Nergal Fan Fiction LLC
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NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: RENAISSANCE OF MAN
Chapter Three "PROMISE OF A BRAVE NEW WORLD UNFURLED"
by Ryoma
Disclaimer: Characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion have been used without permission. All characters contained in this work are copyright GAINAX, Project EVA, Movic, AD Vision and Manga Entertainment. All proceeds generated by this fic will be distributed to them, I promise.
"This sucks!" Asuka Langley Sohryu trumpeted. "Urgh! I'm so sick of wearing this damn suit!" The Eva plug suit was a modern marvel. Aside from presenting an excellent medium for the transmission of neural impulses, it also supplied the pilot with a carefully controlled atmosphere and temperature. Of course that was when it had sufficient battery power, and unfortunately for her this suit had run out of power a long time ago. Now she was shrink wrapped in a form fitting, hot, heavy, neoprene sock. "I swear if I don't find something else to wear soon, I'm going buck naked!"
Any normal male within earshot would have most likely drooled at that possibility, however Shinji Ikari was the exception that proved the rule at this point in time. Sure, he did find the possibility of viewing his companion in more intimate attire appealing, but that was the first time she threatened to do it. He also felt the same attraction the second and third times, but by now he had given up the dream. Still, if he didn't say something soon, she would assume that he was ignoring her again.
"At last my wish has come true, I must have died and gone to heaven." Shinji tried his best to sound enthused, but his words still rang hollow.
"Oh, you'll die alright, Third Child, when I beat you to..." Asuka paused for a moment than turned to him with a frown, "Hey, that's the exact reply you said last time." She blushed with embarrassment as the idea that she had been complaining a bit too much set in. "Well, even YOU have to admit that these suits weren't made for this much walking."
Shinji reminisced about his own experiences with a plug suit and realized how bad she had it. "I guess I never thought about how uncomfortable you must be. I'm sorry I made fun of you."
"Apology accepted," Asuka replied with a certain sense of satisfaction.
They had been walking for quite a while and the sun was shining directly overhead. Packing up the camp had gone very quickly, as they both seemed eager to move on from the ruins of Tokyo-3.
"Where are we going again?" she quizzed.
"Gora," came his terse reply.
"And we are going there why?"
"For the third time, we are going to Gora because it is the closest village to Tokyo-3 in this direction," Shinji replied a matter of factly. He had explained all of this to her before they left.
Asuka stiffened up at his tone. "I knew that, you dork!"
"Well then why did you ask?" he whined.
Asuka scratched her head trying to think of an intelligent reply. "I was just making sure that YOU knew where we were going, that's all," she smiled content with her response. Shinji just stared at her with his mouth open, his hand curling into and out of a fist. "So, how much farther?"
They stopped and Shinji pulled out the map. "Let's see, if we are here, and Gora is there, we need to...then turn left...if one inch equals..." he continued muttering. Asuka watched silently as Shinji stared into the heavens, mentally performing arithmetic calculations in his head.
"Wunderbar!" she grumbled and began to tap her foot as she observed him look down at the map, then back to his imaginary calculator in the sky, then back down to the map. "Scheisse! Give me the damn thing!" she roared tearing the map out of Shinji's hands.
"Hey," he whimpered, holding his hands out as if he still had the map. "I could have figured it out."
"Moron, with your navigational skills, we would have ended up back an the damn beach!" Asuka huffed while studying the map.
Shinji kicked a small rock off the road, "We would not, I know how to navigate," he grumbled.
"Shinji, you once got lost crossing a bridge," Asuka rebuked without looking up from the map.
"I...It was foggy." Shinji kicked another rock off the road.
Asuka's focus slowly moved up to look directly at him. A slight smirk appeared on the redhead as she gazed into his eyes for a moment before she returned to the map. "Well, you at least started us in the right direction." She could not help but notice the look of triumph on the boy as she continued, "Oh course if we had taken that side road a couple of miles back, we would be there by now."
The appearance of satisfaction now gone Shinji answered, "Err...well...sorry." Asuka carefully folded the map; and then smacked him over the head with it. "Ow, what was that for?"
"That was for making us walk all this extra distance, and..." she smacked him again, "that is for asking stupid questions."
Shinji stood rubbing his head. In his mind he thought of a thousand different things to say, yet as she stood next to him with the map locked and loaded, he knew he had to be very careful. "I really am sorry, from now on you should be in charge of all navigation and map duties. After all, you are the smartest." He cringed awaiting another blow.
Asuka paused to review his comments. She began to beam from ear to ear as her new sense of worth sunk in. "Of course I should be in charge of navigation, I'm glad you see things my way." Shinji breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her. "But apart from walking all this extra distance, we may have a bigger problem." She pointed to a location on the map. "The Asahi Gorge."
"The Asahi Gorge, what would be the problem there?" Shinji retorted.
She stared directly at him, in reaction to his tone of voice, "Normally there wouldn't be a problem, but if that bridge is out we're screwed."
"Oh, I didn't think of that," he groaned, then reverted to his standard reply, "I'm sorry."
Asuka grit her teeth upon hearing his reply, "I swear to god I'm going to throw your ass into that gorge if you keep saying I'm sorry to everything. Dammit Shinji, when are you going to start being a man?" Shinji stood letting her words soak in. She awaited a reply but sensing that none was coming decided to move on, "Well, we've come this far so we'll know either way shortly."
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The Asahi Gorge was one of Japan's truly magnificent natural wonders, bordered on one end by the Asahi waterfall and the Nana Prefecture on the other end. The most pronounced feature of the gorge was its beautiful, suspension bridge. The Asahi Gorge Bridge was an engineering marvel. Built in 1989 it had survived Second Impact, numerous typhoons, floods, and from all initial appearances, Third Impact. Shinji released an audible sigh of relief upon finally seeing the light green of the twin support towers and the fact that everything appeared in order. He ran ahead and out to the middle of the bridge. Looking out he could see lush forests running down each side of the canyon. In fact all he could see were trees in every direction. He began leaning over the side, catching a better view of the river running a couple of hundred feet below. The height made it almost mesmerizing as he could just make out the rushing water below. Shinji was enjoying this sense of freedom and something about this feeling made him lean farther and farther out.
Suddenly Shinji could feel himself beginning to lose his balance as he began to shift more and more out over the edge. He began to flail his arms in a desperate attempt to maintain his balance as he continued sliding over the edge. In desperation he finally screamed, "AAAAHHHHH."
Asuka began to laugh as she finally stopped pushing on the boy and allowed him to move back away from the railing. "That serves you right for making us walk all this extra distance."
Shinji panted trying to catch his breath. "That wasn't funny, Asuka," he replied in between gasps. "I could have fallen over you know."
"Shinji, you only thought that you were falling, you weren't anywhere near going over. Plus, I had your back the whole time."
"Well, you still scared the crap out of me you know." Shinji frowned, "How would you like it if I did that to you?"
Asuka raised her fist; "I'd punch you square in the face if you tried."
Shinji could sense by her tone that she was being quite serious so he decided that it was best to continue on, "Well, lets get going...after you."
Asuka began to walk and then noticed that Shinji was remaining a few steps behind her. Sensing he was up to something she stopped. "What are you doing, dork?" She spun around to see him right behind her with his arms out in front of him. Upon seeing her turn around he quickly put them down by his side. "You were going to push me, weren't you?"
"No I wasn't," he objected. "You're just being nervous."
"I swear if you try to push me, I'll kick you." Asuka swung her leg a couple of times to determine her range.
"I'm not going to touch you, now lets get going." Shinji started to walk but stopped as soon as she began to move.
"Shinji, god damn it, cut it out!" Asuka had again spun around upon not sensing that he was walking beside her.
"What, I'm not doing anything. Wow, you really are paranoid." Shinji chuckled and began to slowly walk towards her.
Asuka again began walking and when she sensed that Shinji was not next to her, she began to run. This action caught him by surprise for a moment and he quickly broke into a sprint to try to catch her. Although on most days Asuka could easily beat the boy in a race, her plug suit was providing just enough of a hindrance to allow her initial lead to fade. She again stopped and whirled when she around felt him directly behind her.
"What is you problem, why won't you leave me alone!" Asuka howled while panting to catch her breath.
"I'm not doing anything, you just started running so I went after you." Shinji replied with a snicker. Noticing the tone in his voice, Asuka too began to giggle and soon both of the children were caught up in the ridiculousness of both of their actions.
Asuka was the first to break laughter, "All right, I'm sorry I scared you back there."
"No problem, and I'm sorry I made you run across the bridge."
"Sure you are, now lets get going." Asuka turned and began to walk.
"Ok, after you." Shinji again started to walk and stopped.
"Shinji!" Asuka did not bother to turn around this time.
Sensing that perhaps he had gone too far with his joke, Shinji briskly caught up to his partner and they continued on.
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Gora was your typical rural town. Set far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo-3 to afford its residents the quiet tranquility of life in the country, yet close enough to provide many of the modern conveniences of its larger neighbor. Even before the decision to locate Tokyo-3 nearby was made, Gora had always been a popular destination, renowned for its spectacular views of the Asami Gorge and its hot springs. The Kodai Resort and Hotel was the largest and finest establishment in the village. Normally the waiting list for use of the hot springs at the resort would preclude anyone from just walking up and gaining admission. However, given the current state of the world, Shinji and Asuka had no problems at the front desk.
"This place is incredible!" Asuka exclaimed as the entered the main spa room. In it was a large pool, fed by the hot springs outside. Soft light filtered in the translucent panes that lined the walls. Slight wisps of steam could be seen emanating from the water as the two of them walked along the ceramic tiled pool edge. Asuka ran up to the water's edge and stuck her hand in. "Ahhh...that feels perfect." With that being said, she pressed the release button on her plug suit in anticipation of a nice bath. Unfortunately for her, the release mechanism also did not function with out power. "Scheisse!" she bellowed and began trying to find a way to squirm out of the suit. "Dammit...come on, DAMMIT..."
"Do you need some help?"
In her excitement she had completely forgot about the boy also standing in the room. "Yes, get the hell over here and help me get out of this suit!" She blushed heavily as she thought about the alternate meaning of that sentence. Judging by the similar look on Shinji, she could tell he had the same revelation.
"What do I do?" he asked while walking up to the girl.
"I don't know, see if there's someway to open this thing up, a manual release of something."
Shinji carefully looked over the back of the suit, taking great care not to gaze lower than her waist. "There's a couple of latches on either shoulder blade."
She flinched as he touched the latches. "Well go ahead, I don't have all day."
Shinji gulped and began to work the 2 latches trying to open them. After a little work, he was able to begin to release them.
Asuka could feel the tension in the suit relax a bit. "Shinji stop!" she screamed.
He quickly let go of the latches and shifted to face her. Her face betrayed a look of fear as he gazed at her. "Asuka, tell me what's wrong?" he implored as he gently shook her, "what is the matter?"
"Shinji, I'm scared." She took a moment to catch her breath before continuing, "what if...if this suit is the only thing holding me together?"
"What are you talking about?" Shinji hastily reviewed her features to attempt to understand what she meant.
"Shinji, those Eva Series did a real number on me. It's quite possible that suit is the only thing holding me together."
Shinji saw that the she was shaking even though the room was quite warm. He carefully put his arm around her as she fell against his shoulder. They both remained in that position for some time before Asuka finally spoke. "I have to know, one way or another, I have to know."
"Ok," was all that he could muster.
Feeling a little more confident, she added, "Hell, at some point soon, I'm going to have to go to the bathroom, right?"
Shinji relaxed some after Asuka's off hand comments. "Yeah, I guess so."
She pulled herself off Shinji. "Ok, well here's the plan, you finish releasing the latches and then move back to the other side of the dividing wall." Asuka pointed to the large wall, which evenly divided the room.
"No, I want to stay here with you."
"This is not a request, this is an order." She turned around providing him easy access to the latches. Shinji gently finished loosening the latches. "Ok, I that's good enough, I can get it now. Take off and get out of here."
"No, I need to make sure your all right first," he protested.
Asuka paused for a moment then fumed, "You just want to see my naked body, don't you pervert!"
"No, I just want to be here to help you, in case there's something wrong." His eyes conveyed the fear he was feeling in his heart.
Having failed at shaming him into leaving, she decided to try a different tack, the truth. "Shinji," she started in a soft tone, "what are you going to do if half my intestines come out with the suit?"
"Asuka, don't say things like that." Shinji was really starting to panic now as thoughts of losing his only companion soon filled his mind.
"Why, it's the truth idiot." She paused to take a deep breath before persisting on, "Hey listen, we are going to have to face this sooner or later. I can't wear this suit forever, right." He just nodded as she continued, "It's not that I don't appreciate your help, it's just that if things are bad, I would rather not make you see it."
"I understand," he replied as he headed for the door, "but if there's something wrong I'm coming back in no matter how bad it is."
"Sure."
Shinji disappeared behind the door and gradually closed it. Nervously he paced, stopping and listening every few seconds for any sounds from beyond the door. After what seemed to him like an eternity, his silence was broken by a large splash followed by a woman's scream. Without hesitation he ripped open the door and ran into the room. A few feet out into the pool he could see Asuka splashing around in the water. "Asuka, are you hurt!" He ran to the edge of the pool and began to remove his shirt.
"Hold it right there, Third Child." Shinji stopped and noticed that she had stopped splashing around in the water. He looked out and saw just her head poking above the surface. "Just what in the hell do you think your doing?"
"I heard the splashing and the scream and, well I thought..." Shinji began to fix his shirt.
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. The water was a little warmer than I thought." Asuka slowly moved toward him.
"So, um, is everything... well you know," he stammered.
"Just the way you used to fantasize about, Shinji," she teased. She started waving her arm indicating for him to back up as she got closer to the edge, "no peeking, hentai."
Shinji was now standing with his back to the wall. "I'm glad that your all right," he replied.
"Yeah...well, I guess I worked us both up for nothing." Asuka put her arms up on the edge of the pool.
"Better to be safe than sorry," he supposed. "Hey are you going to check under the bandages?"
"I think I'll give it another day or two. I don't want to ruin this good feeling with the ugly truth under these," she responded while motioning to her bandaged arm. "There's no telling how much of a mess those Lance's did to me."
Shinji frowned at that last comment. "Maybe it won't be as bad as you think. I mean you were thinking the worst just now and everything turned out ok."
"I sure hope so." Asuka pulled her arms off the edge of the pool and slowly pushed herself away. "So, are you coming in or what...the water's wonderful..." she trailed off as her head disappeared beneath the surface.
He waited patiently for her return. "I'm going to scout around a bit and try to find us some place to stay for the night."
"You would rather check out a creepy old hotel than stay here with a beautiful young woman, a very naked, beautiful young woman?" She smiled seductively at him, pushing herself a little higher out of the water.
"Well, unless you plan on staying in the pool, I think it's best to make sure we have a good place to sleep. You go ahead and relax, I'll take care of it." He started toward the entrance to the hotel when he heard her voice calling for him.
"Hey, Shinji, try to find me some clothes so I don't have to put that damn plug suit back on."
"I was going to make sure we have some place to sleep and perhaps find some real food. I don't think I'll have a lot of time to look for clothes."
"Well, if you find some clothes I'll make it worth your while," she called out as sexy as anyone could shouting across a room.
"Why, are you going to do the cooking?" Shinji called back as he disappeared behind the door leaving Asuka to her thoughts.
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"Shinji, I take back all of the bad things I ever said about you. This place is incredible!" Asuka exclaimed while falling back on to the couch. "First the clothes, and now this room, Shinji my boy, if I didn't think you'd pass out, I'd kiss you."
Shinji was busy stoking the flames in the large circular fireplace in the center of the room. He leaned out to respond, "Yeah, well the hotel gift shop had plenty of stuff, I just hope you don't mind that everything says 'The Kodai Hotel and Resort' somewhere on it."
Asuka began to carefully examine her attire. Shinji had picked out a nice white collared shirt and a matching pair of white dress shorts. "You know, I hadn't noticed," she moved her feet around, "Damn, its even on my socks."
"Well, I grabbed a bunch of stuff, tee shirts and pants if you want something different." He returned the fire.
"No, I think this stuff is fine...Hey Shinji?" He again poked his head around the fireplace to face her. "How did you know what size to get, I don't remember telling you."
He blushed just a bit. "I just sorta knew what size you took."
She returned his blush. "Well how did you know, were you going through my things to satisfy your perverted desires?"
Shinji sighed, "No, nothing as diabolical as that. Who do you think did all the laundry, or did you think it washed itself?"
"Oh, I forgot about that." Asuka stretched out the length of the couch. "You did a great job picking out the room."
"Well this suite is much nicer than any of the other rooms I checked. It's got everything, a fireplace, multiple bedrooms, a nice view, the only bad thing is that it is on the top floor which makes for a long walk to the pool." The fire was now blazing and Shinji walked over to the couch. "So, which bedroom would you like?"
Asuka leaped off the couch and sprinted over to the corner of the suite where the entrances to the 2 bedrooms were. She poked her head into the first room, looked around and then repeated the process with the second room. Returning to the main room she called out, "Well, you did find the place, you pick."
Shinji shook his head, "No, you pick, I really don't care."
Asuka crossed her arms and scowled, "I'm not going to sit here and argue, pick a damn room!"
He hesitated for a moment, "I'll take the room on the left."
Asuka hastily ran to inspect the rooms and called out, "Good choice, of course that leaves me with the big room and the big bed..." She walked back into sight before continuing, "hey, why did you take the small room?"
"I don't know," Shinji shrugged, "I guess I wanted you to have the big room."
He could instantly tell by the look on her face that she didn't care for his explanation. "I don't need your sympathy, jerk, if you want the big room take it."
She could immediately tell by the look on his face that he too did not care for her reprimand. "Look, you asked me to make a choice and I did." She started to respond but he cut her short, "if its going to be a problem then I'll find another room in this place!" Shinji began to walk toward the front door.
"Fine, you want to be stupid and take the small room, go right ahead," she quipped before storming into her own room and slamming the door shut.
Shinji sighed and then began lugging the heavy canvas bag into his room. Although most of the items in it weren't needed now that they had shelter, there were still one or two things that he wanted to keep near him. He carefully placed the bag into the empty closet and shut the door. Turning around he scanned the room, taking in all its features. The bed, albeit smaller than the other, was still much larger and nicer than his old bed. All in all, the room was very nice and larger than his old room at Misato's. Returning to the main room, he fell down onto the couch and began staring at the ceiling, wondering what had set his companion off this time.
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"I'm going downstairs to find us some food." He wasn't exactly sure why he needed to tell her, it wasn't like she cared what he did, but it seemed the polite thing to do. "Do you want anything?" He stared at her door for a minute, awaiting a reply, and hearing none he got up and headed for the front door. "I'll be back in a little while," he added opening the front door and again awaiting a response. He started to leave when he finally heard a door open behind him. Turning he could see Asuka walking toward him.
She drew up next to him and smiled, "Your not going shopping without me".
"Well, let's go," he replied and started to close the door, however his progress was blocked by a certain redhead who refused to move.
"Listen jerk," she barked, pointing with her finger for emphasis. Shinji began to cringe from the vicious look on her face as she prepared to proceed, "if you keep being this nice to me, I might..." The boy was forced to turn away as she continued to advance, their faces mere inches apart, her finger jabbing him in the chest. "I just might start to like it." Shinji's jaw dropped and he let loose a sigh of relief as he turned back and saw her beaming face. "And another thing..." her finger was still poking him in the chest and eventually his eyes were drawn to it as he dropped his chin for a better view. "Got you!" Asuka giggled as she quickly raised her hand and bopped his nose.
By the time he realized what had just happened, the laughing girl was half way down the hall. He groaned and proceeded after her.
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"That was a great meal," Asuka proclaimed as she leaned back in her chair.
"Thanks, it was nothing," he replied as he picked up the dishes off the table. "This place has all the best ingredients. If I only could have used the stove instead of the fire, the rice would have cooked more evenly." Shinji was grinning from ear to ear as cooking was one of his favorite subjects. "Tomorrow I'm going to put in more meat, it's just going to go bad soon anyway."
Asuka had made her way over to the couch and was lying down. "I don't care what you do, just keep doing it because that meal was much better than the instant crap we had yesterday."
"Did you really like it that much?"
"Yeah, if you keep cooking like that, I'll be healed up in no time." Shinji thought about what she said and a frown grew on his face as he simply stared off into the distance. "Hell, that was better than anything Misato ever cooked and she had all the modern conveniences."
With that last comment, he had completely lost interest in the topic and placed the rest of the dishes in the sink. "I'll take care of these in the morning, I'm going to bed now." He walked toward his room when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing...I'm just kinda tired that's all." Shinji shrugged in an attempt to pull away.
"Come on, it's not that late. Let's go enjoy the view." She began pushing him toward the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony.
"No, come on...I don't want..." Shinji protested and fought back a little harder now.
"Please, just for a couple of minutes," she pleaded but he continued to struggle. "Just for a couple of minutes."
He stopped struggling and yielded to her request. Since their room was on the top floor of the hotel, the view was quite impressive. The lack of artificial light allowed nature to unleash its full fury of light and sound unopposed. Below the moonlight shone off the outside pool, while crickets chirped and fireflies danced in the forest that stretched up the distant hills as far as they could see. Asuka remembered a similar scene months ago after defeating the Ninth Angel. This time she was able to appreciate it much more. "It sure is beautiful, Shinji."
"If you say so." He had spent more time staring at the balcony floor than anything else, and his uneasiness was very evident.
"Hey, what kind of stupid answer is that?" she implored.
He thought for a moment than responded. "I guess I just don't see any beauty in this world of mine."
Asuka reviewed his choice of words and noticed the sullen look on his face. She decided to press on and try to reach him once again, "What is the matter Shinji?" She pressed on, not giving him a chance to answer. "It's a gorgeous night, and your standing next to the most beautiful girl in the world, what more could you ask for?"
Shinji stiffened up. "No offense Asuka, but you are also the ugliest girl in the world...oh, also the tallest, the shortest, the smartest, and the dumbest. Do you know why?" It was his turn to cut her off before she could respond. "Because you are the only girl in the world."
She paused as the true meaning of what he had just said soaked in. "You, you can't be sure that no one else is back on Earth. I mean other people could be back, hell everyone could be back but their just not here!" she declared.
Shinji shook his head, "I know that no one else is here."
The certainty in his voice frightened her but she continued, "how, can you be so damn sure that no one else is back."
He sighed, "because I know where they all are." He began to stare up to the stars.
Asuka had become quite agitated as her connection to Shinji was disintegrating before her eyes. "Where, where are they?"
Shinji did not answer but rather continued to stare up into the night sky. She followed his gaze and for the first time noticed a faint band of red light which circled the sky. She thought to herself why she had not seen it before, perhaps she had and ignored it. Regardless, there it was and she was now fully aware of its presence, and she began to feel very frightened.
"There they are Asuka, all that remains of the human race...thanks to yours truly." He turned and started back to the apartment. He paused after opening the sliding door and whispered, "and they're not coming back." He quietly entered his room and closed the door. Sometime later he heard the balcony door shut, followed by her door. He could soon make out her sobs over his own before finally falling asleep.
A lone figure stood silently on the balcony. The sounds from inside the suite has long since stopped and the only sounds present were the crickets and the slight rustle of the wind. She gazed into the darkness that permeated the suite. "Ikari, you can not continue to carry the guilt of the entire world within you. It is not healthy. If you do not see the error of your ways soon, I fear the darkness will over come you." The moonlight gleamed off a single tear as it flowed down her ashen face. "Sohryu, please watch over him, he needs you now more than ever. Fulfill your purpose or all is truly lost."
To be continued....
Authors Notes:
And so the plot moves forward...
I just wanted to make it clear that there is other plant life and animals on Earth. When they were near Tokyo-3, there wasn't anything around due to the Geofront being ripped out the ground and also the N2 mines. However now that they are a good distance from ground zero, things are pretty much normal.
The name Asami Falls is from episode 6, I added the Gorge. Nana Prefecture is from Gamera 3 and Gora is from multiple episodes of Eva. Kodai Resort is a reference to the pilot of the Space Cruiser Yamato, Kodai Susumu.
Again, the last word of thanks to my 2 prereaders, 20eva, and Random1377 for finding and fixing all my mistakes.
As always, C & C is appreciated, please contact me at nergalfanfic@yahoo.com.