They didn't know.

Hell, it had been a few months since I found out, and I still had to remind myself of it nearly every day.

To be fair, becoming immortal after having not been so for the first 16 years of your life isn't something you get used to overnight.

I still remember when we discovered my little... *ahem*... Issue.

Asuka had been a little, well... Upset would be the most appropriate term, I think.

It's been thirty years, and I can still feel that slap...

But, that's for later. Currently, I'm hunkered down beneath a flight of stairs as the Japanese Strategic Self Defense Force systematically murders everyone I know.

And they just found me.

Shit...

The JSSDF soldier put the gun to my head and thumbed back the hammer. I heard the click and I clinched my eyes shut, pulling my legs to myself.

He spoke right before he pulled the trigger.

"Sorry kid... Nothing personal," I think it was.

This is gonna suuuuuu...

There was a bang, and my head slammed back into the wall behind me. I fell over, eyes wide open. I watched as he holstered his pistol and pulled the rifle from his back. He thumbed the safety off right as his head disappeared.

She's late...

I watched his body crumple to the ground and fall forward as his squad mates brought up their own weapons and prepared to fire.

They never stood a chance. Not against that woman.

Misato leapt onto the first one, her knee catching him square in the jaw. He stumbled back as she shot the other one point blank in the throat.

She turned to the last one and he brought up his rifle.

Poor bastard...

His kneecaps were quickly eliminated, his pained howl echoing down the corridor. The rifle clattered to the ground as he fell backwards, his knees bending at an unnatural angle, the shattered bones grinding against each other.

I watched Misato holster her own weapon before slowly walking over to the man. She reached down and pulled his boot knife from its scabbard, casually running her thumb over the blade.

She climbed on top of him and knelt down, the knife clenched in her palm. She grabbed the man by the front of his tactical vest and pulled his face right up to hers. She turned her body just so, and I couldn't see his face.

She spoke, quietly, but I could still hear the words.

"Nothing personal."

Her arm jerked and the man's body spasmed a few times before going limp. She dropped him back down and stood up, adjusting her jacket as she turned to me. She walked over and placed her hand on my shoulder.

"Shinji... Are you alright?," she asked as she gently shook me.

I blinked and sat up, my brains slowly following me.

They ran down the wall and slid up my back, every drop of blood pulling themselves out of my clothes as the gray matter and chunks of skull fit themselves back together.

It was over in a matter of seconds and I reached around to feel at the back of my head. There was no hole, no blood. Only smooth, solid bone. The skin finished knitting itself back together and I went to stand.

Misato took me by the shoulder and helped me up, surprisingly calm for a woman who just killed three men and then watched her young charge's brains pack themselves back into his skull.

I absentmindedly rubbed at the back of my head, rolling my neck with an audible pop.

"I've still gotta get used to this whole 'being immortal' thing," I spoke after a few moments.

"Shinji, we've been telling you for months now... You're not really 'immortal', remember?," she said, straightening my collar, "You're still going to die someday, but from old, old age, not from any outside source."

I nodded.

"Yeah yeah yeah... I know," I said as I reflexively rubbed the back of my skull again, "That hurt like a sonofabitch."

Misato went to reply when her radio came to life, Asuka's voice coming over the wavelength.

"Hey! Baka! You there?," she yelled, "Any chance I could get your assistance up here? I mean, it's not like I really need it, but I am running low on power..."

I chuckled softly as Misato replied.

"Hang on, Asuka. I've got Shinji. We're heading to Unit 01's hangar now. He'll see you shortly."

With that, she stepped aside and gestured towards the elevator at the end of the hall.

"After you, Master Ikari."

I grinned.

"Don't mind if I do."