Story: Oversynch

 

Whenever an Angel attacks, chaos comes with it. It's only natural. Even if these things gave a shit about human lives, the sheer size of them meant they'd be inherently dangerous even if they were trying to be careful. Can you imagine it? An enormous eldritch abomination tiptoeing through the streets, causing big dents in the road. It accidentally nicks a power line, stumbles away and puts an arm through a building and then turns all apologetic.

Well, that's if they were being careful. Now imagine them being the opposite of that. Deliberate, malicious, single minded and dangerous. Except... Not quite. Those are mostly human traits. Three out of four of them are ways that a human would describe another human. An Angel was something else entirely. You couldn't call it single minded when it's driven on by instinct. It's not thinking. It's not planning. It is acting and reacting. There is a distinct difference between these ideas.

Misato and Ritsuko arrived in the command centre, and looked up to see the Commander and Sub-Commander waiting at their usual place. High up, overlooking everything, ready to take command in a moment if it was warranted .Assessing the situation from on high, looking down on them all. Like the Gods of Mount Olympus, judging and mocking them, ready to cast them down at a moment's notice - while the only reward for good behaviour was to continue as you were.

"Ah, there you are," Fuyutsuki said. Now, they had to act quickly here. The Bridge Bunnies were about to get hosed down by Kaji in the hope it would snap them out of it. "The pilots are on their way, they should be here presently. "Where are the operations staff? They should be at their posts by now."

"I had personally observed Maya Ibuki within the Geofront one hour ago," the Commander said. "It is unlike her to be tardy."

"Pardon, Commander, it's my fault," Ritsuko said. "She was assisting me with an experiment, and wound up covered in LCL. The last I saw her, she was heading into the shower to wash it off."

Which was a sign to Kaji: Use the hose on her. It backs up the story. Clever, huh? The best lies have the appearance of truth behind them. This was a particularly sneaky lie, which Ritsuko felt unduly proud of. When Maya strolled in, unkempt and with wet hair, she'd back up the story perfectly.

As for the other two? They would cross that bridge when they came to it.

Fortunately they didn't have to wait too long. The three of them strolled in, a little wobbly on their legs and - Heading for the wrong consoles! Ack! Fortunately, Misato was right on point here!

"What do we know about this Angel so far?" she asked. Keeping the Commander and Sub-Commander's attention on her while Ritsuko discretely got the three idiots into the right place!

“Its composition is similar to previous Angels. Nothing remarkable has been detected yet.”

Thank you very much, Commander! Glib, precise and to the point as always! He was the most detached man that either Misato or Ritsuko - or for that matter Kaji had ever met. Luckily the Sub-Commander was a bit more talkative.

“However, initial data suggests something unusual. The Angel may possess a more complex structure than we’ve seen. We’ll know more once the analysis begins.”

That point was directed to the Bunnies, who were now in the right places. Thank goodness. 

“Visual confirmation on the Angel," Maya began. "Its structure is similar to previous targets, but there’s something unusual about it. No sign of an immediate AT Field deployment. We’re analysing now.”

Makoto was next. Good, good. They're falling into familiar rhythms now... Even if their typing speed is a little too eerily paced the same. "It’s approaching the city at high speed. Pattern Blue—there’s no doubt, it’s an Angel.”

“The pilots will engage. We’ll observe the rest.”

Of course, Gendo was straight down to business. The Angel itself appeared on the monitor - it looked more humanoid than the last one they had encountered. It would almost have to. That one was a giant toothy fish. Not even a normal fish, its mouth was... freaky.

Shortly after this the Eva Units arose to city level. Ready to enter combat at a moment's notice with the enemy. This should be interesting, they've not had a proper combat since they joined together in a single mind.

"We'll need to monitor them carefully," Ritsuko said. Right, of course. "Their condition is an unknown variable."

"Unit 00 is approaching the Angel," the Bridge Bunnies said in one voice.

"Unit 01! Unit 02!" Misato quickly commanded. "I need you both watching carefully! We don't know what this Angel can -"

There's something off here. Something weird. "The Angel has not -"

"-Deployed its- "

"-AT Field yet!" the three Bunnies said, voices flowing into one another. Oh! Come on guys, get it together! Though, more to the point... Why hadn't the Angel - 

It moved like a blur. Fast. Ridiculously fast. It almost seemed like there were two of them at once - and then, just as suddenly, it became apparent that there were. Two Angels for the price of one, talk about a bargain!

=====

As Rei, Shinji, and Asuka positioned their Evangelions for battle, the hum of the Angel's presence was almost drowned out by the quiet chaos unfolding in their minds. For days now, they had been living with it—the strange connection, this mini-gestalt—an inexplicable side effect of the Angels' influence. They had started sensing fragments of each other's thoughts, emotions, even traits of their personalities, blending in ways that none of them were prepared for. Though they had been like this for a few days at this point, they hadn't actually fought an Angel yet. So it felt like the first time all over again!

Now, as the twin Angels split before them, the uncomfortable mental overlap grew more intense. Misato’s voice came through the comms, but her instructions were just background noise to what was happening between the pilots.

Rei tightened her grip on Unit-00's controls, her usually steady focus faltering as a burst of frustration and impatience shot through her mind, not her own, but Asuka's. "We don’t have time for this!" the thought echoed sharply, vibrating inside her in a way that felt almost like her own urgency. She blinked, her heart rate quickening—something she wasn’t used to. Emotions, vivid and raw, flickered through her. The cold, rational focus that defined her seemed to be clouded by irritation and recklessness. Probably at least partly born from the fact that she was here fighting an Angel when she could be sitting on Asuka's face!

"We need to attack now! Why is she always waiting, thinking too much? Just move!"

It was an alien sensation for Rei, who had always acted with precision and detachment, and yet, it was unmistakably Asuka’s presence influencing her.

In Unit-01, Shinji’s breath hitched. His fingers trembled slightly on the controls, feeling the weight of the sync but also something deeper. Fear. Not his usual anxiety, but an intense, overwhelming pressure. Fear of failure. It was Rei’s. He knew it instinctively. But why? Rei never seemed afraid of anything. And yet, here it was, gnawing at his confidence, making his heart pound in a way that felt foreign, disorienting. It didn't help that he was so damned hard it was a wonder he hadn't ripped through his plugsuit.

"I must not fail. I cannot fail." Her voice—her quiet, unspoken worry—resonated inside him, forcing him to bear the burden of her constant, quiet dread. He wanted to move, to attack, but her fear held him back. His own apprehension swirled with hers, doubling in intensity.

"I don't want to mess this up."

But this wasn't his voice, either. It was Asuka's, underlying her confidence and aggression with something deeper, something she would never admit.

Shinji gritted his teeth. How could they both feel this way and still fight like they do?

In Unit-02, Asuka’s blood was boiling. But there was something underneath the fire this time, something dull, heavy. Something that wasn't hers. It gnawed at her, slowing her usual lightning reflexes, making her hyper-aware of every movement, every decision. It was like second-guessing herself, a feeling she'd never tolerated before. It was Shinji's hesitation creeping into her head, making her feel less than perfect, less than invincible.

"What if I can't do this?" the thought whispered. Her stomach churned with the weight of his doubt.

At the same time, another presence lingered in her mind, cold and calculating. Rei’s steady, emotionless approach to everything, her tendency to hesitate and observe, made Asuka want to scream. But the strangest part was that she understood it now, in a way she hadn't before. Rei’s hesitation wasn’t cowardice; it was control, a way to avoid making reckless decisions that could cost lives.

"Why do I feel so angry?" Asuka thought suddenly, catching herself, only to realise it wasn’t her anger. It was Rei’s, quiet but simmering beneath her calm exterior.

As the connection grew stronger, the battlefield in front of them blurred with the swirl of shared thoughts and emotions. For days, this strange mental link had been gnawing at them, forcing them to see into each other's minds, to feel each other's insecurities, their hidden thoughts, their emotional undercurrents. They had tried to fight it at first—tried to block it out—but the more they fought, the deeper it seemed to settle into their consciousness.

And now, in the midst of the battle, the line between them had thinned almost to the point of breaking.

"Rei, move! We need to get in there before they regroup!" Asuka’s voice broke through the mental haze, but it wasn’t just Asuka’s voice. It was Rei’s own urgency pushing her forward, an impatience she had never truly felt before this connection started.

"I understand," Rei responded, but her own voice sounded strange to her—more forceful, more certain. She pushed Unit-00 forward, attacking with a determination that felt foreign in her body but somehow right in this moment.

Shinji felt it, too—their thoughts pushing and pulling against each other as the Angels moved to strike. His usual hesitation was overridden by the raw aggression that surged through him, not his own but Asuka’s. He found himself moving faster, more decisively, like the part of him that always wanted to stay back had vanished under the weight of her presence.

"Don’t stop now, idiot! Push through!"

He gritted his teeth, driving Unit-01 forward, the fear he had always carried buried under an unfamiliar wave of certainty.

Asuka, meanwhile, found herself acting with uncharacteristic caution, a side effect of Rei's constant presence in her mind. The cold calculation steadied her hand. For once, she didn’t charge recklessly into the fray, but took a moment to assess, to control. It was maddening, but it worked. Her strikes were more precise, each movement planned—less a wild dance of violence, and more a perfect choreography of control and power.

The three of them fought in sync, though not by choice. It was the gestalt pushing them forward, blending their strengths and weaknesses together into something strange but effective. They were no longer simply three individuals piloting their own EVAs—they were something more, something dangerous.

And as the twin Angels closed in, the lines between Rei, Shinji, and Asuka blurred even further. Each one felt the weight of the others’ emotions—the fear, the anger, the desperation—and yet, in the heat of battle, it gave them strength.

For a brief moment, they weren’t just three pilots.

They were one.