Aright v 1.1 - a Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfiction MST3Ked by:
Quatragonal Limited Productions
Design and planning:
Designer-Planner ~ Mien Diem ~ miendiem@hotmail.com
MST3Ker
Head MST3Ker ~ Mien Diem
Co-MST3Ker ~ Shinji Ikari
Co-MST3Ker ~ Rei Ayanami
Revising / Editing
You think _we�re_ going to revise this?
Test Readers:
(none)
Surprised?
{Mien: You�re damn right we�re surprised. I mean � I�m damn right I�m
surprised � er something like that.}
{rS: Shut up! After all the stuttering humiliation you put me through in
this episode coming up � Isn�t that right, Rei?}
{Rei: Hai!}
______________________________________________________________________________
_______
"Yea! I get to try one of these things all by myself. This isn�t Argon.
{Mien: I know!}
{rS: You sure as hell better know. You wrote the damned thing. Speaking of
Argon, we need to have a talk � Isn�t that right, Rei?}
{Rei: Hai.}
This isn�t the beginning of the long-awaited Nerv Omake Theatre.
{Mien: Yeah � because Ryo�s slacking off �}
{Rei: Hai.}
{rS: <draws a blank>}
This is just something I whipped up in my spare time. We all know who owns
the rights to Eva, but I don�t think they�ll blame me. Still, I don�t own
these characters, so yes, I am knowingly treading on a copyright infringement
against Anno-san, Gainax, and ADVision, who has the rights to release the
series in America.
{rS: Rei.}
{Rei: Hai.}
{rS: Go round up the lawyers.}
{Rei: Hai.}
{Mien: No!}
Anyway � I don�t know if I want to make this a one-shot deal or make a short
series out of it. It�ll start with the attack of Zeruel, but things will
start differently and proceed differently. Yeah, I know all my fics so far
have started with episode 19.
{rS: Because you are a sado-masochistic bastard, that�s why.}
{Mien: I am not!}
{rS: Don�t you think so, Rei?}
{Rei: <from almost out the door> Hai.}
I just can�t help it. It�s a useful starting point. If there are any huge
Asuka fans in the audience, you may want to quit on this fic now.
{rS: Then why am I here?}
{Mien: <duct tapes Shinji�s mouth shut for the moment, and ties him to the
chair>} Just until we get out of the author�s notes.}
If there is anyone in the audience who can�t stand someone pushing a Shinji x
Rei thing, I know you want to quit on this fic now. Of course, if you�re in
it just because you like my writing (which would astonish me) you can go right
ahead. Other than that, I don�t feel the need to warn anyone about the things
that will occur in this fic. Que sirrah sirrah. One other thing. This isn�t
intended to be long like Argon. This is going to be a short. I estimate
about five pages, maybe more, maybe less. It�s supposed to be a quick read,
and not as dark as Argon. Of course � I won�t guarantee that, since I know
what�s going to happen and you don�t. Suffice it to say, though, that the end
will be � not my usual style. [don�t worry, I still don�t do lemons. No
one�s asked me to try, and until someone does, I�m not even gonna consider
it.] However, until the end will be recognizable as me. If you�re incredibly
attached to Rei, you may hate me for what I�m going to do in this fic, but
that�s no longer my concern. Well, let�s get going, �cause I�m running out of
things to rant about." ~ Mien Diem
______________________________________________________________________________
_______
"We have an unidentified intruder in Tokyo-3 airspace, Major," Makoto
said calmly.
"It just broke the first defense line!" Shigeru yelled.
{Mien: <rips the duct tape off> Gomen.}
{rS: And it�s really, _REALLY_ big!}
On the screen, the 14th Angel blasted straight through the defense line
and kept floating slowly along, edging close to Tokyo-3 with every passing
second.
"The outer defensive perimeter has been breached," Makoto stated.
"Its AT Field is inactive. Present pattern is orange," Maya said.
"But our weapons are still having no effect," Shigeru droned.
{Mien: That�s because it�s tougher than you, baka.}
{rS: It is an Angel �}
{Rei: <just returned, lawyerless> Hai.}
"Where�s Asuka?" Misato asked.
{Rei: Out back giving it to Shinji.}
{rS: Hey!}
{Rei: It�s true�}
{Mien: Oh, geez �}
"She�s on her way, as is Rei," Makoto replied.
{rS: Yeah. I get it from her next. <eg> }
{Mien: Not in one of my fics you don�t!}
{rS & Mien: What do you think, Rei?}
{Rei: It will never happen.}
Zeruel blasted away the second and third defensive perimeters with equal
ease, and floated over
Tokyo-3. Not ten seconds later, the Angel unleashed an energy blast that
brought down several buildings and destroyed several layers of armor.
"We lost half of our armor in that blast!" Makoto yelled.
{Mien: <yelling> And a quarter of our sanity!}
{rS: Damnit! And we still have that psychic Angel to deal with next week �}
{Rei: Hai.}
Zeruel fired again, clearing a path directly into the Geofront. Down in
Central Dogma, the Eva cages were a flurry of activity. Asuka had arrived,
and was busy suiting up and being loaded into her Eva. Outside, Zeruel
floated right on into the exposed Geofront as though it were an old home long-
since left. As the Angel touched down inside, Evangelion 02 popped up out of
a launch tunnel, rifle in hand.
Asuka came up shooting, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off of
Zeruel�s tough skin.
"Passively-projected AT Fields are too strong for projectile weapons,"
Ritsuko said aloud.
{rS: <switches to D&R mode> Does that include ejection of the �entry plug�?}
{Rei & Mien: Yes!}
Those were the last words Asuka heard in that fight. Her next memory was
of the Angel sending its whip-like arms towards her Eva �
"Unit 02 is damaged. Direct hit to the head. It can�t continue combat,"
Makoto yelled.
{Rei: <happy over rapture> Ding, dong, the bitch is dead�}
{rS: <laughing too hard to comment>}
{Mien: <likewise>}
"Is Rei ready to go?" Misato asked.
{rS: No, she�s not! She�s still giving it to Shinji!}
{Rei: I am not. Or was not.}
{rS: Hey, wait a minute. Just where from the continuity of the series are we
from?}
{Mien: Sssh.}
"Unit 01 is refusing the connection," Maya said.
{Mien: That�s because it _wants_ Shinji.}
{rS: Almost as bad as Asuka.}
{Rei: Hai.}
"Send Rei out in Unit 00," Gendo commanded. "Reload Unit 01 with a Dummy
Plug and prepare to activate."
"Too late!" Ritsuko yelled as Central Dogma rattled.
"The Angel�s inside Central Dogma!" Shigeru called. "Presently
descending toward � oh my God! It�s coming _here_!"
"Connection made with Evangelion Unit 00," Maya yelled over the
confusion. "Rei is ready to go."
{rS: That musta been some head-job.}
{Rei: <silent evil-eye tactic employed>}
{Mien: Damn pervert fourteen-year-old P.O.S�}
{Rei: <targeting "Shinji Ikari">}
Suddenly, Zeruel burst through the wall opposite the command center, in a
literal attempt at bringing down the house. The Angel floated its way closer
to the platform, literally staring the bridge crew in the face. Everyone
backed away, except Maya, who was cowering under her chair. Then, just as the
Angel�s eyes were lighting up above that stone-gray grin, Unit 00 came in from
the Angel�s right and uppercutted it squarely on the jaw.
����������
Shinji, in the midst of the confusion, had headed for the Geofront and
Nerv. Unbeknownst to him, the Angel was about to become an almost secondary
concern for Nerv.
����������
Still in the command center, Zeruel was now looking up at the commander
of Nerv, Gendo Ikari. This would not have been at all worrisome except for the
fact that the Angel was about to release a blast of energy.
Seconds later, everything seemed to freeze. Unit 00 was grappling with
the Angel with its one good arm, the bridge crew was scrambling towards the
exits, Fuyutsuki was hidden in the recesses of the commander�s area, and Gendo
was at his table. Well, that is, what was left of Gendo was at four sawed off
legs of what used to be a table.
{rS and Mien in unison: YES!}
The energy blast kept traveling, only to be stopped by the bottom armor
plate between the Geofront and Tokyo-3. However, it had seen through its
course.
Rei continued the battle, her back to the scene which had transpired.
Still connected to power, she managed to down the attacking Angel, and
proceeded to beat on its S^2 unit with whatever was available, including
fallen pieces of infrastructure, and basically everything non-living with the
exception of a progressive knife and a few larger weapons. Finally, through
nothing more than perseverance, the Angel�s S^2 unit blackened and died.
{Mien: Does that mean that the Angel died, or the S^2 unit died?}
{rS: Good question.}
{Rei: Hai.}
����������
There was bad news awaiting Rei when her Eva was caged and the entry plug
ejected and the LCL removed. It seemed to her an unusual amount of people to
greet her at her exit from the plug, to say nothing of the cross-section of
Nerv represented at the gathering. The Third Child(ren), the one called Ikari
by her, was there, though hidden in the larger crowd. The normal smattering
of Eva technicians was there, not at all unusual, as someone had to oversee
maintenance to the Evas after a battle or a drill. However, these were not
the people of interest. Standing at the fore were the sub-commander of Nerv,
Kozo Fuyutsuki, and Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, chairperson of Project E, Tech.
Division 1. Behind them were the main bridge staff, Makoto Hyuuga, Shigeru
Aoba, and Maya Ibuki, with Major Misato Katsuragi standing between them.
Behind the faces she knew were various other Nerv personnel, all heads hung in
an observing silence.
"What?" Rei asked, suspicious of all the eyes upon her.
"Rei �" Ritsuko began.
"Commander Ikari is d�" Fuyutsuki tried to finish for her, but found he
could not.
{rS: Dead. _Dead_. The S.o.B. is DEAD!}
No one brought the final word to their lips. However, it proved not to
be necessary. Rei took one look at the faces assembled before her, and knew
what their message was. Her �father�, the man who had created her, the
supreme commander of Nerv, Gendo Ikari, was dead. Without waiting for another
word or action on the part of anyone, she walked through their midst, no
emotion showing on her face, straight for the pilot�s changing area.
����������
Shinji could not find anything terribly amiss in Nerv after that
announcement. He sat in the Third Cage, staring vacantly at Evangelion Unit
01.
"Well, mom � if you�re in there � you already know what happened," Shinji
said softly.
He neither saw nor heard as a figure walked up behind him.
"Ikari," it hissed.
{Mien: Ack! It�s Medusa!}
{rS & Rei: <jump Mien>}
Shinji literally jumped. He whirled about and saw Rei standing behind
him, tears having fallen down onto her school uniform.
"Ayanami?" he asked, completely unused to seeing Rei exhibit emotion.
{beating continues}
Her face seemed to say it all to him. She felt that she was responsible
for what had happened to his father. In a way, he guessed, she might be
right. What came next shocked him, both mentally and physically.
"Your fault," Rei said simply, following with a slap that turned Shinji�s
head.
{Rei: Hai. Your fault.}
{rS: <nods>}
{Rei: A-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a-beat-a <smacks
Mien up, a la Addition Dialogue Track 2>}
����������
After this transpired, Rei stalked off, and Shinji, too numbed by the
experiences of the day, didn�t follow. Instead, he sat back on the floor and
stared up into the eyes of Eva Sho Gouki in dumb amazement.
He knew what Asuka would have to say about all this. "If Wonder Child
can exhibit feelings," she would say, "then anything is possible." He began
to wonder what unfortunate consequences could abound were she right. Shinji
sat and wondered about many things, and finally extracted himself from his
sitting position four hours later.
Fighting stiff joints, Shinji made his way out of the Eva cage and down
the narrow hallway that connected it with the rest of Nerv. For some reason,
which he found himself unable to explain, Shinji Ikari found himself drawn
towards the command center. He made his way there slowly, questioning why he
was doing so every step of the way down the metallic hall.
{rS: Maybe because he wants more head.}
{Mien: From Ritsu this time?}
{rS: That flat-chested whore? Hell _no_!}
The door to Nerv Command & Control opened with a soft hiss, allowing
Shinji access to the main "bridge" of Nerv�s operations. He walked in softly,
peering around. The place looked to be deserted at first glance, except for
the body of the dead Angel lying below the observation deck. However, at the
second pass of his eyes over the room, Shinji noticed that something was,
indeed, amiss. Standing alone, at the rim of the observation deck, was none
other than Rei Ayanami.
"Rei?" he asked, unsure.
{Mien: If it looks like Rei �}
{Rei: Acts like Rei �}
{rS: And smells like Rei �}
{chorus: It _must_ be Rei.}
"Stay there," came the soft reply.
"But, I �" Shinji trailed off.
He followed Rei�s gaze up above the main command center to the area where
his father regularly resided. Rather, he looked at what was left of that
area. The lip of the upper observatory had been ripped neatly off and
atomized, leaving nothing. In the space that remained, Shinji could see the
remnants of a desk, and nothing more beyond.
"I �" he started, but found he could form no words. Instead, Shinji
found himself thinking of the man that he thought he hated, his father. That
man had drug him from a home and �family� that he knew and dumped him in a
skyscraper-tall robot to pilot against equally tall and strong beings known
only as "Angels". Yet, despite all of this, Shinji found that he could no
longer bring himself to hate his father in the same way. Certainly, the man
had his own goals in mind, but then, everyone did. And it was just as unfair
to him to have his hopes and dreams cut short by death as it was for anyone.
Coming to this realization, Shinji found that, perhaps, he and his father did
share something. In the end, Eva was all that they had.
{rS: I most certainly have not _had_ Eva. Asuka � Rei � even Misato once
when she was drunk off her ass � but never an Eva.}
{Mien & Rei: <facefault>}
It was then that another thought struck him. No one else was around.
Even for late at night, this was uncommon. However, he had taken it for
granted until now �
When he realized why it must be. Rei must have been so insistent that
everyone had literally given up and left. While it didn�t seem at all normal,
it was the only conclusion that Shinji could find that possibly fit the facts
of what now _was_.
He stood there in the doorway for quite some time, observing the scene
along with Rei. However, he knew this would do nothing in the end. So it was
up to him to create a plan. One death of someone he knew was _more_ than
enough, after all. Finally, pulling on nothing but instinct, Shinji began
talking.
"What happened here today wasn�t your fault, Rei � and it wasn�t mine
either," he started, taking a step closer to Rei.
{Rei: Of course it wasn�t. After all, I wasn�t even alive to stop Second
Impact.}
For her part, Rei continued looking up at the ruined upper observation
deck and seemed not to notice. However, Shinji knew that she heard him, so he
continued.
"All we can fault for this is bad luck and worse timing. If that Angel
hadn�t attacked today, or even that soon, none of this would�ve happened,"
Shinji added.
"How so?" she asked, masking a sob.
"Maybe if I�d been here this wouldn�t have happened. Maybe I could�ve
beat the Angel all by myself and we never would�ve let it see inside of Nerv.
Maybe I could�ve even beat it skyside. No one knows. It�s all just idle
speculation. We can�t deal with the �maybe�s and the �what if� s any more.
All we know is what happened, and it wasn�t your fault. You were just doing
your job, and something completely out of your control happened. There was no
way you could have known, in the heat of battle, that your action would have
produced that result," Shinji replied, making his way steadily closer.
"You may be right," she agreed slowly, never taking her eyes from the
commander�s area.
"And even if I�m not, you still didn�t intend it. You didn�t do what you
did on purpose. You wouldn�t kill him if you could � not any more than I
would. Only in the heat of anger would I think to do that," Shinji continued.
"I know," she agreed. "But I still caused this."
{rS: Of course you did. It got that annoying man out of the way, didn�t it?}
By this time, Shinji was standing quite close to Rei, keeping silent as
she watched the floor above. Then, before she knew what had happened, Shinji
caught hold of her and pulled her to the ground by the arm. Rei, caught by
surprise, made an immediate attempt to pull away, but Shinji, thinking faster
and further ahead, wrapped her up in a wordless embrace, refusing to let go.
She pulled against his grip for a good long time, speaking softly, reciting as
if a mantra, the words, "I want to die. Let me die. I�ll be replaced; I
don�t want to remember this. If I die, they won�t make me remember this.
Please � just let me die." Shinji, for his part, remained wordless, and
simply held her fast.
After ten minutes or so of active resistance, Rei relented in her
attempts to pull away. A surprised and unprepared Shinji quickly found
himself seated on the ground with a sobbing Rei Ayanami in his lap. Silently,
she reached up and circled her arms around his middle, staying there without a
word. Laying a hand in her hair, smoothing it gently, Shinji whispered words
of reassurance and hope �
{rS: Reassurance and hope � yeah right. More like, "Once this episode�s
over, you want to go to your apartment or mine?}
{Mien: <pulls out an eraser simply marked with the letters "A-n-n-o">}
{rS & Rei: Ack!}
{Mien: <erases his former companions>}
