well, this's kinda my first attempt at fanfiction'ing in non-native language, so, please, don't be too much hostile to me for my spelling and/or other mistakes in the text. but comments and fires as long as they have any reasonable substantiations are welcome!

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summary: Rei was a bit slower, while retrieving for Lance of Longinues and comming back to the battlefield... so, how much can these minutes change sequence of events in the future? can there be someone to help Asuka with her loneliness? and who they will be? kinda hard to explaing in just two or three words, what the pairing will be, but, for now, let's say like this: (Asuka + Arael)/Shinji & some of Shinji/Rei maybe... There will be mix of anime & manga storylines.

so, enough of that rubbish, let's start!!!

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Title: Angels help - Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfic.
Author: NHunter aka N.H.
Genre: Romance/General (I really suck with this part)
Rating: T = R
Characters: nearly everyone
Pairings: (Asuka + Arael)/Shinji as main one. possibly, there'll be some of Shinji/Rei
Warnings: SOME SPOILERS!
Disclaimer: don't own "Evangelion"... just don't own it.

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normal text
"speech"
'thought/speech while at mindscape'
""speech through communication system""

if in bold -- character is shouting.

Angels help
chapter 1: Deal

Very bright white beam pierced heavy gray clouds and was going to hit its target, but blue hexagon of Angel's AT field appeared on its way. And AT field was strong enough to reflect this deadly beam of positron rifle shot.

""Pilot Ayanami, you are to head for the Terminal Dogma to retrieve the Lance."" Small communication window from the command center popped up inside Eva-00 entry plug.

"Yes, commander." In soft but emotionless voice First Child responded and without any questions motioned her blue cyclop Eva to the nearest launch tunnel.

***

"Was that wise, Gendo? SEELE will certainly be mad, when they find out that we used Lance of Longinius before the time it was planned" Fuyutsuki asked commander, who was standing beside him at the top level of command center. Commander was quiet for some seconds before answering - he was watching status reports coming from attacked by Angel Eva-02.

"Our main purpose is to defeat Angels. Those old fart can only yell at us as long as we do our work, my old friend. But we have to modify our own plans due to the usage of Lance in this battle"

"As you say... As you say..."

***

Arael was walking through memories of Unit-02 pilot, the first lilim she could study. Yes, her prime mission was retrieving Adam, but she could not miss such a chance - see something she never saw, feel something never felt! So she was walking through memories of one human. Lilim girl, just around her own age. This fact made her even more curious about lilim's soul. These memories were not pleasant from the beginning.

That girl fell victim to such awful circumstances... She was abandoned by the two most precious people of hers. She saw her own mother dead, hanging on the rope... And more this girl knew, that her mother wanted her to die too... If curiosity of exploring other's mind hadn't been driving her, Arael probably would stop torturing that girl with her memories... They should be really painful.

Then there was emotional emptiness... Even if Arael herself was a warrior with only one purpose in her life, she hated not having emotions... They, as she thought, were essential part of any living being... Almost eventless years of constant trainings and studyings that girl survived flew in front of Arael's eyes.

And here she was. On the deck of giant ship. In front there were four more figures. Woman in late twenties with dark purple hair and three boys... One of them was exploring the ship with small camera, other one was running towards her in attempt to catch his hat... And third... Just standing there, and yet, he was radiating strange aura of comfort... Comfort... Something, that Arael liked very much... As her mindwalking continued, Arael learned, that this boy was the Third Child, the one, who already had killed three of her brothers and sisters... And still, there was something that attracted to him...

Arael watched, as her victim shared living space with Third Child... And she liked these memories of other being... The feelings, that lilim girl tried to push to the dark corner of her soul... These feeling towards the boy were something sweet and pleasant... Something that Arael never experienced first person, but already wanted to badly.

Events still floating in front of her eyes and she found herself in some kind of hangar, where purple colossus with strange machines attached to it stood. With her angelic senses, Arael could feel small part of Lilith inside that colossus... And two complementation lilim souls in it too... Arael experienced girl's nervousness, as she watched attempt to retrive that boy from Lilith clone. And when that attempt failed, there was despair, also pushed to that dark corner... But than, that boy somehow appeared and joy aroused in girl's mind... Just to be hidden as despair minute ago...

Putting parts of puzzle together, Arael found unknown feeling towards that boy, that her victim had. The same sweet and pleasant feeling that first appeared at their meeting, but there it was much stronger and much deeper. It was something, that seemed to bring joy and happiness to life. Something that made things look better. Something that flooded heart with sensation of being complete... Arael liked it! She wanted to experience it more! She wanted to learn it!
'I need to ask her about this...'

***

Asuka felt like her brain was slowly and painfully torn apart as her life flew in front of her eyes. She screamed, she cried, she prayed, but nothing, nothing helped her... And than... Everything went away... Some seconds later she found herself standing on invisible platform, hovering somewhere above Earth's atmosphere... The scenery was calming and pleasant after what she had jut survived... Sun was slowly appearing from behidn the planet... It was really beautiful.

'Hello lilim' Asuka turned and saw another girl, which she hadn't noticed before, standing near her. She was about the same age, maybe a bit a older. Girl had gold colored eyes, which seemed to look straight into the soul, long silver-white with the tint of blue hair, one curl of which almost covered girl's right eye. Girl had pale skin, which made her look like she was a ghost. She had only short pale-blue sundress over her pretty nice, even gorgeous forms, that almost made Asuka jealous.

'Lilim?' Asuka still was in shock, so this was the only response she could manage to give.

'You, child of Lilith'

'Me? I'm Asuka Langley Soryu! And who the hell you are'

'Arael...' Second child remembered briefing before her last fight, and the fifteenth Angel was named exactly with this name, so she charged towards the girl in attempt to kill her, but one moment later Asuka found herself in Arael's clinch.

'You... Angel!..' redhead roared, trying to free herself. With no results.

'Angel? So this is how you name us, children of Adam'

'Why... Do... You... Try... To... Destroy... Our... World?..' Asuka still was trying to free herself.

'Trying to destroy your world? Who said that? We are just trying to rescue our Father from YOUR capture.' Second child was shocked. She never though about Angels other than they were mindless berserkers trying to kill every human on Earth... 'But for me that doesn't matter now. I wanted to ask you a question...' Asuka was caught off guard.

'...Yes?' Arael let Asuka free from her clinch.

'What is that feeling you have for that boy? That pleasant and sweet feeling of complementation of your soul... What is that?' Images of Shinji flashed through Asukas mind.

'What makes you, Angel-girl, think that I have any feelings for that baka'

'I'm Arael!!! As for your question... I just read your soul... What was that feeling'

'Pleasant and sweet... Something that makes you feel complete... That should be love... But I DO NOT LOVE THAT BAKA!!!'

'But your soul says different things... Anyway... I want to learn, how is it, to be in love'

'And you want me to help you with that?! After what you have just done to me'

'Actually I wanted to offer you a deal. You wanted to be the best, didn't you? I could give you my powers for that, but instead I wanted to be with you, experiencing love...' Arael made supplicating face.

'And if I say 'no'?'

'Than I'd just kill you and take over your body'

'So really I don't have a choice if I want to live?' Arael nodded.

'So what is your answer'

'Yes, of course! I will not die like that'

'Than... Deal?' Arael lifted her right hand to shake hands.

'One more thing'

'Yes?' Angel questioningly lifted her eyebrow.

'Can you seal away my memories from the first years of my life. They are too painful for me. And YOU made this pain much worse'

'Hmm... I've never tried that, by i think, i can do that. So, Deal?'

'...Deal.' Asuka slowly and indecisively followed her move, until their hand met.

***

Command center crew watched as blue colossus with giant bordeaux lance in its hands rose from the launch shaft.

"OK, Rei, Earth rotation correction 0.0029, gravity correction 0.105. Targets heigth 103.37 kilometers, constant. Target locked." Load of data were sent to Rei and Eva-00. This was their only chance to kill Angel and save Asuka from mental assault, so any miss was intolerable.

""Roger that."" Came the answer from First Child.

"Counting down. -10 seconds... -9... -8... -7... -6... -5... -3... -2... -1... FIRE!" Much alike athlete, Evangelion Unit 00 threw lance to the dark gray skies, to Angel, floating somewhere above Earth's atmosphere. With unimaginable speed lance pierced clouds, leaving big circular window of clear sky over Tokio-3, and flew towards its target. Even big blue hexagon of AT field was just like a sheet of paper to this lance... Angel's bird like shiny body exploded into billions of instantly freezing drops of LCL... In a flash of white, beam from Angel to Eva-02 disappeared. No one saw that this happed microseconds before Lance of Longinius reached Angel... "MAGI confirm target destruction. OK, Rei, now bring Unit 02 to EVA bay"

""Hai."" Blue cyclop motioned towards red Eva-02, now powerlessly lying on the ground.

"Akagi-san, how is Asuka?" Shinji stepped forward.

"She is lucky. If we were even ten seconds later, she could be dead..." Third child sighed with relief.

***

Asuka ones again found herself floating high above the Earth on that strange invisible platform. Arael appeared there second later.

'So, Asuka-kun, you wanted me to work with your memories?' Second Child nodded. 'OK, let's start than.' Arael disappeared from the sight just to be found behind the Asuka moment later. 'Here we go.' Asuka felt other girl's over her head. Then weak white light surrounded them. Minutes passed, but Arael still was working... If not that indescribable, unpleasant feeling, flashing forward and backward through her head, Asuka for sure would start dozing... 'Looks like i'm finished there.' Moment later Second Child was fully conscious again.

'Hmm...' Asuka tried to recall from her memory that day when she found her own mother hanging on the rope, but instead of bright images as they were in the past, there was only gray fog, almost completely covering her memories... 'Ja. Really... Hey, Angel-girl, you know about my past, wouldn't it be fare if i knew yours'

'I Am Arael!!!' Angel took deep breath to calm down. '...Hm... As we are together now, that should be fare... You want me to show you my past?' Redhead nodded.

'OK than.' Arael placed her hand back to Asuka's head...

It was dark room that Asuka associated with some strange hybrid of lab and prison cell. Concrete walls, concrete ceiling with two rows of dim lamps, concrete floor, heavy door, pitiful toilet and sink with the excuses of tooth paste and soap on it, and small crudely made wardrobe. No windows, no TV, no mirror, even no books... There was plank bed attached to the wall opposite to the door. Eleven-or-so years old Arael was sleeping on that bed. Atleast until that door was rudely opened by giant mountain of muscles in some kind of dark blue uniform. That Angel went inside and threw Arael off her bed.

"Time to wake up!" With no more word he left the cell, closing the door. Now Asuka could see Arael better. Skinny pale girl with bruises all over her body and big shadows under her eyes. She wore old somewhere torn pijama-like clothes. Girl did her morning routines and dressed into better looking training suit.
Arael entered mess. There were thirteen more boys and girls of her age, but there were looking much better, as if they were beloved children there... No one greeted

Arael. No one even looked at her... She sat at her place. In front of a plate with white bricket of food. Just food - no taste, no smell, just something to eat... On the other hand, other thirteen had more or less normal food...

Then there was training... Arael was forced to use her mind techniques on those who did nothing bad to her, and when she refused or "trainer" thought she went easy, she was beaten violently... And that continued for hours. Till either it was dinner time or Arael passed out from beatings...

'STOP!!!' Even after the hell of her own life, Asuka found that she could not watch this awful life. Even if it was life of someone who was supposed to be her enemy...

'That... That was your normal day?' Arael nodded. 'Why they were treating you like that?'

'They said that I was weak... I just couldn't... bring... myself... to attack...' Angelic girl started sobbing 'To harm... my... sensei... or my... brothers... and... sisters... They... were... trying... to motivate... me to fight... harder... more violently... But they... failed... I even... couldn't... harm you... my enemy... after what... I saw... in your... soul... If not... my powers... I'd be... dead... years... ago... I'm just... not the... warrior... they... wanted... me to be...' Arael fell on her knees crying... Asuka was stunned. Fifteenth Angel, who was supposed to be one of the strongest of all, almost ultimate war machine, was crying in front of here, claiming that she was weak... And Asuka found that she needed to comfort Arael... Just had to.

'Listen, you are not weak... Yes, you are too kind to be a warrior, but you're not weak.' Arael rose her shocked gaze to Asuka. 'You survived that hell and you're still sane. Is that a weakness? You found strength to overcome hate between us. Is that a weakness too? No'

'T... Thanks...' Arael said in shaky voice, wiping tears from her face. But tears didn't want to stop... Asuka sat in front of her and placed hand on Angels shoulder, comforting her.

'It's OK, you should let it out...' Only after a long time Arael calmed down... Rare sobs were still there, but she felt much better... She stood up looked at Asuka with her now reddened eyes.

'It was a long day for both of us. We... should rest now...'

***

A/N: that was only first chapter... R&R, please!

chapter one, edited version... 20 july 2009