Evangelion Fan Fiction

The Once and Future Angel of Humanity

By Kraven Ergeist

Disclaimer: You know I don't own Evangelion. I know I don't own Evangelion. Gainax sure as hell knows I don't own Evangelion. There, it's settled: I don't own Evangelion. Let's move onto bigger things, shall we?

Note: I'm not going to post any further disclaimers or author's notes, until maybe the last chapter. Never liked them.

Prologue

Misato wouldn't have allowed it. Dr. Akagi wouldn't have allowed it. Certainly, his father wouldn't have allowed it. And Asuka? She would just frown at him. She did that a lot these days.

Shinji was beyond caring. The first time he had been forced to watch one of his friends be taken to within an inch from their life, it had crippled him beyond repair. The second time, it had changed him forever.

He might have felt the changes come; might have acknowledged the occurrence had it made itself more evident. But sitting there, staring at Rei's lifeless form in the hospital bed, he could think of nothing else. Not Misato and her hysterics; not Asuka and her unusually cold demeanor; not even the pain caused to him by Eva and his father; he felt nothing.

He regarded the pale-faced girl lying still before him. Soryu would argue that she was cold and emotionless; that she was just a mannequin controlled by the commander. While it was true she had not exhibited much in the way of tender loving care, she had not totally excluded him the way Soryu did. Though, granted, she made the occasional disappearing act from time to time. Still, she had never snapped at him the way Asuka did. Rei never did anything with the intention of hurting others.

Then again, she never did anything with the intention of helping herself either.

Shinji took her hand, cold in his grip, like it belonged to some long dead thing. She didn't deserve this. She shouldn't have to be put in this kind of situation.

He could see it clearly in his head: Rei, her Eva corrupted by the Angel, making the decision to sacrifice herself so that he may live.

Shinji had refused to think her dead. Flat out refused. He had never left NERV HQ since it happened. He kept pressing the issue, asking, wondering if she was all right. He must have searched every room in the hospital until he found her, miraculously, bandaged and broken, reminiscent, he realized, of their first encounter at NERV.

He felt his blood boil. He couldn't bear to see this. How she had so willingly thrown her life away. How a single order from the commander had caused this girl such pain…

And then it happened.

He didn't notice it at first, couldn't stop it. But something snapped. He felt the Earth shake, so slightly, it would pass as a tremor, but the furnishings began to vibrate and hum.

Shinji suddenly felt aware of everything around him. It was like he could see in all directions at once. But it was more than that; Shinji could sense everything that was happening around him: doctors and nurses walking outside the room, the mechanisms and machinery in the facility, staff walking in and out of facilities – all of NERV, he realized, as he suddenly felt the presence of the Eva's and the giant angel that hung at the base of the facility.

Then he heard a ripping sound, the sound that cloth makes when it's torn apart by an outstanding force. At the same time, a sharp pain stung him in his back, between his shoulder blades.

Before he could cry out in pain, it was over. His shirt, he soon realized, had been torn apart from the back. He turned around to inspect what had happened, and froze.

Right where the pain had struck him directly between his shoulder blades was a pair of pure white wings.

The wings of an angel.