[FFML] [XOver][EVA/Lovecraft] Fear Chapter Four: Prison Walls Break
Timothy Groves
groves_ca at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Nov 23 21:04:29 PST 2007
Disclaimer
Shin Seiki Evangelion was created by Hideki Anno, and is owned by
Gainax. Use of the characters and situations therein are not intended
as any challenge of their copyrights.
Mythos elements were created by H. P. Lovecraft and owned by Arkham
Publishing.
- - - - -
Shinji stopped struggling, and watched as his mother dove headfirst into
the waves. He waited, watching for her to surface, for long minutes,
before turning and burying his face into his father's jacket.
Only to be shoved away, tripping and falling. He looked up at his
father's cold eyes, and shivered.
"Never come back, Yui..."
He glanced down at his son, and Shinji's fear mounted as their eyes met.
The same arctic gaze now bored into Shinji's eyes.
- - - - -
Tail Kinker Presents
Fear
Chapter Four
Prison Walls Break
- - - - -
Shinji's eyes snapped open.
He lay on the hard bunk, staring at the ceiling of his cell. A single
fluorescent bulb, off at the moment, sat behind a tight metal cage. The
bunk itself had a sheet and a thin blanket, but the cell was quite warm,
and he lay on top of them. He still wore his plugsuit, which after a
week was getting quite itchy and unpleasant.
Misato had made her displeasure with his non-compliance quite clear on
their last meeting.
- - -
"You put your life in danger, and those of your classmates. Not to
mention mine!"
"I knew I could beat him."
"That doesn't matter!" Misato sighed. "We work as a team. I know it
can be hard to remember that, when you're the one out piloting EVA, but
the simple fact is that EVA is a complex piece of equipment. You -need-
us to help you! You can't possibly monitor every circuit and vernier on
your own. We do our best to help you, by lightening your load so you
can concentrate on the battle. But for us to help you, you need to help
us as well."
Shinji said nothing. Misato sighed again, and sat down on the chair
outside the cell.
"It's a common error that every person makes. They think of the pilot,
and think that he's just one man. The mistake goes back to the First
World War. They just don't realize that it takes more than one man to
turn a machine as complex as an airplane, or an EVA, into a weapon. You
were thrown into this headlong, with little training. So I understand
your mistake. I understand why you disobeyed me." She stood and leaned
against the bars. "But now I need you to understand me. I am in
command. Me, not you. And it has to be that way, or EVA will not
function as a weapon."
"I understand."
"Good." She turned to leave. "Your imprisonment was decided at one
week by Subcommander Fuyutsuki. Use the time to consider what I've
said."
- - -
He had thought about it. EVA had been designed by hundreds of
specialists, and many of those specialists helped control it during
battle. They put it in his hands - a fourteen-year-old boy's! - and
entrusted him with their lives.
He'd let them down.
He felt his throat constricting with shame and fear.
- - - - -
Misato looked through the glass at the entry plug, suspended halfway
into a pool of LCL.
"How's she doing?"
"About a thirty-five percent sync rate. Of course, that's being synced
against a dummy unit, not an EVA. We're also filtering the harmonics
and isolating them." Ritsuko lit another cigarette, in blatant
violation of the strict no-smoking policy enforced throughout NERV.
"Maybe five more minutes, till the MAGI have them pinned down."
"Good." She turned away from the window. "After that disaster with Jet
Alone yesterday, the U.N. Security Council was falling all over
themselves to 'find' the funds needed to reactivate EVA-00."
"It's just lucky that the auto-SCRAM worked. Eventually."
Misato chuckled. "Yeah. Though I'm betting we could have stopped it
before then if we'd been allowed to."
"The basic idea behind Jet Alone wasn't too awful." Ritsuko waved her
hand in the air, the cigarette tracing a ribbon of smoke. "After all,
we've seen what happens when most people see an Old One. Even seeing it
through sensors can drive a person mad."
"And so far," conceded Misato, "the only three people we've found that
can battle one directly are fourteen years old."
"You've seen one, and not gone mad."
"No, but every time I see one, I freeze up." Misato shrugged.
"Besides, for some reason, you can't get a sync rate on me higher than
three percent, remember?"
"Yes." Ritsuko paused for a drag on the cigarette. "Only the three
Dreamers. I wonder why the Commander calls them that?"
Misato paused, and frowned. "It's not just him."
"Hm?" Ritsuko frowned as well. "Of course, everyone here calls them
that, but--"
"No," said Misato, shaking her head. "Not what I meant. Shinji called
himself that as well. During the debriefing."
Ritsuko sighed. "Misato, he's been here a lot over the last month.
Surely someone--"
"How often do we refer to them as anything but Pilots."
Ritsuko's frown deepend. "You're right." She considered, then
shrugged. "He must have heard it somewhere."
"Maybe. But I think I'll ask him."
They sat in silence for a minute. The computer beeped. Ritsuko turned,
and touched a control stud.
"Rei?"
"Yes."
"We're all done here."
"I understand."
She released the stud, watched as the entry plug was slowly withdrawn
from the pool. "How's her home life?"
"Same as always," muttered Misato. "Never a word she can avoid."
- - - - -
Rei...
At first, he'd thought it was just him. Later, he'd decided that it was
the whole world that she despised. Now, he wasn't so certain.
He'd asked his father about it. It was shortly after the battle with
Byatis. His father had summoned him to his office...
- - -
The office was large, and bare of furniture except for a single desk and
chair. Behind the desk sat his father, hands folded in front of his
face.
The cold look in Gendo's eyes faded as Shinji walked up to the desk.
"I'm proud of you, son."
Shinji looked down at the floor.
"Look, Shinji." His father put his hands down on his desk, and sighed.
"I know we haven't been close in the past. Ever since your mother died,
I've had difficulty...relating to people."
"I know."
"Ah, it can speak." Gendo smiled.
"I'm sorry."
"I should have been..." He stood, started pacing behind the desk.
"Dad..."
His father looked up, surprised.
"It's all right. You did the best you could." He smiled tentatively.
Gendo looked at his son for a while, then smiled. "My brother-in-law
has raised a man after all." He looked down again, and said, "I regret
the harsh words I used yesterday."
Shinji shrugged.
"Well, enough on business." Gendo smiled. "How are you settling in at
Captain Katsuragi's?"
He shrugged. "It's an okay place. At least I have some company there."
"You mean Rei?"
He shook his head. "She's not very good company. But Misato's okay."
"You should try to be more friendly with Rei. She is your fiancee."
"I don't think she wants to be."
"Nonetheless." Gendo smiled. "I feel it is in your best interest, and
hers."
"Ritsuko said she'd been abused, and you were trying to help her past
that."
"There is some truth to that." He shrugged. "Certainly, it wouldn't
hurt her."
"But if that were the case, you could have simply told me to be friendly
to her."
Gendo paused, and considered. "You are right, there is more than just
that reason. I can only ask you to trust me. I know you will find that
difficult, but..."
They stood in silence for a moment.
Gendo broke it first. "Well. I have to look over your latest sync
rates. Go home, get something to eat."
"All right."
He turned and walked from the office, but just before the door closed,
turned back...and saw the familiar cold mask on his father's face.
But now he was no longer certain if it was a mask...or if the warm,
friendly, uncertain Gendo was the mask.
- - - - -
The cafeteria was nearly empty; aside from the three of them, there was
only the cook and a bus-boy present. Ritsuko sipped her coffee, leaving
lipstick marks on the cup.
"With the data from Rei's sync rates, we should be able to find the bug
in EVA-00's operating system, and nullify it. Once the OS is patched,
we can proceed to the next step: Startup tests."
"Will I be required for that step?" Rei's voice was quiet, easily lost
even within the empty cafeteria.
"Not until you're fully healed." Misato indicated the splint and the
eyepatch. "I don't want to risk further injury until you're back up to
speed."
Ritsuko's eyes narrowed. "Actually, having Rei available for the
startup procedure will cut the time required to a third."
"I am nearly completely well," Rei added.
"Nearly." Misato glanced over at Ritsuko. "And there's no need to take
any shortcuts." She sipped her coffee. "Why the hell don't they serve
beer at this place?"
"Because it's against regulations."
"So says the chain-smoker."
"Back to the subject at hand."
"It's simple, really." Misato set her coffee cup down, and waved
towards Rei again. "This is a dangerous job, and there's no need to
expose these kids to unnecessary risks. The necessary risks are bad
enough."
"I could take this to Commander Ikari."
"You could. But I'd refuse even a direct order from him. The bottom
line is this: The EVA are your responsibility. The pilots are mine.
And if he doesn't like the way I do my job, he can always replace me."
- - - - -
Rei...
Everyone kept telling him that she was a cute girl. There was no
denying that; she was quite beautiful, really. Even her cold demeanour
added to her allure.
But the simple fact was that she remained cold to him. The few times
he'd gotten a glimpse behind the frozen mask, he'd seen...well, it
certainly wasn't anything warm and friendly.
In fact, it was downright scary. As he had discovered, a week ago, at
home...
- - -
Shinji knocked on the bathroom door. Loudly.
It had been drilled into him, quite forcefully, that when living with
two women, he had better be certain the bathroom was empty before he
entered. Well, Rei hadn't said anything, and he got the distinct
impression that she couldn't care less, but Misato had made it more than
clear enough for the both of them.
There was no answer from beyond the door. He slid it open, and stepped
in. The toilet room was just off the side; he walked in, shutting the
door behind him.
He sighed. Two weeks in this apartment. It hadn't been nerve-wracking,
but it hadn't exactly been a picnic either. Rei's constant stony
silence was unnerving, but as long as they stayed away from each other,
they didn't get on each other's nerves.
Misato was trying to make up for their respective silences by being
three times as chatty as any normal person. According to Ritsuko, she
was normally twice as chatty, so this wasn't much of a change for her.
But he wished she'd stop dropping hints about Rei and himself.
He zipped up, and flushed the toilet, then turned to leave the toilet
room
Rei was in the bathroom.
She was naked. The splint lay on the counter - how had he missed that?
Her eyepatch was also missing, and he could see the greenish-yellow
bruise that surrounded the eye. Her skin glistened with water; she
must have been in the furo. She made no attempt to cover herself, just
stared at him emotionlessly.
~Why the hell didn't she say something - or even make some noise - when
I knocked?~
"Sorry!" He turned to leave, as quickly as he could. His toe caught
the runner at the base of the door, and he tripped. He threw his hands
out to stop his fall, and collapsed into Rei, pinning her underneath
him.
She screamed.
She shoved him violently, throwing him aside with inhuman strength, and
he collapsed like a rag doll against the wall. She pushed herself to a
seated position, and scrabbled away from him, still screaming.
The door slammed open, and Misato took in the scene with a stunned look
on her face.
"What the hell did you do to her?"
"I didn't do anything!" Shinji shook his head an an attempt to clear
it. "I was in the toilet, and when I came out, she was there!"
"Why didn't you knock?"
"I did knock! She didn't answer!"
Misato took a step towards Rei, who scrabbled away again. "Rei, calm
down!" She glanced over at Shinji. "Why is she screaming?"
"Because when I tried to leave, I tripped and knocked her over." Shinji
was staring down at the floor.
"Shinji, I need you to get out of here, she's still panicked."
"Okay." Shinji stood and left quickly. He walked slowly to his room,
and leaned against the door; no need to make Misato look for him to
chew him out.
The screaming continued from the bathroom.
"Rei, calm down. I'm not going to hurt---Ugh!"
The screaming stopped. Shinji looked up, to see a terrified - and still
naked - Rei run past him and into her bedroom.
There was a moment of near silence. Rei was sobbing in her room, just
out of his sight. Misato emerged from the bathroom, rubbing her belly.
"Girl packs a punch." She looked up at Shinji. "Living room. Now. We
gotta talk about this."
Shinji nodded. He took a step forward, and gently shut Rei's door. He
made his way to the living room, and sat down.
Misato made a detour to the kitchen, emerging with two cans of beer.
She set one down in front of Shinji, then cracked the other and drained
it in one pull.
Shinji eyed the other. "Misato...I'm underage."
"Drink it. You look like you need it."
He shrugged, cracked the can and took a sip. And shuddered; if this
was an example of the sort of thing Misato drank, it was a wonder she
was still alive.
Misato sat down opposite him. "Okay. First things first. I'm sorry."
He looked up, surprised. "You--?"
"I went in there, saw her nude and screaming, and assumed the worst. I
shouldn't have snapped at you." She rubbed her belly again. "I figured
out when I tried to help her that it wouldn't have mattered."
"She didn't start freaking until I touched her."
"Where did you touch her exactly?"
"Well..." Shinji blushed. "One hand landed on..."
"Her boob, right?"
"Yeah." His blush deepend.
"I thought so." She sighed. "The girl doesn't seem to have the body
modesty of a cat. But when I tried to help her up, she turned savage,
and punched me. Then left, post-haste."
"Ritsuko said she'd been abused."
"I'm guessing that she's right." Misato considered the empty beer can
in her hand. "It wasn't your fault. If she had her head dunked, she
might not have heard you knocking. Or maybe she really just doesn't
care. But when you touched her, you triggered a fight-or-flight
reflex. And when I cornered her..." She sighed. "So I'm sorry I
jumped to conclusions, Shinji."
"It's all right." He continued to stare down at the table. "It looked
pretty bad."
Misato looked him over, then leaned towards him. "Are you all right?"
He shook his head. "I'm supposed to be being nice to her, and all I did
is make her scared of me."
"Give her time, Shinji. She's not going to heal overnight."
"I know." He looked up. "I don't really want to be engaged to someone
who hates me. And I know she doesn't want to be engaged to me. I don't
know why Father did something this stupid."
"Nobody's perfect, Shinji. Not you. Not me. Not your father. Not
Rei." She considered. "Ritsuko comes close, but even she has a few
flaws."
Shinji chuckled at that.
"Ah, good. A laugh." Misato indicated his beer. "Finish that up."
"I don't really like it."
Misato shrugged, picked up the can and drained it.
- - -
There was a knock at his door.
Shinji hit the stop button on his S-DAT, and pulled the plugs from his
ears. "Yeah?"
The door slid open, and Rei stepped in. She was wearing a nightgown,
with an old housecoat thrown over it. "Ikari."
"Rei. Yeah?"
"I apologize for distressing you."
"It's all right. I should have knocked louder."
"I heard you talking with Misato earlier." She looked down at the
floor. "I do not hate you."
"You...don't?"
She looked up again, and the icy mask returned. "Hatred requires more
emotion that I am willing to invest in you."
She stepped back, and closed the door.
- - -
Almost, that time, it had seemed that maybe they could've moved out of
the impasse they were in. His father's plans still seemed stupid,
but...
It would have been nice to have a friend.
- - - - -
"Today is the day that pilot Ikari will be released from solitary."
Misato nodded, keeping one eye on the traffic. "I'll be going to pick
him up at 17:00."
"I am glad."
Misato grinned. "Missed him, have you?"
"He has become a part of my daily life, and I am unsettled when a change
is made."
"So you -do- miss him."
"If it pleases you, you may call it that." Rei looked down. "I would
prefer to say, I wish no more changes in my life. There have been too
many recently."
Misato pulled into the parking lot, shut down the car, then turned to
face the albino girl. "C'mon, Rei. Let your hair down just this once,
okay?"
"My hair is not bound."
"You know what I mean, Rei." She leaned back against the door. "What
do you really think of Shinji?"
Rei looked down at her hands, folded in her lap.
"I am afraid of him."
"Why?"
She looked up. "Because he does not scare me. Everyone scares me
except him."
Misato looked hurt. "Even me?"
"You more than most." She looked down at her hands. "I apologize."
- - - - -
Rei...
His thoughts kept returning to her. There was something about her that
kept drawing him back, like a moth to a cold flame. He knew he'd be
burned, but...
She'd known that the Old One was coming. How?
So often, she'd seem to let her guard down, then it would come back,
colder than ever. Why?
She'd been abused, then placed in his father's care. By whom?
Every time he had thought he'd found an answer, it seems that he'd found
more questions.
He drifted off to sleep, the questions still circling his mind...
- - -
He was in a village.
Small houses crowded the narrow streets. Everywhere he looked, there
were cats. Sitting on windowsills, standing on barrels, perched on
fences. Staring at him.
He wandered through the streets and roads of the village. The houses
were of a wide variety of constructions, mostly old. In the sky above,
he could see two moons.
He turned a corner, and saw a girl.
She was an inch taller than him, and as slender as Rei. Her long hair
was a reddish-blonde, and she wore a yellow sundress. She turned, and
looked at him, her expression puzzled.
"Wer sind Sie?"
It sounded like German, but he wasn't certain.
"Sind Sie Idioten? Sprechen Sie Deutsch?" She took a step towards him,
looking angry. "Wie ist dieser Platz? Ich glaube das nicht. Warum
muss ich von einem Idioten träumen?"
"I'm sorry, I don't speak German."
"Japanese? Where is this place?" Her use of the language was halting,
but her accent much less pronounced than he expected. "Who are you?"
"Shinji. Ikari Shinji." He bowed, hesitantly. "Pleased to meet you."
"I am less than pleased." She scowled at him. "Where exactly are we?"
"In my dream, I think." He remembered falling asleep in the cell. This
must therefore be a dream.
She was shaking her head. "Not your dream. Verrückter Idiot."
She slapped him. Hard.
- - -
He awoke, and raised a hand to his cheek. It stung.
The light flipped on, and the door opened. Misato stood in the
doorframe.
"Ready to go."
"Yeah." He stood up.
"What happened to your face?"
He raised his hand to his cheek again. "I wish I knew."
"Hm." She turned. "Let's go. Rei's been missing you."
"I doubt that."
"You'd be surprised."
"Hey, Misato."
"Yeah?"
He grinned a bit weakly. "Can we stop at the command center for a
minute?"
She looked at him, a bit uncertainly. "Sure."
- - - - -
The hatch slid open, and he stepped out onto the command deck. Most of
the regular crew were present; Ritsuko was working on a command
console, but Maya was absent. Hyuga and Aoba were arguing over
something in one corner. All, however, paused as he entered, and looked
up.
He bowed to them, then walked over to Ritsuko. "How is Shogoki?"
"Fully operational." She grinned at him. "If you need it, it'll be
ready to deploy."
"Good." He glanced down at her board. "What's this?"
"We're reactivating EVA-00 for Rei."
"She's able to pilot again?"
"Very soon. Likely tomorrow."
"Okay." He bowed his head. "Thanks."
"No problem, kid." She sniffed, and wrinkled her nose. "Do us a
favour, and go take a bath, will ya?"
He grinned.
- - - - -
"I'm sorry I disobeyed you, Misato."
She waved it off. "Don't worry about it."
"I am worried." He looked up at her. "I'll do my best from now on."
She glanced over at him, then back to the road. "I know you will."
"Rei has likely been glad to have me gone."
"Remember, I said you might be surprised." Misato grinned at the road.
"Don't expect her to jump into your arms or anything, but she told me
that not having you around was unsettling."
The rest of the ride, as well as the elevator ride to the fifteenth
floor, was spent in silence. Misato opened the door with her keycard,
and he stepped into the dining room.
"I'm home."
Rei was sitting on the couch as he entered. "Welcome back, Shinji."
He blinked.
"Thank you, Rei."
"The bath is currently unoccupied." She stood, collected her books, and
walked to her room.
--
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