Chapter One

The laughter of happy children filled my head…

Joy…

The laughter faded away and was replaced by crying…

Sorrow…

The crying died out and screams filled my ears…

Death…

And as suddenly as they had begun, the screams stopped. Silence.

Loneliness…

"Shinji!" A yell broke my concentration and my eyes slowly came unglued from their sleep. At first my vision was blurred, nearly impossible for me to tell where I was. As my eyes began to focus I could make out only whiteness in front of me. Squinting harder, I tried to figure out what the vast whiteness was.

Then it hit me and I felt foolish for being stupid. It's a ceiling…an unfamiliar ceiling…

"Shinji!" The voice called again. I did not recognize the voice, but I felt for some reason that I should have. I attempted to sit up and take a look around only to discover my muscles no longer worked. A stinging pain shot up my spine and down my right arm as the affects of sleep began to wear off. I heard a door open, then footsteps.

The owner of the voice that had been calling what I supposed was my name peered over my face. The owner was female, her brown, almost red, hair falling down around her face in clumps.

"Schiest!" She groaned in my face. "You're still asleep?" She took a step back from my bed. The muscles in my neck finally decided to work and I turned my head to look at her. She stood there with her hands on her hips, scowling at me. "You had better get up right now, Ikari! Or, I swear I'll-" She started to threaten me in German, but I cut in.

"Who…" I muttered and struggled to sit up. "Who are you?" My eyes narrowed, trying to focus better on her and see if I recognized her, but I did not. Again I felt that I should be able to, so it bothered me that I could not.

"Well duh!" She again groaned. She left let her hands fall from her waist. The girl wore a school uniform, which as the rest of this room I was in, looked familiar, yet I did not recognize it. "I'm the other Eva pilot, you idiot. Don't tell me you got hit so hard you don't even remember me!"

I rubbed my head… It hurts so bad… who am I? Where am I? … Who's this girl?… "No.." I answered simply, yet reluctantly. "I… don't remember you." I glanced down at my arm to see why it hurt so badly and noticed that it was cased in gauze saturated with blood. "How did I get hurt…" I paused, trying to remember her name… then it came to me. "Asuka?"

She grinned at me. "So you do remember my name, Shinji." Asuka then frowned again. "But you don't remember what happened? Huh. How typical of you, you know, that's just like you." She turned to walk towards the door, throwing her hand out at me with a snort. "I'd mind as well go tell Misato you're awake so she can come praise you for being so 'spectacular'" She said with another snort as she disappeared out of the room.

I continued to look around, my head still throbbing and the pain still stinging through my arm. I don't remember anything… nothing… what happened? After looking around, I came to the conclusion that the room I was on belonged to a teenaged boy… probably myself. Though I could not be sure. And then that strange dream… I frowned, wanting to know what was going on.

After a few moments the door burst back open and in stepped a middle aged, blonde haired woman. She wore a pair of glasses and a lab coat; she also held a set of folders close to her chest. Silently she made her way over to me and looked down on my bandages. "Are you feeling better, Shinji?" The woman asked me, setting the stack of folders down on the foot of my bed.

I rubbed me head and tried desperately to keep my eyes from crossing and letting myself pass back out. The woman reached out and took my hand away from my head. "Don't touch your head, Shinji. Let it be… I promise it'll stop hurting sooner if you don't touch it."

I let my hand fall hopelessly down and tried even harder to keep from letting the immense amount of pain cause me to pass out. "Um, yeah, alright…" I turned to look at her, trying to figure out if I remembered her too. Unfortunately, she also looked familiar, yet I could not bring up any memory of her from the depths of my mind. "Who.. Who're you?"

"My name is Ritsuko." She said simply, pulling at thermometer out of her coat pocket. "It's only normal for you not to remember anything." She explained with a sigh. "It's kind of unfortunate though. You could have learned a lot from it." Ritsuko leaned forward and stuck the thermometer into my mouth. I didn't bother struggling… she didn't seem like a person who would hurt me.

"I… I guess so." I agreed, still wishing I knew where I was. "Ritsuko…" I began as she pulled the thermometer from my mouth and recorded the results onto a piece of paper in the folder. "Where am I? What happened?"

Ritsuko stuck the thermometer into her pocket again and picked up the folders once more. She began towards the door and waved a hand back at me. "Trust me, Shinji." She responded with another sigh. "It's not something your going to want to remember right now." She turned to look at me from the doorway and her glance met mine. I could not see her eyes though, because of the way the light glared off her glasses. "And you're welcome to come out of your room now." Ritsuko told me, turning and walking out of what I had guessed was my bedroom.

I blinked a few times, trying to take in all that I had just heard. After a few moments of contemplation, I brought myself around and pulled myself up off the bed. Pausing to see what I was wearing, I looked down at myself and discovered I was dressed in a school uniform that looked similar to the one Asuka had worn when she came to give me my wake up call. Slowly I made my way over to the door of my room and slid it open.

Looking out into the hallway, I was greeted by quite a strange site. "Gah!" I yelled in surprise, jumping back. In front of me stood a penguin I didn't ever remember seeing before. Around it's neck it wore a plate with "Pen2" printed on the front of it. Again I blinked a few times. "Pen Pen?" I asked.

The penguin simply quaked and waddled past me, towards the room furthest down the short hallway. Walking all the way out into the hall I looked down the end opposite of the penguin noticed that it opened up into what looked like a kitchen. Quietly as I could, I slipped down the hall and into the kitchen area.

"Shinji!"

What sounded like a crowd of people called out my name in unison. I twitched and turned slowly, ever so slowly, to look at the people. Crowded around the table was a purple haired woman in a major's suit, two boys in school uniforms that looked identical to mine, the red haired girl, Asuka, that I had seen earlier, Ritsuko, a brown haired girl in a school uniform like Asuka's, and a pale blue haired girl I didn't recognize. The blue haired girl and Asuka seemed to be the only one's who had not yelled, though Ritsuko looked relatively calm.

"Shinji, man, 'ow are ya?" One of the two boys demanded, walking up and clamping a hand down on my shoulder.

"Yeah!" The other boy agreed running over and grinning at me. "We where worried about you!"

"Oh, Shinji!" The purple haired woman yelled happily, looking as though she was just about ready to burst into tears, "Your still alive…"

Ritsuko straightened her glasses and nodded at me. "Good to see you up and out of bed for once."

The blue haired girl wore an emotionless expression on her face and spoke quietly. "Hello, Ikari."

Asuka stood with her arms crossed next to the brown haired girl, neither of which said anything.

"Um…" Shinji stuttered, backing away from all of them, tensing his muscles, ready to run if they jumped at him again like that. "Just who are all you people?"

One of the two boys turn to Ritsuko and frowned. "Shinji lost his memory?"

She nodded. "I'm afraid so."

"In that case…" The boy continued, turning to face me again. "I'm Kensuke…" He pointed to the boy standing next to him. "Toji," then to the brown haired girl, "Hikari, the class rep," to the purple haired woman, "Misato." Then the blue haired girl, "And … Rei."

I brought my hand up to rub my head, but Ritsuko waved a finger at me and I quickly brought it back down. "I don't know how I'll ever remember all of this…" He groaned.

"Well," Began Ritsuko. "You should get your memory back soon enough… wether you want it back or not." She then turned towards the door, Rei close behind her. "We're going to go now… important things to take care of.

"Yeah…" Hikari chirped up. "I had better get going." She turned and waved at Asuka, "Bye." Then grabbed Toji by the arm and disappeared out the door.

Misato joined Ritsuko and Rei at the door. "Business matters… I'll be out late." She told the three remaining kids, disappearing out the door with the others.

Kensuke waved Asuka and I (who flinched) and grinned, "Looks like you two are alone for the night!" And disappeared out the door as well.

We stood for a few minutes, both of us contemplating over what the other should do next. Finally I turned to look at Asuka just as a smile spread across her face. I took this as a very bad sign, though I still did not remember her very well.

"Eek?"

Asuka frowned back at me, batting her eyelids and obviously attempting to look innocent. "Don't you eek me, Shinji Ikari. I would never do anything naughty or mean or something like that…" She insisted, turning and throwing her arm over her shoulder so she faced away from me. Her dark blue skirt swished dryly with her movements as she did so.

It was yet another one of those moments that I really wished I had my memory. Something in the back of my mind vaguely tells me I don't want to get near Asuka or have anything to do with her… I frowned and bit my lip. It was very frustrating to have at least three consciousnesses instead of a normal one. Something told me I needed to fear her and hate her, another thing told to look up to her and respect her. But another voice in my head screeched "beautiful" all over. Something inside me forced and unconvinced laugh.

Asuka spun on her heels to glare at me. "What, you think I would do something disgusting and naughty?" She asked, giving me what looked like a rather puzzled look. She flipped a lock of hair out of her face and behind her shoulder and laughed at me. "Your such a stupid boy, Shinji!" She told me, turning back away to walk down the hall. After a moment, thought, she paused and turned to look over her shoulder at me. "I wouldn't do anything like that… not with you, Shinji!" She laughed that horrible I'm-a-bitch-and-I-know-it laugh at me as she turned away once more and disappeared down the hall and into her room.

I felt a frown creep over my face as I watched her disappear into the room she had claimed as hers. It depresses me to see her act like that… I realized. But why?… I don't remember her…therefore I barely even know her…I bit my lip, again in frustration as I turned to look at the kitchen. It was a small kitchen, a table placed in the middle, but I supposed it had down well for this small 'family' of three. I pulled out a chair and sat in it, my elbows on the table (the mocking voice of someone in my head saying "Don't put your elbows on the table, Shinji!"), my palms supporting my chin. A felt something warm tinkle down my chin and I brought my hand up to wipe it away.

Looking back down at the finger, which had brushed whatever was on my chin, I realized I was bleeding from the lip. You bit your lip to hard… I released the pressure in my lip and sucked back the remaining blood with somewhat of a flinch. I really wished I had known what happened… why I couldn't remember anything. A battle, Shinji… That little voice in the back of my head whispered. Hadn't Ritsuko said something about a battle… but what kind of battle? That was exactly what I wanted to know…

Then there's that other girl… A mental image of the girl with the blue hair and deep red eyes called Rei flashed across my mind's eye. She seems so familiar. There must be a reason why she does… yet I can't quite place my finger on it…I sighed and stood up from the table. Pausing for a moment to think about what I should do next, I decided just to go back to my room and lie in bed for a while. Silently I pushed my chair in and began back down the hallway.

Shortly I had reached my room and slid the oriental style door open, shutting it quietly behind me. Stepping into the room I took a good look around it. It was dark and dimly litten by a single light bulb, but other than that it looked pretty simple. Just a normal room. I padded softly across the thin, cheap carpeting and pulled back the comforter on my bed, only to be greeted with a surprise.

Blood.

Lots of it.

It drenched the sheets and the comforter as well as the pillow. Disgusted, I immeaditly threw the comforter back over the bed and turned away. My first impulse was to think I had somehow ended up on the scene of a horror movie, but I knew that wasn't right. Then, glancing down at the gauze that incased my arm, realization hit me. That's your blood, Shinji… lot's of your blood. I knew I must have gotten hurt worse than I thought if I had lost that much blood… But why didn't they just put me in the hospital? Why keep me here in my room? I frowned yet again and began to bite my lip, but quickly pulled back when I remembered how much it hurt from before.

I spotted a folding chair up against the wall and pulled it out, unfolding it with a single, swift movement. I turned the chair so it faced the bed and the single window above it. Staring out the window and into the moonlit night, I began to think about. But soon my thinking was cut short by a strange sound that I didn't quite recognize. Crying.

Slowly I got up off the chair and slipped towards the door. I placed my hand on the sliding paper door and slid it open inch, by inch, trying not to disturb whoever might be out in the rest of the house, crying.

Standing in the hallway I could clearly tell that it was coming from Asuka's room, which was logical since she was the only other person in the house. I made my way over to her door where I stood for a good while, just listening to her sobbing. I felt so bad for her… she hadn't seemed sad at all when I had spoken to her just recently. So what could be wrong?

After at least twenty minutes I was getting ready to slide the door open and ask if I could be of help, but something broke my train of thought.

"Ring, ring!"

Telephone.

I could hear Asuka take a deep breath and swallow down more sobs as she reached for the receiver. I supposed she probably had a telephone with her in the room.

"Ring, ring!"

"Hello?"

It was silent for a while as Asuka listened to the person on the other line and I had no idea what was going on.

"A … child?"

Silence again… muffled voices.

"They… they can't. Why would they want a child?"

…

"Are they…" I heard her swallow down another sob and something told me that was a rare thing for her to cry half-openly. "Are they going to kill it in an experiment also….?"

…

"Probably?! How can you sound so fucking calm?!"

Silence for a few more minutes while something was explained…

Asuka's voice had died down again, no longer yelling in surprise. "But… if they need a child of two Eva pilots…" She trailed off into the stillness of the night.

…

"There…" Asuka stuttered, almost as though afraid to say what was coming next. "There's only one male Eva pilot though…"

…

"It's… either me… me…" I could hear her flinch in disgust. "Me or wonder woman… one of us is going.."
She trailed off again.

Muffled voices…

"…Going to have a child."

Thump.

She had dropped the telephone, which evidently had been hung up on the other line.

"A child." She repeated.