Boots on the steel floor, the lights in the distance in the hallway flickering on. One of these days, Misato realizes, he's going to go all the way and have disco music play on the speakers whenever he enters the room. It is a heavy burden, realizing the man you work for is completely insane, albeit insane in the fun sort of way. Unfortunately, said man is also responsible for saving the world.
"Good. He's here."
Shinji looks up. The man is sporting some gray, giving him a more defined look. His beard is more trimmed, a full beard instead of the creepy muttonchops gone wild that he had when he was a teenager.
The amber glasses are still there, so is the black uniform he always wears, although at least he isn't wearing that god damned turtleneck today.
"F-father?" Shinji stammers.
Gendo Ikari, Supreme Commander of NERV, thrusts his hands into his pockets and stares at his son. Calmly, he directs his gaze at Rei, who gives off a faint, knowing smile.
"You're needed," Gendo says.
"Let me guess," Shinji groans, slowly standing up, "I'm piloting one of your giant robots?"
"Correct. You've gone over your mother's notes. Good. Any questions?"
Shinji nods.
"Are you fucking insane?"
They pause. Gendo raises an eyebrow.
"He's got a point," Misato says, "Sohryu Doctrine for Evangelion engagement kind of suggests we need him trained. He knows about the Evas, but we never put him in a plug."
"Unfortunately, Unit 01 is combat ready," Rei responds, "Unit 00, while operation ready, is an inferior model until new parts arrive."
"We don't have time," Ritsuko says, hands in the air, "Look, we can just have Shinji sit in the plug, and it'll do the rest! We train him when it's over!"
"That's fucking retarded," Shinji yells back, turning from Akagi to his father, "I'm not trained! I got beaten up in school every day until I graduated! You want to put me in a giant robot and have it step on me, why?"
"We have no other choice."
Slapping his hand over his face, Shinji lets out a litany of curses. Rei watches, taking in the new, filthy words for future reference.
"I knew it," Shinji moans, "You're trying to kill me, aren't you? This is all an elaborate revenge for when I told you off nine years ago, isn't it?"
"In part."
"You're not even hiding it! This is one of your half-assed ideas for us bonding! Just like two years ago when you kidnapped me in the middle of the night, took me camping and you had me fight off a bear! I don't know what Mother wants, Dad, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't want me to get eaten by a giant green Space Alie-"
The tranquilizer dart hits him in the arm. Shinji's gaze turns from the dart to his father, who holsters the tranq gun and watches as Shinji's eyes roll up and he collapses to the floor.
