Chapter 22! Where we see what was set up last chapter conclude.
Hopefully y'all will like it.
If you'd like to read all the way to chapter 27, feel free to join my Patreon/Subscribestar. I also do writing updates and stuff.
There is also my other story up to Ch 28.
And the Side Stories, two of which have received updates. And you can vote on which Side Story gets an update for every update cycle.
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Lastly, if you have an idea for a story you'd like written, and you like the way I write stories. Shoot me a DM! We might work something out.
With that out of the way.
As I recall it, I was severely sleep deprived when this chapter was written. And by the time I finished, my cognition was a combination of manic energy and way too much caffeine.
But most importantly. STREAK UNBROKEN BABY!
The next few weeks will be...difficult. Those of y'all at the Pat/Sub will know that stuff has been difficult at work on my end. I try not to let that impact my writing, but shit can and will and has happened.
But so far, streak unbroken, I'm actually getting kinda close to the one year mark...huh.
ANYWAYS!
[An explosion has been recorded at Matsushiro!]
[Extent of damage unknown!]
[Dispatch rescue teams and the Third Group! I want this taken care of before the SSDF arrives!]
[Roger!]
Maya let the reports wash over her cognition as she triple checked the Pilots (and especially Shinji's) vitals.
"Unknown moving object confirmed at the explosion site!" Aoba called out.
"Pattern orange!" Hyuga called out. "We cannot verify if it's an Angel!"
"Battle stations, condition one." Director Ikari called out in his unflappable stoic tone, and Maya was almost able to hide her disdainful frown.
Working close to the Director and Vice Director had become a lot more difficult ever since learning that they were trying to initiate a version of the Third Impact. Sacrificing the whole of humanity for some unknown purpose.
"All personnel to condition one battle stations!" Aoba relayed.
"Prepare for surface-to-surface engagement! Air assets on standby!" Hyuga said.
Maya flicked her mic on. "Launch all Evas! Emergency deployment to interception point!"
[Airlift operations estimated start in two-zero!]
The following twenty minutes were spent in tense semi-silence in the main command hub, status updates from the various squads and departments ringing out in a well-rehearsed, controlled chaos.
Aoba turned back. "The Third Group has arrived at Matsushiro! Whatever caused the explosion has moved on! Unit 04 is secure, they've begun rescue operations!"
"What about the rescue teams?" Vice Director Fuyutsuki asked.
"Equipment failure caused a delay! ETA six minutes!"
Vice Director Fuyutsuki looked like he'd bitten into a lemon.
[Oi, anyone at the Control Room.] Maya started as Shinji's voice filled her headset.
She hurried to secure the comm channel. "Yes? This is Ibuki Maya, how can I help you, Shinji?"
[Any contact with Matsushiro?]
She turned a questioning look to Aoba, who shook his head. "Sorry, but no, negative radio contact."
[Any info on the target?]
Maya bit her lip. "Sorry, not yet, we have…" she 'cut in line' for information requests. "Air assets en-route, we'll have a visual in roughly three minutes."
[Okay, the moment you have anything, let me know.] Shinji ordered.
"Will do!"
Maya glanced impatiently at the drone display, her fingers itching, as if by sheer will she could make the machine fly faster.
"We have visual of the target at Nobeyama Heights. Patching through to main display." Aoba called out an instant before the main display flickered to show…Evangelion Unit 03 walking alongside railroad tracks.
Maya's eyes widened, she felt faint.
An Eva? An Eva caused the explosion at Matsushiro?
"We should have known." Spat the Vice Director, snapping Maya out of her horrified stupor.
How…How could he have known? Why was he not surprised!?
"Send shutdown signal." The Director stated. "Activate emergency entry plug ejection."
Maya mentally shook herself. Questions later, Angel now. She isolated Unit 03's data and sent both the commands. She waited several seconds as the computer sent back a number of errors. "Negative! Unit is not responding to either the shutdown or ejection code signal!"
"Pilot vitals?" The Director asked.
Maya glanced to the part of her display she'd set aside for that information. "We aren't getting much. I can confirm an elevated heartrate and…I think respiration. But the signal is being jammed, I cannot read the Pilot's corruption index!"
"Evangelion Unit 03 is hereby declared a total loss." The Director stated. "The Target will be designated as the Eleventh Angel."
Maya turned around, feeling faint. "But sir, the Pilot—!"
The Director cut her off. "As planned, set up a defensive line at Nobeyama and destroy the target."
Maya grit her teeth, closed her eyes, and tried to think. The Pilot was still alive, there must be some way to rescue the Pilot!
So, she turned back to her screen and opened a communication line to the trapped Pilot's only hope. "Shinji, the Target is Evangelion Unit 03, it's been taken over by an Angel. Here is all the information we have on it. We do not have much, but we can be certain that the Pilot is alive in there. Something blocked the plug ejection signal."
[Well shit, that complicates things. Thanks for the info, Maya.] Shinji said and cut communication.
Maya felt elated at having been of some, albeit limited, help.
[Alright ladies we're doing this one by the numbers.] Shinji said to the other two pilots gruffly. [Rei, find a sniping point, the moment you see an opening, put a round in it. Asuka, you and I will trade off fighting in hand-to-hand, our objective is to make openings for Rei. Keep your AT field ready and don't let whatever this thing is get any weird goo on you. It took over an Evangelion and until proven otherwise I'm going to assume it was a viral vector.]
[What if it's memetic?] Asuka asked. Unusually taciturn for her.
[Then think vile perverted thoughts about pre-marital handholding, hopefully it'll die in a fit of apoplexy.]
Against all odds, Maya found herself choking back a laugh as quiet chuckles rang out across the Control Room. Shinji's confident tone helping unwind the knot of tension in her shoulders.
On the main display, she saw the silhouette of Unit 03 appear over a hill, carelessly walking over and ruining acers of rice fields that were used to feed the city, everyone in the Control Room held their breath, the view on the screen shifted as Units 01 and 02 split up and flanked 03, the corrupted Evangelion pausing, its head swinging back and forth as if trying to decide which of them to keep in its field of vision.
Unit 02 hefted an Evangelion rated spear, while Unit 01 secured its grip on the haft of the Evangelion rated harpoon and began to twirl the enormous chain attached to it.
[Firing.] Rei said calmly a moment before there was a massive boom and a 457 mm round detonated…against the hill behind the rogue Eva. Unit 00's vision tilted up to see Unit 03 soaring through the air, arms extended and mouth wide, a terrible, animalistic, tortured roar shaking the ground.
Until a harpoon struck it on the side and lodged somewhere inside it, Unit 01 twisted its whole body, carving a deep trench into the rice field and ruining a large section of it as it yanked the Evangelion/Angel by the harpoon's chain, all but slapping it out of the air and sending it crashing to the ground, unleashing a tidal wave of mud and ruined crops.
[Way hay and up she rises!] Shinji snarled in English, before Unit 03 was suddenly right in front of him. [Bitch!]
Unit 03's fist rebounded off Unit 01's AT field with such force the shockwave shook the cameras of the circling drones. It sunk its hands into Unit 01's AT field, its fingers glowing with an AT field of its own.
"It's corroding Unit 01's AT field!" Maya called out a mere instant before Unit 03 heaved and tore the AT field apart, only to be met by Unit 01's foot as Shinji delivered a brutal font kick that sent Unit 03 skidding back.
A second 457 mm round detonated against its chest making it stumble back a step, only for the tip of Unit 02's spear to puncture out of its chest accompanied by Asuka's roared, [Sterb!]
Unit 03 roared and threw a mule kick into Unit 02's chest that sent the Evangelion tumbling back, Asuka's shouted [Arschloch!] Reverberating through the Control Room.
"Unit 02's right pectoral chest-plate is cracked, thoracic cage in in right hypochondriac region has hairline fractures!" Maya called out.
The third and fourth rounds were fired but ricocheted off Unit 03's AT field and whined into the air.
"Unit 00's magazine spent!" Hyuga called out. "Air assets en-route to deliver a fresh magazine! ETA twenty seconds!"
"An ax has been prepared for Shinji! Transport en-route, ETA one minute!" Aoba shouted out.
Unit 3 tore the harpoon out of its side and cast it at Unit 00. Unit 01 dove to catch it, but was too late, the haft slipping just past its grasping fingers, the Evangelion falling face first into the muddy rice fields.
Unit 00 flinched and used the sniper rifle to block it, the javelin tore through it, its point coming to a quivering stop two meters from Unit 00's optical receptor.
Unit 00 studied its ruined weapon. [Oh! D-Damn?]
Unit 01 paused in the act of standing up, its head whipping to look at Unit 00, the violent motion flinging several metric tons of mud off its chassis. [Did you just curse?]
[Y-Yes, you and Asuka did it and…I felt left out.] Rei answered in a small voice.
[I'm proud of you.] Shinji said, and Rei's synchronization rate jumped six percent.
And then Unit 01 was kicked so hard the shockwave generated exposed the soil. Shinji let out an explosive huff of breath from the sympathetic link as Unit 01 was sent skipping over the ground and was embedded into the nearest hill.
[Shinji!] Rei screamed, drawing Unit 00's Progressive Knife and getting in between the rogue Evangelion and Unit 01.
Unit 03 roared and charged, and stumbled and fell as Unit 02's spear tore through its right knee joint. [Vergiss mich nicht, du wertlosser Quacksalber!] Asuka shouted, having cast the spear like a javelin.
The corrupted Evangelion roared and threw an arm back, it bent wrong and elongated, whipping around to strike Unit 02 across the face, sending it reeling.
[Was zum Teufel!?] Asuka gasped as Unit 02 slipped in the mud of the rice fields and almost fell. Unit 03 slammed its fist down on the spear, shattering it. It tore the spear head out of its knee and threw it at Unit 00, which barely got its AT field up on time to block it.
Unit 03 stood back up, its right leg trembling as it held its weight. Its other arm emitted sickening cracks that reverberated like canon fire as it elongated. It shot out toward Unit 00, serpent swift, and was batted aside as Unit 01 crashed full on into its elbow, shattering it and exposing the gleaming yellow bone as it tore through the meat and armor of its arm.
Shinji drove the Evangelion forward like an out-of-control locomotive and delivered a brutal punch with its right hand that shattered the armor plating of Unit 03's jaw and two of Unit 01's Metacarpophalangeal joints. Unit 03 retaliated by lunging forward and trying to bite out Unit 01's throat, but Shinji reacted in time to interpose his machine's left forearm, the plate cracking and its bone bending under the pressure.
Unit 03's unbroken arm whipped forward, but was halted as Unit 02 rejoined the fray with its Pilot's shouted, [Ich hab dir gesagt, du sollst mich nicht vergessen, Arschloch!]
The three machines began beating brutally on each other, AT Fields crackled as they corroded each other, armor plates shattered, bones fractured, ligaments tore, and all throughout it the three biological robots…no…the three Angels roared death and defiance at one another.
Even outnumbered two to one, it remained a stalemate, Unit 03 fighting with the ferocity of a cornered animal and managing to keep the two Evangelions fighting it in concert at bay as the damage accumulated on the three of them.
Until, that is, the mute form of Unit 00 stabbed Shinji's harpoon into its shoulder and threw itself to the ground, dragging the more advanced machine down with it. Units 01 and 02 took full advantage of the opening provided and beat on their downed opponent until Evangelion/Angel blood contaminated several acers of rice fields.
[Alright stop!] Shinji shouted, physically interposing Unit 01 between Unit 02 and the target.
[What? Why!?] Asuka demanded.
"Pilot 01!" The Director barked. "You are to continue until the target is decommissioned!"
[Yeah yeah, one sec.] Shinji said, kneeling over the brutalized Evangelion, and drew Unit 01's progressive knife. [Now that we have it subdued, I'm gonna cut the entry plug out of this thing before we kill it.]
Maya smiled; she knew Shinji would save the Pilot!
"Don't bother, the Pilot is corrupted. Killing it will be a mercy." The Director stated, much to Maya's horror.
[What's that command? KZZT! You're breaking up! KZZT!]
"We are using tight beam communications you simpleton."
[Now that's just mean. ANYWAYS!] He activated the Progressive Knife and aimed it at Unit 03's spine. [Time to rescue me a Pilot.]
Maya's console began shrieking shrilly, her screens lit up and flashed red, what she saw made her feel faint. "We're receiving telemetry from Unit 03! The Pilot has suffered severe Stigmatic Wounds! Condition critical! His Corruption Index…" Maya had to choke back the urge to vomit. "The Corruption Index is at a dangerous threshold!"
[Wait wha-?]
[Shinji…Shinji it hurts.] Said the weak voice of a boy. With the severity of the injuries her panels displayed, Maya was amazed he was awake.
On the viewscreen Shinji's eyes widened. [Uhh…Wait, you're my classmate, the guy with the glasses! Rei, what's his name?]
[Aida Kensuke.] Rei supplied.
[You…don't even know my name?] Aida ground out.
[I'm bad with names!] Shinji defended. [Seriously! What does NERV have against nametags! Anyways, try not to move I'm about to cut you out.]
"Shinji, stop talking to it and destroy it already!" The Director demanded. And Maya could not stop herself throwing him a dirty look.
[What!?] Aida asked shrilly, Unit 03's struggling increasing.
[I said don't move!] Shinji demanded, trying to aim the knife. And Maya realized the Pilots were not in the communication loop for the damage reports so as not to overwhelm them with information. Aida had said himself 'it hurts' not 'my limbs are broken.'
Maya broke protocol, consequences be damned, and inserted herself into the communications loop. "Shinji wait!" She implored. "The Angel has forced high synchronization with the Pilot! He's got multiple lacerations, broken bones, and perhaps a concussion! You may sever his spine if you're not careful!"
[Okay, that makes things slightly harder.] Shinji muttered his face on the screen morphing into a mask of concentration.
"Shinji, by this point that thing is more Angel than Human!" The Director growled. "You will destroy it immediately! That's an order!"
[I don't want to die!] Kensuke cried, Unit 03 fighting harder.
[You won't die dumbass!] Shinji barked. [And if you stop moving you probably won't end up a quadriplegic either!]
His words, however, did nothing to calm the hurt, terrified boy. [I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die!]
Maya's console released yet another set of shrill beeps, but this one was far more familiar. "K-Kensuke's synchronization is rising! Two-hundred and thirty percent! Two-hundred and fifty! Two-hundred and ninety! Three-hundred and ten!"
[Calm down dumbass!] Shinji snarled as Unit 03's limbs squelched and regenerated, its thrashing such that three Evangelions were having trouble keeping it pinned.
Unit 03 raised its head off the mud, the Evangelions' feeds all went white at the same time that they lost every drone in the vicinity of the conflict.
"What just happened!?" Director Ikari demanded, his voice for the first time sounding strained.
"We have reports of a powerful blast, equivalent to a low-yield N2 mine!" Aoba called out.
"The rescue teams nearby on standby are nonresponsive!" Hyuga shouted. "They might have been taken out by the blast!"
Maya's screens finally began updating again as a tenuous link was re-established between the Command Room and the Evas. "Pilot 00 is unconscious! Pilot 02's neural pattern indicates she is dazed! Pilot 01 is conscious, but his heartbeat and hormonal levels indicate he is under duress!"
"Reestablish a visual link." The Director demanded.
"On it!"
It took the better part of a minute for the nearest viable drone to fly into range, but when the link was reestablished, Maya gasped. On the main screen, she could see Units 00 and 02 sprawled out in a crater that was steadily filling, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say refilling, with water.
Unit 01 was on its back, the rogue Evangelion sat on its hips, its legs intertwined with Unit 01's. Unit 03 had grown four extra, disconcertingly human-looking arms, it was holding Unit 01's arms pinned to the ground using two arms on each, and the hands of its last and original set were wrapped around Unit 01's throat.
Shinji didn't make it easy on the corrupted Eva, Unit 01 bucked like a wild stallion, but any time he managed to destabilize the Angel, it would let go with one of its six arms to maintain its balance, before going right back to pinning Unit 01, denying it the opportunity it needed.
Enough drones arrived into the airspace to form a proper relay, and Maya once more had access to the lion's share of data from the Evangelions.
"Unit 00's spine has suffered a severe fracture! Unit 02's left leg is broken, Unit 01's chest is nearly caved in!" Maya dutifully informed.
"What's the status on the Pilots?" The Director asked.
"Rei is still unconscious; Asuka appears to be semi-conscious. Shinji…Shinji is fighting, sir." Maya said.
There was a moment of silence while everyone in the Control Room was forced to see the Miracle Pilot's machine be slowly choked to death.
"Prepare an N2 mine drop." The Director ordered.
Maya blinked. "B-But sir! The Pilots! They're in no condition to create an AT field! They'll die!"
"The Evangelion will survive the mine drop, if necessary, we will get new Pilots, get it done."
"S-Sir." Hyuga answered and began the process of contacting the relevant NATO authorities.
Maya felt powerless to help, forced to sit there and twiddle her thumbs, that is, until she saw that Units 01 and 03 were in active conversation with each other. Blinking, she tapped into that communication.
[Glasses kid! Fight it! I'm trying, to save, your life!] Shinji growled out as he struggled.
[You STILL don't know my name!?]
[I'm bad with names!]
[You never cared! Ever since Toji! He just wanted payback because you hurt his sister!]
[Who!?]
[You always had to make things about you! About how much better you were! Nobody called you out on your disrespect!]
[Can we please stop talking about how bad of a person I am and get back to getting you out of there!?]
[And now you want to kill me to put another notch on your belt!?]
[I literally keep saying I am going to get you out of there!]
Maya stopped following that conversation. Pilot 03 was too far gone, he was delusional, or the Angel had corrupted his mind to the point that he could not understand what was being said to him, either way, she could do nothing to help there.
She looked through NERV's systems and realized that Hyuga was having severe technical difficulties. She couldn't be certain without taking a much closer and more obvious look at the 'problem', but she felt the hands of Naomi, Hana and Kaede at work slowing him down. But all the time they bought Shinji would do nothing unless they could find some way to make an opening for Shinji to use.
She made a secure communication channel to Aoba. "Hey, Aoba, are there any ground assets we can leverage? Artillery? Surface to surface missiles? Anything?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aoba glance at her through the curtain of his long hair before his voice whispered in her ear, his lips barely moving. [No, the area around Nobeyama is a quagmire. The only assets we can leverage easily are air assets. Anything we send that direction won't arrive before air assets with the N2 mine drop.]
Maya bit her bottom lip. "Aoba…if you think of anything, let me know."
He nodded minutely. [I will, but anything that has a chance to do anything in time is already deployed.]
Maya blinked as he disabled the communication line.
Already deployed…Most of the drones were wiped out during the N2 mine equivalent explosion, the few drones they still had were needed just to keep the Control Center in the loop. They could try a few kamikaze drones, but none of the ones available had the firepower to stagger, let alone damage an Evangelion or an Angel.
Maya looked over her controls again. She had support options, but most of what she could do to directly affect the pilots was administer drugs and influence the Plug Suit's life support functions.
[Oh fuck ew ew ew ew ew!] Shinji screamed. Maya turned to look and saw that some viscous fluid was dripping from the gaps in the armor of Unit 03's arms. Shinji's biometrics were going haywire.
Maya analyzed the readouts and fought the urge to ball her hands up into fists. "The Angel is infecting Unit 01's arms! The nerve ganglia are being taken over!"
"Sever the arms. Now!" The Director ordered.
Maya turned to look at him in disbelief. "But sir! That'll leave Shinji defenseless!"
"That won't matter for long, do it!"
Maya swallowed and turned around. "Severing neural link! Kaede I need you t—"
"I said cut the arms off!" The Director barked. "Now!"
Maya flinched. She wanted to disobey…but she would not be of any help to Shinji if she was removed from her station. "Roger." She answered in defeat and sent the signal to the explosive charges in the Evangelion's joints.
On the main screen, they saw the twin flashes, Unit 01's arms were severed at the shoulder before the corruption could spread up its nervous system. Maya had expected Shinji to scream, at ninety-six percent synchronization, he would have felt that. But the excruciating pain merely made him grunt.
Unit 03 was taken momentarily aback, its four fleshy, unarmored arms wringing the severed arms of Unit 01. [They betray You. They betray You for You are not of Them.] The Fourth Children said, his voice strangely calm. [Yet You would sacrifice Yourself for Them. These who are unworthy. These who Stole the Cradle.]
[Not this shit again.] Shinji growled, still bucking Unit 01's hips in an attempt to dislodge the Angel. [Fuck. Off.]
[They spit on Your sacrifice. Yet You fight for them still. Why?]
[Because, like I told the last jackass. It's the job! Humanity is better than the worst of its kind! Humanity invented kindness! There is no kindness in the natural world except what humanity inject into it! And I won't allow you or your misbegotten kind to snuff humanity out due to the sins of a small group of evil cowards!]
[To sacrifice so much for no reward is most illogical.]
Shinji was…conversing with the Angel? The Corruption Index scanner was unresponsive, Maya had no way to corroborate that the Angel was speaking through Pilot 03, but this could be the first documented, verifiable case of an Angel communicating with a Human.
"N2 cluster mine drop in two minutes!" Hyuga called out.
Maya felt the bottom fall out of her stomach. And looked frantically at what she could possibly do. Someone, some asset, anything!
Her console beeped, and on the screen she saw Unit 00 twitch.
A desperate idea formed in Maya's mind and she did not stop to analyze it, there was no time. She brought up Asuka's life support readings, boosted them to maximum, gave her an unsafe dose of epinephrine and activated the heart massage function. Asuka woke up with a ragged scream as the electric shock sent pain coursing through her system and her blood pressure shot up to unsafe levels as her heart was artificially forced to race.
Maya made a secure comm line with Unit 02.
[Mama?] Asuka asked groggily.
"No time!" Maya snapped. "You need to get up and kill the Angel! An N2 cluster mine is about to be dropped on you!"
[Scheiße!] Asuka snarled and threw Unit 02 to its unsteady feet, not feeling the pain of the broken leg thanks only to the injected stimulant. She charged at the still struggling Evangelions, picking up Unit 00's ruined rifle and raising it over Unit 02's head like a club, she swung it down with all of Unit 02's considerable strength the instant she was in range of the Angel. [Halt die Klappe, friss Scheiße und sterb endlich!]
The Angel attempted to put up an AT field, but Unit 01 corroded it into static before it even finished forming. At the last instant, the Angel let go of Unit 01 with all six of its arms, it successfully blocked the descending weapon at the cost of four of them being broken.
It roared in victory as it pushed Unit 02 back, its broken leg incapable of supporting it, a victorious roar that was choked off into a sanguine gurgle as Unit 01 slammed its head forward and bit down on Unit 03's neck. There was a crunching snap so loud that the aerial drones picked it up, and the Angel's body beneath the neck fell limp.
[I'm sorry. Pilot.] Shinji panted as Unit 01 twisted and drove the Angel into the mud. He levered the armless Evangelion painfully to its feet and raised its right foot to hover over the Angel's head. [I'm sorry…I'm sorry I wasn't able to save you, after all. Your death will bring about a better world.]
[They will resent You.] The Angel said. [They cannot understand You. They will come to fear and hate You. Yet You would sacrifice for Them still?]
Shinji chuckled.
And without warning, he brought Unit 01's foot down onto the Angel's head with such force that it buried it in the mud, compacting the dirt beneath it until it was hard enough for the weight of Unit 01 to crush the Angel's skull and rupture it like an overripe melon.
Maya looked over her telemetry and inserted herself into Shinji's communication loop. "Mr. Shinji…it…it's not dead. It's slow, but it is regenerating.
[Of course it is.] Shinji sighed and raised the Evangelion's foot again and began the arduous process of pulping Unit 03 into paste, one stomp at a time.Spoiler: Completed StoriesSpoiler: Incomplete StoriesSpoiler: Side StoriesSpoiler: Co-Authored storiesI also have a Snippets Thread. Do check it out. Check out my Patreon and my Subscribe Star to read ahead on all my stories! I also have a Ko-fi if you'd like to throw me a tip! 8D Like ReplyReport Reactions:Jynnql, Valthorix, CosmicHorror and 1,073 othersSanto4 May 2025Add bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 23View content25 May 2025Add bookmark#2,094SantoI want to enter your TempleJoined22 May 2020Messages1,365Chapter 23! One I was terrified of posting, back when I first posted it.
If you'd like to read all the way to chapter 28, feel free to join my Patreon/Subscribestar. I also do writing updates and stuff.
There is also my other story up to Ch 29.
And the Side Stories, two of which have received updates. And you can vote on which Side Story gets an update for every update cycle.
If you'd like to throw me a tip, but don't want to commit to a monthly subscription. Please consider my tip jar.
Lastly, if you have an idea for a story you'd like written, and you like the way I write stories. Shoot me a DM! We might work something out.
With that out of the way.
Full disclosure, a solid chunk of this chapter was written in a literal fevered stupor.
I was sick and literally running a fever as I frantically worked to get this done for the peeps at the pat/sub, and while I think it shows, I also was and am at a loss as to what I would change to make it better, even after I analyzed it once I was no longer sick.
Either way, hope y'all like it.
Misato hadn't been certain she would ever wake up again, that she had was a blessing, she very much did not want to die before the last Angel had been cast down and the world saved.
Truth be told she did not remember passing out. And the scar on her chest would now have a new best friend to keep it company. But she was alive and well enough to get back to work. Ritsuko had gotten off easier than Misato, which was good, her work was always very important after a battle against an Angel.
Speaking of Angel battles, Misato had been dismayed to learn of the Butcher's Bill. Dozens of technicians, an entire platoon of rescue specialists, several dozen million yen in damages, a thoroughly annihilated section of crops that would cause food shortages in Tokyo-3 a few months down the line (if the world survived that long), every single veteran Pilot wounded, two Evangelions down for the foreseeable future, and a parrot on a goddamn pear tree.
The only thing close to a silver lining being that Unit 02 would be capable of deployment at reduced efficacy in three days. Unit 00 would take weeks, and Unit 01 would need over a month to regrow its arms.
Yes, they had managed to salvage Unit 04, the Evangelion largely undamaged by the explosion and the Fifth Children had been completely unharmed, but according to the test and calibration data that had been gathered during Misato's time in the hospital, the Fifth Children was no Ikari Shinji.
She wasn't an Asuka.
She wasn't even a Rei.
If nothing changed, the MAGI predicted that Horaki Hikari would take upwards of nine months before she managed to successfully synchronize with an Evangelion.
And then Shinji got involved.
The reports Misato had access to indicated that under his tutelage, the Fifth Children had managed a successful synchronization in two days.
Misato did not know what, exactly, she would have imagined Shinji's tutelage would have entailed.
"You have to FEEEEEEL it!"
But this was certainly not it.
"Know that you are the Eva and the Eva is you! Empty your mind, Hikari! Empty your mind and FEEEEEEEEEL!"
[What am I feeling!? I don't feel anything!]
"And that's the problem! You are closing your heart to it! The Evangelion screams for your understanding and yet you do not provide!"
Misato looked from Shinji, he was dressed in a polo shirt and cargo shorts, and was wearing a cast on his left arm and right leg. To the blank simulation room where the white Evangelion stood.
Misato had to repress a shudder. Unit 04 was largely physically identical to its defeated twin, but with the color of their armor swapped. It stood seemingly placidly, but part of her was braced for it to scream and…explode.
Shinji took a Kamen Rider 'Transform!' pose. "Think about nothing, Hikari! Quiet your mind so you can hear the Eva!"
[Think about nothing? Like? I need to question what nothing is?]
"No! I mean literally 'shut up' but in your head!"
[People can't just stop thinking!]
"Yes we can! Guys do it all the time! Think about nothing, be the Eva, and walk!"
In the room, Unit 04 took a wobbling step forward, followed by an even more unsteady second step.
Its third step saw it fall flat on its face.
"You did not feel it." Shinji said and cut off the comm.
"It's incredible." Maya said. "I wouldn't have expected her to manage two steps before falling at twenty-two percent synchronization!"
"Yep, she's a natural." Shinji said, disinterestedly scratching his side. "Her only real problem is her lack of crazy."
Misato stepped forward and asked. "What do you mean? I'd imagine mental stability is very important for piloting."
Shinji shook his head. "Mental health and crazy are different things. Crazy is diving into a volcano because fuck that one guy in particular, crazy is stabbing an enemy with a harpoon in melee and throwing yourself to the floor because you're not sure you can land the ranged attack, crazy is the decision to attack an enemy who has a particle accelerator with fisticuffs. That's the kind of crazy we need, and this girl's got exactly none of it." Shinji sniffed and pulled a sandwich out of one of his pockets and took a bite out of it. "Which is why I'm bombarding her with nonsense and overloading her with information. Once she is confused enough to forget that she doesn't know how to pilot an Eva she does pretty alright."
Misato scratched the side of her head and hummed. That…sounded like it made some amount of sense.
If she tilted her head enough.
Shinji thumbed the communicator on again and cracked the proverbial whip. "How much longer are you going to stay down there, get up and try walking again!"
[I'm stuck.] The girl said petulantly, sounding on the verge of tears. [I'm stuck and I can't get up.]
"There is a saying in the West, Hikari." Shinji said, affecting a wizened tone. "When you fall off the horse, you get right back up, and you eat that horse! Eat that horse, Hikari!"
[Why would I eat a horse!?]
"Eat that horse, Hikari!"
Misato looked from Shinji, who ever more loudly demanded that Hikari 'ate the horse' (which…was it bad that Misato thought that sounded like a euphemism for sex?) to the slowly but steadily rising synchronization between Pilot 04 and Unit 04.
"—nd you're gonna cut a piece of it off, and you're gonna pound that piece. Pound it." He started slapping his hands together, the distinct sound of flesh striking flesh making Misato…uncomfortable. "You're gonna pound it. You're gonna pound that meat Hikari."
[Stop saying that!]
"And then you're gonna marinate it, with some salt, and lime, and pepper, and cilantro, and some minced garlic, and a dash of tequila, just a dash mind! And then you're gonna throw it in the fridge, and you'll wait twenty-four hours, and you'll get it out of the fridge, and you'll throw it in the oven, and you'll cook it in the oven."
[Stop talking about cooking a poor horse!]
"And then you'll get it out of the oven and toss it on the grill. A good charcoal grill mind you, none of this electric or propane nonsense. And you'll sear it just right both sides. Just enough to get that nice look. And you'll put it on a plate, and since a piece of meat does not a meal make, you'll make some mashed potatoes."
[Stop talking about food!]
"And because mashed potatoes are boring you're gonna make them with garlic, and because we can't be too health conscious you'll also make some mac n' cheese. And some garlic bread because we're tripling down on the garlic. And then, you'll grab your fork and your knife, and you'll cut a piece of it, and you're gonna eat that horse, Hikari!"
[Stop saying that!]
"You're the one in the giant robot!" Shinji snapped. "Get up here and make me! Because until you do, you're gonna have to lie there, until you eat that horse, Hikari!"
The synchronization spiked, Unit 04 pushed itself to its feet and loomed over the view window, glaring daggers at Shinji. [I said stop saying that!]
"Well alright then. Congratulations, you got up." Shinji said with a nod. "Take five, we'll go get some grub."
There was a long, tense silence, before Hikari said in a thoroughly confused tone. [Thank you, but I'm not hungry.]
Misato bit the inside of her cheek.
If it worked, it wasn't stupid…right?
=][=
Asuka strode through the infirmary, head high and shoulders back.
It galled her that even though she had been the most lightly wounded of the three Pilots, Shinji had been the one to be released first, due to the simple brutish fact that even with an arm and leg in a cast, it was next to impossible to make that big oaf do anything other than what he wanted.
Still, Asuka in her magnanimity would visit Pilot 00, who would not be released for a while yet. Her superior genes would definitely serve as a balm for Rei in this time of need.
Stepping into Rei's room, Asuka was surprised to see the girl sitting up in her bed, looking fairly well if airier than usual. She'd been expecting her to be reading a book or at least having the TV on, but the other girl was simply sitting in silence, her eyes roaming over the room.
"You'd think they'd at least turn on the TV." Asuka said with a huff, walking in and heading for the remote.
"Oh, I turned it off." Rei said, her eyes roaming over Asuka.
"What, why?"
"It made it hard to listen to the ringing in my ears." Rei said absently, her eyes once again roaming the room. "It has quite the interesting rhythm."
Asuka…was not sure what to say to that.
Thankfully, one of the Control Room crew came in, the girl-next-door that styled her bangs so they curved forward, framing her face. She paused, her eyes widening at the sight of Asuka. "Ah, Miss Soryu, what a pleasant surprise, have you been discharged?"
Asuka tossed her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. "Yes! Such minor injuries could not hope to keep me down!"
"You look better without the headset, Kaede. And you did well in changing the belt in your uniform to brown instead of the black one. The added contrast calls attention to your trim waist which makes your hips seem wider and your bust bigger." Rei said in her usual monotone
The crew woman's cheeks gained a dusting of red, and she wrote something down on her clipboard while muttering something under her breath.
"You have very pretty hands, most of the female technicians do. Shinji's hands are rougher, callused. And while they don't feel bad when I hold them, I imagine softer hands would be a different experience." Rei continued.
Asuka looked flabbergasted at the normally taciturn girl. "What the hell got into you?"
Rei turned fathomless ruby eyes upon her. "Your figure has filled out further in the time I've known you. Though you remain svelte due to your exercise regimen. It really is rather lovely, though I feel you might benefit from spending a little more time in the sun. I am naturally very pale and there is little I can do to change that, but I think if you gained a bit of a tan it would contrast your blue eyes very nicely."
Asuka felt her face burn.
"So, Miss Ayanami." Kaede said, scribbling something down on her clipboard. "Do you still have a headache? Ringing in your ears? Nausea?"
"The headache went away when I woke up today, that was a relief." Rei said, her eyes once again roaming over Kaede. "The ringing in my ears is still present, and while I do not feel nauseous, when I tried standing up, I felt dizzy."
"Very well, please say the months of the year in reverse order."
Rei blinked and remained quiet for a long while before saying. "December." She kept her silence again for a while before stating. "October." Rei skipped a few more months, but did eventually reach January. She also did a rather poor job of reciting numbers one through ten, and ten through one.
"I see," Kaede said, scribbling something else before putting her pen away. "I believe we can safely conclude that you still have a concussion. As such, I am sorry to say, you will not yet be discharged."
Rather than answer, Rei reached out and took hold of Kaede's hand, intertwining her fingers with the older woman the same way she did when she held hands with Shinji. "I was right, your hands are softer." She murmured.
The blush that had been receding returned to Kaede's face. "Miss Ayanami, please let go."
Rather than do what she was told, Rei pulled on Kaede's arm, drawing the woman closer, then let go but touched the woman's hand to her cheek and nuzzled into the woman's palm. "This feels different too. With a smaller, softer palm."
"Miss Ayanami." Kaede squeaked.
"What are you doing!?" Asuka demanded.
"You should try it too, Asuka." Rei said, tucking herself more tightly against the older woman, much to her consternation. "It feels really nice. Though it's different if you do it with a boy, they're bigger and denser, there is this strange feeling of excitement. The fear that they could use their strength to do whatever they wanted to you, tempered by the knowledge that he won't if you truly tell him to stop. You are very warm, Miss Kaede."
"Your reputation as a quiet girl will never recover, Miss Ayanami." Kaede said, allowing herself to be manhandled by the smaller girl with a blushing face and stoic acceptance, absently stroking the girl's hair.
"What is she even doing?" Asuka demanded, stomping down hard on the strange feeling writhing in her gut and reminding herself that she didn't need anyone else.
"It's the concussion." Kaede said absently. "She'll hopefully be back to normal in a week or two."
"So what, a concussion made her into a horny brat?" Asuka snapped.
Kaede breathed out a long sigh as Rei wrapped her arms around Kaede's waist and nuzzled her cheek and face against her stomach. "A concussion will affect different people differently. Miss Ayanami's impulse control is clearly affected by her condition. It would be cruel to hold her responsible for things she says and does when her mental faculties are thus affected."
"You would be an excellent mother." Rei said, making Kaede's blush return with full power. "You are soft, and warm, and gentle, and very patient. And you are at the age where you have both high fertility and the best chance to bring a child to term."
The Angel attack alarm rang out before Asuka could figure out how to tell Rei to stop sexually harassing the bridge crew.
=][=
[All personnel, battle stations condition one! Ready surface-to-air assets!]
"Report!" Misato shouted as she sprinted into the Control Room.
"Target is currently advancing!" Aoba called out, glaring daggers at his station. "Komagatake defense line has been breached!"
On the main screen, Misato saw dozens of SAMs emptying their magazines into an angel, the camera's resolution wasn't good enough for her to make out anything other than a boxy creature floating several stories above the ground.
Its flashed, the screen turned to static, and the ground shook hard enough to almost send her to the floor.
[Armor plates one through eighteen have been pierced!]
Misato felt faint as she heard that report. The first time those armor plates were tested, and they may as well have been papier-mâché!?
"Eighteen layers of special armor punched through in an instant." Hyuga said, awed.
"We won't have time for a surface intercept! Station Unit 02 inside the geo-front, its orders are to defend HQ! Tell Asuka to strike the target the moment it enters the geo-front!" She turned to Ritsuko, who was studying readouts over Maya's shoulder. "What's the status of the other Units?"
Ritsuko shook her head. "Unit 00 is ambulatory, barely, a fast jog could result in it becoming paraplegic. Unit 01's arms have not regenerated yet. Unit 04 is on standby; we're moving it to a spot where it can be used to neutralize the Angel's AT field."
"Hikari won't be able to neutralize an AT field yet." Shinji said, limping out of the elevator aided by his crutch. "She's barely managed to take five steps without falling, deploying an AT field will be beyond her."
"Then what would you suggest we do?" Ritsuko asked.
Shinji shook his head. "We need to use Hikari to create an opening for Asuka to kill it. We won't win a protracted fight."
Misato gnawed the inside of her cheek. Ruthless, but it seemed to have a good chance of success.
The ground shook harder, error messages and warnings filled the screens.
"Situation critical!" Aoba called out. "One more blast and all of our armor will be gone!"
"Oh no." Maya groaned. "Pilot 04's synchronization is on the single digits!"
"What!? Last training session she'd reached forty-two percent!" Misato snarled.
"Fuckin'. Okay, okay, fuck!" Shinji walked over to Maya and placed his right hand on her shoulder. "Cut off any communication Unit 04 has with…everything, leave only one communication line open, let me talk to her." He turned to Misato, his eyes flinty. "Get in contact with Asuka, if she can kill it, great, but if her Eva is too damaged to fight before I get through to Hikari, tell her to play dead and wait for the right moment."
"Right!" Misato said, turning to the screen showing Unit 02 as it stood around over a dozen Evangelion-grade weapons, and picked up a headset. "Asuka, can you hear me!?"
[Loud and clear.] Asuka said, her voice tight, on the screen, Misato could see the back of the pallet rifle as it aimed at the breach into the geo-front. [You wanna chat while I get my second solo-kill?]
Well, it's a good thing she had confidence if nothing else. "Asuka, we're having some difficulties with Unit 04. Hang in there while we get you some backup."
Asuka scoffed. [It won't be needed.]
Misato smiled and closed her eyes. "Right. Just be ready t—"
The ground shook as a blast vaporized an enormous hole through armor plates nineteen and twenty, bathing the geo-front in fire, smoke and rubble as several of the buildings that had been sunk below ground uncoupled and fell.
[Here it comes! Brenn in der Hölle, du dummes Schwein!] Asuka snarled, unleashing a barrage into the smoke. In seconds she'd dumped several hundred-million-yen worth of ordinance into the smoke the Angel emerged from, bulling through literal tons of munitions as it drove relentlessly forward.
The Pallet rifle clicked empty, Asuka discarded it and picked up two more, firing them akimbo at the Angel that seemed to not care one wit as it landed gently, then floated forward at an unhurried pace.
The Angel was as strange as all its kind, roughly humanoid, its body was white and dark blue, with four red spots on its thighs and where its armpits would be. It didn't have arms, instead it had what looked like shoulder pads and something hanging from them that looked like cloth.
[Why won't you die already!?] Asuka snarled, tossing aside the two pallet rifles and picking up two light recoilless rifles and emptying their magazines into the Angel as well, once again hiding it from view.
Misato looked back at the huddle formed around Shinji and figured that that was still largely a dead end.
When she turned back to the screens, Unit 02 was missing both its arms, its blood fountaining out of the stumps of its shoulders.
Shit!
"Asuka! Asuka play dead!" Misato shouted into the headset. "Asuka acknowledge!"
[Why would I play dead!?] Asuka snarled. [I'll kill this monster if it's the last thing I do!]
"Shinji is getting you backup!" Misato said. "But Hikari won't know how to cancel out an AT field! If we are to win, you need to bide your time! Play dead, do not react to anything the Angel does, then strike at the right moment!"
Asuka snarled her displeasure, but on the screen, Misato saw Unit 02 fall to its knees, then flop onto its back. The Angel paused and floated back several meters.
"Shinji! Shinji it's now or never!"
"Fuck!" Shinji growled, then turned back to Maya's console. "Hikari, Hikari we're out of time. You need to get up and fight."
[I can't!] The girl's wail came out of Maya's console. [I'm no good at this! I don't wanna die!]
"Hikari, if you don't do this, we are all going to die, not just you!"
[I can't! I can't! I can't! I'm not like you! I just wanted to grow up and be a mom! I'm not some hero!]
Shinji ran his hand down his face and took a deep breath. "Hikari, HIKARI!" At his shout. The girl hiccupped but fell quiet. "Hikari, you absolutely can, I know you can do this. Because you're crazy."
[Huh!?]
"You are human. And humans are crazy. For fuck's sake we think a bed is something natural. Out there in the cosmos, right now, a star is exploding and sterilizing light-days worth of space such that life will be incapable of existing for hundreds of years! Free-roaming black holes are eating entire planets and throwing planetary systems into disarray! And humans think that something as unnatural as a bed is somehow normal!? That's just fucking crazy!"
[W-What does this—?]
"And inside you beats the heart of a human! The species that crawled its way out of the goddamn mud, looked at a world that hated it for existing, and said fuck you in particular! And proceeded to rape that same world until it did what it wanted it to!"
[I—]
"AND THIS MEANS!" Shinji shouted into the mic, his voice reverberating through the control room. "That inside you is three million years of fuck you! Waiting to be unleashed Hikari! And unleash it you will! Because you want to be a mother! And mothers are crazy!"
[I…what?]
"I want you to imagine your baby Hikari!" Shinji continued, not giving the girl a second to think. Misato though, saw that Hikari's synchronization had just climbed into the double digits. "Imagine their pudgy little fist! And their kicky little feetsies! I want you to imagine their squishable cheeks and toothless fucking smile! Have your baby in your mind Hikari! Your perfect little poop factory! What's your baby's name Hikari!?"
[W-What does th—?]
"Your baby's name Hikari! WHAT'S YOUR BABY'S NAME!?"
[Tsu-Tsubame.]
"Little Tsubame is in her crib, Hikari! Little Tsubame is in her crib, and she loves you, and she's happy you're there. And she's the best little baby you ever did see as she drools all over the place. But this asshole here? This goddamn monster? It hates little Tsubame! It waited until your husband was sick and hurt, so sick and hurt that he can't stand up to it and drive it away! It's cunning, and it's hateful, and it is going to kill little Tsubame in front of you!"
Before Misato's disbelieving, bewildered gaze, Hikari's synchronization rate climbed to forty-five percent. At the same time that the Angel poked at Unit 02's unmoving form.
"It's going to be a slow, drawn-out, painful death! It will make her suffer! It will cut out each of her pudgy little fingers one by one! It will cut off her arms! And her legs! It will make her die screaming! But you won't let it do that! Because yours is the species that looked at a goddamn fundamental force of nature and used it to warm its balls at night! Yours is the species that decided an apex fucking predator looked cute, so it adopted it and bent it to its will and needs and created dogs! The one thing in all the goddamn world that is unequivocally good! In your veins runs the blood of crazy bastards who waded into a firefight with a sword and won!"
Misato walked over to Hyuga and shook the man who, like everyone else, had been drawn into a stupor by Shinji's nonsense. "Launch Unit 04 to the geo-front, now!"
"R-Right!"
"So here is what you're going to do!" Shinji shouted as Unit 04's cradle slammed into place to the right of the Angel. "You are gonna to plant your feet! You are gonna grit your teeth! You are gonna clench your butt-cheeks! And you are gonna eat!
"That!
"HORSE!"
The sound that came out of Hikari was less a warcry and more a screech of sheer terror, but Unit 04 nonetheless launched itself at the Angel in an uncoordinated, clumsy, but extremely savage charge. The Angel interposed its AT field, only for Unit 02 to spring up and toss itself at it, its own AT field corroding and cutting through it an instant before Unit 04 crashed against the Angel, driving all three of the massive things to the ground, where Unit 04 began inexpertly pounding on the Angel with its fists to the sound of Hikari's terrified weeping.
The Angel fired its blast, cutting through Unit 04's right arm, only for the Evangelion to drive the now sharpened point of its cauterized stump into the Angel's face, over and over, using it as an improvised knife to stab it to death.
"Oh thank fuck." Shinji said suddenly, collapsing to his knees. "If that didn't work, I had nothing."
On the screen, Misato saw unit 04 pull the Angel's head, exposing meat and veins and sinew, then hacked at it with its stump until it successfully beheaded the creature. Then continued its frenzied assault.
Hikari's weeping sounding over the comms the whole time.Spoiler: Completed StoriesSpoiler: Incomplete StoriesSpoiler: Side StoriesSpoiler: Co-Authored storiesI also have a Snippets Thread. Do check it out. Check out my Patreon and my Subscribe Star to read ahead on all my stories! I also have a Ko-fi if you'd like to throw me a tip! 8D Like ReplyReport Reactions:Alpin, Jynnql, Valthorix and 1,224 othersSanto25 May 2025Add bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 24View content8 Jun 2025Add bookmark#2,218SantoI want to enter your TempleJoined22 May 2020Messages1,365Good evening folks. Time for Ch 24. As for the necessary self-shilling.
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With that out of the way. As I recall it, this chapter fought me something fierce. But I got it done.
Not much to say right now, hope you enjoy.
[How can you sit there and simply expect this august body to pour even more funding into NERV!?] Snarled Monolith 4, why SEELE had decided to implement that particular farce now of all times was a mystery.
"The Twelfth Angel carved a not insignificant chasm through Tokyo-3." Gendo said, steepling his fingers. "We require the increased funding if we are to rebuild the fortress-city in a timely manner."
[NERV's operations are several billion Euros in the red! We've bankrupted nations to keep the insatiable black hole that is your organization satiated, and now you tell us you need even more!?]
Fuyutsuki scoffed. "We'll be certain to tell the next Angel to go easy on us so SEELE's many corporations can look better in their next quarterly report."
[Your flippancy is not appreciated.] Growled Monolith 7.
[He makes for a good point, however.] Stated Monolith 1. [We expected setbacks, we should not be surprised that some setbacks will be beyond our expectations.]
[You call this a setback!?] Monolith 4 hissed. [At the current rate of attrition, our assets will not recover from the economic damage for centuries!]
[We all knew the price of immortality would be high. Why do you hesitate to pay it now?] Monolith 01 demanded.
[With the right policies, we could get NERV on the black inside o—]
[Enough!] Roared Monolith 1. [NERV is a tool serving its purpose and serving it well. We must not allow short-sighed instinct to sabotage our ultimate goal. NERV will receive the increased support, no Angel must be allowed to get as close as the twelfth did. Ikari, you will account for each and every single cent allocated to you. Pray we do not find anything that arouses our wrath.]
The meeting ended and communications cut.
"They must not want us to see their bickering." Fuyutsuki muttered. "What good will that do? We already saw the division in their ranks."
"They're trying to hide which among them is the one with the most power." Gendo said. "It would not do for the help to witness the rivalries among their lords and masters."
"The sheer pettiness." Fuyutsuki said tiredly and without heat, long having made the transition from indignation into tired apathy.
"It's no matter." Gendo said, standing and striding out of the meeting room. "NERV will receive the funding it needs to undo the damage caused by the Angel."
"Indeed." Fuyutsuki said. "But we are behind schedule."
Gendo ran his left thumb over his right palm, feeling the alien ridges of the thing he'd implanted, one of the two keys he needed for Godhood.
Soon.
"There is no need to worry." He said absently. "The Dead Sea Scrolls were clear; We need only not interfere with events."
"What will be your excuse to SEELE when we do not?"
"By then, it won't matter." He said absently. "There won't be time to relocate NERV's assets. By the time they can do anything, we'll be at the endgame."
Gendo clenched his right hand, the embryo of one of the gods Humanity had subjugated made his palm burn.
Soon.
Wait just a little longer, Yui.
Soon.
=][=
"Oh, Asuka!" Hikari said, surprised and elated to see the foreign pilot as she entered the break room. "It's been a while!"
Asuka's scowl remained for a few seconds before she smiled at Hikari. "Hey Hikari. Finally getting a break from the rebuilding work?"
Hikari went to the couch opposite the senior pilot and sat down, then shifted, wondering how the other girls could look so comfortable in the skin-tight plug suits. Or Shinji, for that matter.
Absently wiping a bit of drool from the corner of her mouth, she sighed and leaned back against the couch. "Yeah, the last few weeks have been…ugh."
"I can imagine." Asuka said, raising her head haughtily. "As Evangelion pilots, we should be above such menial work as construction. Where is the prestige in being a glorified crane operator?"
Hikari blinked. "Uhh."
"We are warriors." Asuka continued. "The new breed of Knight. Such work is beneath us, but I guess needs must."
"I…don't mind the work." Hikari said slowly. "I just wish I were better at it."
Asuka scoffed. "Better? What, do you want to operate the world's most cutting edge and expensive crane?"
Hikari shook her head. "No, I mean, half the time I can barely make the Eva move. Most of the time I can't make it move how I want to. When I can make it move at all, I'm usually in danger of knocking things over."
Asuka scowled. "Why? What's the problem?"
"Well." Hikari said slowly. "You know…the, the weird mental hoops you have to do to make the Eva move? It's always so jerky. I don't know how you, Ayanami, and Shinji can make it move so smoothly with your minds all awhirl."
Asuka leaned forward, her scowl morphing into a look of concern. "Describe the process you use to move the Eva, everything, from start to finish. Leave nothing out."
"Well…umm…first I try to open up and 'feel' for the Eva, then I try to think of weird stuff, or stuff to make me angry. And when I feel weird in the back of my head I try to keep that feeling. Being scared helps, and then—"
The longer Hikari explained, the angrier Asuka seemed to become. Until suddenly she exploded.
"That's all wrong! What kind of idiot would teach you that!?" She snarled.
"Umm."
"The whole point is to get into a flow state so the Eva can piggyback off the commands you imagine giving your body! Actively confusing and scaring yourself would create so much memetic interference that you'd not be able to complete any even mildly delicate task!" Asuka ranted.
"I uhh…"
"What possessed anyone to think this was the proper way to train a pilot!? Why didn't they use the piloting manual!?"
Hikari sat up. "There's a manual?"
Asuka's glare made her quail. "Of course there is a manual! It explains in exacting detail the process, start to finish, on how to synchronize with an Evangelion and how to use the flow state to move it! Why would anyone think 'confusing someone until the Evangelion moves' is a good idea!? There would be no way to get consistent results at all!" Asuka's eyes narrowed. "Of course, this is his fault, isn't it!? It always goes back to him! But even he isn't vitriolic enough to train you wrong on purpose, so what the hell!? What he's having you do will get you killed! You've been piloting for a month but have no idea what you're doing! It's a miracle you can even make the Eva walk! Going by what your process is, I bet your results are completely inconsistent, when you can get results at all! Have you been of any use to the reconstruction efforts, or do people just work around you!?"
Feeling strangely defensive, especially because Hikari had largely been of very little use to the work crews no matter how hard she tried, she huffed. "I mean…it worked against the monster, right?"
Something ugly passed through Asuka's eyes, something that made Hikari afraid. "If you won't listen to reason, then keep doing what you're doing and go die just like Kensuke, see if I care!" Hikari felt the bottom fall out of her stomach at Asuka's words. The other girl stared back at her, her face losing color until it was paper white, her eyes so wide Hikari could see her own face mirrored in them.
The two of them stared at each other, the silence between them charged like a live wire until, finally, Asuka broke it. "I…I didn't…I…" Asuka's mouth flapped open and closed several times, before she whirled around and ran off.
Hikari stared open mouthed at the empty spot where her friend used to be, then got up and ran after her. "Asuka wait! Asuka!"
Hikari barely caught glimpses of the running girl, bumping into and running past NERV personnel in the hallways, following after her until she stood outside a bathroom, the door slightly ajar. She could hear muttering coming out of the door, prompting her to lean in.
"You are better than this." Asuka hissed, Hikari peeked through the cracked open door, and saw Asuka, her back to the door, glaring at herself in a mirror. "You are supposed to be better than this! Goddamit Asuka, get it together!" She pointed accusingly at her reflection. "People are counting on you! How are you going to wrest the number one spot from that oaf, if you let your stupid feelings out of control like that!? And of everyone, you go off on Hikari!? Gah! You're supposed to be better! The best! Get your act together goddammit!"
"Asuka?" Hikari asked, stepping inside and closing the door behind her.
At the sound of her name, Asuka flinched, then tensed up. "Hikari." She swallowed hard, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Hikari. I shouldn't have said that. I…"
"It's okay." Hikari began.
"It's not okay! That's the problem!" Asuka snarled. "It was out of line, and I said something awful!"
Hikari hesitated, while Asuka wasn't wrong, Hikari did not want to continue that particular conversation, so she pivoted to the first thing that came to mind. "Can…Can you teach me how to pilot the Eva?"
=][=
"No, you're getting too worked up. Deep breaths, remain calm." Asuka instructed through the mic. "Remember, imagine the movement. Think about what the movement would be, visualize how the movement would feel, the Eva will take care of the rest."
In the simulation room, Unit 04 slowly raised its left arm, then lowered it and mirrored the movement with the other arm.
"It's incredible." Said Ritsuko's assistant, her eyes wide as she looked at the results the monitoring machines spat out. "Her synchronization is higher than it is using Shinji's method."
Asuka scoffed. "Sitting in the Eva doing nothing would lead to a consistently higher synchronization than that lunacy."
The assistant scowled. "That method got her to a hundred and two percent synchronization."
"Yeah, and when it mattered, she couldn't get above two until Shinji said a whole bunch of stupid stuff." Asuka shot back. "Being able to achieve a consistent and repeatable sixty percent is far more useful than falling to single digits and unpredictably soaring to high peaks."
"She's got a point." Asuka jumped as Shinji's voice sounded behind her, she whirled around and saw the big oaf. He walked in, looking far too relaxed, his left arm on a sling, wrapped up in bandages. "You're pretty good at this, Asuka."
"Of course I am!" Asuka snapped. "I simply used the manual on how to train a pilot to synchronize with an Eva!"
"There is no manual." The assistant said.
"Of course there is!" Asuka hissed. "I wrote it!"
"Hold up, hold up." Shinji said, gesturing for them to calm down, which made Asuka angrier but miss assistant closed her mouth. "Asuka, I looked, there was no manual in the system. What did you do with the one you wrote?"
"I submitted it for approval!" Asuka snapped. "Years ago!"
"Years ago you say…how many years ago?" Shinji asked.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Humor me."
Asuka thought back. "Nine years ago."
Shinji nodded. "Meaning you were seven years old?"
Asuka's lip curled. "Almost seven, I turned seven a couple of months after I submitted it."
Shinji turned to the assistant. "Maya, when you get the chance, could you please look through whatever backlogs there are for the submittal of proposed training manuals? I would do it myself but have no idea where to even start looking."
"I'll get it done." The assistant, Maya, said with a swift nod.
Shinji turned to look at Unit 04, walking sedately in a circle in the simulation room. "Man, she's doing a lot better."
Asuka crossed her arms. "Of course! Without all of that mental clutter that your weird method caused, she is free to do more delicate tasks."
"But how did synchronization happen so quickly?" Maya interrupted. "According to the MAGI, synchronization was expected to take at least nine months. We'd figured that Shinji's tutelage was speeding things significantly, but this entirely different method worked seemingly just as quickly."
Asuka snorted. "Have you any idea how hard it is for a five-year-old to enter and maintain a flow state? Hikari is sixteen, her brain is a lot more developed than mine and the First's were when we started. Of course she'd pick it up faster than we did."
Maya groaned and covered her face with her palms. "The MAGI gave us incorrect conclusions because of a severe lack of data points and flawed inputs."
Shinji lay his huge hand on her shoulder, Maya stiffened, then relaxed. "There there, we all run into the 'too smart to be dumb' trap. It happens literally to the best of us. Now you know better."
Asuka scowled and muttered. "Or they could have used the damn manual."
Shinji looked at Unit 04 with a strange intensity, before shaking his head. "Alright then, I'll leave you to it."
"Yeah, you better leave before your stupid causes her to regress." Asuka said to his retreating back, crossing her arms.
Shinji turned back to her with a big grin on his face. "Little lady, I at best pretend at competence on a good day."
=][=
I stretched and continued my meandering walk through the ruins, listening on my HUD to my security detail freak out because I'd successfully given them the slip.
Seriously, a guy gets sick and tired of not having any privacy. It kinda sucked that I had to receive a close-up look at the devastation just to get a little bit of me-time in my walk to school. Seriously, six heavily armed fire teams and several times that number casual-clothed agents was too much!
And now they were talking about scrambling a helicopter, so I got a move on.
Rei had been busy aiding reconstruction efforts since Unit 00 could walk again, it would be my turn to relieve her once Unit 01's arms finished regenerating in a week.
My climb over a boulder of concrete and rebar was made more difficult due to one of my arms still being in a sling, and thankful that my legs had fully healed I hopped over a chasm caused when an underground pipe became an aboveground pipe due to…probably an earthquake caused by the shockwave of that last angel drilling down using explosions.
As I walked, I heard a piano.
Blinking, I followed the sound, eventually coming upon a ruined church. Miraculously, the only part of the church that had remained intact was a stained-glass window depicting Archangel Michael swooping down to stab the devil through the throat. The devil's claws gripping at and scratching the Archangel's calves.
In the center of the ruins sat a pristine piano. Sitting at the piano was a pale boy with grey hair, his eyes closed as his hands moved through a flawlessly timed rendition of classical music. The clouds in the sky parting as he reached the crescendo to bathe him in light.
The boy's hands flew across the keys, the piano ringing like church bells declaring to the heavens the human hopes of equality and fraternity. And yet, the boy that produced such music simply sat there, smiling placidly with his eyes closed as if merely passing the time. As if pouring such emotions into the musical piece was a mild effort.
As the last notes faded away into the desolate ruins, a pair of ruby eyes opened and regarded me with mild curiosity.
I smacked my lips and stated. "You played the Ode to Joy wrong."