Feel like I'm on a role lately. Got a lot in this chapter so just enjoy it I guess.

It was around noon that same day, when Asuka had gotten tired of reading that she decided to wake Shinji who was still sleeping on the hill overlooking the park. The sun was shining brightly in the sky right now, and Asuka was getting sick of sitting around. Walking over to Shinji, who's eyes were still closed, she stared down at him for several seconds, before she rolled him over using her foot. Almost immediately he sat upright.

"Wha?" he started groggily, still apparently tired.

"I'm taking the car out," stated Asuka.

"What for?"

"Bored," she replied

With this, Shinji decided to follow Asuka on this meaningless drive. Leaving the majority of their things behind, they only took a few water bottles, and started on their way.

In reality, they had hardly explored much of the surrounding area, or any of downtown Tokyo-2. The city was large, though not quite as large at Tokyo-3, but exploring it would still take time. Since Asuka was bored, she decided to do this. Sure, it was a good idea to know what the layout of the city was like, but more than that, she was simply bored.

There first stop was the beaches of Tokyo-2, or what was left of it. As they had noticed before, the sea-levels all around the city had risen because of Third Impact. The coastal area was now deep underwater and pushing inwards. Shinji thought he remembered reading somewhere that the foundation of Tokyo-2 had been built on very unstable land. It may have been that, that made half the city sink into the ocean.

They were only able to drive so far until they hit a dead end where the water was in front of them. They weren't in the downtown district, but even so, they had reached a point where they could go no further. An assortment of junk floated in the murky water, likely from the surrounding buildings. The tops of cars could clearly been seen floating in the water. Shinji thought it looked like something straight out of a disaster movie.

Leaving this gloomy scene, they drove back inwards, using highways to navigate around. Shinji was as well looking at the map while Asuka drove. He was starting to get an idea of the different districts within the city. If he wasn't mistaken, they were passing through what once had been a popular shopping area. They passed signs and billboards, advertising everything from soft drinks, to woman's hair products. He made a note of this area, thinking that they could use it to hunt for supplies.

As they continued driving, Asuka had a place she wanted to check out in particular. It was an odd choice Shinji thought after she had suggested, but he had to admit that it would be interesting.

What Asuka suggested was that they check out the capital of Japan, since it was placed within Tokyo-2. Scouring through the map, Shinji found where the district was that housed the capital building, and Asuka drove them on their way.

They were still several miles away. Asuka kept on having to change roads as they kept running into cars that had pilled up. Swinging around a corner, Asuka darted around cars as she drove down what had once been a busy street. They had to pass through downtown first before they reached the capital. Shinji had his head resting against the passenger side door, the wind hitting him in the face. Asuka was driving rather fast for simply wanting to see the capital.

Exiting the downtown district, they reached the capital district. The buildings around them no doubt held high seats of power at one point, each of the provinces within Japan having a seat there. It was a democracy, though Shinji wondered how much political power Nerv had had within the government.

The architecture had hints of western influence in them. Some buildings had massive marble pillars that shown from the front of the building, the suns light reflecting off the columns. The majority of the buildings were modern however.

Within this district, there was the distinct attempt to make the capital at least seem pleasant, even if the rest of the city was depressing. Flower gardens lined the sidewalks on either side of the road, and giant lawns that were no doubt kept clean and cut peppered the landscape surrounding the seats of democratic power. As they continued to drive, they even passed several cherry blossom trees.

Slowly, looming in front of them, they started to see the capital of Japan. It didn't have the marble pillars like some of the other buildings, but the exterior of the building seemed to be made entirely out of marble. They parked the car on a street directly adjacent to the capital building. A lawn, which had been well groomed at one point, stretched out in front of them. An interweaving path crisscrossed around the length of the lawn, a fountain standing in the middle of it. The fountain, was of course no longer able to spew water. Along the very edges of the lawn stood hedges, higher than they should have been, lining the entire lawn.

Taking all this in, Shinji and Asuka starting walking on the entwining path leading to the capital. They walked side by side, arms nearly brushing against each other. Though Shinji thought that all this was interesting, he couldn't help but feel Asuka had a reason for coming here.

"Asuka, how come you wanted to come here?" asked Shinji as they continued walking along the path.

"Just curious about something."

"And you think its here?"

"This seemed like the easiest place to affirm it," she nodded.

He didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about, but he didn't pursue the conversation.

They reached the end of he walkway, and started climbing the steps to the front of the building. There were many steps, and Shinji didn't even try counting them all. The building towered in front of them, filling their entire eyes. It seemed to be in a stable condition at least.

"Come on," said Asuka as she opened the door.

They passed through the first door, and opened a second door, leading them into a wide hall. The floor was made of granite, stretching out to the very end of the hall. The ceiling rose high above them made out of the same marble as the exterior of the building. At the center of the hall was a large, circular desk, made out of oak wood. Walking up to it, Shinji placed his hand on the surface and was surprised at how smooth it was.

"This was likely the front desk," said Asuka as she looked over the side of the desk. Papers were strewn across the floor along with a desk lamp that had been smashed.

"Its larger than I expected," said Shinji as he looked around the wide hall.

"I don't see how you're surprised," replied Asuka. "The building itself is large, and this is the capital of Japan we're talking about."

"Did you ever go the capital in Germany?"

"Berlin? Yeah, I went there a few times. It was for Nerv though. This place though, its not quite as large as Berlin's capital building."

Shinji had trouble imagining that. Asuka was however already starting to walk away. She was walking further down the hallway. Hurrying to keep up with her, Shinji matched pace with her until they reached something which looked like a metal detector.

"Security checkpoint," mumbled Asuka. Of course, with no electricity, the scanner wouldn't go off.

Walking calmly through it, Asuka paused as she looked at the station beside the metal detector. A desk and chair sat there, and a glass panel covered both the front and side of it.

"A guard probably sat here," said Asuka as she opened one of the desk drawers.

"Is that bulletproof glass then?" asked Shinji, pointing to the glass panel in front of him.

"Course," replied Asuka. "Security was taken seriously here after all."

"What are you looking for then?"

"A gun," said Asuka simply.

This response rather shocked Shinji. He had never thought of acquiring a gun in this After Impact world. But what Asuka said made sense. A certain amount of protection was probably necessary.

"You know how to use one?" Shinji asked her.

"I received some basic combat training since I was an Evangelion pilot. Though I've only fired a gun a couple of times, and only on a gun range."

This girl just kept on surprising him thought Shinji. He sometimes forgot how lucky he was to be stuck with Asuka. She would whine and complain about thinks often, but she had a certain knowledge of things which was invaluable.

"Nothing," said Asuka as she gave up her search. "Though there will be other checkpoints to search for one."

"Is this what you wanted to look for?"

"No. It only crossed my mind when I saw the security checkpoint. I thought it would be handy to have one, in case of an emergency."

"What is it you're looking for then?" asked Shinji.

Asuka didn't immediately reply as they continued walking down the hall. They passed by several elevator shafts, none of which they could use of course. They accessed an emergency stairwell however, and started climbing up. It was then that Asuka told him what she was looking for.

"Shinji, you know yesterday when you talked about the monsoon thing."

"What about it?"

"I'm not sure if your guess of the month is accurate."

"How so?"

"First, its based on the weather, which is of course just a guess that we're in monsoon season."

"Yes, but you can't deny that we both remember being in Tokyo-3 in May before all this happened, nor that it has been almost two months since we woke up on the beach of Tokyo-3."

"Yes, but there is something that you didn't factor in. Why is it that we can't remember anything that happened during Third Impact. Something of that scale, we surely should have remembered something. Why was it that I was in my plug suit when I woke up? Why were none of the Evangelions in Dogma when we checked? Why was it, that two people who had never met before, find themselves suddenly having to live with each other. Might I add that we could both have very well worked alongside each other as Evangelion pilots."

"You believe that then? That I might have become one."

"I'm positive that you could have...or maybe were."

This statement shocked Shinji, but Asuka had her face set on what she was explaining.

"I have no doubt that your father brought you to Tokyo-3 to become the pilot of Evangelion Unit 01. That seems a given. I just don't know if you really became one, or not. From what I remember hearing from the staff when I was still working at Nerv in Germany, a pilot suited for Unit 01 hadn't been found, although the director, your father, had somebody in mind. I think that was likely you."

"What you said before though Asuka...that I might have been one. I can't remember at all...so how does that-"

"That was the other problem with your guess about the date. Our memories are not right. There is a problem between the period of both of us arriving in Tokyo-3, and then when we woke up on the beach."

"Wouldn't it just be a week or something that we can't remember?"

"I don't know long it was, and thats what makes me worried."

It was true, Asuka had a pained look on her face. She was currently unsure about a lot of things.

"At the very least, Unit 01 should still have been in Dogma, but it wasn't. If you were the designated pilot, then it makes sense to think that something happened within that time period, and you piloted it for some reason. As for myself...well I can guess that I was there with you, the First Child as well."

"What was her name again?"

"Rei. Ayanami Rei," Asuka said slightly bitter. Shinji could tell that the thought of the person annoyed her.

"So all three of us, me, you, and Ayanami fought...or something."

"I don't know," said Asuka as she bit her lips. "I'm just speculating about something which may or may not be true. Either way though, what I'm looking for in here should at least let us know how big of a gap there is in our memories."

"What...is it like a calendar or something?"

"No, thats not specific enough, though that would help to continue remembering the days. What I'm looking for here is a newspaper. I was hoping to find one behind the front desk, or at the security checkpoint, but so far, nothing."

What she said left Shinji deep in thought. There was a lot that he hadn't considered, but Asuka had. It was true that they didn't know how long their memory loss was, but it couldn't be longer than a couple of weeks at the most.

Reaching the top of the stairwell, Asuka opened the door and they stepped out into a small hallway. Offices with nameplates next the doors lined either side of them. Ignoring the names, Asuka opened the door closest to them and entered.

The office was small, making Shinji think it wasn't somebody that important that had worked here. Asuka ruffled through the things on the desk, ignoring the computer, and other things that sat on the desk. Shinji couldn't help but notice a picture though of a woman with two boys on either side of her. The person that worked here must have had a family.

'A family,' thought Shinji. It was something that he had never experienced, and from the sound of it, Asuka hadn't either.

"Doesn't anybody read a newspaper in this damn building?" wondered Asuka as she gave up her search of the office. She noticed that Shinji was staring though, and thought that he was looking at her, before she noticed his gaze was directed at the picture on the desk.

"This guy had a family," mumbled Shinji.

"Plenty of people did," replied Asuka. "At least there with each other, if you believe in that of course."

Leaving the office, they walked to the one adjacent, but here they didn't find a newspaper either.

"Is it possible that there isn't one here?" asked Shinji.

"Unless nobody in the entire building read one the day that Third Impact happened, I highly doubt that. Paper takes time to degrade, unless it gets damp somehow, and this building is in surprisingly good shape."

Rounding a corner, they came upon another security checkpoint. This one was positioned for the people coming out of the elevator, giving it a double layer of security with this one and the one downstairs.

Checking the drawers again, Asuka found at least one of the things she was looking for. In the topmost drawer was a 9mm handgun. Removing it from the drawer, Asuka examined it and checked the magazine. The magazine held several bullets, although none were loaded in the chamber of the gun. Looking through the drawer again, she found a small box, containing several more shells of ammo.

"Here, hold onto this," said Asuka as she threw the box to Shinji. Catching it, Shinji stuffed it in one of his pockets. Asuka examined the gun again, before making sure the safety was flipped. She couldn't be certain it fired until she tried it, but firing it in here wasn't a wise idea. For now, she decided to stuff it behind her waist, tucking it into the jeans she was wearing.

"Well, thats something at least," said Asuka.

Leaving the checkpoint, they examined more offices, still unable to find a newspaper that gave them an accurate idea of when Third Impact might have happened. Deciding to climb further up into the building, they returned to the stairwell. Reaching a landing that seemed to be the fourth floor, Asuka opened the door and stepped out onto the granite floor.

This hallway was smaller than the other two, but seemed to be more important as well. Double oak doors stood on the opposite end of where the elevators came from. Standing before them, Shinji looked to the plaque hanging on the wall. This seemed to be were the majority of the decisions came from within the government. Shinji wondered how many times Nerv had been brought up in the discussions that went on here.

Opening the two doors, Shinji and Asuka were greeted by a wide open room. The room was circular, leading all the way down to the main floor. Rows and rows of desks covered the wall, starting from the top, and extended all the way down to the bottom. As Shinji looked closely, he could see nameplates on many of these desks. At the very center of the room was a platform, upon which was raised a podium and behind it several chairs.

Asuka and Shinji started walking down the isle until they reached the bottom. When Shinji looked up, he saw that a skylight hung far above him, letting sunlight come into the semi-dark room.

Asuka walked over to one of the desks in the front row and examined the papers upon it. Most of them seemed to be government related. Ignoring this, Asuka continued going down the rows, searching for a newspaper that gave them a clue as to what date it had been before Third Impact. Shinji instead walked up to the platform in the center of the room and looked out. He couldn't imagine what it must have been when this thing was packed, having all those faces looking down on you, questioning you.

"Oi, Shinji!"

Shinji looked to one of the far corner of the room and saw Asuka standing there, waving at him. She seemed to be beckoning him to come over to where she was.

Taking the steps that led to Asuka two at a time, Shinji halted and walked down the row of desks until he was looking down at a piece of paper that Asuka had found. It wasn't a newspaper, but it did have a date on it.

The date read June 10th.

Shinji looked at this date for several seconds. There wasn't a year, but it did specifically say the date. Glancing at it further, Shinji skimmed through the government document, picking out key words. Slowly, he began to realize what they were talking about. Words that referred to Nerv and the Evangelions jumped out at him. Reading further, there was the mention of the angels as well. Whats more, his father, Gendo Ikari was mentioned.

"What is this exactly?" asked Shinji.

"I can't be sure, but I think its a report on the activities of Nerv. Nerv was never technically part of the government of Japan, but acted on its own instead. I'm not surprised that the government would want to keep tabs on what was happening in Tokyo-3. The date though, isn't exactly what we wanted. Even if we go with your theory, the date can't be June 10th. That would have meant there were still people here while we were in Tokyo-3."

Shinji thought back to when they had been in the Geofront and all the dried blood they had seen.

"Keep looking around," continued Asuka. "Even if we don't find a newspaper here, this is at least a start. We have a date to go off of now."

Shinji did so, following Asuka's advice and starting going from desk to desk, searching for any documents that had been dated. Slowly, they began to piece together dates from the month of June, all the way through August. The latest date they were able to find was August 21st. Some of the documents made mention of Nerv, though the majority referred to bills that were put forth.

They had already combed more than half the room and were now taking a break, sitting on the edge of the platform in the center of the grand room. Sipping water slowly, they didn't talk to each other. When they had found the document that had August 21st on it, they had been shocked. If the date on the document was correct, and there wasn't any reason why it wouldn't be, they were likely in the month of October by now. This had been a shock to both Shinji and Asuka. Almost three months of their memories simply didn't exist. Again, they couldn't be positive that this was even the final document.

Standing up again, they proceeded to search the rest of the room for more dates.

They had no idea how long they had been inside the building, only that they were both incredibly hungry, and the sun was starting to set. Shinji was starting to wish that he had brought some food with them, but he didn't know they would be gone this long. The skylight that shown down wasn't giving them much light anymore either. If they wanted to read something, they were forced to go to the center of the room where the platform stood.

As they were considering on giving up, Asuka found a paper on a desk in a row in the very far corner of the room. Calling Shinji over to her, she handed him the piece of paper that she had found. It wasn't a document, but a scrawling of some sort done on an otherwise blank piece of paper, seemingly done by the person who had sat at the desk. The contents mentioned several things relevant to Nerv, and then there was the date mentioned. The date was September 2nd, and what followed was a brief mention of questionable activities within Nerv that were of concern to certain people. The brief note brought into question whether something would have to be done if Nerv went outside the limits the government had placed on them.

Shinji and Asuka both read this brief note several times before they looked at each other.

"What does this mean?" asked Shinji.

"Certain people within the government were afraid of Nerv, and wanted something done about it. Probably, what we saw in the Geofront was a direct result of those decisions. At least, this is my guess," said Asuka

"Then, the attack on Nerv would have happened in September," Shinji replied slowly.

"Yeah," said Asuka as she let the note fall back onto the desk.

That would mean they were in late October or early November right now. The thought of this was impossible for Shinji or Asuka to comprehend. Almost four months, four months that they couldn't recall in the slightest.

Asuka let herself sink into the chair in front of the desk, her eyes rather glazed over. Four months! She wanted to scream, wanted to break something. It was maddening, simply impossible!

"Is this enough?" asked Shinji.

Shinji didn't want to think of this himself. The truth, if it was the truth, was too improbable. What was real and what wasn't? This entire time, had they been blindly walking around, not having a clue what had happened?

Asuka didn't reply to this question however; she was too stunned to reply. Shinji placed his hands on her shoulder and shook her however. He couldn't afford to have Asuka lose it right now.

"Asuka!" he nearly shouted at her.

She blinked and turned her head towards him.

"Sorry," she said. Standing up, she tried not to look back down at the desk.

"Isn't this enough?" asked Shinji again.

"For now," nodded Asuka. She was trying her best to keep calm. September 2nd...they didn't even know how many weeks followed that date. It could be another month.

"We should leave, return to the park. I'll cook something and then we can go right to sleep."

"Yeah," said Asuka shakily.

They hurriedly left the circular room and took the steps down to the ground floor two at a time. They wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

Throwing open both sets of doors at the entrance to the capital, they walked out into the decreasing sunlight. As they reached the car that they had parked across the lawn, Shinji thought that Asuka would have difficulties driving. She didn't seem to have anything else more clear in her mind right now however. Shinji understood then, that she just wanted to get back to the park, to forget about what they had just read. If she was driving, at least her mind could focus on something. They didn't speak to each other as she drove.

Asuka drove carefully as they made there way back, but it took them almost a full hour. The sun had almost completely set now, and when they returned to the park, it took Shinji a while before he started a fire. He wasn't physically tired, just mentally. He didn't want to think about the four months of his life that were missing.

Thinking that they needed something to raise their spirits, Shinji cooked a rather extravagant meal for what he had to work with. Sauteing several of the canned vegetables in a pan with soy sauce, he used this as a side dish. Cooking the rice separately, he added chicken broth, giving it a minute amount of extra flavor.

Asuka didn't say anything as Shinji passed her the bowl of rice and vegetables, but ate vigorously. Again, anything that could occupy her mind right now she relished. Shinji found that cooking did that for himself at least, as driving had done the same for Asuka.

After finishing, Asuka retreated into the tent and Shinji packed everything away. It couldn't have been later than eight o'clock by then, but even Shinji found himself wanting to sleep.

Crawling into the tent as well, Shinji glanced over to the far corner where Asuka was laying. She was already in her sleeping bag, and had her back turned towards him. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since they had left the capital building.

Shinji got into his own sleeping bag and moved to his own corner of the tent. Quickly though, he found that something was missing, lacking. Maybe it had been because of the events of the day, the realization that things may have happened that he knew nothing about. Last night though, Shinji and Asuka had slept unusually close to each other, because of the rain. Even without the rain though, Shinji found that he wished for that comfort again. They were in this together, and both were feeling the hurt from what they had found out.

Doing much the same as he had done the previous night, Shinji crawled to the middle of the tent and laid down. He didn't say a word to Asuka, but the meaning was there. 'I'm afraid just as you are.' If they couldn't find comfort in themselves, then they could find it together.

Even quicker than last night, Shinji heard movement as Asuka got up, and moved to the middle of the tent. She laid down next to him, their backs against each other. She didn't say anything either, but accepted the unspoken words.

Neither of their lives were as they had seemed. Four months of their lives simply didn't exist. That time certainly existed though. So why couldn't they remember anything?

They both questioned this as they slowly fell asleep beside each other.

The birds chirping overhead was the start of the new day. It was still very early in the morning, and the sun wasn't even fully up yet when Shinji opened his eyes. He stared up at the tent for a long time, slowly remembering everything from yesterday. It wasn't as painful as it had been, but Shinji still had questions about a lot of things.

Looking to his left, he saw a small lump sleeping next to him, distinguished by strawberry colored hair. Asuka it seemed, was still sleeping, her breathing low and peaceful. At least she didn't have to deal with everything quite yet. Asuka had taken the shock of missing four months of her life rather hard it seemed.

Deciding that it was a little early to make breakfast, Shinji instead carefully removed the tape deck he had acquired from his backpack, and lost himself in music for a while. It was still a long while later until Asuka awoke.

She was mumbling inaudibly beside him, and Shinji ignored it for the most part. The tossing and turning came next, and Shinji this time directed his attention towards her. He couldn't see her face, but had to assume that it was scrunched up. She seemed to be having a nightmare of sorts. He wasn't sure whether he should wake her up, as she would no doubt be unhappy about there current closeness. It seemed that he didn't have to however, because Asuka suddenly sat bolt upright, her eyes flying open. She didn't say anything, but her hand was oddly outstretched as though it was trying to reach for something.

It took her several more moments until she notice Shinji still laying beside her, and Shinji was surprised that her expression didn't change. Instead, she flopped back down on the ground and turned away from him.

"You hungry?" asked Shinji calmly.

"Not really," came Asuka's voice after a pause.

"All right...just let me know when you want breakfast."

It was perhaps several more minutes before Asuka spoke again.

"Have you been up long?"

"An hour, maybe more," Shinji replied.

"And you didn't think to move away from me?"

"The thought never really crossed my mind. Also, I didn't really want to wake you by accident. You would have gotten angry anyway."

Asuka felt herself get angry just then at his words, but also felt a hint of embarrassment.

"How are you holding up?" Shinji said quietly.

He wasn't sure whether he expected a reply, but he was curious all the same.

In reply, Asuka turned over on her back and was now looking up at the tent. Her face didn't change, but Shinji thought he caught something in her eyes.

"I'm not really sure," she started slowly. "Everything...is rather hard to take in right now. Four months gone? How can anyone expect to come to terms with that? I don't even know if I'm the same person anymore."

Shinji understood her, as he had been thinking similar things.

"It was certainly a shock, finding those papers, and the ones that mentioned Nerv. There are just too many things that I don't know...we, I should say."

"We?"

"Isn't it strange Shinji," said Asuka, "that we are both here together, and that both of us have memory loss? Both of us which had connections with Nerv, and the same organization existed to prevent Third Impact. Well, we're both here, so something must have fucked up."

"So, those four months, did we fight the angels together?"

"I can only surmise. Why don't we remember any of it though? Unless, when Third Impact happened we lost our memories."

"Why was it only those four specific months then, and why are we the only ones here then? Shouldn't everyone have died?

"I don't know," said Asuka as she shook her head rather vigorously. "I'd rather not think about such things if I can it help."

"What was that dream about then?" asked Shinji almost inaudibly.

"Dream?" asked Asuka puzzled.

"You looked like you were having a nightmare, and you sat upright suddenly, looking as though you were reaching for something.

"First off, it wasn't a nightmare. I was just remembering somebody from before. She was something like a guardian to me I guess. I was gonna be living at her place while staying in Tokyo-3. I don't know why I dreamt of her...I had hardly thought of her until now."

"Did she work at Nerv?"

"Yeah. She was an unusual person though. A total slob who was always drinking and somebody who couldn't drive for shit. But, she had helped me out several times when I was transferring from Germany to Japan."

"What was her name?" asked Shinji.

"Misato."

Images hit Shinji then, flashing by him. His head seared with pain, and it took everything within him to not grasp his head. It was unusual pain the likes which he had never felt before. Emotions filled him, emotions that he couldn't understand. What was this feeling? The name? It had to be the name! But he had never heard it before in his life. It was impossible! But no...something...what Asuka had said. Her guardian? His guardian? Their guardian? How was that supposed to make sense? He had never heard the name, but something else...the images. Suddenly, his mind went back to what he had seen at the Geofront. The immense amount of blood against the vent, an unusual amount of red. The voices as well. Was that what it was? But why should he think this?

Unfortunately for him, Asuka couldn't help but notice the sudden change in Shinji's expression.

"Misato's name...why did you react to it?"

Her voice was low.

"What do you mean?" replied Shinji, trying to ignore his splitting headache.

"Don't lie to me Shinji," said Asuka, her face suddenly serious. "You've heard Misato's name before!"

"I haven't damn it!" said Shinji firing back at her, his voice loud.

"What was that then?" asked Asuka.

"I don't know," replied Shinji.

He didn't know why these things were happening to him.

"Shinji...if you know anything at all-"

"I don't."

"Even if you aren't positive, I want to hear it."

During this confrontation, neither of them had realized how close they had gotten to each other. Asuka was halfway out of her sleeping bag and leaning towards Shinji, while Shinji was closer to her as well. Their eyes were locked with each other. Shinji didn't realize it until then, but Asuka was wearing a tank-top, her minor cleavage just barely visible.

"Fine then," said Shinji as he crossed his legs and looked away from her.

He told her about hearing the name, his reaction to it. How, even though he had never heard the name before, he had felt certain emotions pertaining to it. How Asuka's words had jogged something in his memory. His thought that, Misato might have been his next roommate, Asuka as well, considering what she had said. Even though they didn't have any memories of it, he thought that himself, Misato, and Asuka may have lived under one roof. He still purposefully left out the images he had seen at the Geofront. Insanity could only go so far.

Asuka listened to all this, keeping her eyes fixed on Shinji as he talked. She didn't let her eyes waver. What he said sounded insane, but a part of her felt that it wasn't anything but the truth.

When Shinji finished talking, he let out a low sigh, and fell back onto his sleeping bag. Asuka had her head in her hands and seemed to be thinking deeply about something. Eventually, she said-

"How the hell did we manage living together?" wondered Asuka. "I imagine we were arguing everyday."

"Aren't we doing that now?" replied Shinji.

Asuka laughed lightly at that, but continued.

"So you became an Evangelion pilot and we lived together with Misato. I can visualize that much, but afterwards..."

She didn't say it, but Shinji had an idea what she meant. That would have only been the first few days within the four months they couldn't remember. Everything else was gone.

"What I don't get is, why was your reaction so strong to Misato's name, that you were able to remember something," said Asuka.

"No clue."

"Maybe you were in love with her?" Asuka jokingly said.

"This isn't something we should be laughing about," replied Shinji. He didn't appreciate the humor in this.

"Lighten up idiot. It was a joke."

"Yeah, well, it wasn't funny." Shinji was still having difficulty getting the image of what he had seen at the Geofront out of his head.

"Sorry, but joking is about all I can do right now."

Shinji looked over at Asuka and saw that her face was rather sad.

"The reality, is that the person we are now, and the person we were, are not the same. It feels like I've got an empty hole within me, like something is missing. I hate this feeling."

Asuka smiled bitterly back at Shinji. They had figured out a portion of the truth, but the rest of it was hidden from them. That was about all they could hope for.

"Try not to dwell too much on those memories either," said Asuka as she stood up.

"How come?" asked Shinji.

"There's most likely a reason we forgot them."

Asuka didn't know how much weight her words carried.

After their talk within the tent, Shinji cooked breakfast. They didn't talk about the subject anymore, and Asuka seemed to already be blocking out the fact that they had once been living together. Shinji thought the notion funny, that him and Asuka were forced to live together, exactly as how it was now.

Asuka instead got a sick sensation every time she thought about it. It really was an unpleasant thought.

After breakfast, Shinji milled around camp for a while, trying to occupy himself with whatever he could find. It was boring when there wasn't anything to do.

Asuka came out of the tent then, fully clothed in jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail again. In her hand she held the gun she had found yesterday at the capital.

"What are you doing?" Shinji immediately asked when he saw what she had in her hand.

"Making sure it works."

Asuka starting walked far away from the tent, further towards the center of the park, Shinji hurrying to keep up with her. When she reached the center of the field, she cocked the gun back, loading a shell into the chamber. Flicking off the safety, she held the gun with both hands and pointed it down the center of the field. Turning around first to look at Shinji, she said-

"You may want to cover your ears, as this is going to be a little loud."

Shinji quickly did so, and moments later, Asuka squeezed the trigger. The gun exploded, the bullet shooting out the end of the cylinder, and rocketed down the field. Asuka didn't fire another shot, seemingly pleased with how the gun had performed. Flipping the safety back on, she pointed it down towards the ground and walked back to Shinji.

"Well it works," she said mildly.

Shinji wasn't sure whether to be impressed or not. At least if they needed protection, they knew they had it.

They walked back to the tent, and Asuka stored the gun back inside her backpack. Withdrawing to her book, she had intended on reading, but Shinji had something else in mind.

"Mind driving somewhere?"

"Not back to the capital I hope."

"No, nothing like that. I wanted to pick up a few things at the grocery store, as well as look for more things to carry stuff in. We've acquired a lot more than what we had initially intended."

"Well, you do have a point there," said Asuka as she looked over to her backpack. It wouldn't even close anymore.

Asuka agreed with him, and together, they decided to drive to the nearby grocery store. As usual, they took several bottles of water with them. They would have to grab a few more while at the store. At least there was still plenty of that left.

Arriving twenty minutes later, they walked into the store. The smell which had initially sickened them had become something which they were already used to. Shinji surprised Asuka by grabbing a shopping cart and started going down the different isles. Usually, he simply packed stuff into his backpack, but even his was having difficulties closing. He particularly was going down the seasoning isle, grabbing things off the shelf so fast that Asuka didn't have time to read the labels. He seemed to know what he was getting though.

While Shinji continued shopping, Asuka ambled down the isles, looking at all the different things on shelves. She sometimes did this while Shinji shopped. Since he was the one that always cooked, she usually just let him have his way. Lately though, she had been wishing for something fresher, even though she knew that was impossible. The frozen vegetables had long ago unthawed themselves with the lack of electricity.

Leaving this isle, she started walking down another, one which she usually didn't pay much attention to. She was interested though, and the talk of Misato from before had reminded her of the stuff. She had never tried alcohol before, but wondered what it would be like. She was looking at a rack of wine, reading the different labels, even though she didn't know what they meant.

"How come you're over here?" asked Shinji. He had come wandering over to this side of the store while looking for her.

"Just sorta ended up here."

Shinji looked from Asuka to the wine and then back again.

"Did you want to try some?" he asked.

"...Maybe. I'm sorta curious at least."

"I suppose, but no driving."

"I'm not stupid," Asuka retorted.

"Well, grab one then and I'll go find a bottle opener."

Blindly, she grabbed a bottle of white wine. Shinji shrugged his shoulders at her selection, and pushed the shopping cart to another isle. He found a plastic bottle opener that would work well enough, and pushed the shopping cart out into the parking lot where they loaded up their car.

Afterwards, they drove to several apartment buildings nearby and looked for more backpacks to store stuff in. They weren't all that successful however, and drove back to their makeshift campsite.

Being still full from breakfast, they wasted away the remainder of the day, Asuka reading, and Shinji listening to music. They had both agreed to wait until dinner to try the wine.

As dinner neared, Shinji used many of the ingredients he had got from the grocery store. Though the majority of it had been seasoning, he got several more cans of food. After dinner was ready, he popped open the bottle of wine. It smelled strange to him, but he wasn't going to be complaining quite yet.

Walking over to the tent, he stuck his head in and called Asuka.

"Dinners ready."

"Alright," said Asuka as she got off from her sleeping bag. She hadn't moved hers since they had slept next to each other last night, so both their sleeping bags were still next to each other. Shinji didn't think it would stay like this though.

He poured them both a glass of wine with plastic cups they had found. Though a toast felt proper, Shinji didn't have a clue what he was supposed to toast to. Asuka it seemed was already ahead of him, as she quickly placed the cup between her lips and took a sip of wine.

Almost immediately, she spit it out. Shinji hadn't expected this reaction.

"That is disgusting," said Asuka, her face sour.

Shinji tried some himself. It was certainly bitter and it left a strange tangy sensation in his mouth. He thought he preferred water.

"Maybe its a bad bottle," Shinji suggested.

"I think wine just tastes like shit," replied Asuka. She had already dumped the wine out of her cup and was instead now drinking from a water bottle. Shinji had to admit she had a good idea.

Ignoring the wine, they ate the meal otherwise pleasantly.

When they had finished, Shinji cleared everything away with additional help by Asuka. Deciding that the fire could die down on its own, they entered the tent. As Shinji went to lay down, Asuka hurriedly moved her sleeping bag away from him. Shinji noticed though, that it wasn't at the very far end of the tent like before. He didn't moved his, being already comfortable were it was.

Putting his earplugs into his ears, Shinji rolled over onto his back. The fire was throwing shadows up around the tent, creating strange images in front of him.

Those images from before, he now knew that he had seen the death of this Misato person. He didn't feel anything now when he thought of her, and he barely even knew what she looked like from the image he had seen. It was still with that image though, and he didn't know why he had seen it in the first place. It was obvious that this person had been important to him in someway, even if he couldn't comprehend how. But the fact that he had seen her death didn't make any sense. What was he exactly?

He had no idea what happened in those four months that he couldn't remember, but he felt that those images had something to do with it.

"Hey, Shinji?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you still want to know exactly what date Third Impact started on?"

"No, I don't think I care enough anymore. Even if it was only another week or two after September 2nd, I don't think it makes that much of a difference. Four months...its enough to know that much. Anymore and-"

"I'm glad we can agree on that," said Asuka, cutting him off.

Shinji didn't reply.

It was still lingering, the thought of what had happened in those four months, but it was less painful now. Even so, sleep was still difficult for Shinji and Asuka that night.

First thing that morning, after breakfast, they drove around in search of backpacks again. They looked around within the area of the suburban neighborhood, but still couldn't find any. Shinji wasn't giving up though, and had Asuka drive into the city. There were more apartments here than in the suburban neighborhoods.

They checked several of the large apartments, the ones that towered high into the sky. Mice had invaded some of these, and Asuka more than once swore loudly as she saw one scuttle across her field of vision. Shinji laughed several times, giving Asuka a reason to elbow him in the stomach. He had never imagined she would be afraid of mice. It was certainly a more girlish side to her. Course, if Asuka ever heard him mention this, she would kill him.

The apartments smelled rancid and moldy, and in some of them, they were forced to hold their shirt over there nose to prevent the smell seeping in. Asuka complained that she was going to smell like a homeless person by the end of this. Shinji was admittedly getting sick of this as well, in more ways than one.

As they were walking back to the car though, Shinji spotted a rather nice looking hotel. Pointing it out to Asuka, they decided to venture into it, as there were bound to be backpacks and suitcases there.

They entered through the front doors, and looked around at the lobby. The carpet was made out of velvet red and the columns were painted gold. Ignoring the front desk, they walked behind it to a place that read employees only. Pushing open the door, several trolley carts entered their field of vision. Most of them were empty, but several had suitcases on them and backpacks.

"Grab the largest one you can kind find," said Shinji.

Asuka did so, opening many of them until she found two that she liked, both large enough to accommodate her ever growing supplies. Shinji choose several himself, though none quite as large as Asuka's. Shinji was curious about the rest of the hotel, but he supposed that they should leave.

The ground suddenly started to rumble.

Shinji and Asuka both froze. Was it an earthquake?

The explosion which resounded was unreal. One building away from them, an apartment building was collapsing upon its own weight. The infrastructure had been weakened by Third Impact, but also because of the shoddy workmanship. The concrete foundation and support beams could no longer hold the building up, and instead, it collapsed upon itself. At first, it collapsed straight downwards, but the weight shifted from one side, to the other side, the one facing the hotel building that Shinji and Asuka were presently in. The building started to slant, and all at once, violently crashed against the hotel. A massive dust cloud enveloped the two buildings. The entire road had been covered in debris from both building.

The initial explosion had disoriented both Shinji and Asuka. Shinji's ears were ringing, and his equilibrium was shot. Next, the force of the other building colliding against the hotel created such an amount of force that Shinji felt the whole building teeter for an instance. He himself was knocked flat on his back, and from the loud thud that came near him, it sounded as though Asuka had fallen as well. The wind had been knocked out of him, and his vision had blurred slightly. Something wet felt like it was flowing from his head. He didn't have time to worry about this however.

Standing up on wobbly feet, he made his way over to Asuka. He grabbed her arm, and lifted her up, but found that she was responsive. She said words to him, but he found that he couldn't hear her. Both his vision and his hearing were starting to disappear. She seemed to realize this, because she instead grabbed his arm and placed it on her own shoulder, and tried to pull him towards the exit. At this moment, she noticed the blood seeping from his wounded head.

From high above them the hotel teetered again. The collapsed apartment was pushing against it with such force that it was bending the metal of the hotel. Any second now and-

The sound of screeching metal was equivalent to one thousand nails on a chalkboard. The hotel teetered one final time, before it collapsed, the apartment building pushing it over. Concrete and metal beams were ripped apart and thrown into the air. The dust cloud now enveloped the entire city block.

Underneath everything though, Asuka tried fighting her way to the exit. The cloud of dust was stinging her eyes, making it almost impossible to see. Her throat was dry and she coughed violently. She was exhausted and ached everywhere. But Shinji's head wound wasn't stopping. He had already passed out by the concussion.

In front of her, the ceiling suddenly caved in. Large amounts of ceiling tiles collapsed, along with several other floors worth of sheetrock, metal pipes, and concrete. Though the building had fallen to the side, a large amount of debris had been pushing down on the lower floors, and the ceiling just couldn't withstand the weight anymore.

What remained of the building came crumbling down around Shinji and Asuka, trapping them inside.

And a bit of a cliffhanger at the end here. I wasn't sure if I was gonna include this last bit, as I thought of saving it for the next chapter. But I hadn't done a cliffhanger yet so I felt it was warranted. Look forward to the next chapter!