Excerpt fromIkari, Shinji, I Cannot Run Away (Beijing, PRC: Solidarity International Publishing, 2017, 2021, 2037)

It was our last day in Tokyo III. All our bags were packed and the only noise in the entire apartment was the sobbing of our guardian. It was tough on everyone I think. Everybody kept repeating this same joke about how, "Oh, with you guys moving away, it's like the world is ending."

I never laughed, no matter how many times I heard it. She didn't either. Regardless of what we had just fought through, we often said it ourselves, this was the end of something. Putting a close on what we thought was the biggest chapter of our lives, we decided to leave this place. Leave the closest thing to a home we ever had.

It wasn't all tears though. Our rooms had become packed to the ceiling with all manner of military decorations, civilian honors, and public gifts. The living room wasn't spared either, with Misato and Kaji having recently acquired a similar horde of medals and ribbons, it became the messiest place in the house. We literally couldn't live here anymore.

With Misato expecting and with Kaji moving in, it was clear that things needed to change. Asuka was the first to pitch the idea of moving out. Our first choice was to rent out one of the other apartments in the same block. We could finally have some privacy and moving all our stuff would be as easy as walking down the hallway.

However, we had both felt somewhat empty after the conclusion of The Angel Wars. We had both come to Tokyo III for one purpose: piloting the evangelions. Without angels to fight, pilots like us weren't needed anymore. Our lives here had lost their original purpose and we had nothing to replace it with.

I accepted that it was over pretty quickly. With all the angels dead and with all but one member of Seele behind bars, I was perfectly content with walking away from it all. Asuka on the other hand had a harder time of it. Being a pilot was her life. In her mind, piloting an Eva was her single most defining aspect. Finding out the truth about Project E, Seele, and the Human Instrumentality Project poisoned all of that for her. She wasn't an ace pilot but rather, "A stooge for a bunch of old losers leading me around with a carrot on a stick."

We both realised that we never had any real control over our lives. Everything we had ever done was carefully planned and orchestrated by invisible hands spinning webs of fate in the dark. We wanted a clean break, to be able to live our own lives and make our own mistakes.

About a week previously, we were sitting together enjoying some time outside of the apartment. Tokyo III's city center had been ravaged by the war and the Magi decided to turn much of the ruined landscape into a massive central park with the city to rebuild itself around it. Rei had chosen to join us and we found ourselves enjoying a cheap lunch along the side of a pond. Flicking crumbs to the pigeons, we found ourselves wondering just what to do with our lives now that we could do anything with them.

Rei wished to see the world, having lived most of her life within this city. Asuka and I figured that some sojourning in a foreign land would at least give us an idea of what to do next. Paris won out after an intense debate. Seeing the sights and enjoying the food, Asuka was quite enamored with the idea. To this day I wonder how my life would have turned out had I not said the next sentence. It went something like, "Hey, if you love the place so much, why are you still living here?"

I suppose it was fate. Asuka found herself unable to answer. Sure enough, when we bought our tickets we knew it was a one way trip. All it took was one phone call and the EU found us a lovely flat only a couple blocks away from the Louvre.

Misato took the news well I suppose. She must have cried for five hours straight. Kaji was just happy to see us doing something of our own initiative. Our friends were supportive. Rei, however, chose to stay in Tokyo III after we concluded our sightseeing in Paris.

I remember Asuka and I at the airport. We had said our goodbyes and given out all our hugs. Rei had gone to the bathroom. It was just Asuka and I staring through the window onto the tarmac. Our plane was to begin boarding in about thirty minutes. I could tell she was tense. I grabbed her hand.

We stood there for a while just staring out the window. The planes took off, they landed. They had their place in the world and here two teenagers were desperately searching for theirs. She looked to me and said,

"It's over now. There's no going back. Neither one of us is ever going to step back into an Eva."

I gave her a kiss. Not a romantic one or a sloppy one, but one that only a terrified 15 year old can give. I tried my best to give her the reply she needed,

"We don't have to be hurt anymore. Our lives are ours now. We'll never have to pilot again. Now we can live."

I'll never forget those words. Perhaps it's because of the smile she gave me after I said them. Perhaps it's from the sense of purpose those words gave me. Or maybe because they are the single most incorrect statement I've ever made. When I think back to that day and remember those words, all I can do is laugh.

-=Next Generation Evangelion=-

Some idiot's Notes: Seems like everybody has to include an explanation for just what the hell they're thinking when they're writing a fanfic. For the record, I'm just trying to brush up on my writing skills and hopefully learn the craft to a respectable degree.

No, this story isn't being told entirely through first person monologue. This story is going to be told in 3rd person the way God intended. That being said, I am going to stick "addendums" at the end of chapters. They'll take the form of newspaper articles, book excerpts, perhaps even propaganda reels if I get bored enough. These are going to, hopefully, flesh out the world I'm trying to build here.

One thing I've noticed about Eva fics is that they tend to fall into the same categories. You tend to have the Eva fix fic where (Shinji time travels/ is visited by the ghost of Elvis Presley/ is given Thor's Hammer) and proceeds to (single handedly defeat Seele through atomic wedgies/ with the help of the people around him make a meaningful change in his existence/ try to mate with as many characters as possible in an attempt to create the greatest episode of Maury ever) and then ends with him getting (the girl/ the other girl/ the angel/ at least some form of closure).

There's nothing wrong with these types of stories, but there's so many of them that if you printed all of them you could build a paper mache bridge all the way to the moon.

So what I've tried to do is create a fic where the fix already happened. The heroes won at the end of the series! Hooray!

Sadly, history ends for no one and Eva pilots are no exception. The world keeps spinning and evil never truly goes away. God help these characters. I'm about to put them through hell and then send their kids to Lucifer's gulag to mine for hell bears. Angry hell bears.

Also, do me a favor and make sure that when you press that review button… Savage me. Rip this story limb from limb. No grammar error is too small. No misspelling too passable. No plot hole too shallow. Honest criticism is the best type of criticism. I'm here to learn after all.

The real first chapter is on its way. Hopefully it'll be up by the end of the week. And if I'm lucky maybe I'll finish this story just as Rebuild 4 (3.0 + 1.0 = dumb title) comes out on DVD here in the states.

Alright, I'll shut up.