Naota yawned, grinning when he heard the whoop from next door. "Sounds like Misato's up," he thought, looking up at Ninamori, who was also eating breakfast. The two shook their heads. It never ceased to amaze them that this was an every day thing. He heard the shower stop and the door to the bathroom opened. Rei walked into the kitchen, clothed in only a towel. Naota blushed, turning away and Ninamori laughed. It'd been almost two weeks since the girl had moved in, and she still did this every now and then.

Helping herself to a glass of orange juice, Rei regarded the duo at the table. "What?"

"You know Rei, after rooming with three other girls, you would think that Naota would have become desensitized to this sort of thing," Ninamori commented, grinning up at the albino.

Rei took another sip of juice and shrugged. "All of the important parts are concealed."

Naota groaned, palming his forehead. "You've been hanging around Ninamori too long. Man—it's times like this I'm glad Haruko isn't here."

"Why?"

"Because Haruko liked to tease Naota every chance she had and you would be the perfect tool for that. You just act so innocent and unassuming—she would take complete advantage of that."

Rei frowned, putting use dirty glass into the sink. "I… am not a tool," she mumbled, then suddenly glared. "I am no one's doll."

She said this with so much force that for a moment, Naota was worried she might actually hurt Ninamori. "She didn't mean it like that," he offered, trying to placate the girl.

Her expression returning to normal, Rei turned to leave the room. Before doing so, she glanced back at the children sitting at the table. "I was not referring to her comment."

"Then who…?"

Rei shook her head and left, going into her room presumably to get dressed.

"Well, that was a little odd," Ninamori said softly, still looking at the place where Rei had last stood.

Naota stood, gathering his things. He could hear the doorbell next door, which meant Touji and Kensuke had come by to get Ikari. "Maybe she was remembering something someone else said."

Ninamori nodded, standing as well. Seconds later, Rei joined them and the trio exited the apartment. They joined Shinji, Kensuke, and Touji and together they left the complex. It looked to be just one more boring day of school and dull tests.

…

Misato watched the six children walk down the sidewalk, smiling at their carefree attitudes. Touji and Shinji were laughing at some joke Naota had told, Kensuke filming anything that moved, and Ninamori chatting with Rei who was chewing on the corner of a piece of toast. "It's amazing how relaxed they've all become around each other—even Rei. Shinji's opening up to them more each day. He doesn't sulk around the house any more, and he's even started using the phone I gave him. My little Shinji's growing up," Misato grinned, laughing at herself. "I sound like an old woman."

…

It was during lunch period the next day when the call came. Shinji, Kensuke, Naota, and Touji all sat on the roof of the school, eating lunch. Well, three of them were. Naota had forgotten his lunch, again. He wasn't too surprised then when Canti touched down on the roof with them, jacket and pants flapping in the wind and Naota's box-lunch in hand. Naota stood, handing the Rickenbacker to Touji for a moment when the boy asked to look at it. As Naota made his way over to Canti, Shinji's phone rang. All conversation on the roof stopped and Naota paused, turning to regard Shinji.

Shinji hung up and Naota asked the question on everyone's mind. "Angel?"

Shaking his head, Shinji stood. "No, but we've been ordered to scramble. Section Two is coming by to take us to the air field."

"Us? Me and you? What the hell for if it isn't an Angel?" Naota asked, moving to the railing and glancing down at the unmarked black car pulling up in front of the school.

"I don't know. Hyuga said we'd be flying to Old Tokyo."

Naota nodded, still watching the agents below. Grinning, he turned his gaze to the robot beside him, patiently holding his lunch. "You know… we could get there a lot faster if we flew."

"You don't mean…" Shinji followed Naota's gaze to Canti. "Wouldn't that be against regulations or something, since they sent Section Two to get us?"

"Naw," Naota said, taking the lunch from Canti and sitting it on the ground. "As long as we get there faster than they do anyway."

Ginning himself, Shinji nodded. "Sounds like fun."

"Hey Touji," Naota called, climbing onto Canti's back.

"Yeah?"

"Get my guitar to Ninamori, would you?"

"Sure thing."

Kensuke panned the camera over to where Shinji was also climbing onto Canti's back. It was a tight fit for the two of them to find proper footing and grip, but they managed. "Man, you guys have all the fun," he lamented as Canti took a flying leap off the side of the building. Kensuke caught the whole thing on camera: Canti's flying leap and dive down almost to ground level and the Section Two agents ducking and yelling in fury as the boys and the robot swooped overhead. He and Touji laughed as the agents jumped into their black sedan and attempted to follow, but the robot was already out of sight.

"You're posting that online tonight, right?" Touji asked.

"Oh yeah."

…

Naota frowned as Misato outlined her plan. The plan itself was simple and would probably work, but too much could go wrong. One slip on Misato's part and they'd be short one Operations Director. He stood, looking down at Misato—who was clad in a radiation suit. "That's a great plan Misato and I'm sure it'll work, but there's one problem with it."

"Oh?" Misato asked, looking up at the boy. She knew what he was about to say and agreed with him, but there was no other way.

"Yeah. We need you too much to just let you jump off an Eva onto a stampeding robot."

Misato sighed. Yeah, exactly what she thought he'd say. "What do you suggest we do then? You can't go, we've only got one suit and it's adult sized."

Naota grinned, which for some reason disturbed Misato. "We'll send Canti. He's a robot—he can access that thing's computer and figure out what's wrong faster than a human ever could."

Misato turned to regard the robot in question. It stood in the rear of the plane, looking out a window at the Evangelion below. It had been onboard when they picked her up—Makato hadn't been able to think up a suitable excuse to keep Naota from bringing him. As it turned out, he may just come in handy. "But are you sure he can do it? Won't the radiation interfere with his circuits or something—and I'm not an expert on this, but won't he have to go through decontamination before he can come back in contact with people?"

"Nope," Naota said, walking past Misato and Shinji to where Canti now stood. "Canti's a Medical Mechanica robot—it'll take a lot more than radiation to screw him up."

Misato sighed, giving up. She had to admit, the boy was right. "Ok. Shinji, get to Unit-01. Hyuga!" she called, getting the tech's attention. "Bring us into drop range."

"Yes ma'am!"

"What are you doing?" Misato asked, watching as Naota picked up a radio headset and plugged it into a port on his plug suit.

"What's it look like? I'm going with him," Naota grinned as Unit-01's entry plug closed and cycled down into place, a hatch closing instantly behind it to preserve cabin pressure.

"Wait, I thought the plan was to send the robot. You can't go! You don't have a suit!"

Laughing, Naota tapped Canti's shoulder. "Sure I do. Canti! Open up!"

Misato watched in horror as the innocuous blue robot leaned back and a giant, gaping black maw opened up beside Naota. "…What the hell?!"

Naota put one foot into the maw, turning back to Misato. "See you Misato!" he yelled, stepping into it completely.

Struggling to hold down her lunch, Misato watched as the jaws snapped shut around the boy Shinji had come to regard as a friend. Canti shuddered slightly, doubling over, and then it stood back up—quickly shifting colors from dark blue to cherry red. The robot waved once at Misato, then opened the hatch above Unit-01 and jumped down onto the Eva's back.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go!" she heard Naota's voice yelling from the plane's radio pickup.

Deciding she'd have to sort all this crap out later, Misato shook her head and steeled her resolve. "Unit-01; LAUNCH!"

…

Naota grinned. Despite the pain in his head, tapping into this power again felt good. He—they—watched as the Eva detached from the AN-411 and began to freefall. Deciding it'd probably be best if they weren't on the Evangelion when it hit the ground they launched themselves into the air and angled their descent for the rogue nuclear robot.

Shinji slammed into the earth and immediately began to sprint for Jet Alone. As he drew within range, he signaled to the AN-411 above. "Now what Misato?"

"Get in front of it and hold it in place while Naota—Canti—WHOEVER! goes in through the emergency hatch."

Shinji nodded, sprinting ahead of the rampaging giant, then turning and slamming his Eva's hands against its chest while planting his feet, stopping it. Looking up, he watched as this new, red Canti crashed against the machine's hull and stood, tearing open the access panel before diving in. "I guess he was telling the truth," he thought, thinking back to Naota's own tale of a week or so ago.

Inside, they came to another door—this one marked "Control Room." Noticing the card reader to the side of the door, they shrugged before raising their foot and planting it firmly into the center of the door—causing it to go flying into the room beyond. Considering the fact that the interior armor in Jet Alone was designed to prevent intrusions such as this, and the door was supposed to divide into sections with half going into the floor and half into the ceiling when it opened normally, this was no laughable task.

Making their way to the access terminal, they extended a hand towards it. The fingers of Canti's right hand burst into several thousand small wires, which then invaded the terminal's own wiring. Once connected, Naota delegated the entire matter of accessing the system to Canti. Seconds later, they were both looking at a screen filled with lines of code. Because of his connection to the robot, Naota could interpret most of it. He keyed the switch on his plug suit that controlled the radio. "Shinji."

Outside, Shinji still strained against Jet Alone. What Naota and Canti couldn't tell was that its reactor was approaching critical faster than anyone had anticipated. When Naota's voice came over his radio, Shinji frowned. "Naota? Whatever you're doing in there hurry up. This thing's going to go soon!"

"No, it isn't."

"What!? What are you saying?" Shinji asked, glancing to his right where a window labeled "Sound Only" hung in midair—err, mid-LCL.

"Canti says it's going to stop in about… now, actually," Naota sent back, watching as the lights inside Jet Alone went green and the robot stopped moving. "I'm having him save a copy of the source code. Maybe Kensuke would like to look at it—he's a computer nut. Do you think we should tell Misato?"

Shinji thought for a moment. "I don't know. I guess so."

…

The AN-411 touched down on a stretch of deserted highway nearby, and using the last of his remaining power, Shinji set Unit-01 back in place underneath it. Later, when they were all on their way back to Tokyo-3, Misato turned to regard Naota—who had managed to get out of Canti without taking the rear exit, as it were. "Ok, just what the hell is going on here?"

Naota glanced at Shinji, and through an unspoken agreement it was decided that she would only get half of the story—for now. After an hour of describing the events in Mabase, Naota leaned back and sighed. "And that's pretty much everything you didn't know."

Blinking, Misato glanced at Shinji who nodded. "You mean it's all true?"

"Shinji met Haruko. Ask him yourself," Naota said, wondering just how many times he'd have to retell that story.

Shinji again nodded. "I did. She was nice, but weird. She's the one that brought me home after I ran away."

Misato didn't fail to notice that Shinji had called her apartment 'home.' She smiled. "So, how did you manage to shut down Jet Alone?"

Waving Canti over, Naota sat up. "We didn't, it was programmed to stop right before it redlined."

"WHAT?!"

"Canti, show her what we pulled out of Jet Alone," said Naota, motioning for Misato to watch Canti's face-screen.

She didn't understand much of it, but what she did understand scared her. "I see. Don't tell anyone else about this, ok guys? And can you get me a copy of this on disc?"

"Ok Misato."

"Sure."

Misato stood, making her way into the AN-411's cockpit. "I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

…

"Recovery of Unit-01 is completed. No danger of radioactive contamination. Except for Captain Katsuragi's operation, everything went according to the plan."

"Good work."

Ritsuko sighed almost imperceptibly. She didn't like putting Misato and the Pilots in danger when she could avoid it, but it was a risk they'd had to take. "We couldn't have those idiots cut funding to NERV to explore the possibilities of that stupid Jet Alone. What a waste—" She was cut off mid-thought by an alarm going off across the complex. "That's not the Angel alert," she said, rushing from the Commander's office to the Operations deck.

"What's going on?!" she yelled. "And cut that alarm off."

"Ma'am," Maya glanced up from her terminal, bringing the data up on the big screen. "NERV-02, it's… gone." Onscreen, satellite footage showed the Second Branch of NERV disappearing in an explosion of some sort, but it was no explosion that the MAGI could identify.

Knowing the next few hours would be a giant pain in the ass for her and the rest of the Operations staff, Ritsuko groaned softly. "Inform Captain Katsuragi."

Twenty-six hours later, NERV-02 reappeared, along with Unit-04—but not the personnel assigned to the base. So far, they were unsure as to how or why the base and its Eva reappeared without even the pilot, and the MAGI were still thinking on it. One of the theories thrown up as to its disappearance in the first place proposed that the facility had been swallowed by a Sea of Dirac. Ritsuko couldn't argue with that, since she didn't have any better ideas as to what had happened. Commander Ikari ordered the AN-411 and a small group of techs to fly over to Nevada and bring back Unit-04, if it was salvageable. It would take several days to determine whether or not the Unit was usable, but if it was, Naota would be sync tested with it and named the Fourth Child if he succeeded. "Are we sure we want him as a Pilot though?"

"Today's the day," Naota thought idly, tuning the Rickenbacker's strings even though they didn't need it—they never needed it. "Today, I either become an Eva pilot—a Child—or I leave Tokyo-3 and go straight back to Mabase and Ninamori will have to come with me, and Rei will have to go back to her old apartment…"

It went without saying that Naota was more than a little worried about the outcome of this evening's sync tests. Behind and beside him Shinji, Touji, and Kensuke chatted quietly. It was the last class of the day and they were all anxious to get out without getting stuck with cleaning duty. Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting, the last bell of the day rang.

Standing, Naota slung the blue Rickenbacker over his shoulder, picked up his bag and his bat, and left the class. He, Shinji, and Rei walked silently into NERV. Naota had once asked why she came along even though she didn't have sync tests with the two boys since her Eva was still being repaired—thus, Naota and Shinji learned of one of Rei's few hobbies: swimming.

The three of them split up at the door to the changing rooms, the boys going inside and Rei walking on to the pool as it had its own set of locker rooms. Setting the bass against his locker, Naota changed into his plug suit in silence. Behind him, Shinji thumbed the switch to compress his suit. "Naota," he said, turning to regard the shorter boy as he activated his own plug suit.

"Yeah?"

"Good luck."

"Thanks Shinji."

Together, the pair made their way into the Eva cage, where Units 01 and 04 stood side-by-side against the wall. "It doesn't look half bad," Naota said, climbing into the seat of his entry plug. He sat back as the crane lifted the seat and eased it into the plug before retracting. He glanced up in time to see the hatch slide shut, and then the plug cycled into the Eva and locked itself into place. "Here goes."

The plug filled with LCL and Naota exhaled once, before taking in a deep breath of the blood-smelling liquid. He'd gotten used to LCL after the first week or so of being subjected to the junk so he wouldn't panic the first time into the Eva. The smell though was something he didn't think he'd ever get used to, or the taste. The walls around him cycled through several colors and patterns before resolving themselves into an Eva-eye display of the inside of the cage. Misato's voice came over the radio. "Are you ready Naota?"

Taking a deep breath, Naota replied. "As ready as I'll ever be. Do your thing Miss Ritsuko."

"Begin first stage connections to Eva!"

Ignoring the techno-babble going on in the control room, Naota concentrated on becoming one with the Evangelion, as he'd been instructed. "If you do not open your mind to her, your Eva will not move." Rei's voice. Had she told him that, some time before? It didn't matter. All that mattered was opening himself to the Eva.

Naota felt an odd prodding at the back of his mind, as if something were digging around in his N/O gate, but without putting their hand through his skull first. With a sharp intake of breath, he recognized the feeling. The mental image of a lopsided grin—reminiscent to that of the Cheshire Cat's—impressed itself upon him, and then a finger pressed to those same lips in an obvious shushing gesture. "Atomsk!"

Outside the Eva, in the control room, Maya scrutinized her readings again. For a moment, Naota's sync score had jumped from 39.01 to 99.89, which was impossible. It hadn't even lasted a full second though so she wrote it off as instrument failure, making a mental note to have her sempai check over the instruments later.

Inside the plug, Naota began to laugh—laugh hard. This was almost too good. Haruko had run off to search for Atomsk and now here he was, once again connected to Naota. After a minute, he settled down with a sigh. "I did it," he said quietly, but still loud enough for the Ops crew to hear. He could hear some of them congratulating him through his pickup from the bridge. He leaned back, mildly spent. He sat up seconds later though, at the mental impression of a tap on his shoulder. Atomsk wanted something—to speak, in private. "Ok, I can do that," he thought, accidentally thumbing the switch that would cut off all audio and video feed from the plug to the control room. They'd still get his sync readings and probably his vitals, but anything else would be lost to them. "What is it?"

He blinked as his right arm moved of its own accord. It tapped a rapid sequence of commands into the keypad next to his butterfly controls. Suddenly, a video screen came up directly in front of him. His eyes moved to the top left corner: Recording. Eva-04, 14:06.

His arm found the 'play' button and the recording moved forward. Onscreen was someone he hadn't seen in years… his brother, Tasuku. His brother spoke. "Are you sure I can't tell Naota any of this?"

A voice from somewhere off camera, probably in the control room of NERV-02 answered. "No, I'm sorry. It's classified."

"Damn."

The screen paused, jumping ahead to 15:04, the same day. Again his brother appeared, but this time he looked much less calm. "Can anyone hear me? Anyone at all? Unit-04, and from what I can tell all of NERV-02, have been swallowed by—something. I can't pick up anything on long range sensors, it's just white noise."

Again, the video paused, and then jumped to 15:32, the next day. Tasuku looked tired, strained. He said as much. "Fuck, I'm so tired—hungry too. It's funny, you'd figure that because of LCL's composition, you could live off of it, at least a little while, but it doesn't do anything for hunger pains. Look, uh… Whoever finds this, I'd like to ask a favor of you. You see, even though this Evangelion is running on a Super Solenoid engine, I'll probably starve before they ever recover it—if they ever recover it. Listen, I'm begging you… get this to my brother, Naota Namdaba in Mabase, Japan. I haven't seen him in over five years and I think he resents the fact that I'm here in America. When NERV picked me up, I told everyone I was leaving to play baseball… I want to clear up all the lies I had to leave them with.

"Naota, little brother, if you're seeing this—it means I'm dead. For the past five years I've been training to be a Pilot. I'm sorry I had to lie to you all. Naota, tell dad and grandpa I've missed them, and apologize for me will you? I'd do it in person, but…" Tasuku grinned, shrugging. He was starting to ramble, but Naota didn't care. "Look, Naota, I'm sorry I just left everything there up to you. I bet you've had to live the past few years standing in my shadow or some crap like that; everyone expecting great things from the little brother of the big baseball star. Take care of Mamimi for me, would you? She needs someone to look after her—she doesn't have anyone, now that I'm not there.

"…Ok, enough of that. The strangest thing happened the other day. Some crazy girl named Haruko ambushed me yesterday—or was it the day before?—and told me you stole something of hers. She wouldn't say what, but it sounded important. …And then she hit me over the head with a guitar." Tasuku laughed. "I know it sounds weird, but I think she was looking for something. Oh well. Well, I think I've had enough of this. I'm going to try one more time to get out of here and if that doesn't work, I'm going to eject the plug. Whatever happens from there happens. See you Naota."

One more jump, this time to 15:54. The plug was dim, but not dark. Onscreen, Tasuku's form looked contorted, in pain. His pupils dilated, then shrunk, and then disappeared entirely to be replaced with white—but not the white of one's eyes. On his forehead, a mark burned itself into existence—it looked like a cheap, perverted form of Atomsk's emblem. The rest of his skin faded to black, along with his plug suit, and the cockpit grew darker until only the mark and his eyes were visible. Again, he spoke—amazingly calm. "Naota… They're coming Naota, and they want you. Your gate is the key, you can't let them have it. They're trying to use me to get to you, but to do so they have to make me like you—you'll understand. I'm sending back Unit-04 but I can't come with it. Find Haruko, find Atomsk, find the Eva… and stay away from the Sea of Dirac at all costs. Goodbye, Naota."

The screen died and Naota stared at the place where it had been. His hand moved again, keying in the command to flush the entry plug's logs, and then dropping back to the butterfly controls under his own power again. "Thank you, Atomsk," he said quietly, trying to digest just what the hell had happened. Shaking his head, he decided it'd be best if he didn't stay disconnected from Ops too long. He thumbed the switch for communications back to the 'ON' position.

"Naota! Where the hell have you been?" Misato yelled.

"Sorry Misato, I bumped the switch. Are we done?"

He heard someone grumbling from the control room. "Yeah, you're done," said Ritsuko.

…

"Find Haruko, find Atomsk, find the Eva…"

Naota scrubbed his fingers through his hair, trying to get out the LCL. What had his brother meant? How did he know about Atomsk, what was Haruko doing there, and what the hell had been happening to him? "This shit just gets weirder by the day," he mumbled, pouring half the bottle of shampoo into his short hair.

A couple of stalls away, Shinji glanced up from his own washing routine. "Something wrong?"

"Everything, Shinji—everything. I need to find Haruko, there's something I have to ask her. Did she say when she'd be back?"

Shinji shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

"Damn."

…

"Naota, tell me what's wrong."

Naota glared up from his bed. "Go 'way 'Mori."

Shutting his door behind herself, Ninamori walked the rest of the way into the room until she was standing almost directly over Naota's head. "No, not until you tell me what's going on. The last time I saw you like this was when Haruko left the first time."

"Has nothing to do with her," he mumbled, turning away.

Ninamori glared down at the side of his head, far from satisfied. Grabbing his shoulder, she pulled until her faced her again. "Then who?"

Naota rolled again, this time all the way over. "I don't want to talk about it Ninamori, go away."

Yanking hard, Ninamori managed to get him back around. This time though, she straddled his chest and pinned Naota to the bed. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's bugging you."

"Good, because I wasn't going anywhere to begin with."

"Fine, then you won't mind staying here the rest of the evening."

"Well what if I have to pee?" Naota asked, glaring up at the girl.

She lowered her head, looking directly into his eyes. "Well you should have thought about that beforehand, huh?"

"Whatever. I'm comfortable. I don't have to go yet."

"Good, neither do I."

"You'll have to get up eventually. Girls can't hold it as long as guys can."

Ninamori smirked. "Who said I'd be getting up? I suggest you tell me before I feel the urge to go though, because I might not be able to hold it… Like you said Naota, girls can't do that as well as boys."

"Eww," Naota wrinkled his nose, squirming under the girl. "You're gross. Get off me!"

Ninamori shook her head, scooting down a little further so as to find a more comfortable position. "Nope. And please, by all means, keep squirming like that… I kind of enjoy it."

Naota froze—eyes wide in shock as he realized exactly where the girl was sitting, exactly what he had been squirming against, and exactly what it looked like they were doing. "Uhh… Ninamori, get off."

"Gladly, just keep squirming and I will eventually."

His jaw dropped and he did not squirm. "What are you doing?"

"What's it feel like?" Ninamori asked, grinding herself lightly against the front of Naota's shorts.

Glaring, Naota turned his head to look away from her. "Like you're making a slut of yourself. Now get off me!"

Ninamori shrugged, lying down completely on the boy. "Maybe that's what it takes to get your attention Naota. Your head is so far up Haruko's ass it's a wonder you can hear me. And I told you, I'm not going to let you up until you tell me what's going on. I thought you passed the sync tests today."

Naota closed his eyes, choosing to ignore the comment about Haruko. "It's not true—I don't have my head up her ass…" he thought, finally deciding that if it'd get Ninamori off of him (as opposed to off on him), he'd tell her. "Fine. You want to know what's bothering me Ninamori? This whole fucking setup is bothering me. I'm being used again, but at least this time I chose to let them use me."

"What do you mean?"

"My brother is dead. Tasuku is dead, 'Mori. Today—in the Eva—Atomsk showed me. My brother died inside that Eva and I don't even feel sad about it. But he said some stuff before he died, and it scared the crap out of me."

Ninamori raised an eyebrow. Naota was admitting he was afraid? Something was definitely going on, and it was a lot larger than anything she'd overheard so far. "What kinds of things did Tasuku say?"

"The kinds of things that you're not supposed hear. He talked about Haruko and Atomsk and my N/O gate… I never told him any of those things. I think something got him 'Mori. Actually, I know it did."

"'Got him?'"

Naota sighed, closing his eyes but opening them again when the image of his brother with the perverted symbol for Atomsk flashed across his mind's eye. "Remember all the things coming out of my head last year? I think something found a way to get into my brother's…"

"That's…weird."

"Whatever. You don't have to believe it if you don't want to, but that's what was bothering me, so get off."

"I didn't say I didn't believe you Takkun, and I'm not getting off."

He couldn't understand it! What was with Ninamori tonight?! "Whatever," he said dully, closing his eyes again. Now that he'd gotten at least some of what was worrying him off of his chest, his mind decided to wander to other matters—such as what was literally on his chest at the moment. "What did you mean about getting my attention?"

The girl sighed. "Naota, you really are hopeless. You worry too much about things and usually don't see what's right in front of you until… until it beats you over the head with a guitar a couple of times."

"Huh?"

Shifting a bit, Ninamori leaned up so she could see his face. "I'm right here in front of you."

Naota still wasn't following her, or he didn't know if he wanted to. "So?" he asked, being purposefully dense.

"Damn Naota, any other boy in your position would have taken complete advantage of the situation ages ago. Here I am basically throwing myself at you to get your attention, and you barely bat an eye. Your head really is that far up Haruko's ass," she said, mumbling the last part.

"It is not," he growled, throwing her a glare. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"Alright, fine!" Naota exploded. "Do you want to know what happened—why I've ignored or brushed off everything?"

Ninamori nodded. "Tell me Takkun."

"Stop calling me that. I hate it. I hate that name."

"Then what do you want me to call you?"

"NAOTA! It's my name, not 'Takkun'! I am not my brother."

"I know you aren't, Naota," said Ninamori softly, trying to calm the boy. "We just call you that because it's special to us, you know?"

"For fuck sake, why?"

"Why do you carry around Haruko's guitar, even though she treated you like shit? It's not something we really question, we just do it. Now tell me…"

Shaking his head, Naota turned to regard the wall. Maybe if he didn't look at her it wouldn't hurt as much. He told her the one small detail of his story that he'd left out in every retelling—how he'd nearly killed Haruko then confessed that he had come to love the oddball that had lived with him for the better part of a year, and how he'd then given up Atomsk and made her choose between the two of them. His idea had been simple at the time—actually, he hadn't really been thinking so much as acting on instinct when he'd done it—make Haruko choose to either stay on Earth with Naota, or at least take him with her, or chase after Atomsk herself because he wasn't going to let her finish using him to get what she wanted. His improvised plan had backfired. She left—taking with her every part of Naota that mattered and leaving only a broken city, a broken heart, and a blue Rickenbacker guitar.

"Naota, she left," said Ninamori softly, pressing her forehead against Naota's temple, as the boy's head was still turned to the side. "I followed you. I came here to find you. That day, when the NERV agents came to recruit you, I wanted so much for you to just take me away with you… but you didn't. So I came after you. I did everything in my power to get here—to find you—and now I am. Forget about her, stop thinking so much, and just look at what's in front of you for five minutes."

Turning his head away from the wall to regard the girl, Naota gave her a tiny grin. "Look at what's in front of me and stop thinking, huh?"

Ninamori smiled. "Yes, my little delinquent—stop thinking so damn much."

"Why do you call me that?"

"Because, oddly enough, it's when you're at your best."

"Five minutes?"

"Five minutes," she agreed.

"I think I can."

Author's Notes: I noticed formatting problems with probably the last couple of chapters... I use "..." and "" to designate scene changes--periods for scene jumps and asterisks for the usual "screen goes black" transitions. It seems cuts out my asterisks for some ass reason, so I'll fix it in future chapters and probably get around to doing the others as well. What else? Oh, right... Ninamori is unbelievably out of character—it's more like she's pulling one from Haruko's book or something, but I don't care—or maybe Mamimi's. It'll all be explained in the series later. Wait 'till you see Asuka... Keep in mind that things have changed in my series from both original series. You know the old saying "the more things change, the more they stay the same"--keep that half in mind when reading this.