A/N: This is one of the few serious romances I will ever write. The pairing, of course, is my only pet couple at the moment, even if that seems impossible now (trust me, it'll make sense later). Telling you who they are would be no fun, so I'll just give you one clue: "'I think I was born just to meet you.'" If you don't know who said that and/or who that was directed at, then either you are not very attentive, or this will spoil some things for you. This fic starts during the last moments of EOE, so without further ado…

(Standard disclaimers apply. I'm not going to repeat that for every chapter, so I'm just going to state it here once for the entire fic.)

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Genesis Squared, Prologue: Waking Up

Asuka cracked an eye open. Where was she? She could have sworn that just moments before, she had been safe and happy, and Momma and Kaji and everyone else had been there too. Maybe it had been a dream. No, it must have been a dream because reality could never have felt so good. But now it was over, like all the good dreams she'd ever had.

That brought her mind back to her present condition. She suppressed the inexplicable but disturbing memories she had of discovering that Momma had been protecting her all these years in the body of Eva Unit 02, then of having her left eye skewered with a Lance of Longinus copy and her right arm sliced open lengthwise by another copy. The important question was: What was Asuka Langley Sohryu doing lying down somewhere with at least two very pointy stones painfully digging into her neck and back, respectively, when there was the Eva Series to beat into bloody pulp? Speaking of Seele's Evas, where were they? And where was her own Eva? She had been in Unit 02's entry plug recently, she was sure of that, and she sure as hell didn't remember getting out again.

These thoughts slipped from her as her cloudy vision finally cleared, almost begrudgingly, just enough in her right eye (she couldn't even open her left) for her to recognize that the reason she couldn't breathe was because that idiot Shinji was practically sitting on her while staring into her face. Really, how stupid could he be? Couldn't he see that she was having trouble breathing, and get off? The pervert had probably been trying to feel her up or something while she was out.

Trying to draw breath to shriek just that at him, she realized that something was also around her throat. Asuka could barely croak some incomprehensible noise, and after some more thought—her thoughts seemed to have slowed to a crawl—she realized that Shinji had wrapped his hands around her throat and was apparently trying to strangle her. This made no sense. What had she ever done to him? Could it be that he was jealous? But of what? He could at least get his Eva to move—wait, her mind was wandering again. She had regained control of Unit 02, and she also had a foggy idea that she had crushed Seele's ground forces, plus their much-vaunted Evas, before she had passed out or whatever while he cowered in Nerv HQ. Yes, that must have been it.

Shinji must have noticed that she was alive after all, because he suddenly eased his grip on her throat. It was probably the sudden influx of oxygen or something, but both her mind and vision cleared amazingly fast, and she remembered everything, even what it had felt like to die, though she wished that would stay forgotten.

Actually, Asuka wouldn't have opposed those geriatric cases calling themselves "Seele" if she had known that was what Third Impact felt like. It was like nothing else she had ever felt. Nothing else had ever filled the hole in her heart left when her mother committed suicide, not even Kaji. Asuka reached out to touch Shinji's face and hoped against hope that she was only imagining feelings of loneliness and separation, and that her hand would merge with his cheek (as disgusting as that would have been), both being part of the 18th Angel, but as she feared, that didn't happen. She should have figured as much from the fact that he had been able to semi-strangle her.

"How disgusting." Asuka wished she was able to muster the strength to say it with a little more force or to think of something more cutting to say.

Shinji hung his head and didn't reply.

"Don't tell me you don't have anything to say for yourself. You are the one who rejected Third Impact, aren't you?"

"…"

Her voice got stronger and more contemptuous with every sentence. "Aren't we proud of ourselves today? Because we were a teeny bit afraid of the unknown, we didn't hesitate to ruin the hopes of six billion other Angel fragments for becoming whole at last again."

"…"

"Well, are you satisfied, O high and mighty Shinji? Are you happy now?"

Shinji wouldn't even look her in the eyes—eye, singular, rather—(though he did get off) and take responsibility for his own actions like a man, like Kaji had when he showed up to meet whichever Seele lackey killed him even though he knew he was going to die for betraying the organization by releasing Fuyutsuki. Disgusted by how rightly she had judged his character, Asuka levered herself up onto her hands and knees and managed to half-crawl, half-drag herself a foot or two down the beach. She sat up and wrapped her arms, one suited and one heavily bandaged—though she had no memory of anyone putting a bandage around either her left eye or her right arm—around her knees as she looked out at what she instinctively knew was an ocean of LCL, the last remains of everyone else she had ever met and everyone she had ever cared about in her life, and tried to figure out what to do next. She was alive and she had to deal with it. Diving into the LCL in hopes of drowning herself and rejoining Momma was probably not going to work, much as she might be in pain from being effectively alone again. Curse that idiot Shinji for being a selfish brat!

Speaking of Shinji, he was obviously going to be of no help for anything, sitting there and zoning out as he was doing. He was probably absorbed in mentally congratulating himself on his latest exploits, that is, if he wasn't planning something else perverted or murderous or both to do to her in her sleep.

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A/N: I wanted to say that since I know only the basics about Christianity and Judaism, and even less about the Kabbalists (mental note: go out and get Prometheus), I will be extrapolating a whole lot of stuff and making even more stuff up out of whole cloth, in the ostensible interest of originality. My own peculiar brand of mysticism that I save for occasions like this is a mishmash of a whole lot of things and is as influenced by ideas in fantasy novels I've read as by any real religion, philosophy, etc. Oh yeah, I probably won't get to update all that often with my schedule, so if anyone wants to be notified when I add more chapters, just put your email address and say that you want to be notified in a review or email or something. OK, see you all later!