My first Evangelion story.
Tell me what you think and what I might have missed of misinterpreted about the story :D

Edit - Spelling error brought to attention by Satanic Park Of Madness


The world had fallen, despite their best efforts, no matter what they had done or how hard they had fought. The Angels had won, reuniting Adam with Lilith and initiating the Third Impact, just as Gendo had said it would.

Only instead of if it being Gendo to be in control of the end of the world, it was Shinji. When the final angel had fallen, SEELE had swept in with their Mass-Produced Eva and taken Adam from Gendo while the Eva were still recovering from the fight with the 17th angel, Tabris.

No matter how skilled they were or how much they pushed their bodies and Eva, they didn't have the strength to repel nine infinitely regenerating, berserk Mass-Produced Evangelions. Despite killing four, they had to retreat, carrying Unit 02's damaged pilot and body with them.

When they arrived at the new Nerv HQ, a recently constructed Pseudo-Geofront, as their Eva were in repair the Pilot's were placed into one of the most protected location on the base, this incidentally all placing them in the same room.

Space in the new HQ was at a premium and it wasn't unusual to see personal sleeping on whatever they could find, each other and the floor included. So when it came time to enter their new accommodations none of the pilot's said a word, too lost in the slow encroaching insanity to complain as the deaths of those they cared about ran through the, pushing their minds to breaking point.

The tipping point in their relationship was when one night, Asuka woke up after a reoccurring nightmare of her mind rape by Arael and she fall into a spiraling depression that caused her to lose her ability to pilot, one of the very few things keeping her mind tethered to the realm of sanity.

When she awoke, she found herself sandwiched between Shinji and Rei, none of them needed to say anything as they basked in the comfort that they found in each other. The only people that knew what it was like to pilot Eva, the only people who she could let her walls down. On that night as she broke down in their arms, Shinji steeled himself, finally understanding why he piloted Eva 'To protect Rei and Asuka'. As the idea firmed itself in his head he didn't even notice that he didn't include anyone but his fellow pilot's in his promise, something that would one day lead to the end of the world.

As time passed, SEELE started using Adam to revive the angels, with their power firmly in the grip of SEELE the Angels once more took to the world in search of Lilith. It mattered not how many times they killed an Angel, so long as SEELE had Adam they continuously revive them and send them back to fight no matter how many times they were killed.

After years of battling the Angels, with occasional appearances from the Mass-Produced Eva to try and pick off an Eva if it was damaged, something that was becoming rarer and rarer as time passed, technology advanced and the pilot's became more and more skilled in operating their Eva.

At a certain point, the attacks were coming in so frequently, that they had elected to start living inside their Eva plugs, often only communicating with one another and command when an Angel attacked, slowly becoming more and more in tune with their Eva. So much so, that after a certain point they had noticed their Eva moving without them needing to think about it. Much like Unit 01 had moved to protect Shinji when he had first seen it. It was only during this time they spent immersed in their Eva that they started realizing, their Eva were alive. Not just alive, they were intelligent enough to know what their pilot wanted without even having to think about it.

As the years passed, more of their new friends at Nerv died around them and as more and more of them died the three of them grew closer and more secluded, eventually to the point that they no longer knew anyone around HQ but Gendo as the Sub-Commander had died of old age, those they knew died in battle and were replaced just as quickly as they were removed.

Gendo saw his plan's getting further and further away from him as Rei stopped listening and started opening up to the two who were her life, they were everything to her and she would do anything to keep it that way, he took a desperate leap and ordered the Eva to attack where Adam was located. Gendo had known for years where Adam was located, but was waiting for a good moment to attack, and when that moment never came it slowly grated on his patience being so close to his goal, until he snapped and decided that now was the time to start the Third Impact even if he didn't know who would be in command with Rei so out of his control.

Especially so as he had never realized his mistake of putting three young, hormonal teenagers who relied upon each other utterly to keep their minds intact, that were soon to be adult's in the same room. They didn't know when it had started but at some point they had started thinking less that of each other as friends and more as potential partner's. At this point they had been tentatively together for little over several months, their shattered and socially inept minds doing what they could to cling to one another, seeing romantic relationships as simply the next step of comfort in their broken minds.

When they received what was to be their final orders, they could all feel the end upon them, for good or was at this point what little adoration Rei still held for Gendo slipped away and she broke down in Shinji and Asuka's arms, her mind finally cracking under the load she had burdened herself with as her emotions came to bear with a force she had never felt before she told them everything, how that she was the third Rei, what Gendo had planned to do with her and his plan for the Third Impact. As the story slowly unraveled to her partners they held her as she cried, begging them to understand.

When everything had been brought to the table, their souls bared for one another, they gave in to what they had wanted for years, consummating their relationship with one another as they surrendered themselves to their lust for the first time, it was clumsy, sometimes painful and they didn't know what to do but for them it was an intimacy they had never experienced as it brought them closer than they thought possible.

The next day, their Eva were fitted with long operation packs, giant external battery packs that extended their Eva's operational length. They also had miniature reactors dropped with them so that they could return to them whenever they needed a power-up. It was the first all out assault the Eva had made but Gendo was well aware of the massive issue that was the Eva's limited power supply and had made efforts to minimize the problems that it might cause with the lack of S2 engines.

After a long, hard fought battle in which they had the upper hand in the fact the SEELE had started to believe themselves so invincible with all of the power they wielded that they had neglected defense for all out offense. In the end they had engineered their own defeat. They had been so occupied sending Angel after Angel at the crumbling Nerv that they had not realized that in essence they were giving the pilot's more and more combat experience. In the end, they had been fighting for so long that it was all they knew, their childhood had long faded behind them as they spent seven long years fighting, day in day out. The only thing that they had left was one another and the rare few psychologists that could get a hand on them had long since stopped trying to get them to rely on each other as much as they did.

When all was said and done, Unit 01 and Unit 02 limped back to base carrying Unit 00 between them, Adam secured from SEELE once again.

Their fault was that in the heat of battle, they had forgotten one crucial detail, Gendo still held the command codes for their Eva and in short order Unit 00 and 02 had been shutdown before they could react and it was only the presence lurking within the Eva that kept them alive, while Shinji remained active he manually set his Eva into sleep mode, seeing as he had a little less than three hours left before his Eva powered down he had planned to set a trap for Gendo as he tried to retrieve Adam for his purposes.

But what they didn't know what they instead of powering down Unit 00 Gendo had over-pressurized her LCL and crushed Rei under the pressure her inside her Plug. Her soul being bound to the 'Reiquarium' she instantly was in her rebirth cycle then inside Rei 4. Where Gendo took her while she was still dazed from dying a horrible death and merged Adam, who had been retrieved before Shinji had even thought of laying a trap.

When the Third Impact was about to start, Rei was already too far gone to stop it but she was still aware enough to know that she could give the choice to another, and in her hazy mind where once Gendo would have stood out now Shinji stood above all equal only to Asuka who was absent, and her subconscious guiding her as the world died around her she reached out and embraced Unit 01 pulling her and Shinji to the heavens as the knowledge that all they had done was for nothing and the sacrifices they had made were meaningless hit Shinji and his mind started to fracture, at this point the only thing keeping it together was the comforting reassurance from the presence in his Eva and the overwhelming feeling that could only be Rei.

As the world ended around him and his Eva, Shinji laid immersed in LCL inside his plug, mind on the verge of going completely as everything he had worked so hard for seven years crumbling around him.

"They won. It's all over." Was all Shinji said as he felt the immense power flowing through his Eva, his stubborn nature that came from being around Asuka flaring up without him even noticing as his body fought to control his Eva even as him mind drifted away, the pull too strong for him to resist any longer.

"Yes. Adam and Lilith have been reunited." He heard a familiar voice say, even then though his heart stayed grounded, he knew Rei, he knew her heart and soul and this wasn't her.

"I've failed everyone." It was a statement, he knew he had.

"Only if you think so." A soft voice whispered from the void around him.

Shinji lifted his head towards wherever the voice was coming from and saw what looked like a naked Rei, only she had no defining features such as nipples, finger nails or genitals.

"Lilith." He didn't know how he knew, only that he did. "The Third Impact?" He asked but both knew it was a statement rather than a question.

"The end of the world."

There was a long silence as Shinji mentally ran over anything he could do, something to stop what was happening and bring everything back to normal.

"Adam was just as impressed as I was by your efforts."

Shinji's eyes came back into focus at those words as his mind tried to work that out. "How?"

"Did you know when the Third Impact was supposed to happen?"

Shinji frowned in thought 'Supposed to happen?'

"It was seven years ago." Shinji felt his eyes widen at that, his shock showing on his face. "You defied fate, destiny and all that stood in your way for seven years. Only failing because you were betrayed from within."

Shinji felt himself go slack, 'They had been fighting so hard for so long, for what? To prolong his crumbling existence against the inevitable?'

"They Angels feel the same way."

Shinji knew the Angels were sentient, they learned from their past mistakes and came up with new tactics so they had to be, but to know that they respected him? Why?

"Because you bested them." Lilith seemed to read his mind, or perhaps just his face. "Not once, you killed them hundreds of times, no matter what they did, how hard they tried they all fell to the Eva."

Seeing Shinji was still recovering from that information she smiled tenderly at him and ran a hand down the his cheek 'Just like Rei' was the first thought that came to mind before he squashed it with years of experience of hiding guilt.

"Before they went to battle, they cried the name they had given you." Lilith seemed to squint for a second before she smiled again "God-Slayer."

Having had enough time to regain his balance from where he had been mentally knocked of equilibrium his slammed down on his emotions as he had done so thousands of times before, he needed to think clearly here.

Lilith seemed disappointed that he had gone cold now and tried to look at him in the same pleading manner Rei had used when she wanted to make a point but it came across as a pale shadow of what it should be.

"You said something about what I thought?"

Lilith seemed to sigh now that she had to go back to what she was doing before, her joyous air gone for now. "When Gendo initiated the Third Impact Rei killed him in her last moments of consciousness and that left the only other who had touched Adam for me to be drawn to. The world has prepared for the Third Impact, there is no stopping it."

Shinji felt his heart drop even with his tight grasp on his emotions, it was all over and as he started to fall into despair, Rei and Asuka were dead. 'What do I have to live for now' Shinji thought as he went limp as his body finally gave up on trying to stop the Eva and his eyes dimmed the life that had been there fading into a dull sheen.

Lilith saw his failing condition and intervened before he was too far gone to make the decision that he needed to make, otherwise they would both be here forever, his mind dead and her waiting his choice. "You have a choice." She quickly made out, seeing the life in his eyes stop draining away as he hung onto any lifeline that he could. "Eva Unit 01 was modeled after Adam, Gendo was dead, as was his piece of Adam so I took to the closest piece of him."

Shinji could feel the void, his mind was teetering, one wrong word and his mind would fall to oblivion forever at the loss of his loved ones, his reason to live gone.

"Whoever started the Third Impact would control what became of it, what happens to the world is in your hands now."

Shinji didn't care for the world, he cared for Rei and Asuka and seeing as they were both dead he cared for nothing. "Don't care. Rei and Asuka are gone."

Lilith winced in her mind, this was bad, if he went to much further then he might try to destroy her and with his position of being able to order her to do whatever he wanted she would have to do as he said and kill herself.

"I don't care. I just want to have them back." Shinji whispered to himself as he felt the cold of the void around him. Back? What was it about that word, something in him had latched on and refused to let go of it until him mind thought it over.

"Back?" He whispered aloud to Lilith's confusion.

Shinji felt his mind start grinding again, his life having a purpose again if he could just think of what it was. 'Back?' Shinji mulled over the word for what could have been seconds or years, in this place time mattered none, it had not been created yet.

"TIME!" His mind suddenly latched onto what he had just thought about, time didn't matter here because it hadn't been created. So if they had the power to create time, what was to say that they didn't have other powers over it?

Before Lilith could ask what he was thinking his eyes suddenly came back to life, the steel and sheer fire in them that had defined his life after he had found his spine, flared with excitement and a hint of madness. "Yes, time!" Shinji said excitedly to the slight worry of Lilith, 'Had he lost his mind already?'

"You created time yes?" He went on without even giving her a chance to answer "If you created time you control it." He announced to Lilith's dawning horror.

'Was he really thinking of-' Her thoughts were cut off again by the sound of his voice "I order you to turn back time, to before this happened, to when I can stop this!"

Lilith felt the LCL in her veins freeze at his orders, he was supposed to choose between letting humanity live separate or to live as a part of the whole as a sea of LCL soup. Not this madness. She tried to open her mouth and deny him but her own power bucked against her, reminding her that she had to do as he ordered.

"If that is what you think." She said in the most graceful tone she could manage, reminding herself that even at the edge of madness and grief that this was the man who had defied god for nearly a decade, he had defied fate, he had killed gods, they all had. No matter what she did or said, to him she was an Angel, not to be trusted and to be destroyed as soon as possible. 'It looks like appearing as Rei hasn't soothed his mind enough to stop him.'

Shinji felt hope, something he had only felt sparingly through the years before he suddenly remembered something that made his heart drop, 'They won't remember me. Wait, who says that only I have to go back?' Before Lilith could go through with the madman's desire he suddenly interrupted her again and said something that caused her more dread than she imagined she could feel.

"I want you to send all of us back, Rei, Asuka. All of us!" Shinji was smiling now, he would have what he wanted and get back what he had lost, all of the suffering, the scars he bore, physical and mental. They would mean something.

Lilith felt her AT field, inside of which she controlled all of reality spread in an instant to cover the entire universe and beyond, before drawing on Adam and reaching out into other dimensions and settling around it all with such power that the fabric of reality started to tear causing entire regions of the universes to be obliterated into dust. Within her field, she felt time grind against her will, before slowly, ever so slowly she felt it start turning backwards, her will forcing time back along the path is had wrought.

As this was happening and it started speeding up, Shinji felt something pulling him back from this void he looked up upon the focusing face of Lilith and gave her a single smirk that said more than words possible could. I win.

Lilith could feel herself pulled backwards in time, her memories disintegrating in the wind as her power ignored her even as she tried to force it. 'If they go back to the past, then the Third Impact will never happen. I WILL NOT CEASE TO EXIST!' Was the last thought that she made out before her mind was shredded by her power to return her to the state she was in the past as Rei's soul was taken back from the amalgamation that was Lilith.

'I've done it…' Was the last thought Shinji had as he blinked, seeing a familiar phone booth and over the world, three warriors opened their eyes, somehow knowing what had happened and what awaited them.

They were ready.