Angel of Man

Chapter IV

Defiance

Asuka ran down one of the corridors in NERV, she couldn’t care which one. She was clutching desperately onto Reis’ wrist, with tears streaming from her eyes. She knew there was something wrong with that boy…that monster. She shook her head, franticly trying to remove the image of that mans severed head as it looked at her with dead horrified eyes.

Crying even more she kept on running, she needed to get away, she needed to flee, she needed to find someone with a fucking gun! Why was it, with the whole base on alert, she couldn’t find one fucking security guard, why damn it?

Rei was dragged behind the terrified red head, as she looked at her painful wrist, the thoughts wondered back to the boy, those eyes. She came to an abrupt halt when she ran into the back of the Second child, who had stopped without warning.

Looking around the suddenly shaking girl she saw that the boy was somehow sitting before them, with all four limbs touching the ground. He looked much like a dog or cat, his head lowered and eyes looking off to the right, determinedly looking away from them, with a pitying look of sadness in them.

He would have looked like a beaten puppy, but this image was destroyed by the copious amounts of blood clinging to his whole body, even now dripping from his soaked through hair.

Asuka nearly pissed herself and her legs gave out. How? How had it done that? He had just appeared out of nowhere, pop, he wasn’t there one minute was the next…what the hell was this monster? Crawling backwards away from the boy she scrambled to her feet and ran the other direction, forgetting wonder girl, forgetting everything and just running as fast as her legs would go. Flee!

Rei watched as the Second Child ran back the way they had come, she could really be fast when she needed to be. A small quite part of her mind told her to follow her, but for some reason she didn’t. Instead she turned back to look at the boy who was now looking at her out of the corner of his eye. His eyes widened and, with a blush, he looked away once more.

Again not knowing what to do she simply stood there, he brain working out all the possible things she could do in this situation. Top of the list was to follow the Second Child and contact the commander. However, before she decided to actually do this, the boy began to inch towards her, like he did last time, only slower than before, his head lowered in defeat and averting his eyes from hers, only glancing forwards to make sure she was still there before looking to the side again.

For some reason, she didn’t move. She didn’t know why but she no longer felt that the boy was a threat; in fact she didn’t think she ever did. What she felt back in the locker room was felt for the men who the boy had killed and how it had been done, she didn’t think it was for the boy himself. Maybe it was because the black markings had vanished or maybe it was his sad crystal blue eyes but she felt…pity for him? Was that what she felt?

She was brought out of her musings by the feeling of something soft, warm and sticky rubbing against her left leg. Looking down she saw the boy tentatively rubbing his blood covered cheek into her leg and, she was fairly certain, purring at the same time. Still unsure on what to do she just looked down at him as he looked up at her with puppy dog eyes? Was that the right phrase?

As he looked at her he properly examined her body, scanning her face, torso, arms then finally her legs. With a look of confusion on his face he looked down, scanning his own body, then hers again, then his one last time. As he gazed avidly at his flexing right hand a look of dawning understanding spread across his face.

Quickly looking up at her face with another smile on his childish face, he looked down at his legs and then, slowly and uncertainly, straightened them. As his legs nearly buckled under the affects of the new posture, though he managed to straighten up somewhat, though he still remained lightly bent over to try and seem non-threatening or to compensate for the new centre of gravity.

Uneasy on shaky legs he glanced up into her red eyes, a pleading look in their depths. What did he want form her, she thought as she looked down at him? However, before she could decide anything a loud familiar call from behind her got her full attention. Turning slowly she saw Commander Ikari, along with fifty well armed and armoured men, standing in the large bulkhead looking at her with anger in his eyes.

No sooner had Gendo arrived in the command room than he heard the words he was both dreading and hoping to hear.

“AT-Field detected!”

“Where?” was his sharp question to the female tech, Maya Ibuki was it?

“Its coming from inside NERV sir, from the female pilots changing rooms? It’s small but powerful.” Said the male tech with the thick glasses.

“An Angel?”

“No Sir, pattern is white, it’s that thing from before.” Finished the long haired one.

“Bring it up on the monitors.”

“Sir, that’s…” protested the female tech, blushing lightly.

“The privacy of the pilots is not my concern lieutenant; show me the source of the AT-Field.” Said Gendo, cold and commanding as ever.

As the hidden cameras in the locker room came to life, most people screamed and more than one became reunited with their lunches. The boy, now looking more like a tiger than anything, was ripping his men to pieces. Body parts and internal organs flew everywhere, screams of sheer pain and fear came through the audio and as some men managed to fire their weapons Gendo’s eyes widened at what he saw.

“It has an AT-Field. It is an Angel, how is that possible?” he thought to himself

Gendo said nothing as the last man fell to the ground dead. The boy then mounted the pile and began to mutilated and devour the remains of the men. More people were sick down below and he even heard his former teacher blanch as he came up the lift behind him. Then he felt a tingle rise up his spin as he saw Rei approach the corner leading to the showers.

He watched as the boy flung a severed arm down the hallway towards her as he feverishly ate his men. She looked around the corner and saw what was at its end, and then the Second Child approached her from behind. As she looked around the corner she screamed grabbing Rei and fleeing the locker room.

As she screamed the boys head shot up and then, after a blinding flash of light came from his chest, he scrambled down the hallway after them, slipping on the blood sodden tiles as he rounded the corner. Getting to his feet he ordered Fuyutsuki to track the boy and female pilots and to relay their location directly to him.

“Where are you going?”

“Hunting.” Said the commander cryptically, he must have that boy.

He had finally caught them not far from the locker room. The Second Child was nowhere to be seen, but Rei and the boy were right before him. The boy, who had been standing on shaky legs, dropped into a crouch and hid behind Reis legs. He looked around them at him with total fear in his eyes, good the boy rightly feared him.

“Rei, come here.”

“Yes.” Came her quite reply as she moved towards him.

No, no she was going away again…why? Why was she leaving, why was she going to that monster…why was she going to that thing that filled him with fear? As her warmth left him the boy started to quiver in fear, which tripled when a load noise behind him told him that more of those shadow things were behind him. No, No, NO!

He lunged forwards and desperately grabbed her hand. He clung to it for dear life, terror of the living blackness closing in on him from all side, with his tear filled eyes screwed shut. Curling into the warmth of her legs he huddled there; silently pleading, hoping that this time she would not leave him that she would stay and protect him like she always used to.

Rei stopped suddenly at the tightness around her right hand and the sudden presence by her legs. Looking down she saw the boy, violently trembling, as he pressed himself into the back of her leg. As she looked at him she began to feel something build within her, a warm fuzzy sensation in the pit of her stomach. She had never felt anything like it before and wondered dimly whether it was some new emotion. Then, in a flash of sensations, something inside her mind quietly click itself on.

“No.”

“What?” came the slightly confused question from the commander.

“I will stay with him.”

“Rei, Come Here,” he repeated more forcefully, no she could not be refusing his order, she couldn’t.

“No, I will stay with him.” she simply repeated as she stood as still as a statue, looking at him with her ever blank face.

“You would refuse my order?” he asked with venom in his voice.

“No, I am following your orders. You ordered that the intruder be captured; I have captured him and I shall remain with him until he is secured.”

The commander looked murderous, but he realized that it was futile, his orders had been followed and the boy was captured. However, it worried him that the First Child had formed some kind of attachment with the boy who had dismembered 20 of his best men and even more so that she had flagrantly disobeyed a direct order.

Deciding to come up with a fitting punishment for her later he ordered that she follow him then tuned and walked away, heading to one of the holding cells a few levels down, fully intent on questioning the boy.