REBUILD: the advent of angels

CHAPTER 3

once she gestured she had digested what she had just been told, she gestured for me to continue

"so, as i said it all started with unit-01, specifically when i was four years old, my mother insisted on doing a contact experiment with unit-01, no one but her knew this, but her goal was to be absorbed into unit-01, so she could help along the plan for the human instrumentality project, i know no one knew because my father didn't know, and that's where everything starts-" i said, she cut me off, as she looked fearfully at azrael

"will we get absorbed by this thing" she asked, i smiled

"temporarily maybe, but that is only a protection measure since we are safest inside unit-01s core i know from experience, and we will be released from the core as well, i have systems in place to make sure of it, i wouldn't have allowed anyone but myself to board the EVA if it were dangerous love" i said, she took a deep breath and calmed down

"did anyone know of it's ability to absorb people" ikuno asked

"no, i never told the doctor, for reasons i will explain in a bit" i said, she nodded and let him continue

"after my mother was absorbed, my father outright abandoned me and buried himself in his work, his goal was to get my mother back at any cost, his son no longer held any importance except as a tool to further achieve that goal, it is the one thing he never truly succeeded in doing ironically, so for ten years i lived with a guardian he had picked and i am almost certain my father gave the man orders to make sure i was isolated, so i could be weak and malleable ten years later, i was called to tokyo three where my father was waiting, and was reintroduced to this very unit-01, i was told to, with no training or experience, get in the EVA and fight, he eventually succeeded in convincing me, by showing me a heavily wounded girl, which was also the only other pilot on hand, as he would have forced her into the entry plug if i continued to refuse" i said

"he guilt-tripped you" she said

"he did, what i didn't know at the time, was that she was a clone, one of many my father could easily replace, so my actions in saving her were meaningless, but we will get back to her, that girl is means about as much as this unit for the story, in other words she is everything, but i am again getting ahead of myself, so i got into the entry plug, with the only instruction i got before hitting the battlefield was not to panic from the LCL fluid, and that it was breathable that's it, and do you know the wonderful advice i got when i was launched onto the battlefield proper" i asked rhetorically, she gulped, but nodded for him to continue

"try walking shinji, that's it that's the advice i was given, that and shouts of 'IT'S COMING', no shit sherlock, they knew i was inexperienced, and yet were incompetent with their help, safe to say i did not win that fight, but unit-01 did" i said

"how" ikuno asked

"well, i would later learn that my mother's soul had more power then most of us realized, as after i was knocked unconscious unit-01 had apparently gone berserk and ripped the third angel apart, which i later learned was all according to my father's grand scenario for controlling the human instrumentality project so he could reunite with his wife" i said

"is she still part of the unit" ikuno asked

"no i removed her, and replaced her with something more controllable, i'll explain that later, as it is much further on in the story" i said, she nodded

"so against my better judgement, i stayed with NERV and continued to pilot for that organization, i still don't know to this day weather or not that was the right decision, but now i need to tell you about me and what i was like at that time, for we are entirely different individuals i am sure you noticed i called my younger self shinji" i said, she nodded

"my original name as given by yui and gendo ikari my birth parents, was shinji ikari, much later i would disown myself and construct a new identity, that being shinosuke itsukimaru, as you know i hold myself in high regard, simply so i could be better then those two, but shinji ikari was as i stated early a meek malleable boy, who had depression" i said, her eyes widened

"yes, my guardian misato katsuragi, was absolutely shit at doing her job, misato katsuragi's job was essentially nana and hachi combined, she was very good at hachi's role, i'd trust her as much as i trusted him, but she was complete and utter crap as a caretaker, and i'd trade her for nana any damn day of the week, she should not have been a guardian, she didn't help my confidence issues she usually made them worse, but still i dealt with it i fought and did what was expected me, and then asuka came into the picture" i said

"asuka" ikuno asked

"a third pilot, or more accurately i was the third pilot she was the second pilot, but anyway that made three active units on the roster, as rei the pilot i was sent to substitute for was also back on her feet, and her EVA was functioning as well, anyway, so to describe asuka, she's miku but like ten times worse, she's prideful and arrogant and extremely self-centered, and she was also my roommate, and my so-called guardian's assistance, and you know what makes things stupider i was being chastised to get along with her when i hadn't picked a fight or even fought back once, i did as i was told and expected and bent over backwards to please asuka, especially since at the time i had a bit of crush on her, as she was incredibly good looking, her only redeeming quality, since as a pilot she was the worst of the three of us, which is ironic cause she had the most training out of the three of us, what made that further ironic was that i had no training before the third angel at all, and yet i was the best" i said