Evangelion 1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! ! Thank you for choosing to take your time to read my newest story. I hope that it will please. Without further ado, let us begin, shall we?

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Gendo Ikari sat motionless at his desk with his fingers steepled, inside the brightly lit confines of his large office, the artificial sunlight inside the geofront spilling in from the large windows that replaced three of the walls. To many, they thought the office was simply a show, used to trigger a psychological impact to whomever was summoned into it. The walk over the large seraphic design on the floor, and having to view the imposing one upon the roof, added to the anxiety one would feel as they had to traverse the massive room to come to a stop at Gendo's desk, who would maintain his rigid and intimidating pose.

This was, of course, done on purpose. Everything that Gendo did was meticulous and thought out. Ever since the day he had lost his wife, Yui, and begun working in secret against SEELE to snatch Human Instrumentality away from them, Gendo had to ensure that everything went according to his plan. Which meant he would stoop to any low, manipulate whomever he needed, and commit any atrocity required to see to it that he would be reunited with his love. No man or angel would ever stand in his way.

Which is why the predicament he had found himself in for the past nine years had been a glaring problem that threatened to tear down his hopes and dreams. The problem being his missing son, Shinji Ikari. Gendo let out the smallest grunt, as he thought again about the incident that had occurred two years after he had entrusted his three year old son to his teacher.

The only information that they had, gathered from unwilling witnesses interrogated by Section 2, was late one afternoon as Shinji's teacher was walking him home from elementary school, a black van came to a screeching halt in front of the two and four men jumped out, instantly killing the teacher with a shot to the head with a silenced pistol and pulled Shinji into the van, quickly jumping back in and taking off, all of which transpired in less than six seconds.

The Section 2 agents that had been assigned to Shinji's detail attempted to pursue them, but were unable to catch them, and had been given the slip. There had been no ransom note, and no attempt to contact anyone associated with Shinji or his deceased teacher. The police that were assigned to the case drew the conclusion that the kidnapping was part of a human trafficking ring that had been active in the area lately, though this had been the first time that such a direct and violent abduction had been carried out.

From the little that NERV's intelligence branch could gather, much the same was deduced and even the Magi had come to the same conclusion. Yet no matter how hard they tried, they could find no trace of Shinji being carried through any of the local gangs and promptly vanished from Japan. And so, for the past nine years, NERV's intelligence department has spent much time and energy combing every inch of the world to find Shinji, if he was even still alive. It gave Gendo no end of grief, not because Shinji was his son, but because he was one of the key parts to his plan as the Third Child, being possibly the only person who could pilot Unit 01.

Gendo frowned as he thought more on his son. Gendo's indifference to Shinji's plight as a son rather than a tool was not one borne from malice, it was simply that he had no room to think of him as his son. For what his plans would entail, no such attachments could be made.

The fourth angel would soon be appearing in a matter of days, and Shinji was still missing – if he still lived. To make matters worse, with Unit 00's haywire activation test Rei was still in bad shape, having barely survived the Eva's rampage. She could be forced to pilot Unit 01, but in her condition the chances of victory would be slim indeed.

Letting out a troubled sigh, Gendo pushed away from his desk, deciding to get up and make his rounds when his door was suddenly knocked upon with an urgent frequency. Gendo stopped his ascent and sat back into his chair, resuming his position. "Enter."

The large double doors directly across from Gendo's desk opened, revealing Vice Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, looking almost alarmed about something. He quickly crossed the large office, a USB flash drive held tightly in his right hand and a manilla folder in his left. Reaching the desk, he forewent any normal military dues and held out the flash drive. "Gendo, you need to watch this."

Curious, though not allowing it to show on his face, he reached out and took the flash drive from his old friend, already moving to plug it into his personal computer. "What's this all about Fuyutsuki?" he asked, his tone carrying it's usual dry severity.

"It would be better if you saw it first Gendo."

Gendo stared up at his colleague for a moment before turning his gaze down to his desk, where he pushed the small switch that would cause a monitor to rise up from the middle of it. A red virtual keyboard and mouse appeared on the desk in front of him, which he quickly manipulated to pull up the single video file that was stored within the drive. The video file began to play, showing what looked to be a video shot from outer space and over looking what appeared to be Southern Asia. Fuyutsuki began to commentate.

"We pulled this video from one of SEELE's satellites. As you know Section 2 has been constantly using it along with the Magi to track for any sign of Shinji." The video begun to zoom in onto the Earth below and soon a slightly grainy image of Southern China came into view, as the video feed continued to zoom to ground level. "This video was just captured less than two hours ago by the Southern Chinese border along Vietnam."

Gendo raised a slight brow to what he was hearing, or of what importance it could possibly serve. Ever since Second Impact, the world had been thrown into upheaval, causing many crises around the world, from territory loss due to rising sea levels, massive death tolls, loss of natural resources and even small wars. The Chinese-Vietnamese border being one of the many territorial disputes that had emerged. Second Impact caused a massive sea level change, which wiped out many miles of land along every coast, and Vietnam had been one of the countries hit the hardest, as their entire country had laid along the coast and was nearly wiped out due to the flooding. Since then, their government had suffered an entire collapse, resulting in their country falling into anarchy. The UN had attempted to restore order to the country after the Vietnamese leader begged for their assistance, but most of the citizens had fallen into many small war bands and showed no interest in cooperating with the UN, which caused them to withdraw and declare the entire area an international crisis.

But because of the mass hysteria the world suffered then, no further attempts at quelling the survivors would be made as the UN's help would be needed elsewhere. It only took a matter of years for the surviving Vietnamese people to unite under the strongest warlord and has since then been leading raids into China for the supplies they need, as their land is little more than a glorified beach for Cambodia and Laos, save the very most northern part.

While such a force would usually be nothing for a country as large as China, they had their hands full keeping their own country intact in the days following Second Impact. China had already been a growing hotbed of unrest due to their corrupt and heavy handed government, and the upheaval of the world did little to soothe the fears of the people, it rather served as the spark that lit the powderkeg. And even fourteen years after Second Impact things had still remained tense in the country, thus requiring constant martial law through the entire country, which prompted China to deal with the relatively small threat the Vietnamese rebels gave by using Private Military Contractors. And while much has remained in the dark, as China has been very reclusive since Second Impact, rumors have spread that the PMC's that China employs are no better than ragtag groups of mercenaries with a polished front to appease the overworked UN that can't spare much time to investigate deeper, including the troubling rumor of some the PMC's using child soldiers.

The video feed finally stopped it's zoom in on a small valley located only a few miles from the China-Vietnamese border, where a multitude of tents and military hardware were set up in a clearing. No logos were visible on any of the equipment, nor on any of the soldiers that were walking through the compound. Gendo's attention was soon shifted as the video feed was paused by Fuyutsuki, who reached over and quickly pressed the spacebar on the virtual keyboard.

"This is the forward operating base of the PMC Iron Phoenix. As you can see, there's no markings calling them as such, but the Magi ran recognition software on all the soldiers and was able to mark a few of them as officers from said PMC who are listed on the UN database. And while it had, they found this." Fuyutsuki pointed at the screen, towards a soldier who's features were only slightly visible due to the current quality of the video, but Gendo knew the Magi was capable of cleaning up the image and using even this odd angle to gather enough data to compile a facial recognition. He looked over as he saw Fuyutsuki open the manilla folder in his hand and withdraw a single piece of paper, which he handed to Gendo.

Taking the paper in his hand, Gendo had to use every last ounce of his self-control to not look shocked. In his hand was a report from the Magi, along with a generated image of a young boy around the age of fourteen, who Gendo knew right away who it was.

"Between the artificial aging program we ran on the last known photo and partial face data we have on video, the Magi was able to give a 96% probability that this -" Fuyutsuki pointed at a single soldier, frozen in frame mid-step, "Is Shinji Ikari." He turned to look at Gendo with a faint ghost of a smile. "We found him Gendo." Fuyutsuki's voice was had a joyful tone to it, but he didn't quite feel that way. Why he was in the middle of a war zone was beyond him, and the implications were grim.

Gendo stared between the frozen video, with only the top half of the supposed Shinji Ikari's face visible, but if the Magi fabricated image was true, then it was his son. He hadn't seen him since the day he left him with his deceased guardian, but even in a computer generated image he could see Yui's eyes in this Shinji. It had to be him. Gendo placed the file down and hit the switch on his desk once more to make the virtual keyboard and mouse disappear along with the monitor as it sunk back into his desk. "I want a recovery team assembled ASAP. Inform Captain Katsuragi that she will be leading the team – I want her here in two hours for a briefing. I want the operation to recover the Third Child airborne in three hours, understood?"

Fuyutsuki nodded once, giving a small salute. Although he grumbled for a moment in his mind, noting that Gendo chose to refer to his son as the Third rather by his name. "Understood." As he turned to leave to find the Captain, he was stopped by Gendo.

"Fuyutsuki. Be certain that the Captain understands the severity of this mission and the essence of time. The fact that he's survived out there this long is nothing we can be happy for. The sooner he's in our custody the better."

Fuyutsuki nodded once, before turning away with a small smile on his face. He let out a soft chuckle, wondering if that was Gendo's way of showing concern for his child. It probably wasn't.

XXXX

PMC Iron Phoenix is one of the largest underground PMC's in the world. Operating as a subset of the International Security Contractors (ISC) located in the USA, they're officially listed as a small set of military advisers that only help as trainers and field commanders for developing countries that could afford to employ them.

But their true purpose is to marshal groups of low paid soldiers to fight in the hundreds of small proxy wars that have sprung up over the past fourteen years, a group of soldiers that operate under their own rules, unbound by any rules of engagement or even basic morality. This includes the hiring of child soldiers, though many if not all who have come under contract with Iron Phoenix were not hired willingly. Many were children from whatever third world country the PMC happened to be operating in, forcibly drafted after their village was destroyed and the people within killed.

This allowed the ISC to continue to make a profit in even the most destitute third world country, while keeping their own casualties down and instead use the locals as disposable infantry that wouldn't raise any questions from the international community.

The forward operating base of Iron Phoenix in the China war theater was no different. Having hired the ISC to deal with the Vietnamese raiders that were constantly plaguing their southern borders, they sent out the 1st Iron Phoenix company to eliminate the threat. Commanded by the notorious Colonel Dave "Bloody Skull" Irons, who had a reputation for leading a ruthless band of mercenaries into some of the most bloodiest war zones in the forgotten corners of the world. The mercenaries were mostly ex-soldiers from military all over the world and a handful of child soldiers who survived the wars in the areas they were drafted from. Within the children soldiers, the oldest one was a Japanese teenager who had been with Iron Phoenix for nine years.

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Shinji plopped down on the hard metal bench of the table he'd taken a liking to in the makeshift mess hall – if it could be called that. Iron Phoenix had never been one to spare its budget on making the troop conditions more tolerable, like an actual tent for their buildings, instead of the drab green camouflaged tarp that was held up with poles in a rectangular fashion with mosquito nets that hung along it's perimeter. Sure it kept out the incessant rain, but it did nothing for the sweltering humidity and heat. At least he was dressed for the weather, having only a white tank top on and his green camouflage pant fatigues, with black army boots laced tight and splattered with mud. He reached up and rubbed the small scar across his nose he'd received from a scuffle with an enemy soldier, who almost plunged a knife through his head. It always seemed to ache in this kind of weather.

Looking out of the mesh net, he saw the rain still hadn't let up and the dark stormy clouds still blotted out the sun. Most days were like this since they arrived, and it'd gotten to the point where if it wasn't for his work shifts, he wouldn't know what time of day it was. It looked as if it was night out, but it was only 1600 or so.

Shinji let out a sigh as he looked at his metal tray that held the 'food' he was given. Another thing the budget didn't care to improve was the food either. He shrugged once as he scooped a spoonful of the unidentifiable brown mass that would certainly be over spiced and leave a bad taste in his mouth for an hour. Taking a bite, he grimaced, the taste reminding him of dirt that had been over salted. Well, it was better than the gruel he had been eating in Afghanistan for the past six months, he thought. Sand got into every corner of the their base, including the food, causing every bite to be laced with sand granules.

Fresh from the hellish desert of Afghanistan where they had just assisted a small group of banded warlords kill an opposing tribe, they were now thrust into the dense jungles of southeastern Asia. He couldn't tell if he preferred the searing heat or the sweltering heat. Looking through the white mesh of the mosquito net across from him, he watched the heavy rain fall with only passing interest. He had to admit this was one of the most beautiful places he'd been in. But he soon frowned, as natural beauty was only nice if he could afford to enjoy it without having to worry about catching a bullet in his skull from the plethora of hidden hideouts inside the dense jungle.

Another reason he hated the lack of any real walls on any of the regular troop tents. The Vietnamese rebels could get right up to the tree line that surrounded the small clearing their camp was located in and take all the time in the world to line up a shot without any fear of being seen. It hadn't happened yet, but it didn't stop him from keeping an extra eye out. He hadn't survived this long by being careless.

Glancing around the improvised mess hall, Shinji looked at the handful of mercenaries that were enjoying a late lunch. He recognized a few of the faces, but the others were too new for him to really ever ingrain into his memory. Most of the indistinguishable faces here would be gone within a few months if not less, some would lose their nerve and go AWOL as the only real binding thing they had was a contract, not an obligation. The rest would certainly die in some horrible fashion in the middle of this godforsaken jungle. It was a rule that repeated itself time and time again, no matter what battlefield Shinji had come to call home. He'd had friends at one point, mostly other child soldiers that had been thrust into this world as he was.

Shinji's eyes slowly traced the empty space in front of him, from one end of the rusted metal table to the other end. His mind filled the empty bench with ghostly figures of boys and girls ranging from all ages and races. He could still remember their smiles and laughter, ones that he enjoyed seeing when they would gather for dinner and be thankful they all still lived another day. Though, one by one, they had vanished, erased from existence by the horrible acts of violence that were committed in what seemed every day of Shinji's life. And he'd been there for each and every one of his friends deaths.

It wasn't some glorified death like you see in movies or read in books. They didn't die serving some higher purpose or to save another life. They simply were in the wrong place in the wrong time and the ones that weren't granted the mercy of a quick death languished on the dirt, bleeding from a wound delivered by a tool of war and screaming in agony and lamenting the cruel hand fate dealt them before they expired. They were expendable humans that no one in the world cared about, and only served to fatten the pockets of the ISC. This was the reality of the world that Shinji fought in.

His food forgotten, he glanced down at the small scar he could just see peeking above his tank top, under his left collarbone and close to the shoulder. A reminder of a bullet he'd taken for trying to rescue a comrade that had foolishly attempted to advance under enemy fire. It was in the jungles of Burma, 2010, and he was part of an offensive to overtake a suspected village that held anti-government rebels. He was ten then, and still held some foolish notion that he was fighting to keep his friend alive, the one that still remained.

While they were on route to the village, they were ambushed by the rebels, having caught wind of their plans. They had been surrounded on all sides, and had taken heavy casualties from the start. Lying face down in the dirt, the mud seeped into his mouth, its vile taste mixed with the blood that covered the jungle floor. It had taken all his control not to just run as fast as he could and pray he didn't get shot. Instead, he huddled in that disgusting mud, curled up into a ball and screamed as hundreds of deadly metal fragments soared overhead, seeking their next victim. He'd barely registered the feeling of someone shaking his shoulder, and when he looked up, he was sure it was going to an enemy but instead it was the Burmese teenage girl, Thiri, that had volunteered to join them to fight against the rebels that had killed her father. She was a kind girl, who took to Shinji like a younger brother. He couldn't understand much of what she said, having only picked up a few Burmese words in time he'd been stationed there, but they could still communicate through other means. He grew attached to her, in the few months they spent fighting side by side and even fancied a childish crush he held for her. She was also the only friend of his who still alive.

He barely could make out any of what she was trying to say, over the roaring orchestra of automatic gunfire, but the confident look on her face, tainted with only a hint of fear, told him enough of what her plan was going to be. He tried to summon up the words to dissuade her, but at that moment he wanted to believe she could save him, that she could make it all go away. As soon as she got up to begin running however, Shinji knew the horrible mistake he'd made in letting her go. He called out her name once, but it was already too late, she got no more than ten feet away when she dropped in a spray of her blood.

His heart stopped, as he watched her body fall. He became unaware of anything else, including his own screams as he called out for her. He didn't even remember picking himself up off the ground, running towards where she fell and it wasn't until he felt a searing pain tear through his chest that he was brought back to reality. It hadn't been the first time he'd been shot, but this one hurt more than any he could remember. Falling to the ground, the force of the round knocking him flat, Shinji let out an agonized scream as his hand shot to the wound. He pushed the pain to the back of his mind however, as he pulled himself once more from the mud, and did his best to crawl towards the prone figure of Thiri, who was laying on her right side, her back facing him.

Every movement tore at his wound as he crawled, causing Shinji to whimper in pain, muffling his words as he called out to Thiri. She was going to be okay, he repeated over and over in his mind, staring at his goal. Reaching her, he managed to pick himself up to his knees and with a gentle yet firm pull he rolled her onto her back. It would be an act that he would forever regret, an image forever seared into his mind.

She'd taken a bullet to the back right side of her skull and exiting out somewhere around her right eye. The right side of her face was torn apart by the force of the round, her brains leaking out from the wound. What remained of her face was frozen in pain, and her only visible eye stared into Shinji, boring into the horror stricken child. He could see it in her eye, all the blame that was directed towards him for letting her run out as she did. It was all his fault. Shinji didn't know if it was the gruesome sight or the shock of his wound, but he let out a single terrified scream before succumbing to darkness.

He awoke later in the field hospital of the main Iron Phoenix base, apparently a nearby patrol of government troops heard the ambush go off, and managed to help the surviving offensive fight off the rebels. Shinji had gotten lucky, the bullet tore through his chest and miraculously avoided his ribs, collarbone, and just barely avoided his lung. The bleeding had been stopped by the field medic that had survived, and he was evacuated.

Since that day, Shinji had grown distant from his troop, refusing to socialize with anyone. He didn't want to get hurt again, like he had with Thiri. It helped that he'd gained a reputation as being bad luck. Any operation he was assigned too always tended to turn into shit, with more than a few deaths at the end of them. He'd lost too many friends, and now only waited until he was granted the same release that his friends had been granted from this hell. He supposed that if he survived long enough, he could possibly try and leave Iron Phoenix. But he would end up with a bullet in his back if he tried, they would fear him letting the world know about the PMC's dark dealings with their child soldiers. He was consigned to fighting in one battlefield to the next, until he finally found the bullet meant for his hide. He wondered if he would be like the others, screaming in regret and fear for dying, as they cursed the bastard that shot them, or if he might go with a smile on his face.

He'd even considered suicide before, though every time he put the cold barrel into his mouth, he would be instantly plagued by the ghosts of his friends, all of them angry with him for being such a coward. He didn't deserve such a nice, clean death. He could see it in their hollow black eyes that bled black blood which stained their deathly pale flesh as they surrounded him at night. They were angry with him, for being the only one to survive, while they were all killed.

Every night they came to him. He had to sleep with the covers over his head in small cot, covered in his own cold sweat as he felt their ghosts surround his bed, all glaring down at him. Sleep never came easy to him, as he would grip his sheets in terror as he felt his heart hammer in his chest, their hateful glares burning through his woolen blanket. And when he did sleep, it was no respite. In his dreams, they would whisper to him, reminding him of his sins.

A loud crack of thunder snapped Shinji from his waking nightmare as he snapped his head up. His breathing was unsettled, and he leaned forward to rest his head in his hands. He could feel the cold sweat stain his body, and he knew it wasn't from the humidity. He let out a soft curse as he wished the Colonel would allow them hard liquor, but it was never rationed out until the area was more secure. Looking around, trying to find something to get his mind off his past, he saw the mess hall had emptied out, leaving him alone with his cold pasty food.

Shinji muttered out another curse as he grabbed another spoonful of food, he wasn't hungry anymore, but knew he would be in a few hours when he had to attend to his shift on guard duty. Doing his best to shove his dark thoughts of his past to the back of his mind, he began shoveling the disgusting meal into his mouth, finding it easier to eat if he tried not to taste it. Finishing the last spec of food, Shinji began to stand up to deposit his tray when he heard a voice call out to him from behind him.

"Private Ikari." the voice called out to him in English.

Shinji quickly stood, dropping the tray unceremoniously onto the table as he turned and saluted, his military training kicking in. "Sir!" before him was an officer that had been attached to the 1st company on this campaign. His dark green combat fatigues identified him as M. Smith, rank Second Lieutenant, making him his superior officer by leaps and bounds but Shinji never bothered to learn his first name.

"Colonel Irons wants you to report to him ASAP." Smith barked out, his tone authoritative yet artificial, making it clear he had never had any real field experience and was probably fresh out of some academy.

Shinji stifled his frown as he quickly acknowledged the order and watched the Second Lieutenant march off. Colonel Irons had been the driving force for all the misery in his life, since he'd been delivered to his 'care'. Shinji quickly shook his head as he turned to grab his tray. Thinking about the past life he could barely remember wouldn't help him any. Some days he wondered if those peaceful days he had as a child were even real. The fuzzy memories of his homeland only served to taunt him, rather than comfort him. Dropping the tray onto the stack of other dirty trays, Shinji braced himself for the trek across the camp that was being assaulted by heavy rainfall.

XXXX

Colonel Dave "Bloody Skull" Irons sat behind his fold out desk going over the latest batch of reports from the recon teams he'd sent out to patrol the long stretch of valley that ran across the Vietnamese border. He was in his forties, yet his age didn't show on his muscular body and if he had any gray hairs it wasn't noticeable as he shaved his head and only grew a mustache that was still a vibrant black. Born of African descent, his skin was dark, and he had cold brown eyes that instilled fear into any solider that crossed him.

So far they'd discovered several enemy hiding spots, but no enemy. They'd set up traps in case the Vietnamese ever returned, but for the time being it seemed as though they had vacated the surrounding area. His gut told him that it wasn't something as convenient as them all turning tail and fleeing back to whatever rats nest they called home. He narrowed his eyes as he placed the report back down onto his desk. Something told him they were preparing for something. Iron Phoenix had only been here for two weeks and had yet to make contact with the enemy, but this was the Vietnamese stomping ground. He wouldn't be surprised if they already knew Iron Phoenix was here and were planning an attack.

The flap of his tent shifted, causing the dull roar of the rain that assaulted the heavy tarp of his tent to increase. Looking up, he didn't suppress his ill smile seeing who walked through, dripping wet from the rain. "Shinji. Glad to see you wasted no time in your Jap ass over here." Colonel Irons spoke, his voice dripping with false joy. His relationship with the boy had been a strange one.

To say he hated the boy was no understatement and it wasn't something he hid either. Ever since he was first dropped off at his base nine years ago as a sniveling brat, he'd done everything he could to make the boys life hell. He knew that he'd been abducted from his home and sold off as a soldier to die in some godforsaken country, but it invoked no sympathy from Irons. If you asked why he hated Shinji so much, no definitive answer could be given, it was simply that the boy struck a nerve within him. So he constantly threw him into the worst conflicts he could. From the harsh plains of Africa, to the desert crags of Afghanistan, the rainforests of South America and the dunes of Egypt they had been fighting for years, but for reasons that mystified him Shinji came out the other end of hell injured, but never dead. It was a never ending source of irony for him that by giving him this Spartan-esque lifestyle he'd strengthened the very thing he wanted to kill. Hell, Shinji was the longest surviving soldier in the entire 1st company. They stopped counting his confirmed kills a long time ago, but it was easily past one hundred. The only thing that brought Irons any measure of joy from the situation was the teenagers mental problems that was slowly breaking him.

The shrinks had checked him out numerous times, and every time the result was the same. He was damaged more than the average child soldier. Most coped with their reality early on and adapted to the life they were in and only had a few instabilities. Shinji, on the other hand, always went on about trying to save as many people as he could, but they all died regardless. It was the reason that he saw the phantasms that haunted him at night. While the troops complained constantly about Shinji's screaming that would wake them up in the middle of the night, Colonel Irons loved the tune of it, when it drifted into his private tent.

Shinji grit his teeth, not letting it show though. He knew it was fruitless to talk back to the Colonel's insults. Doing so would only give the bastard an excuse (not that he needed one) to 'discipline' him. "Forgive me, Sir."

Colonel Irons waved his hand as he stood. "Stow it. I only called you here to let you know you're pulling double duty tonight on gate watch. Go relieve the soldier on duty now." Irons made no attempt to hide his grin. He watched as Shinji's eyes widened for half a second, before returning to their neutral state. He knew the boy wouldn't argue, even though Irons wished he would. God, he could only hope that some monkey out in the jungle would finally have the good sense to put a bullet in the teen. Even though he'd miss his personal stress reliever, at least he'd never have to put up with him again.

Shinji gave a quick salute, feeling his rage seethe under his skin. He'd just gotten done with the very same watch and was planning on getting some sleep before his next, but he wasn't surprised at the turn of events. He tended to get these surprise shifts once a week at least, followed by a mission. He supposed it was Irons way of trying to tire him out before a sortie, in hopes it would get him killed. As much as he wished for a release from this godforsaken world, he'd hate to give this asshole the pleasure of his death. Turning to walk out, he heard Irons speak up behind him.

"Glad to see you're a well trained dog who knows not to bark at his master now. Make sure you stay like that." Irons grinned as he watched Shinji shake for a moment before continuing to march out of his tent, once more stepping out into the torrential rainfall.

Shinji didn't try to suppress his visible rage as he walked towards the barracks, making other soldiers give him a wide berth. He swore he would see that bastard on the ground and pleading for his life someday.

XXXX

Misato Katsuragi sat in an unpleasant mood on the turbulent VTOL assault craft that was currently transporting her and her team. The mission she'd been given was unsettling to say the least. The Third Child was a hot topic that anyone involved in the Evangelion project knew about. Most thought he was dead, and that NERV was wasting money trying to find him, that it was mainly the Commander trying to find his lost son. But then, the Third Child had been found after years of searching, but it was in a war zone of all the horrible places.

She double checked her gear she'd been given by the Chinese NERV branch, who supplied them with their VTOL as well. A standard issue grey flak jacket with the NERV logo on the back, a FAMAS bullpup rifle with four full clips of 5.55x45mm NATO rounds. Two fragmentation grenades and a survival knife attached to the left shoulder strap. It made her a bit nervous, truth be told. She'd had the training, certainly, but she'd never actually gone to a real war zone.

The plan was simple, she was to make contact with the PMC, offer a price to take Shinji Ikari from them, then extract back to NERV HQ. She crinkled her nose as she thought about it. _Negotiating with these people just feels wrong. Why do we have to buy off a child stolen and forced to fight in wars? Is this the kind of world I'm fighting to save? _Misato let out a sigh as she sunk in her seat.

"You okay Captain? You look a little nervous." A male voice called out to her, just audible over the roaring engine and the hammering sounds of the heavy rain splattering against the hull of the VTOL.

Misato let out a soft chuckle as she peered across the VTOL, where Makoto Hyuga sat strapped into his seat wearing the same gear as she was. To either side of him sat two more NERV security guards who thankfully had experience in the JSDF and had volunteered to come along as their escorts. They had the same equipment, but wore helmets and goggles that covered up their features. "I don't really think you should be asking that when you can't keep your leg from shaking Makoto." She pointed towards his right leg, which was moving on it's own volition.

Makoto let out a nervous laugh as his right hand shot out to grasp onto his knee, stopping his leg, while he used his left hand to straighten up his glasses. "It's only nerves Captain, I'm just excited is all." He tried to sound convincing, but he cursed as even he could hear the shake in his tone.

Misato gave the man a small smile, before she sat back up in her seat and readjusted her lucky beret. "I'm honestly surprised you chose to volunteer, you never struck me as the kind of guy that would risk his neck in these types of situations."

Makoto seemed to beam with pride for a moment as he puffed out his chest. "Well, I couldn't let you go out alone could I? It's my duty to make sure you stay safe." Upon further inflection as to what he had just said, a small pink tint colored his cheeks as he nervously coughed. "A-As your aide of course."

Misato laughed as she gave the nerdy technician a sly wink, causing him to turn a shade of red. "Well thank you Makoto." She wasn't blind, she knew the awkward tech liked her. She thought he was kind of cute, but liked her men a bit more forward.

"Captain Katsuragi, can you come up here for a moment?" The pilot called out from the cockpit in Japanese, though he had a thick Chinese accent. He was the only pilot at the China NERV branch that spoke Japanese, but his accent made it a bit hard to understand.

"One moment," she replied as she undid her belt. Standing, she quickly crossed the VTOL, feeling the strange sense one gets when walking in a flying vehicle. Leaning into the cockpit, her features illuminated with the green glow of the technical readouts, she looked through the windshields, seeing that most of the view was obscured by thick rain clouds and rain. Glancing down to the two pilots, she spoke,"What do you got for me soldier?"

The pilot pointed towards a tactical display in the center console that showed an elevation map of the surrounding area around the VTOL. "We're nearing the PMC F.O.B, but we're getting strange readouts on our radar, look here -" He pointed again towards the tactical map. "It's picking up on what looks like a massive amount of movement."

Misato furrowed her brow as she watched the massive white blob move in unison through the forest. They were still in China, so it had to be some localized troops, perhaps even something affiliated with Iron Phoenix but – there, in the clouds! "_Look out!_" Misato yelled as she saw something soaring towards the VTOL. She barely had time to brace against the door of the cockpit as the pilot pushed hard against the stick, causing the VTOL to bank right as the rocket meant for them whipped by harmlessly.

"Shit!" the Pilot yelled out as he saw more were joining them. He started yelling to his co-pilot in Chinese, and the VTOL began to strafe left and right as it began defensive maneuvers. "Captain Katsuragi! Get back to your seat!"

Misato growled as she would if the damn ship could stop moving for a moment! "We need to hurry and get to the PMC base! I don't think these guys are Chinese, so they're going to be in trouble soon if we don't –" She was cut off by the sight of a red glow coming from the horizon. The PMC Iron Phoenix base was surrounded by an inferno.

"I think it's a bit late for that Captain Katsuragi." The pilot spoke grimly, as he kept his head on a swivel looking for more incoming enemy fire.

"I don't care, get us in there! We have to find and rescue the Third Child!" Turning hard, she turned towards her team that regarded her with worried looks. _Shinji__, you better not die after surviving this long. _

XXXX

Shinji let out a hard curse as another mortar round exploded no more than twenty feet from him. He thought he might have seen someone standing there, but he could really care less at the moment. He tried to figure out what the hell had happened, but everything was moving way too fast. One moment he was in the barracks getting his gear together, the next everything had gone to shit and quick. The base was hit hard by multiple mortar and rocket strikes, the fact that the barracks hadn't been immediately blown away amazed Shinji. He wasted no time in grabbing his personal FN SCAR-H, his sidearm, a Beretta 92FS and a flak jacket to throw over his tank top before fleeing the massive building that served as a perfect target.

Now, he was greeted by the burning ruins of the base that had been absolutely peaceful not two minutes prior. He needed to find his squad leader, but the base was in absolute chaos and he needed to find some solid cover and quick, infantry would have to be storming the base any moment now. He spotted some concrete road blocks near the road just twenty feet ahead of him, he could take cover there and take a moment to get his bearings before figuring out what to do.

As soon as he started running forward however, a familiar sound of deadly steel pelting the earth behind his feet made him aware he was under fire, and it was coming from behind him. Adrenaline blasted into his system and Shinji's heart pounded in his chest as he ran as fast as he could towards the concrete road block. He could actually feel the mud from the displaced earth that the bullets were throwing up lick against his legs, informing him of just how close the rounds were getting to him. The barrier was only feet away, and he pushed off as hard as he could in a jump, and prayed. He barely noted the barrier passing underneath him as he hit the packed in dirt of the well traveled road on the other side, and heard the gunfire that had been chasing him slam into the concrete, shattering pieces of it off.

He quickly rolled up against the barrier and gave himself a moment to catch his breath and try in vain to wipe the mud from his face. He waited until the sound of the metal slugs peppering the concrete wall stopped before daring to pop his head up once to see if the enemy was close, but didn't see anyone. Dropping back down quickly he guessed that they must have been firing from the treeline. There was no way he could possibly fire back at them. Looking around again, he saw the road was mostly clear, save the occasional soldier that would run across, heading to his assigned area. Shinji cursed his luck for being caught in this mess without any direction to follow beyond his own.

The only intel he had on the enemy so far was they were firing from the northern tree line. If he couldn't get a proper area to defend, he should probably just join the next soldier that ran north to form a defensive line. Then, he caught the sound of an inbound helicopter, and glanced up to see a large grey VTOL, with a logo he could just barely make out on the side of it's door. _NERV? _The airship blasted past him and towards the landing zone for supply helicopters.

Shinji narrowed his eyes as he stood into a low crouch that would keep him hidden from sight behind the barricade. He didn't know what he could do to help with the current attack, but if that VTOL held the enemy, they were about to get flanked. He needed to intercept them. Checking his SCAR once, he saw everything was in order and mud hadn't gotten into anything important. Taking a single deep breath, he made a break for an opening in the concrete barrier on the other side of the road.

XXXX

"You two stay here and keep the engine on, if we're not back in thirty take off without us." Misato yelled over the roar of the engine and the rain. Luck seemed to be on their side, the helipad was on the southern end of the base and was the farthest from the fighting. Shutting the sliding metal door to the passenger bay, Misato turned to see the two NERV security guards securing the area, while Makoto nervously looked towards the tracer rounds that were lighting up the dark sky to the north, accompanied by the sounds of explosions and gunfire.

She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, causing the man to flinch as he turned towards her looking afraid. Seeing who it was however made him look ashamed as he averted his eyes from her. She gave him a comforting smile. "It's okay to be afraid Makoto – I'm scared shitless myself," she interrupted herself with a chuckle. "But the fact that you stepped off that VTOL means you have the courage needed, right?"

Makoto took a deep breath, and nodded once, loosening up. Reaching up, he tried to wipe the rain off his glasses, but saw it wasn't going to do much good. "Yeah, I guess it does, doesn't it?" he asked, feeling proud of himself, now only thinking he had a less that certain chance of dying today.

Misato winked at him, "Besides, I need my knight to keep me safe, right?" She hid a snicker as she saw his face go red. Maybe he wasn't the most forward, but she did have to admit teasing him was rather fun.

"Captain! The area is clear!" One of the NERV security called out.

Misato motioned with her head to tell Makoto to follow her, which he did with a stuttered and mumbled reply. Looking out, she saw the helipad was surrounded by chain link fence, and the only exit was about twenty feet out, leading into a road surrounded on either side by concrete barriers. To the left of the exit though, was an area full of tent looking structures, made with blue tarps. "That looks like a supply depot! Lets cut through there and try to stay out of sight, we don't know how Iron Phoenix is going to react to our presence so lets keep ourselves hidden until we can find a good time to introduce ourselves!" She yelled out, barely able to hear herself over the storm and gunfire.

The two NERV security guards nodded and one took point as he raised his FAMAS and started down the path, while the other moved behind Misato and Makoto, taking up the rear. As they moved, Misato turned towards Makoto to tell him to stay close to her, but judging by his serious expression and firm grip on his weapon, no such words were needed. Deciding to take after his example, she started keeping her eyes peeled for any strange movement from the dancing shadows of the base, as explosions from mortars illuminated the sky briefly.

Once they crossed into the supply depot, Misato felt herself breathe a bit easier, no longer having to worry about being spotted from far away. The NERV security guard on point was being cautious, stopping at each tent and carefully peeking around, ensuring that no one was around it. They slowly made their progress through, and judging by the increasing sounds of battle, the fight at the northern part of the base was far from over. A loud crack of thunder caused Misato to jump slightly, and was happy to see the others with her had the same reaction. They were all on edge, and the storm wasn't making things easier.

The NERV security guard on point checked the corner they were about to turn once, pulled back, and then moved out again and was then greeted by the crack of gunfire that barely missed him as his instincts told him to jump back. The hail of bullets continued as it tore through the blue tarp, making them all drop with a yell as it strafed across where they had all been standing.

Misato yelled out once, "Stop shooting! We're not the enemy!"

XXXX

_Minutes earlier . . . _

Shinji slowly stalked through the supply depot, going around each corner with his SCAR raised and his finger ready to unleash a storm of steel on whoever found himself on the wrong end of it. He spotted the unknown soldiers come out of the helipad in a standard line formation into the supply depot, undoubtedly seeking to stay out of sight while they moved closer to the base. Even if he had no love for Iron Phoenix, if they were overrun his own life would be forefit.

It was funny, as much as he wished to be rid of this life, he still clung to life. Perhaps he just really was a selfish coward that would do anything to make sure he stayed alive. A loud crack of thunder made Shinji realize he had lost some of his focus, causing him to shake his head. Now wasn't the damn time. Taking a deep breath, he popped around the next corner, only to find a soldier pointing a FAMAS at him six feet from him. His instincts kicked in in a flash, and he squeezed the trigger causing a burst of rounds to scream from his barrel towards a target that had already retreated behind the flimsy cover of the tarp. Wasting no time, Shinji swept his assault rifle left, pelting the tent and hoping to hit his target.

"Stop shooting! We're not the enemy!"

Shinji stopped, his finger letting off the trigger, as he heard the woman's voice ring out. It wasn't that he thought she was sincere, it was just the sheer shock of hearing what language she called out to him in. It had been Japanese. Shinji's mouth fell agape slightly as he ran the words through his mind again, he was somewhat rusty as the last time he had spoken Japanese was with his oldest friend, Kou, who had been abducted around the same time as him but died in their second campaign in Africa years ago. Since then he'd only spoken English, having been forced to learn it in a US based PMC.

But why would a group of Japanese speaking soldiers have come all the way out to the middle of nowhere? Shinji's hand shook on the trigger, his fear telling him to keep up the fire before they popped back around cover, but he forced it down, he had to know why they were here. Doing his best to remember his mother's tongue, he called out. "Who are you?! Show yourself!" He knew he probably fumbled a word or two, but figured it was close enough.

Misato was surprised when she heard the shooter respond to her in Japanese, she was about to yell out again in what little English she knew when the young voice called out to her. She looked towards the NERV security guards and nodded her head, whispering, "It's okay, he's with the PMC, if we comply we can diffuse this. Just follow my lead."

The two NERV security guards looked skeptical, trading looks with each other. Makoto noticed this and let his FAMAS drop and let it hang by it's shoulder strap. "I'm with you Captain." he spoke with a nod, receiving a thankful smile in return. The two NERV security finally agreed, and mimicked Makoto.

Misato nodded again and stood, letting her own weapon hang as she raised her hands up. "Okay! We're coming out!" Taking a deep breath, she let her leg proceed her, as she slowly edged into the open and prayed she wasn't about to die. Turning, she saw that their shooter was staying perfectly still, with a SCAR assault rifle pointed straight at her. She involuntarily flinched seeing it, but kept moving forward.

"That's far enough! Who are you!?" Shinji hated that he didn't know any more advanced words in Japanese, throwing in another phrase in English, "Identify yourselves!" He couldn't help but notice that the woman who stepped out was beautiful, more so than most women he had seen in his life.

Misato noticed that the shooter couldn't have been older than fifteen, but he certainly had a well toned body that would be expected from a lifelong soldier. When she looked towards his face, clear blue eyes and short brown hair, she couldn't hide the shock she felt. "Y-You! Are you Shinji Ikari?!" she asked, not believing her luck.

Shinji's spine crawled as the beautiful woman called out his name. He suddenly felt incredibly freaked out and his mind started throwing insane ideas at him as he kept his rifle trained on her.

Realizing that she must have freaked him out, Misato quickly added, "I'm Captain Misato Katsuragi of the Japanese NERV branch, we've come to find Shinji Ikari!"

Shinji felt his confusion grow more, some of the words Misato Katsuragi used were lost on him, but he understood enough to know she was affiliated with something called NERV and was looking for him. But why would someone from Japan want him? His first wild thought was they might have been people coming to kill him for some past crime he'd committed in another country, but that was even more absurd than what they were here for. A small voice from the back of his head suggested an idea to him, but he didn't listen to it, it was impossible. "What do you want with Shinji Ikari?" he called out.

Misato felt her sweat mingling with the rain, as the boy who looked exactly like the photo she had in her mission briefing holding his rifle at her with unwavering precision. What she said next would likely determine his next actions. "His father sent us to find him. We've been looking for Shinji Ikari for years, and have only now discovered he is somewhere within this base." She saw the look on his face shift to surprise and she knew she was on the right track.

His father? Shinji let his rifle point drop slightly, as he felt a wave of emotion that he hadn't felt fall onto him. Fuzzy memories of a stern bearded man came to him, speaking to him, though he couldn't remember the words. It wasn't the man who was shot the day he was abducted, he knew that much. Shinji felt his mouth go dry as the implications of what the woman in front of him spoke of rang in his mind. And the voice that he'd ignored earlier came back to him with a smug tone, in a told-you-so manner. _They've come to get you out of here._

His natural caution won out over his hope, however, and he had to continue with his facade. "If. . . If you found Shinji, what would you do with him?"

Misato almost felt her heart break at hearing the question. While his tone had been firm, the pause at the start told her all she needed to know. He was a boy who had been thrust into a world he didn't want, his innocence torn from him, and he couldn't even allow himself to be given over to hope. She slowly let her hands drop, and saw that Shinji didn't react to it. "We'd offer to take him back to Japan with us, where he could be reunited with his father and at the very least, you wouldn't have to use that," she nodded towards his gun, "ever again." She didn't have it in her to tell him that she was going to drag him from this battlefield to the next, and sincerely doubted she could explain it to him in the middle of an active war zone at any rate.

Shinji's hands trembled at hearing what she spoke, not truly believing his ears. All his long developed instincts told him this was far too convenient, that her offer couldn't possibly be real. But he wanted it to be, so damn much. A vision of his earliest memory came to him, of a smiling woman with short cropped brown hair, her smile warmer than the sun that beat down around them. He never had any proof or conformation of her identity, but he knew the memory was of his mother. For whatever reason it showed itself in his mind, it helped him decide. Shinji lowered his SCAR and nodded. "Alright. I'm Shinji Ikari, how are we getting out?"

Misato smiled and turned towards the three behind her, who all looked immensely relieved. With a wave of her hand, she beckoned him over. "We have a VTOL on standby at the helipad, it'll get us out of here."

Shinji nodded once and jogged to catch up with them, moving in behind Makoto who gave him a sideways glance, but decided to save any introductions for later. The NERV security guard on point turned and started moving quick back the way they came, ready to get the hell out of here now that they'd secured the target.

As they moved, Misato reached pulled out a radio and turned it on. "VTOL come in, we've secured the package and are en route, over." Static exploded from the radio but was soon interrupted by gunshots coming out from it.

"Captain! You need to hurry we have hostiles coming over the fence!" The sound of a side arm rang out twice. "They don't look like PMC's, and there's a lot so hu – _argh!" _The radio cut off back to static.

Misato gasped as she heard the cutoff from the radio. "Chang, come in!" She called out, using the pilots first name, her voice tinged with worry. "Dammit Chang, respond!" Silence. "_Shit!_ Double time people the VTOL is in danger!"

The NERV security guard on point nodded once before breaking out into a sprint, with everyone keeping up behind him. No one spoke a word as they all understood that their only exfiltration was compromised. As soon as they cleared the supply depot and could see the helipad through the chain link fence.

Misato let out a silent gasp as she saw that four Vietnamese rebels, all dressed in ragtag outfits and heavily armed were dragging the corpses of the pilots from the VTOL. But before she could say anything, she screamed in surprise as four bursts of automatic gunfire went off next to her.

Shinji glared at the rebels, quickly lining up shot after shot and sending short bursts of fire towards his targets and watched them drop in a spray of blood as the heavy rounds tore through their flak jackets. They didn't have any time to react to the new threat and all four went down.

Misato looked at the teen in shock, as he looked towards them like they were crazy. "What are you waiting for?!" Shinji yelled out, looking at them, "Get to the VTOL! There's going to be more where they came from!"

Misato shook her head once, and had to remind herself that this kid probably had done such a thing hundreds of times in the past nine years. "Get to the pilots, pray they're still alive! Go _go!_" The five charged across the muddy field, and it seemed as if the rain started coming down even harder. They crossed the field in a matter of heartbeats, and when Misato came to a sliding halt by the pilots, she didn't need to check their vitals. Both had numerous wounds, but they had been finished off with a bullet to the head each. "They're both dead."

Mikoto blanched as he realized they were stranded. "Captain, what are we going to do?!" The NERV security guards both seemed to share the techs worries as they looked at each other, when Shinji spoke up from inside the VTOL.

"Hurry up and get inside, I'll fly us out of here!" He quickly reached down and pulled off the bloody headset from the pilot.

For the second time, she looked at Shinji in shock, "You know how to fly one of these?" Just who the hell is this kid?! For a moment she was reminded of a certain red headed German who too had a pilots license, and almost wanted to laugh at fact of another Child sharing the same skills.

Shinji looked annoyed as he stopped halfway into the cockpit. "I can give you my life story later, just get everyone in the damn VTOL so we can get the hell out of here!" As he didn't how to curse in Japanese, he drifted between English and Japanese.

"He doesn't need to tell me twice." Mikoto spoke as he jumped into the VTOL, followed shortly by the two NERV security guards, who stopped to pick up the corpses of the fallen NERV pilots and bring them inside.

Misato shook her head once and decided she had a lot of questions for the young soldier as she jumped in and quickly slid the steel door shut closed behind her. Looking into the cockpit she saw Shinji already manipulating the controls. "Everyone's accounted for!"

"Roger that," He spoke in English, "Get ready!" As he started to pull back on the stick, he saw Misato quickly climb into the co-pilot seat, and he was about to say she needed to get back, but decided against it as he lifted the VTOL up and once he got to the proper altitude, shifted the engines forward to send them flying off.

Misato let out a long breath, as she felt immensely better, now that they were airborne. She felt like she'd just ran a marathon after everything that had happened. She decided to bug Commander Ikari for a raise after everything was done. This was way above her pay grade. Glancing over at Shinji, she saw he was looking down towards the burning base as he banked around it to lead the VTOL further into China. His eyes were watching as the rebels were clearly outnumbering the PMC and Iron Phoenix had already sustained massive casualties if the splayed out bodies were any indicator.

Shinji narrowed his eyes as he scanned the defensive line. He hoped that maybe, just maybe he might see the bleeding corpse of Colonel Irons, but within seconds they were already clear of the burning base as he put the accelerator to full. He might not get the satisfaction of seeing the bastard die, but at the very least he knew there was no way he'd survive this.

"Are you regretting leaving them behind?" Misato asked, watching his face. She didn't know how he felt about the PMC, but after being there for so long, she wouldn't be surprised if he held some sort of feelings towards them.

Shinji snorted once and shook his head as he looked forward. "Anyone I cared for there is long dead. And the only people that are left are ones I want dead. Whatever awaits them, they brought on themselves." His face darkened, as he thought that he himself will probably have such an end. It was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Looking over at Misato, he saw she was looking at him like she pitied him more than anything else in the world, which made him feel uncomfortable. "So. . . where to?" he asked.

Misato looked forward herself feeling an overwhelming sadness grip her as she heard his words. The poor boy, what hells had he seen? "Head towards Bejing, we're expected at the NERV branch there."

Shinji nodded, already manipulating a tactical readout that served as a GPS. "So, this NERV, what are you guys? Some kind of military? I've never heard of it."

Misato nodded once as she adjusted herself to get more comfortable. "I'm not surprised. But lets save that for later okay? It's going to be a long explanation."

Shinji looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but decided against pushing her for more information at the moment. He was already in their care, he might as well wait until they were in better circumstances to talk.

As silence grew between them, with the only sound being the roar of the engines and the rain which started to let up the further they traveled, Shinji felt a strange sensation grip him. As he looked towards the horizon that was ever growing brighter, as the clouds thinned, he realized that he was free, truly free of Iron Phoenix. He took a single deep breath, as the reality of that statement sunk in. For nine years he had been under their "employ" fighting in dirty battlefields to line the pockets of men he'd never meet. His life had been centered around killing and doing whatever necessary to stay alive. Each day he knew exactly what would be expected of him, and even if an enemy attack or mission would be sudden, he still understood that world and his place in it.

For the first time, he was no longer bound by the rules he had come to know for his existence. The clouds fully parted, and Shinji winced as the sunset came into view out of the western horizon, momentarily blinding him with it's orange brilliance. Truly, his life was now in his own hands. Shinji smiled a true vibrant smile as he leaned back into the pilots chair.

XXXX

You have no idea how bad I wanted to put GET TO DA CHOPPA! when they were running to the VTOL. So, damn, hard to resist.

It's kind of a challenge to write Shinji's dialouge right now too. I have to be careful what words he uses when he speaks and I have to keep it in line with someone who only knows the basics of Japanese, as his last real learning experience was when he was a kid. I hope I did okay portraying that. Also, there is ALOT to his backstory, but it's going to be explained over time.

Anyways! I hope everyone enjoyed this first chapter. Next chapter we get into the meat of Neon Genesis, that being BADASS ANGEL ON EVA FIGHTS.

This is new ground for me, my first Evangelion fic ever. I've loved the series since I first saw it damn near ten years ago and I've always wanted to do this. If you liked it, please consider leaving a review and letting me know, so I get plenty of motivation for chapter two okay?

So until next time, stay awesome!

Shinobi no Ryu


	2. Chapter 2

In the dark abyss of his conference room, Chairman Keel sat brooding with his hands intertwined, his thumbs circling each other slowly. He waited for his fellow SEELE members to answer his summons, to speak to them of the news he just learned of. His attention was drawn to a materializing image to his right, an obsidian slab with the words SEELE 07 : VOICE ONLY appearing in front of it. One by one, more obsidian slabs appeared, all with the same marks, save the numbers changing to mark them, ranging from two to eleven. Twelve would not appear, for that was Gendo Ikari's designation. When the final one appeared, Keel reached forward to press the button that would materialize his own obsidian slab, numbered 01.

"What is the reason for summoning us so close to Sachiel's appearance?" SEELE 09 spoke, his voice masked by the program that they all used. It was of course a moot point to use it when they convened with only themselves present, as they all knew each other's true identity; yet it was still safer should they be spied upon.

Chairman Keel glared at the 09 slab. He was always rash, and a bit of a late comer to the organization, so he was usually the first to speak so disrespectfully. Letting out a small grunt, he replied, "The Third Child has been found, alive. Gendo has already retrieved him and he is currently en route to NERV HQ." As Keel expected, he was greeted by silence, yet he could easily guess their facial reactions to the news.

"How is that possible?!" SEELE 03 called out, his voice eerily calm yet aggressive. "Were you not the one who was supposed to take care of him?!" Similar phrases came from the other members of SEELE, as Keel considered his next words.

"In truth, I am as surprised as the rest of you. That he has survived until now is nothing short of a miracle." Keel spoke, giving a slight snort at his own unintended ironic words. The pace at which his thumbs twirled around each other slowing then coming to a stop, before he leaned more onto his elbows. "As you know, when we had the Third Child abducted, the goal was to make him disappear and eventually be killed, as to not arouse suspicion from Gendo that we may be involved." None of the SEELE board members trusted Gendo, they knew that while he was certainly aiming to achieve Human Instrumentality, he could not be trusted to help them shape it to what SEELE wished it to be.

"We wanted to rid Gendo of his son, the one child who could most easily manipulate EVA Unit 01, which we would turn into the Divine Soul." SEELE 02 spoke. "Now that Gendo has reacquired his son, he can manipulate him into doing what he wishes in order to see our plans changed. Ke – 01, I have said from the start that we should have killed Gendo, and I still stand by that."

"No." Chairman Keel responded, shaking his head out of instinct. "While he is a treacherous rat, he is far too useful. The man has a keen ability for making things happen, and it _is _largely due to him that NERV is the organization that it is. We will rid ourselves of Gendo, but not yet."

"How is it that the Third Child survived? Did you not instruct his abductors to murder him?" SEELE 04 spoke, revealing itself to be a woman even through it's distortion.

"They took the liberty of selling him to a PMC that deals in using child soldiers in multiple countries across the world. They sought to make an extra profit over the sizable sum we had already given them. After they were eliminated, I considered sending an assassin to finish the job, but a five year old in a vicious war such as the one that had been raging in the Middle East would have finished him, or so I had thought." Keel's hands tightened, as he felt like a fool for having to explain himself to his peers. Yet it had been his own oversight that caused the current predicament.

"I cannot blame you for that, he survived through sheer luck that defies logic. The question now is what does this mean for the future?" SEELE 11 asked.

Keel nodded, glad that the conversation would move on. "We shall wait and watch for now. Neither we nor Gendo can make a move until the angels have been defeated. We'll change our original plan however. When our operative arrives in Tokyo-3, we'll have them keep tabs on the Third Child. We may still be able to use him, especially considering that he has been free of Gendo's influence until now."

"Very well. But let us ensure that no further problems stand between us and Divinity." SEELE 03 spoke, to which everyone agreed. With the meeting over, they all turned off their projectors, leaving Chairman Keel alone inside his conference room.

Keel stared ahead into the darkness, through the assisted use of his visor. The time of Instrumentality was finally near. All that SEELE had worked for would finally come to fruition in just a few short months. Soon, they would take their rightful place as the rulers of this world and lead humanity into it's golden age, of a prosperous future. A future that SEELE would decide.

XXXX

Shinji stared out the window of the new VTOL they were currently on, though it would be more correct to say it was the VTOL Misato and her team had originally been sent out on. This one was a lighter class craft, meant for only transportation and lacking the firepower their previous ship had. As he watched the greenery pass by him, he began thinking on the previous night after arriving in Beijing to rest up at the Chinese NERV branch. There had been quite the commotion over the two dead pilots, none of which Shinji understood as nothing was said in a language he knew, though he knew the look the air dock worker had on his face well when he saw the corpses. It was the look of a man who had lost more than a comrade, he had lost a friend. After being given quarters to rest in for the night, they promptly retired for the day, exhausted from the entire ordeal. The next day, they were ordered to meet at 0800to discuss the next leg of the trip, which brought him to the present.

They were currently flying over the coast of China, about to start the journey over the sea that would take a little over two hours at the VTOL's current speed. Shinji felt a bit nervous since he woke up, having not enough energy to really process the events up until now. He was going to be meeting his father soon, a person who he never thought he was going to ever see again. He let out the faintest smile, as he thought on it, for to him family had been nothing more than a foolish dream of a boy awaiting his death, but it was soon going to be real.

But, as his thoughts continued to brighten, Shinji felt a very cold chill run up his spine, a familiar feeling that he recognized. Then, he his eyes widened as he caught the faint reflection of a pallid corpse missing half it's face leering at him from behind his back. His terrified eyes were caught onto the phantasms black soulless eye that were full of rage as it leaned in close, and he could feel it's frigid breath numb the side of his face. His breath grew labored as he recognized the specter as Thiri, the girl who was killed in Burma.

With a voice like grated ice it spoke, it's black maw moving erratically and changing it's pitch constantly. "_WhY dO YoU geT to BE HapPy?! YoU let me DIE. I waNt my MoMMA bACk!"_

Shinji's jaw started to quiver as he tried to formulate some kind of response to the angry ghost, but his vocal cords were frozen in place from her presence. Then, he felt his chest tighten as the phantasm started slowly reaching it's hands into his chest, grabbing onto his lungs. He mentally begged her to stop, to leave him alone. _It wasn't my fault, it wasn't my fault, It –! _

"Shinji?"

Shinji snapped his head over to Misato who was seated across from him, now dressed in her usual black outfit with her red jacket over it. She looked worried as she leaned forward. Shinji quickly scanned the VTOL's passenger bay, seeing only the two NERV security guards sitting down the aisle line from him talking quietly amongst themselves, and Makoto seated a chair away from Misato, absorbed in a manga he picked up in Beijing. The phantasm of Thiri was nowhere to be seen.

"Shinji, are you okay?" Misato asked again, starting to feel worry for the child who looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

Shinji let out a shaky breath, covering his face with his palm. He nodded once, moving his hand to run through his hair while the other shot to his camouflaged pants pocket. "Yeah. . . fine. Just thinking about something." He muttered out before finally finding the item he was searching for.

Misato frowned as she didn't quite believe him, but then balked at the item she watched him pull out. "Where did you get those?!"

Shinji raised an eyebrow at her, as he brought the pack of cigarettes up to his mouth, expertly flicking his wrist to have one pop up. Grabbing it with his mouth, he held out the pack to her, offering her a smoke. "Want one?" He wondered if she had just not been able to get her hands on any smokes in the NERV branch. He was lucky he still had a pack, as the little money he had was still in his wallet back in the fallen base. He needed a smoke after seeing what he just did.

"Wha –?! No! Now tell me why the hell you have those!" Misato realized that she must have sounded like an old hen, but she was going to be dammed if she let an underage kid just smoke a cigarette so brazenly in front of her. She was already letting him get away with keeping his guns and knife.

Shinji shrugged and put the pack back as he started patting himself down for his lighter, still trying to figure out what her deal was. "I have them because I bought them? Ah, there it is." He grabbed his steel zippo and flicked it to life, lighting the end of his cigarette.

At this point the others had noticed the commotion and were giving Shinji strange looks. Misato started to undo her seat belt to go over and take it from him, when she stopped as a thought crossed her mind. Looking back towards him, she saw that it wasn't blatant disregard for the rules that he smoked. No, the casual way that he took an inhale of the nicotine smoke and blew it courteously away from the others told her that he was doing it as if second nature. It was then it dawned on her that Shinji wasn't a regular fourteen year old. "You don't understand why I'm getting upset over you smoking, do you?"

Shinji felt immensely better, as the nicotine calmed his nerves. Looking towards Misato and hearing her question he shook his head, wondering where she was going with this.

Misato sighed, as she sat back against her chair again, suddenly feeling very old and defeated. "In civilized areas, it's illegal for someone under the age of eighteen to smoke Shinji." She looked at the teen who seemed honestly surprised. She watched as he limply held the cigarette in his lips, as to speak.

"Really? Well, I guess that explains the jokes some of the officers used to make then, I guess." Shinji thought back to when some of the American officers would point towards him and laugh, sometimes even making comments about how it was funny seeing a kid smoke like an adult. Most the kids he knew smoked. Hell, he tended to trade things like candy or extra food to the local children for a pack of smokes.

Misato started to understand that she was going to have to stop seeing him as a kid, he was anything but. She wondered if he even knew what had been taken from him? "So, how did you start? Smoking I mean. . . and yeah, I will take one." She hadn't smoked in a while, but she could really use one now. Unbuckling her seat belt, she crossed the VTOL and sat next to Shinji who already had pulled out a cigarette.

Shinji lit her cigarette and flicked his lighter closed, before leaning back into his seat to take another draw from his own. "Well," He started as he exhaled a plum of the strong scented smoke, "It was probably when I was nine years old, I think. I'm fairly certain my birthday is July sixth, so I would have been nine or ten. I was fighting in Sudan, that's in Northern Africa, it was during the same time I learned to fly."

"It's in June, your birthday." Misato replied, a bit quieter than intended, but it was about all she could do at this point to keep the her face neutral and not reflect the pity she felt. Deciding to move the conversation on to not wallow on herself she asked, "Did you really learn how to fly at that young?"

Shinji had the ghost of a smirk on his face as he turned to look at her. "Well, I guess I wasn't that far off. But yeah, but it's not really that rare. A lot of Sudanese kids know stuff like that, how to drive, how to operate basic machinery etc.. It was one of the Commanders under our employer that taught me." He tilted his head to the side, remembering something, "Now that I think about it he gave me my first cigarette too, and my first beer after we came back from a mission." Shinji let out a small laugh as he hoisted his right leg and rested it on his left knee, leaning forward and pulling his cigarette out with two fingers as he pointed in the air in front of him, as if he was mimicking another's actions. "In Sudan, when you kill a man, you become a man. So now you must drink and smoke like one." He spoke, changing his voice to how he remembered the Sudanese commander to speak. Leaning back into his chair, Shinji put his leg back down and laughed once. "Of course the beer was warm. Wasn't until we were sent to South America about a year later that I actually had a cold one."

The VTOL was silent, all ears had tuned to Shinji as he spoke. Makoto was the first to speak up, looking as if he remembered something. "If you were in Sudan five years ago, that would have been when the civil war was at it's height. I remember the news reports, thousands were dying in a war that spawned over who was going to control Sudan after Second Impact caused a massive climate change that wiped out a lot of crops and there was a massive food shortage."

Shinji nodded as he looked over at Makoto. "I never saw any body counts but that sounds about right. At least in the sorties I was in we ran into a lot of enemies. We never walked away without massive casualties on both sides." Shinji switched a few words out in English, but it seemed most understood him.

"Who did you fight for?" Makoto asked again, his question drawing a glance from Misato, one that was warning him to watch what he spoke.

Shinji didn't seem to mind however, as he gave a moment to take a puff from his smoke. "Omar al-Bashir, he was the President of pre-Second Impact Sudan, and then leader of Northern Sudan during the civil war."

Makoto blanched as he shook his head once. "Wasn't he the one that ordered all those civilians killed?" He started to wonder if he was sharing a VTOL with something more than a child soldier.

"Makoto!" Misato yelled out, looking at her aide as if he was crazy. "Shinji, you don't have to answer that." She quickly added, looking towards a flippant Shinji.

Shinji shrugged. "It happened. I've no idea what you heard, but while there were civilians killed most of the people I shot at had guns in their hands." Shinji's eyes glazed over for a moment, as he remembered hiding behind a broken cinderblock wall atop a half finished building, wearing only a ratty tshirt and pants. None of the military gear fit him yet and there wasn't anything to protect him back then besides what he put between him and the enemy. More than the screams and sounds of bullets chipping away at his flimsy cover, he remembered more the unforgiving sun that sought to scorch the already hellish country side and the way it made the city smell like a rotting bag of meat due to the amount of corpses that were left lying where they died to rot under the sun.

"So. . . did you ever kill other children?" Makoto asked shakily, starting to see Shinji in a new, terrifying light. His questions now were being led by his morbid curiosity and desire to understand the child before him.

"_Makoto that's enough!" _Misato roared, glaring daggers into the aide, making him visibly shrink into the seat, looking obviously ashamed of asking such a question. He couldn't help himself though. When Misato turned back to apologize to Shinji, figuring he'd be understandably upset over such a question, she was chilled when she saw that his face was still neutral, almost calm and accepting of the question.

Shinji locked eyes with Makoto for a moment, now understanding just where he was coming from with his questions. Reaching behind him, he pulled out a small steel cylinder from a utility pack and slid the top off that was connected to a hinge. "I did." He started, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth and leaning forward, so that he was leaning onto his knees. His voice dripped to a dangerously low tone, as this was a subject he _was _rather sore about. "But I'm guessing you don't know what they do to those kids, do you?" Shinji looked up towards Makoto, his eyes conveying that he looked at the bespectacled NERV employee like a child. Seeing Makoto shake his head once slowly, looking almost sick, Shinji continued. "We were fighting against the Sudan's People's Liberation Army, or SPLA for short. Compared to Northern Sudan, they were vastly outnumbered, so they decided to swell their ranks with children instead. After burning down a Northern Sudanese village, the SPLA collected any surviving children and gave them a choice. Kill your mother and you get to join, refuse and you're punished."

He was met by an understandable wave of shocked gasps, all of the people listening holding looks of sheer disgust. "If they killed her, they knew the child could be counted to fight, as he killed his own mother to avoid getting punished by the SPLA. If they refused though? They would kill their mother anyways – after raping her, and usually in front of the child. Then, they would take a rusted razor or knife and cut," Shinji slowly lifted the hand that held his cigarette and drew a line across his forehead with his thumb "Right here. Then they stuffed pure cocaine into the wound and sewed it shut with anything but sterile tools. They told me it makes the kids addicted to it almost instantly, with how potent it was. Then, once the withdrawals started they gave them an easy choice. Kill, or continue suffering." Shinji took another draw from his cigarette, letting the smoke out slowly. "When you have to face a drug addicted child who's forced to kill you in order to make the pain go away, you don't get the luxury of considering the ethics of killing him." Shinji dropped his smoking cigarette into the canister and snapped it shut, sitting back up.

"But if it makes you feel any better, I still see their faces at night, in my dreams." Shinji tucked the cylinder back into his pocket as he turned his gaze back towards the window that now showed they were over the clear blue ocean. "Their tear stained faces as they ran into the open, wielding guns too big for them to hold, and far too powerful for them to control. They weren't meant to be effective fighters, only to serve as distractions so the adults could line up their shots better. They also screamed the loudest. Kids aren't good at dealing with pain, especially shots through the mast. It was because of those children I learned that Ommah means Mother in Arabic. It was the only thing they tended to shout until the end."

Everyone's eyes were turned away from Shinji, not able to stand the horrific recounting of his experience. Misato covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hold back any tears. She knew that war in third world countries was hell, but something like that? She looked towards Makoto, ready to unleash a scathing tongue lashing onto him, but judging by the horrified look on his face, as he slowly retreated into his manga again, told her it wasn't needed just yet.

"In a world like that. . ." Shinji spoke again, his tone light, but still loud enough to be heard, "Who can be called a hero, and who is the demon?" If there was an answer to his question, it wasn't brought forward.

XXXX

Maya Ibuki sat alone inside NERV's Command Center, with a single earbud in her ear and a traditional bento lunch by her keyboard. She hummed along to the upbeat pop song that played gently into her ear, while she ate the stir fry she made the night before for lunch today. She couldn't help but enjoy the peace and quiet of being the only tech on the bridge. Everyone else was out on lunch, and while Makoto would usually be at his desk with his nose deep into some manga or another he was out with Captain Katsuragi. _Now if only Dr. Akagi was here. . . _Maya slowly blushed as she recalled a page from a romantic novel she read the night before, that involved two female protagonists. She couldn't help but replace the names as she read one of the more steamy parts.

Suddenly, a blaring noise shot through the Command Center and all of NERV, flashing red lights coming on to snap Maya out of her daydream as she looked around in panic and tore the ear bud from her ear. "W-What's going on!?" She yelled out to herself, taken completely off guard by the noise. She quickly began typing various commands into her terminal and brought up a screen that froze her blood cold.

Then, the automatic door that led out into the hallway hissed open, though it could barely be heard over the blaring alarms. Doctor Ritsuko Akagi stepped into the Command Center, her blond hair a mess as if she hadn't attended to in a while. "What's going on?! Maya!" She'd come to check in on Maya, knowing the kind girl would probably be alone on the bridge, when the alarms came to life. The alarms did nothing to ease her headache that was brought on by her staying up all night watching over Unit 00's repairs.

Maya turned towards Ritsuko, her face horror stricken. "Dr. Akagi, it's a Code: Blue!"

Ritsuko looked horrified as she charged up to Maya's desk, placing one hand on her chair and leaning over to look at the screen, causing Maya to blush, even in the situation. "My God. It's an Angel!"

XXXX

Gendo looked at Fuyutsuki, not surprised by the news he brought with him. The Dead Sea Scrolls had predicted the Third Angel's appearance within this time frame. The only thing that he disliked was that Shinji still hadn't arrived to NERV HQ, the VTOL carrying him was soon scheduled to be arriving but would it make it in time was the question.

"So Sachiel has finally appeared. I assume the JSDF has been alerted?" Gendo asked as he stood up from his desk, walking to stand besides Fuyutsuki.

Fuyutsuki let out a small laugh and nodded. "Indeed. And they've already expressed that we're to have no participation in the fight. They said they don't need the UN's dog to interfere with the JSDF's problem."

If Gendo was amused by the news it didn't show. "Is that so? Well, they shall soon learn why it is that NERV exists in the first place." Gendo led the way with Fuyutsuki followed him to the Command Center, where they could watch the JSDF intercept the Angel to what Gendo knew would be no avail. He hoped their futile efforts would at least slow it enough to give the Third Child enough time to arrive at NERV.

"You think he'll pilot it?" Fuyutsuki asked, as they crossed Gendo's office and entered the elevator behind the large double doors to his office. In truth, the old professor couldn't see how the boy would consent to it, after being pulled out of an active war zone, and being thrust into a world he had no clue of.

Gendo entered the small elevator, it's bright interior a stark contrast to his office. Reaching over, he pressed the button to send them to the Command Center's floor, and the door started to close. "In this case Fuyutsuki, he won't have much of a choice."

XXXX

Shinji watched the passing countryside under him with interest, feeling a strange sense of joy from finally being back in his home country after so long. It gave him a sense of finality that his days of killing and bloodshed were finally behind him, as they were now less than ten minutes away from Tokyo-3. It made him wonder just what he could do though? All he knew was how to be a soldier. He knew there were other jobs out there that he'd seen civilians carry out, like being merchants and such.

Perhaps NERV would have some form of employment for him. But, so far they hadn't talked about why NERV wanted him, and he hadn't asked yet. A part of him told him that he was being foolish. There was no way they would come to retrieve him for no reason, and even then how did they find him? The only conclusion he could draw is that NERV must be some type of large entity, something with the resources to scour for a single person. If his father sent Misato to find him, then obviously he had to be a higher ranking official within NERV. And judging by the way they called Misato Captain, something he had only learned after asking what word they were using to refer to her as, they used a system of military ranks for their employees. How ironic it would be if NERV was just another PMC.

Before Shinji could ponder any further about the future, the VTOL's pilot shouted out from the cockpit. "Captain Katsuragi! There's a transmission from NERV for you!"

Misato was almost glad for the development, as she had been sitting quietly now besides Shinji for the past hour unable to think of anything to say to the boy. She had been struggling on whether or not to explain to him what NERV was, but after hearing his story she had a hard time talking to him. She undid her seatbelt and crossed the VTOL to lean into the cockpit.

The Pilot quickly took off his headset, and handed it to Misato who took off her beret, placed it in her pocket, and slid the large headset on. Grabbing the mike covered in black foam, she pulled it closer to her mouth. "This is Captain Katsuragi."

"_There you are Misato. You have bad timing you know that?" _

Misato looked surprised as she heard Ritsuko's voice come over the communicator. "Eh? Ritsuko?" She started, confused. "What do you mean I have bad timing?" With a little mental grumble, she knew Ritsuko was making a joke about her famous tardiness back in college.

"_The Third Angel has appeared." _

Misato let out an audible gasp, not believing her ears. "You can't be serious. . ." Misato shook her head once, now wasn't the time for disbelief. "Alright, then what's being done about it?"

"_The J__S__SDF has mounted an offensive against it. How effective they're going to be against it is another thing entirely. So far it's blown past their first defensive line and they're now engaging it with Heavy Class VTOL's __at the small town by Mt. Takanosu. __Keep an eye out as your coming back, don't get caught in the crossfire. __Ritsuko out.__" _

Misato turned her eyes up towards the horizon where Mt. Takanosu loomed in the distance. Misato let out a small breath, knowing that soon after Tokyo-3 would be in sight. As she thought it, she started to see small airships appearing in the distance, just above the mountain's top, seeming to strafe something. Within moments the small aircraft began to fire rockets. Looking down towards the Pilot, Misato spoke, "Can you get us on the JSSDF's frequency?"

The Pilot nodded once and pushed a few buttons on the communicator. Instantly the headset exploded in chatter, causing Misato to flinch as panicked voices came over the headset as their VTOL soared for Mt. Takanosu and beyond.

"_God! I can't believe this thing is real!" _

"_Fuck! Nothing is working, we've unloaded the entire salvo!" _

_\_

"_Just keep firing! It has to be having some kind of effect on – Oh God, it's –!" _A loud smashing sound cuts the transmission to static, and an explosion can be heard even from the VTOL.

"_What the hell was that?! It just shot something out of it's arm, was that a bone?!" _

"_Do you see that?! That glow underneath it, what in the wor –! You have to be shitting me, it's flying!" _

As Misato heard the last transmission filter in, she snapped her head forward as she looked past the peak of the mountain, and saw for a brief second the Third Angel, instantly sending a shiver down her spine as she compared it to the memory from her childhood, but thankfully it looked nothing like _that. _

"_All units withdraw from the area of Mt. Takanosu! The target is within range, you have thirty seconds!" _The announcement went unnoticed by Misato, as she was transfixed on the glimmer she caught of the Third Angel.

"What the hell. . ." Misato whispered out as she heard more of the transmissions creep in, most of them miscellaneous. Looking ahead, she saw they were about to pass Mt. Takanosu, and she took a deep breath as they crossed the mountain. Her breath hitched in her throat for a moment, as she looked down and beheld the form of the Third Angel, its massive green body grotesquely mimicking a humans basic shape, save for it's "head" being in the center of it's chest. As the massive alien lumbered forth, it looked up towards the VTOL, and Misato couldn't help but feel as though it's black pits that could be identified as eyes, were looking at her.

But just as soon as she saw it, it was already out of sight as the Pilot was at full acceleration and had already maxed his top speed, intent on getting to NERV.

"_I repeat! All units withdraw from the area of Mt. Takanosu! The target is within range, you have approximately fifteen seconds!" _

The second announcement caught Misato's attention and she furrowed her brow. What was the Angel in range of? There couldn't be anything the JSSDF would have that could put a dent in that thing unless – "Oh no. They're going to use an N2 weapon!"

"What?!" The Pilot yelled out, looking towards her, his voice laced with fear.

"_Get us the hell out of here!" _Misato roared, as she quickly tore off her headset. An N2 weapon, or Non-Nuclear Weapon, it was the only thing the JSSDF could possibly posses that would stand a chance against the Angel. If they detonated it here with them so close . . .!

Turning to head back to her seat, she saw the worried looks on the others in the VTOL, and as she she opened her mouth to yell, a deafening boom silenced her.

Within a second, a massive shock wave threw the ship forward mid-air, causing Misato to slam against the steel wall behind her and at the same time the tail end of the VTOL was torn apart by the force of it, causing a massive blast of heat and shrapnel to fly into the ship. Misato let out a single scream from the shock of it all as metal shards sped by the seated occupants and started slamming into the wall. The VTOL soon began to spin out of control, it's rear section gone, throwing Misato forward and flipped onto the hard steel floor. The initial shock quickly wore off as she realized she was being flung towards the opening in the VTOL and she tried grabbing at anything she could as her hands scratched for any surface, but there was nothing! Just as she looked down and realized the gaping maw of the destroyed tail would be her doom, she closed her eyes when suddenly she came to a stop with a hard yank.

Looking up in shock, she saw Shinji holding onto her right wrist, and holding onto the bolted down chair that was by the damaged tail with his other hand. When he saw her get flung about, Shinji quickly unbuckled his own seat belt and threw himself after her, barely catching onto her and the chair leg. "Hold on!" Shinji roared, barely audible over the sound of the VTOL in it's death spin while alarms blared off inside the cockpit, with an automated voice yelling _Warning! Stalled! Warning! Stalled! _

Misato looked at the boy in shock, who started to pull her forward, even against the force of the spin the VTOL was in. Within moments, he had her pulled up to where she could grab her own handhold on the chair and she used her free arm to grab onto Shinji and pull him into her. "Brace for impact!" She yelled, barely catching a glimpse of Makoto who had his hands around his head as he screamed and the two NERV security guards who were holding onto the seat and bracing themselves against it.

Taking one final look towards the open hole, she saw a brief flash of the massive plume of smoke, and she could only pray that the Angel was dead. She heard a massive crash, felt a single jolt of pressure and she was out.

XXXX

Gendo stared at the massive screen of the Command Center, it's visual currently displaying _NO IMAGE. _They had been watching the JSSDF's futile attempts to destroy the Angel, only serving to distract the son of Adam. When the N2 mine was detonated, it knocked out every electronic in the area with an electromagnetic pulse.

"An N2? It would have been nice if they'd warned us first. We wouldn't have had to waste three perfectly good surveillance drones." Fuyutsuki spoke, a mix of annoyance and amusement in his voice. It was a good idea, but there was no way it would kill the Angel.

"Sir!" A communication tech on the lower floor shouted out towards Gendo. "We've lost the VTOL's signature that was carrying Captain Katsuragi!"

"What?! Bring up the last recording of the radar!" Fuyutsuki yelled out, his voice stern. The tech quickly typed away at his console and a holomap of Tokyo-3 and the surrounding area replaced the main screen. A white dot with red lettering, labeled C. Katsu was displayed by Mt. Takanobu, and at the same time the N2 mine went off the dot disappeared. Fuyutsuki grit his teeth as he watched the looping recording of the radar. He knew the EMP blast from the N2 wasn't strong enough to interfere with the Geofront's systems, so it could only mean that the VTOL's internal systems were caught by the blast, if not out right incinerated. "They were far too close." Fuyutsuki finally grumbled out, already assuming the worse.

"How much longer until the replacement drones arrive at the blast zone?" Gendo called out, his tone at it's normal pace, not seeming overly concerned for the situation.

"They should be there within two minutes Commander!"

Fuyutsuki looked down at Gendo, staring at his just visible eyes behind his orange glasses. The old professor had come to know a lot about the man seated before him. He knew that Gendo Ikari was a cold and calculating man on the outside, and had perfect control over that aspect of himself. But he knew that deep down he still harbored human emotions. Case in point, was the way his eyes were ever so slightly narrowed, telling Fuyutsuki the Commander was worried.

Two minutes passed, and the red screen was replaced by an image that caused all in attendance save the Commander and Vice Commander to let out a gasp of shock. The Third Angel was still alive, damaged, but alive. And from the looks it's bubbling and smoking body, standing within the hellish burning pit of the crater, regenerating. The looks on the faces of the NERV techs was one of horror, unable to understand that the being before them could survive a point blank blast from the strongest conventional weapon on Earth. A ringing sound cut through the deadly silence, and was quickly silenced as Gendo picked up the red phone on his desk.

". . . Understood. . . .Leave it to us, this is what NERV was formed for, after all." Gendo spoke, the ghost of a smile on his face. Hanging up the phone he replaced his hands to their usual pose. "It seems as though the JSSDF has finally consented their loss." He spoke to Fuyutsuki, who was in no joking mood while the status of Captain Katsuragi and the Third Child was still unconfirmed. "Do we have a visual on the VTOL yet?" Gendo called out, his authorative tone demanding results.

The images on the screen changed twice, switching between drones. The first screen showed the edges of the crater formed by the N2 blast, and when the other screen was pulled up, Fuyutsuki stepped forward. "There!" The screen showed the small city by where the N2 mine was set off. While a part of the city was demolished, the majority of it still stood. And roughly halfway through the town, a wreckage of a downed VTOL was still smoking in the middle of a street it skidded down. "Get it closer and see if there are any survivors! I want a medical team out there _now!" _Fuyutsuki ordered, the techs relaying the orders quickly as the drone responded to it's operator and it flew above the downed VTOL. Below, it relayed the image of a young man, dragging out someone dressed in a NERV uniform, laying them beside a prone woman, who had to be Misato.

Fuyutsuki let out a sigh of relief. "That must be Shinji. He looks alive, with no serious injuries." Fuyutsuki let out a small laugh and looked down towards Gendo. "Seems his good luck is still holding out. Think it bodes well for our chances against the Angel?"

Gendo offered no response, and only kept watching the video feed as the drone circled the VTOL.

XXXX

Shinji let out a grunt as he put the seemingly uninjured but unconscious Makoto next to Misato who was in the same shape. He let out a small hiss, as he stood back up, his right rib letting out a jolt of pain. It probably wasn't broken, he'd broken a rib before and it wasn't a small bit of pain like this was.

He tried to figure out what the hell just happened. Of course they crashed into a small town after getting hit by some kind of explosion, but what the hell hit them? Judging by the massive plume of smoke that covered the southwestern area, it had to have been a massive explosion, possibly even an N2 class explosive. But he didn't have time to consider it yet.

Hustling back inside the wreck, he repeated the process of checking on the two NERV security guards, and shook his head, both were dead. Upon inspection, one had a piece of shrapnel in his neck, causing him to bleed out and the other looked as if his neck might have broken from the violent impact.

With a shake of his head, Shinji moved onto check on the pilots. As he stepped into the cockpit, he grimaced. The VTOL had slammed down almost perfectly horizontal, a testament to the pilots skill, but it slid until it's left side hit the corner of what looked to be a department store, and the co-pilot's body was crushed against the concrete wall, his remains splattered across the cockpit. The Pilot wasn't in much better shape, he leaned slumped against a pipe that broke into the cockpit and impaled his gut. The bleeding was slowing, but without proper medical attention he'd be dead soon.

He couldn't risk moving the Pilot, and instead hoped that emergency responders would show up soon, but judging by the state of the town they were in that was unlikely. With a small whisper, Shinji spoke. "Thank you for landing us like that, you probably are the reason we survived." Shinji felt an old feeling creep into him, but he quickly killed it. Everyone's luck ran out some day, and it had been the Pilot's today. Turning to go outside, he saw that Misato was sitting up, holding her head. Walking up to her, he gently knelt next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to wince. "Sorry. Are you alright?"

Misato turned towards Shinji, her vision blurry, causing her to see his body multiply and reform into one. Her head felt like someone had taken a jackhammer and let it loose inside her skull. "My head hurts like hell." She moaned out, trying to steady herself to stand.

"Stay still, hold on." Shinji quickly spoke as he began to examine her. He gently grabbed her head and turned her ear more towards the sun which made her protest, and he moved to her other side to repeat the process. "No blood or fluid. You're lucky, it's just a light concussion." Looking back towards the smoke, Shinji asked, "Do you have any clue as to why that went off?"

Misato nodded her head once, "It was the JSSDF. They detonated an N2 mine, they were trying to destroy the Angel."

Shinji turned towards her with his eyebrow raised. The word Angel brought to his mind the one from Judea-Christian tales, of the beautiful men and women in white robes and feathery wings of the same color. "An . . . Angel?" he asked, his tone clearly reflecting him questioning her sanity.

Misato sighed. "It's a long story, and you wouldn't believe me unless you saw it yourself. We need to get to NERV asap." Reaching into her jacket, she pulled out her smart phone, cursing when she found it was fried by the EMP blast. "And we have no way of contacting them for a pick up." She let out an irritated sigh, which only agitated her headache further. Looking over, she saw Shinji had walked away from her, inspecting a red four door sedan. "What are you doing?" She asked.

"Getting us a ride." Shinji replied, trying the door once, finding it locked. Clicking his tongue, he walked over towards a small pile of rubble that had been formed from a nearby destroyed building and pulled out a fist sized piece of broken concrete.

"Shinji, what are you –?" She asked once, and then she quickly inturrputed herself as she saw the teenager pull his arm back and hurl the rubble at it's window. "Stop!" Too late, the rubble smashed through the window with a loud crack, leaving Misato slack jawed as she watched him unlock the door and open it. "Are you crazy?!"

Shinji looked back towards her with a small sigh. Seemed as though she was going to continue to gawk at everything he did. This is why he could never understand civilians. "We need to get to NERV right? Besides, we need to get those three out of here, they might need medical attention. This is the fastest way." Leaning into the car, he carefully swept out the broken glass with his hand and knelt onto the ground to get access to the wires under the dash.

Misato opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it. Seeing him messing with the wires underneath she asked, "Don't tell me, you know how to -" she was cut off by the sound of the sedan sputtering once and then coming to life, "- hot wire a car." With a sigh, she got to her feet, having to steady herself as she got light headed on the way up, but it quickly subsided. "And where did you learn that one? You know it's illegal, right?"

Shinji smiled at her and unlocked the doors with a push of the electronic button on the door. "In the ruins of Baghdad. Never know when you're going to need a ride." Walking over towards Makoto he spoke, "Let's get going." He hefted the older man up and let out a small grunt, feeling his rib complain about the motion, as he started dragging Makoto back towards the backseat to lay him across it. Misato helped him hoist the unconscious tech into the car, and had to stop as a wave of dizziness overtook her.

"You okay?" Shinji asked, his voice tinged with a hint of worry as he closed the backseat door. He knew from first hand experience that head injuries were anything but fun.

Misato nodded, then, looking back towards the VTOL, she asked, "What about the others?" Seeing Shinji's slow shake of his head she closed her eyes and let out a low sigh. Too many had died in this mission already. Deciding to deal with it later, she reached for the drivers side door, but found Shinji was already in it and putting his assault rifle on the floor behind the seats. _I'm not even going to ask. _She walked around to the passenger side and gently sat down, her head pounding still. It was probably a good thing she going to drive with her injury. She glanced over towards Shinji, feeling her stomach knot up at the thought of him driving, but as she watched him expertly shift into first gear and slowly pull away without so much as a jerk, she let out her breath.

Pointing towards a road visible on the nearby hill she spoke in a tired voice, "Head for that, it'll lead us to Tokyo-3." Seeing the young man nod, she let herself relax. Glancing up towards the rear view mirror, she watched the billowing smoke that obscured the results of the N2 attack. She only hoped that the Angel was dead, or the deaths of the NERV employees would be a sour taste in her mouth.

Turning onto the main highway that would lead him up towards the hill, Shinji glanced around the small town they had crashed landed in. It seemed to be some kind of a small suburban area with small private owned shops dotting the main road. It felt eerie how the streets were devoid of any life, the modern town looking as if all the inhabitants had up and vanished in an instant. He was accustomed to worse in war zones, with destroyed buildings and the occasional animal gnawed corpse, but something about this pristine town being vacant gave him a small chill.

The only thing he could chalk it up to was some kind of evacuation, but from what? He thought of the massive explosion that knocked them from the sky, and figured it must have something to with that. But what could be such a threat that it would warrant unleashing an N2 weapon so close to a civilian area? Misato's words crawled through his brain, she called the thing the JSSDF attacked an Angel. Glancing towards her, he decided that he needed to at least attempt to get some answers from her. "Misato, can you explain to me what an Angel is?"

Misato looked towards Shinji, the motion causing her head to throb once, making her wince. She would really kill for an aspirin right about now. "Like I said, you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." Shinji replied, as he shifted into fifth gear, speeding down the highway.

Misato rolled it over in her head for a moment, as they passed the last city building and started ascending up the green hill. Information pertaining to the Angels was strictly classified, to divulge information to any not involved was a criminal offense to say the least. Of course, Shinji was far from uninvolved from this mess. She let out a soft sigh, she should tell him. "An Angel is an alien life form." She started, expecting a look of disbelief from the boy, but his face was neutral, though it was clear he was waiting for her to continue. "What I'm about to tell you, doesn't leave this car, understood?" Seeing his understanding nod, she continued, "We don't really know where they're coming from, or their motivations, but we know that they're trying to initiate Third Impact." She decided to keep out the part about knowing that the Angels were trying to reach Adam in Central Dogma.

That caught his attention, "Third Impact?" He took his eyes off the road for a moment, looking at her in shock, but quickly returned his head towards the road. "What is that supposed to mean?" Shinji had already felt lost since he was picked up by NERV, but now he felt even more lost in the dark. Second Impact was the cause of a massive meteor slamming into the South Pole, which destroyed the polar ice caps and knocked the Earth off it's axis, thus causing catastrophic climate change. It was called Second Impact in reference to being the second meteor strike in Earth's history, the First Impact being the meteor that slammed into the still forming Earth, and the resulting trauma forced debris from Earth to become Earth's only satellite, the Moon. "Are you saying these things have the ability to summon meteors or something?" Shinji let out a small laugh. "Are they Sephiroth or something?"

Misato decided that if she already let out this much confidential information, she may as well explain more. She suddenly felt the scar that ran under her breasts ache, as it did whenever she recalled Second Impact. "What you've been told about Second Impact was a cover-up. Fifteen years ago, an extraterrestrial being labeled as Adam was discovered by an expedition team under the ice at the South Pole. In the resulting tests to discover more about Adam, they triggered something on accident, and the result was an explosion of energy that completely eradicated the South Pole."

Shinji could scarcely believe his ears. The story was something straight out of a tabloid, or a science fiction novel. But as he glanced into the rear view mirror to look and the shrinking pillar of smoke, he had to admit that cover-ups were nothing he was surprised by, his very existence up until now had been covered up. Was it so hard to believe that alien beings were attempting to wipe out humanity? "So, what's being done to stop them?"

"That's what NERV was created for, to protect humanity. And your father is the Commander of NERV."

"My father?" Shinji asked, surprised. He never knew what his father did, but to hear that he was the commander of a force tasked with fighting aliens and save mankind? If he didn't know any better he'd swear he'd just landed himself into a boy's daydream. Thinking of his father, Shinji lost interest in the Angels for the time being, finding that he was overcome with curiosity about his father. He hadn't felt like this since he was very young, but back then it was always with a sense of longing that he wanted to be with his father. Now that he was going to be meeting with him soon, his curiosity overcame him. "What is he like? My father?"

Misato looked surprised by the question, but not shocked. She had expected this type of question sooner. But as she actually thought upon what to say about Gendo, she realized there wasn't much she could say. It was like trying to describe to someone what a brick wall was like. The Commander was a mysterious man, professional to a fault and seemed like the type who had absolutely no personal life outside his work. If you asked her where he slept, she couldn't even fathom that he did. "He's. . . a very serious man. He's dedicated to his work and NERV's objective."

Shinji nodded slowly, as he recalled the only memory he retained of his father. He wasn't sure when or where the memory took place, but he knew he was very young. His father's imposing figure loomed over him, the evening sun behind him illuminating the world orange. But, even though the memory was brightly colored, if hazy due to it being so long ago, his father's face was always covered with a line of darkness. Though, that wasn't quite the right way to describe it. It would be more appropriate to say his face wasn't part of the memory at all, thus it appeared in darkness. But even still, he understood the man to be his father. "The only memory I have of him, it always gave me that impression." He responded simply, lost in his thoughts. Then another thought crossed his mind, but it was troubling. It had been one that slowly replaced his boyish daydreams of his father. Feeling more insecure than he ever had, he started with a small voice, one that could barely be heard. "Do you. . . do you think that. . ." as he tried to bring the words to life, they died off.

"Do I think . . .?" Misato repeated slowly, looking at the boy with a raised eyebrow.

Shinji grumbled once, feeling ashamed for even trying to voice such a question. "Never mind, just let me know what road we have to turn off at."

Misato frowned, wondering what was bothering the teen, but decided not to pry. She could guess what was eating at him, and if she was right, then she understood the weight behind the question, along with the answer.

Turning the bend in the road that curved around the hill, Tokyo-3 came into view. The setting sun behind the metropolis lit up the steel structures, reflecting the sun's glare off them, creating a dazzling display of the modern marvel. But even with the breath taking view, Shinji couldn't find himself drawn to it, as the simple question that he failed to speak rolled around in his mind.

Do you think he's proud of who I've become?

XXXX

"Seems your son is rather resourceful, eh?" Fuyutsuki chuckled as he watched the feed of the car Shinji appropriated traveling down the road that would lead them to Tokyo-3 in less than half an hour. Gendo stood, watching the screen with a feigned disinterest, but he had kept his eyes upon his child the entire time, something that hadn't gone unnoticed by Fuyutsuki. "So, what will you say to him, after all this time?"

Gendo turned towards Fuyutsuki, his face unreadable as always. "I will say what needs to be said. The luxury of a father and son relationship is not something that can be afforded here." He fixed Fuyutsuki with a cold stare for a moment, before speaking again. "Take command here. I'm headed to the cages to prep Unit 01 for the Third Child's arrival."

"Yes sir." Fuyutsuki replied with a small salute, as Gendo walked towards the elevator. The old professor watched him go with a frown. _Gendo, do you truly believe the things you say? Or do you simply say it because you have to remind yourself to believe them? _The retreating image of Gendo's back offered no answer to his question. With a silent sigh, he turned back towards the screen that had switched back to the rapidly regenerating Third Angel. "Dr. Akagi, do we have an estimate on when the Third Angel will have finished healing itself?"

Dr. Akagi looked up from her tablet that was connected to the Magi, "The Magi have concluded that at the current rate it should be up and moving within an hour at the least. Maybe more, but not by much."

Fuyutsuki frowned and nodded once. He could only hope that Gendo would be able to convince his son to pilot Unit 01, otherwise, NERV's first performance could very well be it's last.

XXXX

Misato sighed as she felt Shinji's eyes boring into her for the umpteenth time. After arriving inside the GeoFront, which caused quite the reaction from Shinji, they were met by medical staff and two security guards who demanded that Shinji relinquish his weapons as he wasn't an official NERV employee with the proper clearance to carry a firearm.

After a stand off the likes of which the world hasn't seen since the wild west, which the security guards were rather nervous at, as their Heckler & Koch MP5A4 seemed at lot less effective when matched off against the SCAR Shinji had in a relaxed yet ready grip. It was like he wasn't in a stand off for his life but in line at the grocery store. It took some convincing, but Misato finally convinced Shinji to hand over his assault rifle with the condition he could keep his Beretta.

Since then, he'd been giving her the stink eye and the already long elevator ride felt drawn out. The clicking sound of the analog floor counter continued at a steady rhythm, only serving to annoy her. With a low growl she whipped towards him, noting the unhappy look he bore. "Will you cut it out?!"

"Are you going to give me back my gun if I do?"

"No!"

"Then deal with it. And if there's so much as a scratch on it when I get it back, I'm blaming you."

"You . . .!" Misato growled out, just as the elevator door let out a soft ding and opened, revealing an amused Ritsuko.

"I see you're already fighting with your new boyfriend Misato. I wonder what Kaji would say?" Ritsuko suppressed a laugh as she watched her friend whip around, her face bright red. Though if it was from anger or embarrassment she couldn't tell. And before Misato could scathe her with a reply, she stepped into the elevator and held out her hand towards Shinji. "And you must be the famous Shinji Ikari, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Doctor Ritsuko Akagi."

Shinji looked taken a bit off guard, but recovered quickly, reaching out to take her hand. "The pleasure is mine." He managed to speak, suddenly feeling self-conscious being surrounded by two beautiful women. Puberty always managed to strike at the worst times.

Misato on the other hand was still livid, but managed to push down her boiling anger. Ritsuko tended to be the only person to have that effect on her, but it seemed as though Shinji would have to be added to that list. "So, what _are _you doing here Ri?"

Ritsuko looked towards Misato as if she was simple. "Escorting you to the Eva cages of course." She reached over and pushed another button on the elevator, causing the doors to close and resume it's descent.

All traces of Misato's anger vanished and was replaced with disbelief. "What? Why?!" They couldn't possibly be thinking of having Shinji pilot the Eva? It would be equivalent to putting a child in charge of a massive company and expecting him to run it!

Ritsuko rose an eyebrow and then something clicked in the geniuses head. "You haven't told him yet, have you?"

Getting the feeling he was somehow the 'him' she mentioned, his ears perked up, but he said nothing, curious as to where this was going to go. He started getting a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach however.

"Of course I haven't! I didn't exactly expect the Angel to attack today!" She stole a quick glance towards Shinji who looked at her with expectant patience.

"Well, this might make things awkward then." The elevator came to a halt and the doors opened to reveal a long hallway with a large sign against the wall. In Kanji and English it spelled out Eva Cages, along with an arrow pointing the way. She stepped out, knowing they would follow her.

Keeping pace with the Doctor, Shinji finally decided to speak. "I'm guessing that this conversation has something to do with me. Care to explain what that is?"

Ritsuko nodded, glancing back towards the boy. "It'll be much easier if I just show you. Don't worry it's just down this hallway." She silently wondered how the young man was going to take the news that he was brought all this way just to pilot the pinnacle of humanities combined scientific prowess condensed in a single giant robot.

Shinji let out a low grumble as they came to a hexagonal door with CAUTION written on it, along with Unit 01. He was starting to get tired of the run around they were giving him, but apparently what awaited him was behind this imposing steel door. He started to wonder if he should have just stayed back and took his chances with the Vietnamese. The large door automatically opened as they neared it, revealing a large room barely illuminated by hazard lighting. A lone catwalk stretched out before them, and Ritsuko led them across it. Shinji looked around trying to figure out where they were, as he listened to their footsteps echo off the steel walkway and reverberate through the massive room, when he noticed the looming dark shape next to them. As he peered at it, trying to get an idea of what it was, the lights shot on, making him yell out in surprise as he hopped back, his hand shooting to his sidearm.

He stopped, as he realized that what he was looking at wasn't human, nor would his Beretta even scratch it's paint. "Is that. . . a giant head!?" He asked, looking between a calm Ritsuko and an upset Misato. Looking back towards the massive purple armor plated head, it was almost as if he was beholding a mechanical god. He found himself drawn to it's visible yellow eye, staring into it, unable to look away.

"This, is an Evangelion. Specifically Eva Unit 01. This is mankind's greatest weapon, and sole chance to defeat the Angels." Ritsuko replied, looking at the mech with a hint of a smile. Turning towards Shinji with the same smile, she spoke, "And you, Shinji Ikari, are the pilot."

Shinji stared at her, looking as if he hadn't quite heard her right. He glanced towards the Evangelion unit, then back to Ritsuko. "Is this a joke?" he finally managed to reply.

"No, it is not." The voice that rang out was like water being thrown on fire, it commanded whomever heard it to stop and pay attention to it's speaker.

Shinji turned towards the new voice, hearing it come from above. High above the Evangelion, standing before a slanted window, stood a figure that Shinji recognized. It was the same from his hazy memory, and even if he couldn't fully trust it, his heart knew who it was immediately. "You're. . ." He managed to speak. "Father?" His voice carried an almost pleading tone, veiled by years of a harsh life that had jaded him to such emotion.

Gendo looked down at his son, the first time he had actually seen him since he was but a toddler. He bore such a striking resemblance to Yui that it gave him a moments pause. Stiffening his back, as to remind himself of his position, he continued. "You have been brought here to pilot Unit 01, you are one of the only people alive who can fight the Angels."

Shinji felt the memory of his father crack, his imposing figure forever burned into the afternoon sky falter. His father had him rescued. . . to pilot this, thing? "You mean that . . . you were only looking for me, you only sent out that rescue team because . . .you needed me to fight something, to _kill _something?" Shinji's voice was low and his head lowered with each spoken word.

Ritsuko looked towards Shinji and then glanced up towards the Commander's impassive face. He was treading on thin ice here. A child's psychology was already bad enough to deal with, a child soldier's would be even worse. She was rather looking forward to poking around his psyche, if they survived this that is. She'd never had the chance to speak to someone like him.

Misato stepped forward her face laced with concern. She had expected something similar to this, but she could never have expected the Commander to be so utterly cruel to his child, who he has to have known only wanted to see his parent after going through hell. She had to hold off glaring up at him, and focused instead on Shinji. She slowly reached out to touch his shoulder. "Shinji. . ."

"Of course. What other reason would I bring you here for?" Gendo replied, his voice cold enough to freeze fire.

Misato felt her entire body flinch, as she felt Shinji's go rigid. She couldn't help herself as she shot up to look at Gendo's cold visage. "Commander!" She roared out, not caring about the possible insubordination she was about to carry out. She felt her rage falter as he fixed her with a look that would stop a lion, but before she could continue, Shinji's shaking body stopped her. She let in a small hiss of breath, expecting rage or unbearable sorrow, but stopped as something else all entirely came out. It started low, almost too soft to be heard, but it slowly built up in octave and soon it echoed through the hangar. She couldn't believe it, he was _laughing. _

Shinji threw his head back, and laughed. The two women took a step back from him, completely taken off by his reaction to Gendo's reply. He felt as though he should be outraged, to the point where he should pull out his Beretta and shoot the person who pretended to be the father figure he had dreamed about, but Shinji couldn't help himself, this entire damn situation was too _fucking funny_!

The two women watched the boy with some trepidation as his howling laughter continued, noting that it had a tendancy to drift towards sobbing, wondering if he had lost it, when Shinji finally started to speak in panted breaths between his dying laughter. "All this time . . . I thought that there was . . . actually someone out there. . . who gave a rat's ass about me!" His laughter redoubled, and he bunched over, as small pearls of tears appeared at the corners of his eyes, as he was gripped by an unspeakable sadness and hilarity at the cosmic joke that was his life. Snapping his head up towards Gendo, his face was full of hellish rage. "Why couldn't you have just left me out in that fucking jungle to die!?"

Then, a massive explosion shook the entirety of the cage, causing everyone to stumble. A loud crack was heard, and Shinji snapped his head up to see a large light fixture plummeting towards him. Time almost seemed to slow for him as he watched it descend. He couldn't help but smile, it seemed as though the universe was finally ready to let him die after it revealed to him the greatest punch line of his life.

But just as he welcomed oblivion, it was denied him as another massive crack was heard and suddenly the herald of his doom was stopped by a massive purple hand and tumbled off to the side to fall towards the hanger floor many feet below. Shinji came out of his trance and looked at the arm that belonged to the so-called Evangelion.

Ritsuko on the other hand looked terrified. "I-It moved on it's own?! But how?! There's no one inside!" Misato looked just as shocked as she did. Memories from fifteen years ago surfaced to Misato's mind causing her to feel her heart beat hard against her chest.

From above the cage, Gendo looked on in awe, unable to keep the shock from his face. _Yui. . . you protected your son. _He knew she was within Eva Unit 01, but that she had enough control to protect Shinji as she had?

As Shinji looked towards the giant mech, he couldn't help but feel some strange warmth, as if it radiated from the lifeless robot to embrace him. Looking again into it's eyes, he didn't feel the same fear he had before. He heard what Dr. Akagi said, that this giant robot had somehow moved on it's own and had protected him. He couldn't help but take a step closer to the Eva, feeling drawn to it. "I wanted to die. . ." he spoke, not caring of the looks he was given. "Yet you protected me? When I thought no one cared. . .why?" He knew that talking to an inanimate object was insane, but he was talking to an inanimate object that moved as if it was sentient.

"Shinji. Your answer?" Gendo called out from his spot, carefully watching the interaction between his son and Yui.

Shinji remained silent, as he looked up towards Eva Unit 01, the odd thoughts still floating in his mind, to the point where he barely noticed Misato move up to him.

Misato couldn't take her eyes off the Evangelion, in truth she was terrified of the machine. Even more so now that she had seen it move with it's own free will. And judging by Ritsuko's reaction to it, it was without any known reason that it moved. "Shinji. . ." she started, knowing she would have to say something to him to get him to pilot it. It was selfish of her, but if it was between a teenagers feelings and the future of mankind, the latter prevailed. But before she could continue, Shinji spoke.

"The only thing I've ever known, has been war. I can barely even remember the time before I was thrust into the path I've walked. I had hoped that by coming here, I could finally leave that behind me. . . but it seems that's not meant to be. These hands have been stained with blood, and it seems as if I have to bloody them even further. If I'm what stands between mankind and destruction, then I'll do it. I'll pilot the Eva." He glanced up towards the still unmoved figure of his father. "It's the only thing that's ever shown me that it cares about me."

Gendo let out a small 'hmph', then nodded. It was as it should be. "Then from now on you're hereby given the rank of Pilot. Prepare to launch against the Angel." Gendo couldn't help but feel the irony behind his son's words, along with the barb behind them that penetrated even his stony heart.

Shinji snapped his feet together and gave a stout salute, keeping his eyes trained on Gendo's piercing through the orange glasses. The only response he got was his father turning his back onto him and walking away.

"Shinji. . .I," Misato started, touching his shoulder. The boy looked towards her, his eyes hard. Within the cold blue orbs lied her answer. She inwardly flinched from him, she knew he blamed her for not telling him sooner as to why she brought him here. She couldn't blame him.

"Shinji," Ritsuko started, walking up to the stony youth. She didn't wilt under his gaze however. "We need to get you ready for piloting it. Follow me quickly, we haven't much time, the Third Angel is inside the city." She tried not to glance at the Eva, feeling scared beyond belief that it was capable of moving on it's own. She would need to conduct many tests before she could ever feel easy around it.

Shinji nodded and followed the Doctor. Looking back up towards the spot where his father stood, he couldn't help but feel a small part of him die, though it wasn't of much concern. It had been a part of him long buried, now confirmed dead.

XXXX

Shinji sat inside the dimly lit plug, feeling a strange calmness inside the tight unknown space. So many emotions had burned through him today, and he felt exhausted from them. He still hadn't come to terms with the fact that he'd been dragged out of the frying pan and dumped into the fire. He wasn't getting shot at, true, and he _was_ apparently the only person who could pilot the most powerful weapon in human history. It wasn't exactly something he could complain about. But. . . when he thought about how his father looked at him, as if he hadn't just spend the last nine years of his life in a constant struggle for his life. . . it just _pissed _him off. But, inside this giant war machine, he felt comforted. It helped him push his anger back for now, to focus on the task ahead. He wondered if that was just due to a trick of his own mind, associating some human emotion to a weapon that had protected him.

Shinji let out a soft scoff as he reclined into the seat. It seemed as if the only thing he truly could count on in this world was steel. His gun had protected him his entire life, and ensured that he wasn't going to die. And so now in the same fashion the new weapon he had been granted wanted to protect him too. He could live with that, he supposed. "I'm not really sure if you can understand this. But thanks for saving me, even if I didn't really want it at the time. But, since we're going to be working together for a while, let's be partners, eh?" He wondered if this was akin to having a pet rock to talk to.

Then, the darkness of the entry plug was shattered by a dazzling light that engulfed Shinji in a rainbow display of color, which made him wince from the surprise of it, feeling like someone threw the blinds open from a dark bedroom. A voice filtered in from somewhere, declaring _Entry plug fixed into place, now filling entry plug! _As the voice faded, so did the brilliant light.

A sound of rushing liquid came to his ears, causing Shinji to slightly panic as he felt wetness quickly surge up his legs and up his body. He barely could shout out a curse before it covered his head and gave him the sensation of drowning as he panicked.

"_Shinji! Calm down, it's okay. The liquid that's filling the plug is LCL, you can breathe it." _A video screen appeared on the side of the entry plug, showing Ritsuko looking amused at the boy's antics.

Shinji blinked once, hearing the electronic voice of Dr, Akagi. Trying to breathe proved that she was right, and he couldn't help but be impressed at it, though he wondered what the point was. Why the hell did they need to do something so complicated? Smacking his lips, he spoke, "You sure it's not just blood? Tastes a hell of a lot like it."

A small laugh came through the speakers. _"No, it's not. Now we don't have much time before you launch so I'm going to give you a crash course in piloting the Eva." _

Shinji felt like he wanted to slap himself. He'd never considered that he'd have to learn how to pilot it. Now it was seeming as if his chances diminished greatly. But as he peered around the seat he sat upon, he couldn't help but notice that save for a few buttons on the hand grips, there was nothing. He'd been in quite a few vehicles, from tanks to helicopters to cars, and all of them had a plethora of interfaces for the driver to manipulate in order to make it move. He expected more from the largest machine he'd ever seen. _"_I think you guys forgot to put something in. How the hell am I supposed to move this thing?"

"_You use your mind." _

Shinji stared at the image of Ritsuko incredulously, starting to wonder if he really had fallen into some strange fantasy, but before he could say anything more, the electronic voice of a woman returned again.

_Commencing secondary contacts. A-10 nerve connection, normal._

Shinji felt a small spark on his head where Ritsuko had clipped on two strange white devices onto his head, and he started to wonder if he really was going to pilot it with his mind.

Ritsuko's voice came in through again. "_Set thought configuration to Japanese. . . all preliminary contacts established." _

Numerous Japanese kanji began flashing before him on the screen, many of which he didn't recognize, but he guessed it wouldn't matter overly much.

The unknown voice came through again, though this time it sounded a bit surprised. _Bi-directional circuits are open, __Synchronization__ rate is. . Dr. Akagi is this correct? _

Shinji's brow raised as he watched Dr. Akagi lean out of frame, and heard her make an interested 'Hmm.' sound. Soon, she reappeared with a smile on her face. _Synchronization rate at 64.5%, that's amazing for someone who's never even sat in an Eva before. _As she finished speaking, Shinji was taken off guard as the entry plug's walls soon lit up, and showed the hangar around him, making him realize that he was seeing from the Eva's perspective. As he turned his head to look, so did the Eva, making him jump a little. "Holy shit, it really does move when I think about it. . ." Moving his 'hand' to come up to his face, he found that the Eva mimicked his thoughts. The hand he moved was the same one that had saved him. Turning the wrist, he saw that the paint had slightly chipped from stopping the falling light fixture. Proof of it's deed.

"_You got the idea of it. Now I'm handing you over to Captain Katsuragi." _

Shinji frowned as he saw the image of Misato appear on the screen, and judging by the look on her face, she wasn't too happy to be in her spot. _"Shinji." _She started, looking awkward at first, but after closing her eyes and letting out a breath, she replaced it with a serious look. _"__I understand if you want to hate me. But I _am _your commanding officer and at the moment we _are _in a battle. Can I trust you to follow my instructions?" _Her tone at the end sounded hopeful, but didn't allow any room for argument.

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am!" Shinji replied, looking away from her.

Misato nodded once, understanding that was his way of telling her he hadn't forgiven her. She would have to accept it. Looking towards the techs, she yelled out, "Move Unit 01 to the launch bay! Get him close to the Angel!" As if on cue, the ceiling above shook, shaking some dust free from the ceiling to disperse in the air.

"Roger that! Moving Unit 01 to launch pad three!"

Shinji felt himself shake as the platform began to move backwards, and realized it wasn't him that moved but the Eva, he simply felt it. He started to notice other things too, the longer he sat in the pilot's seat, the less he felt as if he was sitting, and more as if he was standing. Was he feeling what the Eva was feeling?

"Unit 01 in position, permission to launch?"

Misato nodded. "Shinji. Get ready, as soon as you hit the surface the enemy is going to be in sight."

"What ordinance do I have access to? Do I even have a gun?"

"_None of the Eva's weaponry is ready. You're going to have to fight hand to hand." _

Shinji let out a small grunt but shrugged. "Well, it's not like it's the first time I would have had to kill someone with my bare hands." He didn't fail to notice the look Misato had, and continued, "Do we at least have some form of intel on the enemy? Or do I get to go in blind as well as dumb?"

"_You'll find out soon enough. Prepare for launch." _Her voice was brisk, and carried a tone that said she didn't care much for Shinji's attitude, regardless of how much he may be entitled to it.

Shinji sighed, as much as he disliked her at the moment he needed to reel it in, this wasn't the time for it. Then, a voice called out on the com.

_Unit 01, restraints secured and. . . launching! _

Shinji suddenly let out a small yell that was stifled before it even began as he felt every last organ in his body slam into his ass as he felt himself accelerate at an insane speed straight up, and he saw lights and steel flashing before him at an incredible rate. He grit his teeth as he felt the giant mech get shot through the tight tunnel, it's body vibrating against the lift.

"_Shinji, be careful, the Angel will be right on top of you when you hit the surface. Good luck." _Misato advised through the com, her voice barely registering with Shinji as he dealt with the force pressed onto his body.

Just as Shinji felt as though he might pass out from the incredible G-force of the launch, he came to a sudden stop, causing all of his organs to slam back up into his chest cavity, knocking the air from his lungs, or more specifically the LCL.

But before he could thank his lucky stars that the ride was finally over, his jaw dropped as he saw what was directly in front of him. "The hell. . ." he whispered out, as he saw Sachiel for the first time, it's massive green distorted body standing across the city looming over the buildings like some B-Grade monster flick. The monstrous being turned towards him, and tilted it's head, as if it was curious to Unit 01's existence and began moving forward. Shinji knew right away that he needed to move. He heard a small click, and the Eva lurched forward, no longer held by the pad's restraints. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes for a moment.

_Just imagine walking. This is no different than if it was my own body. _

Opening his eyes, he glared at the enemy before him. Before him was an enemy. One that sought to take his life.This was no different than when he was with the PMC. _But that's not entirely true, is it? _The thought caught him off guard as he took his first step.

Inside the Command Center, everyone watched with baited breath as Unit 01 took it's first step, and a few people cheered as they saw it. Could this actually work?

Shinji's words came out slow and even, as he leveled his gaze. "For the first time, I'm not fighting for some blood thirsty company, murdering human beings. I'm not fighting for another's country or ideals or even for money."He took another step forward, and straightened up his back, making Unit 01 stand tall. He didn't realize that he was speaking out loud, though he wouldn't have cared if everyone could hear him. "I chose this fight. No one else did. I chose to be brought here."

Everyone in the Command Center quieted down as Shinji spoke, focusing on the video feed from inside the cockpit as they watched the young man stare towards the encroaching Angel with a furious conviction. "For the first time, _this is my fight!" _

Maya gasped as the screen recording Shinji's synchronization rate spiked, and she turned towards Ritsuko. "Dr. Akagi! Shinji's sync rate has jumped up to 73.5%!"

Ritsuko looked down at Maya with shock, it was already a miracle that he started as high as he did, but to hit that number?! She looked back towards the screen and watched as Sachiel raised up one of it's arms. "Amazing." She breathed out.

Shinji glared at the Third Angel, and watched as it's arm raised up like a un-inflated balloon and then suddenly shot out towards him like an elastic appendage.

"_Shinji! Look out!" _Misato yelled over the communicator, watching the arm soar for Unit 01's head.

Unit 01 suddenly dropped into a fighting stance, it's arms held slightly up, in a sort of boxing position, and as the elongated arm came in range, the Eva's left arm snapped out and grabbed onto the appendage.

Realizing it was caught, Sachiel tried to retract it's arm, but was stopped as Unit 01 grasped the limb with both hands. Shinji unleashed a loud roar as he yanked back as hard as 'he' could, pulling the Angel off it's legs and causing it to fly towards him. Sachiel barely managed to catch itself by slamming it's legs down, but was close enough to where Shinji spun Unit 01 and flung the Angel over his shoulder in a classic Judo style throw. Sachiel was slammed into the asphalt and chunks of the broken road were sent scattering into the surrounding buildings, and the shock wave from the force of the blow shattered every glass pane in the surrounding area, sending them scattering like sakura petals.

Seeking to dislocate it's shoulder, Shinji raised Eva Unit 01's foot and intended to shove it onto the shoulder joint, but was stopped by an orange field that appeared to protect the Angel. "What the hell?!"

Raising his foot up again, he slammed it down, but the field remained strong.

"_Shinji, it's no use! That's the Angel's A.T. Field!" _Ritsuko yelled over the com. She narrowed her eyes as she watched Shinji slam the Eva's foot down again. It was as she had feared, not even the Eva could penetrate the A.T. Field.

Shinji growled as his rage spiked. "All this damn weird shit, and I have no idea what the fuck any of it is! It's really starting to _piss me off!_" Roaring again, his eyes blazing as he glared at his target, he raised his foot up once more, but this time it had a satisfying effect.

The A.T. Field underneath cracked and simultaneously shattered, and Unit 01's armored foot crashed into Sachiel's shoulder with the force of a hydraulic piston, shattering flesh and bone as it disfigured the Angel's shoulder, breaking the road below.

Shinji grinned in victory, and wasted no time in pulling up with as much force as he could, while further cementing his foot into the Angel's shoulder, and to even_ his_ slight surprise the arm snapped off like a half-broken branch, a resounding crack sounded, followed by a torrent of blue blood that coated Sachiel and Unit 01's leg.

A roaring cheer shot through the Command Center, as they watched Shinji jump away from the Angel, holding it's arm at it's side. Ritsuko looked on in awe as she saw what had taken place, Shinji had managed to break through the A.T. Field, but how?

"Dr. Akagi, look at this!" Maya yelled out, catching the doctors attention. Pointing towards her screen she continued, "Unit 01's A.T. Field had a sharp spike at the moment Shinji slammed his foot into the Angel's field!"

Ritsuko's eyes widened as she looked back towards the screen. "It isn't possible. . . did he somehow manage to manipulate the A.T. Field to make it neutralize the Angels?!" That wasn't it, he had no idea of what it was. _Could it be. . . did the A.T Field change to respond to Shinji's will?! _If it did, it was a terrifying prospect.

"There," Shinji started, a small smile on his face. "That ought to -" To his surprise however, the Angel was far from finished. With a movement faster than he thought possible, the Angel whipped it's other arm out, wrapping it around Unit 01's leg and pulling to cause the giant bio-mech to get it's feet taken out from under it.

Shinji yelled in shock as he felt himself get tossed and his back arched in pain as he hit the asphalt below. He snapped his head towards Sachiel who was already on it's feet and lurching to grasp his head with it's massive three fingered green hand, a strange red marble visible in the dead center. Shinji wasted no time, pulling Eva Unit 01's legs back, he thrust out as hard as he could, catching the Third Angel in it's midsection and sent in hurtling backwards, causing it to flip over itself and roll as it hit the ground hard, skidding down the long road.

"_Shinji, aim for the core, the red orb at it's center. The Magi have determined that's the source of the Angel's power, if you can destroy it, the Angel should die." _Misato spoke over the communicator, appearing on the screen.

Shinji nodded, "Yes, Ma'am!" As he watched the injured Angel pick itself back up he tightly gripped his hands, trying to think of way to pierce the strange red orb that he saw gleaming in the night, when he noticed the feeling in right hand, the one that still held Sachiel's torn arm. Pulling it up, he saw that the skin fell along some type of bone, making Shinji tilt his head in thought. "Well, improvisation in the field is a key skill I suppose." Grasping the arm with both hands, he grunted as he twisted and pulled at the arm.

"What is he. . ." Misato started, watching the screen with a raised eyebrow. It soon became clear however as the flesh of the arm began to tear off, blood flowing from the torn areas. She grimaced as she watched the flesh peel off the bone like rotten meat. To the side, she heard Maya retching from the sight, and noted that quite a few of the other techs looked queasy as well as Shinji tore the flesh from what looked to be a dark grey bone underneath it.

Shinji examined the glistening bone he'd extracted from the arm with an experienced appraisal, noting he could actually tell it's weight due to the feedback system, along with how it felt to wield it. It was light and about half his height, and seemed sturdy enough. But the best part was it came sharpened at both ends, giving him a weapon he could work with. Looking towards the standing Sachiel, he set his brow, and Unit 01 crouched slightly and held the bone like a short spear. He waited, the only sound being the low hum of the Eva and his own breathing as he watched Sachiel.

The Angel seemed to be thinking, observing Shinji with it's dual faces, attempting to figure out how to deal with this new threat. It barely noted it's missing arm, it would regrow in a matter of hours. For now, the thing that needed dealing with was the thing in front of it. It's remaining arm twitched, and that was the signal.

Shinji let out a fierce battle cry as he shot off on his planted foot and charged across the broken street, sending nearby parked cars feet up into the air as the vibrations from the charging machine shook the air around it.

Then, without warning, Sachiel's eyes sparked with a cosmic light and within an instant a massive energy blast shot from it's face and engulfed the Evangelion. But, as soon as it hit, the beam split off into four streams as the same field the Angel used was projected in front of the Eva like a cone causing the immense destructive light to sail by and slam into separate areas of the city behind causing massive explosions.

"Pilot sync ratio is at 95%! This can't be right!" Maya yelled out in shock.

If the Angel was capable of displaying emotion, shock would be played out across it's face. In a last ditch attempt, it raised it's A.T. Field again.

Shinji grinned as he saw the concentric octagonal yellow wall materialize, "That won't work! I broke through it once, I'll do it again!" As he neared the wall, he threw the Eva's shoulder forward, shattering through the A.T. Field like a paper wall. As soon as he was through, he slammed his foot down, utilizing all of the Eva's power and leaped high into the air, "Die!" He roared as he pulled the arm holding the improvised spear back and launched it, breaking through the sound barrier from the force it was thrown, causing a distortion at the Eva's fingertips.

Sachiel barely had time to register it, before the spear slammed dead center into it's core and shattered upon impact into pieces as it hit the core, but the force of the blow formed a crater in the core and sent cracks running through it. Feeling it's life about to expire, Sachiel made it's final decision. Shooting it's body forward, it caught the falling Eva and wrapped itself around the top of the body. With it's final act, it detonated, leaving behind a memorial of light shaped in the form of a cross.

The Command Center was thrown into chaos as the video feed from outside cut off, the last image they received of Sachiel molding itself to Unit 01 and a brilliant flash of light.

"Get the damn video feed back online _now!" _Misato roared at the techs as they feverishly typed away at their stations. Snapping back to the giant monitor, the only visual they received was _NO IMAGE. _From both the Pilot's camera and the street level. She felt a cold chill grip her as she felt the weight of the boy's possible death weighing on her. "What's the status of the Pilot?!"

"The explosion caused a temporary distortion, the signal should be returning any moment!" Maya replied, and as if on cue, the _NO IMAGE _on the main monitor flickered with snowy static drawing all eyes to it.

As the image became more clear, everyone watched in sheer awe at the screen. There, slowly emerging from the hellfire that engulfed the destroyed city block, looking every bit like a godsent envoy of wrath, was Unit 01. It's armor was singed and damaged, with some small pieces broken off, but it was whole. The _NO IMAGE _for the pilot's cam remained, but static exploded from the com as it was opened from Shinji's side. With a cool and calm voice, with just a hint of fatigue, the young boy's voice rang through the bridge.

"Target destroyed. Mission complete."

The NERV techs stared at the screen at wonder as the words reverberated through them, all were silent except for the crackle of static and distorted feedback from the com. Shinji had done it. Humanity now had the power to fight back. All at once triumphant cheers shot through the Command Center as the techs embraced each other in joy, basking in the victory over the Angel.

Misato stared at the _NO IMAGE _of the pilots cam with a small smile. In a hushed voice she spoke, not knowing if Shinji could hear her, "Good work, Shinji."

Fuyutsuki let out his breath, an immense relief washing over him. Turning his attention towards Gendo who had slipped in at the beginning of the encounter, he spoke. "Seems your son is a natural, who'd have guessed he'd take to piloting the Eva so well?" Waiting for a response, he saw that he wasn't going to get one, as was usual when he tried to bring up the subject of Shinji. "Well, if nothing else, I suppose this means that our plans can begin to proceed."

Gendo grinned under his folded hands, feeling as if he was closer than ever to seeing his dream come to fruition. "This is only the beginning Fuyutsuki."

XXXX

This is only the beginning indeed folks. There was a bit of a wait, but I hope the chapter length makes up for it! I couldn't find a good spot to split it up into two chapters, so I said fuck it and went with the WHOLE DAMN THING.

I hope you all enjoyed it, and if you're curious about Rei's classic entrance not occurring, that would be due to my own personal machinations that I'm sure some people may have theories on. (Me being a crackpot is a perfectly sound theory and also the most likely one.)

I want to give a huge thank you to Glory-To-Our-August-King (EMPEROR'S WILL BE DONE.) for his awesome review and extremely constructive criticism.

Oh and I have a special bit going on next, which I hope to have in other chapters too. Just something to make ya laugh that wouldn't fit in the chapter otherwise that I'll put in at the end. Behold, and I hope to see you all again soon.

Shinobi no Ryu

xX EXTRA Xx

Shinji sat floating in the warmth of the LCL as the fires left from the Angel's violent funeral raged around him. He felt tired, more tired than he had in a while. But before he could even begin to process anything, he needed a goddamn smoke.

Reaching into his pocket to grab the pack, his eyes flattened in disbelief as he pulled out the pack, now floating in the LCL.

". . . you gotta be fucking kidding me."


	3. Chapter 3

"_I still can't believe you've taken Shinji in, how did you even convince the Commander?" _Ritsuko spoke.

Misato let out a small laugh into her phone, as she shifted in the hot steaming bath. "Thinking I'm going to be putting the moves on him? He's the strong silent type, just what I like."

"_Misato!" _Ritsuko's voice shot through the small speaker causing Misato to flinch and almost drop her phone into it's watery grave.

"Calm down Rits'!" Misato replied, using her friends nickname, "I'm only kidding, geez." She chuckled and sat up some in the bath. "You really think I'd put the moves on a fourteen year old?"

"_This isn't a laughing matter Misato. Shinji is a damaged individual at best, you need to tread lightly with him." _

Misato frowned, staring into her tiled bathroom wall. The way Ritsuko had spoken about Shinji, no, how everyone had been speaking about Shinji was wearing on her. "And that's why I wanted to have him live with me. He deserves the chance at a normal life. What he's gone through. . ." Misato trailed off, as she recalled his tale from the VTOL, and the way his eyes reflected the horror he had experienced. She knew there was no possibly way she could understand it, just as no one could understand her own experiences during Second Impact. She couldn't suppress the small shiver, suddenly recalling the freezing ocean, even in the comfort of the hot bath.

"_It's precisely due to what he's gone through that I'm saying this Misato. He should be under constant medical supervision – not going to school and acting like he's a regular child, at least not yet. Between his PTSD and hallucinations-" _

"Hallucinations?" Misato cut Ritsuko off, glancing down towards the phone as if she could see the dyed blond doctor. She now somewhat regretted blowing off reading the report sitting unopened in her e-mail. Ritsuko had preformed a rather thorough medical exam after the destruction of the Angel, claiming it to be for precautionary measures to ensure the high synchronization hadn't done any lasting harm to Shinji.

"_Of course you hadn't read the report I sent home with you, I shouldn't be surprised." _Ritsuko replied with disdain. "_During Shinji's psychiatric exam I asked him, 'Do you ever see anything that isn't there?' He replied with, 'No I don't see anybody.'. . . . You understand what that means correct?"_

Misato let out a quiet groan, not liking that Ritsuko had just added a point to her score."By answering the question if he saw any_thing _with any_one_, it points towards a strong possibility of him seeing people that aren't there."

"_More than a possibility Misato, especially considering his slew of mental problems. Are you still going to send him to school knowing that he's that unstable? All it takes it's something to trigger him and who knows what will happen. Not to mention that he's going to be unable to relate to anyone, and are you even certain that his education ever advanced past a grade school level? Can he even read past basic kanji?" _

Misato slowly sunk into the bath with each unrelenting fact that Ritsuko threw at her, stopping so that her head and phone were only an inch away from the water, her knees ever so slightly jutting out from under the water. "I understand what you're getting at here, I do. I know better than you think that Shinji is far from normal, and that he will never be, what's been taken from him can't ever be returned. But Ritsuko, he deserves a chance, one that will let him see what the world is beyond all the death and destruction he's seen and endured his entire life. If he's going to fight for this world, he should be shown the good of it, not just what he knows of it."

As Misato finished, silence reigned between the two for a moment, before Ritsuko let out a long sigh. _"Fine. But if anything happens, it's on you. __And report any strange behavior to me, we can't -" _

"I get it Rits', _I get it!_" Misato snapped, feeling her annoyance boil over as she pulled the phone away and ended the call. She mumbled a string of unflattering labels that she gave to her old friend and placed the phone on a nearby stool, deciding to get out of the bath. The change in temperature from the warm bath to the cooler air made her skin crawl with goosebumps as she quickly grabbed her towel and started to dry off.

As her thoughts started to flow away from Ritsuko, she started to think more on what she had gotten herself into, insisting that Shinji stay with her. After being kept in the NERV hospital overnight to ensure that nothing had overly affected the young soldier during his time in the Evangelion, or at least that's the excuse Ritsuko used to examine him. Housing arrangements were then discussed the following morning. Gendo was going to assign him his own personal apartment in a lonely part of town, but Misato had felt her heart tug at the thought of the teenager living like that, especially with how easily he accepted it. So, after some convincing, she asked Shinji if he would be okay with living with her to which he had responded, "So fraternization is allowed here?"

Misato sighed, throwing the wet towel into the clothes hamper and wrapping a dry fluffy towel around herself. Ever since they left NERV this afternoon all he'd referred to her as was Ma'am or Captain. She knew that part of it was his military upbringing, but she couldn't help though feel that he wouldn't refer to her by her name because of her part in bringing him to fight here. That he viewed her not as a person he could rely on but rather another commander, one that would give him orders to risk his life and kill other beings.

_And that's not untrue, is it? You'll be doing exactly that, so why wouldn't he treat you that way? _

Misato looked at herself in the mirror, and let out a soft chuckle. If she frowned anymore, wrinkles would start forming early. It was true, she would be doing exactly that. But if she wanted to earn his trust again, she would have to try and be more an actual person to him, and only hope that he'd come around. Her hand tightened slightly around the hem of the towel that covered her, and she felt the same creeping sensation whenever she thought of trying to get close to another human being. Images of Antarctica flashed through her mind for a second, and she quickly shook her head, deciding to flee the warm confines of the bathroom where her negative thoughts still lingered.

XXXX

Shinji looked up from the TV program he was watching, now dressed in a plain white t-shirt and black cloth pants, as he heard a loud yell of , "_Oh yeah! That's the best man!" _And raised an eye brow as he saw a barely covered Misato crush a chugged beer can and toss it behind her towards the trashcan. It nailed the wall behind it, and fell short of the trash to join in with it's brethren by it. He grimaced some, deciding he would have to clean later. How a person with military training lived like this was beyond him. His eyes lingered on the fridge full of ice cold beer, feeling a familiar tingle in the back of his throat.

Misato noticed the look, and knew it for what it was right away. With a teasing grin, she asked, "Is that look for the beer," she slyly placed a finger to her chin, "Or are you thirsty for something else?" She winked with a playful giggle.

Shinji looked towards her, and couldn't suppress the small blush that colored his face as he felt his pubescent hormones override his self-control. He fought them for control however and managed at least not to ogle her, specifically the hint of cleavage that poked above the towel, as he replied, "The beer, Ma'am."

Misato stuck out her tongue, "You're no fun." and grabbed another beer out of the fridge. Upon seeing the veiled expectant look Shinji had, she cracked open the beer with an almost taunting smile. "Sorry Shinji, but you're in Japan now, and you can't drink until you're twenty. Too bad."

Shinji fought the urge to look annoyed and kept his face neutral as he nodded. "Understood Ma'am." and turned back towards the TV with his same rigid pose. Watching the late night comedy that was playing out across the screen, Shinji barely noted the sounds of Misato walking close to him, and then his vision was obscured by a can of beer. Following the hand that held it, gave him a bit of a surprise, as he saw Misato looking at him with a smile. The smell of her body soap was apparent to him now, the fragrance of lavender slowly filling his sense with a pleasant feeling, and yet it made him tense and for some reason caused his hair to stand on end.

"Don't go telling anyone alright? I'll get in a lot of trouble if you do." She gave him a wink, and gently waved the can towards him, signaling him to take it. Shinji gently took the can from her, giving her thanks.

The sensation of the ice cold beer in his hands took away the tense feeling he had, and he knotted his brow for a moment as he looked at nothing in particular, trying to figure out what it was that made him react like that to the smell. With a stark realization, a memory flashed in his mind causing his grip on the can to tighten, the still carbonized can resisting with all it's might against the strength of the grip. Scenes of a field full of lavenders filled his mind and he held his breath for a moment, trying to will the memory to leave him.

Misato looked down at the boy, noticing that he was starting to look very awkward, as if he was trying to run from something and misinterpreted it as her being as close as she was to him. Deciding she shouldn't tease the boy too much, she took a step back. "Just the one okay? And when I get back, I think there's a good movie on that I saw on the TV guide, we should watch it." She waited for his usual rigid reply, but when she got none she started to worry. She started noting that his hands weren't just tightly clamped around the can, but almost shaking as she watched to occasional tremor in his arms. "Shinji?"

The sound of her calling him caused his senses to return to him for a moment and remind him he was still in the present, not trapped in the past. "Y-Yes, a movie, sounds great Ma'am." His sentence was spoken in curt blocks, as if he was having to divert all his mental power to speaking.

She frowned, he was anything but okay and she could tell. "Shinji, if something's bothering you, you can tell me it's -"

"I'm fine Captain, please. . ." He interrupted her, his voice low as he continued to stare ahead, and the now invasive smell of lavender came to him again, "Just give me a moment." His tone was weak and almost pleading, yet it gave the impression he wouldn't budge on the issue.

Misato felt a strange pity grip her, and knew that something from his past had to be the reason for his sudden shift in attitude. She wanted to refuse him, to stay and try to get more out of him, but she knew from her own experiences that it wouldn't help anything, it would only serve to push him away more. "Okay Shinji." She simply replied and turned to cross the living room and enter into her room, closing the door behind her with a soft thud of the sliding door.

The sound of the TV slowly faded out from Shinji's mind, as he was glad he was finally alone. Moments passed as he blankly stared at the now soundless TV screen, his mind fully overlaying the sound from his memory onto his senses. He could hear the gentle wind that blew over him that day, carrying the scent of lavender and earth. The smell came to him again, this time from within his own memory, but it was so much more vivid that Misato's body soap could ever be. He bit his lip as he could no longer hold back the memory of that day bathed in the beautiful sunset.

XXXX

"_Have you ever seen anything so beautiful before Shinji?"_

_Eight year old Shinji looked over in surprise at the older boy, Kou Fukushima, seated besides him. Kou was older than him by six years, with jet black hair and similar colored eyes. They were both dressed in their combat fatigues, each equipped with a standard M5 Carbine rifle, which lay partially across their laps, hanging awkwardly from their straps. _

_They __both __were __leaning against a broken brick wall that served as a fence for a residential area. The brick wall __was quite long, breaking off into a corner beyond sight,__ and all in front of them was a massive field of flowers that stretched on for what seemed forever, bordering the open sky in front of them, dyed orange and purple from the setting sun. Various clouds of differing shapes and sizes lazily drifted through the sky, looking as if they soaked up the color of the sky, making them a dark purple with orange edges. _

_Shinji gazed upon the sky that would only ever look exactly like this once in all of time. He would never fully remember what this sky looked like, and would someday forget it entirely, but those facts would not rob him of the fleeting feelings he held then and there. "No, I never have." Shinji replied truthfully, his tone holding a reverent respect for the beautiful sky that Mother Nature would continue to paint, regardless of the turmoil surrounding it. _

_Kou was the oldest friend Shinji had, in both age and how long they knew each other. He had been kidnapped around the same time Shinji was, and as the only two Japanese children "recruits" they quickly flocked to each other in the scary world they'd been thrust into. Over the years, Kou helped Shinji learn more Japanese that what he already knew. Shinji had been a brilliant child, already speaking and reading well beyond his level but there was room for improvement that the four year older Kou could impart to him. _

_Shinji looked towards his friend and smiled as he saw the black and grey knitted afghan scarf that was wrapped around Kou's neck. It had been Kou's thirteenth birthday two weeks prior, and Shinji had done his best to get his friend a present, though such things weren't quite possible to come by. Scraping together what he could from his meager salary, if it could be called that, he found a kind old woman who ran a small clothing stall in the nearby marketplace. She was nearly blind, and lived on her own in a nearby home, but she could still knit by feeling alone. She was the only merchant who would take the U.S currency he was paid in, but he had a strong feeling she sold him the afghan more because of his earnest plea to get his best friend a present. _

_Kou glanced towards Shinji and saw where his eyes were at. Grabbing onto the afghan with one hand he smiled and rubbed the well knit cloth between his fingers, enjoying the feel of the dyed wool. "Thank you again for this Shinji. It really helped today, especially with how much dust got kicked up from that gunfire. I didn't have to breath it all in for once." Kou's tone was light, as if speaking of being under enemy fire was nothing to him. His sure confidence in himself always made Shinji want to preform better, as the older boy had always stayed by his side to make sure he could protect him. _

_Shinji tried to feel as confident as his friend, but every time he heard the crack of gunfire, he shriveled under his own fear. That didn't mean he didn't shoot back, but he never really aimed at anything. "Do you think we'll get to leave here soon?" Shinji asked, pulling knees up to his chest, feeling the cold steel of the M5 press into his chest. _

_Kou looked down towards Shinji with some pity, three years they'd been under the employ of Iron Phoenix and his friend still had yet to come to terms with their situation fully. He put a comforting arm around Shinji, as he looked down towards the boy who scooted just a bit closer. "When Russia stops paying us to fight the Afghanistan rebels."When he saw Shinji hadn't taken it as much comfort he grinned and gently shook him. "Hey, think of it this way, at least we're on the northern border now instead of the dead center where it's nothing but desert and rocky crags. At least it's green here and a bit cooler." _

_Shinji laughed at bit at his friends consoling and nodded. "Thanks Kou, and you're right." Shinji couldn't help but enjoy the brotherly arm that was still resting along his shoulder, and as he looked up towards the sunset again, he wished that this moment would just go on forever, and they would never have to return to fighting for their lives ever again, and he said so. _

_Kou gave a sad smile and turned his attention back towards the sky and shook his head. "Nothing lasts forever Shinji. All we can hope for is to enjoy what we have, while we have it, and hope we'll always keep the warm memories and feelings within us." Pausing for a moment, he closed his eyes. "You know, there might come a day when I won't be around either, you know?" _

_Shinji looked up in shock and his jaw dropped. "Don't say that! You have to be with me always!" The corner of his eyes pricked in tears, his voice frantic like a child being told his mother was being taken away from him. "What would I do without you?!" _

_Kou looked back towards Shinji, and smiled as he lifted his hand that rested on Shinji's shoulder and used it to ruffle his hair. "Don't worry Shinji, I'll do my best not to leave you anytime soon." Laughing at the boy's protest to him ruffling his hair, he replaced his hand and gave the boy a comforting squeeze. Kou gave a moment for a large gust of wind to blow by them, and he took a large breath, as he gazed upon the horizon. "But, I know that you'd be fine without me." _

_Shinji frowned once, but as he did, another wind picked up, carrying an even more potent smell of the lavender field before them to his nose. The fragrance dancing within him, making him almost shudder at it, it was a warm and comforting feeling, one that he wished lasted. Watching what seemed to be the final rays of the day begin to fully drop below the horizon, Shinji saw the briefest flash on the horizon, somewhere around the hills that were removed from sight due to the glorious sky above it. _

_Shinji heard a sound akin to a pumpkin being smashed in with a hammer, and as he looked towards Kou, wondering what the sound was, he saw his friend had turned his head from him. "Kou?" He asked wondering if his friend was okay. _

_Kou raised his free hand to his chest, the palm turned away from Shinji, and nodded. "It's okay Shinji. Let's just sit here a bit longer, the sunset is almost over." His voice was strained, and weak, but Shinji chalked it up to him being tired. _

_The sun had fully dipped behind the horizon, only leaving a dark hue of orange and purple in the twilight. "Kou. . . I know this might sound weird, but I've always wanted to tell you that if I had a real brother, I'd want him to be you." _

_Kou let out the faintest laugh, so small it was almost non-perceivable. He pulled Shinji to him in a full side by side embrace. "You'll always be my brother Shinji. You're a bit of a crybaby and you make me worry for you but. . . I still love you the same. . . you know?" His voice grew weaker and weaker, as the tight grip he had on Shinji's shoulder loosened. "But I know, . . .you'll be fine. . ." _

_Shinji blushed, glad that Kou hadn't thought him weird. Looking towards the man he considered an older brother, he saw his eyes had become half-lidded, and a small trickle of blood had formed at his mouth, staining his almost white chin with a red stream. Shinji's eyes widened some, and then Kou's body slid down towards him on the brick wall, leaving a red smear at chest height along his path. _

_Kou's head landed on top of Shinij's, stopping his slide, and Shinji's hand gently went up to touch the side of his brother's face, where the most genuine smile he had ever seen rested. "Kou?" _

"_Kou?" _

XXXX

On the outside patio, Shinji barely registered the pain of the cigarette burning past the filter and searing his fingers, but he allowed the barely smoked cigarette to fall from his fingers and fall into the night below, where it fell he could care less. Lifting the almost warm beer to his lips, he drank the rest, finding no pleasure or enjoyment from the act, only doing it to quench his thirst.

One sniper, that was all it had taken to rob him of his most precious friend. They had been stupid, they'd just gotten done not thirty minutes before from a fire fight with a tribe that he'd forgotten the name of. They'd snuck away from their troop after the fight had finished, Shinji wanted to enjoy just a few minutes of solitude.

It had cost Kou his life.

Shinji gripped the railing, as he stared down into the dead city around them, most of the residents having evacuated Tokyo-3 and many will never come back. His knuckles were white from the amount of pressure he exerted on the railing. That bullet had been meant for him, and he knew it. The wind that had blown just moments before Shinji had seen the flash from the muzzle altered the bullets path and hit just right of his head, where Kou's chest was.

Even after six years, the wound of loosing the boy he considered a brother still hurt him deeply, and he hated himself for being the cause for Kou's death. After that day, Shinji had changed. He no longer flinched under fire, but willingly threw himself into it, praying that a bullet would strike him down. But it never did. And no matter how many he killed, he knew the chances of him killing the sniper that killed Kou were non-existent. _Why. . . why wasn't it me?! _

The sound of a sliding glass door brought with it a rush of air conditioned air that blew over Shinji. A light fragrance once more came to his nose and his nose wrinkled, it was the smell of death, of failure.

"Shinji? Do you want to come in, watch a movie? It's -" Misato started, her voice tentative and showing how much care she was into talking to him.

"No Ma'am. I just want to be alone right now." Shinji curtly replied, the smell still so vivid in his mind as the terrible memory of his dead friend leaning against him replayed again. He could still hear his voice, his comforting arm, and words that served to bolster him in his worst moments.

"Shinji, it's hot out here, come on." Misato tried to start again. She had seen he was standing outside and had decided to give him some time, but he was starting to worry her. She started to wonder if Ritsuko was right.

"Just. Go._ Away_." Shinji spoke very slowly, dropping any hint of of his usual polite tone towards a superior officer. The hand that gripped the railing shook, and the beer can dented in from the pressure in his other hand.

Misato opened her mouth to say something more, but she found herself faltering. Watching Shinji's almost shaking frame told her all she needed to know. He was hurting, and bad. If there was a time where should should brave his spiky exterior and comfort him, it was now. She would have him confide in her, and become someone he could trust in, if for nothing else a source of care. But, as she gently reached out, no more than an inch from her position, she stopped. She was afraid – afraid of someone trusting in her, relying on her. The very thought of it caused her to take a step back, and with a feeling of shame, close the sliding glass door, unable to look at Shinji anymore. She would later come to regret it.

On the balcony, Shinji heard the door close, and he slowly fell to his knees, his left hand still tight upon the handrail while the beer can fell from his hand, the clanking of it echoing in the night. He covered his face with his hand and sobbed once as hot tears spilled onto his hand, unable to quell the tide that arose from the hole in his heart.

XXXX

Days passed, and soon school was allowed to restart after the cities emergency evacuation had been called. Like any good student body, the students of 2-A were all beside themselves with joy at the temporary halt on school being lifted. As students walked to school, everyone discussed the news that Tokyo-3 had been saved from a monster by a giant robot. There was no information released to the public about either the robot or the monster, only their names, Evangelion and Angel.

The rumor mill was also buzzing with the news that a new student was going to be transferring in today, a new male student. The girls of 2-A were already huddled around each other, wondering if the new kid was going to be cute or not, which caused the male half of the classroom to already be knocking points from him. Eventually, the Class Representative, Hikari Horaki, bust up the groups and shepherded them back to their desks with her infamous nagging.

The sound of a haggard cough came echoing up through the hall and through the door, signaling the coming of their ancient teacher, Nebukawa, his first name was unknown. Hikari counted down to three, anticipating the teachers arrival, and then stood calling out, "Rise, bow!" as the teacher entered the room.

The Old Teacher waved his hand with a half-hearted smile towards the student body, acknowledging the required formality from the student body. He let out a soft groan as he felt his knee ache some more, as it always did after having to climb up the stairs to the second floor. Reaching his podium, he placed his day planner down on it, and cleared his throat once. "Good morning students," he started as they all took their seats again, "Before we get started, we have a new student joining us." He looked towards the door, and beckoned with a wave of his hand.

A wave of hushed whispers shot through the classroom as all eyes turned towards the front, where appeared an average height teenaged boy with short brown hair. They all took in his appearance, noting that his white button up shirt was free of wrinkles and was buttoned up to the collar, but didn't seem to bother him any. His pants were of like shape, wrinkle free and if they didn't know any better his shoes were shined to perfection. His school book bag also seemed to almost shine, as if the leather had been given the same treatment as the shoes. As he reached the teachers side, he saluted the teacher with a fierce and well practiced salute, turning with a snap towards the student body who looked a bit stunned from the salute. He crossed his arms behind his back and waited, perfectly still.

The Old Teacher blinked once at the strange display, but chalked it up to puberty and the strange tidings it brought; He'd seen worse. "Thank you, Mr. Ikari, now why don't you introduce yourself to the class."

Shinji nodded once, replying, "Yes, Sir!" looking over the students, he took a deep breath. He had been feeling anxious since he woke up this morning. Misato had instructed him to start attending this school, for what reason he wasn't sure. He knew what school was, it was a place normal children attended to receive a general education. When he asked what the purpose of it all was, the reply he got was:

"_You need to get a girlfriend Shinji! School's the best place for it!" _

Shinji held his groan in from the memory. Puffing his chest out, he decided to make the best of it. "Sir! Pilot Shinji Ikari, Sir!" He noted that the class seemed a bit shocked at his introduction, and he wondered if he was doing something wrong? He noted that there was a student in the back, a sandy blond bespectacled boy who was almost foaming at the mouth and looking intently at him, gripping the sides of his desk.

Hikari let out a soft chuckle at the way the new student introduced himself. _Oh boy, another military nut, well, at least Kensuke will make a friend. _She could only guess at how disappointed some of the girls were, but started picking up on some whispers behind her from the class.

"_He's cute! Look at that scar on his nose, doesn't it make him look cool?" _

"_Woah, he's intense! We need to get him on the basketball team for sure!" _

Hikari noticed that Shinji was still standing where he was, awaiting something more, and decided to speak up. "Shinji, why not tell us what kind of hobbies you have?" The usual procedure was to introduce yourself along with what you like, etc. She figured he never transferred before, it would help if she gave him some guidance. When he turned his head to look at her, she couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat at his focused look, whether it was intentional or not, it had an effect on her. "I-I'm Hikari Hokari, the Class Representative."

Shinji looked down towards Hikari, noting that she announced her own rank, and from the sound of it, possibly a higher rank than the rest. "My hobbies, Class Representative?" He stopped for a moment, to think on it, and continued. "While it's mandatory, I take pride in cleaning my weapons and do it often." The class grew louder with their whispers, which was unnoticed by the elderly teacher who looked as if he wasn't paying attention to the current surroundings.

Hikari let out a nervous chuckle, deciding to play along for now. "Well. . . besides things that are _mandatory, _what do you enjoy to do in your spare time?" She decided to ignore the heavy breathing coming from Kensuke just a few rows down.

Shinji looked a bit surprised, he couldn't recall a time when someone had ever asked him if he enjoyed something. "Things I do in my spare time? I suppose I enjoy wood whittling."

Hikari's eyes lit up as she finally found something to work with. "That's interesting! Where did you learn it?" It wasn't often they heard of a student partaking of a hobby outside sports or something most middle school students considered fun.

"I picked it up in Africa." Shinji replied, remembering the small village his squad was stationed at for a weeks time, waiting for further orders from command. The village boys he'd made friends with showed him the basic techniques for it, and he'd practiced it whenever he found himself with spare time and wood nearby.

The hushed whispers turned into full blown chatter, breaking the already strained quiet of the classroom. Many students began to throw questions towards Shinji, asking him things ranging from when he was in Africa to what kind of weapons did he mean, making him look between everyone, trying to figure out who's question to answer first.

"That's enough! Everyone settle down!" Hikari yelled out, standing quickly and turning towards the class with her hands on her hips. She saw most of the students back down from her glare, "Let Shinji take his seat, we have class to start!" In truth, she was just as curious as the rest, but her duties came first. Hikari looked towards their teacher, but noticed that he still seemed a bit out of it. With a small sigh, she pointed towards one of the empty desks in the classroom. "The only open seat at the moment is the one next to Kensuke Aida, I hope you don't mind."

Shinji shook his head once. "No, Class Representative, thank you!" and began walking with a purposeful stride towards his desk, noting the eerie stare from Kensuke, the same boy he noted acting strange earlier. Placing his book bag on the hook that hung from the side of the desk, he sat down and saw a few of the students leaning towards him to ask questions, but a sharp glare from Hikari made them shrink back to their seats muttering. Shinji was impressed at the brunette, she wasn't a soldier but she could easily make a good officer with her control over authority.

Seeing that everyone was seated, Hikari turned and bowed towards the teacher. She took her seat again and waited a moment, and then held back a groan as she noted the Old Teacher was on the verge of falling asleep at the podium. "Mr. Nebukawa. . . Mr. Nebukawa!" She called out, finally getting his attention as his eyes opened fully and he looked towards her.

Readjusting his glasses, Mr. Nebukawa cleared his throat casually, as if he wasn't just caught nodding off. "Thank you Ms. Horaki. Let's begin attendance, shall we? Ayanami. . .? Absent again it seems."

The Old Teacher continued to go through the list of names, each student giving halfhearted replies of "Here," reflecting the joy they felt at being at school. When Shinji's name was called, he mimicked the others, though his reply was much more vibrant. After attendance was finished, the teacher began his lecture, instructing everyone to open their laptops that sat on their desk.

Shinji did so, but immediately stiffened as he saw the interface was in kanji. He clicked his tongue, he recognized a decent amount of the symbols, and the computer ran a basic Windows operating system so he was able to remember where similar things were in the English interfaces he'd used before. He felt himself start to panic a bit at not being able to find the folder that would contain the textbook he needed, but soon saw that a program automatically opened the required textbook to the page he needed, and he let out a sigh of relief. While he still could only read about half of the page, he was able to make do.

Hours passed and subjects were discussed. Shinji found himself able to keep up in most subjects such as history and excelled in geography for the most part, but when math and Japanese came around, he found himself totally lost. When he was called upon to solve the math problem _x – y = _36, he had to admit to the Old Teacher that he had no idea what kind of math problem included the English alphabet. He received some strange looks but was allowed to sit back down.

As another bell rang, which Shinji had come to understand meant the ending of another class, student all around him stood up excitedly and began pulling out lunchboxes and grouped desks together, while others left the room in a hurry, yelling that if they weren't quick all the good food would be long gone. Shinji watched them go with a nagging indecision, his stomach had started grumbling at him an hour ago and he hadn't thought to bring any of the instant food the Captain and he had been living off of for the past few days. He found it to be a massive improvement over the slop they passed for food back at the camps.

Just as he was about to stand and follow the students in hope of finding the mess hall, he heard a harsh screech to his left that made him flinch. Looking over, he saw Kensuke had slid his desk straight up to Shinji's, making them sit across from each other, and was looking at the boy with eyes that said he had been holding this in since he first introduced himself. "Um. . .hello." Shinji spoke out, keeping an eye out for any weapons the strange kid might pull on him at any point. He was taken back when Kensuke thrust out a hand.

"Kensuke Aida." Then, as soon as he had extended his hand he realized something and withdrew it quickly, using it to give Shinji a practiced yet flawed salute that was different from any Shinji had seen. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance!" Shinji opened his mouth to reply, but Kensuke was far too enthusiastic to play host to proper manners as he leaned forward. "What kind of weapons?!"

Shinji leaned back some as he saw the bespectacled boy's glasses were starting to steam up, giving him an eerie look and swore the blond was sweating. "I. . . uh," he tried to figure out what he asked him, when an idea came to him, "You mean the weapons that I clean?" When Kensuke feverishly nodded his head, Shinji continued, "Well, I have a FN-SCAR-H and a 92SF Beretta."

Kensuke's jaw hit the floor, and if the desks hadn't separated him from Shinji, he would have had the other student by the shoulders and started shaking him. "_Seriously!? _They gotta be airsoft guns, right?! Right?! There's no way you could possibly have real guns! Japanese law number -" Kensuke began rambling off into his own world, which made Shinji unable to keep up with him properly, and could only wait until the other boy finished his rant, which ended with him pulling out a magazine from his bookbag and slammed it onto the table.

Shinji looked down at the magazine and recognized the title instantly, _Soldier of Fortune, _though the rest of the text under that was in kanji_. _It was a fairly popular magazine, just behind _Playboy,_ that could usually be found in whatever camp Shinji had been stationed at with Iron Phoenix. He narrowed his eyes some as he saw that a soldier with the PMC Fire Wolf logo patched onto his flak jacket was on the cover. It wasn't that he recognized the soldier, only the logo. He's had some run in's with opposing PMC's in some war zones and Fire Wolf was not one of the companies that let things like rules of engagement dictate their actions. The magazine was soon flipped open to an ear marked page, which contained pictures of different types of assault rifles with descriptions next to them. Kensuke's finger slammed down near a picture of a SCAR. "Is this the model you have?" His voice had lowered in pitch some, but still contained the same frantic enthusiasm.

Shinji looked down at the picture and shook his head slowly. "Mm. . .no, that's the Mk 16 SCAR-L. Mine is the Mk 17." The main difference between the two was the type of round they were designed to fire. The Mk 17 was made to fire larger, heavier rounds, making it ideal for urban combat situations.

"You gotta –" Kensuke dropped his voice, as if he remembered something and leaned over the desk, his face only a few feet from Shinji now, and whispered loudly, "You gotta let me shoot it man!" The idea of getting a real assault rifle in his hands, and possibly even _shooting _it made his heart race.

Shinji raised an eyebrow, trying to understand what the boy in front of him was getting so worked up over. He wasn't terribly keen on letting someone he barely knew touch his guns however, regardless of the mystery behind the sandy blond. "I'll think about it." Then, seeing the dejected look on Kensuke's face, Shinji added, "Why do you want to shoot it so much?"

Kensuke looked as if he'd been asked the most obvious question in the world. "Because it'd be freaking awesome!" He yelled out, getting more than one yell from nearby students telling him to keep it down. He paid them no heed though, as he held his hands up as he was holding an invisible gun. "Just holding down the trigger, _blam! blam! _Watching what ever is on the other side get completely destroyed!" Snapping his fingers, he flipped open to another page in the magazine, this time to a showcase of weapon accessories was shown. "Please tell me you have a drum magazine for it!"

Shinji frowned, the way Kensuke was talking about shooting a gun was rubbing him the wrong way. He could recall similar reactions from children he'd encountered in small villages all over the world that wanted to play with his weapons. They were foolish kids who'd never been shot at or been around gunfire in a real firefight, and sadly most of them learned that fear and few lived to remember the lesson. "So you want to shoot a gun. . . because you think it's awesome?"

Kensuke raised his eyebrow, curious as to why he repeated his answer. "Duh. Why else would I want to shoot one?" He then grinned and snapped his fingers. "It'd be even cooler if we got invaded by aliens or something! Like if that Angel had any infantry or something! Man, it'd be so _cool! _Something like that SCAR could just mow 'em down, or if -" 

"_Are you kidding me?!" _Shinji roared, slamming his hands onto his desk so hard it made his hands sting as he shot up from his chair, causing his seat to skid back and slam into the desk behind him. Kensuke looked shocked, and all of the students turned their attention to the new student who was glaring into Kensuke's eyes looking as if he wanted to tear his head off. "Have you ever shot at another human?!" He waited impatiently for an answer, and only saw Kensuke look around nervously, his mouth moving with no words coming out, and he repeated his question, only louder and ending with, "Answer me!"

Hikari, who had been enjoying her lunch with her friends until Shinji's outburst, stood up and walked over towards the enraged teen with some fear. "Shinji," she started, already feeling as if she was a rabbit walking into the den of a wolf, "Why don't we talk about this?" She didn't know what they had been talking about exactly, as she, along with the other students, had gotten quite proficient at tuning Kensuke out.

Shinji looked over at Hikari, and was about to give a heated reply, when he saw the look in her eyes. It was a look that clearly spelled out to him her fear of him. It was a look he well remembered, a look that was forever burned into his memory. He felt his breathing grow heavy as she neared him, and a memory of an excruciating humid day in the rainforest of South America drudged from the graveyard where he kept his most painful memories buried. His heart pounded in his head as he no longer saw the Class Representative in front of him, but a dark skinned girl with the same colored eyes, the same fearful eyes, standing across from him. His gaze grew panicked as he looked around the room, seeing everyone staring at him, all their eyes accusing him of his sins that they knew _nothing_ of. Faces of the dead began to replace the students faces, faces that had been with the dark skinned girl that terrible day.

It was hot, too hot, he remembered. Sweat was pouring down his face and stinging his eyes adding to the irritation of the day. Yes, he remembered that day no matter how much he wanted to forget. Blood, screams, and laughter – horrible laughter of devils that worshiped death and made sacrifices aplenty. Fires raged, he could never forget the stench of burning flesh and hair. A single hut, he had to go in, _he was ordered to, _he didn't want to_. _Behind the door, they all stood, waiting.

Fear filled eyes, just like the students. Accusatory eyes, just like _they_ had.

Hikari was starting to feel freaked out, as the new kid went from rage to now looking at her as if he'd seen a ghost. His eyes were wide, his pupils had shrunk and his face was almost white. Sweat poured down his face, and dripped from his chin. "Shin. . .ji?" she whispered.

He'd seen her mouth move, but he didn't hear her. All he heard was the terrifying screams mixed with the awful sound of gunfire. "_No!" _

Hikari jumped back in time as Shinji screamed out and rushed past her, running as if the devil was on his heels, and barreled into a group of male students who were coming in to see what all the commotion was about. They resisted him as if they were just sheets of paper, and were thrown to the side as Shinji disappeared into the hallway, echoes of a terrifying, horror stricken panic following him.

XXXX

Misato cursed as she barely avoided another car, as she blasted past a red light. She slammed her palm into the steering wheel, the horn reflecting her rage at herself. _Stupid, stupid! _She couldn't believe that she hadn't spoken to Shinji more about school, and what he should expect, about what he should talk about, and what he _shouldn't._ She'd been so busy with dealing with the aftermath of the Angel attack, she barely paid any attention to Shinji.

The phone call she had received from the school was from a girl, Hikari she remembered, one of Shinji's classmates. Someone had upset him and then he'd shot out of the classroom screaming bloody murder as if he was fleeing something. He'd disappeared from the school and no one could find him.

She downshifted and ripped on her Renault Alpine A310's E-Brake, counter-steering into a hard drift that slung her around another corner at forty miles per hour, her tires screeching, causing an oncoming car to swerve away from her and almost slam into a light post as the blue sports car roared past.

The guilt she felt ate away at her like an acid, she could only pray that she could get the situation under control before Ritsuko found out, or anyone from NERV for that matter. If they did, he'd be locked up in the hospital wing for sure, and only let out under heavy supervision and even then maybe only for piloting the Eva. She owed him more than that. Gritting her teeth, she slammed her foot on the accelerator as another red light showed up ahead.

XXXX

When Shinji finally came to, and he was no longer in the hellish jungles of Venezula, he found himself clutching at his knees, in what appeared to be some kind of dome terracotta structure. Under him was well packed in sand, and a single entrance was in front of him, looking recently disturbed as if someone too big for the hole crawled through it. Looking down at his white shirt, he that it was no longer pristine, but now covered in dirt stains.

He let out a shaky breath, trying to regain his bearings. He covered his face with his hands, trying to remember how he got here. All he could remember was running. No exact images came to him, but the feelings he had did. He ran his hands through his hair, feeling ashamed of himself, "I did it again. . ." It was then that the memory of where he had been came to him and he groaned. He had been at school when _that – _when _Kensuke, _he cut himself off, had gotten him so mad he couldn't think straight. So when he saw the Class Representative's eyes. . . he shuddered, he couldn't go down that road again, not today.

He looked again towards the hole, and saw the ground outside was tinted orange, telling him that it was already sunset. Just how long had he been out of it for? Taking another deep breath, he decided he needed to first get out from under this thing, and figure out where he was. As he moved forward, he felt the old feeling of fear that he knew well, it was the same feeling he had after these episodes of his, of not wanting to leave the place his subconscious mind found safe. But, he was able to fight past it like he'd learned so many times before.

Wriggling out of the hole, he cursed, how the hell did he manage to get in here in the first place? With a final kick, he was out and laying on his back on the warm sand. Looking around from his position on the sand, he noticed he was in some type of children's playground, and the structure he'd hid himself in was some kind of clay turtle, with a slide curving down it's back.

It was then he noticed the sound of a steel chain creaking. Sitting up, he traced the sound and saw a girl seated on a swing. She had blue hair, and half her face was covered in bandages, along with her right arm, but her left eye was unbandaged, and was a piercing color of red, that seemed to reflect the sunset. He noticed that she wore the school uniform of his school.

She was barely swinging herself, her legs moving only enough to keep the swing in a constant movement that moved only a few inches back and forth. She turned her head towards him, and regarded him with what seemed no real interest.

Shinji found himself staring at her, finding his brain already labeling her as an attractive girl, who was already a huge mystery to him, mainly due to her bandaging. Realizing he was staring, he looked away and stood up, dusting himself off. Expecting her to say something, he was disappointed as the only sound was the continual creaking of the chain swing. He kept his head turned from her, struggling with whether or not he should just leave. Looking around, he saw the playground was surrounded by a residential area, with what appeared to be a high rise apartment complex just a block away. Yet, he heard no sounds that would suggest a human packed area, telling him that it was either a very quiet neighborhood or abandoned.

The creak of the steel chain swing continued, and Shinji found himself unable to walk away without at least introducing himself. Turning towards the girl, he saw she was still looking at him, but seemingly without any expectation, much like how one would regard a busy street full of people who ignored each other. Opening his mouth, he hesitated for a moment. Finally he spoke, "You go to my school?" He kicked himself, smooth Shinji, smooth. He waited for an answer, but none came.

"Er. . . my name is Shinji Ikari." He continued, looking towards the girl. She still didn't respond. Just as he was about to leave, figuring that she clearly didn't want to talk, she finally spoke.

"My name is Rei Ayanami." Her voice was empty, almost cold with how little emotion he heard in it. But it wasn't as if it came from a bad place, like many people he had known in the past, rather it felt more like the idea of emotion was unknown to her, that her way of speaking was perfectly normal. "You are Pilot Ikari?"

Shinji did a double take, his exhausted mind taken off guard by the statement. How did she know about his affiliation with NERV? When he asked her, she replied, "I am a Pilot too."

He let out a breath, his imagination had ran wild for a moment there. But her reply gave only more questions, but before that a memory of role call from that morning came to him. "Ayanami . . . you're in my class aren't you? Class 2-A?" She nodded, "You missed class today." Again she nodded, "Why?"

"I was only released from the hospital a few hours ago."

"I see." He replied, and again the silence between them was filled with the constant slow creak of the swing set. He stared into her visible eye, starting to feel at ease with her for a reason he couldn't quite put a name to. Even though the very act of standing across from her made him feel awkward, as would any teenage boy with a pretty teenage girl, something about her that allowed him to feel calm regardless of what his hormones were trying to tell him.

Looking around, he noticed the shadows were beginning to grow longer, and then the creaking of the swing stopped. He watched as Rei gently stood up, seeming to be a bit off her balance, but regained it before it was too noticeable. He wondered if she was well enough to be walking on her own or not. She took a few steps forward, but stopped long enough to look towards Shinji and make eye contact with him, which made the boy blush. No words were spoken and eventually Rei began to walk past Shinji.

It was then Shinji finally found some nerve to speak to the blue haired beauty. "Will you be in class tomorrow?" he cringed a bit, reminding himself that after his display he may very well not be able to come back the next day. Rei stopped, and looked back towards Shinji. She nodded once, letting her gaze linger on him for a moment more before turning away again to continue walking home. Shinji watched her go, until she disappeared behind a corner, and he let out a small breath.

_So she's a pilot too? I wonder. . . _If they already had a pilot, why did they need him? Perhaps there was another Evangelion? He doubted it, how could they have possibly built two? Noticing the sun wasn't slowing it's descent for the contemplative young man, Shinji turned down the road himself, away from the park, and begun searching for his way home. He'd probably have to answer to the Captain when he saw her next, but it didn't overly bother him.

XXXX

Misato pressed her exhausted body against her door, feeling the midsummer night heat cook away at her body, making her groan. It was close to midnight and it was way too hot. Putting her keys in the door lock, she sighed. It wasn't a good time to complain about the weather, she still hadn't found Shinji, yet it was too late to continue the search – especially as tired as she was. When she opened the front door however, the pair of school shoes made her feel and immense sense of relief.

Stepping inside her darkened apartment, she began to to tiptoe inside it, feeling silly for having to remain so quiet within her own home. At the end of the hallway was just a little bit of luminescent lighting, from her kitchen light.

Making her way to the bedrooms, she gently opened Shinji's door, and let out her breath. There he was, lying down in his bed without a care in the world, wearing only a pair of shorts with no blanket on. He was snoring lightly, but had his body turned from her. She could only imagine what he had gone through today. She felt so helpless, not being able to comfort and guide a single young boy, especially the one they were counting on to save the world. _Shinji. . . _she thought solemnly, _I'm sorry I can't help you more, at least not yet. _She gently closed the door, and felt her fatigue double. It was the sensation one gets after realizing there's nothing more to do in the night but sleep.

As she neared the kitchen, a low hissing sound sounded off and from his personal habitat stepped Pen-Pen, an empty beer can in his hand. Looking up towards his owner, he did his best impression of a human asking for a hug. Misato smiled, and cooed, "Aw, Pen-Pen, did you miss momma?" Kneeling down, she gave the bird a warm embrace, feeling the flippers mimic her behavior.

"Kwark?" Pen Pen asked.

Misato nodded. "Shinji is fine. Just a bit tired." Pen-Pen and Shinji had become fast friends over the past few days, although she had to explain what exactly a penguin was. She giggled as she remembered Shinji asking her what kind of cat Pen-Pen was.

Opening her fridge, she cracked open a beer and stumbled through the dark to her room. Inside the messy space, Misato instantly eyeballed her laptop, where she knew a few unpleasant prizes were going to be. On top of that, she began to wonder if it really was in Shinji's best interest to not be cooped up in a psych ward somewhere? After today, she wasn't so sure. Taking another swig of her beer, she took a step closer to her desk, but only placed her can onto it while she changed.

Paperwork could wait.

XXXX

Damn this one took me a while to get out, and it wasn't from lack of trying! Between irl stuff and the fact that the laptop I like to write on SHIT ON ME in the middle of writing I lost THREE GODDAMN PAGES. So yeah, I had to rewrite some shit.

I really hope this chapter pleases, it took me a long time to getting it to where I wanted it, and truth be told I still feel as though some parts could have been improved but this is the best I've come up with thus far. Next up we have the Fourth Angel making it's apperance, and what will it mean for our wayward hero?

Also, Rei wasn't at that playground due to Deus Ex Machina! I have a specific reason for it, and I wonder if people can guess it? We shall see.

Well I swear I'm forgetting something to say here, so I guess I'll just remember it when I start writing next and shit myself in rage for forgetting it.

Till next time!

Shinobi no Ryu


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