Disclaimer: I do not own Evangelion. All names and other references associated with it are owned by Gainax.

Misato Katsuragi awakened in the darkness. "I must be dead." She looked at her chest where she had been penetrated by a bullet from the defense force. She pulled on her shirt to get a view of the wound, expecting pain but experiencing none. This confused her greatly. The area itself was covered in dried blood, caked on top of her smooth skin. In the middle of the blood however was a single bullet, simply lying on top of her chest. She reached over and picked it up. It was cold and evil looking. Misato got a chill from looking at it; it was like looking death in the face.

Misato stood quickly, and soon after stumbled back down to the ground. For a moment an image of Shinji crucified in the sky flashed into her mind. "Oh Shinji!" she gasped in realization of what must have happened to him. She stood back up (with more caution this time) and began to make her way upward.

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Commander Fuyutski sat at Gendo Ikari's desk up at the top of the bridge. He was deep in thought with a printed report lying in front of him. It had been three days since he had returned to consciousness, and was now thinking clearly again. The report showed that the numbers of people returning from the black egg were now shrinking. In fact for several hours now souls had stopped returning entirely. He was actually in truth very relieved to know that a great deal of people had survived the ordeal. Only around 50% of the world's population had escaped from second impact. But after a few calls to the U.N. and contact with the other NERV branches around the world, it seemed as if around 83% had survived third impact. He was also becoming increasingly assured that no more souls would in fact return, a fact that scared him a little, or maybe he was just paranoid. Whatever the cause the thought remained stuck in his mind. 83% survived, that means that, if the souls indeed had stopped returning 17% will be trapped forever. 1% of the earth's population for every angel killed. He had come to this realization as he and his team had tried to analyze the energy released by Lilith's egg. The energy ratings from inside had read closely to that of human beings, yet they were displayed in a way that angels were usually read. Maybe it was all a coincidence. The black sphere itself was quite remarkable. It had begun rotating around the earth, much like a second black moon. It was also vast and extremely dense. It would rotate passed the sun at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon and cause a complete solar eclipse until it again rotated past. He had also been unable to successfully locate the new green energy pattern in Tokyo three. But the area in which it was radiating was slowly shrinking and soon he believed he would be able to pinpoint in it.

Astonishingly, it also seemed as if the geofront was completely intact. Which really didn't make sense at all when he first started thinking about it. The entire command center was physically attached to it, yet here it was, in relatively normal condition still attached to the planet. He had come up with a theory however. If his memory served him correctly, then he remembered his physical body bursting as his soul was ripped from it. Yet when his soul returned to him, his body was again intact. After further analysis of the sphere in the sky, it seemed to not actually be Lillith's physical egg, more like a projection of it. What upset the commander the most is that the sphere in the sky was in fact giving off its own AT field. He wondered if this was being caused by the 17% of humanities AT fields still trapped inside of it. This lead him to another conclusion, "if the souls returning had restored the humans physical shapes, why had the egg returned to its physical shape if its AT field still remained in the sky?" He had discussed this question with the crew, and they had arrived at the notion that third impact was not meant to be stopped once it had begun. It had obviously greatly altered some part of the dimension, perhaps the space between earth and the heavens? The answer as he saw it was that if the egg had been restored to physical form without its other half still in the sky, then perhaps third impact had not been aborted at all, instead merely halted. If this was the case, then it could restart again at any time, or perhaps be finished for good. That would mean that their must be some sort of catalyst to either end the impact entirely, or finish it. The real question was figuring out what that was. He decided that as soon as it was deemed safe to do so, he would go and investigate terminal dogma. This thought was soon driven from his mind when a groggy Major Katsuragi entered the room.

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Shinji awoke to the morning light shining in to his room. His sleep had again become troubled by dreams; dreams that he could not remember once he had woken up. This frustrated him greatly. He could feel Asuka's warmth without looking. She had only woken up once or twice in the three days following third impact. Shinji too had slept a great deal. Both his body and mind were incredibly tired. He turned to look at Asuka. They hadn't spoken since they had returned from perfection, but he seemed to have an unspoken bond with her. She had slept next to him every night since they had gotten back, and Shinji was still shocked every time he awoke next to her.

Her eyes opened and met Shinji's. "Good morning," she mouthed to him. He stroked her hair, and got out of bed. He stepped onto the cold floor and headed to the shower. He found himself thinking of Asuka as he rinsed his hair. Thoughts flowed quickly through his mind. Why is she spending the night with me? Does she know I tried to choke her? Does she even remember what happened? How do I feel about her? He stopped after the last thought entered his mind and pondered it for several minutes. He sighed. "I'm not sure I even know the answer to that question."

With that final realization he dried himself and returned to his room to get his clothes. Asuka seemed to be asleep again and he changed quickly into his jeans and one of his white shirts. He exited and returned to his living room. He felt like getting out of the house, so he put on his shoes and ventured out the front door.

It was about noon, and the sun was shining brightly. He walked down the streets simply observing. It seemed almost as if nothing had happened at all. He glanced at a newspaper stand on the sidewalk and a headline caught his eye. It was on the front page of the Tokyo 3 Times. The line read as follows: Young Pilot Saves Humanity. There was a huge artist rendition of Shinji crucified in the sky, a ghost of unit 01 in the same position behind him. He purchased the paper while hiding his face from the shop keeper.

What Shinji read in the article frightened him. It seemed as if everyone in the entire world had gotten the chance to view his part in third impact. Shinji still had not quite come to grips with what had happened to him in the sky. The article went on to discuss the religious implications of what had happened. The young pilot had never really looked at it this way, he didn't really believe in God, and yet he still seemed to want to blame him for things, even though he knew most of that blame belonged to Gendo. It seemed as if numerous religions had been shaken by the truth of what had taken place, and what was worse, many of them were now incorporating him into the explanation.

"How could these people think this? I'm no messiah!" He realized that he had said it to loud, people were staring at him. Shinji normally would have run away in a situation like this, to avoid the embarrassment, to avoid the contact. He would have, but he didn't get the chance, apparently these people had recognized him, and quickly mobbed around him. Shinji turned to get some space from the small crowd, but in doing so fell onto the pavement. He couldn't really understand the things that they were trying to ask him, but he got the gist of what they were saying. They were asking him questions, religious questions to which Shinji had no answer. They were also thanking him.

"Please…I, uh… thank-y…you don't need to…" He finally managed to stand up again. He couldn't take it, and soon he was shoving the crowd to the side, off and running again. The people followed him for a while, feat beating against the asphalt as Shinji did his best to lose them, which he eventually did. After thoroughly making sure that no one knew where he was he doubled back to the apartment. He unlocked the door, and entered, leaning on the table to catch his breath. He let the newspaper slide out of his hand and lay on the floor.

"I can't deal with this," he mumbled to himself.

"Shinji!"

Shinji turned to see his guardian stepping from behind the door to his room. She had made it out of the egg, probably one of the last souls to escape. And what's more, she looked fine, or at least not shot.

"I am so happy to see you Shinji! Asuka is asleep and I just got home and you weren't here and…" she trailed off, her voice changing from one of relief to one of concern.

"Misato," Shinji's mind seemed to be preoccupied, "I'm glad to see your okay."

Misato, her concern gone, ran up to Shinji and hugged him. She squeezed him tight, tears in her eyes. After a while she leaned down and looked him in the eyes.

"Are you okay Shinji?"

He nodded, while breaking the hug off.

"I'm tired, I'm going to go lay down for a while." This was a lie and he knew it, but his mind was reeling with the events of the day, with the idea that humanity was regarding him as its savior, as a child of God.

"Okay, sleep well." Shinji nodded and left towards his room. Misato did not even care that Shinji seemed less than ecstatic to see her, or that Asuka and Shinji had obviously been spending the night in the same bed. No, she was simply happy to be alive; happy to see Shinji and Asuka again. She remembered the corridor, the horrible corridor, with Shinji refusing to pilot unit 01. She remembered the kiss. She had hoped to give Shinji something to fight for, a reason to save humanity, for she knew that he had had none. Yet he still halted third impact, and for this she was grateful.

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In the other room Shinji lay on his bed, his mind for the moment thinking of Misato. He now remembered the kiss. He assured himself that it had meant nothing.

"She was probably delirious from the pain of the wound," he said softly. And with that thought he sunk into sleep. Sunk into his dreams. It was in this place that Shinji could truly rest.

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Back at NERV, Kozo Fuyutski neared the door to terminal dogma. It had taken a while for the maintenance staff to clear out the debris strewn about from the JSSDF assault, but now the pathway was clear. He pulled his card key from his pocket, and slid it quickly through the slot. The door opened with a whir, and he stepped inside. The room was completely black, shrouded entirely in darkness. The commander grabbed his radio and held down the side button.

"Okay, try the power one more time." He listened to the static of the frequency for a moment before he got a response.

"One moment sir." About thirty seconds later the fluorescent lighting clicked and slowly hummed to life.

A normal man would have been shocked by what the commander saw in front of him, but Kozo had seen too much in his lifetime to be startled anymore, in fact he smiled ever so slightly.

In front of Fuyutski a gigantic red cross stood erect. Upon that cross was crucified a boy. He was large, and ghostly looking now, but he was easily recognizable as the last angel, the fifth child.

The commander's eyes slowly lowered until he was looking directly in front of him. A girl was standing there facing him. A girl with blue hair and pale skin. She stood straight up, arms extended from her body, head limp, looking at the ground, her eyes rolled up in their sockets.

"It's not over yet," he said quietly, "It's not over yet."