Notes: I wasn't going to upload this until Wednesday (I have a schedule of uploading, it's based on how many chapters I've written. As of now I'm actually a number ahead) but a certain review caused me to upload and address something. First of all I made a stupid assumption, I assumed that because I had placed them in Word and they appeared fine on there and on AO3 that my scene separators would be appearing in the documents I uploaded here. Turns out I was wrong, I work in QA so I probably should have realized this'd go wrong but I didn't, go me. Not that it is much use now but I've been back through previous chapters and added the separators where they should be, I can only apologize profusely for any confusion that might have caused.

Shinji was awoken by the light tapping on his door, he slowly opened his eyes to see Asuka's form moving as she too was waking up. He turned to see the light on his alarm clock, three in the morning as planned. The door opened slowly and Misato poked her head around, she was in her old NERV uniform. Her form was dimly lit by the light of the corridor, she spoke softly but sternly.

"Shinji, Asuka… it's time to go."

Shinji could feel himself blush in the darkness, they had both fallen asleep in his bed again. They were supposed to hide that from Misato, she knew they were in a relationship but how would she react to them sharing the same bed? They hadn't done anything but it was still something that just wasn't supposed to happen. Still Misato didn't react to it, she had more important things to worry about.

Shinji felt nervous, it was to be expected. By the time the morning came both he and Asuka were to have left New Berlin on their way to a pre-arranged destination. No one knew apart from those two and Misato. They had to keep it secret from their friends, act as if everything was alright but in reality it was far from alright.

Shinji climbed out of the bed and quickly put on his clothes, Asuka was still in the room but that wasn't important. They had a limited amount of time and embarrassment could wait for another time. He heard Asuka slowly get up.

"I'll take our bags out to the front room. Asuka."

"Thank you."

Shinji picked up the two rucksacks they had packed for their journey. It contained the basics they'd need. A few pairs of clean clothes, first aid supplies, sanitary products and a few personal items. Neither of them had much but it that was probably for the best, it made packing the items easier.

He headed out into the main corridor where he saw Misato leaning against the wall with her arms folded. The first thing that hit him was the smell of the cigarette she was smoking. He looked up to see the fire alarm had been disconnected and shot a frown her way.

"You know those things are bad for you right?"

"I know, I only smoke on… certain occasions. Not sure why but I needed it tonight to calm my nerves… besides it is only one right?"

He placed the two bags down and waited for Asuka to leave the room. Eventually she did heading straight for the bathroom. He saw Misato looking at him, still smiling and blushed again.

"I…It isn't wha-"

"Don't worry Shinji, I know you and Asuka have a more unique relationship than others your age. Maybe it's irresponsible of me but if you two are happy than so am I…"

There was no teasing in her voice, no joking or playing around. He realized that his guardian probably wasn't as stupid as they sometimes thought, she was observant and she loved them both deeply. His eyes threatened to well up at the thought of what'd happen after tonight. They might never see her again.

He didn't want to go, he wanted to stay here with Asuka and Misato. He wanted to be a family, to go to school and enjoy his life. Fate had other plans for him though, the curse called Evangelion that had hung over him for the past year was still active and shown no signs of fading. For every bit of progress he or they made there was always something threatening to pull them back.

"Thank you."

Asuka returned from the bathroom, she looked pale, irritated and tired. Shinji smiled at her, she weakly returned it.

"Are you alright?"

Asuka nodded, "I'm fine… let's do this."

Shinji had no idea where they were going, once they had gotten outside the apartment Misato had lead them quietly through a couple of streets and back-alleys to a waiting vehicle. Inside was a man who greeted Misato in a hushed voice. The car ride itself was silent, Shinji turned to look at Asuka. She was staring out of the window, still pale and unless Shinji was mistaken in some sort of discomfort.

He leaned over and whispered, "Are you alright?"

She nodded, saying nothing continuing to stare out of the window. She wasn't alright, but it wasn't what Shinji was thinking. There was no anxiety or worrying, or tiredness or feeling ill instead it was the pain present in her lower abdomen that was causing her discomfort.

'Of all the times it had to be now, why does it always hurt so goddamn much? Like I needed this today of all days, not only do I have to wake up this early but this as well...'

She wanted to say something but couldn't exactly say it out loud to Shinji, would he even understand? She didn't exactly remember this subject coming up in their biology classes in school. This wasn't exactly something she had made a big deal out of before to him, it didn't usually hit her this hard. She got out her phone and tapped out a message in the notes, what could she even say to him?

'I'm fine, nothing you can do. Don't worry about it :-) '

Hopefully that'd get him to not worry at the very least. It'd probably wouldn't because it was Shinji and that was what he did. She thought it was cute most of the time but in this case she'd rather the subject just be dropped. It did look for a moment like he was going to say something else, instead he got out his phone and tapped a message back.

'Okay, if you need anything, just ask.'

She slipped the phone back into her pocket and reached into her jacket pocket to make sure the things she had prepared were still there. She knew they would be but yet she checked anyway. First was the small rectangular device, her music player. The new one that Shinji had bought her after her previous one was destroyed in the explosion. Attached to it was the headphone splitter and two sets of headphones, one set for her and one for Shinji.

'I still owe Shinji for that music player… I know he said not to worry about it but I can't have him just getting me things without paying him back somehow.'

It was a ridiculous way of thinking, just because he had done something for her didn't mean she had to pay him back. He didn't want her to but it was a pride thing, she didn't want to have things done for her without proving she was capable of doing something similar.

She thought about the playlist she had loaded onto the device, she wasn't sure if Shinji would even like it. Truth be told she wasn't actually sure what music he enjoyed, she meant to ask him but it had never came up. Obviously he played the Cello, and during their time in Tokyo 3 she had seen him listening to his SDAT a lot.

'Come to think of it, I haven't seen his SDAT since we returned… did he lose it?'

She got her phone back out, she wasn't sure why she was communicating with him in this way. They could have just spoken to each other. The atmosphere in the car was already tense though, it felt like talking was forbidden.

'Hey Shinji, what happened to your SDAT?'

She held the phone to him but he was peering out of the window, watching the rain falling down the side. She knew immediately how to get his attention, she had found out recently Shinji was remarkably ticklish. Something she had planned to exploit in the future. She readied a finger and gently poked it into his side, causing him to jolt upright and glare at her. He looked like he was ready to say something but instead saw that she was holding out her phone to him, he read the message and took the phone off of her and tapped out a reply.

'I lost it in Tokyo 3 :-('

She felt a pang of sadness at the reply, and quickly tapped out another question.

'Did it mean a lot to you?'

He took the phone back off of her reading the question. The SDAT meant a lot to him, for some it was outdated technology but that wasn't what was important to him. It was a way for him to escape from the world he hated, into a world he loved. It was also a connection to his mother, it was one of the one things he had of hers since she had died.

'It was my mothers, it was the only thing I had of hers.'

Asuka didn't regret asking, she understood the sadness he was feeling. She had little herself of her mother so anything she might have had she'd want to keep. She clutched the music player he had bought her in her pocket tightly.

'I won't let this go Shinji, thank you.'

"Asuka, Shinji we're here."

She looked out the window just in time to see the car pull up at an old warehouse. The rain was coming down strongly now, there were a few vehicles already parked up. A van, a transport vehicle for soldiers and miscellaneous cars. One of the shutters was wide open, inside a small group of people were walking about, in the dim lighting she couldn't make out their face or features.

Shinji stepped out of the car and zipped up his jacket trying to shelter himself from the rain. He moved around to the back of the car as the driver popped open the boot and handed both he and Asuka their respective rucksacks.

Shinji follow behind them scared of what would happen after tonight. He had no idea where they were going, had no idea what they were going to do all he knew was that Misato had been convinced by someone that Asuka and he had to be evacuated. She hadn't explained the details, at first they had resisted and told her that they wanted to stay and that they could deal with whatever was coming. Misato had held firm though, and in the end convinced them. They were to leave, they weren't to tell anyone of their plans to leave and it was to happen on this night and at this time.

It barely felt real, he half expected to wake up any moment now. Only he knew he wouldn't. At least he would be with Asuka.

As he entered the room his eyes searched around at the various people gathered. He recognized none of them but he did recognize the uniforms they were wearing. Dark blue zip up tops, a blue triangle motif on the left breast and a red triangle motif on the neck. They were identical to the ones Kaji had worn. Were these people related to NERV in some way?

He continued searching the room, and felt his blood run cold at the sight of him. At the far end talking to another gentleman. Looking at a map propped up on a makeshift table was his father. Gendo looked up to meet his eyes. Shinji felt Asukas' hand slip into his.

"Don't… do anything Shinji."

He felt a hand on his back and looked up, Misato was there now as well. She was looking down at him, her face still stern but now softening.

"What is he doing here… did he?"

"Your father helped arrange this Shinji, it's up to you whether or not you speak to him. I'm not going to make that decision for you but if you want to confront him you have to do it now."

"Asuka, what should I do?"

Asuka grabbed his other hand and turned him to face her.

"I can't answer that for you Shinji, but don't do anything you'll regret. Tell him you hate him, tell him everything but make sure it's what you feel."

Shinji nodded and slowly walked towards his father. Asuka watched as she felt Misato slip in closer.

"Your father is here too Asuka."

Asuka nodded, "I thought he might be… he set all of this up didn't he?"

Misato was somewhat stunned to hear Asuka say that, how could she have known.

"I… suspected there was more to him when we visited them. On the night of the attack he spent a lot of time talking to Shinji, I thought that was a bit strange but then… I was looking through some old photos of him and I saw a picture of his team. I guess I wasn't supposed to see it. Kaji was a part of his team, I knew at that moment he was more involved than I thought…"

"How do you feel about that?"

Asuka shrugged, "I don't know, I guess… he has his reasons doesn't he?"

"Shinji…"

"Father."

"We will probably never see each other again after tonight."

Those words felt so familiar to Shinji. A sentence like that had been spoken to him before by his father only this time they carried a different meaning. On that occasion Shinji had senses malice and disappointment this time there was regret behind them. For two weeks, since learning he was going to leave Shinji had thought about this. His feelings for his father were no less complex than they had been after the shooting. He was sure he hated the man, sure that he wanted no contact with him and was certain that he had nothing to say to him. Now he felt like he had a thousand things to say and ask.

'This is my last chance.'

"Probably not. Father..."

What was he even going to ask? Why did Gendo abandon him? Why was Gendo scared of him? Why did Gendo act the way he did over the course of the last year? Would having the answers to those questions help in any way? He already knew the answers, because Gendo was a coward. He was afraid of being hurt and hurting Shinji so instead of acting like a father he put the responsibility on others and tried to find a solution where he couldn't hurt Shinji or be hurt by Shinji. Did Shinji really need to know anything else about his father? Probably not. There was something though he could learn.

"Father... what was mother like?"

Gendo was taken aback by the question, he had expected Shinji to ask him a number of things but hadn't factored in that his son might want to learn about his mother. Of course Shinji probably knew most of what he wanted to about Gendo, Yui on the other hand he knew little about. No one had really taken the time to talk about Shinji's mother to him.

"Your mother was, an amazing woman. Very talented and highly regarded in her field and one of the kindest souls I've ever met. She saved me and for a time she was all I had until you came along. When you were born we had everything Shinji, and then merely four years later she left us."

Gendo had that day etched into his memory, he recalled it everyday. He was sat behind the desk observing the Evangelion contact experiment his wife was about to undergo. Stood watching a short distance away was a four year old Shinji excited to be in the lab but unable to comprehend the events going on that day. In a heartbeat everything had gone wrong, alarms sounded and when they looked within the Eva, she had gone.

Shinji of course remembered little if anything of the event, it was perhaps too traumatising for the young boy to remember. Gendo however had made sure to remember every detail of it. If he knew then what he knew now, that it was all part of Yuis plan would he have acted any differently.

"Did you know what she was going to do."

"I didn't, she kept it secret from all of us. She knew what was going to happen though, she knew the experiment would pull her inside the Eva and she would never return."

"Why did she do it then?"

Gendo had asked himself that question numerous times since returning. It wasn't until Third Impact that he learned that Yui knew what would happen. Was the plan to always build towards Third Impact and Instrumentality? Yui knew SEELE more than anyone, it was only after her death that Gendo learned of the Human Instrumentality Project... was her aim to stop it?

"Yui wished to stop SEELE I assume."

"Yet you helped them towards their goal."

"I wished to be re-united with Yui... my goal was to use their scenario and use Unit 01 to reunite us both with her in Instrumentality. I was to be the centre of it, fortunately for the world Rei saw fit to change that."

Shinji was startled by the honesty, but it didn't calm him or make him feel any better. In many ways it just served to confuse and hurt him more. He had been told once that the truth can be painful and this certainly was. There was little he could do though but accept it and progress forward, he couldn't run away from the facts.

"Shinji... I know I don't deserve your forgiveness so I won't ask for it. I shouldn't even be here now but I am so I ask that you do something for me."

"What is it?"

"Be a better man than me, both you and Miss Sohryu look after each other. Don't allow yourself to be a coward like I've been, you still have a future, you still have the opportunity to change things."

"So do you."

Shinjis words hit him hard. Gendo had all but resigned himself in the past weeks to the fact that he couldn't progress. All he could do was focus on ensuring Shinji got out of the city and deal with the aftermath.

"When this is over we'll return and finish this conversation. Father."

Asuka stared out across the courtyard at the vehicles being loaded up. It unnerved her seeing so many people armed walking back and forth. There was a heavy tension in the air.

'Is this what it felt like before the JSSDF attack on NERV I wonder?'

She gingerly rubbed her stomach, the pain had subsided a bit from earlier but it was still present. Seems the painkillers Misato had given her had done the trick. She sensed a presence behind her, a moment later an arm had been wrapped around her shoulder. It was strong, definitely not Shinjis. She looked up and saw her Dad also looking out.

"I'm sorry our time together had to end this way Asuka."

"What's going to happen after tonight? To you I mean?"

"We'll be fine, but we'll be leaving the continent and continuing the fight against Cohen from other locations. It isn't exactly on our terms but it was never going to be, hopefully this will unsettle him enough for us to gain some ground. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"I enjoyed seeing you both the other week you know. Thank you for giving me all that music."

"Are you enjoying it?"

Asuka nodded, "Yeah, although my music player got damaged in the explosion the other week. Shinji bought me a new one though, so I've got it all loaded onto that."

"A lot of that isn't just mine, some of it was your mother's favourites as well. I'll let you try to figure out which is which."

Asuka smiled, "When we were over yours the other week, what did you say to Shinji on the balcony?"

Her Dad laughed, "Oh, well I just asked him how you had been. You know usual fatherly stuff, trying to figure out if he was good enough for my daughter and I also told him to look after you."

"Look after me? Hah, that idiot needs me to look after him."

"You know you sounded exactly like your mother then. "

Asuka felt his hold tighten on her when he spoke of her mother. She raised a hand and gently took hold of one of her fathers' hands. Growing up she had always resented her father for getting married so quickly after her mothers' death. She had heard the others speaking at the hospital condemning it and in truth she guessed she believed some of it. She never really thought about the toll it must have taken on the man.

"Do you miss her?"

"Every day."

Shinji exited the room from where he had been talking with his father. He saw Asuka at the other end of the warehouse and made his way over to her. His heart felt somewhat lighter after the meeting. There was no forgiveness, no hug, but there was something there a sign of progression. In the warehouse he could see the various people finishing their preparations. Misato was talking to Asuka's father about something.

Suddenly there was an intense bright light from outside the warehouse. Immediately the air was filled with voices shouting. He could recognise Misatos voice above it all, shouting instructions.

"They're discovered us already!"

"How is that possible?"

"I can't see anything."

One voice rose above the others, it belonged to Asuka's father.

"Stand firm people, we expected this to happen. It's just a little bit sooner than possible. Remember our priority is the children."

Slowly the warehouse faded back into view only now Shinji could see the form of several floating objects outside. He quickly ran over to Asuka who had taken cover behind a series of crates. Shinji recognized the objects as being the same drones that had attacked the Sindram.

At the other end of the warehouse another door was being opened. As soon as it was a black car made its way into the warehouse parking up exactly where Asuka and Shinji were crouching. The back door pinged open and a familiar voice beckoned them to get inside.

"Quickly get in!"

Shinji turned to Asuka, with a brief notion she nodded at Shinji and the two of them darted to the back seats of the car getting in and taking cover. They looked in the front to see the driver, it was a woman. Shinji recognized her as Adler, the former vice commander of NERV Germany. What was she doing here?

"Now we wait."

"What for? Shouldn't we be going?"

Adler shook her head, "Not yet, if we leave now those drones will tear us apart. Just watch."

Shinji watched on as the drones hovered in position at the front of the warehouse. They didn't move seemingly waiting for some sort of signal or instruction. Within the warehouse a line of officers took up positions at various points, making sure to keep their distance. Each person was setting up a device, it was a tripod with some sort of item mounted on the top of it. It didn't look big enough to be a gun, besides that would be useless the Drones had A.T. Fields. The only thing that could have taken them out was an Eva.

Asuka observed the scene quietly, watching as her father directed the human traffic. She didn't know what they had planned but she had faith that whatever it was would work. The officers finished their contraptions. The drones had moved forward a little bit and were slowly entering a formation. She had seen this behaviour before on the Sindram, they'd link together and that'd presumably increase their strength.

Each officer aimed their device at a different section of the drone formation. A red pointer could now be seen where the devices were aiming. She could now hear someone counting down.

"3… 2… 1… NOW!"

Simultaneously each officer pressed a button on the devices which sent a red beam of light directly at the drone formation. The result was exactly as she had suspected, the drones raised their A.T. Fields stopping anything from progressing. In that instance where was a violent white flash as the two light sources connected.

"It's not working… the A.T. Fields…"

Adlers voice came through again, "Just watch…"

Asuka and Shinji continued to watch as the beams continued to hit the A.T. Field. Slowly they saw the beams begin to splinter at the point of the field. Each beam connected with another covering the fields completely.

"The fields…"

Shinji finished her sentence for her, "…are vanishing."

Sure enough the A.T. Fields that belonged to the drones had vanished. Within seconds another line of officers opened fire on the drones, picking them off easily as their weapons pierced the drones weakened armour.

"Adler… that's phase one complete, we're commencing phase two now. Get ready."

"Ready as I'll ever be."

'Phase two? What's phase t-'

Shinji didn't get the opportunity to finish his thought as another bright white light swept through the night. It was much more intense than the first one and off in the distance he could see a familiar white cross explode in the night sky. There was another flash, another explosion as another cross was sent up into the air. This was followed by another.

There was a sound of gunfire behind him as the vehicle began moving. His eyes widened at the sight of the scene. The officers had turned their devices around and were now aiming at new targets. The creatures that he had come to know as Marionettes had now entered from the other side of the warehouse and were approaching the officers. One of them was taken down with ease, but another managed to dodge the blast from the devices.

It broke into a run and in one motion sunk its clawed hand deep into one of the officers' abdomen before tossing the officer away with ease. The air was filled with the sound of gunfire and shouting as more creatures entered the building.

The officers were begin to double back towards the waiting transports. Working at a steady rythym of aiming the Anti A.T. field weapons, disabling the field and killing a Marionette. For every one they killed another two entered. For every two that entered more officers were going down.

He turned towards the room where his father was and saw Gendo finally emerge, look around and begin heading towards one of the vehicles. In that moment time seemed to slow down. Gendo was about to make it to one of the vehicles when he was stopped by someone, not just anyone but Misato.

It looked like they were discussing something but Shinji couldn't make out what it was. An argument maybe? They were slowly moving away from the two of them and Shinji could hear nothing from them over the yelling and sound of gunfire.

His stomach tightened when he saw Misato shove him backwards, what could they be arguing about? Then in one swift motion his blood ran cold, Misato pulled out her handgun. Without warning and without remorse she unloaded a bullet into Gendos' chest sending him flying back onto the floor.

On instinct Shinji started yelling.

"FATHER!"

He heard a gasp from Asuka next to him as he scrambled towards the door. Almost immediately he Asuka pulled him back into the seat and clutch him tightly towards her. Shinji desperately tried to scramble forward, reaching and clawing towards the door of the car. He had to know what had happened, he had to know why. Asuka was much stronger than him though, holding him tight and pinning him down onto the seat. She reached into her pocket for something pulling out the music player.

"Shinji, put these in. Please… Trust me…"

He stared at her blankly, her face was emotionless or was that just a façade. Something she was putting on to calm him down? He tried one more time to get out of her grasp only to be slammed down again onto the seat. This time she was more forceful pushing him into the seat.

"Shinji! I said to not do anything stupid, just do as I say."

Shinji felt his eyes well up as he slowly reached up took the earphones from Asuka. His hands were shaking as he put them into each ear. It was difficult to do so as Asuka kept him held firmly down. He kept his eyes fixed on her as she did the same. She scrambled through the list of songs on the player before hitting random and a song immediately came on. It was an old track, the organ melody in its introduction was familiar to her but at the same time it was very different.

'We skipped the light fandango,
turned cartwheels across the floor.'

He gently lay his head down on Asukas' lap letting the sound of the music into his ears as she stroked his head. Shinji noticed at this point she was shaking as well, terrified at what she had just seen. It had made no sense, Gendo was there to help them wasn't he? Why did Misato shoot him? What had just happened?

Asuka wanted to say something, to ask Adler but Adler was busy driving. Weaving the car in and out of the drones that had assembled in the sky above them and avoiding the Marionettes that had been placed on the roads. Instead she closed her eyes sat back, letting Shinji rest his head in lap and just stroking his hair trying to calm him down.

Shinji was going over the scene again, it couldn't have been real. It must have been some sort of ploy. Why would she just shoot him like that, it had happened but why? It looked like they had argued but again… why?

He opened his eyes, they were stinging as the tears were building up in them. Around the car he could make out explosions, and flashes as bullets were fired and drones exploded. It was too much, he closed his eyes again focusing on her caresses and the music.

'And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly,
Turned a whiter shade of pale.'