Eva Possibilities and Fusion Pandemonium

by Xed Alpha

An incident during the fight between the Third Angel and Unit-01 lands NERV with two Saiyan children stranded far from home and not in the mood to do as they're told. With their fathers following on soon thereafter, a chain of events is about to unfold that even the Kais themselves could not have foreseen.

10. Chapter 10: Dual Nature

[A/N] Oh dear, I'm starting to remember just how long some of these chapters were, and still nothing compared to the later ones. I swear it's going to be much easier and probably quicker once I'm actually writing new chapters in full, but I'll handle that when I get to it. In the meantime, let us continue…

Chapter 10: Dual Nature

Albeit Rei Ayanami had a tendency, ne talent for ignoring others, the presence of the Third child lately was one which she simply found herself unable to shut out or refuse when the estranged Ikari wanted someone to confide in.

"Oh, it's just too damn complicated, Rei," Shinji said, flicking his arms up in exasperation. He also had neglected to notice the fact that he had come to refer to her entirely on a first name basis.

Rei was currently sat in the eternal summer sun on her favorite bench, well… her usual bench anyway, which was pretty much enough to render it a favorite in her book.

She had several minutes ago given up on even attempting to focus on her textbook, and had instead taken to allow her crimson eyes to follow Shinji back and forth as he paced in front of her. 'Curious,' she idly wondered to herself, 'does this behavior assist in his thought process' she thought, never really grasping why people saw the need to walk backwards and forwards whilst trying to work something out.

It was almost as confusing to her as why Shinji thought she was an appropriate person to consult with in relation to his personal issues with the pilot of Evangelion Unit-02. She was not very well acquainted with the German girl, nor had her training involved any sort of course in relationship counseling.

Obviously Commander Ikari had thought such a skill to be surplus to requirements.

Recent observations had left her wondering if this was still true.

"I don't understand," she began after a moment as Shinji stopped and slumped down onto the bench next to her, "why does it concern you so?" she asked, flicking her textbook closed and setting it down on her lap.

"Oh, I don't know," he began almost dejectedly as he rested his chin in his left palm, "It's just, during the incident with the last Angel, I thought we'd managed to hash out at least some kind of friendship, or at the very least some kind of kinship, but when it comes to Toji, Kensuke and Asuka together, " he paused, shaking his head against his palm, "The three of them get along like dynamite in a volcano.

I just don't know whose side to take on this; Toji and Kensuke are effectively my best friends –oh, a-along with you too of course, Rei. But Asuka's my co-pilot on top of being a friend and… there's just something about her that makes me feel, I dunno, bad for doing anything that would leave her isolated." He stopped, growling slightly in frustration, "Damned paradoxes! Can't just one thing be simple in my life?" he demanded rhetorically, turning his gaze to the pavement as Rei regarded him curiously. Now Rei, Shinji contemplated, seemed to be the only one whom he had finally found at least some degree of solace in, to him she was like calm island where he could at last rest and take shelter from the conflicting sea of emotional waves around him. She never seemed to judge, never made him feel self-conscious, she only listened. She was… safe, in his mind.

"It bothers you this much?" Rei enquired in her usual soft tone a moment later.

"It does. I mean, I was just thinking how much easier it would be if we were all friends as pilots. I mean, " he paused, smiling ironically, "as Goten would say, it's better than being enemies," he said, smiling as his mind focused on the other kind of reassurance he felt when he was in the presence of the Saiyans. Though when you've got someone on your side capable of leveling mountains just by pointing at them and shouting really loud, it was quite difficult to feel scared.

"I see," Rei said, even though it was a blatant lie, however she had come to realize that any gesture of attempting to understanding the Third child's situation seemed to help set his warring mind at ease, the mere act of which gave the First Child a strange sense of warmth and satisfaction. She had come to enjoy the company of the pilot of Unit-01 (and was in fact at least 80% sure that that was the correct adjective to apply to the emotion she was sensing -a personal best for her).

She spoke up after a moment, "So, you believe friendship with the Second Child would assist in our duties as pilots also?" she asked.

Shinji shrugged, "I guess it couldn't hurt. It would also keep her from trying to throttle me and labeling me as a pervert every time I look over at her and say hi when I'm with Kensuke and Toji."

Rei narrowed her eyes in thought, "Do you not therefore consider association with a fellow pilot to take precedence over that of civilians?" Rei offered, and was more than a little bewildered as to why her opinion elicited a grin from the Third Child.

"Come on, Rei. Being an EVA pilot isn't everything, you know," Shinji said as he leaned back, unaware as to the small intake of breath this caused from Rei, nor the fact that she had turned her head completely to look at him with an avid curiosity.

'I do not understand, what can be more important than his duties as the pilot of Unit-01? He sounded so sincere also,' she contemplated as Shinji laid back into the shade of the tree, not noticing the sudden and abrupt arrival of Toji and Kensuke.

"Hey Shin-man!" Toji shouted suddenly, smacking Shinji on the back a lot harder than was necessary, the sudden shock causing the pilot to flail his arms out and slip completely back off the bench.

"Owwch," came the groan of pain from behind the bench, Rei arching her head about to ensure Shinji had not unduly injured himself. "Damn it, Toji!" Shinji snapped as he pulled himself back into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his head.

"Did you get that one, Kensuke?" Toji said with a grin, turning to his friend.

"Yup, totally going in my latest clip compilation," The other boy said with a smirk as he snapped shut his ever-present camera.

"That wasn't funny, you know…" Shinji mumbled, sure he'd soon be sporting a nasty lump.

"Yes it was," Toji corrected simply as he slid round and dropped himself down onto the bench between Shinji and Rei, Kensuke following suit taking a seat on the other side of Shinji.

"So, Shinji," Kensuke murmured, smirking, "Having lunch with your girlfriend again?" he finished in a conspiratorial tone.

"Yeah, "said Toji leisurely, inclining his head, "you two actually make quite the couple," Toji added in the same tone as Kensuke, Shinji's face reddening in response.

Shinji sputtered, "W-We are not a couple! Sure, she's a girl and she's a friend, but she's not my girlfriend!" he objected, blushing profusely.

"Whatever," dismissed Toji, who turned his attention to the girl next to him, who had returned her gaze forward and appeared to be paying no further attention, "And how are you today, Miss Ayanami?" he asked with due politeness.

"No problems," she answered simply, only her eyes focusing on the teen to show she was talking to him.

"Uh-huh, just out spending some quality time with your boyfriend, eh? I understand…" he said sagely, Shinji's jaw dropping as he blushed to such a shade of red it made one wonder if there was enough blood left in the rest of his body to allow it to continue functioning. He wasn't able to reply before Rei, to his surprise, spoke first.

"Boyfriend," she echoed, tilting her head to look at Toji, I do not understand the term." She intoned in her usual quiet way, and was unable to catch the split-second and almost calculating smirk that appeared on Toji's face.

"Well…" Toji began, standing up and coughing once to clear his throat, and Shinji could've sworn the teenager was doing an imitation of their teacher right before he went into one of his lectures.

Given the context, he concluded that that couldn't be a good sign.

He began to pace somewhat in front of the bench, rubbing his chin as he began to speak in a quick and explanatory tone, and it was clear to Shinji he was indeed mimicking his teacher. Still, Rei regarded him with her full attention, "A boyfriend is the term given to the companion of his respective girlfriend, of whom both have chosen to share a close romantic and emotional bond, deeper than normal acquaintances, and spend excessive amounts of time together in order to deepen said bond, this possibly progressing into physical and sexual relations at a later point, a bond of this sort is usually only created when the two respective partners share common interests, traits and feel comfortable in one another's presence and often feel comfortable in expressing their feelings an anxieties to each other," Toji finished, taking another subtle breath, at least Toji thought it was subtle; It actually came out as a heaving gasp for air like a swimmer who'd been under water for a whole minute. Toji turned about, folded his arms and sat back down, nodding once in satisfaction.

Shinji's head turned slowly round, his eyes narrowing, "Tell me; how long did it take you to write, memorize, and plan all this out." He muttered.

Kensuke shrugged, "About three hours." He said, causing Shinji to smack his palm off his forehead with a groan; though it wasn't as though his face could be made any redder than it already was.

Toji shrugged, "Hey, can't scold a guy who's just trying to help his friend get some…" He said, stifling a small laugh and eliciting another groan from the Third Child and, before any other comments could be made, or before Shinji could try and rectify the situation, the school bell chimed, signalling the end of lunch. Toji, Kensuke and Shinji jumped up and headed for the gym changing rooms, the third of which muttering under his breath as he went, not noticing Rei was still sitting in her previous position, clearly deep in thought as, surprisingly, Toji's little conspiracy worked; as it just so happened the jock had managed, with uncharacteristic cunning, to tailor his explanation of romantic involvement so perfectly to the First's thought processes, that soon she would be reconsidering just what her relationship with the Third Child actually was…

And none could have guessed that this might turn out to be one of the most eventful gym classes in the history of Tokyo-3 municipal high…

-Z-

"Ahh, nothing like a calm day off doing absolutely nothing…" Goku said, sighing happily as he laid back in the grass under the open sun.

Vegeta scoffed, "There's nothing like it because there's absolutely nothing else that you do", he grumbled, returning his attention to reading all the 'borrowed' data from the worldwide MAGI Network, which he had been glued to pretty much all night and, needless to say, the Saiyan prince found some of the more (well, extremely) classified files highly…Interesting.

Needless to say, Bulma's search and filtering algorithms had done a fantastic job or sorting through the data. Not that it took that much ingenuity; the chances were, the more heavily encrypted a file or database was, the more enlightening it would turn out to be.

As he normally did after a large dinner, Goku was settling down for his afternoon nap as he stared upwards, pulling himself up slightly to rearrange the grass under his head before laying back down again.

A split second after lowering his head, a small yellow ki blast skimmed straight above his face, taking out a small chunk of his hair spikes as well as a layer of skin from the tip of his nose.

"Woow!" Goku said in shock, pulling himself right up. The small ball of energy was closely followed by the speeding form of Goten, who was zipping left and right as he dashed across the planes, closely pursued by Trunks, who flew down low in pursuit, the grass just skimming his gi.

"You're not getting away from me this time, Goten!" Trunks called as dropped to the ground, dashing after the retreating form.

"You're just not fast enough, Trunks!" He replied, turning his head about to stick his tongue out at his pursuer before picking up speed.

"Oh yeah?" he asked with a smirk before drawing a hand back, the palm glowing yellow, "Guess I'll have to slow you down just a little bit then, won't I?" He shouted and thrust his hand forward, releasing another energy blast, this one noticeably more powerful, and just so happened to be homing in on Goten's ki signal.

"eep!" Goten squeaked as he noticed the energy ball trailing him unwaveringly.

Goku had now stood up to watch the proceedings, grinning as he noticed his son's predicament. His amusement quickly faded as he noticed Goten was running right in his direction.

"Watch it, Dad!" Goten shouted as he ran faster, leaping into a somersault over his father's head to avoid collision before carrying on running.

Goku turned round to watch his son's continuing retreat, the ki blast carrying on toward on intended target, heedless of what may or may not now be in its path. Goku turned about to watch Trunks at this point and then, seeing what was coming, had just enough time to realize that the formerly mentioned ki blast's path was something he now was standing in, and barely enough time on top of that to relish the fact there wasn't enough time to dodge.

The bolt struck Goku head on and sent him skidding onto his back several meters away.

He looked up just in time to see Trunks leap over him and take to the skies above Tokyo-3, following Goten as they continued their training game.

"Sorry 'bout that!" Trunks' voice trailed back as he powered up and shot after Goten.

"Ooouch!" Goku groaned, rubbing his head as he uneasily pulled himself up onto shaking legs.

"Hmph, amateur…" Vegeta grunted, turning immediately back to his screen, a smirk tugging at his lip a second later; seeing Kakarot getting knocked on his ass always seemed to be able to make him smile.

Goten could only be seen as a blur as he dashed over the rooftops of Tokyo-3, jumping from bulidign to the other as if there were no gap.

Glancing back and up, he noticed Trunks closing in from the air. The younger child had chosen this strategy primarily because he knew Trunks couldn't very well go hurling balls of energy at populated buildings (at least…he hoped he wouldn't), so he knew this would end up turning into a ground race after all.

"Thinks he's getting away, does he?" Trunks lamented as his flailing hair stiffened and erupted into a blaze of blonde as he powered up to Super Saiyan and shot straight downwards after Goten.

"Uh oh!" Goten yelped, not needing to look back to know what Trunks had just done. The younger warrior skidded to a halt, coming about and transforming himself before charging upwards head-on at the closing Super Saiyan.

"Well, looks like this is gonna be even more fun than I thought!" said Trunks, grinning as the fighters made contact and immediately began throwing flurries of preposterously fast punches and kicks at one another as they began their fist fight over Tokyo-3. "The rules still stand, Goten!" Trunks managed to get out as he blocked a right knee to the solar plexus from the younger warrior.

"Yeah, I know! First one knocked to the ground loses!" Goten replied quickly. The game had been going on pretty much all morning, and had been quite tame until after lunch when each began using retreat strategies to catch the other off guard, eventually turning into a full on training battle.

-Z-

Meanwhile, hundreds of meters below…

"What on earth is that?" asked Class representative Hikari Horaki as she climbed out of the pool, looking up at the sky through the chain linked fence that surrounded the area, having been curious as to what seemed to have caused every other member of the class to abandon their appointed exercises in order to gawk up at the sky. It wasn't the fact the class was looking that had truly caught her attention, it was the fact that Rei Ayanami had also turned her head and and was now standing up, curiously watching whatever it was up there 'she barely even moves from that fence during swim class when she's not in the pool. It must be something big to catch Rei's attention'

The class rep's thoughts halted as her eyes caught sight of what was in the sky; two balls of yellow fire were zipping and swirling about in the air, clashing off each other and occasionally intermingling.

"Is that-" Toji began, his eyes straining to confirm what the anomaly was.

"Goten and Trunks? Yup," Kensuke said, his camera's enhanced zoom facility managing to focus in enough on the two figures as they continued their training fight, both Toji and Shinji leaning back to look through the camera's LCD screen.

"Will ya stop moving it around so much?" complained Toji.

"I can't help it, they're moving too damn fast!" Kensuke replied desperately as he tried his best to keep his camera focused on the two combating Saiyans. Unfortunately, keeping something in frame whilst being zoomed in at a distance was a chore for even the most experienced cameraman, the fact that the two somethings in question also happened to be two very small, very fast moving objects didn't help much either.

"But why are they fighting each other?" Toji asked with a frown.

"I think they're just playing," said Shinji as he turned away from the camera and leaned back to look up, the fight getting dangerously close overhead and so could almost make out the two figures without the need for the camera.

"Playing?" echoed Toji with disbelief as the camera caught sight briefly of Trunks kneeing Goten in the gut.

Shinji shrugged, "Well they do all that martial arts stuff so obviously they have to train," Shinji commented, Toji cocking his head in acceptance of the explanation.

"Wow, Look at the speed of 'em! I can barely keep up. I have to zoom out just to keep them in frame!" Kensuke commented as he recorded the fight as best he could, which wasn't very well considering he was trying to film a pair of fast moving Super Saiyans, the end result would probably be something that would make even a UFO fanatic giggle.

"W-which one's winning?" Toji asked, tilting his head.

"Well, apparently Trunks is slightly stronger than Goten. So I guess he's got the upper hand," responded Shinji, squinting his eyes against the blue sky as he tried to follow what was happening above.

"I think he's right," said Kensuke unsurely as he managed to capture an image of Trunks landing a strong right fist into Goten's chest followed by a fast kick to his hip.

Up above at the pool where, due to the elevation and the two forms continuously descending as they fought, the view was slightly better.

Rei stood watching the fight with a sort of detached interest, 'Goten…' she contemplated, being sure about the identity of one of the glowing forms and therefore, by process of elimination, was sure the other one had to be Trunks.

"Looks like Aida and Suzahara weren't lying after all," One of the nearby girls could be heart muttering.

"You mean those golden fighter things are real?" A second replied.

"Ya think they're some kind of NERV experiment or something?" A third girl added.

"Could be..." the second girl replied, Rei's eyes flicking to them as for an instant before returning her attention upwards.

"Great, looks like the freaks are at it again." said Asuka with slight derision as she watched the fight, her words catching the attention of the gossiping teenagers nearby.

"You mean you know what those are, Asuka?" One girl asked excitedly.

"Are they some kind of freaky NERV science project?" another asked.

Asuka shrugged, resting her hands behind her head, "I can't talk about classified stuff, but I can tell you this; they don't work for NERV," she explained.

One of the girls blinked in shock, "Y-you mean they're some kind of aliens or something," she stammered.

"No one knows for sure, they just kind of appeared around the same time the Angels did," she replied distantly, never taking her eyes off the fight above.

"W-what if they're like working with those Angel things?" One girl hypothesized worriedly.

"I doubt it," scoffed the Second Child in response, "especially considering they've already helped us cream three of those giant eyesores into oblivion already."

"Wow," the girl sighed simply in response.

"You mean they're some kind of mysterious super heroes or something!" Another said somewhat dreamily, her hands clasped excitedly together.

"Like I said, I don't know. No one does, except themselves, and maybe the Third Child too," she explained, mentioning Shinji's title in her usual disrespectful tone, her eyes drifting to him suspiciously, having heard the Saiyans had had more contact with the male pilot than anyone else.

What followed was the expected flurry of gossip and theories amongst teenage girls after some dirt had been ditched, dividing their attention between each other and the light show happening above.

They watched as one of the balls of light –Trunks in this case— retracted, and then bounced against the other (Goten), knocking him back about twenty-five meters.

"I wonder what they look li-" One girl began, but was interrupted as a bolt of light shot out from Trunks and struck Goten, releasing a deafening explosion over the skies just above their heads in a sphere of brilliant energy. The girls screamed and the boys below ducked to the ground as the force of the blast hit, the chain linked fence around the pool rattled in complaint as he shock wave passed over, even the ground trembled slightly under their feet, the only one who had remained stoic was Rei of course, whose only reaction was to scrunch her eyes a little closed and glance slightly away from the explosion.

Silence fell again and, as they regained their composure, all eyes focused to find both auras so close they appeared as one. There was a loud crack from a backhanded strike and suddenly the aura, to the surprise of all, appeared to spit out a form who shot downwards in a spin towards them at a quite disturbing speed.

"Incoming!" Shouted Asuka, and the girls around the pool scattered out of the path of the Goten-shaped missile heading right for them.

The Saiyan impacted the pool quite impressively, sending up a column of water and broken tiles almost seven meters high.

As the water died down, the swimsuit clad figures gathered slowly round the pool edge in a semi-circle around Rei, who was already there looking down into the water as the small orange and blue clad figure floated to the surface. He shuffled in the water, rolling over onto his back and spitting out a small fountain of water in the process.

"Goten, "Rei said with mild alarm, quickly reaching down to fish the boy over to the pool's edge and assist the staggering boy onto his unsteady feet.

"Ooouwwcchh…" groaned Goten as he massaged the lump that was fast appearing on his head, still wavering on his feet with one eye closed as he chewed on his bottom lip. He effectively just looked like any other eight year old who had just clonked themselves on the head and not one who had been hit in the face by an energy blast and backhanded into the ground from up in the sky.

"Are you injured, Goten?" Rei asked, placing a hand on his head softly to examine the bump she could feel forming. Quite frankly she was shocked his skull hadn't been cleaved open by the impact.

"RReeiii?" slurred Goten, blinking his eyes, "W-why are there six of you?" He asked. He clenched his eyes shut then shook his head from side to side, clearing his perception as the First Child came into focus.

Head clear again, Goten immediately reactivated his usual smile, "Rei!" he exclaimed happily, "I'll be fine. How are you? You don't have any bandages on any more."

"I am well, my injuries have healed," replied Rei in her usual way as usual as Goten looked left and right, just noticing that he was surrounded in a semi-circle by swim-suit clad teenagers who were now eying him curiously.

"Goten!" Came Shinji's voice as he scrambled up and grasped hold of the chain link fence for balance, immediately catching Goten's attention, who's smile widened slightly.

"Hiya, Shinji!" he exclaimed, raising a small hand in greeting.

"Ooh, a perfect excuse to ogle us girls isn't It, Shinji? Very sleek," jibed Asuka. Shockingly to her, it seemed to bounce clean off him as he responded not with a blush or stammer, but with a sigh.

"Get over yourself, Asuka." He said, barely glancing at her, "You alright, Goten?" He asked, turning to the Saiyan, who was leaning about Rei's leg.

"Of course!" He replied happily, giving the pilot a thumbs up for emphasis.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," Shinji said, inclining his head curtly to Rei, who responded with a mute nod, before turning round and sliding down the concrete embankment and back to his friends, totally missing several of the adoring looks some of the girls gave him in his sports outfit but, as with most teenagers, attention was fleeting, and it quickly returned to the little Saiyan.

"T-that's one of them?" One girl whispered uneasily into Asuka's ear whist pointing down at the child, the pilot herself standing with folded arms as she regarded Goren.

"Yes," sighed Asuka dejectedly, "that's one of them." she echoed, rolling her eyes.

Goten's eyes flicked around nervously. He had always been shy around new people and never really relished being the center of attention. Sensing something was being expected of him, he shuffled his feet in front of him, thumbs twiddling together as he suddenly found the tiled floor a very interesting thing to look at, " I uh…that is… I'm very sorry for this," he said, bowing once respectively and finding his feet shuffling backwards as he took shelter behind Rei once more.

The girls around him went silent as they regarded the waterlogged chibi-warrior who looked on nervously, chewing his thumbnail. What followed was an odd chain of teenage girls somehow managing to voice each others thoughts, and would later leave Goten wondering if girls, unlike boys, had some way of reading minds. He had long suspected mothers especially to have this particular talent.

He's…" One began, trailing off as a small smile graced her lips.

"-He's so…" Another continued. Goten found himself nervously backing away from the strange group of creatures.

"Wh-what? What is it?" Goten asked, a half-afraid look on his face.

"He's so cute!" One of them suddenly shouted with sparkling eyes. This, combined with the simultaneous squee'ing noise the group somehow managed to emit in unison like some horrifying banshee, shocked Goten into staggering back, his feet not stopping until he realized the tiled floor had vanished from underneath him.

A loud splash echoed over the area as back under Goten went, adding sonic screeching to the list of terrifying powers girls seemed to possess as he sank below the surface.

There were several giggling fits from the other girls as Rei reached under the water with one hand and once again fished the Saiyan out of pool.

"You're such a klutz, Goten, jeez…" came Trunks' voice, the Saiyan in question standing on his tiptoes on the fence's corner post, arms folded, "Did you just forget you could fly there?"

"Trunks!" Goten snapped, his face screwing up into a pout, "That was no fair, you cheated… again! You said no more energy beams! You always lie about that!"

"And you always fall for it," muttered Trunks, looking away to hide his smirk.

"And you were flying away! The fight was over!" He added, stabbing an accusing finger up at his senior, who merely raised his hands above his shoulders innocently.

"Well, I'm sorry if you misinterpreted my intentions when I started to fly away, Goten." He said, raising his eyebrows, "All I was doing was powering up to attack, I didn't mean to deceive you."

And in that instant, God took a brief second out of his busy schedule to do a bullshit cough.

Trunks dropped down off the post and approached his friend, arms crossed with his usual air of casual smugness.

"Oh, look. They're both so adorable!" One of the girls sighed, a chorus of agreements from her peers following.

Trunks hesitated, suddenly looking quite taken aback for a moment, "wha-?" he breathed, then shook his head, dismissing it entirely, "Whatever".

"Oh look, it's his significant other half," Asuka stated, still not really thinking of Trunks as someone to add to her Christmas card list, even if he did technically save her life.

"Oh, "said Trunks, barely glancing at her out the corner of his eye, "It's you. So what is it today, blue and white stripes again?"

The insult took a moment to register as the German's face flushed an angry red, the young Saiyan having rightly guessed underwear was an oddly sensitive subject for girls.

He returned his attention to his still dripping wet counterpart, "Anyway, Goten we gotta get out of here before-" he halted mid-sentence, and Goten became aware that his friend was looking past him and up at something up in the sky, "Uh oh."

"W-What is it, Trunks?" Goten enquired, tilting his head around to follow Trunks' line of sight until he saw what it was Trunks had spotted, "Uh oh" he echoed simply, as all the girls looked up and squinted at what was in the sky.

A trail of blue flame, not unlike the golden light which had surrounded the two children, was streaking through the air, heading right for them.

"Who's that?" asked Asuka, narrowing her eyes and raising a hand to block the sun in an attempt to identify the approaching stranger.

"I'm bailing!" said Trunks with no lack of haste, and quickly exploded off into the sky in a blaze of blue energy, the shockwave startling all the girls for a second before quieting down as the Saiyan beat a swift retreat, swerving to give the approaching form a wide, wide berth before shooting away across the sky and out of sight.

'Goku…' Rei contemplated as the unmistakable form became visible, his aura trail curling as he turned downwards into quick descent.

"It's my Dad…" Goten mumbled in answer to Asuka's question, his eyes down as he realized he was probably about to be scolded.

'So that's Goku then, is it?' contemplated Asuka, 'I wonder if he's as scrawny as his kid?' she finished, smirking slightly as the soaring figure arched about, shooting over the playing field and curved up into the air above them, his aura bursting away as the Saiyan dropped into free-fall from twenty feet up, landing in a slight crouch to absorb the impact before drawing himself up to full height.

Asuka swallowed as he eyes went upwards at the considerably taller Saiyan, 'Apparently… not.'

Goten managed to pull his head up to look at his father as he approached him, the numerous girls about them parting like a jet of air through flame under Goku's serious glare.

"Goten," Goku said, his tone calm yet stern, "What did I tell you about fighting over built up areas?"

"I know, Dad, b-but it's not like we did anything wrong. We did like you said; not cause any damage or use any energy attacks!" Goten said in a mild protest, then glanced off to the side, "Well I didn't anyways. And how come you didn't stop Trunks and tell him off too?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure Vegeta will give Trunks a good talking to."

-Z-

meanwhile...

"Good work, Trunks." said Vegeta.

"Thanks, Dad!"

-Z-

Goku rubbed his chin in thought, "But anyways, you both turned Super Saiyan and caused quite a shakeup. You should have been aware of the responsibility of controlling your powers if you're going to transform during training."

Goten's eyes fell, one foot shuffling as he tugged on the belt of his gi, "I know…" he mumbled, "Sorry, Daddy."

Goku let out a long, defeated sigh, smiling reluctantly, "That's alright, son. Whadya say we head back now and get you some ice for that bump?"

"Sure!" exclaimed Goten happily, instantly perking up. He trotted quickly over to his father's side, the older Saiyan dropping a hand onto his shoulder.

"Sorry for any trouble we caused," said Goku to the assembled class, inclining his head respectfully. He turned his head to the first child, "Miss Ayanami…" he said, nodding once more, Rei responding with a acknowledging inclination of her head.

"Right, let's fly!" Goten said as began tried to being levitating off the ground, only for the hand on his shoulder to keep him grounded. He arched his head up to look at his father, "What is it Dad?"

"Wait just a sec, Goten. I almost forgot the other reason I came," Goku said, turning his head down to the lower playing field area to the boy's class, who had stopped their activities to observe. His eyes traced the pitch, spying the person he was after, "Hey, Shinji!"

Shinji blinked in surprise, "Y-Yes?"

"Could you do me a favor and swing by this evening alone? Vegeta said he has something he needs to discuss with you. Something to do with NERV, or EVA, or something or other. He sounded pretty serious."

Shinji looked apprehensive for a moment. He knew what Vegeta was capable of. Though it occurred to him that if the Saiyan had intended to reduce him to his component atoms, he would most likely have just flown over and done it by now.

And yet, knowing that, he still found himself with an ominous feeling of foreboding.

"S-sure, I've got nothing after school so I'll catch the bus straight up after." He called back after a second's pause.

"'Kay, See you then!" Goku said, waving once before turning to Goten, "Right, let's go."

Goten nodded, but noticed he was still being held by his Father.

Goku hummed in thought, "Umm, I think it's best we slip out the quick way. We've caused enough of a stir as it is." He said.

"Gotcha!" nodded Goten as Goku pressed his middle and index finger to his forehead.

"Nice meeting you all!" said Goku, waving as both his and Goten's body shimmered for an instant before vanishing into thin air, leaving a group of stunned teens in their wake.

Once everyone else had regained the power of speech, the male teens immediately began hurling flurries of questions at Shinji about what had transpired, the teen himself looking like he wished he could just shrink into the ground and vanish.

The girls on the other hand ignored all the unimportant things, such as how they could fly, hurl bolts of energy, change their hair color and disappear on the spot like that, and skipped to the really important topic, which for them consisted of how dreamy Goten's tall, dark, muscular and mysterious father turned out to be.

Rei however had her mind trained on something else. Goku's words to Shinji before he had left had left her with a strange and barely noticeable twinge of unease in the pit of her stomach.

Shinji, however, was on a totally different scale in terms of being distracted; his body was working almost entirely on autopilot as his mind worked furiously to try and figure out what it was that Vegeta of all people would want to speak to him about so urgently. He secretly knew that the Saiyans had gained some severe knowledge about NERV's workings.

His mind dwelled and dwelled in both fear and apprehension, torn between going and finding out what it was Vegeta had to say, or just staying in his room and forgetting what Goku had said; to face up, or to shy away?

And for some reason this dilemma triggered a sudden tear in his mind, as premonitions of what it could be he would hear and what he wanted to hear filled his head.

'I am seriously screwed up…' he managed to sum up, struggling to think through the noise both around him and in his head.

And so, after a long and arduous day of never-ceasing interrogation by his classmates, the sun began to set over Tokyo-3 and an exhausted Shinji Ikari could no longer allow the now droning din of his teacher's lecture on the second impact to even reach his ears. His mind had one again become a wash of confusion over recent events that had occurred ever since his father had ordered him to go out and fight the Saiyans in Unit-01; the thoughts somehow subconsciously stirred up by Goku's comment for a reason he couldn't comprehend.

The two tearing sides of his personality raged away; between the Shinji Ikari that just wanted to give up and go with it, no questions asked, and the Shinji Ikari that had seemed to have been growing inside of him over the last few weeks. And so, as this continued, his exhausted mind finally yielded, his chin slowly sinking down into his palm as he drifted into a deep, thought-clouded sleep.

Meanwhile, in the messed up depths of Shinji's subconscious…

Shinji's dream had begun, unsurprisingly enough, with him imagining the consequences of both going and not going to meet the appointment – one involving him, for some reason, standing in the cage in front of Unit-01, which then proceeded to morph into a hundred foot tall Vegeta for some reason and swallow him whole. To be fair, such a dream wasn't what he would even class as a nightmare level, just another 'oh great, so I'm dead now' dream…

He got those a lot.

He found himself surrounded in darkness suddenly, his mind torn, and suddenly he felt himself looking down upon himself. Or to be more accurate, at the two opposing sides of himself, regarding him from within the dark.

He watched dispassionately as the two opposing sides conversed. It was surreal even for him; the two voices seemed to be coming from two separate places at once, and yet both also seemed to be coming from the same place. They both sounded like the same voice, or at least two people who sounded just like him.

Suddenly things blinked into vision as his mind gave shape to his surroundings.

From what Shinji could tell, one of him was speaking up at him from just at the bottom of the main entrance escalator at NERV headquarters and, for some reason, was still holding the tissue that Rei had given him. The other voice seemed to be coming from within a darkened train carriage with just himself as the occupant, the other him sitting in shadow and barely visible. Shinji oddly didn't pay heed to the fact that he seemed to be occupying both spaces, talking to both of the other Shinji's at the same time, his perspective flicking between them as needed.

Finally, he felt himself take some semblance of control of the area around him, the voices of the other two Shinji's fading away almost expectantly as he asked the one question that was on his mind:

"So what am I supposed to do?"

The shadowed version of him answered first, "Just go home. You're tired and you just need to keel over and get some peace and quiet. Just… let it go."

The other Shinji, the one standing in the light, regarded him, "You've got an appointment to keep, remember? Aren't you in the least bit curious what these people know about the organization we work for?"

The first voice chimed back in, "What does it matter? You're just one of their pilots. It's not like you can make a difference anyway. Just do as you're told, stop making ripples. Things are much easier that way."

Light Shinji spoke up again, his formerly toneless voice seeming almost amused. "Who are you kidding? Lately you've been just as curious as any one person could be as to what you're being used to do. And make no mistake, we are being used. Do you really think letting that happen will earn you the respect you seek for yourself and from yourself?"

Shadow Shinji, responded, his tone listless and without feeling, "What does it matter if you can't do anything about it. You've seen what this sort of thing does to other people: constantly fighting for goals they'll never achieve and lusting for things they will never have. Do you really wish to be this way?"

Shinji himself returned his attention to Light Shinji, "Perhaps alone it would be hopeless, but do you forget what you have standing to support you? I would not call us alone," the Shadow Shinji seemed to be fading in the dark as its attempt to force Shinji's assertiveness back into its shell faltered.

The shadow's voice was loud now, but straining as if in desperation, "You can't trust anyone! All they will do in the end is leave you when you need them the most, no one really cares about you."

"Do you really believe that?" Light Shinji asked, and for some reason Shinji knew the Light fragment of himself was addressing it's counterpart. It suddenly occurred to him the reason for this was because it was he himself who wanted to ask it…because he wasn't sure even he believed that any more.

The shadow replied, it's voice small, "You have to. This way you avoid pain…"

"And yet this way you miss your chance for happiness." The other replied, and Shinji realized it's voice was resonating now, because he and Light were speaking as one.

He was talking down to his own insecurities.

He liked that concept.

''It will hurt," Shadow said, looking up, and Shinji found himself in the carriage, looking down almost sympathetically at the form.

"Yet we will be loved," Light Shinji said from within Shinji himself, inclining his head.

"Is it worth it?" both Shinji and the Shadow version of himself asked.

"There's only one way to find out…" The Light replied with a note of amusement.

"You're unsure; you know you may find out something you do not wish to by visiting the Saiyans."

"Maybe we will, but in the end, we can make a difference. You must not forget that there are always those that care for you waiting to catch you when you fall."

The shadow seemed irked, "Do they really care? Who?"

"Misato cares…" Light responded, his voice oddly serene.

"It is her job, you are nothing more-'

Light appeared to scowl, raising his voice for the first time in the conversation as he cut in, "Pathetic, do you really believe that?" Shadow made no reply, so Light continued, "Rei Ayanami, she cares."

Shadow appeared to look away, and if Shinji didn't' know better, he could've sworn he was pouting, "She was ordered to do so. Will she ever really side by you when not ordered to do so?"

Again, Light was ready, this time addressing Shinji, "Perhaps once before, you would may have agreed with this hypothesis, but what now?" an image of Rei's smile, accompanied by the memory of the soft feeling of her hand in his and the sight of the subtle blush on her cheeks flashed by.

"A deception…" Shadow offered somewhat lamely at this line of thought.

"That is deception, albeit of one's self" Light commented almost smugly.

Shadow stood sharply to his feet, "In the end they will leave you unless you pilot. This makes you worthy; this makes you valuable, "it said as an image of Unit-01 flashed through Shinji's mind.

"Do you even believe this to be true anymore?" Light asked quietly.

"If not, then why do you pilot?" Shadow demanded, "To prove yourself worthy to father? The one you believe yourself to be unworthy of, the father who abandoned you?"

Light narrowed his eyes, "No, that is not why you do it, is it? You once considered this to be a possibility, but now… No, you don't believe this anymore at all, do you?" Light paused, as if thinking alongside Shinji, "To protect… Yes… You admit yourself to be unsure about who your adversary may be, but you will fight to protect, to defend…" Light offered, the pessimistic Shadow cutting back in.

"To protect?" it echoed, it's voice rich with contempt, "Who, your Father?" Shinji was shocked as his mind found an answer in Light.

"Yes," it replied simply, "I will protect Father; I will protect Misato Katsuragi; I will protect Rei Ayanami; I will protect all those that I care for, those that I…love." Shinji realised it was he who was responding directly and not the Light aspect his subconscious had generated, and understood why.

It was because he was making his choice.

"It will hurt," said Shadow, it's voice almost consoling.

"I know."

"Pain is bad."

"That is obvious, your argument is wearing thin." Shinji/Light replied somewhat smugly.

"But you can avoid the pain!" pleaded Shadow.

"How?" asked Shinji, his voice almost sardonic.

Shadow replied, his tone weak and exasperated, "Just…run away. Run away like we always used to. If we do that we will feel no pain, no pain… Just run away," Shadow whispered, stepping to the edge of the darkness that engulfed it.

Shinji looked down at the dark form impassively for what seemed like an eternity.

"No." He said, his voice clear and unwavering and tinged with a hint of disgust at the prospect.

"Why?" breathed Shadow in a desperate grasp to comprehend.

"Why?" echoed Shinji as if the question were odd.

"Because," he began, but stopped as the carriage windows suddenly erupted in a blazing light that seemed to illuminate the child ethereally from outside, the shadowy form shrinking back into the diminishing darkness as Shinji continued, using words long forgotten and buried in the depths of his mind, using a memory so sacred he had dared never remember it lest it slip away. "Because," he repeated, voice resonating with a hauntingly familiar female tone for just this instant, "anywhere can be heaven, so long as I have the will to live.'

Abruptly, the light vanished, leaving them in twilight once more, Shinji glancing over his shoulder out the window, as if mildly amused by the phenomena.

He turned back to face Shadow, who was barely even concealed any more, "And my will is to live here." He finished, and suddenly he found himself back in his seat, across from him, sat the form that had formerly been in shadow, it was an image of Shinji as a child, the child that had been running and hiding all his life.

Shadow smiled, reaching out to touch his counterpart, the world blurring away to nothing as their hands touched, "Then welcome home…"

-Z-

Shinji's eye's opened to the familiar sight of the usual end of class ritual, only catching the 'dismissed' on the end of the class rep's usual mantra. Regardless of how conscious he was of the fact that he was the only one sitting down, he felt oddly light for some reason.

Once the class began to disperse, he allowed himself to stretch and gave out a loud, long yawn followed by a contented sigh as he settled back down into his seat, swiftly sliding his school work into his book bag.

"Were you dreaming?" Shinji blinked in surprise at the sound of the familiar female voice directly to his right.

"Class rep?" said Shinji as he cleared the last of the cobwebs from his head, "W-why didn't you wake me?" he asked, noticing from the clock on the wall that he'd been sleeping nearly two hours.

Hikari blushed, her hands clasped nervously in front of her, "Well, you just looked so peaceful," she said, "I've never seen you that at peace before. I…didn't want to take that away from you." At that, she glanced away, sheepishly paying attention to outside the window.

Shinji looked slightly shocked for a second before exhaling a tired breath, "Thank you, Hikari," he said, smiling softly for an instant as he pulled himself up, stretching his arms outward before heading for the door. He paused for a moment at the threshold, not looking back, "And, Class rep?"

"Yes?"

"Yes, I was dreaming…" He said, smiling again as he vanished from the doorway.

-Z-

The solitary Third Child left the school building as he usually did and stepped out into the setting sun of Tokyo-3, and yet it was as he was halfway between the gates and the school that he stopped and glanced around, a look of mild confusion etched into his features, "Something's… different." he murmured as he attempted to put his finger on just what was bothering him.

Before, everything around him had seemed ever-so slightly… hazy, almost surreal, as if he were just a brief half-step out of touch with the world around him. But now, everything seemed to be that little bit clearer, everything seemed so…

He froze in thought, searching for the right word for it.

"Solid…" He said out loud suddenly, glancing around. Nodding once, satisfied with his assessment, he walked out to the gates and looked forward; left to the bus stop, right to head home to the apartment.

He looked down to the floor and grinned, "No," he said, talking to his feet, "I've already decided. Now stop talking to yourself, Shinji, or people are gonna think you're crazy." And with that he turned briskly left, swinging his book bag over one shoulder and heading off.

He took a few steps, and then stopped, briefly inclining his head, "They'd probably be right," he said with finality, laughing once more before carrying on his way.

At least, that had been his intention…

"Shinji," came a soft voice from behind him as he reached the corner.

He yelped in shock, swinging about and gasping for air, "A-Ayanami!" he wheezed, smiling weakly, "Jeez, don't do that. I swear you nearly gave me a heart attack."

Rei tilted her head in confusion, "That was not my intention, however if you are suffering any kind of cardiac distress then it would be apt to notify NERV immediately."

Shinji couldn't help but chuckle, the sound causing the First to flinch in surprise ever so slightly, "No, Rei. I'm sure my cardiovascular system will survive. You just startled me is all. Is there a problem?" He enquired curiously, only slightly unaware as to why the young albino girl would be trailing him, because he did have his suspicions.

"You are going then?" Rei enquired simply, confirming his hypothesis.

"I am," he replied in equally as simple a way; there was no reason for him to mince words with her.

"You are going alone?"

"Yes, yes I am." He said, nodding once, "But don't worry, Rei, I'll be fine." He arched his head about, looking off in the direction of the Saiyan's camp at the edge of the city, "I doubt this is some weird trap, and I'm pretty sure I won't get jumped on the way there." He said reassuringly, the Third Child himself knowing there was always at least two Section Two agents monitoring his movements at all times when he wasn't at home.

Shinji's eyes flicked to the man leaning against a lamppost in the evening wearing sunglasses and a trench coat, and then to the man on the park bench across the street, the man who had been reading the same page of his book for the past fifteen minutes…and also happened to be wearing a trench coat and sunglasses.

Either there was a strange fashion developing in Tokyo-3 that Shinji had never heard of, or Section 2's camouflage skills bordered on the insulting.

Shinji strongly suspected the latter.

Yet the seeming omnipresence of NERV in Tokyo-3 did little to calm the tinge of disconcertment in Rei Ayanami's eyes, as impending danger was far from the reason for her concern about Shinji visiting the Saiyans.

Rei's conversation over her cell phone, the one that she had had after swim class was aborted due to alien invasion, still rang fresh in her ears. It had been an attempt to calm her worry over the nagging sensation, and so she had called her usual one-stop source for all things that needed to be settled.

Or Gendo Ikari as it said on his birth certificate.

Said conversation had basically consisted of Rei conveying what Goku had relayed to Shinji and the commander in turn ordering her to accompany the Third Child to this encounter and relay any prudent information back to him. Needless to say, the conversation had ended with her feeling somewhat less than reassured.

The problem was that even Rei seemed to be developing two conflicting sides of her own personality. Unlike Shinji, the First Child felt such a conflict was something she really could do without. She knew that the most logical course of action was to accompany the Third Child no questions asked, and yet she knew that if he discovered that this course of action was primarily initiated by the Commander then the Third would grow to resent her. Resentment was something she had never really cared about, she had always thought of other's opinions of her to be entirely irrelevant.

At least…she had thought they were. Because when she applied this thought to almost every person she had knowledge of, the irrelevance remained, and yet when she applied it to the Third Child, the thought of his deep resentment of her suddenly…hurt.

And so, for some reason she found that as her bottom line; emotional pain was something she knew of yet had never experienced, and therefore she concluded that resentment from Shinji Ikari was something that she could not and would not tolerate. And it was because of this that her earlier premonition disturbed her further; what was it that the Saiyans knew that could possibly fracture her current relationship with the pilot of Unit-01?

The Saiyans may have the ability to manipulate energy and combat the Angels, yet they did not seem to hold any true knowledge of NERV or EVA, else their actions to this point would surely have been different. Especially Goten; she knew that if the young boy had any inclination of what she truly was, then he would not be so quick to offer her his affections.

Yes, it was logical and therefore had to be correct.

Soon Rei Ayanami was about to learn that logic, unfortunately for her, was merely an excuse to allow one to be wrong with authority.

Regardless of her inner thoughts, Rei still had her dilemma to solve. How was she to handle this situation?

She needed to know just what her feelings towards the pilot of Unit-01 really were.

'No' she thought, correcting her own line of thought, she needed to realise just what her feelings were towards—

"Shinji…" whispered the First Child out loud unwillingly.

"Yes?" asked the boy in question, coming to a halt and turning round, the azure haired girl having been silent for the better part of two minutes and therefore Shinji merely assumed she had nothing more to say and so had turned and walked off.

"May I accompany you?" she enquired, realising that, more than because she was told to, she realised the most important reason to her was something else:

It was because she wanted to.

Shinji held his eyes on Rei unwaveringly for about fifteen seconds before answering, "No," he said, "No, thank you, Rei, but I'm going this one alone…I have to." Finished the child, his voice distant and yet it held a deep undertone of stern decisiveness.

And so Rei said nothing more as Shinji turned about once more and walked off, leaving the silent and unsure First Child behind.

'I have failed in my mission,' contemplated Rei to herself as she turned and walked off in the direction of home, 'I was not however ordered to forcefully accompany pilot Ikari should he reject my presence' she paused somewhat dangerously in the middle of the road, cocking her head in thought, 'And the words of Suzuhara have left me…confused' she admitted to herself as her usually fluidic mind raged a war to assess her feelings.

"Hey, Snow White! Get the hell off the road!" Rei didn't look up at the driver of the white van as he honked the horn of his vehicle repeatedly, and merely stepped over to the other side of the road, "Friggin' stoner…" muttered the man as he floored the accelerator.

After standing there silently for over three minutes, the First child turned and continued on her way home, no better off in finding a solution to her problems than she had been when she begun thinking about them.

For once, she realised, this was something that not even Commander Ikari could assist her with.

'I will, as Shinji said, have to go this alone,' thought the solitary girl as she walked onwards home, deep in thought, all the while a silent dread gnawed in her gut; a dread of what emotion she might see in the eyes of the Third Child when next they met.

-Z-

As Shinji got off the bus at the stop nearest the Saiyan's encampment he took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for something.

Steeling himself, he turned and headed across the grassy planes. He paused to sigh once and rub his forehead, laughing softly as a seemingly innocent man in a trench coat and sunglasses passed by across the road behind him. He appeared to just be walking a dog, In the middle of nowhere, with no means of other transportation in sight.

Despite himself, Shinji paused and turned fully about to regard the man for a moment. Said man had paused and seemed to be expertly ignoring the pilot. Shinji cupped his hands to his mouth, "I'm sorry, but I've got to ask: are you guys even trying anymore?!" To his credit, the man gave no other reaction to Shinji's words other than a slight cough and to turn his back even further away from him.

Shinji just walked off shaking his head as he crossed into the tall grass, brushing his way through it until he emerged onto the flat grassy plane, his destination in sight.

Standing with his arms folded, silhouetted against the setting golden sun in the distance, was Vegeta, a stern look of deep thought and focus on his face as he regarded the metropolis of Tokyo-3 below him.

The prince didn't need to turn around to know who the quiet footsteps rustling the grass behind him belonged to.

"You're late,"he grunted, still not bothering to turn about.

"Couldn't be helped," replied Shinji, cautiously approaching Vegeta to stand by his side, gripping the handrails and looking down over the cliff below them, a little too nervous to look the Saiyan in the eye.

"Were you followed?"

Shinji shrugged, "It's Tokyo-3, I'm always followed. What, did you think that rock climber in the trench coat down there is just out for some exercise?"

Vegeta glanced down and grunted, "Huh, I thought that was a little odd…"

"I'd get used to it. It's kind of their thing."

Vegeta pushed off from barrier and turned, walking a few steps towards one of the capsule houses, "It doesn't matter. What I have to tell you is important, extremely important," he said, turning his head to Shinji slightly.

"I assumed as much." said Shinji with a nod, "Tell me," he said, his tone level "Tell me everything."

Vegeta narrowed his eyes at the human, reassessing him, "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"I just want to know just what the hell I'm being used for, because for some reason I can't fully digest, I can't help but think that the info I've been given is the full truth," he said, a stern frown on his face as he spoke, missing the tiny smile that graced the Saiyan prince's features.

"You have good instincts…for a human."

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Shinji, "now…" he prompted, cocking his head towards the door of the house.

Vegeta crossed his arms, "First, let me say this: At first it was my main assumption, like yours, that you're organisation's prime objective was merely crushing this Angel nuisance into dust in order to prevent a 'Third Impact', and therefore I had chosen not to intervene in the matter unless it was absolutely necessary, as was requested by your superiors, but did you not pause to wonder why?"

Shinji frowned, "why, what?"

"Why it was that NERV seemed so evident on taking full command of the situation and using EVAs as a primary means of defeating the Angels when we are at hand. Surely it is clear to you that no Angel could pose a threat to the likes of me, and yet your organisation repeatedly asks that we remain on the bench. Tell me; doesn't that strike you as just a little odd?"

Shinji cocked his head acceptingly, "I've got to say it did cross my mind," and then adding silently to himself, 'on more than a hundred separate occasions.'

Vegeta inclined his head back and began pacing slowly in front of the child, "Well that got me thinking: Why? And therefore I decided to research NERV's intentions further, using certain maximum level security files we…acquired from the MAGI."

'I'm not sure I needed to know that' thought the pilot to himself apprehensively, but couldn't help the next words coming

"And," he prompted, his voice almost cold in its curiousity "What did you find out?"

Vegeta stopped his pacing and looked Shinji clear in the eye, "I found the reason why I will no longer take any form of instructions or requests from Commander Ikari or his superiors. I also seemed to have discovered that I have greatly underestimated what your father is capable of and willing to do to achieve his goals."

"M-my father's superiors?" stammered the pilot, unaware there even was such a thing besides the UN of course, "and his goals… I… I don't understand!" snapped the pilot, shaking his head with tired exasperation.

"Do you want to know?" came, to Shinji's surprise, the voice of Goku, who had appeared in the doorway of the house, the other Saiyan having been informed of everything by Vegeta after he had returned at lunch with Goten, and was now wearing that same look Shinji had only seen when the normally more light-hearted Saiyan was deathly serious about something.

"Can I even make a difference?" asked Shinji distantly, his eyes downturned, "Would it even matter?"

"With our help, yes" Said Goku, stepping forward and resting a hand on Shinji's shoulder, "Yes you can. You just need to have faith, Shinji. Have faith in us, and more importantly, have faith in yourself."

"And what if you don't have any faith in yourself?" Shinji found himself snapping.

Goku just smiled, his eyes gentle, "Well then, I suppose I'll just have to help you find that faith, won't I?"

"Will you help me? Will you be there for me when I need you?" He asked, his eyes narrowing as he attempted to silence that damn nagging voice in the back of his head once and for all.

"You have my word; I... We will not abandon you," he said with a stern determination Shinji wasn't sure he'd ever heard in the voice of another as he kept that large reassuring hand where it was, noticing Shinji's eye's narrowing, and the small smile that graced his features.

"Then do it; show it to me. Tell me what you know; all of it," repeated Shinji, his voice this time unwavering in its conviction. Vegeta nodded once at this, Goku following suit.

"Very well," said Vegeta, "Then let's go inside. This may take some time." And so, uncrossing his arms he walked past the others inside the capsule house followed by Shinji and then Goku, who paused at the threshold to glance about the area for a second, noticing the non-too inconspicuous agents dotted around the edges of the plane, also sensing his little well-hidden pair of guards in place.

'No interruptions,' sent out the Saiyan to the two in hiding with his mind, 'no one can know just how much he knows,' and with that he turned into the house and closed the door behind him.

-Z-

"Is it safe?" said Shinji, "Couldn't they hear us outside or something?" he asked, glancing cautiously around the small rounded building as Vegeta walked up to the wall-screen and hooked up his terminal to it, the black glass humming to life a second later.

"No, this is an intense terrain model capsule house, designed for severely dangerous conditions, hence is completely sound proof and isolated from the outside, " explained Vegeta as he booted up the terminal, the screen on the wall glowing as a Capsule Corp. logo blinked into existence in the background.

"Okay." nodded Shinji as he walked slowly about the room and sank down onto the nearby couch facing the screen.

"Good, then shall we begin?" asked Vegeta, gaining a nod from Shinji.

And so, the Saiyan prince began his talk, irrevocably changing the life of Shinji Ikari forever.

-Z-

Meanwhile, outside…

The agents that had been observing the house from across the plane watched the group retreat indoors, so far having been unable to read anything the Third Child had said from his lips due to Vegeta constantly keeping himself in their line of sight every time the boy had spoken, nor could they read anything the prince himself had said, owing to him having constantly kept his back to them. If they didn't know any better they could've sworn the prince had been doing it intentionally.

They would've been correct.

With the grassy expanse in front of them now clear of activity, the lead agent raised his arm and signalled them forward, beginning the operation, which, basically, was to attempt to listen in on whatever conversations there were going on between the Third Child and the Saiyan adults.

With the coast clear and, due to one of the Saiyans having nearly always been present outside each of the buildings up until now, (some reports stating that the buildings seem to vanish entirely when all the Saiyans were absent) they saw this as their first perfect opportunity to get close, the dark clad figures moving like prowling cats whilst staying out of line from the buildings windows.

The lead agent raised a hand, signalling the other four in his party to split up and close on the building from the flanks, the rustling of the grass masking some rustling that was coming from a different source. Silently they moved forward, the lead member holding back temporarily.

All four suddenly froze on the spot as the sound of something else rustling the grass reached their ears. The lead agent brought his fist up, signalling a halt as the noise increased in tempo and volume.

The agent took a sudden step back as he noticed the grass moving as two unseen forms passed through it leaving a trail behind. The man backed up further as the trail split off into two, the unseen figures curving around in a classic flanking manoeuvre, moving in on the two groups of agents.

All four agents pulled back into one group, suddenly feeling quite nervous. The leader signalled and two of the agents raised their shell launchers, firing off two cartridges of gaseous anaesthetic.

The two trails suddenly stopped and the agents breathed a sigh of relief, only for the two unseen figures to start moving again an instant later.

The two leading agents let out strangled cries of shock through their gas masks as they were pulled down below the grass by something unseen, only to be sent screaming through the air and crashing into the trees a second later. The leader, in more than a slight panic, fired three more shells in rapid succession into the grass, again to no affect as the trails curved back round, crisscrossing over one another. The team leader had to duck as the two remaining agents were sent flying back into the trees over his head.

"Crap!," yelped the agent as eloquently as one could in his situation, staggering back as the two trails converged on into one and closed quickly on him. As the rustling got within ten feet, the forms of Goten and Trunks erupted out of the grass, hitting the stunned agent with a synched double shoulder tackle, sending him hurtling back into the tree with his comrades.

Goten and Trunks walked free from their concealment to admire their handiwork which in this case was a large oak tree littered with unconscious section 2 agents.

"Zhey jusht don't get it, do zhey, Goten?" asked Trunks with a smirk as he folded his arms, his voice somewhat distorted by the breathing apparatus up his nose and in the corners of his mouth.

"Guesh not…" said Goten, both turning back and repositioning themselves back in their little hiding places. Both were immensely enjoying their little guard-duty game, both knew the agents in the tree wouldn't be up in a while, mainly due to the fact that Trunks had relieved them of their gas masks, leaving them exposed to the gas that still filled the area.

-Z-

Human emotions: a complex form of numerous different chemical reactions in the brain caused by certain external stimuli, the level at which they are experienced varies depending on the intensity of a situation. Shinji Ikari, by the time the clock had struck 10:30pm, could honestly admit that he had pretty much experienced every emotion within said mental spectrum. His mind had, in the space of the past few hours, gone from intense and total disbelief, flicking then to severe shock, to fear, to hatred, to disgust, back to fear, on to rage for about an hour or so, followed by severe depression, which he was helped through by Goku's reasoning.

The young pilot had allowed the information and warring emotions to stew in his head, and came out finally with what could only be called the most normal reaction a person could have given the situation:

"I think I'm going to be sick…" said the boy, his face a disturbing shade of green, the impact of what he now knew and had taken several hours to accept finally hitting him like a punch in the gut as he proceeded to vomited badly for over ten minutes, not stopping until his body was positive that it had nothing left in it to expel.

Helped up by the combination of Goku and a Senzu bean, the young Ikari slumped back into a chair, bringing his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them as his mind raged to fully assimilate all of the raw data he had just been neatly fed and then proceeded to thrown up. Shinji had clocked up a total of two hours in shocked breakdowns during the barrage of revelations, and had only managed to scrape through it with his sanity intact thanks to some mild telepathy on the part of Goku and, after about three minutes of sitting there and rocking back and forth, Goku watched as the palms of Shinji's hands which were resting on his knees slowly clench into white knuckled fists, the boy focusing all his warring emotions into pure and undisguised hatred.

"You understand the severity of the situation then," said Goku to the disturbingly calm Shinji Ikari.

"I understand," Shinji said, teeth clenched, "I understand what my purpose is here at last; I understand now what it is I must do," he said, sternly passing his glance over Goku and Vegeta, the boy seemingly unaware of the fact that he was squeezing his fist so hard that a small trail of blood was streaming down his wrist and was slowly pooling on the tiled floor.

"Are you really okay with this though?" asked Goku with concern, resting a hand on his shoulder.

Shinji paused to think, but oddly found the answer surprising even to himself, "Yes, yes I think I am…finally. It might take some getting used to, and I might not look at one or two things, "'or people' he added silently to himself, "in quite the same way again, but in a way I'm glad to know what I do now." He said with a far off look in his eyes as he gently unclenched his fists.

His face seemed to calm as he inclined his head, "Also kind of explains one or two things," he found himself laughing slightly as he focused on the positive sides of knowing what he did now, "And Misato doesn't know, does she?" he asked, looking across the room to Vegeta.

"No. As far as I can tell, for some reason she seems to be completely in the dark about pretty much everything that's going on. Though I would recommend that you don't-"

"I know," said Shinji quietly, interrupting the prince, "I can't tell her. And I'm guessing it would be a bad career decision to suddenly blurt out what I know in one go."

"Very bad," replied Goku.

"So what do we do?" asked Shinji, still regarding Vegeta.

The Saiyan prince turned and began slowly pacing, "For now, nothing. The game's still at too early a stage for us to reveal our hand. We'll wait until the stakes are raised and let them make a few moves first." He said, pausing to look out the window at Tokyo-3.

"And me?" Shinji asked, the whole situation still being kind of surreal to him.

"Simple, keep an eye on things and proceed as natural. With what you now know we should be able to predict their moves from their actions around you. Just keep your eyes open and make sure to look at things in a new light. So long as they don't suspect you know what you do then they won't act any differently, which is exactly how I want it," he explained to Shinji, who nodded sternly in response.

"Understood. And you?" he asked, seeming to find the situation easier to deal with if he treat it like any other combat briefing.

"We're the artillery. As soon as we know when to make our move, which is as soon as our opponents reach the stage of the game when they make their final move, we intervene and wipe them off the board. You are the eyes and ears, we are your strength. And should any of our enemies make take any direct action against you personally, or if you do get into any danger, "he paused to smirk, "Well… that's why I'm here," he said, a crackle of blue energy flicking off his upper bicep as if to emphasise his point.

"Hmm," Shinji hummed, a grin spreading over his now calming features as he reassessed the situation, "Talk about a tangled web: so many sides, playing by so many different rules, each desperately trying to outmanoeuvre the other, and yet all strangely playing the same game," said the boy as his mind pictured a chess board with four different coloured pieces on it.

"It's screwed up alright," commented Goku, dropping lazily down onto the sofa and regarding Shinji, "You've taken this… slightly better than I had hoped."

Shinji stood, walking slowly for the door, "Things change, Goku, and so do people," he said, opening the door and out under the starry sky that blanketed Tokyo-3.

Alone, Shinji walked over to the cliff edge, grasping hold of the railings and leaning forward to stare out at the cityscape below. Even as his mind calmed, the pilot he found it still consumed by a calm sea of purest rage. Again he thought back on several of the facts he now knew, his calm face melting into a snarl, 'Father… I vow that I'm going to bring your twisted little world tumbling down around you, from right under your nose. Ironic…your very own son has become your own antithesis' he paused in thought as his grip tightened, 'yours andSeele's.' he contemplated, his snarl sliding into something that would have chilled even Gendo.

An intense smirk graced Shinji's features as he stared out over Tokyo-3 'And I will do it if I have to, father, I swear it'…

As a cold wind set in, Shinji's face took on a more melancholic look as a single tear fell from his storm blue eyes 'just please, God… Don't make me, ' he thought sadly, before steeling himself once more to the task ahead and walking back to the door of the capsule house.

Goku was waiting just inside, "Ready to go?" he asked, smiling softly as he stepped out into the cold night air with the pilot.

"Yeah," said Shinji, smiling back, "Take me home."

Placing one hand on Shinji's shoulder and two fingers to his forehead, both Goku and the mentally exhausted pilot disappeared, instantly reappearing in the general area of Shinji's apartment, not giving Shinji much of a chance to ask about the dozen or so Section two agents he had seen strewn about the area around the Saiyan's encampment.

Goku walked Shinji up through the apartment building, the Saiyan having chosen to take the stairs rather than just fly him up.

"It's going to be hard," said Goku, breaking the silence they were in. Shinji paused and looked back, realising the Saiyan had stopped a few yards back, "knowing what you do and not being able to tell her." He elaborated, walking slowly toward him.

Shinji nodded, "It will be, and I've accepted that. I've already sworn to myself, after all she has done for me, I will protect her," Shinji commented, his eyes focusing on the door to his home.

"And so will we," Goku added as he dropped a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder, earning a soft smile from the pilot as he walked up to his door, slid in his key card and disappeared behind it a second later.

Goku's shoulders sagged as he blew out a tired breath, "Phew! What a day…" he side, turning away and hopping off into the night sky, taking a small leisurely flight home to clear his head.

Shinji entered the apartment with a heavy head. His few hours of sleep at school were not nearly enough to fully clear the fatigue in his head. The odd dreams he had had earlier in the day seemed to if anything have made him ever more tired.

And so, yawning once, he headed into the kitchen to get a final glass of milk before heading off to bed.

The pilot stopped dead in his silent tracks as he passed the living room as he sighted her, still wearing her NERV uniform less red flight jacket with several beer cans strewn about her in front of the couch, cell phone hugged to her chest and her address book clenched in the one hand. It didn't take Shinji long to guess what she had been busy doing so late. After all, he didn't actually tell her that he would be visiting the Saiyans since he didn't think he'd be there longer than half an hour, never mind five or six. He assumed his father wouldn't be so forthcoming with any information on his whereabouts. After all, Shinji guessed the commander wanted to know just how much the Saiyans really knew, and he obviously wouldn't want the Captain ruining such a perfect opportunity and had therefore probably just neglected to inform her of section 2's reports.

His face fell as he stared down at the slumbering woman, 'she must have been worried sick…' he silently contemplated, neatly sliding the articles out of the heavy-sleeping woman's hands and placing them on the table, smiling softly "…I had work to do" he whispered, leaving and returning a moment later with a small blanket to cover the sleeping form. He brushed her lavender hair back out of her face softly, admiring her peacefully slumbering features 'I suppose, In a way, you really are just like me,' he thought with slight sadness for a second before turning off the light and creeping off to his own room, pretty much falling asleep before his head hit the pillow, his last thought being to thank god that it was the weekend tomorrow. And so he slumbered, his mind so tired it didn't have the energy to dream…

As morning rolled over into afternoon, the two occupants still slumbered. It was a rare thing for Misato to be the first to stir as she slowly regained consciousness.

Immediately the purple haired woman glanced about confusedly as she took in the facts. She ignored the mild hangover, it was nothing her morning hair of the dog wouldn't fix after all, and found her mind registering several things:

1. This wasn't her room.

2. She didn't even remember going to sleep last night.

3. She didn't cover herself in a blanket, and finally.

4. Shinji should have woke—

Her mind froze as the name passed through it. She jumped instantly up, blanket trailing behind her as she slid open the door to her charge's room.

"Shinji!" She said called, and then stopped as she realised with some hefty relief that he was actually there. She was about to wake him up and give him a non-too pleasant talking too when her mind figured out why she hadn't gone to her room and why she had a blanket over her when she woke up.

Her eyes trained on the overly peaceful face of her charge, "Always the thoughtful one…" she mumbled quietly with a small smile, "but don't think you're getting off the hook that easily, mister" she grinned and turned around, pausing at the sound of mumbling from her charge as he began to stir.

"Misato?" slurred Shinji uncertainty as he cleared his eyes and stretched, yawning deeply.

"Yes, and might I be so humble as to enquire," she began, folding her arms, "just where in the hell you were last night?" demanded Misato with a degree of frustration, yet somehow unable to be as fully mad at Shinji as she thought she should be.

Shinji groaned as he pulled himself up, said groan really just to give him the time to think up a decent cover story, "Sorry, Misato. Goku said there was something Vegeta wanted to talk to me about, something about EVA, and so I went to see him. We chatted for a bit… Guess I lost track of time, and my cell phone battery kind of died on me." He explained, pausing to mentally congratulating himself on what he considered a cover story well thought up.

"And that was?" Misato pushed, narrowing her eyes.

"What was what?"

"What was it that Vegeta of all people would want to talk to you about?"

"Oh, he just wanted to point out some flaws he had seen in my fighting strategies and wanted to give his humble opinion. That basically consisted of him pointing out that everything I did had room for improvement," Shinji replied, and more mental back patting ensued. He was getting good at this lying stuff.

That disconcerted him for an instant.

"For how many hours?" asked Misato with slight incredulousness.

"Well afterwards we just ended up chatting and like I said; I lost track of time."

"Well okay then, but from now on please let me know if you're going to be that late home. I was really worried about you, Shinji," She said with softness that stung the pilot for an instant, before turning and walking out./

"Of course, Misato," Shinji reassured, disguising the relief in his voice under another yawn.

And so morning rituals began as they always did in the Ikari-Katsuragi household, with the exception of Shinji having a strangely extra bounce in the way he was making breakfast, a change which was not lost on Misato.

"Shinji?" asked the Captain, her finger twirling about the rim of her beer can as she regarded her charge from behind

"Hmmm?"

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked uncertainly, not quite able to put a finger on what was off.

"Great," said Shinji, pausing to glance back over his shoulder at her, spatula in hand, "why do you ask?"

"No reason, you just seem a little more upbeat is all."

He tilted his head and went back to his cooking, "Then I'll try to gloom down in your presence in future, your highness," he said with a note of sarcasm, grinning slightly as he flourished his spatula in mock courtesy.

Misato blinked, 'Okay, now that was off, but what else is it?' She contemplated, frowning in thought for a moment. Her mind twigged it a second later, 'Wait a minute, is he… humming? He's never done that before.' She went silent as she watch her charge go about his work, 'I guess we all have our good days. I hope you get more of them.' She smiled slightly to herself as Shinji turned about and set her breakfast down in front of her.

She switched into what she liked to refer to as 'Captain Katsuragi mode' for a moment, "Don't forget, Shinji, you've got that harmonics test this evening at five, so please do try to keep your all too busy schedule open for us lesser beings at NERV."

"I'll try…" intoned the pilot in reply as he washed up, his suddenly turning to the test Misato had mentioned, 'And there's another thing I won't be able to think of the same way again.' He sighed mentally to himself, and yet strangely he couldn't help but feel a small amount of anticipation for the event.

"Well do try. Your ratio may be doing well but you're still over forty points below Asuka, remember to focus." said Misato, not wanting to admit just how well he was doing, also omitting Ritsuko's comment about how his ratio was increasing on an upward curve and was theoretically going to surpass both the other pilots far earlier than was previously expected.

"Focus, focus, focus…" Shinji chanted as he served up his own breakfast and sat down, Misato continuing to sip at her morning pick-me-up.

"So might I ask why you're so perky this morning?" Misato enquired as she finished off her breakfast.

"I don't know. You're my 'personal and psychological monitor', you tell me," Shinji commented, polishing off his orange juice, missing the blink of surprise from Misato at the sound of her official NERV title for her guardianship duties. 'I didn't even know he knew that phrase.' Misato contemplated, frowning in confusion as Shinji began to clear his plate.

Suddenly Misato's cell phone began ringing

Shinji followed Misato's movements out of the corner of his eyes as she picked up her cell phone.

Shinji's heart immediately sank as, after her initial greeting and a pause, Misato's face switched instantly into a deep and serious glare.

He breathed a sigh as he put the plates down and rested his forehead against the kitchen wall, knowing what was coming as Misato's phone bleeped, signalling the end of conversation.

Misato turned to Shinji, who was now looking up at the ceiling, hands clenched as if he could just reach out and choke whatever god was up there.

"Oh, don't say it…" He groaned, knowing what she was about to tell him.

"It's okay Shinji, " Misato said softly, causing Shinji to breathe out a premature sigh of relief, "I won't say it." Misato couldn't help but grin as Shinji let out a loud 'gyah!', bashing his forehead off the wall in frustration before immediately turning to find his shoes.

Approximately one hour later.

"Is Shinji okay?" asked Ritsuko curiously, turning to Misato and cutting the audio link with Unit-01 for a moment.

Misato frowned, "He seems to be. I mean he's been a little different lately, but that's about it. Why?"

"Well it's just that he seems to be even more unnerved than usual, and yet somehow his sync ratio has increased," adding 'again' silently to herself.

"So what's this guy's game?" came Asuka's remark from Unit-02 as she zoomed her screen in on the lumbering form of the Angel.

"Well that's the seventh one, I think. His name's Israfel," said Shinji, narrowing his eyes as he tried to recall certain facts he had chosen to pick out about the Angels "The…Angel of Dance and Rhythm…I think."

"That's very good, Shinji." came Ritsuko's pleasantly surprised voice.

"W-what? Oh, I just did a little biblical research, that's all. Gotta know what to call your enemy if you're scream and curse at it," he said, thinking up the most plausible excuse as possible at such short notice.

"Dance and Rhythm, huh?" came Asuka's voice over the comm. as she stared at the form on the surface, "Doesn't look very graceful to me."

"Forget about its name," cut in Misato, "just remember your attack pattern."

"Yeah, yeah I know; take turns, attack in waves…" replied Asuka drearily.

"Good. You got that, Shinji?"

"Got it," He replied as both EVAs were released from their moorings on their planes and dropped down to the surface by the ocean.

"I still don't see why I couldn't just take this thing solo. Why'd I have to have you tag along on my debut battle in Japan?"

"I guess they just think we make a good couple," quipped Shinji over the video link with a grin.

"Don't even think about getting any more ideas hentai-boy. Don't think I've forgotten about the last fight!".

"Calm it, you two! Survivability takes priority, that's the reason for these arrangements," said Misato irritably.

"Okay then. So why don't we just have Goku, Vegeta, Trunks and Goten blast this thing and have done with it?" enquired Shinji with a raised eyebrow.

"You've already been informed why, Shinji; Commander Ikari doesn't want any interference in NERV business from the Saiyans, not unless it's absolutely necessary," Ritsuko explained, missing Shinji's grumble about it being 'unlikely he'll tell us why.'

As the power sockets slid into place and Units 01 and 02 prepared for combat, Israfel turned to face its enemy.

"I'll handle this one, Third Child. You just stay there and back me up." said Asuka, boasting slightly.

"Excuse me? Fine, be that way, ya dumb rookie! Unit-01 taking backup position," informed Shinji as he levelled his rifle at the target, firing several volleys of covering fire to the left and right of Unit-02, the red mecha charging its adversary head on, a bladed lance in it's hand.

Asuka grinned manically as she leaped her EVA a hundred metres into the air, bringing her bladed weapon up over her head and, using the gravity and inertia of the fall for added force, swung it down through the point of AT field neutralisation, the blade making contact with the angel's raw flesh and neatly slicing the Angel cleanly into two.

"Well I'll be damned…" murmured Shinji in disbelief.

"How d'ya like that, Third Child? I thought I'd just show you how it ought to be done; swiftly and elegantly without waste," said Asuka with exaggerated sweetness.

"Well I know when I'm beaten," admitted Shinji with an inclination of his head, "That was amazing, Asuka."

"Why, thank you, Third Child," said Asuka graciously, "Anyhow, Misato, shall we just-" Asuka was suddenly interrupted as the two halves of Israfel behind her shuddered, congealing upon themselves. Suddenly the Angel's outer skin burst free as they solidified into two very separate, very alive entities.

Shinji froze in his cockpit as the two Angels took formation.

"What the hell is this?" shouted Shinji, only partially aware of Misato shouting something similar over the command feed as both targets lunged forward in synchronized grace.

The real battle had begun.

And it didn't last long…

To be continued…

-XA-

[A/N] Not sure how this chapter got three pages longer, but that'll happen I guess. Now I know it's premature, but as thanks for your continued support over the years and apologies for the neglect this fic has received, I've got a little something special planned, and though it wont be for seven chapters, I've put up a poll on my profile page to let you decide how it will go, but I'm giving nothing more away.

But that is then and this is now, and so I'll endeavour to get the next chapter up for you as soon as possible.

Catch you all in Chapter 11: Force of Rhythm