A/N: I'm back! Miss me? Of course not. Onwards!

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"You're not serious" Shinji said disbelievingly.

"Oh how I wish I wasn't" Misato mumbled. Both lapsed into silence.

"Think you're alright enough to walk?" she asked suddenly.

"Why?" he asked back.

"Well, I'm going to report to where it's being kept. I figured you wanted to see it too" she said.

Experimentally, Shinji moved his legs around. They hurt of course, and it would only get worse once he was actually walking, but he thought he could do it. He also discovered that he was once again naked except for a hospital gown, to both his annoyance and embarrassment.

"What?" Misato asked, though the sly grin on her face spoke volumes.

"Why do they strip me every time I come in here?" he huffed.

"Well, everyone here works long hours, especially the nurses" she said suggestively.

Shinji's face turning tomato red was a memory Misato would cherish for all time.

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Fifteen minutes, some hastily slapped on clothes, a quick vending machine snack, and a badly needed bathroom visit later, and Shinji found himself in an elevator going down.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"One of the quarantine areas in the lower levels" she explained.

"This place has a quarantine area?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We do now" she answered.

The elevator's numbers passed by in a slow blur, each one marking by a letter and two numbers. They traveled down a number of levels, passing by restricted floor after restricted floor. Shinji wanted to ask about them, but the thought that his security clearance must be higher than several world leaders and the secret nature of the floors kept him silent. When the doors finally opened, a great weight seemed to settle onto his chest, and he couldnt stop his breathing from becoming ragged. He grabbed the wall for support.

Misato looked at him with concern.

"Feeling claustrophobic?" she asked. He nodded shakily.

"Happened to me too. A kilometer underground can do that" she said sympathetically.

"A whole kilometer under the city?" he asked in surprise.

"Under the surface of the Geofront" she corrected. He remembered how deep the fortress was, and shuddered. She tugged on his arm.

"We have an captured Angel here. It's about the safest place to put it. Now c'mon" she urged.

Outside of the well lit elevator was a dark and utilitarian hallway that was lit by periodic fluorescent lights. As they walked down it, the walls seemed to press down on the boy, shortening his breath to hardly more than panting. Misato seemed unaffected, though she also appeared to be deep in thought. To ease his senses, he glanced at the door markings. They revealed little, only a letter or some numbers, nothing to indicate what was inside.

They walked for several minutes before their destination was revealed, in the form of a nondescript door and a hulking black uniformed guard that scowled at everything. Shinji noticed the man was hispanic, an oddity in the country if he ever saw one. It didn't subtract from the danger at all. When Misato was within a meter of him he raised a beefy arm and opened a flat palm. Everything about the man radiated hostility.

"Halt" he growled. Misato grumbled and handed him an ID card. He snatched it out of her hand and scrutinized it. To the boy it looked like he was glaring at it, as if he could intimidate it. After a minute he handed it back, still scowling.

"Pass" he grumbled. Two small moves of his legs and he stepped aside. Misato moved passed him, sending him a scowl of her own along the way. When Shinji tried to follow her however, he quickly stepped back in front of him.

"Identification" he growled.

"He's with me" Misato said, annoyed.

"Only authorized personnel are permitted beyond this point" he growled in reply.

"Want me to call your boss?" Misato threatened. The man hesitated for a moment before grudgingly moving aside.

"Better" she huffed. As Shinji passed by him, he saw the guard's scowl had somehow gotten even deeper.

The containment area turned out to be two rooms that appeared to have been a police style interrogation room at some point. The inside had three people, Dr. Akagi, Lt. Ibuki, and a grim faced guard in the same kind of uniform as the one outside. The guard carried a fearsome looking assault rifle, and had it facing the direction of the glass. As they entered the doctor turned away from a readout. Neither the lieutenant or the soldier turned from their jobs, though Ibuki did spare a questioning glance at Shinji's presence.

"Glad to see you could make it" Ritsuko said.

"Wouldn't wanna miss it" she replied. Her gaze shifted to the guard's vigil, hardening her features in the process.

"Is that it?" she asked quietly.

"It is" Ritsuko answered. Shinji stepped around Misato to see. On the other side of the glass, sitting on a hospital gurney and wearing a hospital gown was-

"A girl?" Shinji said incredulously. Ibuki looked up from her equipment again with a sympathetic nod.

"Yep. That was our reaction when we found it" she said amiably.

The girl (he found himself having trouble identifying it as anything else) sat on the gurney and absently stared into oblivion. What stood out most was the complexion, or lack thereof. Pale white skin, silver colored hair that went to her shoulders, and blood red eyes. A textbook example of Albinism if he ever saw one. Apart from that however, she looked plain, neither ugly nor beautiful. He guessed her age to match his, fourteen or so.

"Amazing isn't it? If it wasn't for the coloring, it would hardly stand out" Ritsuko said.

"Why is it..um, a girl?" Shinji hesitantly asked. Ritsuko shrugged.

"Not a clue. It's possibly a mind reader, so it could've saw an image in your head and went with that" she suggested.

He tried to recall the last thing he was thinking before he blacked out, and as soon as it surfaced he banished it back.

"Has it done anything since you brought it here?" Misato asked, still staring at the glass.

"Nope. It panicked at first when we captured it, but since it's arrived its been calm. All its done is stare off into space" Ibuki answered.

"Has it said anything?" Shinji asked. In his mind he tried to connect the ethereal monster from before with the pale girl on the other side of the glass. He didn't have much success.

"No. It seems to understand our language, but past that I can't really tell you anything about it with any certainty" Ritsuko said, an edge of frustration on her tone.

Shinji stepped around Misato to see better. Other than the girl and the gurney, there wasn't anything in the room. She sat on the edge of the table, absently staring at some point in the ceiling. After a few seconds of observation, he dismissed an errant thought from his subconscious. Though-

Something about her seems familiar, he thought.

The girl's head suddenly moved, snapping over to his. Her face still looked expressionless, but her ruby red eyes seemed to peer into his own. Startled, he took an involuntary step back, idly noting the rifle toting guard tensing up. It occurred in only a few seconds, but the impact it left stunned him for a moment, making him miss part of what Ritsuko was saying.

"...aiting on a couple of the higher ups to get here before we interrogate it" she explained.

The sound of the creaky door opening punctuated her sentence. It also tore Shinji's attention off of the intense stare, to which he was grateful for. For a moment he questioned if Misato saw it or not. If he did than there was no reason she didn't either.

"Speak of the devil" Ritsuko said softly.

Three people entered the room, likely having far less difficulty than he did in doing so. The first he was only lightly familiar with, having seen him a few times in as many months. The second he knew only slightly better, but from what little he did was enough to take away a few minutes of sleep at night. A light shiver prickled across his skin when he saw the second's pseudo-officer outfit. The last he was well familiar with.

"Hey, um" Kaede half stuttered. She moved close, veering away at the last second and looking away ashamedly. A little less impulse control and she would've bear hugged him.

"Are you alright?" Shinji asked. To his confusion, she chuckled.

"You almost get zapped by a giant death ray, did get hit by killer light, and I socked you in the chin. And you're asking me if I'm okay" she said mirthfully.

Realizing the absurdity, he chuckled with her.

"I'm, um, sorry for punching you by the way" she said nervously, looking away with downcast eyes.

"You did what you had to do. Just, warn me next time alright?" he said with a smile.

She nodded in agreement, her smile brightening her features up considerably. It faded as she gaze into the room. His eyes moved along with hers, and he saw with relief that the Angel resumed staring into oblivion.

"So. That's an Angel up close" she said quietly. He nodded.

"Well, this is certainly unexpected" Tribal commented.

"Where's your boss?" Ritsuko asked, a note of fear in her tone. Maya looked up from her readings with concern.

"Thailand last time I checked. Though the current development means he's probably on his way back as we speak" he answered.

"No matter. This is an unprecedented opportunity" the old man said.

"Sir, what's our course of action?" Misato asked respectively.

"I came here for information, and that's what I plan to get" Fuyutski answered, approaching the glass. The guard gave him a short and disapproving look at his proximity.

"Who's going in there?" the guard asked, the first words he'd spoken since Shinji arrived. Ritsuko answered his question.

"Me of course. Misato too" Ibuki looked at her with some trepidation.

"I think Shinji should go too" Fuyutski suggested. Everyone except the guard snapped their heads at him in surprise, especially the subject in question.

"What? Why?" Shinji stuttered.

"You're the one who killed it, more or less. It probably fears you" Tribal offered. A moment of incredulous silence passed before Misato spoke.

"He goes" she said in a low tone. The boys innards clenched in dread.

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On the other side of the world, a pampered and exceptionally dangerous individual brooded, much to his benefactor's puzzlement. In the fifteen hours or so since the Aberration arrived, he hadn't done anything else. He had left his valued piano mid symphony, and had taken only a glass of water for nourishment.

Only one thought ran through the being's mind, a simple, damning question:

"What have you done?" he whispered.

The handful of trusted servants didn't question the behavior, they valued their lives too much.

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But before anything else happened, she obtained some insurance.

"Ma'am?" the guard questioned.

"Gimme" she commanded, twitching her outstretched palm. A slight nod from his employer made him hand over his sidearm, albeit reluctantly. Absently she stuffed it in her pocket. It bulged noticeably, but would do for the task on hand.

"Good luck" Kaede said quietly to Shinji.

Just as the three entered, Tribal put a hand on Kaede's shoulder and leaned in close to her ear.

"If things go sour you know what to do" he whispered. She nodded worriedly.

Once inside, several things were obvious. The room itself was cold and sterile, not unlike the hospital room Shinji had become unwillingly acquainted with over the months. It was about fifteen by fifteen, and empty except for the gurney. And the girl. Her head creaked to the direction of the newcomers, eyeing them with light scrutiny. Half of one wall consisted of an enormous mirror. He squinted into it, but the only thing he could see was a few faint silhouettes.

He stood behind Misato, unwilling to either run away or go any closer than he had too. Ritsuko had no such hesitation, and if she did she hid it well. She immediately and fearlessly walked right up the the girl, and to the latter's curiosity attached an awaiting blood pressure cuff to her arm. She gave no resistance.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but it seems her-" she began.

"It" Misato corrected, calm but stern. Not many would have saw the venom in her tone. Ritsuko cleared her throat.

"It...it's blood pressure seems about normal. I'll need to run a detailed examination to know for sure" she said carefully. The girl, the Angel, studied the doctor for the duration of her analysis, staring with curious eyes. The gaze's existence alone made the boy tense up.

"Any danger?" Misato asked levelly.

"Possible, but unlikely" she answered.

Satisfied, Misato took a bold step forward, followed by two more. The end of the third had her within a meter of the Angel. As the thing watched, she took the commandeered gun from her pocket and held it to her side, a wrist flick away from being aimed at the creature. Internally Shinji questioned if something like that would work, given the oversized cannon's effectiveness, but he didn't dare bring that to her attention.

"Can you understand me?" she asked in a low tone.

"...yes" the Angel replied, quiet and hesitant. It was if it wasn't entirely sure how to use its new throat.

"From this point on you are going to answer all of my questions. Understand?" she ordered. The girl nodded meekly.

"Good" she said with a nod. A smirk began to creep onto her features.

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Rei awoke. Consciousness returned slowly and hesitantly. She opened her eyes and blearily looked around. Through her dulled senses, she could discern details around her. White walls, an all too thin sheet, and an uncomfortable bed. NERV's infirmary. Mentally the previous night's events replayed. Waiting on the fifth Angel, getting hit by a gigawatt strength laser weapon, and then-

A light and uncharacteristic blush came over her cheeks.

Then the next blue pattern alert came. She passed out at about the same time as the retrieval team. Like several others, she was concerned at the sudden arrival, though not to the level as the others. It was simply a freak incident that was not according to plan. As long as it stayed like that, she could care less. With nothing else that could be done, and her own exhaustion coming back in force, she returned to sleep. With the memory of the boy's comment on her mind.

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An hour into the first definitive contact between mankind and a race from the stars, and Shinji was wishing he'd stayed in bed.

"What do you mean 'called'?" Ritsuko asked frustratingly.

"I was compelled. I couldn't disobey" the Angel answered. It's earlier trepidation had all but vanished, replaced by calm boredom. Once it had gotten used to speaking, it's voice came out with a slight melodic quality, though most of it's answers consisted of yes's and no's. Oddly enough it spoke like it was from Tokyo-2, like him.

"How did you know Tokyo-3 was your destination?" Misato asked tiredly.

"It is where I was called" she, it, answered.

"And the call was from here. As in this particular location on earth?" Ristuko asked, a note of hope in her tone.

"Here?" the Angel asked confusedly.

"Here, at NERV" she explained, definetly hopeful. A moment of thought later and it replied:

"What is NERV?" it asked. Both women face-palmed.

That was the gist of it's 'answers'. Riddles and quasi-spiritual terms that didn't tell them anything. The invader's strengths, weaknesses, motivations, or even numbers were as much as a mystery as ever. Shinji's presence proved to be redundant, since it outright ignored him. The two women did as well, forgetting he existed in short order. In that single hour, they went from a cautious interrogation an alien invader to playing twenty questions. A game they were losing at.

"And you came here because the call was from here" Misato repeated dully. Her frustration had finally burnt her out.

"Yes" it answered calmly.

"Was there no other reason? Just come because you heard something calling?" she asked tiredly. It nodded.

"It compelled me. I couldn't disobey" it repeated.

Ritsuko discreetly tugged on Misato's jacket, gently leading the tired operation's director a few paces away. They leaned in close and whispered conspiratorially to each other.

"We're getting nowhere" Ritsuko pointed out as quietly as she could.

"No shit" Misato mumbled. It didn't make a difference, the two remaining occupants of the room could hear them just fine.

Seeing the adults occupied, Shinji took the chance to ask his own question. One that they pointedly ignored.

"Hey" he said. The Angel rotated her head over to him, curious eyes included. It's gaze didn't affect him much when it did. Whether from long exposure or it dialing the effect down, he couldn't say.

"Yes?" it asked softly.

"Why'd you do it?" He asked.

"I was called" it answered. He shook his head.

"No, why did you, you know" he gestured at her. It raised an eyebrow in confusion. He sighed.

"Why'd you turn into a human" he stated.

Misato caught the last bit, and ended her quiet co-scheming with her partner in crime. She was going to chastise him, but it died in her throat as she saw the Angel move. It turned away, pulling it's knees to its chin and curling up, unintentionally angling it's back towards the boy. And unless she was mistaken, it's pale cheeks were blushed.

Ashamed?, she thought.

It mumbled something, too quiet for them to hear.

"What'd you say?" she asked, stunned. It repeated itself quietly, almost too low to hear.

"I didn't want to die" it mumbled, barely audible.

Misato and Ritsuko exchanged dumbfounded expressions.

"You're afraid of dying?" Ritsuko stated, more to herself than anything. It shakily nodded.

"So they can feel fear" Misato murmured. It took her a moment to realize the angel was still talking.

"Didn't wanna die didn't wanna die didn't wanna die" it kept whispering.

This isn't good, Shinji thought with alarm. It kept talking, slightly increasing the volume with every repetition.

"Didn't want to die didn't wanna diedidn'twannadiedidn'twnnadon'twannafie" it kept repeating. Only Misato caught the last bit.

"Hey" she said, trying to get it's attention. It ignored her, continuing the fearful chant unheeded.

"Hey!" she said, much louder. Her command tone went similarly unheeded.

Choosing the forceful option, she closed the gap and raised a flat palm. Her only intention was to give it a light smack on the cheek, but before her arm moved it's head came up, locking it's red eyes to hers. Tears were welling in the corners.

"I don't want to die" it said, fear and shame painfully evident.

Misato stood still, absolutely stunned. It gulped nervously.

"I was supposed to come. I was supposed to come down here and destroy you. All of you. But I saw him. I saw him die, I heard him. He was hurt so much, and I was scared..." It trailed off. It quickly buried her head back into her arms. From what she heard, it was doing everything in it's power to keep itself from sobbing.

Shinji gulped himself, then asked:

"You meant the fifth Angel?" he asked quietly.

"Ramiel" it quietly corrected. Ritsuko followed up with her own questions.

"Why did you change?" she asked.

It's arm came up and gestured at Shinji.

"I felt his soul. I thought I could just make him feel pain, but there was so much there. He was hurting so badly. I couldn't take it" It answered quietly.

"And how?" she asked.

"I saw his mind. I just took one of the shapes and made myself like it" it answered. It sounded especially ashamed at that information.

The three mulled over the information for a moment, until Misato broke the quasi silence.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked quietly. It tightened its grip.

"I cant do anything" it replied somberly.

"Why?" Shinji interjected. Either women should've tried to stop him, but they didn't.

"I was supposed to fulfill my purpose. Once they see what I've done, they'll kill me. I'm dead to them" it answered sadly.

"What was your purpose?" Ritsuko prodded. It shook her head.

"I don't know. All I knew was to follow the call" it said sadly.

"...so, what is your name?" Shinji asked.

"Arael" it murmured.

Shinji saw Misato motioning him. Steeping as carefully as he could, he followed her directions. He thought she was going to tell him something, but instead she lead him and Ritsuko out of the interrogation room, locking the door behind her. Once they were back in the room with the others, she slumped against the wall and seemingly deflated.

"Well, that was...enlightening" Tribal commented.

"I had sensors going the whole time. The data may not be accurate, but it does seem like it was telling the truth" Ibuki reported.

Shinji looked back into the cell, feeling what he never thought he would feel, sympathy.

"I pity her" Kaede mumbled. He nodded in agreement.

"So, whats our next course of action?" Tribal stated, forcefully putting himself back on track.

"Keep it down here" Misato said. Her voice was as tired as her appearance.

"Anything else ma'am?" the guard asked respectively.

"Food and water. For it" she clarified.

"It's probably a good idea to keep this under wraps. If word got out that we had a live Angel in our basement..." Ritsuko suggested.

"It's also a good idea to not refer to an Angel in communications" Fuyutski suggested. Tribal nodded.

"Agreed" tribal stated.

"Over the phone, computer, anything really, we'll call her..." the old man put a contemplative hand to his chin, mulling over possibilities. His eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers.

"Shaori Hiryu" he said.

"Who?" Ritsuko asked.

"Name of my cousin when I was in junior high. From this point on, that is the Angel's official name" he outlined.

Kaede was looking at the Angel, like Shinji feeling pity.

"What happens now?" she asked absently.

"If what she said was right, then the remaining Angels wont discriminate between us and her. She doesn't have much choice other than helping us" Misato answered tiredly. A lengthly yawn followed her sentence. Shinii tried to suppress it, but a powerful one of his own welled up. Kaede fell into hers a moment later.

"So, it seems we're done for the day" Ristuko said, yawning herself.

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Three days later

Nodding in satisfaction, he folded the letter, taking care to not crease it too hard. That done, he tucked it into the awaiting envelop and lightly licked the dried glue at the edge of the flap. The dried stuff once gave him a terrible aftertaste that stuck for hours, now he ignored it, welcomed it even. Once properly hydrated, he pressed it against the envelope and lightly ran his finger over the line. Experience had taught him to make sure the entire thing was sealed, lest it come open in transit.

After the so-called 'interrogation', Misato drove him and Kaede back to the apartment. The trip worried him more than anything else, by the time she parked the car (driving sensibly for once) her eyelids were visibly drooping. She crashed on the couch, and was asleep in under a minute. Kaede half walked, half stumbled into her own, shutting the door behind her. He fell to sleep less than ten minutes later.

Unfortunately, life went on, heedless of what opinion mortals had. After a refreshing night of rest, she was back to normal, or close to it. And unfortunately for him, she hadn't forgotten about the partially wrecked experimental military weapon that costed as much as the city block they lived in. His sentence ended up being a methodical cleaning the entire apartment from top to bottom and every nook and cranny in between, while also waiting hand and foot on her. A cheerful invite added Kaede to his workload, but mercifully she didn't ask for much.

The punishment was compounded by her forcing him to wear a maid outfit. Where or how she got it was a mystery. How or why she stumbled onto the idea to dress him up was similarly a mystery. In any case, his cheeks were burning red the entire day. Her repeated comments about his rear didn't help the matter.

Mercifully (or not, depending on the point of view), the next day was spent in school. In minutes a crowd had swarmed him, pestering him for information or wanting to give out adoration for his deeds. He deflected them as best as he could, sending the more level headed one away quickly. The more persistent ones he had trouble with, but he did his best. He wasn't sure why, but most of them ignored the other important member of the corps, but she wasn't too social anyway. A few of the braver souls tried, only to receive a cold and not entirely harmless warning to back away.

Rei wasn't in school. When he asked Misato about it, she made a quick call and confirmed she was taking a few days off. Given her injuries, he couldn't blame her. He made it a goal to visit her at her home, but he didn't know where she lived.

Much of that evening he spent writing his new letter. The problem was less of what he wanted to tell Lucy and more of what he could. As before, he kept to generalizations, avoiding anything too specific or stuff that sounded like it was classified. She wouldn't be happy about it, but she would understand.

It was one of those uncommon days there wasn't any school, some holiday or another. He got up early, partially to make breakfast for Misato and/or Kaede when they got up, and partially to put the finishing touches on his letter. His plan was pancakes and eggs, perhaps a side of sausage. Coffee too, in an attempt to curb her drinking habit. On a normal day, he would have a minimum of an hour before she stumbled out of bed.

He hadn't been having many normal days lately.

Minutes after he entered the kitchen, he heard the click of heels walking in. He turned around and saw to his astonishment that not only was she up, she was dressed immaculately; dress, red jacket, a small carry on bag, and a beret. She didn't look tired in the least. And most worryingly, she had her game face on.

"Huh?" was all he could muster.

"Theres a military showcase in Old Tokyo today. I have to attend" she answered his partially spoken answer. A hint of distaste was in her voice.

"Um, okay" he managed to say. She glanced over and her features softened somewhat.

"Dont worry. It's just a demonstration of a new weapon. I'll be back by tonight" she said. Her piece spoken, she swiftly exited, heading straight for the door. Her gait seemed more like a march to the boy.

Before she reached it however, the phone suddenly began ringing.

"Would you get that?" she said offhandedly.

He grabbed it at the end of the second ring, clicking the button a spilt second later.

"Hello?" he asked. He listened to it for a second and quickly called out:

"Misato wait!" She turned around, looking annoyed in the open doorframe.

"I have to leave, now. What is it?" she said, looking displeased. He held the phone out.

"It's Dr. Akagi" he said.

She snorted and marched back in, snatching the phone from his grasp and putting it to her ear.

"Yes I'm up, and I was about to leave-" she stopped mid-sentence. Her features changed from annoyance to puzzlement, and then to anger. He could hear the doctor's voice, but he couldn't make out any words.

"Whadd'ya mean they cancelled it?!" Misato suddenly yelled. She fumed as the other end explained, apparently not good enough.

"Couldn't you have told me this before? Just now? For god's sake, who's running that place?" she ranted. She listened to the other end, slowly changing to puzzled.

"An hour ago? Just out of the blue? Did they give a reason why? No? What is going on over there?" she asked to herself. She listened for another few seconds and hung up. She absentmindedly handed the phone back, looking thoughtfully into space.

"Um, what just happened?" asked a perplexed teenager. Both residents looked over to the doorway, where the anti-social pilot stood with a raised eyebrow.

"A company called Nippon industries was demonstrating their new gadget in Old Tokyo today. Ritsuko and I were supposed to attend. And they just canceled it" she said, shaking her head.

"What was it supposed to be?" Kaede asked as she walked in, the door shutting itself behind her.

"A giant bloody robot!" the General exclaimed to the lefttenant. Said officer scrunched up his brow in confusion and shivered lightly. Greenland was only a fraction as cold as it was sixteen years ago, and the cold war era base was well heated, but there was still a chill.

"But sir, what exactly is it I mean?" he asked, his accent giving away his home as Edinburgh. The General, a decorated veteran of the Impact wars, huffed and told him:

"Its called Jet Alone. The jag-offs in charge of that place say its going to be a replacement for Evangelions. I say its a giant waste of time and money, neither of which we have much of" Misato explained. Her disdain for the thing was clear.

"How is it better than an Eva?" Shinii asked.

"It isn't. Its slower, less adaptable, more expensive, and way harder to maintain" she continued.

"Then why are they saying its better?" Kaede asked, making a bowl of cereal.

"One thing those NERV fellows don't like to admit is that those demon mecha of theirs go berserk once in a while. Being computer operated, this thing shouldn't do that" the General answered the leftenant's next question. His own cockney accent, normally subdued, was becoming more apparent as mischievous thoughts of how he could put the thing to creative use filtered through his mind.

"Thats...nice sir, but that wasn't what I asked" the soldier asked nervously.

"Well, what? What are you so curious about?" the General asked irritably.

"Just, um, how did you get the robot from a heavily guarded military base in Japan to here?" he asked.

The General grinned.

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General Shiro Tokita stood in the hanger of his greatest creation, too shocked to do more than stare lifelessly. At first glance, not much seemed off. The braces were all intact, hardly touched in fact. The doors were opened, no explosives or other forceful means. No spare detritus or tools, and the dust was disturbed only by his men. The only thing that was wrong was the purpose of the hanger, the seventy five meter tall robot, was gone. Not destroyed, simply gone.

One of the men that was combing over the suddenly empty hanger jogged up to him, wordlessly handing over a small scrap of paper. Written on it was three words, all in english. Tokita read it, and reread it. The hand slowly lowered, and the paper fluttered out of his hand. He dropped to his knees and shouted at the top of his lungs.

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"Your old friend Creed?" Slavic asked dryly. Chii nodded enthusiastically. He sighed.

"Figures"

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Misato took a glance at her watch and sighed.

"All dressed up and nowhere to go" she huffed.

"So, whats on the agenda?" Kaede asked, munching on her cereal.

"I? Am going back to bed. You, you can do whatever you want" she said, spinning around and marching back into her room.

Shinji tracked her movement, stopping when she slammed her all too thin door shut.

"Well, that plan is toast" he muttered.

"If you're making breakfast I'm game" Kaede offered. Shinji sighed and obliged her.

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An hour later and Shinji walked out of the apartment, heading into the warm morning. He walked towards the small and battered mailbox at the corner, his letter in hand. When he reached it, he flipped the top and threw it in, with the ease of years of practice. He smiled and nodded at a job well done. It faded as he wondered what he was going to do for the rest of the day.

"Hey Shinji!" a familiar voice called. He looked over and to his astonishment saw two people he definitely didn't expect to see.

"Hey whats up?" Kensuke greeted. A camera was in his hand.

"Um, hey" Shinji hesitantly greeted back.

"Yo man. What are you up to?" Touji asked. He wore, as always, a sweat suit.

"Nothing much" he said carefully. Touji shrugged.

"Seeing as theres no school, Ken and I were heading to the arcade. I was wondering if you wanted to come" he asked nonchalantly. Shinji blinked.

"You're, seriously..." he tried to finish. Touji huffed lightly.

"Look, I'm sorry for what I did. Just, think of this as making up for it" Touji said.

"He being honest here" Kensuke said, earning himself an elbow to a rib.

Shinji looked at them, realizing the implications. He grinned lightheartedly.

"Sure" he said.

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A/N: Though I would love to say this was my idea and mine alone, I'd be lying. I actually got the idea from a story here called Too human, by Archdruid Sephiroth. Okay, its closer to "I blantly stole it" than anything. To give credit where credit is due, here is a shout out to Archdruid Sephiroth. Dude, you're simply amazing. You're an inspiration to writers everyone. Keep up the great work. And sorry.