Disclaimer: I don't own either Neon Genesis Evangelion or X-Men. So suing me is a waste of time...especially since I'm broke.

Some of my reviewers have expressed an unfamiliarity with the X-Men comic and the Operation Zero Tolerance story arc which the story starts with. I will explain the backstory in detail as the story proceeds.

Evangelion X: Chapter 1

"Awakenings"

Wasn't your life supposed to flash before your eyes when you die? Wasn't Saint Peter ready to meet you in front of the pearly gates, to judge if you were worthy of Heaven?

Well if that was the case, then dying was a big disappointment...at least the raven-haired mutant named Jubilation Lee thought so. At the moment of her death, she felt herself become disconnected from her body. She floated above her crucified self as an incorporeal being, and she cried anguished tears when she saw what the soldiers of Operation Zero Tolerance had done to her body. The blood, the bruises, she saw it all. Jubilee caressed her former body's cheek, giving a silent apology for the abuse it suffered. Then, the symbol that Gateway had placed on her forehead came to life.

Jubilee's soul began to float upward toward the now blue sky. There was a flash, and she experienced the sensation of flying upward through some sort of black tunnel. Blue streaks of energy passed her by as she approached a light in the distance. But even at the speed she perceived herself flying at, the light came closer very slowly.

She realized that she was completely naked, but that fact didn't bother her, it was the fact that she still bore the wounds from her crucifixion. But as she watched, the holes in her hands and feet closed up, leaving star shaped scars. Her other injuries closed up cleanly.

'Wow. I'm healed...and except for these scars on my hands, you wouldn't be able to tell that Bastion did anything to me.'

Bastion. Jubilee thought his name in disgust, and remembered the events that had led up to her death. It was his fault, all his fault.

She had been orphaned at twelve, her parents murdered by two hit men near Los Angelus. The killings had happened only months after she had discovered her mutant power; the ability to detonate matter at the sub- molecular level, which usually manifested itself as a stream of multicolored fireworks. After the discovery of her parent's bodies, she had been placed in a juvenile detention facility until foster parents could be found. But Jubilee had heard that the only people who would take her in were living in Communist China, and living in commie-land was not something she wanted to do. So she ran away as soon as she could, and took up residency in the Hollywood Mall, using her fireworks to perform for the crowds.

But then an overzealous security guard had called up the M-Squad, a group of mutant hunters. They had tried to capture her with some sort of weird cage. But then Dazzler, Storm, Psylocke and Rouge had shown up, kicked the M-Squad's butts, and saved her from being trapped inside that cage. They left soon after, but Jubilee followed them to another part of the mall, a place that wasn't very heavily traveled. Her jaw hit the floor when she saw a portal made of pure energy appeared in the wall in front of the women. They walked into it like it was completely normal to do so, and after a moments hesitation, Jubilee did so as well. She experienced the worst vertigo she had ever had, and then she completed the teleportation, landing on the rocky ground with an inglorious thud.

She would find out later that she had been taken to the X-Men's base in Australia, although she would always wondered why a group as well funded as them would be holed up in such a run-down place. For a couple of months she was able to make a living scavenging clothes and food from the base when the X-men weren't looking, unsure about just how to make her presence known to them.

What she didn't know was that fate would decide that for her.

One day, she had awoken to a storm raging outside the cave she was sleeping in. Jubilee had ventured out into the rain to the base, only to find it abandoned.

'I was scared out of my mind. The X-men were my only chance to leave that desolate hellhole, and I thought I was going to die out there. But that was the day I met...him.'

Wolverine, the mutant who had been more of a father to her than her real father had been. She had first laid eyes upon him when she made her way to where he had been nailed to a cross by the Reavers, a group of cyborgs. A few well-placed blasts had scared the Reavers away, and she helped him off the cross, even though the feral mutant had refused her help at first. But Jubilee had persevered, and nursed him back to health. She didn't know at the time, but that was the beginning of a bond that would see them through both the good times and bad.

After he had recovered, they began to make their way back to the X-mansion, traveling through different parts of Asia. Along the way, Wolverine started to teach her various martial arts and self-defense styles. She already had training as a gymnast, so the training came easily to her. He even showed her a few neat moves with the katana, and taut her how to speak, read and write Japanese.

Finally, after many adventures, they had arrived back at the X-Mansion, located in New York. She had been welcomed with open arms, and had begun her training as an X-Man.

It was not to last.

After the invasion by the alien Phalanx, it was decided that she would be transferred to the new Xavier's school opening in Snow Valley Massachusetts, and join the new team Generation X, where she could learn how to control her powers with other mutants closer to her own age.

'The X-Men dumped me off again, but I wasn't surprised. No one wants to live with a person like me for very long.'

Even though she wanted to make friends with her new teammates, she couldn't seem to be rid of the emotional mask she always wore; the mall trolling Southern California teenager she portrayed was only a front to hide the pain she felt inside. She did manage to befriend both Paige Guthrie, aka Husk, and Everett Thomas, the mutant known as Synch. Heck, Everett was the first person she had romantic interest in. But six months into her tenure at the Massachusetts Academy, Black Tom Cassidy had attacked, and in the confusion Jubilee was abducted by Bastion, the leader of Operation Zero Tolerance, whose goal was the complete elimination of all mutants in North America. He knocked her unconscious, and took her to his headquarters in Nevada, a retrofitted Hulkbuster base. The rest was a haze of drug influenced interrogations, torture, and beatings by both Bastion and his guards. She didn't remember much, but one thing she was sure of was that the goal of the torture was to break her spirit so she would give up information on the X-Men and other mutant activities. But she spat in his face and didn't tell him anything, even when his torture became unbearable. She was his prisoner for who knows how long, but she estimated three or four months. Jubilee prayed for the X-Men to come and rescue her. She wanted to see Wolvie slice apart Bastion with his claws.

But they never came. In the blackness of the energy tunnel, Jubilee felt a single tear leave her eyes and travel down her face.

'They never came! They never came! Scott, Jean, WOLVIE!!! Why did you abandon me!? WHY!? What did I ever do to deserve this....'

Finally, in his frustration, Bastion realized he was getting nowhere, and ordered her crucifixion. He intended to use her as an example to other mutants, to show what fate awaited them.

Back in the tunnel, the streaks of blue light suddenly increased in number and speed. Jubilee looked around in anticipation, wondering what was going to happen next. She didn't have to wonder long, as her soul reached the light at the end of the tunnel. Jubilee was forced to shield her eyes with her arms to keep from being blinded, and when she opened her eyes again she found whiteness. That's the only way she could describe it, complete and utter whiteness. She knelt and touched the ground with a translucent hand. It was smooth and featureless.

Then, an orb made of pure energy rose up from the floor a few feet in front of her, hovering about a yard off the ground. Intrigued, Jubilee walked up to it cautiously, and jumped back a foot as the orb morphed into the shape of a young man. He was about as tall as she was, maybe five feet seven inches, slender but not skinny. He had short dark brown hair and cobalt blue eyes that had a definite feminine look to them. He looked about her age, but there was something about his eyes that bothered her. They looked sad, like he had seen too much in his short life. Jubilee recognized that look, for her own eyes had held it more than once.

'Hello? Can you hear me? Hey come on, say something!'

Jubilee tried to touch him, but her hand passed right through his body. She realized then that he was just as ghostly as she was. Huffing in frustration, she crossed her arms and sat down on the floor, waiting to see if the image would change.

'Why am I being shown this? Could this the person I'm supposed to help? He's cute, that's for sure. I wish I knew what his name is.'

Her wish was granted. Jubilee's sapphire eyes widened in shock as the young man's name entered her mind.

'Shinji Ikari!? Holy shit, how did I know that?

Then, without warning, the image of the young man morphed again, his features obscured by an ordinary white light. The image grew taller, but took on a shape less human. Jubilee got to her feet quickly, and when it cleared again, she almost gasped in shock. The thing that stood in front of her had to be at least 40 feet tall; with purple and green armor covering it's body. A horn protruded from its head, and two eyes gleamed from its helmet. But what bothered her the most was that she couldn't decide if this thing was a robot or not. It looked almost...human...almost.

The words "EVA-01 Test" were written in yellow on one of its arms, and its shoulders were protected by L-shaped armor.

'What in the hell is that thing?!'

But she got her answer as soon as she thought the question.

Evangelion

She felt another presence behind her, and she spun on her heel only to find another Evangelion standing behind her about twenty feet away. It shared a similar design as the purple one, but this giant didn't have the horn. Instead, the helmet resembled a Norse valkerye's, with wing like extensions attached to both sides of it's face. It was decorated with a yellow and white paint job, and a single green optical lens was embedded in its forehead armor. But what made this Eva different from the previous one was the addition of a thruster pack attached to each shoulder, between the L- shaped armor and the Eva's neck. Two green eyes, sharing a similar style as EVA-01's, stared out into the bleak landscape.

The words "EVA-0X Aerial" were written on it's arm. It dropped down to one knee and moved its head to get a better look at the tiny mutant girl below it. Jubilee sweatdropped.

'Uhhhhhh...hello?'

The EVA lowered its right arm to the ground and opened the palm of its hand, as if asking Jubilee to climb on top of its massive hand.

'You want me to climb?'

The EVA nodded.

'All right...I'll do it. But no tricks now!'

She walked over to the open hand, and after taking a minute to decide exactly how she would get up there, Jubilee wrapped her arms around the base of the EVA's oversized thumb and with one heave, hauled herself up onto the palm. She sat for a second to catch her breath, and realized that the material she was sitting on wasn't metal, but felt more like some kind of plastic. She got to her feet, but the second she did so streamers of yellow energy came out of nowhere and swirled around her entire body from the neck down. Two smaller energy streamers touched the hair. Then the EVA stood to its full height, but kept its arm parallel to the ground. Jubilee tried to protest, but for some reason couldn't find her voice. But then the energy expanded, covering her entirely, and actually lifted her a few inches off the ground. Then the energy dissipated, and the young woman's body was lowered gently back onto the EVA's open palm.

Jubilee opened her eyes, and when she looked down she gasped in surprise at what she saw. She was dressed in a skintight yellow and white outfit that felt like latex. Emblazoned on the suit just above her breasts was "0X". She touched the top of her head, and felt two small clips attached to her hair.

'I've heard of quick costume changes, but this is ridiculous! What am I wearing?'

She got her answer as the EVA entered her mind again.

"Plugsuit"

Jubilee sweatdropped again and waved her arms out in front of her.

'Okay! Thanks! But could you stop doing that?! I don't like anyone going inside my head with my permission.'

The Evangelion didn't reply, and Jubilee's eyelids began to droop, as she suddenly felt sleepy. Her exhausted body collapsed into the Eva's palm. With a flash of light, the yellow and white giant became a ball of luminescent energy surrounding the young woman, and it shot up into the white sky.

"Don't worry Jubilee. I'll keep you safe, that's a promise. I just hope you'll be able to handle the challenges you'll face once you wake up again."

If Jubilee had been awake to hear the EVA, she would have recognized the voice immediately. With a loud 'pop', the ball of energy containing the young woman inside vanished from sight.

* * * * * * *

It was a warm summer's night, and a cool breeze blew through the streets of Matsushiro. The sun was just finishing it's descent into the horizon, and Major Misato Katsuragi was outside on her seaside hotel room's balcony enjoying every second of it she could, holding a beer can in her right hand. She took a sip, her mind on tomorrow's start up test for Evangelion Unit-03. The purple-haired woman hoped that the test would go smoothly, but she wouldn't drop her guard until it was over, especially since the pilot was one of Shinji's friends, that Suzuhara kid.

Misato turned on her heel as she heard the voice of the person she was rooming with, Dr. Ritsuko Agaki, the blonde-haired chief scientist of NERV.

"Mistato! Time for bed! We have a long day tomorrow remember?"

Misato sighed and finished off her beer, savoring the breeze for a second longer.

"Okay I'm coming in! Just hold your horses!" she shouted back towards the door.

She walked back in, thinking, 'I may be a real ass major, but Ritsuko's being a real major pain in the ass!'

Misato slid the glass door shut behind her, but if she would have lingered even a minute longer, she would have seen the familiar orange hexagon of an AT Field appear in the sky, though the field itself was extremely small, less than half a foot across. It fell until it hit the ocean, and then it gently sank under the calm water. The field descended until it reached the bottom, it's orange glow illuminating the shapes of buildings that were submerged when the sea level rose after Second Impact. The field moved through the water like it was searching for something, and a few minutes later it found what it was looking for, the field's glow illuminating the prone form of Evangelion Unit X.

The AT Field entered the Eva through the green optical lens embedded in the unit's forehead, and the Eva's green eyes started to glow softly.

Faraway in some other dimension, the mutant called Gateway smiled one of his rare smiles. The pilot of Unit X had arrived safely through time and space. She would rest inside the Evangelion as her new body formed, and would awaken when she was needed.

But what Gateway didn't know was that Jubilee would be needed sooner than anybody could have guessed....

* * * * * * *

Next Chapter: "Paladin" coming soon!

AN: I needed to explain some of Jubilee's backstory for all the non-comic readers in the Evangelion section, so I apologize for that uber-long flashback sequence. : )

I'm still working on a pic of Jubilee's Eva, Unit-X, and I should have a link posted in the next chapter or two.

So tune in next time, same fan-fic, same fan-site!!