Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Neon Genesis Wing ❯ Tests & Tears ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: You know the drill by now, I don't own Eva or Gundam, no matter how much I want to.

Neon Genesis Wing

Tests and Tears.

As Unit-01 finished the lock down procedure in its cage, Shinji saw a veritable hive of activity. Technicians were scrambling about trying to decide how to house the unexpected 'visitors' they'd received. Lastly of all Shinji saw Misato running toward him, bowling over a tech as she went. What made no sense was the fact that she looked happy. "What's going on? Why is Misato so happy there's nothing to be.."

The Major cut off his train of thought. "Shinji" she exclaimed. "Asuka's awake!" Hearing this the Third Child tore off for the infirmary, not noticing the fact that he was dripping with LCL, all he cared about was getting to the hospital NOW.

Asuka humphed. She was really bored. After one of the nurses had realized that she was awake they'd had a bunch of doctors come in and do about 25 different tests on her to try and figure out why. When the doctors had exhausted all avenues of exploration, and because she had punched one in the face, they transferred her to a normal room and out of the Cranial section. When Asuka got there however, she noticed two things. One, it wasn't a private room, and two, the second bed was occupied. In the bed lay a girl, about Asuka's age, or so she surmised, with long honey-blond hair and a bandage wrapped round her head. "Wonder why she's in here?" she muttered.

Crossing her arms, Asuka slumped against the raised back of the bed. "Someone better come and get me soon or I swear I'm gonna . . . " The Second Child's inner monologue was shattered as a flash of blue and white flew into her.

"You're awake! You're AWAKE!" was all that Shinji could say. He grabbed the redhead and pulled her into a crushing hug.

To say that Asuka was stunned was an understatement. Even with what Nagisa had told her she hadn't expected this. Here was Shinji Ikari, whom she had always assumed didn't care one whit about her, and he was blubbering and shaking.

"Shinji" Asuka shook him once.

"Shinji" she tried again.

"BAKA!" Shinji stopped and let go of her, fear flashing through him, what if she really did hate him? Asuka, looked up at Shinji and grinned. "Calm down baka-Shinji, if you don't the nurses will kick you out. Besides, your dripping."

"Huh?" Shinji looked down and saw that he was indeed dripping. In his hurry to see his friend he had neglected to clean off the excess LCL, which was now slowly dripping, on the floor, on the bed and onto Asuka's hospital gown. Then something unexpected happened. Rather than mutter apologies or turn away, Shinji Ikari burst out laughing. The clear sound of the boys laughter so rarely heard, now filled the hospital and was soon joined by another voice as Asuka joined him.

A short distance away however, there was no laughter. After accommodations had been made for the five Gundams inside of an unused containment cage, all five pilots were taken to a holding cell, where they awaited whatever NERV was to do with them. The most restless ones were Heero and Wufei, each for totally separate reasons. Heero because he didn't trust anyone, and because a very small part of him wanted to check on Relena. Wufei was restless because he didn't want anyone poking around inside Nataku. Duo sat in the corner of the room idly kicking the wall, Trowa merely blended into the shadows and stared at the door, Quatre sat on the bed and worried. He didn't worry for long as the door opened and a squad of Section 2 agents made their way in to take each of the pilots to separate rooms where they'd be given a full physical, medical, and psychological examination.

Even deeper in the bowels of the GeoFront someone else was being released from a cell. Dr. Ritsuko Akagi looked far worse for wear than when she'd stepped into her cell. She had expected to spend the few days remaining to her in that hell hole of a cell, but it seemed that Ikari had more use for her. Walking toward the elevator that would carry her to his office Ritsuko thought bitterly "What does he want from me now? It's not like there's anything I have left that I can give to that son of a bitch."

In his office Gendo waited, anticipating trouble when Akagi entered. She could be quite troublesome and more than likely wouldn't be very receptive. Fortunately he knew what sort of thing that Ritsuko couldn't turn down no matter what her feelings and one was a challenge, and the robots in cage five represented just that, a challenge. Not only had they appeared at just the wrong time, if they stayed for any length of time they might foul his plans for Instrumentality. Gendo could not let that happen, he'd spent too long, and sacrificed too much to let it all slip away now. At that second the inner door opened at Ritsuko strode in, anger clearly visible on her face.

"Why am I here Commander!"Akagi yelled "What do I possibly have left to give that I haven't already! ANSWER ME!"

Moving his head a fraction of an inch Gendo merely said "Are you finished?" Ritsuko felt all the anger in her melt away, replaced by fear. This man could kill her on a whim and he'd get away with it. From inside his desk Gendo withdrew a manila folder which he slid across the desk to her. Opening it Ritsuko saw the five Gundams standing shoulder to shoulder in the cage. "There very pretty Commander but what are they and why does it concern me?"

"What they are has yet to be determined, all we know of them is that they are made of some alloy that doesn't track on sensors and that they have a continuous internal power source that is neither nuclear nor S2 related. Nor are they some variant of the Jet Alone" Ikari inwardly grinned, he could see the wheels in her brain turning, trying to ferret out some kind of hypothesis. "As to why they concern you, if you cannot help Lt. Ibuki analyze them, you will be returned to your cell, and there you will simply fade away."

Ritsuko blanched. She knew that any more time in that cell would destroy any last vestige of her sanity and she would indeed waste away. Looking Gendo clear in the eye she asked "When do I start?"

Back at the hospital Misato had finally come to collect both of her charges. It had however taken nearly ten minutes to get her to stop hugging both Children, nearly suffocating them in the process. On the way back Misato filled in on the large gaps in knowledge that Asuka has missed, leaving out the Seventeenth Angel, since she was afraid it would hurt Shinji to remind him of what he'd had to do. When she heard about the mysterious pilots, she was all ears for any information. She was filled in on the small amount of information there was, and then she all but demanded that she be allowed to meet them and see their robots.

.

For about an hour or so the three sat around and acted very much like a family. Standing up Misato reached for her coat. "I have to head in and see what I we've managed to figure out about those robots and their pilots. I'll be back in a few hours." With that the purple headed woman made her way out of the apartment, leaving the two children alone.

Asuka puttered around in her room. She had, no she needed to talk to Shinji, mainly about what she'd been like before and after her.....accident, but also for what she'd seen. Looking out the door she saw her roommate seated on the couch. She shuddered as she thought of what Nagisa had shown her, of a Shinji completely devoid of any spark of humanity slowly strangling her. Shoving her fears into the back of her mind Asuka walked out of her room.

After a few moments to gather her courage, Asuka spoke up. "Shinji, there are a few things that you and I have to straighten out."

Shinji merely nodded. "Ok." He managed trying not to let the nervousness and fear in his guts bubble over into his tone of voice.

"What's he so afraid of?" Asuka thought. "He can't think I still hate him can he?" Shoving the question out of her mind Sohryu took a breath. Even with everything she'd been shown and everything she'd realized she had to put these last unanswered questions to rest.

"Shinji.... when.... when I-"

Shinji blinked. He had never seen Asuka this flustered in all the time that he'd known her. She'd always been the collected one, the one to butt in with a quick word, and now she was barely managing to get a sentence out. "W...What?"

"When I . . . fought . . . The Fifteenth, you weren't there, but when Rei ran into trouble they sent you, why? Why didn't you come help me Shinji?"

That was all it took for the fragile dam on the Third Child's emotions to crack. He began to sob, huge wracking sobs that allowed Asuka to see the majority of his rib cage when he took a breath."What's wrong with him? He's so thin."

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she tried to comfort him, but this only had the effect of making him cry harder as his hands became claws on her shoulders and as the pressure increased, so did the sobbing. When Shinji managed to look up there were tears still coursing down his face. "I...... tried . . . to . . . help you . . . but Father . . . wouldn't let me help . . . he said . . . he said . . . that we couldn't let Unit-01 get contaminated . . . and I couldn't move . . . all I could do was listen to you . . . listen to you scream." He broke into sobbing again. Through the sobs he managed to continue. "Then with Rei..... Oh God, Rei . . . she . . . killed herself . . . but she didn't die . . . but she wasn't Rei . . . not the Rei I knew . . . and then, and then Kaworu."

Now Asuka had to act. Most of what Shinji said, she could tell that he needed to get it of his chest, even if what he'd said about Rei made no sense.... But hearing him beat himself up over what had happened with the final Angel was another thing. Something that required direct action. Now.

Grabbing his face, she forced him to look her in the eye. "Shinji listen to me, regardless of whatever Kaworu said to you, he was an Angel."

The vehemence of Shinji's reaction was astounding. "WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT WHAT HE SAID TO ME" the boy screamed, less than two inches from Asuka's face. "YOU WERE IN A COMA!!"

Asuka looked Shinji straight in the eye, "Your going to think I'm crazy but, I know exactly what he said and did to you Shinji."

Shinji blinked, "w..what...h.... how do you know what he said?

Asuka sucked in a breath. "Shinji when I was in my coma, I. . .I met someone. I met him. I met Kaworu. He showed me everything Shinji. So I know, I know what he did and meant to you."

Ikari blanched. "Did...Did Kaworu say anything...about...me?"

The girl nodded. "Yes he did, and I quote " Tell Shinji that I hold no malice towards him and that he shouldn't blame himself."

Shinji looked at her like she wasn't there, like he was looking somewhere else. "He...he said that...to you...to tell..me.?"

She nodded again. "He did Shinji, so you can stop killing yourself over it."

It only took Shinji two seconds to pin Asuka to the couch , hugging her so hard so felt slightly woozy. What mattered however was all that Shinji said was "Thank you" over and over.

As Asuka pushed away from him, Shinji could see that there were tears in her eyes as well.

Maya Ibuki was quite ready to scream. She'd been working for 9 hours and she was hitting dead ends. The physicals had come back on the pilots. Every single one had some kind of psychological problem, and to top things off the analysis of their Robots was getting nowhere. Also Maya hadn't ben able to find any explanation for Asuka's miraculous awakening from her coma. Running a hand through her hair Maya sighed "I wish Sempai was here, she'd have this finished in no time."

"Ask and you shall receive." a voice that Maya hadn't heard in some time said.

Maya spun. "Sempai!" Running over she hugged her boss. "Why are you here? I thought Commander Ikari had you relieved."

Ritsuko shrugged. "He let me out." Turning to face the small pile of work scattered around the room the blonde let a smile cross her features for the first time since her incarceration. "Lets get to work."

Something that Misato had long ago realized was that she hated being in the Commander's office. It was too damn big, too damn dark and too damn spooky. Unfortunately for her, she was there now. Making a preliminary report on the five mysterious pilots. From behind the concealing mask of his crossed hands Gendo asked "What have we been able to determine so far Major?"

Misato cleared her throat. "Well Sir, concerning the pilots themselves, quite a lot. All five are in top physical condition, each seems to have undergone military training of some sort."

"Have we learned any more about their robots?" Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki asked.

"Well all they were willing to tell us was that their proper designation is a 'Gundam' not a 'robot'. That aside we know the specific names of each but that's all. None of them gave us any technical data of any sort, nor any sort of data on where they came from."

"What of the girl they had with them?" Fuyutsuki prodded "Does she pose any threat?"

"No Sir."

Gendo spoke. "Major, is there any way that we can get these. . .Gundam pilots to be more open with us?"

'Maybe if we let them out of the cells that their sitting in, that might help." "I believe it would probably be best if we sat down with them and exchanged information. If we tell them something, they may tell us something."

Silence reigned as the words hung in the air. Then, "Very well Major, I trust you will use your own discretion in terms of classified material."

The purple headed woman nodded, then at a sign from Gendo left the room.

After a few seconds Kouzou regarded his friend. "Ikari are you sure that recent events won't have some impact on the scenario?"

"Any minor changes now only affect the old men, not our scenario."

"But what of the Second Child's recovery, she was predicted to remain comatose until the appointed time."

"No matter. All is moving in accordance with the scenario."

Seeing that the discussion was going nowhere Fuyutsuki took his leave of Gendo.

"Soon" Ikari said to the air of his office "Soon I will be back with Yui and nothing, not those children, not Katsuragi, Not SEELE will stand in my way."

To be Continued...

Author's Notes: This was supposed to be one really long chapter but it got too large for my liking so I cut it in half. Expect the next half in the next 5-6 days.

Omake:

"Shinji" Asuka shook him once.

"Shinji" she tried again.

"BAKA!" Shinji stopped and let go of her, fear flashing through him, what if she really did hate him? Asuka, looked up at Shinji and grinned. Calm down baka-Shinji, if you don't the nurses will kick you out. Besides, I wanted to see something."

Shinji blinked then began to turn a very bright shade of red as Asuka slipped out of hospital gown and reached for the switch on his plugsuit. After removing the boy of the offending garment Asuka made a come her motion with her finger beckoning Shinji down towards the bed whispering "Lets see how much you really missed me."

After a few minutes the creaking and pounding noises from the room got so intense that the nurse began to walk toward the door, just to check. She changed her mind after she heard "OH GOD SHINJI!"

AN: Well this is just my own little bit of fan service and it's a bit of payback fr those of you who read my last omake.

Omake:

A s he passed down the halls of NERV headquarters Trowa Barton was his usual quiet self. Turning a corner he saw a girl with blue hair. Stopping he looked at her. Rei sensing that someone was nearby turned around.

Trowa: ...........

Rei: .............

Trowa*blink*........................

Rei*blushes*...... .................................

Trowa*grins* ........................

Rei: Lets go then

Trowa: Agreed.

With that both of the quiet children made their way to a service closet and made good the point of "Watch the quiet ones you never know when there gonna surprise you."