Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Thunderstorm
There are certain promises that a person has to keep, if for no other reason than the people around them expect it. For example, if you say "I promise to repay you for this sandwich/meal/drink.. ...," then most people will generally bug you until you pay up. These are the general promises that we all make almost everyday. However, there is another level of promises that are rarely made, and, when they are, are adhered to with an unparalleled sense of responsibility. In this situation, instead of promising to repay someone for some sort of material favor, one person might promise to protect someone they love with everything they have, even if it means giving their own life in the pursuit of remaining true to the promise. These are Special promises. This story is focused on the latter of these two. More specifically, this story is focused on a promise made by a certain introvert to two of the people he cares the most about in his life. Two people, who, just like their hair colors, could not be more different. However, when a promise is made that carries as much weight as the one made to them, they may just find that they have much more in common than they previously thought, including their feelings towards a certain, shall we say... hedgehog among them...
I promise...
The Second Child opened her eyes and rolled over in her bed. Ever since the three of them had had that conversation several weeks before, she had been mulling it over and over in her head, often to the point of mental and physical exasperation.
She had found herself verbally expressing her frustration at not being able to force the memory out of her head. These expressions were usually in the form of profanities, and more often than not in German, so even if someone had been allowed close enough to hear her, they would have had no idea about the kind of foul pronouncements this 14 year old redhead was capable of.
The fact of the matter was, (and she would never, EVER admit this to ANYBODY), she felt a distinct feeling of comfort in hearing the words Shinji had spoken to them after the last Angel battle. After she had been brutally defeated at the hands of the Bardiel-infected Unit 03, she had sunk into a bit of a funk, and her synch ratios had steadily declined to less than exemplary levels.
Misato and Rei had been concerned about her, but she had yet to confide in them anything more than the occasional snippet of info relating to her feelings. Shinji, of course, had had even less luck, and his attempts to reach her often resulted in her fuming and him smarting from the Palm of Asuka laying its infamous vengeance down upon his cheek. Still, he tried again and again.
"Just like he promised..." Asuka thought to herself as she lay in bed, listening to the sounds of rain lightly tapping on the window of the room she shared with Ayanami.
"Speaking of Ayanami," her mind began, "I wonder how she's taking all of this. I know we've taken leaps and bounds in terms of progress with her, but still... She's so quiet..."
Even as these thoughts swam around in Asuka's mind, the figure in the other bed stirred and whimpered, as though she were having a nightmare. Asuka, hearing this, quietly got up and tip toed over. As she slowly leaned toward the First Child, Rei whimpered again and rolled over so that she was facing Asuka.
Instantly, Asuka knew her suspicions had been confirmed...
The First Child's features were set into the tell-tale signs of a night terror. Her eyelids were tightly scrunched closed and Asuka could see the movements of the red orbs beneath them, rapidly jumping back and forth as though she were following a fast moving target scurrying around in front of her.
Rei's lips were pressed into a frown with the lower lip sticking out slightly more than the other, quivering every time she would whimper. Asuka watched for several minutes, not sure if she should wake the sleeping girl, or if she should just go back to bed and let Rei's mind work the problems out itself.
She began to turn to go back when Rei began to softly speak in her sleep. Asuka, hearing this, turned back and leaned in closer to see if she could make out what was being said. All she could hear were small bits and pieces of what appeared to be a conversation between her and some other person.
Asuka, after listening for several minutes, still wasn't able to figure out who, though she had gleaned that Rei was calling for this person's help. Still unable to decide whether she should wake Rei up or not, Asuka continued to stand there, watching the poor girl suffer inside of her own head.
It was at this moment that Mother nature, as though sensing the redhead's indecision, decided to intervene in a rather spectacular fashion.
About a mile down the road, a communications tower, one of the hundreds that scattered the Tokyo-3 landscape, was struck by a massive bolt of lightning. Being so close to the Katsuragi/Ikari/Soryu/Ayanami residence, Asuka barely had time to comprehend that there had been a flash of light before the mountainous roll of thunder reached the apartment, causing everything to begin shaking as roll after roll of sound waves assaulted the complex.
Rei, who at this point had slowly begun to come out of her slumber, was shocked into full consciousness instantly by the barrage of sound filling the room. Her eyes flew open, her arms flew out, grabbing Asuka around the waist.
"IKARI!", she cried as she pulled the surprised redhead into a rather awkward embrace, with Rei's head burying itself into Asuka's stomach. Tears poured from her eyes and soft sobs began to release themselves from the shaking girl.
Asuka, instantly snapping out of her indecisive state, immediately adjusted her position so that she was at eye level with Rei, thus allowing the girl to bury her blue hair into Asuka's shoulder. The soft sobs slowly gave way to larger, body heaving cries as the First Child latched onto Asuka with all her might.
"Why did he have to do that? WHY?," she cried, and Asuka immediately knew to what and to whom she was referring.
"I don't know...," was the only thing that her brain would allow her to say at that particular moment. She had wondered the same thing over and over again hundreds if not thousands of times the past few weeks.
Why was Shinji always putting his life in danger to protect the both of them? Never mind the world, it was as though, when in battle, all he was focused on was protecting Unit-00 and Unit-02 and their (in his eyes at least) precious cargo. Even after all the hell and torment Asuka had given him when she had first arrived, and the cold, emotionless interactions that he had had with Rei (at least before they had managed to get her to break out of her shell), why did he constantly go back for more, just to help them?
He had been in the NERV infirmary for near to a week after the fight with Bardiel, and all he seemed to be concerned about was how Rei and Asuka were doing... constantly asking if they were healing well, if they needed anyone to talk to...
Asuka's train of thought was soon broken, however, by the sound of pounding feet in the hallway outside, followed by the all too familiar sound of the door to their room being thrown open with considerably more force than was needed.
Both girls turned to look and saw the Third Child standing, chest rising and falling as if he had just run a marathon, in their doorway with Misato trying to squeeze past him to get inside. Once she had succeeded, she immediately dropped to her knees beside the two girls and, placing her hands on both girls backs, asked what had happened.
Shinji, considerably more confident than before but still slightly awkward when it came to dealing with situations like this, slowly walked over and sat down on the other side of the trio and looked on.
"What happened?", asked Misato as she continued to gently rub the crying girls' back, "All I heard was the roar of the thunder and Rei screaming Shinji's name. At first I thought he might have snuck into the room and was trying something funny...,"
"Hey, I resent that remark," Shinji protested before he was cut off.
"...But, then I realized that their was a distinct tone of pleading in her voice, as though she were crying for help. Plus, I know my Shinji, and he wouldn't try something like that.," Misato finished, looking to the boy sitting across from her and smiling. Shinji, though pleased by Misato's defense of his character, turned beet-red nonetheless and began grinning sheepishly.
Rei, who at this point had managed to regain her composure and had let go of Asuka, began to speak.
"I'm not really sure what was happening... It was as though I was reliving the last Angel battle, only much worse... It was as though, after Ikari-kun had rescued us from Unit 03 and was carrying us to the Eva catapults...", she stopped as tears began to seep out of her eyes again as memories of the dream came bubbling back up to the surface.
Misato, reached over and took the girls hand in her own.
"Rei, it's okay... It was a dream... It wasn't real. Please, tell us what happened."
Rei swallowed, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and began again. "Like I said, Ikari was carrying us away from Unit-03 and towards the catapult, when I heard him scream in pain. I looked at the video feed from inside Unit-01's cockpit and saw him writhing in agony as Unit-03 reactivated and its arms ripped into Unit-01. But... It was more than just that... I saw... I saw..."
Rei stopped as fresh tears began to flow.
"Oh God... I saw..."
She was on the verge of breaking down when she felt a hand slide onto hers and squeeze gently. She looked up and saw that the hand belonged to the Third Child, who had silently moved closer as to be almost directly beside her. Feeling a sensation of warmth almost physically flowing from his hand to hers, she picked up where she had left off in her recount of the nightmare.
"As I watched Shinji's video feed, I saw small red splotches begin to form on the chest of his plugsuit. These spots began to grow with alarming speed, and soon began to push out against the material of the suit, all the while he continued to carry us farther and farther away from that monster. As soon as he reached the catapult, he carefully lowered our Eva's onto the platform and hit the descend button. As we plummeted towards headquarters, the video feed began to grow fuzzy. But before it went out completely, I watched the expanding red spots on his suit explode in a shower of blood and bone as miniature versions of Unit-03's arms broke through and began to strangle him... It was this point when the thunder hit and I was jolted awake, apparently screaming Shinji's name...," Rei finally finished.
As soon as the image of Shinji's chest being ripped open entered her mind once again, she began to lose it. Tears streamed down her face and dripped onto the fabric of her bedspread. She went to wipe them away, but her hand was blocked from her cheek by another hand, not hers, that was already wiping at them.
She looked and saw Shinji reaching to delicately remove the saline liquid that was streaking her pale skin. Her gaze moved to his face and she saw the smile that was in place and... and...
She lost it. Diving forward off of the bed, she wrapped her arms around his upper chest as the force of her movement sent them both sprawling backwards onto the floor. Asuka and Misato, who at this point had been completely engrossed in Rei's graphic description of her nightmare, gasped audibly before the shock wore off and they began to smile.
Shinji, who had been caught equally off guard, could only lay rigid as the weeping girl tried to bury herself in his chest. His shock soon wore off as well, and he returned the embrace while looking to Asuka and Misato for assurance that this was okay. After seeing their teary eyed smiles, he immediately knew he was doing the right thing, and began to slowly stroke Rei's hair while whispering quietly.
"It's okay, Rei...", he spoke gently, "You're fine... I'm fine... Asuka and Misato are fine, too... We're all okay..."
After a few minutes of this, he had managed to bring the girl back into control of all her faculties and asked if she was able to stand.
"Yes," she replied, and slowly lifted herself off of him, never letting completely go of his now tear soaked shirt. She turned to the other two people in the room and smiled, then wrapped each of them in a genuinely loving embrace.
Asuka, while having grown slightly accustomed to Rei's increasingly outgoing personality, was still caught off-guard by the sudden embrace, almost as much as she was when Rei grabbed her by the stomach just a few minutes before. She began to awkwardly return the embrace, before letting the natural flow of emotions take over and sinking comfortably into it.
Misato, Shinji and even Rei were surprised at how supportive the generally standoffish redhead was being. They supposed that after the events that transpired following Bardiel's attack, Asuka had maybe begun to lighten up a bit, so to speak. If this were the case, she would never directly tell them. As fate would have it, they had no idea how close they were to the truth...
"There... Isn't that better?", Misato suddenly spoke up, "Now that we've got all that noise out of the way, waddya say we all go back to sleep, huh? All three of you have a full day of synchro tests and combat drills tomorrow, and, after all, y'all are still a growing boy and girls."
She then turned to Rei and put on her best motherly voice.
"Rei, do you think you'll be fine? I can make Shinji sleep in the room with the two of you, if that would make you more at peace..."
The almost comically dissimilar reactions from the two genders represented almost caused Misato to chuckle. Shinji had stopped in mid-breath and was almost choking on his own tongue. His eyes grew in size by several orders of magnitude while his mouth could only hang open, slightly cock-eyed.
Asuka, on the other hand, was much more vocal in her protest.
"That baka... in the same room... AS ME? WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU MISATO?", exploded Asuka as Rei could only stammer, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her guardian, which, of course, immediately caught the attention of the Second Child who decided to make her decision for her.
"And Ayanami feels the same way, DON'T YOU?", she barked at the stunned girl.
"Ummm... Yes... I believe I... do?," Rei quietly responded, although the way she pronounced the final word made it obvious (to everyone but Asuka, at least) that she wasn't truly sure whether the idea was bad or not...
"There," Asuka said, "See? She thinks it's a bad idea just like I do. I'm honestly surprised you would even think of suggesting something like that, Misato. He's obviously going to try and take advantage of me while I'm sleeping! I mean, look at him... He's a classic example of a pervert!"
Shinji, having been silently mulling over the implications of him sharing a room with Asuka and Rei (and all the problems that would be associated with that were the details ever leaked to two certain friends of his who ran an illicit "photo sharing" service around the school), suddenly snapped back to attention at Asuka's less than flattering description of him.
"HEY!, Wait just a damn minute... I am NOT a per...OW OW OW...", he was cut off by Asuka seizing him forcefully by the ear and leading him to the door.
"That will be enough out of you, baka!', she bellowed as she threw him into the hallway, causing him to lose his balance and slam his head into the wall with a muffled "SHIT!" He turned around and, between holding his nose to ensure it wasn't broken and feeling his ear, he discovered that Asuka had drawn blood from her fingernails digging in.
At the sight of this, Asuka felt a pang of guilt that resonated from deep within. She immediately regretted having used so much force on the boy. After all, he had just willingly left the warmth and comfort of his bed to make sure the both of them were alright. This, on top of the promise he had made them when he had gotten out of the hospital after Bardiel's attack, caused her to feel a slight hatred for herself. He was always right there for everyone, but they ("Specifically me", she thought), rarely thanked him or acknowledged the sacrifices he had made.
"Dammit, Asuka... That hurt! What is wro...", he stopped mid sentence when he saw the pained expression on Asuka's face, accented by the small tear that was now rolling down her cheek.
Misato and Rei, who had been quietly smiling to themselves, now looked to Shinji and then to Asuka. Between the expression on her face and the tear on her cheek, they knew that the Invincible Asuka Langley Soryu had, in fact, developed a crack in her armor and vulnerabilities were beginning to find their way to the surface.
"Asuka...? Are you alright?", Shinji began...
At the sound of his voice, and the realization of what he had just asked her, Asuka began to break down.
"I... I'm... I'm sorry... Shinji...", Asuka uttered quietly as more tears began to slide down her cheeks, "I didn't mean to hurt you... I'm so.. stu...hmmph!"
She was cut off by Shinji placing his finger on her lips, stopping her from continuing.
"Don't say that.", he began, "You're not stupid. You're not." He reached up and wiped off the tears running down her cheeks, not really knowing where this new-found confidence was coming from, but liking it nonetheless.
"Why are you keep doing this?", Asuka almost whispered as she was pulled into a bear hug by Shinji, "Why do you keep helping me when I'm such a bitch to you all the time? Why do you keep helping both of us regardless of whether we thank you or not? I don't get it..." She looked up to see Shinji's features had formed into a genuine ("And dare I say loving?") smile that couldn't help but make her feel a little bit better about the whole situation.
"Do you really want to know why I'm doing this... Right here... Right now?", Shinji asked out loud, not really speaking specifically to Asuka but rather to everyone in the room as he gently pushed her to arms length, "I'm doing this because I made the both of you a promise that day at the lake."
He paused, and Asuka looked up at him, her cheeks stained by her tears. His smile was still there, but there was something else in his eyes. Something... Serious. He looked to the other Pilot in the room and she saw the same thing.
"So, to answer you question...", Shinji continued, "I'm doing this because I made you a promise, and I keep my promises..."
*2 weeks earlier *
"Maya, how are the pilots doing?", Ritsuko asked as the Eva catapults prepared to shoot their cargo towards the surface and their target: Unit 03. Well, what used to be called Unit 03. It had long since stopped being referred to as Unit 03 and had been reclassified as the 13th Angel.
"Ma'am, I'm detecting a slight increase in blood pressure and pulse rate in all three children, but nothing out of the ordinary.", replied Maya Ibuki as she quickly brought up the stat screens for each pilot.
"Very good", replied Ritsuko as the senior scientist scanned over the information scrolling up the screens in front of her, "I see their anxiety levels are higher than usual for pre-combat conditions. Is there any reason for this?"
Maya was about to respond when the other senior officer in the room spoke up and, in a decidedly sarcastic tone of voice, replied "Well, it certainly couldn't have anything to do with the fact that they are about to go up against one of their own in battle. I mean, it's not like they've never had to do something like this before, fighting an Eva with an Eva.", Misato snorted.
Ritsuko only looked at her with a semi-disgusted look before turning back to her work.
"I understand that, Major", she replied a few moments later, "But, they have fought the angels, and as of right now, that is exactly what that thing up there is. Just because it has the form of an Evangelion doesn't mean it is an Evangelion. It stopped being Unit 03 the moment we initiated start-up. Just be happy that we were able to eject the entry plug before full contact was reached. Toji is doing fine, by the way. Just in case you were wondering..."
Misato just stood there with a sullen look on her face until Ritsuko turned around. It was then that the purple-haired Major's tongue poked itself out of her mouth and her bottom left eyelid was pulled down by her finger. She stayed like this until Maya turned around in her chair to ask a question but stopped in mid sentence upon catching sight of the Major. Misato, unusually embarrassed, turned slightly pink in the cheeks and pretended to look over some notes on her clipboard.
Meanwhile, the three Eva pilots sat in silence inside their respective cockpits. The thoughts running through their heads followed the dame general path: Are we really going to have to fight another Eva unit? How could something like this happen? Does this mean something like this could happen to one of our Eva's? The silence was broken by Asuka as she grunted in frustration at having to wait for so long to launch.
"Why in the hell are we still sitting here?", she whined as Shinji and Rei quietly sighed, "We know where the target is, why don't we just launch now, grab the thing and beat it to a bloody pulp. It's not like one Eva can defeat three, especially since one of them is piloted by yours truly. Hell, I bet I could take the damn thing on my own!"
Shinji and Rei could only look at each other via the on-board video feed and share a coy smile.
"Asuka, we've been over this", Ritsuko cut in, "that is NOT an Eva unit. At least not anymore. That is the 13th angel up there. It has all the strength of an Eva plus that of an Angel all combined into one body. It will take all three of you to defeat this creature."
Asuka only grunted in disagreement but said no more. In HQ, Misato quietly smiled to herself and thought "That's my Asuka..."
"Alright everybody!", Ritsuko announced loudly, "Let's run final start-up checks. The Angel is within the engagement zone and we need to take care of this as quickly as possible. If all goes well, by tonight we'll be down one more Angel and we can take a much needed rest. Now, on my word, confirm your stations are ready! Communications..."
Misato quickly lost interest as the doctor rattled off the lengthy list of initialization procedures. Turning to her own section of the control panel, she opened a secure line to the pilots and asked how they were feeling.
"I'm a little nervous to say the least," replied Shinji as he sat uneasily at his controls, "I'm not too excited about fighting another Eva unit."
"Oh hush up, baka", Asuka snapped from her cockpit, "didn't you hear what Dr. Akagi just said? It's NOT an Evangelion anymore. It's the 13th Angel, stupid Shinji..."
"Hey, you shut up!", retorted the Third Child, "I heard what she said, but it still feels weird to be going up against something that looks like an Eva unit! You know you feel the same way, and nothing you say will convince me otherwise!"
"What did you just say to me?" Asuka almost yelled in response, " I never said I wasn't nervous, I just reiterated what Ritsuko stated earlier, just in case you didn't hear her. Which apparently you didn't..."
Misato just smiled as the two teens fell into their usual routine of insult throwing and profanity spewing. She turned down the volume on the two warring factions and addressed Rei, who had until this point remained silent.
"Rei, how are you feeling?", asked Misato.
"I feel... Uneasy...", the blue haired pilot replied, "I think that's a good way to describe my feelings at the moment. I can't help feeling like this is all wrong... We shouldn't be fighting one of our own units, regardless if it is possessed by an Angel. I hope that makes sense, Misato."
"Yes, Rei, that makes more sense than you can imagine", Misato began, "this whole situation is wrong on so many levels. I still don't understand how we could have missed the signs until the last minute, or how the Angel even managed to infiltrate the Eva. We may never know, though. The Commander has ordered the Unit completely destroyed after its defeat. Pretty confident, huh?
"Yes, I suppose so", Rei giggled.
"Misato! Are the pilots ready for deployment?", Ritsuko yelled from across the control room, "The Angel is less than a mile away. All our defenses have been utterly useless against it. All the pre-launch checks are complete. How are they?"
"They're ready to go, Ritsy", Misato shouted back, grinning to herself as Ritsuko grimaced visibly at being called by her pet name that Kaji had given her years ago, "Just say the word and we'll launch."
Turning back to her 3 young charges, she alerted them to the impending launch. "Alright guys, this is it... Do us proud!"
"Everyone ready?", Ritsuko shouted into the general Coms line and waited as all lights turned green on her display, "Alright now... Start the countdown! On my mark, 5...4...3...2...1! LAUNCH!
Misato slammed her hand down onto the bright red button labeled "Ascend" and watched as the 3 Eva catapults shot upwards, propelling their multi-ton cargoes towards the surface.
"Ok God... Help us out here. We're going to need it...", Misato thought as the catapults reached their destination and the Eva's began to advance on the Angel.
Spirits in the room were high as the pilots began their first wave of attacks, sending the Angel (now identified as Bardiel) staggering backwards from the assault.
2 hours later, however, as the heavily damaged Eva's were brought down to the repair bay and Shinji was rushed into intensive care with serious injuries, the mood in the room was less than jovial...
The battle had started out with the odds in their favor, with the first assault knocking the Angel backwards into the hills surrounding the engagement zone. Asuka, emboldened by the seemingly quick work they were making of their target, broke formation and charged at Bardiel, both prog knives at the ready. Just as she reached the downed Eva, Ritsuko detected several strange energy readings coming from within Unit 03. She didn't even have time to reach Asuka before 2 extra arms sprouted from Bardiel's back and wrapped themselves around Unit 02's neck, stopping the Eva in its tracks. Both prog knives hit the ground as Unit 02's hands were brought up to grab hold of the arms that were pushing the Eva steadily backwards.
"GAAAHHHHHH!", screamed Asuka as the hands around Unit 02's neck slowly tightened their grip. Rei, in Unit 00, ran up beside the struggling pair and attempted to stab the Angel with her own pair of prog knives, but was quickly brought to a halt as the Angel's other arms shot up and grabbed Unit 00 by the shoulders before violently slamming it into the ground, dislodging the umbilical cable in the process. With now slightly less than 5 minutes left to defeat the Angel, Rei began to panic, violently thrashing about in her Eva as Bardiel easily held her pinned to the ground.
Shinji, watching from his catapult while technicians tried desperately to free his Eva from the malfunctioning locks securing it to the transport, lost any semblance of control he might have thought he had and, without really trying, ripped Unit 01 free of its restraints and charged towards the trio, a large chunk of catapult still attached to his right shoulder.
Screaming at the top of his lungs, he commanded his Eva to jump, and it responded, flying several stories into the air before bringing its foot crashing down on top of Unit 03. Catching it off guard, Shinji succeeded in causing Bardiel to loosen its grip on Unit 00 and 02 just enough so that the Eva's could break free and retreat to a safer distance as Unit 01 continued to grapple with the infected Eva, grabbing Bardiel behind the head and ramming its knee into the Angel's face repeatedly.
Asuka, having now recovered enough to rejoin the fight, ran forward and, wrapping her arm around the Angel's neck, pulled as hard as Unit 2 possibly could. Shinji, seeing this, tried to scream at her to get away.
"ASUKA! Get ba...", was all he managed to get out before the Angel shot its arm through Unit 02's chest, easily penetrating all the way through to the other side where it emerged in a shower of Eva blood.
Screaming in agony, Asuka involuntarily released her grip on the Angel's neck allowing it to shove her backwards, withdrawing its hand in the process and causing a stream of blood to pour out of the wound. Lying on the ground, writhing in pain, Asuka was essentially out of the battle. Shinji, seeing all of this, redoubled his attack on the Angel and, grabbing it by the head, began to violently slam the Eva's body against the hillside, carving several 2 story deep indentations with each hit. Still, the Angel was far from defeat and showed this by landing several brutal punches onto Unit 01's face with each of its four arms in quick succession. Staggering back from the surprise hits, Unit 01 was left open to a vicious kick to the chest that succeeded in knocking it back several dozen yards and forcing all of the air out of Shinji's chest.
"Gahh!", Shinji wheezed as he landed with a massive thud in a rice field. He looked up to see Unit 03 bearing down on him and was about to lift his arm in defense when Unit 00, having reconnected its umbilical cable, jumped on the Eva's back and knocked it to the ground.
"IKARI!", Rei screamed as she struggled to hold the Angel down. Shinji, hearing Rei's scream, immediately freed himself from the damp rice paddy and charged towards the pair of Eva's. Before he could reach them, however, he watched as Unit 00 was impaled by one of the Angel's arms. Hearing the blood curdling scream that emanated from Rei's com line, Shinji's blood pressure spiked, his heart rate topped at nearly 190 BPM and his nose began to trickle blood. Roaring in anger, he brought his hands together into a large fist and brought this down on top of Unit 03's head as hard as he possibly could, grinning at the satisfying crunching sound that resulted from the impact.
As Bardiel's body went limp, Shinji's brain immediately kicked into Rescue mode. Grabbing Unit 00 and pulling the Angel's arm from its chest, Shinji threw it over his shoulder and ran to Unit 02, still writhing in pain on the ground. Throwing it onto his other shoulder, he took off towards the waiting catapults. Opening a coms line to Misato, he ordered the Plug Retrieval Units to be ready. Upon receiving confirmation that the units were ready and waiting, he opened a line to the two Eva's on his shoulders.
"Asuka! Rei! Are you alright? Answer me, dammit!", he screamed into the line.
"I...I'm fine...", came the weak response from Unit 02 as Asuka slowly lost consciousness.
"I'm okay, Ikari-kun, thank you...", Rei responded.
Feeling a sense of relief flow over him, Shinji finally let out the lung-full of air he had just realized he was holding in. It was then that Unit 03 decided to reactivate and slowly get to its feet, its crushed skull leaking a sickly purple fluid that quickly congealed on its chest armor. It slowly brought its arms up and...
"SHINJI! BEHIND YOU!", Misato screamed as she watched the live video feed of the Angel getting back to its feet.
Shinji, barely having time to react, turned around just in time to see two impossibly long arms fly towards him. Hearing more than feeling the impact, Shinji watched as the two arms pierced his Eva's chest armor and broke through on the other side, sending out a spray of blood that streaked the ground below. Involuntarily sucking in as much air as his lungs could hold, Shinji's half closed eyes flew open as his jaw slowly dropped.
Staggering around, his main focus was to get the two damaged Eva's onto the catapult and down into the relative safety of the GeoFront. Gently placing Units 00 and 02 onto the lift, he reached over and pressed the bright green "Descend" button to the left of the elevator. After the lift had dropped from sight and the heavily armored doors were shut tight, Shinji turned to the task at hand.
Slowly reaching up to his chest, Shinji took hold of an arm in each hand and began to pull, wincing at the pain. Just as the wrist of each arm was visible, the other 2 arms made their appearance, viciously ramming themselves through Unit 01.
Back in the GeoFront, Misato, Ritsuko and the other bridge staff watched in silent horror as all four arms ripped through Unit 01 and lifted it above the Angel's head before slamming it to the ground over and over and over again. With each hit, every person on the bridge cringed involuntarily.
When the attack was finally over, Shigeru was able to reestablish a video connection to Unit 01's cockpit, showing that Shinji was not as badly injured as they had expected. Emboldened by this, Misato commandeers the com line to the Eva and begins to speak with the shaking and groaning pilot.
"Shinji...", Misato began in what was quite possibly the most motherly sounding voice she had ever been able to muster, "Are you okay?"
A loud cry of pain was the only response she received
" Shinji, I know you're in pain, but you have to try and free yourself", she began again, "You are our last hope... YOU have to defeat this enemy, for you, for all of us." Misato waited for his reply which she suspected would be one of self pity, just like the ones he used to have right after joining the organization. However, his actual reply was quite unexpected, but still true to character...
"Mi...Misato...", Shinji struggled to speak, "How are A...Asuka and Rei?"
Caught off guard by his reply, Misato struggled with what to say next. It wasn't that the pilots were in terrible condition, quite the opposite in fact. It was just that her brain, which had been expecting a completely different response now had to switch gears to find a reply. Finally, the connection between her brain and mouth was reestablished and she replied "They're okay, Shinji... Just unconscious. They'll be fine. You did well. I... We are all very proud of you."
On the video feed, she watched as Shinji visibly relaxed as she assured him of Asuka and Rei's condition.
"Shinji... We need you to finish this fight...", Misato began again, "We need you to destroy the Angel. Do you think you can do that?
"I'm not sure, Misato", came the reply, "I can barely move..."
"Shinji... You can do this. You yourself are not physically hurt. It's all in your mind, remember?", Misato asserted, maintaining her motherly tone of voice, "Besides, do you think Asuka or Rei would ever let you live this down if you gave up right now? After all you three have been through?"
Shinji, perking up at the sound of their names, slowly brings Unit 01's hand around to try and right himself. Bardiel, seeing this, quickly removes one of its arms from the Eva's chest and grabs hold of the hand, pulling it out from under Unit 01 causing it to crash back down. Shinji, grimacing as the bolts of pain make their way through his body, attempts to wrench his hand free only to have his arm violently pulled to full length as the Angel attempts to rip it from its socket. Pulling another one of its arms from Unit 01's chest, Bardiel begins to brutally punch the face plate of the Eva as Shinji continues to wince in pain. With each hit, the name of someone around him forces its way to the front of his mind...
SLAM Misato...
SLAM Rei...
SLAM Asuka...
SLAM I MUSTN'T RUN AWAY!
At this sudden resurfacing of his old motto, Shinji began to feel a deep hatred bubbling up from somewhere deep inside his mind...
SLAM The face plate of Unit 01 began to crack...
SLAM The video feed from inside the cockpit cuts to static, sending Shigeru diving under the control panel again...
SLAM Shinji reaches for the control sticks...
SLAM That...
SLAM He takes the controls firmly in his hands...
SLAM Is...
SLAM He lifts his head and roars...
SLAM ENOUGHHHH!
Bardiel was surprised to feel Unit 01's arm slowly pulling itself back towards its chest. Despite all its attempts to resist, the Angel found itself unable to stop the Eva from breaking free of its grasp and grabbing a hold of the Angel's face plate with its right hand, while simultaneously taking hold of its neck with its left hand. Panicking, the Angel removes its remaining arms from Unit 01's chest and firmly grasps each of the Eva's arms with two of its own. Despite all of this, it could not wrench the Evangelion free. It felt Unit 01's hands begin to constrict and became desperate. Completely forgetting about the hands around its face and neck, Bardiel began to hammer down on Unit 01's chest with all four arms. Hit after hit after hit, but to no avail. The Eva's grip was unbreakable.
Back in HQ, Misato watched these events unfold with a broad smile on her face.
"That's my Shinji...", she whispered...
Inside Unit 01's cockpit, Shinji was grinning maniacally as he steadily tightened his grip on the Angel's face and neck, barely noticing the hits he was taking from its four arms. Once he had his grip to the proper levels, he began to pull upwards with his right hand. Straining from the effort, Shinji's nosebleed began again, only this time it flowed twice as hard. Yet again, Shinji barely paid attention. All he could think of was sending this bastard back to whatever hell it had come from. Redoubling his grip in his left hand, Shinji gave one last near-superhuman burst of strength, roaring at the top of his lungs. The Eva, sensing the effort being exerted by its pilot, responded in kind.
Breaking open its jaw restraints, the Eva joined Shinji in his roar as the tendons and muscle on Unit 03's neck slowly started to give way. Feeling this, Shinji proceeded to shove the right hand's control stick forward as hard as he possibly could...
Outside, the sound of ripping flesh and bone was loud enough to be heard for several miles around as Unit 01 ripped Bardiel's head clear off of its shoulders, sending a shower of purple "blood" spraying up and out in a fountain that covered several square acres.
Letting go of Unit 03's now lifeless body, Shinji watched as its massive form crumpled to its knees before falling forward and crushing an empty house that was unfortunate enough to be sitting there as blood continued to flow out of the wound where its head used to reside.
"yyyyyyYYEEESSSSS! GO SHINJI!", screamed Misato as she watched Shinji pull Bardiel's head clean off of its body before crushing its skull with Unit 01's massive hand, "I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!"
This outburst from the Major came in the middle of a room full of people stunned into a silence so deep that, had anyone been in possession of a pin and had been so careless as to drop said pin, everyone in the room would have looked around as though someone had just thrown a pipe wrench against a steel plate.
"Misato!", cried Dr. Akagi, obviously frightened half to death by the Majors' delighted squeals, "Will you keep calm! Please! At least for our sake..."
"Ooops... My bad...", Misato replied, putting on the biggest, most sheepish grin she possibly could, "I'm just excited, is all..."
"I understand that, Major", came the predictably sour reply from Ritsuko, "But we need to keep our wits about us. We have 3 heavily damaged Eva's and 1 seriously hurt pilot to deal with at the moment. While I am not opposed to celebrating, please try to refrain from doing so until the proper time has arrived... Now, everybody, this isn't over. Just because the Angel is down doesn't mean our job is over..."
"Okay then", she continued, "Maya!"
"Yes Ma'am?", replied the Lieutenant.
"I want first priority to be given to Unit 01 in Repair Bay 5, Unit's 00 and 02 are to be moved to Bays 3 and 4, respectively", barked Ritsuko.
"Yes Ma'am!", Maya responded as she turned to her console and began issuing commands to the retrieval crews.
"Shigeru, what's the status on the video feed?", yelled Ritsuko as she turned to the Lieutenant who was currently half-submerged in a tangle of wires and circuit boards.
"Should be up right...about... NOW!", exclaimed Shigeru as he forcefully extracted himself from under the panel.
The main video screen came to life with a live shot of Unit 01's cockpit. Ritsuko immediately saw numerous things wrong with the picture.
"Somebody get me Medical Bay!", Ritsuko screamed to no one on particular, "And tell them they've got another one coming in. Class 3 Injuries sustained, heavy bleeding from nose and ears, possible internal injuries..."
Misato, who had been going around delivering congratulatory hugs and high fives, immediately turned to the screen and screamed at the sight of Shinji as he lay there, unconscious, blood steadily streaming from his nose and ears. She could see 2 very noticeable red splotches on the chest of his plug suit that were steadily growing bigger.
"Oh God... SHINJI!", her cry reverberated throughout NERV HQ.