What a trip this chapter was to make!

I had this first chapter all written out and then it was lost! I was torn and crushed and felt like I couldn't do it again, but I tried my best to remember it and improve on it...A bit short, but it's a prologue. :)

I know what you're saying, "THE EVINCAR! You have like eight fanfics to update, you bastard, and you're making a new one! What the hell?"

And you're totally justified, I can't help it, I just love making new stories. :) Don't worry though, this marks my return, I will update my other stories soon and try to keep good updates for Memento Mori.

As for this fanfic, it's an Evangelion crossover with another anime, which I won't name just right now, though you'll know it when you see it. Just want to say that you don't need to have seen the other anime or anything, it'll all develop as it goes. I do consider myself the master of Evangelion crossover, after all, if you've read my fanfic NGE: Madness. Heh.

By the way, the chapters are named after certain poems I've written...and at the end of each chapter instead of an omake or something, I have the poem...Most of them fit with the mood of darkness in Evangelion, though not necessarily Evangelion-linked.

Well, let's get this started!

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or its characters. Gainax does, and they rock. Who else could create both Evangelion and FLCL!


The Year 2022

Tokyo 3, Japan


A goodbye kiss on the cheek and that freckled face recedes.

I sigh. Hikari Horaki is still just as beautiful as usual, more beautiful having developed beyond that gangly-armed shy class representative who showered me with hidden love.

She smiles and my heart beams, illuminated.

"Goodbye Touji."

I nod with a lopsided grin, turning around and adjusting my tie as we both stare at my reflection in the mirror.

"Be in time for dinner honey…"

She knows I'd never miss her home cooking.

But I know that glance holds more than just kind caring, devotion, and a hint of worry.

Because today is visitation day.

Little Kaworu hops after me and searches the back of my pants with his adorable blue eyes as I step out the door, but Horaki holds him back with a sad shake of her head.

Smart little boy, always was. He knows where I'm going.

To see his father.


The nurse greets me with the harsh familiarity that one would use for a stray cat that stops by one's house every few weeks for a saucer of milk then flits away into the sunrise.

She leads me closer to him, speaking her regulation mantra as always.

"No sharp objects, no…"

Yeah, yeah, I know it all already. I can't even count how many times I've been here, how many times I've contemplated the same thing.

Nothing that he can use to hurt himself or hurt others.

Yeah, nothing he can use to hurt himself, or free himself?

I stroll into the room, the nurse glancing in annoyance at my lit cigarette.

"Mr. Ikari has been incooperative as of late, Mr. Suzuhara…He hasn't been eating."

Yeah, yeah, like I need the nurse to point that little fun fact out.

I can see it in Shinji's arching ribs against his pale skin in his still position in the padded corner, arching like so many parts of a bridge.

But a bridge to where Shinji?

What're you trying to get?

Who're you trying to get back? Her?

I stare at him, slowing gaining the courage to speak.

"Back again Shinji…Where're you this time? I like to think you have some peace of mind inside your head…Maybe…she's there? Look Shinji…I know…I remember…But…We've been waiting for you…Hikari, Kensuke, Misato, Rei, all of us. Hell I bet even that bastard father of yours in prison misses your grudging visits…"

I pause, putting out my cigarette and gritting my teeth in exasperation. I move in closer, peering at those cerulean eyes that now seem so empty, but I can see some of that deceptive deepness still alive. Chicks dig the troubled type…

"Well…maybe not that. But…I'll keep coming until you come back from where you've gone, Shinji."

Shinji Ikari gasped, taking in deep hollow breathes as he struggled in his friend's grasp, shouting incoherently, his young maturing face tattered with sweat.

"You're…too young for this Shinji…We were all too young for it…We all…miss her…"

"ASUKA! My god…my god…my god…I saw her! I saw her!"

Touji stared in concern at his friend's desperate face, shaking his head and speaking in a conciliatory yet loud tone.

"Shinji…she's gone…You saw her…She wouldn't want you to be like this! Not after! Not with Kaworu to think about."

He shook his head, not acknowledging his friend's voice as his face suddenly darkened, Shinji Ikari glancing up with a sort of resolute madness at his long-time friend, Touji Suzuhara.

"No…I saw her! Dead? Hah!"

He laughed, a psychotic, high-pitched tone of hopelessness.

"Hah! I saw them…they took her! TOOK HER! TOOK HER! TOOK HER! TOOK HER! TOOK HER! TOOK HER! ASUKA! ASUKAAA!"

"That day…I know I can't ever understand how hard you took it…It broke you…you got worse and worse with her gone…You just couldn't come to terms with it."

I sigh, shaking my head.

"I know how much she meant to you…she meant a lot to all of us, but we love you, you know that Shinji? Misato's gotten worse, she's a mess…and Rei's even more withdrawn if such a thing's possible! Don't worry about Kaworu, he's just waiting for his father to come back…and his moth…I…"

"She said yes Touji! She said yes!"

Shinji Ikari beamed with a gallant smile, something Touji Suzuhara was quite sure he'd never seen splayed on the nineteen year old's face in their many years of friendship.

"Eh? Really! Shinji you old devil! Were there any conditions? Like 'YOU MUST GIVE ME YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL, BAKA HENTAI!'"

Shinji chuckled in good humor, shaking his head in playful disapproval.

"Aww come on Touji, you know Asuka's changed since those 'Red-Headed Demon' days, since…the Impact…"

"But…we'll be waiting for you Shinji, old pal…Just…come back to us…"

I sigh, rising and turning to that bitch nurse.

"I'm done, miss."


Touji Suzuhara stepped out of the cold unfeeling sanitarium, slowly putting on his jacket and breathing out against the chill of the fall wind.

A musing thought bounced in his head as he strolled to his car.

Why hadn't the others shown?

Inside his padded, gray enclosure, Shinji's cerulean eyes flitted up to the padded cell that enclosed him, both figuratively and literally, speaking two quiet words.

"Unfamiliar…ceiling."

All the years that Shinji Ikari had tried to escape from in the madness, all those memories, of her, of what happened, they finally caught him in this deranged marathon called life.

He let out an unearthly scream, something surging in his body as he felt nothing but her. HER! HER! Her essence, her smell, her smile, her laugh, her eyes, her face, her touch, her clothes, her legs, her voice, her heart, her soul! HER!

"Asuka..."

He screamed.

And in the distance, in the shadows and winding modern catacombs of Tokyo, the 19th Messenger listened.


Breakdown

Insanity is no excuse for the breakdown

Chaos is not glamorous

Letting the demons within have you without,

Without stall,

To torment your soul until the Fall

Furies of the mind, they do grin

To revel in this madness, and in my sin.

To rip you apart, piece by piece

As you moan and let out a sobbing groan

The truth does not allow the pain to cease.

You're alone, and believe me, you'll die alone.

Copyright Sanbud Tehrani


Like I said, this is sort of an initial opener chapter, so don't be disappointed if it seemed short, my usual updates are much bigger.

Anyway, as usual with most of my fanfics, I have the plot mapped out already for dozens of chapters. Hope you enjoy it.

Now get out there and read my other major fanfics, Neon Genesis Evangelion: Madness, End of Evangelion: Darkness, and Shinji's Stronghold (To name a few)!