Underling (whose shoulder patch says I24)- Sir the masses are restless

Deep Ominous Voice- What? Again so soon? Ungrateful wretches. Throw another chapter at them. And this time lace the wombats with Ecstasy.

Underling I24- Yes sir, as soon as Itchy confirms it free of brain damaging textachrons.

Chapter The Seventh of a Slightly OOC Evangelion Story (Now with OC Goodness!)

Yes, an original character. Who else could train them huh? HUH? Oh yeah, one other warning, this is going to turn into a crossover fic very shortly. But only on a technological level. And even then barely. So keep your plugsuits on. Oh yes, and we have the return of {song} with this chapter! Everybody DANCE!

*~~~Hikari's living room~~~*

*~~13 Days Until Daath Combine Attack~~*

    Something delicious tickled Toji's nose and he bolted up out his sleeping bag. He whipped his head around, assessing his surroundings. Hikari's living room, slept alone, Kensuke still asleep, no sign of Hikari, Asuka still asleep, sans Shinji. Rei awake, but not moving...why is Asuka's skirt not on her...OH MY GOD! Unfortunately for him, his speech echoed the last three cars in his train of thought. Which were followed by Hikari's voice floating from the kitchen.

"Toji-san? Are you okay?"

"Hi...Hikari! Why I...is So...Sohryu's..."

Shinji's voice floated out too "Oh that, she was uncomfortable in it so she took it off."

"And you let her? Get her to put it back on before I..."

Hellfire spewed over Toji's shoulder "Before you what stooge? Were you just threatening MY boyfriend?"

    Toji slowly turned around, his eyes widened and he mumbled an apology before scrambling to the bathroom. Asuka laughed triumphantly and waltzed into the kitchen, fully clothed, where she promptly planted a kiss on her boyfriend.

"Ohayo Shinji-kun!"

"Guten Morgen Asuka-chan!"

Hikari giggled "You two are really cute."

    Asuka groaned and sat down, while the gourmets kept cooking up a storm. Not ten minutes later everyone was munching on a pile of pancakes and French toast. Breakfast was peaceful and delicious until the phone rang. Hikari answered and informed the Children that Misato was on her way to pick them up. After they left, two stooges and a class representative just kind of stared at each other. All three of them spoke at once

"Immortal huh?"

Kensuke shook his head "Man... wonder how that could have happened."

Toji shrugged "They're probably not supposed to say Ken, we all know how NERV is."

Hikari started to clean up "I really kind of feel sorry for them, they have to watch us all get old and die while they live on...I don't think anyone should have to see that."

    Silence settled again over the room.

*~~~Landing Strip approximately 2.3 km from the Katsuragi/Ikari/Sohryu Residence~~~*

    Lieutenant Nikolas Maxwell took a long drag off his cigarette. He sat under a tree, watching the four massive crates sitting on the strip with half an eye. When are these trainees going to show up? Man this is getting lamer by the moment... As if on cue, the blue death-mobile wheeled onto the landing strip, missing Nikolas's shade provider by less than a foot before stopping. He turned his head as the driver's side door opened and a purple-haired vision stepped out. Okay...maybe this won't be so bad after all... The doors on the opposite side opened, from the front stepped a young blue-haired girl, and the back spat out a giggling redhead and the boy she was attached to. Ugh, kids...

"Attention Lieutenant!"

Nikolas bolted up and faced the woman he had spied, and snapped up a salute at the sight of her rank insignia. "Greetings Major!"

The woman chuckled "Just testing you." she stuck out her hand "Misato Katsuragi, Director of Operations Lieutenant...?"

"Maxwell. Nikolas Maxwell. Pleased to meet you Miss Katsuragi."

"Please call me Misato, these are your pilots..." she pointed at the kids "Hey you guys! Get over here and introduce yourselves to Lieutenant Maxwell!"

The kids collected themselves and lined up behind the Major, each bowing and introducing themselves in turn.

"Pilot Shinji Ikari, Lieutenant Maxwell."

"The Great Asuka Langley Sohryu, at your disposal."

"Rei Ayanami reporting for duty."

    Nikolas looked them over one at a time. The redhead and the boy are together...the other one seems almost like a robot...a good mix though I guess. He spat his cigarette onto the tarmac and stamped it out. Sighing, he turned and started walking to the first of the crates, a black one.

"All right, let's get this party started."

    The lieutenant walked to the nearest crate, which only stood out for its blackness compared to the other beige ones. He punched a sequence into the keypad at the corner of it and it started to fold open, revealing a sleek back jet fighter with dark blue trim. He turned to a myriad of surprised and curious faces.

"This, ladies and gentleman, is the VF-1S Multi-Aspect Fighter. This one specifically, belongs to me, it's called 'Gungnir'"

Asuka groaned "I'm not gonna fly some stupid jet!"

Nikolas narrowed his gaze "This is more than just a mere jet young lady. Anyway, this is obviously fighter mode, top speed Mach 3.87, but only at 30,000 meters or so. Its weapons here include self-replenishing missile pods, capable of firing incredible amounts of ordinance and two light autocannons mounted in the nose. It's capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Now I'll just climb in and show you the other modes."

    He hopped in the cockpit and started it up, his voice came out of a radio on a nearby table.

I forgot to mention this thing runs on a reactor based engine, so it can fly without air.

    The fighter rose into the air about twenty meters, in his cockpit, Nikolas depressed the 'G' switch. The fighters shifted, the rear thrusts moved down and outwards, becoming legs, arms were freed. Nikolas flexed the hands and addressed his audience once again.

This is the Guardian mode. Used mainly for recon and rescue work, you still have the light autocannons and missiles, but it fires smaller ones that are more agile than the fighter's, but pack less of a punch. Also, the arms contain interchangeable weapons in the wrists, right now I've got cutting lasers in place, but we've got several others with us that you'll all read about.

    Nikolas depressed the 'B' switch, and brought the guardian to the ground, the fighter portion of the vehicle stood up, the cockpit inverted itself and sprouted a head with four probe looking things on it.

Finally we have Battloid mode, made for up close and personal combat. No missiles here, just what's in your gauntlets, the head mounted lasers, and your melee weapon, speaking of which...

    The black mecha reached behind itself, and pulled a spear from where its wings had been.

This is why I called it the Gungnir, for this spear. Thanks to the nanomachine plants in this thing, I can create my spear out of practically nothing. Also, the nanomachines will be constantly replenishing your ammo, so even if you run out it won't be for long. I think that about does it for this part of the demonstration.

    He returned the mecha to guardian mode and leaned its nose forward, opening up the cockpit and approaching the teens.

"So what'd you think?"

Shinji chuckled "Kensuke would love to see this in action, and he'd kill to pilot one...which reminds me, Lieutenant, I've got a friend who'd love to be a backup pilot for this thing, once we finish training you think we could learn the ropes?"

Nikolas smirked "Sure thing, these aren't too hard to pilot, that was the purpose behind their design. However, he'd have to wait until we get another standard one in because yours are a bit different."

Asuka smirked "Special huh?"

"Yeah, yours are equipped with some new technology... ah what was it called" he pulled out a notepad and flipped through it "ah that's right, it's the Nigredo Compensator, they told me to tell you it works with your AT Field, whatever that is."

Shinji's eyes went wide "Our AT Field? Does that mean we can use it like we did while in our Evas?"

Nikolas shrugged "Possibly. I wouldn't know. That's in the 'for Children's eyes only' material in the crates with your planes. Oh yeah, I should explain, you guys have VF-1J models, codenamed 'Valkyries'. They're pretty much the same, only they have just two head lasers, they had to make room for the Compensator."

Asuka raised an eyebrow "Well, what about our melee weapons? Are they already attached or can we pick?"

"Well...part of the training to use the Valkyries is martial arts training, so you can fight in close quarters effectively. We'll get your Valkyrie equipped with whatever you show the most talent with there."

Shinji thought for a moment "Okay, this is all very interesting, but you still haven't explained why we're the only ones who can learn this in two weeks."

"I haven't? Maybe it has to do with this one thing, be right back." he ran over and retrieved his helmet "This isn't just an ordinary flight helmet, it interprets your thoughts to an extent, so most of the flying is actually done in your head. About all you do with your hands is rough maneuvers, transforming, and shooting. Everything else, from targeting to pinpoint movement is done in your head."

Rei spoke up for the first time all morning "That interface is very much like that of the Evangelion. Now it makes sense why we are the only ones who can learn it, because essentially we already know."

Asuka stuck her tongue out "Bleh, I don't wanna wear that ugly helmet. Think they could modify my old A-10 Connectors to work with this thing?"

Misato shrugged "I wouldn't doubt it."

Nikolas had walked off to a small crate sitting on the table, he was returning with three thick manuals "Well, that's about all for today until we can get the simulators unpacked and into the main hangar. Take the rest of the day off, and read through these a bit, I expect you to be ready for the sims tomorrow."

    The couple grumbled a little and took their books, while Rei said nothing. Nikolas watched them get back in the car and head off. Well, I guess they seem like good kids...

*~~~Katsuragi/Ikari/Sohryu Residence~~~*

    Misato stumbled into the kitchen, carry two large bags full of fresh Chinese food. She dumped them on the table and called for the Children. They each got their respective dishes, Shinji's sweet and sour pork, Asuka's general tso's chicken, Rei's vegetable stir fry, and sat down to chow.

Asuka was about a third done with her dish when she spoke to Misato "Misato, can Rei move in with us?"

The purple-haired guardian almost choked "Huh? Asuka? I'd love to have her here, but there's no room for her, you know that."

"But there is room, I mean, since Shinji's moving into my room and all."

This time she did choke, and only a well-timed slap from Rei averted a Heimlich "Shinji is WHAT?"

"He's moving into my room. Oh right, we didn't tell you yet."

Misato shook her head vehemently "No way! I won't have you two sleeping together under my roof!"

Shinji swallowed a hunk of pork "What's wrong Misato, worried we'll turn into you?"

She glowered "Why you little...no. I won't allow it. You two are too young."

Asuka laughed, almost a cackle "Too young? Come on, just because we'd be sleeping together doesn't mean we're SLEEPING together. We both know we're too young to do THAT."

"Besides, we shared a sleeping bag at Hikari's" Shinji added.

"You WHAT?"

He cowered slightly "Hey, nothing happened...it was just very, very comfortable. So that gave us the idea to do the same here."

Their guardian banged her head on the table a few times "Ugh...this is something I'll have to think about you two. And I'll need to talk with both of you alone about it. I'm not saying no...but that doesn't mean you should start packing Shinji. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go out."

    She got up and snagged her coat, slipping it on as she slammed the door. The Children looked at each other and finished eating.

*~~~Random Bar, Downtown Tokyo-3~~~*

"This seat taken?"

Misato looked up from her scotch to the visage of Ritsuko. "Nope. And thanks for coming."

The Doctor took a seat and ordered a soda. "So what's your 'family emergency' all about?"

The mass of purple hair slumped on the bar and sighed, "Oh, Asuka just brought up the idea of Shinji moving into her room."

"And what did you say?"

"That I'd have to think about it, and talk to them both alone before I could decide."

"Ah, so you're going to give them the Talk."

"Something like that. To Asuka at least. I honestly don't know what to do with Shinji. He's never been one to pick up on such things, and Lord knows his father wouldn't do it even if he was alive."

"So you need someone to talk to Shinji for you?"

"That'd be the ideal situation, but I'd just settle for a few pointers. I kind of wish Kaji was still around...he'd be able to do it like that." she punctuated herself with a snap and swig of her drink.

Ritsuko sipped her soda "Yeah, and Shinji would listen to Kaji too. He respected him. I honestly can't think of anyone else who could do it."

"For a moment I thought of asking Lieutenant Maxwell...but we just met him. He needs time to build up some trust with me and the kids."

The blond chuckled "Listen to yourself Misato. You're starting to sound like a mother."

"Well, technically I am."

"That's true. And you probably know Shinji and Asuka better than anyone else. Really the only one who could give either of them that talk would be you."

Misato sighed in defeat "Yeah I know. I can handle Asuka like I said. It's Shinji I'm worried about. God we're going in circles."

"Well...maybe you should just tell Shinji that. That you really can't handle this sort of thing, ask him what he thinks the right thing to do is."

"Hmm, that's an idea. I guess I'll try something like that. And I think I'll head back now, maybe I can catch Asuka and talk to her at least."

Ritsuko saluted jokingly "Have fun storming the castle!"

"Right, right."

*~~~Katsuragi/Ikari/Sohryu Residence~~~*

    Asuka and Shinji were curled up on the couch together, watching the movie they couldn't finish the day before. The front door opened and clothes, and footsteps that were much more even than the expected clicked across the floor.

"Asuka, time to talk."

    The German cursed in her native tongue, reluctantly disentangling herself from her boyfriend and following their Guardian to privacy. She returned about twenty minutes later, making gagging faces and kissing Shinji before telling him it was his turn. He smirked at her 

"The Talk huh?"

"Something like that. I guess she had to. I don't know what she's going to say to you, for you it's usually a father's job."

"I'm sure he wouldn't do it even if he could.

"Good point, good luck baka-kun."

    He smiled, and turned to join Misato in her room. She was sitting on her bed smoking a cigarette. She motioned him to sit in a semi-empty chair.

"Okay Misato, say what you've got to say."

She sighed, blowing a thin trail of smoke before facing him "Shinji, I'll be frank. I've really got no idea how to handle this with regards to you. I know you're a good kid and I...I love you to death okay, but this is awkward."

"It's awkward for me too Misato, not just this I mean, but the idea of spending every night with Asuka."

Misato wasn't expecting that "You mean you don't like the idea, but you're afraid she'll break up with you if you deny her."

"No it's not that...I'm not sure about me, or my feeling I guess."

"Can you elaborate?"

"That's just it, I have trouble with that. I know I like Asuka a lot, and I care for her more than...well anything. But that doesn't say much coming from me."

Misato took another drag of the cancer stick and sighed "Yeah, you've never been one for touchy-feely anything have you?"

He smiled weakly "Yeah...that's been my way for a long time..."

"Let me tell you something Shinji, something Asuka did while she was in here."

"What's that?"

"She told me almost the same thing you did, though she was a bit less controlled about it?"

"Less controlled?"

"Well...she was sobbing Shinji. About how much she cared about you. About how she couldn't figure out any way to show other than, well, physically for lack of a better word. You understand?"

"I...I think so. I know she's not fully recovered from everything that's happened, but I never imagined..."

"Me either Shinji, really. And now I'm more worried than before about this whole idea. So I have to ask you...what do you think you should do?"

Shinji thought on this for a long time "I...don't know Misato. I really don't."

"I think I do Shinji...at least I hope I do. I think you need to tell her how you really feel."

"But I did! I wrote that letter and..."

"She needs to hear it Shinji. That's what I think. She needs to hear you say how you feel now, even if it's only been a few days, both of you have changed a lot. I think she wants to hear you say it, she has to know you're being as genuine as she is."

"Then...what should I say?"

"I can't tell you what you feel Shinji, no matter how much I want to."

He sat in silence and looked down for a while "But I can't tell how I feel all that well, you know that."

"Then tell her what you do know. It's better than nothing, right?"

"I suppose..."

"Here's what I'll do Shinji, you two can sleep together for tonight, but I want you to tell her how you feel, honestly and with every ounce of that feeling. You have to let her know that she doesn't need to win you with physical affection. Can you do that for me...no, for Asuka. Can you do that for Asuka Shinji?"

"I'd do anything for her Misato."

"Good, then you two should get to bed, you've got work to do tomorrow besides."

He managed another weak smile "Right Major."

    He got up and she gave him an extra shove to the living room, where Asuka sat watching the credits to Die Another Day.

"Hey" he said.

"Done already?"

"Yeah, let's get to bed."

"Together?"

"For tonight, Misato said."

She smiled "Okay, let's go."

    She turned off the TV, and dragged him into her room. Lying down, he hugged her tightly before venturing a tentative question.

"Asuka...how do you feel about me?"

"What kind of question is that? Isn't it obvious?"

"Well...yes and no, just...something Misato said got me thinking, is all..."

"Oh I see. Well, you DO know I care about you, right baka-kun?"

He planted a soft kiss on her neck and she shivered "I do Asuka-megami...I do"

"Your turn then."

"Huh?"

"I want to hear how you feel, I know it has to have changed since you wrote that letter..."

"Yeah...it has..."

"Well? Tell me!"

"I...like you Asuka. A lot. And I really care about you...more than anything. Though the way I am that's pathetically easy..."

"You really know how to make me feel down baka."

He cringed at the lack of 'kun' after that baka "I'm not done yet Asuka...there's something else...but I'm not sure what..."

"Oh? Is it good or bad? Is it bigger than a breadbox?"

He chuckled a little, feeling much relieved "I think it's a good thing, at least it feels good. And it's much bigger than a breadbox, I would imagine."

"Well what is it?"

"I...don't know if I can say it right..."

"Just keep it simple"

Shinji breathed deeply for a moment, planting another tender kiss on her neck before going on "Asuka, I...love you."

    Time stood still in the redhead's mind. Did he just...oh my god...I think he did...he actually said it....what do I do...he's waiting for me...

"I...I...I love you too, Shinji..." She twisted around in his embrace and kissed him passionately. Breaking off only for air, she smiled at him "And thank you for finally saying it liebchen."

{Run through the cold of the night...As passion burns in your heart}

"Liebchen? Doesn't that mean..."

{Ready to fight, a knife held close by your side...Like a proud wolf alone in the dark}

"Mmhmm, it means a few things...and right now it means beloved..."

{With eyes that watch the world...And my name like a shadow...On the face of the moon}

"I couldn't think of anything better to be called by you..."

"Then let me call you that...all the time..."

"Of course..."The couple fell asleep, happier than anyone on Earth had ever been since Second Impact...

Broken mirror, a million shades of light

The old echo fades away

But just you and I

Can find the answer

And then, we can run to the end of the world

We can run to the end of the world.

Cold fire clenched to my heart

In the blue of night.

Torn by this pain, I paint your name in sound

And the girl of the dawn, with eyes of blue, and angel wings

The songs of the seasons are her only crown

Broken mirror, a million shades of light

The old echo fades away

But just you and I

Can find the answer

And then, we can run to the end of the world

We can run to the end of the world.

We met in the mist of morning

And parted deep in the night

Broken sword and shield, and tears that never fall

But run through the heart

Washed away by the darkest water

The world is peaceful and still

Broken mirror, a million shades of light

The old echo fades away

But just you and I

Can find the answer

And then, we can run to the end of the world

We can run to the end of the world.

...the song seemed to flow through their dreams that night, being their song in its own way.

*~~~CHAPTER COMPLETE!~~~*

*~24,000 gil obtained~*

*~6,000 exp gained~*

*~LEVEL UP! +4 to Sappiness, +3 to Action~*

BAM! Didn't expect that did you? DID YOU? I mean, we all knew they'd say it eventually, I just bet you didn't think it'd be like that. As for the song, it just seemed to fit them so nicely. Those of who haven't heard the song need to download it now. Small of Two Pieces off the Xenogears Soundtrack. Copyright by Square-Enix.