Angelus Retournen Incarnatus
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
by Florencio B. de la Merced, Jr. (fmerced@pworld.net.ph)
A fanfic inspired by the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, copyrighted by
Gainax and no attempt had been made to state otherwise.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Chapter 1 Divine Intervention
=-=-=-=-=
2020 AD NERV 5th Branch
Arizona, United States of America
"Defense perimeter network online," A technician's voice came through the
speakers system, "waiting for confirmation to bring down the target." The
threat, of course, was earlier identified as the long lost EVANGELION Unit
01. For some reason, the pattern read from the inbound EVA came up as
"blue" on the computer display, making Unit 01's classification "Angel".
"Time on Target?" Major Stevenson asked one of the nearby controllers
manning the surveillance maps.
"Inbound Angel intercept in thirty seconds."
Maya sat down, a bit displeased by the whole situation. Here was the
greatest EVA she had ever seen and known, and everyone was now calling it an
Angel. "Makoto, I...can't do this." Her husband turned to her. "I can't
give the order to shoot down Shinji-kun. I can't." A tear was forming in
her eye.
"Maya," Makoto lifted her chin up, "your duty is to these people. Do that
job, and I'll do what I can." Makoto left the platform and reappeared among
the controllers below. "Higawa, may I use that control panel for a while?"
"Um, yes sir. I've not been lucky so far in contacting Unit 01. Maybe it
is an Angel after all." Higawa said as he stepped away from his post. Makoto
took the communication setup and started working at the controls.
=-=-=-=-=
NERV Headquarters
Tokyo-3, Japan
Misato was finally taken away from Central Dogma by force. She was getting
a bit too "noisy" for her own good, as her commander explained it to the
security forces that took her away. Misato admitted that she was surprised
to hear that Unit 01 had returned as an Angel, but she felt shooting it down
was not the best solution. There were other reasons why she didn't want
that Angel destroyed, but she kept those to herself for the moment.
"Damn it. They can't possibly shoot it down. Unit 01 is Shinji-kun's EVA.
That means he's still alive." Misato muttered as she walked back and forth
inside a conference room where she was being held up. That wasn't totally
true, however. Several EVA pilots were with her inside the room. She was
supposed to give a debriefing to all of the pilots about the situation
happening at the 5th branch. Unfortunately, she was caught up with her
thinking. Only when two particular pilots finally arrived did Misato came
off her trance. "Rei, Touji have I got great news for the two of you!"
"Eh, not another boyfriend. Please Misato-san, we're kinda ..." a slap on
the face was Touji's punishment for that silly pun, "Oww!" Rei only looked
at Touji, not really amused at all.
"Rei, it's Shinji-kun. He's come back." Rei quickly turned to Misato, her
eyes deceived her uncompromising face.
"Ikari-kun is back? He's alive?" Rei's head slighted to one side, it was
probably her own display of happiness that she couldn't possible share with
Misato. Rei truly didn't know how to show her appreciation unless told what
to do at a time like this. She did however remembered to smile, and smile
she did.
Touji was surprised at the news as well. "What? Ikari Shinji-kun is alive?
Where is he?"
=-=-=-=-=
SEELE Headquarters
Unknown Location
"Another Angel?"
"Unit 01 was classified as an Angel."
"Impossible, that can't be true."
"Kihl, are there anymore Angels we don't know about?"
=-=-=-=-=
Sector 243B
Arizona desert
Trisha slowed down EVA Unit 35, as it was now obvious to her and to about
everyone else back at NERV that she wasn't Unit 01's real target. She had
shifted about half a mile off Unit 01's flight path and she only had to wait
for her target to pass through her rifle's dead zone. A another five
seconds and the billowing dust cloud would be within range. Her unit still
struggled to slow down, but her aiming computer compensated for her own
EVA's momentum in case she needed to open fire. The confirmation, however,
didn't come and Trisha was forced to allow Unit 01's dust trail to blow by
her. "Follow!" Her EVA roared to life again as it pursued EVA Unit 01.
"Professor?" Her plea to open fire was negated again. "Why?"
A small window popped up on her left screen. "Unit 36 and 37 are coming
towards your direction. You are ordered to assist in capturing Unit 01."
Maya answered her through the visual communication link.
"Understood." Trisha was only a few hundred meters behind her target. "What
if he does not cooperate?" Maya didn't answer. "I'm sorry. I'm to assist
in the capture of Unit 01, intact. I will obey."
Maya sighed before speaking to the pilot of EVA Unit 35 again. "Trisha, if
he resist, you know what to do. The facility and the safety of all the
people here is top priority." Trisha nodded, hiding a grin from her
superior.
"Unit 01 is slowing down." The warning came to her head almost immediately
after her own radar picked up the signature of two new EVAs in the area.
"EVA detected. Two units, identified as..." Her on board computer was
feeding her a lot of the data. She filtered most of it and focused on her
target's course aspect and those of the two other EVAs helping in with the
operation.
"Unit three six and three seven, converge on target using small echelon
formation with the target inside the formation." A couple of affirmative
replies came back. "EVA, initiate communication with target." A few
warning signs popped up forcing her to change her tactics. "Unit three six
and three seven, fire warning shot on low level desert floor ahead of
the target's path."
Her sensors immediately picked up the small energy burst coming from her
teammates. "Contact aspect changing. Target is decreasing in altitude."
Trisha wondered if the other EVAs had connected on Unit 01 by accident.
"Target is now at level -20 feet, -30 feet, -35 feet..."
=-=-=-=-=
"Unit 01 is below the desert floor." A controller announced. The graphs on
the display screen now pictured a 3D representation of the battle arena,
with Unit 01's profile moving at least forty feet beneath the ground. A few
operators gasped as the target was about to pass underneath the two EVA
blockade they had set up especially for Unit 01. "Defense network lost
target aspect. Recycling with the new data."
"Was it brought down by our Evangelions?" Maya asked, sprung up from her
chair.
An operator turned to her. "Unit 01 is still maintaining current speed and
path. It seems that the Angel has gone underground." An alert warning
displayed itself across the display screen. "Professor, the Angel is two
minutes from the first armor plate." A different controller shouted to
Maya.
"Damn!" Major Stevenson jolted up from his chair. "Destroy Unit 01
now!"
Maya shockingly turned to the strewn up and desperately nervous military
officer. She knew that she would later regret what she was about to do.
"Alright. Unit 35, you've got clearance to...to destroy the angel." One
was enough, she thought.
"Arigato." Trisha was grateful for the chance to prove herself.
=-=-=-=-=
NERV Headquarters
Tokyo-3, Japan
The headquarters wasn't on alert, but the buzz of activity within the
Central Dogma could have easily been mistaken as an emergency drill of
some kind. All stations were manned and most of the department chiefs were
present, all eagerly waiting for the updates on what was happening on the
other side of the world.
Maria Usagi had only three years of experience being the commander of the
whole NERV organization. She was however well versed in her line of work.
She had kept the awareness of the installation at the uppermost level of
competence, and she had all three "Langley" Cups to prove it, a prize given
to the best branch of NERV that had kept its vigilance up to the highest
standards, with or without Angels around. Usually this meant which branch
would respond the best during mocked Angel attacks. A trivial way of
keeping the men in uniform alive once in a while. Commander Usagi was
however looking forward to this year's contest, with the fifth branch's
first operational use of it's complex defense network, NERV Headquarters was
finally going to get its first challenge for the cup.
"What is the status of MAGI?" Commander Usagi asked, sitting atop the third
platform of the Central Dogma.
"MAGI has failed to reboot again. Technical department is now advising not
to continue with the current process, and instead depend on the new system
setup inside the fifth branch." A controller answered.
"Very well, lock down MAGI and get the Special Investigation Unit working on
those three lousy computers right away." Maria looked behind her, a team of
military officials nodded their approval.
"Unit 01 had gone underground." A woman operator announced. "Maintaining
current speed and path."
The same graphical view of Unit 01's flight beneath the desert of Arizona
showed up on the screens. The real-time system was working flawlessly,
Maria was impressed. "When will the new supercomputer be online?" She only
had time to breath when all of the diagrams and graphs on the display screen
changed instantaneously. The new supercomputer had now taken over the
functions that was at first MAGI's.
"Two seconds ago, commander." A controller sheepishly answered.
"Very well, what is the status of the Angel?"
=-=-=-=-=
NERV 5th Branch
Arizona
"What do you mean you lost him? An Angel can't disappear like that!"
Stevenson was furious at the controller. "Find it!"
A few hurried hands punched a lot of buttons over at the surveillance
station. "Target is lost, confirmed by all other stations."
Maya stared at the new display windows up on the screen. It was true, Eva
Unit 01 had disappeared, half a minute before contact with the first armor
plate. The three other EVA's were still following the last know flight path
of Unit 01, but from their view point they were now tracking a ghost. "EVA
three five, do you see Unit 01?"
Over at the communication station, Makoto had patiently been working on a
link to Unit 01 for quite a while now. "Ikari Shinji-kun, can you hear me.
Please answer me." No good, he said to himself. Makoto changed the
frequency this time, it was rather crude, but since neither digital
modulation or telemetry bypasses didn't seem to work, what did he had to
lose? "Shinji-kun, this is Hyuuga Makoto please answer me." A faint trace
line appeared on his scope, something weak enough that it wasn't registered
by the computer as a legitimate reply signal codon, but was strong enough to
pass through the electronic filters built into the communication system.
"Shinji-kun?" Another trace passed through, this time Makoto locked in to
the signal and secured a channel exclusively in listening in. "Shinji-kun,
this is Makoto, is that you?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, Makoto-san. Would you settle for me instead?"
Makoto was surprised to hear that voice. From someone piloting Unit 01, the
voice surely sounded feminine. She, whoever she was, sounded very familiar
to Makoto, but the thought of her flying an EVA, least of all Unit 01 was
beyond belief.
"Asuka? Is that you?"
"Not so loud. This line is secured, right? Listen up..."
=-=-=-=-=
NERV Headquarters
Tokyo-3, Japan
Misato had completely ignored her standing orders, that is to debrief all
present Evangelion pilots about the situation that had come up at the 5th
branch of NERV. She herself didn't really know the full story behind Unit
01's sudden resurrection, but her orders were only to get all the pilots
familiar with EVA Unit 01, the EVA that was supposed to have been lost in
the last Angel attack, it's history, and about it's pilot. Her mind was
however preoccupied. She was more concerned on what was NERV going to do.
They were considering bringing it down the last time she was at the Central
Dogma. She only sat at one corner of the conference room. There were about
fifty active pilots and backups with her, all had been told to report for a
debriefing by the chief of operations and planning. Major Katsuragi was
however limiting her conversation with only two.
"Can it be true? I thought Shinji-kun was lost along with Unit 01." Touji's
asked, he sat on top of a nearby table. Rei and Misato only looked more
confused, apparently they heard the same story.
"Does this mean Ikari-kun is truly alive? If Unit 01 is alive, only
Ikari-kun can pilot it, right?" Rei asked her guardian for the past three
years now.
Misato sighed, "We're not really sure who is piloting EVA Unit 01. It is a
sign for hope, however." Just then the door slid open and two more pilots
walked in, and they were followed by part of the security force that stood
guard outside. "Hikari, Aida-kun, you two finally made it."
Hikari wasn't pleased for being late, "Well, it was Kensuke's fault. He
decided to wonder around during our patrol. Stupid! Really Stupid!"
Misato could only laugh. "Huh? What's wrong now?"
"You sound like that crazy girl, Asuka." Touji's remark earned him a slap
on his other cheek this time. "Oww! What the hell was that for?"
"It's not nice to talk about my best friend like that!" Hikari glared at
Touji. "You should be ashamed, insulting women like that, and we're all EVA
pilots too, you know?"
"What are you talking about?" Touji blurted out in her face. "She left NERV
over two years ago."
Hikari blew her top, "I was talking about me, you idiot Suzahara!"
Misato finally calmed everyone. Touji and Hikari pouted at each other,
sitting as far away from each other away as possible. She was about to tell
the news on Unit 01's resurrection to Kensuke and Hikari when she noticed
that the two security personnel had not left. "Yes, what is it?" One of
the guards handed over a brown folder to her before they finally left the
room. "Thank you. Let's see now." She began browsing through the
communiqu�. "What? Oh, I see."
"What is it, Katsuragi-san?" Rei asked meekly, for that she got a trivial
look from Misato. She understood what her guardian was telling her. "Um, I
mean. What is it, Misato-san?" Misato smirked, yelping out a "much better"
compliment to Rei.
"As of this moment, capture operations of Unit 01 are being undertaken by
the 5th branch of NERV." Misato hugged the folder up her chest, showing her
appreciation of Commander Usagi's decision to follow her advice instead.
She finally made a major decision that was actually followed. In the past
three years, she was hardly an asset since there was no need for her special
operating abilities of making decisive and effective decisions during combat
situations. Of course, there was no war anymore with the angels. Until
now. Ever since Unit 01 had reappeared, NERV had been thrown into the fray
of undeclared war, with an unknown enemy, Misato thought. She wondered if
Unit 01 was truly an angel or not.
"Is that good?" Rei asked, no one could answer.
"Major Katsuragi-san?" Finally, someone from the rest of the group spoke.
"What in the world is going on? I was told there was going to be a
debriefing, but why are you only talking to these guys?" Rei stared at the
younger anonymously looking pilot. "I know there is some action going on
somewhere. Where the hell is it? Who are involved? Those communist?"
Soon, everyone was looking at the little group Misato had banded together.
"Ok, ok. I see your point, Pilot 22 B. Get back to your seat and I'll
start already." Misato stood up and quickly walked up front and finally
prepared to talk to everyone. She was more comfortable talking about Unit
01, knowing NERV was not anymore considering blowing it up into oblivion.
"More than half an hour ago, the activation of the new S2 Engine was a great
success." A few rounds of cheers filled the room. The group Misato left
wasn't listening, however, they were having their own private discussion.
=-=-=-=-=
Arizona desert
Unit 35 had been faithfully following her target's flight path ever since it
had acquired a firing solution half a minute ago. Unfortunately, the Angel
had a few tricks that had surprised both the Evangelions capturing party and
those controllers at NERV as well. "Follow!" Trisha Stevenson's command
was immediately rejected by her EVA. "Why?" Her mind was racing for the
little time she had left before EVA Unit 01 would slip past the small
blockade she had setup.
"No entry point detected. Desert floor remains solid while target is moving
through it." Trisha wondered what her EVA was trying to say to her. A
glitch in the "layman" response logic program perhaps, she wondered. "Will
follow target's course, maintaining current altitude difference of 40 feet."
Trisha wondered how the angel moved through the desert underground.
"Collision alert!" She had barely registered the warning in her head when
the looming figures of EVA 36 and 37 came rushing at her.
"Get out of my way!" Trisha leaned her EVA on one side, hoping she'll get
clear between the two EVAs. A millisecond later, her EVA plowed through the
blockade. "Sorry!" Warning signs came up, telling her that the two other
EVAs suffered debilitating damages, but she already knew that.
"Unit three five, do you see EVA Unit 01?" The question popped up in her
mind.
"Negative, he's moving underground where my EVA can't follow. Let me in the
Geofront and I'll take care of him there." Trisha also requested for new
backups once she got back inside the 5th branch of NERV.
"Use re-entry point 04, and prepare for rearming." A different controller
spoke to her. "Unit 38 and 39 are in the Geofront already."
Trisha looked at her on board radar. The Angel was a stone throw away from
reaching the first armor plate. She had to move fast. "Negative. I've not
fired a shot, and I have an S2 Engine online. I'll have to be inside the
Geofront as soon as possible."
"Roger. Use re-entry point 10, and fly towards the Geofront directly." The
voice of the controller crackled and twitched in her head. The outside
interference didn't last long, it only seemed the operating protocols were
redirected, just like a switch turning on some fluorescent lighting. It did
however rattled Trisha's brain for a second.
"EVA, what was that?" Trisha rechecked her systems while flying towards the
re-entry point that was being opened for her. "Confirm if new Operating
System is online."
"MAGI standby was turned off, all processing are now handled by HADES."
Trisha calmed down, it was only the new Supercomputer that she felt. The
old system must have crashed or something, she thought. "Re-entry point 10
open." She sent the command to descend her EVA down the dark and deep shaft
leading straight to the Geofront of the 5th branch.
"Status of target?"
=-=-=-=-=
"What? Are you serious?" Makoto's exclaims drew some quizzical look from
some nearby operators.
"I'll see you later. I've got ten armor plates to pass through. See ya
later, Hyuuga-kun." The line went dead. Makoto was staring at a blank
scope now, but what troubled him more was what he had just heard from a
seventeen year old girl piloting Unit 01.
"What was that all about?" Higawa asked Makoto, looking over his shoulder.
"Was there someone on the line? I didn't see the oscilloscope move."
Makoto took off the earphones and finally stood up. "Wrong number, I guess.
Here," he stepped away from Higawa's station, "make yourself useful."
Makoto was about to leave the platform, "Higawa, since your station doesn't
seem to be of any use today, will you order some pizzas for me. Extra
cheese and no anchovies. Send them at my office in thirty minutes." Makoto
held the door of the elevator. "Wait, make that in fifteen, Higawa."
"Do I bring the beer this time? Or will your wife force us to drink soda pop
again?" A hint of laughter came from Higawa's reaction. Apparently both men
had done this little partying before. "Are the other guys coming too?"
"Sorry, Higawa. I'm having a guest over. We'll play poker on Friday, as
always." The doors of the elevator finally closed.
"Guest? Pizzas? I always thought Professor Ibuki was the best cook in the
base. Oh, well." Higawa placed the order in his terminal.
=-=-=-=-=
SEELE Headquarters
Unknown Location
"MAGI has been superceded by the new Supercomputer."
"So, 5th branch now has supplementary control over most of NERV's network
backbone."
"Only NERV Headquarters' Terminal Dogma is unlinked."
"I wonder if this is a good thing or not. Remember, 5th branch was not in
our scenario."
"Yes, but HADES should be able to work much better since we have at least
fifty active Evangelions now. Three times over than what we projected.
Naturally, MAGI's standby mode couldn't handle all the action we've seen
today."
"I hear the Real Time System is working exceptionally well."
"Too bad we can't thank Dr. Akagi for that one."
"What do we do with the old computer?"
"Give it to the UN, they'll need the scrap metal fairly soon."
"What about Unit 01?"
"He's walking into a trap. He'll be back into our fold very, very soon."
"HADES lost his Angel classification, however."
"Must be a glitch in MAGI, it was that old computer that falsely classified
our EVA in the first place."
"So a glitch also caused MAGI to fail in restarting?" The room fell silent.
"Something is wrong, I just know it."
"We can't ask Dr. Akagi anymore. Who do we ask?"
"Ikari Gendou" Kihl finally spoke up.
=-=-=-=-=
NERV Headquarters
Tokyo-3, Japan
Commander Usagi surveyed the visual real-time display on the huge screen.
She counted four more Evangelions out of their cages within the Geofront of
the 5th Branch. That brought up to eight the number of EVAs that her
counterpart in Arizona had committed in the capture operations of Unit 01.
"More than half of their fleet." Maria wondered if a single EVA could
possibly be that important and dangerous, that it would take this large show
of force in order to bring it down. "This is rather disturbing." Maria
commented to her second in command.
"What is disturbing? That Unit 01 has finally come back from the dead, and
now we're all eager to bring it back to where it came from?" A hint of
sarcasm could be traced in what the man standing behind Commander Usagi had
just said. "Or is it because its taking all the resources of more than half
of the 5th branch's EVAs to get the job done?" Shigeruu Aoba asked.
"Neither." Maria pointed to the screen. "It looks like Unit 01 is passing
through all the armor plates too easily, as if they weren't even there in
the first place. This was just like the way he disappeared underneath the
desert." Shigeruu looked up, confirming what his commander had noticed.
"Just like an angel before." Shigeruu said to himself. "Like a shadow, it
passes through the night with death in its wake."
"Shigeruu, could this mean that Unit 01 was remodeled? Upgraded if
possible?" Maria asked as she turned to him. Shigeruu only nodded.
"Undoubtedly, these improvements in Unit 01 were not available to NERV or to
the Evangelions when I last saw it." Shigeruu bowed his head, a thought was
occurring to him. "Could this be the sign? Could she really be alive
after all?" he asked to no one in particular.
"Are you talking about Dr. Akagi?"
"None other. If she was still with us, these things, these improved
mobility, an internal power source, the communication blackout, and much
more that we are seeing from Unit 01 would also be present in our EVAs. If
only Ritsuko was here, that is." Shigeruu said with a smirk.
"So she must be alive. She and Dr. Fuyutsuki must have been working hand in
hand these past three years." Maria turned to the display screen again.
"Then the end of NERV is near."
"True. The end is near." Shigeruu remarked as he crossed his arms. "I
wonder who'll win this one, though." Maria looked back at him.
"Do you plan to tell the committee this...theory of yours, Shigeruu?" Maria
asked, a serious tone inflected in her voice.
Shigeruu grinned, "I won't tell, if you won't."
Commander Usagi turned again to the display, not anymore concerned about
what she had just discussed with Shigeruu. For her, the conversation was
too brief to recall, too vague to remember...it never happened. "Looks like
Unit 01 will finally emerge into the Geofront." Maria commented, implying a
change of subject.
"Indeed, and any second now, it'll disappear....again"
=-=-=-=-=
NERV 5th Branch
Arizona, United States of America
"All units, don't hesitate to fire." Trisha spoke to all of the EVAs in
the Geofront that was committed to the new mission. Unit 01 and it's pilot
was to be stopped at all cost. She received a message that the Angel was
now one plate away from oblivion. She turned off all the safety locks in
her twin laser cannons. Unit 35 took the lead and had positioned herself
directly in front of the expected entry point of Unit 01 into the Geofront.
Soon, the slope of the crater started shaking, creating a small landslide.
"Get ready." Enough weaponry was now aiming at Unit 01's emerging point,
that even a strong AT Field would instantly collapse when all of those
barrels let loose their payload.
"EVA detected!" Trisha squeeze a bit, taking the slack of her trigger
finger. "EVA detected!" A second warning, Trisha wondered what was
happening. "EVA detected!" Another one, Trisha asked herself. Seven or
eight continuous warnings piped through the heads of each EVA pilot in the
area. All were scrambling to find the new Evangelions that were detected.
A bit of confusion proliferated to all the EVAs inside the Geofront. The
warnings receivers now blurted out threats at an increased pace. If a pilot
only depended on a computer, they would be seeing a hundred enemy boogies
all around the Geofront by now. The only thing they could do was filter
each target out of its targeting computer, one by one.
"Recycle data. Dump target info." Trisha couldn't filter fast enough all
the threat warnings she was receiving so she did the next best thing. "I'll
get you with my own eyes, Unit 01. I don't need a computer to kill you
right now." She held her rifle forward.
Like a ghost pushing itself through a solid barrier, Unit 01 emerged from
the last armor plate like as if it wasn't there. It was huge, and its
purple appearance startled Trisha for a second. "What an ugly face?!
Shoot!" Unit 35 opened fire at Unit 01, even if the renegade EVA was only
halfway from emerging through the last barrier. "Everybody! Fire at my
pinpoint!"
=-=-=-=-=
"Multiple EVAs firing, close proximity damage is at 230%." A controller
announced even as the echoes of the firefight from outside resonated
throughout the control room.
"AT field is eroding, estimate in 10 seconds." Another controller added.
Maya was already crying in her seat, the final destruction of Unit 01 was on
her mind. "5 seconds." Maya tried her best to hold back the tears. Just
then, a phone rang in front of her. She quickly dried her eyes, she avoided
looking at the horrendous scene being shown up on the monitoring screen.
"Yes?"
"Honey, is the fight over yet? I need you at my office right now."
"Makoto, its...terrible...just horrible...." she started sobbing again,
"they're killing him. I'm allowing this to happen to Shinji-kun, and there
isn't anything I can do about it."
"Honey, please. Come to my office at once. There is someone here who is
dying to see you." Maya wondered why her husband felt nothing about what
she had just said. "Leave the control room now. I'm sure Major Stevenson
will do fine in finishing up Unit 01." Maya thought she heard a girl
laughing in the background.
"Makoto, didn't you hear what I just said?!"
"Um..." the receiver seemed to have changed hands, "Hello Maya-san? Can I
please talk to you, like right now?" Maya was flabbergasted. Was she
hearing things? A girl was in her husband's office, and ... and she sounded
familiar too. "We have pizzas here...and some sake, but this BAKA! husband
of yours forgot the anchovies in my pizza. He's so stupid, as if he forgot
that I love anchovies with my pizza." A muttering voice sounded in the
background. "Yeah, yeah....You're still a BAKA, like Shinji-kun."
"Asuka?" Maya exclaimed to her herself, still in disbelief that it could be
the other long gone EVA pilot who she was talking with now. He face revealed
she was more shocked than relieved.
"Anyway, the food is getting cold. You better get here fast,
Maya-san...before...well, your husband does something he'll soon regret. Ha
ha ha...." The phone receiver remained in Maya's ear long after the other
line went dead.
=-=-=-=-=
NERV Headquarters
Tokyo-3, Japan
"Hey, who goes there?" A sentry guard placed his rifle at port arms as he
asked an approaching figure coming down the hallway.
"Who me? I'm pilot. There is a debriefing here, right?" The young man
handed over his identification card and waited to be cleared into the
conference room.
"Shinji, Ikari. Ok, you can come in. The briefing had already started, I
think." Shinji retrieved his card and walked into the dimly lit room.
Another guard arrived to relieve the first one when the doors finally
closed.
"Who was that?" He asked.
"Another one of those pilots." The guard left his post and headed towards
the cafeteria.
=-=-=-=-=
"This is EVA Unit 01." Misato clicked a remote controller and the slide
display was replaced with a picture of EVA Unit 01. "This EVA was
responsible for defeating most of the Angels that had attacked Earth over
three years ago."
"What an ugly face he has." A pilot said from the back of the room.
Everyone started laughing. Misato wasn't amused at all.
"Don't make fun of this EVA. This thing saved my life and probably of your
parents as well more than once. This EVA also has an original S2 Engine
inside itself, so its way better than the EVAs you pilot." Misato drew some
gasps from her unruly crowd.
"It now has an S4 prototype engine, Misato-san." A young man, standing at
back remarked. Everyone turned to him.
"How do you know that? What is an S4 Engine anyway?" Misato looked towards
the young man, she crossed her arms anticipating a crude excuse or an
unbelievable story. She was used to the jokes she usually gets from the
present EVA pilots. They always tease her short temper, especially anything
about her boyfriends and the Evangelions she used to know. "I never heard
of an S4 Engine."
"Ikari-kun?" Rei muttered, squinting in the darkness at the outline of the
young man staying at the back with them. Touji couldn't make out his face
either, but he looked much older than those newer EVA pilots.
Shinji walked out of the shadows, revealing more of his face to everyone.
"I know because I am the pilot of EVA Unit 01, Misato-san."
The whole room was hurled into chaos. A lot of the newer pilots were asking
each other questions only Shinji could answer. Misato stood paralyzed in
front of everyone, tears were flowing from her eyes. "Shinji-kun?"
"I'm back, Misato-san. It is good to see you again." Shinji had met Misato
halfway across the room, both gave each other a hug when they finally saw
each other's faces.
"Shinji-kun, you're alive. I can't believe it." Misato couldn't hold back
her tears.
Rei had stood up from her seat, her hand spread itself across her chest.
She too would cry right now, if only someone would tell her to. Instead she
smiled and ran up to the reunited Shinji and Misato. "Ikari-kun, is that
you?"
"Rei? Oh, ...you look...Wow." Shinji was awestruck seeing Rei again for the
first time is three years. She was taller, her hair was well kept now, and
she was...developed in more ways more suited for his imaginations. "Um,
sorry about that, Rei. I guess I was carried away or something?" He didn't
notice the flush red expression forming on his face.
"Hey, Shinji. If I didn't know better, you look like you were thinking of
something ... naughty about Rei, didn't you?" Touji jested, slapping Shinji
on the back. "Ah, I knew it."
"Hey, it's not like that...you see..." Shinji tried to explain to no avail.
"Shinji! You can't fool me! I've seen that look from you before." Kensuke
added jokingly.
"Will you hentais stop kidding around! We should be happy now that Shinji
is back!" Hikari was being her old "class rep" type again.
"Um, I'm not back, really." Shinji said, a serious tone in his voice.
Rei stepped closer to Shinji, her eyes looking straight at him. "It doesn't
matter, Ikari...I mean, Shinji-kun. You're here now, and I am happy." She
saw the fear in his face, she knew she caused that in him. She reached for
his hand, they were trembling when she held it for the briefest of moments.
"Welcome back." She pulled her other arm over his shoulder, taking herself
closer to him. Then they kissed.
=-=-=-=-=
End of Chapter 1
=-=-=-=-=
Please C & C
Special Thanks to...
Christopher Angel
Anand Rao
Lord Talon
AlphSailor
for their C&Cs and to all those that helped in the names of the secondary
characters.
Well, this ends my EVA fic for now...I'm returning to Tenchi this week, and
probably Ranma and El Hazard, which ever comes first.