Shinji meets man's ultimate fighting machine.

As Shinji's eyes adjust to the light and he takes a breath he looks on at the piecing yellow eyes staring back to him. All Shinji can say his mouth agape at what he saw before him "Its a face he says." It is purple and though it is made of metal the way the plates of the face curve looks somewhat organic. It bears a small horn like protrusion on its head and red streaks cross the sunken eye holes like scares. The yellow orbs that stare back at him sit deep inside the face of this metal monster, like lights down a tunnel Shinji utters"A giant robot?" Shinji fumbles through the folder that was given to him like there are answers he missed. Ritsuko speaks up as Shinji rummages the papers hopelessly looking for answers "You won't find this in there." Shinji looks back at her confused and says "What?" Ritsuko turns back at the face of the metal behemoth "This man's ultimate fighting machine, the synthetic lifeform known as Evangelion, Unit 1." Ritsuko pauses for a moment then continues "built here in secret, it is mankind's last hope." Shinji eases where he stands unable to understand why this is being shown to him he breaths in and asks,"Is this my father's work?" From above booming and echoing across the walls of the chamber comes a response "Correct!" Shinji's eyes snap upwards to a observation platform, there high above him silhouetted by harsh light stands his father.

The man known as Gendo Hikari looms above his son his face hard and unforgiving, no trace of anything but bitterness upon it. Even from the far distance Gendo's eyes pierce through Shinji's to his soul and he speaks again "Its been a while." The man named Gendo Hikari says no trace of warmth or love in the words. Shinji stands frozen in place at these words "father" the boy utters his eyes moving from his father's visage to the floor. From above Shinji hears from his father "we are moving out." Misato screams out "Moving out, but Unit 0 is still in cryostasis!" Misato's face twists into baffled astonishment "you are going to use Unit 1?" Ritsuko's cold emotionless response hangs in the air "there is no other way." Misato fires back "Rei can't do it yet can she!? We don't have a pilot!" Ritsuko responds back with the same tone a hint of tiredness in it now "We just received one." Misato speaks her voice flat and hard "You are serious?" Ritsuko then says her voice now slightly sweet "Shinji Ikari?" Her words not for Misato but Shinji himself his eyes snap to Ritsuko's, and she looks flatly into Shinji's face and says "You will pilot it." No fight in him Shinji simply looks back to the floor.

Misato speaks up "but Rei Ayanami took seven months to synchronize with her Eva? Its impossible for him to do it! He just got here!" Ritsuko responds back "He just has to sit in the seat, we don't expect more than that." Misato stammers "Um but." Ritsuko simply responds back business as business "listen defeating that angle is the ultimate priority, if we have someone who has a chance of synchronizing with a Eva then we got to risk it. You do understand that don't you Captain Katsuragi?" Misato at that falls silent for a while and then says "yes ma'am." Misato says back to Ritsuko her voice full of defeat and resignation.

Shinji looks back up at the silhouette of his father above him "Why did you send for me?" Gendo retorts back giving no empathy or give "You know why I sent for you." Shinji tenses up his weak small hands balling "so, you are asking me to take this thing, and go out there and fight?" Gendo simply responds to Shinji's question with a single word "Correct." Tears forming in his eyes Shinji shouts at his father "How could you do this to me!? I thought you didn't want me!? Why, why did you have to call me now father!?" Gendo responds simply once more "because I have a use for you." Shinji bows his head "but why, why me?" Gendo his voice flat and unforgiving "because there is no one else who can." Shinji shouts **** his voice cracking "No I can't! I have never even seen anything like this before, there is no way I can do this!" Gendo annoyed but composed says back "You will be instructed." Shinji desperation, misery, and confusion blurring into each other "but still!? There is no way, I can't pilot that thing!" Gendo responds as though Shinji's words didn't even register "If you are going to do it, do it now." His voice now leaking a hint of anger which makes Shinji freeze "If not then leave." Shinji's eyes glance around looking for support only now seeing its not just the four of them but dozens of staffers on scaffolding just out of his initial view looking on him with silent pity.

Just then the chamber rattles and shakes, and Gendo calmly looks up and says "It's close. It must sense us?" The quaking of the room grows harder, and Ritsuko speaks up her voice filled with urgency "Shinji we don't have much time." Shinji looks to Misato for support but she simply stands before him, her arms crossed and eyes hard. She says to the boy looking to her for help and with no remorse simply says "Get inside." Shinji stares at his worn dress shoes once more and says "This is all wrong, I came all this way. Why did I come!?" Misato leans down so Shinji cannot escape her gaze with the floor and says "Why Shinji? Why exactly did you come? You mustn't run away." Shinji snaps his eyes from hers and looks away yet she continues speaking "You must confront your father, and you must confront yourself. " Shinji looks back to his floor the gaze of Misato inescapable he blubbers "I know that but I just can't!"

Gendo shouts off to his side to someone Shinji can't see "Fuyutsuk! Wale up Rei." A muffled response comes back that Shinji barely can hear "Can we use her?" Gendo flatly responds "She is not dead yet." The unknown voice responds back "understood." Gendo looks back down his eyes boring through Shinji "Rei our spare is unusable, you will do it again." A tired and weak voice comes back weak as a paper in a breeze "Yes sir." Ritsuko glares at Shinji and sighs, annoyed she shouts out "Reconfigure the system for Rei! Then activate!" Ritsuko storms off and Misato resentfully walks off in the other direction leaving Shinji standing before the cold unfeeling face of the metal behemoth a staffer shouts back "Right beginning prep program."

Shinji just stands there falling deeper and deeper into the depression and misery in his own mind. A door opens to his right and looks across the chamber to see a girl in a gurney being wheeled past him. A girl with a blank face like a doll's whose hair is white and wears a strange suit lays on it. This girl is covered in bandages and bruises her left arm tightly wrapped in a cast, an IV drip feed directly in her veins. The girl winces and struggles as she attempts to stand up the effort and pain it takes visible to Shinji, it makes him cringe his face feeling her pain just by seeing what she is doing. The room then shudders this quake the strongest of all so far, Shinji is thrown to the floor and he hears a snapping sound Misato screams "look out!". Shinji looks up seeing several large beams and fixtures coming from above towards him. He covers his face as if that would protect them and screams in terror. There is a violent splashing noise as something crashes through it. Seconds pass and Shinji is still there his breathing hard his arms move from his face, and he looks up in shock. A large purple hand is above him wrapping around the platform, wrapping around him.

A shout comes from above "the Eva activated itself, it ripped out of the right arm restraints!" Ritsuko screams back "No that's not possible, the entry plug wasn't even inserted that just can't happen!" Misato confused and scared asks Ritsuko "You mean it activated without any kind of interface? Was it moving to protect something, to protect him? It's him." Shinji stares up at the hand above him and crawls up, before he can think he runs to the frail and broken girl who lays crumpled on the floor thrown from her gurney. He tries to pick her up and she screams in anguish from his touch, shivering in his arms. Shinji looks back at the Eva and sees it's hard yellow eyes staring back at him deep from within its sockets. The girl in Shinji's arms tenses and screams again, and Shinji pulls a hand from her seeing blood that is not his own coat his palm. Shinji closes his eyes hard, fighting to speak, to say words he dreads. He looks at Misato and shouts "I'll pilot it!"

Before he even knows what is happening a group of men come and grab him and the girl, they are separated and he is taken away. Shinji is practically carried through corridors and stair welds before he is shoved in some strange tube with some type of seat and controls. The door of the tube seals him in before he can even speak, and he can feel it move a rumbling sounds coming from all around him. Voices come from various and speakers and consoles within the tube on all sides around Shinji, who sits bathed in harsh red light. Then all of a sudden various colors of lights fill the room, and one woman's voice supersedes all the rest her words "Fill the plug." A strange orange liquid floods the pod, Shinji holds his breath as long as he can while it fills up all around him before he cant any longer. Ritsuko's voice comes across through the submerged speakers "Don't worry once you lungs are filled with LCL your blood will be oxalated directly, you will get used to it." Shinji gasps unable to hold his breath and the liquid fills his mouth and funnels down his throat. Shinji feels like his is going to be sick and to his shock he is growing hard. Misato's voice comes through the speakers now annoyed"Stop complaining, you're a boy you know!" The lights in the tube being to strobe with strange images, and various voices come from the speakers shouting statistics Shinji does not understand. Then the viewscreen in front of Shinji settles with what must be what the Eva sees. Misato's voice pierces through the speaker's chatter "begin launch sequence." Before Shinji could fully realize whats happening the world begins to shake and he screams again. Then like someone slammed on the brakes of a car going 500mph making it stop all at once Shinji stares through the view screen, and there before him stands the monster that he saw when he first arrived in Kyoto. It simply stood motionless staring back at him from down a highway.