Disclaimer: The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original
characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the
author's permission. All other
characters belong to their respective owners.
Italicized sentences and phrases within italicized quotation marks (“”
instead of “”) indicate telepathic speech.
(Author’s
notes: First, a short summary. In the
weeks since his arrival, Raiu has become friends with most of the people
working for NERV. Most of the NERV
staff know Raiu’s past. He has
redesigned the EVAs greatly. I
apologize for any inconsistencies between my first fic and the Evangelion
series. I have not seen all the
episodes, so I had to rely on the episode synopsis’ on various web sites.)
Genesis 1.02
Feelings
Revealed and Crushed
A
Tokyo 3 High School, Friday
“Hey, Rei. Ya wanna go for a ride?”
Rei looked up to see Raiu standing
next to a NERV motorcycle, wearing a black leather jacket in place of his
trench coat. A helmet sat atop the seat
of the motorcycle. Rei glanced at the
motorcycle nervously, then back at Raiu.
She stood there, looking at Raiu for almost a minute.
“Rei?”
“Gendo wanted me to return to the
base immediately.”
“Why?”
“He did not say.”
“Do you always do what he says,
Rei? You are your own person. Free will, able to make decisions on your
own. Do you want to always be Gendo’s
puppet? Just try it. So, you wanna go for a ride with me?”
“Um, sure,” she hesitantly replied
as she approached him.
Raiu smiled and handed her the
helmet. She put it on and sat behind
him on the motorcycle.
“Okay. Just put your arms around my waist and hang on.”
Once he was sure Rei had a good grip
on him, Raiu started the company bike and took off down the road. Raiu sped up once they reached the edge of
Tokyo 3, where the traffic was almost non-existent. Rei almost immediately tightened her grip on Raiu and clenched
her eyes shut. Feeling that, Raiu
slowed down a little and continued on.
NERV
HQ, Gendo’s office
“You wanted to talk to me?” Gendo
asked.
“Yes.” Fuyutsuki replied. “I wish to
resign.”
“May I ask why?”
“I feel unable to keep up with what
we are doing anymore. And I don’t agree
with you wishing to bring about a Third Impact just to be with Yui again.”
“Well then. It sounds as if you are set in your path.”
“I am.”
With that, Fuyutsuki began walking
toward the door. He was stopped by
Gendo before he got near it, though.
“You were wrong about one thing, old
friend.”
“Oh? And what is that?” Fuyutsuki inquired without turning.
“I do not wish to instigate the
Third Impact just to see Yui again.”
The confused look on Fuyutsuki’s
face disappeared when he turned around and saw that Gendo had opened the chest
of his shirt.
“Dear God!”
Gendo closed his shirt and pressed a
button on the desk before him. A pair
of guards entered the room and stood silently, awaiting orders.
“Dr. Fuyutsuki has decided to leave
us. Escort him out and make sure he is
unable to divulge any of our secrets.”
“Yes, sir.”
The two uniformed men grabbed the
aging man by the arms and guided the stunned man out. Gendo sat down again and smiled to himself.
NERV
Hospital
Shinji walked into the room and sat
down in the bedside chair, his eyes never leaving the figure lying in the
bed. He just sat and stared for a few
minutes before speaking.
“Please . . . please, wake up.”
The young teen held the figure’s
hand, hoping for some kind of response.
“You have to wake up. NERV needs you. Everyone needs you. But,
most importantly . . .”
Shinji paused to trace his knuckles
along the side of the figure’s face.
“ . . . I need you, Asuka.”
NERV
HQ
“Where the hell are they?!” Gendo
raged.
“Shinji is visiting Asuka.” Misato
answered. “As for Rei, she was last seen riding off on a NERV motorcycle with
Raiu.”
“Doesn’t he realize that we need Rei
here in case another Angel attacks?!”
“Sir, if I may.” Maya interrupted.
“The chances of that happening are extremely slim. Probably non-existent.”
Gendo sighed in defeat and dismissed
the two women.
Countryside
Raiu stopped the motorcycle and
started to get up when he felt that Rei still had a death grip on him.
“You can let go now, Rei. I stopped the bike.”
Rei looked around and blushed as she
let go of Raiu. Rei removed the helmet
and set it back on the seat once they stood up. She looked at the ground, still blushing. Raiu smiled slightly and lifted her chin,
making her look him in the face.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed
about. Everyone’s got something they’re
afraid of. Don’t worry. Just stand up to your fears, and you can
accomplish anything. Besides, I’m here
to protect you.”
Rei remained silent even though she
was comforted by his words.
“Look around you,” Raiu suggested
after several minutes.
Rei looked and saw they were in the
middle of an orchard. Pinkish-orange
streaks of sunlight shone through gaps between the trees. The cherry blossoms on the trees were in
full bloom. Rei stared in awe as the
breeze turned the pink petals of the blossoms, showing the blood red backs of
the petals. Waves of red and pink
rippled through the orchard.
“It’s so beautiful!” Rei exclaimed,
then seemed to catch herself.
Raiu looked at Rei questioningly as
she looked away from him and at the ground.
He walked up and put a hand on her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Rei sighed.
“Don’t lie to me. Twice, you’ve shown you were happy, then
immediately acted as if that was wrong.
Why?”
“I . . . I’m not . . . that good
with emotions.”
Misato’s
apartment
“I’m home! Anyone here?” Misato called out as she opened the door.
When no one answered, she checked
all of the rooms. Finding nobody aside
from Pen Pen, she entered her bedroom and collapsed on the bed, exhausted. Half an hour later, Shinji came home and
checked on Misato. When he saw that she
was asleep, he went to his bedroom and turned on his Discman.
Touji’s
apartment
Touji opened the door and walked
through, heaving a sigh of relief.
“Man, it’s good to be home. Finally.”
Kensuke followed him in, looking
around.
“Jeez, the place looks like a dust
factory.”
“Well, excuse me for having a family
that hasn’t been here for several months at the least.”
“Hey, sorry. How are those artificial limbs holding up?”
“Pretty good, actually.” Touji
replied, flexing his new arm. “Those doctors did excellent work.”
“Well, duh!” Kensuke exclaimed.
“It’s their job!”
Orchard
“What?”
“I’m not really good at displaying
emotions around other people. I just
don’t know what emotion to express when.”
“Emotions are tricky things.” Raiu
stated. “You can’t just choose when to feel them most of the time. Like love, for example. You just can’t control who you fall in love
with. I’ve heard of people falling in
love with their worst enemy before.”
“That’s not all.” Rei cut in. “I
just don’t know what some emotions really feel like, or how to react when I
feel a new emotion.”
“Well, the feel of emotions I could
probably help with, but how to react to new emotions, well . . . that’s a bit
tougher. You just do what you feel is
right.”
“Oh.” Rei whispered, then quickly
changed the subject. “You said that everyone has something to be afraid
of. What are you afraid of?”
Raiu remained silent long enough for
Rei to turn and look at him. She saw a
look of pain and sadness engulf his face.
“I –”
“Don’t apologize. You didn’t know. I’d have to say . . . dying alone.”
“ . . .?”
“As in, having no friends or family
to acknowledge my death and remember me.
No one to tell them I love them with my last breath. Without that, it’d be as if I’d never
existed.”
“Oh . . . I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t realize you had that much
pain in your heart,” Rei whispered, her attempt to look into his eyes blocked
by his shades.
Raiu removed the shades and looked
at Rei. Before he could say anything,
the two heard a loud beeping. Raiu
pulled a small cell phone out of his pocket and turned it on.
“Yeah?” he grumbled.
“Raiu!” Maya exclaimed on the other
end of the line. “Where are you?!”
“Um, northeast of the city a couple
miles in a cherry orchard.”
“Look to the south. We’ll expect you here in less than fifteen
minutes.”
Raiu grumbled as the connection was
closed and put away the phone. Still grumbling,
he leapt straight up, clearing the treetops.
He landed and ran to the motorcycle.
Raiu grabbed the helmet and tossed it to Rei, who barely managed to
catch it and put it on.
“What’s going on?!” Rei asked.
“Angel,” Raiu replied as he got on
the bike and looked at Rei expectantly.
Rei ran over and sat behind Raiu
again, putting her arms around his waist.
“Hold on tight, ‘cause we gotta be
there quick!”
Rei barely had time to tighten her
grip around Raiu before the motorcycle shot off at almost 60 mph. Rei adjusted her grip, sliding closer to
Raiu in the process. This time, instead
of closing her eyes, Rei kept her head up, allowing the wind to whip at her
face. After several minutes and
comfortable in the knowledge she can face her fears, great and small, she laid
her head against Raiu’s back, thus protecting her from the wind. Raiu would have noticed had he not been
concentrating on keeping the motorcycle from crashing at over 150 mph.
NERV
HQ, main entrance
Raiu stopped the motorcycle and
waited for Rei to get off.
“Good luck.”
“What? Why aren’t you coming in with me?”
“I thought I saw some injured
people. I’m gonna go help ‘em.”
“Wait. The Angel hasn’t even reached Tokyo 3 yet. How can there be injured?”
“It’s got laser beams. See ya.”
Without another word, Raiu drove
off, leaving Rei to watch him disappear around a corner before heading inside
the base.
Outside
Tokyo 3
When EVA-00 and EVA-01 reached the
area the Angel was last sighted in, all they saw was blood and
destruction. Shinji picked up a strange
signal on his scanners. He saw an
energy signature that seemed to be growing larger between the two EVAs. Shinji and Rei looked up to see a large
creature falling straight toward them.
“Get out of the way!!” Misato
screamed over the comm.
The two EVAs dove to the side just
before the creature hit. As the three
titans landed, a guttural shriek was heard from above. The EVAs looked up to see another creature
falling straight at them, or more accurately, the creature that had already
crashed. The creature on the ground
fired an energy beam at the other, knocking it off course. Rei and Shinji recognized the creature that
had been shot as the dragon they’d met a few weeks earlier.
The other creature looked just like
the dragon, only it was silver and white.
The white dragon stood up and saw the two EVAs. It quickly grabbed them in headlocks and
faced the black dragon.
“Kurinaka, ni choutie!”
“Tou chakanahk Shito!” The black
dragon snarled. “If you’re going to make threats, at least speak modern Terran
so the natives can understand you.”
“Ynear? Ah, yes. I forgot. Wonderful Terra, how sweet the memories.”
“Enough of the small talk. Release the EVAs now.”
“And why should I? Right now, all three of you are at my
mercy.”
“Not necessarily,” Black replied,
disappearing from sight.
White grinned and turned around,
expecting Black to attack from behind.
He was greatly shocked to feel his back sliced open by Black’s forward
blades. White collapsed to the ground,
his spine nearly severed. The two EVAs
backed away quickly, drawing their prog knives in the process.
“Put those away.” Black snapped.
“They won’t even scratch his skin, much less his AT field.”
As Black finished speaking, White
stood up again, his back completely healed.
White faced Black and fired a beam of energy so powerful, the EVAs’
armor was singed from two football field lengths away. The beam hit an invisible barrier in front
of Black. The dark dragon held the AT
field for as long as he could, then let go and dove to the side, breathing a
cone of fire at his pale counterpart.
“Take this, chakana!” Black roared.
When White’s beam faded, the others
could see that the white dragon was ablaze.
Black took advantage of this and charged White, slashing at him with his
forward and elbow blades. White was
forced to retreat under the barrage of edges.
NERV
control room
“Why won’t they attack?!” Gendo
yelled.
“I don’t know about the white,”
Hyuga replied, “but so far, the black dragon hasn’t attacked them. Actually, it’s been helping them.”
“So did Kaoru before he betrayed
us.”
Gendo picked up a small microphone
and yelled into it.
“Attack them both before they
destroy the city!”
Outside
Tokyo 3
“Tell your commander to shove it!”
Black roared.
“How could he hear that?” Shinji
asked aloud.
White backed up quickly as the
flames died and fired another beam at Black, blowing a hole through Black’s
unprotected arm. The dark dragon
clutched his arm, a piercing glare locked on his opponent. The pale dragon began flying at insane
speeds, circling his dark opponent.
White fired several more beams, hitting Black in various places. Soon, Black was kneeling to conserve
strength from the loss of blood. A pool
of the orange liquid collected at his feet.
A small sphere of blue flames appeared in front of Black’s open mouth as
the wailing of a thousand ambient voices filled the air.
Shinji and Rei looked around,
expecting to see an Angel attack, then realized the sound was coming from
Black. White halted several hundred
yards from Black, facing him. The small
flame sphere grew in size until it was as big as Black’s head. Suddenly, the sphere disappeared and Black
fired a blast of energy at White. The
energy punched through White’s stomach and continued on, destroying an empty
building that had jammed in place when the city retracted.
When the blast dissipated, White was
holding what was left of his intestines in his hands, blue blood pouring from
the wound.
“You may have injured me, but you
won’t be returning to our old home.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You ever see what a fusion grenade
does to a bata fruit from the inside out?”
“NOO!”
“Nuyo cra, yun chara. Yo nek tiem hou fek, tou chi lonu taiwe tou
gren sot yun.”
Without another word, White
teleported away.
NERV
HQ
The staff in the control room sat in
a stunned silence for several moments, then burst out in clamor. Gendo quickly got everyone under control.
“Get the positron rifle to Shinji
and the rail gun to Rei! NOW!! We can’t afford to let another Angel attack
us so soon. Shinji, Rei. Kill the Angel quickly.”
Outside
Tokyo 3
The two EVAs grabbed the guns
delivered to them and aimed them at Black, who was on his hands and knees,
panting from exhaustion. He looked up
at the two armored titans and shook his head.
“Go on. Kill me. Heartless,
back-stabbing, shrakas.”
“We have no reason to kill you yet,”
Shinji replied.
“I’m sorry.” Rei stated, cocking the
rail gun. “But we were ordered to do so by Commander Ikari.”
“Do you always do what Ikari tells
you to, Rei?” Black asked in a hauntingly familiar voice.
Do
you always do what he says, Rei? You
are your own person. Raiu’s voice pounded in Rei’s head.
“How do you know my name?” Rei
asked, surprised.
“How do you think I heard Ikari tell
you to attack me the first time? I can
hear any communication frequency within a ten-mile radius. Now, if the pleasantries are over, either
kill me or let me leave.”
Black tried to stand, but collapsed
from the pain.
“Damn it!” Gendo roared over the
comm. “Kill the Angel now!”
Free
will, able to make decisions on your own.
Just try it.
Can I?
Your own person.
My own person?
Make your own decisions.
Am I able to?
“Rei! What are you waiting for?!”
Free
will.
Free?
On your own.
By myself?
No. I have friends. Shinji, Asuka, Misato, the others.
“Enough waiting, Rei! Attack now!
While it’s still down!”
Just try it.
But Ikari . . .
Do you want to always be Gendo’s puppet?
But . . .
Puppet . . .
I’m . . .
Puppet . . .
I’m . . .
Puppet . . .
I’m a . . .
“Rei?” Shinji questioned worriedly.
“What’s wrong?”
Puppet . . .
Am I?
Puppet . . .
I’m a . . .
“Rei!” Gendo screamed. “You have to
kill the Angel to save Tokyo 3!”
Puppet . . .
I’m a puppet?
“Are you?” a new yet familiar voice asked Rei in her mind.
“NO!” Rei shouted over the comm.,
shocking everyone.
“What did you say to me?” Gendo
growled.
“We have no reason to kill him.” Rei
stated with sudden determination. “He saved us when the other tried to kill
us. More importantly, he saved Tokyo
3. We owe him at least our gratitude,
if not more.”
With that, EVA-00 walked over to the
dark dragon and helped him stand. Rei
looked at Shinji through the onboard viewscreens. Without being asked, Shinji moved EVA-01 over to the other two
and helped Rei lift Black, ignoring Gendo’s commands to do otherwise. The two EVAs carried Black over to the
launch tubes. They set him down on one
of the launch pads and stood beside him as it dropped down the tube.
EVA
docking bay
Almost half an hour later, the two
pilots exited their EVAs as Gendo approached them.
“What the hell is the idea bringing
an Angel down here?!” Gendo shouted. “I ordered you to kill it, not bring it
back with you! And you, Shinji. I thought I ordered you not to help her!”
“I may have been made by you,” Rei
retorted, “and I may pilot an EVA for you, but I am not your puppet anymore.”
“You insubordinate little –” Gendo
snarled.
Gendo pulled his hand back and
backhanded Rei across the face. Before
Rei had even hit the ground, Gendo was staring straight into one of Black’s
eyes from mid-air.
“I ever see you attempt to kill a
defenseless female again, I will kill you.”
“You can’t do anything to me. I’m the supreme commander of NERV.”
“What use is rank or title against a
being that is more than capable of destroying an army of EVAs? This is your only warning, Ikari. You do that again, and I will kill you. Even if you think there is no way of me
knowing, I will find out. Are you even
aware that if I had not caught her, Rei would have fallen to her death?”
Gendo looked at Black’s other hand
to see Rei unsteadily getting up in the creature’s palm. Black set them both on the catwalk they’d
been on and slumped against a wall and closed his eyes. The first thing anyone noticed was that
almost all of his wounds had healed.
“Your wounds!” Rei exclaimed.
“I know. I heal as fast as my counterpart does. I’m just really drained right now. My Mega Flare usually does this to me. A massive loss of blood doesn’t help either. Once I’ve rested enough, I’ll be leaving.”
“Not before we run some tests on
you,” Gendo stated.
Upon hearing that, Black opened his
eyes and glared at the Commander.
“As it is right now, I’m plenty
pissed at you, Ikari. Don’t push your
luck any further.”
With that, Black closed his eyes
again.
“Wait!” Rei called, unusually
talkative. “What’s your name?”
“My name?” Black sighed. “It’s been
so long since I’ve had need of a name.
Just call me . . .
Ragnarock. Your kindness will not go
unpaid. I will be here to protect you
if the need shall arise.”
Before anyone could say anything
else, Ragnarock had fallen asleep.
Gendo ordered a recovery team to go collect some of the blood left by
Ragnarock and the other dragon. He turned
back to Rei and Shinji.
“You two ever disobey me again, and
I will see to it that you never pilot an EVA again.”
NERV
lab, an hour later
“Sir!” Shigeru exclaimed. “I think
you should look at this!”
Gendo reluctantly walked over to
look at a small viewscreen. Not
understanding what the Lieutenant wanted him to see, he started to walk back to
the other terminal.
“Sir!” Shigeru repeated in an
impatient voice. “This is a DNA scan of the two dragons.”
“So?”
“Unh.” Shigeru sighed. “There are
two different anomalies in the white dragon and three in Ragnarock.”
“And that’s supposed to mean what?”
“Take a closer look at them,”
Shigeru stated.
“I don’t see anything.”
“In the white dragon, we can see a
normal human DNA strand. On top of that
strand is another DNA strand. That of
an Angel.”
“So you’re saying that the white
dragon is half-human, half-Angel?” Gendou inquired.
“Not exactly.” Shigeru corrected.
“The way I see it, the creature can change shape at will between a human form
and an Angel form.”
“And how did you come to that
conclusion?”
“The Angel DNA was dominant until a
few minutes ago, then the human DNA became dominant.”
“And Ragnarock?” Gendou asked.
“Well, first off, his blood is
LCL. Which is strange enough on its
own. He also possesses three different
DNA strands. Human, Angel, and – you’re
not going to believe this – what looks like what Evangelion DNA would look like.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know,” Shigeru replied.
“Which strand is dominant?”
“Both the human and Angel
strands. It seems as if the EVA DNA is
being repressed by the other two.”
NERV
lounge
“Just out of curiosity, why’d you
defy Gendo?”
When Rei didn’t respond, Shinji
sighed and began picking at a loose chip of plastic on the arm of the chair he
was sitting in. After several long
moments, Rei finally spoke.
“I don’t know why. It just felt like the right thing to do.”
“No offense, but since when did you
care what the right thing to do was? I
recall you followed Gendo’s every order as if it were a direct command from
God.”
“I had some advice from a friend.”
“Glad to see you used it,” a voice
stated from behind the two pilots.
They turned around to see Raiu
standing in the doorway, his left arm in a makeshift sling. He walked over and sat in a seat between the
two young teens. They noticed a slight
limp in his right leg.
“So, how was your fight with the
Angel?”
“Actually,” Shinji began, “we didn’t
do any fighting whatsoever.”
“Eh?”
“A black dragon we’d encountered the
day you arrived was already fighting the Angel, if it was even that. The black dragon defeated the Angel. Unfortunately, the Angel got away. The rest – well, I think you should ask Rei
about it. I’ll see you two later.”
With that, Shinji left. Raiu looked at Rei, who was gazing out the
window away from Raiu.
“Are you?”
Rei spun around and stared at Raiu
in surprise. Her mind had been
replaying the incident with Ragnarock.
She’d just gotten to the point that the strange voice had said, “Are
you?” when Raiu asked her the same question.
“Am I what?” Rei asked in a quaking
voice.
“Gendo’s puppet.”
“Not anymore,” Rei sighed.
“So, after Ragnarock defeated the
white dragon, what happened?”
“How did you know his name and what
the other Angel looked like?”
“Well, duh. I saw the Angel before you and I came back
to base. And this wasn’t my first stop
here. I went down to the docking bay
first. But, by then, Ragnarock had
left. Another engineer filled me in
vaguely about what had happened after you three got back. But, from the sound of Shinji’s voice,
something else happened.”
“Gendo ordered me to kill Ragnarock.”
“But, obviously, you didn’t.”
“I finally decided to live as my own
person.”
Raiu smiled wholeheartedly at that.
“And you’re talking more.”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
“For?”
“The advice. I finally feel . . .”
“Complete?”
“No, not yet, just . . . free.” Rei
sighed. “What happened to you out there?”
“Got tagged by some falling
debris. Busted my arm, dislocated my
hip, and hyper-extended my knee. I’m
surprised I was even able to walk back after the motorcycle got totaled under a
small building. It’ll be healed in a
few hours to a day at the most. One of
the ups of being genetically engineered.
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. The engineer said that Ragnarock spoke to
them just before he left. He said ‘Tell
Rei thank you. She’s the only person to
ever show me kindness.’”
NERV
lab
“Find out all you can about
Ragnarock. Also, if he’s on our side,
and can shape shift, I want to know who he is.”
“Yessir!” Maya, Hyuga, and Shigeru
stated in unison.
With that, the three turned back to
their computer consoles and began working.
Gendo walked out of the room, his thoughts travelling along a single
track.
If
I can find a way to clone that creature, I can make an army of mindless
drones. I won’t need the EVAs and their
insubordinate pilots then.
Rei’s
apartment, that evening
Rei lay on her bed, thinking about
the strange voice that had spoken to her before she defied Gendo. She looked out the window and watched the
sunset as Raiu’s words penetrated her thoughts once again.
You
are your own person.
Am I now?
Free will.
But at what cost?
Able to make decisions.
What if I choose wrong though? Did I make the right decision in defying Commander Ikari?
On your own.
By myself?
Another look of determination
crossed Rei’s face again as she asked herself that.
No. I have friends. Shinji, Asuka, Hikari, Misato, the others.
“Raiu,” the strange voice stated in Rei’s mind.
Huh?
“You list your friends, and yet Raiu is absent from that
list.”
I hardly know him.
“Is he not a friend of yours? Perhaps your closest friend.”
My closest friend?
“You are blind and deaf then.”
Blind? And deaf?
“Yes. Do you not
see how he acts around you? The
emotions in his voice when he speaks of you and to you?”
I see a person that is a great mystery. I hear what I guess an old brother would
sound like.
“Well, then.
Either you are blind and deaf, or Raiu does not know how to express
himself.”
Who are you?
“Someone close to you and Shinji.”
What is your name?
“How do you feel about Raiu?”
I don’t know. But
– who are you?!
“And here I thought you’d changed. Became someone that knows who they really
are. Able to tell what they feel for
someone.”
Raiu?
“No. Someone else. You and Raiu will need each other’s strength in the near future. Know what you feel for people or you may lose them.”
How
do you know all this? How are you able
to speak to me like this?
When the voice didn’t give a reply,
Rei stood up and walked over to the phone.
She dialed the number for Misato’s apartment. After several rings, the phone is finally answered.
“Hello?” a female voice asked.
“M-Major Katsuragi?”
“Yes? Who is this?”
“Ayanami.”
“Oh, hello, Rei. How are you?”
“I’m well.” Rei answered. “Is . . .
Raiu there?”
“No. Whatever gave you that idea?”
“I just thought he would be there
since –”
“Since he’s underage and doesn’t
have a home, right?”
“Y-yes. I apologize.”
“Don’t.” Misato stated. “It’s
understandable. You might try NERV
HQ. He could still be there.”
“I will,” Rei replied before hanging
up.
After a few minutes, Rei dialed the
number for the NERV control room.
Halfway through the first ring, the line was connected.
“Yes, what?” an impatient voice
snapped.
“Hello –”
“Who is this?” Rei recognized the
voice as Maya Ibuki, albeit sounding busy.
“Rei Ayanami. Is Raiu Kusanagi there?”
“No. He left soon after you did.
I’m quite busy and can’t talk right now. Goodbye.”
“Wait!” Rei stated quickly. “Doesn’t
he stay at NERV at night?”
“No. We don’t know where he goes when he’s not here. Now, I have to go! Goodbye.”
Before Rei could say anything else,
the line was disconnected. The young
girl had a sudden idea of where he might be.
The only problem was transportation.
Rei dialed Misato’s number again.
Orchard
Raiu leapt from treetop to treetop,
performing stunts a master acrobat would envy.
Hard as he tried though, his mind would not stay empty of brooding
thoughts for long.
Why
was I so worried when I saw that creature holding Rei? I was worried about Shinji as well, but still. It was nothing compared to my feelings for
Rei.
His own words began ricocheting back
and forth in his head.
I’m
here to protect you.
But will I always be?
Just stand up to your fears, and you can accomplish
anything.
How could I say that when I can’t even stand up to my own
fears?
I’ll help you with emotions.
Bullshit. How can
I tell someone what emotions are when I don’t even know what most of them feel
like.
You just have to do what feels right.
Some great advice giver I am. I don’t even know what my feeling toward Rei are. And here I’m telling her to face her fears
and do what she feels is right.
I’d have to say . . . dying alone.
When those words echoed in his mind,
Raiu shuddered.
No one to acknowledge my death and remember me.
It would be as if I never existed.
No one to tell them I love them with my last breath.
Oh, God. What have I done to deserve this? First, I’m brought here after losing everything I once knew. Then, I’m not even sure how much longer I’ll be around.
No one to tell them I love them with my last breath.
How do I feel about Rei?
Raiu jumped off the tree and landed
mere inches away from something slightly smaller than himself.
“AAAHH!!!”
Raiu looked up to see Rei staring at
him in fear. He quickly stood up and
stepped back a couple of feet.
“Rei! I’m so sorry. I didn’t
realize you were down here!”
Rei calmed herself before replying.
“No. It’s my fault. I should
have tried calling your name. I
apologize.”
“Alright. So we were both in the wrong.
Let’s forget about it, eh?”
“Alright,” Rei stated, smiling
slightly.
“What are you doing out here
anyway?”
“Looking for you.”
“How’d you know I’d be out here.”
“I didn’t. I just had a feeling you would be.”
Still unsure of what to say, Rei
remained silent for several moments.
“Let’s go sit down by that tree,
eh?” Raiu suggested.
Once the two had sat down, Rei
turned to Raiu and started speaking.
“Raiu, I – I . . .”
Raiu looked at her questioningly, as
if asking her to continue.
“I, I . . . Ugh, why is this so hard
to say?!”
Rei took several deep breaths then
continued, looking straight ahead.
“Raiu, I – I . . . what I want to
say is . . . I have feelings for you.
I, I’m not sure what the feeling is, but I think it is love.”
Rei looked back at Raiu, only to see
a small drop of red liquid running down the same path a tear would. Raiu bit his lower lip and leaned his head
back, taking his shades off in the process.
“Raiu, wha – what’s wrong?”
“You have no idea how painful it is
to say this, but I – I can’t risk what might happen.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I can’t risk what might happen if I
say I feel the same way toward you.”
“What could be wrong with two people
loving each other?” Rei asked, dumbfounded.
Raiu stood up and turned away from
her.
“You don’t understand. I just can’t.”
Without speaking, Rei stood and
slowly backed away from the older teen.
Soon, she was in an all out run from him until she got back to Misato’s
car. Rei jerked the door open and
jumped in. She shut the door and curled
up in a ball on the seat. Misato looked
at Rei curiously, but before she could say anything, Rei cut her off.
“Just take me home,” the blue haired
teen hissed through her tears.
It took all of Raiu’s willpower just
to keep from running after her and telling her how he felt. He turned back to the tree he’d sat beneath
only moments before with a look of pure rage.
With a single kick, Raiu broke the five-foot-thick tree in half. He then proceeded to demolish the falling
tree with a flurry of punches and kicks.
Once he was done, he sat down among the debris and cried for several
minutes.
“Why?” Raiu asked no one in
particular. “Why me?! WHY?! DAMMIT, WHY?!?! ALL I WANTED WAS A NORMAL LIFE!
COULDN’T YOU EVEN GIVE ME THAT?!”
Raiu suddenly remembered something
he’d forgotten upon arriving in Japan.
He smiled grimly and stood up.
Raiu turned toward the city and started walking.
“They will have a fighting chance.”
EVA
docking bay
“And this is the EVA docking bay,”
Maya finished.
“Impressive.” The pale teen
following Maya stated. “Your engineers must be very talented to design armor
that good.”
“You could tell the quality of the
armor just by looking at it?!” Hyuga stammered. “You are good. Actually, it was just one person that
designed the armor. He signed on with
us not too long ago.”
“Would his name happen to be Raiu
Kusanagi?” the pale child asked.
“How’d you know that?” Shigeru
asked.
While the boy paused, Maya took
another look at him. White hair, pale
skin, grey outfit, blood red eyes.
Just
the opposite of Raiu, Maya mused to herself.
“Because. I’m his brother.”
“Bullshit. My brother is dead.”
The four people looked over to see
Raiu walking toward them.
“If you are my brother, prove
it. When you were dying, what did you
say to me?”
“Live.”
Raiu sighed and shook his head, then
extended his hand.
“Good to see you again, Kea.”
The pale youth took Raiu’s hand and
shook it.
“Good to see you as well, Raiu.”
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have
some work to do.”
“Anything I could help with?” Kea
asked.
“No. I don’t need help for this.
Besides, you know I prefer to work on my own.”
I
just hope he and I can keep up this charade long enough, Raiu thought to
himself.
NERV
Hospital, the next day
Shinji sat next to Asuka’s bed yet
again. This time however, he said
nothing, only stared at her face and gripped her hand. So intently was he staring at Asuka that he
didn’t notice the sounds of two sets of footsteps approached the room. The two people entered the room and stopped
suddenly when they saw Shinji sitting there.
“Hey, man,” Kensuke stated.
Shinji looked up, startled, to see
Kensuke and Touji watching him. He
quickly released Asuka’s hand and rubbed the back of his head nervously.
“Hey, guys. What brings you here?”
“Not much.” Kensuke replied. “Just
checkin’ on Touji’s sister.”
“How’s she doing?”
“The same.” Touji coldly answered.
“What are you doing here?”
“Don’t have anything better to do,
so, here I am.”
“Don’t you have any tests to do with
the EVAs?” Kensuke inquired.
“Not since Raiu redesigned the
EVAs.” Shinji said. “All we have now is an occasional practice outside city
limits to keep from getting rusty.”
“Hey, wait.” Touji interrupted.
“Who’s Raiu?”
“He’s a new engineer that
volunteered to work for us a few weeks ago.
He totally redesigned the pilot-EVA interface, armor, and weaponry of
the EVAs.”
“Good for you,” Touji sneered.
Kensuke snapped his head up to look
back at Touji.
“What is your problem?!”
“What problem?”
“He’s still pissed at me from when
EVA-01 destroyed EVA-03,” Shinji stated.
“Get over it!” Kensuke exclaimed.
“Don’t you know Shinji didn’t have a choice in the matter?!”
“He was piloting EVA-01 at the
time. He could have stopped it.”
“No.” Shinji sighed. “I
couldn’t. Gendo activated the Dummy
Plug and disconnected me from EVA-01.
If you can’t accept that, then this is goodbye.”
With that, Shinji walked out of the
room, ignoring his two friends.
NERV
HQ
Rei was numbly walking down a
hallway when she barely heard a muffled thud come from a nearby room followed
by unrecognizable voices. She crept
over and put her ear to the door.
Suddenly, Rei jerked her head up as if she’d just woken up. She looked around to see that she was lying
against the wall. Rei opened the door
to the room she’d heard the sounds come from.
When all she saw was an empty room, she scratched her head in confusion,
then continued down the hall, her thoughts akin to a hurricane.
EVA
docking bay
“What do you mean, ‘he’s in
charge’?!” Raiu roared.
“I meant what I said.” Gendo replied
calmly. “Kea is now in charge of EVA upgrading and maintenance. You will answer to him as you answer to me.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, you
old geezer,” Raiu snarled, “I don’t answer to you. I bet you don’t even know half of what the EVAs are equipped
with.”
As the two argued, Kea watched in
amusement. Gendo glanced at him before
continuing.
“I don’t care right now. You can either work under him, or you can
leave now and never come back.”
“Heh. Well then. Since you put
it that way. I either continue working
on the EVAs by myself, or I can dismantle them all right now. Leaving you up shit creak without so much as
a boat. Get my drift?”
“There’s no way you can dismantle an
EVA.” Gendo countered. “Besides, my men would shoot you down in an instant if I
gave them the order.”
“I’ll take you up on that bet. Get one of your best marksmen in here with
an M-16 and I’ll prove how futile that would be.”
Gendo pulled out a walkie-talkie and
turned it on.
“Don’t argue with him, Gendo.” Kea
stopped him. “I’ve seen what he can do.
Dodging bullets would be no problem for him.”
“Fine then.” Gendo growled. “But,
Kea will at least work with you on the EVAs.”
“He works under me and it’ll be fine
by me,” Raiu stated.
NERV
Hospital
Soon after Touji and Kensuke had
left, a slight shift in Asuka’s monitoring system could be noticed. Her slowed heart rate and breathing began to
slowly speed up. Later that night,
Shinji came back and sat down in the chair.
Nervous, Shinji fidgeted for several moments, then got up enough courage
to walk over to the bed. He leaned
down, staring at Asuka’s face. He
pressed his lips to her cheek and slowly stood up.
Shinji reluctantly sat down in the
chair again and continued watching her.
It wasn’t long before he fell asleep.
Finally, around midnight, Asuka’s vitals were back to normal. Her eyelids fluttered rapidly as her head
began moving side to side and her hands gripped the sheets over her until the
knuckles turned white. Almost half an
hour later, Asuka jerked upright and gasped.
She looked around and saw nothing
but shadows. Asuka’s hand raised to her
cheek as if she had and could still feel Shinji’s kiss. Once her eyes had adjusted to the minimal
light, she looked around again. This
time, she was able to see shapes and lights, like the heart monitor, the
digital clock that read 12:39, the –
“What the . . .” Asuka whispered.
She took a closer look and could
barely make out Shinji’s sideways face as it lay on the small table at which
the chair sat. Asuka smiled at the
thought of him staying there with her but then thought again.
Why
would he stay here? And for me of all
people? After all, I have been really
mean to him. Whoa, I’m thinking this? Could it be that I really . . .
“No.” Asuka whispered. “Not a
chance.”
Nonetheless, the young red head
stayed awake the rest of the night, thinking.