This story was created in response to a challenge issued by a few people over at The corresponding thread can be found here: http/ As such, there will be shoujo-ai (female/female pairing) at some point in this story.
Also, this story takes place after End of Eva. Therefore, it contains a few slight spoilers. That being said...
Chapter 1
The world had forgotten. The world had been torn apart and rebuilt by one person. And no one seemed to remember it.
No one, that is, except a single girl. She had been at the center of it all. She had seen Armageddon. She had seen Third Impact lay waste to an entire civilization. She had awakened on a beach of white bordering a sea of red. At one point, she could have sworn the Third Child had tried to kill her. However tiredness overwhelmed her, and when she awoke once more, there was no sign of him. There was no sign of the horrors that greeted her tired eye the first time. Her wounds were healed. The world was healed. Yet everything was so very different.
Japan was hardly a welcoming place anymore, so she had caught a boat to America. And that was where she found herself now.
"What the hell is going on around this place?" the Second Child, Asuka, grumbled to herself. She straightened her long, dark brown coat, which covered a light brown top with a hint of yellow to it. This lead down to a denim skirt held up by a thick leather belt with two holsters and accompanying pistols. The cowboy boots that covered her feet and hat that sat atop her head matched her coat.
She currently loitered in a saloon that reminded her of the Western gunslinger movies that seemed so popular with Americans a few decades earlier. In fact, the entire world seemed to be placed in a similar time frame. And among the items that defined the era in which the girl now found herself, a group of wanted posters stood out the most.
One in particular stared Asuka in the face. The poster depicted a young girl with light, chin-length hair, almost white skin, and deep, penetrating eyes. Bold letters across the bottom proclaimed the girl to be Rei Ayanami and promised a hefty reward for the girl. Even if returned dead.
Asuka turned her attention from the poster and began to trudge across the saloon to the bar at the back of the room. She ignored the few other patrons that chatted noisily amongst themselves. She had more important business.
"Hey," she demanded of the barkeep. "You put up those posters?"
The bartender, a man whose size assured his patrons he needed no bouncer, turned his attention away from the customer he was talking to. He glanced over the redhead. "Ain't you a little young to be in a place like this?" he asked gruffly.
Asuka's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "I asked a question. Did you put up those posters?"
The bartender regarded Asuka skeptically, before nodding his head a little. "Yeah. I put 'em up."
Without turning around, the Second Child pointed to the poster of Rei. "Her. What's she wanted for?"
"Ain't no nevermind to me," said the bartender with a light laugh and a shrug of his shoulders. "The sheriff tells me to put 'em up, I put 'em up. And if the bounties are brought back here, of course," the bartender added with a slow grin, "I get a bit of the cut."
Asuka turned her head to look back at the poster again. "What have you gotten yourself into now?" she muttered under her breath. She looked back to the bartender. "So there's nothing you can tell me about that girl?"
"All I know is that she's been seen out to the east," he commented as he distracted himself by wiping down the bar in front of him.
"'East' doesn't help me, idiot. How far east?" she asked, the level of her voice catching the glances of a few patrons seated nearby.
The bartender looked up at the girl and frowned. "Now listen here. I've humored your questions, little girl. If you're gonna act like that, you can leave."
Asuka restrained herself from growling at the man who was so obviously far below her own intellect. "Excuse me. I'm just a little frustrated from traveling for so long," she said through clenched teeth. "How far east should I go to find her?"
"Not more than a couple days, I'd guess. But you gotta realize, all the stuff's been said about her is just speculation. Otherwise, somebody else probably would've already got her."
The Second Child nodded once. "Right," she said as she began to contemplate the easiest way of traveling out of this town. "Do you know where I can get a ca--er," she shook her head, catching herself, "a horse? Preferably one that's cheap."
This received quite a laugh from the barkeep. He shook his head as his laughter died away. "'Fraid not. Horses ain't cheap out this far."
With a sigh of annoyance, Asuka responded, "I was afraid of that." She turned away from the bar and began her march for the doors. "Well, if you want your money, you better hope somebody else gets to her before I do."
Before the bartender could respond, she was gone. He simply shook his head and went back to cleaning up the bar.
