Chapter One: Angel Attack

"I'm back," Shinji said to himself again as he looked at his surroundings. The familiar skyscrapers of Tokyo-3 rose up around him, their metallic surfaces gleaming in the sun. He didn't need to look down at himself to know he was wearing his school uniform. The roads were empty, and there wasn't a sound to be heard. No traffic, no people, not even the sounds of birds over head. As Shinji looked around, he suddenly stopped short, eyes widening, as he realized what it was he saw.

Far off to his right, standing still in the middle of the road and staring at Shinji like some sort of specter of the past or future, stood Rei Ayanami.

"Ayanami…" he said, reaching out to her and taking an unconscious step towards her. "Rei…"

And then he froze in place, unable to move further, reality crashed down in on him. Rei was Lilith, an Angel, and as much as he loved her, without the protective emotional cushion that Lilith had provided for him back in the sea of souls, Shinji felt the fear of what she was rise up inside him.

Slowly, Shinji began to shake as he recalled everything, this time without Lilith's mental protection, all the while unable to tear his eyes from the specter of Rei Ayanami. His father had started Third Impact. Rei was an Angel. Asuka had been killed. His mother was inside Eva. Everyone died. Everyone died, and he hadn't done anything. He had just sat there in Eva and watched everything unfold, too horrified to do anything. Shinji's tremors began to rapidly increase in magnitude and frequency, until he finally staggered forward, breaking eye contact with Rei's likeness, and let out a terrified scream.

His head snapped up as soon as he regained his balance, but Rei was gone.

Oh God, he thought, still shaking, breathing hard and heavy, though only slightly calmer now that Rei's specter was gone. Rei's an Angel. My mother is in Eva. What the hell am I doing back here?

You are here to save humanity, a soothing female voice said in his head.

"But I can't do it! Not again, I can't live it all again!"

You can do it Shinji, I know you can. I have faith in you.

"No! It's not possible! I'm just a kid!"

You know the future, and because of that, you can change it.

"I don't remember everything!"

Your memory is much better than you realize. You can change the future, Shinji. But you already knew that. What is the real reason for your fear?

Shinji fell silent, trembling. "It's her," he whispered, and he finally stopped shaking, and his shoulders drooped tiredly. "It's what she is."

What she is doesn't matter, the voice, which he now recognized as Lilith's, said. She is still the girl you know as Rei Ayanami. She is still the girl you fell in love with; the girl who didn't know how to truly live until you began to show her how; the girl who didn't have any friends until you began to talk to her; the girl who fell in love with you, betrayed the one person she had always obeyed, and put the fate of humanity in your hands.

"I know that," Shinji whispered again, "but…"

He heard Lilith sigh. Remember what you told me, Shinji. You needed to do this, to save everyone. To save Rei.

Shinji felt the fear drain out of him. It wasn't actually gone; it was more like he had been overloaded with fear and just couldn't take it anymore. That, and being reminded of the reason he had come back in the first place. He slowed his breathing, and began to feel the courage that was sometimes granted to him begin to build.

"That's right," he said, standing up straighter. "I have to save everyone. And Rei…" The memory of her smiling at him in the entry plug during the attack of the Fifth angel flashed through Shinji's mind, and he found himself smiling in spite of himself. She really was only Rei, despite her origins. He felt the fear begin to rise again at that thought, but quickly pushed it down again. He would deal with it, in time.

You are all right now, Lilith's voice said to him, and Shinji thought it sounded like she was smiling. This is the last of what I can do for you. I have not yet awakened in this time, and I do not know you. You are on your own from now on.

Thank you, Shinji said to her mentally, having regained control over his emotions for the time being. Thank you for everything.

Your welcome, Shinji, she said. Good luck. Goodbye, Shinji…

Goodbye, Shinji said to her, mentally worrying at the sad tone to her voice, but passed it off as the normal sadness expressed in any parting.

And then abruptly Lilith's presence in his mind was gone, and Shinji let out a breath. Alright. He had a job to do, and nothing was going to get in his way!

His ears suddenly caught some sound off in the distance. He frowned as he strained to make it out. It sounded like gunfire. Slowly the sound grew louder, and Shinji was suddenly hit with the realization of exactly what he was hearing.

"Oh crap," he said, just as the Angel came crashing into view. Spinning around, Shinji scooped up his bag by the phone booth, and began to run.

He got about five steps from the phone booth when he felt the ground heave and got lost his balance, falling face first to the ground. He looked up just in time to see the gigantic form of the Sachiel, the third angel, towering over him.

Suddenly he heard the squeal of tires against pavement and the roar of an engine racing towards him, and he spun around just in time to see a blue Renault pull up beside him. The door opened, and a beautiful woman in her late twenties with long, blue-raven hair, (and who was very well endowed), grinned at him from behind a pair of sunglasses. "Sorry," she said. "Get in. Am I real late?"

Shinji sighed with relief at the sight of Misato. Though he knew that she was going to show up, he was still relieved to see that she was alive. Everything really was the same as it was back then. She appeared in the nick of time to save him just like she had done when he had first come to Tokyo-3. Which was also right now, he supposed, and then opted not to think about that too much. Leaping up from the ground, he scrambled into Misato's car. Almost before he slammed the door behind him, Misato was speeding down the road again, heading for NERV headquarters.

"Sorry I was late," she said, looking at the road ahead of her, going several speedometer rotations over the speed limit. "I didn't really expect, you know," she jabbed her thumb behind her, in the direction of the Angel, "that."

"Thanks, Misa--" Shinji began, but then cut himself off. "Katsuragi-san." In his joy at seeing her alive and well, he had forgotten that this Misato had only just met him and hadn't yet given him permission to call her Misato as of yet, though he knew it was coming.

"No problem," she said, not noticing his slip up. She suddenly turned the wheel, and the car spun to a stop.

"Alright," she said, grabbing a case that held her field goggles, and then crawled on top of Shinji and looked out his window. "Let's see what's happening out there." She raised the goggles to her eyes and looked through them back towards the Angel.

Shinji, for his part, though he had gotten used to Misato's seemingly unconscious effort to flaunt her body in front of anyone who might be near, still found his current situation rather distressing. At the moment, Misato's current position put two great big signs of her femininity very close to Shinji's face. There was that, and the fact that Shinji knew that any second now she would grab him and shove him to the ground to avoid a shockwave from an N2 mine.

He heard Misato mumble to herself, and he began to brace himself for the coming explosion.

"Now wait a second," Misato said. "No! They're going to use an N2 mine?! Get down!"

Right on queue, Misato slammed into him, pressing him down into the seats, and even closer to her voluptuous breasts. I guess it wasn't all bad… Shinji thought just before the shockwave hit them.

The shockwave hit the car, and Shinji felt the heat from the blast penetrate the car and his clothes, and the car itself was thrown backwards, flipping over and over. At some point, Shinji felt himself thrown from beneath Misato and out of the car, landing face first on the ground.

Several moments later, when the shockwave had completely dissipated and things were calm again, Shinji heard Misato calling him.

"Shinji!" she said, running towards him as he stood up. "Shinji, are you all right?"

Shinji nodded, and began to spit out the dirt that currently occupied his mouth. "Yeah, but my mouth is full of dirt."

Misato gave a small sigh of relief and then began walking over to the car. "You'll be alright," she said as she propped her self up against he car and motioned for Shinji to help her. "Come on," she said to him, only to realize that he was already beside her and ready to push. She nodded in approval, and then braced herself. "Ready to push?" she asked Shinji, jsut to make sure, and he nodded. "Go!" she yelled, straining her muscles as she pushed agaisnt the side of her just-recently-paid-and-now-ruined car. "Push!"

After a few moments of straining and pushing against the car, it finaly gave in and crashed over and back onto it's wheels, though a few, probably vital, pieces of it fell off.

Misato wiped the perspiration from her forehead and turned to the boy beside her. "Thanks Shinji," she said, smiling. "You're pretty useful."

Shinji smiled back, feeling a strange sense of deja vu as he did so. "Thank you. But, I should thank you Misa--Miss. Katsuragi."

Then, just as Shinji remembered, she replied, "Misato is fine." She reached up and removed her sunglass, shaking her hair out as she did so. "So Shinji Ikari, we meet at last." She smiled at him.

Shinji smiled back, feeling awkward, since this wasn't the first time he's met Misato. "Ah, yeah."

"Alright," Misato said, turning to her car and grimacing. "Let's see what the damage is." Opening the door to the driver's side of her car, she got in and tried to start it up. Nothing happened. "Great," she muttered to herself and got out of the car. She walked around to the front, lifted the hood, and looked at the engine. "Well," she said, "that's just great." Shinji walked over to her and looked over her shoulder. The engine was in too many pieces to count.

"Well then," Misato said, straightening up. "I think this car has a backup electric engine or something." She looked around. "I just need something to power it..."

"Um, will these work?" Shinji asked, pointing to some batteries he had inconspicuously lugged over while Misato was trying to get the car to work. Having foreknowledge of events like this really was turning out pretty useful.

Misato's face broke into a wide grin. "Yes," she said. "Those should do just fine."

Fifteen minutes and several roles of duct tape later, they were speeding down the road towards NERV headquarters. Shinji could hear pieces that had been hastily taped back on to the outside of the car rattling, threatening to fall off any second. Shinji was sure that the car would fall apart any second, even though he already knew that they would make it to NERV without much incident.

Suddenly, Misato's phone rang. "That must be headquarters," she mumbled to herself, flipping open the phone. "Misato here. Yes, yes I've got him. Well, there was a small incident with that N2 mine, but we'll be there soon. Yes. Don't worry. His safety is my top priority. Look, can you get a car train for us? An express of course. Well I did volunteer to pick him up, so it's only my duty to make sure he gets there. See-ya." She put the phone away and concentrated on driving.

Shinji, for his part, had no desire to tempt fate a second time by making comments that would annoy Misato so much that she would start serving the entire width of the road at speeds entirely too fast, and making corners that were entirely too sharp, so he settled for sitting silently beside her. He was the one who had suggested that they take the batteries, after all. This time, at least.

"You know," Misato said, seemingly reading his mind and glancing behind her for a second. "That could be considered stealing." She looked forward again. She glanced at Shinji and grinned slightly, like she always used just before she'd tease him. "Well, anyway, since we're already partners in crime, how about we be partners in bed?"

Even though he'd had months of practice trying to get used to Misato's teasing, it never failed to make him flush beet red.

Misato threw her head back and laughed. "I'm just joking, Shinji. I am a government official, so we wont be criminally charged for taking the batteries. So will I be your first?"

She continued to tease him all the way to head quarters.

Maybe annoying her about stealing the batteries wasn't such a bad idea… was the only thing Shinji could think as he sank lower and lower into his seat. Though it really was my idea this time…

Shinji sighed in relief when the reached the car train station that would bring them down into the Geofront. He really didn't remember Misato's teasing to be this intense, and was glad that this portion of it was finally nearing it's end. Misato drove the battered and rattling Renault into one of the train cars and shut down the engine.

"The gates are now closing," an recorded voice announced. "Please stand clear. The train is about to depart."

Shinji watched to great doors in front of him open, revealing a shaft that led down to the Geofront. Nerv's red, half-maple leaf crest was painted across the doors, and Shinji found himself reading the slogan that was curved around the bottom left side of the leaf: "God is in his heaven; all is right with the world."

Shinji slowly shook his head. Nothing was right with the world now, that much he knew. He had come back in time more than a year in order to make everything right again. He smiled in spit of himself and almost laughed aloud when he mentally re-wrote Nerv's motto. "Shinji is back; all shall be right with the world.." Did that mean he was God now? Figures. Lilith must have been crazy, putting the fate of the world in his hands.

"What's so funny?" Misato asked, and Shinji quickly dropped his smile and tried to think up some answer that she would except.

"Ah, well, I just thought that it figures that my father would work at a place with a motto like that," he said, a small amount of anger creeping into his voice. "Something that would make him sound superior like that."

"I take it you don't like your father very much," Misato said, looking at him. "Why is that?"

"He took everything I had away from me," Shinji said, clenching his fist, " he's hurt so many people and he did something I can never forgive." He realized that if this kept going, he might give something away, so he changed the subject. "Nerv?" he asked.

Misato must have sensed the tense atmosphere because she dropped the current subject. "Uh huh," she said, nodding. "It's a secret organization controlled by the UN. You do know what he does, don't you?"

Shinji shook his head. "All my teachers told me was that it was important to the future of mankind," he lied. Well, it wasn't really a lie. That really was all his teachers had told him. "Are we going to see my father?"

Misato nodded. "Of course we are."

Shinji started brooding about his father again, wondering exactly how he was going to handle this meeting. It was hard to remember that his father hadn't tried to initiate third impact yet, but that wasn't what Shinji was really angry about. He knew that somewhere deep below the Geofront was an aquarium filled with many different copies of one girl's body, making the girl herself expendable. Shinji felt his fingernails biting into his palms as he knuckles turned white. "Father…" he whispered in a low, angry tone.

"Oh yeah," Misato said, slightly unnerved by Shinji's reaction to even the slightest mention of his father. "Did your dad send you an ID card?"

Shinji released his grip on his hands and looked at Misato. "Um, yeah," he said, turning to his bag and trying to fish out the ID that was in there. He pulled it out and passed it to her. "This is it."

"Oh, thanks!" she took the papers from Shinji and looked over them. Poor kid, she thought. Having the commander for a father; it must be really tough. She looked at the commanders summons to Shinji. Just a simple piece of paper with his name and one word one it: "Come!" She glanced at Shinji. He still came even though he hates his father… I wonder why. Well, it's not like refusing to come would have done him any good. Section 2 would have gotten a hold of him eventually. Misato reached into the bag beside her and pulled out a small book. She tossed it to Shinji. "Here, start reading this, ok?"

Shinji caught the book and looked it over. One side had big, bold letters saying "Top Secret" while the other had the title of the book embossed into it: "Welcome to Nerv".

"I suppose I'm going to be working for him, aren't I?" he said, sighing and opening up the book, flipping through the pages. He had already read the book back when he had done all this the first time around, and had been forced to memorize it, but he needed to keep up appearances. "There's no other reason he would have sent for me."

"You really don't get along with you dad," Misato said, and she laughed a little bit. "You sound just like me."

Suddenly, light flooded the car as they entered the Geofront. Shinji, realizing that he wasn't supposed to have seen anything like this before, suddenly jumped up and pressed his face to the window. "Awesome!" he yelled. "It's a real Geo-front!"

"That's right," Misato said, smiling at Shinji's apparent fascination with the scene before them. "This is our secret underground base, Nerv Central. This city is the key to rebuilding our world; a fortress for all mankind."

With his face pressed against the window and facing away from Misato, Shinji smirked bitterly. He knew the real deal, that all this was just in preparation for crushing all of mankind together into one consciousness, whether they wanted it or not. Sure, the resulting form of life would exist forever, but mankind itself would be dead. Humans cannot exist as humans without their individuality. He could not let that happen this time, no matter what.


"What on earth? Isn't this the right way," Misato said to herself as they moved along the moving walkway.

Shinji sighed. He'd forgotten how much Misato got lost during the first few months of Nerv. He'd almost tried to direct her to the Eva cages, but remembered that, again, he wasn't supposed to know about anything.

The door in front of them suddenly opened as they were brought through it, causing a gust of air to blow up at them from below.

Misato clicked her tongue. "It's because of these things that I hate to wear a skirt around here. I wonder where in the heck Ritsuko is? I'm sorry, I'm not use to this place."

Shinji glanced to the left as he recognized a pathway leading to restrooms and hung his head. "We passed this spot twice already. Maybe we should get off these pathways."

Misato looked at him and said with a carefree voice, "Don't worry about it! They make these transit things to be used you know!"

Shinji sighed. "Can I see the map at least?"

"Huh?" Misato said. "Oh, sure." She handed him the map he had been using. Shinji grimaced as he realized she'd been holding it upside down. "Alright," he said, turning the map right side up. "Where are we trying to go?"

"Ah, it should be called the Eva Cages," Misato said, looking at the map.

Shinji pretended to study the map for a minute, and then pointed out the way they needed to go. "I think we need to go this way," he said.

Misato looked at the map a moment longer, and said, "I think you're right," and then they turned the way Shinji had pointed.

Every once and a while Shinji pretended to study the map, and then he would direct Misato down the correct path to the Eva cages. Shinji wanted to get to the Eva cages faster, that way Rei wouldn't get hurt when his father called her out to replace him. There was that, and Shinji still felt a small twinge of apprehension when he thought of seeing her again. He would do everything he could to protect her, but he still could forget what he was.

Shinji shook his head suddenly, walking behind Misato and towards the Eva cages. No, he mustn't think like that. Whatever Rei was, she was still the girl he knew. It was his father's fault. His father was the one who made Rei the way she was. That was what he needed to concentrate one.

"There you are Misato," a voice suddenly said from behind them, and both Shinji and Misato turned around to see Dr. Ritsuko Akagi walking towards them, clad in a dark blue bathing suit with only her lab coat over it.

"Ah! Hi there, Ritsuko…" Misato said, trailing off when she saw the expression the blonde doctor was wearing.

"Why are you wasting my time, Captain? Don't you know we're short on time and manpower?!" Ritsuko said, crossing her arms and glaring forcefully at Misato.

Misato smiled sheepishly and bent forward slightly, holding her hand vertically in front of her in apology. "Heh, sorry!" she said.

Ritsuko looked at Misato and sighed. Then she turned to Shinji. "So," she asked, "is this the boy?"

Misato straightened up and nodded, turning her head to look at Shinji. "Right, according to the Marduk report, he's the 'Third Child'."

Ritsuko looked him over. "Pleased to meet you," she said, smiling.

"Ah... Uh," Shinji said, just as he had done the first time he'd met Ritsuko. He lowered his eyes. "Sure." He didn't really want to look at Ritsuko right now. His last clear memory of her was below the Geofront, in the room that housed the aquarium of Rei's clones. It was there that he had seen Ritsuko destroy all of the clones, and enjoy it as she did so. If watching several dozen copies of Rei disintegrate and fall apart as they screamed hadn't been enough to scar Shinji for life, watching Ritsuko smile as it happened assured that it was.

Misato smiled at Ritsuko. "I'm afraid he's just like his father," she said. "The gruff and unfriendly part, that is."

Ritsuko smiled. "I can see that," she said. "Alright, this way. We're almost to the Eva cages."

They walked for short while longer through Nerv's steel corridors, and finally came to an escalator that they boarded.

"Battle stations Level 1. Prepare for ground level intercept," a voice said over the intercom, and Misato sighed.

"There we go," she said, shaking her head.

"It sounds pretty serious." Ritsuko looked up to the roof, as if expecting something to fall down on to them.

"So how is Unit One coming?" Misato asked.

Ritsuko looked back down and towards Misato. "It's currently undergoing refrigeration using the B-type equipment."

"Does it really work? It's never worked before, has it?"

Ritsuko shrugged. "The possibility of activation is 0.0000000001. Around here we just call it the 0-9 System."

Misato tilted her head. "Does that mean it doesn't work?"

Ritsuko snorted. "Don't be insulting," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "Its 0-9, as in Oni, a Japanese Devil."

"Well, anyway," Misato began, "I suppose it's a bit late to be saying 'Sorry, it doesn't work.'"

Shinji, for his part, found himself mouthing Misato and Ritsuko's converstation to himself. He was surprised at how accurate he was, remembering almost every single word. It wasn't like he could just suddenly recite the conversation to somebody, but more like hearing them say it all over again caused the memory to come into clearer focus.

They reached the top of the escalator and Ritsuko led them down a few halls, and they finally came to a small wharf, with a small inflatable motor raft sitting in the pinkish colored liquid that lapped against the side.

"Alright," she said. "Everyone get in."

Once they were all safely in the raft, Ritsuko turned on the motor, and they flew across the surface of the liquid.

Shinji looked over the side of raft and at the water that was passing beneath them. He swallowed. I'm almost there, he thought to himself. I'm going to have to get into Eva again. He was scared, he knew that, but this was something he had to do. I truly mustn't run away. Besides, this time I know how to pilot an Eva, and I more or less know everything that the Angel is going to do. I should be able to beat this thing no problem.

"Don't hang to close to the edge," Ritsuko yelled over the roar of the engine, and Shinji turned to look at her.

"That's a special disinfectant down there," she continued to say, keeping her voice loud enough to be heard. "I help engineer it. Trust me when I say that you don't want to fall in."

Shinji shrank back from the side of the boat. I guess there are still things I don't know.

They finally reached a small dock that was attached to a walkway suspended over the disinfectant. "Everybody out," Ritsuko said as she tied off the boat, and they all disembarked.

The walkway was lit only by a narrow line of light coming from a doorway at one end, so almost everything was hidden in shadows. Shinji walked along behind Misato and Ritsuko, looking to where he knew Unit One would be. It was almost as if he could sense it's large form hovering there in the dark. As they got closer and closer, Shinji's sense of the Eva became clearer and clearer, and he felt something like butterflies in his stomach, though not quite.

The lights suddenly cut out, and Shinji, having been wrapped up in deep thought, cried out without needing to remember to do so. "Ah, why's it so dark in here?!"

He scrambled around wildly in the dark, but felt a presence behind him. He spun and looked directly where he knew the Eva would appear. He felt like something was pulling him towards it, and he could almost hear a faint whisper…

The lights flicked on suddenly, illuminating the entire room in a bright light, and there, right in front of Shinji, was the gigantic purple face of Unit One.

"Ah, it's a face?" Shinji said, only needing to half sound surprised. He had felt so strange just a second ago. "A giant robot?" He opened up his Welcome to Nerv booklet and flipped through it, just for show.

"You won't find this in there," Ritsuko said to him.

"What?" Shinji said, looking up. Isn't it kind of stupid for the Eva not to be in the booklet? I mean, everyone sees it anyway when I go out to fight the angels…

Ritsuko through out her arm and gestured to Unit One. "This is man's ultimate fighting machine: the synthetic life form known as Evangelion Unit One. Built here in secret, it is mankind's last hope."

Ya-huh, right… Shinji thought, feeling like rolling his eyes. You don't need to sound overly dramatic about it. "Is this my father's work?"

"Correct," a deep voice echoed throughout the room. Again with the drama? Shinji thought as he turned around to look at his father standing in the glass observatory at the top of the room.

"It's been a while," Gendou Ikari said.

Maybe for you it has been, Shinji thought, feeling his hands clench into fists again at the sight of the man above him, but I've just come from the future, and it hasn't been nearly long enough for me. He narrowed his eyes at Gendou. "Father…" he whispered, voice shaking.

Gendou stared down at his son, feeling a slight amount of surprise at the anger he felt in his son's gaze, but it didn't matter. He turned and looked at Misato. "We're moving out," he said.

Misato did a double take. "Moving out?" she asked, confused.. "But Unit Zero's still in cryo-stasis…" Her eyes widened as she realized what the commander intended to do. "Wait a minute, you're going to use Unit One?!"

Ritsuko looked at the major. "There's no other way," she said.

"Now wait!" Misato said, throwing her hands up. "Rei can't do it yet can she? We don't have a pilot!"

Ritsuko glanced at Shinji, and then stared at Misato. "We just received one."

Misato stared back at Ritsuko for almost a full second, eyes wide. "You're serious?"

Ritsuko turned to Shinji, who clamped his mouth shut. He had been mouthing their conversation again, almost before they said it, this time. It wouldn't be good if someone saw him doing that. "Shinji Ikari," Ritsuko said. "You will pilot it."

Misato shook her head vigorously. "But even Rei Ayanami took seven months to synchronize with her Eva. It's impossible for him to do it, he just got here!" Shinji had felt butterflies rise up in his stomach when he heard Misato say Rei's name.

"He just has to sit in the seat," Ritsuko told Misato calmly. "We don't expect more than that."

"But--!"
"Listen," Ritsuko said sharply, cutting Misato off. "Defeating that Angel is our ultimate priority. If we have someone who has a chance at synchronizing with an Eva, then we've got to risk it. You do understand that don't you, Captain Katsuragi?"

Misato was silent, clearly struggling with her sense of moral and sense of duty, trying to find an answer.

"It's alright, Misato," Shinji said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be fine."

She turned and looked down at Shinji. "Are you sure, Shinji? It will be very dangerous. You realize that we are asking you to go out there and fight, right? You've never done anything like this before. You don't even know how to pilot this thing, you might be helpless out there. You could get killed."

"I'm the only one who can do it, right?" Shinji asked. "If I don't do it, we'll all just get killed anyway, right?"

"Well, yes, but--"

"I'll be fine, Misato," Shinji said, smiling at her. He gestured at the Eva. "It can't be too hard to pilot this thing. Besides, if I'm protecting something, there is no way I can lose."

Misato was astounded by his confidence. She didn't know why, but she felt like he really could win. Slowly, her worries receded, if not vanished, and she nodded to him. "Alright," she said.

"Thank you, Shinji," Ritsuko said, nodding to him.

Shinji still felt apprehensive around Ritsuko, images of Rei's body falling apart flashing through his mind, and so he just nodded back.

"Good," Gendou said behind him from far above. "I'm glad to see that you can follow orders."

Shinji clenched his jaw and fists and spun around, glaring up at his father. "Let's get one thing straight," he said angrily, seemingly fueled by an unidentifiable sensation in his lower abdomen. He just couldn't take it anymore for the moment, after everything his father did, or would do, and after everything Shinji had been through, he wasn't going to give his father the satisfaction of thinking that he was just going to blindly follow his orders. "I'm piloting this thing because there are things I want to protect. As long as our coincide with each other, I will follow your orders, but the minute you cross the line and start to harm people, you can bet that I'll make your life a living hell. I don't care what the hell you're planning to do, because I have my own scenario as well!" He clamped his mouth shut, realizing that he may have revealed more than meant to.

Everyone in the room stared at Shinji in shock. Ritsuko, Misato, the various technicians, and even the unflappable commander himself. The commander was the first to regain his composure, and he hardened his gaze, which was quite the feet, seeing as how they were already as hard they could possibly be. He stared down at his son, recovered from the shock of his unexpected outburst, and felt anger growing within him. He frowned at Shinji. This was definitely not in the scenario… he thought to himself. The last he'd heard from Shinji's teachers, Shinji was a docile and well behaved kid, never showing his anger like this. This could present problems.

The entire complex suddenly shook, causing small debris to fall from the ceiling and into the gigantic pool of disinfectant, and throwing many technicians to the ground and causing Shinji, Ritsuko, and Misato to stumble. Gendou held his ground. "It's close," he said, taking his eyes off his disobedient song only for an instant in order to look up towards the ceiling. "It must sense us." He looked back down at Shinji, for a second, and then turned to the screen on his right, and began to speak quietly.

Ritsuko recovered from her stumble, and looked at Shinji. "Shinji, we don't have much time," she said.

With his rage only partially gone, he turned and glared at Ritsuko, and she took a step back. It felt like he was staring straight into her soul. He couldn't know about my relationship with… no, that would be impossible, she thought, reaffirming herself and stepping forward again.

"Get inside," Misato said, putting her hand on Shinji's shoulder, tenderly. Even though she had sensed Shinji's animosity towards his father, she was still surprised at the rage she had felt coming from him. "You're going to protect us, right?"

Shinji felt the anger drain out of him, and that feeling in his stomach that fueled it receded as well. His anger was towards his father, and he wasn't going to vent it on people who didn't deserve it. He glanced at Ritsuko for a second, and then back to the floor. She deserves it, he growled mentally, a little surprised at the fierceness in it.

Suddenly, a sound caught his ear. It was the sound of small wheels, like those on the bottom of a hospital bed, squeaking as they rolled along. Slowly, ever so slowly, Shinji rose his head and looked towards the end of the walkway. There, on a hospital bed, wrapped in bandages and with IV needles, lay a pale skinned, blue haired girl, with one of her crimson eyes covered by the bandaged that wrapped her head.

"Ayanami…" Shinji whispered, shocked by the fact that she was there, but also because this was the first time he'd seen her since he'd come back. Not only that, but this was the Rei he had known for most of his time at Nerv. This was the Rei that had died when she sacrificed her life in order to save his. And she was still an angel. He felt his heart beat in fear, as well as something else, as she was wheeled slowly towards him. Why is she here?

No one noticed that Misato was looking at Shinji very oddly all of the sudden. She had heard him whisper Rei's name as soon as she'd appeared. Misato knew that she and Ritsuko had spoken about Rei in his presence, so it was possible he could have guessed who the girl being wheeled towards them was. But the familiarity she heard in his voice… it was almost as if he had known for certain who she was.

Why is she here? Shinji thought again, his eyes wide as he stood there frozen, staring at her. I agreed to pilot Eva! Why did they bring her out here where she's going to get hurt?

"I have no need for a pilot who will not follow orders," Gendou said, breaking Shinji out of the trance he was in, and he tore his eyes away from Rei and spun around to look at Gendou again. "Pilot Ayanami will pilot Unit One," he declared.

Ritsuko sighed. The commander's orders were absolute. "Reconfigure Unit One's system for Rei, then activate!" she directed, yelling at the technicians that had stopped to watch the clash of wills between the commander and his son.

"You can't do that!" Shinji yelled, waving his hands around wildly. "Look at her, she'll die if she gets into that!"

"There is no choice," Gendou said, glaring at Shinji from behind his sun glasses. "You are not fit to pilot Unit One. I can only use a pilot that will follow orders."

"You are going to kill her!" Shinji screamed.

"No," Gendou said, his voice cold. "You are going to kill her."

In his anger, Shinji had forgotten all about the imminent shockwave that suddenly hit the Nerv compound. Debris fell from the ceiling, the ground lurched, and every was thrown to the ground. Several technicians fell into the disinfectant, screaming horribly as they did so. Misato, Ritsuko, and Shinji hit the ground hard, but managed to come out alright. Rei, on the other hand, was thrown from the hospital bed she had been wheeled out on, the IV ripping painfully out of her arm, as she crashed down onto the floor, causing all of her injuries to flair up in severe pain.

Then, Shinji realized something. Because of his outburst, Rei had been brought out slightly earlier than she had been last time around, and thus was further along the walkway than Shinji remembered. Also, there hadn't been any debris falling down on him, because he too was in a different place than last time. Then a thought began to creep into his mind; a horrible, terrifying thought, and he looked far above Rei.

Directly above Rei Ayanami, a hundred or so meters up, a large iron beam quickly accelerating downward.

Faster than he dreamed possible, Shinji leapt to his feet, and began sprinting down the walkway as fast as he could towards Rei, keeping his eyes on the iron beam that got closer and closer to her.

Gendou noticed first the what was happening, and his knuckles suddenly when white as he clenched his fists, eyes also following the I-beam as it fell towards Rei. He saw Shinji sprinting towards her, and for the first time in a very, very long while, found himself supporting his son one-hundred percent.

Misato noticed next. As she turned to find out where Shinji had run off to, she noticed the beam falling down towards them. "Look out!" she yelled, directing the attention of anyone who could afford it towards the beam that was falling with increasing speed.

Shinji watched in horror as he realized that he wasn't going fast enough. He wasn't going to reach Rei in time! She was going to be crushed by the heavy iron beam, and it was all his fault! If he hadn't refused to follow all of his father's orders, Rei wouldn't even be hear. After all he'd gone through, she couldn't die here!

The beam was less than thirty meters above her.

"AYANAMI!" Shinji screamed, throwing out his right arm towards her.

Everyone's ears were suddenly filled with the sound of scratching metal as it twisted, bent, and snapped, followed by a gigantic green and purple arm exploding from beneath the disinfectant, spraying the pinkish liquid everywhere. The arm followed the arc of Shinji's own, and smashed into the iron beam less than three meters above Rei.

Seeing the outcome, Gendou quickly placed a smirk on his lips, now that his pilots were safe. He didn't even flinch as the I-beam flew directly towards him, and smashed against the three foot thick bullet proof glass, and then falling into the disinfectant. The scenario was safe.

Shinji was relieved that the Eva had responded to him, but he didn't have a time to celebrate it. Rei might be out of immediate danger, but she was still on the floor and in extreme pain, and, he knew, losing blood.

"Ayanami!" Shinji said as he reached her, gently bending down and holding her in his arms. She looked at him through he one good eye, filled with tears from the pain, before she squeezed it shut and let out a small cry.

He heard the chaos of voices all around him. Everyone was yelling.

"The Eva activated itself!"

"It ripped right out of the right arm restraints!"

"No," Ritsuko yelled, her voice adding to the cacophony. "That's not possible! The entry plug wasn't even inserted. That just can't happen!"

Misato's voice joined in as well. "You mean it reacted without any kind of interface?" she asked, starring intently at Shinji, holding Rei close to himself on the ground. She had seen him through out his arm just as the Eva had done so. "What did he do?"

Shinji leaned close into Rei, trying to comfort her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he whispered over and over to her, to quiet for anyone else to hear. "I'm sorry! I don't care if you're an angel, just don't leave me again."

Shinji looked up and turned his head around looked up at his father. "I'll do it!" he yelled. "I'll follow your orders, just let me pilot it!"

His father smirked as he looked down at Shinji. This had worked out perfectly. Things had almost gotten completely out of control, but in the end everything was fine. Shinji was going to follow orders.

Gendou down looked at his son and said, "Very well."

Shinji sat in the entry plug as he waited for everything to be started up. He was still in his school uniform, just as he had been the first time. It all felt almost exactly like last time he had gone through this. But it wasn't. This time was different.

Shinji listened to all the voices as they began starting up the Evangelion.

"Cooling process completed."

"Right arm repairs completed."

"Cage now in position for docking."

"Signal plug terminator now been ejected."

"Roger. Inserting the entry plug."

Shinji felt a slight jarring sensation has the plug was inserted into the back of the Eva.

"Plug locked in place."

"Connecting Unit One."

"Filling the entry plug."

The yellowish liquid of LCL slowly started filling up the plug, steadily rising.

"Huh? What is this stuff?" Shinji yelled, keeping up the guise that he didn't know anything. He held his breath as the liquid rose above his head.

"Don't worry," Ritsuko's voice said over the comm. "Once your lungs are filled with LCL, your blood will be oxygenated directly. You'll get used to it."

Shinji let out the air he had been holding in and took in a deep breath of LCL. "I'm gonna' be sick…" he said, remember how he'd felt the first time he'd done this.

"Stop complaining!" Misato chided him. "You're a boy you know!"

Shinji smiled at the sound of Misato's voice. The startup of Unit One continued.

"Connecting main power."

"All circuits transmitting."

"Roger."

"Connecting secondary contact."

"A10-nerve connection normal."

Ritsuko's voice again. "Configure the language logic interface for Japanese."

"All preliminary contacts established, performance nominal."

"Bi-directional circuits are open. Synchronization ratio at--"

There was a moment of silence.

"Well?" Ritsuko said.

"I--I'm sorry ma'am," the voiced stuttered. "It's just that, well, his synchronization ratio is at 91."

This time the silence lasted for more than a second. A lot more.

"Are you sure there isn't a mistake with the sensors?" Ritsuko said at last.

"No ma'am," another voice said. "Everything is operating normaly."

"Oh my God," Ritsuko said, taking in a deep breath. "This isn't possible."

"Harmonics seem to be normal," someone else said. "I see no disturbances."

Ritsuko took a deep breath, loud enough that Shinji could hear it over the intercom. "Alright," she said. "Let's see what this boy can do."

Shinji thought he could almost see Misato grinning as she yelled out, "Begin launch sequence!"

"Beginning launch sequence!

"Removing primary lock bolts!"

"Removal confirmed!"

"Removing the umbilical bridge!"

"Removing secondary lock bolts!"

"Removing primary restraints."

"Removing secondary restraints."

"Releasing safety locks number one through fifteen."

"Internal batteries fully charged!"

"External battery outlet closed."

"Move Eva Unit One to the launch pad."

"Launch path clear. All systems green."

"Evangelion ready for launch," Ritsuko said.

"Understood," Misato confirmed. "Are you ready Shinji?"

Shinji nodded to himself inside the entry plug, and smiled at Misato on the view screen. He reaffirmed his grip on the Evangelion's controls, and for some reason it felt like he was back home. "I'm ready Misato. Let's do this!"

Misato grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up. She didn't know why, but she knew that Shinji was going to make everything alright. "Eva Launch!"

Shinji felt himself being pulled downwards as the Eva shot up through the launch shaft and out on to the streets. The doors of the shaft opened, and Shinji saw it standing before him. It was there, Sachiel, the third angel in all of it's mighty terror. Shinji stared at the angel. I am never going to let any you hurt the people precious to me.

Upon seeing the angel, Misato felt some small bit of her previous worry creep back in. Shi bit her lip. "Shinji," she whispered. "Don't get killed out there.