The muzzle of his huge rifle blazed and a stream of bullets were sent straight into the angel's chest. Spent shell casings, each larger than a car, flew from the rifle's chamber. Shinji kept squeezing his trigger finger staring out as the bullets hit their target. The angel stumbled back a step and raised its arms as if to ward them off. Blazing away at full automatic it took no more than 15 seconds to run through all of his ammunition. The rifle gave off a final 'click' and it ceased fire. Shinji kept squeezing as though that would help.

The firing halted the angel lowered its arms.

XXXXXXXXXX

"The enemy has suffered no apparent damage!" Miya cried.

"Get him more ammunition, now!" Misato shouted.

But even as she said it the angel moved, leaping to cover the distance between it and Unit 01 in a single jump.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Yaaah!" Shinji cried in sudden panic as he saw what was about to happen. Reacting to his will the EVA began to get out of the way but was unable to. Crashing down on top of Unit 01 both it and the angel smashed a couple building to rubble.

Sitting on top of Unit 01 the angel grabbed its right arm and began viciously pounding its head.

Inside the plug Shinji cried in pain. He'd know he could feel what his EVA did when it walked about or picked something up, until this moment he had never imagined he could feel pain through it as well. He felt a heavy weight pressing down on his chest. His right arm was being held out at a weird angle behind his head and felt like it was being torn from its socket. His face felt as though he was being punched right in the eye.

"Shinji!" Misato called through the com link. "Activate your AT field!"

Through his pain he thought about creating a wall in front of his body.

Answering his will Unit 01's AT field activated. A wall of energy instantly formed in front of it. The angel was thrown off and sent flying to land amidst another block of building.

"Shinji! We're sending you more ammunition, hurry and reload!" Misato ordered.

"Ri… right," he said shakily. His face felt sore and his right arm hurt like hell. He found he could still use it though. The façade building that had been used to send him his rifle again opened up to reveal two clips of ammunition. As he'd done in practice so often before he ejected the spent clip and slapped in a fresh one. The spare he put on a slot on his EVA that was designed just to hold it. He brought the rifle up to firing position and sighted the enemy that was only just now getting back up. As soon as his targeting computer showed him he was locked on he squeezed the trigger. Again his bullets hit the angel. Again they seemed to do it no harm. This time the angel ran directly at him. He kept firing at it the entire time to no effect.

The angel reached him and slapped the useless gun away. It then reached out to grab him only to be halted by the AT field.

"What do I do?!" Shinji cried in terror.

"This is bad!" Ritsuko called out. "His heart rate is climbing fast and nerve connections are beginning to break! His sync rate has fallen to 53.5% He won't be able to fight much longer!"

Misato looked back at Commander Gendo. He appeared completely unmoved by his sons desperate situation. "Commander, should we launch Unit 00?"

"No," Gendo replied calmly.

"Unbelievable," she muttered beneath her breath. She then switched her com link back on. "Shinji calm down! You can do this! The enemy's core, that big red ball in the middle of its chest, that's the weak spot! If you destroy it you'll kill the angel!"

"How?" He cried. "I've lost my gun!"

"Use the prog knife! You need to hurry before your AT field gives out!" And before you lose control of your EVA.

Within the plug Shinji nodded. He had to fight back, he had to win. Reaching behind himself the handle of the prog knife popped out. A huge blade it resembled a monstrous Bowie knife. Taking firm hold with his right hand he stabbed at the angel's core only to have a wall of energy appear and block him.

"It has an AT field too! What now?"

"Calm down Shinji!" Misato called. "You can break through it! Tear an opening and you can use your knife."

The angel was also trying to smash through his AT field. It had landed a series of punches that had weakened it slightly. Now out of its right wrist came a lance of glowing energy. It struck the AT field near Unit 01's head. The field glowed and a thin carrack appeared, the lance drew back and struck again, the crack began to widen.

"The AT field's energy output has dropped to 74%," Ritsuko called out.

"Hurry Shinji!" Misato yelled. "You've got to kill it!"

"I have to kill it," he whispered to himself. Then more loudly. "I have to kill it." He had to, not just to save himself but to save Rei too. "I have to kill it!!" He shouted.

His left hand reached out and struck the angel's AT field. He could feel it. It was a flat wall against his hand, but it wasn't a wall of steel or brick. He pushed with his hand it gave way; it was like pressing a wall of tightly stretched cloth. As he pushed it started giving way.

Both opponents stood there in the middle of the city concentrating totally on the attack and relying on their AT fields to protect them. The angel continued to hammer away with its lance, causing the crack to spread and begin to widen dangerously.

"AT field down to 23% power output!" Ritsuko called. "It won't last much longer!"

Please hurry Shinji! Misato thought.

Inside the plug Shinji's left land pushed out in front of him while his right was clenching a knife that felt as real to him as could be. Tear damn it! Tear open! Gruntingwith effort he pushed with his left hand. It felt as though the cloth were ripping.

In Central Dogma Ritsuko suddenly saw his sync rate reverse and momentarily climb up to 80.1.

Shinji felt and saw the angel's AT field tear open, even as his own failed.

"Die!" He screamed and slammed his right hand forward at the same instant the angel's lance tore into Unit 01's right eye and clean through the back of its head. What looked like blood gushed from the wound.

Shinji howled in pain as he felt something stab into his eye. Even as he screamed his prog knife stabbed into the angel's core, breaking it open.

Sensing its imminent death the angel leapt onto unit 01 and wrapped itself about the EVA.

Ritsuko saw the angel's power readings and realized what was about to happen. "It's going to…"

Unit 01 and the angel disappeared within a massive explosion as the enemy self-destructed.

XXXXXXXXXX

He concentrated on the music.

For a child a cello was a huge instrument almost as tall as he was. He was sitting in his room practicing. One of his teacher's had told him he had a natural talent for the cello and had spoken to his father about it. His father had actually come to him and asked him if he would like to take lessons in that stern unforgiving way he had.

It was very rare for his father to talk to him, and even rarer for him to get a choice in anything. He had liked the idea of being good at something and had said yes.

After that a little old man named Shinzo had started coming to his apartment three times a week after he got done with class. He was a kindly old man and the hour lessons were pleasant, Shinzo-sensei was patient and forgiving whenever he made a mistake and always praised him when he did well. Shinji liked to imagine him as a kindly grandfather. He came to really enjoy playing eh cello and so practiced on his own whenever he could.

"What are you doing?"

He abruptly stopped to look up and see a little blue haired girl standing at his doorway.

"Hello Ayanami," he said a little coolly. He honestly didn't know what to make of the girl. On the one hand he was jealous of her because she got the attention from tousan that he craved. For whatever reason his father liked her and smiled at her when he would barely say two words to him. But on the other hand she was nice to him whenever almost no one else was. She would come over a lot just to play with him. She was sort of weird, she would say strange things and was always asking questions about what he was feeling or why he did something. He wasn't sure whether or not he liked her.

Looking at him curiously with her red eyes she stepped into his room. "What are you doing?" She asked again.

"I'm practicing the cello," he answered. "Isn't it obvious?" He asked feeling a little annoyed. She really liked asking him dumb questions.

She missed his tone as she usually did. "Do you mind if I watch?"

"I don't care," he said. He began playing again.

She sat cross legged on his bed and stared at him in silence.

He tried to ignore her but after about fifteen minutes he finally stopped and glared at her. "Are you really going to just sit there and stare at me?"

"You said it was all right," she reminded him.

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"I came here to play with you," she told him. "But since you're busy doing this I thought I would just listen instead." She offered him one of her small smiles. "I like listening to you play Shinji."

Whenever she smiled at him like that he always got this weird feeling in his chest.

"Is it not all right? Do you want me to go?"

"It's fine," he said feeling a little guilty. He began to play again. "If you want you could learn to play an instrument too, that way we could practice together." He was just saying that to be polite.

She took his words seriously as she always did. "All right."

XXXXXXXXXX

As Shinji opened his eyes he could hear sweet music playing. He realized he was in a strange bed looking up at a strange ceiling. Looking around he saw some flowers on a nightstand by his bed. He also saw Rei sitting in a chair beside him. She was playing her violin. He recognized the tune, it was Bach's 'Sleepers Awake.' Well that's fitting I suppose.

When she saw him with eyes open she immediately stopped. "Shinji, you're awake."

Smiling at her he put his hands together to clap a bit. "That was lovely Rei."

Her cheeks darkened just a little and she lowered her eyes. "I heard one of the nurse's mention that patients recovered faster if they were exposed to music."

"Well thank you, I can't think of a better way to wake up." He looked around the room. It was bare except for his bed, and IV rack, the stand and flowers, and the single chair Rei was sitting on. The single large window was open wide to allow a maximum of sunlight and there was a faint antiseptic odor. "Am I in the hospital?"

Rei nodded. "You have been here for a full day; you don't have any serious injuries."

"Have you been with me the whole time?" She again nodded. "Thanks Rei."

"You don't need to thank me Shinji, where else would I be when you need me?" She looked down again, this time in discomfort. "I am sorry I didn't help you when you really needed me."

"That's okay," he said immediately. "I know it wasn't your decision." It was my father's. Wanting to change the subject he looked at the flowers. There were two displays of them. "Did you get me those?"

"I got one," she confirmed. "That is customary when someone is injured isn't it?"

"Yeah, thank you. Who got the other one?" He asked curiously.

"Chief Operations Officer Misato."

Of course it wouldn't have come from my father, he thought bitterly. "Well that was nice of her, I'll have to thank her."

Getting up from her chair she approached him. "I'll go and let the staff know you are awake." She placed a warm kiss on his cheek. "I am happy that you are all right Shinji-kun."

"Thanks Rei," he answered quietly. As long as I have you it's all right.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What a mess," Misato said. She and Ritsuko were in a helicopter over the blast sight. A ten block radius of Tokyo 3 had been leveled when the enemy self-destructed. Fortunately Unit 01 had not been seriously damaged and Shinji had not been seriously hurt.

"It could have been worse," Ritsuko said prudently. "It's quite possible future battles will be worse."

"Future battles," Misato said with a grimace.

"What's wrong?" Ritsuko teased. "I thought you were eager to bring on a showdown with the Angels."

"I still feel that way," Misato said with a snap. "Mankind will never be truly safe as long as the Angels are out there to threaten us. But if this first encounter is any indication we'll need to strengthen our forces if we're going to succeed."

"Well that's certainly true," Ritsuko agreed. "As far as that goes Unit 02 should be coming here before long and Unit 03 is nearing completion."

Misato nodded. "That's all well and good, we can use all the help we can get. Hopefully when we have them we'll actually put them to use."

"You don't agree with the Commander's decision to rely on Unit 01?"

"Do you?" Misato said in surprise. So far as she was concerned the battle had come damn close to being a total disaster. The fact that Shinji had pulled it off at the end didn't change that.

"My job is to make sure the equipment is in the best possible condition, I have nothing to do with how things get deployed."

Misato gave an unhappy grunt, she loved her old college friend but Ritsuko did tend to get lost in her work at times. "We may have more EVAs soon but for right now we have exactly two. Losing even one would be a disaster not just for NERV but for all mankind. We shouldn't put one of them in extreme hazards for the sake of protecting the other."

Ritsuko smiled. "Are you worried about protecting the EVA or Shinji?"

"Both," she said. "One's no good without the other."

Ritsuko nodded. "Well hopefully the Commander is more careful in the future."

"Let's hope."