WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE

And so the time has come, it's here
The silence ends, a change is near
You wait in the pallid, slivered sky
Come into the pantheon

Welcome to the universe
(This night)

If there's a past into the clear
We better take the pace
Erase this face
In constant search for everything

You wait in the pallid, slivered sky
Come into the pantheon

Welcome to the universe
A new day has begun

November 12th 2055, a cold winter's night, and Rei Ayanami found herself groggily stumbling out of a sleep. Looking at the alarm clock, her hopes dropped. It was three in the morning. As the blue-haired beauty sat up in bed the unfortunate realization that this would be the extent of her sleep this night fell heavily upon her. As Rei rested her forehead on alabaster knees, sitting silently for the better part of an hour, a perplexing dream began to come back in random flashes.

Asuka being torn limb from limb by living shadows, while Shinji loomed over her, laughing, and other horrid scenes strobe by at an ever quickening pace until they all became jumbled and incoherent. Getting out of bed, the cold floor sent chills up her spine and temporarily derailed her train of thought. The next thing the girl knew she was already sitting down at the desk in her study, not really sure how she got there. Rei pulled an old college notebook out of a messy pile of junk and absentmindedly began flipping through its pages as if it was some routine process. What was she looking for anyways? The answer escaped her. Tomorrow was the day of their annual get together… so why was she so nervous?

That night all of the former children had nightmares, the likes of which they could only recall from what seemed a lifetime ago. Kensuke's included images of Touji's body strung up on a wooden cross and burned alive as Gendo smiled menacingly in the background. Asuka dreamt of Rei seducing Shinji and forcing him to kill Misato and Kaji. Shinji relapsed into his old night terrors, consisting of a new series of angels while Kaworu returned to murder what remained of his friends.

-SCENE BREAK-

The following chilly winter morning Shinji Ikari stared up at the ceiling, he had been doing so for several minutes, silently contemplating. Moving his hands from behind a messy mop of snow white hair Shinji began to slowly massage his temples as he sat up in bed. 'It's been forty years since we defeated the Angels, so why now?' Just as the thought escaped, he finally felt an arm gently lying upon his lap. Glancing over, Shinji smiled at his companion. "Morning."

Asuka's arm slid off its resting place as Shinji turned his back to her to stand. Her eyes, once bright blue but now a bit dulled with age, fluttered open slowly. "It's really morning already, baka?"

Nodding, Shinji turned to face her. "You know what today is, right?"

Thinking for a moment, she grinned at her own cleverness. "Too damn cold?"

Rolling his eyes as he spoke Shinji replied,. "No you twit. It's the fortieth anniversary of our victory over the Angels." Asuka nodded and rolled away from him to face the wall.

"Wake me up when I care, alright?"

Shinji narrowed his eyes and reached out, pushing his companion out of the bed. Hitting the floor with a very loud thud she quickly leapt back up. Her once fiery red hair was now mainly gray with a few faint red streaks here and there, but her eyes were still as furious and piercing when angry as they were when she was fourteen. "You are a dead man!" yelled the irate woman as she leapt across the bed, trying to tackle her nighttime companion. To her dismay Shinji easily dodged the attack by turning to the side.

"Always predictable... and you wonder why I was the one who saved humanity." Asuka's crumpled form emitted a groan.

Asuka punched the top of his foot as she recovered, pulling herself from the floor and grumbling yet again. "Shut up Shinji... you got lucky." Rubbing the area where she smacked him, Shinji sat on his side of the bed and looked out the window.

"Hey... it looks like it's going to rain. Should we head to the train station to make sure everyone gets here alright?"

Moaning, Asuka climbed back into bed and threw her face into the pillows. "Arrgh..." Lifting her head only slightly the German replied, "They're grown ups now, Baka. I think they can find us just fine. Or is this just to make sure Rei is okay?"

Shinji found himself glaring back at her again. "She's family. I would appreciate it if for once you would treat her as such."

Asuka started laughing at the one-time savior of the human race, but as her laughter died down she smiled brightly. "Why so serious? Calm down, I know the drill baka."

Shinji grinned brightly. "Hey, you're the one still with Mr. Stupid."

The woman rolled her eyes with that smile still plastered on her lips. "Yeah, I cry myself to sleep every night because of that."

Forcing himself to stand, the man went over to his closet and began putting on a pair of pants he had grabbed. "You know what? Shut up... I'm going to make sure they ALL get here just fine."

As Shinji began shifting through his chest of drawers looking for a shirt he was suddenly hit smack in the back of his head by a shoe. "God dammit!" he yelled as he grit his teeth.

The minx grinned as she put on her shirt, "You're going to need those if we're going to see them in this weather."

Sighing, Shinji tried hard to let that slide. "You still make no sense to me and we've known each other for forty years."

The blue-eyed femme fatale just smirked and shrugged. "I guess you're just really slow then." In response the man could do nothing but grumble in disdain and continue getting dressed, realizing after all these years, it's best to shut up and let her win.

After their morning argument, the wonderfully put-together couple headed off to the train station to meet up with the remaining members of their high school group of friends.

"I wonder if Rei has put down her lectures and text books long enough to find a man?" Asuka wondered aloud. Shinji, focused on driving, decided to throw in his two cents.

"I don't think she ever will; she's far too introverted, even after all this time." The woman beside him smirked and took a moment to poke fun at him.

"You just don't want to imagine anyone having sex with Rei because she's basically your mom." Shinji shuddered and glanced at Asuka quickly before returning his sight to the road.

"You know, sometimes I think it would have been better if you stayed quiet and mind fucked. It Would have made my life a lot more peaceful." The man stayed straight faced, his voice lacking any real emotion.

Asuka laughed and nodded, a bit proud of her work. "Touché! Good comeback, baka. Maybe I've finally started rubbing off on you!"

The man sighed as he imagined a witty comeback about rubbing off onto her but wisely kept it to himself. They finally pulled into the train station parking lot a few minutes later. "Alright... let's get out and wait."

Asuka sighed and decided not to argue the matter because it wouldn't work; she knew she'd just end up in the car alone. "Fine, give me a second to find my mittens." As the woman began sifting through the glove compartment for her mittens there was a loud knock on her window.

Not expecting any sort of noise, Asuka jumped, smacking her head into the top of the car. Shinji grinned and opened his door in welcome. "Kensuke! How the hell are you man?" He strolled around the front of the car to embrace his old friend with a smile.

"I'm fine Shinji. It's nice to see at least one of you are happy to see me."

At his comment, the scowling woman slowly opened her door and mumbled to herself, "You're still an ass Kensuke..." Pausing, she took a deep breath and watched it puff out in the cold air. So where's Hikari?" As soon as the words escaped her lips a pair of arms came around her waist from behind, and she was quickly embraced by her pigtailed companion.

"How are the kids?" The newcomer asked, love and happiness swelling in her voice. As Asuka spun around and genuinely returned the embrace, she gave Hikari the once over before speaking.

"Mine are fine. The twins are in college and Adel is a junior in high school. What about you?"

Hikari smiled widely, her pride all too apparent. "Well, Touji just graduated college and is looking to be a teacher. He's aiming for high school. Cross our fingers, ya know?"

Shinji smiled. "It still brings a smile to my face that you guys named him Touji."

Nodding, the other man replied, "Yeah... we both miss him a lot man. Hell, I've even been having dreams about back in the day as of late. I guess old age is getting the best of us." Hikari moved to his side as he finished speaking and wrapped her right arm around his lower back.

Shinji's eyes widened as Ken spoke. "Yeah, so have I. That's so weird!"

Before they could continue, Rei walked down the station steps into the parking lot and caught sight of the one group of people she could truly call friends. "There's an explanation for all of that you know, right Kensuke?" At the sound of his name he turned to see the woman and spoke first.

"How is it that you always end up behind people? I swear sometimes that your ancestors were ninjas or something." His statement garnered a laugh out of Shinji and Hikari, a small smirk from Rei and a snort from Asuka.

"It always surprises me how little you change, ya know that?" Spoke his wife as Rei merged with the group.

Rei's hair was as blue as ever, not a single wrinkle on her face, as if she was ageless; however, if one knew her well enough you could see the truth in her eyes. The weight of time had taken its toll on her, just not by the usual channels.

"You must drive your coworkers crazy," Kensuke continued, "though for different reasons of course." The man gave her a lopsided grin and got jabbed in the ribs for it by his wife. The blue-haired woman smiled in return, and as always her words were seemingly well thought out in advance.

"You know I don't care for affectionate interaction... especially with my fellow biologists. My research is more important to me than physical pleasures."

Shinji grinned and replied with humor in his voice. "Did I hear correctly? Ayanami is looking for more awards?"

As she glanced at Shinji, the crimson-eyed woman smiled warmly. "Hello Shinji... and no, the fame is nothing I care about."

Asuka ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "You're so damn boring Rei."

To which Rei laughed. "Maybe, but at least I know what's going on Ms. Shoryu."

The group spared Rei a confused look as Hikari broke the silence. "What's wrong? Is it one of those weird Angel things that's telling you what's going on?"

"Perhaps," replied Rei, pausing for a moment before continuing. "Needless to say, certain events have been set in motion."

Shinji, always the paranoid individual, was quickest to inquire, the fear clear in his voice. "What? Are they going to attack us again? Send more Angels?"

Kensuke spared Shinji a skeptical look before he replied jokingly, "Now who's the paranoid one?"

Rei shook her head as the conversation had quickly spiraled from pleasantries into the deep well that was the groups collective disorders, yet before she could respond a lightning strike was seen off in the distance. Hikari looked startled, searching the sky. "What was that?"

Kensuke looked over at her like she was crazy saying, "It's just lightning, honey. Calm down. Jeeze, is everyone high or something? You're all leaping at shadows." He was well acquainted with his wife's acquired ticks and didn't want it to make today any worse than it already was so he left the topic at that.

Before they continued this increasingly awkward discussion Shinji decided to aim them in their usual direction by gently herding the group with gentle touches. "I think it's time we head over to the graveyard to pay our respects." Hikari looked at Shinji and suppressed the instinct to swat his hand away as her old class rep mode reasserted itself.

"How can you be so calm?"

'Always the worrier' Shinji thought to himself as he laughed, "Think about what we lived through…this is nothing compared to instrumentality and the Angels"

The woman shrugged and the battle was conceded as Kensuke grinned. "Alright. Well you win that argument Shinji. Let's go visit everyone."

So with that the group walked from the train station towards a quaint makeshift graveyard that sat on the far side of a hill seated to the long-abandoned stations right side.

As they walked Rei began trying to explain her visions, pulling everyone back into the old conversation. "The dreams have to mean something."

Kensuke smirked, "Most of our dreams involve dead people… so how could that be a premonition?"

Rei sighed heavily, unsure of her own thoughts, "I really don't know. I can only assume that due to the fact that we basically usurped a self-proclaimed God's grand design, that there's more to this."

Shinji glanced at Rei and smiled as he took her hand. "Don't worry Rei; everything is fine. We went through a lot as kids. Our psyche is probably just dealing with all that crap." Bringing his concentration back to the trip, Shinji noticed that Asuka had separated from them slightly, walking much faster than the rest. He wasn't surprised by it though; even when amongst her family she separated herself.

A few minutes later they silently approached the first stop on that day's trip, the resting place of the only woman that Shinji ever got to call mom. Asuka, having arrived first, looked down at the ground and stopped as she came upon a familiar site, a neural clip, but it was lying on top of Misato's tombstone. As she leaned over and picked it up, the woman marveled slightly at its superb condition considering its age. She began rubbing her thumb over its contoured red surface and turned back to the group as they brought up the rear. "Hey guys, I never put one of my neural clips on Misato's headstone, so how did this get here? What's going on?"

Before anyone could react another bolt of lightning came down from the clear sky and enveloped the group.

When Shinji opened his eyes his brain nearly shut down. He was standing on a train platform with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. "Where is everyone?" The boy said as he frantically scanned the area, almost instantly realizing his voice was different. As he dropped the bag and began staring blankly at the sight of his petite hands everything began to spiral out of control. Just then Misato came to a screeching halt, and sticking her head out the window of her old Alpine Renault, she yelled at his back.

"Hey you're Shinji Ikari right?" Getting no response from the stunned youth she continued on. "Get in the car. We need to get you to NERV, now." Shinji slowly, almost mechanically, turned around to see the figure of the beautiful twenty-something Misato Katsuragi waving frantically to him from the car. It was then that he began to realize he was back at the beginning of it all. The only words he could muster were a whisper, "What the fuck?"

Ok this is the first chapter part two, only very minor changes on this one, fixed a bit of grammar, a name and a few other small things. I'm sure I still missed some stuff. I'm bad with switching tenses, I know. But it's better than what I had, at least I think so.

Welcome to the Universe belongs to 30 Seconds to Mars, their label and all respective copyright owners, I don't own shit.