He turned his back to the payphone and looked at the picture again. And once more he was reminded of Sera, the girl he'd known at boot camp during his first months at the Iga clan. She was funny, vivacious and overly flirty, she had been his polar opposite and had gotten him in more than a few troubles.

Something caught his attention from the corner of his eye and when he turned he saw a pale girl with long blue hair looking directly at him from the end of the street. A flock of birds nearby took flight distracting his attention and when he looked back she was gone

Then the world exploded and he saw the ruined wreck of a VTOL gunship burning down the street near the station he had just left and the green giant which had brought it down.

He stood still for a moment, his brain unable to accept what his eyes saw, a giant monster the size of a building tower was swatting down planes like they were flies. Secondary explosions from the crashed plane brought him back to reality and he thought about the men that might still be alive and trapped inside it. Before he could run to their help a blue sports car skidded to a stop right between him and the crashed plane.

From the inside a female voice asked.

"Are you Ikari Shinji?"

Misato Katsuragi, had finally arrived.

"So this is the boy?" Ritsuko Akagi whispered to her old college friend. "Not exactly what I expected".

Misato Katsuragi brought her lips closer to Ritsuko's ear and whispered with all the subtlety of a steam roller, "Neither did I, but then I had no idea what to expect. All they gave me was an old photo from from when he was fourteen, and he's really grown up since then. I had to ask him who he was when I found him, just to be sure, good thing he was the only one there or I would have never guessed."

Puberty had hit the thin frail boy like a freight train, that combined with the physical training and his father's genetics, had left him with an imposing physique. At 181 cm, he stood quite tall for a japanese. And despite her airheaded demeanor, Misato she was a soldier and a trained professional, she was trained to notice things and she had indeed noticed the way Shinji's chest bulked under the wide pilot jacket he wore. After their short ride in the car the only thing Misato was sure of, was that 'boy' was not an adequate word to describe Shinji Ikari.

"And whose fault is that? You're the one who got lost on the way there." Ritsuko chided her friend who had the decency to look embarrassed. "It's not that bad anyways, his facial features are still recognisable, he's just grown; a lot."

"Uhm, whispering doesn't work if you do it as loud as normal talk, also, I'm right here you know?"

"I guess you are." Doctor Akagi said addressing him directly. He noticed the stack of papers the young man was reading with earnest interest. "You've got your nose buried in the document briefing Misato gave you, find anything interesting?"

"More like unbelievable."

"Trust me," Ritsuko replied with a wry smile "you don't know unbelievable yet."

"So this is my parents' work?"

"Correct."

The answer came loud and high above him, like the voice of God, the obvious theatricality of it all was not lost to Shinji, as wasn't the elevated position from which a kind old man benefited him with a gentle smile.

"Welcome Ikari Shinji, to project Nerv, I'm just sorry that it couldn't be under better circumstances. I know you must have questions but unfortunately time is always against us."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Fuyutsuki Kozo. I'm the subcommander of Nerv, I knew both your parents when they were my students."

Why all this, the unnecessary drama leading to this, the redacted letter, the meager note which simply said 'come'. Why was he thrown into a dark room to stun him with the sudden revelation of a giant purple robot monster?

And where was his father?!

At first he couldn't believe it, a chance that his father was alive? After all those years thinking he'd lost everything that mattered, fate had chosen to give him some of his life back. But then he read the documents, the letter, almost unreadable from all the redacted blocks, the document didn't explain his father's current situation, neither did it make any attempt to explain where he'd been these last ten years, or why he had let him think him dead all that time, there were no answers in any of the papers he'd gotten.

He tried to recall the few fleeting memories he had of his father during those early years, it wasn't easy. It was mostly his mother who occupied his memories, it had been her who had spent the most time with Shinji, who had raised him and shown him the most love and affection. He remembered his father as a stern awkward man, who seemed uncomfortable with public displays of affection. A cold and distant man, there were however a few glittering memories he treasured of time spent together. He recalled a day at the beach when he was five, spent as a family at the insistence of his mother and the way they had played together. A camping trip at six during which his father had laughed a hearty laugh that Shinji had never heard before and rode on his shoulders while laughing as well. And a mere weeks before the murder happened, he remembered that rare afternoon at the park, during which his father had played ball with him under the amused and warm gaze of his mother. Precious memories of time spent together in happiness. Most of his parents' time was spent at the lab, experimenting, researching and building. He didn't know what it was they did, but he knew it was very important work, specially after second impact, he remembered his mother saying that it was research to save the world from total extinction. She'd taken him once to the lab and shown what it was they did there. He could not remember what he had seen, but he knew it had scared him so badly he had been crying long after leaving the building that day.

He focused his gaze on the man above, this stranger who claimed to have known and befriended both his parents. Was he supposed to manipulate him by representing the only link he still had available to them.

If so, he hated the fact that it worked.

"Why did you call me?"

"For exactly the reason you think."

"Is this why I'm here then, is that the only reason? To... to pilot this... this thing?! Why now?"

"Because we need you to do so."

Why me?!"

"Because no one else can."

There was silence then, a long pregnant pause until Fuyutsuki spoke again, in a kind but stern tone.

"I realize this a lot to take at once, but we literally have no other choice. Our only other pilot is; 'unable' to perform her duties. I really hoped it never came to this, and certainly not under these sort of circumstances. Fate however has a very cruel sense of timing."

"No." he whispered. "No!" he repeated but this time it was a scream. "This is insane, not to mention ridiculous. I know nothing about this; thing before me. I've had no training, no experience piloting it. This is supposed to be a… a giant humanoid battle form I believe is the correct nomenclature. But that's the extent of all I know about it! And yet, you seriously expect me to go out there and fight some sort of giant monster that brushes air-surface missiles like they were nothing more than farts?!"

Misato looked up at her subcommander. "He does have a point there" she said, and shrugged her shoulders.

The subcommander frowned in disapproval at his operations lieutenant, then returned his attention to Shinji. "I can't help but agree to everything you've said, but the circumstances we are involved in are rather extraordinary. Everything involving the EVAs is quite extraordinary in itself, not the least of which is their choice of pilots."

"They are picky machines, the EVAs" it was very subtle but Shinji managed notice the slight inflection with which Fuyutsuki had pronounced the word machine to refer to the EVA, like a professor telling something that he knows is incorrect, but is easier to comprehend. "We only know of two other people in the whole world that can pilot them. One is currently in Germany, as for the other one…"

There was a sound like distant thunder and the whole room shook. Kozo Fuyutsuki looked up to the ceiling, towards the surface. "Damn it, it's found us." He said.

There was of a heavy duty door opening, followed by the squeaky sound of wheels as a stretcher was rolled on the bridge . Then he noticed another sound he knew all too well. It was the sound of heavy pained breathing and it was coming from a girl of his age lying wounded on the stretcher, she tried to right herself sitting on its edge with obvious difficulty, her eyes closed from the exertion of simply assuming a sitting position and her face twisted with pain.

"You can see the state she is in." said Fuyutsuki from the skybox.

Shinji looked furiously at the grey-haired man above him. This had to be one of the most obvious and blatant emotional blackmails he'd ever seen. But what aggravated him all the more was that it worked perfectly. He could not ignore the suffering and pain of the girl before him anymore than he could ignore his own legs. The fact was, that as they spoke, people were dying.

Another tremor, this one much stronger than the previous one shook the whole room, and threw everyone around like rag dolls. The girl's stretcher was thrown over and she collapsed on the walkway. The supports of the heavy duty lamps hanging from the ceiling were damaged and fell right on top of Shinji.

The pink coolant in which the eva was submerged suddenly exploded as the giant robot's hand shot out of the liquid, raising itself over the walkway to protect Shinji from the heavy steel girders about to flatten him.

But Shinji wasn't there, none of the falling debris even came close to him, by the time the last piece fell he was already kneeling by Ayanami's side helping her up, no one had seen him move. He ignored the voices of the workers around him, and concentrated on Ayanami, trying to assess the extent of her wounds. She had her eyes tightly shut, and was barely conscious, all she could do was moan in pain between clenched teeth. He felt something wet on one of his hands and when he pulled it away, he saw blood covering his fingertips.

The blood of the girl lying in her arms brought back memories of that fateful night, as he stood there, kneeling on the pavement, watching the blood slowly drain from his parents bodies, unable to prevent it. Once more he was watching people die before his eyes and again he did nothing.

'No, not this time, not now, not ever again.'

With those thoughts in his mind he looked up at the booth and said.

"I'll pilot it."