Bunch of related, if unorganized, snippets and profiles relating to a Rebuild-style AU that shuffles the Children around and makes each Angel a serious threat. Super Solenoid is maybe related to Paraperdition, but probably not. I'm not totally sure if all these snippets are in order or even in continuity with each other, but it's all the same general scenario.
Liminal Nonsense - Cool Startup Sequence
"Activating the Strodal Entregation Rosswell Automaton protocol. Entering Phase State Delta Two Alpha."
"We are approaching the absolute borderline."
"Activate stratification denoument pipeline north-northwest in five nanosecond staggered intervals. Flip switches 233-546 and allow reificated flow parallel to diagonal channels."
"Check one...done. Gateway breached. Check two...done. Maya, confirm?"
"Roger, gateway breached."
"Mental contamination within standard deviation."
"Tripping the third gate."
"Evangelion Unit-04 holding steady at...115% synchronization rate?"
A beat.
"Pilot Ichijo, you have control."
My fingers tightened around the pistol grips. I felt the presence of Unit-04 and kicked it down the rabbit hole, allowing the form within my mind to extrude and take up the space within the cage. I was five feet tall, and seventy-meters tall, thin and monstrous, sheathed in rubber but wreathed in armor. "Pilot Shinji Ichijo reads you, five by five. Evangelion Unit-04, all systems green. I have control."
"Evangelion Unit-00 synchronized at 22%. Enabling hydraulic compensation systems of the Hi'-Type Equipment. Allocating two percent of Balthazar's processing power towards aim-assistance and movement extrapolation algorithms."
"Pilot Isonami, you have control."
I blinked the sequence to pull up the view of Noriko's cockpit. Harsh mechanical noises, the din of a construction site in miniature, blared through the speaker system of my entry plug. Noriko straightened up in her seat as the bulky MAGI targeting visor lowered itself onto her face. Composite shackles bound themselves around her arms and legs, tethered to cables spread slapdash at the foot of her mechanical throne. Assisted-movement enablers, aids that would read the minute electrical impulses in her muscles and transfer them to a hydraulic system built into her Eva's armor, extending her movements, compensating for her abysmal synchronization rate.
Noriko's Eva had training wheels.
"I have control," Noriko said.
---
First Children - Noriko Isonami
Pilot of Evangelion Prototype-00
A ten year old girl, and the Test Pilot of Evangelion Prototype Unit 00. She is ostensibly an orphan created after the Second Impact, before reconstruction efforts bore fruit. An extremely sickly girl with a peculiar form of albinism-- her boyish haircut is powder blue, and her eyes are a startling ruby red. Her skin is alabaster, and she suffers considerable strain beneath direct sunlight.
Isonami has an abormally low synch ratio in the 20-30 range, barely enough to move the EVA. She performs best as a mobile platform for the various EVA-scale projectile weapons, and as a support unit to ferry new umbilical cords to the frontline fighters. Her melee skill and natural accuracy is poor. However, she is proficient at using the aim-assist provided to the EVA by the MAGI supercomputers. Retractable All-Terrain wheels in Unit 00's feet make up for her general lack of control and allow her to move quickly in straight lines. RS-Hoppers implanted with duplicates of her brain hooked up to a life support system project AT-fields to serve as a passable autonomous defense.
She is soft-spoken and mostly unknown to social mores, having no nudity taboo and an inability to properly converse with other human beings--including her abusive guardian, Gendo Ikari. During an incident in which Unit 00 went berserk, and her life was in danger, Gendo made no move to rescue her. She suffered heat stroke in the time it took for the maintenance crew to safely retrieve her, and spent a month in the hospital.
Was sortied with Unit-01 versus the Third Angel, making it one of the first Evangelions to engage an Angel.
Second Children - Asuka Shikinami Langley
Pilot of Evangelion Production Model-02
The thirteen year old ace pilot of Evangelion Unit 02, hailing from NERV Third Branch, Berlin. A test-tube baby, the product of her genius mother and elite sperm from a superior donor. Her mother fell sick with an unknown mental illness when she was young, and ceased to be able to recognize Asuka as her daughter, instead lavishing all of her attention upon a ragdoll resembling Asuka.
Eva Unit 02 harbors an experimental N2 engine, which can either be used for an additional minute of mobile operational time or a three second exponential burst of operational capacity. Asuka is indisputably the second-best of the Children at piloting Eva, and arguably the most experienced--she's logged the most hours in a real Eva, and briefly sortied versus a rogue competitor mecha about to destroy Berlin. She disabled it in ten seconds without killing the pilot. Without a doubt, she is the most 'efficient' of the pilots, beloved by her maintenance crew and NERV-Berlin's legal team.
Third Children - Shinji Ichijo
Pilot of Evangelion Next Generation Testbed-04
A fourteen year old boy born on the day of Second Impact in San Francisco, California. Was detained for assault and battery one day, which brought him into the public record as a minor with no identification. His processing brought him to the attention of the Marduk Institute, which designated him as the Third Children and assigned him to NERV-02, Second Branch, Nevada, USA (aka Area 51). Was considered a failure at first for his 0 percent synch ratio, which inexplicably rocketed to 100 percent during his third synch test when he was on the cusp of expulsion from NERV.
Famous for his rage in battle, manifesting as a total lack of regard for his own wellbeing in pursuit of the destruction of his target. A prodigious level of skill in maneuvering the EVA and operating her various armaments, a high pain tolerance, and considerable talent as a battlefield tactician make him NERV's unofficial ace pilot.
Eva Unit-04 harbors twin Fairbairn-Sykes style progressive knives in her shoulder pylons, and twin flechette pistols holstered in hydraulic ports on her waist. The pisols originally used electromagnetic propulsion, but Shinji's fine AT-field control allowed the engineers to forego the original limited-power system in favor of direct propulsion of the flechettes via directed microscopic rotations of Unit 04's AT field.
Has never played a musical instrument in his life, but displays startling musical aptitude during duets with Rei and Kaworu.
Fourth Children - Rei Ikari
Pilot of Evangelion Test Type-01
---
"Um, I bought some ice cream sandwiches when I went to the store with Miss Misato. She, um, bought a lot of beer. I did not get beer though," Rei said.
Shinji stared. "You got ice cream."
"Yes. In flavors vanilla and mint, and I guess both have chocolate bread-ish parts. Do you like vanilla, or mint? With chocolate? We can share one, if you like, or you can have your own. I do not mind."
"Sure, why not. Thanks. I'll have mint."
"Mint is my favorite."
"Er, vanilla then. Doesn't really matter I guess."
"I think we should share, and then later share the vanilla sandwich tomorrow, or perhaps tonight if we are feeling peckish. I enjoy variety, Ichijo-kun."
"I see."
"Shar-ing is car-ing," said Rei in heavily accented English. "Right?"
Silence.
Shinji coughed. "So you uh, really like ice cream?"
"It is agreeable," Rei said. She nodded, and a tiny smile flit across her lips, quick, there then gone. She gingerly padded over to the fridge, opened the door, produced a silver package, and unwrapped it to reveal a mint chocolate sandwich. She took a small bite off the corner, then handed it to Shinji, looking at him expectantly.
"Your turn," she said, tilting her head.
'This is fucking bizarre,' thought Shinji. He accepted the sandwich and quickly took a polite bite of the same corner Rei had. Shinji nodded. It was pretty good. Not like gourmet ice cream or anything, but what the fuck was that, really?
All amalgamations of sugar and cream are the same to my busted-ass palate, he thought.
Rei squeaked. Shinji looked over, and noticed her toothy smile, wide eyes, and flushed cheeks. In his opinion, she looked rather deranged.
"You okay, there?" he asked, handing back the ice cream sandwich. She took it, smiling all the while.
"Quite," she muttered around the sandwich. Her mouth lingered on the corner as she systematically ground it down against her teeth. Shinji frowned and turned his torso, facing away from her to stare down the hallway. A penguin exited a room, took a look at him, then turned around.
This place is so fucked, he thought. He saw the sandwich being offered to him out of the corner of his eye.
"No, I'm good. Thanks."
"One more please."
"Okay," Shinji said. He took the sandwich. He took a bite. He twisted in his seat to face Rei again. "Does NERV need us for anything tomorrow?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Great, I'm going on a walk."
---
A demure fourteen year old girl with a quiet personality and a peculiar, stilted way of speaking. Gendo Ikari's biological daughter, who was sent away after the sudden death of her mother to live with her Aunt and Uncle. She was suddenly called back to Tokyo-3 to be the pilot of Unit 01 and drive away the Third Angel. Unit 01 was devastated in the sortie, and she was forced to eject to save her own life.
Somewhat cowardly with a pronounced sarcastic streak, she nonetheless exhibits a serene state of mind in the midst of battle. Has great aptitude with Eva, managing 43 percent synch ratio her first time piloting. She is a people-pleaser, and a neurotic cleanfreak, the sort of person who'd clean your home without asking. Her culinary skills are excellent. Although she is a vegetarian, she is familiar with a vast array of meat dishes from her time living with her relatives.
Moves into Misato Katsuragi's apartment, along with the Third Children Shinji Ichijo. Shinji takes an unconventional mentor role in her development, eventually becoming her primary love interest. She comes into her own as a pilot and a person, becoming the deuteragonist of the story.
Does not possess the necessary rage and desperation to reliably trigger Unit-01's Berserker state when incapacitated.
Takes the role of the 'ordinary teenage girl shanghaied into fighting a war.'
Fifth Children - Kaworu Nagisa
Backup Pilot of Evangelion Production Model-02
Sixth Children - Mari Makinami Illustrious
The Second Brood:
A nickname for the Mass Production Evangelion pilots, who use modified Dummy Plugs as a means to mechanically control their EVAs without the ability to synchronize.
Angels:
Sariel (God's Command) - She of Eternity who Makes the World Tremble
Chronokinesis, regeneration, an AT Field that manifests as a second ghostly body bound within a certain range of her, and minor unrestricted biokinesis.
Paraperdition
___
Japan is fucked.
Sachiel had sunk the entire island of Honshu.
The three-day siege ended with the Third Angel devastating all twenty-two barriers of Central's vaunted 'Fortress City,' getting at the Geofront base within.
"Not major enough to call it Third Impact," Commander Ignatius said. "Compared to the sudden disincorporation of a polar ice cap? I estimate the death count outside of Japan to be only a few million. Most coastal regions were prepared for something on this scale."
Only a few million. I felt my hand clench.
"Why didn't we do anything?" I asked.
"Central wouldn't have us. In theory, there was nothing wrong with that supposition: they had two combat-ready Evas. Honestly, I can't wrap my head around this."
"What about the pilots? The Evas?"
"They're fine. Both Units were carried away on F-Type Carriers, along with most of Central's essential staff.
"So are we going to go back?"
"At present, Sachiel is immune to physical damage. His AT Field is too robust for an N2 weapon to penetrate. Yes, we're going to strike back, but on our terms. We've charted his course over the ocean. He's heading for Germany."
"The Second Branch?"
"Yes. We're transferring you to the Second Branch, where you will join forces with the First, Second, and Fourth Children. The Vatican Treaty has been suspended in light of this near-Impact level event. The new MO is the Evangelion corps as a mobile force, striking Angels where and when they're needed."
"In theory."
"...You catch on quick, Shinji." Commander Ignatius leaned back in his seat and lit a cigarette. I watched the flame dance on the end as he held the cigarette between his lips and spoke. "Theoretically, NERV is a UN paramilitary organization, one big happy family. In practice, though, the majority of us are hewn to the cultural mores of our home country. There is a reason workers here call our branch Area 51."
"Because of our preternatural psychic war machines?"
Ignatius chuckled. "Well, that's probably part of it. But this, our Second Branch, has adopted that certain moniker, because it is a memetic thread in our cultural tapestry that holds us fast to the public. We are known, but unknown. Mysterious, but warm and familiar. It's good marketing, free PR."
"And now it doesn't matter because an Angel sunk Japan."
Ignatius frowned. "It remains to be seen if Not In My Backyard holds true, after our country witnesses the death of an entire country, an entire people. I'd like to believe we're better than that, but..."
"Nothing more than an exciting headline," I said. I worked a cigarette out of the softpack in my field jacket's inner pocket, and lit it with my disposable lighter. I inhaled. The smoke bit my lungs, but I held it in for a long time before releasing it through my nostrils as a stream of noxious curlicues. "That's fine. I don't need the masses to care to do my job."
"It helps."
"I'll have their moral support regardless of whether or not people understand what's really going on. Giant kaiju battles tend to excite."
"Very optimistic, Shinji. It's unlike you," Commander Ignatius mused. He leaned on his elbows, planting them firmly on the desk, before steepling his fingers in front of his mouth. His silver-tinted aviators caught the candlelight and shone. "You ship out tomorrow, at 0400. Get some sleep. Get some rest. Get ready for about ten hours in the entry plug in transit."
I pursed my lips, letting the smoke dribble out the corners of my mouth.
"Joy," I said, voice ragged.
"Make us proud, Pilot. Where Ikari's brood failed, you must succeed."
I nodded. "Here's hoping."
Commander Ignatius flicked the ceramic ashtry over to me with his little finger. He fixed me in place with a grim look.
"You are a like a son to me, Shinji."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I mean it."
I barked a rough approximation of a laugh. "You always do."
Honeyed words like that were how NERV dragooned me into this nonsense to begin with.
There was no love lost between myself and Commander Ignatius, or the rest of Area 51. When they looked at me, the scientists, naive wunderkind fresh out of college, high on the wings of post-Second Impact scholarships and accelerated courses, they didn't see the me named Shinji.
They saw an essential component of their precious Evangelion, their Next Generation Testbed.
Well, that was fine.
I liked Unit-04 more than myself too.
I stubbed my cigarette out in the ashtray and rose to my feet. The Commander extended his hand, and I shook it. Three firm shakes, then hold. Textbook.
"Goodbye, Commander."
___
It was a polymorphic demon built of oilslick, flowing freely in space to describe the rough shape of a headless man. The form was exaggerated and monstrous, too long a torso, shoulders a mile wide. An ossified avian mask was suspended roughy between where the clavicles should be, vibrating in an unsettling fashion. Two green eyes, soft emeralds festooned with a single black point, rotated madly in their sockets.
It lumbered through buildings, inexorable, too dense for its size, like a semitruck folded neatly into an envelope. Each step shook the earth, each swing of its comically elongated arms heralding a rush of galeforce winds.
"Launch me," I said. My hands tightened around the twin pistol grips. I blinked the sequence that brought up the Command Override into the console, and prepared an unauthorized launch.
"We haven't gotten authorization from the First Branch to do so, pilot. Stand by until further orders," said the Commander. "Our techs can see what you're doing there, Shinji. You're free to magnetize the rails, but be advised-- the F-Type isn't in position and won't be until my say-so. Pretty good chance you'll launch Unit Four straight into the ocean and ground her."
I shunted the screen off to the periphery of my vision with a sliding glance, and spoke into entry plug. "The hell are we waiting for?"
"Commander Ikari is...an eccentric man. He won't want us to intervene until he's sure one of Japan's hometown heroes isn't up to the task."
"I've seen the MAGI reconstructions of the sorties. Those pilots are shit. Unit One's pilot less than Zero's, but still abysmal. If it weren't for all the ridiculous blast containment contingencies of this transforming city, and the aerial support from the JSSDF, Tokyo-3 would have fallen yesterday. As it is, every second they delay me is thousands of dollars down the fucking drain. Have you told Ikari that?"
A chuckle. "I'm sure it's occurred to him. It's a power play, nothing more. Exercising control over us, over the situation. You know I'm not the political sort, Shinji. You aren't either. So just push the logistics and PR backlash out of your mind and get ready for the fight. You said you've reviewed the MAGI reconstructions?"
"Yeah. This Angel-- what was that name First Branch assigned it?"
"Sachiel."
"Fancy. Yeah, he's certainly something. Some kind of innately bounded biokinesis, and maybe a little more. MAGI simulated microorganisms in the dirt beneath the broken streets being converted into raw biomass every time it was wounded."
"Good thing we drew it inland."
"Fat fucking chance. We didn't do anything. I saw the range on that thing's beam weapon. If it wanted to level the city, it could have done it from the ocean. No, it's after something. If there's a reason it hasn't just powered through us with impunity, well, I can't conceive of it."
"It boasts impressive offensive power. Our MAGI suggests that if it used its abilities efficiently, it could have turned Tokyo-3 into a crater hours ago."
"No use trying to get into an alien mindset here, Shinji. We need you lucid, not daydreaming."
"Noted."
"Oh, wait a sec-- okay. Shinji, we're going to hook you into the First Branch's tactical network, get you in touch with the bridge and your fellow pilot."
"Just the one?"
"Unit Zero was disabled beyond repair, at least in a reasonable timeframe. Unit One is still good to go, but she's in a bad way. Strictly support. Wait-- alright, got you in."
I reached up and twisted my wrist, miming the motion of turning a key. An electric shock ran up my spine, and the entry plug monitors shimmered psychedelically before resettling with two new tabs in the upper left corner. I stared at the blinking one, urgent and pulsing angry red, and willed it open.
"Pilot of Evangelion Unit Four, I presume?" she asked. She was a pretty older woman, with a chiseled, masculine facial structure, at odds with her distinctly Japanese skin and eyes. She had a coif of saturated blond hair, clearly dyed-- her black roots were showing. I nodded, noting absently her prominent mole.
"Yeah. This is Shinji."
"Charmed," the doctor said distractedly. She typed something into a keyboard outside the border of the camera, the re-entered the frame. "Anyway, no time for pleasantries. You're hooked into our MAGI network for aim assistance and on-demand direction to the various power stations, weapon caches, and exit points across the city. Don't worry about collateral damage, but don't go out of your way to devastate the city."
I laughed. "Okay."
"Pilot Ikari will act as your backup."
A shrill chime brought my attention back to my tabs. The previously inert comm request was glowing blue, softly pulsing. I willed the window open.
<<The fifth time, it made me happy.
Could I, hold your hand again?>>
EVANGELION TEST TYPE-01
PILOT: FOURTH CHILDREN, REI IKARI
--
I met Kaworu Nagisa on a freezing summer morning. He was descending the steps of the ships, stopping at the docks, curious in his modest manner of dress: a simple cobalt T-shirt and casual fitted cords. He took one look at me, and fixed me with an unimaginably beautiful smile.
To my surprise, I felt my cheeks heat up. When next I came to, Kaworu was standing only a meter away from me, arms open in invitation.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Shinji Ichijo."
I rolled my eyes and shot my hand out. I initiated a firm handshake, leaving him floundering. "You too."
<<Kaworu stepped out of the tank, clean and dry. The scientists watched with horror as the surface of the boy's skin bubbled, a viscous, boiling red, and extruded about a centimeter off his frame. Without even blinking, the volatile liquid settled, becoming an innocuous school boy's uniform: a white shirt, black slacks, fastidious and starched.
He traipsed down the room, hands casually tucked into the pockets of his newly formed pants, peering around the room with curious red eyes. He stopped at the back of the room, where a withered man in a mechanized wheelchair waited with his hands folded on his lap.
"Tabris," the man wheezed.
Kaworu smiled, eyes crinkling. "A pleasure, Master Lorenz." It was a name he should not have known. "Shall see the rest of the council now? How is Master Kasparov? Does his new liver agree with him?"
Lorenz kept his mouth shut. Only the artificial stillness provided by his mechanized body kept the physical aspects of his anxiety at bay, but he was certain Kaworu knew of his fear regardless. "Shush, Tabris. Do not waste my time with this idle pratter.
Kaworu kept smiling. His thoughts were no longer on the distraction in front of him, the patchwork wreck of a man who'd provided his physical form. Blue eyes and chestnut hair flitted about his mind, uplifting his heart of glass. A feminine face and form, a fragile soul, as rich and textured as Kaworu's own was imitative and shallow.
This time, Kaworu would make him happy.>>
"I was trained in the Seventh Branch, but only in a Pribnow Box--our simulation body uses the patterns of Unit Zero, the prototype. Our Evangelion Unit is yet unfinished, unfortunately."
Seventh? The Tabgha Base? "You live on the moon?"
"I was born there, Shinji."
My eyes widened.
"I was born in a lab, yes. Designed to pilot an Evangelion, but yet, not even half the pilot you are. A waste of funds, wouldn't you say?"
"Grim."
"I would rather have developed in a mother's womb, safe and secluded, opaque, rather than within a hermetically sealed chamber, walled by transparent glass, impartial workers watching me grow. No sweet whispers. No pleasant vibrations as my father or a relative rubs my mother's belly to feel me kick. Just free floating in a nutrient rich soup, tangled in a net of metal cords."
I tapped the bottom of the bottle against the railing, chipping off bits of flaking rust. Watched them drift into the water below. I took a deep breath. The salty harbor air bit my lungs. "If it makes you feel any better, I was a natural birth, and my childhood wasn't super great."
"Oh? Kaworu sounded genuinely interested. He scooted over until he was well within my personal space, curled over the railing so his head could hover just over my shoulder, close enough for his breath to tickle my ear.
I took a pull of my drink. "Yeah. Dad fucked off to be a derelict piece of shit. I met him now and then to lend him cash and in return he'd deign to spend twenty minutes to eat with me at whatever shit fast food place was within walking distance."
"A shame," Kaworu said, voice like marching bells. "Yours is an existence that deserves love, but seldom receives it."
"I'm not sure if you're insulting me or not."
"Oh, of course not." Kaworu smiled up at me, beatifically. Smooth white fingers, uniquely dimpled and callused in the manner of an experienced pianist, came to rest upon the back of my hand. He gripped me tightly, twining his fingers between mine. I blinked. "What I am trying to say is, I am that rare occasion. I am saying that I love you."
"Whatever you say man," I muttered.
"I mean it."
"I'm sure you do." I took my hand away, noting with some guilt the way Kaworu's face fell. I stuck my hands in my pockets and turned away from him. "Let's head to the cages. You've never been in a real Eva before, right? My Unit Four is bleeding edge compared to the First Branch's prototype. I'll see if the techs'll let us have a go on the range. Mess around with the new flechette pistol or something."
"Yes," he said without skipping a beat. "I would like that." He fell in step beside me and I glanced at him. His smile was bright, but his eyes had lost that peculiar shine.
Still, red eyes. How uncommon.
For all his honeyed words, his startling bold advances, I couldn't bring myself to feel uncomfortable. Rather, it was uniquely comfortable. I could not envision a scenario that included us being intimate, but it wasn't for lack of love or attraction.
<<Asuka, Rei, Mari, Mayumi, Mana>>
My heart knew there wasn't a route that lead to him.
---
I felt the controls hitch. I was whisked back into the entry plug, a mess of graphs and data, monitors displaying static. I was only peripherally aware of my connection to the nest outside. My chest hurt.
I was having a fucking heart attack.
I felt myself be electrocuted. Again. Again.
"We can't do it again. We'll fry his heart."
Shut up.
Shut up. You're annoying.
The comm system cut out, responding to my thoughts.
I felt heat build behind my eyes. Not tears. A nascent fire. I released my grip upon the Evangelion and let the machine lay slack. Unit Four collapsed to the pavement. I willed the entry plug's systems to die.
I was peripherally aware of the Angel advancing.
I felt a glass hand grip my heart
It squeezed.
Again. My heart was manually pumped by an inexorable grip. It was smoother than glass, a finer texture than any currently known to mankind. It pulsed with a dreadful life and he knew it shimmered without confirming it with sight.
The hand continued to squeeze. Newly oxygenated blood sluiced through my veins, flowing like liquid fire.
Kill.
Not me. I wouldn't die today.
Kill.
The Angel the monster the invader the target
killkillkill
KILL
The hand released my heart and it continued to beat under its own power.
Unit Four's entry plug roared to life. My vision was subsumed by a psychedelic hell as the HUD scrambled to render. The numbers were nonsense. I couldn't read the words.
Screaming. My own voice. My throat was raw. My mouth was bleeding. That blood trickled into my stomach, dispersed into the LCL and was eaten up by the filtration system.
I rose to my full height of ten stories, the most dangerous man on the planet. Something cracked in my jaw. I'd snapped the wire holding my mouth shut. I sucked air greedily in to my lungs, bulbous, malformed sacs of hastily manifested flesh.
I reared back and bellowed.
My teeth morphed into razor fangs, aberrations of evolution unsuitable for dining, a pure biological weapon. Hellfire raged in my eye sockets.
"I'm going to fucking kill you!" I screamed.
No. A lie. I strung together an incoherent mess of sounds roughly similar to "Rjghhhfuhhhfughhh nghh", my razor teeth shredding my gums and tongue.
I felt the bass of my extruded voice rattle the bones of my man-body, nestled deep in the nape of my neck.
I raised my head, stared my enemy in the eyes. The bone mask was assaulted by sudden vacuums, the product of a bifurcated AT Field closing in upon itself. I retracted my field, reincorporated it as a wide shield in front of me. It intercepted the angel's answering spear of light, and dispersed it into harmless particles.
I slid the AT Field behind me, swinging it there in an arc, and allowed it to hit me full in the back. Galvanized, I flew through the air and zeroed in on the angel to strike it with the force of an ICBM.
It wasn't enough. My fingers and the toes of my boots were dug deep into the surface of the Angel's AT Field, but it was a barrier twenty feet thick.
Okay.
I reared my head back and slammed it as hard as I could into the wall. My brain rattled in its cage. I did this three times, until the ornate crest furnishing my helm's visor shattered. Once more. I angled my head and sunk my teeth deep into the newly created divot in the field.
Barely a two inch opening, visible only by virtue of my Evangelion's superior eyes.
It was enough.
Nothing there. The enemy is nothing.
My AT Field manifested explosively within the Angel's left shoulder, and severed its arm. It screamed in pain from an unseen orifice, real pain, and dropped its AT Field.
Not satisfied.
Not enough.
Not fun.
I landed on all fours, bereft of my handholds, and activated the F-Type thrusters, burning up the last of the rocket fuel. I collided with the Angel's stumpy legs and brought it to the ground in a textbook tackle.
A pressure on my left temple, and then suddenly stars.
Hurts. Damage.
The Angel's severed arm hung steadfast to my head, hammering my temple with a piledriver made of light. It was spurting blood, but floating inexplicably in midakr.
It wasnt moving under its own power. It was wreathed in a fine AT Field, morphing subtly to manipulate the digits. The spear of light was not a hard light construct, but rather a luminescent bone, brimming with irradiated potential.
The admiration lasted mere moments, then the bone cracked through my temple and speared through my brain.
Didyntjd
Djdiennnngjjdj
Speak. Hard. Cannot.
Reach up. Have bone mask.
Crush in hand. Enemy yells. I need control of the situation.
I master this moment. Pain, it is, yes, but the beast is silent, cowed. Both of them. I cross my arms and let loose my AT Field as a nanothorn beam from my eyes, and let it shred the form before me.
Violence. Only words. !eams anything
Blood and brains leaking out of the hole. I reach up to feel. Hard to feel through my gauntlets//shackles.
___
I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling.
A pretty girl with chestnut hair was perched on a rickety folding chair beside my bed, leafing through a colorful pamphlet.
Rei Ikari. The Fourth Children.
She peeked over and her mouth opened in a small O when she noticed me watching her. She turned to face me completely. Her eyes were blue. Odd for a Japanese, but I wasn't one to talk.
She shook. Frightened.
"What's wrong?" It was best to be polite.
"N-nothing. You, um, did great out there."
"So did you. You held off Sachiel for two days before your CO got on his knees and begged for Area51's help."
"That was mostly Isonami-san," Rei said. "I didn't do much."
"I saw the MAGI reconstructions of your battles before I got here," I said. "Unit-00 drew the Angel's attention for longer, and was sortied for a longer time overall, but your efforts in Unit-01 did enough damage to drive the Angel back, for temporary retreats. You took it out of action longer than Isonami did. You bought time for her ridiculous H-Type equipment to refuel."
"Please," Rei whispered.
"Alright." I relented. Fell back onto the bed and stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling. I shook out my wrists and cracked my neck, wincing past a certain range of movement. The sympathetic damage had been intense. My jaw particularly hurt. I'd have to press for a manual release command for the mouth restraint system-- I'd never been able to suss out on my own what the lock-pylon hex for that had been. Why we had one in the first place was beyond me.
My Unit 04 had a powerful bite. I liked it better than the prog knife, than the flechette pistol. The Eva was such a potent weapon on its own, without frills or accessories. Even the F-Type armor's thrusters were an unnecessary excess. I had my suspicions that an Eva wreathed in an AT Field could survive atmospheric reentry without a scratch on the paint
I reaches my and scratched at my left temple. There was a phantom itch on my brain that wouldn't be relieved until the next time I synchronized with an Evangelion.
Rei continued to watch me warily, looking at a loss for conversation topics. Wanting so bad to fill the silence, but how? What broke the ice with a highly trained psycho?
I had a vague recollection of what I'd done after the Angel had skewered my head. It wasn't pretty. There was a taste in my mouth, surprisingly delicious. There was a fullness in my stomach and it was oddly satisfying.
Was she scared of me?
>><<
Ah. Perhaps...
"Um, Miss Katsuragi--"
"The Ops Director?"
"Yes. She wanted to invite you over for dinner, to celebrate, um."
"Saving the world?"
Rei smiled. "Yes." She reached down and produced two chocolate bars from a bag at her feet. "Do you like chocolate?"
The hell kind of question is that? "Yeah."
"This one is a wafer, and this one has peanuts and caramel," she said in a soothing voice. "My favorite is the wafer one, but I am willing to give it to you today if that is your preference. Or perhaps we can share."
"I'm cool with the caramel."
"Or perhaps we can share." Her stare would brook no argument.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay."
"Here you go, Ichijo-kun," Rei said. She broke the bar in half and gave it to me.
If the Ops Director wanted to accrue good will with her minions in the guise of a friendly home cooked dinner, that was fine. Artifice it might be, but there was something so picturesque about the motion that I couldn't dismiss it as a mere political play.
This? The Fourth Children splitting simple candy bar with me, acknowledging, whether she knew it or not, that we'd both played a role in the defeat of the Angel?
I felt warm.
Her eyes were clear and without guile. When I let my gaze linger on her for too long, she blushed cutely and averted her eyes.
"What?"
"It's nothing," I said. My responding lie was painfully transparent, but she didn't press the issue.
I chewed on my half of the chocolate, distracted. The F-Type Equipment had performed admirably, as an on-demand boost to lateral motion, but I should see if Area 51 would be willing to part with the experimental S or C Type Equipment.
Unit-04 was, unofficially, a testbed for some of the more esoteric Eva equipment. Its basic B-Type frame was singularly modified to accept a number of nonstandard modular parts, including the flight equipment deemed too expensive for mass production.
True flight would have been a godsend against a grounded Angel. Who cared about mass production? There were only three active Evas, and they didn't all need to fly.
I glanced over at Rei. She was idly chewing on the bar, taking great care not to stain her lips or teeth.
I ran my tongue experimentally against my palate. Blood and chocolate wasn't a terrible taste.
No, she didn't look the type to talk shop. If the rumors were true, she hasn't even heard of Eva before her first sortie. The prodigy with the 41.3% sync rate.
"You are smiling."
"Yeah."
"What amuses you?"
"You, frankly. Not in a bad way. Your amazing synch rate, wonder girl."
>><<
"Do not call me that."
"Sorry."
"You are forgiven."
I finished the bar of chocolate, then swung myself around to sit on the lip of the bed. Our knees were nearly touching, but she kept stoic and maintained a politely curious mien. I raised an eyebrow.
"How is Unit-01?" It was smalltalk. How would she know? She's never piloted anything else.
Rei tilted her head. "I believe it to be alive. Sentient, or at least semisentient."
I nodded. "Unit-04 is too, I think. Hell of a beast. Have to beat the damn thing into submission until you can use it."
"Submission? Is not the point of synchronization to become one with your EVA, match yourself to it?"
"Not really. It's easier to suppress the beast and give commands directly. You want to dance to the tune of an incomprehensible intelligence with its finger on the trigger of a gun that fires bullets the size of minivans? You're a braver woman than me."
"You are not a woman. That is a poor compliment, Ichijo-kun."
I made a noncommittal noise. "Call me Shinji, Ikari-san. I lived in San Francisco for a good portion of my life. Sometimes I forget what my last name even is."
"You may call me Rei," she said noncommittally. "It is what the Colonel calls me, what my father calls me. To deny you that would imply that my relationship with you is less intimate than that of my relationship with either, and that is simply not true."
I blinked. "We barely know each other."
"Yes."
That was all she needed to say.
She looked up at me. "You have strangely colored eyes, Shinji. They are like Isonami-san's-- like little fires wrapped around a void."
I snorted. "How poetic. Wait, what? Fire?"
"A beautiful red. Strange for a Japanese person, or, I suppose, human beings in general, but quite agreeable. Your hair, brown, is more common than Isonami-san's blue. This I will concede. Otherwise I could mistake the two of you for siblings." Rei tilted her head. "Are the two of you related?"
"Um. Probably not."
She nodded, eyes shut. A sagely look. I reached up and traced a thumb over my brow. The EMTs must have popped my contacts out after they stripped me out of the entry plug.
___
Scene: Oceanic combat with an evolved Sachiel. Eva-04 sorties with the V-Type Equipment and successfully sinks the Angel, but does not kill it. Pattern Blue remains active. Shinji's F-Type Carrier crashes, killing his entire support crew. After running out of fuel for his V-Type Wings, he crashes into the ocean. He starts to sink, but Eva-02 in the D-Type Equipment dives and rescues Eva-04. He ascends to the F-Type Carrier's bridge where he meets Colonel Misato Katsuragi, who debriefs him. They travel back to Berlin to mount a defense against Sachiel.
---
Scene: Days pass and Shinji becomes familiar with Noriko Isonami, Asuka Shikinami Langely, and Rei Ikari, the First, Second, and Fifth Children respectively. He meets Asuka first, while she excitedly monologues to him about the virtues of her Eva-02, questions him about the changes made to Eva-04, disparages them for being unnecessary, then gushes over the V-Type Wings only to be disappointed when Shinji informs her that they were a one-off prototype and probably busted from being submerged in water. Shinji does not respond to her with any enthusiasm and she brushes him off as boring. Asuka claims that where Shinji failed to stop the Angel, she will succeed. Shinji asks her if she feels any remorse about the fate of Japan; in turn, she asks Shinji if he feels any. He doesn't know; Asuka says that's bullshit and what happened to Honshu was an unfortunate consequence of war. "Aren't you pureblooded Japanese? Why are you so callous about it?" "I'm an American national."
---
Scene: Shinji retires to his quarters. A knock on his door in the middle night rouses his from a sleepless daze. It is Rei Ikari, the Fifth Children, with his new NERV ID. "Are you hungry? I have prepared lunches. I know it is a strange time for them, but I am presently jetlagged, as I assume you are. Would you care to dine with me outside? The moon is lovely tonight." Shinji shrugs and joins her for a meal. He's surprised at how good the meal is. "Delicious. You know, I can't cook. This is an incredible luxury, for me." Rei is pleased. Shinji is astounded by how much less abrasive Rei is than Asuka, and is comfortable engaging her in conversation. He asks her how long she's been training to be a pilot, downplaying his own two-year experience with Unit-04; she gets a dead look in her eyes and says the battle with Sachiel was her first time piloting.
Shinji picks up the details of Rei's first battle and subsequent repeated redeployment despite her grave injuries. After two days, the Eva suffered a spear of light through the eye and a broken left arm, which explains her eye patch and cast. What should have been a fatal blow triggered a Berserk state. The Berserk Unit-01 dealt catastrophic damage to Sachiel, forcing it to retreat. At this point, the island of Honshu was tectonically compromised. Only the Geofront remained standing, prepared for such an occasion. The Evas and essential staff fled, and NERV HQ was detonated. The detonation, in conjunction with Sachiel's use of his AT Field to dig through the earth to get at some unknown objective, sinks Honshu, killing millions of people and flooding the remaining islands of Japan.
With some shade of this knowledge retained, Shinji successfully comforts her, using knowledge he should not have (even from the Area51 MAGI reconstructions of the Sinking of Honshu) to praise her actions in battle, reinforce her bravery, and generally flatter her without being insincere. Rei is completely smitten with him at this point, but he just feels a hollow ache at the fact that he wasn't there to save them the trouble. He handily solo'd Sachiel with less than five minutes of power, using flight equipment he wasn't trained with, and would have probably saved Japan if the "Scumbag Japanese Commander" hadn't barred his transfer.
"That's my father," Rei mutters, "Gendo Ikari." She makes no move to defend him.
Shinji has indirectly blamed her kin for the death of literally millions of people. For him, it is a fanciful statistic and the emotional impact of it is eclipsed by the absurdity. The blame upon Rei is twofold: her, for being powerless to stop it (despite extenuating factors, such as being completely untrained. that, and she DID stop it, in a sense. Eva-01's berserk state was what drove Sachiel to retreat in the first place, instead of just devastating the rest of Japan), and for her blood being responsible for getting as bad as it did in the first place.
Even here, in Berlin, effectively a different world, she is beholden to the defense of mankind.
"I want to run away," says Rei, "but where would I run to?"
Shinji shares the sentiment. His early life was a hot mess of drifting from foster home to foster home, peppered with occassional stints of homelessness. Ultimately, no matter where he ran, he was stuck in the dilapidated ruins of the sunken San Francisco slums. No matter where he ran, CPS recovered him, and without the will to keep running, he was placed in the care of a new home with new strangers who ultimately abandoned him-- either from his poor attitude, history as a violent derelict, or his disquieting albinism.
"This, too, is an escape," Shinji muses. "Working for NERV. Piloting Eva. We are so far removed from anything that constitutes ordinary life that we might as well live on a different planet. We're not old enough to legally drink and yet we're placed at the helm of the most potent instruments of death ever fabricated by mankind. We wield rifles the size of homes, firing bullets the size of minivans, brandishing blades capable of splitting rivers."
"I do not desire power."
"It's power that's been offered, and it is intoxicating enough that you can lose yourself in it, if you'd like. If you'd like to run, don't run away. Run deeper in, until you start to sink. Go down the hole, until you've forgotten the motivation behind your flight. Or don't, and leave it up to the Children who trained for this scenario. Honestly, you're a braver person than me for standing your ground in Tokyo-3. I doubt I'd just go along with it if my dad decided one day to saddle me with the fate of the world."
"I did not agree to save the world," Rei said.
"Why, then?"
"Have you met Isonami-san?"
"The First Children? Not personally, no. I've read her file though. Sort of young."
"She is ten years old. It would have been inhumane to allow her to face that threat alone."
"Well, it's inhumane to let her fight at ALL." Not to mention downright irresponsible considering Isonami's terrible synch rate and the sheer amount of unstable exoskeletal workarounds incorporated into Unit-00's armor system to let her pilot. Or her abysmal piloting skills, lack of instinct, and poor physical constitution. Those were all better reasons not to let Isonami pilot than her age. They could stick a baby in the plug for all I cared, as long as they were good at their job.
It sucks, really, but even Rei and I were child soldiers. Fielding a ten year old girl was comparatively worse, but not by much. Isonami grew up alongside Eva as the very first pilot, even if she didn't have the raw talent to do much more than start the engine.
Letting Rei, a neophyte, drive around a colossal biomechanical death machine was far more reprehensible, regardless of her natural aptitude. 41.3% was nothing to sneeze at. Hell, I'd started at 0.
I decided not to mention any of that.
"They spoke about it in terms of a necessary sacrifice," Rei said. "But there are other Pilots, are there not?"
I nodded. "Sure. I've met the Fourth Children, and I remember hearing rumors that Bethany had their own boy. Don't quote me on that."
"Why did the Fourth not come to our aid, if he was prepared? Political reasons, like yourself?"
"No, mostly practical issues in his case. He's stationed on the Tabgha Base, the Seventh Branch."
"I do not understand."
"He lives on the moon."
Rei's eyes subtly widened. "Ah."
"He came down for about a month last year, spent the time at our base getting familiarized with practical Evangelion operation--ostensibly to practice under Earth's gravity, but from what I hear, Tabgha's hush-hush prototype model isn't even finished yet. So just insurance to make sure he really was a viable pilot, since there's a bit of difference between test plugs and actual Evas. Guy was incredible though," I said. "He beat me pretty handily in the simulations."
"Why was such a person on the moon? Is the moon a target for these monsters?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. That stuff's beyond me."
---
I met Noriko Isonami in the infirmary, a small bundle of white blankets curled upon a bed nestled in the corner. She was haggard, for sure, with her sky blue hair a matted, clumpy mess, but there was a vitality in her red eyes that spoke to some measure of vicious canny. Her paradoxical intensity was such that I was briefly stricken by the urge to turn around and walk away.
Then again, she was a ten year old girl. I kept that in mind and strode up to her bed. A nurse moved as if to eject me from the room, but her eyes flickered over my generic NERV field jacket. She shook her head, then brought me a folding chair. I smiled at her, then sat in the chair to face Noriko.
"First Children?" I asked. "May I call you Noriko?"
Noriko stared blankly at me. When she spoke, her voice was rough, from a recently-removed feeding tube or dehydrating narcotics. "If that is what you wish. Who are you?"
"Shinji Ichijo, the Third Children," I said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Noriko."
She ignored my thin pretenses of decorum. "You are a pilot."
"Yeah, Unit-04."
Silence. I felt myself begin to sweat.
"Do you require anything of me?" she asked, her expression nonplussed.
They were giving this girl too much morphine. "Not really. I was just looking to introduce myself. And, you know. See how you were holding up after the battle. I saw the state Unit-00 was in. That Hi'-Type Equipment looks like a bitch-and-a-half. A hydraulic harness magnification system in the entry plug? The strain must be incredible."
"The pain is inconsequential. It is required for me to perform my duty as an Evangelion pilot," she said. She looked up at the ceiling. "To answer your other queries: You have successfully introduced yourself. Furthermore, you have ascertained that I am alive and in a sufficient state of mind to converse, with little resplendent pain. Do you require anything else, Pilot Ichijo?"
"No," I said. "Um. Get better."
"Inevitable," Noriko said. "Will you leave?"
Christ. "Yeah."
I exited the room.
The nurse, drinking a cup of coffee and presumably on break, leaned over the reception counter. "Isonami-chan is difficult, isn't she?" she gossiped. "Such a hard girl."
"Yeah. Failing to prevent the second-greatest tragedy in human history tends to put you in a bad mood," I said. I glared at the nurse. "Fucking cunt."
I left without a second glance, ignoring the nurse's indignant sputtering. After turning the corner, I allowed myself to sigh. I needed to calm down before I ran into a superior officer and made an ass of myself. Valuable resource or not, I had no illusions as to my inherent likeability. Outright hostility would only exacerbate the situation.
I stalked through the halls. I paused briefly to relax my right hand, which had been clenching and unclenching repeatedly. A habit I'd been trying to rid myself of since early chlidhood.
I wanted to be in Unit-04, slaughtering the enemy, but I was grounded until the small-minded fucks in command finished all their grandstanding and posturing for dominance. Central and Berlin butting heads.
Why WAIT for Sachiel to pull himself together? Why not just ravage him with N2 depth charges while he regenerated at the bottom of the ocean? Why not draw him out somehow, take some initiative instead of sitting around waiting for the monster who sunk Japan to reach full power and reach another major human population center? The MAGI estimated an entire week before he drew himself up from the ocean, and a day more to hit shore.
A moment of thought made it obvious. The Second Branch was eager to show off the superior talents of their wunderkind, Asuka Shikinami Langley in her Evangelion Unit-02, and Commander Ignatius had surely pressed for at least one more Eva-exclusive intervention in order to build Area51's public clout and build suction with the UN overlords-- among all the branches, we were the most harrangued for the seemingly pointless, extremely expensive modifications to Unit-04 that had warranted its designation as an advanced testbed.
Literally billions of dollars had gone into the big robot I drove around and did stuff in, and many parties wanted the expenditure justified.
I'd drifted into the Eva Cages without thinking. I glanced around the room, taking note of the harried technicians skittering on the floor, across the catwalks, carrying tools and clipboards and binders overflowing with paper. The pretty blonde woman who had spoken to me over the comm link looked up from her phone, spotted me, and waved. I closed the distance between us.
"Shinji-kun."
"Doctor."
She smiled. "If you're wondering how the repairs on your Evangelion are proceeding, it's all copacetic. Don't worry about it. Just a simple disinfection and refurbishing of the armor. You came out of your battle with Sachiel relatively unscatched."
"Right," I said. "What about the V-Type Wings?"
Ritsuko grimaced. "Well, about those. They're sensitive equipment, one-off with no replacement components-- or, at the very least, the Americans refuse to provide me with them-- and they're meant for sub-strata, limited flight. You spent half an hour submerged in the ocean before we recovered you. They're sort of..."
"Totally wrecked?"
"Beyond repair," Ritsuko sighed. "We recycled what we could, repurposed some of the antigrav panels to give your B-Type Equipment's standard thrusters greater boost capacity. Enough for quick dashes, enough to galvanize your motion from a dead stop. But you won't be flying again anytime soon."
"Man," I said. "I liked flying."
"I'm sure you did," Ritsuko said. "But Eva doesn't exist for you to get your kicks."
"Without the wings, I would have been helpless against the Angel."
"Conceded. But in all likelihood, you'll never have occasion to fight over the ocean again."
"In all likelihood, I should have never had occasion to fight a giant worldkilling horror while flying over the ocean," I said.
"You and Asuka are the mouthiest pilots I've ever spoken to," Ritsuko mused. "Not that it's a bad thing, in your case. You're far more polite than her. Asuka tends to talk about her two favorite topics: Unit-02, and Asuka."
I frowned. More gossip. "I see."
Ritsuko looked over my shoulder, and smirked. "Speak of the devil."
"Wonderboy!" Asuka crooned. "Guten tag."
"Hey."
"Show some more enthusiasm! Your beautiful savior has decided to bless you with her presence, Third. The least you could do is show some appreciation!"
"Wow this is great," I said. "I'm so glad you're here."
She glared at me. "I'll stamp this unbecoming attitude out of you yet. So," Asuka said. She swept an arm out, gesturing at the Evas resting in the cages. "Have you come to behold the superior German engineering of my sublime Unit-02?"
I gave her Eva a quick once-over. "It's red."
She scoffed. "Better red than that gaudy silver you've had slathered on your Unit. Honestly," she said, glaring up at Unit-04's face, "what a beast it is. Nothing like the the smooth, sleek lines of my Unit-02."
I looked up at Unit-04, then swept my gaze over the other Evas. It was less bestial than Unit-01. What the hell was up with that horn?
Ritsuko rubbed her temples and groaned. "I need to get some work done. You kids have fun. Don't stay up too late."
"Don't treat me like a child!" Asuka called at Ritsuko as she walked away. She turned back to me and crossed her arms, her long blonde hair bouncing with the motion. "Well then."
"Uh huh," I said.
"It's like talking to a brick wall," Asuka whined. "You're a fellow American, aren't you Shinji? Where's your brazen spirit, your zest for life, your zealous mien?"
"I'm not a walking stereotype, Asuka," I said. "Besides, aren't you describing yourself?
"
"Are you calling me a stereotype?"
"Man, I'm not sure if being straight-up crazy is an American stereotype. But arrogance is, and you've got that in spades."
"It's not arrogance if you can back it up," boasted Asuka. "Stupid Shinji. You know, I got my degree in fine arts this year."
I blinked. "That's actually impressive."
"Where did you go to school? Still in middle school, right? Cavorting with infants?"
"Gross," I said. "No. I ain't never been no school."
"W-what?" Asuka was positively dischuffed.
"I'm a pilot," I said. "I play VR games and occassionally drive a giant robot around to go beat up monsters. I get paid for this. Why should I attend classes? What are they gonna do? Hold me back from saving the world because I can't math too goodly? The pension I'm getting out of this once the kaiju bullshit is all over is going to be insane."
She scowled. "This is about the money to you?"
"Not really," I said. "But it's a nice bonus. Besides, my life is effectively over after this."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't tell me you've never thought about it. After the Evangelion are decomissioned, we're never going to be important again. Well, no. Maybe the rest of you will append your legacy a bit. Maybe you'll write a popular memoir, star in a movie or whatever, maybe you and the other pilots'll make something of yourselves. But I'll never do anything even a fraction of a percent as important as saving the fucking world again. I'm not smart enough to purify the red sea, or solve world hunger. Of course," I said, looking at the ground. "That's assuming we live through this to begin with. If we don't succeed, well, no one's ever doing anything important again, ever. Japan is proof-perfect of that."
"Mein Gott, Third," Asuka hissed. "So fatalistic. We win this war, then we live the rest of our lives lionized. Raised upon very real pedestals. Our names will go down in history as the incarnations of mythological heroes: my own story above the rest, of course."
"Myths are never happy," I laughed.
"Well mine will be!" Asuka shouted. "I break the standards."
"Then it isn't a myth."
"Then I'll redefine the word," she said. She placed her hands on her hips.
"Okay."
Asuka did her best impression of a landbound blowfish, cheeks puffed, hands balled into tight fists at her side. "S-stupid Shinji! It's not like I NEED your approval or anything."
"I have the utmost faith in you. You're amazing," I said, monotone.
Asuka's cheeks colored. She huffed. "Naturally. Stick with me, and we'll take on all comers."
She held out a hand to me. I shook it, bemused.
"Okay, Asuka. We'll kill them all."
She maintained her smile, but there was an uneasiness in her eyes, a peculiar wrinkle in her brow that I couldn't place. I saw myself in her eyes.
I shivered.
___
Rei entered the mess hall, a pair of earbuds stuck in her ears, masking silence. She saw us, colored, and pulled out an outdated SDAT player, turning it off. She tucked the earbuds into the breast pocket of her NERV field jacket, and walked over to join us.
"Hello," she said, sitting down. "Are you okay? You smell like poultice."
"Me?" I asked.
"Yes. Have you gone to visit Isonami-san?"
"Yeah. Man, that girl's freaky."
Rei's frowned. "You refer to her physical appearance."
I blinked. I self-consciously ran a hand through my white hair."What? No. What's wrong with how she looks? Hair and eyes are exotic, but hell, I'm one to talk. I just mean that she's hard to get along with. Cold. Aloof. Sort of frightening for a ten year old, you know?"
Rei's expression softened. The left side of her mouth turned up in a smile. "I see. Yes, Isonami-san is a very reticent girl. But I believe she is a good person, at heart."
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
Asuka laughed. "You're scared of a ten year old girl, Wonderboy?"
"I believe being an Evangelion pilot makes Isonami-san considerably more intimidating than your average ten year old girl," Rei said. "Certainly, the disparity between her physical appearance and the power that she wields magnifies her potential to disturb casual observers of her activities."
"Beep boop," Asuka said.
"Asuka," I warned.
"What?" she asked, eyes wide and innocent. "Just making noises here. Doo-wop-wop."
"It is okay," Rei said, eyes downcast. "I am used to being mocked for my speech patterns. They are not socially acceptable. I apologize."
"Don't you have a spine, Fifth Children? What are you apologizing for?" Asuka barked. "Honestly, you Japanese people..."
"But you were the one to..."
"Guys, shut up," I said. I rubbed my eyes. "Look, there's a harmonics test in, like, half an hour. Can't we just relax before we get dunked into a pool of blood for two hours? Please?"
"I have never thought about it like that before. The smell of LCL is not disagreeable. I have never made a habit of smelling blood, so it is a connection that would have perhaps eluded me into the future. My thanks, Ichijo-kun."
"It's never bothered me before," Asuka boasted. "Can't take a little discomfort, Wonderboy? Scent of blood sends you reeling? It builds character. And you, Fifth," she continued, rounding on a very tense Rei, "so much cushion to make the sting of your barb a gentle caress. It's not even glib anymore! Just tell this beach-bum snowflake dummkopf flat-out if you think he's pointing out something pointless, inane."
Rei's gaze drifted towards her shoes. I blinked. She had pretty ankles. "I was not trying to insult you, Ichijo-kun."
I sighed. "I know."
"Perhaps it was my commentary regarding your complaint that was inane."
"It wasn't, and even if it was, who cares," I muttered, pulling out my phone. I flipped through two pages of games. Disappointing. None of the icons caught my attention, nothing more than a blur of gaudy colors and superflat icons flitting across my vision. I tucked my phone back into my pocket. "Just small talk. It's not an exact science, Rei."
Rei's cheecks colored. "Rei...How forward..."
Asuka scoffed.
Liminal Nonsense - Cool Startup Sequence
"Activating the Strodal Entregation Rosswell Automaton protocol. Entering Phase State Delta Two Alpha."
"We are approaching the absolute borderline."
"Activate stratification denoument pipeline north-northwest in five nanosecond staggered intervals. Flip switches 233-546 and allow reificated flow parallel to diagonal channels."
"Check one...done. Gateway breached. Check two...done. Maya, confirm?"
"Roger, gateway breached."
"Mental contamination within standard deviation."
"Tripping the third gate."
"Evangelion Unit-04 holding steady at...115% synchronization rate?"
A beat.
"Pilot Ichijo, you have control."
My fingers tightened around the pistol grips. I felt the presence of Unit-04 and kicked it down the rabbit hole, allowing the form within my mind to extrude and take up the space within the cage. I was five feet tall, and seventy-meters tall, thin and monstrous, sheathed in rubber but wreathed in armor. "Pilot Shinji Ichijo reads you, five by five. Evangelion Unit-04, all systems green. I have control."
"Evangelion Unit-00 synchronized at 22%. Enabling hydraulic compensation systems of the Hi'-Type Equipment. Allocating two percent of Balthazar's processing power towards aim-assistance and movement extrapolation algorithms."
"Pilot Isonami, you have control."
I blinked the sequence to pull up the view of Noriko's cockpit. Harsh mechanical noises, the din of a construction site in miniature, blared through the speaker system of my entry plug. Noriko straightened up in her seat as the bulky MAGI targeting visor lowered itself onto her face. Composite shackles bound themselves around her arms and legs, tethered to cables spread slapdash at the foot of her mechanical throne. Assisted-movement enablers, aids that would read the minute electrical impulses in her muscles and transfer them to a hydraulic system built into her Eva's armor, extending her movements, compensating for her abysmal synchronization rate.
Noriko's Eva had training wheels.
"I have control," Noriko said.
---
First Children - Noriko Isonami
Pilot of Evangelion Prototype-00
A ten year old girl, and the Test Pilot of Evangelion Prototype Unit 00. She is ostensibly an orphan created after the Second Impact, before reconstruction efforts bore fruit. An extremely sickly girl with a peculiar form of albinism-- her boyish haircut is powder blue, and her eyes are a startling ruby red. Her skin is alabaster, and she suffers considerable strain beneath direct sunlight.
Isonami has an abormally low synch ratio in the 20-30 range, barely enough to move the EVA. She performs best as a mobile platform for the various EVA-scale projectile weapons, and as a support unit to ferry new umbilical cords to the frontline fighters. Her melee skill and natural accuracy is poor. However, she is proficient at using the aim-assist provided to the EVA by the MAGI supercomputers. Retractable All-Terrain wheels in Unit 00's feet make up for her general lack of control and allow her to move quickly in straight lines. RS-Hoppers implanted with duplicates of her brain hooked up to a life support system project AT-fields to serve as a passable autonomous defense.
She is soft-spoken and mostly unknown to social mores, having no nudity taboo and an inability to properly converse with other human beings--including her abusive guardian, Gendo Ikari. During an incident in which Unit 00 went berserk, and her life was in danger, Gendo made no move to rescue her. She suffered heat stroke in the time it took for the maintenance crew to safely retrieve her, and spent a month in the hospital.
Was sortied with Unit-01 versus the Third Angel, making it one of the first Evangelions to engage an Angel.
Second Children - Asuka Shikinami Langley
Pilot of Evangelion Production Model-02
The thirteen year old ace pilot of Evangelion Unit 02, hailing from NERV Third Branch, Berlin. A test-tube baby, the product of her genius mother and elite sperm from a superior donor. Her mother fell sick with an unknown mental illness when she was young, and ceased to be able to recognize Asuka as her daughter, instead lavishing all of her attention upon a ragdoll resembling Asuka.
Eva Unit 02 harbors an experimental N2 engine, which can either be used for an additional minute of mobile operational time or a three second exponential burst of operational capacity. Asuka is indisputably the second-best of the Children at piloting Eva, and arguably the most experienced--she's logged the most hours in a real Eva, and briefly sortied versus a rogue competitor mecha about to destroy Berlin. She disabled it in ten seconds without killing the pilot. Without a doubt, she is the most 'efficient' of the pilots, beloved by her maintenance crew and NERV-Berlin's legal team.
Third Children - Shinji Ichijo
Pilot of Evangelion Next Generation Testbed-04
A fourteen year old boy born on the day of Second Impact in San Francisco, California. Was detained for assault and battery one day, which brought him into the public record as a minor with no identification. His processing brought him to the attention of the Marduk Institute, which designated him as the Third Children and assigned him to NERV-02, Second Branch, Nevada, USA (aka Area 51). Was considered a failure at first for his 0 percent synch ratio, which inexplicably rocketed to 100 percent during his third synch test when he was on the cusp of expulsion from NERV.
Famous for his rage in battle, manifesting as a total lack of regard for his own wellbeing in pursuit of the destruction of his target. A prodigious level of skill in maneuvering the EVA and operating her various armaments, a high pain tolerance, and considerable talent as a battlefield tactician make him NERV's unofficial ace pilot.
Eva Unit-04 harbors twin Fairbairn-Sykes style progressive knives in her shoulder pylons, and twin flechette pistols holstered in hydraulic ports on her waist. The pisols originally used electromagnetic propulsion, but Shinji's fine AT-field control allowed the engineers to forego the original limited-power system in favor of direct propulsion of the flechettes via directed microscopic rotations of Unit 04's AT field.
Has never played a musical instrument in his life, but displays startling musical aptitude during duets with Rei and Kaworu.
Fourth Children - Rei Ikari
Pilot of Evangelion Test Type-01
---
"Um, I bought some ice cream sandwiches when I went to the store with Miss Misato. She, um, bought a lot of beer. I did not get beer though," Rei said.
Shinji stared. "You got ice cream."
"Yes. In flavors vanilla and mint, and I guess both have chocolate bread-ish parts. Do you like vanilla, or mint? With chocolate? We can share one, if you like, or you can have your own. I do not mind."
"Sure, why not. Thanks. I'll have mint."
"Mint is my favorite."
"Er, vanilla then. Doesn't really matter I guess."
"I think we should share, and then later share the vanilla sandwich tomorrow, or perhaps tonight if we are feeling peckish. I enjoy variety, Ichijo-kun."
"I see."
"Shar-ing is car-ing," said Rei in heavily accented English. "Right?"
Silence.
Shinji coughed. "So you uh, really like ice cream?"
"It is agreeable," Rei said. She nodded, and a tiny smile flit across her lips, quick, there then gone. She gingerly padded over to the fridge, opened the door, produced a silver package, and unwrapped it to reveal a mint chocolate sandwich. She took a small bite off the corner, then handed it to Shinji, looking at him expectantly.
"Your turn," she said, tilting her head.
'This is fucking bizarre,' thought Shinji. He accepted the sandwich and quickly took a polite bite of the same corner Rei had. Shinji nodded. It was pretty good. Not like gourmet ice cream or anything, but what the fuck was that, really?
All amalgamations of sugar and cream are the same to my busted-ass palate, he thought.
Rei squeaked. Shinji looked over, and noticed her toothy smile, wide eyes, and flushed cheeks. In his opinion, she looked rather deranged.
"You okay, there?" he asked, handing back the ice cream sandwich. She took it, smiling all the while.
"Quite," she muttered around the sandwich. Her mouth lingered on the corner as she systematically ground it down against her teeth. Shinji frowned and turned his torso, facing away from her to stare down the hallway. A penguin exited a room, took a look at him, then turned around.
This place is so fucked, he thought. He saw the sandwich being offered to him out of the corner of his eye.
"No, I'm good. Thanks."
"One more please."
"Okay," Shinji said. He took the sandwich. He took a bite. He twisted in his seat to face Rei again. "Does NERV need us for anything tomorrow?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Great, I'm going on a walk."
---
A demure fourteen year old girl with a quiet personality and a peculiar, stilted way of speaking. Gendo Ikari's biological daughter, who was sent away after the sudden death of her mother to live with her Aunt and Uncle. She was suddenly called back to Tokyo-3 to be the pilot of Unit 01 and drive away the Third Angel. Unit 01 was devastated in the sortie, and she was forced to eject to save her own life.
Somewhat cowardly with a pronounced sarcastic streak, she nonetheless exhibits a serene state of mind in the midst of battle. Has great aptitude with Eva, managing 43 percent synch ratio her first time piloting. She is a people-pleaser, and a neurotic cleanfreak, the sort of person who'd clean your home without asking. Her culinary skills are excellent. Although she is a vegetarian, she is familiar with a vast array of meat dishes from her time living with her relatives.
Moves into Misato Katsuragi's apartment, along with the Third Children Shinji Ichijo. Shinji takes an unconventional mentor role in her development, eventually becoming her primary love interest. She comes into her own as a pilot and a person, becoming the deuteragonist of the story.
Does not possess the necessary rage and desperation to reliably trigger Unit-01's Berserker state when incapacitated.
Takes the role of the 'ordinary teenage girl shanghaied into fighting a war.'
Fifth Children - Kaworu Nagisa
Backup Pilot of Evangelion Production Model-02
Sixth Children - Mari Makinami Illustrious
The Second Brood:
A nickname for the Mass Production Evangelion pilots, who use modified Dummy Plugs as a means to mechanically control their EVAs without the ability to synchronize.
Angels:
Sariel (God's Command) - She of Eternity who Makes the World Tremble
Chronokinesis, regeneration, an AT Field that manifests as a second ghostly body bound within a certain range of her, and minor unrestricted biokinesis.
Paraperdition
___
Japan is fucked.
Sachiel had sunk the entire island of Honshu.
The three-day siege ended with the Third Angel devastating all twenty-two barriers of Central's vaunted 'Fortress City,' getting at the Geofront base within.
"Not major enough to call it Third Impact," Commander Ignatius said. "Compared to the sudden disincorporation of a polar ice cap? I estimate the death count outside of Japan to be only a few million. Most coastal regions were prepared for something on this scale."
Only a few million. I felt my hand clench.
"Why didn't we do anything?" I asked.
"Central wouldn't have us. In theory, there was nothing wrong with that supposition: they had two combat-ready Evas. Honestly, I can't wrap my head around this."
"What about the pilots? The Evas?"
"They're fine. Both Units were carried away on F-Type Carriers, along with most of Central's essential staff.
"So are we going to go back?"
"At present, Sachiel is immune to physical damage. His AT Field is too robust for an N2 weapon to penetrate. Yes, we're going to strike back, but on our terms. We've charted his course over the ocean. He's heading for Germany."
"The Second Branch?"
"Yes. We're transferring you to the Second Branch, where you will join forces with the First, Second, and Fourth Children. The Vatican Treaty has been suspended in light of this near-Impact level event. The new MO is the Evangelion corps as a mobile force, striking Angels where and when they're needed."
"In theory."
"...You catch on quick, Shinji." Commander Ignatius leaned back in his seat and lit a cigarette. I watched the flame dance on the end as he held the cigarette between his lips and spoke. "Theoretically, NERV is a UN paramilitary organization, one big happy family. In practice, though, the majority of us are hewn to the cultural mores of our home country. There is a reason workers here call our branch Area 51."
"Because of our preternatural psychic war machines?"
Ignatius chuckled. "Well, that's probably part of it. But this, our Second Branch, has adopted that certain moniker, because it is a memetic thread in our cultural tapestry that holds us fast to the public. We are known, but unknown. Mysterious, but warm and familiar. It's good marketing, free PR."
"And now it doesn't matter because an Angel sunk Japan."
Ignatius frowned. "It remains to be seen if Not In My Backyard holds true, after our country witnesses the death of an entire country, an entire people. I'd like to believe we're better than that, but..."
"Nothing more than an exciting headline," I said. I worked a cigarette out of the softpack in my field jacket's inner pocket, and lit it with my disposable lighter. I inhaled. The smoke bit my lungs, but I held it in for a long time before releasing it through my nostrils as a stream of noxious curlicues. "That's fine. I don't need the masses to care to do my job."
"It helps."
"I'll have their moral support regardless of whether or not people understand what's really going on. Giant kaiju battles tend to excite."
"Very optimistic, Shinji. It's unlike you," Commander Ignatius mused. He leaned on his elbows, planting them firmly on the desk, before steepling his fingers in front of his mouth. His silver-tinted aviators caught the candlelight and shone. "You ship out tomorrow, at 0400. Get some sleep. Get some rest. Get ready for about ten hours in the entry plug in transit."
I pursed my lips, letting the smoke dribble out the corners of my mouth.
"Joy," I said, voice ragged.
"Make us proud, Pilot. Where Ikari's brood failed, you must succeed."
I nodded. "Here's hoping."
Commander Ignatius flicked the ceramic ashtry over to me with his little finger. He fixed me in place with a grim look.
"You are a like a son to me, Shinji."
"Yeah, yeah."
"I mean it."
I barked a rough approximation of a laugh. "You always do."
Honeyed words like that were how NERV dragooned me into this nonsense to begin with.
There was no love lost between myself and Commander Ignatius, or the rest of Area 51. When they looked at me, the scientists, naive wunderkind fresh out of college, high on the wings of post-Second Impact scholarships and accelerated courses, they didn't see the me named Shinji.
They saw an essential component of their precious Evangelion, their Next Generation Testbed.
Well, that was fine.
I liked Unit-04 more than myself too.
I stubbed my cigarette out in the ashtray and rose to my feet. The Commander extended his hand, and I shook it. Three firm shakes, then hold. Textbook.
"Goodbye, Commander."
___
It was a polymorphic demon built of oilslick, flowing freely in space to describe the rough shape of a headless man. The form was exaggerated and monstrous, too long a torso, shoulders a mile wide. An ossified avian mask was suspended roughy between where the clavicles should be, vibrating in an unsettling fashion. Two green eyes, soft emeralds festooned with a single black point, rotated madly in their sockets.
It lumbered through buildings, inexorable, too dense for its size, like a semitruck folded neatly into an envelope. Each step shook the earth, each swing of its comically elongated arms heralding a rush of galeforce winds.
"Launch me," I said. My hands tightened around the twin pistol grips. I blinked the sequence that brought up the Command Override into the console, and prepared an unauthorized launch.
"We haven't gotten authorization from the First Branch to do so, pilot. Stand by until further orders," said the Commander. "Our techs can see what you're doing there, Shinji. You're free to magnetize the rails, but be advised-- the F-Type isn't in position and won't be until my say-so. Pretty good chance you'll launch Unit Four straight into the ocean and ground her."
I shunted the screen off to the periphery of my vision with a sliding glance, and spoke into entry plug. "The hell are we waiting for?"
"Commander Ikari is...an eccentric man. He won't want us to intervene until he's sure one of Japan's hometown heroes isn't up to the task."
"I've seen the MAGI reconstructions of the sorties. Those pilots are shit. Unit One's pilot less than Zero's, but still abysmal. If it weren't for all the ridiculous blast containment contingencies of this transforming city, and the aerial support from the JSSDF, Tokyo-3 would have fallen yesterday. As it is, every second they delay me is thousands of dollars down the fucking drain. Have you told Ikari that?"
A chuckle. "I'm sure it's occurred to him. It's a power play, nothing more. Exercising control over us, over the situation. You know I'm not the political sort, Shinji. You aren't either. So just push the logistics and PR backlash out of your mind and get ready for the fight. You said you've reviewed the MAGI reconstructions?"
"Yeah. This Angel-- what was that name First Branch assigned it?"
"Sachiel."
"Fancy. Yeah, he's certainly something. Some kind of innately bounded biokinesis, and maybe a little more. MAGI simulated microorganisms in the dirt beneath the broken streets being converted into raw biomass every time it was wounded."
"Good thing we drew it inland."
"Fat fucking chance. We didn't do anything. I saw the range on that thing's beam weapon. If it wanted to level the city, it could have done it from the ocean. No, it's after something. If there's a reason it hasn't just powered through us with impunity, well, I can't conceive of it."
"It boasts impressive offensive power. Our MAGI suggests that if it used its abilities efficiently, it could have turned Tokyo-3 into a crater hours ago."
"No use trying to get into an alien mindset here, Shinji. We need you lucid, not daydreaming."
"Noted."
"Oh, wait a sec-- okay. Shinji, we're going to hook you into the First Branch's tactical network, get you in touch with the bridge and your fellow pilot."
"Just the one?"
"Unit Zero was disabled beyond repair, at least in a reasonable timeframe. Unit One is still good to go, but she's in a bad way. Strictly support. Wait-- alright, got you in."
I reached up and twisted my wrist, miming the motion of turning a key. An electric shock ran up my spine, and the entry plug monitors shimmered psychedelically before resettling with two new tabs in the upper left corner. I stared at the blinking one, urgent and pulsing angry red, and willed it open.
"Pilot of Evangelion Unit Four, I presume?" she asked. She was a pretty older woman, with a chiseled, masculine facial structure, at odds with her distinctly Japanese skin and eyes. She had a coif of saturated blond hair, clearly dyed-- her black roots were showing. I nodded, noting absently her prominent mole.
"Yeah. This is Shinji."
"Charmed," the doctor said distractedly. She typed something into a keyboard outside the border of the camera, the re-entered the frame. "Anyway, no time for pleasantries. You're hooked into our MAGI network for aim assistance and on-demand direction to the various power stations, weapon caches, and exit points across the city. Don't worry about collateral damage, but don't go out of your way to devastate the city."
I laughed. "Okay."
"Pilot Ikari will act as your backup."
A shrill chime brought my attention back to my tabs. The previously inert comm request was glowing blue, softly pulsing. I willed the window open.
<<The fifth time, it made me happy.
Could I, hold your hand again?>>
EVANGELION TEST TYPE-01
PILOT: FOURTH CHILDREN, REI IKARI
--
I met Kaworu Nagisa on a freezing summer morning. He was descending the steps of the ships, stopping at the docks, curious in his modest manner of dress: a simple cobalt T-shirt and casual fitted cords. He took one look at me, and fixed me with an unimaginably beautiful smile.
To my surprise, I felt my cheeks heat up. When next I came to, Kaworu was standing only a meter away from me, arms open in invitation.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Shinji Ichijo."
I rolled my eyes and shot my hand out. I initiated a firm handshake, leaving him floundering. "You too."
<<Kaworu stepped out of the tank, clean and dry. The scientists watched with horror as the surface of the boy's skin bubbled, a viscous, boiling red, and extruded about a centimeter off his frame. Without even blinking, the volatile liquid settled, becoming an innocuous school boy's uniform: a white shirt, black slacks, fastidious and starched.
He traipsed down the room, hands casually tucked into the pockets of his newly formed pants, peering around the room with curious red eyes. He stopped at the back of the room, where a withered man in a mechanized wheelchair waited with his hands folded on his lap.
"Tabris," the man wheezed.
Kaworu smiled, eyes crinkling. "A pleasure, Master Lorenz." It was a name he should not have known. "Shall see the rest of the council now? How is Master Kasparov? Does his new liver agree with him?"
Lorenz kept his mouth shut. Only the artificial stillness provided by his mechanized body kept the physical aspects of his anxiety at bay, but he was certain Kaworu knew of his fear regardless. "Shush, Tabris. Do not waste my time with this idle pratter.
Kaworu kept smiling. His thoughts were no longer on the distraction in front of him, the patchwork wreck of a man who'd provided his physical form. Blue eyes and chestnut hair flitted about his mind, uplifting his heart of glass. A feminine face and form, a fragile soul, as rich and textured as Kaworu's own was imitative and shallow.
This time, Kaworu would make him happy.>>
"I was trained in the Seventh Branch, but only in a Pribnow Box--our simulation body uses the patterns of Unit Zero, the prototype. Our Evangelion Unit is yet unfinished, unfortunately."
Seventh? The Tabgha Base? "You live on the moon?"
"I was born there, Shinji."
My eyes widened.
"I was born in a lab, yes. Designed to pilot an Evangelion, but yet, not even half the pilot you are. A waste of funds, wouldn't you say?"
"Grim."
"I would rather have developed in a mother's womb, safe and secluded, opaque, rather than within a hermetically sealed chamber, walled by transparent glass, impartial workers watching me grow. No sweet whispers. No pleasant vibrations as my father or a relative rubs my mother's belly to feel me kick. Just free floating in a nutrient rich soup, tangled in a net of metal cords."
I tapped the bottom of the bottle against the railing, chipping off bits of flaking rust. Watched them drift into the water below. I took a deep breath. The salty harbor air bit my lungs. "If it makes you feel any better, I was a natural birth, and my childhood wasn't super great."
"Oh? Kaworu sounded genuinely interested. He scooted over until he was well within my personal space, curled over the railing so his head could hover just over my shoulder, close enough for his breath to tickle my ear.
I took a pull of my drink. "Yeah. Dad fucked off to be a derelict piece of shit. I met him now and then to lend him cash and in return he'd deign to spend twenty minutes to eat with me at whatever shit fast food place was within walking distance."
"A shame," Kaworu said, voice like marching bells. "Yours is an existence that deserves love, but seldom receives it."
"I'm not sure if you're insulting me or not."
"Oh, of course not." Kaworu smiled up at me, beatifically. Smooth white fingers, uniquely dimpled and callused in the manner of an experienced pianist, came to rest upon the back of my hand. He gripped me tightly, twining his fingers between mine. I blinked. "What I am trying to say is, I am that rare occasion. I am saying that I love you."
"Whatever you say man," I muttered.
"I mean it."
"I'm sure you do." I took my hand away, noting with some guilt the way Kaworu's face fell. I stuck my hands in my pockets and turned away from him. "Let's head to the cages. You've never been in a real Eva before, right? My Unit Four is bleeding edge compared to the First Branch's prototype. I'll see if the techs'll let us have a go on the range. Mess around with the new flechette pistol or something."
"Yes," he said without skipping a beat. "I would like that." He fell in step beside me and I glanced at him. His smile was bright, but his eyes had lost that peculiar shine.
Still, red eyes. How uncommon.
For all his honeyed words, his startling bold advances, I couldn't bring myself to feel uncomfortable. Rather, it was uniquely comfortable. I could not envision a scenario that included us being intimate, but it wasn't for lack of love or attraction.
<<Asuka, Rei, Mari, Mayumi, Mana>>
My heart knew there wasn't a route that lead to him.
---
I felt the controls hitch. I was whisked back into the entry plug, a mess of graphs and data, monitors displaying static. I was only peripherally aware of my connection to the nest outside. My chest hurt.
I was having a fucking heart attack.
I felt myself be electrocuted. Again. Again.
"We can't do it again. We'll fry his heart."
Shut up.
Shut up. You're annoying.
The comm system cut out, responding to my thoughts.
I felt heat build behind my eyes. Not tears. A nascent fire. I released my grip upon the Evangelion and let the machine lay slack. Unit Four collapsed to the pavement. I willed the entry plug's systems to die.
I was peripherally aware of the Angel advancing.
I felt a glass hand grip my heart
It squeezed.
Again. My heart was manually pumped by an inexorable grip. It was smoother than glass, a finer texture than any currently known to mankind. It pulsed with a dreadful life and he knew it shimmered without confirming it with sight.
The hand continued to squeeze. Newly oxygenated blood sluiced through my veins, flowing like liquid fire.
Kill.
Not me. I wouldn't die today.
Kill.
The Angel the monster the invader the target
killkillkill
KILL
The hand released my heart and it continued to beat under its own power.
Unit Four's entry plug roared to life. My vision was subsumed by a psychedelic hell as the HUD scrambled to render. The numbers were nonsense. I couldn't read the words.
Screaming. My own voice. My throat was raw. My mouth was bleeding. That blood trickled into my stomach, dispersed into the LCL and was eaten up by the filtration system.
I rose to my full height of ten stories, the most dangerous man on the planet. Something cracked in my jaw. I'd snapped the wire holding my mouth shut. I sucked air greedily in to my lungs, bulbous, malformed sacs of hastily manifested flesh.
I reared back and bellowed.
My teeth morphed into razor fangs, aberrations of evolution unsuitable for dining, a pure biological weapon. Hellfire raged in my eye sockets.
"I'm going to fucking kill you!" I screamed.
No. A lie. I strung together an incoherent mess of sounds roughly similar to "Rjghhhfuhhhfughhh nghh", my razor teeth shredding my gums and tongue.
I felt the bass of my extruded voice rattle the bones of my man-body, nestled deep in the nape of my neck.
I raised my head, stared my enemy in the eyes. The bone mask was assaulted by sudden vacuums, the product of a bifurcated AT Field closing in upon itself. I retracted my field, reincorporated it as a wide shield in front of me. It intercepted the angel's answering spear of light, and dispersed it into harmless particles.
I slid the AT Field behind me, swinging it there in an arc, and allowed it to hit me full in the back. Galvanized, I flew through the air and zeroed in on the angel to strike it with the force of an ICBM.
It wasn't enough. My fingers and the toes of my boots were dug deep into the surface of the Angel's AT Field, but it was a barrier twenty feet thick.
Okay.
I reared my head back and slammed it as hard as I could into the wall. My brain rattled in its cage. I did this three times, until the ornate crest furnishing my helm's visor shattered. Once more. I angled my head and sunk my teeth deep into the newly created divot in the field.
Barely a two inch opening, visible only by virtue of my Evangelion's superior eyes.
It was enough.
Nothing there. The enemy is nothing.
My AT Field manifested explosively within the Angel's left shoulder, and severed its arm. It screamed in pain from an unseen orifice, real pain, and dropped its AT Field.
Not satisfied.
Not enough.
Not fun.
I landed on all fours, bereft of my handholds, and activated the F-Type thrusters, burning up the last of the rocket fuel. I collided with the Angel's stumpy legs and brought it to the ground in a textbook tackle.
A pressure on my left temple, and then suddenly stars.
Hurts. Damage.
The Angel's severed arm hung steadfast to my head, hammering my temple with a piledriver made of light. It was spurting blood, but floating inexplicably in midakr.
It wasnt moving under its own power. It was wreathed in a fine AT Field, morphing subtly to manipulate the digits. The spear of light was not a hard light construct, but rather a luminescent bone, brimming with irradiated potential.
The admiration lasted mere moments, then the bone cracked through my temple and speared through my brain.
Didyntjd
Djdiennnngjjdj
Speak. Hard. Cannot.
Reach up. Have bone mask.
Crush in hand. Enemy yells. I need control of the situation.
I master this moment. Pain, it is, yes, but the beast is silent, cowed. Both of them. I cross my arms and let loose my AT Field as a nanothorn beam from my eyes, and let it shred the form before me.
Violence. Only words. !eams anything
Blood and brains leaking out of the hole. I reach up to feel. Hard to feel through my gauntlets//shackles.
___
I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling.
A pretty girl with chestnut hair was perched on a rickety folding chair beside my bed, leafing through a colorful pamphlet.
Rei Ikari. The Fourth Children.
She peeked over and her mouth opened in a small O when she noticed me watching her. She turned to face me completely. Her eyes were blue. Odd for a Japanese, but I wasn't one to talk.
She shook. Frightened.
"What's wrong?" It was best to be polite.
"N-nothing. You, um, did great out there."
"So did you. You held off Sachiel for two days before your CO got on his knees and begged for Area51's help."
"That was mostly Isonami-san," Rei said. "I didn't do much."
"I saw the MAGI reconstructions of your battles before I got here," I said. "Unit-00 drew the Angel's attention for longer, and was sortied for a longer time overall, but your efforts in Unit-01 did enough damage to drive the Angel back, for temporary retreats. You took it out of action longer than Isonami did. You bought time for her ridiculous H-Type equipment to refuel."
"Please," Rei whispered.
"Alright." I relented. Fell back onto the bed and stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling. I shook out my wrists and cracked my neck, wincing past a certain range of movement. The sympathetic damage had been intense. My jaw particularly hurt. I'd have to press for a manual release command for the mouth restraint system-- I'd never been able to suss out on my own what the lock-pylon hex for that had been. Why we had one in the first place was beyond me.
My Unit 04 had a powerful bite. I liked it better than the prog knife, than the flechette pistol. The Eva was such a potent weapon on its own, without frills or accessories. Even the F-Type armor's thrusters were an unnecessary excess. I had my suspicions that an Eva wreathed in an AT Field could survive atmospheric reentry without a scratch on the paint
I reaches my and scratched at my left temple. There was a phantom itch on my brain that wouldn't be relieved until the next time I synchronized with an Evangelion.
Rei continued to watch me warily, looking at a loss for conversation topics. Wanting so bad to fill the silence, but how? What broke the ice with a highly trained psycho?
I had a vague recollection of what I'd done after the Angel had skewered my head. It wasn't pretty. There was a taste in my mouth, surprisingly delicious. There was a fullness in my stomach and it was oddly satisfying.
Was she scared of me?
>><<
Ah. Perhaps...
"Um, Miss Katsuragi--"
"The Ops Director?"
"Yes. She wanted to invite you over for dinner, to celebrate, um."
"Saving the world?"
Rei smiled. "Yes." She reached down and produced two chocolate bars from a bag at her feet. "Do you like chocolate?"
The hell kind of question is that? "Yeah."
"This one is a wafer, and this one has peanuts and caramel," she said in a soothing voice. "My favorite is the wafer one, but I am willing to give it to you today if that is your preference. Or perhaps we can share."
"I'm cool with the caramel."
"Or perhaps we can share." Her stare would brook no argument.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay."
"Here you go, Ichijo-kun," Rei said. She broke the bar in half and gave it to me.
If the Ops Director wanted to accrue good will with her minions in the guise of a friendly home cooked dinner, that was fine. Artifice it might be, but there was something so picturesque about the motion that I couldn't dismiss it as a mere political play.
This? The Fourth Children splitting simple candy bar with me, acknowledging, whether she knew it or not, that we'd both played a role in the defeat of the Angel?
I felt warm.
Her eyes were clear and without guile. When I let my gaze linger on her for too long, she blushed cutely and averted her eyes.
"What?"
"It's nothing," I said. My responding lie was painfully transparent, but she didn't press the issue.
I chewed on my half of the chocolate, distracted. The F-Type Equipment had performed admirably, as an on-demand boost to lateral motion, but I should see if Area 51 would be willing to part with the experimental S or C Type Equipment.
Unit-04 was, unofficially, a testbed for some of the more esoteric Eva equipment. Its basic B-Type frame was singularly modified to accept a number of nonstandard modular parts, including the flight equipment deemed too expensive for mass production.
True flight would have been a godsend against a grounded Angel. Who cared about mass production? There were only three active Evas, and they didn't all need to fly.
I glanced over at Rei. She was idly chewing on the bar, taking great care not to stain her lips or teeth.
I ran my tongue experimentally against my palate. Blood and chocolate wasn't a terrible taste.
No, she didn't look the type to talk shop. If the rumors were true, she hasn't even heard of Eva before her first sortie. The prodigy with the 41.3% sync rate.
"You are smiling."
"Yeah."
"What amuses you?"
"You, frankly. Not in a bad way. Your amazing synch rate, wonder girl."
>><<
"Do not call me that."
"Sorry."
"You are forgiven."
I finished the bar of chocolate, then swung myself around to sit on the lip of the bed. Our knees were nearly touching, but she kept stoic and maintained a politely curious mien. I raised an eyebrow.
"How is Unit-01?" It was smalltalk. How would she know? She's never piloted anything else.
Rei tilted her head. "I believe it to be alive. Sentient, or at least semisentient."
I nodded. "Unit-04 is too, I think. Hell of a beast. Have to beat the damn thing into submission until you can use it."
"Submission? Is not the point of synchronization to become one with your EVA, match yourself to it?"
"Not really. It's easier to suppress the beast and give commands directly. You want to dance to the tune of an incomprehensible intelligence with its finger on the trigger of a gun that fires bullets the size of minivans? You're a braver woman than me."
"You are not a woman. That is a poor compliment, Ichijo-kun."
I made a noncommittal noise. "Call me Shinji, Ikari-san. I lived in San Francisco for a good portion of my life. Sometimes I forget what my last name even is."
"You may call me Rei," she said noncommittally. "It is what the Colonel calls me, what my father calls me. To deny you that would imply that my relationship with you is less intimate than that of my relationship with either, and that is simply not true."
I blinked. "We barely know each other."
"Yes."
That was all she needed to say.
She looked up at me. "You have strangely colored eyes, Shinji. They are like Isonami-san's-- like little fires wrapped around a void."
I snorted. "How poetic. Wait, what? Fire?"
"A beautiful red. Strange for a Japanese person, or, I suppose, human beings in general, but quite agreeable. Your hair, brown, is more common than Isonami-san's blue. This I will concede. Otherwise I could mistake the two of you for siblings." Rei tilted her head. "Are the two of you related?"
"Um. Probably not."
She nodded, eyes shut. A sagely look. I reached up and traced a thumb over my brow. The EMTs must have popped my contacts out after they stripped me out of the entry plug.
___
Scene: Oceanic combat with an evolved Sachiel. Eva-04 sorties with the V-Type Equipment and successfully sinks the Angel, but does not kill it. Pattern Blue remains active. Shinji's F-Type Carrier crashes, killing his entire support crew. After running out of fuel for his V-Type Wings, he crashes into the ocean. He starts to sink, but Eva-02 in the D-Type Equipment dives and rescues Eva-04. He ascends to the F-Type Carrier's bridge where he meets Colonel Misato Katsuragi, who debriefs him. They travel back to Berlin to mount a defense against Sachiel.
---
Scene: Days pass and Shinji becomes familiar with Noriko Isonami, Asuka Shikinami Langely, and Rei Ikari, the First, Second, and Fifth Children respectively. He meets Asuka first, while she excitedly monologues to him about the virtues of her Eva-02, questions him about the changes made to Eva-04, disparages them for being unnecessary, then gushes over the V-Type Wings only to be disappointed when Shinji informs her that they were a one-off prototype and probably busted from being submerged in water. Shinji does not respond to her with any enthusiasm and she brushes him off as boring. Asuka claims that where Shinji failed to stop the Angel, she will succeed. Shinji asks her if she feels any remorse about the fate of Japan; in turn, she asks Shinji if he feels any. He doesn't know; Asuka says that's bullshit and what happened to Honshu was an unfortunate consequence of war. "Aren't you pureblooded Japanese? Why are you so callous about it?" "I'm an American national."
---
Scene: Shinji retires to his quarters. A knock on his door in the middle night rouses his from a sleepless daze. It is Rei Ikari, the Fifth Children, with his new NERV ID. "Are you hungry? I have prepared lunches. I know it is a strange time for them, but I am presently jetlagged, as I assume you are. Would you care to dine with me outside? The moon is lovely tonight." Shinji shrugs and joins her for a meal. He's surprised at how good the meal is. "Delicious. You know, I can't cook. This is an incredible luxury, for me." Rei is pleased. Shinji is astounded by how much less abrasive Rei is than Asuka, and is comfortable engaging her in conversation. He asks her how long she's been training to be a pilot, downplaying his own two-year experience with Unit-04; she gets a dead look in her eyes and says the battle with Sachiel was her first time piloting.
Shinji picks up the details of Rei's first battle and subsequent repeated redeployment despite her grave injuries. After two days, the Eva suffered a spear of light through the eye and a broken left arm, which explains her eye patch and cast. What should have been a fatal blow triggered a Berserk state. The Berserk Unit-01 dealt catastrophic damage to Sachiel, forcing it to retreat. At this point, the island of Honshu was tectonically compromised. Only the Geofront remained standing, prepared for such an occasion. The Evas and essential staff fled, and NERV HQ was detonated. The detonation, in conjunction with Sachiel's use of his AT Field to dig through the earth to get at some unknown objective, sinks Honshu, killing millions of people and flooding the remaining islands of Japan.
With some shade of this knowledge retained, Shinji successfully comforts her, using knowledge he should not have (even from the Area51 MAGI reconstructions of the Sinking of Honshu) to praise her actions in battle, reinforce her bravery, and generally flatter her without being insincere. Rei is completely smitten with him at this point, but he just feels a hollow ache at the fact that he wasn't there to save them the trouble. He handily solo'd Sachiel with less than five minutes of power, using flight equipment he wasn't trained with, and would have probably saved Japan if the "Scumbag Japanese Commander" hadn't barred his transfer.
"That's my father," Rei mutters, "Gendo Ikari." She makes no move to defend him.
Shinji has indirectly blamed her kin for the death of literally millions of people. For him, it is a fanciful statistic and the emotional impact of it is eclipsed by the absurdity. The blame upon Rei is twofold: her, for being powerless to stop it (despite extenuating factors, such as being completely untrained. that, and she DID stop it, in a sense. Eva-01's berserk state was what drove Sachiel to retreat in the first place, instead of just devastating the rest of Japan), and for her blood being responsible for getting as bad as it did in the first place.
Even here, in Berlin, effectively a different world, she is beholden to the defense of mankind.
"I want to run away," says Rei, "but where would I run to?"
Shinji shares the sentiment. His early life was a hot mess of drifting from foster home to foster home, peppered with occassional stints of homelessness. Ultimately, no matter where he ran, he was stuck in the dilapidated ruins of the sunken San Francisco slums. No matter where he ran, CPS recovered him, and without the will to keep running, he was placed in the care of a new home with new strangers who ultimately abandoned him-- either from his poor attitude, history as a violent derelict, or his disquieting albinism.
"This, too, is an escape," Shinji muses. "Working for NERV. Piloting Eva. We are so far removed from anything that constitutes ordinary life that we might as well live on a different planet. We're not old enough to legally drink and yet we're placed at the helm of the most potent instruments of death ever fabricated by mankind. We wield rifles the size of homes, firing bullets the size of minivans, brandishing blades capable of splitting rivers."
"I do not desire power."
"It's power that's been offered, and it is intoxicating enough that you can lose yourself in it, if you'd like. If you'd like to run, don't run away. Run deeper in, until you start to sink. Go down the hole, until you've forgotten the motivation behind your flight. Or don't, and leave it up to the Children who trained for this scenario. Honestly, you're a braver person than me for standing your ground in Tokyo-3. I doubt I'd just go along with it if my dad decided one day to saddle me with the fate of the world."
"I did not agree to save the world," Rei said.
"Why, then?"
"Have you met Isonami-san?"
"The First Children? Not personally, no. I've read her file though. Sort of young."
"She is ten years old. It would have been inhumane to allow her to face that threat alone."
"Well, it's inhumane to let her fight at ALL." Not to mention downright irresponsible considering Isonami's terrible synch rate and the sheer amount of unstable exoskeletal workarounds incorporated into Unit-00's armor system to let her pilot. Or her abysmal piloting skills, lack of instinct, and poor physical constitution. Those were all better reasons not to let Isonami pilot than her age. They could stick a baby in the plug for all I cared, as long as they were good at their job.
It sucks, really, but even Rei and I were child soldiers. Fielding a ten year old girl was comparatively worse, but not by much. Isonami grew up alongside Eva as the very first pilot, even if she didn't have the raw talent to do much more than start the engine.
Letting Rei, a neophyte, drive around a colossal biomechanical death machine was far more reprehensible, regardless of her natural aptitude. 41.3% was nothing to sneeze at. Hell, I'd started at 0.
I decided not to mention any of that.
"They spoke about it in terms of a necessary sacrifice," Rei said. "But there are other Pilots, are there not?"
I nodded. "Sure. I've met the Fourth Children, and I remember hearing rumors that Bethany had their own boy. Don't quote me on that."
"Why did the Fourth not come to our aid, if he was prepared? Political reasons, like yourself?"
"No, mostly practical issues in his case. He's stationed on the Tabgha Base, the Seventh Branch."
"I do not understand."
"He lives on the moon."
Rei's eyes subtly widened. "Ah."
"He came down for about a month last year, spent the time at our base getting familiarized with practical Evangelion operation--ostensibly to practice under Earth's gravity, but from what I hear, Tabgha's hush-hush prototype model isn't even finished yet. So just insurance to make sure he really was a viable pilot, since there's a bit of difference between test plugs and actual Evas. Guy was incredible though," I said. "He beat me pretty handily in the simulations."
"Why was such a person on the moon? Is the moon a target for these monsters?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. That stuff's beyond me."
---
I met Noriko Isonami in the infirmary, a small bundle of white blankets curled upon a bed nestled in the corner. She was haggard, for sure, with her sky blue hair a matted, clumpy mess, but there was a vitality in her red eyes that spoke to some measure of vicious canny. Her paradoxical intensity was such that I was briefly stricken by the urge to turn around and walk away.
Then again, she was a ten year old girl. I kept that in mind and strode up to her bed. A nurse moved as if to eject me from the room, but her eyes flickered over my generic NERV field jacket. She shook her head, then brought me a folding chair. I smiled at her, then sat in the chair to face Noriko.
"First Children?" I asked. "May I call you Noriko?"
Noriko stared blankly at me. When she spoke, her voice was rough, from a recently-removed feeding tube or dehydrating narcotics. "If that is what you wish. Who are you?"
"Shinji Ichijo, the Third Children," I said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Noriko."
She ignored my thin pretenses of decorum. "You are a pilot."
"Yeah, Unit-04."
Silence. I felt myself begin to sweat.
"Do you require anything of me?" she asked, her expression nonplussed.
They were giving this girl too much morphine. "Not really. I was just looking to introduce myself. And, you know. See how you were holding up after the battle. I saw the state Unit-00 was in. That Hi'-Type Equipment looks like a bitch-and-a-half. A hydraulic harness magnification system in the entry plug? The strain must be incredible."
"The pain is inconsequential. It is required for me to perform my duty as an Evangelion pilot," she said. She looked up at the ceiling. "To answer your other queries: You have successfully introduced yourself. Furthermore, you have ascertained that I am alive and in a sufficient state of mind to converse, with little resplendent pain. Do you require anything else, Pilot Ichijo?"
"No," I said. "Um. Get better."
"Inevitable," Noriko said. "Will you leave?"
Christ. "Yeah."
I exited the room.
The nurse, drinking a cup of coffee and presumably on break, leaned over the reception counter. "Isonami-chan is difficult, isn't she?" she gossiped. "Such a hard girl."
"Yeah. Failing to prevent the second-greatest tragedy in human history tends to put you in a bad mood," I said. I glared at the nurse. "Fucking cunt."
I left without a second glance, ignoring the nurse's indignant sputtering. After turning the corner, I allowed myself to sigh. I needed to calm down before I ran into a superior officer and made an ass of myself. Valuable resource or not, I had no illusions as to my inherent likeability. Outright hostility would only exacerbate the situation.
I stalked through the halls. I paused briefly to relax my right hand, which had been clenching and unclenching repeatedly. A habit I'd been trying to rid myself of since early chlidhood.
I wanted to be in Unit-04, slaughtering the enemy, but I was grounded until the small-minded fucks in command finished all their grandstanding and posturing for dominance. Central and Berlin butting heads.
Why WAIT for Sachiel to pull himself together? Why not just ravage him with N2 depth charges while he regenerated at the bottom of the ocean? Why not draw him out somehow, take some initiative instead of sitting around waiting for the monster who sunk Japan to reach full power and reach another major human population center? The MAGI estimated an entire week before he drew himself up from the ocean, and a day more to hit shore.
A moment of thought made it obvious. The Second Branch was eager to show off the superior talents of their wunderkind, Asuka Shikinami Langley in her Evangelion Unit-02, and Commander Ignatius had surely pressed for at least one more Eva-exclusive intervention in order to build Area51's public clout and build suction with the UN overlords-- among all the branches, we were the most harrangued for the seemingly pointless, extremely expensive modifications to Unit-04 that had warranted its designation as an advanced testbed.
Literally billions of dollars had gone into the big robot I drove around and did stuff in, and many parties wanted the expenditure justified.
I'd drifted into the Eva Cages without thinking. I glanced around the room, taking note of the harried technicians skittering on the floor, across the catwalks, carrying tools and clipboards and binders overflowing with paper. The pretty blonde woman who had spoken to me over the comm link looked up from her phone, spotted me, and waved. I closed the distance between us.
"Shinji-kun."
"Doctor."
She smiled. "If you're wondering how the repairs on your Evangelion are proceeding, it's all copacetic. Don't worry about it. Just a simple disinfection and refurbishing of the armor. You came out of your battle with Sachiel relatively unscatched."
"Right," I said. "What about the V-Type Wings?"
Ritsuko grimaced. "Well, about those. They're sensitive equipment, one-off with no replacement components-- or, at the very least, the Americans refuse to provide me with them-- and they're meant for sub-strata, limited flight. You spent half an hour submerged in the ocean before we recovered you. They're sort of..."
"Totally wrecked?"
"Beyond repair," Ritsuko sighed. "We recycled what we could, repurposed some of the antigrav panels to give your B-Type Equipment's standard thrusters greater boost capacity. Enough for quick dashes, enough to galvanize your motion from a dead stop. But you won't be flying again anytime soon."
"Man," I said. "I liked flying."
"I'm sure you did," Ritsuko said. "But Eva doesn't exist for you to get your kicks."
"Without the wings, I would have been helpless against the Angel."
"Conceded. But in all likelihood, you'll never have occasion to fight over the ocean again."
"In all likelihood, I should have never had occasion to fight a giant worldkilling horror while flying over the ocean," I said.
"You and Asuka are the mouthiest pilots I've ever spoken to," Ritsuko mused. "Not that it's a bad thing, in your case. You're far more polite than her. Asuka tends to talk about her two favorite topics: Unit-02, and Asuka."
I frowned. More gossip. "I see."
Ritsuko looked over my shoulder, and smirked. "Speak of the devil."
"Wonderboy!" Asuka crooned. "Guten tag."
"Hey."
"Show some more enthusiasm! Your beautiful savior has decided to bless you with her presence, Third. The least you could do is show some appreciation!"
"Wow this is great," I said. "I'm so glad you're here."
She glared at me. "I'll stamp this unbecoming attitude out of you yet. So," Asuka said. She swept an arm out, gesturing at the Evas resting in the cages. "Have you come to behold the superior German engineering of my sublime Unit-02?"
I gave her Eva a quick once-over. "It's red."
She scoffed. "Better red than that gaudy silver you've had slathered on your Unit. Honestly," she said, glaring up at Unit-04's face, "what a beast it is. Nothing like the the smooth, sleek lines of my Unit-02."
I looked up at Unit-04, then swept my gaze over the other Evas. It was less bestial than Unit-01. What the hell was up with that horn?
Ritsuko rubbed her temples and groaned. "I need to get some work done. You kids have fun. Don't stay up too late."
"Don't treat me like a child!" Asuka called at Ritsuko as she walked away. She turned back to me and crossed her arms, her long blonde hair bouncing with the motion. "Well then."
"Uh huh," I said.
"It's like talking to a brick wall," Asuka whined. "You're a fellow American, aren't you Shinji? Where's your brazen spirit, your zest for life, your zealous mien?"
"I'm not a walking stereotype, Asuka," I said. "Besides, aren't you describing yourself?
"
"Are you calling me a stereotype?"
"Man, I'm not sure if being straight-up crazy is an American stereotype. But arrogance is, and you've got that in spades."
"It's not arrogance if you can back it up," boasted Asuka. "Stupid Shinji. You know, I got my degree in fine arts this year."
I blinked. "That's actually impressive."
"Where did you go to school? Still in middle school, right? Cavorting with infants?"
"Gross," I said. "No. I ain't never been no school."
"W-what?" Asuka was positively dischuffed.
"I'm a pilot," I said. "I play VR games and occassionally drive a giant robot around to go beat up monsters. I get paid for this. Why should I attend classes? What are they gonna do? Hold me back from saving the world because I can't math too goodly? The pension I'm getting out of this once the kaiju bullshit is all over is going to be insane."
She scowled. "This is about the money to you?"
"Not really," I said. "But it's a nice bonus. Besides, my life is effectively over after this."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't tell me you've never thought about it. After the Evangelion are decomissioned, we're never going to be important again. Well, no. Maybe the rest of you will append your legacy a bit. Maybe you'll write a popular memoir, star in a movie or whatever, maybe you and the other pilots'll make something of yourselves. But I'll never do anything even a fraction of a percent as important as saving the fucking world again. I'm not smart enough to purify the red sea, or solve world hunger. Of course," I said, looking at the ground. "That's assuming we live through this to begin with. If we don't succeed, well, no one's ever doing anything important again, ever. Japan is proof-perfect of that."
"Mein Gott, Third," Asuka hissed. "So fatalistic. We win this war, then we live the rest of our lives lionized. Raised upon very real pedestals. Our names will go down in history as the incarnations of mythological heroes: my own story above the rest, of course."
"Myths are never happy," I laughed.
"Well mine will be!" Asuka shouted. "I break the standards."
"Then it isn't a myth."
"Then I'll redefine the word," she said. She placed her hands on her hips.
"Okay."
Asuka did her best impression of a landbound blowfish, cheeks puffed, hands balled into tight fists at her side. "S-stupid Shinji! It's not like I NEED your approval or anything."
"I have the utmost faith in you. You're amazing," I said, monotone.
Asuka's cheeks colored. She huffed. "Naturally. Stick with me, and we'll take on all comers."
She held out a hand to me. I shook it, bemused.
"Okay, Asuka. We'll kill them all."
She maintained her smile, but there was an uneasiness in her eyes, a peculiar wrinkle in her brow that I couldn't place. I saw myself in her eyes.
I shivered.
___
Rei entered the mess hall, a pair of earbuds stuck in her ears, masking silence. She saw us, colored, and pulled out an outdated SDAT player, turning it off. She tucked the earbuds into the breast pocket of her NERV field jacket, and walked over to join us.
"Hello," she said, sitting down. "Are you okay? You smell like poultice."
"Me?" I asked.
"Yes. Have you gone to visit Isonami-san?"
"Yeah. Man, that girl's freaky."
Rei's frowned. "You refer to her physical appearance."
I blinked. I self-consciously ran a hand through my white hair."What? No. What's wrong with how she looks? Hair and eyes are exotic, but hell, I'm one to talk. I just mean that she's hard to get along with. Cold. Aloof. Sort of frightening for a ten year old, you know?"
Rei's expression softened. The left side of her mouth turned up in a smile. "I see. Yes, Isonami-san is a very reticent girl. But I believe she is a good person, at heart."
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."
Asuka laughed. "You're scared of a ten year old girl, Wonderboy?"
"I believe being an Evangelion pilot makes Isonami-san considerably more intimidating than your average ten year old girl," Rei said. "Certainly, the disparity between her physical appearance and the power that she wields magnifies her potential to disturb casual observers of her activities."
"Beep boop," Asuka said.
"Asuka," I warned.
"What?" she asked, eyes wide and innocent. "Just making noises here. Doo-wop-wop."
"It is okay," Rei said, eyes downcast. "I am used to being mocked for my speech patterns. They are not socially acceptable. I apologize."
"Don't you have a spine, Fifth Children? What are you apologizing for?" Asuka barked. "Honestly, you Japanese people..."
"But you were the one to..."
"Guys, shut up," I said. I rubbed my eyes. "Look, there's a harmonics test in, like, half an hour. Can't we just relax before we get dunked into a pool of blood for two hours? Please?"
"I have never thought about it like that before. The smell of LCL is not disagreeable. I have never made a habit of smelling blood, so it is a connection that would have perhaps eluded me into the future. My thanks, Ichijo-kun."
"It's never bothered me before," Asuka boasted. "Can't take a little discomfort, Wonderboy? Scent of blood sends you reeling? It builds character. And you, Fifth," she continued, rounding on a very tense Rei, "so much cushion to make the sting of your barb a gentle caress. It's not even glib anymore! Just tell this beach-bum snowflake dummkopf flat-out if you think he's pointing out something pointless, inane."
Rei's gaze drifted towards her shoes. I blinked. She had pretty ankles. "I was not trying to insult you, Ichijo-kun."
I sighed. "I know."
"Perhaps it was my commentary regarding your complaint that was inane."
"It wasn't, and even if it was, who cares," I muttered, pulling out my phone. I flipped through two pages of games. Disappointing. None of the icons caught my attention, nothing more than a blur of gaudy colors and superflat icons flitting across my vision. I tucked my phone back into my pocket. "Just small talk. It's not an exact science, Rei."
Rei's cheecks colored. "Rei...How forward..."
Asuka scoffed.