Chapter 7
The halls of the NERV hospital were empty, not a soul was around except for Misato Katsuragi who sat in the waiting room hunched over and crying. She hadn't left the hospital since Shinji was admitted.
Misato was the first on the scene after the battle, demanding she ride in with the emergency response squad. She watched on as the boy was pulled out from his entry plug, gashes all over his body where Unit Five had struck his Eva. It was a nightmare for her to watch the medics struggle to stop his bleeding, nearly a pint of blood had spilled from his wounds before he even got into the ambulance. The damage to Unit One was far worse, the boy's relatively low sync rate likely dampening his wounds. Multiple deep lacerations covered the body of the Eva, some going as deep as the "spine." Unit One had also suffered eye trauma when Unit Five attempted to gouge out the Eva's eyes with its thumbs. The two were still interlocked, Unit One's arm clear through Unit Five's chest holding its pulsating core.
Misato's sobs were interrupted by the sound of a door opening and the clack of shoes approaching.
"Commander? He should be ready now."
Misato stood and wiped her tears, she followed the nurse to Shinji's room.
"He's still asleep but he's stable enough for visitors, page me if either of you need anything."
Misato thanked the nurse and entered the room, Shinji lay on the hospital bed completely unconscious.
Misato cried more as she got a better look at him. His upper torso was uncovered, showcasing his heavily bandaged body. His left eye was covered by a gauze pad and his right was badly bruised.
Misato took a seat in a chair next to the boy and took his hand into hers. She knew it would be a while before the boy awoke so she reclined back and got comfortable, she stared at the boys sleeping face as she slowly began falling asleep next to him.
"Useless. Useless. Useless."
Asuka stared at herself in the mirror, repeatedly insulting herself.
The girl had gone home shortly after the battle telling Misato she'd meet her at the hospital, that was almost twelve hours ago.
"Why did you just sit there? You useless lowlife."
Asuka had felt extremely guilty sitting back and watching Shinji fight Unite Five. She wanted to go out and help him but she couldn't bring herself to pilot Unit Two.
The girl felt even guiltier at the fact that she was cooped up in the bathroom instead of rushing to the hospital to check on Shinji, causing her to barrage herself with even more insults.
She was scared of what he would say. "Why didn't you help? Why didn't you save me?" She was scared he was going to berate her just like she always had done to him.
"Damnit!" Asuka yelled as she slammed her fist into the mirror, shattering it.
"Too much of a wuss to pilot, just sat back as he was mutilated."
Asuka looked down at her hand, blood was flowing from her knuckles.
"What a joke."
Back in the hospital Shinji slowly stirred from his sleep. He opened his eye to the all too familiar ceiling, the hospital has practically become his second home with all the injuries he had sustained piloting.
The first thing he noticed was the dull pain in his side and shoulder, he looked down and saw his bare chest wrapped in bandages. He was so pumped full of painkillers he hardly felt any of the wounds.
Shinji reached his right hand up to his eye and felt the bandage.
'My eye… am I blind?'
The bandage on his eye was wrapped tight, he couldn't discern the extent of the damage.
Just as he was about to unwrap his eye bandage Shinji noticed a light pressure on his left hand, he glanced over and saw the sleeping figure of Misato.
Misato was out cold in the cramped chair, her hand tightly intertwined with his.
The boy blushed and was content with letting the commander catch up on all her missed sleep but Misato's eyes slowly opened, an overjoyed look instantly forming on her face as soon as she saw the boy was conscious. She launched forward and grabbed the boy, holding him tightly as she cried into his shoulder.
"Shinji! You're awake!"
"Ow Misato, my bandages!"
"Right, sorry…" Misato released the boy from her death grip, leaning back into the chair to give him some space, still making sure to hold his hand.
"How are you feeling?"
Shinji groaned as he sat up in the bed, his wounds aching from the movement.
"I-I'm fine... Whatever they gave me numbs the pain. Misato… did the doctors say if I was…blind?"
"Blind? Oh don't worry Shinji, the damage is not permanent. However, you will have to wear an eyepatch for a bit while it heals, you'll also have to put eye drops in each night."
"Eye drops? I don't like putting things in my eye…" Shinji shuddered at the thought.
Misato chuckled seeing how the boy reacted to something as simple as eye drops when his torso was covered in wounds.
"Don't worry, I'll put them in for you. All things considered, you got off rather easily. Your synch rate was relatively low so your wounds were minimized."
"Ah… that's good…" Shinji sighed as he leaned back and stared up at the ceiling.
"Hey… you did good out there, Shinji. I know how hard it is on you to pilot, but you did it anyways. You made that choice, no one else, and I'm so proud of you."
"Thanks Misato…"
the boy feigned a smile as he said this. He did make the decision all on his own, but that didn't make him any less terrified of the fact that he was now piloting again.
Misato's phone began buzzing, she pulled it from her pocket and glanced at it. The commander had spent all night and a good chunk of the morning in the hospital, her phone was overflowing with texts from her subordinates.
"Ah crap, I've got to get back to work. The doctors said you can return home tonight so I'll be back later. Feel better, Shinji!"
Misato hugged the boy a final time and exited the room, leaving the boy to stare at the hospital ceiling while he contemplated what he had just endured.
Misato's phone buzzed once more, it was a message from one of the lieutenants.
"It's getting harder to stall him. You'd better hurry, commander." The message read.
Misato hurried to her office and messaged the lieutenant to send the visitor up.
An older gentleman entered Misato's office, clearly disgruntled with the wait.
"Commander Katsuragi."
"Sir."
Misato motioned for the man to take a seat, he sat down and pulled a notepad and pen from his briefcase.
"My superiors don't like to be kept waiting, commander. Especially when they're being kept in the dark about an attack."
"I apologize, sir. I had some… personal issues to attend to."
"Well, you're here now. So let's get down to business. The government wants to know just what the hell happened last night. We were under the assumption the angels would not be returning."
"The attack that occurred on Tokyo-3 last night was not an angel, sir."
"Not an angel you say? Multiple defensive positions were obliterated along with several buildings, what could have caused this if not an angel?"
"As you may know, shortly before the third impact NERV began work on a series of mass-produced Evangelion units. The thing that attacked Tokyo-3 was one of these mass-produced Evangelions."
The man began writing on his notepad, transcribing what Misato was saying.
"An Evangelion? You mean to tell me a rogue pilot attacked Tokyo-3?"
"No, sir. These mass-produced Evangelions are piloted by a sort of artificial intelligence called a dummy system. We've yet to entirely dissect this Evangelion but our researchers believe the dummy system went rogue."
"Went rogue?! Mass-produced… How many of these things are there?"
"There were nine fully operational pre-impact."
"Good god… we have enough problems without eight Evangelions terrorizing our country! These things must be stopped."
"I agree, sir. Unit One suffered significant damage in its altercation with Unit Five, there's no weapon available that could stop them."
The man jotted down a few notes before closing his notepad.
"Well, commander Katsuragi, the emergency edict putting NERV in control of the country ended yesterday. We were going to restructure this entire organization into simply research and development but it appears there's one more thing that needs to be done. For the time being, we will allow you to keep your control. You are to hunt down these rogue Evangelions and exterminate them."
"Yes, sir."
The man glanced around the room, examining Misato's cozy office. His eyes landed on the framed picture of Shinji.
"You're quite different from the old commander. Most of us in the government believe you've done an excellent job, commander. However, your organization created these things. It is your duty and yours alone to right that wrong. These creatures cannot be allowed to wreak havoc on those that remain. Please, for the sake of those who are still alive, like your son here. Stop these things."
The man was pointing at the picture of Shinji. He bowed his head and turned on his heels, exiting Misato's office.
Misato sighed and rested her head on her desk, slipping out of her professional mode. She glanced up and grabbed the picture of Shinji. She turned it around to face her and she gently ran her finger across the frame.
'Son…'
She hadn't corrected the man when he made the mistake, the title seemed right. Shinji had grown to be much more than a mere roommate since she had taken him in all that time ago. He had meant more to her than anyone else did, and with all of her friends dead or remaining in instrumentality he was all she had. She loved the boy.
The door to the apartment creaked open. Misato stumbled in with Shinji hanging onto her shoulder for support.
"Asuka, we're home!" Misato yelled out into the apartment, but no response returned.
"I-I hope she's okay…"
Misato helped the boy into the dining room and sat him down at the table.
"I'm sure she's still a little upset from seeing the Eva. We just have to give her some time."
Misato turned around and opened the fridge, she rooted around inside for a few seconds and pulled out some ingredients.
"Who's hungry!" She said happily as she laid out all the ingredients on the stove.
"M-Misato you don't mean…" the boy had a look on his face as if he'd seen a ghost.
"What's with that look? You're in no condition to cook and a growing boy has to eat!"
"B-but you must be so exhausted… surely you don't want to stand around and cook!"
Misato chuckled at the boy's desperate attempts to avoid her cooking.
"You won't get off that easy. C'mon, Shinji, trust me won't ya?" Misato shot him a wink as she got to work, messily throwing ingredients together.
"O-okay Misato…" the boy was dreading what horrific concoction she would come up with. He cared for Misato, but she was an awful chef.
When Misato was finished the kitchen was a wreck, with pots and utensils everywhere, she even spilled some of the ingredients halfway through.
She happily marched over to the table and sat a small bowl down in front of Shinji also placing one across from him for her.
"Bon Appetite!" She took her place at the table and waited eagerly for Shinji's reaction.
The boy looked down at the meal. A bowl of what seemed to be Miso soup sat before him, rather sloppily made.
Shinji nervously lifted his spoon and scooped some up. He shakily brought the spoon to his mouth and ate it.
"Wait… this is good Misato!" The boy was relieved that what he had eaten wasn't radioactive in nature.
"What's with the surprise? Of course it's good!" Misato smugly crossed her arms, she was ecstatic the boy enjoyed it.
The boy gave her a skeptical look as he remembered all of the disastrous dishes she prepared in the past.
"Hmph… well, maybe you're right. This is quite a shock for me too! But a little pinch of love goes a long way in a dish!" The woman cracked open one of her beers, she began digging into the dish she made, happy with how it turned out.
"You did great, Misato!" The boy was scarfing down the soup. He had hardly eaten anything when he was in the hospital.
When the two were finished they moved to the lounge, Misato padded the boy's chair up with pillows and covered him in a blanket.
"How about a movie, Shinji?"
"That would be great, Misato!"
Misato searched through her collection of movies and picked one, she put it in and took her seat in the chair adjacent to Shinji's. The movie was short and fun, it allowed the two to wind down for the night. By the end of the movie, Shinji was half asleep. Misato got to her feet and pulled the blanket off of the boy.
"Don't fall asleep on the floor, Shinji."
Misato gently helped to boy up and walked him to his bed. She laid him down and sat on the edge of his bed. She pulled the bottle of eye drops that the doctor had prescribed Shinji from her pocket and put them into the boy's eyes, causing a shiver to run down Shinji's spine.
"Eugh…" the boy shivered, the feeling of the liquid going into his eye discomforting him.
Misato laughed at the boy's reaction.
"Goodnight, Shinji. I'll be in my room if you need anything."
"Goodnight, Misato."
The two shared a smile as they sat there for a few moments more. Misato pulled Shinji's covers up further and rubbed his shoulder, Shinji already slipping into unconsciousness as she left the room.
The night the two had was fun, giving both of them a distraction from the return of the mass-produced Evangelions.
Before Misato went to sleep she decided to check on Asuka. She knocked on her door, no response. She slid the door open and saw the girl asleep in her bed. She entered the room quietly and began examining the girl. Her eyes were stained with tears and her hand was sloppily wrapped in a bandage.
"Asuka…"
Misato crept closer to the girl and gently rested a hand on her shoulder, trying her best not to wake her.
She left her comforting hand on the girl's shoulder for some time seemingly giving the girl some sense of relief.
"I wish you knew you could talk to me, Asuka."
Misato silently exited the girl's room and went to bed. She laid back and stared at the ceiling, contemplating the task that lay ahead.
The Eva series. One final obstacle in humanity's way, one final mess from the old NERV to clean up. Hunting these beasts would be no easy feat.
A/N: Hello, I apologize for the slow in chapter uploads. Currently I am mostly done with the writing of chapter eight and it is panning out to be my longest chapter at nearly double the length of any chapter I've written so far, so be on the lookout for that. Ill attempt to rebuild my surplus of chapters so that the upload rate will be a little faster. Anyways, thanks for reading.