Disclaimer: I don't own Eva. Never have and never will. Most of the characters don't belong to me either. I might make one or two up, maybe even more, but you guys out there know who belongs to who. So, on with the story.

Enjoy.

Chapter01

The day's test was complete. The hatch to the Entry Plug hissed as it opened to release the pilot from the Throne of Souls. The pilot, a young man of 14 stood up and climbed out as the plug was lifted from its incertion point and over to the steel catwalk to its side. He leapt out, landing on the walk and slowly made his way down the steps to the lower walk just in front of the bio-michanical weapon he piloted. Bending over a small red bucket, he threw up the orange liqued he used to breath with while inside. The LCL poured from his lungs and into the bucket, leaving him coughing for a second. Taking in a deep long breath of fresh air, he sighed in relief that the tests were finally over. Shaking his head free of loose LCL that soaked his body and black hair, he turned and stared up at the black plated face and its two lifeless white eyes which stared back at him. With a snort and a glare, the boy turned away with a determined walk with no purpose but to show his disgust and hatred towards the beast he controled. Waiting for him at the end of the walk was a woman dressed in a black skirt and blue button dress shirt, stockings with high heels and a lab coat. She had blonde hair and ocean blue eyes that the boy thought he could easily see himself lost in if he stared too long. Seeing her made both his artificail left arm and right leg twitch, but he kept his step and stopped just in front of her, his eyes downcast to the floor. "Dr. Akagi," he said in a rough voice.

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, head of the E-Project, former lover of Commander Gendo Ikari, and head of the First Division in Department of Technology and Development of Nerv Headquarters stared at the broken and rebuilt boy of a failed experiment which they not too long ago fixed. She stared up from the young man and up at his 'beast', Unit-03. Her eyes narrowed as she recalled the Commander's orders to have Unit-03 rebuilt for future emergency uses. Same was said about the Fourth Child that stood before her, in those exact words. "You did well, Toji Suzahara. Your syncro with Eva Unit-03 has increased by four percent." She watched his left arm twitch as she finished. "Is there a problem with the prostetic arm, Toji?"

With his real hand, Toji reach over and gripped the artificail arm that was given to him, giving it a small squeeze. "No ma'am." He continued to look away from her as he stared at the floor. "Is there anything else, doctor?" He asked.

Ritsuko couldn't blame the boy. After everything that has happened to him, to his family, and to his friends, she couldn't blame him for anything. There was only one man to be blamed; he wasn't there to take it. Reaching out and resting a hand on his shoulder, she gave him a reasurring smile. Her touch made him shake, but it was from only being surprised. "No, Toji. You may go home now and get some rest."

Toji watched her hand slowly slide down his arm before returning to her side. He looked up in time to see her sad smile as she turned to walk away. "Thank you, doctor."

Ritsuko paused and turned to Toji, who was already facing the opposite direction and walking away to clean up and change. After what had happened to Shinji, her heart cried for the children that were left. Rei no longer had an Eva to pilot, Asuka was just recovering in the hospital, the Fifth Child becoming an Angel and having to be killed, and Shinji... Her Thoughts drifted as she thought about the Third Child. "Shinji..."

At that time, another woman within NERV was thinking of the same young man as Ritsuko. The raven color haired Major sat in her office, once again recovering from a series of tears that poured from her blood shot eyes. Before her was a picture of the two men that had made an impact on her life. One was older and an ex-lover, the other younger and who would have been considered a son. As much as she loved the first, her heart cried out for the return of the second, her index finger running along the image of his face and the small shy smile he had. "Shinji," she said. Another wave of tears threatened to emerge but she forced them back. Checking her watch, she saw it was time for her to go and check up on Asuka. In the past week she has made progress and was walking well again after she awoke from her coma. Much to her disliking, Asuka wanted to continue piloting. The look in her eyes allowed Misato to see a change in the young redhead. She had changed over the time she was in that comma and it worried the major.

Elsewhere in NERV, deep within the Commander's office, Gendo was panicing. Paper lye strone across his desk and on his floor; reports from Section 02 appearing on the holographic screen in front of him giving more and more bad news that he did not wish to see. He wanted results and he wasn't getting any. Unit-01, Shinji...they were no where to be found. In a fit of anger, he shoved the reports off his desk, the image before him disappearing to leave him in the dark cold office. He breathed heavily, exhausted from lack of sleep for the past few days. "Where could they be?" he asked himself.

Elsewhere, the night air was cold and the winds were harsh. That was to be expected when you were this far north of Asia. Where, Shinji didn't know, but didn't care. He was in a lot of pain but he ignored it as he ran for his Eva, which was laying face down in the trees. He could hear the shouts of the farmers he had stollen the food from. He felt horrible for taking their apple pie, but he needed the food. And running on a full stomach sucked even more. Running, he thought. It seems to be the only thing I'm good at now. I can't save anyone or stop the one's I love from getting hurt. I've killed and injured my friends and they have all left me. He looked ahead as he saw the open plug in the back of Unit-01. All I have now is you, Eva...and mother. He jumped up on the arm and climbed his way up, the sound of the barking dogs getting closer and closer. Climbing inside the plug, he closed the hatch and waited for it sink into the back of Unit-01. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his connection. With the lack of LCL he had in the plug, it was a bit difficult, but soon the lights of his plug flashed their rainbow pattern then cleared to a view of the ground. With a sigh of relief, he took hold of the butterfly grips and raised his Eva off the ground. The hulking mass of Unit-01 rose to one knee, stopping to look over it shoulder at the small farmer's family that had chased him to this point. They all froze; the farmer and his two sons. He had a daughter that Shinji had to admit was kinda cute, but she wasn't with them.

With its eyes glowing, Unit-01 pushed off the ground and was gone in an instant, running at a speed most could never imagine. Shinji couldn't understand it. How was he getting this strong? Shouldn't his sync with Eva be down? Shouldn't it have completely gone to zero? He wasn't sure and he didn't care. What he cared the most was that his father was hurt. He smiled, imagining how mad his father must be right at that very moment. You don't deserve me or mother, father. Whatever mother saw in you is obviously gone, along with what ever memory I had of you even being a good man when I was only four.

Shinji watched on, watching through the darkness around him, his mind focused on nothing but moving his Eva as fast as its mighty legs could move. He wasn't good with making prodictions, but Shinji guessed he would be in Russia or Germany at the speed he was going in no time, so long as he didn't take a break. Why he was going there, he wasn't even sure. But as he thought of reaching Germany, a certain redheaded German girl came to mind. Unit-01 abrutly came to a stop, standing up right in the thick forest that surrounded it. In an instant, the area around Shinji completely changed in a blink of an eye. The shock caused him to stumble back slightly, then forward till he caught his balance and uprighted himself. He stood in a field of orange flowers, ones he had never seen before. He was even more startled when he caught a glimps of his body. No longer was he in his plug suit, but he had the body of his Eva, minus the shoulder pylons. He stared at the strong hands he had, his fingers curling into a fist and uncurling. He was only broken from his trance when a familiar voice came to him, and a warm feeling.

"Hello Shinji," Matoko said, her voice calm and happy.

Shinji turned and looked over his shoulder. He could see the top of Matoko's hair, her back pressed to his. She was wearing her school uniform, the same uniform she wore that same day they met and the day he..."But, how?"

"This place isn't real Shinji, but only in your heart." Shinji wanted to turn and face her, but he felt he had no right. Matoko felt this and smiled, letting a giggle slip. She turned around, her chest pressing to his back while her left arm reached around to his chest. Her hand lye on a single spot over his chest. She felt him shudder by her touch and smiled. "It doesn't hurt anymore, does it?"

Shinji knew what she meant. It was the same spot where Unit-02's Progressive Box Cutter had pierced his chestplate during the battle with Matoko. "No." She pressed her hand harder to his chest.

"What about this?"

Shinji's head lowered further, hischin barely touching his chest. He knew again what she meant. "A little."

"Do you know why you are here?"

Shinji looked off to the side, searching for the answer.

"Are you looking for forgiveness?" she asked, her smile never fading.

His head nodded slowly. "I...I guess...I mean, I would like to be forgiven..."

"By who?" she asked in almost a whisper to his ear.

When Shinji looked back to face her, she was gone. The field of orange flowers were gone and he no longer had the body of Unit-01, but his orriginal body with his plug suit. He still sat silently and alone on the Throne of Souls, his hands gripping the butterfly controls in front of him. "By who?" he repeated Matoko's last question. "Who do I ask for forgiveness, Matoko Nagisa?"

Ritsuko arched a brow as she looked up at Misato, who was sipping on a paper cup of coffee. "I can't believe you're actually drinking coffee in the morning." When she didn't get a responce from her college friend, Ritsuko sighed and turned to the computer. "Anyway, I've got some news. The US got their Unit-04 back." She could hear the sound of Misato spitting her coffee out at the news. "Even designated a pilot for us as well."

Misato rushed over and leaned over her friends left shoulder, staring at the computer in front of her. She watched the details of Unit-04 run slowly down the screen, even showing images of the once missing unit. "It looks like Unit-03, only silver and red."

"Same design, only it has a fully working S2 engine," Ritsuko said taking a sip of her coffee. "It just appeared out of the blue one day a week ago. We didn't get the knews until just recently."

"So they tested it already?" Misato asked, standing upright and folding her arms over her chest.

"Of course. They had already chosen a pilot for it long before the accident. She was called in for a test and then sent back home when it was over, just a week before the accident. When the scores showed how good a pilot she could be, they orriginally made her to be the Fifth till it "disappeared." Now she's the Sixth Child and she just happens to be of Japanese, American lineage so we don't have to worry about any language barriers."

"Really?"

"Mother was Japanese, father was an American. Cute little thing too," she said, letting her left hand run across the keyboard and brought up the pilots files. "Mana Kirishima, age 14 and born May 3, 2001. She was born in the United States and stayed there till she was eight years old when her mother and father had a divorce where she and her mother returned and lived in Tokyo-02. Mother died in a car accident while her daughter was at school four years later. With no other relatives she had to live with her father, who decided to move and live in Tokyo-02 so Mana wouldn't have to deal with the burden of moving again. Currently working for an electronics company that actually supplies us with some of our major components for our security." Ritsuko had managed to say all of this without even looking at the screen. Seeing that she had already memmorized all that information alone made Misato's eye twitch. With a sigh, Ritsuko rested her cup down on her desk and looked over at the clock. "How's Asuka doing?"

Misato's eyes narrowed. "Angry as usual. She's walking much better now since her recovery from the comma. One nurse had said something and Asuka nearly took her head off. Had one of the male nurses not been there Asuka would be in more trouble then she is already. She's still demanding to have some tests done so she can try and pilot again. I told her it wasn't my decision to make but I would see what I could do."

"You're not thinking of talking to the Commander, are you?" Ritsuko asked, looking at Misato from the corner of her eye.

"Of course not. No one's even seen the Commander since Unit-01 was stollen." Misato's eyes narrowed again as she looked at Ritsuko. "We all know why." Ritsuko almost seemed to shrink back from Misato, but kept her composure. "He's probably still in his office going over the information that Section-02 brings in about Unit-01's latest appearance." Misato took another sip of her coffee. "I honostly hope they never catch him."

"You know you can get into serious trouble if the wrong people heard you talk like that."

Misato sighed and crossed her arms. "At this point, I really don't care." She took in a deep sigh and looked at the clock. "So when does she arrive?" Misato paled when she saw Ritsuko grin at her.

Mana Kirishima stood patiently at the train station. Carrying only two suitcases full of clothing, and wearing the white sun-dress with matching hat, she waited patiently for her ride to her new home, even though she wasn't informed where she would be staying. See looked down at her wrist-watch, seeing she had arrived a good few minutes early, but she had hoped to be at her new home already. The weather in Tokyo-03 seemed to be much warmer then that of back home. Good thing she decided to wear her new dress for her debut.