NERV HQ Medical Wing

Shinji found himself in a hospital bed, looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Groaning, he rose slightly from the pillows and put a hand to his temple. Instead of feeling a bandaged wound, he found that it was completely healed. There wasn't even any sense of soreness. "I wasn't just dreaming it," he muttered to himself.

Of course not, replied Zone Fighter.

"Where am I?" Shinji asked.

I don't know, Shinji. I can only see what you see.

The door opened, and two women walked in. One of the women Shinji recognized to be Misato Katsuragi, the person he was supposed to meet. The other was a blonde woman in a lab coat. Shinji suddenly felt very awkward, considering the fact he was garbed only in a thin hospital gown.

"Good morning, Shinji. I'm Dr. Ritsuko Akagi, head of Project E," replied the blonde woman. "You gave us quite a scare with that head wound.

"I'm sorry," Shinji blurted.

Misato giggled. "You don't to apologize, Shinji."

"Sorry," Shinji replied again.

What's the deal with the apologizing? You're not offending them by surviving a head wound, Zone Fighter commented.

Sorry! Shinji replied mentally before realizing his mistake.

After a couple of rather embarrassing medical check ups, Shinji was allowed to dress in his old clothes. Scribbling something down on her clipboard, Ritsuko turned to face him again. "Follow me, Shinji. We need to get you ready for your test."

"What test?" Shinji asked, confused. "I still don't know why I'm here. Is that why I was summoned to NERV?"

Ritsuko nodded. "We're going to see how well you sync with Unit-01, as per Commander Ikari's orders."

I don't know what this "Unit-01" is, but it sounds rather ominous, Zone Fighter said.


Somewhere in NERV HQ

Gendo continued to observe the video feeds from the UN VTOLs. The monster, which the UN hastily gave the designation of "Large Scale Organism-01", had returned to sea after the battle, and was now being observed from a distance by VTOLs and naval vessels. It was remarkably swift in the water, already it had covered 200 miles and showed no sign of slowing. After seeing the vicious thrashing it had given the Angel, the UN had decided not to provoke it and simply contented itself with observation in the meantime.

"This event was not in the scrolls, Ikari," one of the black monoliths surrounding him said angrily. "Your Unit-01 was supposed to defeat the Angel, not this overgrown lizard."

"The scrolls have multiple interpretations and translations," replied Gendo. "It's entirely possible that this event fits within what has been written."

"We cannot let something like that fall to chance Ikari," another monolith retorted. "This 'LSO-01' must be either brought under our control or destroyed. It is too dangerous to let interfere with our plans."

"Understood," Gendo replied, as impassive as ever.

The monoliths vanished, leaving Gendo alone. Continuing to watch the footage of the monster, he wondered just where "LSO-01" was going at such a speed.

Chichi-jima, Ogasawara Archipelago

Godzilla finally managed to reach the shore. Clambering onto the island and shaking thousands of tons of seawater off of his body, he surveyed the land before him, looking for any familiar signs. He failed to find anything. The island was devoid of any structures built by man. He couldn't hear Baragon tunneling about, nor could he see the familiar spikes of Anguirus over the hilltops. Indeed, even the vegetation was gone, leaving the island bare to the moonlight. Godzilla remembered how islands were like that after a tsunami, having found islands wiped clean of food many times in his long life. Was a tsunami the cause for the damage to the world?

He called for his son, a bellow that echoed across the land. There was no reply.

His growing suspicious were confirmed. This was not the world he knew. Tokyo's appearance was all wrong, and the military were using antiquated weapons against the strange attacker. Although the realization that he was stranded in some strange land dismayed him, he felt a surge of hope. His son could still be alive. His friends could still be alive, even if he himself was in a world without defenders.

He realized he was mistaken in that regard. There was a defender for this world now, a guardian for the broken cities and people that were at the mercy of strange beasts. His atomic heart grew firm with resolve. Godzilla, King of the Monsters, would protect his new home. Roaring for the world to hear, he dove back into the waves.

Somewhere over (E)Earth orbit, the same time

The probe shimmered into existence after traveling through the wormhole bridging universes. Its design was, despite some similarities, definitely not human. Quickly it began to tap into communications networks, gathering as much information as possible regarding the planet below. Once its job was done, it relayed what it had collected back through the wormhole and self-destructed, designed to leave behind nothing that could examined.

In another universe, a collection of nonhuman beings observed the data with interest that bordered on hunger. Having finished reading over what the probe had gathered, one of them rose from its seat and grinned. "This planet is even better than we expected. The human race is already halfway gone here, and great portions of it are in turmoil."

Another alien rose. "Don't be too hasty to let loose your weapons, X. This new world is rather damaged, it would take considerable terraforming work to make it suitable. There is also the matter of these 'Evangelions' that are so cryptically described by what we could gather. I must say, their computers are rather hard to crack. We don't know how capable they are."

X grinned again. "These 'Evangelions' appear to be few. Do you really think they can withstand the might of the King of Terror itself? Our combined forces can sweep across this world and render the human race nothing more than a memory smeared across the ground."

One of the seated aliens growled in derision. "Don't pat yourself on the back. You know perfectly well that your monster is nothing more than a shadow of the real King of Terror. Nonetheless, I agree with you. This Earth is weak and without the proper defenses, and will be easy picking for our empires. Once they are gone, we can settle properly."

"You can settle if you want. Rendering those hairless primates extinct will be enough for me," X replied.

"All right then, it's settled. We must prepare for our attack. Remember to not make haste, however. We have all the time we need, considering this planet's dismal state. Use that time, and make sure that nothing can go wrong with the invasion," the second alien replied, sneering at an insectoid creature seated at the table. "After all, we have plenty of examples of what happens when your monsters are, shall we say, 'ill-prepared'."

The insect merely chittered in annoyance.

With that, they left the room, unaware of the 70,000 ton spanner in their plan lurking in the red oceans down below.