Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Second Coming ❯ Fifth Child ( Chapter 17 )

Chapter Seventeen: Fifth Child

 

After disembarking from the Eva back at headquarters, I ran. I didn't know where I was running or why, I just bolted and moved as fast as I could and as far as I could. I didn't want to be anywhere I could be reached. I didn't want to be anywhere at all. In the space of a few days, I'd had a falling out with my best friend, defied my boss and threatened to destroy his property, and saved the life of what might have been the final Angel. I just couldn't cope with myself.

In my distressed state, somehow I ultimately ended up in the hospital ward. I first encountered Dr. Akagi, leaving the cast clinic with her arm slung and bandaged.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'll be fine," she said. "We were luckily out of the path of the runaway."

"The Angel, you mean," I replied flatly.

"Yes.. true," came the response, as Akagi looked across the hall towards the windows, light filling the Geofront. "What about you - are you all right? I hear you all took some serious blows from that thing."

"I came out of it all right," I shrugged. "I think Asuka did too. It's Rei that got hurt.. no thanks to Shinji's father. Speaking of which.. I'm surprised I haven't been apprehended and delivered to him yet."

"Well, unless whatever you did is a major problem, I think it'll be overlooked for the time being. Commander Ikari has more pressing problems."

"Oh," I said.

"Such as his son barricading himself in his Eva and threatening to use it against the entirety of headquarters."

"What? When? Where is he?"

"He's in Cage 5, inside his Eva. As I understand it, they're trying to force eject the plug now. Shinji's in a good deal of trouble."

"Shit," I mumbled.

"If you want, you can probably visit your other friends. They're in wing 3A. Rei is getting her arm tended to. I have to go attend to other things."

"Uh, thanks," I said. By the way.. did you know your latest Child isn't what he claims to be?

Ritsuko started to go, but turned back and said, "Jill? Today was rough. Good job on getting through it."

I nodded and thanked her, watching her go.

 

I did manage to muster up the courage to face Asuka, meeting her and Rei in the hallway of the medical ward. The latter was sitting on a bench, examining a wrap on her right arm from shoulder to elbow. Asuka stood leaning against the wall nearby, staring out the hallway windows, pensively. Her glance darted my way when the partition doors opened, then focused on the landscape of the Geofront once more.

"Hi," I managed feebly towards the two of them. I directed to Rei, "Are you all right?"

She nodded. "I sustained a severe bruise," she explained. "It will heal."

"Good. Sorry you got hurt," I said, unsure what else to tell her. She looked at me for a second, then glanced Asuka's way with just her eyes, as if to prompt me.

"Asuka.." I began, trailing off and waiting for a response.

"Yeah?" she finally said, not turning her head at all, still looking straight ahead.

"We worked well together today. Thanks for your help."

"Right," she replied distantly.

"That was pretty tough," I offered to either of them, whichever cared to hear it. "An Eva as an Angel.. it's almost obscene."

"I can understand why Shinji hesitated," Rei said, prompting a snort from Asuka and both of us to look her way.

"Don't get me wrong," Asuka began, folding her arms before her and shutting her eyes, face tilted to the floor. "I know what you mean, but stupid Shinji brought all of this on himself. We managed to save the entry plug after all, didn't we? So he could have fought like he was ordered to, and the outcome would have been just the same. It just proves he doesn't have what it takes to be an Eva pilot."

I sighed and decided not to reply at all. Asuka took this as a cue to continue with her mini-rant. "I wonder who this Fifth Child is, anyway. They didn't bother telling us about him before now, of course.."

"My best guess," I said, feeling as if I had to say something, "is that he's been provided directly by Command as a package deal with the Eva, since he didn't come from.. around here." Shit. You almost said 'our class'. Get it together, kid.

"And just how do you figure that?" Asuka shot back, rolling her eyes. Before anyone could answer her, the partition doors opened and a Section Two officer with an MP5 in his hands strode swiftly into the hallway.

"Clear the corridor," he demanded, gesturing with the gun towards the far end of the hallway, to the other set of doors. "Now."

No one, not even Asuka, bothered to challenge him, based mainly on his stance and the pointing device he was using. Rei got up and was first to reach the doors, holding them open so Asuka and I could pass through. The soldier seemed content with that, walking halfway down the hall to the entrance to the intensive care wing, where Rei had just been treated less than an hour before.

The first guard remained standing at the door, while another came through the first set of doors, followed by two medical caregivers pulling a hospital bed. In it, unconscious, his face covered with an oxygen mask and IV tubing running under his blankets, presumably to his arms, Shinji Ikari was wheeled past. Two more guards took up the rear, one following the bed in while the other joined the very first one to stand guard at the entrance to ICU.

The three of us stood in silence for a few moments after that, having peered through the doors' windows to see what was going on. Finally, Rei said, "He appeared to not be injured. That much is good news."

"Wait till daddy gets hold of him," Asuka said, almost mockingly.

"That's not fair," I pointed out. "In my opinion, 'daddy' was half the problem."

Rei stayed silent, but I could see her staring at me out of the corner of my eye. Asuka responded to me with, "How do you figure that?"

"He didn't have to go so hard on Shinji," I said. "Anyone would have hesitated when put up against another Evangelion."

"I wouldn't," Asuka said promptly.

I blinked in surprise. "You're saying you would have no problems fighting another Eva?"

"Not at all," came the reply.

"If my Eva became infected with an Angel while I was in it," I asked, for clarification, "you would tear me.. that is, my Eva.. limb from limb, without a second thought?"

Asuka glared at me, and I, having apparently taken my stupid pills that morning, carried on. "Or, better yet, if it was your Eva that was infected, that's what you'd want us to do to you?"

Asuka's response was to force out an aggravated sigh and stomp away angrily. I realized, too late of course, that this was my cue to knock it off.

"I'm going home," I declared tiredly. "I'll see you later."

Asuka was in no mood to respond, and Rei, typically, said nothing either, so it was in silence that we parted ways for the day. I was able to travel through the other corridor again, getting glances from the two guards stationed outside the doors to ICU, but not being accosted in any other way. From there, I went to the change room to get rid of my plugsuit, and then started off towards home.

I half-expected to encounter Kaworu Nagisa at some time during my trek to the apartment block. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something didn't sit well within me at all about his appearance so early - in comparison to how it happened in the fictional version, of course. To boot, there was the fact that he'd appeared to me in the dream world I experienced after dying as Jack and being reborn as Jillian.

I had to wonder if I was reading too much into that, though. What if it was just a dream my comatose mind conjured up, and I subconsciously filled in the blanks with Kaworu after the fact, after I got entrenched in this world where Evangelions existed?

I was too tired to dwell any further on it, having been up for far too long. I trudged my way home and all but fell into bed, barely pausing to change into nightclothes. The crisis for today had already passed; anything else could wait for tomorrow.

 

The night was peaceful, at least physically, if not in my dreams anyway. The next day was a school day, so I got myself ready and started out into the hallway. Behind me, as I headed for the elevator, I heard a door open and close, and a hollered "I'm leaving!" in between, in Japanese.

Glancing over my shoulder when I reached the elevator, I saw that Asuka was coming my way. I had to wait for the elevator, so we were going to meet up. I just didn't know what to do once she arrived.

"Well!" Asuka said as she got to the elevator doors to wait with me. "It'll be good to get back to routine today, nein?"

I was a little stunned by the bright and cheery greeting, so I didn't answer her for a second or two. "Uh, yeah," was my ever-so-eloquent response when I finally found my voice.

Asuka shook her head a little, causing her hair to flip back and forth. "Shinji won't be in school, of course, so I have to pick up all his paperwork." She said that with a tone that implied it was a menial task beneath her doing.

The elevator arrived, and we both stepped aboard. I pushed the button for the ground floor while Asuka leaned against the back wall and kept on talking. "By the way, good job yesterday. It wasn't pretty, but we got the job done, right?"

I turned to face her. "You're.. okay with that? How it turned out?"

She quirked an eyebrow, looking at me oddly. "How do you mean? If you're talking about destroying the Eva, it was downright ugly. I don't ever wanna see that again. At least the pilot survived."

"Uh, yeah," I unwittingly repeated. "But what about.. us?" I winced at how selfish my statement sounded.

"Ohh, us," Asuka smirked. "Ja, we're fine, Fourth. I guess you didn't hear that we're now tied."

"Tied?" I said, blinking in surprise.

"Yeah!" she said. "Eighty-eight point six, both of us."

"Wow," I understated. "Um.. congratulations?"

"Danke, Fourth," Asuka replied. "Anyway, yeah, we're okay."

"All right, then; thanks," I told her. "Maybe in the future, if there's anything either of us need to talk about, we can ask one another--"

"Sure," she said, as the doors opened. "But for now, let's drop it. Okay?"

"All right," I agreed, following her out onto the street.

 

Homeroom began without incident, although people asked where Shinji was. We - meaning Rei, Asuka, and I - were able to give some minor details, that we'd been on a mission and he'd been injured a little. The truth was, of course, that the injuries weren't severe enough to require hospitalization, but that he'd been rendered unconscious by the LCL pressuring that his father had ordered. Whether Shinji would be back to school or not was something I couldn't say, because if things went as they were 'supposed' to, he'd be quitting NERV and running away as soon as he was awake.

Toji was present in class, of course, as was Hikari; and they had no reason to not be. There had been no life-threatening injury to the class jock, and thus no need for a hospital visit by the class president. Nothing had happened. Well, that last bit wasn't necessarily true; I'm sure I caught some personal moments of, shall we say, higher levels of friendship between the two, when they thought no one was looking.

"Everyone, attention, please," the teacher was suddenly saying, and Hikari tore her own attention away from Suzuhara and shot to her feet, hollering for everyone to stand and take notice. By reflex - after a full season of doing it already - I stood and faced the front.

"Thank you," the elderly instructor acknowledged us. "We have a new student transferring in today. Everyone please welcome Mr. Nagisa."

I stood still and stared as Kaworu wrote his name on the board, then turned to say hello to us in just the exact effeminate voice I'd been expecting; the same one I was convinced I heard in my 'death dream'.

"Mr. Nagisa, please take a seat," the teacher said once the class had finished chorusing a welcome greeting to our newest classmate.

Kaworu nodded and strode forward, walking down the aisle immediately left of me. He stopped at the first empty desk he came to and slid into the chair promptly. I was personally too stunned by his mere presence to object that he'd taken Shinji's seat; and only Asuka knows why she didn't bark at him.

The part that got to me was when he finished settling in - removing his book bag and hanging it on the hook at deskside, and all that. After seeming to be satisfied with how everything was set, he sat there for a moment, and then turned his head to look directly at me. Recognition seemed to play across his face, and then came a thin smile and a single, gentle nod, before he faced forward once more.

 

Classes were difficult to get through. The little nod of acknowledgment from Kaworu threw me off my game, so to speak. I did my best to avoid making any further eye contact with him and just get through the day, and it stressed me out to no end.

Asuka and Hikari were my saving grace come lunchtime, as I was able to blend in with the crowds and become just another white shirt and blue skirt in the sea of students going to the lunchroom. As usual, we chose a table in a corner of the room for the three of us to gather around.

"What do you think of our new classmate?" Hikari asked us innocently once we'd settled in.

I shut my eyes and sighed. Dammit.. I can't even get away from him at lunch!

"He's weird," Asuka opined. "Weird looks, weird voice.."

"You call everyone weird," Hikari accused her. Turning to me, the class president asked, "What about you, Jill? What do you think?"

"Oh!" I said, startled out of my daze. "Um..."

"What's up with you? You've been acting weird ever since.." Asuka began, then clammed up.

"Since when?" Hikari asked.

"Can't talk about it, Hikari, sorry," Asuka said. "Pilot stuff."

"Oh!" Hikari blurted out. "Do you mean to say he's a pilot, too?"

I nodded a little, and Asuka answered affirmatively.

"We met him the other day.. let's leave it at that," I murmured.

"I see," Hikari nodded.

Asuka looked at me with a cruel smile. "Oho, I think I understand now."

"What??" I said, my head snapping up to attention to regard her.

"Sooooomebody's in the midst of a cruuuuush," she teased, with Hikari picking up on it and joining in about halfway through the accusation.

"What?? No!" I blurted out, blushing and turning away. "It's nothing like that!"

"Sure, Fourth, sure," Asuka grinned.

Just then, to complicate matters, in from the nearby door came the object of our conversation. He spotted me first and walked over casually.

"Hello there," Kaworu greeted the group.

"Oh! Hello, Mr. Nagisa," Hikari began. "We were just talking about you. Erm, in a good way, that is." "I see," he said in that curious lilt, still with the everpresent smile. "It is good to meet you, Asuka Langley Sohryu, Hikari Horaki, and Jillian Thomson."

Asuka looked a little peeved as I studied her, keeping my attention diverted from Kaworu, as if that would accomplish anything. "You know all our names already?" Hikari said with an air of awe.

"Of course," he said with a nod. Turning once again my way, he added, "Besides the fact that it makes good sense, it is a wise thing to be able to identify your colleagues."

"Ohhh," Hikari said, looking back and forth between me and Kaworu. "Do you guys want me to step aside for a bit?"

"No.. stay here," I said quietly, though in my mind it came out as a hollered plea.

"It's all right," Kaworu responded. "I've been invited to sit with another of our classmates for lunch. I just thought I'd introduce myself." He stepped back and performed a gentle bow. "It was nice meeting you, Hikari. And I'll be seeing you soon, Asuka.. and Jillian," he said, glancing at us each in turn before walking away.

"Wow," Hikari said in a hushed tone after Kaworu had taken a few steps away. "Quite an air of mystery. He's very interesting."

"Hey, Hikari," Asuka said, "Aren't you spoken for already?"

"Ack!" the class president squawked, flinching visibly. "Don't say it so loud, Asuka!"

"Why not?" Asuka teased, grinning. "Toooooojii does.."

The two of them went on some more, while I kept my head down and busied myself with finishing my lunch as quickly and quietly as possible.

 

The afternoon's classes were largely uneventful, thankfully. Toji got in trouble for sleeping in class, with a piece of chalk right into the center of his forehead - you'd have never known the old geezer was such a good shot (or even anything short of oblivious when it came to his students). Hikari gave Asuka a half-ream of printouts to take to Shinji, and for some reason, I turned down her request for me to tag along. Maybe I was thinking that Kaworu would try to go visit Shinji in the hospital, and that it would be best to avoid further contact. Of course, things happened exactly the opposite way I'd expected.

"You seem to be avoiding me," I heard from behind as I walked home.

Whipping around in a sudden, startled motion, I found Kaworu not more than five paces behind. I must have looked terrified; though his expression and tone didn't change, I could tell he was concerned.

"Why are you so fearful?" he asked.

"I.. I don't get along well with people I've just met," I stammered, turning away.

"That is clearly a lie," he said, continuing after me. "Why waste time with it?"

I didn't answer, mainly because I was trying to figure out how he saw right through me - and unwilling to concede that I knew the answer to that already. He carried on.

"You are an outgoing, compassionate person. You cannot shut yourself out of others' lives; it is not in your nature. Yet you are afraid, somehow."

I kept on walking, despite the fact I heard his footsteps continuing on behind me. "I can't talk with you," I said, almost pleading with him.

"And yet you find it irresistible to converse with all others," he went on. "This makes no sense."

"It's not that!" I snapped, spinning around to face him. He closed the five-pace distance between us and stopped, standing right before me.

"Then what is it?" was his reply.

I studied him for a long moment, only met with a curious expression in return. Finally, I managed to say, "Why are you here?"

"I am, or rather, was, the designated pilot for Unit 04," he responded in a matter-of-fact tone. "I am the Fifth--"

"I don't mean that," I cut him off angrily. "I know where you came from, and I know your true purpose isn't to pilot Eva."

"Are you sure of that?" came the bemused reply.

I frowned at him and turned away again, starting to walk off, before being halted by yet another query.

"Was I right, Jillian Thomson? Have you come to find this life enjoyable?"

I spun on him one more time and was about to blurt out a reply - as soon as I figured out what that reply should have been - when suddenly, my phone began to ring. I fumbled in my book bag for it, and, after pulling it out, found that Asuka was calling. "What?!" I snapped in greeting.

"Fourth! Listen, I need your expertise in the warm and fuzzy department. I need you to talk some sense into the cement-head!"

"What the f--" I began, intending to ask Asuka what she was on about, when she interrupted me.

"Shinji!" she explained. "He's on his way to quit! He's going to give up on everything and run away again."

"What? What the hell did you say to him?!" I shot back at her.

"Nothing! Never mind that, just meet me at Headquarters." With that, the line went dead.

"Something important?" Kaworu asked, seemingly innocently.

"Shut up," I told him, changing course and marching back towards NERV.

He turned and followed me, of course. "For such a kind and caring soul, you certainly harbor a large amount of anger."

I didn't answer that; I was trying to think of what to do about Shinji. The logical answer was nothing; Shinji would quit and then return when it was found that no one else could pilot 01, and he'd save the day.

...Unless Kaworu was assigned to Shogouki in place of Shinji.

Fuck, I cursed to myself, quickening my pace.

 

"You're too late."

Asuka stood in the gateway at NERV, hands on hips, voice dripping with sourness. She stared towards the nearby curb, where autos to and from HQ routinely parked or paused to take and deposit passengers.

"He's already gone?" I panted, winded from the run.

"He went in a car from Section Two not five minutes ago," she declared. "Escorted off the premises."

"Sent home?" I wondered aloud.

"How unfortunate," Kaworu observed, having stuck with me the entire way.

Asuka glanced over as if noticing him for the first time. A retort was on her lips, I could tell; but she kept it bottled up.

"Can I ask what might be a strange question?" I queried Asuka.

"What is it?" she said, turning away from Kaworu to regard me.

"Why do you care about whether or not Shinji stays on? I don't mean to be callous, but--"

WHAP!

I remained in the position I'd been forced into, face flung aside, looking at the ground near Kaworu's feet. The stinging sensation was just developing on my cheek, much as it must have been in Asuka's hand as well.

The Second Child stomped off without another word. Beside me, the Fifth watched for a moment, then said, "Are you all right?"

"Stay away from me," I snarled at him, turning and heading towards home once more.