From: Hotwire Subject: [Eva][FanFic] Together We Stand: Prologue Chain Lightning Studios Presents Together We Stand By T. L. Webb Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all Together we stand, divided we fall Hey you Pink Floyd, The Wall []=======================[] Prologue []=======================[] Hikari Horaki walked into the classroom and sighed; Rei Ayanami had beaten her to school again. If she didn't have to walk her younger sister to class she suspected that she might be able to actually arrive before the strange pale girl for once. It wasn't really that big a deal-- it was more of a game she played to amuse herself. The only reason that she didn't worry about Ayanami's uncanny punctuality overlapping her own was the fact that half of the time the girl didn't even show up in the first place. This was actually the first time in almost three weeks that she had been in class at all. When she did bother to show up however, it seemed she arrived the moment the gates were unlocked. As Hikari walked closer she let out a small gasp; Ayanami's arms and head were wrapped in bandages, in addition her right arm hung limply in a sling. She wondered if the girl had been injured in the Robot incident. It had been the talk of the school-- actually it had been the talk of the world. Less than a week before, a giant monster had come out of nowhere and started wrecking the city. Hikari and her sisters had missed seeing it, having been evacuated to the shelters immediately after the first alert. There had, however, been a few people who had either been too slow or had stayed out to see what was going on. From their accounts- it had been hundreds of feet tall and had taken everything the UN had been able to throw at it without a scratch. As it had resumed its attack on the city after the UN's last attack, a huge robot had risen from the ground and the two had fought. The monster had been destroyed and the next day the news was reporting that Nerv had created the robot. She and her sisters had badgered her dad for days after that for him to tell them more. Unfortunately his office was only related to what he called project E indirectly, and he knew little. Nerv employed most of the city, and she was surprised that no one had ever heard of the huge machine before then. Where in the world could they hide something like that? Hikari shook all that from her mind. The issue was Rei and how she had gotten hurt, not the dumb mech. She was starting to sound like Kensuke. "Rei? Are you ok? What happened?" she asked with concern as she stepped closer. Ayanami turned and fixed Hikari with her uninjured eye, but said nothing. 'I'll never get used to those red eyes' Hikari thought as Ayanami's gaze froze her in place. They were almost hypnotic. Rei rarely focused on anything other than the view from the window, but when she did; the intensity she radiated was overwhelming. Because of this few ever mustered up the courage to speak to her. Shaking off her unease she repeated herself; hoping that Rei would actually say something. "Are you alright?" She asked. "I am not in pain," Rei replied in that calm, soft voice that creeped out most of the student body, "There is no need for concern Representative Horaki." "We-well that's good, I-I'm glad you're alright." Hikari said, trying to keep from flinching under Rei's stare. To her relief Rei turned back to the window and resumed whatever meditations she had been involved in before. She wanted to be nicer to Rei, but he girl was so... strange, and it wasn't just the albinism. Rei had an air about her that disturbed Hikari, something that was just beyond her ability to describe accurately. It was almost as if Rei had no drive in life, nothing to work for. Ever since Hikari had known the girl, she seemed to just go through the motions of living without taking part. Making a mental note to try to speak with her more often, Hikari went to her desk to check her messages. As class representative it was her responsibility to keep herself updated on all new information concerning school events. Plugging in her laptop and entering her password, she brought up the menu. Sure enough the faculty had sent her a set of data concerning a new student. This was a bit surprising. Since the Robot incident many of her fellow students had left Tokyo Three, having been moved out by their parents. A person actually moving _into_ such a dangerous city was a bit unusual. Looking over the information she found the boy's name and picture. Shinji Ikari, age 14. He had apparently been living with his uncle for most of his life and had been tutored privately for the last couple of years. She hoped he was up to date on his studies, her schedule for study aid was already chock full. Scanning quickly over the rest she was struck by how empty the file was. No sports, no clubs, no extracurricular activities at all from his older class records, save that he apparently played the cello. She took a moment to look at his picture again. He was slender and apparently well groomed-- that would be a nice switch from some of the slobs in class, but it was the boy's eyes that caught her attention. He seemed... sad. Well it was just a school file photo; it wasn't like a person's whole life was in there. Making a mental note to welcome him, she finished up her paper work and waited for the rest of the class to arrive. []====[] []====[] "Welcome to our school Mr. Ikari. I am the class representative Hikari Horaki," she said, greeting the young man as he walked in. He looked just as he had in his photograph, brown hair and deep blue eyes, but as she had expected the photo hadn't conveyed anything about him. The sound of her voice had surprised him and he had jumped slightly. Once he realized what she had said however he reverted to the distant look he'd carried with him as he had entered. "T-thank you... which is my seat?" he asked in a quiet, shy voice. As she led him to his assigned place, she handed him the bootup disk for his assigned laptop. "This contains a quick tutorial on the operating system, a list of the school rules, regulations for private messages, and a few other important bits of information," She told him, "our classroom is connected to the internet, but access is limited during most of the day. Private messages are permitted, but interrupting the class can result in loss of privileges." Shinji listened to this and nodded, and Hikari got the impression he was a bit uncomfortable. This was not too surprising; being new at a school could do that to someone. He thanked her again before sitting down and pulling out earplugs and turning on a SDAT player. "Great... another Rei." She muttered under her breath-- social interaction did not seem to be one of Shinji's greater talents. She admonished herself immediately; it wasn't nice or fair to make snap judgments like that. As she greeted the other arriving students, she took a look back at him and decided she had been wrong about his photo. The look in his eyes wasn't that of sadness. It was more as if he were haunted by something. []====[] []====[] "Hey class rep!" Hikari rolled her eyes. Kensuke Aida was a nice enough guy; she had known him and his best friend Touji Suzuhara since first grade, but when he went into military mode he became a world class pain in the neck. Ever since the Robot incident he had insisted on reminding everyone of this fact... in spades. "What is it Aida?" She asked, letting her voice betray her annoyance. She didn't like being disturbed during lunch in the first place, it was one of the few times during the school day she could actually relax. The twinkle in Kensuke's eyes was enough to convince her that whatever he wanted it had to do with either Nerv or the Giant Robot. "I need to ask you something about the new guy." "You mean the transfer student, Shinji Ikari?" "Yeah, not that there are any other new guys, but can you show me his school file?" Hikari's eyes narrowed. It wasn't technically against the rules, but it still wasn't proper to ask for such things. "Why do you want to see his file Kensuke?" "I wanna test a theory." "I'm not going to play games Aida, tell me or leave me alone so I can eat my lunch." "Okay, okay, I think the new kid works for Nerv." Hikari mentally rolled her eyes. It figured. "What makes you think that?" she asked "Have you seen those guys in black suits wandering the perimeter of the school all year? "Yeah... what about them?" "Well as of today there are twice as many of them. The only change in the past couple of days is the new kid." "So what does his file got to do with that? It's just school notes and other boring stuff." "Don't you know anything about espionage?" "No Kensuke, but then again I have things in my life other than military and anime." "Cheep shot, but I'll let it slide. Show me his file and I'll explain my theory." "If it will get you to leave me to my lunch," She said as she pulled her laptop out from the desk and booted it up. "Okay Kensuke, here's his file... now what's so special about it?" "Look there!" Kensuke said excitedly, pointing at the screen. "What?" "The gaps in the history!" "Kensuke Aida, if you don't start making sense..." "They erased some of his school history! And look here, there's no parents listed other than a guardian." "And this proves what, exactly? He had a private tutor for a couple of years. That doesn't mean anything" "Well of course it means nothing by itself, but when you take the pieces and put them together..." "Go away and let me eat in peace Kensuke," Hikari said in a strained voice. "Okay, but mark my words, there's something weird going on with this guy." "Kensuke!" She growled. "Alright, alright," Kensuke said as he ducked out the door. Hikari let out a sigh as she turned back to her lunch. Kensuke's imagination was going to get him in trouble of him one day. []====[] []====[] She couldn't say that she was surprised. By the time she made back from the equipment room, the locker room gossip mill was already in full swing. Every singly girl in class seemed to have a theory about the transfer student, and they each apparently felt the world would end if she didn't share it with everyone else. "Well I heard he came here because he got in trouble with the law." "No, Kensuke says he works for Nerv!" "Oh as if! What would they want with a scrawny wimp like him? Did you see how slow he was on the track?" "Oh please, I think he's a cutie." "I bet he had to leave a girlfriend behind and that's why he's so quiet." "Ooh, think he needs help healing his wounded heart?" Hikari rolled her eyes. This would keep up for at most a week, then the girls would promptly forget about it when something new happened. They would joke, giggle, and dare each other to ask him out-- but that's about as far as it would go. It was about the only predictable thing left in Tokyo 3. 'At least its not a new girl' she thought, 'I've had to break Aida and Suzuhara's little photo racket up twice this year already.' []====[] []====[] The final bell rang and she yelled out her instructions to the class. Yelling was the only way that she could get their attention some days. The teacher walked out and the rest of the class began gathering their things. Rei was gone before Hikari could say anything; she would have to talk with the girl some other time. It had been a long day, mostly due to the fact that the teacher insisted on going over the same material every day during the final hour. By now the entire class could probably quote it line for line. It was about the only reason she didn't crack down on the private messages in the classroom chatsite. 'Let no one ever say that the reign of Hikari Horaki was not a tolerant one,' she thought with a grin. She would get out of her older sister's shadow yet! As she finished packing her things and walked out the door, she wondered just how much easier it would be if her Kodama hadn't been such a terror in the classroom. She had learned the hard way that following such an act was not the easiest job in the world. Fortunately over the course of the year she seemed to have finally been accepted in the position and the grumbles had faded to almost nothing. Stepping out of the front doors of the school and into the daylight she saw the new student standing across the street looking out at the city. In the distance the buildings were lowering into the underground shafts that protected them during attack. She had forgotten that there was a scheduled evacuation drill in the main block, theirs would most likely be in a week or two. She had only seen the spectacle a couple of times since the final construction, so she stepped across the street to watch it as well. When she made it to the rail where Shinji stood, she saw that he was shaking. His hands gripped the railing so tightly that she could hear his knuckles pop. Concerned for the boy, she tapped him lightly on the shoulder and asked if he was all right. He jumped back from her touch and for a moment she actually thought he was going to run away. When he realized who it was he seemed to deflate as he let out a sigh of relief. Even so, she could clearly see that whatever was bothering him ran deep, he seemed to still be looking for a way to leave quickly. "I-I'm... okay, thank you. Sorry if I startled you Miss... Horaki?" "That's me," she acknowledged with a smile, "and it's alright. _I_ should be the one apologizing. I mean-- I'm the one who snuck up on you. Are you sure you're okay?" "Yes... I--I just have a lot on my mind right now... I should go, sorry to trouble you." He told her as he headed off down the road. "What a strange boy" she said to herself as she headed home. []====[] []====[] That night, as she got ready for bed, Hikari found herself thinking about the new student. He seemed so distant from everyone around him. He hadn't spoken to anyone the entire day beyond the initial greetings he got. She wondered if it was because he was just shy or if he was simply unfriendly. He didn't seem mean or rude, just self contained. Kensuke was convinced the guy was the Robot's pilot now, but how he came to that conclusion was beyond her. Then again she had never claimed to understand Kensuke in the first place. She hoped Touji was ok. For all his antics with Kensuke he was a nice enough guy, and one of her best friends. She was more than a bit worried; he hadn't been back at school since the incident. The news reports said no one had been injured, but after she had seen Rei... she wasn't as sure. A she finished dressing for bed and turned out the light, she wondered if Kensuke was right... if the new kid was in fact the pilot then he was a hero, he had fought to save all their lives. But if that was true it didn't match the boy's attitude. He didn't seem like the type of person a military organization would hire. He seemed so... lost. She didn't even know why she was thinking about this, it was just distracting her from her job as class rep and her schoolwork. But even as she tried to wipe all such thoughts from her mind, even as she drifted off to sleep, she kept seeing Shinji Ikari's wounded eyes and wondering what had happened to cause such pain. []====================[] To be Continued... []====================[] Authors incoherent babbling: Wow this might be the shortest thing I've written ^_^, but on the other hand; it marks the beginning of a story. The idea exploded in my head (yuk) when I was reading the `In Other Words' message board and someone asked why there weren't more Shinji/Hikari fics out there. "Well" I said, "that's a darn good question." Being the only marginally sane person in the cast of Evangelion, (not counting the bridge bunnies) Hikari is an oasis of peace in the desert of angst that composes Eva's later chapters. Keep this in mind as you read the fic: A smart fella once said "the future is not set, there is no fate but what we make." And indeed the future is in constant flux. The choices each and every person makes every moment of their lives have small, sometimes immeasurable effects one the lives of others. Sometimes the smallest choices can have the largest effects, altering entire destinies. In short it's the butterfly effect. Touji/Hikari fans may hate me for this. Rei/Shinji fans will probably hate me for this. Asuka/Shinji fans will most likely be shouting for my head on a pike by the end. The rest of you, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride Hotwire Chain Lightning Studios http://hotwire182.freeyellow.com/chainlightning.html