Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Comfort and Kindness ❯ Betrayal and Retaliation ( Chapter 8 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimers:
Neon Genesis Evangelion and all related characters, concepts, etc. are
Property of ADVision and Gainax. I only *wish* they were mine.
Please try to be good to me; this is my first stab at an Evangelion "Only" Fic.
If you have read this whole fic, I do state now this is a Waffy fic, with a bit of action as well!
Thanks to Andre Laval for pre reading this chapter!

Comfort and Kindness

Chapter #8: Betrayal and Retaliation

How will the 14th angel affect the children, and what has SEELE and the commander got planned for them next?
Well we'll find out below!

**Author's Note: As some have read my other story; "Sibling Bonds"
It is a S/A story and I have consciously made both stories parallel, but different.
This is so I can keep my ideas separated for each story. Hope you enjoy both stories.
dennisud

Shinji Ikari was Pissed!

Not just mad, but if visible, having steam blowing out his ears as he was still under house arrest
after his attempted patricide of his father after the 13th angel was defeated by the dummy plug system
installed in his EVA.

He was mad at not just that, but at having been effectively fired from piloting.
Now normally he would have been relieved, even happy not to pilot anymore.
But that was before his developing relationship with Rei.
He rarely saw her, Touji or Asuka while he was stuck at Misato's apartment.
Even though both lived with him, he didn't see much of Rei or Asuka except late at night,
and at school, where they really only had time during lunch, walking to and from school
to talk ( and to have some physical contact with Rei, be it simply holding hands and hugging).

Shinji had the maddening thought that his father was doing all these sync tests with the girls and Touji on purpose
as a way to get back at him for his attempted attack earlier. He smiled, remembering that even though his EVA
had not gotten to the Command center of Central Dogma, he still shook enough of the complex up
with his movements to cause several concrete chunks to drop, with one landing on his father's leg,
severely fracturing it. As the LCL pressure increased in his entry plug to knock him out,
Shinji had a smile on as the last sounds he heard before losing consciousness
was the painful yelling of his father calling out for someone to free him from his concrete prison.

Rei was ....... not happy.

Rei knew that Shinji may have had the right idea, that the Commander was getting back
at his son's actions against him after the defeat of the 13th angel.
This caused a re-evaluation of Rei's loyalties to Gendo Ikari, and her overall purpose
in NERV in general, and Gendo's plans in particular. She also knew that
she would have a harmonics test with her "sisters" in Terminal Dogma
to upload her current memory patterns, and update the dummy plug system.
She knew what the clones were used for, and started to doubt the sensibility of Gendo's plan.
She knew what the ramifications were. But, she also knew that to diverge from the plan now
would only end in her accidental termination and another to take her place.
She had to stick it out until the end and then hopefully if she survived the rest of the angels,
she could make a difference. She knew now that she had to for her Shinji, and their friend's sake.

Asuka was fuming!

For the time after the defeat of the 13th angel, she had had minimal time to spend at home.
She did see more of Rei ... and Touji. The banter did continue with Touji, which she thoroughly enjoyed, but
she was becoming more concerned with Rei. The physical contact Rei had with Shinji,
which so helped her open up to him was cut down significantly.
With the exception of sleeping with him. That has been a problem because most of the sync tests
the three remaining pilots doing were held after school, and sometimes late into the night.

Asuka was also tired, having to be the subject of the tests with Rei and Touji, and sitting in the LCL filled
entry plug didn't make for a nice and calm Asuka. It was unlucky in that Rei seemed
to be the target of most of Asuka's sharp retorts and quick tempered actions.
Rei understood her friend's reactions since she was just as tired.
But having more patience made for calm reactions and her now growing ability to
calm Asuka down when she blew up.
Because of this odd combination of reactions, they became closer friends
though reacting to each other and others in their usual way.
This was seemingly the only real positive to the three pilots' lives since Shinji's suspension.

Touji was frustrated!

Touji as the back-up pilot was not happy. Being a pilot without an EVA, which caused his self esteem to drop.
Though his verbal brawling with Asuka kept it from dropping any more.
All his cross sync test were failures as he could not sync with any of the three operational EVAs.
So, NERV's effective EVA force was now two, as what was left of Unit-03 would take 2 months to rebuild.
This after 2 weeks to decontaminate it of any angel related residue.
His thoughts were also on his best friend, Shinji now under house arrest at Misato's apartment.
All knew of Shinji's sudden attack on his father, Commander Ikari, who was now recovering at NERV's infirmary.
Touji felt himself somewhat responsible for Shinji's rampage as he found out from Asuka why Shinji had tried to harm his
father.
""Damn it Shinji, why can't you just think things through instead of acting!"" Touji thought. Then a smile ran across his face.
"What are you smirking at Toady?" asked a irate Asuka.

"Just remembering what Shinji tried to do. Damn I wish I could have done what he did!" replied Touji.

"For once Stooge, I agree with you!" Touji shook his head severely. Did Asuka... agree with him?

"You sure there's no Saké in your LCL Asuka?" asked an amused Misato

"HEY! What does that mean Misato?" yelled a now angry Asuka.

"ALL of YOU knock it off!" said a now stern Dr. Ritsuko Akagi. "No more talking and concentrate on your sync levels,
NOW!"

Silence followed and for the next 3 hours the three young remaining pilots concentrated and completed an exhausting test.

__________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________

Late, at the Katsuragi Apartment:

Shinji had drifted off to sleep as Misato, Asuka and Rei arrived after a late night Sync Test.
The girls (whom had already eaten earlier) went straight to bed.
As Rei opened the bedroom she shared with Shinji, she sighed with disappointment.
There was her love, his SDAT unit running, and sound asleep. She looked down, then wearily got into bed
and hugged Shinji from behind. Within 2 minutes she was asleep and
joining him in a dream state.

The night was not still not pleasing for Shinji. He woke with a start from another
of those ever present nightmares.
As he sighed and calmed down a slender arm hugged his midsection from behind him.
He placed his hand and arm next to Rei's and interlaced his fingers with hers

"Are you all right Shinji-kun?" asked a now awake Rei.

"Yeah, Rei-chan, I just ... had a nightmare, I'm ok ... now that your here with me," replied a relieved Shinji.
Happy he was with his love beside him. Knowing that this was a fleeting time between them,
he turned around and placed his arms around her bringing her to him and
kissing her on the lips at first softly, them with more passion. They kissed for several minutes
with only the cicada's chirping as a quirky background to their expression of love for each other.

Finally releasing their lips from each other, they looked into each other's now glistening eyes.

"I missed you so much Rei, it hurts so much when you're not here with me," anguished Shinji.

"I too, am without purpose and hope when I am away from you Shinji-kun.
I wish to be with you always,
....to the end of time," replied Rei in her soft and comforting voice.
They hugged each other tightly as if letting go of each other would leave them lost to each other forever.

After a few moments Shinji hesitantly spoke:
"Rei, do you think my fa ... the Commander is purposely scheduling these sync tests ....
to punish me for what I did, and to keep you away from me?"

"I can come to this conclusion Shinji-kun, I ...agree with you.
It seems that the Commander is exacting his revenge on you, ... and me."

"It seems our relationship has become a deterrent to the Commander's plans,"
finished a now quiet and sad Rei.

Shinji then tightened his hug on Rei who had by now laid her head on his chest
with their arms wrapped around each other.
"I am not letting him break us up Rei, I am going to stop him from doing it ... one way or another."

She returned the hug and replied; " Shinji, please don't do ... anything ... that can hurt ... you."

"Don't worry Rei I won't let him manipulate me again. He knows now if he keeps doing that...
then he will suffer the consequences," finished Shinji as he pulled the covers over them
and finally stayed silent as they both drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, across town at the Geofront, a recovering Commander was working
on the plans for the modifications to the EVA's new dummy plug systems.
""All will be as it should be. Yui we'll be together soon, even if our son
is unwilling to help us, he will, with Rei's help.""
Gendo then concentrates on his task at hand as he is observed by another
whom he has used and shown no real kindness.
Ritsuko was angry, at whom she had loved, and now loathed.
She was seeing how he treated his son with callous disregard and, though the boy was in love with Rei,
she did not blame him for his father's transgression.
But more to the point what was she to do about Rei, who was now for all intents and purposes her half sister.
""I'll need to talk to her after tomorrow's tests,"" she thought as she left the monitoring area.
What she didn't see was the smirk on the Commander's face as he already knew she had seen him.
""Now to start the next phase of the plan,"" thought Gendo Ikari, Commander of Nerv,
and bastard to the highest degree.

________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________

The next Angel was making it's was towards Tokyo-3 and it's destiny.
It knew that it would be facing three EVA's but it also knew it was the strongest
of all the angels and was confidant of it's role in these proceedings.
It was dismayed that the lillims were sending their progeny to fight,
but it had no choice in it's actions. So, it continued on relentlessly to it's target.

Asuka was now worried. Being stomped by the thirteenth angel had brought on more doubt
and concern to the normally confidant German girl. But the real Asuka, the one behind the mask of
the arrogant second child was worried. How can she continue if she wasn't confidant about her skills.
Or, was it just old memories resurfacing after so long ago.
She also was envying the relationship between Rei and Shinji. Though they were more friendly now,
Asuka still had some feelings for him. But, also the other problem concerned Touji.
What to do about him, ... and Hikari.

Touji was asleep exhausted from all the tests, and was zonked out until the Klaxons sounded throughout the city,
waking everyone and alerting them to the coming angel attack.
All three active pilots left their residences quickly, though some with more hesitation than others.
Asuka was dragging a dissapointed Rei away from Shinji as he was held at his apartment's door
by the section 2 agent assigned to keep him under house arrest.
"Don't I go to the geofront too?" asked an agry Shinji.
The agent then called on his cell phone to ascertain where they should go since other than the pilots,
most others did go to shelters.

Within 3 minutes Shinji was headed to the geofront, but not to his normal area but to be delivered
to Nerv's security area to wait out the attack.

It had a vantage point where Shinji was kept as the Angel made it's way through the city into Central Dogma.
The first Angel to do so. Shinji was becoming more nervous.
Yes he didn't want to pilot unit-01.
Yes, he didn't want to be manipulated by his father,... but he knew his friends
and the love of his life were going out there to face the Angel now hovering towards
the pyramid and starting to make a hole towards Terminal Dogma and the end of humanity.

He first saw Touji coming up to the geofront in one of the catapults.
He surmised it was him in his Unit-01 because he simply couldn't activate it.
He abruptly dissappeared as Asuka came up 90 degrees to the right of the Geofront as
she had at least 6 different weapons surrounding her. The angel advanced towards Unit -02.
She used every one of the weapons as she futily gave it all she had. Then as she drew her prog knife,
the 2 razor sharp arms of the angel severed her Eva's arms as Shinji looked shocked at how easily the Angel had attacked and
essentially won.
But Asuka was not done, she charged armless at the angel as Shinji shivered in fear as the angel decapitated the red Eva and the
head landed just in front of the security area. The backlash the head created in crashing where it did, shattered the windows of
the seciurity area, allowing a now angry Shinji to escape towards the nearest Nerv enterance.
As he made his way he found himself in front of Kaji. As others were running away from the battle, he was watering a garden
located a few yards from a Nerv enterance. "Still running Shiniji. Let me ask, is it away from, or towards your destiny?"
"Kaji, why aren't you getting to a shelter?" asked a puzzled third child.
"Well, I have nothing else to do right now, and I thought keeping my garden up while the fate of the world hung in the balance
was a sane thing to do," replied a still smiling Kaji as he continued to water his melons.
"Why are you just watering these plants, Kaji?"
"Well at least I'm fulfilling a purpose. Why are you still here then?"
"My father had me hauled to Nerv's security probably just to watch..."
"Your friends die? Do you think he'd do that to you?" replied Kaji
"So, what should I do?" asked Shinji.
"I would do what feels right to me, and since I cannot pilot, I do what I can to help. But Shinji you can pilot, you can make a
difference to them and to you."
Shinji then looked out to see Rei in Unit-00 missing an arm and running towards the Angel.
"Oh God, No!" was all he could get out as the N2 mine she was carrying went off with her and her Eva being the worse for it.

Now angry Shinji bid a quick goodbye to Kaji and headed for the Eva cages where Unit-01
was at that time rejecting the dummy plug system. Shinji saw what was going on, and knew he had his father by the balls on this
one. But he too was wanting to protect Asuka and Rei who were still out there at the mercy of the rampaging Angel.

"Well, what are you doing here, aren't you under house arrest?" asked a cool as a cucumber Gendo.

"It seems we need me to pilot Unit-01 father," said Shinji as he waited patiently for his father to respond.

"It seems so Pilot, what do you propose?" asked a now wary Gendo

"Simple. Stop the excessive sync tests on Asuka, Touji and Rei, as well as leaving Rei and I alone, and I'll pilot."

"No!" replied the Commander.

After giving that answer some thought, Shinji said; "I have offered my services, you refuse, let it be known now for whomever
follows this pathetic race that Gendo Ikari refused to allow me to pilot to save humanity!"

"Fine, go pilot and kill the target," replied Commander Ikari.

"If you meet my demands."

"Fine,... I agree ... now go!"

"Fine father, just keep out of my way,... for your sake."

With a smirk on his face, Shinji then lept into Unit-01's entry plug and as we know fought
the 14th Angel through Nerv's central command center partially demolishing it.
Then after catapulting the Angel and himself to the surface, he and his Eva proceeded to kill and eat the Angel's S2 organ.
He then also achieived a Sync score of 400% and Shinji Ikari promply vanished from the entry plug
and joined with Evangelion Unit-01. All became silent in the command center as the realization
of Shinji's plight hit all the personnel there.
"Send out the rescue squads and secure the Evangelions." Was the order heard by all there.
Gendo Ikari smirked very slightly ""All is coming together. Soon Yui we'll be together, soon!""
was his last thoughts as the noise level rose as activity returned to the command center.
But a sense of concern and dread now permiated it like a spider's web covering the hole of a tree.
Waiting for the next insect to be caught,...and devoured. Was Shinji that insect?

He was gone for a month, but during that month some changes occured.
We'll see that next in Chapter 9: The Waiting Game!