Neon Genesis: EVANGELION
Eva Wasn't Built in A Day.
v1.0 (final 'net release)
By Jared Waddell : rick_spiff@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in this work except for Goku
Takagi and James Rahn.
This story takes place post-episode 18.
******* WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *******
This fanfic contains S P O I L E R S ! ! !
This fanfic contains material that may be offensive to some
readers, including material of a type never covered in the Eva
series. This is not a nice story; it's Eva material, so if you
didn't like some of the issues present in the series, don't
even think about reading this!
******* WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING *******
Chapter 5:
---
More blurs, these ones closer. Strike! Strike! Dodge, move, blow!
Strike!
Visions churned in the sleeping child's mind, catching his conscious
mind unawares as memories - recent memories, came striking him one after
another, in a symphony of pain. Sweat beaded and dripped from his clammy
white skin, his body twitching in an almost constant cascade of fear and
the overwhelming need to fight with everything he had...
"Ahh!"
Goku sat up in his room covered in a sheen of sweat. For a moment,
nothing but breathing hard and believing in everything he saw in the
room, holding on to the _reality_ of it, was all that mattered.
"I'm alive."
He tried to lay back down, but every movement made his joints creak, a
sign of both the mental stress he had enduring during his brief piloting
career, and the rigors his body had endured to survive the final blow.
Somewhere, moving in the back of his brain, he recalled Asuka flinging
herself recklessly at the core, ready to give her all to kill the Angel.
Somewhere, deep inside, he shuddered.
The rest of the fight was more or less a blur to his conscious mind. He
sighed and tried to relax into the bed, half the room wavering before
his vision, the other half colored crimson with the fire of battle still
burned into his eyes.
A half-hour of intermittent sleep, and Misato came to visit.
Misato sat down primly, which would have alerted Goku that something was
up, had he been in normal condition. Now, having only barely survived
the marathon of fighting the day before, he hardly noticed her presence
in the room, let alone her intentions.
"Goku."
"Major."
"How are you feeling?"
"Lousy. I'll live though."
"That's good to hear." She paused, a question bent to strike like
lightening on her tongue, held for a moment, observed, then let fly to
it's purpose. "You never did tell me how you got to be involved with the
Evangelions."
"That?" Goku replied, woozy from the medication he'd been given and
still partially asleep. "Oh, kind of a long story."
"I can stay for a while. I want to hear this one."
"Then I'll try to be brief, you must be kept busy around here."
Misato's expression darkened slightly. Kept busy so she wouldn't have
time to figure out who or what she was _really_ working for. "Um hm."
"Okay, it started with my father, who was a biochemist by interest, and
a genetic engineer by trade. He started working for NERV around 2003 I
guess, or a little after. He started in something called Gehirn, but I
suppose in retrospect that Gehirn and NERV are one and the same. Around
2005 he became acquainted with a woman named Naoko Akagi, a biocomputer
expert and head of the computing division of Gehirn, when she was in the
process of building the MAGI system." He sighed, then rubbed his eyes.
"Getting tired?"
"I'll be okay. I'll be getting my sleep tonight." He cleared his throat.
"Well, Naoko died in some kind of accident - no, wait. She committed
suicide. Not something I'm going to go into."
Misato raised an eyebrow.
"About 2008, I was more or less ready to finish high-school
requirements, and was already wondering what I wanted to be when I grew
up. Of course, because of my intelligence, that time would come much
sooner for me than for my peers." His voice resounded in the past, of a
great burden placed upon him. "At that age, all kids toy with their
futures, reveling in the idea of what is to come. The mystery, the
magic, the whole nine stinking yards.
"I wanted to do the same stuff as my dad. I don't know why his line of
work was so interesting to me but it was, and that's what I wanted to
do. He didn't discourage or encourage me, he just said that I should be
first aware of my choices, then pick one without regrets.
"I chose to learn in the same discipline as him. For four years I worked
toward a degree in his field, and was scoped out by NERV intelligence
for potential employment in their scientific division. The actual offer
came in the fall of 2013, when my parents were long gone and I had
nothing left to loose. I was a sight then, still trying to recover from
a loss like that. I'm so much a different person from that. More than
anything else, I would give all to see my parents again, even if just
once."
Misato tilted her head mysterious. "I know what it's like to loose a
family member..."
"The Evangelion androids." Goku said, picking up again. "Where not my
idea, and I didn't have the first clue what was going on when I was
first put on one of the many miscellaneous construction teams. But, I
seem to still have the blood of an engineer and spent a lot of my spare
time figuring out how many of their systems work, and ultimately, how
they worked as a whole. After several months, I was intimately
acquainted with many of the Evangelions' quirks and sort of got more and
more involved in the biological engineering aspect of the technology.
"Lastly, some sub-section chief granted me my own team to oversee when a
minor reorganization was done. That was about a month before..." Deep
breath. "Before the third Angel attacked."
Misato felt something tugging at her brain, and inconsistency that was
nagging her gray matter like a weed caught in a good pair of nylons...
_One month before the first attack here and the first use of the Evas in
combat?_
"Oog. Not good to try and sit up." Goku moaned.
Misato started, she'd been toning him out. Then she halted for a second
to see that the recovery crew - or doctors, whoever - had not bothered
to even give him a hospital gown for his recovery. He hadn't appeared to
noticed. In fact, despite the apparent ease he had talking with her,
upon closer inspection, she could see that it was draining him.
"Well, we can talk later, you need your rest." She got up to leave.
"Give Asuka my regards. And... give her my thanks." He said from the
bed, looking young and fragile under the fluorescent lighting.
"Your thanks?"
"For killing the Angel. It was her, you know. She's really got fire. Not
like I do. Once, maybe, but that day's gone now. Sooner or later... what
it will... come to."
"Umm, sure. And thank you, Goku, for fighting it."
He was already asleep.
---
"Me?? Why that... insensitive JERK!"
"But it's true, Asuka."
"How DARE he! This is the last insult!"
Misato had tried, in a peaceful manner, to relay most of Goku's message.
Asuka didn't appear happy about his praise and thanks, quite the
opposite in fact. She was seething with anger the minute Misato
mentioned his name, and hadn't backed down yet.
"Charity from that little upstart, thinks he so smart... OH! I don't
need his bleeding-heart sympathy!!"
"ASUKA!"
"What!"
Misato forced herself to calm down. "He was being honest. There was no
way just one or two people could have taken that Angel down. He needed
your help and you did kill it. He is honestly thankful. You should go
see him."
"I don't think so, Misato. He should be coming to see me. After all, I
did save his worthless hide."
Misato sighed. She seemed to have been doing better when Goku had talked
and trained with her, but with him in the hospital Asuka was becoming
unbearable, snapping at anybody who so much as said hello. Even Hikari
was frightened of her, asking what was wrong. Of course Misato couldn't
divulge a complete list of the events that had led up to this... but now
the damage had been done.
Asuka stormed into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. This
was a little hard because she didn't have much stopping room, and the
door was a sliding one, but she managed.
Once inside, she stood in the middle of the room, motionless except for
a slight tremor that ran up and down her hands like water. She seemed to
be trying to contain whatever it was that was inside her, but it was
gaining the advantage. As the seconds ticked by, the tremors ran over a
larger and larger part of her body, until she was shaking from head to
toe.
Several minutes had passed, then Asuka's grip finally came undone. She
threw herself down on her bed with a call of primal fear and grief. She
couldn't let it change her, hurt her... couldn't let her guard slip, but
it was just so much pain... too much to hold...
On her bed, Asuka burst into tears, not caring who heard, just trying to
tie off some of her emotions before she lost control at a crucial time.
Lost control... she couldn't every loose control again. Lives were at
stake.
Misato looked up as she heard a 'thump' and the sound of someone wailing
like there was no tomorrow.
"I don't like this one bit. She's been acting strange ever since
Unit-03..." Misato trailed off into another can of Yebusi.
A semi-ordinary day at the Katsuragi apartment.
---
Rei stepped slowly into her room, almost wandering. The pain in her
limbs would have dropped a normal person, but she was still mobile, just
not comfortable.
She placed her bag of school material on the floor at the end of her
bed, then sat on the bed, staring at the wall. Several moments of
silence followed as she failed to make a single sound, save for the
gentle sigh of her breath.
Inside, a conversation of sorts was slowly forming like clouds gathering
before a storm.
_Who is Goku Takagi?_
_Toji Suzuhara, pilot of Unit-03_
_Pilot of Unit-03._
_The pilot of Unit-03 was injured and is in the hospital._
_The pilot of Unit-03 could have been killed, but he survived._
_The second pilot of Unit-03._
_Goku Takagi is injured and in the hospital._
Had Rei believed in curses, she would have had no doubt that a curse
shrouded all who piloted the black Evangelion. This time things should
have been different. The successful defeat of an Angel was a good thing,
but the commander was unhappy about the mission somehow.
_Takagi was a nice person. Suzuhara was a nice person._
_Two people hurt by Unit-03._
It didn't fit that Takagi would pilot the Eva in the first place. He
wasn't a pilot, he worked on the Evas. She had seen his face once,
buried underneath a protective hat in the cage that housed Unit-00. Like
a ghost, he had wandered right into the job of piloting Unit-03, taken
up the reins, and summarily ended up in the hospital.
Unit-01 was still locked up, no one was allowed to activate it.
_Goku Takagi._
_Who was Goku Takagi?_
_A friend? What is a friend?_
He taught her how to fight, how to move faster than the eye could see.
He knew things about the Eva that Rei herself didn't know. He threw
himself into the task with abandon. Training her and Asuka, fighting the
Angel.
_Something is wrong._
Something felt terribly wrong, but she could find no reason for the
feeling, for the sudden emotion that wasn't quite an emotion. A feeling
of needing to do something, but unable to remember what or why.
A premonition without origin. A sense of dread.
Goku Takagi.
---
Goku shrugged into his school shirt with a sour expression on his face.
NERV security had been crawling all over - and in some cases, in - his
apartment, and Misato and the rest of the pilots were always hanging
around. Honestly, it seemed like they were afraid he would suddenly be
kidnapped by aliens, or something similarly ridiculous.
He got out of the hospital after six days of rest and painkillers, then
had come home to find his apartment spotless. For some reason, he had
expected to leave some sort of minor legacy behind - even if in the form
of a dusty room. But now, it was like NERV was chewing through every
part of his life, including bits he didn't even know existed, and even
sifting through the lives of his late parents.
In Goku's lone opinion, like a bunch of termites.
After another week of being bored to sleep on a daily basis in his
classroom, Goku abruptly decided it was time for a vacation. Since going
against NERV regs was highly placed on his list of things to do (mostly
because of the recent privacy intrusion his employers had engaged in,
but more especially because it was fun), he thought he should go and see
Shinji. Visit, even if he had only barely met the pilot face to face
before. It would be nice to get to know the other male member of the
four-child team of madness(1).
He packed quickly and left the apartment without a look back - NERV
would keep an eye on it while he was gone. Now, getting out town might
be a tad hard, but assuming he had no reason to drive Shinji nuts by
ranting about all sorts of weird Eva trivia that only an engineer would
understand, there was no reason for the spooks in nicely pressed blue
suits to stop him.
Minutes later, Goku was walking quickly through Tokyo-3, trying to stay
calm and telling himself that he needed the exercise. After six days in
a horizontal position, he felt a little weak and his movements were
hesitant, but he was sure it would pass with good exercise. He kept his
eyes pointed at the ground as well, trying to ignore the volume of
construction going on all over the city as a result of a 3-Eva team
against a massive Angel downtown. Well, it wasn't really downtown, but
Goku took precautions to avoid it anyway.
"Hey! Goku, you moron!"
Which was probably why Asuka spotted him.
"Hello, Ms. Red Devil."(2)
Asuka was sprinting toward him from just up the block, coming from the
arcade up the hill. Goku took a second to lament the fact that the hill
had a very minor slope - too low to look up the short summer skirt Asuka
wore - before he remembered that Asuka should have been in school.
"Fancy meeting you here, Mr. High-and-Mighty."
"Shouldn't you be in school?"
She gave Goku a disdainful look. "It's Saturday you idiot. Where are you
going?"
_Change the subject... change the subject..._
"How's your hand feeling?"
"I'LL be FINE. Where do you think you're going?"
"I should be back in a few days. Rei will be on alert. Oh, and thanks
for taking out the Angel, that was a work of genius."
If looks alone could kill, Asuka wouldn't need Unit-02 to take down an
Angel with Goku's lines.
"I can't believe you did that you little TRAMP!"
"What?"
Asuka pulled back a fist, starting to shake from anger.
"Hey! I'm just tellin' it like it is. I would've been killed in there if
it wasn't for you."
"... So you say." Asuka made a visible effort to relax. Outside, Goku
remained calm and slightly wary, but inside he was surprised. Asuka's
quick temper seemed to have been cooled a _lot_ since he last saw her.
_Maybe that did some good after all..._
"Where _are_ you going?"
"To say hello to Shinji. I have a few days off coming, and I figure I
might as well say hello."
"And beat him up too?"
Goku grinned. "Only if he wants me to."
"Watch yourself, Goku."
Another internal reflection took place. She had never called him his
name unless partially delusional at the time.
"I'll tell him you saved the world and said hi. Later, Asuka."
Goku turned and started walking away, proud of himself, and very happy
for Asuka - not being a bitch to him and all - but was still ready to
run in case she went berserk and tried to flatten him with a skyscraper
or something from behind.
To his (very minor) disappointment, no acts of unreasonable violence
were rent upon his body, only a warm, gentle breeze.
Wind blowing away the last word Asuka said before she jogged back up the
hill she had come down...
"Shinji..."
---
Goku thought this was funny.
The place Shinji had decided he would spend his time was at a remote
school in the northern part of Japan. It was a small building in a
valley deep under forest cover, with the bunking houses nearby.
Peaceful, quiet, and surrounded by what had to be half of NERV security
and JSSDF forces.
Ridiculous was more like it. They had enough military hardware stashed
here to start World War III and all because of a frightened child who
could control the most powerful weapon ever devised by man. Just a
weapon three hundred miles away, locked two thousand meters underground.
Maybe 'stupid' would fit better, this was all governmental after all. At
least the JSSDF officers were nice enough to escort him down the only
road, then disappear out of view.
Just thinking about the number of eyes watching him there was creepy.
That is, until he met Shinji.
---
Shinji was the kind of person Rei would be if her near-emotionless state
was just a mask to cover the fear and pain and anger of being an Eva
pilot; being used by the only person you trusted. Shinji was a Rei with
a lot of pent-up emotions... only male with brown hair and normal eyes.
In fact, Goku could have sworn the two shared some uncanny similarity in
their looks. Shinji was an only child, wasn't he?
After getting his things settled in and papers fixed up nicely for his
'vacation', he made his way to Shinji after class.
"Shinji Ikari?" The young Eva pilot was on a bench outside, enjoying the
cooling air before fall nipped at the trees, preparing to eat lunch. The
class had a sort of nature walk to go on after lunch, so Goku figured he
would have some time to talk to Shinji.
A pair of brown eyes swiveled slowly to look at the interruption. "Yes?"
"I'm Goku Takagi. How are doing?" Well, this felt strange. Not entirely
unexpected, but strange nonetheless.
"I'm fine."
"You don't look it."
"I don't?"
"You should have a little more meat on those bones, boy." Goku said with
a slight smile. Actually, Shinji was in okay shape, but Goku was fishing
desperately for an opening. The boy didn't like to say much.
"Oh."
_Greeeaaat. I've always wondered what it was like to pull teeth._
"Shinji, I'm... I feel I need to talk to you about something. It's
something I'm not supposed to talk about, at all."
"I... I don't want to." So, he suspected.
"I'm not talking about that, not yet. I am allowed to talk to you about
whatever, but it just has to be between us."
"That's what all the soldiers are for."
"Yeah, they're all over the place. Desecrating such a beautiful place.
Let's not talk about evil things, let us just enjoy this place for a
while."
Shinji looked at him curiously for a moment before answering. "Okay."
---
"I like it when you can almost see the seasons change right before you."
Goku said pleasantly. They were out on a nearby trail, military officers
moving in the brush a few hundred meters distant, the class dozens of
meters ahead, being quiet for a change.
"Yes, it's very pretty. The colors of the trees changing, the wind."
"The winds grow cold, stroke the trees, the limbs and leaves that sigh
and rustle at the change." Goku looked at Shinji. "Remind you of
anything in particular?"
"No. I've always loved places like this, out of the cities. Here where
the water is still clean and there's something worth protecting."
"That's a strange thing coming from you."
"Why?"
"A person who doesn't have much self-worth and hates what has created
him doesn't seem likely to enjoy a place like this. The line between
life and death, between vitality and decomposition is thin indeed. One
day a rabbit prancing around, eating foliage here and there, watching
the sun, the next a body, to return to the earth, to feed the other
creatures. An animal here, it gets a broken leg, it usually dies. Harsh.
A very, very harsh world."
Shinji was silent for a minute, glancing at Goku from time to time as
they walked on slowly. "Who are you?"
"The pilot of Unit-03."
Shinji froze.
---
"Why?"
"I knew how, I had the goods. Besides, there seems to be nothing I
wouldn't do to help the commander. I tell you, your father worries me a
lot, Shinji."
Shinji kept his eyes away from Goku, looking out over the blanket of
trees below them. The whole group had loosely broken up after another
fifteen minutes of hiking, where the air had gotten cold. They had
stopped around this large hill with trees up its side, but no trees at
the peak, and no trees around the base. The three instructors along with
the group had been pointing out the varying foliage and ways the animals
in the area build their habitats to cope with the situation.
"He worries you?"
"Doesn't he worry you too?"
"No. Father... he may be a bad person, but what can he do to the rest of
the world?"
Goku facefaulted. "Shinji! That man runs NERV! Do you have any idea what
he can do with three fully functioning Evas at his fingertips?!"
"Yes I do."
_Okay, stupid question_.
"And you think he's just going to get rid of the Angels. Whoever has the
guts to do what he does is either insane or has something even bigger in
the works. He knows stuff the rest of us don't. Stuff NERV will kill to
keep out of our hands."
"It's called 'Top Secret', Goku."
"Why would a man need the power to destroy this world?"
Neither had an answer. Both looked below.
The animals used the forested area for protection, hiding inside it,
forming a rough ring about the main hill. Since no predators had any
interest in going up over a hill merely to traverse the distance across
the small valley, the mostly stayed away from the area unless hunting.
And if they smaller animals were flushed out of cover, they could move
in a ring, always one step ahead of their pursuers.
"Maybe.... Maybe it's just the way things are."
---
The darkness was all-inclusive, dominating, inescapable.
KIHL: Are you truly aware of the price of failure, Ikari?
SEELE-2: You should have been removed from your position long ago.
SEELE-3: Mistakes do not go unforgiven in front of this council.
IKARI: I see nothing wrong with my decision. Shortly, all that we have
prepared for will come to pass.
SEELE-6: You are treading thin ice, Ikari.
KIHL: We do not tolerate LIES!
SEELE-4: Be ready, Ikari. Be ready for when the time is at hand.
SEELE-2: When out time is at hand.
IKARI: I will.
The monoliths vanished almost as one, leaving only Kihl and Ikari.
KIHL: I sincerely hope so, Ikari.
Then the commander was alone. Silence reigned for short seconds.
IKARI: No need to worry. (
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