Chapter Two:

An Unfamiliar Ceiling

He just lay there, in the bed, staring up at the ceiling, wearing a long sleeved shirt. He looked around. He was wearing shorts, and a pair of pants were draped over the side of a chair.

Shinji just closes his eyes, and sighs.

"An unfamiliar ceiling…"


"What's going on with the Eva's defense system?!"

"The signal's not working!"

He doesn't hear much after that. The pain just keeps building, and building, and building, until a loud snap occurs.

"The left arm has been damaged!"

"Circuits disconnected!"

The Eva gets raised up, as Sachiel holds Unit-01 by the face, as the Angel's energy lance starts to charge.

"Shinji, dodge it!"

He faintly registers the command, and tries to pull himself away.

The lance fires. Two, three, four times? He lost count. All that occurred was the pounding of the lance off of the Eva's armor, and as it cracked the casing.

"There's a crack on the front of the cranium!" someone yells, as he just holds his eye.

"OHGODWHYWON'TTHEPAINSTOPWHATISTHIS" he thinks, shrinking down in pain.

"The armor won't last much longer!" Ritsuko yells, in panic.

The lance struck the Eva a few more times, finally piercing the armor, and impaling the head of Unit-01 on a building. Blood gushed out of the Eva, as Shinji slipped into unconsciousness.


The cicadas chirped outside, as Shinji continued to stare up at the ceiling. He sighed again, and stood up, to change our of his clothes. He grabs a simple pair of jeans, and a white long sleeved shirt with red sleeves. He sighs again, as he grabs his backpack, and digs around for his S-DAT.


Gendo and Yui sat at one portion of of the holographic room, facing the council of Seele.

"So, the Angels have returned, eh? It's so sudden," one of the council members, Orange, the representative from the United States, says.

"It's the same as it was eighteen years ago," Yellow, who's from Sweden comments, "Plus, we had Tabris delay them until this date. That gave us more time to manipulate the Third, and confirm the Fourth's willingness to obey us."

"We could say it was fortunate, in the sense that our prior investments were not a waste," says Orange.

"You can't be sure about that yet," Blue, the representative of France says. "If it doesn't pay off, it's a waste all the same," he continues.

"Precisely. Now that the Angels, and the fact that we have been manipulating information, has become public knowledge, Nerv must operate in a speedy and prudent manner," Yellow says.

"Well, it's not like we've been manipulating too much information. All the public knows is that Second Impact is Adam's fault, and nothing else. They still think that he launched a meteor from outside the solar system at us," Yui says, smirking.

Gendo looks over the council of Seele, and says "You may rest assured that anything the public may find out that contradicts anything we have revealed at first, it will be taken care of."


"So it's public scenario B-22. So we're hushing up the truth again?" Misato says, while fanning herself off.

Ritsuko laughs while typing something on a computer. "Well at least the PR people are thrilled now that they've finally got something to do."

"We're being pretty casual about it. I mean, all we're doing is forcing children to pilot giant robots."

"I'm not sure about that first part. I think that everyone's actually scared," Ritsuko says.

Misato stops using the hand fan, and looks down a little. "Of course we are."


"Well, we must acknowledge that. Speaking of which, Ikari, isn't there a better way to utilize Nerv and the Eva's?" Green, the representative of the United Kingdom asks.

"First the repairs to Unit-00 three years ago, then to Unit-08 during the excavation of the Nineteenth Angel. And two days ago, there were more damages to Unit-00, and now to Unit-01, which was damaged against the Third Angel. It's enough to bankrupt an entire country," Yellow questions.

"We also understand that you gave that toy to your son," Orange brings up.

"Manpower, time and money. How much more do you and your family plan on wasting?" Blue asks.

"And that's not your only responsibility. What about the Human Instrumentality Project? That, is your top priority," Orange lectures.

"Exactly. Under these dire circumstances, the project is our one and only hope," Yellow says.

The light surrounding the man at the end of the table turns on, glowing red. Lorenz Kiel, the chairman from Germany, and leader of Seele appears. "In any case, we cannot excuse any delays in the project's schedule. You have to kill twenty-four angels now, due to us having Tabris delay them for three years. That has delayed us long enough. You will consider the issue regarding the budget."

"Mrs. Ikari, if you may leave, we require your husband's advice on somethings. We thank you for your presence."

Yui leaves the room, and the rest of the council gets moved to a separate channel, so Kiel and Gendo may converse in private.

"Ikari, there is no turning back. You know what you must do by the end of this," Keil says, and then they rejoin the council.

Gendo stands up, straightening his uniform. "I know," he says "Mankind has no time left."


Shinji stands in the hallway, looking out of the window. A door opens, and two doctors walk down talking.

"Yeah. The First, the Commander's daughter, she's a couple floors down. I can't believe that a parent would do that to their child."

"Well, I hear that the Third, the one who was in the battle last night, is the First's twin brother. Oh, hey, apparently, Commander Ikari was completely against using the children to pilot. Who would know, huh?"

Shinji just tries to shrink away, and not be noticed as he stares out of the window.


Misato and Ritsuko sit in one of the trucks sent to clean up after the battle.

Misato sighs, and leans back in her seat. "Air conditioning has got to be mankind's greatest treasure. It's the triumph of science over nature."

Ritsuko hangs up the phone, and looks over at Misato. "Shinji's woken up. Apparently they found him trying to find his sister's room."

"How is he?" Misato asks.

"No external or internal injuries.. His memory's a bit muddled too."

Misato leans over. "Could it be from mental contamination?" she asks, worriedly.

Ritsuko smiles. "There appears to be no cause for worry."

"Really?" Misato asks, as she leans back into her seat. "I suppose he did have a really hectic day yesterday."

Ritsuko continues working on her tablet. "It's not surprising. His cranial nerves took a lot of strain."

Misato looks at her. "Don't you mean his heart?"


Shinji takes the discharge notice from the doctor, and leans down to place it in his bag. When he's done he stands up, nodding in thanks.

He turns and walks over to a waiting area just outside. He looks at his watch. 7:45 am. Forty-five minutes until visiting hours. He sighs, then pulls out his S-DAT, and once again, closes himself off from the world around him.


A large crane carries an Evangelion sized rifle across to an armament station. Surface-to-surface and Surface-to-air missiles were being loaded into an artillery cannon, while umbilical cords for the Eva Units were being attached into another armament station. Nerv, and the city with it, was prepping for war.

Misato stands at an armament station, looking towards the city during an inspection. Her uniform jacket was tied around her waist, and she was standing beside the same truck she and Ritsuko had been in earlier.

"If the Eva and this city both operate at their full potential, then maybe we can make it through this," Misato says, continuing to look towards the city.

Ritsuko leans out the window of the truck, and looks over at her friend. "Are you going to defeat the angels? You're always such an optimist," the false blonde says.

Misato smiles. "Hey, sometimes you need just a little wishful thinking to just keep on living."

"I see your point. It helps to hear things like that from you."


Shinji continues to sit in the hospital waiting room, until the alarm on his phone rings out. He reaches into his bag and removes it. Turning off the alarm, he looks at the time. 8:30 am. Visiting hours.

He stands up, then walks over to the elevator, and presses the down button. He looks up, seeing the floor counter tick down from the top floor. Five stops left until it reaches him.

He looks around quickly, then turns back to the pink doors of the elevator as they ring out, signalling that it's at his stop.

The doors slide open, revealing his mother standing there. She glares at Shinji, as he steps back, and turns away.

She just stands there, looking at Shinji with disgust as he 'retreats' from in front of her.

The doors slide shut again.


Shinji waited for the doors to open again after he pressed the down button. The counter at the top of the elevator was descending downwards from the top floor as well. The pink doors slide open again.

This time, standing inside, was his father.

"Well, at least it's not Mother…" Shinji thinks as he steps in.

The doors slide shut, and Gendo gestures towards the floor buttons. "Which floor?" he asks.

Shinji looks up, and over at the panel. "Oh...umm...you got it already," he meekly answers.

"Going to see Rei?" Gendo asks.

Shinji just nods, looking around the elevator. It's not that he didn't like his father; it's very much the opposite. It's just he finds it awkward to talk to his immediate family, that bit is to be expected when they send you away to live with your aunt and uncle for fourteen years or so.

The elevator doors open once again, freeing him from the potential awkward conversation with his father. Shinji dashes out, and tries to find his sister's room. Hopefully he wouldn't run into his mother.


Shinji knocks on the door, waiting for the 'OK' for him to come inside. He stands there for a few seconds, waiting for some voice to ring out. Suddenly the door opens, revealing Yui. He steps back, flinching.

Yui just stands there smirking. "Rei! It's just your idiot brother. I'm sending him in!" she calls back into the hospital room.

"Fine. Send him in."

Shinji steps in nervously, his eyes darting around the room. "R-rei? It's me," he says.

She looks over at him, bored. "Yeah? What is it?"

"I just came to see how you were...I mean, you looked like you were in pain last night," he says.

She sighs, and blinks her eyes. "Truthfully? I just have a few broken ribs and a broken arm. The eye bandage was just for show."

Shinji laughs a little. "Thank god. Anyways, I brought you a present from Uncle Arnold and Aunt Ayaka," he says, as he holds out a small box.

As she reaches out, and gets a slight grip on the box, Shinji fumbles it, dropping it on the floor.

"S-sorry…" Shinji mumbles, reaching down to pick it up.

Rei rolls her eyes, and leans back. "And just when I was starting to think that you weren't as much as an useless idiot as mom says you are…"

"Sorry."


He soon got sent out by a doctor, who came in to check on Rei. Eventually, Shinji made his way back to the entrance for the hospital, and from there, the the main lobby at NERV. He waited around for a while, until Misato picked him up.

"Ready to go?" Misato asks him.

"I guess," Shinji replies.


"Alone? What do you mean alone?" Misato asks, as she looks at Gendo. "Commander, I mean no disrespect, but he's your son. Wouldn't it be better for him to live with his family?"

"I thought so too at first, but Yui recommended it. Sadly, our family doesn't get along very well, and him living with us wouldn't change much for him," Gendo says, while leaning back into his chair.

Misato turns towards him. "Shinji, are you sure about this? You'd be all alone."

He looks over at her, as if he didn't really have an opinion. "It's fine," he says, "I'd rather be alone. Anywhere is fine for me."


"It's just like I said!" Misato says over the phone, "I'll take care of Shinji. The Commander himself approved it, and I just got that new apartment. It'll be fine. Hey-hey-what do you mean you're worried I'll 'put the moves' on him or something?"

"Of course you won't! Do you know how inappropriate that is? What the hell are you thinking? You're always like that! Seriously!" Ritsuko yells over the phone.

"Ah, calm down Ritsuko. It was just a joke," Misato says, holding the phone away from her ear.


Misato's Alpine drives along the roadside, the evening sun shining through the window. Shinji sat in the passenger seat, a grocery bag full of snacks and drinks in his arms.

Misato looks over at him, and says "Hey, we're going to take a quick stop up here."

Shinji looks out the window. "Where are we stopping?"

Misato laughs a little. "Somewhere I think that you'll like."


Shinji was leaning on the railing looking out, over the city when an air raid alarm went off. Then suddenly, large hatches on the floor open up, revealing buildings that started to rise up.

"Awesome...they're rising up from inside the Geofront…"

"This city is a fortress, designed to protect against the Angels. This is Tokyo-3," Misato says, her arms folded over her chest, "This is our city, and the city you helped to protect."


They walked along one of the upper floors in the apartment building, heading towards a door at the end of the hall. The wind whistled by, and a stack of boxes were outside the front door of an apartment at the end of the hall.

"Here's your stuff Shinji," Misato says, pointing at the boxes, "And truthfully, this is a new apartment that I just got, so it's new for the both of us."

The front door opens, and Misato steps inside. "Well then, come on in!"'

Shinji looks down. "P-pardon the intrusion," he says, as he shifts the grocery bags around in his arms.

Misato sighs. "Shinji, this is your home now."

He looks up a little, then steps over the door's threshold. "I'm home."

Misato smiles. "Welcome home."


"Misato Katsuragi...she's a not a bad person," Shinji thinks. Boxes were placed around the room he had claimed as his own. A small bed was in the corner, pushed up against the wall, as he stood there, unpacking. A box of textbooks here, his cello in the closet, Japanese to English and Japanese to German dictionaries stacked on the shelves.

"I wonder why she likes baths so much. Bad memories always find me when I'm taking a bath," he thinks, as he hangs up the new school uniform he just got.


"So, how was Rei today?" Ritsuko asks Gendo, as he stands in the destroyed testing room. "You went to the hospital this morning, didn't you?"

Gendo slowly takes off his glasses, cleans them, then puts them in his jacket pocket. "Yeah...she...she was fine. Her injuries weren't as bad as last time. What is this, two, three activation tests in a row where she was injured? God, what have I done, giving my own children this responsibility?"

"I don't want to know, but it's for the best, so mankind can survive. Anyways, Rei should be good to pilot in twenty days, and we'll unfreeze Unit-00 then," Ritsuko says.

Gendo places his hands over his eyes, rubs them then sighs. "Don't say that. If these were your children we were sending out to their deaths, you would be just as upset," he says while looking over the light blue and pink armored creature frozen before him.


Shinji was lying down, his earbuds in his ears. He was staring up, towards the light on the roof.

"Another unfamiliar ceiling…" he says to himself. The track on his S-DAT changes from Vivaldi's Four Seasons to Beethoven's Fifth.

He thinks back to the previous night. "I blacked out during the middle of the battle...how did we live…"


"The synchro graph is reversing! The pulses are flowing backwards!"

"Break the circuit! Block it!" Ritsuko commands.

"We can't! It's rejecting the signal! It won't take it!"

"What about Shinji?" Misato asks.

"His monitors aren't responding. Life signs unknown!"

"Evangelion Unit-01's gone completely silent!"

"Misato!" Ritsuko yells.

"This is it…" Misato says, "Abort the operation! Rescuing the pilot is our first priority! Force eject the entry plug!"

"We can't! It's completely out of control!"

"What the hell?!" Misato yells.

On the surface, the jaw restraints break. Power flows through the circuits, the light illuminating the eye turns on, glowing with the malice of 10 000 enraged mothers.

"The Eva-it's reactivating!" Ritsuko yells, shocked.

"Impossible! There's no way it can move!"

All eyes were facing towards the monitor, the video feed showing Unit-01 forcing itself up.

"It can't be…" Misato says.

"It's gone berserk? But there's nothing to allow that to happen!" Ritsuko yells.

A roar loud enough to burst eardrums rings out, as Unit-01 launches itself towards the Angel, kicking it in the face. The Angel forces Unit-01 off, and straightens itself.

Gendo stares at the screen. "H-how...there's no soul…" he whispers.

Unit-01 sprints full speed at the Angel, then gets stopped by the wall of light emitting from it.

"An AT field!"

"No! As long as the Angel as that AT field up…" Misato says.

"...It can't touch the angel!" Ritsuko finishes.

Unit-01 snarls, and heals it's damaged arm. It shoves it's hands into the very middle of the AT field, trying to create a gap inside of it.

"Unit-01 has deployed it's AT field! It's neutralising the phase space!"

"No...it's eroding it!" Ritsuko corrects.

The Eva punches a hole in the AT field, and reaches out. The Angel retaliates by firing an energy beam into Unit-01, creating a cross shaped explosion in the area.

"It broke through the AT field so easily…" Misato says in awe.

Unit-01 punches the Third Angel across the face, then grabs both of it's wrists, twisting, twisting, until the broke, spraying blue-purple blood on the Eva's hands. The Eva kicks the Angel in the core, knocking it over, so it can charge into it again.

The Eva straddles the Angel, punching it's several times, before it takes the bones on the 'ribs' protecting the core, and rips those off, then proceeds to use the bone as a makeshift knife, hitting the core over and over again. The pounding on the core sent cracks down the sides of it, like spider webs hanging from a corner.

In a last ditch effort, the Angel climbs up Unit-01's body, it's core changing color to a bright white. The Eva struggles to escape, pulling, tearing at the Angel.

"It's going to self destruct!" Misato yells.

A white light flashes, expanding into a large sphere, then blasting upward in a bright, bright column, forming a glowing cross.

"Is the Eva…"

A figure is seen standing up, in the midst of the explosion. Heat hazes the air around it, distorting the image.

"That must be…" Ritsuko whispers.

"...The Eva's true form…" Misato completes, staring at the screen.

Yui is smirking at the Commander's podium, an evil one, a smirk that would instantly alert anyone within their right mind that everything is going according to her scenario. Her terrifying, terrible, scenario.


Shinji looks out the display, holding his head.

"Circuits reconnected. Systems restored. Graphs back to normal."

"Pilot life signs stable."

"Send out the recovery team. Hurry!" Ritsuko says

"Preserving the pilot's life is our first priority," Misato agrees, furthering the command.

A crack rings out, as the Eva's helmet falls off, hitting the ground with a large thud. Shinji gasps, then looks around seeing a reflection in the mirror. A large, grey head is sticking out from where the armor fell off, with a scorch mark where the eye should have been. Suddenly, the scorch mark starts bubbling, and the eye opens up again.

A large, hideous, green eye spins around, before rests at pointing towards the reflective surface that Shinji's looking off of.

Shinji then screams loudly, the shock of it all finally reaching him.


Shinji continues to stare at the ceiling, his eyes wide as he recounts the previous night's escapades.

"So the theories are true…" he whispers, barely audible.

He turns onto his side, so that he's looking away towards the door.

"Shinji, I'm coming in," he hears Misato say.

The door slides open.

"I forgot to tell you something," Misato says, "You did a very praiseworthy thing today. You should be proud of yourself. Good night Shinji. Hang in there."

The door slides shut again, hiding Shinji's look of shock in the darkness.


Meanwhile, around 9000 kilometers away, in Berlin, Germany, Kiel Lorenz walks briskly through his manor, looking for someone. Knocking on a door, he enters one of the common rooms in his house.

Inside were three teenagers, two girls and a boy, sitting around. The boy, Xander, was playing video games with the eldest girl, Ariel. The second girl, Amelia, was reading a biology textbook.

Kiel stamps his cane on the oak wood floors.

"Children," he says, "Where is your brother?"

"Oh, father. He's up in the music room. Again. Really, he should find a better way to spend his time," Xander replies, "Also, why do you always rely on him? Can't you trust us? He's 'Free Will' after all, so he might be lying to you to suit his own needs."

"I rely on him because I know he won't do just that. Now thank you, go back to you game, Xander."

"Yeah, Z! You heard dad, let's get back to playing!" Ariel says, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

Kiel closes to door, and walks up the stairs to the music room. The sound of a piano floated down the hall, the sound of Beethoven's Ode to Joy ringing throughout the house.

Kiel opens the door, and knocks his cane on the wall. The teenaged boy playing the piano stops, and looks over.

Bright crimson eyes stare at Kiel. "Oh, well, good afternoon Father," the boy says, adjusting himself so that he faces Kiel. "How may I help you now?"

"You know what I need Tabris. When are the next of your kin awaking?" Kiel asks him.

"Tsk. Father, you can just refer to me by the name the Lilin have for me, you know that? I am your son after all. But anyways, on to business," the boy, Tabris, the Seventeenth Angel, the Angel of Free Will, Kaworu Nagisa, stands up and places his arms out in the shape of a cross, and spreads his AT field, his eyes glowing.

"Shamshel will awaken in three weeks, no more, and then soon after that will be my sweet, sweet sister Ramiel. I feel a disturbance in the order though; the excavation of my brother Elkanah has will cause him to awaken around when Ramiel awakens. Maybe a week afterwards at most," he says, the light around him distorting.

Kiel smirks. "Perfect. Anything else?"

Kaworu's slight smile shifts into a slight frown. "We both know where Adam is...it's just that I still can't sense where or Lilith's what her status is. I know she's in Japan, near Tokyo-3...but I'm having a hard time locating her soul. It doesn't matter-it won't affect your plan."

Kaworu floats down to the floor, and closes his AT field, smiling once again. "Well father, I guess you could say that poor Shinji Ikari will have a long year ahead of him.

Kiel's smirk widens slightly. "Yes, yes he will."