Sorry for my absence; I was writing, and then I couldn't figure out how to get anything else down, and now...I've done it. You don't want to hear about the bullshit that's gone on in my life since then, I don't think. So, that having been said?

Let's get this trainwreck moving.

He carried no weapon but a great, shining sword on his back, cold steel come to life with the brightness of a hundred suns. The Trickster had taken his mentor, but still remained his love and his family. On his back was one, and beneath his arm the other, so that he could not stop to fight without endangering either. He wore no true armor, not in the way that the others did; his armor was flame, his armor was fury. A black-and-grey plug suit, with a blue midsection, was all the protection he needed.

An Evangelion lay on the ground, beheaded, its entry plug discarded as he'd made his escape. He held the greatest endurance, even more than the Fenris Wolf, surviving the fall to the ground after breaking free of the entry plug.

He'd found them, panicking, as the masses hurtled through the streets. There was no safe haven. There would be no shelter here.

Then, before him, stood Freyr. Weaponless, without armor, only a war-horn at his side, the Ancient waited patiently. The Allfather had marched out, all his host behind him for the final assault, and Freyr had come as the sacrificial lamb, for he was Surtr, the greatest of the sons of Muspel. Around him, he saw the other Evangelion slump down, out of power...but they were little more than a formality, the Ancients shrinking their size to do battle with now-smaller opponents.

That their readied size had been so massive spoke only of the size of those who had come before these gods, who they called the Forerunners. Oh, what he would give to have the chance to challenge one of them!

Gently did he lay the two on slabs of rock behind him, fallen from the houses on all sides, before returning his attention to the god before him.

"Your doom awaits, Rjufendr."

All that Surtr knew was pain, violently glorious pain, a burning sensation as blood poured forth from his wound. Now the Ancient was defenseless, unable to move, for the leader of the Muspellsmegir was too powerful in his rage to be looked away from. One almighty swing came down, splitting the god before him from skull to pelvis in a single stroke, and Surtr howled in victory.

He knew what it was that he had to do, he knew what must be done.

As his love rose, terror at the old was replaced by a terror for the new, and there were no words to describe her horror. He held his sword aloft, the blade shining bright. As he roared his pain and fury into the heart of the death-land, so did the death-land call back to him, granting the Fire That Was Not, the Fire That Once Was, and the Fire That Had Yet To Be. It pulsed within the sword, soaring upward from the tip, exploding into a halo of devastation that did not end...only as it began to fall did Surtr understand his purpose. He was an instrument, the breaker of the old and the forger of the new. So long, he'd spent forging his sword.

Laughing and crying as the flames continued to rain from the sky, continued to spread throughout the world, he knew without knowing that the sinking would come next. Hel, where was Hel? Jormungandr could save herself, but Hel was the only one who could ensure their survival.

Today the old gods lived again...no. Today, the old gods died with them.

High above, he heard a raven's scream as it was hit by the fire from the sky, tumbling downward into death.

Asuka still wasn't completely used to the feeling of her new ears, though to her appreciation nobody had said a word.

"Shape it. Bend it."

The water streaming down in front of her face pulled away from the rest of the showerhead's downpour, spiraling up before condensing, forming a rotating ball.

"Be like water. Formless...shapeless. It takes the shape of whatever molds it. It can crash, it can flow. Shade without form, shape without motion. When you and the water are one, nothing can stop you."

"I can't just...do that!"

"Water takes the form of its container. What do you think contains you?"

"My body."

"And what contains your body? What keeps you together?"

"Subatomic particle bonding."

"Be like water."

She closed her eyes.

Formless. Shapeless.

"Well, something clearly went wrong. Keep your eyes closed."

That was probably for the best. She didn't want to see whatever it was that had screwed up.

"You just thought about vanishing, didn't you? It doesn't work like that. There's a reason you're training in water...you don't just vanish. You fade into the atmosphere. Your body is mostly water, isn't it? All that's left over is used to maintain the illusion until you return. The air in this room is saturated with moisture, it will be much easier to attempt here."

It was one reason he'd always thrown mist around; in some areas, it just wasn't possible to fade into the surrounding air.

"Be like water. Become one."

The minutes of agony dragged on. It started in her ears, a feeling like fire coursing through her head before washing down to the rest of her body. By the time it was over, Asuka was ready to give up.

"Five minutes...not bad for a first attempt. It took me four, and the Helmsman took seven, if he was truthful in his words to me. Open your eyes."

She did, and stared at...was that her? She would have puked if she could.

"Yes, I know. In all likelihood, the next several attempts will look like that. Fortunately, you can reforge yourself. Close your eyes, imagine yourself as you know you are."

She felt the water on her skin, the perfect temperature. Her elfin ears remained, tapered to points; if she didn't know better, she'd think the angle had actually sharpened.

"Good. Now that you've done it once, you can do it again, and each time will be faster than the one before."

Turning the water off, Asuka grabbed a towel and began the process of drying.

She would never admit it, but she felt...better. More correct. It was as if she had been imperfect, and still was, but advancing towards her perfect form. She was the water, the lifeblood of the land, the necessity for all civilization. What was, and what would be, were one inside her flawed body and mind.

This she knew for truth.

She dried herself off and got dressed, after which she heard a knock on her door; it was Misato.

"Commander Ikari wants you and Shinji to go to his office. I'm guessing Rei will be there too."

After Misato told Shinji the news, Asuka stepped into the living room and waited with their escorts.

The air around Rei was cold, a good ten degrees below NERV's standard room temperature. It kept her blood running, she could almost feel her body adapting; a side-effect of her short time in the battle against the Wild God?

She couldn't extend the control further than a meter out from her body, but she believed that her reach with it would expand while she was inside of Unit-00. It would make no sense otherwise, as Shinji had managed to influence a whole school of bladefish with virtually no training. Even giving credence to the idea that his power magnified under duress...no, she didn't really want to think about this, not right now.

Breathe the cold air in, breathe the warm air out.

She focused on the perimeter of her ability, on maintaining it. Contracting, expanding...the closest she could come to her own body was three centimeters, trapping all the warmth of the room away from her body.

She was the tactician of the three Children. She was control. She had to be.

Leaving the perimeter at the three centimeter mark, she decided to see just how long she could control it while it was there.

Or, at least, she would have.

"Commander Ikari wants to see you."

"What do you mean we're going to Ireland?"

"The third Ancient is beginning to wake, and we need you to stop it. It's not completely risen yet. If you're lucky, you'll get there in time to kill it without a fight." Gendo allowed no room for argument. "The Evangelion will be shipped by individual jets, and there will be a separate one for the three of you. We have identified the Fourth Child; in your absence, he will move into our headquarters. You leave in an hour."

"That's kind of sudden." Shinji pointed out.

"Would you rather let the Ancient rampage its way to you?"

"No."

"Then prepare to fly."

With that, Gendo stood. "If you would rather travel inside your units, feel free to do so. The funding can always be put towards some other acquisition."

Shinji and Rei looked to one another, none too pleased about their last experience in the entry plugs.

"We'll take the plane."

"How unfortunate...I will be waiting when you arrive." NERV's leader turned his back on the Children, and walked through an open doorway that slid shut behind him.

The Children were silent for a moment, digesting his words; despite his usual coldness, they'd been given important information that didn't deal with their current mission, which was unlike the elder Ikari.

"He said they've found the Fourth Child." Shinji spoke the same thought all three of them shared. "I wonder who it is?"

"Maybe it's Kensuke. Wouldn't that be funny? He's always going on about how he wants to be one of us, wants to fight against the Ancients." Asuka laughed.

"Touji." Rei said, the pieces fitting themselves together. "I can't think of any other reason why he was called out of class. He clearly wasn't in trouble, nobody brought him anything, he was only there for a couple of minutes."

"But they could be from anywhere, all over the world!" Shinji said. "Anyone our age can be a pilot, why would all four of us be Japanese?"

"Half." Asuka said, referring to herself. And proud of it.

"Three and a half, then, but it still doesn't make sense."

"NERV's headquarters are here. Given the near-disaster that happened when Asuka traveled from Germany, it makes sense that they'd want to avoid another possible attack. So, to solve that, they just chose the best candidate from those most readily available."

"But Unit-03 is being built in America." Asuka said. "Why choose the pilot when the Evangelion isn't here yet?"

"Training. Shinji was thrown into combat on his first day here, and the fact that he survived and succeeded was an outright miracle."

She'd left out the part where her intervention was what had allowed him to kill the Wild God, but Shinji knew she was right. He remembered the wild exultation, the frenzy. Everything had gone red, he'd bitten Cernunnos' head off and screamed as the shockwave from the explosion knocked him unconscious.

Inconvenience was what had caused Shinji to be called to Tokyo-3, according to his father, but Shinji was beginning to realize that wasn't true. Maybe it wasn't that Gendo didn't care, but that he didn't know how to show it?

"We can talk about this later." He said. "We have an hour before we leave, so we'd better pack fast."

For Asuka, it was easy; she only needed to grab her plugsuit and stuff it down into a random suitcase she'd brought with her, since almost everything she owned was still packed in boxes or other suitcases. Rei only packed one bag as well, though she chose to wear her plugsuit in order to save a little bit of space. For his part, Shinji didn't care too much about the clothes he threw in, but his music player was in his pocket, and he made sure to grab his toothbrush and put it in his bag.