Battlestar Evangelion:

Chapter three teaser… Just to show that this isn’t dead, and I’m still working on it. Trying to keep the quality of the first 2 though, is difficult at best, and beginning to feel downright impossible.

Battlestar Galactica and Neon Genesis Evangelion are copyrighted works.
Other stuff might be mentioned that’s copyrighted.
I don’t own anything.
It’s just a bit of fun anyway.

I………………………………………………………………..I

“Evacuate to main shelter areas,” A digital voice announced in flat, inhuman tones. “Women and children priority on Decks B, C, F and G.”

Shinji stood unnoticed, pressed against some cold steel bulkhead, hidden from the human torrent of technicians and families pushing their way past him. He glanced around rapidly, confused and wondering just where he was.

Those same grey corridors as the Pacifica, but covered in the grit and grime of years of hard labour. It stained the very air he breathed, that sulphurous odour of unrefined algae mixed with sweat, the kind that you didn’t so much smell, as feel on the back of ones throat.

It seemed as if a great fog clouded his mind, Shinji’s perspective limited to the world in front of his eyes.

“Hey!” he barked, trying to get someone’s attention. “Hey there!”

The human torrent just rushed past, ignoring the short, white shirted boy.

Opposite him, stencilled roughly on the wall in red paint was:

G-DECK SECTION 24

Although, to him, that could’ve have been in Netzachian for all he understood of it. It told him nothing but the name of where we was.

“Move on kids,” An old woman said. “Hurry to the shelter.”

She looked to Shinji as if she could’ve been anybody’s grandmother, a caring and gentle old lady, the kind that on the old worlds would make warm pies and biscuits for her grandchildren on winter’s days. Now, she was a school teacher and guardian for a gaggle of toddlers, guiding them through the tidal rush of ratings and technicians.

“Hey!” a tiny voice announced

A single girl strayed from the flock, pushing herself against some porthole, staring into space.

“It’s all sparkly outside.” She said, voice stained with a child’s wonder and amazement.

“Come on Kara.” The elderly shepherdess said, grabbing the girls arm. “We have to get to the shelter”

To Shinji, there was something deathly familiar about this name. Like a maggot to a fish, it hooked his attention and reeled him in. His gaze locked onto the little girl, her short, dark hair, brown eyes and light blue dress seeming perfectly innocent. Her eyes glistened as she pressed herself against the quartz glass.

“Come here!” the old lady barked, tugging the child almost off her feet.

For a moment, though, she glanced through the porthole. Shinji saw her face turn as white with fear, a shadow falling across her body. The woman just froze, staring in horror as the child looked up at her, not knowing why her teacher had suddenly stopped pulling her. For maybe a fraction of a second, Shinji wondered what she could have seen to elicit such a reaction. A suicidal curiosity demanded he run to the porthole to see it for himself.

For some reason, it didn’t matter one jot to him that it had terrified the old woman, he just new he had to see it with his own two eyes. Yet still, he felt himself rooted to the spot, his feet planted into the deckplates, his body rigid.

He was forced to just watch as the woman threw herself on the child, covering the small girl with her body as best she could.

Fractions of a second later, the world around him shattered into a hundred million burning shards of red steel, heavyweight girders smashed and torn like twigs with a scream of tortured, tearing metal as the corridor collapsed around him.

A blast furnace of burning hot air followed, rushing up the ruined passageway to meet him, the very air he was breathing feeling as if it was on fire. He could feel flames licking up his legs, lapping gleefully at his arms.

But no pain.

He was still just standing there, like a camera watching the scene unfold.

“Mommy!” A small voice shrieked above roar of flame. ”It’s it hot!”

The girls voice! Shinji recognised it immediately.

“Oh Gods!” Another voice, stained with burning agony. “Somebody get us out of here!”

He wanted to move, he wanted to run over and trip the fire suppression systems. He wanted to run away and get as far as possible from this place. Shinji wanted to do something, but he was still held rigid in place.

“Are you going to help them Shinji?”

That husky voice, his fathers voice, it sent chills down Shinji’s spine. The man himself stood, staring at Shinji, orange flames rising around him, flashing menacingly from his glasses. For all the worlds, it seemed to Shinji as if the old man could be one of the Barons of Hell.

“Father,” Shinji mouthed.

“Are you just going to stand there and let them die,” The elder Ikari said. “It will be your fault Shinji. If they are harmed it will be because you refused to protect them.”

‘The Eva!’ Shinji realised, the memory smashing into his consciousness like a brick.

“I fought,” he stuttered, crumbling beneath the weight of the commander towering over him. “I did what you said. I piloted that thing.”

“And yet, people were still hurt. Innocent children, Shinji, were injured because of your actions.”

“It’s not my fault,” The boy whined, almost pitifully. “I only did what I was told to do.”

He had to find some way to escape from the torments of the old man

“As did the New Keter Police,” The elder Ikari crushed his son down into the deckplates. “Only you are responsible for your actions, only you are responsible for the consequences.”

“But…” Shinji stammered. “It’s not…” he struggled for words. “It can’t be.”

“And yet, even now, you allow others to be harmed.”

Pained cries for help rose above the hot roar of flame, piercing almost to the very core of his mind. Each one was a needle of anguish and guilt driving itself into his skull. Screams of pain, or pleading cries for help, he couldn’t tell, but they were calling his name.

“Shinji!”

“They're calling for you,” said Gendou. “They're calling for you're help, yet you stand still and leave them to die.”

Words that stabbed at Shinji's soul, the boy quivering as he struggled to look up at the skyscraper of a man before him

“Shinji!” The scream rose above the roar.

The boy himself was shivering, panting now, staring at the dancing golden flames, casting mesmerising, flickering shadows along the deckplates. He forced himself to watch them, to keep his eyes away from the terrifying visage of his father.

'Don't run away,' Shinji's mind implored him, his legs however suggesting a different course of action. 'Just don't run away. Just don't run away, Just don’t run away.’

“Yes,” Gendou spoke again. “Stay right where you are and do nothing. You don’t even have the will to save yourself. How pathetic”

Those two

“I can’t move!” Shinji screamed, desperate to end the verbal torture, gripping his legs, trying to uproot himself from the steel deck that held him.

“You won’t let yourself.”

“Emergency Evacuation Sections 19 through 24, Decks E through G.” The tannoy system announced. in crackling tones. “Fire Decompression in thirty seconds…Repeat em…”

The speaker whined like a dying animal, then cut off, its cables burning through and shorting themselves out.

“Time is the fire in which each of us burn.” The elder Ikari said. “Is there anything you can do in thirty seconds?”

Shinji swallowed a breath of incongruously cool air, focusing himself on the deckplates, buckling and warping beneath his feet. They were probably dead already, burned in the fire. And know he was going to die too, blasted out into space. Glowing white fixtures showered around him, molten plastics falling in a burning waterfall from overhead vents. Thick, choking black smoke followed, wrapping the boy in its darkening embrace, his world washing down to a dull whirlpool of orange and grey.

And still, that same piercing, agonised cry rose above it

“Shinji!”

Tears flowed freely, whether from the smoke or otherwise Shinji didn’t know. Again, he strained himself to move. Still, his feet were fused to the deckplates. His mind screamed at him to run, his conscience screaming at him to just try and help.

Don’t run away.

“Twenty seconds, Shinji. Goodbye, and perhaps, good riddance.” The Commander smirked. “But, I will stay with you until the end.”

“Shinji!”

The blue eyed boy screamed, two conflicting demands warring in his mind, the battle an entrenched stalemate, holding him fast to the ground.

“Shinji!”

“Ten Seconds,”

Get me out of here. Go away, leave me alone.

“Nine…”

And still the child’s cry,“Shinji!”

Why did you do this to me?

“You did it to yourself… Eight.”

But why? Why do I deserve this?

“Answer it yourself….Seven.”

“Shinji!”

But I don’t fracking know why?!

“Then you will burn here….Six.”

An agonising cry escaped the boy’s lips as he felt the flames begin to nibble gleefully at his legs, his clothes melting and charring onto his skin. “Stop it, Please stop!” he screamed

“Shinji,” The child cried again.

“Only you can stop it….Five.”

It’s not my Fault! It can’t be.

“Protecting them was your responsibility…Four.”

And I did, I piloted that thing, I did what you told me.

“And look what happened…Three.”

“Shinji,” The cry came again, the voice mellowing somewhat, taking a softer, more comfortable edge

I didn’t even know how to Pilot it you old bastard!

Are you just going to stand there and let them die. It will be your fault Shinji. If they are harmed it will be because you refused to protect them.

“It’s…It’s…” Shinji coughed, fighting the words back.

“Pathetic…Two.”

“Shinji.” The voice spoke now with a soft, dream like quality, a siren call that seemed to try and drag him away.

It’s my fault okay! Is that what you wanted to hear? I piloted that thing. I was the one who controlled it. People got hurt because of my actions. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry okay?

“Too late….One…”

Oh God, please don’t kill me. I said I was sorry. I’m sorry okay. Please! I don’t deserve this!

“Shinji….”

Misato? Misato’s voice?

“Zero,”

And then…

I………………………………………………………………..I

Concluded in the next exciting episode of Battlestar Evangelion

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I have maybe 2.5k words done for this chapter... but this is the only complete section available... There will be more...soon

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