All characters copyrighted by Gainax, not me.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
In this fic, Yui Ikari is NOT part of Unit 1. If you have a problem
with this, don't read.
Home
With great reluctance to do so, Shinji got out of the entry plug,
and the pilots spent a few minutes heaving the liquid from their
lungs.
'No matter how often I do this, I'll never get used that,' he thought.
He stole a glance over at Toji. 'How did he get his arm and leg back?'
kept going around and around in his head. Within minutes, they were
all in the control room, going over the mission profile. Misato took
control.
"It appears that Shinji and Unit 1 are doing better than before.
Unit 3 is now ready for field duty. Rei and Asuka, your synch rates
are steady, which is good, although I expect Shinji's and Toji's to
fluctuate rapidly."
"Toji, now is as good a time as any to do your injections," Ritsuko
added. This perked Shinji's curiosity.
"Injections?"
"Oh, yeah! You wouldn't know," Toji said. "After the accident-"
"It was no accident," Shinji said, looking his father straight in
the eyes.
"Whatever. Anyway, I was missing an arm and a leg, so what they
did was offer to give me them back, if I would still work for NER-"
"I understand that much, but how did you get your limbs back?" It
was the second time that Shinji had cut his friend off, and this got
the Commander attention. This, clearly, was not the same person that
he last saw, and he wanted to see what other changes had occured. All
he needed was the right opportunity to implement his idea.
"What they did, was they cloned them. Then the new limbs were
surgically attached to the stumps of my arm and leg."
"But isn't there some nerve damamge? Shouldn't you have lost some
motor control?" Toji, knowing that Shinji was going through shock
after shock, was patient with him. A feat, it was.
"Right, so they used artificial nerves. The technology is similar
to the Eva's. The injections are to keep rejection from occuring."
"Rejection," Shinji whispered quietly to himself, with a meaning
wholly different than the one Toji used. 'Rejection, rejection,
rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection, rejection...'
kept running and running around in his head. Again, he locked gazes
with his father.
But whom had rejected whom? Shinji couldn't get an answer for that.
For sure, his father rejected him first, but then he rejected his
father by not being family. Then he rejected everyone else for
something _one_ person had done. One! But who? Was it his father?
Was it him? Who was it? He really didn't want to think about it. He
wanted to stay happy. It was the first time in three years, and he
doubted it would come again soon.
"Alright, everyone. Take the rest of the day off, but stay on call
if you're needed," Misato told the workers. Everyone breathed a sigh
of relief. What a day it had been! She turned to the pilots. "You're
dismissed, too. Go home," she said, and Shinji flinched. Home. Where
would that be? His father's? Misato's? He had to find out. Looking at
his father, he asked: "Accommodations?" and he glanced at Misato. She
smiled and felt proud, proud that he felt he could trust her. The
commander, meanwhile, was thinking furiously. How could he set it up?
He couldn't think of anyway, and then a perfect situation fell in his
lap.
"No."
"NO?!" Shinji, Misato, Toji and a few others cried incredulously.
"No. The Psychiatric Department wants to run an experiment. As of
1800 hours tonight, Shinji, Rei, and Asuka will move into an apartment
of their own."
"Yes, sir," said Rei. Though she wouldn't show it, or tell people,
she was intrigued about this experiment. The other two simply
exploded.
"WHAT?!"
"You can't be serious!" But one look at the commander proved he was
dead serious.
"What sort of 'experiment'?" Ritsuko asked, feeling sorry for her
friend. Misato'd spent all day feeling happy at having Shinji back in
her home. 'And I was so looking forward to having edible food in
Misato's apartment again,' she thought.
"They want to see what the effect of living together will have on
three pilots, with no parent figure to intercede," he said, the last
part sounding like he was reciting the phone book. He truly didn't
care for Shinji. All he was to the man was a tool. Nothing more,
probably much less.
"Hey, wait a minute, don't we get any say in this?" Asuka demanded.
Now she started to understand Shinji's hatred for the man. But she'd
be damned if she was roomed with Shinji and Rei! Rei she could
probably stand, but not him!
"No, you don't. Your orders stand. The three of you will be given
an 'allowance' of sorts every month. The rest will be explained to
you, at 1730 hours, when you'll all report here. Dismissed," Commander
Ikari said, almost loosing control of his facial muscles and smiling.
This was going to be interesting. It took him a few moments to realize
that Toji was still there. "Yes, pilot?" Then Toji started to talk.
Shinji stood in front of the mirror, gazing at his own face. It
wasn't vanity; no, he still couldn't believe that he was here, doing
this all over again. He thought he shut that part of his life down
three years ago. But, here he was, and yet, it seemed so...right to
be back. He was in the locker rooms, with the sheet being the only
thing separating him and the two girls. He finally gave in and let
himself contemplate this new situation. 'The two of them have gotten
even more pretty than three years ago. It doesn't seem to have had
any effect on Asuka. Probably made her worse. Ayanami... she doesn't
seem to have changed at all. Mentally. Physically, she's beautiful,'
grudgingly, he also admitted to himself that Asuka was beautiful as
well. Never did he think of how girls saw him, it just never crossed
his mind. "And I'm going to be living with them..." he whispered to
himself. Not for a minute did he believe his father's claim of the
Psych. Department wanting to do an experiment. The truth, to that man,
was about as worthless as Fool's Gold. What was taking Toji so long?
He risked a glance over his shoulder, looking at the two forms
silhouetted against the sheet. The sheet, Shinji smiled at the memory
of a few minutes ago.
He'd walked in with the others, and they had started to get
undressed. They had forgotten that he was there. Toji had only been
recently placed on Active Duty, a week ago, as that was when Eva 3 was
completed, and so it had only been the two of them for three years.
Then Asuka realized that Shinji was there. He'd been opening his mouth
to tell the two of them that he was there, and she took it the wrong
way, of course.
"You stupid...PERVERT!!!"
"H-hey, Asuk-ka, it's not w-what you think!" He stammered out, much
like he did so often back then.
"Oh, I get it, it's not what I think, huh? You're wrong! Dead
wrong! And, speaking of dead..." she let the sentence hang, and balled
her hand into a fist. Shinji ran from the room, fearing for his life.
He waited outside until he was sure that the sheet was up.
Slowly, he came back to the present. He was finished changing, so
he got up and left. He didn't hear the conversation going on from
inside the room after he left to wait outside.
"Are you just going to go along with this?" Asuka demanded,
refering to their new orders.
"We were ordered to," Rei replyed, monotone. "You'd do well to
follow orders."
"Yeah... rrriiiggghhhttt, whatever. It took me a year to get him
out of that apartment, I don't want to be stuck with him again," she
said defiantly. Rei didn't belive it for a moment. She saw the look on
her face on the school roof last month, and saw that Asuka missed him.
Rei too, had missed him. Shinji was the only person, other than the
Commander, who kept trying to be a friend, not just a collegue. She
knew the Commander's reasons, but she didn't know Shinji's. She
couldn't figure that aspect of his being out. It was also that
apsect, among others, that caused her to miss him. Unlike Asuka a few
minutes ago, she knew Shinji was there; she hadn't forgotten that he
was there. And, even more intrguing, she listened to their
'conversation' with rapt intrest, although one couldn't have told it
by looking at her. She rationalized it as information useful when one
has to live with those two people.
"Hey, Wonder Girl, did you miss him?" Asuka asked as if she was
reading Rei's mind.
"Yes."
"'Yes'? Is that all you're going to say, First Child?"
"Yes."
"Shouda' known that was going to be your answer. Why, oh why, do I
always get stuck with the wierd ones?" she asked the roof. The two
girls finished dressing and walked out into the hallway. There they
found Shinji talking to Toji, who was still in his plug suit. "What
are you still doing suited up, Fourth Child?"
"As I was telling Shinji here, I was simply asking the Commander
why I wasn't moving in with the three of you, although I don't really
relish the thought of being under the same roof as you every night,"
he replied, with the usual tone he used in Asuka's presence.
"Why aren't you coming with us?" Shinji asked his friend. Even
after three years, he still felt a close kinship with the larger teen.
"Because I still have a family. They've already had a huge impact
on my life, and the Psych. people don't think my family'd let me go.
They're already unhappy at my working for NERV again." Then Misato
came up.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know about this, I swear!" The poor woman
was practically falling to pieces.
"We'll worry about that later. But now, let's get re-aquainted,"
Shinji said, trying to get the woman to stop blaming herself. He
didn't realise that for three years, he himself had done that. Blamed
himself for actions were not of his own will. The results of his offer
were immediate.
"Sure! Let's go!" In Misatos apartment, the next seven hours
where spent laughing, smiling, and having a good time catching up on
each other's lives. Going there was the logical choice, as Asuka's
stuff was there and had to be packed up. However, the time soon came
to return to the Geofront. There the three of them picked out an
apartment that was agreeable to them all. With Asuka in that group,
agreeing on anything was a feat.
The one they agreed on was some distance from Misato or Ritsuko's
apartments, but it wasn't too far from the school. It was still
walking distance. And then Shinji dropped a bombshell on them.
"I would ask a favor of you, Asuka and Toji. Don't tell Hikari or
Kenskue that I've come back. I want to surpirse them." Asuka ran an
appraising look over his body.
"You won't have any problems with that." Shinji couldn't figure
out what she meant by that.
end part 4
Thanks to Andrew Huang and Kent Armstrong.
Cory Holmes
gholmes@rodeo.sd27.bc.ca
(
geocities.com/tokyo/shrine/3281) (
geocities.com/tokyo/shrine) (
geocities.com/tokyo)