Asuka Langly Soryu.
It Was her name, She knew that better than just about anything else. In fact it was the only thing she knew, everything else was just a blur of pain. Flashes of a doll hanging from something, A woman with red hair murmuring in obvious insanity, a man leaving without even glancing backwards.
Ties broke.
All of those an so much more playing on loop with increasing speed, faster and faster until it was a blur of color and despair. It was just to to much, it hurt so very much, so she clung to the only thing that she had.
Asuka Langly Soryu.
It was her name, she knew it better than just about anything else. In fact it was the only thing she truly knew at all, it was the only thing that didn't hurt. Color that she was certain was suppose to mean something raced through her mind, bringing with it only different flavors of suffering.
Strings Snapped
It felt like a fire, one that insisted on changing temperature. One moment it was unspeakably warm, the next she was about to combust, and finally it froze over. Turning her into ice as it crawled into her veins, pulsed with her heart as it squirmed deeper into body and turned her heart so cold it felt like heat couldn't exist.
Then it started over again, just faster. It hurt, it hurt so very much so she grasped what didn't hurt and refused to let go of it.
Asuka Langly Soryu.
It was her naa-me, She k-knew it bet-ter tha-n any-thing else. So Sh-e held it as clo-se as she cou-ld but i-t burn-ned her. It didn't feel like hers an-ymore.
Connections Severed
Pain.
Isolation.
Betrayal.
Jealousy.
Pai-
Her Name was Asuka Langly Soryu, and for the first time she could truly remember the pain stopped. Her brain felt like it had rammed into a wall, having been moving at a speed incomprehensible, only to jerk to a compete and sudden stop. The heat was gone, the cold was gone, the- the- everything was gone.
It felt like a puzzle piece snapping into place, a piece of glass suddenly clear, Like reality itself had been out of alignment only to pop into place at the precise moment. Her identity reasserted itself. Her memories returning to their rightful places, clean and sparkly like they had just been through a car wash.
The world suddenly made so much more sense, and as everything settled into place like a newly made house she remembered what had happened.
Her eyes snapped open, practically burning a hole through the unfamiliar ceiling. The Constant beeping of random medical machines completely ignored, as she sat up like she hadn't been in a coma for almost a month.
Asuka Langly Soryu.
It was her name, she knew it better than sunlight, and the skin on the back of her hand. It was her name and anyone who tried to take it would burn.
Because she was Asuka, and She was pissed.
The infirmary was incredibly bland. At least in Shinji's opinion, for what it was worth. The walls were white, the floor was white, the beds where white.
He'd honestly thought he was going to go blind when he stepped in from the dark, barely lit hallway. The random Doctors present had run him through a couple of tests to make sure his encounter with the Alien robot thing hadn't resulted in any physical harm. He'd been cleared in literal minutes, the whole thing more a of a pretense than anything, just to keep up appearances.
That had been a while ago, he was only still here for emotional support at first. Apparently Beast mode was locked away for a reason and they needed to make sure Mari hadn't mutated beyond her now glowing eyes. Mostly because they wanted to be sure she hadn't given herself super cancer, because yes that was possible. not that anyone had warned them about it.
Then Rei had stumbled in at some point, collapsing in perhaps the most clumsiest action that he had ever witnessed. It was odd to think of Rei who had always been ridiculously graceful turning into a human blob beside him. The Blue haired girl had fallen asleep so fast it had given him whiplash, not helped by the fact she was using his lap as a pillow.
Now trapped he had resigned himself to his new place in the world as Ayanami's pillow. At least one of the passing nurses had taken pity on him and given him the remotes to the TV so he wouldn't get to bored. They had also taken to Glaring at anyone who dared speak an octave above a particularly quiet inside voice, after the first person had nearly woken the girl up.
Not that he could really comment on that, he'd been glaring right along with them after all. He'd never seen Ayoba look so scared outside of an angel attack, the man looked traumatized after everyone in the room had given him the stink eye in unison.
He'd eventually settled on a random slapstick cartoon, if only because it was better than all the soap opera's he'd seen on literally every other available channel.
Some time after that, Misato had walked in not even bothering to tease him, just smiling an oddly sad smile before disappearing into the room Holding Doctor Akagi. She'd come out looking slightly worse for wear somehow managing to sit down on the other side of Rei without waking the girl up.
A monumental task, seeing as the slip of a girl had spread out on the bench like a star fish. Neither of them had bothered to speak, either far too tired, or just to drained to even try. The resulting silence had been anything but awkward however, A strange atmosphere overcoming them that was both pleasant and somehow sad.
At some point he'd started running his hand through Ayanami's hair, he probably should have felt embarrassed and stopped. Honestly though Shinji was just to, to empty to bring himself to stop. The fact it caused a tension he hadn't even noticed to fade from Rei had only cemented his choice. Misato he noticed had one of Rei's hand held tightly in her own, running small circle on the back of her hand, so he definitely wasn't alone in his odd mood.
Even after the TV signal was high jacked by what looked to be a news cast of some kind, only to announce that NERV had severed itself from the United Nations, and were now wanted for, Something? It hadn't really specified just that NERV personnel were dangerous and would be dealt with.
That it had only resulted in combined sigh from Himself and Misato just showed how much today was already weighing them. Either way it had lead them to now, watching as an entire force of JSDF being run around like children on live television. All of them had long run out of bullets and were, essentially being corralled by a bunch of dinky looking robots.
It would have been funny it it wasn't for the fact that one of the robots had been hit with a blast that could level a city block, only to not have a scratch on it when the smoke faded.
That had nothing on the Robot thing that was even now playing a game with a group of Evangelion, that would almost resemble tag if it didn't involve Guns big enough to level the city.
At least until the angel had shown up, that had only resulted in the Commander giving it a glance. The angel itself was Some weird string like creature that had swiftly turned into a circle made of helix's. It had only just finished forming the circle before the Commander had done something.
To Shinji it almost looked like the green robot had projected an AT field, except it was green and visible to the naked eye. The green field had Expanded to a ridiculous size, covering Tokyo three at the very least before settling.
Soon after the Angel had started to scream, before disappearing entirely.
They had been replaying the feed on loop since, so he didn't know what had happened after that. He should have been scared that something could kill an angel so easily, or perhaps happy that something could kill and angel so easily.
Shinji however could only bring himself to feel blank, too run down to feel anything other than Ayanami's hair between his fingers.
The Angel's dying scream played for the what seemed to be the hundredth time, when the world decided to throw another curve ball.
"Scheiße." It was almost whispered, but Shinji could recognize the voice that said anywhere.
His head turned on it's own initiative, and Shinji could feel nothing but complete and utter surprise as he found Asuka. The Redhead was standing in the door to her assigned room, still in a hospital gown as her blue eyes locked onto the dying angel. Confusion and surprise written on her face. Despite the bags under her eyes, and the obvious atrophy inflicted on her, Shinji could only think that she looked absolutely stunning.
His voice came out like he hadn't spoken in a weak, dry and rough as he stared at her like she had just hung the very stars.
"Asuka?"
A/N: Have some more angst, because apparently thats all I can write right now. Also a wild Asuka appears! I hope I did a good job describing her mental dissolution? personality breakdown? Whatever you want to call it.