Neon Genesis Evangelion
A Thousand Years of Secrecy
"The Templar Knights discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls
during the Crusades in the Dark Ages.
When they returned home
their order was divided:
those who sought to use the scrolls for attaining Godhood
and those who believed that the prophecy contained
was none other than the same foretold in Revelations.
The end of the world.
Those after Godhood would become renowned as the Illuminati,
a cover for their true council of leaders: SEELE.
And those who fought them:
The Children of Light, or NERV.
Their secret war has waged for nearly a millennium.
This is its conclusion."
Disclaimer: I own neither Evangelion nor Altered Carbon (or any other book in the Takeshi Kovachs series). If either Gainax or Mr. Morgan have an issue with any of the content presented, please contact me by e-mail to remove it.
Quick A/N: This is NOT a crossover. This is an AU. The disclaimer is only there to fool you. I promise. Read it.
One – Rescue / Redemption
"In the end times, there will come to be another Judas. A great betrayer of betrayers. His name shall be Hayt."
"He's what, barely out of high school, if that."
"Orders from the top. You know how it is."
"Shit, whatever. Let's get this over with."
The cool sensation of the handgun's muzzle slid up against his scalp. The soft darkness settled over him. Becoming him. And he was empty.
Empty of every feeling, every thought, every sensation: the hate for the two JSSDF soldiers; the oozing discomfort from the wound in his side, leaking his insides onto the floor; the residual guilt of having been sloppy enough to actually wind up shot; the stink of disinfectant throughout the storage room; it all died away into a vast unfeeling ocean.
It was the Envoy conditioning in full. Just like she had taught him.
He kept his head down, pressed against the indigo knees of his Plugsuit.
"Sorry kid, it's nothing personal."
"You would say that..." he muttered into the collar as the progressive knife slid out from under his wrist.
"The personal, as everyone's so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here—it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference—the only difference in their eyes—between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it's just business, it's politics, it's they way of the world, it's a tough life, and that it's nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal."
-Quellcrist Falconer
The man made a noise like a chicken clucking as he choked down his own vomit and blood; it coursed back into his stomach and out onto his chest through his torn open trachea. Shock and pain splattered across his expression, bulging eyes and clenched teeth. The soldier struggled to raise the pistol towards Shinji as he planted his foot firmly on the Kevlar chest piece and fired another round into the man's cranium, ending the feeble gesture.
Make it personal.
He rubbed the sides of the vibrating knife on the uniform's sleeve until the blood was sufficiently gone. He switched it off at the handle and slid it back into the bottom of his right wrist. It disappeared, re-bonding itself with the Plugsuit's material. The red jumble that was the side of his waist sparked and fizzled as the suit tried and failed to stop the bleeding of its occupant yet again. He did not feel the pain of it this time.
The eighteen-year-old began to strip the two men in the darkness, wriggling into the fatigues so that his Plugsuit was invisible beneath. When he finished with the outer shell of Kevlar he holstered the sidearm on his hip and hefted one of the standard issue rifles off the floor, testing its weight in his hands. He removed the clip and gauged the ammunition left in it; re-mounted it, fingered the switch for semi-automatic, and fired a round into the wall to feel the kick of the weapon. Satisfied, he slipped any spare clips off both soldiers into the pockets of the new uniform.
"Ikari. What are you doing in storage?"
Static hissed over the radio imbed in his eardrum. He grunted and turned the volume down with a motion across the left wrist of the suit.
"Having a picnic. That static is going to make me fucking deaf, Ibuki," he sub-vocalized back through the throat mic.
"Sorry. The JSSDF are struggling with our satellites at the moment. MAGI should have it sorted out in a bit. What is your status?"
He slipped the helmet over his head and secured it tightly, then pulled the combat mask over his mouth and nose, hoping that the disguise would be enough to slip by relatively easy. Relatively, anyway.
"Wounded. Grazing gunshot on my left side. Plugsuit's architecture has sustained minor damage. Thermoptic chameleoflage is inoperable; the tourniquet function's gone too. The op is still a go."
"Ikari, the option is still on the table: do you want to abort?"
"Negative." He shook his head, as if his operator might somehow see the gesture. "I'm not leaving her behind."
"Don't let personal feelings cloud your judgment."
He laughed bitterly, rubbing at the stubble of his chin under the dark fabric of the mask.
"You, of all people, should not be questioning me in that field, lieutenant."
There was a pause on the other end of the line. A white piece of plastic from the other uniform's pocket caught his eye as he slung the rifle's shoulder strap; it was roughly credit card sized, with a black strip running down one side.
"Ayanami can only engage the surface for so long. If you're going to make a move for the sub-commander it has to be now."
"Understood. I'm on my way to the command deck now."
He ascended the steps leading out of the room, his footfall echoing into the chamber with the weight of his new equipment.
"What are you going to do, just walk in?" This time it was Doctor Akagi's nicotine heavy voice, scratching the inside of his ears.
"Yeah, something like that," he said, tucking the plastic away into a breast pocket.
Unflinching red eyes watched as yet another entrance erupted in a fireball of screaming soldiers and shredding steel. Two Japanese military aircraft shrieked overhead before the thunder of the collapsing tunnel had ceased, the roar of their supersonic engines booming at low altitude. The towering pine trees of the forest swayed around her with a suck of air from the passing jets, pines shedding free like a green snow storm.
"Entrance four threat has been neutralized. Air support is intensifying," she spoke, her voice soft and airy as she waved an errant needle free of short cobalt hair.
The lithe figure kneeled on the bluff, watching as the JSSDF emblem on the side of the APC disappeared in the orange glow and black smoke of napalm rounds. She made no sound, save rustling through the motions of reloading the immense recoilless rifle by her side. The gray folds and shapes of the thing shifted in a vaguely organic way as it ejected the empty clip from its belly. It looked all the more huge and lethal beside her tiny figure. Unfathomable eyes twitched back and forth as a small hand retrieved the next clip off the back compartment of her Plugsuit and clicked it into place. The gray folds of the weapon crawled back up her arm, stopping below the shoulder. The thing flexed easily with her as she tried bending her elbow.
"Requesting new target."
"Acquiring now. Ammunition check?"
"Three clips in reserve, one loaded."
"Roger. MAGI are uploading now."
She stayed kneeling besides the gray shapes of the weapon, as the white collar of her suit began projecting, ghosting its transparency across the burning rubble of the previous target. An aerial view of the new target rotated before her face as the briefing started.
"MAGI have targeted supply elevator sixteen as the most effective hostile. Distance from your current position is approximately point nine kilometers. Enemy presence is confirmed. Possible armored personnel vehicles and/or light artillery. Optimal threat distance is one fifty meters to target on the north western ridgeline."
The image switched to a map of the surrounding area along with her suggested route to the ridge traced in white.
"Heavy enemy presence is expected. Proceed with extreme caution. Good luck, Ayanami."
"Roger. My ETA is two minutes. Going silent. Ayanami out."
The ghostly image of the hologram before her disappeared and then so did she. Her gun slid into nothing after a moment's pause as well.
Hurry, Ikari.
"I can't think of a much better test, wouldn't you agree?"
"Rei will have no problems. Asuka scored well enough that this should be a piece of cake for her. Shinji is in the most compromising position."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
"I had a feeling you'd say that," Ritsuko sighed. "Still I wish we had something a little less... high stakes for their first mission together."
"Asuka arrived as soon as the Third Branch could prep her. We won't be receiving the Fourth Child from the US until they finalize Plug 03's activation tests. You know this," Fuyutsuki spoke softly, calm.
Around the two of them, the command center was scrambling. The three operators directly in front of them were concealed by their seats, their only presence a staccato of typing as they frantically up-loaded and re-wrote pieces of the Plugsuit coding according to the MAGI's specifications; this in addition to keeping track of enemy movements over the satellite networks and the synch ratios for each of the operatives. The rest of the bridge was awash in the constant back-and-forth of technicians and combat analysts, relaying the most important of MAGI updates verbally to the rest of the room. Controlled chaos. Fuyutsuki wouldn't have it any other way.
Hard eyes stared into the rainbow of holographic tactical displays with what seemed to be a squint that was perpetually etched in the man's face. His posture was flawless. Graying hair and a pair of oddly anachronistic white gloves. Ritsuko stood to his right, where Misato would have been normally if she wasn't already running around on the sub-deck with the three operators by this part of the operation; if she wasn't being held captive in the Geofront.
"Perhaps it's just wishful thinking on my part then, that we could have lost HQ at a more opportune time. Or the sub-commander for that matter." She took a sip of her black coffee.
"Katsuragi-san will be back with us shortly. And as for the old headquarters... well, that's why we have Asuka I suppose."
She turned and looked at the man carefully while he remained immobile, eyes fixed forward as if oblivious to her presence beside him.
"The Rail Device. The UN won't stand for that."
"Surely. It will be added to the N2 Non-proliferation Treaty shortly hereafter no doubt."
"You don't think that will... excite our investors?"
"The investigative committee will be far too enthralled with the N2 Mine used on Tokyo-3 to bother with us. The Japanese government has overplayed their hand, SEELE as well."
"Ikari..."
Both stood like statues before the ghostly transparencies of maps and data.
"I'm sorry," she began.
"He has made his choices. So have I."
"Auf Weidersehen."
She waved as the thunder of the NERV Aeroflot screamed back into the stratosphere. She pulled an errant strand of the wind-whipped red hair free from her face as she began leaping down the steep decline of the rock quarry with casual grace.
She disappeared into a crack in the cliff face, flitting into the darkness in one swift motion.
"Souryu, this is Aoba. Have you located the weapon yet?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it," she spoke, prodding at the empty air in front of her. Her hand stopped on something and she tugged hard. A gray sheet pulled over something monstrously huge blinked into existence in the middle of the cave; she began pulling off the gray chameleofabric.
"This is our first mission together, Second Child. I look forward to a successful run."
"Likewise," she replied, struggling with the sheet.
"Make sure not to forget the projector, Souryu."
"Oh right," she mumbled to herself, startled by the ESP-like sense of her operator.
She retrieved a small round object out of the back of her crimson Plugsuit, setting it down at the edge of the cliff. It clicked on after a moment's pause and the cave suddenly looked from the outside as nothing more than an empty fissure in the cliff face once again. No red Plugsuit, no gray behemoth.
She returned to the sheet, finally pulling it free of the massive folds of the thing. It was the size of a passenger bus, easily taking up almost the entire cavern. Two massive beams jutted out of its front, bolted into the granite. One out of the back. The barrel stretched the full length of the cave; the front was two flat gunmetal prongs, almost sticking out of the rock face like the biggest tuning fork she'd ever seen; the back was a bulbous cylinder, smooth, huge, and featureless. Just above the spot where the three planted struts converged in a tripod was a seat offset to the bulk of the weapon with an imposing targeting monocle hovering just above it.
Asuka whistled.
"Now that is a gun."
"The Rail Device is not a toy, Souryu."
"If you were standing where I was right now you would understand why that thought never crossed my mind," she snapped back, irritated.
"I'm fully aware of the specifications—"
"Forget it. Let's just get on with it, shall we?"
"Agreed."
Why is everyone I meet in this job such a bore?
She moved over to the floating seat and hopped into it, reclining in the plush leather with a pleased sigh. She had to admit NERV knew how to do some things right.
"Engage the targeting monocle and let it communicate with your Plugsuit. The scope should turn on when this process is complete. Then target the center of the lake. The MAGI will verify targeting placement and take care of any error-correction necessary."
She slid the visor over her eyes, resting her hand around the fighter-plane knob of the trigger on the right armrest. Her view telescoped in on the blue expanse of water directly above the Geofront.
"The MAGI will transmit the firing codes when the mission is a go. I assume you know what to do from there."
"You assume correctly."
"Hey bitch, you like that?"
He slapped her again.
"I said: do you like that, bitch?"
The voice was weak, almost broken, when it spoke.
"Kiss... my ass."
He kicked her in the stomach and she moaned as she toppled over in the chair.
"Fuckin' slut. We'll teach you not to talk back." Another kick to her crumpled form on the floor. A different man this time.
"Ishida, stand her back up. I wanna have some more fun."
"Yes, sir."
"You know, you're lucky. We're just supposed to keep you alive until the real interrogators come pick you up. They'll do things to ya' that you wouldn't believe you could feel. Professionals, they are."
"..."
"Oh, don't feel like talkin' eh? Let's see if this'll make you say something."
He began putting the cigarette out in her palm. She screamed as the embers burned into the flesh. He withdrew it and returned it to his mouth, taking long drag on the tobacco.
"How's that feel, bitch? Not so tough anymore."
She was crying softly.
"Not so fun being helpless huh? What do you have to say for yourself, Katsuragi?"
"Die scum."
But it was not her voice.
Gunshots rang out over the command deck. The man with cigarette collapsed forward onto a shocked Misato, a neat little whole centered in his forehead. A whirlwind of white and blue something tumbled through an entrance amidst the clatter of automatic gunfire.
She could not hear the panicked JSSDF shouting at one another as a soldier was kicked over one of the railings; his head was twisted around at an impossible angle, dead before he'd reached the floor three stories down. Two more crumpled onto consoles beside her, crying out as their insides painted over the keyboards behind them.
Then Shinji was approaching her, holding a soldier in front of him with a pistol pressed against his temple. The other remaining soldier kept his rifle on Shinji, frozen in place before the fearless killer. He'd torn a room full of ten men to two in less than ten seconds.
"Stop right there."
Shinji kept advancing as he spoke.
"I'm going to count to three. Then I'm going shoot your comrade in the head if you haven't put the gun down and gotten on your knees, hands in the air." His voice remained matter-of-fact, as if detached from the whole situation.
"I said stop, mutherfucker!" The man sighted his rifle while his comrade trembled in Shinji's grip.
Shinji kept walking.
"Three."
"Please! Listen to him Ishida."
"Fucking STOP! Right now, or I'll shoot!"
He took another step forward.
"Two."
"Ishida! For the love of God, do what he says!"
"One."
Shinji ejected the man's brains onto the floor while kicking the rifle out of the grip of the other in one smooth motion. The weapon sailed through the air and out of sight into the chamber below them. Defenseless, the solider lowered to his knees. Shinji placed the barrel of the handgun against his forehead, watching him through inhuman eyes.
"Shinji-kun..." Misato whispered, kicked free of her trance. "Don't, please. He's unarmed."
"Do you have children, Ishida?" he asked the kneeling man, ignoring her plea.
The man nodded very carefully. Tears were streaming down his cheeks.
"Yes. I have two little boys." His voice shook as he said it.
"So if I killed you right now, they'd be growing up without their father, correct?" He pulled the hammer back on the pistol as he spoke.
"Yes. That's right," he whispered as the streams tears ran off his cheeks.
Shinji smashed the butt of the pistol against the man's temple and watched him collapse, passed out. Misato exhaled.
"I knew you'd come," she said to him as he engaged the progressive knife and began slicing through the binds over her wrists.
"Are you wounded?" he asked as he worked through the ties on her ankles.
"I've been better," she said, wincing as he scooped her out of the chair with one hand.
They stood face to face. He looked at her finally. She had bruises on her cheeks the same shade as her lavender hair. A black eye too. But the woman he loved was still there, underneath it all. Beautiful as ever, eyes brimming with tears. He held her in his arms, their eyes locked on one another and soft breathing the only noise between them.
I promised I'd come back for you.
"Sensei, I thought you should have this back," he dug into a pocket on his hip and retrieved a white crucifix threaded by thin black string. He tied the necklace for her so that the white piece rested just above where her breasts came together. As if it had been there all along. Just like always.
"Shinji-kun..." She pulled him closer and hugged him, brushing away the free-falling tear as she put her head on his shoulder. "Thank you."
"Target neutralized. Requesting next target."
"Affirmative. Awaiting MAGI confirmation."
Rei moved through the methodical motions of reloading the recoilless rifle. As the gray shapes shifted and re-adjusted on her arm the radio in her ear came back to life.
"Change of mission priorities. Make your way to extraction point Delta." A new hologram appeared from her collar, a new route traced in white on the map. "From there set up a perimeter and wait for the retrieval fighters to touchdown. When Ikari and the sub-commander are surface-side provide cover until the fighter has successfully captured them. Your mission is over once the fighter has both of them. Your own fighter will be arriving on a two-second delay. Is your mission clear, Ayanami?"
"Roger. Proceeding to extraction point Delta now."
Sensei is safe now. Ikari has her. The mission is almost over.
"Ikari has recovered the sub-commander. He is now on his way to the nearest safe entrance as designated by the MAGI," Maya reported to her superiors.
Ritsuko could not suppress a tiny smirk at the news. Fuyutsuki remained expressionless.
"Aoba, prep the firing codes for transmission to the Rail Device."
"Yes, sir."
"Hyuuga, have Rei move to the designated extraction point and set up cover for their exit."
"Yes, sir."
"Ibuki, double-check enemy activity at the exit via satellite and then re-check the marker Shinji planted at Central Dogma."
"Yes, sir."
Fuyutsuki exhaled slowly, raising a gloved hand to rub at his brow.
"Something wrong, commander?" Ritsuko saw the unease on his resolute features clearly, an ability she'd picked up from working with the man for so long.
"You know I don't like it when you call me that. And yes, there is."
She watched him from behind her coffee mug, waiting. Fuyutsuki valued patience more than any other attribute or any normal human for that matter.
"With Shinji and Misato both injured and he accommodating her movement, they are extremely vulnerable to a flanking maneuver or ambush. And I have my suspicions..."
"Sir!" It was Maya. "Heavy enemy presence reported in Central Dogma by Ikari's marker buoy. MAGI estimates between twenty-five and thirty heavy exo-skeleton type armored infantry—"
"Cross-referencing with all currently known and hacked JSSDF troop specifications returns no positive ID! They aren't Japanese, sir. That's for sure," Shigeru cut in.
"Hmm." Fuyutsuki clasped his hands in a gesture that was instantly recognizable to Ritsuko. Something he must have picked up from his time spent with Gendou.
"Ibuki, inform Shinji of the threat behind them. They will be tracing his route with Misato as we speak and possibly preparing for an ambush at the exit point. Hyuuga, instruct Rei to prepare for heavy resistance and/or enemy presence at the landing site. Aoba, begin cross-referencing marker data recovered with German government black projects started in the last ten years. Begin with those contracted to the Marduk Institution."
"Do you think it's..." Ritsuko looked at him, eyes widening behind the rims of her glasses. Fuyutsuki nodded fractionally.
"It seems SEELE was more eager to retrieve Katsuragi than we anticipated."
"Ikari here, what seems to be the problem?" he said, mashing the button for the highest floor the elevator had access to.
"Roger. Understood."
Misato watched him as she sat in the corner, knees pulled up to meet her chest. She recognized the clenched muscles along his jaw line, one that she now found oddly reminiscent of Kaji's. The five-o'clock shadow was almost disorienting to her. Shinji had transformed from a geeky-looking teenager into a handsome young man right under her eyes.
"What is it, Shinji?"
"Not the JSSDF, that much is clear."
"SEELE?" She said the name slowly.
He shut his eyes, sighing.
"That would be my guess. Unfortunately."
"Damn."
Shinji watched the floors tick away, thoughts churning. Misato's expression was one of similar intensity. The elevator stopped. It was not at the floor Shinji had pressed.
He was already wrenching open the doors, the Plugsuit whirring to life as it re-diverted strength to his arm muscles. He popped the first set open, then the outer set for the floor they were on. The elevator whined in protest, internal alarms screaming at them to leave the doors closed.
"Out. Now!"
Misato sprung from her sitting position, skidding out onto the floor with a grunt. He did the same and the elevator dropped away an instant later, magnetic tracks sparking with electricity into the gloom of the shaft.
"They're closer than we thought," Shinji said, panting slightly from the adrenaline, not the exertion.
"They'll already be coming up on the closest lines to sweep this floor."
"The stairs, then."
Misato looked at the giant red number painted next to the familiar leaf on the wall next to them.
"Twenty floors on this leg? We'll both be dead."
"I'll carry you."
They headed for the stairs.
"Release the recovery fighters from their evade pattern now and initiate retrieval programming."
"Roger. One-minute and thirty-two seconds until touch down at point Delta."
"The Third Child and sub-commander Katsuragi are at the twelfth floor now."
"What now, Fuyutsuki?"
"Have the MAGI hack any available safety locks between their stairwell and the nearest four elevator shafts on floors between twenty and two. Aoba, you may send the firing codes to the Rail Device but do not unlock the trigger safety yet. Have Asuka standby to fire. Prep the trigger release for my mark."
Ritsuko stared at him.
"The priority for this mission was altered when SEELE's presence was confirmed. We cannot let them have a functioning S2 Engine at any cost. That is now the top priority for this mission. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir," the three operators said in unison.
"But Shinji and Rei..." she said quietly. He nodded.
"I know. There's nothing I can do anymore," he replied. "Ibuki, release the activation codes for Plug 01's S2 Unit and inform Shinji."
He heard the pressure sensitive feet two floors above him first. He stopped and lowered Misato to the floor silently, putting a gloved finger to his lips.
She watched his Adam's apple bob as he sub-vocalized something into the throat mic. Then the fluorescent lights snapped off, throwing them into pitch black darkness. Until the navy orb imbedded into the stomach of his Plugsuit began to glow an odd shade of green, the only light in the stairwell. Other than the red glow of four laser sights on the far wall up the steps from the two of them.
"Ayanami, load all remaining ammunition into your weapon, explosive rounds first."
"Affirmative."
"Your target is an extremely well-armored infantry unit. Use HV ammunition only for these targets. Its weak points are the legs and arms, particularly the shoulder joint. Do not aim for the head or body. Disable the firing arm first, then one or both of the legs."
"Understood."
"Plug 01 has engaged several of them in the stairwell. When he has exited the surface entrance at a safe distance, use your remaining explosive ammunition to collapse the structure and provide any additional cover as needed."
"Yes, sir."
"Your pick-up ETA is one minute."
Ikari. You must fight. You must win.
"Ikari has engaged the exo-armor units in the stairwell again! He is trapped on floor five now."
"ETA to retrieval touchdown is forty seconds!"
"Release the trigger lock on the Rail Device and instruct Souryu to fire."
Aoba turned back, looking up at his commander in shock. So did the other two operators. He had already explained the possibility of this outcome but their open mouths gaped at him.
"Commander..." Ritsuko was looking at him now also.
"Do it!" the old man hissed. Aoba and the other two turned back around. "We cannot afford to lose the S2 to the enemy," he said softly.
"But..."
"You want me to what?" Asuka was furious.
"But there are still operatives engaged on the ground!"
My fellow Envoys, the First and Third Child. I haven't even met them yet.
"I don't care if it was a direct order from the almighty himself, I'm not pulling this trigger!" she shouted back, removing her hand from the knob.
"Oh yeah? Well you can go fuck yourself then. Because I'm not shooting until I see two of our fighters leaving the surface. Souryu out!"
She withdrew her Plugsuit's computer terminal from the material over her forearm and began to type furiously, hooking a wire into the I/O port on the armrest.
"Thirty seconds to touchdown."
"Manually override her firing control and activate the Rail Device immediately."
"Yes, sir."
Fuyutsuki's brooding was cut short by Aoba's panicked yelp.
"I... I can't, sir! Souryu seems to have changed the password!"
"What?" Fuytuski was standing now, furious.
"Impressive," Ritsuko whispered off to his side.
"Have the MAGI re-assert their control of the weapon!"
"She's cut the satellite link entirely! MAGI are de-scrambling the encryption now. Thirty-three seconds to re-establish contact."
"Damn that insolent little brat!"
"Very impressive," Ritsuko whispered again. "Kyoko's talent was clearly not exaggerated."
Too much. It was. Too. Much. Blood trickling down the side of his head. Misato in his arms. Her face was pale, tired. The light of the entrance before them, close enough to touch.
More gunfire. Behind him. The green flash of the S2 field again. The bullets could not reach them now. He could not stop moving.
Almost there. Almost.
Outside. The entrance behind him crumbling into red flames. A black shape emerging from the fire. Pointing something at him.
Just a little more.
Something dark above him. A speck in the sky. Growing huge. Then it was on them both. And he was being pressed down into something soft and dark. Down down down. Harder and harder on his chest. Until he couldn't breathe. He could not. Breathe!
A flash of white from behind. Then nothing.
One Fin
Notes: Holy AU, Batman! Okay so that was a little fast there. I tried to cut out every detail I felt was unnecessary. It might have been a little too fast to catch everything that was going on, although, if you pay attention, you should have a pretty good idea. I find I have to slow down a little when I read this chapter so I catch every little piece.
I was going to have an entry hacked from the Marduk Institution's brochure advertising the exo-armor but it got so big that it ended up ruining the flow of the chapter so I cut it completely. Since that armor is probably going to be appearing several more times, if anyone wants to see a full description of it let me know in your review and I may put it after chapter two.
So uh. Hate it? Love it? Boring? I'd like to know really. This is a first for me in that it is my first Eva story on this site (although I have started and given up on plenty of others) and my first shot at this style of writing.
Japanese lesson for this chapter:
-Sensei means "teacher." That's an easy one, I know.
-One of the possible meanings of ikari is "hate" but this is not the intended meaning of the Kanji for Shinji's last name: that meaning is "anchor." (All my prop are belong to dunnerat)