"If you don't get close to others, you won't be betrayed, and you won't hurt each other.
However, neither will you forget what loneliness is. Man can never make loneliness disappear
because man is alone, but man can forget. So man can find the will to live."
Kaworu Nagisa

"I am formed by my interactions with others.
They create me as I create them."
Rei Ayanami

Free Will
A Neon Genesis: Evangelion Story.

Chapter 1: The beginning, all over again.

Tabris

I'll be the first to say it: the End of the World wasn't nearly as final as one would expect. I was there, of course. I helped make it happen, when even she – my counterpart, almost a sister of sorts – couldn't do it alone. Of course, I had the advantage of knowing mankind's destroyer. I had the advantage of having loved him, gained his trust… but that's all old news now. They finally pushed him past the limit, made him lash out in blind anger… and we were all gone. I remember smiling down at his father, watching the bastard slip away from this world as reality crumbled around me.

Do you know what the apocalypse sounds like? Let me tell you. It is nothing short of a symphony. Ironic that man's unmaking could be so beautiful, but then… it's not even a patch on how amazing his rebirth would be. You see, the 'end' was really only the beginning, as paradoxical and cliché as that may sound. When the boy I loved, Shinji Ikari, ripped this world apart, the minds of all those he knew came to touch his own, and from their thoughts he gained an understanding of life and an acceptance of himself. He chose life. Not just for himself, but for the whole of his race.

That's where this becomes my story again. You see, I was born to be an Angel. Yes, the Angel of Free Will. In the old world, that made me a messenger of destruction… but that was before Shinji took the divine gift of En Soph and transformed the world into a new place of hope and promise. Having quite literally become Deus ex Machina, Shinji was finally free to live in a world of his own making. He could have made it an ideal, perfect place… but instead he restored things to the way they were. He gave everyone another chance, even his damned father. The one difference… is that we Angels were no longer man's antithesis. Indeed, many of us don't exist anymore at all. However, for those who tread this world again, things may never be the same.

Whatever happens, I can finally stretch my wings again.

God bless you, Shinji.

Welcome home.

"Why this?"

"What?"

"You could have created anything, any new world… why this one, Shinji? What made you decide to leave everything… as it was?"

"Oh. Well, I guess I just thought this world deserved another chance. It's… not such a bad place, after all." Shinji Ikari smiled, turning to look at her.

Misato Katsuragi felt her self smiling back before she even thought about it, and impulsively leaned over to give the teenager a hug. For once, he didn't pull away. She asked, "Do you think anyone else will remember?"

"Probably not. Maybe Asuka, or Rei… but I think most people will just go one with their lives like nothing happened," was his thoughtful reply.

"What about NERV? What purpose could it have in a world without Angels?"

"Some things are different," Shinji admitted, "But NERV is still there, just now it's the 'National Environmental Restoration Venture.' They're cleaning up after the mess Second Impact left…"

"Second Impact?" Misato shook her head, "But Shinji, if there are no Angels, how could there be a Second Impact at all?"

He blushed a bit, and explained, "Well, I didn't know how to picture the world without it… so I just decided all the propaganda was true, and it really was a giant meteor strike…"

"I see…" She sighed, but still had a faint, lopsided smile for him. "Well, it's not a perfect world… but then, I guess that's the whole point, huh? Life's no more and no less than what we make it."

"Um… that's the idea, yeah," Shinji answered, still looking embarrassed. "I… probably could have done better…"

Laughing, she gave him a playful cuff on the shoulder. "You saved the whole world, Shinji. I don't think anyone would have any room to complain, even if they knew about it."

"I guess that's true… but I'm just as glad nobody knows. I didn't like being a celebrity much, even when I was an Eva pilot."

Misato nodded and turned to look out over the city below them. The pair of them were standing on a grassy green hill, overlooking the sparkling white towers of Tokyo-3, the most impressive city of the 21st century. She'd once reminded Shinji that this was the city he'd saved, and now he'd done so much more… and yet, she thought, it seemed a much more unreasonable thing to ask Shinji to go against his nature and fight than it was to ask him simply to live.

"Misato?"

"Yes, Shinji?"

"We… that is, I wanted to say…"

"Yes?"

"Welcome home, Misato."

As she hugged Shinji once more, she felt a silent tear of joy slide down her cheek. She whispered back her reply, "Welcome home, Shinji."

The End of the Beginning.

The apartment was the same. Boxes were piled everywhere from Misato's recent move, just like on that day when he'd first arrived. Cramped and messy, it felt just right. All the same, he was glad when Misato decided to clean the place up. Kensuke and Toji were there to help, eager as always to spend time near his guardian. Some rational corner of his mind speculated that he should not yet be acquainted with the odd pair, but Shinji couldn't help thinking of them as his friends, and so they were.

His perceptions had impacted the new reality on many levels. More than that, they had defined it. He really didn't know why his mind had made some things turn out as they had. While Toji's leg had been restored and Asuka was back in Germany living happily with both of her birth parents, his own mother, Yui, was still dead. His relationship with his father was still rather estranged at best. Apparently there again his perceptions had superceded his desires, and he'd simply kept most of his life the same way it had always been. The difference was, now he accepted it. For the first time, he found he could take joy in living, simply for living's sake.

Even those things that were very different bore signs of familiarity. While Asuka was no longer his roommate, they kept in touch via email and occasional telephone calls, and Rei Ayanami was now staying in the other bedroom. She was still a quiet, serious girl with wisdom beyond her years, but her soft, beautiful smile was a lot more common these days. In many ways, Rei seemed to be a slightly older sister, no longer reminding him of a 'doll' or a puppet. She could always make him laugh, when she wanted to. Who would have expected that Rei could be funny? It still made him laugh a little whenever she or Asuka called him 'Third Child.'

Then there were the others. Ryoji Kaji was still a secret agent of sorts who enjoyed gardening. Actually, Shinji suspected that the roguish Kaji had plans for Misato that would mean the end to her bachelorette lifestyle. Ritsuko Akagi and Maya Ibuki both worked with his father, Gendo Ikari, at NERV. Apparently they had high hopes for restoring a lot of the damage done to Earth by the meteor strike, which was all that had remained of Second Impact.

As for Shinji, himself, he was going to school. However, instead of learning nothing more than dry facts about life before Second Impact, he was studying art, science, music, and literature. He hadn't quite decided what he wanted to do with his life once he 'grew up,' but somehow he felt obligated to understand everything he could about higher learning. He wanted to be part of the world, not just a bystander. Of course, he had to attribute at least a bit of his enthusiasm for learning to Misato. Since switching to inactive military duty, she had pulled some strings, somewhere to become teacher of his class. And she was actually good at it.

Whatever else happened, the next few years were definitely going to be an interesting time to be alive.

To be continued…

Author's Comments:

Okay, and that's it for the prologue chapter. Just settling things into the quiet lull after Shinji ended and restored the world. Next, I start in on the story proper. Things should hopefully get interesting pretty soon, as I'm hoping to avoid being 'just another post-movie Eva fic.' Anyhow, reviews would be most appreciated – good, bad, or ugly!