Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction ❯ The Children's Crusade ❯ The Children's Crusade ( Chapter 1 )

Hello, I'm the Seldon Planner...or, as I like to call myself here, Seldon's Alter-Ego. Man, this sure has been one long haul. 85 pages, over 50 reviews...something I'd never think of getting the way I write! ^_^;; I've really enjoyed all of your comments, and I've really enjoyed all the friends and companions that I've encountered and picked up along the way. Special thanks goes out to : Tchernobyl, StrngSamurai13, Bucky, Alexei Servanov, DrunkDrake!, and all the others that I've forgotten about...I'm just to lazy to remember you all, gomenasi. !_! As many of you may know, this started out as a one-shot that I just did because of something I watched on the History Channel, and because of a book that I read the night before. The series made me sad, and the book didn't help. But, as you all know, I somehow write excellent when depressed. Yes, I'm really strange like that. The book, by the way, was called: Slaughterhouse5, or: The Children's Crusade. And I have one more thanks to go out...its for my friend that made me read that book. Toby Forbes: thank you a bunch. And in honor of that book, I gave this fic a name that suited its purpose: to retell the story of Evangelion, not to change it, not to alter it in any major way (At least, I think so right now ^^;;) But to simply look at it and...think of it as I think of it. So here it is: the first book of 12 chapters. And now:

The Seldon Planner Presents:

Dedicated to those who fight in any war...to those who die in any of the wars. God be with them as they sleep.

The Children's Crusade

"Chapter One: The Children's Crusade"

Why do you read those books?

So that I won't forget the past.

Why do you remember the past?

So that I won't forget...humanity.

What is humanity?

...Suffering...

-Seldon.

Shinji Ikari stood for a long time at the entrance to the art museum. It was possibly the only one of its kind, possibly the only one holding priceless collections from around the world...

...Or what was left of it, at least.

Hesitantly, he raised his foot and set it down on the first white marble step. Then his second foot followed, and then the first again. Up he went, through a journey of several dozen steps that were very similar to the first...and the second...and the third.

His face was drawn in, his eyes were red and hazy with the sand of sleep. His clothes were wrinkled and unkempt, his body was dirty and unwashed. He was tired, tired of living, tired of moving on...

Tired of running away.

Yes, he was tired...but stopping now wouldn't help him at all.

The entrance came into view. Beyond those glass doors lay an extensive and massive hall of wood paneled floors stained the color of mahogany. Off- color white walls were softly lit in key areas by meticulously positioned overhead lights. Garish pieces of sculpture and brightly coated pieces of oil-based art shone underneath those white suns, a few people milled in that room...wandering from in-between the pieces of art that hung on one of the many pillars that supported the room, and into other rooms dedicated to period works or to certain cultures.

Some of whom that didn't exist on this world anymore.

So it goes.

His hand reached out and pulled the door open, he stepped inside.

The air was cool.

***

"Shinji!"

Shinji Ikari mumbled incoherently and idly swung out his hand at the offending person who was shaking him.

"Go away," he turned his head over on his other arm and mumbled some more. "I don't want to get up and cook."

There was a slight pause as Shinji's mind slowly came up to full speed. Brain cells fired off as he struggled to piece together where he was and what exactly he was supposed to be doing there. His hearing came back into focus first, and they registered the soft laughter of his friends.

Slowly he turned to face them, carefully lifting his face away from the thick book that lay on his school desk though. Toji was barely restraining himself from a full-out gut-busting chortle, and Kensuke was snickering like a ten year old...taping everything of course.

Then his vision returned to sharp focus. They were in his classroom, the class of 2-A. And they were the only ones there.

"Man, I dunno what you've been reading these past few days," Toji started, propping one hand up on his other forearm as it wrapped under his armpit. "But this is the fifth time this week."

"Yeah, Ikari! We can't say which it is though...the teacher or the book. Please say that it's the teacher? I'm begging you!"

Shinji blinked twice at the military otaku as he dropped on his knees and started praying to Shinji. Finally, Shinji pushed back his chair and stood up.

"Kensuke-"

"YES?" the shorter boy interrupted before Shinji could continue.

"...You haven't started another betting pool on me again have you?"

Toji lost it, and burst out into a loud laugh that shook the thin door on its tracks.

"Yep! This nut has done it again!"

Shinji frowned, "I thought we had a discussion about this sort of thing before?"

"Yeah! But that was an unrelated incident! This time I didn't start it," Kensuke quickly explained, clenching his eyes shut and letting his face take on an expression of innocence.

Shinji blinked again and shut his book, he ran his hands quickly along the binding before pulling his bag off of the chair and stepping into the aisle.

"It's the teacher," he commented with a small sigh.

"YES! I KNEW IT!"

Kensuke and Toji exchanged high-fives and then quickly calmed down as Shinji glared at them.

"...This time I want a percentage."

"Oh, YOU GOT IT MAN!" they both exclaimed loudly before rushing through the empty desks to catch up to the departing Eva pilot.

A boy who had so much death and blood on his hands.

So it goes.

The trio walked quickly through the heat of the day, sweating heavily as they passed row after row after row of shining metallic buildings. Buildings in the supposed 'Fortress of Mandkind'. Buildings that were just as easily destroyed by Angel, Eva...or man. Shells of steel, glass, concrete...nothing more. Just places of comfort and warmth for a person to visit before something ripped its way through that small shell and destroyed that place of warmth. Destroyed that life.

So it goes.

"Hey Shinji?"

He grunted at Toji and continued to stare at the heat shimmering in the distance.

"Me and Kensuke are heading over to that new arcade. Wanna tag along?"

Shinji shook his head sideways, "No...I've got someplace to visit."

"Oh, Yeah!" Toji hit himself on the head as the stupidity and futility of his asking hit his befuddled mind. "I forgot, it's Thursday."

"Yeah, and Ikari never forgets to go visit that special place on Thursday now does he?" Kensuke said in a distractedly disgusted tone.

Shinji nodded and turned his head to the unlikely pair of friends that he had. It was an amazing coincidence that these three were friends at all. One was a major athlete, good with sports and decent with school; another was a military fanboy, caught up in his romantic ideals of fighting and dying for a cause.

So it goes.

And then there was Shinji himself: a loner, a timid and shy person who didn't speak up for himself...a person who wouldn't lift a finger to help himself in any beneficial situation. But a person who would give everything to help another find that which they could not find.

What a group they made.

"Well, I've got to go here. I'll see you tomorrow!" Shinji made an abrupt right turn and began down a little used side-street. Kensuke and Toji gave their departing well wishes and waved half-hearted goodbyes before they disappeared behind one of the many hills in Tokyo-3.

Shinji slung his bag around to the other side of his back and continued on his way.

He only had three hours before it was time to go home...and he had much to find for himself.

Again.

The door opened with its customary whirr and hiss of pneumatic hinges, a familiar rush of cold air flew out and impacted on Shinji's skin. Goose bumps erupted along his arms and his hair stood on end as he drew in the familiar smell of...of age, of that delicate process in which a work of quality and finesse goes through from the moment it is created to the moment it is destroyed.

He loved this smell...almost as much as he loved the paintings from which this smell perfumed from. He moved up to the reception desk and smiled at the elderly man behind it.

"Oh! Hello Shinji," the gray haired man closed his newspaper slightly and glanced at his wristwatch. "You're a bit late today?"

Shinji smiled, "Sorry, I was detained at class. Any new works today?"

"One," the man bobbed his head up and down. "It's in the German section...among those paintings of, well...you know when."

Shinji nodded his head slowly. Yes, indeed he did know the section the receptionist was talking about...it was perhaps the most gruesome section of all of the galleries...and it was Shinji's favorite.

"Well, I'd better take a look at it then," he casually referred to their inside joke. "After all, mustn't have poor quality works in this place."

The old man grinned at the kid, "Sure, we here just can't abide having anything that our Shinji despises hanging on the walls."

He let out a short laugh before waving goodbye to his friend and walking past the weathered receptionists desk. The old man waved back and then turned to his paper.

'Hmm...another Angel was defeated, this one while attacking a convoy of U.N. ships that were escorting a new Evangelion Unit to Tokyo-3...Damn bastards, they just keep sending these pilots to die. Poor people, they pilot those monstrosities to save humanity and we don't even get the dignity of thanking them.'

The article had with it a blurry picture in black and white of the newest Evangelion in its finest moment, just as the angel flew overhead...its belly trailing a spray of liquid that served as its blood.

The blood that gave it life, the blood that, without, would mean its death.

So it goes.

Shinji entered the gallery dedicated to German masterpieces and quickly surveyed his surroundings. Once again, he was the only one here. Not to bad, considering that he loved the time he was able to spend alone in this wonderful place. This place of color and life, of activity that was frozen and captured for man to view at his leisure.

A place with no NERV, no Angels.

How pleasing it was to come here and look at his surroundings without having to think about all of the people he passed on the street. About how their lives were held in the palm of his hand. About how, if he screwed up against the next Angel, how they would all be dead.

So it goes.

He stopped next to a small, leather seat. One of the old kind that you just can't find anymore, with it's high sides and swept features; with it's leather and wood buttons and it's creamy brown color. With it's soft squish and crunch and creak as you eased your body into its warm embrace.

He turned this chair before he sat down, and admired the new work.

Shinji studied that piece of art for a long time. He examined the background, the foreground, the middle ground. He delved deep into the meanings of the colors, he studied the contorted and twisted positions of the men, women, and children that were present.

And then he cried.

For all of those men, women, and children were dead. Except for those who were dressed in gray...those who had weapons in their right hands, and the leashes of rabid dogs in their left. The only ones who were alive in that picture were wearing an armband of red, with a white circle in the middle...in which was the twisted and perverted black cross, set on its side.

But that didn't make Shinji cry.

What made him cry was the look on their faces, their boyish faces...it was the look of a frightened child. For that's what those living men, those creations and machinations of flesh and blood were...they were children. Fighting a man's war for a mad tyrant.

Killing those who were only guilty of being who they were.

So it goes.

And so Shinji cried.

~~~

Dedicated to all of the children who died during WW2. May God have pity on their souls and a place for them in Heaven.

"Chapter Two: Second Child"

Why do you read those books?

So that I won't forget the past.

Why do you remember the past?

So that I won't forget...humanity.

What is humanity?

...Suffering...

-Seldon.

Asuka Langley Sohryu ground down to a halt beside a massive building. She leaned over and panted heavily as her breathless lungs tried to resupply her screaming muscles with oxygen. She hadn't ran that fast for that long in several years.

And she had never ran away from the police before either.

'Of course, if it hadn't been for those two perverts I wouldn't have gotten into that mess in the first place,' she logically placed the blame square on the two boys who she caught trying to peek up her skirt.

Though, technically, she too was at fault. After all, wearing a dress as skimpy as this with a body and a face like her's was bound to attract attention from the lowest forms of life. It was a matter of nature.

'Still,' her mind growled out. 'It doesn't mean that I have to put up with it.'

A sudden thirst bloomed across her tongue, and she twisted her head to gaze up the expanse of marble stairs and into the glass front interior of what appeared to be an art gallery. She quickly stepped her way up to the front, where a sign confirmed her suspicions.

Tokyo-3 World Art Museum

"Well," she dryly commented to herself as her feet took themselves closer to the door. "At least they have enough taste to get something other than Japanese art in here...I swear, these people are so 'Boring'!"

The door swung open with a swift rush of cool air.

The air was a blessing to her skin as it wafted across her voluptuous fourteen-year-old body.

The man behind a counter of mahogany-stained wood shifted his paper to one side so he could peer around the corner and at his newest attendance. Asuka felt a glimmer of pride as she noticed the picture of Unit 02 standing professionally underneath a flying Angel as her knife gutted it wide open.

Blood, the color of a dark gray, was flying everywhere.

So it goes.

"Can I help you...Miss?" the man behind the desk asked cautiously. Not many people came here after all, none as regular as Shinji any ways.

Asuka's eyes slowly left the picture on the front of the paper and studiously examined the receptionist. He was an old man, once a strapping and bulky person at one time...now, thinning in hair and muscle and slowly going blind. Small, square, and thick lenses were propped against his thin and narrow nose, their frames were bent and twisted the left lense down lower than the right. It didn't seem to effect the man much however. He wore a formal black suit, no nametag though.

"Miss? Are you alright?" the man asked for the second time, finally snapping Asuka out of her adolationist funk.

"Um, yes. Where are your bathrooms?"

"Oh! Yes, just take a right and follow the corridor until you come parallel with the German section. Its right across the hall, you can't miss it."

Asuka smiled widely as she heard that her homelands paintings were on display here. It made her nationalistic pride swell as the man gave his directions.

She must have looked silly, but she didn't care. Asuka Langley Sohryu never cared for the opinions of others after all...why should she?

...Why should she?

"Thank you," Asuka gave the man a small bow and turned and began heading for the restrooms. Behind her the old man ruffled his paper and flipped to the locals section. It idly began to describe some of the new improvements made to the 'Fortress of Mandkind' since the latest destruction cause by the Fifth Angel.

'Goddamned monsters are going to kill us all...I'm getting too old to be in a war zone-'

Such was his thinking as he continued reading, not noticing his hand absently rubbing on a long and puckered scar that barely peeked out from his jacket cuffs.

The air conditioning cut on.

Asuka stepped away from the restroom doors and sighed in contentment. Her face felt fresh and her legs no longer felt as though they were just some blobs of tall jelly. She felt like a Woman again! Coming out of her sigh she reached her gaze up and read the sign above the German gallery.

"...Why not? It's been so long since I've been in one of these any ways!" she confidently cheered herself on, letting her feet start off on their own. Leading her into the well lit but somewhat dimmed hall of sculpture and paint.

She shivered a bit as the air conditioning cut off, subtly reminding her body that it was freezing. Well, her summer dress was a good idea for the heat on the streets...but in here, it was as useful as a loincloth in Siberia.

She wrapped her arms under her breasts and continued to walk through the room, her heels echoing with a wooden tap every time she stepped forward. Her eyes slowly flowed from one piece of color and canvas, to one of stone and shadow, then back again to color and canvas.

The collection here was impressive, to say the least, several dozen famous painters and sculptors readily shot through her mind as she examined the works before moving on to others.

Her watch beeped as the hour changed.

'Crap, well...I'm going to cut this one short a bit. Or that damn doctor will have my head on a platter for being absent without leave when another of those damn things might show up again.'

A small shudder went through her body as Asuka's mind imagined what they would do to her, what they would take away from her should a court martial be leveled at her. Definitely not something she'd want over her head. Her foot lifted again and shifted forward, her eyes moved over to the next painting...

And she froze.

Slowly, her foot lowered. Setting itself down with a barely audible tipp. Asuka could hear her heartbeat grow louder as she stared at the picture, her breath rasped loudly in her ears as her mind attempted to understand what 'That' kind of picture was doing in this gallery dedicated to works from her homeland.

"Horrible, isn't it?"

Asuka jumped slightly at the croaked and dry voice that issued from behind her. Quickly she whirled her back to the painting and extend one of her hands, the other coming up in a fist by her side as she assumed a defensively aggressive stance.

Against a pathetic-looking specimen of the human race, if one could call him that.

The boy raised his mop of brown, spiky hair and stared out of the shadows that hid part of his face with two deep, ocean-blue eyes. The skin around those eyes was inflamed, as if the boy had been crying recently.

'Absurd, probably has allergies or something,' Asuka rationalized.

The boy was sitting in a creamy brown seat of a very old fashion, his arms rested lifelessly against the armrests and his body was sagged deep into the cushion of the seat. Then, he moved a bit. His right arm came up and pointed to the picture that Asuka had seen just moments before.

"It's a horrible picture...but at the same time, so appropriate."

Asuka narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean?"

Shinji smiled a bit at the pretty, red haired, foreign girl. She was definitely one of the few people he had ever seen in his fourteen years that would make him sit up and take notice of who was around him.

'And her voice sounds...nice,' Shinji shook his head slightly to get rid of that thought and spoke up to the girl. "Nothing, you...you wouldn't understand...I don't think anybody would understand."

Asuka blinked at the boy and slowly relaxed her guard. Though, normally, she would keep all of her defenses on high alert around one of...them...she felt, safe, around this one. After all, he certainly didn't look like the type who would try anything fresh with her.

'Just keep out of his reach though,' her mind warned her. 'Can't be too careful!'

Shinji leaned forward and stared down at the wood floor next to his shoes. He noticed his shoes reflecting in the gloss.

"Why would they put such a horrible thing here?" Asuka asked, turning her body back halfway to re-examine the work on the wall.

"To help us remember," Shinji answered from his low position. "We tend to forget things that we need to remember."

"But how could we forget something like that!?" Asuka haughtily demanded, jabbing a finger at the scene of death and shattered innocence.

So it goes.

"...All to easily..."

Shinji sighed and stood up, his hands going to his knees as his legs straightened and supported his thin frame. Without looking, he reached behind the chair and snagged the strap to his bookbag. With a gentle pull he lifted the heavy piece of black leather up to his side.

"It was nice meeting you," Shinji turned sharply and began to quick march his way out of the room. It was almost time for him to be home anyhow, and at the rate he normally walked, he was going to be late. "Perhaps I shall see you around the city?"

Asuka blinked, she wasn't used to being ignored by one of the male species like this. It was rather...cold, one might say.

Another shiver ran through her body.

"Yeah! Nice meeting you-"

The boy was gone before she finished.

"...What a strange person..." she contemplated.

Soon, her mind forgot about the boy and turned back to the picture.

Ghoulish. Ghastly. Necrobic.

It was a dark stain in her countries history, those twelve years. A dark time of book burning, mindless obedience, heedless agressivness...and bloody slaughter.

So it goes.

Asuka stared deep into the picture for a long time, trying to see what the artist was trying to convey to his viewer. She had done this to hundreds of paintings back at the University...this one should be easy enough! Right?

At first it seemed simple to her, the man wanted to convey the brutishness of the killers, the helpless agony of the dead, the futility in the action. But...there was something more. A slight turn of the lip in one soldier, a small glimmer of silver in the eye of another. The looseness of the uniforms around their shoulders and arms. The huge proportions of the weapons in their arms. These were children, killing men and women and...children like themselves.

So it goes.

Asuka stood their for half and hour, and still she could not determine exactly what the artist wanted his viewers to see. Finally, she stepped forward and read the name off of its plaqucard.

"The Children's Crusade"

The air conditioning came on once more as Asuka left the museum.

The old man closed his newspaper and pulled out his pipe as the young girl left.

'If only I was a teenager again...I wonder what Shinji thought of her?'

He struck a match and held it up to the open pot of his wooden device. He cursed himself silently for forgetting to put the tobacco in...again. He was beginning to worry, things like this began to slip from his mind more and more.

"Age, it seems," he calmly spoke to himself as he filled the pipe. "Is catching up to me...perhaps its time at last...time to get out of my own Crusade."

He stopped suddenly, his fingertips poised over the deep, smoky brown of the aromatic weed...and thought a long time about what he had said. Then he placed the mouthpiece firmly in-between his teeth and struck a new match.

A billow of white smoke drifted up to the ceiling, where it was sucked into a ventilation shaft and sent down to the cooling unit.

So it goes.

~~~

"Chapter Three: Second Meetings"

Whom do you fight for?

Those who need me to fight for them.

Who are they?

The ones who cannot defend themselves.

Do they thank you for defending them?

...No...

-Seldon.

"I'm home!" Shinji shouted as he entered the door.

Silence greeted him, and he sighed.

'It's the same as it always is.'

Pen Pen drooped his head around the corner and gave a welcoming squawk for the returning pilot. Shinji smiled and knelt for a moment to ruffle the feathers along the bridge of the bird's eyes, something Pen Pen always appreciated, and then moved into the apartment. He dropped his bookbag in his room and changed into his house clothes.

Shinji slowly entered the kitchen and looked around for something to cook for himself, his guardian, and Pen Pen.

'Rice...fish...soup...beer. Choice selections for the growing body,' was his sarcastic thought. He looked down at the waiting penguin and gave him another sigh.

"Sorry, we just don't have a lot of options tonight...I'll have to go shopping tomorrow."

Pen Pen nodded and waddled over to his refrigerator. Shinji watched him extend one of his razor-sharp claws to open his sliding access plate. A small collection of chilled vapor drifted out and dissipated as the bird moved into his residence.

The door slid back and shut with a hiss.

Shinji smiled to himself as he grabbed some minute rice and the uncooked fish out of its arctic prison. He turned to the stove and found a note on it. The kanji was messy, as if the person was trying to write the message on the wall while attempting to put a shoe on.

He briefly read the message and then set it aside.

Shinji stood by the stove for several moments before he walked back to the refrigerator and put away the food. He wasn't really hungry anyway.

A moment later he was seated in his bed, propped up against the wall and staring across the darkened expanse of his room to the opposing wall. It gave him a blank look back.

'I wonder who that girl was...'

A moment of internal quiet passed before he moved on and reached out for his nearby bookbag. A few tugs and pulls later, his thick book came free. His hand ran over its soft and nappy surface. Little balls of fabric came free from the hard, linen cover...his hand stopped at the title.

It was in English, a language he knew only well enough to read...he couldn't speak the language had he tried too. It isn't that he didn't know the language...after all, how else would he have been able to read this book? No, his problem lay in his grammar, it was horrible.

Shinji laughed a bit as he remembered his first attempt at speaking English: his voice was squeaky and hesitant, the pronunciation had been all wrong. But it didn't matter.

Because he honestly didn't care...he could read well enough, and that's what mattered to him right now. His fingers absently rubbed the title again.

"Rise and Fall, of the Third Reich"

A horrible book, but one that should be read. The mistakes of these people must never, ever be repeated. No man should be able to do what the Nazi's did...what Hitler did.

No one.

'I wonder who that girl was...'

The moon shined brightly through his window, it's soft, green-white light spilling over the bed and onto the floor...traveling across the immaculately cleaned expanse until the tip reached the wall.

Moonlight...and dreams.

Sometimes of death and blood...of Eva.

So it goes.

***

"Shinji, man, you don't look so good."

Shinji yawned in Kensuke's direction, barely remembering to cover his mouth with a fist before the muscles in his throat began to constrict. He closed his mouth and worked his jaws a bit before answering.

"Yeah, yeah...stayed up to late reading again."

"You always do that," Toji leaned over Kensuke and knocked Shinji in the head with his knuckles. That made the room spin around... "I keep telling you that you should spend less time reading and more time sleeping, but no! Someone just doesn't listen to me anymore!"

Shinji rubbed his reddened eye and grimaced as clotted particles of sleep cascaded away from his face, "So? You act as if I care about sleeping through class...it isn't like we haven't heard all of this before."

Toji shrugged and sat heavily in his desk behind Kensuke.

"Hey, Kensuke?"

Kensuke grunted an affirmative as he typed away on his laptop.

"Did you tell Ikari 'bout the girl we ran into?"

"Oh! No I didn't," Kensuke's eyes widened as he snapped his fingers.

"What girl?" Shinji asked suspiciously.

"We ran into a girl down at the arcade," Toji began.

"She was foreign!" Kensuke eagerly added, lurching into action as he rustled through his bag.

"Well, we think she was foreign...but man, you should have been there!" Toji gave Shinji a big Cheshire grin as he elaborated the size of the unknown foreign girls assets.

Impressive...almost the size of Misato's.

Not that he had been looking mind you, its just...she had an annoying tendency to get right up into his face...with certain parts of her body other than her head.

"Yeah! I even got it on camera, if I could find the damn thing," Kensuke grumbled from the insides of his bag. A few metallic bumps and grinds are heard as he shifts books and folders out of his way.

"Did you get her name?" Shinji asked a wistful looking Toji.

His face soured, "Naw, we never got the chance. A bunch of goons came up and started a free-for-all before we could talk to her much."

Toji's face reddened a bit as he remembered why a fight had broken out in the arcade. Shinji noticed this but ignored the fact, after all...what are friends for?

"S-So," Toji started back up. "How was the museum?"

"They got in a new painting for their German section."

Kensuke finally emerged from his satchel with his camera, a disk flopped around in his mouth as he gripped it with his teeth.

"What's this one of?"

Shinji fell silent for a moment as Kensuke started rewinding his recording back to the best shot of the girl. He grimaced as a scene with Toji getting sucker-punched in the gut flashed past his screen. Grimaced again as he saw what the girl was doing to another of her attackers.

'Note to self...don't get a girl mad enough to hit you there.'

Toji just waited for Shinji to answer...he didn't ask again. Shinji would answer his question when he was ready to.

"...It was about, death."

Students began to pour into the classroom, filing in as the time for the morning bell drew closer and closer.

"Ah! Here it is!" Kensuke whipped his screen around so Shinji could see it and pressed the play button. For a moment, the sun was shining directly into the lense. So he couldn't see anything but shapes and shadows. Then the image cleared and focused in across the street, into the arcade.

Where a certain red haired, sun dress wearing girl was playing on one of the machines.

Shinji blinked, his heart pounded as he saw her face from the side. His chest seemed too small for his lungs, he felt as though they would burst through any moment.

"It..It's her?"

Toji and Kensuke exchanged glances and turned to Shinji, questions forming on their lips...

The door opened, and in stepped the girl, dressed in a school uniform and carrying school issued books. Shinji felt his heartbeat triple.

Asuka blinked as she spotted that boy from the art museum staring at her, right next to those two perverted idiots that had been peeping up her skirt. Her eyes narrowed in disgust, and perhaps...suspicion. A shorter, brown haired girl walked up to her.

"Hello, My name is Hikari Horaki...I'm the class representative. I assume that you are Miss. Sohryu?"

"Yes, that's me!" the boy and the perverts were instantly placed on the back burner of her mind as she gave a hearty smile and turned to face the pigtailed and freckled girl. "But you can just call me Asuka, okay?"

Asuka introduced herself to the class once again, her face beamed with a hidden pride as she spoke to her new classmates for the first time. She couldn't tell them just yet...but they would find out soon enough. There was only one seat open in the class...the one next to that boy. It was hers now, hers until she moved on to a higher grade...or died piloting her Eva.

'Which is never going to happen!' she proudly thought before taking her seat.

Already she could feel the heat radiating off of the hormone-crazed boys of the class, not to mention the annoyed glares of all the girls who envied her body. Hey! She couldn't help that nature had gifted her with such a fine example of the female body! It wasn't her fault...but she would use it to her every advantage should it come down to that.

Which it wouldn't.

The teacher cleared his throat and began his day-long ramble about Second Impact and how he firmly believed that humanity would come through the tragedy with flying colors. Asuka, despite all her years in college, found herself wandering after the seventh minute.

Her eyes turned to the laptop set into her desk, she turned it on and waited for the screen to pop up to the menu. She briefly scanned the automatic warning about misuse of the computer, and just as automatically disregarded it. Her fingers flew as she accessed the school's networking system.

A flood of messages rushed onto her screen.

'My God! Don't they even have the decency to wait and ask me in person?'

She actually felt a bit flattered that her presence had draw so much attention, if anything was true about her: she was a glory-hound when it came to getting attention. In fact...she basked in the flood of messages, she rolled in that ever-growing list of questions and comments.

Asuka smiled.

She wouldn't return any of the messages, though several of them were offers for dates to very expensive restaurants in the finest section of Tokyo-3. Even that didn't affect her though.

'Pigs, they just want to get into my pants. I just know it.'

Throughout all of this tidal wave of words, some of which she had trouble making out, she noticed that the boy sitting next to her wasn't typing a thing. Her eyebrows furrowed as she wondered why he wasn't on the list of questioners...after all, he must have something to ask her.

She lost her smile and accessed the networking system controls. After a few moments she decided to give up on trying to determine what his name was...after all, he could be any out of the dozen or so guys in her class. It would take too long to find out who he was. No, Asuka went straight for the connection links. After finding out what the computer next to her was on the network address, she opened her message box and typed in a question.

Shinji had zoned out again.

He absently drummed his fingers along his left thigh, absently keeping tempo with the song he had playing through his mind. Repetition is the best thing for memorization...and he had listened to his collection of songs for so long that he knew each and every note by heart.

He blinked slowly as he listened to his internal song, his mind imagining things...images to go along with the music. A man rushing forward, another pulling free a weapon...the first slowing and then halting. The second pulling the trigger and the weapon going off, spraying out a flame of orange and violent red. The first flying backwards as blood gushed from his new wound...the same man dying, cold and alone.

So it goes.

A beep from his computer interrupted his daydream, and he heard a small snicker come from the girl next to him. He flipped the screen up and read the message.

*Why aren't you asking me any questions like the rest of your perverted species?*

Shinji rubbed his thigh as he wondered exactly who had sent the message. A slight tapping sound from the exchange student next to him slowly ground the answer into his fogged mind. He typed in a reply and leaned back into the warm wood of his desk.

Asuka eagerly read the message.

*Should I be?*

A frown crept across her face and she subtly glanced at the thin, brown haired teen across from her.

*Well, you don't have to, of course...say, what's your name?*

Shinji reached up with one hand and typed it the answer. His finger was poised above the send key when he was interrupted by the high and rich tones of his class representative.

"Everyone rise! Bow, dismissed," the class followed her every command, then broke away for lunch. Shinji sighed and shut down his computer, the last message still unsent.

'I've got a synch test today...and that plug still smells like blood.'

He was standing up when a shadow fell across his desk. Shinji looked up and pulled his bookbag to his shoulder, it was the new girl.

"You didn't answer the question?"

Shinji sighed, and debated whether or not to tell her his name...or to let it go, 'She'll probably be like the rest of the class...excited and happy to meet the pilot of an Evangelion...No, no I don't have time to go through that again. I'll just have to be a little cold.'

"Hello? Earth to the boy with a blank look on his face?" Asuka waved her hand across Shinji's eyes. He blinked.

"Yeah, look...I'm sorry, its just that I have to go right now. Y-You can ask someone from the class, I'm sure that they can tell you," Shinji began to run up the aisle and turned for the door. He needed to hurry anyhow...it was a long way to the Geofront.

"Can't you just tell me now?" Asuka asked the retreating boy.

"No time, must run!" Shinji yelled back.

Then he was gone.

The air conditioning cut on, the air sounded like a waterfall rushing over the edge of a cliff.

Asuka frowned and picked her way through the collection of desks and chairs. She snagged her purse just as the NERV-issue cellphone began to ring.

A button tone sounded as the phone was whipped out and pressed against her ear, "Hello? Sohryu speaking?...I understand, I'll be there in thirty minutes."

The phone beeped again and Asuka stuffed it away. She gathered her things and wrote a hasty note to the class representative, explaining why she would be absent and where she was going.

'At least one person will know of my status, its only fair that I tell her after all.' Soon she was gone as well.

The air conditioner cut off.

***

Shinji sighed as he settled into the simulation plug. LCL bubbled and circulated through his lungs as he closed his eyes and concentrated. It was harder than one would imagine...with that coppery taste on your tongue...and that smell of death in your nose. He had only been there for five minutes, and he was sick of it already...that ever-present stench of red liquid. That smell of a dying person.

So it goes.

He focused on feeling nothing, he imagined a blank, white room surrounding him. It stretched to infinity in every direction for 360 degrees. There was no sound except for his breathing...no movement except for the rise and fall of his chest. It was peaceful, it was serene.

And it was lonely.

Then, a noise interrupted his peace.

Alarms. First level warning alarms.

Another Angel.

***

Asuka ran for all she was worth, jogged past startled technician and worried maintenance crews, flashed past man and woman alike. She had to hurry, for this would be the chance to prove herself.

Her chance to fight the Angels again.

The chance to pilot her Eva into combat again, to do that one thing that she loved to do more than anything else in the world. It gave her joy, it gave her happiness, it gave her pride.

It was her life, and she was about to live it to the fullest.

She dashed into the changing rooms and nearly ripped the ribbon around her neck off in her haste. In a short and orderly amount of time she was struggling to fit her slender body into the clumsy and baggy elastic rubber sheath. Finally, she lifted her hair free and hit the wrist seal.

A hiss was the only sound in the room as the air was pulled out and the sheath became skin-tight. Asuka stood there for several seconds, savoring the moment. Then, she whispered to herself:

"...let's go, Asuka."

***

The old man tapped the last ashes of his pipe free and rubbed a hand over his face. He needed to shave, badly...but, it wasn't like anyone would notice. No one came to see the old art anymore.

No one except for Shinji.

He came every Thursday, without fail. And he would always smile and talk, talk about nothing really...but he would talk to the old man. He was truly a boy who knows the ways of the world.

First you grow up...then you grow old...and then you grew wise.

But Shinji...he had grown wise before he had grown old. Such a rare gift for a child these days...but, in these past few days...the boy began to change.

He had started to look...old.

'Its because of what he does...a curse for that boy, I suppose.'

The old man shook his head and reached for his tobacco bag. Yes, he remembered the last Angel that had attacked Tokyo-3. He had seen it...he would see all of them. Let someone else run and hide in a concrete hole...because he was too old to care anymore. If he was going to die, then he would do it out in the sun and the wind.

Like a true soldier would.

A scream and rumble of high-stress jet engines boomed from overhead. Two dark, triangular shapes flew overhead and blotted out the sun for a moment. The old man shielded his eyes and looked up.

'...Two Eva's this time. Two children to fight for us again...in this goddamned children's crusade.'

He snorted in a chunk of air and spit out on the ground.

'Another child to protect us...another who must suffer.'

The old man bite down hard on his pipe and gnawed on it's end.

He never noticed his fingers brushing along the scar that peeked out from underneath his cuffs.

He never did.

~~~

Dedicated to all those who died on U-Boats during WWII:

"Chapter Four: Encounters"

Are many dead?

Yes.

Did they suffer?

Yes.

Why did they die?

Because others let them die.

-Seldon

Shinji sat in that tube of LCL for a long time, he was sick of its smell. He was sick of its taste. He sat with his eyes closed and his body dead to the world. All of his communications links were muted and cut off except for the one to the main control bridge. Misato appeared.

"Hey Shinji? How you holding up?"

Shinji didn't open his eyes. After three combat missions he knew all to well what the main control bridge looked like, and after living with his commander for nearly two months...he could almost picture the look she had on her face.

"I'm fine, Misato...I just want to finish this and go home," his voice was strained, he hated his job. Much like he hated his life...but he would still do his job just as he would still continue to live.

Other's lives depended on him doing both.

"I know how you feel about all this Shinji. And I know that you don't like to talk to other people..." she stopped and chewed on her lower lip, trying to word her request in a sensible manner. "But, the new pilot really is getting irritated, so...would you please take down your comm block."

"Misato-" Shinji almost let himself slip there, stopping just short of killing her connection before she interrupted him.

"Please!...Do it for me?"

Shinji opened his eyes and stared into the pleading brown eyes of his guardian and friend. Slowly, and with great reluctance, he nodded his head in acceptance.

"...I'll do it, just for this mission."

Relief washed through Misato's body and sparkled in her eyes as she thanked the young boy, Shinji smiled weakly and reached for the communication controls.

He flicked his thumb over the button, and in a very short order a holocomm appeared next to his left shoulder.

"Well its about time! How the hell are we supposed...to...work..."

'That voice...familiar...' Shinji turned his eyes to the screen and felt his heart rate triple again. Twice in one day, something that almost never happens to him. His eyes widen as he stares at an equally shocked and stupefied Asuka Langley Sohryu.

She blinked.

"Y-YOU'RE THE THIRD CHILD?!" she screamed across the radio.

"Do you two know each other?" Misato's voice sounded more than a touch electronic as a second screen opened opposite the third. Shinji turned and quickly appraised his guardian's location. Not the command bridge, somewhere else...the camera jiggled a bit.

"Well, no..and yes?" Asuka was more than a bit confused. 'How is this possible? We met twice and he didn't even know who I was...or perhaps he wasn't told. Then again, I certainly didn't recognize him.'

"We've met, at school," Shinji quietly answered. A countdown timer flashed into his line of sight, 'Four minutes.'

"Ah! Good then, you've had time to get to know each other," Misato's voice was chipper and happy, the camera jiggled again.

"Not really-" Shinji began.

"Well of course we've got to know each other," Asuka cut through his soft speech with her high and rich accent. "After all, aren't us Eva pilots supposed to stick together?"

Shinji blinked and sighed, the bloody liquid was shot through with bubbles. He cut off his comm links again and listened to the dull roar of the F-Type jet that was taking him to fight another battle against his enemy.

But were they enemies?

Shinji frowned and keyed in his sync start, a kaleidoscope of color whirled around his body and flashed deep into his mind. Then he felt the wind rush past his body...well, his others body. He felt a brief sense of vertigo as he peered through the Eva's eyes at the countryside rushing underneath him.

He turned and looked at the red unit next to him.

'Asuka, Langley, Sohryu...just another child here to fight for father,' his conscious growled into his mind's ear. 'Just another who must suffer for the world.'

For several long seconds the wind was the only thing his mind or ear heard. The drop-count fell steadily towards zero.

"...We are the bearers of suffering...for humanity."

A direct line communication from the jet popped on, the sound like a gunshot in a forest of silence.

"Drop in...5...4...3...2..1...Drop!"

The restraints rolled aside and back, gravity and friction took a hold...and the Evangelion slid free to plummet to the beach. The ground seemed so far away.

Asuka fumed in the silence of her entry plug. After the pilot of Eva Unit 01 severed his communications again she had been given simple instructions and orders as to what she would do upon landing.

'Trivial, useless...they must think me an idiot! It isn't like I've never had to do an airdrop combat before...I've done this plenty of times!'

Never against a real enemy, her conscious seemed to scream from the deep recesses of her mind.

'SHUT UP! Like that will really matter.'

She heard no more voices. The pilots gave her a final good luck and ended the countdown verbally. Her stomach lurched through her heart as the Eva accelerated to its terminal velocity within a matter of seconds. She held her hastily-eaten lunch down forcibly though, not willing to let anyone see a weakness in her. Imagine what they would say if she threw up just because of a little free-fall time! They'd call her pathetic, weak-willed, an inexperienced pilot...and that boy would laugh at her.

Asuka snarled in the LCL as her mind pondered that despicable thought. He would laugh at her, then kill the Angel with ease...only to then turn around and tell Misato that he didn't need such a worthless pilot who couldn't even keep her stomach under control enough to assist him in a fight.

They'd kick her out!

Asuka's stomach turned rock-cold, and fell through to her bowels. She knew that many things could happen to her if she piloted her Eva into a battle against the Angels. Death, incapacitation, mental contamination...insanity. But all of those never even came close to her deepest fear...that she would never be allowed to pilot one day.

Asuka shook her head as the ground rushed up to meet her, "Damn it Asuka! This is no time to daydream, concentrate...and show that boy what it means to be an Eva pilot!"

She flipped elegantly in the air, killing a good deal of her downward velocity and slowing her acceleration considerably. The impact was still hard though, you can't stop a several-thousand metric ton machine from impacting the ground hard in any event.

She felt the sand sink deeply below her feet.

If only the Eva had toes.

Eva Unit 01's comm link re-appeared. The boy whom she knew only by reputation stared blankly out to sea.

"...Here it comes..." was all his soft voice said.

Off in the distance, a plume of water neared the beach.

The Eva's gripped their weapons and connected to the mobile power conduits. It was time to dance that eternal waltz again...time to dance the serenade with death.

So it goes.

***

"DAMN IT!"

Asuka's fist impacted the metal locker with enough force to dent it. She winced and cursed again in a softer tone as she gently released the pressure on the knuckles and pulled it away from the convexed stainless steel door. The hand was a bright red, there would be a bruise on it later tonight. At least, that's what she thought.

"Stupid! Idiotic! Bastard Ikari! Even if he managed to kill three Angels mostly by himself, that boy's a total KLUTZ!" Asuka shouted the last word fiercely and punched the locker again, this time with her right hand. The locker whined a bit in a meek protest at the abuse it was receiving, but remained silent after that. Right now, even an Eva wouldn't dare talk back to this hot-headed young lady.

It would be a detriment to one's health.

Asuka ripped her hand away from the newer and larger dent with a cry of supreme frustration, which sounded a lot like a berserk Unit 01...had anyone been there to hear her. Perhaps it was fortunate for them that they weren't...weren't anywhere near the building that is.

The PA system clicked on, and the musical voice of Misato Katsuragi wafted into the changing rooms, "Shinji Ikari and Asuka Sohryu, please report to sub-level 28B, second district...I repeat: Shinji Ikari and Asuka Sohryu, please report to sub-level 28-"

Asuka slammed the locker shut and stormed out into the labyrinthine hallways of NERV headquarters.

"What the hell do they want from me NOW?!"

***

Shinji walked aimlessly through the halls of the headquarters building. It was so...lonely. So quiet. He could have walked for miles through these clean-swept and sterilized, white hallways...and never run in to anyone if he wanted. Such a big building for so only a few handful of people.

And the Eva's...always space needed for those monsters. And their toys.

Shinji came to a T-section and briefly glanced at the directory listings. Nearby was a small lounge area with several dozen machines as well as a few hard and uncomfortable-looking chairs around a half-dozen tables littered the area.

He heard a match flare. Shinji turned to face the opposite direction and came face-to-face with a taller, brown haired man who had a collection of week-old growth patching his face.

"Hello. You're Shinji Ikari, aren't you?" the man asked in a pleasant tone before he dragged on his cigarette.

Shinji nodded and answered back, "Y-Yes I am...do I, know you?"

The man shook his head no, the ponytail hidden behind his neck flipping in and out of view as his head changed direction, "Nope, I've never even met you before. But I do know who you are."

Shinji frowned, "How? You aren't NERV personnel...and we've never released information to the press-"

"Hah!" the man laughed and strutted past Shinji, heading for the vending machines. His hand pulled out a small wad of bills and he lifted a few out. "Care for something to drink?"

"No, thank you."

The man shrugged, "Suit yourself. My name's Ryoji Kaji by the by...and you are Shinji Ikari, the Third Child: Pilot of Evangelion Unit 01."

Shinji moved a little closer to the intersecting wall, "You seem to have me at a slight disadvantage Mr. Kaji. You know who I am but I know nothing about you."

Kaji punched a button and listened to the hum of gears and the rattle of the can fall into the receiving bin. He reached in an removed his chilled tea, popping the tab with a swift flick of his forefinger as he moved to seat himself at a table.

"Yes, well...Being Asuka's guardian, I had a chance to review your files...to make sure that you wouldn't be the sort to take advantage of my poor, sweet girl.

Shinji knew he was gaping at the man, but he just couldn't help it. In fact, it was taking an extreme amount of his willpower just to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the man's comments. He cleared his throat.

"I think, she could very well take care of herself," Shinji nervously clenched his hand shut as a slight ghost pain from his foot rushed through his synapses.

Yes...well take care of herself indeed. That stomp with her heels almost broke his bone. Shinji was sure that he had a nasty bruise waiting for him when he stopped to take off his shoe.

"Please, Shinji..." Kaji gestured to an opposing seat. "I'd hate to make you stand all day."

Shinji hesitated a bit, doubts running through his imagination. But there was something about this man; something in the way he acted, even something in the way his tie hung loosely below the unbuttoned collar of his plain blue dress shirt. Something...to trust in.

He sat down.

Kaji tapped the ashes off of his tip and pulled in another deep breath. Poisonous stuff really, destined to kill him in thirty years or so...unless something else got to him first.

"Well, I can tell by your look that you've experienced the hell-raising side of Asuka's personality," he jokingly commented before drinking his cold tea.

"Yeah. I mean...I don't feel angry at her because of what she did to me," he absently rubbed his kneecap, where another well-placed kick had injured him slightly. "But she's so worked up about losing...I don't really know why."

Kaji chuckled again and leaned forward conspiritously, "Shinji my lad, that is a lesson you will just have to go on without solving. Hell, I don't even know why she's so worked up over Eva most of the time."

A little voice rang through his head: Liar...

"My advice to you is: just let her have her way, it's not worth the medical bills to do otherwise."

Shinji blinked for a moment, arching his eyebrows and looking away in confusion for a moment before glancing back, "Um...okay. Thanks...I, guess."

"Don't mention it," Kaji glanced down at his watch and slowly counted off the seconds.

Just as he reached zero, right before Shinji could ask him why he was looking at his watch so intently, the PA system crackled to life.

Shinji Ikari and Asuka Sohryu, please report to sub-level 28B, second district...I repeat: Shinji Ikari and Asuka Sohryu, please report to sub- level 28-"

Shinji looked startled and a bit more than confused now as he pushed himself back from the table and stood.

"What do they want from me know?" he softly asked himself.

"Excuse me?" Kaji leaned forward and cupped a hand behind an ear. "Come again?"

Shinji looked at the man blankly for a moment and then shook his head from side to side, feeling a bit silly for talking to himself.

"Nothing, it's not important. Look, I'd better get going..." Shinji gave a polite bow to Kaji and began to walk away from the lounge backwards. "It was nice talking to you, Mr. Kaji."

Kaji gave the boy a slight inclination of his head, "The same to you Mr. Ikari, I hope we meet again!"

He almost smiled a bit when Shinji shuddered at the sound of his last name.

'Yes, no love lost between that boy and his maker,' Kaji sourly thought as Shinji turned and hustled out of sight. 'Well, at least Misato is taking my advice...though I don't envy that kid. Seven days with Asuka is enough to drive any man insane.'

Kaji pulled another drag on his cigarette, only to find that it had gone out during his talk with the young Eva pilot. He yanked his matchbook out and groaned as he noticed that all of the matches were gone.

'So much for having a nice, quiet, relaxing break from reality.'

His cellphone rang.

"Hello, Kaji speaking...yes. I'm on my way...I'll retrieve the 'package' from its storage place and bring it to you right away. Understood."

The cellphone beeped as the connection was ended, the young spy groaned as he shifted his weight forward in preparation to heave himself out of the chair. To bad too, it was just getting comfortable. But you can't expect comfort when you work for the devil himself. A devil with a children's crusade in his hands.

It was time to see Ikari.

~~~

Dedicated to all those who read this story:

"Chapter Five: Moment's In between"

War...is bad?

War is Hell.

Then what is Hell?

...Life in War.

-Seldon.

Shinji sighed and glanced briefly at Asuka as she continued to argue with his guardian, Misato Katsuragi. The whole protest thing was getting stale now, mainly because she had been using the same words and phrases for the past six days. Insulting him, his piloting skills, his lack of military tact...the list went on for quite a long time.

And it didn't end with the practices either, much to Shinji's chagrin. At night she continued to verbally abuse him...about his clothes, about his embarrassed stutter when she pulled some stunt or another, about his...his father.

"You're asking me to lover my abilities to Shinji's level!" that was Asuka, yammering away about how incompetent he was. To tell the truth, he wasn't even sure if he 'was' competent enough to do what Misato wanted. And they had only the rest of today and tonight to get it right...or they would die.

So it goes.

"Besides..." Asuka swung away from the wall she was examining and faced the still-silent Rei Ayanami, standing with her usual mask of indifference by Mr. Kaji.

He had been hanging around with the two pilots all week, helping them train and sync as they attempted to dance and move together. Though, he served more as a distraction for Asuka...or a target for Misato's slowly mounting frustration and rage.

It was Asuka more than Misato that got to him first. A strange relationship with those two females, that Mr. Kaji had...one was his old love, Shinji got this firsthand from the source himself, and the other had a crush on him that just might supercede her love for the Eva's.

'Though I doubt that,' Shinji darkly thought as Misato turned away from Asuka's red-faced visage and leveled her gaze on Rei's pale complexion.

"Rei?" she gestured to Shinji.

'Hun? What's going on?' Shinji felt left behind, he was daydreaming again...and now he was lost and confused. Asuka smirked and backed away, extending her arms before Rei passed by and giving the blue albino a mock bow of recognition. Rei came in close and turned around smartly.

'She's...going to dance with, me?' was all Shinji had time to think before he found himself set into position as the music began to play.

The first movement came up, a low bow with their arms extended in opposing directions. The tempo beat faster, the music soared; the second movement arrived as soon as the first ended, a high reach with their right knee's extended and their right arm flung straight back. Then the third arrived, both Eva pilots pivoted inwards and leapt gracefully forward, their cheeks nearly touching within the confined area. Soon they circled to the right in time with the music, Rei's skirt fluttered and flapped with the sudden motions. Shinji shook his head quickly, sending a small spray of hot salt- water spraying across the room.

Asuka's scowl dropped further as the two continued to dance...in perfect unison.

"If Unit 00 wasn't being repaired right now...I wouldn't hesitate to pair Rei with Shinji," Misato glared at the Second Child from the corner of her eye. 'This is it, take the bait girl...take the bait and rise to the challenge!'

Asuka lowered her head and hid her eyes behind the fringe of her hair, "Fine then...why not just send her in my Unit 02!"

She barreled past Misato after her last shout, calling back with a halfhearted, "Excuse me."

Then she was gone and out the door...heading for who knows where. The music ended with Rei and Shinji staring blankly at a humored Kaji and a worried Major.

"Dammit! So much for the jealousy gambit...oh, God! We only have a few hours left...what'll we do, what'll we do?"

Kaji smiled from his slouched pose on the wall and called to Shinji, "What are you doing? This is part of your job too...go after her."

"Bu-but?"

"No buts! Just do it," Kaji commanded the fourteen-year-old, he had worked hard for the past few days to gain a measure of the boy's trust and acceptance. To be a friendly face in an unfriendly world...of women, and now it was going to pay off.

At least, Kaji thought it would pay off.

"...Okay, fine," Shinji finally acceded to the command and started walking for the open door.

"Atta boy! Go find her and talk to her a bit, calm her down and get her to come back."

Shinji hesitated a moment at the door and bobbed his head down twice, then he took off in search of one wayward Evangelion pilot.

Kaji turned and looked at a seething Misato. She had a glimmer in her eyes, a glimmer that was starting to worry him as she lifted her palm to cup her chin.

"Kaji..?"

The man in question gulped, "Yes, Misato?"

"Did you plan this?" her question was innocent...the steel of her voice wasn't.

Now he was worried, "M-Me? No! Why would I do something like get Asuka and Shinji to stay in the same room together for nearly a whole week just to defeat an Angel that could mean the end of the world...if I was just going to be planning for something else?"

She glared at him.

Kaji wondered if his health insurance was updated recently as he started to edge towards the still-open door, 'Get out into the hall and you're home free Kaji-man. Just don't let her catch you...'

"Excuse me Captain Katsuragi," Kaji breathed a small sigh of relief as Rei stepped between the pair and faced her commanding officer. "Am I to be paired with Shinji as you stated?"

Misato blinked at the question and withdrew her head a bit before she answered, "N-No, Rei...that was just a trick I tried to use on Asuka."

"I, do not understand...why would you want to trick the Second Child?"

Kaji edged further towards the door, 'Good job Rei, now...just a little bit longer and-'

"Well, I wanted her to get jealous and try harder to sync with Shinji," Misato sighed and ran a hand through her long, purple hair; twirling a bit on the end of her finger. "But it seems that it backfired and now she doesn't want to do it."

Rei paused for several seconds and then nodded, "I understand...am I needed for anything else?"

"No Rei, you are dismissed," Misato barely had the words out before Rei had passed the still-present Kaji and turned out of the room. Her eyes narrowed at the suspiciously guilty-looking Kaji pressed against the wall, "And where do you think you're going?"

'Oh, shit...run Kaji-boy!'

The NERV security techs had a good afternoon that day, they played and replayed the chase between the unshaven, ponytail-wearing NERV acquaintance and their commanding officer all throughout the rest of their shift. And left it on pause for the next shift to watch as well.

This would be a good day to remember. For some.

For others however...

The small, European-style garden was well aired, its location being near the center of the Geofront and at a juncture of two cross-ventilation winds that surface pumps forced into the massive underground base. Trees rustled and creaked as their trunks bent and swayed with the force of the air, causing more than one green leaf to fall away from it's branch and tumble to the ground. To wither and die away from it's source of food and water.

So it goes.

Shinji had been here only once, right after the Fifth...right after Rei was re-admitted to the hospital for extraneous injuries. It had been peaceful then, and it was peaceful now. He supposed that it was no surprise that he should find the auburn-haired girl here, though with the ever-present winds breezing through the area...he wondered if she was cold.

He walked up to her back, softly and quietly, not daring to make a sound. Another gush of air flew by, Asuka shivered.

"Sohryu..."

"Don't say it! I don't want to hear anything from your sorry, pathetic mouth!"

Shinji paused, a scant few meters away from the girl as she huddled herself together and stared out over the forested Geofront. A railcar rumbled its way up to the surface of Tokyo-3, it's windows glinted in the afternoon sunlight that had been reflected from mirror to mirror until it eventually entered the vast underground lair of NERV.

Shinji considered what everything would look like if those mirrors weren't operating, 'Probably very dark...and cold.'

"Why am I the one to get yelled at?" Asuka asked loudly from her hunched position. It was very cold in her skimpy and skintight dancing uniform, but she would be damned before she admitted that to this idiot!

Shinji chose not to answer, and Asuka continued to vent, " I'm doing it perfectly. You're the bumbling klutz! You're the slow-poke! WHY TAKE IT OUT ON ME!?"

Silence fell, and the boy shifted his weight uncomfortably as he stared at her back.

"...I can only do what I can, Sohryu-"

"If you're going to call me anything, call me Asuka dammit! You make me feel like some stupid wind-up doll whenever you call me by my last name!"

Maybe you are, Asuka. 'Shut up! SHUT UP!'

Shinji hesitated again and then nodded, "O-okay, Asuka...look, you and I know that if you don't pilot Eva that they'll kick you out and find someone else."

The girl stiffened.

"You can't let this get in the way of piloting Eva...Asuka, people up there depend on us to protect them," Shinji inclined his chin and stared up to the lowered buildings of Tokyo-3 as they hung suspended from the ceiling of the Geofront. 'A whole city of moles-'

"I know. I know!...Just, leave me alone for a while will ya? I'm tired of doing all of this nonsense anyway."

He didn't want to leave her alone like this, but he didn't have the will to disobey her orders. He had learned that lesson quite well over the past week...besides, it was Thursday. And he was running late.

"If...if you want me to-"

"Well I do! Just...go!" she flung her hand out in the direction of the headquarters building and held it there until she heard Shinji's tennis shoes scrap across the stone walkway. Gently, she lowered her hand and folded it back under her legs as she glared across the treetops.

'Stupid Shinji, Stupid Ayanami, Stupid Misato...and, and Stupid Kaji. They all think that I'm not able to do this...well I am! I'm the Great Asuka Langley Sohryu, Second Child...Pilot of Eva Unit 02!' she lifted her head and a maniacal glee rushed into her eyes. "And I will not be defeated."

A yawn escaped her lips, she glanced at the sunlight filtering through the Geofront and then stood. 'Still some time left to the day, but I won't get anything done if I'm tired...best to nap a bit first.'

She stumbled over to a nearby bench in the gondola and wearily plopped down onto its hard and rough surface. A groan escaped her lips as her torso straightened out and her insides shifted to adjust, the aches and pains of her five hours in sync training quickly catching up to her.

Soon though, she felt nothing but the bliss of sleep.

***

Shinji walked through the abandoned streets, taking a left turn here...a right there. Going up three blocks and catching a bus that would take him across town. The bus, like the city, was deserted.

'Everyone's evacuating for the Angel attack tomorrow...I just hope that they get everybody out this time...' The bus slowed and he stepped off in front of the Art Museum. The lights were still on, and the doors were unlocked. The old man was still inside, reading the daily paper and smoking on his pipe. He looked up as Shinji opened the door.

"Hello, Shinji," he said softly, quickly dropping his paper to the desk and shifting his chair back so he could stand up. A curl of smoke drifted out of the corner of his mouth as he released the scarred wooden pipe from the grasp of his yellowed teeth, it lazily wafted up to the ventilation ducts. Where it was sucked in and dissipated into the air.

"It's certainly been one of those weeks, eh? Why are you wearing those ridiculous clothes?"

Shinji was silent for a moment as his brain processed those last words, slowly he lowered his head and eyes and looked at his current state of dress. For some reason, he was amused by the sight of the garish black bodysuit and its colorful top. He laughed.

"I-It's nothing, just something I wear for my dancing lessons."

"Dancing lessons?" the old man shrugged and jammed his pipe back between his teeth. "Well, so long as you're here, could you help me with something?"

Shinji looked up and smiled at the man, "Sure."

He waved the young boy over to one of the distant corners of the main showroom. Sitting up in a corner by an empty wall was a flat, wooden crate, tools to pry open its closed corners lay strewn across the top.

"We got this in today, but I haven't been able to get anybody to help me put it up yet."

"What is it?" Shinji asked as he grabbed a hammer.

"That's a surprise!"

The old man's eyes twinkled and smoke curled around his nose as he smiled warmly at Shinji, who smiled back and then turned to start opening the side he faced. After a short few moments, the front boards of the box were opened. A small avalanche of foam peanuts scattered across the floor as Shinji and the old man began to reach inside for the edges of the frame.

Another pull and another avalanche of soft-white plastic fell across the floor.

"Right now...one, two, Lift!"

Shinji complied with the old man's instructions and together they managed to lift the bottom of the frame clear of the crate and onto the floor, now covered in a small sea of foam peanuts. They paused there, sweating and heaving from the exhausting task. Then they nodded and stepped around to the front. The picture was huge, nearly three meters across and two high...excluding the massive, deeply-stained and eloquently carved wood frame that surrounded it. The colors of the painting were swirled and mixed, bright oranges and dark grays swirled and shifted from destroyed buildings. Deep violets and small specks of silver lined the background, a bright circle of white shimmered in the top left.

And one lime and purple Eva stood, crouched over by a ruined building...the Third Angel barely half a kilometer away.

It was his first fight...his first battle of the Children's Crusade he was in the thick of.

"Marvelous, isn't it?" the old man beamed as he lovingly gazed at his new painting. Shinji found it hard to speak, and let the man go on. "I had a friend of mine paint it...I took a picture of this, back during the first fight, long time ago. Well before I ever met you, Shinji."

'Another who I could have hurt,' he thought. "Weren't you afraid of dying?"

The man blinked, then motioned for Shinji to lift his side up and swing it around. The pair then wordlessly proceeded to position the massive painting onto its large, custom-made hangers that were carefully positioned in the galleries wall. They finished twenty minutes later and then stepped back to admire it once more.

The old man tapped out the ashes of his pipe and then answered, "Yes, by God I was afraid...but you've got to remember Shinji, I'm an old man who doesn't have much to live for anymore."

Shinji stepped back and looked at his friend as he talked. He noticed that his fingers brushed against the tip of the scar he had on his right forearm; Shinji had never seen it, and he had never asked how the old man had gotten it.

The old man would explain it when he wanted to...if he wanted to.

"No family, no distant relatives...no friends, except for you. All I have left is this gallery...all of this art," he gestured around to the cold marble statues and the slick surfaces of the oil paintings. "I never go to the shelters...I just, don't want to die cowering in a hole..." his eyes faded, glazed over a bit as he talked now. It scared Shinji a bit to hear him continue, "...Not like them...never like the rest of them."

The old man shook his head a bit and gnawed on the end of his pipe before he looked at his wristwatch.

"Hey Shinji, it's getting close to nine. Isn't your guardian going to be worried about you?"

"Hun? Oh, yeah...I'd better go then," Shinji rubbed the back of his head and smiled at his friend.

"I'll walk you to the door."

"Well, shouldn't we clean up first?" Shinji pointed to the strewn wood and foam packing. The old man shook his head, "Naw, I'll get it later."

They started to slowly walk to the front, pausing a bit to admire some of the art and sculpture as they went.

"Y'know..."

"What?"

"I saw that girl come in here yesterday."

"Who?" Shinji turned away from the impressionist work they were passing by and focused on his friends face.

"That red head from last week...took me by surprise when she walked in here. Nearly gave me a heart attack."

Shinji chuckled softly, 'Asuka would give "anybody" a heart attack if they weren't expecting her.'

"She was nice though, polite," the old man looked down at the shorter boy. "She was wondering if you were here."

Shinji blushed as he remembered why she had gone looking for him yesterday, then turned his head away so that the old man wouldn't see how red his face was, "R-Really? Why?"

He shrugged and pulled his pipe out of his mouth, "She wouldn't say, but she walked back to the German section and looked around for you...didn't find you of course. She just didn't believe me when I said you only came here on Thursdays," he stopped by the desk as Shinji continued on to the exits. "I think she likes you."

Shinji jerked to a stop, sweat started to run cold down his back. The old man laughed.

"You kids these days...goodnight, Shinji."

"Yeah," Shinji's stomach raged with a bit of doubt and fear. "G- goodnight...I'll see you next Thursday."

The old man waved to the boy before he took off and ran down the street.

'That poor kid, suffers so much to protect this city...He still believes that he is keeping the fact that he's the pilot for that monster away from me. Well, I'll let him think that way. It's better for both of us.'

The old man retrieved his keys and started to lock all of the doors. Soon after he opened the master light controls and switched off all but the necessary lightings. Whistling a tune from better times, he jogged up the stairs to his small apartment at the very rear of the museum.

It was a bland place, but one well-suited for a bachelor curator. Kitchen, living room, bedroom...darkroom. It was here that he went first. He switched on the red light and seated himself at the bench, then pulled out a magnifying glass and unclasped the first picture.

It was of the lime and purple Eva and the Fourth Angel...a few pictures down hung another series of photographs of the orange Eva as well as the other, fighting against the Fifth. A newspaper clipping of the newest red and black Eva in its fight against the Sixth Angel was pinned to a board behind him.

"Not bad...not bad at all."

***

Shinji entered the room with a word of apology on his lips, only to find no one was there. A small frown crossed his face as he gently rapped on the bathroom door, preparing for a bitter shout to ring through his ears at any moment.

None came.

Shinji opened the door and stepped into the stark room. He waited a moment, though he wasn't really sure why, and then began to strip the gaudy dancing costume off of his body.

'We're still not ready to fight tomorrow.'

His hand reached for the cold steel handle and gave it a twist, water started streaming out into the shower stall. Shinji jerked his hand back as it inadvertently was sprayed by the jet of water.

The water was cold.

***

Asuka woke up and immediately regretted her decision to sleep on the bench. Her entire body was stiff and aching, her muscles were tangled in bunches and knots all along her backsides and her neck. Her hair was a mess.

"...those idiots..."

She stood up and wrapped her arms under her breasts as she started to walk back to the headquarters building. Back to her room and that idiot Shinji Ikari.

She shivered as a gust of artificial wind blew across the expanse of the Geofront.

The wind was cold.

~~~

Dedicated to Tchernobyl, to whom I would have never become what I'm still becoming today. ALL HAIL GOD, I mean, ASUKA-SAMA!!! ALL HAIL LORD IRON- BALLS!!! And go read Prior Acquaintances Damn your eyes!!

"Chapter Six: Plans for War"

Aren't you cold?

Are you cold?

Yes.

Then have my jacket.

-Seldon.

Thunderclaps in the distance.

A bright flash of light.

Crack, the flash of the bullet's powder. A deafening explosion ripping through the city.

Crack, Snap, the sound of the lead bullet cutting through the underbrush.

The light reddens, turns deep orange and a maroon red.

Crack, Snap, Whiz, the small seekers of life hiss past the ear and speed on to other destinations.

A final rumble.

Crack, Snap, Whiz, Fwip...another is found and his life is forfeit. The price demanded by the man behind the weapon, demanded by his finger. Another life is gone and lost forever.

So it goes.

The old man screamed as he awoke to that final rumble, cold sweat flashing through the air as their tentative hold on his wrinkled flesh gave way to motion and acceleration. Orange light streamed through his apartment window, and minor tremors shook the frame of the museum.

He didn't hear it though. What he heard was the gentle twip, twip, twip of a helicopters blades.

He heard the cries of the wounded and the dying. He heard the explosions of artillery shells sounding off their thunderous shout in that hot, steamy jungle waste. He felt the small bits and pieces of dirt, grass, and mangled corpse fall from the sky like rain. He felt the hot wash of blood flow across his forearm.

The old man curled up his knees and clasped his hands together. He began to cry...and pray.

The air conditioning cut on.

***

The three boys walked slowly through the empty streets of a hot Tokyo-3. Shimmers of heat radiation lifted off of the concrete roadways and soared high into the air where it was slowly cooled to the point of gaining enough density to sink back down. And start the process of heat exchange all over again.

"...It's hot..." Kensuke Aida commented aloud for the benefit of the other two.

Toji nodded slowly, "No kiddin'".

Shinji sighed and adjusted the strap of his bag, 'I wonder where Asuka was today?'

"So, Ikari...that new, girl, from class is an Eva pilot?"

Shinji nodded, 'Jeez, was that ever a disaster.'

The reactions of his two friends was...less than gentlemanly like. Well, if you wanted to be specific...then again, lets not go into specifics. Just accept the fact that the revelation wasn't met with the best of responses.

"I feel for you man," Toji continued on. "Not only do you haveta put up wit her, you've also gotta deal with the midterms coming up."

Kensuke groaned, "Did you 'have' to bring that subject up? We only have two days to prepare ourselves if you'd like to recall." "I'm," Shinji slowly breathed out. "Preparing for the worst."

"WHAT?!" Toji yelled out, tossing out his arm and catching the smaller boy in a painful neck vise. "Whaddapen t'da grade-A plus suckup we all know 'n respect?!"

Shinji grimaced and slid free of the painful grasp, then attempted to explain himself, "Well, unlike you...I haven't had a minute to study since I've been here."

Suddenly Toji and Kensuke fell into what Shinji liked to call their "operational battle mode". It was a scary thing to see, the two friend's using a portion of their brain to full extent. And possibly dangerous to be around...well, for the viewer's person and property that is.

"No sweat!" Toji exclaimed, falling into a hunched posture and raising his fists parallel to his face. "We'll discuss battle plans at Ikari's crib."

Kensuke was jumping with glee, "I second the motion!"

Shinji was...well, obstinate, "Why my place?!"

The two turned and with an eery synchronization answered that question with a big grin and a happy tone, "Because we'll get to see Misato!"

'Why am I not surprised?' was all the poor boy could think.

As they walked away one could hear the sudden outburst of ideas and stratagems that the pair would undertake in order to assure themselves of a passing grade. Immediately followed by a sharp and bitter response from the trailing boy as to how that would never work. Eventually the talk settled out and moved on to other things.

"Hey, you hear about the class trip to Okinawa?"

"Heh, Yeah...soo good! All those hot babes in skimpy suits! I can' wait!"

"Is that all you think about Toji?"

"Well at least I'm man enough to admit it! Unlike you Ikari!"

"Yeah right, you know that he's going to be oogiling the Class Rep as usual."

"Kensuke! Get back here you-"

The remaining boy laughed quietly as his two friends began to run, well, one was running, the other was fleeing to tell the truth, down the street. After a moment he hitched his bag higher on his shoulder and took off at a leisurely gait himself.

Cicadas began their drone as the heat of the day slowly gave ground in herldment of the approach of nightfall.

Heat shimmered off of the street, rose, and was cooled by the prevailing winds high above the city. Only to sink down and begin the process all over again.

***

Kouzo Fuyutski walked smartly into the cold office of his superior, Gendo Ikari. The self-made lesser Satan himself. In his old and bent hands he held copies of several important items on the upcoming council agenda, he clutched them tightly to his side as he walked stiffly through the cavernous space with its underfloor lighting and its Serophatic diagram ceiling. He walked with pride, knowing that he was possible the only NERV personnel under Ikari's command that he could not intimidate into co- operation.

'Not that it helps me any. His goals and mine are the same after all,' he thought.

Gendo folded his hands across the desk and raised his eyes to look across the frames of his glasses, "The Eighth?"

Kouzo reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a small scrap of paper, he held it before his failing eyes and slowly re-read the scant information he had scrawled out. Slowly he lowered the scrap and extended his arm, finally letting it slide free of his fingers and float down to the desktop.

"As expected, it will arrive by the passage of liquid fire."

Gendo smirked. It was the evil smirk that only mustachioed and goateed villains of the B-movie sci-fi era could even come close too. Kouzo shivered.

"Excellent, send Lieutenant Hyuuga and Captain Katsuragi to the relay station tomorrow. They will validate the targets position and then I will make the proposal."

Kouzo stiffened at the last mention, "Ikari...declaring an A-17 will mean treading on dangerous ground. The committee will never stand for it. They will fear another Second Impact-"

"This is already known to me...but our Captain will see this as an opportunity to use the Eva's in an offensive manner. There is also the extended damages to the city that the committee will consider as well."

Kouzo frowned as Gendo turned his chair around to stare out the window, 'Though, he is right...the constant rebuilding of the city costs "twice" as much as the Evangelion repairs. Perhaps the A-17 will be a beneficial opportunity after all.' Aloud he continued, "But we must still consider the dangers of the operation. Sending an Evangelion into a situation that will be needed to destroy the Eighth will require some...tricky, piloting. Are you that confidant about your son's abilities?"

Kouzo could have sworn that he heard a short chortle from the frigid bastard.

"My son will not have the opportunity to perform this operation...the Second Child will be more than able to do this job. She will see it as a way to further her reputation and gain some, tally, for her ego. She will carry out the operation."

"Still the question remains, do you believe her capable of performing the necessary tasks and take out the Angel without causing serious injuries to her Evangelion?"

Gendo turned around and opened one of his file cabinets, he pulled free a dusty manilla folder and dropped it heavily onto his desk. The scrap of paper Fuyutski had let fall floated clear of the expansive surface and dropped lazily to the dark recesses of the floor below. Gendo began to thumb through the file, stopping for a moment to read some key sentence, and then moving on for several more pages until he found another sentence of some import.

"Well?"

"The Second Child's survival is of no real importance. Though it would be useful to us if she survived this encounter...her position here is secondary to the First and Third's."

Kouzo was stunned by that revelation, after all: for all her ego and her boasts...she was still the top synched pilot, "So what are you doing to prepare for certain...contingencies, that may crop up?"

Gendo flipped a page and continued to read for a moment before he responded, "The First will stay here in Tokyo-3...the Third will standby on site in case the Eighth manages to get past the Second. But...he will be ordered not to take any action that may endanger his Evangelion."

'So if the poor girl is being massacred down there...' Kouzo frowned and inclined his head with a small grunt of acknowledgment. Finally, curiosity got the better of him and he dared to venture a question, "Ikari...exactly what are you reading?"

Gendo smirked again, "A history of a very old man...history can be quiet useful to humanity should they actually take the time to learn its mistakes and prevent them from happening again."

Kouzo nodded and then politely dismissed himself, Gendo barely even noticed his teachers disappearance.

'Yes Ikari...history can teach humanity several things. Like how one man with weapons no one else had can become ruler of half the world. And how badly that ruler can abuse his power...and how long others let him abuse it before they came and dragged him down from his high pestle...and into the hangman's noose.'

Footsteps echoed in the hallway.

The air conditioning cut off.

***

Night was falling, outside of the museum. But the old man didn't care. He was too frightened to care tonight. It was that dream again, the same one he'd been having for a long time now.

The gunfire, the hot jungle with its muggy, almost liquid air. The artillery shells exploding all around his thin and shaking body. The screams.

The screams.

The screams.

They never stopped...they never stopped screaming. Why didn't they stop screaming?

Night fell, his apartment grew dark. Finally, he lifted his head free from his arms and winced at the sudden, sharp pain that lanced out from his stiff and sore muscles. He had been like this for three days, and he could feel it in his bones. He could feel it in his flesh, he could feel it in his mind.

"I'm really fucked up."

The cicadas droned on outside his window.

~~~

Dedicated to...whomever wants it to be dedicated to them

"Chapter Seven: Queries, Questions, and Mobilizations"

Why is the sky blue?

Because the grass is green.

Why are there wars?

Because the sky is blue.

-Seldon

Shinji groaned and clutched feebly at his churning stomach as he rolled out of his small bed and onto the hard floor. It took a lot of willpower to prevent him from heaving out the boiling contents of his stomach right then and there, but he hastily threw himself upright, barely stopping the outward flow of half-digested food and acid that was burning its way up his throat. A few stomach gases still continued upwards, however, and soon filled his mouth with a sour taste.

'Kensuke,' his mind groaned out. 'That is the last time I ever, ever let you cook for a party.'

He released another groan before he crawled his way up along the base of his bed and then shuffled out of his room. He stumbled his way through the dark hallway, occasionally releasing a very mild oath as his toes connected with the very solid boxes of his new roommate.

One, Asuka Langley Sohryu.

His eye furrowed and the corner of his lips turned down in a half-frown as he contemplated his new situation. It wasn't an all too unpleasant one from the perspective of an outsider...but that outsider never had to live with these two anyhow.

Finally, Shinji stumbled into the living room, still full with the mess of last nights housewarming party that Misato had insisted upon for Asuka. For some reason, both of his friends had promptly agreed to the party and insisted on helping out. Kensuke did the cooking and Toji helped Misato with the decorations.

'And he didn't do too bad of a job either,' Shinji considered, looking appreciatively across the barely lit room. He watched the room for a moment, hesitating to begin the arduous task of cleaning. Savoring the soft chill of the morning air as it washed over his bare feet. He could really get to like this feeling, perhaps even stand here forever...and that's why he had to stop.

"...Time to work."

He set himself to his task with thorough, if unenthusiastic, adue. And in short order had everything fixed up or stowed safely away.

'Now, time for breakfast. I wonder what Asuka would like?'

He shuffled into the kitchen and briefly glanced to the clock, it's radium illuminescence glowing brightly in the dim light of the morning. Noting the time, he decided to make something special. He opened the refrigerator and bent down to the lowest levels of its inner depths. Out stretched his hand, weaving in and around the cans of unopened beer, closing in on his goal.

Only to find nothing there.

'What? I thought...Misato.'

His hand continued to scrabble about in that dark corner, searching for anything that might have been missed by his guardian. It only encountered cold plastic paneling.

Shinji sighed and came back out, 'So much for that idea. I need a better hiding place.' Instead he reached for the miso soup containers and pulled one free of the rack. It may be plain, but it was better than nothing.

He slid the door shut and turned to the small collection of drawers, pulling out one and then another as he searched for the proper utensils to make the soup with.

It was his third try before he found them, sitting under a note.

Shinji blinked a bit before he pulled the note and the needed silverware out. He set the silverware next to the miso soup and walked over to the light switches. It was far too dark in the kitchen to read. A small click sounded through the apartment before the electric hum of the overhead lightbubs registered as they flooded the small room with their artificial light.

Shinji carefully read the note, then turned to face the balcony door.

The sun was coming over the horizon.

Elsewhere, the sun shone only slightly brighter than at Tokyo-3.

Misato glared with bleary eyes at her orders once more before growling in disapproval and tossing them away from her. Makoto Hyuuga glanced briefly at his superior before returning his eyes to the road to make a sharp turn.

"This sucks."

"Yes, Captain," he chose not to irk her any more than was necessary. Possibly the only choice he could have made without losing his head to her anger.

"Why the hell are we going here anyway?" Misato shifted and pulled down her issue beret over her red eyes. She'd only gotten half her normal sleep cycle before NERV had ever-so kindly ordered her out here to Mt. Asama to do a check on some 'anomaly'.

"Didn't the orders say, Ma'am?" Hyuuga made another sharp turn and gunned the heavy equipment vehicle up the steep roadway. He was tired as well, but not as much as Misato. Working the night shift does have some benefits.

"Yeah, well...no. Not really. All they tell me to do is come out here and do a deep scan of Mt. Asama. Apparently I'm to use their High-Pressure Magma Sensor to determine if there are any anomalies within the volcano."

Makoto coughed a bit as he swallowed some spit, "W-what? Are you saying that they believe that there is an Angel in Mt. Asama?"

Misato grunted and shrugged her shoulders, "Who know's what Commander Ikari thinks? I just follow my orders...but, if there is an Angel here..."

Hyuuga made another turn and sighed as the government sponsored facility came into view.

"What will you do if there is one here?"

Misato was silent for a long time after that, Hyuuga was beginning to think that she wouldn't answer him before she suddenly spoke up.

"...Then we'll have to do something about it. Before it crawls free of this hell hold."

The heavy vehicle slowly ground to a halt as Hyuuga gently applied the brakes. Before he was even fully stopped however, Misato had opened her door and was striding for the laboratory doors.

Makoto sighed as he set the heavy-duty parking brake on and turned off the engine, 'It's gonna be one of those days.'

***

"Asuka! Breakfast!"

Shinji stood over the steaming soup pot for a few moments longer, half listening for the expected footsteps coming down the hall, half watching the soup as it boiled and churned in it's pot. The apartment was silent but for the soft pops and rumbles of the moving water.

"Asuka!..."

Still, nothing moved in the apartment. Shinji turned away from the stove and stared hard at the clock on the wall opposite him. 'We don't have that long until we have to go...where is that girl?'

"Asuka?...Fine then."

Shinji quickly made some last adjustments to the soup and then lowered the heat on the stove. With a gently flick of his wrist he undid the apron string around his back and pulled it away from his body. In three strides he was out of the aromatic smells of the slowly warming kitchen and heading down the hallway towards the newly-occupied room of Asuka Langley Sohryu.

He weaved his way efficiently through the small collection of boxes, all with her signature handwriting on their side, and up to her door. There he hesitated, not quiet daring to boldly fling open the door and wake her up forcefully...but not quite willing to just knock and whisper.

So he took a middle path. He knocked softly three times, then opened the door when he got no answer. "Asuka..." he stopped before he even began, his eyes latched on to the empty bed of his new roommate and then quickly roved over the room. Searching for the missing Evangelion pilot.

"A-Asuka?" Shinji hesitantly asked, taking a small step inside the room and swiveling his head to check the wall beside the door.

"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?!"

"WAUGH!"

Shinji turned and attempted to run back out of the door, only to find that his feet weren't in the same alignment as his head. Nor was that his only problem, as his feet suddenly tangled themselves together and then connected with a misplaced box. Shinji soon found himself falling to the side and forward a bit, colliding with the wall and falling across another collection of partially emptied boxes. He collapsed in a heap of soft clothing however, and was spared a very painful landing.

Or, if one looked at it another way, was delivered into a very painful pummeling. For the boxes he landed in were filled with Asuka's undergarments.

It was from this collection of white underclothes that Shinji slowly poked his head out from, only to wish that he hadn't. Asuka, wrapped in nothing but a towel around her chest and waist, stood at the door.

Her hair was dripping.

"Y-YOU PERVERT! GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!!" she shouted at the poor boy, who scrambled to obey. Safely retreating to the immanent protection of the kitchen and its sharp knives...okay, maybe the kitchen wasn't all that safe. Quickly making a strategic decision, Shinji swerved into his own room and slammed the door shut. Muted curses in several languages could be heard coming from across the hall.

'Oh,' he thought, breathing heavily as his heart tried to calm down. 'Shit.'

With tremendous effort, Shinji found a sense of calm and slowly eased back into a relaxed and normal body rhythm. His heart rate slowed, his breathing became normal, and he finally stopped shaking.

It didn't help him a few moments later though, when a cry reverberated through the thin walls of his room,

"Shinji! Get your lame ass back in this kitchen and fix me breakfast. Goddamned perverted bast-"

The rest faded out as she ducked into a different room and began to curse at any nearby object that fell under her gaze. Shinji felt his blood run cold.

'Oh, crap...I'm a dead man.'

After a minute passed, he finally moved from his position on his door and exited. After all, he was getting hungry too.

***

"Lowering the HPMS...depth now 500 meters and counting."

Misato grunted at the technician and continued to stare at the picture on Makoto's monitor. The live feed from the High-Pressure Magma Sensor was, blurry, at best. A red glare at worst, and fuzzy when in-between.

Not to mention that it was giving her a migraine.

"Continue to lower, another 500 meters please" she ordered. Misato ignored the glances between the civilian researchers who populated this facility and instead glared at the screen. 'Come on dammit, if you're there...show up already. If not, then stay hidden!'

"Depth is now 1200 meters, the pressure-resistant partition is cracking!"

"Continue to lower," Misato ordered again.

"Ms. Katsuragi!" one of the technicians spoke with a low, hissing voice.

"If it breaks," she interrupted before he could continue. "NERV will pay for the damages. Another 500 please."

Deep within the magma core of the volcano, a small and lonely machine continued to descend further into the rivers of fire. One moment it was next to just another vast expanse of liquid rock, and then...

"Monitoring a reaction!" Hyuuga exclaimed from his post.

"Start analysis."

He wasted no time and keyed in the appropriate commands. Data scrolled, readings and measurements were recorded and sent hurtling through the small, thin band of metal wires that connected that lonely probe to the surface. Then the pressure closed in on it, and the metal casings began to cave inwards.

A crunch sounded across the control room of the facility, followed by a collective groan of the workers.

"Did you get it?" Misato quietly asked Hyuuga.

"Yeah," he pulled the final images of the target up on his monitor. "It's an Angel."

Misato felt herself sag, "So here we go."

She abruptly turned around, the room fell silent. "From this point on this facility is under NERV control. All data regarding this incident is now classified Top Secret. From this point on, all contact with the outside world is to be sealed off, no contact will be allowed under any circumstances. Understand?"

The researchers were too stunned to respond. Hyuuga sent the data off to NERV headquarters.

Misato briskly marched out of the bewildered room and pulled her cellphone free of her pockets. Flicking it off of the passcode, she hurriedly flashed through the automated phone numbers until she reached the NERV listing. She keyed it in.

"Katsuragi here," Misato pushed open the lab door and turned right, heading down the windowed corridor until she reached the end of the hallway. Her gaze burned a hole into that unfortunate wall. "Patch me through to the bridge."

She waited a moment until one of the on-duty personnel picked up, "Katsuragi. It's an Angel...yes the data has been sent already. Outside connections are being terminated as we speak, the records will be confiscated as soon as we receive more staff on-site. I need an A-17 from Commander Ikari, top priority."

'Its time to take the war out of Tokyo-3,' was all she had time to think about before her training took over.

***

Shinji stared across the classroom at the blue haired wonder of his school, Rei Ayanami.

'She's so...mysterious. So, far off...I wonder what she's thinking about?'

The girl in question was looking far across the city, something that the school did have to offer to her since she had already completed this level of education several years ago. The view was...breathtaking. Because the school was set on one of the highest hills surrounding all of Tokyo-3, Rei was offered a view that could only be rivaled by a look from the Asaki Tower, near the middle of the city. Here though, it was quieter...more peaceful.

Three cellphones rang out, cutting through the old teacher's lecture with a harsh electronic scream. Shinji's was the first out, "Hello?"

The Children's Crusade was about to start anew.

~~~

"Chapter Eight: Lava, and Pink Skin"

Do people hate you?

Yes.

Why do they hate you?

Because, I am.

-Seldon.

...must go faster...

"ASUKA! RITSUKO?"

...must go faster...

"The Angels severed all but one of the pipes, its ripping!"

...Must Go Faster...

"I've done it but..."

...MUST GO FASTER!

"Is this the end?...Looks like it."

The final shreds of the heat-resistant rubber/metal synthetic slowly give way. Asuka starts to fall back into that fiery hell of liquid rock. She stares high above her as the Eva D-type equipment continues to cave and crinkle around her.

She falls.

"AHH!"

Shinji leaps up from the warm surface of the rock he was sunbathing on, his breathing wheezes in and out of his dry and scratchy throat. His eyes go wide as he rapidly jerks his head back and forth, searching for someone who is not there...but not far away either.

"Shinji? You partially drown yourself over there, or what?" Asuka's high, nasal voice wafted over the bamboo partition that seperated the two sides of the hot spring.

"Yeah, I mean...no, I'm fine," his palm came up and rested itself against his forehead, covering his eyes and nose. His fingers began to massage the temples, staving off the massive headache his poor abused synapses was conjuring up for him to deal with.

Asuka gave a smart, snotty humph from her side, "Well, you better not be doing anything over there! I swear, its boys like you that make this whole humanity look worse and worse every day-"

Asuka continued on for some time after, but he wasn't listing anymore. His mind was shut off to the outside world and instead focused on the nothingness of space. Shinji focused his eyes on the sunbathing Pen Pen nearby as he contemplated his current situation.

After a few moments, his neck suddenly jerked itself uncontrollably, snapping the boy out of his peaceful revery. He had enjoyed it, for the moment that he had it.

"Hey Shinji?"

Shinji cleared his throat twice before he found the ability to speak again, "Yes, Asuka?"

"Get out already, Misato says it's time to go."

"Fine," his voice lowered as he stood and walked through the waist-deep water to the sleeping penguin opposite him. "Just...fine."

Pen Pen wasn't happy that he was woken up.

***

Gendo Ikari stood at the door to the motor pool, he had been waiting there for only a few minutes...but his patience was already being tested. He had just been informed via cellular phone that the NERV convoy from the airfield had been delayed by several minutes due to a traffic accident.

He felt himself getting annoyed.

'That son of mine...quite, the antithesis of what I had hoped he would be,' he silently thought to himself as the first rumbles of the heavy-transport vehicles rolled into sight. Behind the first vehicle was a battered and melted Unit 01. 'Even with orders for him not to, he jumped in to save the Second Child...not at all what I wanted him to be.'

He was there for a reason of course, not a pleasant one to say the most of it. But a necessary one nonetheless. It was time for him to have a, 'discussion' with his son.

A few minutes later, the last transport glided to a stop next to the egress platform and a flustered and confused Misato Katsuragi stepped out, hand hastily pressed to her right eyebrow in a sloppy salute.

"S-Sir! I wasn't aware that you were going to meet us on the platform."

"Of course you didn't Captain, I only inform you of what you need to know," Gendo calmly warned the rigid Misato. 'Let the girl take that as a warning. She's become to...interested in certain subjects as of late.'

Dr. Akagi stepped off with the rest of the bridge crew in tow behind her. They all stopped and gave smart salutes before taking off under the watchful glare of Gendo.

"Is there anything I can do for you sir? I have the damage reports for both of th-"

"I came to discuss a matter with the Third Child, Captain. Is that a problem?"

Asuka stepped out from the vehicles door and slowly gazed between the two adults, she almost began to talk, but decided to fade quietly into the background for a change. She quickly dropped down below their line-of-sight and pressed her body up against the cool concrete of the platform. Whatever this is, it might be useful later on.

"No sir, that isn't a problem at all. I will go and wake him-"

"Not necessary," Gendo cut in once again, stepping around the stiff woman and proceeding towards the open hatch. "I will wake him."

Misato seemed to be at a loss for words, "Y-Yes, sir."

Gendo hesitated at the doorway and glanced back over his shoulder. Asuka moved into the shadows cast by the mammoth vehicle and held her breath.

"You are dismissed, Captain."

Misato nodded once before she smartly marched off, in perfect military stride. Her hand was crumpling the folders that held the damage and mission reports...they were crumpling very slowly. Asuka listened to the clear tap, tap, tap of Misato's heels until they faded into the distance. Gendo hadn't moved yet, as he was carefully watching the retreating form move away. Once he was sure that she was gone, he stepped into the heavy-transport.

***

Gendo watched his son for a short time as he slept. Shinji's skin was a deep crimson, possibly a side-effect from the neural pain he had received when he had leapt into the volcano. Something that Gendo hadn't expected the boy to do at all.

'Perhaps he has something more to him after all...or is this just another one of your unpredictable surges of emotion, Yui?'

Brusquely, he shook the pilot's shoulder and woke him from the restful sleep he was having. For once, a sleep that held no dreams or nightmares for him.

Shinji's eyes blinked rapidly and his hands came up to clear away the grime that had collected in his short nap, "Are we, are we there? Misat-"

Shinji stopped short as he finally saw the person who had woken him none-to- gently from his well-deserved rest. His blood ran cold and that small flicker of hate and anger that often surged and flared in the back of his mind, exploded. A maelstrom of malice and pure, unadulterated resentment poured into his blood and body. In that short nanosecond, his brain came totally on-line and his muscles tensed in nervous anticipation.

"You disobeyed the orders you were given," was all the man said.

For a moment, Shinji just couldn't believe it. He blinked twice, looked away, turned back and blinked again. Yep, he was there...and the bastard just wasn't going to go away.

"You haven't talked to me in over three years by yourself...and the first thing you say to me in private is that?"

Gendo slowly lowered, then raised his eyelids, 'Definitely something more to him than I first presumed.' He frowned slightly, "The statement stands...why did you disobey the orders?"

Shinji cinched himself higher up in the chair and looked at his father distastefully, "Because she could have died in there. I heard that the cable was going, so I went! There, are you happy now?"

"The early records indicated that you leapt into the volcano before voice conformation of the incident had been transmitted. So your previous statement is false, why?"

Shinji shifted, "Because I had to save your precious Evangelion."

Gendo stared the boy down, "The orders were specified...even if the loss of an Evangelion was imminent, they were not to be rescinded."

Shinji felt his jaw drop a bit, "...Y-You were willing to throw her life away! Weren't you?"

"You still have not answered my question, Pilot," Gendo threw all the ice of his soul into that harsh rebuke. It seemed to work too, for Shinji slowly managed to visibly calm himself. His inner bonfire though, had just turned into a rain of sulfur and brimstone. "Now, let me make this clear to you."

Gendo leaned in close to the boy, close enough for Shinji to gaze past the opaque-like tint of Gendo's glasses and into his eyes. Those eyes that seemed to be nothing more that round lances of blackness.

"If you do not follow another of my orders again, I will have you removed from this program and send you back to where you came from. I will then transferre the Second Child over to piloting duties for Unit 01...or I will find someone else to pilot it for her. Is that clear?"

'No, not Asuka in that thing...not another pilot. He...he can't do that! He just can't do that! Isn't it enough that I have to suffer for him?'

"Is, that, Clear?" Gendo put just the barest hint of force into his last question, Shinji flinched away from his voice and stared at the far wall.

His will had broken, "Yes, perfectly clear."

The Commander of all of NERV and its affiliates resumed his formal, straight-backed stance and looked down upon his son like he would a decomposing corpse. His point had been made.

"Excellent..." he turned and strode for the door, he had more pressing things to do that to waste time with his petulant child. "You are dismissed, Pilot."

Shinji choose to remain silent as he watched his father's back disappear. After a few moments he leaned forward and placed his head in his hands. He didn't rub the two together, his skin was too sensitive for that kind of body contact right now. But he did shake them back in forth, as though he was trying to forget something that he would never forget.

It was one of those days again.

"Enough of this," Shinji stood and gathered his plugsuit. It was time to go home.

Asuka waited until after he had exited the motor pool before she stepped out from behind one of the seats. She stood in the empty vehicle for a moment or two before she grabbed her own plugsuit and made to follow Shinji. It was time for her to go home as well. ***

The old man closed the envelope with a deft, delicate touch. A stamp here, another there, and it was done. Ready to be sent with the rest of the morning mail in...the morning, what other time of the day should it be sent after all? After he wrapped the whole package with a rubber band, he stepped out from behind the desk and started to stroll through the galleries.

He absently listed off random facts about the paintings and sculptures as he passed them by. Done by such-and-such at such-and-such a date, or in such- in-such time. Commissioned by Lord Somebody for some-reason-or- another, he had all of these facts down and locked away in his mind.

Memory is a wonderful thing, especially if you're bored out of your skull.

The old man paused at one point, reaching out to make a slight adjustment to the tilt of one picture. Only to step back and come forward again to make another adjustment to fix the last one.

It was somewhere in these wanderings that he found his way into the German gallery. Wonderful artists, the Germans. No real famous ones in here though, those were all destroyed or were still remaining in Germany itself! No sense in losing a masterpiece in a war-zone if you could keep it somewhere safe after all.

Of course, this particular war-zone just happened to have the fate of mankind in the balance. Or so the NERV propaganda founts told him.

'All of this...doesn't matter,' he thought to himself. 'If those children can't save us in the end. Then again...nothing really matters in the end.'

"Nothing."

Off in the distance, he heard a door swing open.

'Visitors?'

"Coming!"

The old man walked off briskly for the reception desk, never noticing his fingers gently brushing the scar on his forearm. He never noticed such things anymore.

The air conditioning cut on.

~~~

Dedicated to SxStrngSamuri13...a crazy person, but one who's always been interested.

"Chapter Nine: Return"

Shinji strolled lazily down the street, his bag bouncing with infrequent rapacity against his thin and slight thigh as his feet lifted and fell. The cicadas were out early this morning, stretching their wings out in the early light and beating away. Sounding off their endless drone.

He turned to look at one of the grossly improportioned insects as it hovered close by. Disgusting, yet...intriguing. That such a creature had almost been totally unmade by the Second Impact, only to come back with such a fierce bloom of population. Now they were almost exclusively the only insects that Tokyo had, apart from the roaches and flies. Such a distinction too, the surviving insects...Cicadas, Roaches, Flies, Praying Mantises, a few remaining Ladybugs. A distinct way in which they all survived, a distinct look about each, a distinct function that they performed for their "insect society".

'Much like humans, I suppose,' he turned away from the speedy bug and looked down the street at his companion. 'We all have our cicadas, our roaches, our flies...and our ladybugs.'

"Shinji! Hurry up!" Asuka called back to him, not even glancing back at the boy. She impatiently looked at her watch and took another notation of the time. A small groan escaped her lips as she realized that only half a minute had passed since she last looked at it.

"Coming Asuka," he called ahead. Shinji grabbed his bag and held it slightly off to the side before he ran to catch up to the girl. Lately he'd been getting mixed signals about the girl, ever since they had returned home from that last battle, she had been acting...different towards him. Like she was trying to be nicer to him or something.

'Her, nice to me? No...probably just trying to repay that "debt" she keeps muttering about.'

It was true probably, every so often Shinji would hear Asuka muttering to herself quietly about: "Gotta pay off the debt I owe."

It was unsettling to hear her talk to herself, and at times he wondered if she was going crazy, or if he was just hearing something that wasn't there. The first time he had asked her about it, she had looked at him funnily and asked, "Just what in the hell are you talking about?"

Must be his imagination.

"It's about time," Asuka let just the barest shard of ice cut through the undercurrent of her voice.

"Sorry," Shinji apologized to the girl as they continued to walk forward.

Asuka gave a small, vicious growl of disapproval before whipping her head off to the side. She glared at the trees across the way, hoping that they'd wither and die.

She wished that she could do that to Commander Ikari. Glare at him until 'he' withered and died...but if wishes were fishes...

"Say Shinji," Asuka slowly started out.

Shinji gave a lighthearted grunt in affirmation.

"Why are you living with Misato?"

Shinji turned and looked at her openly, her face was half turned away and looking at a grove of trees across the shimmering heat of the road. A small trickle of sweat beaded down his cheek as he watched her, the heat of the day was growing.

"What do you mean?"

Asuka shut her eyes and folded her arms underneath her breasts, 'This is going to be frustrating, the boy's as dense as a nuclear containment dome.'

"I mean, why don't you live with your father?"

It took her a few seconds to realize that the presence by her arm had disappeared, turning around she found Shinji stopped a few steps back. Staring at his feet.

Asuka cautiously approached him, "Shinji?"

His head snapped up, 'That tone, what is in that tone?'

"I-I'd rather not talk about him right now," he stared at the foreign girl with his deep, open eyes of dark ocean blue. A sea of torment and doubt.

"Okay," she nodded twice. Asuka may not have the best people skills, but he had saved her life not more than a week ago. Even Shinji deserved a break from her and her personality. "Come on, we're gonna be late to school again if we wait much longer."

Shinji grunted softly in confirmation, then shifted his ungainly bag and fell into step beside the red haired girl.

'She's really quite nice,' he was thinking as they walked into the school courtyard. 'When she want's to be.'

***

"Ikari, I heard that you chewed out your son for saving the Second Child."

Gendo stared blankly at the far wall of his office, he heard his second-in- command's words quite clearly though. He just chose to ignore them for now.

"Do you really believe it was necessary? He did manage to save us the trouble of getting Unit 03 operational ahead of it's production schedule...not to mention that we don't have another trained pilot on hand to replace the girl."

Gendo suddenly sprang into motion, coming out of his thoughtful repose and reaching into on of his many desk drawers for one of his many files. The folder landed barely three inches away from Kouzo Fuyutski's hands.

The title read: 5th Child.

"A Fifth Child!? But we haven't even recruited the Fourth!"

Gendo nodded and leveled a finger at the file, "Seele is preparing him, for the last battle."

"Against the final Angel?" Kouzo could hardly believe it. 'Are their plans that far in advance of our own?'

"Or so the file says, that report was smuggled out from their base at great expense-"

'Of others lives no doubt,' Kouzo darkly imagined.

"-And it will not be mentioned at all. Seele knows what is going to happen, just as you and I do. The Fourth Child will be used when he is needed, and then..."

"The Thirteenth...'It will come by clouds of contempt and will infiltrate the trenches of the enemy. Only to turn one against the other by means of its will.'"

Gendo nodded in affirmation of the quote, "Yes, something will occur to the Fourth during the Thirteenth Angel's attack. We won't see it or know about it until after it has happened."

"Then why put him in the Eva at all? Why not just destroy the Eva before it is taken over?"

Gendo frowned and leaned back in his chair, his eyes roamed over the inscripted ceiling.

"Remember the rest of the quote...we won't know when the attack will come. If the Fourth's Eva is not available then we risk a contamination of the other Units. If Unit 01 is contaminated..."

Kouzo felt his heart solidify and sink through his bowels, "I understand." He lifted up his own folder and tossed it down at Ikari's desk, "Latest weather reports...several unusual cloud patterns are forming over the South Pole. Latest satellite scan shows the area around the former KE section to be, boiling."

Gendo smiled up to the cold and uncaring ceiling, "Then it has started to return to us. Have you ordered out an expeditionary fleet?"

"They will be over the area within a few hours. A second fleet is being prepared to recover the object." Gendo nodded and faced back down at the folders, with a quick sweep of his hands he had both files up in his arms and then into the recesses of his formidable desk.

"Good, I will go to supervise the recovery personally."

Kouzo let out a short, choked breath of astonishment, "B-But what about-"

"I will leave you in charge of NERV for the next encounter. After it is concluded you are to report to my flagship immediately. Leave Major Katsuragi in charge."

Another little revelation, "She's being promoted then?"

"She should learn of it," Gendo looked intently at the small diode of his inlayed desk clock and slowly counted down to the second. "Now."

***

"Congratulations Misato."

Misato blearily stared at her longtime friend and at the proffered envelope, "Hun?"

Ritsuko smiled wanly and just shifted the envelope back and forth, "Perhaps you should just take a look at this."

Misato snatched the letter out of Ritsuko's hands without shifting her head the slightest, then proceeded to tear into the letter.

She blinked twice before looking back up at the smiling Ritsuko, "I...I've..."

Ritsuko smiled again before turning away, "As I said before, congratulations."

The retreating doctor glanced at the wall clock as she calmly left for the testing rooms, 'They should be there just about now.'

***

Antarctica: Section 126A by 485GE, Also known as Section KE.

Former site of the Katsuragi Expedition.

A small fleet of hastily assembled destroyers, a few cruisers, and the battleship USS Georgia gently wound its way around the out jutting piers of ice and continued on to the small patch of boiling, blood red ocean water. Water that wasn't really water anymore.

"Sir, activity is increasing."

"Thank you Environmentals," the captain, a middle aged man with prematurely thinning brown hair and a paunch gut moved up closer to the window of his bridge and stared out. At this close of a range, he could see the area in question. "Sonar! Any contact?"

The petty officer in charge took a moment to increase the range of his scans before replying, "No sir, no contact at a depth of 1200 meters."

"Navigation, how deep is the ocean here?" the captain moved away from the windows and over to the chart box that contained all the latest ocean trafficking gear that G.P.S. and satellite reconnaissance could offer. The chart showed the red patch of the former Antarctic continent as a block of red, the shards of ice as small, pencil-thin specks of white, and his own fleet ships as blue. His navigator punched in a series of commands and a small box appeared off to the upper corner.

"2000 meters sir, by our last deep-probe satellite scans. Though our current position gives the depth at 1450 meters," the navigator made a small mark on the screen with a dry erase pen, then switched over to a handheld data recorder and made a notation with his electronic stylus. Then he continued, "We're passing through the upper layers of the Antarctic Bowl sir, so it's all getting deeper as we continue."

The captain studied the chart for a moment and then looked back up at the growing scene, "Where exactly is the anomaly situated?"

Another few pushing of buttons and the answer popped up on the map. A flashing black dot indicated the anomalous reaction.

"Dead center of the Bowl sir."

The captain turned away from the chart and moved back to the windows, a few orders were issued between the officer of the watch and the helmsman to avoid running into a looming spire of ice. The ship shifted and turned and slipped past the obstruction, that spire alone towered over a hundred meters higher than the foredeck...and the others were much higher than that.

"Reduce speed to one-third. Send the message to all ships...I don't want to play rescuer out here," he ordered, lifting his binoculars up to his eyes.

"Aye, Sir," his radioman replied.

Through the binoculars, the boiling sea seemed foreboding...ominous. Though, in this Hell...everything seemed dark and menacing.

"Sir! I've got a sonar contact at 1150 and rising! At 10 degrees!"

The entire bridge sprang into action, messages went out and orders were given. A pair of escort destroyers rushed forward at ludicrous speeds in order to position themselves for an attack.

"Sir contact is changing course...changing...SIR IT'S HEADED FOR THE DESTROYERS! SPEED IS 120 KNOTS!"

"Impossible...sound fleet battle-stations! Get those two out of there!"

A chorused reply sounded off before they leapt off to their individually assigned tasks. Those who weren't busy rushed for their flak jackets and helmets as the klaxons blared their high-pitched and droning whine for attention. On deck, sailor rushed for their gunnery stations. Shells were passed through near-frozen hands and sent into the chamber breeches of their weapons. Instruments were checked and re-calibrated for long-range shelling. Deep within the ship, a small section of instrumentation panels came on-line as their operators frantically began programming launch co- ordinates for the ship's compliment of missiles.

Off of the battleship, others began preparing in the same way. Missiles were locked on to the small sonar blip, the few that were equipped with torpedoes began to bring them to bear, gun barrels were lowered and positioned.

In the distance, the two brave destroyers immediately launched all of their improved sensor-pressure depth charges and immediately fired off all of their complement of torpedoes at the rapidly approaching target. Their captains frantically ordered a change in direction and called up their engines to full speed. The two dark gray lengths of steel and titanium veered off wildly as they attempted to clear the blast shockwave.

"Contact in five...four...three...two," the sonar operator calmly sounded out the time as he stared at his screen. "One, impact!"

Outside the bridge, a section of the ocean suddenly surged upwards in a massive plum of white-red water. It soared up higher than many of the spires that littered the area. The two destroyers rocked back and forth as they hastily attempted to correct their courses and regain a measure of control.

"Sonar? The target?"

"Blast is confusing our sensors captain, just a moment."

The captain patiently waited and stared through the lenses of his binoculars at the still-churning sea. He looked for anything that might tell him exactly "what" his fleet had just sank.

One of the destroyers exploded.

"SIR! CONTACT REMAINS!"

The second destroyer exploded.

"Re-acquire target and open fire!" he ordered quickly. The command was passed down and out. Soon, the entire fleet was shelling, torpedoing, and missiling the entire area. Explosions were clearly evident as the weapons impacted...impacted "something".

"IT'S HEADED RIGHT FOR US!"

"Brace for impact!" he shouted, grabbing hold of some ducting above his head.

That "something" soon tore clean through the underbelly of the USS Georgia. The explosion caused several of the ice piers to break and fall, crushing several others in the former fleet. The rest continued to fight, firing and maneuvering for all they were worth.

But still dying off, one-by-one.

Soon, the last twisted hulk of metal began to slid down into the deep of the Antarctic. And the "something" emerged from its protective blanket.

The Lance of Longinus had returned. It was sure now that there was nothing left in the immediate area.

It was sure that it was safe.

It had lain dormant for a long time, and now it was awake.

It was awake.

~~~

*I think that I should leave this chapter intro into the story. I really liked it, and it smakes of most of the other intros that I've done away with. Seldon.*

SAE: As you may, or may not have noticed...that is if you've ever read any of my previous works...usually I do something a bit light-hearted here. And you may, or may not have noticed...that in this series I don't have that same light-heartedness in my intros anymore.

Well...I just don't think that this is the sort of fic that would have one of my funnier intros to start off a chapter with. You want to see comedy from me...go read some of my other intros to my different storylines. Watched a very good series tonight...Band of Brothers. I tell you, the only reason I was able to write this chapter at all is because of that series. Well, more like just one scene out of the second to last episode.

You may, or may not recollect that in the beginning: Shinji is looking at a painting...what is on the painting you should just go back to the first chapter and read it...but...I saw a scene in Band of Brothers that really go to me. And I think that it goes along with the general lines of what I'm trying to say with this story...well, more or less.

It was in a Jewish Slave Labor camp. And the nearby Germans had been 'recruited' to bury the dead Jews. One of the main characters walks by and sees an older man of about 50 or 60 digging out a mass grave for the bodies. And that old man begins to weep and sob as he's digging.

I mentioned in one of my latest fics that I cried over it. Well, I'm crying over that scene too...I just can't stop crying these days.

Everything's gotten so sad.

Seldon.

The Seldon Planner Presents:

A Production dedicated to the 6 million Jews and the 5 million others who died in Nazi Concentration Camps.

"Chapter Ten: Aftermath"

Work makes you free?

A sad quote, for a mislead people.

Who were they?

People that will never be here again.

-Seldon

"We're Home!" Shinji called out as he entered the door. Behind him, Asuka mumbled something about 'ladies first' and probably some foreign curse or another, but she didn't press the point and neither did he.

The apartment was silent.

"She's working late again," he commented as he slipped off his shoes.

"No duh...so, what's for dinner?" Asuka brushed past him and walked steadily down the foyer, turning sharply into the living room when it's door came up.

Shinji followed a moment later, "Whatever you want, Asuka."

He really didn't want to make something difficult, but he was too polite to tell the girl to cook for herself.

"I dunno...I really don't want to eat anything tonight," Asuka dropped her bags near her bed and stepped out of the room, sliding the door shut with a sharp rap. A few moments later she emerged, dressed in a brief outfit.

Shinji almost blushed at the sight, but being around his guardian had made him...almost immune to the effects that the shorts and tank top had over most of the male gender. Of course, he had to shift his legs a bit as the girl bounded her way over to one of the beanbag chairs. He wasn't totally immune.

"Yeah...me neither," Shinji lowered his head and turned away from the girl, who was plainly ignoring him as she flipped through the channels of the TV. He softly walked to his room and dropped his bags off, after a moment of hesitation he grabbed one of the thicker books off of his desk.

He touched his pocket to make sure he had the keycard and started off for the front door again, "Hey Asuka?"

"Yeah, what is it?" she lazily called from her position, her eyes flickered with the artificially generated light emitting from the TV screen. Some soap opera from America was on, the dubbing was horrific, but it was better than anything else on at the moment. Aside from some Escaflowne re- runs...which she had already seen two hundred times before.

"I'm going out, it's Thursday," was all he said before he passed her on his way out.

"Okay," she distractedly replied. Not really paying attention to what he was saying or doing.

She never seemed to pay attention to him.

***

"AYANAMI!"

The blue and white Evangelion flexed its artificial muscles and propelled the pallet rifle upwards at a general velocity of over two hundred meters per second. Shinji caught it like the rifle was just another crumpled paper ball, thrown across the classroom.

"Asuka!?"

Fifty meters above him, a red and black and orange Eva, covered in debilitating acid, swung itself clear of the kill zone and dropped.

It's pilot screamed through her pain, "I'M CLEAR!"

Shinji pulled the trigger.

The Angel gave a groan and a heave. It fell.

And didn't explode.

Gravity is truly a unique thing. It states that whatever goes up, must come down. There are exceptions to the rule of course...but not many that can be achieved with a 100mm pallet rifle.

Several buildings surrounding the Angel also gave a groan, a heave, and sometimes...an explosion.

A few of those fell as well.

***

Night fell, and found Shinji Ikari sitting on a high bluff overlooking the darkened Tokyo-3. NERV was still working on the power generators, and they still had a few more hours of work left to go through. And there he sat, curled up, knees to chest and arms wrapped all over. He felt like shit...and he looked much worse that what he felt.

Or, at least that's what Asuka determined.

"Hey," she called softly, sensing the disturbed mood about the boy. "What are you doing out here?"

Shinji didn't answer, he rolled his eyes up to the stars instead. Watching them twinkle and wink in and out of existence. It was quite beautiful out when there were no lights on.

It is a sight to behold...a sight man has not seen for several hundred years.

Asuka moved up to sit next to him, "Mind if I sit?"

"It's a free country," Shinji slowly and softly replied, his eyes transfixed on the stars. "At least, it was when I checked last."

Asuka gave a small laugh for his effort and plopped down heavily by the boy. Both were still dressed in their plugsuits. The wind picked up a bit, along with the cicadas. The pair were silent for a long time after that, how long...neither of them knew or cared in the slightest.

"...You saw the area around the Angel?" Shinji started off suddenly, causing Asuka to jump a bit as his voice loudly cut through the silence.

She calmed her nerves and nodded her head.

Shinji dropped his eyes back down to the city...his city. A lone tear fell from his eye, "...I did that...didn't I? When I shot the Angel."

"Shinji, look-" Asuka began in a tired tone. She had already suspected why her co-worker had vanished after the first damage reports had come streaming in, and she had already had this conversation with her guardian and commander...newly promoted commander she might add.

But Shinji cut her off, "I destroyed those buildings...not the Angel, me..."

Asuka gestured to the city, "But look at all of the others still standing. You also saved those from falling down you know."

Shinji shook his head in denial, not wanting to believe a word. He had destroyed the homes, lives, familiar places...of others! He hadn't only hurt himself...he had ruined other's lives. He had done that!

"Look...some things must die in order for others to live, right?" Asuka gestured around to the surrounding grasslands and forests and stared through the darkness at the cowering boy. Her gaze sliced through that meager protection like a razor and pierced him to the core. Shinji hesitantly gave a nod.

"Well, some of Tokyo-3 had to be killed off so that the rest of humanity could live on," still he refused to accede the point. Asuka became frustrated and her anger boiled over, "For Christsake! Its only a couple of goddamned buildings! It isn't like you killed anyone you know!"

Shinji stiffened at that, and Asuka, who was watching him like a hawk, noticed immediately.

"What?"

Shinji took a look over at her, then looked back at the city, then back to her again, "..I...I could, h-have though."

Tears started to well in his eyes, "What do you mean? Everyone was evacuated from the city before the power cut and the Angel arrived."

Shinji shook his head negative, "N-no...there is one, who stays in the city."

Asuka looked at him like he had grown a third arm, she blinked rapidly before turning away and glaring off in the distance. 'So that's why he's so worked up over this...he know's somebody from the city who doesn't evac when the sirens sound.'

"Who is it?"

"Pardon?" Shinji asked, not expecting another question from the aloof girl.

"Who do you know in the city?" she turned back to face him. "Who doesn't evacuate like the rest of them?"

Shinji quickly considered the reasons behind her asking and decided not to tell her...though he wasn't quite sure why.

"I-I can't say...he's just an old friend I have."

Asuka sighed in exasperation, "Fine, keep your secrets. Just don't tell me that I didn't try to be friendly down the road."

"I do not understand, there is no road?"

Both Evangelion pilots gave a sharp cry of alarm and instantly hopped to their feet as the soft voice drifted into their ears. A flash of moonlight against crimson iris' and icy-blue hair gave away the speaker's identity as clearly as a flashing neon sign.

"Ayanami..."

"Don't do that! Ever again!" Asuka shouted at the calm and collected girl before taking her seat again. "Jeez, give a person a cardiac arrest one day, will ya?"

Rei didn't respond but moved to a position parallel to Asuka and Shinji, with the lucky boy in-between. Not that he saw it as lucky mind you. He just felt uncomfortable and strangely...a sense of being outnumbered, outflanked, and overwhelmed.

His face was hot from blushing as well. It was one of those nights.

***

The old man wandered through the streets of Tokyo-3, heading for the center of what was being labeled as the 'Kill Radius', a two kilometer diameter of ruined skyscrapers, roads, and houses. All destroyed that afternoon with that hideous being called the Ninth Angel.

It could have been worse though...it could have been raining.

The old man slowly picked his way to the center of the Kill Radius, and soon found himself joining in a long line of men, women, and children who were working at clearing out the rubble. The old man helped shift steel support beams out of the way, helped sift through rock, concrete, steel, assorted debris as the night progressed on.

Sometime that night, the power returned. Heavy equipment was moved in to replace the men and women, but they couldn't get to all of the places. The lights flooded back on, and a harsh glare shot over the rubble.

The old man found himself staring directly into a framed picture of a family. With three small daughters, a smiling husband, and a dour looking wife. One of the daughters held a small rag doll in her hands. The frame was of enscrolled silver, its matte was of the finest work he'd seen in his life.

Two hours later, he found a small rag doll.

He gently removed it from the smashed and ruined splinters of the cradle that once held it, and with painstaking care brushed off the dirt and grime from it's face. The old man turned and sat down on a nearby chunk of twisted re-enforced concrete, the steel support wires coming out from the side were twisted and bent like a spider's legs. Like the Angels legs.

One of the older workers stopped for a moment and came up to the old man. He took the old man's crying face and pressed it gently into his stomach, and he rubbed the old man's ancient trenchcoat which was now caked with white concrete powder and gravel dirt.

The old man just cried, and cried, and cried.

To him, it was just like the old days. Just like when he was with his old buddies...his old friends.

He was the only one left though.

The only one alive now.

The rag doll was squeezed tight against his bosom. The little girl was found shortly after.

She wasn't old enough to understand the sirens.

The rest of the family was found close by.

~~~

Dedicated to SuperJew, who's given me my most treasured review yet. Thanks SuperJew.

"Chapter Eleven: Thoughts of Rei"

I love the night.

What makes you say that?

..I...I don't know?

Then is it true?

-Seldon

The ocean was blood red, stained by an event so spectacular that it was never to be seen or rivaled ever again. It was an event that was more terrifying than any nuclear explosion, an event more devastating than the famed biblical famines that swept the ancient world so many times.

Second Impact.

A fleet of some thirty United Nations ships sailed into this sea of death. A place that had become a killing ground not to long ago. Even now, pieces of floatsm and jetsam could be seen drifting lazily past the metal bows as they cut through the crimson water.

Shards of metal and great big lines of what might have been oil...or blood...coated and protruded from the tall spires of ice and dirt that was like so many pillars in a circular hall.

When bodies, or body parts, were seen, they were hauled in by cargo nets and set aside in pitch black rubber body bags in a far corner of the meat lockers.

So it goes.

Gendo Ikari stolidly examined the efficiency of one such crew, and mentally noted those who performed under par with the others. They were to receive reprimands later. Footsteps were heard coming up the corridor.

"Ikari," Kouzo Fuyutski immediately began talking as he swung the thick metal hatch open. "We've located the target, and the fleet is coming up to full and moving to surround and capture."

Gendo remained silent until Kouzo closed and sealed the hatch, "Understood. Do we have any survivors located?"

"A few, but they're nearly half-dead," Kouzo admitted.

"They will be taken care of...see to it when we return to base."

Kouzo moved up next to his former pupil, one step back and one to the left of his shoulder, and hummed a confirmation. Overhead, a loudspeaker announced:

"All ahead full, come to bearing Three-one-niner. Commencing run!"

The ship thrummed with power and energy, the water beside the bow churned and frothed.

Gendo checked the clock set in the center of the viewing room, "It's almost time."

"Yes, the tenth should be coming soon," Kouzo paused, hesitant to question the man. "Do you believe that NERV is ready to handle him?"

Gendo lowered his head and smiled softly, his eyes narrowed and he gently inclined his head to the horizon. Kouzo turned to look and found his lungs holding in their last breath.

A glint in the distance.

It was beckoning them...calling them.

It was aware.

***

In, out.

In, out.

In, out.

'Movement is a simple thing that hardly requires any higher-level thought commands from the brain. An electrical signal is sent through the synapses, which is transmitted and re-transmitted throughout the entire brain until it reaches the spinal column. After that: the signal is sent through the spinal column until it branches off at the appropriate bundle of nerve receptors, who then pass it on until it reaches the targeted mass of muscle.'

In, out.

In, out.

In, out.

'This process takes less than a nanosecond before it is repeated and repeated again. Thus providing constant electrical stimulation throughout the muscle mass until the correct amount of force is applied and the task is done. Then the brain instantly switches to another bundle of nerves elsewhere, and the process is repeated. A normal brain can co-ordinate these simple signals with thousands of other signals to make the human body perform feats of strength, agility, or simple motion.'

In, out.

In, out.

'The Evangelion works on the same principal, with the exception that the "brain" of the Eva is not in the head, but in the spinal column. This design is more efficient in most ways. It provides the pilot a modicum of protection, and shortens the required response/feedback time to and from the nerves and conversely the muscles. Thus resulting in a machine that can react at twice the normal speed as a human would in a similar circumstance.'

In, out.

In, out.

'That is: if you can find a human tall enough to fight against the Angels.'

Rei pondered this unusual distraction that was flowing from the hidden voice of her mind as she directed her blue Evangelion up the small hill towards the faltering Unit 01. It could not be blamed for this though, it was keeping the Angel from hitting the ground alone after all. It was actually surprising that the young Ikari could keep it up for so long in the first place.

Rei dimly remembered telling the Second Child something, she also remembered hearing a vehement reply from the volatile pilot. What was said though, she didn't care to commit to her memory.

In, out.

In, out.

Stop.

Her Eva slid to a halt, leaving great furrows of earth carved out into the ground behind her. It did not matter though, if they failed to stop this Angel from hitting...the hill wouldn't even be there. Rei felt her progressive knife slide free of the shoulder casing. Her hand swiftly grasped the handle and she withdrew the business end from it's sheath. In one deft cut and a judicious application of her AT Field, she had the way clear and waiting. The Second Child screamed something unintelligible, her accent fouling most of the words beyond recognition...or perhaps that was another language?

Unit 02 speared the Angel, and it collapsed atop all three units.

It exploded.

The furrows wouldn't be noticed after all.

***

The blast buffeted the old man as he gripped the side rail with all his might. He groaned in frustration and anger as he felt his grip slowly slipping as sweat crept through his palms and weakened the friction holding him onto the metal protrusion.

Just as he was about to fly to some fate that he'd rather not think about, the shockwave passed.

And he found himself sucked inwards by the enormous vacuum left by the outward expansion of the gases. He let another loud cry cut through the air as he was thrown forwards into that same metal protrusion. The old man felt something give way, and a sharp pain raced across his right midsection. The pain was like a needle piercing his skull and lancing deep through his mind.

It hurt.

It hurt.

Oh, God...how it hurt.

But the old man bit his tongue to silence his cries of pain and agony. He had felt worse. But the body never remembers pain...our defense mechanism from going mad, so it's supposed. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth and screamed again.

His throat ached from that scream, having already suffered the strain from all the previous ones.

Finally, the winds settled back down to normal. The old man dropped heavily from the railing and fell to his knees.

A small trickle of blood ran from one of his nostrils.

'I...I hope that, Shinji is...o-okay...'

The old man fainted and tumbled off to the right. His camera nestled carefully between his chest and his arms.

He was discovered a few hours later, and rushed to a hospital.

***

Rei looked on in placid disinterest as the newly-promoted Major Katsuragi proceeded to...what did they call it..."chew out", the Third Child. She listened with what appeared to be her usual rapt attention, but in truth she cared little for what happened to the Third Child.

Rei frowned at that small thought, 'No, no I do have a concern of what happens to Ikari-kun. He does not have to do this, but he does. He was never made for a purpose like I was,' Rei swiftly shifted her eyes to the holographic monitor with Shinji's sheepish and blushing face on it. 'He does not have to pilot the Eva, but he does.'

The images vanished, and her Entry Plug went through a scintillation of colors as she was de-synchronized with the beast named Evangelion.

'Evangelion. Made by man...and still a mystery.'

It is said that to label a thing is to place a thing. To label a monster is to make the fear that it inspires disappear. Such is the way of things for mankind.

Strange little creatures they are.

Rei exited the Plug just after the other two pilots, however, she was the first to the exit hatch. Her Eva was the closest to the Bay doors today. The rank smell of LCL wafted through her nose as she systematically cleared her lungs of the liquid. It was never a pleasant experience to smell or taste the LCL...but Ikari needed her to pilot her Evangelion.

She would do it for him. And for his son.

With a loud click that mildly startled Rei and made the other two jump and shout, the lights went out.

***

"Damn it! Send out the repair team, and tell them that the temporary patch they put on the main conduits wasn't good enough! If they don't get the problem fixed this time, tell them they're fired!"

Ritsuko wasn't exactly in a happy mood this afternoon. It could have been classified as many of the normal womanly problems: Man stood her up, that time of the month, not enough caffeine or nicotine in her body at the moment, just plain exhaustion from pulling a three-day shift every week.

But it wasn't any of those.

She never had a boyfriend.

Her period was over last week.

She had been smoking and drinking since three that morning.

And she was used to lack of sleep, it made her...creative.

No, she was mad at the absence of two key personnel from the scene. She was angry because they weren't there to supervise the situation, because they had the only passcodes needed to implement certain procedures should the Angel actually had succeed in it's mission.

But most of all: she was mad at them for actually hiring on such shitty repairmen. The bastards had a five billion dollar budget and they had repairmen who couldn't make a simple conduit patch work correctly for four days.

And to add to that frustration: Misato had just left the Command Bridge a few moments before the power cut off. Now she couldn't be found anywhere!

"Just my luck," Ritsuko darkly mumbled to her cup of coffee, her breath blowing rings across the surface of the dark liquid. The blonde turned to one of the staff members, Hyuuga, unfortunately. "Hyuuga, go locate the pilots and escort them to the bridge."

He pulled a flashlight out from his console drawer and flicked it on, "Yes Ma'am." He sped off into the dark abyss of the NERV Headquarters...only to slam into a soft and short object before he even reached the door.

Two loud cries sounded off as pain and jumpy nerves let themselves be known.

"Asuka? You okay?" Shinji asked, leaning down and resting his palms on his kneecaps.

Hyuuga trained his light on the downed pilot, who was currently occupied with rubbing her aching backside.

"Oww.." was all she said before she lifted a hand to block the glare of the flashlight.

"Oh, there you are!" Hyuuga settled his nerves back into their proper place and pushed up his glasses before they fell off his nose. "You came on your own?"

"Yes," Rei answered in her own soft way. She felt a small modicum of pride flicker in her breast as she noticed the hidden compliment. Small, but there nonetheless.

She moved off to one side, gently easing into the shadows of the Bridge and taking a moment to enjoy the...the feel of the darkness.

'Man fears the darkness...so he created fire to scrape away the edge of night and make a false day. Man always fears what he cannot control, so he invents new ways and methods of controlling that which he has no right to control...Eva-'

Her thoughts were interrupted by the once-again, vehement Second Child. Rei had only a general idea as to what the conversation the girl was discussing with Dr. Akagi was about...but she knew enough of the generals to make an educated guess as to what the German would want of her.

"And you, you're useful in the dark."

It was true, well...somewhat. What is the use of having a memory if you do not use it for anything? Rei had committed the entire layout of the Headquarters building and the surrounding environs to memory several years ago.

Tokyo-3 was memorized only a few months ago, but she was proud that she had accomplished that feat.

Pride...she had very little to be proud about.

"No," she said, turning away. "This is none of my concern."

"I knew you'd say that!" Asuka shouted at her, pulling Shinji's ear as she whipped around for the door.

The boy gave small cries of pain and surprise at his manhandling, but for the most part managed to keep up with the fast-paced, long-legged, foreign girl.

"Hey! You two don't go off on your own!" Ritsuko was belatedly calling towards the departing pair. Asuka called something back to the scientist, but it was mostly lost due to her confounding accent. It didn't help that she was talking to the far wall either.

The two Eva pilots disappeared into the cavernous corridors of NERV Headquarters.

To Rei, it looked like they were being swallowed whole.

She excused herself and made her way down to the changing rooms. Her clothes were strewn across the height and width of the issued locker, but she didn't change into them immediately.

Instead, she sat down and stared up at the dark ceiling.

Had there been stars there...it would have been perfect.

"Man fears the darkness..."

~~~

Dedicated to David Shockey, that rat-bastard that somehow got me to read fanfics in the first place. Without him, I would have never even begun to write. Thank you David.

"Chapter Twelve: Waking Nightmares"

His eyes fluttered open, he felt like hammered shit.

And taking in what he felt like...he probably looked like it too.

The old man groaned and fluttered his eyes rapidly, trying to clear the sleep from the corners. His brain slowly cleared through the fog of medicine and the haze of pain, he felt something try to draw him back though...something that he was struggling to remember.

'What was it? Something..."

He briefly closed his eyes and drifted back down into the abyss of sleep, trying desperately to remember the tail-end of his dream.

Something...loud...close by...

Boom!

His eyes shot open and then opened wider still, a rim of saltwater lined his eyelids as he remembered the dream. That dream. It was always that same dream...every time.

The old man took in a shuddering breath, and immediately regretted it. Pain coursed through his chest, biting, nipping, gashing deeply into his mind. He bore it through, and grunted as a second and then a third wave pierced through his mental defenses. It wasn't too hard though...he had felt worse before.

Back...back then.

Slowly, and with great effort, the old man propped himself up on his bed.

'Where am I?' he asked the far and distant corners of his mind.

The room he was in, a clear and white room, smelled of the sterilization and the clean decay that all hospitals have. That smell of a white death, where you are not taken swiftly and peacefully...but where you are poked, and prodded, and examined, and tested.

Until you eventually waste to nothing. Surrounded by no friends.

No family.

Just the walls, ceiling, and floor.

A white, sterilized, and clean death.

The room was standard enough, that room of white death; windows to the left, a bathroom door to the right. A collected and secured sheet that was connected to a small track on the ceiling.

That sheet was also white.

A table beside the bed with its white sheets and white pillows, and on the top sat a bible. Slightly askew, so as to appear hand placed, something that hospitals did to make the patients feel like they were each the center of attention for the doctors.

The bible wasn't white.

Drip.

The old man paused, his eyes firmly affixed on the white bible, 'Did I just hear that?'

Drip, the sound came again. Like liquid dropping into a larger puddle. Just one drop at a time.

'What is making that sound? The faucet?'

His eyes shifted up to the bathroom door. It was closed.

Drip, another drop sounded. Off to his left.

Slowly, he cautiously shifted his weight and re-positioned his arms. He turned his head at the same time his body flipped itself over. By the window, there was a chair...it was hidden deep within the shadows, and the glare of light streaming in made it hard for him to see in that dark midnight color.

Drip.

His eyes shifted down.

Red.

Red.

Red.

Red.

A pool of red. On that clean white floor.

Red.

Red.

RED! His mind screamed at him.

His breathing became labored, his mind rapidly shot through a thousand possible thoughts, each of them ending in the same conclusion:

'There shouldn't be red there! THERE SHOULDN'T BE RED ON THAT FLOOR!'

His breathing intensified, he could hear the harsh rasps of wind echo in the room. Then, the soft sound of a shifting chair. Something was moving on the chair.

Something was leaning forward in the chair.

"Hello, Sergeant...what are you doing out of your foxhole?" the voice was calm, deep...and in English. It was familiar.

The old man's lips flapped wordlessly, his eyes started to well with tears.

"I said, what are you doing out of your foxhole sergeant?! Answer me!"

Drip.

"...N-...N-..N-no...." he stuttered out, his arms failing beneath him. He fell hard against the pillows and squirmed. A fresh wave of pain coursed through his body, but he didn't feel it.

The rasp of leather against floor sounded along with the scrunch of the chair as the man on the chair stood up. It moved forward a bit, and stood in the light...perfectly silhouetted.

It was missing a good deal of it's chest. A drop of fluid left from the top of the curved opening and fell to the floor.

Drip.

"Answer me sergeant! I SAID ANSWER ME!" it shouted, taking a step forward.

"..N-...N-nooo!" he forced out, fear icing over his throat and tongue.

"Hey sarge!" another voice cried out, from the foot of his bed. The old man wrenched his eyes away from the figure by the window and felt his jaw lock up as he saw the other.

"Hey sarge! I got another tattoo, wanna see it?" the figure offered, holding out the ragged and broken stump of flesh that used to be the upper portion of his arm. A red drop fell from the end.

Drip.

The old man started to scramble backwards against the sheets, clawing fiercely into the pillows and eventually throwing them aside and to the ground.

"..N-noooo!" he cried again, his lips pulling back into a kind of rictus.

"What?" the figure asked, looking down at the stump. "You don't like my new Bettie? I named her myself...Bettie," the figure took a step forward, extending the stump as he went. "Don't you like it sarge?"

The old man felt a tear slide down his face.

"Hey sarge!" yet another voice, this one also familiar. The old man jerkily twisted his neck to the right.

There stood a man, leaning his back against the wall and smoking a cigarette as he stared at the far wall. He wore old-style U.S. Marines combat fatigues and had his hair shaved back into a thick, black mohawk. His boots were ragged and torn to shreds, and the old man could swear he saw one of the man's toes wiggling around inside.

"How do you like my new haircut sarge? The man ran a hand over his thick hair, patting it gently. "Does it look okay to you?"

The newest man turned sideways to face him directly, face-on.

"N-...N-...NOOOOOOOOOOO!" the old man finally forced out of his paralyzed body.

The man leaning against the wall was missing half of his head and neck, "What's the matter sarge? It looks that bad?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed again, writhing and thrashing to get away from the figure. Spittle flew out of his mouth as he squirmed over to the edge of the bed.

The bed with its white sheets.

"Sergeant! You are out of your foxhole! I demand an explanation!" came the hard and demanding reply from the window.

"Sarge, how do you like my Bettie?" came the soft question from the opposing wall.

"Hey sarge," came the next voice, bitter and thick behind it's cloud of smoke. "How long will it take to grow back the rest, do ya think?"

The old man's neck bulged, veins and tendons and ligaments extended and became clear as he drew in a loud and rasping breath.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" spittle flew from his mouth and he felt a new wash of that clear feeling known as pain sprout from his mouth. A hot rush of blood poured from the gash in his tongue and flowed through his constricted throat.

"Answer me Sergeant!"

"Come on sarge, answer?"

"Sarge? Well?"

"Sergeant!"

"Sarge?"

"Sarge!"

The old man fell to the floor and landed in that pool of red.

Red.

Red.

Red.

Red.

"N-NOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed again, thrashing about until he found his back pressed up hard against the wall, instantly he curled up into a small ball and clenched his eyes shut.

"Noooooooo..." he wailed in despaired, his voice nearly gone from the loud and harsh cries he had shouted earlier. "Noooo...you're not here...you're dead...you're not here...you're DEAD!"

The door flew open. Someone...or something...rushed in.

The doctor was quickly followed by a small cadre of nurses and medical supplicants. He searched quickly and found the man curled up into that small ball. His withered arms clenching his hairy legs. Tears were pouring out from underneath his tightly closed eyelids. His mouth was moving rapidly and words were being mumbled out.

The doctor dropped to his knees and tried to pry the old man's hands away from his legs. The grip just tightened. One of the nurses kneeled beside the confused doctor and leaned over the face of the crying patient. Hearing the soft whisper of his torn and hoarse voice, she leaned in further and cocked her head to the side.

"...i didn't leave them...i didn't leave them...i didn't leave them...i didn't leave them...i didn't leave them...i didn't leave them..."

He didn't even feel the needle enter his arm.

~~~

End Book One.
~~~

Seldon's Notes: well, it's been one helluva haul for me. Writing twelve chapters is draining, I'll tell you that. I do plan to continue this, but I'm gonna start up a new post for the other chapters. So I'm calling all of the Twelve Children's Crusade Chapters: Book One. Now, I've promised Six Samurai that I would start the romance soon...and I will...just as soon as the inspiration hits me like one of Jill's mallets. Or until I get to the romantic part of the story.

Some people have asked me what the whole, In Out, In Out thing was from the previous chapter. Well, when you move your legs, people tend to think (and write) about it as being the extension and contraction of the subjects legs. In: picking up the leg and clenching it to the underside of the thigh. Out: extending it and continuing the run. Hope that made thinks a little bit clearer.

A lot of you have expressed interest in the Old Man. Well, I'll just say this:

Don't expect him to get a name anytime soon. ^_^.

I'll see you another day.

Seldon.