Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ It Stares Back ❯ It Stares Back ( Chapter 1 )

It Stares Back

 

 

15:30:04

 

Bubbles rushed from between Shinji Ikari's lips with a pained sigh. Just over fifteen hours of air left. Fifteen hours until he'd die. How charming a thought to have. Looking out into that sea of white noise, he was sure he was quite well and truly lost. Lost in the sea of infinity that was the inside of the Angel.

 

“I wonder what's happening up…out, wherever they are?” The white noise merely looked back at him through is view screen, silent as the grave. Perhaps that was what he was finally in. His own grave.

 

The Evangelion had become his funerary garb? He shuddered at the thought and clicked off the screen. There was nothing, had been nothing for the past half hour since he'd sunk into the shadow of the Twelfth Angel.

 

One minute he was the brave hero, lunging forth into battle. The next he was the screaming fool trying to call for anyone and everyone to save him as he descended into the cold quicksand of the creature's shadow. It wasn't quite as cold as it was when he sank in. But at the edges of his appendages, at the tips of his toes and fingers, he felt that chill.

 

All Shinji could think was that it would only get worse as time went on. His chest felt like it had bricks on it. Pressure had risen…he didn't know why. It felt like he was floating on the outside, though on the inside it felt stifling, almost crushing.

 

He must have been dreaming. It seemed so much like a dream. Something was off. Floating and heavy all at once. He had to be dreaming this, somehow. He'd wake up in his bed…and maybe this Angel had never come?

 

Wishful thinking settled his mind only a little.

 

Though it settled him enough to realize something, he was sleepy. The extraneous actions of the battle, the mental clog of for once feeling on top had taken him down a notch. His muscles felt slack with the drain he'd put on them in those brief seconds of combat. Adrenaline from the sink was already wearing off.

 

The young man felt disoriented, shut off from his senses. Sleep was calling to him, and calling to him fast. Faintly, he wondered what happened to everyone. For a moment, he wondered if the girls were still safe. They had tried to save him before everything was cut off. He remembered Rei calling to him…then silence and static from the communicators. All the screens went black, and then lit into white.

 

He took some comfort in the belief everyone else was alright. It's all he could hope for and keep a burning ember somewhere in his mind that they may rescue him. A blind hope, but hope nonetheless.

 

As his eyelids drooped past the point of no return though, he realized something else. He felt like he was floating from time to time. Like he was still synched with Unit-01. Floating in the middle of nothingness.

 

It tickled his body, like there were eddies out there, currents. As his eyes settled and his brain started to sleep, he heard a whisper. Not from within the walls of the Plug…but from outside. Before he could even register it, he was asleep.

 

(Section Divider)

 

13:14:44

 

That's what it read on his digital readout when Shinji bolted awake from his dreams. A scream wrenched from his lips, the eddies and currents of the LCL filters swept the bubbles from his lips, pressure settings recalibrated, giving him a moment of intense pain. His hands scrambled all over his body, making sure he was all there. “What…what the hell? The tram…what does anything have to do with the tram?”

 

The dream had been vivid; cast in the burning light of sunset, the world was tinged in coppery gossamer. It had been ethereal and too bizarre. He'd been sitting across from himself…and something…something in `his' eyes. Even for a dream…it had been bizarre. They just sat there for what felt like hours and ne'er spoke. Not once.

 

They'd flown through the air on the rail tram that guides people down to the Geo-Front…but there had been nothing below them, or above them. And yet they had flown.

 

A dull hum had been buzzing in his ear during the dream, as the small child mirror of himself just stared. With those impassive eyes, but something…almost malicious was dwelling in the blue he saw in his mind's eye. Like it knew a great joke that Shinji couldn't be in on.

 

Shinji had finally had enough at one point in the phantasmal experience and asked who the person across from him was. What were they doing there at all?

 

It had laughed at him. And that brought a chill to Shinji's spine, like he could hear it clear as day. The cold that had been in his hands and feet sharpened as he remembered that part of the dream. And the terrifying moments after, before he'd jolted awake.

 

That cold, shrill laugh. Young Shinji's eyes rolled back when it laughed. Even for a dream it had been…real, vivid…

 

It laughed and laughed, Shinji himself simply sitting there in stock horror just watching as it's face started to turn red, then a shade of purple in its sick mirth. The small body began to seize and jerk violently in the seat. Shinji had reeled away from it when the laughs got high and distorted. Scrambling down the seats of the tram, he didn't seem to make any ground; he moved but got no where. The kid's chest pounded in and out like a jackhammer as he seized in the chair. Watching his younger self going through it terrified the boy.

 

Then the blood began to pour, capillaries in its face burst. The red liqueur ran out of its eyes, out of the mouth and blots of red spotted the clothing on the child's body. Still it laughed. Shinji started to scream as the laughing mockery rose and started walking toward him, wheezing that they were one in the same.

 

“Self…we are One. We are Legion.” It had said, shattered face working as it came closer, looking up at him. Shinji's screams that burst from his lungs felt like they were a mile away. They just echoed and echoed until a bloody hand gripped his shirt, with a vise grip. Bleeding face looking up at him, it had stopped laughing.

 

It's features twitched, eye ticking every few seconds, blood still running as it looked him square in the eye. For a moment…a brief moment, Shinji saw himself in that bloodied smear of a doppelganger.

 

Lips parted and a hoarse whisper came out, like it struggled with each word. “Remember…when y-you…stare…into…th-the Abyss…” it started to giggle again, “the Aby-y-yss stuh-stuh-ares back…”

 

…then he had awoken.

 

And now in the dull running lights of the Plug did he sit simply shivering. Whether it was in fear or the lowering environmental conditions, he wasn't sure, though he had a good bet on which it was.

 

“What the fuck did that mean?” He whispered, eyes doggedly checking the corners of the plug for his boogey man. Shaky fingers double tapped his wrist and brought up his readout.

 

12:47:32

 

A sudden shiver went through Shinji. He gasped, grasping at his back, flailing about and letting go of the seat. Stomach tumbling, he floated for a moment, looking around. “What-?” Something touched him. As he lived and breathed he felt fingers roll down his spine.

 

All he could hear was his own shudder as he suddenly seized. A dull thump echoed somewhere outside. Like he bumped into something, or rather the Evangelion did…but how? It was a field of white noise outside. What's more…he'd felt it. “Why am I still connected?” He swam a little to grip the slippery composite arm rests and hooked himself `round to see the Throne's readouts. “How…it's fluctuating.” Sure enough, digital numbers and EKGs blipped and whooped, reading a five percent synch ratio. At low power, there was to be no synch, everything was dumped into life support…so how?

 

Another thump on the hull armor somewhere outside sounded. Out in the Void. Shinji felt the hairs on the back of his stand up. Something was touching the back of the Eva's neck. All he could feel were echoes. Dust and shadow. A shaking hand darted out to click on the view screens. The Plug came to life and he clenched his eyes shut.

 

After a few minutes, he braved a peek. No more thumps on the violet body of his Eva. Nothing. Not one shadow, none of the dust. None to fear but the shrill static and white field before him. Fingers ran through his slick hair and he sat back, chest vibrating in near fear. Slowly did he calm inside the confines of that steel capsule.

 

Though in the recesses of his mind did he but know, something still lurked out there. The young boy simply sensed it were there. Whatever it was, it watched and waited. The screen told it plain though…nothing was there. For now.

 

His body soon went lax as the adrenaline drained out of his veins, muscle and mind.

 

Fitfully, unpleasantly did sleep over take his taxed mind and body again…

 

(Section Divider)

 

…His eyes opened to the vastness of a blinding light, which did shine through his eyes. Only with minutes and much pain did he acclimate to the shining orange light. When he peered through the Veil, Shinji Ikari gasped at the spectacle. A shining, crystalline city sprawled out before him, reaching to the Heavens in spiraling towers of strewn glass and lattice works of orange tinged crystal.

 

Looking here and there, he saw it stretch for miles underneath a sky so vast he could fathom it hardly. A vast orange sky, like in sunset forever. He grasped his chest, and looked down startled, finding nothing but the flesh he was born into this world with adorning him.

 

For once, shame didn't cross his mind. All he could do was simply look back up to the city that surrounded him and went on and on into that distant horizon.

 

“Where-?” As soon as he spoke a single syllable, the city went alight around him, nearly blinding him once more. All the spires and towers shimmered with orange light. Somewhere, perhaps everywhere did light and sounds meld. People were chanting as if in a chorus, like the Westerners often did.

 

Soon the light became tolerable and a bridge of light seemingly appeared before him, leading him onward into the sprawling forest of towers. Hesitantly, like his mind shouted no, and his body barely obeyed, did he move onto it. Walking, bare skin unmoved by the chill breeze wafting through, he though he saw something. On a promenade circling above an open courtyard some yards distant, someone…something, a fleeting image of something peering from around a corner of one of the sharp, angular tower walls.

 

“Hello?” His voice boomed in echo across the city, and the towers lit up once more in their magnificence. Stumbling along, Shinji found himself on his knees in the middle of the courtyard. That mysterious chanting was all around him, singing in low tones. The ocular sense returning, he opened his eyes to behold a figure looking down at him.

 

“Don't run away.” The voice whispered inside his mind. The chanting was too loud for any whisper like that to get through.

 

“Where am I?” He felt it smile at him. Curves outlined in the prominent light, he saw it was female, and now his shame came from his nudity.

 

“Do not be modest, young one.” She…it…whomever she was knelt down before him. It sang softly in a hum. “This is paradise.” Shinji's hands only crossed over his shame more readily with her close. Inching forward, she settled on her own knees. Briefly, for a mad moment, he smelt jasmine…mixed with something almost faintly metallic.

 

He took another gulp of air and shivered, looking up at her with vaguely hooded eyes, “Who are you?”

 

She smiled again, more over he felt it again. Just a vague sense of a pleased air about her. Fingers reached out and caressed his cheek, “I'm the Sea, the one who holds all within infinite walls. What you see is merely my home. Our home.”

 

He hadn't the mind to ask whom, he merely nodded, almost nuzzling into her touch. For a moment, he knew he loved her. Completely, above all others…

 

Then her eyes glinted in the light and he blinked. They sparkled like cat's eyes, rubies floating in the air. The being of the light closed with him, and gently kissed him, eyes staring at him the entire time. He could see violet irises within the cold glow of that ruby gaze.

 

She kept her lips there, pressing forward, the gentle pressure making him respond in his haze. His being, his very core felt neither here nor there. Stretched was as close as he could get to the name of the feeling. Then her tongue pried his lips apart, he shivered in something akin to bliss.

 

Her fingers snaked up his arms and he gently grabbed her wrists, closing his own eyes to sink into the moment. A keen feeling ran though him as he began to respond to her vigor. The boy was none to adverse to this attention, dream or not. His eyes opened a hairsbreadth and he looked at the angelic face.

 

Shinji began to choke.

 

The tongue that was laving over his felt cold, slimy now. A twisted smile had spread across her-its lips. With a strength born of desperation he tugged at her wrists, her fingers clamped down on his thin shoulders. Muffled screams were drowned out by the chorus of voices.

 

The appendage in his mouth extended, choking him as it dipped down his throat and slinked back, the bifurcated like a snakes tongue. Two slithery something's were in his mouth now, “Don't you like it?” The voice giggled in his mind.

 

Shinji screamed…

 

(Section Divider)

 

09:12:55

 

…until he woke. And screamed some more when he realized he was still in the Plug, he started to bang on the roof of the cylinder, clawing at his seat free floating in the clear solution of the LCL. Tinges of orange showed through the LCL. Bracing his back against the rear of the pod his head gnashed back and forth, searching the shadows.

 

He could still hear her, “Don't run away…” it whispered. Something thudded against the hull outside. Shinji's stomach rolled, vomiting bile…and something else he didn't want to think on. A black ichor swirled in the middle of the LCL only to be sucked away with the filters.

 

Shinji realized he wasn't alone in this Void.

 

(Section Divider)

 

06:13:00

 

It was starting to get cold.

 

More and more orange was seeping into the clear LCL. All Shinji had been doing for nearly three hours was staring at where the holo-screens would display. The thudding wouldn't stop.

 

It had been once at the bottom of the hour and the top of the hour. Now…it was every few minutes. Whatever was outside was trying to drive him mad…or trying to find purchase to get in. The latter of his thoughts did nothing to ease his mind. He sat in a corner of the plug, just rocking back and forth.

 

He wanted to see Rei, Misato, Mana…anyone. He wanted out of this hell hole. Out of this Plug and away from the dreams and the pounding.

 

A loud pair of thuds resounded against the bulkhead behind the Plug. His eyes went wide as he looked that way. I'm afraid to close my eyes…and I'm afraid to open them. A shudder wrenched from his lungs as he heard the last sound.

 

Shinji's heart palpated once painfully when the sound echoed through the hull, “What the hell is that?” He felt his hands started to shake uncontrollably. He rolled that idea around in his head for a little while: something was outside, truly outside in the Void. He giggled at that.

 

It just seemed so…funny.

 

The sound of some hand scratching down the plating.

 

After the grinding and grating sound vanished all that could be heard were the whimpers and half-witless giggles of a fourteen year old boy.

 

(Section Divider)

 

03:04:21

 

“Get me out of here! For the love of God someone get me out of here!” Shinji pounded on the emergency hatch like a madman, his eyes wide with fear and something more. The Plug suit was torn around the hands, so vigorous were his attempts to pry the hatch open. Bloodied fingers clawed at the hatch. Around him, the LCL had faded to a dull orange. The filters were breaking down.

 

Shinji brought in iron and other impurities with each breath. It almost felt like he was getting heavier. His blood made a small maroon mist in front of the hatch, his fingers burning. A nail broken here or there on his fingers. They felt like they'd been beaten by a salute of hammers. Then rent through glass for a few hours.

 

The tears and the pain only lent desperation to his movements.

 

That and the fact he knew he'd never leave this place. No one was coming. Not Misato. Not Rei. Not Father, or Kaji, or Asuka, or anyone at all. He was alone in that place. This Hell.

 

Only one thing was waiting for him. Death. He'd suffocate in here like some hooked fish caught from the ocean. How fitting he was already in his tomb. “Looks like I'm stuck with you forever…” he panted out. His frame collapsed back into the seat, folding up against itself.

 

“Remeeeeeeeemmmmmmbeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrr…”< /div>