Chapter 1-Arrival

The dreaded day had finally come. A sorrowful young teenage girl with unsteady hands, and braced legs wheeled down the sterile white hospital hallway after the stern nurse in her customized black chair. She had light tan skin, long black hair tied up in a simple ponytail, and compassionate honey brown eyes. She knew being called out of her classes out of Fatima Middle school to report to the main city hospital on the outskirts of Neo-Abu Dhabi could only mean her long suffering cherished uncle was with Allah.

The male nurse reached the end of the hallway and opened a sliding door, and looked at the softly sobbing girl with a slight frown as he handed her a microcassette recorder, "I'm sorry Miss Jadel. He didn't suffer in the end." He nodded stiffly and left.

"T-thanks. She wheeled into the room alone where her last relation lay under a white sheet. Bright sunlight streamed in through the tenth story window and gave a breathtaking vista of the ocean that had swallowed up the old city under 20 meters of water. Rami sighed as she dabbed at her eyes but the overcast gloomy skies that she might have wished for considering the circumstances was clearly rarely ever present in a desert town bordering the Persian Gulf. She noticed the brilliant sunlight glinting off a plane in the distance. She slowly reached out and clutched her uncle Aarif's withered hand through the sheet. "I'm…so sorry you have to see me like this uncle. Thank you for everything you did for me. I love you and will ever keep your memory alive. Praise Allah."

She hit the "play" button and heard her uncle's tired but eternally affable voice. "I'm so sorry I have to go my little girl, but the Allmighty decrees my fate. Rami, my child, all I can do now is place you in the care of my former professor in Tokyo-three. Your new guardian's name is name is Doctor Kozo Fuyutsuki, professor Emeritus from Tokyo-two University. The papers on the nightstand drawer contain a letter, passport and all the information you'll need to know to get to Japan."

She nodded and sniffled, remembering how he had joyfully recounted his former life working as a graduate research student in Biomechanics under Dr. Fuyutsuki before the world nearly ended. Before the Second Impact meteor strike had wiped out Antarctica and snuffed out her mother's life along with countless millions worldwide.

"He works in a top secret branch of the Japanese government now, so you can't live with him, but he has made special arrangements on my behalf to give you a new home. Be brave my fearless Rami."

"T-t-thank…" Rami sobbed uncontrollably as she kissed her uncle's cold hand, not realizing at first that a dark ultramarine shadow had plunged the room into eerie darkness. "I'm…I'm going to make you proud Uncle Aarif! I promise with my life."

A high pitched feminine voice outside assaulted her ears as it blasted the surrounding area with an unbearable pressure wave that shattered the windows! She opened her eyes in horror and gaped at an eight hundred meter high translucent octahedron casually hovering just offshore. All along a black strip bisecting its midsection a thundering roar built up as a bright light blinded her. Somehow she knew that…alien was there to kill her!

She blinked back fresh tears as she whimpered, "It's not fair. I still wanted-"

Paired with an agonized scream, a brilliant energy beam vaporized the hospital into a cloud of stray subatomic particles.

…

Rami Jadel started awake in a jump, and shook her head. Whatever her nightmare had been about had completely faded away other than only the vaguest feelings of knowing she had died in it. She regained her bearings and remembered where she was. She brushed sweat off her brow from the heat, and unfolded the letter from Principal Nakahara that gave the return address as "First Municipal Tokyo-3 M.S."

A soothing voice echoed over the bare concrete platform, "Please stand behind the striped yellow line, Red Line Express terminating in Tokyo-three, with stops in Yokohama and Tokyo-two is now arriving." As she watched a sleek, streamlined train pulled smoothly into the station and came to a stop with a faint hiss. With slightly unsteady gloved hands, she maneuvered her wheelchair over the gap and into the empty car. After a few moments of her alone with her thoughts, the door slammed shut behind her and the train smoothly resumed its speedy trip towards the capital. She wheeled over to a marked seat, clipped into the wheelchair brace, and sighed. She rummaged in the backpack attached to the back of her chair, and pulled out the leaflet showing the amenities of the glittering new capital city of Japan when the sound of a sliding door at the end of the car caught her attention.

The visitor was a young boy. He was slight of build and had a softly feminine face, closely cropped dark brown hair, and moody, introspective blue eyes. He was dressed in a plain white dress shirt, black slacks and matching loafers. Slung over his shoulder was a drab knapsack. Earbuds attached to long draping black wires disappeared into his shirt pocket where some sort of music player walled off the ambient noise of the deserted train cabin.

Rami waited until he spotted her and beamed, brightly waving to him.

Shinji stopped in his tracks at this most unexpected encounter. He had had the run of the deserted train since boarding hours earlier and spent it brooding over his ever-miserable fortune. Why had father called him back now? It couldn't be to patch things up over their defunct relationship could it? Who was this weird lady that was picking him up with the raven hair and sexy top that had sent him a provocative postcard of herself? All these swirling thoughts came crashing to a halt as he simply gaped at the strange tan-skinned girl who he didn't know from Adam. Why was she waving at him? He looked back at her with frank bafflement.

She continued with the now slight smile as she remarked, "Hi there!"

He shook his head and yanked out the earbuds, "I'm sorry miss?"

"Yokohama or Tokyo?"

The boy looked totally stumped for a response. Rami crossed her arms and made a mock pout. He fidgeted for a few seconds before she broke into a soft titter. "I'm Jadel. Nice to meet you good sir." She extended out an open hand.

Finally he broke out of his trance and very hesitatingly bowed respectfully instead of shaking hands. He detested close physical contact, and being near a cute girl made him reflexively raise his defensive barriers even more than normal. He stammered uncontrollably, "I...I'm Ikari. P-pleased to meet you Jadel-san."

Rami suppressed a laugh with difficulty. This boy was simply too much. "This seat's free if you want it."

"I'm O-okay. I don't want to be a bother." Please let me escape he silently pleaded.

"Oh of course its no bother. Have a seat with me, Mister Ikari. I'd love the company."

He insatiable desire to please others at his own expense got the better of him once again. His nonexistant willpower crumbled immediately. What he gotten himself into, he mused inwardly. He awkwardly sat across from the strange girl, and tried not to gawk too openly at her wheelchair or unsteady arms. It would be unspeakably rude to use his SDAT player to listen to his music or stare out the window. He was trapped. The boy was at a loss of what to say so he stared at her travel brochure instead. He read the banner out loud, "Tokyo-three, the city of the Future."

"Yeah." She nodded with a sad glint in her light brown eyes, "My new home. I have a promise there I must keep."

"Promise?" Shinji empathized with her flickering expression of uncertainty, "M-me too."

"Really?" Her face lit up, "You're going there too, aren't you? Great! I know somebody from Tokyo-three now!"

He flushed in intense embarrassment. He was absolutely useless around girls, and thoroughly isolated himself from his peers ever since being sent away to his uncle's after his mother's untimely death. "Y-y-yeah."

"I'm staying at the First Municipal Middle school. Feel free to visit me, Ikari-san."

He blinked in disbelief, "Staying? You're living at a school?"

"Uh-huh. Caretaker's apartment. My uncle arranged a work-study arrangement with an old mentor in town. I'll be covering the landscaping."

For some reason this odd girl had effortlessly outmaneuvered his well-fortified antisocial barriers. Shinji was nervous as hell to try to make conversation for the rest of the trip, even a small part of him was slightly pleased that he wouldn't have to brood endlessly. He sadly knew it was unlikely that they would ever see each other again. Even if he ended up going to the same school as her, he knew he would obey deeply ingrained avoidance habits and simply wall himself away again.

…

Just outside the Tokyo-3 commuter train station in an eerily deserted street, Ikari hung up the disconnected green payphone and looked apologetically over at his new acquaintance, feeling now somewhat responsible for her predicament. Air raid sirens shrieked in the near distance as both of the youths looked helplessly around at the abandoned vehicles with their doors left ajar. The only other sound was the rasping buzzing of the cicadas.

Rami smiled sheepishly, "No bus service today, huh?"

Shinji spoke in sudden alarm, "Please tell me you're not going on foot!"

The girl winked and patted the armrest, "Not in this contraption I'm not."

Crap! "I'm s-sorry." Ikari flushed and sighed as he added yet another social blunder to his endless heap. "I'm sure Ms. Katsuragi will give you a lift as well." He turned and his eyes widened as he saw a strange girl a block away with cerulean hair and crimson eyes in a schoolgirl's outfit staring right at him!

Rami piped up incredulously, "Ikari-san do you see that girl?"

They exchanged confused glances and looked back down the street. Whoever she was, she was gone now.

A tremendous explosion sent both of them reeling as a tan VTOL aircraft the size of a bus crashed into a fence not even a hundred meters away! Then an inhuman black and tan giant the size of Godzilla brought its foot down on the crippled aircraft causing a fireball explosion. Both of the children threw up their hands in stunned terror but a nimble vehicle blocked the shockwave. Rami muttered reflexively under her breath in horrified awe, "Sachiel."

The black-haired driver yelled out, "Shinji, sorry I'm late! Get in."

"B-but this girl is…"

"No time. Toss her in."

"Y-yes Ma'am!" Shinji cursed as he clumsily hoisted the girl out of the chair, blushing furiously, and promptly tumbled over backwards into the left hand passenger seat. He had just straightened her upright, when Katsuragi pumped the gas in reverse, and hit the brakes, slamming the door shut. She then gunned it at top speed away from the fearsome monster that was too preoccupied with blasting the military VTOLs out of the sky to attack them. Ikari was too terrified to mention they had left the girl's wheelchair behind as the blue sports car roared down empty streets, dodging the occasional stopped car like a skier in a demented slalom course! The two children were tightly wedged together, but Rami looked more bemused than embarrassed.

"Captain Katsuragi Misato at your service, Mister Ikari Shinji."

"Uh. Uh. H-hi."

Katsuragi grinned evilly behind her wraparound sunshades, "This cutie your new girlfriend?"

Despite the terror of imminent death looming over him, Shinji managed to turn crimson and barked out, "She's not! We just met on the train."

"I'm Jadel Rami, Captain. It's a pleasure to meet you! Ikari-san told me about you on the train."

Misato cackled as she saw Shinji's face become even redder, "Did he now?"

Just as they rounded the crest of a steep hill, Misato slewed the car into a nimble skid and came to a stop. Far below them, they could see the rampaging creature with ghastly atrophied arms and legs make mincemeat of the JSSDF forces. Her eyes widened as she saw the VTOLS suddenly scatter in all directions, "Aw crap, not an N2-" For a few eternal seconds, it looked like the sun had gone supernova! A titanic shockwave fanned out in all directions, including straight for their hill. "Get down, now!"

They obeyed as the overpowering concussive and thermal shockwaves decimated the entire surrounding areas, ripping apart trees and toppling buildings, but bypassing a thin wedge of asphalt that the idling Renault was resting on. The glare faded out and once their vision cleared they all gawked at the several hundred square meters of intact roadway around them surrounded by nothing else but smoldering debris.

Ikari started to breathe again, "T-t-that was close."

The captain slammed the car into gear again, and tore off down the street towards the hidden NERV vehicle entrance ramp, wondering how on earth an explosion that ripped the entire hillside apart barely singed her car's paint job.

…

Shinji's day had started off crappy and it was only going downhill from there. The only bright spot had been meeting that odd Arab girl with the ponytail on the train. At least she was safe in a surface shelter as he and Misato continued down into the massive hollowed out underground geofront. The rest of the day was all downhill: he had been blackmailed by his bastard of a father into piloting a giant purple and green striped 50 meter tall robot to save a severely injured albino girl from dying; forced up to the surface totally unprepared to fight this strange "Third angel" monster; and the highlight of the night being his robot tripping face first into the street.

In the vast hanger-like space of NERV HQ , now with her crimson military jacket thrown over her dress, Misato cursed and loudly barked into the communications console, "Shinji, get the hell up!"

Shinji reeled in pain, as the angel had already mangled his mecha's left arm, and the next thing he saw was a three fingered claw grasping his robot's skull and effortlessly hoisting Unit 1 in the air like a ragdoll. He was screwed.

The captain banged her fist on the control panel as the staff watched with mute horror as the third angel used a battering ram mounted in its wrist to attempt to punch through Unit 1's head. She yelled in frustration, "Fight the angel Shinji!"

A nearby nerdy technician named Hyuga gasped at the reading on his holographic displays, "No way. Our luck can't possibly be this bad." He whirled around in his seat as he barked, Captain, another intruder has entered Tokyo-three airspace! Blood pattern is blue. It's another angel."

"Not now! Divert half of the intercept system to target the new bogey." Katsuragi felt her guts clench as she knew the inexperienced pilot would be killed by a combination attack, and Rei would die soon after. The game was over before it had even started. Now she would never see her father's death avenged-

Everyone except the stoic Commander Ikari gasped in shock as the cobalt-hued, kite-shaped angel shrieked as it plowed through the third angel's AT field and cleanly severed its arm off at the elbow.

Shinji felt the shock as his purple cybernetic robot inelegantly crashed to the ground, the now useless angel's arm still gripping his unit's head. He used his remaining right arm to yank off the offending appendage and gaped as a flat diamond shaped being filled his entire field of view. Directly in its center was a shimmering crimson sphere.

In NERV HQ a long-haired tech named Aoba piped up, "There's no doubt. The Fourth angel just cancelled out the third's AT field and destroyed one of its arms."

Misato couldn't believe their change in luck, as she thoughtlessly brushed her fingers against the white cross around her neck. Nothing in her briefings had ever indicated one of these horrid monsters could go rogue. "Now's our chance Shinji! Retreat back to Shaft T-21 and return to base! Then we'll hit both angels with an N2 barrage."

Ikari gaped with awe as his mysterious benefactor blocked the third angel's blinding beam attacks, the clashing prismatic shields wildly fluctuating between the two combatants.

Katsuragi's best friend, Dr. Akagi Ristsuko cut in, "Misato, the Fourth angel's core is completely exposed. Tell Shinji to smash it."

Misato nodded in agreement, "Shinji! That red sphere right in front of you is the angel's exposed core. It's the heart, brain and soul of that monster. Punch it as hard as you can!"

Unit-1 was willed back into a standing position as the boy realized the two monstrous titans were locked in a stalemate. But abruptly the third angel's attacks penetrated its opponent's defenses and blasted one of the quadrants off the rhombus, sending razor-sharp cobalt shards everywhere. Several fragments ended up stuck in his unit's chest armor and shoulders. Shinji finally made a decision to repay his debt, as he knew he would have been a dismembered corpse by now if not for the blue angel's timely aid. He reached out with his functional right arm and gently touched the damaged angel's core. To his considerable surprise, the forth angel smoothly altered shape as it made a noise halfway between a high-pitched wordless note and a sigh. It shed 99% of its mass into thin air as it wrapped part of its tail section around his unit's crippled left hand and wrist, and snapped into place as if it was a giant appendage. He screamed in pain as the constricting mass of the angel effectively splinted his robot's arm back into alignment. After the wave of nausea and agony passed he glanced to his left and managed a hysterical laugh in the LCL fluid as he now was effectively wielding the crystal angel as an oversized sword.

Misato's brown eyes widened with stunned disbelief, "Shinji, what the hell are you doing?"

In a blink of an eye, Unit-1's AT field joined the Fourth angel's and with a primal scream Shinji plunged the blade's tip all the way through the black and white angel's core and out its back. The defeated third angel roared and self destructed and only managed to shatter the bladetip of the Fourth angel with its detonation. The NERV staff watched in hushed awe as the nearly intact Unit-1 walked out of the flames, its white eyes glowing demonically. The severely damaged crystal angel disconnected from its teammate, rocketed away and quickly vanished off NERV HQ sensors into the night.