Title: The Children In Middle Earth
Author: Knife Hand
Feedback: Constructive feedback appreciated, flames unappreciated
Spoilers: Spoilers up till the eleventh Angel in Eva, no event spoilers for LotR.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of The Rings or Neon Genesis Evangelion. I would buy them but I am broke.
Summary: The Eva pilots are transported into the world of Middle Earth and are looking for a way home, but some things have changed. (Completely Rewritten.)
AN: Just to clarify in this I am ignoring the whole 'Rei is a clone' thing. She is the original and she bears no relation to Shinji whatsoever.
AN2: Another clarification, the events in this story occur between the great birthday party of Bilbo and Frodo and the beginning of the actual quest, when Frodo leaves the Shire, as described in The Fellowship of the Ring book, a period of 17 years. The Children arrive in ME three years after the party.
"What the hell is this test for, anyway?" Asuka demanded.
The late afternoon sun slanted and filtered through the semi irregular obstacles provided by the buildings of Tokyo 3, intermittently shining on the three Evangelion pilots, as if to mock the dark and brewing storm clouds directly overhead. Mindless of the threatening deluge, the Children casually walked along the street, a brisk wind with the chill of the mountain storm providing a bite grabbed at their school uniforms briefly, making Asuka and Rei's skirts dance for a moment, before it sped on its way. Their destination was a nearby NERV entranceway, heading for the test that had inspired the Second Child's ire.
"Dr. Akagi said that the test was designed to monitor the harmonics directly from our bodies, without the distortion effect inherent in the Plugsuits." Rei's quite monotone responded.
"NAKED?" Asuka screamed strait into Shinji's ear, who had the misfortune to be located between Asuka and Rei.
The silence that descended after Asuka's outburst lasted several minutes, until the trio rounded a corned and were momentarily blinded as the harsh sunlight hit them full in the eyes. Just as their eyes began to clear, pure pain hit their systems. It was like a thousand lightning bolts striking every inch of their skin a hundred times a second, like pure acid rushing through their veins burning everything it touched. Shinji dropped unceremoniously to his knees, vomiting in pain. A small portion of his mind was vaguely aware of Rei losing consciousness on one side and Asuka's face tight with effort and pain, her knuckles white as she gripped her head in her hands and her body bent double. Then the world spun into blissful, painless darkness.
Pain was the first thing he felt. Or, more accurately, the memory of pain. The next thing Shinji noticed was silence, gone were all the familiar sounds of a living, bustling city; there were no cars, no ambient noise from TV's, Radio's or the plethora of other electrical appliances. Most notable was the absence of the loud, rasping snore of Misato sleeping off too many beers on her futon, heard through the not quite paper thin walls. Instead he head the trilling song of birds, the soft seemingly content sigh of leaves caressed by a gentle wind and the rhythmic, yet soft, breathing of at least two other people. Off to his left was the steadily random gurgle of a small stream.
His eyes opened slowly to reveal a sky awash with a hundred mixed shades of blue, orange and red, the uniquely beautiful sky of predawn in an un-urbanised area, instantly rating as one of the most breathtakingly stunning sights of his life. Off to the left, cutting through the edge of the clearing furthest from the road, was the small, sparklingly clear stream, split near the middle by a small waterfall barely a foot high. The road was obviously the main reason that the clearing had long been used as a campsite, if the amount of soot lining the fire site, the now cold ashes resting on a large stone that had taken to a bowl shape by centuries of wreathing and use for cook fires, was any indication. A stirring from the figure on his right brought his attention to his two companions.
Shinji mentally judged the two women, both unfamiliar yet he had a strong feeling of familiarity, to be in their late twenties, the number twenty-eight inexplicably popping into his mind. The woman to his left held a delicate beauty to her, an almost ethereal quality, yet with a subtle strength to her frame that shattered the illusion of fragility that would otherwise been created. Sleeping in a sturdy cotton blouse, leather leggings and heavy travel boots, she was using a padded leather tunic as a pillow. Her shoulder length hair was held out of her eyes by a thin, braided leather cord. Her right hand clenched reflexively around the hilt of a dagger, with a blade almost two feet long. Beside her lay a pack, with a shoulder harness resting on top, which contained another dagger, identical to the one in her hand, and a quiver, two thirds empty. The end of an unstrung longbow poked out of the pack.
The woman on his right could only be described as stunning, yet it was the beauty of a well fed, well trained athlete in their peak rather than that of an anorexic 'Supermodel'. A foot taller and fuller figured than the other woman, there was little excess fat on her; instead there were a lot of whipcord muscles, evidenced by the taught abdomen showing through where her cotton blouse had inadvertently ridden up from her leather leggings during her sleep. She was more tanned than the first woman, and, after a quick glance at his arms, himself, which gave the impression of a rugged and outdoor kind of strength. Her hair, flowing to the middle of her back, was kept in a slightly loose ponytail. With another blouse as a pillow, she turned over in her sleep, her boots scraping in the dirt and her hand gripping a sheathed, one-handed broadsword. A worn and slightly dented and splintered round shield lay on her pack, along with a decent but battered breastplate. There was no bow visible in her kit.
He knew them without ever having met them, but after a minute he realised that he really did know them. The defining characteristic that sparked his realisation was their hair. The woman on the left had hair that was the richly pail blue of a thick ice covering over flowing water, while the woman on the right had vivid red hair the colour of a sunset after a volcanic eruption. As impossible as it seemed, these women were his fellow pilots.
Shinji tried to think back on what had happened and he remembered the walk and then passing out. However, when he tried to think back further, his head began to ache and confusing memories came forward. Lost in contradictory memories, he failed to notice his companions awake.
Rei awoke from slumber and opened her eyes. She acknowledged the residual pain sense and then immediately ignored it, just as she had been trained to do. Her eyes scanned the immediate vicinity, seeing what Shinji had seen only a few moments earlier. She noted that her female companion, who she accurately assumed was the Second Child, was also just awakening, however the male, Ikari, was already awake and seemingly deep in thought. Ignoring the Second Child for the moment, Rei turned her full attention to Ikari, the boy who inexplicably seemed to be concerned for her welfare without a reason.
He was no longer a boy, instead he appeared to be in his late twenties, her instant guess at his age being twenty-eight. His body was lean, his muscles wiry and flexible. His leather pants and his cotton shirt were crumpled from being slept in for too long. The leather coat was undone and hung open down the front, revealing the crumpled shit beneath, stretching slightly over his hunched shoulders. His solid, cured leather boots scuffed the dirt and his hand came up to rub his temple. His hair had grown at the back, reaching down over the back of his neck, but was kept just long enough at the front to barely cover his brilliant blue eyes when he lowered his head. Very short stubble covered his jaw line, short enough to indicate that he shaved daily. His right hand clutched unconsciously at a sheathed dagger resting in his lap. Beside him lay a pack, a belt lay bundled atop the pack with a quiver, containing a mere three arrows, and a sheathed Katana, the belt itself being used to secure the bundle. Beside the belt was a long, thin canvas wrapped bundle, which she knew, without knowing how, contained a longbow. With a confused frown on his face, he was so deep in thought that he did not notice Rei or Asuka's awakenings, until…
"If this is a joke, I'm going to kill someone." Asuka said grumpily.
Both Shinji and Rei's heads whipped around to stare at Asuka. Not because of what she had said, which was typical Asuka, but because of the words she had spoken. They were not Japanese, and Rei had heard Asuka curse enough in English and German to know that is was not one of those languages. It was a language that they were completely unfamiliar with and yet somehow could easily speak and understand.
"Interesting." Rei commented, making a conscious effort to speak Japanese.
Luckily it worked, and the word came out in her native language. Having established that they could still speak Japanese, relief spread through the three pilots.
"Right, now all we have to figure out is where we are, and what happened to us." Shinji said, starting out in Japanese but switching to the strange language half way through.
Rei was about to suggest searching through their belongings when a new voice interrupted her from the edge of the clearing.
"Hello the camp."
TBC…