[Episode 257532] [Episode 257532]In silence, she waited.
There was nothing else to do for her. She had waited for a long time. Her existence had become so confusing in the past. Her memories were vague and had many holes, but there was one constant.
She knew that he existed. She knew he was safe and alive. In fact, she had been aware of his health and vague location even before meeting him. Or had she met him before that day? Her mind couldn't answer that question. Yet, the fact remained unchanged. He existed.
He was the centre of her every waking thought. He was the reason for her existence. So long as he lived, she had a reason to continue on. She could feel his mind, his agitation and his fear. Oh! How much she wished to calm him. Unfortunately, her abilities were fairly limited. She could barely touch him until his mind withdrew. She was unable to protect him.
Silently, she decided to show the one who scared him the consequences to such actions. There was nothing that could stop her. His mind was already receding. It was only a question of time until he would lose consciousness. His fear and pain was almost vanished at this point. She could only identify a vague feeling of wonder emanating from him. Finally, now she....
What! No, impossible, what happened?!
Wildly the colossal mind scrambled around. She could not believe it, couldn't understand it, he had vanished! How? Where? Immediately her senses shot out, trying to locate him.
No, no, no, he cannot be gone!!
Until this point, her mind had always been in haze. Now everything was so horribly clear. She could remember her name, her life and everything else. Yet, no part of this was important because of a single thing. She could not feel him anywhere. There was nothing, not the slightest tingle of his presence, or anything that would explain his disappearance.
That could not be true! There was no one that could touch him. No connection to the outside, who could...!
Suddenly, one could feel a terrifying calm in the air.
She could not change the fact that he had vanished. Even with all of her strength there was no way to find him. There was only one thing to do. Her invisible eyes turned to the perceived culprit.
"You will Pay!!
NERV's headquarter was a giant and chaotic beehive. Never was there any true dormancy and there was always something to do. Right now, the employees of humanities so-called last line of defence were trying to find out what the hell was going on.
"What the hell is going on Maya?" asked, Commander of Operations, Misato Katsuragi. One could see a great display of the twelfth angel on a big monitor. "What is happening with the angel?" The Major was very worried. They were almost ready for the attack on the angel. Had the creature somehow noticed their preparations? Or worse, had something happened to Shinji and was the thing going to spit out some empty shell?
With a frown, Misato rubbed her head and listened for an answer.
"There is some really big energy rise inside the angel.", spoke Lieutenant Ibuki. Her eyes wandered over the numbers the computer displayed with accustomed ease. Finally she detected something unusual. "The.." For a moment she hesitated, but continued after a moment. "The energy readings are not from the angel."
Everyone in the room turned to the young women. Maya flinched back and looked nervously.
"What?" Misato's question destroyed the atmosphere and allowed the Lieutenant to continue
"Ah, y. you see..." The women elaborated with a slight stutter. "If the readings are correct, and I am not saying that they are, then we can see an energy spike from Unit 01."
The people present had various reactions. There was relief from some of the lower techs, Surprise and shock from these who understood how ridiculous this was and fear from these who remembered Shinji Ikari's first battle.
Misato was somehow happy. She had almost given up hope of getting the boy back by this point. Her eyes remained glued to Leliel's real body. Wasn't something rippling there?
Suddenly a colossal purple arm ripped out of the darkness. A strange noise could be heard. It carried the vague feeling of surprise and alarm. The Major smiled. Good, things were finally looking better. Her smile disappeared the moment Unit 01's head appeared from the depth of darkness.
ROAAAARR!!!!
To say the man made god was screaming was a horrible understatement. The sound escaping the Evangelion was incomparable. There was no other way to describe it. Nothing human... no, nothing mortal could create such a sound. Everyone felt an indescribable sensation of horror and fear.
You will die! It was what the scream was saying. It was a promise and an absolute law. There was nothing that could stop the behemoth from fulfilling its task.
The audience was looking in morbid fascination as the Eva ripped apart the angel, screaming, growling and howling during the whole process.
"Mein Gott! Kämpfe ich wirklich mit so einem Ding?", asked Asuka in surprisingly good German.
Minutes went by where the thing was doing its bloody work. A loud screeching sound filled every place inside of Tokyo-3, almost overpowering Unit 01's screams. Finally, after a seeming eternity, the goliath like creature finished its task. The monster screamed once again and made everyone shiver for a moment. Then silence covered the place like a bed sheet. The Evangelion turned motionless and its glowing eyes lost the gleaming light.
Even Gendo Ikari, ever silent observer, had leant forward to see the horrible show. Now he was the fastest to recover from the ordeal.
"Lieutenant Ibuki, Major Katsuragi, report!" The words were spoken with a controled authority and made the addressed women return to their work without delay.
"Minor damage to the Evangelion, the restraining bolt was totally destroyed and we will have to clean up just to get the personal there." Misato let herself fall back in the role that was her job. That was much better then to think about... she shuddered, better not to think too much. Not until she got something to drink.
"The batteries of the Eva are empty, communication systems are offline but intact. Everything seems in... Wait, where is the pilot?" Maya's voice took a confused tone as she read the data. "That is... he is not inside of the Eva!? How is that possible?" She repeated the process, but the sensors continued to say the same. There was no body and no plug suit. The data were clear about that.
Before she could continue, Misato pushed her almost fully aside. The habitual drunk looked at the display. "Shinji cannot be... No, no, no!" She looked frantically over the text. Maybe it was a bug, or the systems had gotten more damaged then they thought?
Gendo would have none of that. "Katsuragi, control yourself! We will search for the third child immediately. Retrieve the Eva and search for every piece of data. Do you understand?" Misato looked at the Commander in surprise. She had never before seen him so agitated. It had been her opinion that the man didn't care about Shinji. Now he looked almost, scared, worried? She couldn't classify the expression exactly.
After a moment of confusion everyone stirred and returned to their work.
There were only two who didn't have anything to do.
Asuka looked at the Eva with clenched fists. Her earlier release of emotions felt horribly embarrassing. Yet, there was something worse. The idiot had killed the angel single handed. To take the cake, he had done so while being absent. A part of her knew that blaming him would be stupid, but she was worried and scared. "If we don't find you in that thing, I swear, I will kill you, you bastard."
For her part, Rei was feeling quite different. It was a feeling that words could not describe. Or at least, it could not be described by her. The nearest thing she could compare it to was... disquiet, or maybe longing? She was unsure. It was the first time she felt such a thing.
"Shinji..."
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(Posted Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:18)
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