them grounded for now. Until I have pulled those weapons out of cryostasis having Theta fly anywhere would be a waste of fuel"
"And when are you planning on doing that?" The camo wearing one inquired.
"Once this meeting is concluded. Are you planning to move them to our base in Malaysia?"
"No, they are too valuable to be left out in the open. We will launch them from here, even if it means that they would have to fly longer before they reach Tokyo-3"
The PDA of the labcoat wearing one chimed, taking it out he began flicking through whatever apps he had running on it. It was an old thing, its casing battered and bruised and its screen cracked at the corners. In the dim red light of the room one could barely make out an engraving on it, though the near darkness did not permit one to read it.
"I have good news" he said as he looked up from the PDA "Beta 2 has identified the third child as Shinji Ikari"
The one in the business suit smiled weakly. "So it seems we altered the most critical part of the prophecy"
"And in doing so we made the scrolls useless as anything more than a rough timeline for events to come" the admiral spoke.
"Useless to ourselves but also useless to our enemies. Except that we know of the alterations and of their nature and as such can take them into account when making future decisions.", the smile had not yet faded.
"..." Silence reigned in the grand room for a few seconds.
"and what now?"
"Now, we wait and see how NERV deals with this threat"
- NERV HQ, Car train -
Misato was trying to bury her head below her arms as it rested on the steering wheel. "And to think that I only realized that they all could hear me after cursing out half the UN's leadership for putting you on that plane". She wanted to cry from the embarrassment, and her voice reflected that.
Next to her Shinji wasn't fairing much better. Though he wasn't embarrassed like the woman next to him, he was instead worried that he had somehow gotten her into trouble. How exactly, he wasn't sure, but when she called "HQ" she was talking about him, so that kind of made it his fault, didn't it?
And if that wasn't bad enough, he had no idea how to comfort the purple haired woman. 'It looks like she is about to cry'. He had seen people at the harbor cry before, of course. However there it was only ever due to pain from an injury or because someone's spouse left them.
Shinji, however, doubted that giving the woman any painkillers would help much. So instead he did what he had seen others do in the latter case, namely to simply be quiet and listen.
And so the car descended ever deeper, as its two occupants mostly sat in silence. A silence that was only occasionally interrupted by Misato whining about making a fool out of herself in front of her superiors.
When Shinji was relatively certain that Misato had nothing else to say, he did what he had seen others do at this point. Swiftly inhaling and trying to keep his voice as even as possible, he said: "It is, what it is"
Shinji was self-conscious. In fact, his greatest concern in life may very well be how others viewed him. So, it was to no surprise that he was very well aware that he was, what many would call "socially inept". His apparently chronical inability to talk to others being a large part of why he avoided social interactions.
'One out of ten'; that was the probability that he said the right thing in this situation, or so his gut feeling told him.
"Yeah, you are probably right, Shinji, nothing that can be done about it now."
It seemed he lucked out.
"Anyways, prepare yourself"
"for wha-" Shinji didn't finish speaking as his mouth was left agape at the sight before him. They were underground, he knew that, but... this was nothing like what he had expected to see.
They were riding down the side of a titanic dome, on its floor there were lush green fields and forests and a lake. Amidst them sat a pyramid made from concrete and glass. One of its edges was mounting in a water reservoir the shape of an inverted pyramid.
Though the most breathtaking part about the sight wasn't the domes floor, but its ceiling. "A city. There is a city hanging from the ceiling..."
The last deep red rays of light for the day were collected, brightened with artificial light and filtered into the dome, drenching it in a warm golden light.
"Yes, THIS-" Misato gestured outwards to the city"- is Tokyo-3. Mankind's bastion against the angels. And this geofront is the headquarters for NERV. Speaking of which, here." Misato gave him a pamphlet.
Returning his attention to the item offered to him, Shinji began to read. It was a light folder, containing both NERV's logo and a "top secret" stamp.
NERV's logo... "God's in his heaven, all's right with the world". In the deepest vaults of his mind, something tingled. Something that he had taken great care in never remembering, as he would never able to forget it. Shinji had heard a similar slogan a long time ago.
The warm feeling he had but moments ago was gone as he began reading his "welcome to NERV" brochure.
By now they were half way down to to the geofront's floor.
"So, your father works here, you know?" Misato asked, trying to strike up an other conversation.
HIS FATHER! Shinji's mind screamed at him. He had completely forgotten that his father would be here! Or had he simply repressed the thought? What would he say to him anyways? After all there years...
His father left him because he was useless...
"I don't want to be useless" Shinji whispered.
Misato gritted her teeth, though she was good at hiding it. 'Shit, seems like I struck a nerve right there. Gotta fix this, quick'. "You are not useless, Shinji".
"As long as no-one has a use for me, I am. That's the definition of the word, isn't it?"
Misato was utterly unprepared for their conversation to get philosophical. Nevertheless, the situation demanded that she said something. So she had to improvise. "Can't you give yourself a use?", 'what the fuck am I even saying?! You can give yourself a reason to live, to be happy, to be all sorts of things. But a use?'.
"But... how?" Shinji asked, slightly louder.
'great question!'. "Allow me to rephrase my question. Why does it matter if someone has a use for you or not?"
Shinji looked down at his feet. "Without being of use to anyone, I-... I have nothing else."
Misato could hear his voice begin to crack. Soon tears would follow. 'Damn it, change of topics, quick'.
"Sooo... anyways, what do you do in your free time?"
"...Nothing,... really" He was still looking down "I would mostly just wake up, work and then go back to bed"
'Surely there is something he does in his free time, not even Rits is this much of a workaholic. But what do I even say- doesn't matter', "we're there".
Misato didn't bother to move her car from the train, they had to get going after all. Shinji was following closely behind her as they began weaving their way through the depths of NERV in silence.
Misato remained quiet because she was getting hopelessly lost and needed to figure out which way to go, or if she was even holding her map the right way.
Shinji, on the other hand, remained quiet because he was concentrating on starving off the unease he was feeling. Once more the back of his mind tickled. These lifeless, almost dank corridors... The low and soft humming of machinery...
He was here before.
Or, well, not here as in NERV HQ but somewhere very similar.
Shinji could swear the hallways were getting tighter with each passing moment.
The Vaults keeping those memories from his conscious mind were beginning to leak.
And for a moment Shinji was no longer being lead through NERV by Misato. Instead he was following a man through a sparingly lit corridor. The man was easily twice his size. Or was Shinji just smaller? The air was stagnant, so much so that he could see dust dance in the light around whatever lamps were there. The man wore a black trenchcoat. Or was it a labcoat? Shinji couldn't quiet tell.
"Shinji!"
The boy snapped back to reality, his eyes wide in horror. Misato was now a dozen meters ahead of him.
"come on, we don't have time to be standing around like that"
"R-Right, sorry"
The minutes dragged on as Misato unsuccessfully navigated the facility.
Then finally, after what felt like half an hour of running around in endless circles, the relative silence was broken when the base's intercom came to life: "Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, please bring Captain Katsuragi to the command center."
"Oh, come on!" Misato complained, "I basically know where we have to go now" She gestured towards an elevator "come on, get in". Shinji complied wordlessly.
Inside the elevator, Shinji leaned against one of the walls as Misato pressed a button and the doors closed. He felt as though his head was going to explode as he forced every memory of his childhood into the deep dark pit where they belonged. But the memories would just keep trying to crawl back out.
The elevator doors opened with a ding, though before any of its two occupants could begin to get out, someone began yelling at them. Or rather at Misato.
"MISATO! What were you doing!? We don't have time for you to get lost because you'd rather drink than memorize Central dogma's layout!"
"Nice to see you too, Rits"
Shinji looked at the new, blond, woman. She wore a white labcoat over a blue swimsuit. An odd choice of clothing, all things considered, but by now nothing really surprised him anymore. Beyond that, the woman seemed to be deeply displeased with Misato. He could only assume that this was Dr. Ritsuko Akagi.
During the time Shinji took to make his observations, the two women had been ceaselessly arguing back and forth. Thankfully they soon stopped that as well.
Now, Ritsuko could finally take her first look at Shinji, aka the third child, aka the kid that was going to pilot Unit 01 today.
And as soon as she did that, her eyes went wide. There were some glaring red flags that were immediately raised in her head.
Firstly, the teen looked like Rei. Though his hair and eyes were gray and not blue and red respectively as with Rei, they were still an unnatural color. 'If we survive to see tomorrow, I'm definitely running every test under the sun on him'.
Secondly and arguably the least important of the red flags was that he wore the purple uniform typically reserved for janitorial staff around NERV.
And thirdly, Ritsuko found that the kid looked like her after a 48 hour shift. That is, he looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Nevertheless, they had a job to do. "Follow me", the faux blond woman commanded and Shinji and Misato did as they were told.
Misato, because she knew she would just get lost again if she didn't and Shinji, because he currently didn't have the strength left in him to say no anymore. The dam that held back his repressed memories had cracked the moment he entered this place and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold the thing together. If he didn't get out of here soon, it would break. And he knew what that would mean: a walk down memory lane.
They were lead into a large dark room. Before his tired mind could ask what was going on, the lights switched on and he found himself standing on a bridge before a giant purple-green head. It was directly looking at him.
However despite what one might believe, the head and the machine it belonged to were not his primary concern. No, what caught Shinji's attention was the amber liquid that the giant, purple machine was submerged in.
That smell...
Blood.
CRACK
An other fissure appeared in the dam.
"What..." Shinji staggered a few steps back.
"This is Humanity's ultimate weapon. An Evangelion. Unit 01 to be precise" Ritsuko began with pride, "this is our last chance to defeat the angel currently attacking us"
"You intend to use it? But Rei is still hurt, we don't have a pilot!" Misato was quick to interject.
"You have just received one" A new voice rang through the Evangelion cage.
CRACK
"But!-" Misato began again but was swiftly cut off.
"We don't have a choice, he is our only candidate."
"It took Rei months to synchronize, how is he supposed to do it this quickly without training?!"
"At least he has a chance to synchronize", Ritsuko sighted, "I'm not asking for much. I simply want him to sit in the entry plug."
"Shinji..." Misato turned to look at the boy. He was pale, even in comparison to when she had met him.
The room shook and debris fell from the ceiling. "It has found us. Pilot Ikari, make your choice now! Pilot the Evangelion or leave and don't come back." The looming presence commanded.
"Father... I- ...I- I can't do it" Shinji had yet to turn around and look at the man, "not- ...not after everything that's happened" To even acknowledge let alone mention his past out loud, however vague it may be, was an immense strain on his already fragile psyche.
"Very well.", Gendo turned to face a terminal to his right "Fuyutsuki"
"Yes?"
"Wake Rei, the current pilot is useless"
'Ah shit' Misato grit her teeth again 'right where it hurt'
Though from the outside Shinji looked like he had before his father said those words, on the inside, his fears of his past had been replaced with an an even worse one.
"WAIT!" Shinji called out, speaking for the second time since entering Unit 01's cage "I-...I'll- I'll do it"
Before he could change his mind, Ritsuko took the initiative "then follow me, I'll walk you through the basic procedures"
The room shook again. More debris fell.
Yet Gendo smiled. His will was weaker than anticipated, he didn't even have to guilt trip the boy with Rei. This would make exerting control over him much easier.
Misato, sensing that the conversation was over, returned to the bridge.
- NERV HQ, Bridge, a short while later -
"Are you ready, Shinji?" Misato asked. On the large display before her the teen could be seen sitting inside Unit 01's entry plug as it was lowered into the purple giant.
Before Misato sat the bridge's trio of Lieutenants: Shigeru Aoba, Makoto Hyuga, Misato's chief aide and the man who's chair's backrest she was currently digging her fingers into and lastly Maya Ibuki, chief aide to Ritsuko.
Ritsuko herself was overlooking her aide's and prodigy's console. And above them all sat Gendo, with his ever stoic expression and his second in command standing next to him.
"Y-Yes" The boy answered, though Misato and likely everyone else in the room knew that he was lying.
"Alright, start LCL injection" Ritsuko commanded.
"W-What?!" Shinji began as the entry plug began being flooded with the orange liquid.
"no." The LCL was touching his boots.
"NO!" The LCL came up to his waist.
"Stop this! Get me out of here!" It reached his chest
"Relax, its oxygenated, you can breath the LCL like air" Ritsuko tried to calm him.
"It's always an odd feeling the first time around, just continue breathing like you normally would" Misato offered without any first- or secondhand experience, as Rei didn't really talk to her about such matters.
By now the liquid had reached his head, which he held as high as he could before his nose and mouth were submerged. Shinji held his breath.
For a few seconds he felt fine, or as close to fine as one could in his predicament.
Then his lungs began telling him to breath.
The pressure in his chest kept building, he needed to exhale soon. Yet he held onto the air.
His lungs began burning and he began feeling dizzy.
"Shinji, breathe, you won't drown" Misato said.
And that broke his concentration and he let go of the air.
The command center remained quiet as they watched Shinji struggle to breath, seemingly choking on the LCL.
But alas, it was done and the amber liquid had found its way into Shinji's lungs proper.
CRACK
"He's hyperventilating!" Maya called out "His heart rate is through the roof as well!"
Looking at the readouts from the third child herself, Ritsuko came to a conclusion: "he's having a panic attack!"
And so, the dam broke. Shinji closed his eyes.
-The Inner Sanctum, 9 years ago -
Shinji opened his eyes.
He was floating in an orange-red liquid inside a large tube, easily two meters in diameter and four tall. Both ends of it connected to and incomprehensible ensemble of pipes, wires and conduits. Though only the mess above the tube could be seen, as it stretched all the way to the top of the room. The machinery connecting to its bottom side was build into the floor.
The room that the apparatus was in, was titanic. It was round, with a radius of some 200 meters and it was easily thirty meters tall at the edges, with a dome shaped ceiling which reached a height of 50 meters in the very center of the room. It was well enough lit, though its ceiling was shrouded in darkness, giving the impression of the room being located at the bottom of some bottomless pit.
The tube housing Shinji was at the center of it all, while along the perimeter of the grand room, twelve black pillars rose from the floor and into the ceiling in equal intervals, situated like numbers on a clock. The pillars were round and sections of them were covered by glowing red glyphs, with parts of them rotating.
Before him stood three men. The one in the middle of the three stood before a console. He wore a black labcoat with an insignia on its right shoulder.
It was comprised only of the color black and red, showing a stylized picture of the earth. On opposing sides of said earth were two moons. One black, indicated only by its red outline and the other mostly red. It confused Shinji. After all he had learned that the earth only had one moon. Each of the two moons was pierced by a dagger. The entire insignia was surrounded by a red ribbon with some text written on it: "The heavens are not for man to reach, The earth is not for gods to walk"
The man behind the console was flanked by the other two. They wore nearly completely black tactical gear. Their silhouettes were only broken by a single red glove on their right hand. Though they too had insignia on their shoulders, they stood too far away from Shinji for him to be able to make them out.
To Shinji's right, a good distance away, there was a single, reasonably sized room constructed out of drywall. It was his room. Where he slept, ate and played.
"You are doing well" The man in the labcoat spoke "Only two more days and we will be finished with this phase."
And with that the three men left again. And Shinji was alone, with only the soft humming and whirring of machinery to keep him company.
That and the assortment of laboratory equipment, operating tables, crates and other clutter around him.
And so, Shinji would wait. It was something he had become good at by now.
- NERV HQ, Bridge, present -
"It's no use, he can't synchronize like this" Shigeru called out.
Misato grit her teeth for the third time today. Before her the bridges screen displayed Shinji, his eyes closed, yet breathing heavily and quickly.
She had to make a decision. She could try to salvage this situation, or she could stop this attempt to activate Unit 01.
'Even if he manages to synchronize, he is in no condition to fight' She looked to the commander. 'He still hasn't moved'
Letting out a mental sigh, Misato turned back to the bridge and raised her voice "abort the activation attempt! I want the pilot out of the entry plug and checked for any injuries"
"Denied, proceed with the activation sequence". The voice, as well as the man whom it belonged to carried an unquestionable authority. Misato couldn't object his orders.
"Come on, Shinji, you can do this" Misato hoped that her generic prep-talk would somehow help him.
It didn't.
"It's alright to be scared, but we need you now"
Nothing. Misato could see the boys pained and panicked expression.
The bridge shook. "The angel's attack has penetrated the geofron!" someone called out.
"Shinji! Please, snap out of it!" She was beginning to feel panic of her own now. She needed to do something, but what? Their time was running out.
"You are safe here". He wasn't, but at this point Misato was just throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. She needed to get him to calm down somehow, damn it!
"DAMN IT! JUST PLEASE SNAP OUT OF IT!"
It was to no use.
"Defibrillate him, lowest setting!" If Misato couldn't get through to the boy with words, Ritsuko would, with force.
And thus, Shinji's eyes shot open as he suddenly felt like he had been kicked in the ribs. Whatever thoughts he had were gone as he was brought back to the here and now. He was in the entry plug, breathing the amber LCL. Though still squeamish, he found that he had more pressing things to worry about. The entire reason why he was here in the first place. To be of use to his father for once and pilot Unit 01.
"Initiating connections 12 to 104, closing relays four and seven"
"no problems detected, all connections are green"
"Initiating connections 105 to 198"
"The Magi are taking temporary control of neural pathways 78 to 319"
"Initiating connections 199 to 247"
"Diagnostics show no abnormalities, we can proceed with the second stage"
The entry plug around Shinji began to display Unit 01's cage. Before him laid the bridge he had been on only minutes earlier. It was littered with debris.
"closing relays one, three and eight"
"Switching Unit 01 to primary external power"
"Retreating auxiliary power connections"
Shinji could see cables popping off from the EVA. He could swear that he began feeling them too.
"The Magi are surrendering control of neural pathways 90 to 144 to the pilot"
"No problems detected"
"Setting the Magi to surrender control of the pathways in intervals of ten"
"Beginning to purge the cage of LCL"
The liquid around Shinji began to drain. He was certain now that he was feeling it cling to the EVA as if it was his own body.
"All neural pathways are connected to the pilot"
"Cognitive dissonance barely withing acceptable parameters"
"Final diagnostics are showing no problems, the Magi are giving the all clear"
"Understood, initiating the third stage"
"Ionizing LCL"
"Lowering plug depth by 0.4"
"Moving Unit 01 to the launch catapult"
"Beginning final synchronization"
Shinji felt... odd. He could feel his own body but also that of Unit 01. He could feel every restraint around him. Every cable and conduit that still connected to Unit 01... to him. The LCL around him lost its orange tint and became clear as air. He wasn't even feeling the liquid anymore, so much so that if it weren't for the bubbles occasionally rising from him, he wouldn't believe he was submerged at all.
"Unit 01 is in position"
"We have a synch ratio! 21.6 percent!"
"Incredible" Ritsuko was in awe. To think that Shinji would be able to synchronize at all... let alone right after a panic attack.
Misato was feeling the same way as her friend. "We might just have a chance". She looked to Gendo. He was still sitting as he had been the entire time he was here.
"Can we launch him?" Misato asked.
"I have no objections" Ritsuko responded.
"Yes" was all Gendo offered.
Misato inhaled deeply, before then bellowing out: "Unit 01, Launch!"
End Chapter 2
Authors note:
Once again: holy hell writing stuff takes a long time.
But on an other note, I need some feedback regarding some things:
Firstly: how's the pacing? I feel that what I'm writing here has a quicker pace than the other fan fictions I have read. I mean, on the one hand I don't want to have this story become a chore to read because it progresses too slowly (I, when reading, don't really like it when the speed at which the story progresses nearly crawls to a halt, though I realize that it may be necessary for some of the more emotional and character driven moments), but on the other hand I'm worried I'm not giving some moments the time they deserve.
Secondly: is the descriptions of places good? I think the nice things about fan-fictions is that I can say stuff like "the EVA cages" and you will know exactly how they look like by virtue of having watched the Anime (probably). But when it comes to describing something original, like the inner sanctum here, do you get a good idea of how the place looks like, or am I being too vague? Or too overly specific? Again, I have literally 0 writing experience.
And thirdly: Am I revealing thing too quickly? I know I said that I don't intend this story to become some long drawn out mystery, but I still want to have some suspense and plot-twists left for the later parts of it. As it stands you should have more questions than answers about this new faction, however, their relation to Nerv and partially Shinji should already be evident. So what I'm trying to ask here is: is the rate at which you can draw your own conclusions / connections good? Too slow? Too fast?
Also, yes, like you likely noticed, there will be some elements of the rebuilds here. So I feel obligated to state that no, the story does not take place in the rebuild timeline. I'm just porting over anything I like from those movies into this story.
Again, thanks for reading and criticism is appreciated.