[Fanfic][EVA][Spamfic]
The Only Ones...
by Jim Miller <whonk@xinu.nu>
I don't own Eva, etc, etc.
C&C welcome.
Shinji Ikari stood glaring at the small, single silhouette figure
high above the purple robot's giant head. Shinji knew that it was Gendo
Ikari, his only living family. A man who hadn't seen fit to take the
time to even talk to him on the telephone for over two years. The same
man who had suddenly sent for him without explanation.
Shinji spared a moment's thought for the beautiful Captain
Katsuragi. It had been rather a shock to have her show up on his door
step, urgently requesting his presence. Gendo had planned it, of
course. He knew that Shinji would be much more willing to go along
quietly with some unknown (and good looking) woman than he would have
with Gendo himself. He had hoped at first that Gendo had sent his
'Significant Other' in lieu of coming himself.
Upon arrival at the huge NERV complex, however, he'd realized that
she was a relative new comer herself, her inexperience getting them both
lost in the massive headquarters building. Gendo had no doubt chosen
her because she fit his plan and could be most easily spared. He even
wondered if she might have been hired specifically to bring him.
When they had finally arrived at this place, ominously (and a bit
campily, he thought) dubbed, 'The Cage', he had been introduced to the
giant purple robot-thing they called Evangelion. That part of Gendo's
elaborate staging had been for naught. It was 2015 after all; in his
opinion, the only thing shocking about a secret government organization
having a giant robot was the paint job.
Being asked to climb inside and pilot it, on the other hand, was a
surprise.
"You have got to be kidding," Shinji stated flatly.
Gendo's voice echoed slightly in the large chamber. A voice from a
dark outline of a man, the only visible detail was the slight reflection
from his glasses. "As you know, I do not 'kid'. For reasons I will not
explain, you are the only one who can pilot it. The enemy that it is
designed to repel is already attacking on the surface. You must pilot
it now."
"At least you finally learned the difference between 'can not' and
'will not'. In my case, there's no difference. I will not pilot it
because I can not pilot it. I can't even drive a car, and you know it.
And you'd be a better person with a little kidding now and then."
Gendo ignored that small barb, just as Shinji expected he would.
Anyone so far gone in his megalomania that he *planned* to have reunion
meetings with family shouted across huge giant robot hangars full of
strangers, obviously wasn't in the market for self improvement advice,
he thought morosely.
"Are you refusing to pilot it?" Gendo demanded. "The fate of the
world depends on your answer."
"Correct." The day the fate of the world rests in your hands,
Shinji thought, is the day I start shopping for a new one, mad man.
"Then you are no use to me. Leave." Gendo turned his head to a
display on the wall that suddenly came alive, but anything he said was
too faint to carry.
Shinji glanced over at Captain Katsuragi and Dr. Akagi. Katsuragi
at least the grace to look embarrassed by her commander. Akagi, as far
as he could tell, could care less. She's obviously worked for him
longer, he thought.
Suddenly, the doors at the opposite end of the bridge from the ones
they had come in through burst open and two people in medical uniforms
trotted in wheeling a gurney. Shinji breathed a small sigh of relieve
when he saw it was occupied. His first thought had been that he was
about to need it himself--he wouldn't put anything past Gendo anymore.
At that moment, a violent shock wave knocked everyone off their
feet and the gurney's passenger to the floor. Shinji scrambled as best
he could to the bandaged woman, who hissed in pain. Neither of them
noticed the giant purple hand that came up to shield them from the large
falling lights. It did not, however escape the notice of the others.
While the others where shocked, Gendo only gave a small, cold smile.
Shinji's heart stopped as he looked at the face of the woman in his
arms. She appeared to be about his own age with pale skin and light
blue hair. She had a face that he'd never expected to see again; a face
he knew better than his own.
He looked up again at Gendo, with rage and malice this time. "What
have you done?!"
"The question is what will *you* do. Someone must pilot the
Evangelion and defeat the Angel attacking us. Her name is Rei Ayanami.
If you will not pilot it, she must." There was a trace of smug
satisfaction in his voice that Shinji wanted to remove with a pick axe.
Shinji looked down at the lined and wrinkled face of the woman in
his arms. Her one unbandaged eye opened, revealing a startling red orb.
She looked back at him without recognition. Memories of the same face
in different emotions--happy, sad, thoughtful, angry, passionate--but
younger, with less pallor and brown hair flooded through his mind.
Gradually the face became lined and the hair white until the last was a
still image of peaceful death. It faded to that of a grave marker:
Yui Ikari
1962-2013
Wife, Mother and Scientist
Shinji noticed the tears streaming from his eyes only when he
raised his seamed face and white haired head up to look at Gendo again.
"I'll do it, just leave her be. But I want to know why. You at least
owe us--me that."
Gendo smiled thinly, "Because you are the only ones who can.... Father."
* * *
This is the culmination of an idea that's been bouncing around in
my head for some time. Namely, why are robot pilots always teenagers?
Why not somebody older? Why not somebody much older? The rest flowed
from there.
Jim