Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Second Coming ❯ Back in the Saddle ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter Twelve: Back in the Saddle

 

I was kept in the hospital a day or three more. I didn't mind; the headache that was still hanging around was keeping me from doing much more than moving gently and whimpering anyway. I wasn't happy at spending yet more time in hospital, but there's not much you can do sometimes.

I was visited one day by Misato Katsuragi, which was a surprise.

"Hi, neighbor," I greeted her. "Good to see you."

"And you as well," she said, in a friendly tone but with a flatness to it, as if the pleasantries were a necessary evil of sorts, a mandatory but pointless step.

"What's up?" I asked, trying to gauge her true emotions via her expression.

She sat on the side of the bed and faced me. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"Not bad," I acknowledged. "They did a brain scan today. Came back negative, of course."

She didn't laugh at the joke, though she did smile slightly. It took me a second to notice the changed insignia on her jacket collar. Oh, yeah - she's a Major now. "Oh! It appears I should be congratulating you."

"Thanks," she said, again smiling faintly. "I need to know something, though. Do you feel up to piloting?"

"Now? Today?" I asked, and was answered with a nod. "I guess so, though I wouldn't mind some painkillers before I leave here."

"All right," she said, nodding again. "We'll make that happen. I will have a plugsuit delivered."

"I gather there's an Angel on the way?" I hazarded.

"Yes," she said simply, looking down at her feet. "I need all four of you to make this work."

"You can count on us," I promised. "We'll get the job done."

She sat there for a moment, then asked, "Why is it you do this, Jill?"

"What?" I asked. "You mean.. why do I pilot Eva?"

She answered with a silent nod, then looked at me.

"I was asked to," I shrugged. "And.. it's exciting. To me, at least. And I've always thrived on excitement and adventure."

"What about praise?" Misato asked softly.

"Praise?" I echoed. "Well, it's certainly not something I'd turn down," I said with a joking tone. "Are you asking if I need praise to do my job?"

"I'm not sure," she said. "But now that you've brought it up.. do you?"

I decided to weave truth and lie again. "My parents had a firefighter friend back home," I told her. "He always said he would do the job no matter what. He would say, 'Thankyous are rare in this business.. the work is its own reward'. In other words, people by their nature tend not to be outwardly grateful towards those who make the world a better place. I kind of agree with that philosophy. I'm not in this for the money, or to get a ticker-tape parade. I know that the majority of the people who the Evangelions protect may never know their saviors. That doesn't bother me. Having done the job right is what's important to me."

All through the spiel, Misato stared at me. "Are you sure you're just 14?" she finally said at the end.

I laughed a little. "Sometimes I wonder," I said, keeping the joke to myself. "Anyway.. when do we begin?"

"Begin..?" Misato said, then remembered why she'd come in the first place. "Oh! Yes, of course. You need to be in the Cage by 12:35 for activation at 13:00, to be in position by 14:00."

"Okay, deal," I nodded. "I'll be there."

 

It felt like ages since I'd been in the Eva.

My head still hurt, but the painkillers were ebbing it somewhat. Still, just the thought of the 'neural clips' funneling things through my mind made me want to cringe. I had no idea what would happen given my head injury, but presumably, Misato and/or Dr. Akagi did, and trusted me.

Or they could be just that desperate, I thought to myself, waiting for the plug to fill and the startup sequence to begin.

I decided that if I had anything to say about it, my clock wasn't going to get punched quite yet. I was feeling as if I'd been recharged with the energies of life. My little epiphany, or trip down memory lane, or whatever you'd like to dub it, made me want to keep on going all that much more.

I wasn't a placeholder for this child in the last gasp of humanity. This was my life. Mine to do with what I wished.

And I wished to live it as fully as I could muster.

My headache dropped off even further as the Eva's startup sequence began; that made sense, after I thought about it for a second, considering the symbiotic nature of the link between pilot and bio-machine.

I waited for the signals to come up as they usually did, but something seemed off. The feedback I was getting from Sangouki was ever-so-slightly different.

It wasn't bad, or unsettling; just not what I was expecting. At the time, I couldn't place a finger on it, so to speak. It didn't seem to hamper any important functions, so I reported ready.

"All four of you, once launched, proceed to the designated starting points as marked on your screens," Misato ordered.

"That's an awfully big area," Shinji commented.

"It's the best prediction the Magi can make," Ritsuko cut in.

"Correct," Misato added. "Once the Angel's touchdown point is predicted, that data will be sent to your screens as well. You must all converge upon that point and spread your AT Fields, to catch the Angel."

"This is imposs--" Asuka began to complain.

Rei unintentionally cut her off. "Roger," the pilot of 00 said.

"Acknowledged," I chimed in, hoping my friend would let the matter drop.

"Fine, fine," she responded, then grumbled something too low for the mikes to hear.

Shinji answered in the affirmative too, and at that point we were launched. I found myself on the side of a hill, near a temple, not far from the school. A helper crew with a scissors lift was there to offer me an umbilical.

"03, ready and waiting," I said when it came to be my turn.

We stood ready for quite some time - well, not hours, but minutes, though of course it seemed like ages. During the delay, I heard something unusual on the audio channel, and realized after a moment, it was Asuka humming. Further investigation revealed she was humming along to tunes she was listening to on her music player.

"Hey, Second!" I called out, turning her usual nickname for me around on her. "How'd you manage to make your MP3 player survive LCL?"

"Se-cret," she said with a smile, eyes remaining shut as she bopped along to the tune.

"I'll weasel it out of you eventually," I said. "You can tell me now, or you can tell me later."

"Unit 03, keep this channel open for priority updates," Misato said curtly.

"Roger," I replied meekly, suitably chastised. That was fine; Asuka would give up her methods one way or the other, before long. I had visions of charging into battle with P.O.D.'s Boom or something like that playing, and I wasn't about to give up on the idea.

"Angel visually sighted!" Aoba suddenly called out. "Maximum magnification! Altitude 25,000!"

"All Evas, make ready," Misato ordered, in an urgent but decisive voice. Everyone crouched like sprinters, preparing to spring into action on the word go.

I glanced at the radar/map display to see where I would be heading, and found the most likely target was a knobby sort of hill near the center of where we'd been situated. Those Magi machines are pretty good, I found myself musing.

"Let's go!" Shinji bellowed, leaping forward, both actions catching me off-guard; I'd been expecting someone from HQ to give the final word to move out. Asuka and Rei were already well underway by the time I jettisoned the umbilical and set off to join them.

"20,000! .. 18,000!" Aoba went on. I so wanted to shut him off, but it would have taken time I didn't have while working the controls, trying to catch up with the others.

C'mon! Move! I urged the Eva, even though it was running at a speed that would shame almost anything that could travel across the Earth. I didn't want to be the failure of this plan. I was already going to be last to the hill; if I didn't get there and deploy my AT Field in time, the whole thing might be a loss. Sure, three Evas had done it in the show, but as I've said before, I was putting less and less stock in what I'd seen and more and more in how things were unfolding before me.

My pleas were apparently heard; I half-scrambled, half-fell up the hill just as Asuka and Rei were joining Shinji under the blobby orange thing. I felt the pressures of their AT Fields kick in a fraction of a second before my own was expanded, at my command; describing how I do such a thing, or what it feels like in terms of feedback from the Eva, is pointless, as it's another of those things that defies description in words.

One would have thought that with its downward motion arrested, the danger from the Angel's attack was past; however, somehow, I got the feeling that it was still storing up its kinetic energy in its own AT Field, somehow bypassing the laws of physics at will, and would still make just as big a splash if any of us slipped.

"Units 02 and 03! Spread your field to maximum!" Rei commanded.

"I'm already doing it!" Asuka shot back. I just pushed harder, even though I was already feeling like I was trying to lift a building - by myself, without my Eva.

Rei relaxed her grip with one arm, and the pressure increased just as much. I pushed yet harder again against the beast's field, as Rei snatched up her prog knife and slashed at the octagonally-rippled energy before us, tearing a rend in it which she wedged open with one hand, pressing directly against the Angel's core.

"Go Asuka!" I cried out. She too had her knife at the ready, and swung a two-handed uppercut at the core, driving the knife into it, all the way up to the handle. The AT Field fizzled and vanished, and all of us found ourselves no longer pushing against a tremendous wall of inertia, but still, dealing with a ridiculous amount of mass.

Shinji was the first to go; the ground literally gave way underneath him and split, driving 01 waist-deep into the earth. From that point, it was all over; even though the Angel had lost, it would partially win, causing damage to each of us as the weight became too much to bear. Rei was knocked flat on her back due to her off-balance pose. Asuka was determined to hang on to her knife, and I simply couldn't last against such overwhelming mass, and collapsed, squashed flat to the ground on 'my' stomach.

"Owww... asshole," I complained, partly winded by the dying Angel's crushing impact. As I looked over my shoulder, I saw the core begin to emit light and heat, and in a moment, a thunderous explosion washed over me.

The Eva handled the blast well, considering it was at the epicenter more or less. I knew we were being tumbled about for a bit, but the enormity of the situation wouldn't become evident until the smoke cleared.

"Is everyone all right?" Rei asked, the radio comms scratchy and weak.

"I-I'm okay," Shinji called out. "I think main comms are down."

"Fine," Asuka replied. "Visibility zero!"

"03 is here," I responded. "Same with me. What about damage?"

"Minimal," Rei said, her choice of words matching her verbosity.

"I.. I think something's wrong with my Eva's legs," Shinji said.

"Oh great! What now?" Asuka snapped.

"Asuka, take it easy," I suggested. "He was driven into the ground pretty hard. Shinji, can you stand?"

"Yes, I'm standing up," he clarified. "I just hurt a lot. In my legs.. like I did in my arm when the Eva's arm got broken."

"So you strained a muscle or two," Asuka replied. "Who cares? We won!"

"It would appear so," Rei cut in. "But we should try to get into the clear first to confirm. Besides, we are all running on limited battery power."

"Right," I said. "Radar says we should head southeast. I'm moving."

Three steps brought me to a curved slope of some sort. I realized it was the base of a crater, and started to try to climb my way up the side, reporting my findings to the others.

"I see you," Shinji declared. I looked up and there he was, to my left, about 100 meters away. I made the Eva give a little wave in his direction.

Comms returned at about the same time the smoke, dust, and debris began clearing, as we were halfway up out of the crater. "Command to Eva units. Someone, respond!"

"We're here," Asuka called out. "Mission accomplished!"

"Well done, you four!" Ritsuko replied, voice filled with relief. "We were a little worried there."

"No problems," Asuka continued. "Not when there's a steak dinner on the line!"

"Say again?" Dr. Akagi said, confused.

"Unit 01," Maya cut in, concern in her tone. "Report your status."

"I'm fine," Shinji said, his voice a little strained. "Just aching a little."

"Sensors show that the lower ligaments and tendons were subjected to 176% of their maximum allowable stress," Maya reported to Ritsuko.

"Recover Unit 01 first," Misato immediately said. "Have the other three find umbilicals and wait their turn in numerical order."

"Acknowledged," Rei said softly, already picking up a socket one of us had dropped earlier.

"Got it," I said, heading over to rendezvous with another.

"Geez.. why does he always get the special treatment?" Asuka grumbled, moving on as well.

"He's hurt," I explained. "Misato's probably sweating bricks right now that she dented Dad's car the first night he left her the keys."

"What?" Asuka said, completely confused, and clearly irritated at my response.

"Never mind," I said, hunkering down and watching the display go to all 8's as I hooked up. "It was a bad joke, anyway."

 

Misato had the lot of us gathered in the command center afterwards. Asuka kept on going on about the reward dinner, as if she was needling Misato and making sure the latter wouldn't forget it. Rei, Shinji, and I just stood there.

Major Katsuragi had one of the techs open comms to Ikari, whereever he was - the South Pole, retrieving the Spear of Longinus, if memory served me. In any case, he was on the horn, and received the full briefing from Misato, who all but groveled before him, taking the full blame for Sho's damages.

"It's to be expected," came the indifferent reply. "This was a success by any measure. Just ensure you have the appropriate paperwork completed as soon as possible."

"Y-yes, sir," Misato said, taken aback.

"And compliment the pilots on a job well done," he added. "They should all be proud of their work today."

Shinji's eyes widened in response to the comment, as Misato replied to the audio-only commlink, "They're all right here, actually, sir."

Ikari spent a couple moments complimenting Shinji directly. I found myself wondering why he was getting singled out, or more precisely, why Ikari had suddenly found it necessary to acknowledge his son's efforts. Perhaps being in the godless wasteland that had been Antarctica made him think about things.

I put it out of my head fairly quickly, as the conversation ended; Misato told us to go change and be ready to head out shortly. I started to turn away, but was called to stay behind 'for a moment'.

The others departed, and I turned back to face Misato and Ritsuko. Neither looked impressed, and I was a little concerned by that. I became a lot more worried when they told the command center crew to take a break. That left me alone with the two officers.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Your sync rate is up 11 points," Ritsuko said plainly.

"Isn't that a good th--"

"No," Misato interrupted, folding her arms across her chest. "Not when it's coupled with a performance like you had today. What were you thinking?"

I realized they'd noticed my few seconds of lag upon Shinji's command to go. I told them the truth: "I wasn't expecting the order to move out to come from a fellow pilot," I explained. "I had been anticipating it to come from you, Major."

"Shinji could have seen something from his vantage point that we couldn't detect here," Misato shot back. "You were expecting to be idle until someone said otherwise. You should be doing the opposite. Be like a coiled spring, ready to jump at the word, unless explicitly told not to."

I felt a little miffed that such a big deal was being made out of a little slip-up, but I kept my opinions to myself. "Yes, ma'am," I replied.

"Normally, this wouldn't be such a concern, but the problem is, your feedback scores indicate you should have been improving. Do you understand what we're saying?" Ritsuko explained.

"Are you worried that I'll perform even worse at the levels I was at before today?"

"Not necessarily," Ritsuko said before Misato could answer. "But the situation is a paradoxical one. If you don't have any explanation for the results, I might need to recommend offlining Unit 03 and putting you through synchronization testing starting right back at step one."

I blinked, surprised. What could I tell them? 'I had a dream during my coma that let me remember everything I'd forgotten from before coming to Nerv, which oh by the way you didn't know I'd forgotten, did you?' After a few seconds of thought, what I hoped was the right answer came to me.

"My head is still a little sore from that fall I took," I said. As if my body was reminded of the accidental injury at that moment, the back of my head began to throb. "It was distracting me a little. I'm sorry. Please.. if I need to come test every day for the rest of the week, or the month, to prove my fitness to you, I'll do it. But don't take me away from my friends and colleagues. With all due respect and no conceit meant, they need me. Just as much as I need them. We are a team."

The two women studied me for a moment or three. "That will be all, Pilot," Misato finally said.

Had she decided one way or the other? Did I miss it? "Maj--"

"Go change, Jill," she said, turning to attend to something else. "The longer we are tied up here, the later your friends will have to wait for us."

Defeatedly, I turned and headed for the door. As it opened, my face reddened and I looked to the metal flooring under my feet. Hanging around outside the door, chatting, as they waited to be let back in the command center, were Aoba, Hyuga, Ibuki, and their two co-workers. They fell silent as I stepped into their midst and then out again, swiftly walking past them, trying not to make eye contact.

Changing and showering (and sticking close to a wall, one hand resting on it, for safety's sake), I started putting on my street clothes - evidently, Asuka had been nice enough to bring in something from my place, since I'd come straight from the medical wing to the changeroom. My thoughts, it need not be said, were muddled and upset at that point. If this is how they deal with a slip-up, what'll happen if there's a total failure?

I found Misato waiting outside the changeroom, arms folded, leaning against the wall. As she spotted me, she said "Ready?" in an upbeat tone, and started walking towards the street level exit.

I blinked, caught off guard, and hurried to catch up with her. "Major," I called out.

"Sorry about that back there," she said, gesturing sort of towards where the command center was. "Ritsuko needed convincing that.."

"That what?" I asked, as she trailed off.

"Nothing. Never mind," she said, a look of embarrassment on her face, calling the elevator.

I studied her for a moment, and then decided to press onward. "That you could cut it as the commander in chief?" I hazarded.

Misato looked at me, just angling her eyes my way slightly. We remained that way for a long moment, until the elevator doors parted. "You're far too observant, you know that?"

"I'm sorry," I said, following her into the lift. "I just figure you must be under a serious kind of pressure right now since all this is in your lap. And I know I was off my timing for the mission. I--"

"You certainly were," Misato agreed.

"Right," I continued. "And knowing Dr. Akagi, she made some kind of comment about it at the time. I'm sorry. It was a lapse which won't happen again."

Misato sighed, puffing her bangs out of her face. "You're right," she said.

"I don't follow," I said, confused.

"About why we held you back and talked with you," Misato replied, looking to the ceiling. "Under normal circumstances, I would've just brought it up tonight at dinner, or something. But I wanted to show Ritsuko that I had my finger on the pulse of NERV." She looked down to me. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," I shrugged. "I did screw up, after all. Consider me chastised, and let's go eat. Right?"

Misato smirked. "I'll give you a ride," she offered, "if you don't mind me stopping at an ATM first."