Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Duo Awakenings ❯ Scarifice ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimers:

Neon Genesis Evangelion and all related characters, concepts, etc. are Property of ADVision and Gainax. I only *wish* they were mine. This is a "what if" story, so take it as a divergence from the EoE Movie. So, it is an A/U story as well.

**As always, thanks go out to my pre-reader Datexan! Great Job Tex!

Duo Awakenings

Chapter #4: Sacrifice

Awakening Reality

Shigreu had many a headache in his life but never one that seemed like an Eva was standing on his head. This was that one! A type of headache that felt like his head was about to explode. "OH, Boy what was the number on that Missile that hit me!" was all the 24 year-old tech could think coherently enough to hear. He then carefully opened his eyes. They were assailed with the stark bright light of a naked bulb hanging above him set on a gray concrete ceiling. "Where am…." He couldn't complete the sentence as a second wave of pain and nausea overtook him, he looked around in blurred vision until he saw a metal toilet which he lounged at and gave his semi-liquid offering to the metal goddess of the sewers.

After he had finished heaving his stomach contents, he tried to take in his surroundings. He saw where he was sitting was a metal cot with a one-inch mattress on it. Across from him sat another cot now occupied by a familiar figure, that of the former Third child. He recognized Shinji's clothing as those that he wore when he was with him at the secondary command center of the Tokyo-2 Nerv base.

Shigreu deduced by the way the boy was lying and his deep rhythmic breathing, that he was in an induced sleep like he had been. This brought to the Tech's mind the thought of, why where they here and what happened to get them here? Then he saw Shinji stir and made his way to him mostly on his hands and knees as his equilibrium hadn't recovered yet from his forced sickness earlier.

"Shinji? Hey Shinji, are you ok?" Shigreu then shook his younger companion to help him wake up when he saw the 'green around the gills' look. Quickly maneuvering him from a seated position he helped Shinji find the metal goddess to alleviate the boys' stomach of its contents. He then waited a few minutes as the former pilot recovered.

After a few minutes the now white as a sheet boy finally looked up at him and asked; "What happened?"

Shigreu simply shrugged his shoulders and said; "Don't know but it's obvious we weren't alone in this base. Someone had to have seen us come in and set us up to get caught."

Then both of them simultaneously thought of one thing. "THE GIRLS!"

"Damn what happened to Asuka and Maya?" was their unison call.

"Come on Shinji we have got to get out of this cell and find the girls!" Shigreu then directed Shinji to look for anything that could help them break out of the obvious detention cell that they were in as he checked the door of the room to see if there was a way to get out.

Then as they got under way to do just that a tinned voice called out; "That will be quite enough Gentlemen"

Both looked at each other surprised, then angry at the disembodied voice. Shigreu then yelled out, "Who are you and what have you done with Lt. Ibuki and Pilot Soryu?"

A laugh was heard in reply, as the high pitched distorted voice answered; "The women are quite safe and being taken care of. But that isn't what I want to talk to you about gentlemen. I want to ask a simple question."

Shinji then spoke up before Shigreu could reply. "We will not answer anything unless you prove to us that Asuka and Maya are all right."

"Ah I see chivalry is not dead." The voice said, then after a pregnant pause it added, "All right, I'll accept your request. Please go through the unlocked door, and then follow the corridor to conference room 2 on level 10. There you will find the women and us as well."

Shigreu then opened the now unlocked door and both of them made their way down to level ten. One thing they did notice was that the base now seemed to have all the power back on. 'So whoever is holding us have access and knowledge of this base.' Shigreu thought as a plan started to form in his head. 'Then they may become too confident of themselves. That's where I can use my knowledge of the base and its little secrets to do something.'

As Shigreu was thinking of a way to get them out of this mess, Shinji's only thought was 'Oh god I hope Asuka's not hurt. Please let her be ok. If they lay a hand on her I'll just…..'

All thoughts from both men stopped as they found the door to Conference room 2. Then as they held their breath they entered and found four people there. Two with guns drawn and Asuka and Maya sitting the far side of the room, chained to the wall.

"Well Gentlemen I hope you can now answer our questions without impediment." The tall blond Caucasian man said as another brown haired European looking man stood next to him with a machine gun aimed at the women.

Whatever plans Shigreu had were put on hold as he saw the rather untenable situation they were now in. They both simply nodded and closed the conference room door.

Interrogation

"I'm Lt. Shigreu Aoba, Nerv Tech first class serial #…"

"We know that Lieutenant, and we know that he is Shinji Ikari former Third Child and Pilot of Evangelion Unit-01. Am I right?" said the tall blond man.

"So what do you want with us?" Shigreu asked rather tensely.

"You ask what do we want with you, and the girls there?" A small chuckle emanated from the speaker. Simply …to complete Instrumentality!"

The former Nerv personnel were stunned. "How can you achieve that without the Evas or the Angels (Meaning Adam & Lillith)?" A voice from the far side of the room said. The voice came from Maya Ibuki who was standing in the spot she had previously been sitting in.

Also a now conscious Asuka had arisen to stand next to Maya. Now having a good look at her captors she was more than a little surprised at who she saw.

"Poppa?" Asuka said. "Poppa is that you?" She was looking intently at the Brown haired man holding the Machine gun.

He tightened his grip on the weapon and responded, while smiling evilly. "Yes Aki-chan, I'm here, now please stay where you are and allow Chairman Kiel to explain all this." His look was not one of a caring and devoted father but more like an aristocrat looking down at a peasant, in a harsh and uncaring manner.

Asuka winced. "But…but why are you here and why are you pointing that thing at us…at me your own daughter?" Asuka asked, trying to comprehend the surreal scene unfolding in front of her.

"Because you, these two lowly Nerv Tec's, and Gendo's spawn stopped Instrumentality from completing its evolution. That is why my dear daughter." He sneered.

She looked down for a few moments, deep in thought then, it hit her. Asuka now realized something that she had thought she learned during their time in the LCL Sea, about Rei Ayanami. She was bred to be a tool of Nerv, Gendo Ikari, and ultimately SEELE. To initiate Instrumentality, and be the basis of Nerv's Dummy plug system, which SEELE later copied in the form of the Kouaru Dummy plugs within the Mass Production Evas that tore her apart during that last climatic battle. Now her own father was treating her as if she's yesterday's garbage. Then she realized, 'He must have impregnated my mother with me so I could be of use to them later. They probably did that to Yui Ikari. Which means Shinji was destined for the same purpose.'

After a few seconds she looked back up this time with an angry and determined look on her face. "You won't succeed." That statement drew looks of confusion from the rest there, except Kiel Lorenz, the now healthy blond young man staring intently at the fuming redhead[Author ID1: at Sun May 18 19:42:00 2003 ].

"Yes my dear, I can see your intellect still serves you well. Even now resurrected in this desolate planet we are on … but, not for much longer."

That got everyone's attention back to the scene at hand, then a lever was cocked on the Uzi type gun Alfred Langley was holding, still pointed at Maya and his daughter. It seemed that he had no qualms of gunning down his only child. That act alone made everyone realize that Gendo Ikari wasn't the only cold-hearted bastard they had known. Two more were standing, not two meters away.

After some more serious looks were exchanged between captors and captives, Langley waved the two male prisoners towards the two-chained female prisoners.

He then directed them to all sit down and they were told to stay there as their two captors rearranged the furniture so they were both seated a meter away from the four people now sitting on the floor. They chained Shinji and Shigreu, their backs to the wall behind them. They knew what was coming and seemed to resign themselves for at least lots of questions from the two men holding them.

"All right. I have but three questions to ask you." The Blond haired man looked at them intently.

Lt. Aoba interrupted Kiel Lorenz. "Sir, again I ask, what are you going to do with us?" He gave a more determined look towards the man, who before Instrumentality was a crippled old man with so many implants and other things to extend his life, that he looked more a machine than human.

"I will answer that after you answer my three simple questions. Is that clearly understood?" Aoba sighs and nods the other three nodded reluctantly.

"First why did you all come back from the perfect worlds Instrumentality had created for each of you?

The quartet looked at each other then Shinji nodded and spoke up. The two SEELE members listened.

"I came back to atone for all the pain I had cause others. I also wanted everyone to have a choice on whether to stay in their dream-reality, while I gave myself a lifetime sentence to live here by myself on our now dead planet to die and atone for my actions." He then sighed heavily until a hand slapped the back of his head.

"You baka! How dare you try and do something so Stupid!" Asuka was glaring her usual 'Kill Shinji' glare to the now cowering boy. So intent in their conversation that they had seemingly forgotten that they were chained up. She shook her head, took him by the collar, and faced him. "You weren't at fault here Shinji." She looked at their jailers with anger and contempt then she looked back at him with much kinder eyes. "We know who really was responsible for all of our problems. And they will pay in this life or later." She then glared again at her father who returned an indifferent look back at her.

They then heard a verbose chuckling from the Former Chairman of SEELE. It stopped when he had all of their attention. "So Ikari's son had the power of God in his hands, and instead of taking that power to do what should have been, could have been done, he wallowed in self pity and guilt. And doomed us all to a state of incompleteness because you felt GUILTY!"

The slap echoed in the conference room as blood slowly made its way down Shinji's jaw where Kiel had struck it. "You weak excuse of a human being." Then with blinding speed a handgun appeared in Lorenz's hand pointed at the now shaking ex-pilot's forehead. For close to a minute Kiel shook in unbounded rage as the hammer of the gun slowly was pulled back. The tension in the room could be cut with an imaginary knife. Until just as swiftly as before the gun disappeared. After some audible sighs, Kiel Continued, turning the others.

"Why did you come back?" He gestured to the three others now facing him.

After a few moments Asuka spoke up. "I came back to … keep and eye on the baka. He can't find his way out of a paper bag." She was smiling at him now seemingly oblivious to their situation and what was around her. He seemed to also block out what was around him as her smile lifted his spirits. He knew she was showing her false persona with her words, but that smile confirmed in him her true feelings as to why she came back. The last few days of closeness were proof enough for him.

Then their solitude was shattered as that familiar raking laughter emanating from Kiel Lorenz cut through their senses, and brought them back to life. "It seems like Eva pilot puppy love oh how quaint." He chuckled some more earning him glares from the four seated in front of him.

After a few more silent moments he turned his attention on the two Nerv Bridge bunnies.

"Now for you two, why are you here?"

"Simple, one reason … Ritsuko Akagi" Aoba said without hesitation as he knew the more he stretched this questioning the better for their long term survival.

A questioning look from both captors urged the long-haired Shigreu to continue. "She was without a doubt the most brilliant and inventive mind I have ever been witness to. The things she did to pull us out of the fire were quite phenomenal. Her integration of her knowledge of computer engineering, software development, as well as in the Medical and Biologic fields in my opinion exceeds her mothers' development of The Evangelion project, and the cloning system that produced Rei Ayanami."

Their captors seemed perplexed at Aoba's knowledge, he simply continued. "Now during our brief oneness in the near instrumentality she sensed Shinji and then Asuka leaving the Compilation of Humanity. She then asked me to follow them and to bring someone along with me. Someone that she and frankly I (He looks at Maya with a loving look) cared about. She wanted both of us to help Shinji and Asuka in this hell formally called Earth. So I did as she asked."

"Loyalty? Is that what you want to tell me, loyalty to a woman who slept with Gendo Ikari, yet knew she was unloved by him? Loyalty to a woman who's mother was similarly used by that same man. You expect me to believe that you were loyal to her?" As he looks at the seething Aoba, he turns to Maya Ibuki who was crying at all that Kiel had said of her former Sempai. "You expect me to believe you two had the same misguided feelings for our fair haired Doctor?" He then laughed heartily as both people he was directing his comments to, were shaking with rage and anger. "Don't make me think you all came back because of love?"

He laughed yet again when Aoba and Asuka were at their wits end. Finally Aoba lunged at their blond questioner, who produced a black jack and struck Shigreu on the head and he landed in a heap at his feet. Both Maya and Asuka were screaming as Shinji was observing this, both his hands clenching and unclenching in anger.

Seeing that he had gotten the reactions he wanted Kiel stepped back from the prone Aoba and walked to a cabinet at the other side of the room. He then extracted four bundles of wires, which he then placed near each of their prisoners. Within five minutes all four were now connected via those wires to a nondescript box which also had several lines now being connected to Kiel and Alfred. Through out the whole interrogation Alfred Langley kept a quiet but forceful vigil as Kiel incensed the four former Nerv workers and pilots.

As Shigreu regained consciousness he found all six people (including himself) wired together via that box Kiel pulled out with the wires. Kiel then plugged in the box and waited till he had all the attention.

"This box will be the instrument of our liberation from this desolate husk. It will free us of this existence and we will return to the oneness that instrumentality represents."

"Wait … You mean your going to kill us all and you at the same time?" Shinji asked nervously.

"Why how observant Mr. Ikari. I can see you take after your Mother." The off-handed remark made Shinji furious, not only at the slight against his mother but also at the gall of these two determining their fates this day. Shinji had had enough.

But Kiel continued seemingly not noticing the enraged Shinji. "You see Below us is a pool of LCL, We will be all lowered into it and when I activate this button we will join the others in the LCL. Instrumentality will become all of our reality." The hand held device look almost like an exact copy of the one Ritsuko used to destroy the Rei clones in their LCL tanks. Shinji then realized to his agony what was to become of all of them. He had to act, and act now!

Shinji tore the wires connected to him off, and tried to yank the shackles off of their hinges. With his movements stopping the planned Execution/Suicide, Kiel simply pointed a gun at the raving youth and simply said, "You never really counted Shinji Ikari, and you never will. Because even if I shoot you, you will still join us. So either way you lose."

Kiel Lorenz then laughed maniacally, and[Author ID1: at Sun May 18 19:42:00 2003 ] then two shots were fired.

A scream was heard as Shinji went down in a heap at the foot of the others seated. But suddenly an orange hexagonal wall formed separating the prisoners, and the two protagonists who fired their weapons uselessly at the AT-field. Then a familiar blue haired girl appeared on the opposite side of the gunmen.

"You had your choice, to remain as one, or return. But because of the greed and hatred you harbor you returned to this earth. You will not be able to rejoin the one, and you will not hurt anyone anymore," with that said, Rei Ayanami raised her hand towards the two enraged men. Kiel Lorenz and Alfred Langley had no time to move, nor did they have time to react. The only thing that their minds could register was that with Lillith or Rei as she appeared now, their plans were turning to dust. Just as their minds comprehended this their bodies became as their plans became leaving just two piles of dust in the chairs that they had once occupied.

Then a groan was heard by those there as Rei used her powers to free the rest from their shackles and all rushed to the wounded boy.

There was a collective gasp as they saw the worst of wounds; a neat clean hole was on his right chest with blood steadily flowing out. Shinji though was smiling as he saw Rei who was now on one side of him while Asuka was on the other. He though 'Well if I go then I get to see those I care about the most.'

He then slowly closed his eyes and became silent.

The three that were left looked at Rei with a pleading look. Finally Asuka asked, "Can you save him?"

"Maybe. But I will need your help." Rei said as she gazed intently on the now surprised Red head.

Chapter #5: Aftermath

You will see it sooner than this one I can guarantee!