Tell me what you think, any spelling errors made and anything I might have misinterpreted.

As Shinji opened his eyes from the blink, everything had changed. Where before there was the empty void of space that was wherever Lilith had dragged him, now there stood a green phone booth that was nestled against the wall in front of him.

Blinking again he spun and pressed his back against the wall as he dropped the phone in his hand to raise it into a fighting position, being no stranger to attempts on his life from SEELE or Nerv agents who thought that killing him might stop the Angels somehow, the pressure of the constant Angel attacks can stress their minds more than they can take. Another second passed before he realized not only where he was but when he was. The moment he realized what had happened he let himself slide down the wall slightly, the brief moment of instinct to find cover if the terrain suddenly altered gone, replaced with a slowly building joy.

At first it was just a niggle in his still tightly controlled mind but eventually it grew too strong for him to contain and his emotional barriers shattered, causing a smile that previously had been reserved for his partners to spread over his now younger face 'I did it. I really did it.'

He stood slumped against the wall for several seconds as his emotions ran wild, and he let them for the first time in years, under no need to keep the fresh faced recruits from panicking that something was wrong or to be strong for his partners as they were for him.

He didn't know when he started laughing, it was a quiet thing that was on the verge of dipping into hysteria. He let himself indulge for awhile longer before he brought his frayed emotions under control and stood up straight, not noticing the slight pulling from his back as he did so, reaching for the pocket on the front of his 'Was that a school uniform?' was the first thing to cross his mind as he thought back, vague memories of what he was wearing came back to him.

"I'm in uniform already?" He mumbled to himself "Must have had a reason for it. Even if I'm supposed to be meeting Commander Ikari today." The memory that came with that name drew a grimace from him 'I can't even think of a term to describe the depths of his monstrous behavior.'

Getting himself back under control he reached for the pocket again and felt a small card beneath his hand, pulling back his hand as he flipped the card over he was rewarded with the sight of Misato bending over and giving him a wink in an outfit really not befitting of wearing near children, this accentuated by an arrow pointing him to look here pointing towards her glorious 'But not as good as Rei's or Asuka's' breasts.

Seeing the picture brought back memories of the last time he had seen his surrogate mother, her pushing him forwards to his Eva as she held a hand to her bleeding side, at the time he was too mentally swamped to understand the implications of what he had seen but after the battle, learning of her death had been something that brought him closer to breaking that he had been in a long time. Without thinking his hand moved to his neck to touch where he now wore her necklace, still splattered with her blood, he dared not wash it so as to never forget what his cowardice has cost him.

When his hand connected with something his eyes went wide when he was suddenly made very aware of the feeling of string around his neck, something he was so used to that he had forgotten that it was even there. 'I have Misato's necklace!' The revelation almost caused a minor panic in him as he tried to think about why he had it, how did it go back in time with him? It was the same necklace, it even had the same blood splatter that the old had, with scratches in the same place that a new one just wouldn't have. 'What if Misato see's this?' He thought with a feeling of dread as he cut off that line of thought before even stating on it.

Before his mind got far he glanced to his right and saw the same spectral figure standing there as he did before, only now he recognized it as his Rei, something she seemed to reciprocate as she smiled back at him before blinking out of existence as if she had never been there. 'I never did ask Rei if that was her and if so how she did that...'

As his mind was chewing through that conundrum he felt the ground shake and once again acted on instincts drilled into him from years of lethal combat, he slid behind the phone booth and reached for the holo-communicator he always kept on his person encase Angels attacked when he wasn't on base for whatever reason, only for his hand to brush against nothing as he realized that he didn't have one because they didn't exist yet. The holo-communicator being the work of someone who was only twelve right now, and in a Serbian school for misbehaved children.

His eyes were drawn to a shape that he was intimately familiar with even as his mind focused on the task of killing the Angel before his train of thought was cut off as a shiny blue Renault pulled into a skid in front of him, the door swinging open as the car was stopping even as he started running towards it before the half hidden driver had even spoken a word.

Pushing his currently weak body as hard as he could he reached the car in what felt like record time as he threw himself through the open door even as the driver glanced over to call him in before he interrupted her in the middle of calling.

"Drive!" Shinji shouted at what had to be Misato, she even smelt like beer, 'Misato? Oh god I forgot she was the one to pick me up.' Shinji thought as he tried to avoid jumping the woman and giving her the biggest hug her could manage in his teenage body as he was in the middle of slamming the door shut with one hand whilst reaching for the seat belt with the other.

Misato needed no more encouragement as a VTOL was smashed through the building to his right, landing within meters of the car as the Fourth Angel pushed the same building out of the way as if it was made of paper whilst ignoring the three other VTOL's putting enough firepower into it to turn a tank into Swiss Cheese.

Just as the Fourth pushed the rest of the building aside it stood upon the fallen VTOL, detonating what little munitions were left in it's stores. 'It's done much more in the past, it's playing right now. Or is it tired? The time travel affected it too?' Shinji mused as Misato pushed the car to the limits, barely avoiding the shrapnel from the explosion as it pinged off the sides of the frame and spitting out a curse in German that Asuka would have been impressed by.

Hearing this Shinji raised an amused eyebrow at Misato who smiled at him, trying not to look sheepish that she had sworn in front of a child even if she didn't think he understood her, not realizing that after living with Asuka for so many years he was just as fluent in German as he was in Japanese and he found her hidden language amusing 'Had she always sworn in German?'.

"Wie vulgär. (How vulgar.)" Shinji said with a teasing grin that grew slightly larger when he saw her embarrassed expression. 'She didn't think I knew German.' He thought his grin turning softer even as he ignored the explosions taking place around him as Misato drove like a madwoman through the city towards the outskirts, he had missed her, the last time he had seen her he hadn't appreciated just what she had given up for him to be happy but now he fully intended to repay the debt he owed her.

As they came out on one of the roads that had been built to loop around the city so that Nerv personnel could still get around encase of an Angel attack Shinji took a moment to appreciate the view, he could see the mountains around him, untouched as they should be, the city not currently a giant rusted hole in the ground that had been caused by SEELE and the JSSDF when they had invaded the original Nerv HQ for Adam.

As the car stopped at the top of a hill, the position giving them a good view of the UN attack forces going at it strong, despite the Angel practically ignoring them as it tried to find the easiest way down to the incomplete Lilith. Shinji noticed Misato taking out a pair of binoculars as she watched the Fourth Angel make its way out of sight over the hill before putting down her binoculars and getting back into the car, as Misato was about to start it Shinji noticed the various VTOL's and what was left of the ground forces moving away from the Angel who seemed not to notice this at all before his vision was consumed by a blinding white light that could only be a N2 or N3 mine, 'N2 considering when it is.'.

As the shock wave approached he felt Misato throw herself over him where he had ducked as soon as he saw the flash and it was silent for a second before the car was hit will the full force of the shock wave causing it to be thrown several dozen feet off the road as it did multiple sideways flips and rolls that only slightly stunned Shinji 'I've taken harder hit's in my Eva'.

As the light died down and the wind stopped screaming over the tipped car Shinji pushed himself up in his seat while making sure Misato didn't hit her head due to his sudden movement's, he'd managed to slink over to a window and slide out onto the ground where he pushed himself to his feet before offering a hand to Misato who was having a harder time getting out due to the fact that she was three inches taller than Shinji currently and her bust kept getting in the way whenever she tried the same hole Shinji had exited.

After taking a moment to steady himself and Misato, who seemed more affected by the blinding light and deafening noise that he did 'Not used to it I suppose. I've seen so many N2 and N3 explosions that I barely notice anymore.'

"Thank you." Shinji said quietly, perhaps the first time he had properly spoken to Misato since she had died apart from when he had visited her grave-pole and mourned her while talking to her grave about how he was doing.

Misato looked down at him and let a cheery grin come across her face "Nah, it was fine yeah?" She said before turning around to look at her tipped car.

'God, just seeing her grin again, alive and safe makes all this feel worth it' Shinji just smiled at her. When he saw the car he braced himself against the ground and gave it the best push he could in his current state, the car rocked considerably but he was too weak to tip it himself right now. Seeing his effort Misato moved over and gave Shinji a nod before she started pushing, something Shinji copied a moment later causing the car to teeter before it slammed down onto its wheels, popping one and shaking one of the headlights out of its sockets.

She huffed at the state of her car before reaching for the boot, where she kept several spare tires and some duck tape for emergency repairs, while she was pulling the spare tire from the boot Shinji remembered something he was supposed to have done by now and reached into his backpack, contemplating hiding Misato's cross in there while he was at it before remembering that he wasn't going to be wearing a plug suit so he wouldn't have to worry about it for now.

After finding what he was looking for Shinji pulled out his ID and the letter from Commander Ikari. A simple one word summoning 'Come' that he remembered scaring the life out of him when he was a child. Grabbing the ID he made his way over to Misato "I suppose you want this?" He asked while presenting her his ID, being mindful of the pieces of old tire around his feet, he didn't want to trip.

She took a quick glance at it, absorbing all of the info on the page, only raising an eyebrow at the mostly destroyed letter from the Commander with a short comment of "Just like mine." before she moved on to the ID whilst making sure it was verified and after looking at it for a little while she passed it back over with another cheery grin and a nod.

"Kid, what's with the scar?" Misato asked as she noticed a long scar on the side of his hand while she worked to remove what little was left of the old tire.

"Which one." Shinji answered on reflex, so used to questions about them that he forgot that he wasn't supposed to have the many scars he had gained through the link with his Eva.

"You have more?" Misato tried to keep the concern out of her voice, not wanting to sound condescending but if the Third Child was abused then it could cause problems, this aside from her personal hate of child abusers.

Seeing the look on his face she decided to drop it and bring it up later she set another grin on her face and turned to Shinji "Help me with this?"

After she had managed to get her car fixed, with a little donation of batteries from the nearest recharge station for her converted electric car, they had made a relatively good pace towards a Nerv entrance he remembered being in this area, that being Misato's goal whilst she focused on her driving, probably a good thing considering that the car was barely holding together with duck tape and prayer, that not saying much considering that Shinji wasn't religious for obvious reasons.

The closer they got the louder the sounds coming from the city were, it seemed that the Fourth was finally starting to slowly regenerate the damage inflicted by the N2 mine. 'It's taken it longer than it usually does to regenerate from that sort of damage.' Shinji mused whilst considering what this could mean. Were the Angels weaker? Were they stronger but hiding it? Or had nothing changed since the last time?

"We're here." He heard Misato announce as he looked up from his thinking to see a large steel door slide into the ceiling allowing the car into what seemed to be an underground parking lot filled with black vans with the Nerv logo on the side. Misato pulled the car into an empty spot, when she ejected the keys half the framework fell from its place and clattered to the ground while the engine started steaming.

"Not a word."

"Hai Katsuragi-san." Was the straight faced reply, Shinji hiding his grin as he made his way towards what he remembered was the main entrance for this parking lot's layout.

As they made their way through several doors and into the inner corridors Shinji felt old memories of this place stir and remembered what happened here.

(Asuka screaming as she was impaled through the face with a lance of Longinus. Her left eye gushing blood.)

(Thousands of Rei giggling as they melted into LCL while Ritsuko laughed madly as her sanity shattered.)

(Rei's plug being crushed against the ceiling shattering Rei's left arm as Unit 00 went berserk upon activation.)

(Kaworu exploding in a spray of blood in Unit 01's clenched hand, Shinji realizing that he truly wished to die.)

Shaking the memories off with the air of long practice Shinji followed Misato slightly slower than before while skimming through the Nerv handbook that she had provided to see if anything notably different stood out. 'So far everything seems exactly the same. Nothing is different.' Had he not already known, he would have warned himself not to get overconfident and make a crucial mistake that could ruin everything but he couldn't help but feel optimistic.

When they turned a corner they got a full view of the Geofront in all its glory, the artificial light giving the whole construct a golden glow. "A Geofront." Shinji breathed out in awe, he hadn't seen a true Geofront for a long time and no matter how long had passed this place was still as beautiful as he remembered it.

"The world's first Geofront and as of now the only one in existence."

"It's amazing." He said with a hidden knowing tone.

"Just you wait until you see what's here Shinji." Misato said with a grin, trying to anticipate his reaction to seeing a massive mecha face to face. Although why he was here she didn't know, only that she had been asked to pick him up and bring him down to Unit 01's cradle.

"Are we lost?" Shinji asked after several minutes of walking.

Misato was silent for a while as they entered the elevator before she sighed "Yes... I haven't been here long ok!" She snapped back with a slight grin on her face, seeing the laughter dancing in his eyes.

"Your a pretty cheerful kid you'know?"

"I'm not normally." Shinji answered honestly.

"Why is that?" Shinji was about to answer with a lie before the doors opened to show Ritsuko in a swimming suit with a lab coat thrown loosely over the top.

Misato immediately started trying to stutter out excuses but Ritsuko cut her off before she could get into the swing of it. "Lost again Misato?" Came the faintly exasperated reply to Misato's stuttering excuses.

"It's only been three weeks!"

Ritsuko seemed to scoff at the weak excuse before turning to the other person in the elevator with a raised eyebrow before turning back to Misato "This is the Third Child?"

"All scientist wear that here?" Shinji replied with another blunt question before Misato could reply back. Ritsuko's lip seemed to almost twitch and to the other two in the elevator it felt like that was the equivalent of a hearty laugh.

"No, because Misato got lost I had to exit Unit 01's cradle to come and get you before you waste any more time."

While rest of the trip was taken in silence, Shinji was recalling what happened next and was trying to plan how to deal with his father and Misato was looking at Ritsuko like a kicked puppy begging for attention.

"You're nothing like your father." Ritsuko broke the silence with her observation "You have the same confidence, the same knowing air but your attitude is a far cry from his."

Just hearing his father being mentioned felt like someone had burnt him with a hot poker, "Don't mention him to me." He snapped back at her, his good mood gone. What his father had done might have never happened but for him it was still merely twenty minutes ago and it hurt. It hurt what little love he still had to know that his father was so far gone to do what he had done without a second thought.

The other two were surprised, Misato more so as she had known him for longer, he seemed like a cheerful kid but it looked like mentioning his father seemed like an easy way to rile up his temper.

In his head Shinji was mentally berating himself for letting his temper go like that, he knew better, that losing your temper could get you or those around you killed.

After what now felt like too long the elevator finally stopped on the designated floor and stepped out of the awkward silence into total darkness, the only way he knew where he was going was that he could, and had in fact had to run around his Eva cradle in pitch black to manually enter his Eva when the Geofront's power was knocked off at one point during an Angel attack.

He walked through the darkness, only peripherally aware of the footsteps of the other two as they followed after him and the shuffling of the workers around the room as they waited for Commander Ikari to allow them to continue in the light.

After awhile he stopped roughly where he felt he should before the lights were suddenly flicked on to full power and he was blinded for a brief second as his eyes automatically sought out his Eva. When his eyes adjusted he was treated to the sight of Unit 01 standing there in all of its glory, it's paint still fresh from maintenance, the eyes seeming to bore straight into his as happiness grew in his eyes, having to restrain it from his face 'Welcome back, old friend.'

He felt happy before his mood dropped like a rock as he saw Commander Ikari standing there, above his Eva. Feeling a frown want to slide onto his face but restraining it with effort he gazed up into those eyes, cold, calculating and merciless. Those were the eyes of a man who was willing to do anything to get what he wanted and had done nearly anything to do so in the past.

Their staring contest lasted for what felt like ever but could only have been a mere 30 seconds before Shinji broke the silence "Why have you called me here Commander Ikari?"

The commander made not even a slight twitch before he replied smoothly "I have use for you."

A long time ago, that would have crushed his spirit and left him open for manipulation. But he had long since found his own worth and let a slight frown show "You are a bold man to make that statement after what you did." Shinji didn't feel anything about his abandonment by the Commander anymore, but it would seem odd if he went too far out of character and it opened the playing field significantly.

The Commander completely ignored what he said seeing it as irreverent, and went straight to the point. "You know why you are here?"A statement.

"You want me to do something with this. Unless you brought me here to gloat." Shinji knew he was stepping on thin ice, but at the moment he was the only person who could pilot Unit 01 and Gendo knew that. It was why he was brought here.

"You are to pilot Unit 01 and destroy the enemy."

"And if I say no?" Here was the time of truth, to see if Rei still had her memories or not.

Gendo stared down at his son for awhile longer before seeing that he would need another form of leverage, clearly his son had grown some backbone since he had last seen him. "Bring in Rei."

Ritsuko spoke up then, ignoring the look on Misato's face over the back and forth "Rei is still in critical condition, she can barely pilot in my most generous estimations."

Gendo only started at her until she bowed her head and turned to make the call.

Shinji stood staring at Gendo, their gazes locked, ironically both waiting for the same thing while they ignored the shaking caused by the now regenerated Angel. Their staring match was interrupted by the sound of wheels turning as the hospitalized form of Rei Ayanami came around the corner.

Shinji felt his breath catch, there she was, still as beautiful as he remembered her. His eyes went over her form, noting her injuries and passing over them to her eyes, where he maintained his stare until she passed next to him and he reached out an arm to halt the gurney. This making it's passenger open her uncovered eye, it slightly out of focus for a moment before immediately shot to his own, passing words between themselves by staring in each others eyes, a form of communication available only to those who knew the other completely, heart and soul.

Shinji felt himself kneel at the side of the gurney while feeling the eyes on his back, they didn't matter to him, Rei was all that mattered right now.

"Rest." He whispered to her as he ran a hand softly along her face lulling her to sleep again with the practice of a thousand nightmares. Feeling the Commander's gaze burn into his back Shinji stood again and turned back to face him, but before he could say anything there was a shuddering and the light fixtures rattled ominously before they snapped, sending metal frame screeching down, right where Rei lay.

Without thinking about it, Shinji grabbed Rei and pulled her off the gurney as gently as he could in the situation, just in time as the light crushed the bed into scrap. Before they could even breath a sigh of relief there was another rattling as the Fourth Angel started actually trying to bore his way to Lilith, seeing it as the fastest way.

Setting Rei down in his lap, he felt her tense in her sleep before she relaxed, knowing she was safe in his presence even as several light's fell from the ceiling, one of them clattering off the shoulder of Unit 01 with another heading straight for Shinji and Rei. Shinji just looked Gendo straight in the eyes as his death fell from above him, and just as it was about to hit him there was an unholy screeching sound of metal being twisted and suddenly he was dropped back into darkness, this time from a very different source, as Unit 01's arm stood hovering over him. It having broken free from its restraints without a thought from Shinji as it moved to protect him and Rei.

Gendo gave a hidden smirk, spine or not Shinji could be coerced by threatening Rei, someone who was utterly replaceable to him. And the reaction from the Eva told him that the soul inside would do as he wanted, protect Shinji, killing Angels in doing that duty.

Shinji pursed his lips as he stared up at his Commander, he knew what was going through his superiors mind and it grated on him to think Rei would be put in danger again if he didn't pilot, something he was admittedly going to do anyway, at this point it was all he knew how to do.

Misato came out from under cover as the shaking weakened, the Fourth not bothering to cause explosions as he melted his way down slowly, and started to protest about putting an untrained child into a combat scenario where his life would be in danger.

"I'll do it." Shinji said, cutting off Misato's words. "I'll pilot."

Gendo held back a pleased smirk, pleased to know that he could still manipulate his son as he wanted, even if he didn't know that Shinji did it because he wanted to, not because the Commander made him.

Misato stood overlooking the command room, watching as they did all of the preparations for an emergency activation test. Unit 01 hadn't even been activated yet so they were going to have to run the diagnostic for it while Shinji was in the Plug, something that might cause mental contamination if they weren't careful.

"Alright Shinji, enter the Plug now." Misato said as she kept her eyes on a diagnostic that was on the readout in front of her. They didn't have enough time to outfit Shinji with a plug suit so they were going to have to hope that the A-10 clips were enough for him to gain control over his Eva.

"Hai." Once Shinji had entered the Plug it was sealed and set into position.

"Eva diagnostic running, batteries fully charged."

"Connecting main power."

"All circuits transmitting power."

"Inserting Entry Plug." Misato felt her breath catch at that, were they really going to send a kid to fight that monster? Several seconds later her answer came as Commander Ikari was raised on a platform from the floor and took his place at the top of the command center.

"Plug fixed in place."

"Initiating First Stage connection." The readout on Misato's screen suddenly blinked and showed an interior view of the Plug, showing Shinji sitting there as if it was the most natural thing in the world, as if he had done this hundreds of thousands of times before. 'Does anything faze this kid?' Misato thought in slight admiration, he must have balls of steel.

The second he entered the Plug he felt at home, in the recent years he had started to spend more time in his Eva than he spent out of it, and while being outside was nice nothing could compare to the feeling that came from sitting in the command seat of an Eva.

Shinji relaxed into the pilot's seat as he felt the Plug move before it started spinning, the internal dampers working to make it seem like he hadn't moved but he could feel the slight movement's in his Plug, as he readied himself for the next stage in the connection. When he felt the Plug stop, there was a brief moment of silence before he heard the heavy thud that was the Eva's head and shoulders retracting to protect the pilot.

As he was waiting for the LCL he noticed the two-way video feed that exited to Misato's desk, he gave her a small smile and settled down in his seat. Several seconds later he heard a tech announce that they were filling the Entry Plug and the Plug started hissing as LCL started to flood in.

Shinji looked at the LCL with a bland expression as instructions on how to breath it in came from the link, he now knew what LCL was and the accumulated years he had spent submerged in it felt significantly more disturbing than they did before. The slight smell of blood flooding his nose and mouth as it past his head where he took a deep breath and completely filled his lungs with LCL, something he had found made the transition from breathing to relying on the liquid easier.

He heard the technicians calling out their roles as they completed them over his link.

"Initiating secondary contacts."

"A-10 Nerve connection normal." As he heard this he readied himself to start the connection to the Eva, the LCL in his Plug becoming transparent and the Plug around him flashed in a technicolor display that never ceased to catch his attention.

"Set the thought configuration to Japanese."

After several more seconds of rapidly shifting lights Shinji felt and saw the walls of the Plug shimmer and fade away revealing several different viewing windows that were the Eva's eyes and senors.

"Synchronization rate 63.7%" Hearing that Shinji frowned, he knew he had a better Synch rate than that and as he thought that, he pushed against the presence in the Eva demanding it's attention, pushing it until it would acknowledge him as the pilot. While he was doing this he completely missed the astonished looks of the crew personnel as his Synch rate started to steadily climb, until it seemed to hit a plateau at 98%, a number he knew he could break if he desperately needed to push the Eva beyond human limits.

"Amazing. Near perfect Synchronization." Ritsuko breathed out, the highest synch ratio ever recorded. 'This one was a keeper.'

"Harmonics are normal. No disturbances detected."

Shinji sunk into his Eva, its arms became his arms, its legs became his legs, its body became his body. This was the closest he could get to being one with the Eva without being broken down into LCL and absorbed into it. Something he supposed happened to the presence in the Eva.

"He was born to pilot an Eva." Misato mumbled out in shock even as she felt the gaze of Commander Ikari on her back, almost feeling the smug 'I told you so' in it.

"Prepare launch." Misato ordered, feeling her confidence in his survival return now she could see his synch rate being so high.

"Primary lock bolt's disengaged." A thud as several multi-ton bolt's left his Eva's shoulders and the armor fell into place.

"Disengaging umbilical bridge." A slight droning as the bridge was pulled away.

"Secondary lock bolts disengaged." A whirling as his arms locks were removed.

"Disengage primary and secondary restraints." Another thud as the wall restraints holding his remaining arm was removed.

"Internal batteries charged, external power normal." A crackling as power hummed through the external power cable.

"Move Eva Unit 01 to the ejector pad." came the voice of someone he vaguely remembered, Maya a nice girl who was an excellent technician and had a crush on Ritsuko. He'd have to subtly encourage that, it would be good for them both.

Shinji felt the Eva move along the tracks until it came to a halt as it's shoulder plates connected to the Eva launch system. He was only waiting for the launch order to be sent now.

"Can we really do this?" Misato asked. Confidence in him or not it would be better if his life wasn't in danger at all.

Gendo looked down at Misato and she shivered under his gaze "Of course. Unless we defeat the Angels, we have no future."

The link was silent for a short time before he heard Misato order the launch, where he was suddenly crushed into his seat as the Eva was accelerated towards the surface at several hundred miles an hour.

"Now Shinji, the first thing I want you to do it to try and walk ok?"

But before he could answer, the Eva reached the surface through a slowly opening road. Sensing an incoming attack Shinji immediately dove into a roll to the right, tearing his shoulder plates from the lift even as it was annihilated by the Fourth Angels AT field in a column of flame.

In mid roll Shinji instinctively raised his AT field to deflect the explosion from damaging him, and when the explosion faded it revealed that the Fourth Angel had stopped its efforts to get to Lilith and instead had turned to attack the interloper, shattering the building next to it so it could gain a line of sight at where he would appear.

"AT field detected on the Angel and the Eva."

At this point Shinji ignored what they were saying, he would keep half an ear open encase something that really needed his attention cropped up but for now he needed to focus solely on his opponent. 'Let's see what you can do.' Shinji thought as he brought his hands up to his chest in a fighting stance as he watched the Fourth lumber around the corner it was on so they both stood on the same street.

"Shinji attack now!" He ignored their pleas as he focused on what he was doing, they might have thought he was frozen in fear but he was actually planning his next move.

After a strangle lull in the battle Shinji crouched down and leapt as high as he could, shattering the ground underfoot and propelling himself towards his target even as the Angel blasted it's AT field down the street below him like a raging storm, flattening all in it's way with a wall of force before it was stopped as Unit 01 landed boot first on it's exposed core, his AT field neutralizing the others as he knocked it to the ground. Shinji instinctively reached for the Progressive Knife with his right hand to where he knew it was equipped in his shoulder.

"The AT fields are neutralizing one another." Maya again.

"We've won." Fuyutsuki announced quietly to Gendo getting a nod in return.

As the knife came to his hand and activated with a hum, he brought it down as the Angel shifted, piercing through it's birdlike mask and slicing deep into the Angels chest, the blade going through and stabbing into the ground beneath it as the knife nicked the side of its core scoring a deep rivet through it. It was a futile effort though as within a second the knife was back out and already halfway to the exposed core.

The Fourth Angel seeing its incoming death screeched and quickly dissolved into bubbly goo that latched itself onto Unit 01 where it glowed a menacing red before its core exploded in a pyrotechnical display seen only before by nuclear weapons and the Second Impact, one that was muted as Unit 01's AT field spread around it and held it in place, forcing it high into the sky where it dispersed in a cross. Leaving a oddly perfect hole in the ground.

Despite his best efforts, the Angel is a massive being and when it died its AT field imploded causing the blood contained within to flow out, flooding the city as if a tsunami had come.

When Misato saw the Angels last ditch effort she clenched her hands so tightly that the metal railing in her grip let out a slight groan in protest before she let go, why was Shinji ignoring her? Was he dead? In the silence of the control room she waited anxiously. As the smoke cleared she could see the shady outline of Unit 01 standing tall, the techs around her cheering as she let out a shaky breath 'The first one down.'

"Shinji?" She asked over the line as his camera feed cut out for a moment before the camera switched to the main power cords backup line. Wireless having been knocked out for a moment by the explosion.

Shinji was slowly coming back from his battle focus, finding that for some reason his hands were shaking and his 'breaths' of LCL were short. "Y-Yeah?" Came the reply, Shinji just now realizing that he was coming down from this body's first adrenaline rush.

Misato had obviously reached the same conclusion as his lifelines stabilized from where they had been jumping about before "Its ok, don't panic. Your just coming down from an adrenaline rush. Keep calm." Despite already knowing and doing this, Misato's motherly tone soothed something deep in him that he had forgotten that he'd had and he lent back in his seat, letting his body go limp for a moment before he moved his hands back to the butterfly grips.

"Shinji! What are you doing?" Misato asked in surprise as she saw Unit 01 start moving again "Let us come and get you. Don't push yourself!"

Shinji smiled as he heard her words, she barely even knew him and already she was worried for his safety "Its fine Katsuragi-san, I can move back, I still have my power cable." True, but his real reason was that he didn't want to be spotted leaving his Eva. He liked his privacy and having his status as a pilot in the open had garnered way more attention that he had wanted, assassins included.

Misato chewed on her lip for a moment before tapping something on her readout "Go here and attach your Eva to the rails, it will bring you back to your cradle." A blip appeared on his map, something he usually left turned off but for navigating it was great, it gave you a top down view of wherever you are and your surroundings, including the different things you could have the people at Nerv do, such as raising barriers, lowering and raising buildings and weapon drop-off points.

Shinji slowly made his way over to the docking point, thinking as he did so 'The Fourth acted like he usually does. The Angels have been scaled to the same strength they were before?'. Mulling over his thoughts while being careful to avoid breaking the city anymore than he had, he locked into the dock let himself relax as the Eva dropped down into the depths of Nerv HQ, the world safe for another day.