Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ A Soul Possessed ❯ Chapter 1

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It was a normal morning for the people of Tokyo-3. The cicadas were chirping up a storm as Shinji and Asuka ran to school. "Baka Shinji, we're going to be late because of you. Why can't you just get your act together?" Asuka shouted as they ran.

"I'm sorry" Shinji replied, it was all he could really say. Even if it wasn't his fault. Asuka had been in the bath for half an hour this morning; he felt it would be much safer to take the blame then to point out the facts. Of course it was a no win situation for the young Ikari. She'd be pissed at him either way, but she'd be less violent if he took responsibility. So as she insulted him about always being sorry he tuned her out. The fact that he was hopelessly in love with her didn't help matters.

As they got to the school and to their classroom for another torture session from their teachers' endless ramblings about Second Impact, he started to think back to the 12th angel. It had only been three weeks since he had been pulled into the Sea of Dirac . Several images had assaulted his sanity while he was in there. Some he believed may have been lost memories of his mother, but he couldn't be sure. Everything had been so out of control, he didn't know is he was going mad or hallucinating at that point. He still couldn't quite explain what the feeling was as he passed out and Unit-01 went berserk, destroying the angel from the inside out. They were still trying to get the blood stains off the street.

The day passed as it usually did, a few hours of Second Impact lecture, followed by lunch. This was followed by more Second Impact lecture. His train of thought continued to revolve around his imprisonment within the twelfth even hours later as he sat in Unit-01's entry plug later that day. -What did all those images mean? Maybe they were just old memories I hadn't thought about in a long time. Or maybe I'm starting to go mad, starting to lose my mind. All this worry is starting to give me a headache.-

Dr. Akagi had noticed something strange on Shinji's brain wave readings. Unlike Asuka and Rei, who had been training for years, Shinji's brainwave patterns had been slowly changing due to the Evas influence up until the twelfth attacked. Since then, however, the changes had become much more pronounced and happened at a considerably faster pace. "Misato, has Shinji been acting differently lately?" She asked offhandedly.

"A little more withdrawn, understandable after what he went through, a bit depressed which for him is normal. Other then that nothing else out of the ordinary, why?" Misato hid her concern well. Even if she were the only one to show that they gave a damn whether he came back from the battles alive or not, she knew that to loose control and press the good doctor for information immediately wouldn't help him. To her, he was like an adopted son and she would do anything in her power to end this nightmare so he could have a chance at a normal life.

"His readings are a bit… off. It might just be from almost dying in the 12th. Keep a closer eye on him though just in case, okay?"

"Sure thing Ritsuko." Misato wasn't buying what the doctor was selling. She had a feeling in her gut that Ritsuko was hiding something from her. But for now she was willing to let it go, and keep a closer eye on Shinji.

As the children got out of their plugs at the end of the tests and changed their clothes, Shinji's headache continued to get worse. "Must be from sitting in LCL so long," he thought. He reached into his locker for the bottle of aspirin he kept in there for just after a battle when his muscles were sore. He took two and had some water, then proceeded to leave Nerv and go home.

As he prepared dinner that night for Asuka and Misato, his headache returned. It made no sense to him that the aspirin was wearing off so quickly. He took two more with dinner then went to bed. His head hurt so bad that he couldn't even listen to his SDAT, the volume wouldn't go down low enough. As he lay in bed, eventually falling into a restless slumber, the headache continued. If this kept up he was going to really go mad. He would have to talk to Ritsuko tomorrow about doing something about it.

Had Ritsuko been given the opportunity to monitor Shinji's brainwaves as he slept, she would have been shocked to find a completely different pattern begin to emerge as Shinji passed into his dreams and nightmares. A pattern that hadn't been seen on any charts for ten years.

To Be Continued…

Authors notes: Version 2 here of part 1 of "A Soul Possessed." Thanks to Jason Carter and Matt Williams for their assistance on things like grammar and tense, also for helping me out with some ideas to make this story more interesting. I had originally intended for part 1 to be more of a trailer of sorts, but I just couldn't let it stay where it was. Thanks to Lord Random1377 and Lord Ryan T. Nelson for their assistance in this whole series production. Those two have helped me out a hell of a lot with story concepts as well as keeping me sane and in a good mode. I get depressed easily sometimes.

C&C as always is welcome at cwsmith25@msn.com