Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ Practice ❯ Imaginary Red ( Chapter 13 )

Asuka stormed out of the apartment complex and headed in the direction of an arcade. So what if nobody else is around? I can have fun all by myself! Who knows, I might even meet someone! She thought as she strode down the street, still in somewhat of a rage.

As she walked, she started to calm down. She sighed as she stopped and waited for a light to change. I wonder what Shinji-baka is doing right now... probably something perverted. The light changed and she started walking again.

She walked for a long time, finally coming to a stop as she realized that she had been running on autopilot and didn't know exactly where she was. She looked around for a sign, and when she found one she blinked. “I've walked this far? I'm on the other side of Tokyo-3!”

So what are my options? Asuka thought, already switching to military mode and viewing the situation from as far back as she could. Do I have enough cash for a cab? No, it's expensive as hell... Is there something around here to do?

Asuka took a glance at some of the shops around and swore vividly in her head. I'm in the verdammt business section! scheiße! Okay, there has to be a transit station around here somewhere...

Concentrating on a mental map she had of Tokyo-3, she tried to figure out where the nearest one would be. She blinked as she turned around to find that she was already at the entrance to the train station. Slapping her forehead, she walked into the station...

...And was greeted by about twenty people standing on the wrong side of the wickets, looking annoyed and dejected. “Was ist los?” Asuka said to nobody in particular, still stressed enough to revert back to her native language.

A man, presumably someone who worked for the city, approached Asuka. “Excuse me, miss, but do you speak Japanese?” He asked in Japanese.

“Hai, hai.” Asuka said annoyedly, switching back to the official language of the country she was currently in. “Why is everyone standing around out here?”

“We are experiencing a technical problem with one of the trains. It has stopped in the middle of the tunnel at a track crossing, and is unable to move until we fix a minor electrical fault. We apologize greatly for the delay.”

“How long until this electrical fault is fixed?” Asuka asked, hoping it would be quick enough that she didn't have to choose between a long walk and a long wait.

“It should be fixed within an hour.”

“An hour?! Verdammt Scheiße!” Asuka swore.

“Again, we apologize deeply.”

Asuka sighed. “I know, not your fault.” Doesn't mean I'm going to like it. She added in her mind.

She left the station without saying another word.

---

The drive to the Central Dogma access structure was painfully drawn out, even though it only lasted about five minutes. Shinji was becoming more and more worried. I hope she makes it. Shinji thought to himself as he watched the landscape go by from his window. Not only for her sake, but for the sake of the planet. He knew that there were times when Unit 02 was a big supplement to an Angel operation, if not an irreplaceable part. To lose Asuka's ability would be devastating.

No, Shinji thought, shaking himself out of that train of thought, I shouldn't think like that. That's too selfish.

Despite all the bickering and insults slung in Shinji's direction, the Third Child could remember moments he actually enjoyed in the Second's company. They weren't too frequent, but they were there. And now they were... No, she's not dead. She's hurt, badly, but she's not dead.

The car stopped and Shinji got out, his sense of dread deepening with every step he took. He walked with the two Section Two agents to the gates and beyond, a thousand questions buzzing around in his head.

---

Asuka walked down the street, still fuming over not being able to get home by train. The whole line was shut down for the hour, and guess what was the only route to the station closest to the apartment?

Off in the distance to Asuka's right, she could hear a loud rock song playing from a car speaker, almost drowning out the sound of sirens. She looked up at the light -- green. She started walking across the street.

The sirens and rock music were getting louder and louder by the minute, and Asuka glanced to her right and saw a red sports car blazing up the street towards the intersection she was crossing, swerving wildly.

She was in the middle of the intersection, she had no chance to get to the other side before the car got to her. She started running for one side, but the car swerved towards her.

She barely had time to scream, but she did, almost at the same time as she was shoved hard from behind. She didn't even have time to put up her arms to soften the blow before the concrete of the corner of the sidewalk came up to meet her.

---

Shinji walked down the corridor of the medical ward, flanked by the two Section Two bodyguards. They got to a room and one of them peered into the glass window in the door. “She's in there, but there are doctors swarming over her.” He said.

Shinji tried to remember his name, he gave it when he met Shinji outside Motowa's. It was an odd name, as he was of German descent, having been transfered to the Tokyo-3 branch of NERV with Unit 02. Kain... Kast... Karl, that's it.

The second man -- his name was Lin -- nodded and moved to the wall on the far side of the door, his back leaning against it. Karl took a seat on one of the row of chairs on the near side of the door, and Shinji sat down a few seats away.

---

---

---

"Mmmnnmgn..."

The N2 mine in my brain is gradually fading down to a dull roar as I awake. My eyes seem glued shut, and so without opening them I try to get to my feet. As soon as my head moves I become overcome with a wave of dizziness and can do little more than roll over. After about five seconds, I try to sit up, with largely the same result.

I give up on that for the time being and focus on what I feel. My head is screaming at me, so most of my sense of touch is dulled... I shift, and realize that I'm lying on grass. I focus on my hearing next, and realize exactly how quiet it is here... wherever here is. No traffic, no ambient noise... no talking... not even any wind. I'm not in Tokyo-3 anymore. I think.

This is further confirmed by my sense of smell. The air doesn't smell like it does in Tokyo-3. It smells... clean. Almost too clean.

This brings me to my sense of sight. Noting that my migraine is almost gone, I try to open my eyes. They come apart with some effort, and I'm greeted with an infinite plane of purple. This causes my eyes to widen in surprise, and I try to sit up again. The dizziness returns, but I'm able to fight through it and sit up. I steady myself with my hands as I look around.

The green I was expecting the grass to be is instead a sky blue, giving me the impression, almost, that I'm upside-down. In the distance, the horizon has little origami flowers sticking up out of it, as if this was an area in a video game. I look for the sun -- a sun -- and see that there isn't any. The sky is illuminating everything, even though it's white light. That's not right. Light doesn't just come from nowhere. I think.

It looks like it's drizzling, but there are no discernible clouds in the air. The purple sky is too even to just be overcast. If I follow a raindrop on its way to the ground, I can see that it's refracting some point of light into a rainbow, and it apparently evaporates about two meters above the ground.

The only other object I can see -- besides myself -- is a large tree on top of a very shallow hill, just barely one meter above the perfectly flat stretch of grass in all directions. I should probably get to that tree, if only to give me something to lean against.

I just now notice a buzzing sensation in my neck. I bring my hand up to rub my neck, and I realize my neck is covered in some sort of dried, crusted-over liquid. I bring my hand in front of my face and blink as I see flecks of dried blood. I touch my neck again, looking for the source of the wound, and find it under my chin and to the left. I wonder how I got that.

I check the rest of my body for any other injuries. Apparently, I also have a cut on my forehead, bad scapes along the top of both my arms, a slash just above my right breast, and my knees are scraped up badly. And there's this damn dizziness. I try to get to my feet, and I'm moderately successful. I half-drag myself towards the tree. Looking back, I note there isn't any dried pools of blood around the slight indentation in the grass where I woke up, so I was definitely moved from where I got these injuries.

The trip -- all twenty meters of it -- wasn't painful at all. I'd have thought my various injuries would all be screaming at me, but none of them are. they're just... it's as if the pain center of my brain has shut down, and I can't feel pain at all. Instead, the feeling that replaces the pain is a buzzing feeling. As I descend again to the ground, only partly controllably, the question that should have hit me like a ton of bricks finally makes itself known in my mind.

Where am I?

---

---

---

The door opens and all three males immediately got to their feet again. “How is she?” Karl asked, stressed enough to revert back to his native German. Shinji repeated the same question in Japanese.

“It's not looking good, I'm afraid. Asuka does indeed have a broken neck... and what looks like a severed spinal cord. She also has a moderate concussion. I'm afraid that when... if... she awakens, she'll probably end up paralyzed from the neck down.”

Shinji was the first to react, slumping back down into the nearest seat. Karl ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head. Lin didn't outwardly respond, other than his eyes showing a deep sadness.

“So... is she a vegetable?” Karl asked after a long pause.

“Well, that's the good news, she does show brain activity. But what's worrying most of us is that the brain activity is too much for someone in a comatose state. It's as if she's awake, if you trust the readings.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“That's the worrying part, we don't know. We've never seen it before. All I can say for sure is, Asuka is never going to be the same again.”

---

Yeah.

Another battle waged as I war with myself again over how severe to make Asuka's injuries, to simply shake her up or kill her instantly. I ended up with this.

The Asuka scene takes place in the Imaginary universe, created in Yamato Gun IV. Other random things have been stolen from other places, too -- points if you can guess where the bodyguards were taken from.

Okay then. Not sure where to go from here, but after I get a good connector scene, I've had the next few chapters planned out since I decided to make this fic an alternate universe.

Hope everyone likes the derailing of the series plot.

If you want to see what might be up next, remember where in the series we are and what comes next. Just because everything's different doesn't mean everything is different.