Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is the creation of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.


The Importance of Family

He had a busy day in front of him, Shinji decided as he stepped out of the shower the morning after his encounter with Spectra and Bertrand.

Much as he would have liked to allow himself a few days of leisure in the wake of the crash course in EVA piloting he'd endured, he just didn't have the time for it. Not with one of his most dangerous enemies about, no Fumio or Kamiko around for backup, and a mystery ghost prowling the NERV base.

And I have to get my business here done before Rei is fully healed, he mentally added, knowing that his days in Tokyo-3 were numbered. The injured First Child was getting stronger by the day.

He felt a twinge of guilt as he thought about leaving Ayanami to fight the Angels alone, but his spite toward his father reared up and squashed it, as it always did when he considered the issue. He was leaving as soon as she was fully healed, and that meant he had to complete his personal to-do list before then.

"No rest for the wicked," he muttered with a slight sigh as he went into his room to finish dressing up.

A few minutes later he emerged, now clad in his school uniform, and went to the kitchen to start making breakfast. It was Misato's day to cook, but he'd already given up trying to make her do her share of the chores. She didn't do them very well, anyway, especially the cooking.

As the smell of cooking food began to fill the apartment, a groggy Misato wandered out into the kitchen, still wearing the oversized T-shirt she'd gone to bed in. Shinji was surprised, not for the first time, by how good the older woman looked even when she'd just rolled out of bed.

I wouldn't mind waking up next to her, he thought suddenly, and then shook his head. He was starting to sound like Fumio.

Misato yawned enormously, not bothering to cover her gaping jaw with her hand as she did so and allowing Shinji a look at her back molars. "G'morning…" she mumbled to him as she reached into the fridge and withdrew a can of Yebisu.

His soft sigh was drowned out by the loud, joyful whoop she released after chugging the beer.

That can't be healthy, he thought.

"Now that's the way to start to day!" Misato proclaimed cheerfully, suddenly wide awake. "And I can already feel that it's going to be a good one!"

"Is that so?" Shinji asked conversationally.

"Yep," Misato said. "My women's intuition is telling me so."

"Is this the same women's intuition that you tell me will pick the winning lottery numbers for you every week?" he asked in a deliberately mild tone as he started putting food on the table.

"This has nothing to do with that!" Misato snapped.

"If you say so," Shinji replied as the two of them began to eat.

They were nearly finished with their morning meal when there was a knock at the door. Shinji frowned, wondering who it could be. They didn't get a lot of visitors, and in any case, it was early for someone to come calling.

"I'll get it," Misato said, getting up at once.

"Wait a minute," Shinji said, belatedly rising from his own chair a second later. "You're not dressed yet, Misato."

His guardian apparently didn't see any problem with this. Making it to the front door while he was still half a step behind her, she undid the lock and threw it open.

Standing outside were Toji and another boy, whom Shinji was sure he remembered from somewhere. The second boy was shorter than Toji, and had unkempt sandy hair, freckles, and glasses.

"Hello," Misato greeted them cheerfully. "Can I help you two?"

Toji and the other boy didn't immediately respond; they both looked shell-shocked, and Shinji guessed they, too, were thinking about how good Misato looked, even when she was still disheveled from recent sleep.

Or perhaps ascribing such a complex thought to them was an overestimation at the moment. More likely, Shinji thought, they were too transfixed by the impressive twin swells of Misato's bust—currently separated from the open air by only a thin layer of cotton—to be actually thinking anything.

Shinji cleared his throat loudly before the other boys' silence could stretch too long.

"Hello!" Toji said, far more loudly than necessary, then he bowed deeply at the waist. "I'm Toji Suzuhara!"

"And I'm Kensuke Aida!" the freckled boy added, also bowing and speaking too loudly.

"So what brings two nice young men like yourself to my humble home this morning?" Misato asked, acting as though she was oblivious to the reason behind the strange behavior the two boys were displaying, even though Shinji knew she certainly wasn't.

"Uh…" Toji stammered, temporarily forgetting his reason for coming to this place entirely in the face of the purple-haired bombshell. Then his eyes darted over to Shinji and his brain finally shifted into gear. "We're friends of Shinji, and we wanted him to walk to school with us!"

"You didn't tell me you'd made some friends here," Misato turned to Shinji with a smile.

The Third Child almost responded that it was news to him, too; he hadn't expected Toji to show up, and he still couldn't remember exactly how he knew the bespectacled boy.

"Uh, it just happened. I guess it must have slipped my mind," he said lamely.

"Well, you go ahead and go to school with your new friends," Misato said, waving him off. "I have to hop into the shower, anyway."

Shinji resisted the urge to palm his face as he saw the effect of putting that mental image into the minds of his classmates written plainly on their faces.

I shouldn't have questioned her "women's intuition" earlier, he thought as he quickly grabbed his school bag and escaped the apartment.

"Holy hell," Toji said as soon as they had put a little distance between themselves and the door. "Ikari, why didn't you tell me you lived with such a total babe?!"

Shinji gave the jock an incredulous look. Somehow, he thought that the issue of having a murderous ghost on the loose—one that had targeted Toji's little sister—came before the hotness of his guardian on the list of priorities.

However, he couldn't exactly say that in front of Kensuke. And speaking of him…

"Ikari, is there any part of your life that is anything less than awesome?" he asked in a voice that was more reverent than envious.

The bespectacled boy was giving Shinji a look of naked awe as he said this, and it was this expression—the one that said Kensuke had found his new god—that finally caused Shinji's memory to click.

"You're that guy who heard when Ayanami called me 'Pilot Ikari' and then shouted that I was an EVA pilot!" Shinji exclaimed.

Kensuke suddenly looked very sheepish. "Um, yeah, that was me," he confessed. "Sorry about that. I just got so excited that I guess I lost control."

"Uh, that's okay," Shinji said awkwardly. "It's not like you could undo it."

"Thanks for understanding," Kensuke said, relieved. "And I promise you, I won't blow your other secret."

Shinji's eyes widened and he stopped walking. "'Other secret'?" he echoed.

"That you're the Ikiryo, of course!" Kensuke said in a sort of hiss that was probably supposed to be a whisper but was too loud to be called that.

"You told him?" Shinji asked, his head whipping to the side as he turned to look at Toji.

"I didn't tell him," Toji said defensively. "He asked me where I was all of yesterday afternoon. I tried not to say anything, but he sort of tricked it out of me."

"How did you become the Ikiryo?" Kensuke asked Shinji, not even bothering to defend himself against Toji's accusation of trickery.

"Guys," Shinji said in as firm a voice as he could muster, "Listen, you might think it's really cool that I'm the Ikiryo, but trust me, it has its downsides. My uncle would gleefully try and dissect me if he knew what I am, and I wouldn't put that past my father and NERV, either. So you absolutely cannot let my secret get out, okay?"

They both nodded earnestly, but Shinji still had his doubts about their ability to keep quiet. However, there wasn't much he could do about it now; the ability to make people forget things was not in his repertoire of ghost powers.

"Man, it is so cool that you're an EVA pilot and the Ikiryo," Kensuke said, speaking much more quietly this time, at least. "Though it's kind of unfair, too. You're hogging all the awesome."

Shinji resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Being an EVA pilot isn't as glamorous as you seem to think," he replied. "Being the Ikiryo is better, but that's not always great, either."

These warnings clearly sailed right over Kensuke's head. "Uh huh," he responded. "Listen, I heard you're going to hook Toji up with some special ghost weapons for when you go after this Spectra character."

"Yeah," Shinji said, having a bad feeling about where the bespectacled boy was going with this.

"I want in, too," Kensuke said, confirming Shinji's fears.

"You don't know what you're asking for," Shinji said, feeling a headache coming on. "Spectra's really dangerous; she's not a ghost you want to cut your teeth on. The only reason I asked Toji for help was because I need some kind of back up, and he has a personal score to settle with her."

And really, Shinji didn't trust Kensuke not to do something stupid in his excessive enthusiasm, but he didn't say as much out loud.

"Isn't having two people backing you up better than one?" Kensuke demanded.

He and Shinji debated the matter back and forth for most of the walk. It wasn't until they came within sight of the school building that the half-ghost put the argument on hold.

"Uh, guys, please don't take this the wrong way," Shinji said nervously, "but for the sake of keeping my secret, I don't think we should be seen hanging out together just yet."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Toji asked, frowning.

"Think about it," Shinji said. "Yesterday, the class rep saw you with the Ikiryo, who saved your sister and hers. If you're suddenly all friendly with me today after wanting to punch my lights out a little while ago…"

"Yeah, I guess that could look suspicious," Toji said.

Shinji nodded. "Normally, I can fool people by using my duplicating power to have Shinji Ikari and Shinji Ikiryo show up in two places at once, but the class rep saw one of my duplicates," he said. "So even if I do that, she might still figure it out."

"Okay, I get it," Toji said. "Me and Ken will head in first. You can head in a little after us, all right?"

"Works for me," Shinji replied.

He leaned up against the wall of a nearby building to wait for a few minutes while Toji and Kensuke went ahead. He'd have to have both his personas make an appearance at the same time in the near future, preferably while on camera; coming from Shinjuku-2, it was likely that people would automatically suspect he was the Ikiryo once word got around that the half-ghost was in the city. Best to do what he could to dispel that notion sooner rather than later.

But I still have to hope that the class rep doesn't connect the dots, he thought anxiously, his mind already creating worst case scenarios.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried. Though Hikari Horaki was certainly smart enough to put the pieces together, she didn't really have much interest in doing so. No, she was far more preoccupied with how her crush had dashed to her home in order to help her, and she probably wouldn't have suspected that Shinji was the Ikiryo even if he had started publicly spending time with Toji and Kensuke that day.

Of course, Shinji didn't know this, so he was left counting the seconds as they went by until he felt it was safe to head into school.


It was really very difficult for someone in his position to refrain from being nosey, Shinji mused later that day, after school had let out. Given his special talents, he could invade the privacy of anyone he wanted without ever having to worry about getting caught at it. And though he certainly wasn't proud of it, there had been times when he'd given into the temptation to do just that.

Though he was proud that he had never given into Fumio's repeated suggestions to sneak into the girl's locker room at Shinjuku-2 Junior High School while they were changing.

Still, it can be so hard to resist abusing my powers sometimes, Shinji mused. I mean, it can be a pretty heady thought, that I can even sneak into a place like Terminal Dogma without anyone being the wiser.

The currently invisible teenager grinned as he made his way through the dark, secret section of the NERV base, as undetectable as, well, a ghost.

Once school had let out for the day, Shinji had been sorely tempted to head right for the post office and check his PO box to see if the things he'd asked Fumio to send had arrived yet; he was eager to get a hold of the Ikari-phones so he could speak freely with the twins.

However, he'd ultimately opted against it. Even with Fumio sending the requested items by next-day delivery, it was unlikely the package would arrive at the post office until that evening.

And in any case, while he very much wanted to have the Ikari-phones in his grip as soon as possible, he was less eager to possess the anti-ghost weapons Fumio was supposed to send him; despite his best efforts, he hadn't been able to talk Kensuke out of coming along when it came time to hunt for Spectra.

If that kook gets himself killed…

Shinji shook his head at the thought, not wanting to even consider the possibility. With any luck, Kensuke would prove himself a more reliable ally than the half-ghost expected him to be. It wasn't impossible; the school wasn't yet buzzing with rumors about the Ikiryo's arrival in Tokyo-3, which meant that the otaku must have had the discretion to keep his mouth shut about the subject. That, at least, was a good sign.

Realizing how deeply in thought he was getting, Shinji Ikiryo quickly pulled himself back to the present, silently chiding himself against letting his mind wander. It didn't take a lot of concentration or effort for him to remain both invisible and intangible for extended periods of time, but he couldn't ignore the task entirely.

Flying straight through a sealed, armored door, Shinji's face fell as his eyes took in a room filled with dusty shelves. The dusty shelves themselves were full of dusty files, and Shinji would have bet anything that at least 99 percent of the things contained nothing but the most boring of records.

Honestly, you'd think the super-restricted section of the base would have more interesting things than a ton of old paper records and a couple of laboratories in it, Shinji thought with annoyance.

Of course, he technically hadn't come down here to spy on NERV. Technically, he'd gone to Terminal Dogma to search for the ghost that allegedly haunted the base, which he hadn't detected the faintest trace of up in Central Dogma.

But when he hadn't detected that ghost down here, either, well, he'd been willing to put aside technicalities. Unfortunately, so far, it was looking like his trip down here might prove about as productive as waiting at the post office for his package would have been.

I just don't get it, Shinji mused as he left the room full of old records and returned to the hallway.

NERV was clearly a place that was bursting at the seams with secrets; he'd known that since that first, insane day he'd set foot inside the base. How could a place like Terminal Dogma be so seemingly devoid of any of them?

He was starting to consider going back up to Central Dogma when it happened. A cold chill washed over him, and he exhaled a cloud of steam in the dark hallway. Turning his head sharply, Shinji was just able to see an eerie glow before it vanished through one of the walls.

Not allowing the surprise he felt at actually finding the ghost to give him pause, Shinji immediately took off in the direction it had gone. Flying through the wall he'd seen the ghost pass into, he emerged into another uninteresting room just in time to see the ghost passing through still another wall there. He still didn't get a decent look at the ghost, but from what he could tell, it didn't appear to be too intimidating. Indeed, it had seemed quite small.

Maybe if I'm really lucky, it'll be a benign spirit, he thought as he continued to give chase.

He pursued the ghost through several rooms, always on the verge of losing his quarry, until he saw it pass through a large, heavily-armored door. Three lock-bolts as thick as his forearm held it securely shut.

A sign next to it read "Dummy Plug Production Plant" in glowing orange letters. Shinji didn't notice it as he barreled forward, passing easily through the door of thick steel.

Once inside, he saw no further trace of the ghost he'd been chasing, but the room itself was enough to make him stop and stare. The shape alone made the room stand out from the other parts of Terminal Dogma he'd seen so far; it was perfectly round, where all the other rooms he'd encountered had been square. The place was poorly lit, so he could only really see what was at the center of the room. However, that was enough for him to know that something bizarre and probably not kosher went on there.

Hanging from the ceiling was a huge… thing made out of metal piping and wires that strongly resembled a giant brain. A piece of metal, which was shaped very much like a spine, was coming down from the metallic brain, and this connected to a large glass tube that was standing in the middle of the floor. Said tube was full of an orange liquid that Shinji felt pretty sure was LCL.

What the hell is this place? He wondered, the ghost momentarily forgotten as he went up to the tube and examined it closely, as though he might divine the answers to the questions he had by staring into the depths of the LCL inside it.

Then the lights in the room came on, causing him to jump. Shinji whirled around, his heart suddenly hammering with the fear that he'd been caught somehow… and a cry of surprise and not a little horror burst out of his throat at what the light now allowed him to see.

On the far side of the room was an enormous glass tank that was filled with more LCL… and Rei.

At least two dozen naked duplicates of the First Child floated in the great tank, staring out at him. Many of them were in strange positions, as though they'd just allowed themselves to drift as they would in the orange liquid, with no regard for their comfort. And all of them were giggling and had utterly vacant smiles plastered on their faces. Their eyes were the worst; those profoundly empty orbs were far more unnerving than the extremely quiet and otherworldly Rei he knew could ever be. He heard himself release another little yelp as he and one of the duplicates locked gazes, and he quickly looked away.

Part of him knew that the ghost he'd been seeking had to be the one that had turned on the lights a moment ago, though he had no idea why it would do that. Part of him knew that meant the ghost was still around, and that he should keep looking for it.

But the rest of him didn't give a damn. He had to get out of this place right now.

Flying straight upwards, Shinji fled from the chamber and then retreated from Terminal Dogma entirely.


"What are you doing, Sensei?" Gendo asked.

The two men were inside the Commander's cavernous office, working on the dull but important minutia that had to be attended to keep NERV functioning smoothly. The older man had been turning his gaze from his work to look around the room every few minutes or so, and Gendo had finally become annoyed enough by it to ask why his former teacher was doing so.

"Sorry. I just keep feeling like someone's watching me," Fuyutski confessed sheepishly.

Gendo would have snorted if he was prone to such displays. "I think you've allowed the rumors that have spread through the rank and file to affect you too much, Sensei."

Fuyutski sighed. "I suppose, or maybe it's just because we've been staring at these papers for the last three straight hours," he said.

"Is that your way of suggesting we should take a break?" the Commander asked.

"Yes," Fuyutski said flatly.

Gendo checked his watch. "Very well," he agreed. "I suppose breaking long enough to get coffee wouldn't hurt."

Fuyutski muttered something that sounded a lot like "thank you, god" as the two men rose from their seats. The old professor's joints popped as he stood after the long hours of sitting. In a minute, they were gone.

Finally, Shinji thought as he watched the door close after them.

Most people, he had learned, had their own sort of ghost sense that allowed them to detect the presence of something otherworldly, if only on a subconscious level. If he or another specter hung around while invisible, the people nearby would often tend to become unnerved and leave the area. However, he had been in his father's office for over an hour already, and only Fuyutski had shown any signs of being even vaguely disturbed by his presence. His father had been seemingly oblivious, making the wait very long and boring.

Not intending to waste his brief window of opportunity, Shinji settled down in his father's chair, and allowed himself to become tangible again, while still remaining invisible.

It had taken him years to be able to separate those two powers, and he probably would have stopped trying before he'd ever mastered the skill if not for Kamiko's prodding. At the moment, he was most definitely glad she had pestered him until he'd gotten the hang of it; he wouldn't dare allow himself to become visible again at the moment, but he needed to be solid to work the Commander's computer.

His father had had the good sense to log out of his account before leaving his office, but that didn't stop Shinji. The Ikiryo had hovered over his father's shoulder practically the whole time he'd been in the office and had seen the man input his password.

"We'll always have Paris", Shinji thought as he typed it in. That's about the last thing I would have guessed his password would be.

The computer released a small chime as it allowed him access, and Shinji couldn't help but wince. The brief note had sounded far louder than it should have to his ears, and it had seemed to echo in the huge room.

However, his father and Fuyutski didn't come charging back into the office, so apparently it hadn't been that loud.

Well aware of how little time he had, Shinji didn't waste a moment casually poking through his father's computer files. Instead, he immediately started a search for Rei Ayanami.

The First Child's dossier popped up almost instantly. This was not the first time Shinji had seen this particular document, having accessed it before on his own MAGI account. However, almost everything had been deleted from that version. This one, to his surprise, still had some information missing, but it was far more complete.

"Holy crap," Shinji breathed to himself as he read.

The first thing he realized was that Rei had not been born in the way ordinary humans were. No, she had been created in a laboratory, specifically for the purpose of piloting Evangelion, by the looks of it.

So what are all the clones for, then? Spare parts? He wondered, then shook his head and started looking through Rei's dossier again.

He had almost managed to recover from the discovery that Rei was a product of applied biology rather than an old-fashioned human coupling when he got to the part about her genetic donor.

"Yui Ikari," he read off the screen, barely able to believe it.

Any doubt he might have possessed was expelled the moment he got to the picture, though. An image of Yui was included in Rei's file, and Shinji Ikari got to see his mother's face for the first time in a decade.

So that's why Father had all the pictures of her destroyed, he thought, amazed at how Rei looked exactly like a younger, color-shifted version of his mother.

Shinji leaned back in his father's chair, feeling overwhelmed by what he'd just learned. Rei had his mother's DNA. Did she also have his father's?
He went back to the computer and looked through the First Child's dossier a bit more, but the identity of Rei's other biological parent had been redacted, making Shinji think that whoever it was, it probably wasn't Gendo Ikari.

Okay, but still, she has my mother's genes, just like I do, he thought. Does that make her my half-sister?

He supposed it did, in the strictest biological sense, at least. But did it make her his sister in the ways that really mattered? If it did, that would change everything, he knew.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps, and Shinji knew that his father and Fuyutski were coming back. He must have spent more time than he'd thought just sitting in the Commander's chair and waiting for his head to stop spinning.

Cursing, Shinji quickly logged out of his father's account and then vacated the office, going intangible again and sinking through the floor.

The Ikiryo made his way to one of the men's restrooms in the NERV base and flew into a vacant stall, knowing that this was one of the few places he could transform while inside the pyramid without being caught on camera. Once he was back in his human form, he left the restroom and headed toward the exit of the base.

He had some thinking to do, to put it mildly.

The Third Child ducked into one of the elevators and pushed the button to take him to the ground level of the base. Then he leaned against the far wall and continued trying to reconcile what he'd just learned.

A minute or two later, the elevator car halted in its path to Shinji's destination in order to allow someone else to get on. The Third Child started when he saw Rei enter.

"H-Hello, Ayanami," he said faintly.

"Ikari," Rei said with a minute nod as the elevator doors slid shut.

"So, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I am scheduled to take some tests as part of the preparations for the attempt to reactivate Unit Zero," Rei answered.

"Oh, I see," Shinji replied.

Her brow creased very slightly in what was probably Rei's equivalent of a frown. "Are you well, Ikari?" she asked. "You look pale."

"I… I'm fine," he said.

Then an idea struck him. He initially rejected it, thinking that it would probably make him seem weird, and yet his curiosity would not allow him to let go of the notion.

"Ayanami," he spoke. "Would you mind if I tried something?"

She paused for a moment, seeming to consider his extremely vague question. "No," she answered.

Hesitating for only a moment, Shinji reached his arms out and drew Rei into an embrace. The First Child's eyes widened, and she neither hugged him back nor pulled away.

Then the elevator released a chime as they reached Shinji's floor, and he immediately let go of her, not wanting to risk someone seeing them in that position and getting the wrong idea.

"Um, I'll see you later," he said awkwardly.

Then he practically ran away, quickly disappearing around a corner. Rei watched him silently as the elevator doors slid closed again. That had been most unexpected.

"Have I succeeded in my mission?" she wondered aloud.


After leaving NERV, Shinji headed to the post office, where he found that the expected package from Fumio had arrived at his P.O. box for him. He was surprised at how big the box was, though.

He didn't send me their whole arsenal of ghost weapons, did he? Shinji wondered worriedly as he signed for the package. There's no way he would've done that when I'm away from Shinjuku-2, and they have to handle any ghosts that show up without me, right?

His anxieties were dispelled when he actually picked the box up and discovered that it was too light to be full. Relieved, Shinji quickly made his way back to the apartment, finding that Misato hadn't returned yet. After taking the box to his room, he retrieved a small knife and cut the packing tape open. Then he laughed at what he saw inside, instantly realizing why Fumio had needed such a large box.

The "Ikari Anti-Creep Stick" had been crammed diagonally inside the cardboard container, doubtlessly included as a joke. The thing was one of his Uncle Ichigo's most crude inventions ever; in reality, it was just an aluminum baseball bat that Ichigo had written the word "Ikari" on.

Fumio had always been amused by this most primitive of ghost-fighting weapons and liked to talk about the thing as if it was the most effective one in their arsenal, which annoyed Kamiko.

No doubt he's bemoaning the "great sacrifice" to her right now, he thought with a smirk as he continued to rummage through the box.

The rest of the weapons were pretty standard: ecto-blasters and the like, nothing exotic or complex. Which was probably a good thing, considering that Toji and Kensuke had zero real experience fighting ghosts between them.

Finally, he found what he was seeking inside the box, namely a white-and-green headset. This was one of the "Ikari-phones" which tuned out malicious ghostly noises and also served as communications devices. Shinji eagerly donned the headphones and switched them on.

"Hello?" he said. "Fumio? Kamiko? Is either of you on right now?"

He waited for a seconds, and his hopes began to fade as only silence greeted him. He'd have to try again later, by the looks of it.

Then, just before he took the headset off, he heard a crackling of static, followed by his friend's voice. "Shinji!" Fumio exclaimed. "I was wondering when you'd finally get the package and turn on the old 'phones."

"I put them on as soon as I got back home," Shinji replied. "Where's Kamiko?"

"She's around," Fumio answered. "Hang on a sec. I'll go find her. I'm sure she wants to talk to you, too."

"Sure," Shinji replied.

He waited a minute or two and then…

"Shinji!!" Kamiko shouted loudly enough to make him wince and recoil.

"Geeze, Kamiko, can you yell a little louder? I think one of my eardrums wasn't completely ruptured," complained Fumio, who was presumably using another headset.

"Never mind that," Kamiko told her brother dismissively, and getting an annoyed grumble from him. "Shinji, what has been going on over there? We thought you'd only be gone for a few days, but you've been there for weeks now! And we keep hearing all these bizarre rumors about what's going on in Tokyo-3! And Fumio said you called him to say that Spectra was in the city and you wanted anti-ghost weapons for some guy you met there!"

She said this all very quickly, and Shinji allowed himself a small, rueful smile. "Um, it's a pretty long story."

"We've got time," Fumio and Kamiko replied in that kind of utterly perfect unison that only twins seem to be capable of.

"Okay," he said with a soft sigh. "Well, when I first got off the train, I was the only person around. Then I heard this really loud noise…"

He explained the whirlwind of events that led to him getting into EVA for the first time and battling the Third Angel. Then he went on to his clash with the Fourth Angel, as well as covering the whole Spectra situation.

"Wow," Fumio said after he'd finished. "You've been busy."

"You have no idea," Shinji replied, suddenly feeling very tired.

"And you still have to catch Spectra before this Ayanami person is ready to return to duty," Kamiko added thoughtfully.

"Um, yeah, about that…" Shinji began nervously.

"Yes?" Fumio and Kamiko asked in identical tones of suspicion.

"I can't come back yet. I've decided that I'm not going back to Shinjuku-2 as soon as she's fully healed anymore," he said. "I'm staying until the war against the Angels is over."

"What?" Kamiko asked.

"Why?" Fumio asked at the exact same moment.

"Guys, please understand," Shinji said feebly. "I found out something about Ayanami earlier today. She's a… a test tube baby, I guess the term is. Guys, my mother was one of the genetic donors. Ayanami's my sister. I can't just leave her."

The twins were both silent for a long moment.

"Shinji," Fumio began slowly, "this whole thing with the Evangelion sounds pretty damn dangerous, even by our standards. You really wanna stick it out for her?"

"Yeah," Shinji answered, "yeah, I do."

"Why?" Kamiko blurted out, then, obviously realizing how that sounded, started stammering, "uh, I mean…"

"It's okay, I get it," Shinji said. "It probably does seem kind of weird to you guys that I want to risk so much for someone I didn't even know existed a little while ago."

"Well… yeah," Kamiko agreed.

"Look, you guys, I'm not like you. You've got your parents, and your grandparents, and a whole bunch of aunts and uncles and cousins. Until today, I thought I didn't have any family at all besides my crazy uncle, and my father who abandoned me when I was four and then called me back to pilot a giant mecha," Shinji said. "And I gotta tell you, you two made having a sibling look pretty good to me, despite your best efforts."

Shinji heard Fumio snicker slightly at that, and he could just picture Kamiko glaring at her brother.

It was true, though. Even with the way the twins endlessly bickered with each other, he had always envied them for having a family member that would always be there for the other.

"I can't just abandon a member of my family to the Angels," Shinji added in a soft voice. "That's… that's something my father would do. I can't be like him. I won't."

He had actually been feeling more and more guilty about leaving Rei to fight the Angels by herself as the time for him to leave drew closer; part of him was actually relieved at being given a reason to stay.

Another part, though, couldn't believe he was voluntarily remaining in the giant death-trap that was Tokyo-3.

"Shinji…" Fumio said quietly.

"Well, if you're going to be staying in the city for a while, we're going to have to figure some things out," Kamiko spoke in a suddenly business-like tone. "For instance, we're going to have to start sending Ikari thermoses back and forth so you can recharge ours."

Shinji smiled, recognizing his friends' acceptance of his decision for what it was. However, Kamiko's shift to practical matters brought him to one of his biggest concerns.

"Are you sure you guys will be all right doing the ghost hunting thing without me?" he asked worriedly.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Kamiko said. "Since you've been gone, we haven't encountered anything except the very garden-variety spooks."

"I know," Shinji said. "But still, that could change at any time…"

"Aw, relax, Shinji," Fumio said. "We're old pros at this, you know. If I was you, I'd be more concerned about the newbies you'll be taking with you to fight Spectra."

The half-ghost groaned. "Don't remind me," he said as he again looked at the ghost fighting weapons inside the box Fumio had sent him.

The three of them continued to talk for nearly an hour, discussing topics ranging from ghost-fighting techniques to the goings on at Shinjuku-2 Junior High School.

Finally, Shinji checked his watch and realized just how long he'd spent speaking with his best friends.

"Hey, guys, I need to start working on dinner soon, so I gotta go," Shinji said.

"That woman from the picture has you cooking?" Kamiko asked in a voice that held a mixture of disbelief and amusement.

"Well, she's supposed to do part of the cooking, but she's even worse in the kitchen than Uncle Ichigo, so I've been doing it all," he said.

"How could anyone be a worse cook than your Uncle Ichigo?" Fumio asked.

"At least Uncle can bake an edible ham," Shinji replied. "Look, before I go, Kamiko, if we start using the Ikari-phones to talk regularly, is there any chance NERV or somebody will intercept the transmissions?"

"Nope," Kamiko said. "The radio waves these things use go right through the Ghost Zone. You'd actually have to be there to listen in on us."

"Good," Shinji said, relieved. "All right. I'll talk to you guys later."

"Hey, before you go, Shinji," Fumio spoke up quickly, "if the relationship between you and your housemate is, um, strictly platonic, I was wondering if you could maybe introduce me to her and—hey!"

Shinji heard the noise of a scuffle from the Ikari-phones, accompanied by some yelling. Both the twins' headsets had apparently come off, because all of the noises sounded like they were coming from a great distance away. Sighing softly, he reached up and turned his own headset off. He did think that Fumio tried far too hard when it came to girls, to the point where he came off as kind of perverted, but Shinji thought Kamiko was far too enthusiastic when it came to curbing her brother's "deviant" tendencies.

"I hope they're both still alive when I get back to Shinjuku-2," Shinji commented to himself. "Whenever that is…"

Taking off the headset and putting it back into the box it had come from, Shinji left his room and went into the kitchen, where he started working on dinner. He had just gotten everything cooking when his guardian returned home.

"Hey, Shinji," a tired looking Misato said.

"Hello, Misato," he replied. "Uh, time sort of got away from me this afternoon, so dinner's gonna be a little late."

"That's fine," she replied absently, taking off her red beret and carelessly tossing it in the general direction of her couch. "Ugh, I need a beer."

"Had a rough day?" Shinji asked as she opened up the fridge.

"You have no idea," she replied, cracking open a can of Yeibisu. "Tech Division One is getting ready to try activating Unit Zero again soon, which by itself would make everything nuts. And if the test is successful, Rei will be put back on the active-duty roster. And, well, you know what happens then. We'll be scrambling for a while, trying to get Rei fully up to speed and find a new pilot for Unit One."

"Um, yeah," Shinji said. "Misato, there's something I wanted to tell you."

She put down her beer can as she turned to look at him, which was about as strong an indicator of having her full and undivided attention as one got with Misato Katsuragi.

Shinji took a deep breath. Part of him was still unable to believe what he was doing.

"I've decided not to leave when Ayanami's ready to pilot again," he said. "I'm staying until the war's over."

For a moment, Misato was silent, looking at him with wide, surprised eyes.

Then she abruptly wrapped her arms around him in a crushing hug, and thanks to the height disparity between them, he suddenly found his face smothered in his guardian's impressive bust.

Before he could start suffering from a lack of oxygen, or indeed, even register what was happening, she released him.

"Oh, Shinji-kun, you have no idea what you staying will do for everyone's morale, including mine," Misato said, grinning down at him.

"I'm sure it won't be that big of a deal," he said.

"Are you kidding? Having the only pilot to kill an Angel so far not leave?" Misato asked. "I think everyone will breathe a collective sigh of relief."

"Um, thanks," Shinji said awkwardly, mostly because he couldn't think of any other response.

"Why are you staying, though, if you don't mind my asking?" Misato said. "You seemed pretty resolute when you told the Commander that you'd be leaving as soon as Rei was fully recovered."

He sighed softly. "I just can't bring myself to abandon Ayanami to fight the Angels by herself."

Misato smiled warmly at him and hugged him again, more gently this time.

Not taken by surprise this time, Shinji felt his face heat, though part of his mind couldn't help wondering whether Fumio would have an aneurism or a stroke if he could witness the scene.

His guardian released him after a few seconds. "I'm proud of you, Shinji-kun," she said.

"Thank you," he said softly, suddenly feeling like he had a lump in his throat.

He couldn't remember the last time an adult had told him they were proud of him.

"I should call headquarters and tell them about your decision," Misato proclaimed, heading for the phone.

Shinji turned back to the pots he had on the stove as his guardian made her phone call. That had been rather pleasant, he had to admit, and not just because of the…probably unintended intimacy of the embrace.

Almost makes all the hell I just agreed to be put through worth it, he thought.


Author's Notes: This has been sitting half finished on my hard drive for months now, so I finally decided to finish this chapter and post it. I had actually planned for this chapter to go until the next Angel showed up, but my muse bailed on me. Anyway, here Shinji decides to stay in Tokyo-3, which I'm sure surprises none of you, and our mystery ghost being mysterious. And that's about all I have to say on this one.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well. Now for some fun.


Omakes

Some Ghosts are Better Left Alone

He was starting to consider going back up to Central Dogma when it happened. A cold chill washed over him, and he exhaled a cloud of steam in the dark hallway. Turning his head sharply, Shinji was just able to see an eerie glow before it vanished through one of the walls.

Not allowing the surprise he felt at actually finding the ghost to give him pause, Shinji immediately took off in the direction it had gone. Flying through the wall he'd seen the ghost pass into, he emerged into another uninteresting room just in time to see the ghost passing through still another wall there. He still didn't get a decent look at the ghost.

Maybe if I'm really lucky, it'll be a benign spirit, he thought as he continued to give chase.

He pursued the ghost through several rooms, always on the verge of losing his quarry, until he saw it pass through a large, heavily-armored door. Three lock-bolts as thick as his forearm held it securely shut.

Shinji didn't notice it as he barreled forward, passing easily through the door of thick steel.

"All right, ghost!" Shinji said as he finally caught up to it. "You'd better stop and…" he trailed off, feeling the blood drain from his face as he got a good look at the spirit he'd been pursuing.

It was a woman with chalk white skin, wearing a green leotard and cloak. The shape of her face reminded him of Dr. Akagi.

Oh, crap, he thought, knowing this ghost by way of reputation.

"Do you have business with me, young one?" She demanded in a haunting, otherworldly voice.

"N-n-no, ma'am!" Shinji said, have no desire to tangle with a ghost who was also the vengeful hand of God Himself. "I'll just, uh, be going now! Bye!"

"Good call," the Spectre said as he hastily retreated.

(A/N: If this didn't make sense to you, you haven't read my fic Superwomen of Eva 2: Unfinished Business.)


Rei Ayanami: Evil Mastermind?

"It would appear that Shinji Ikiryo-kun has vastly improved upon his self-duplicating abilities," Wonder Girl commented.

"Indeed," Silver Surfer agreed. "I believe Zatanna assisted him. However, I do not believe this was the plan for Shinji's increased abilities."

"No, I do not think it was," Wonder Girl said.

The two girls were sitting on the couch in Misato's apartment, watching a long line of Shinji Ikiryo duplicates that was stationed outside Katsuragi's bedroom. As they observed, a very loud, bestial sounding cry of female satisfaction came from behind the door.

A moment later, an exhausted and rather disheveled looking Shinji Ikiryo duplicate emerged from the room, took a few weary steps, and then promptly collapsed into a large, slumbering pile of other duplicates. Then, one of the still conscious duplicates made his way into the room.

All the still waiting Shinji's looked nervous but eager, while all the unconscious ones had big smiles on their faces.

A few minutes later, another happy growl came from the bedroom, and the Shinji that had just gone in emerged and collapsed into the heap of duplicates. The next one went inside.

"What the hell is going on here?!"

Wonder Girl and the Silver Surfer turned to see that Power Girl had entered the apartment through the balcony window. The Girl of Steel looked ready to explode in pure rage.

"She-Hulk is…taking advantage of Shinji Ikiryo's newly enhanced ability to duplicate himself," Wonder Girl explained.

"With gusto," Silver Surfer added.

"I can see that, but why are you two letting her do that?" Power Girl demanded. "The point of getting Shinji to duplicate himself so many times was so that we could all have one, not so the Green Monster could have a whole man harem's worth of him!"

"That is correct," Wonder Girl said, "however…"

"We are not exactly…eager to end She-Hulk's fun," Silver Surfer said. "Spirit attempted to fight She-Hulk in one-on-one combat once. It did not end well for her."

"You're both more powerful than Spirit is!" Power Girl pointed out disgustedly.

The Amazon and the mercurial girl both just stared silently at the Girl of Steel.

"Fine!" Power Girl exclaimed. "I'll deal with her! I'm not afraid of Greenie and her bloated beach muscles, unlike you two cowards!"

With that, she stalked over to the door to Misato's bedroom and ripped it out of the wall. "Hey! I'm here to teach you how to share!"

Predictably, a green cannonball that was far bigger than Power Girl and made of 100 percent pure muscle launched herself at the Girl of Steel. In moments, the two of them were trading blows that could have leveled mountains in the middle of the living room. Not long after that, one of the combatants launched the other through a nearby wall with a particularly hard punch, and the battle had soon left the building.

After that, the apartment was quiet for several long seconds.

Then Wonder Girl spoke. "I told you that would work," she said smugly.

"You were correct," Silver Surfer said as she repaired the hole in the wall with her powers.

"It would appear that you owe me a Coke," Wonder Girl said.

"Indeed," the Surfer agreed. "However, I still maintain it could have been extremely lucrative if we'd had Aida here to tape the fight between the two of them."

"He would only have been able to capture a second or two of it," Wonder Girl pointed out. "Now…"

The Surfer and the Amazon both advanced toward the group of still conscious Shinji's that they now found themselves alone with, uncharacteristically predatory grins on their faces.