Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ EndGame ❯ Keeper of the Gate ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

The fluorescent tubes, held in fixtures of three each, were inset at regular intervals into the plastered ceiling. They were also turned off, since the leftmost wall of the room was composed entirely of glass panels, and admitted copious amounts of what looked like late afternoon sunlight to provide more than sufficient illumination. Shinji felt completely refreshed, as if invigorated by a good night's sleep. The ceiling was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes, and he gazed intently at it, fascinated by its overwhelming normalcy.

"You're finally awake," a voice said next to him.

He turned around, pushing his pillow out of the way to face the voice. A girl was sitting upright in her bed, staring at a black hard-cover book held in her good, unbandaged hand. Light blue hair framed her heart-shaped face, and brushed gently against a pair of intense, bright-red eyes. "... Looks like I am," he replied, mildly confused.

Silence.

"Um..." Shinji started. "Can I know your name?"

"Ayanami Rei."

Short, succinct, and to the point, followed by silence once more. Shinji decided to try again. "Ne... what is this place?"

"The medical facility of Central Dogma, NERV headquarters, three kilometers underground beneath Tokyo-3," Rei said methodically, as if delivering a report. "You have been unconscious for five days, during which you have been treated for mental shock and extreme physical fatigue."

Shinji digested this information after some assiduous deliberation. "I guess they did a pretty good job," he remarked. Nothing seemed particularly wrong with him; he felt well-rested and at ease, his senses alert. In the presence of a stranger, he stifled the urge to stretch in order to relieve some somewhat stiffened muscles, and then thought of a new question. "NERV... what's that?"

"You were summoned to Tokyo-3 by NERV as the Third Child and a potential pilot candidate for Evangelion Unit 02," Rei replied quietly, not looking up from her book. "You responded to the summons and used Unit 02 to successfully defeat the Third Angel, Sachiel, five days ago. Do you not remember, Pilot Ikari?"

"Not really, no," Shinji blinked in bemused confusion. "Ikari. Is that my name?"

There was a brief silence. "You do not remember your own name?"

A less-than-comfortable pause ensued where Shinji mentally scrambled to remember his identity and how he had ended up in bed in an unfamiliar room, only to be met with utter failure as his mind drew a complete blank. The slightest hint of panic set in. "Uh, no," he replied awkwardly.

"What do you remember, then?"

Metaphorical crickets chirped in the background, and Shinji sweatdropped.

Rei turned the page of her book. "This could be a problem." she stated.


~*~

A matron had escorted him from the hospital room he shared with Rei, and then he'd gotten dressed so that they could subject him to a battery of tests and diplomatically refuse to answer any of his questions. Nothing was wrong with him, he'd been assured - just a minor feedback error. Nothing serious. Whatever it was, it wouldn't impair his capacity to be put back in the same situation he'd been in when the accident occurred. It seemed almost hours before they were satisfied, and a nurse led him through a moderately long walk to another room, where she handed a clipboard to its occupant, gave Shinji a practiced smile, and disappeared.

That had been twenty minutes ago. He was standing in what appeared to be the personal office cum computer laboratory of a blonde-haired female scientist, if 'scientist' was indeed the appropriate term. No fewer than five computer terminals of various models and processor structures graced the workdesks, hard at work performing complex analyses and simulations... or displaying screensavers, Shinji wasn't sure which. At least sixteen kilograms of paperwork shared a desk with a laptop and a row of neatly-lined empty soda cans. A potted plant stood sentry by the entrance, looking as though it had been watered with as much espresso as liquid dihydrogen oxide. Shinji stood perfectly still, not daring to so much as twitch, thanks to the white snow ermine currently perched atop his head.

The blonde-haired female scientist, undisputed supreme ruler-for-life of her twenty-by-sixty domain, held the telephone receiver a good six inches from her ear as the voice on the other end screeched at a volume that made her words audible even to Shinji: "He's WHAT?"

"He's lost his memory," Akagi Ritsuko repeated calmly. "Complete retrograde amnesia." Pause. "We're not sure yet. Probably due to the neural feedback loop overload, though. The negative synch ratio may have been a factor as well." Another pause. "Well, at least Rei seems unaffected. We're still quite defenseless right now if another one shows up, though." Yet another pause, longer this time. A pencil twirled about with consummate dexterity between her fingers. "I'll bring him to Unit 02's holding cage now, then," she said finally. "At least he gets to make a choice today, instead of being forced into it by gunpoint if necessary."

Shinji didn't dare turn his head, as the ermine was still sitting on it, so only his eyes followed Ritsuko as she hung up and moved across the office. She seemed somewhere in her early thirties, with short blonde hair and a small mole under one blue eye, and the rather unconventional choice of uniform of a one-piece scuba-diving suit and a white lab coat. Shinji decided she definitely looked too attractive for a scientist, but then again, she had a a frigid kind of beauty that seemed to suit her professorial air at the same time. The kind that calmly discussed forcing people at gunpoint into... things... over the phone. "Um... Akagi-hakase -"

"Sign at the dotted line," she said, thrusting a clipboard and pen at him.

Shinji realized he didn't remember how he used to do that either, so he scrawled his name as best as he could and handed it back. Ritsuko looked at it contemplatively for a moment, and tossed it casually onto her desk.

"Um," Shinji's eyes followed her quizzically as she rummaged about in a drawer. "What did I just sign?"

"Your items release form," Ritsuko replied. "Here, take this."

'This' appeared to be rectangular, slim object with a sleek metal finish, attached to a thick Velcro strap. Shinji accepted the device dubiously, wrapping the strap around his left wrist. With a single motion he gave his wrist a light flick, as though it were the most natural thing to do - to his amazement the device flipped open, revealing a small backlit touchpad and miniature display screen. A holographic window popped open, causing neat, black text against a clean white background to scroll past rapidly -

"S.H.O.D.A.N. Build 00.00.0," Shinji read aloud. He gave a low whistle. "Sweet."

The text display stopped scrolling and vanished. Only a blank white screen remained, displaying two things: the words "ENTER PASSWORD" at its center, and a blank textbox with a blinking cursor, waiting expectantly for a response.

Shinji stared blankly at it, first in confusion, and then in disappointment as he realized what just happened, his excitement having run into a brick wall. "Bleh," he mumbled. He turned to Ritsuko. "This is mine?"

For a moment he thought Ritsuko was watching intently, anticipating him with a predatory look in her eyes - and then he blinked, and there was nothing but nonchalance as Ritsuko shrugged into a new labcoat. Must've been a trick the lights played on him, Shinji decided. "Apparently," Ritsuko said. "A portable quad-core quantum supercomputer. Do you remember where you got it from?"

Shinji looked at her in blank confusion.

"Never mind," Ritsuko conceded. "Follow me."

"Um... Akagi-hakase?" Shinji began. "I thought you said I signed an items release form?"

"Those are all your items," Ritsuko replied. "One quantum supercomputer, the set of clothes you're wearing now, and one pet ermine."

"Kyu," Hisame chimed in helpfully from atop Shinji's head.

"I - huh?" Shinji blinked in utter confusion. He had no belongings? And then he realized an even bigger quandary. "An ermine?" he protested. "But I don't know how to take care of an ermine!"

"Neither did I, for the last five days," Ritsuko said. "He's not much of a problem." She clipped a pen neatly to the breast pocket of her labcoat. "In fact, I'd say he's the very least of your problems right now, Ikari Shinji-kun."


~*~

Ritsuko's words hung ominously over his mind as she led him through the complex maze of travelators, passageways and lifts. It didn't take Shinji long to notice that the place was built like a fortress - as far as he could see, he would have had no trouble believing that the labyrinthine complex could easily withstand anything short of a direct nuclear strike. Clearance was a plastic tag that Ritsuko wore around her neck, which opened doors when swiped through an electronic slot reader. At first it was Dr Akagi Ritsuko - the person of authority - that the people around them noticed, but as they descended deeper and deeper into the bowels of Central Dogma, where everyone had authority, it was her cargo, the Third Child tagging behind her, that they cared to see.

"Big place, isn't it?" Shinji remarked, busy being awe-struck by the architecture. The entire complex was clean and efficient, and augmented by various automated electronics and systems. Yet it felt strangely natural to him, and for a moment Shinji wondered if he'd spent his life wandering through fortified military installations.

"This is Central Dogma, NERV headquarters," Ritsuko said, as a set of reinforced interlocking doors opened with the silent whoose of pneumatics to allow the travelator to transport them into and across what looked like a gigantic, cylindrical steel-walled chasm, almost as if they had just entered a large vertically-aligned steel pipe. A brief updraft from the unfathomable depths caught Ritsuko's labcoat, allowing Shinji an appreciative glance of her figure in the body-hugging wetsuit. "We're taking the long detour," she explained. "You haven't been shown around yet, and there's someone you should meet."

"One of my bigger problems you mentioned earlier?" Shinji asked, glancing at Hisame. The snow ermine was now riding in his shirt pocket, its small, furry white head barely peeking over the edge. Shinji had been mildly shocked to discover that the creature's body was cold - it felt as though a streak of liquid ice was gliding over him when Hisame had scampered from atop his head into his pocket.

The corners of Ritsuko's lips tugged into a brief smile. "Maybe."

"More mysteries, hooray," Shinji muttered with mock enthusiasm. "I can't wait."

As the doors on the far wall of the chasm opened to allow them passage, Shinji could hear the disjointed voice of a female drifting along the corridors. Ritsuko perked up visibly at the sound. "So it's Area C16 today," she murmured softly to herself. And then, louder, at Shinji: "This way."

They turned a corner, following the source of the sound, only to see a dark-haired young woman, wearing a red jacket, uttering an impressive string of expletives at what seemed to be a dead-end passageway, but turned out on closer inspection to be a set of automatic doors operated by a small electronic panel set into the steel wall beside it. Shinji stared, eyes wide, and then began to memorize some choice terms for future use. Ritsuko smiled briefly in expectation.

"JUST OPEN UP, YOU GOD-DAMNED LOVECHILD OF A -"

The woman banged a fist against the electronic panel for the umpteenth time, and all of a sudden it complied, the status display light blinking green as the doors opened. The woman blinked in surprise. "Well, I guess - EEK!"

Which was as far as she got before being smothered by plastic sacks of garbage that crashed down upon her from beyond the now-open doors.

Ritsuko decided it was time to take charge, stepping forward as the red-jacketed woman's muffled scream of frustration echoed from beneath the mound of garbage. The plastic sacks were fortunately durable enough to not break as the woman clawed her way out, armed with some even more notable oaths - which died in her throat as she saw Ritsuko, arms folded, looking down at her.

"Hello, Captain Katsuragi," Ritsuko greeted mildly. "I assume you took a left turn again instead of right at Area B17 today?"


~*~

"Gomen ne, Ritsuko," Misato grinned sheepishly. "Guess I'm not quite used to the place yet."

"I don't want to know," Ritsuko replied levelly. "Fortunately for all of us, you were only trying to smash your way into a garbage repository, instead of a bakelite dispenser chute. Retrieving your corpse would probably cost more than your monthly salary."

"How'd you know I was there anyway?"

"I don't know. Maybe because you've been making the same mistake for two weeks now?"

Misato grimaced. "Now you're just being mean."

Shinji had busied himself with inspecting his surroundings during the brief altercation between the two older women. They had boarded a motor-powered inflatable raft, skimming along a passageway almost the width of a soccer field that, save for the elevated walkways on both sides, was flooded to an indeterminate depth with a semi-opaque, dark orange-red liquid that looked strangely like motor oil. Hisame's tufted ears were blown back as the engine left a fine spray of liquid in their wake. The whole place seemed oddly like a massive submarine holding pen, and he was distracted from looking out for a telltale submarine periscope poking out above the surface only when he heard Misato ask: "You're Ikari Shinji, aren't you?"

"So I've been told," He returned her gaze blankly, "Captain Katsuragi."

Misato waved a hand dismissively. "Call me Misato." She grinned. "Glad to meet you in person at last."

"We haven't met?"

"Not really, no." Misato scrutinized him carefully. "I suppose you don't remember anything now, but to be honest we have just about as many questions as you probably have for us. How much has Ritsuko told you?"

"Nothing much, apart from Second Impact and the Angels. I've been given a profile on myself to read as well." Shinji tried to imagine how he could possibly be as interesting to a UN military branch shrouded in secrecy as it was to him, and failed. "Actually, I can't wait to get that part started," he declared. "Like who are you, what am I doing in this place..." he paused, frowning, "and where exactly are we going."

"We've arrived, actually," Ritsuko interjected, looking ahead at the distance.

Shinji followed her gaze, and fell silent.

He remained silent as they disembarked from the raft onto one of the steel walkways that flanked both sides of the liquid-filled passage, their presence going unnoticed save for a group of orange-jumpered technicians attending to the otherworldly construct backed against the end of the passageway, rising up from the liquid surface to loom over them. It wasn't until they stopped at the middle of the catwalk that spanned the width of the passage, standing up close to the object, that Shinji found his voice in the form of a hoarse, almost-inaudible whisper.

"Holy shit," he croaked. "What the hell is this thing?"

"The second model of the synthetic life form Evangelion, Unit 02," Ritsuko announced loftily. "Humanity's only line of defense against the Angels."

"It took quite a beating during its last deployment," Misato grinned sheepishly. "Relax, it doesn't look this ugly all the time."

Ritsuko and Misato's words barely registered as Shinji's brain fumbled to compensate for the alarming disturbance in size perception that the object had introduced. It took him moments to register that the thing he was looking at was a large, misshapen humanoid head, even despite the three emerald-green eyes gazing balefully at him. The head itself was constructed of a brownish substance that seemed frighteningly organic and flesh-like, and the three eyes were chillingly human; the only clue that the monster was man-made in nature were damaged scraps of blood-red armor that covered half of its face, as well as its fourth and final eye.

"Ikari Shinji," Ritsuko began, staring at him squarely in the eye. "You are the Third Child, as reported by the Marduk Institute, a handful of incredibly rare people born on the exact day of Second Impact who possess the necessary genetics to pilot an Evangelion unit. You will be designated as the pilot of Unit 02 and pilot it into combat against the Angels," Ritsuko grimaced, "simply because we have no one else to do so. Do you accept?"

Shinji gazed at the behemoth in trepidation. "Was this how I lost my memory?" he asked. "Piloting this thing?"

"You remember piloting it?" Misato asked.

Shinji was silent for a while. "Not really," he said finally. His voice trailed off, and for a moment he seemed lost for words. "But somehow it doesn't feel like the first time I've seen this thing either. An unpleasant familiarity of sorts."

Both older women shared a brief glance.

"Hell of a way to greet an amnesiac," Shinji muttered. "What happens if I say no?"

"We can't make you do it against your will," Ritsuko said calmly. "You're free to leave if you want to."

Shinji stared at her, suddenly cautious of her apparent calmness. "What's the catch?"

"There's no catch. We can force you into the entry plug, but we can't make you pilot it against your will," Ritsuko replied. "Right now one of our pilots is in Germany with an incomplete Evangelion unit still under construction, and the other injured. We need you more than you can imagine, but all the same there's no way we can force you to. That's all there is to it."

Despite himself, Shinji felt surprisingly calm - or at least, less panicky than he had expected he would be - even though nothing seemed to make sense. Perhaps Ritsuko's admission that other pilots were available had reassured him somewhat. No matter how pressing or dire they tried to make it sound, they had other people to take his place. Which sounded only natural, now that he considered it. The thought of having the operations of a UN military branch rest solely on a fourteen year old child piloting a gigantic, indeterminate organic construct against invading monsters was utter absurdity. And as the relief of that thought washed over him, he suddenly wanted nothing more than to get away from the strange monster and out of Central Dogma, to be far away from the bizarre irrationality of it all and back in the normal world where common sense and logic still prevailed.

And yet it was as though seeing the behemoth known only as Unit 02 had brought back a fleeting semblance of a long-forgotten memory, tantalizingly dancing about the periphery of his conscious thought and yet refusing to manifest itself. Had he really done this before? Perhaps he had. After all, that was presumably the only thing they needed him for, the reason why he was even here in the first place. Perhaps that also explained the strange feeling, as if he'd woken up from a dream that had moved him to tears, yet had slipped from his mind as he crossed the blurred line between sleep and wakefulness, leaving only emotions behind, so strong that they survived even the loss of the thoughts that had evoked them.

There's still something I need to do.

"I'll need some time to think about it," he heard himself say.

"What?"

"I said I'll think about it," Shinji repeated, still staring thoughtfully at Evangelion Unit 02, with traces of disquiet in his eyes. "I'll need some time to sort out everything you've dumped on me so far." And whether I should trust you at all, he added silently.

It was then that he realized that both Ritsuko and Misato seemed immensely relieved by this declaration, if only for a moment before they regained their composures.

"I suppose that's the best we can hope for at the moment," Misato said. Her features softened. "I'm sorry we had to pull this on you so soon, but it's absolutely necessary that we have at least one functional Evangelion unit and pilot on standby."

Shinji's expression was inscrutable. "I suppose we all do what we have to."


~*~

A soft knock interrupted Rei from her reading.

The pneumatically-powered door opened with a quiet, efficient whoosh, and Rei bookmarked and closed her book with meticulous care as Lieutenant Ibuki Maya entered the room. Night had since fallen, and with her room illuminated only by a bedside reading lamp, a rectangle of light fell on the floor from the open door, prompting Maya to ask: "Do you mind if I turn on the lights?"

"Please do," Rei said neutrally.

The fluorescent tubes flicked on, and clean white light flooded the room. "How're you feeling today?" Maya asked.

Rei looked at her briefly. "I am recovering properly," she stated.

Maya smiled. "That's good. Akagi-senpai seems to be busy with something else right now, so I'll be checking your progress today."

The inspection took place in silence as Maya jotted down the data displayed by a monitoring machine located by Rei's bedside, punctuated only by her asking some pertinent questions regarding Rei's injuries, to which brief, direct answers were supplied. The process took all of three short minutes, and as Maya finished scribbling a memo detailing Rei's condition, she was surprised by the younger girl calling her name.

Rei held out the book she had been reading with her good hand. "I have finished this one," she said. "Could you ask Dr Akagi for the second volume for me."

Maya blinked as she accepted the book - a black, hard-cover copy of Nightfall One, by Isaac Asimov - and tried to decide which was odder, that Ritsuko had been handing out almost century-old science fiction to Rei, or that the latter was displaying an apparent interest in them. As far as she knew, the First Child was interested in nothing, living only to pilot Evangelion Unit 00 with unflinching dedication; and even then she seemed to show little - if any - interest in that.

But then again, it wasn't so bad at all. A girl of Rei's age could definitely use a healthy hobby or two...

She made a mental note to ask Ritsuko about it later, and tucked the book under her arm. "I'll tell her when I see her," she promised. "Well, good night, Rei."

Rei broke off eye contact, and stared straight ahead at the far wall. "Good night, Lieutenant Ibuki."


~*~

"Misato-san?"

"Hai?"

"Don't I have any parents?" Shinji asked. "My file mentioned a father."

Misato looked uncomfortable for a moment, as if trying to decide how to best answer a delicate question. "Your father's a busy man," she said finally. "He's not even in Japan all that often, so we've had to assign another guardian for you to make sure you're properly taken care of. Anyway!" she grinned, raising a hand enthusiastically. "I volunteered, so here we are."

"Aa." Shinji blinked. "What did your boyfriend say about it?"

Misato's enthusiastically raised hand wavered ever so slightly. "Being a NERV captain is sort of a full-time job, you know. Anyway, I live alone and have two spare bedrooms I'll never use anyway, so..." she grinned nervously. "Well, you know."

"You're still single."

Misato scowled at her adolescent charge. "What's with that look?"

"N - nothing."

They were standing outside an apartment door, labeled with a brass tag that read M. KATSURAGI, on the twelfth floor of an apartment complex, with the open-air corridor exposing the view of the block interior to their left. Misato had taken to fiddling with the electronic panel set into the wall next to the featureless, metallic door, and, after a minute or two: "There, I've just programmed your details into the security system," she announced. "Try swiping your NERV ID card."

Shinji drew the small plastic card Misato had given him earlier from his right trouser pocket, gripping it deftly between his index and middle fingers; and then, almost as if acting from motor reflex, swiped the card in a single, swift motion through the slot reader with uncanny accuracy, despite not even bothering to aim. "Henshin."

And then his brain caught up, and he looked blankly at Misato. "Sorry," he winced. "Wasn't sure why I did that. Guess I must've been a big tokusatsu fan."

Misato's only reply was an odd look, which went unnoticed by its recipient as a green light lit up on the panel, followed by the door sliding open. "Well, here we are," Misato declared. "Welcome to your new home." And then, in a smaller voice: "I haven't had time to clear it up yet, so there's a bit of a mess in there..."

Home, Shinji thought. Not that he belonged in any place that he could remember. With his memories gone he was left with only an intellectual understanding of the concept, rather than an emotional one, and certainly no heartfelt attachment to it whatsoever - but nonetheless, encouraged on by Misato's smile, he gave a nod in return, and stepped with meticulous care past the steel-lined door grove, and onto the tiled floor of the foyer -

"WARK WARK WARK WARK WARK!"

"Pen-pen!" Misato cried.

- which was as far as he got before his feet became chaotically tangled with an obstacle that hadn't been there a moment ago.

"YAAGH!" Shinji cried as he toppled forward, arms scrambling for something - anything - to break his fall, in the process swiping a flailing hand along the length of a nearby countertop. This did nothing to stop his fall, but it did knock two empty beer bottles off-balance, which promptly triggered the rather impressive chain-effect of causing the multitude of beer cans, wine bottles, and other miscellaneous emptied alcoholic drink containers that graced almost every horizontal surface in the foyer to come crashing down after him.

"Kyuu!"

"Shinji-kun," Misato cried. "Are you alright?"

"Somewhat, yes," Shinji grimaced, holding a hand on his forehead at the spot where it had met cold, hard ceramic. "What was that?" he asked, dazed, as Misato helped him up, and cast a dark look at Hisame - the ermine, despite spending the last two hours or so seemingly fast asleep in his shirt pocket, had escaped the fall with surprising agility by leaping onto Misato's shoulder, from where he was giving Shinji an innocent look.

"Gomen gomen," Misato grimaced. "I forgot to feed Pen-pen before I left for work today. He must be starving."

The bump on Shinji's head went completely forgotten as Shinji stared at the creature trying to climb up Misato - a black-and-white winged bipedal creature that stood at almost two feet tall, with reddish eyebrow-like bristles above its eyes. "A penguin?" he mumbled in incredulous disbelief. "You keep a penguin for a pet?"

"You keep a snow ermine," Misato pointed out, to which Shinji had no clever rebuttal. "He's one of those hot-spring breeds," she continued her explanation as the bird continued its attempts to clamber up her, warking hungrily for food. "Pen-pen!"

It was a few moments before Shinji extricated himself from the mess, battling his beer-stained clothes, a frantic penguin, and the ruins of enough empty beer cans and broken bottles that, combined, once easily held enough alcohol to float the Titanic, which Shinji hoped for his own sake had not all belonged to Misato. Gingerly he navigated the way through the apartment with the hesitating tentativeness of a newcomer, past the kitchen and living room towards one of Misato's spare rooms which was now his ("There's a spare towel inside the cupboard!" Misato had shouted after him), and then, entering it, gently slid the traditional-style bamboo door shut behind him.

He took a moment to savor the first time he had been alone since the beginning of the thoroughly mind-boggling day.

The room was small, but Shinji didn't mind, since it was clean and neat and that was all that mattered as far as he was concerned. A plain single bed, reading desk and full-length cupboard were lined against the far three walls, with a window that looked out east over the glittering lights of Tokyo-3. It was also completely bare, devoid of any CDs, posters, photos, or any other personal decorations or articles that might have given him a hint of what sort of person Ikari Shinji had been like. As it was he still knew almost nothing about himself; there were no remnants of his past, no one who knew him in this strange megalopolis, nothing to verify that he had ever existed at all -

"Kyu," Hisame cried from his shirt pocket.

- except for a snow ermine, and a portable quantum supercomputer strapped to his wrist that, with his lost memories, he no longer had the access password to. The device had been so ergonomic and weightless that Shinji had completely forgotten he was still wearing it. He unfastened the Velcro strap and set the device on his desk, watching with impressed fascination as it projected a holographic keyboard, pointing pad and 20-inch viewing screen, transforming itself into a virtual full-sized desktop computer that could be comfortably used without having to fumble with the small, cramped built-in touchpad and display.

"Wish you could talk," Shinji said, watching Hisame leap gently from his shirt pocket onto his desk. "Bet you'd have quite a few stories to tell me, neh?"

He was about to raid the cupboard for the spare towels Misato had mentioned earlier when he noticed that Hisame had just jumped across the holographic keyboard, and the password prompt displayed so prominently on the viewing screen now had an asterisk on it. "S," Shinji read out loud, watching as the glow on the key just pressed faded away. "What the hell?"

Hisame continued to manoeuvre carefully, slowly around the keyboard, pressing keys with short paws that had been evolutionally designed against performing such a feat. "A..." Shinji continued. "U... S..." He blinked as Hisame finally completed the word. "Sausages."

"Piki," Hisame tittered triumphantly, jumping onto and sitting on the Return key.

The password prompt evaporated, and the screen went blank. Now thoroughly baffled by the turn of events, Shinji took a step closer towards the computer, which looked for all in the world as if its batteries had just gone flat -

"Ahem."

Shinji whirled around reflexively. "Who the hell are you?"

Unless Misato had lied about her living alone, the girl behind him had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. She was in her late teens, Shinji guessed, and bore a striking resemblance to someone he had seen before - it took him a second to remember that that someone was Ayanami Rei, back at Central Dogma's medical facility. Except that her shoulder-length hair was cropped to an almost boyish style, yet still managed to retain a substantial amount of feminine beauty. Her eyes were also less guileless than Ayanami's - like her hair, they were a striking ice-blue, diamantine shade - yet they had Ayanami's considerable intensity as they stared at his own. "Good evening," she announced. "The time is now 2124 hours, June sixteenth, twenty-fifteen A.D. Our present location is Sector Gamma 9, Neon Genesis Evangelion. The current timeline is the second episode of the anime series."

"I asked who are you," Shinji asked, now with a defensive tone as he backed away slightly from the girl. "How did you get here?"

"My model designation is PT-900," she continued, raising her voice in seeming determination to ignore Shinji's question. "I first became operational in Adelaide, South Australia, January twelfth two-thousand six A.D. in Sector Aon. During an incident in Sector Delta 6 I gained self-awareness, and received from you the unit ID of Misao." She paused her narration, looking at Shinji in annoyance. "For heaven's sake, can't you let me finish this properly?"

Shinji had completely fallen off-balance, and was now staring at her in alarm. "I - I can see right through you," he said in a panicky stammer, index finger jabbed accusingly at her from his sitting position. "You're a ghost!"

"What'd you expect?" Misao snapped. "I'm a hologram constructed from G.N. particles. Of course you can see through me."

"MISATO-SAN!" Shinji shrieked in terror as he scrambled back frantically on all fours. He slammed back-first into his desk, which knocked enough air out of his lungs to pause his screaming for a moment or two, but ultimately failed to discourage him from continuing to bawl his lungs out. He was stopped only when, a second later, a drawer jarred loose from the earlier impact tumbled down and crashed squarely onto his forehead, causing the Avatar to collapse back limply, cross-eyed.

"Oro..."

"Well." Misao frowned. "That went a lot better than I thought it would."


~*~

"This simulation is a re-enactment of Evangelion Unit 02's first deployment," Ritsuko spoke into the small microphone attached to the collar of her lab coat. "On the eleventh of July, 2015 A.D., Unit 02 was deployed to halt the invasion of the Third Angel, codenamed Sachiel. As both Unit 02's remote communications systems and black box recorder were damaged during combat and necessitated extensive repairs, immediate post-deployment analysis of the operational anomalies exhibited by Unit 02 was not possible, which shall be carried out during this simulation instead."

The NERV Command Center was usually all but deserted at this late hour, manned only by standard night shift crew in case of emergencies. They had been relieved of their shifts for the night, however, as they did not possess enough clearance to be present, Ritsuko turned to look at Vice-Commander Fuyutsuki, filling in for Gendo's absence, and received a brief, affirming nod in return.

"Patch decoder data to the main screen," she ordered.

"Ma'am," Hyuga Makoto confirmed, carrying out Ritsuko's command.

The main screen consisted of almost the entirety of the far wall of the Command Center, opposite the command bridge which jutted out like a balcony to overlook the massive chamber. It snapped to life with startling detail as powerful computers combined information recorded by static cameras placed throughout Tokyo-3 and orbital observation platforms, and data salvaged from EVA-02's black box, to produce a visual display that could be panned, rotated, zoomed, or otherwise manipulated according the whim of its viewers. Right now it displayed a still image of EVA-02 firing its assault rifle, with enough framerate and resolution to clearly see the individual bullets as they hit and bounced off Sachiel's AT Field.

"Unit 02 was initially planned to be piloted by Ikari Shinji, Third Evangelion Pilot Qualifier," Ritsuko reported. "Due to his unforeseen absence Unit 02 was instead designated to Ayanami Rei, and launched into combat at 0743 hours."

"Pilot Ayanami achieved an initial synchronization rate of 43.3% with Unit 02," Maya continued. "Given her injuries at that time, this was considered quite a remarkable feat. However, MAGI also calculated the chances of tactical success at only 13%, owing to her extremely handicapped physical condition."

"Skip to four minutes," Ritsuko said.

"Ma'am."

"Combat progresses as expected," Ritsuko narrated. "We were able to verify that the Evangelion units fulfill their theoretical parameters, in particular that we can successfully generate an AT Field, and that it is effective at countering that of the Angels, when projected at sufficient strength."

"The Third Angel gains the upper hand in combat, in acordance with MAGI's computational predictions," Makoto said. "In part, this is due to NERV's underestimation of the Angel's full abilities, and Unit 02 suffers structural damage to 21% of its external armor."

"And the Third Child?" Ritsuko asked.

Shigeru took over. "The Third Child was first sighted visually by Unit 02 seven minutes after initial deployment, a mystery given that his presence had gone completely undetected by NERV's surveillance network. Records give no indication of how the Third Child arrived in Tokyo-3, or breached the security perimeter," Shigeru paused, "almost as if he'd appeared out of thin air."

Anomaly number one, Ritsuko thought. Misato had, at that point, issued orders to Rei to protect the Third Child by putting him into Unit 02's entry plug. This had only worsened Rei's synchronization ratio due to the interference introduced by a second brainwave pattern, but there had been no other way to protect the boy - both the Commander's son, and a valuable and much-needed asset. "The rest we already know," she said. "Skip to twelve minutes."

/"Ikari Shinji,"/ a recorded, scratchy version of Rei's voice spoke in a whisper, distorted by static. /"Who... are you?"/

/"How should I put this,"/ Shinji replied. /"I'm this world's messiah, if you will."/

Deliberations of the significance of those words were broken by Maya saying, "At twelve minutes Unit 02 was rendered non-combat-capable by the Third Angel, via extensive damage to both the Evangelion unit and its pilot. Pilot Ayanami was pacified by extensive physical injuries and neural damage, while Unit 02 was reduced to 54% combat capability. However, the Third Child took over as Unit 02's pilot, achieving 7% synchronization on his first try. Our remote control systems were severed at this point, and from now onwards the simulation will be carried out using data reconstructed from Unit 02's damaged black box."

"I'm relaying the last reliable data we have from the black box before it was damaged," Shigeru reported. "Patching audio feed now."

/"Gate Access,"/ a voice announced calmly, wracked with static interference, but unmistakably Shinji's. /"Henshin!"/

And then: /"Henshin,"/ a second, androgynous voice confirmed. /"Wake up, Omni."/


~*~

Almost a mile away, in the darkness of her room at the medical facility of the Geo-Front, those very same words echoed in Ayanami Rei's mind.

Her entire world had been changed - of that there was no doubt. Five minutes in Unit 02's entry plug with the Third Child had assured her of that. And now that the Third Child was amnesiac, unaware of and helpless against the greater forces that had culminated in his presence here in Tokyo-3, Rei couldn't help but feel, despite herself, that part of the burden now rested upon her as well.

Gently she closed her eyes, allowing her mind to drift, as it had done so of its own volition without fail for the past five nights, back towards uneasy memories of the Third Child.


~*~

"As can be seen, Unit 02 undergoes a transformation of indeterminate nature," Ritsuko said grimly. "The cause and trigger of this transformation is currently unknown. What is known is that Unit 02 violated the laws of conservation of energy and mass by doing so, and restored itself to 100% combat capacity in the process. The estimated rate of this transformation is approximated at 18000 times faster than the Third Angel's evolution in response to the N2 mine, and with far more visibly substantial effects."

"Visual estimates place post-transformation Unit 02 at 63 meters tall," Makoto reported, manning the keyboard with deft expertise as he called up a small wireframe display of EVA-02, neatly-dimensioned, at the top-right corner of the main screen. "Judging from footfall impact and movement speed, total mass is placed at around 84 metric tons." He paused, evaluating the data. "The extra armor don't seem to add much weight at all."

The video footage had progressed to another still shot, this time to an image of EVA-02, posed forbiddingly between a pair of half-demolished skyscrapers, except that it now took some effort to recognize the EVA for what it was. It retained its humanoid shape and blood-red armor plating, but now augmented with a pair of armored vambraces on its forearms that swept back, blade-like, at the elbows. Similarly-themed white armor shielded its calves without greatly altering the smooth, streamlined dimensions of EVA-02's legs, and, at the shoulders, formed a pair of imprecisely triangular shoulder plates outlined with red stripes. The torso of the Evangelion, while left largely unchanged, was nonetheless now augmented by dark gray braces that ran the length across and down EVA-02's shoulders, affixing to its back what seemed, for the moment, like a small, flat-looking backpack.

Perhaps the greatest change had been effected to EVA-02's head, the entirety of which was now encased in a sleekly aerodynamic red-and-white helmet that concealed the Evangelion's insectoid features from view. Covering the four eyes was an emerald-green crystalline visor, vaguely shaped in the angle of a 'V' and sheltered beneath an overhanging forehead plate, with the rest of its countenance now more or less hidden behind a metallic faceplate. Combined with the rest of its new armor, this served to dull EVA-02's image of a ferally hungry predator, which now looked more like a technological combat machine of elegant, clinical precision.

The extended moment of silence was broken by Ritsuko saying, "The unknown is to be henceforth designated as Bogey-1. The investigation of its nature, technology and abilities will be top priority and marked as Seraphim clearance by Section 9." She cleared her throat. "Proceed with the simulation."

"Roger!"


~*~

"It worked," Shinji breathed incredulously. Then, regaining part of his mental equilibrium, repeated in a calmer voice: "It worked."

"For the moment, yes," Misao replied uneasily. "And with that, we've blown the limitation matrices of this sector cleanly out of the water."

Shinji sounded much more confident. "We'll figure that one out later," he said. "The main priority now is to remain undetected by NERV after this whole fiasco. As it is we'll only remain in this sector long enough to find the real Shinji - we've wasted enough time as it is."

He was pondering how to best defeat the Angel within the shortest amount of time and with as little movement as possible to avoid the risk of Rei's injuries worsening, when the Angel solved that problem for him by breaking into a headlong, lopsided charge. The ground trembled beneath the immense impact of the Third Angel's footfalls, who had its left upper limb extended in readiness to deploy the lance-like weapon built into its forearm -

- and missed.

To any observers it seemed almost as if the Angel shifted aside to avoid Unit 02, rather than the other way round. Shinji lashed out with a brief kick, catching his adversary right above its ankle in mid-step, sending it crashing off-balance. The Angel toppled forward, its balance destroyed; and EVA-02 hastened the process by driving a savage elbow strike into the back of the Angel's head.

The Third Angel crashed violently into the cityscape as Shinji turned around evenly, surveying his fallen foe. "Teklancer," he commanded.

The inside of the armored vambrace on EVA-02's right forearm snapped open, revealing a hidden compartment that housed what appeared to be a polished, metallic, and slightly flattened cylindrical rod. It was ejected into EVA-02's open right hand, and with a mental command a field of translucent green light projected from the device in the shape of a straight, completely flat-edged katana blade. The weapon hummed as Shinji spun it deftly around in his hand, stalking forward to meet the Third Angel climbing back to its feet -

"An AT Field," Misao observed.

The Teklancer met with an impenetrable barrier of yellowish energy as Shinji struck in what otherwise would have been a precisely swift blow. The blade hung in mid-air, resisted by the Angel's AT Field despite Shinji's two-handed attempt to force it down. "How do I create one?" he asked.

It was Rei who answered. "Imagine it," she instructed quietly, speaking by his ear as she leaned against him. "The Evangelion is thought controlled. Generating an AT Field is the same."

From what little Shinji knew of the Evangelion units, he had no problem imagining that it would be as easy as waving an arm; exactly what kind of thought was needed to command his body to perform a function it had never performed before, however, perplexed him. But even as he dwelt on that train of thought, the Angel's AT Field faltered. Inch by inch he drove his weapon through the crumbling defensive barrier, forcing it down until the plasma blade was mere feet away from Sachiel's 'face' -

The Third Angel's core glowed.

EVA-02 exploded in a conflagration of white-hot flames as the destructive blast of energy hit and detonated at point-blank range. For a moment Unit 02 was lost from sight, obscured by the explosion - and then a beam blade lashed out, slicing off Sachiel's left arm, the severed limb trailing only minimal amounts of dark blue ichor in its wake as it flew through the air, the wound cauterized almost instantly by the intense heat of the sword. EVA-02 emerged grimly from the flames that engulfed it, unaffected and unscathed, and as the Third Angel brought its other limb and energy lance to bear against its adversary, that limb, too, went flying amidst a blindingly-swift flash of green and trail of blue fluid.

Before the Angel could do anything further, EVA-02 bent down, closing the palm of its free hand around the Angel's face. Mounted in the palm of that armored gauntlet was an energy cell, which glowed and hummed with the unmistakable sound of beam cannons charging themselves up to fire.

"Voltekker."


~*~

"Pause the video," Ritsuko ordered. "Zoom out to point one six factor."

As Shigeru complied, reducing the still image to an aerial birds-eye view of Tokyo-3, all that could be seen was a blast of white light that manifested itself as a pillar of energy that engulfed both Unit 02 and the Third Angel. "Bogey-1 displays the ability to employ a sort of energy weapon, known as the Voltekker," Makoto reported dutifully. "Effective range is unknown. Analysis concludes that this weapon displays a strength equivalent to approximately six kilotons of explosive force, and that this force can somehow be condensed to affect only its local vicinity."

Ritsuko nodded to indicate her pensive approval. "Continue."


~*~

Shinji breathed heavily, releasing his grip on his adversary as the impact of the Voltekker blast cleared.

Superheated air formed mirage-like waves, briefly obscuring Shinji's view of the Third Angel, which for all intents and purposes was still alive. While it was true that he had regulated his Voltekker to a fraction of its full strength and manipulated the blast so that it worked as a directed bomb instead of a ranged beam, the Angel was - much to its credit - still in one piece. Its flesh had seemingly turned semi-liquid now, with small droplets rolling along its limbs and body. Its lower torso opened, revealing a pair of fish-like gills that opened and closed rhythmically, almost as if gasping for air.

The Teklancer flashed, and suddenly the tip of its blade was hovering only feet above Sachiel's face. "Leave," Shinji commanded. "This battle is over. You've lost." He paused for a moment to recover his own strained breathing. "I don't want to have to kill you."

"Shinji!" Misao hissed a warning. "Finish him now! He's going to -"

The PET's warning barely registered as the beaten, battered Angel moved with a speed that caught Shinji completely by surprise. Its shape changed - liquid-like, the Angel poured over him, reshaping itself into a sphere attached firmly to EVA-02's upper torso. Shinji found himself staring at the red orb mounted in Sachiel's chest that was its core, now pressed right against EVA-02's face, the brief glow within promising him that something very unpleasant was about to happen.

"- self-destruct," Misao mumbled.

Shinji did the only thing he could think of. Multiple thruster rockets folded open along the back of EVA-02's calves, and the asphalt beneath EVA-02's feet shattered as the Avatar kicked off and accelerated into hypersonic flight, the propulsion systems whining in protest as they were driven to every last drop of output they had to offer. Shinji felt the tremendous G-forces crush Ayanami's delicate body against his as he threw all caution to the winds, all while the Angel's core continued to radiate light with increasing intensity -

"Misao!" Shinji screamed desperately.

"Matter conversion complete," Misao declared. "ATLAS reconfigured to survival mode. Six seconds to detonation, five -"

It's over, Shinji thought furiously, as Hisame scrambled frantically into the relative safety of Shinji's shirt pocket. If Ayanami dies, then this sector is done for. Driven to savage fortitude by that thought he clicked the safety belts loose, and, assisted by their weightlessness as EVA-02 reached critical flight velocity and the buoyancy of LCL, he switched himself and Ayanami around, pressing the blue-haired girl into the padded pilot's seat, and knelt over her in a protective crouch.

Ayanami's one good eye stared straightforwardly, guilelessly at him - perhaps in bemusement at his apparent altruism, or chagrin at the futility of trying to shield her from a literal nuclear bomb with nothing but his body. He couldn't tell which. "Why?" she asked softly.

"Because this is going to hurt like hell." He winced. "I'm sorry. Hang on, okay?" He smiled weakly. "But you'll be fine, I promise."

"Two," Misao continued. "One."

Reaching to his left wrist, Shinji snatched a second card from the deck, and slashed it viciously through his PET. "Gate Access," he shouted. "Clock Up!"

And then his world turned white, and the last sound he remembered was his own scream of agony.

Night turned into day as, twenty kilometers in the stratosphere above Tokyo-3, the entire mass of Sachiel's core firmly attached onto EVA-02 was converted into pure energy in a single instant, exploding with the force of six hundred megatons of trinitrotoluene. Nearby clouds were vaporized in a searing wave of nuclear fire. It seemed as though Tokyo-3 was crushed beneath a gigantic, invisible hammer as the shockwaves reached the ground - buildings were flattened in the blink of an eye, their underlying structures compressed into collapse without enough time to break. The impact was felt all the way three kilometers underground into Central Dogma - where, five days later, Dr Akagi Ritsuko would command a re-enactment of the Third Angel's invasion, witnessing the broken body of EVA-02, without its Tekkaman armor, fall from the sky, eventually crashing down onto the broken streets of Tokyo-3, where it lay still.


~*~

"Shinji?" Misato knocked on his door.

The boy had been silent for a while, Misato thought. Long enough that she had finished clearing the debris of beer cans, and dished out Pen-pen's dinner, all without so much as a squeak from the sable-haired boy's room - though she thought she had heard some screaming that was probably her own imagination. "Shinji?" she knocked again. "Are you in there?"

"I - I'm fine!" Shinji yelled back frantically in a strangely muffled voice. "Don't come in! I'm - er - undressing!"

Misato allowed herself a sneaky grin. "Well, don't take too long!" she called out cheerily. "Dinner's ready and served."

"Won't be a minute," the voice behind the door gasped a promise.

As Misato retreated down the hallway, humming a tune cheerily to herself, the occupant on the other side of the door was preoccupied with staring breathlessly at the female figure standing before him, jaw slightly agape. "You..." he swallowed. "You're a hologram?"

"As per my programmed directives, I am to assist you in your quest beyond the Fourth Wall," Misao announced imperiously, her arms crossed. "As of such, I am hence to inform you of the following items." She suddenly bent over, so that the tip of her nose was only inches away from Shinji's, and smiled with a hint of mischievousness. "And I suggest you pay attention."