Angels of Armageddon

by Ryan Xavier

Love and warfare after the apocalypse...

16. Chapter 12

DISCLAIMER: The characters, story, universe, etc. of Neon Genesis
Evangelion belong to GAINAX. They're not mine, and I make no claim to
them.

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" " = speech
^ ^ = thoughts
_ _ = italics

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Angels of Armageddon
Author: Ryan Xavier
Chapter 12: Doomed Messenger

Ariel slowly made her way out of the sea of LCL, her breathing labored,
as one who has just run a long distance. She began wringing the gooey
fluid out of her hair, which by now had grown down to well below her
shoulderblades.

She'd known it would be dangerous to try this again, with Tabris
waiting on the material plane and Armisael waiting in the ethereal.
But all the same, she'd found it steadily more difficult to resist the
temptation to sink down into the Room of Gauf, to touch those souls one
more time. It had been on her thoughts all night; sleep had refused to
come, while she was thinking about what she could have done better last
time.

This trip into the sea of souls had gone better than the last one, even
if it hadn't really been a success. Though she hadn't been able to
contact any of the others, she'd successfully been able to take
measures to protect herself. A careful manipulation of her AT field
had masked her presence quite well. She'd felt Armisael's presence,
that cold, sharp feeling that seemed to effortlessly cut through the
wall of her soul. But it had not seen her. Or rather, it had been
unable to distinguish her from the other hordes of souls.
Unfortunately, things would be different if she'd descended further,
trying to reach her brethren. No human would dare go that deep, not
even the ones who desired nothing more than to remain in the sea of
souls for all eternity. Shielded or not, Armisael would realize
something was wrong. She'd have to take a more active posture to
defend herself.

Of course, _how_ she was going to do that, she didn't know. Yet.

She trudged up the sandy beach and made some cursory effort at wiping
herself off before pulling her clothes back on. Sunrise was still a
few hours off, so she'd have time to sneak back, hopefully without
Tabris ever knowing she'd come out here. She'd just finished dressing
and was about to start off towards the camp when she saw that someone
else was with her.

At first, she panicked, thinking that perhaps Tabris had found her
again. She looked wildly for a place to hide, ending up ducking behind
a sand dune, even though she knew the new arrival would have seen here
easily, her dark form in sharp relief against the star-lit sand.

But something was wrong about this person. As she began to calm down,
her sharp eyes saw that the outline was different from that of Tabris.
He - well, she assumed it was a he - was moving as though in a daze,
with slow, deliberate motions. She briefly wondered if he was even in
control of his own movements.

Curiousity replaced fear, as something told her this was not a threat
to her immediate continued existence. She padded over to him, starting
a bit when the moonlight illuminated his features, revealing the new
arrival to be none other than Shinji Ikari.

"Ikari-ku...Shinji-kun?" she asked, slipping as she remembered her talk
with Asuka from the other night.

The boy, oddly enough, didn't respond. It was as though he didn't even
know she was there. He just kept walking, slowly shuffling towards the
coastline.

Feeling some apprehension at this odd behavior, Ariel circled around in
front of him, putting her hands on his shoulders and forcing him to
stay in one place. He stopped, not from the force but from apparently
having decided at that very moment that he'd walked far enough. With
the same slow, dazed quality, his head raised up to look at her.

From the moment she saw it, Ariel didn't like the look in his eyes.
She had her own reservations about talking with this boy; she still
couldn't believe this creature had posessed the power to stop the
Unification. Still...every time he looked at her, she could see a
flicker of recognition, of memory trying to surface.

But this...this was one step further. No, this was several steps
further. His eyes, staring blankly at her at first, focused on her
face, and she immediately felt as though she'd been laid bare, right
down to her very soul.

"You..." he began, his voice slurring a bit.

Ariel dropped her arms to her sides, stepping away from him.

"You...you are...you are the one called..."

Now the girl's eyes narrowed, her ears pricking to try and make out
what he was saying.

"the one...ah..." he stuttered. "Ah...air...ah-rye..."

Now the girl's eyes widened, as she guessed at what he was trying to
say.

"Ah-rye-el..." he finally said. "You are the one known as Arael," he
continued, in a dead monotone.

Ariel took another step back. "What...what do you mean...Shinji-kun?"
she asked, trying to sound convincingly ignorant and knowing that it
was futile.

"You do not belong..." Shinji said, taking a step towards her. Ariel
swallowed.

But then, Shinji's eyes fluttered. His knees buckled, and he
collapsed, going face-first into the sand.

Ariel paused, watching him with careful eyes. When he remained
motionless, she approached and nudged him with her toe. All she got
was a slight twitch from his fingers, but that was still enough to make
her jump back over a meter. Finally, she pushed back her fear and
knelt down next to him, putting her fingers to his neck.

"Still alive..." she muttered. But when did this happen? What did it?

And, more importantly, what the hell was she supposed to do now?

She was tempted to leave him there, letting him wake up on his own and
find his own way back to the camp. But then, she saw the blood
trickling from under his head. She hadn't noticed it a moment ago, but
hadn't his forehead been bleeding? What if something was really wrong
with him? Wouldn't she be to blame if he was injured?

Blame, she could deal with. She hadn't been the one who'd given him
that injury. But then there were Tabris and Zero to think about. And
both of them had connections of their own to Ikari...

In addition to this was some other feeling...something she wasn't sure
was entirely from her, but which still resounded in her psyche. She
felt...saddened, seeing him like this. Whatever strength he may have
had was gone, at least for the moment, and he'd been reduced to an
unconscious lump. She couldn't explain why this should bother her so;
if nothing else she should have felt gratified, as this proved that
Ikari was a human being, nothing more. But...the sensation was still
there. And somehow she knew that if she tried to leave him behind, the
feeling would only get stronger. That wouldn't do, not at all.

With a grunt of mild exertion, she hefted him up, draping his limp body
over her shoulders. After catching her breath, she tested her legs,
seeing that she was more than strong enough to carry him like this.
She started off, back for the camp.

* * *

"What an idiot."

Silence was the only answer to Asuka's comment on the situation. So
she could only just look at her lap and mumble out, "idiot", one more
time.

They were inside a large olive-colored tent, marked by a red cross over
the entrance. No lights were on to push off the early morning
darkness, so the only illumination came from the indicator lights of
the gear monitoring the patient's life signs. The steady beeping of an
EKG was the only noise for some time.

"He _is_ just unconscious", Ariel ventured, from her position in the
corner.

"But still!" Asuka countered, her voice a whisper but her tone still
harsh. "To go and trip like that. What a baka." By habit, she pulled
her fist back to bonk Shinji on the head, but stopped as she decided
against it. Ariel just let out a sigh so low only she could hear it.

It hadn't taken too long for Ariel to make her way back to the camp,
drawing more than a few odd stares from the few people who were awake.
She'd immediately dumped Shinji off at the medical tent and gone to get
some help. It hadn't taken long for word to spread about the co-leader
of the camp's condition, and it hadn't taken much longer for Asuka to
appear at the entrance to the tent, her expression of worry not yet
hidden by her mask of anger. Now, though, the room's two occupants had
had more than enough time to settle in. Ariel rested on a chair in the
corner of the tent, so she could keep an eye on who came and went,
while Asuka sat in the room's only other chair, at the side of the bed
and close to the exit.

"He should wake up soon," Ariel commented, meeting Asuka's eyes as she
tried to gauge the effect of these words on the other girl. Asuka
didn't say anything, but Ariel could still pick up on the slight
relaxation in the German girl, reassured now that she'd heard someone
else say it.

Every once in a while, someone else would stick their head in to see
how Shinji was doing. Not many people said anything, just a quick
glance before they thought either girl could notice them there.
Misato, Touji, Kensuke, Hikari, and Ritsuko had all taken slightly
longer visits, joining the two girls in their vigil for a time. They'd
all tried to ease the tension, but nothing had really worked; both
girls were too tired to really talk. The gathering over at the
Americans' side of the settlement, followed by _this_, had cut short
their time to sleep.

However, fatigue hadn't kept Ariel from noticing Ritsuko's attitude
during her visit, shorter than any of the others. The blond woman had
checked over the monitoring gear, just glancing it over but Ariel could
tell the woman had been able to glean more information from that glance
than some medical doctors could. But as she'd left, Ritsuko had spared
the patient one glance. In that glance, there hadn't been the fear in
the other people's faces. Just a blankness Ariel had previously only
associated with Zero. That blankness had been hiding something, but
Ariel hadn't been able to distinguish what. It hadn't been concern,
that much she was sure of.

As time passed, sunlight made its slow crawl along the ground and into
the tent. Ariel finally got her first good look at Asuka in the light.
When she did, she snorted. She shook a little, trying to contain
herself, but finally broke into laughter, the kind of giddy laugh born
of lack of sleep, in which nearly anything can become funny.

"What?" Asuka asked, raising one eyebrow at the white-haired girl. She
couldn't resist an empathic grin of her own.

"You...you look like a _raccoon_!" Ariel said, in between laughs. She
had to look away from Asuka, making herself hold her breath to stop
before Asuka took offense.

"I what?" Asuka asked in reply, not understanding.

"You..." Ariel tried to begin, looking back to the other girl. She
couldn't resist another short laugh, seeing her again. "You have dark
circles under your eyes," she said, tracing out circles under her own
eyes for emphasis. She calmed herself down before continuing. "You
should get some sleep."

Asuka had closed her eyes, shaking with a small laugh of her own,
though she was more successful at containing it than Ariel had been.
"Well...well _you_ don't look any better!" she countered.

"Probably so. But I think you've been here long enough, Asuka. You
should at least lie down for a while before the day gets started."

Asuka snorted. "Too late," she said, gesturing to the pool of sunlight
that was already up to the bed.

Ariel paused for half a heartbeat to think out what to say next.
"You're not really setting a good example," she began. She turned her
head, looking at Asuka slantwise in imitation of nonchalance. "And
besides, what will Shinji-kun think if _you_ suddenly pass out from
simple lack of sleep?"

Asuka perked up at that, sitting up a little straighter in her chair.
"I can go whole days without sleep," she said, sticking her nose in the
air. "Did it all the time in college."

Ariel consulted the portion of her memory that came from the other
girl. "And you always...ahem, I would _guess_ you always ended up
paying for it later. Say...falling asleep during an English test," she
said, trying to sound like she was just pulling the example out of the
air.

Asuka's cheeks reddened as she remembered that particularly embarassing
incident. "Hmph," she said, turning away. After a brief moment, she
got to her feet. "Well, _I've_ got a job to do," she said. "Tell that
baka to come see me when he wakes up, so I can dole out his
punishment."

"All right, all right," Ariel said, also rising. Her legs creaked
after so long a period of unuse, and her back ached. Still, it was
going to be a relief to go lie down for a while...

"And where are _you_ going?" Asuka asked, putting her hands on her
hips.

"Eh?" Ariel asked, knowing what the answer was going to be before the
word had even left her mouth.

"Well, _I_ have to go make sure no one's walking off a cliff," Asuka
said, gesturing proudly to her chest. "You on the other hand, would
just be wasting time somewhere. So I _order_ you: you stay here and
tell me when this idiot wakes up, got it?"

The blood drained from Ariel's face, as the thought of sitting here
another three or four hours dawned on her.

"Don't give me that look," Asuka said, shaking her head slowly.
"You're the one making me leave. Unless..." she said, as though the
idea had just come to her, "...you want to go get sleep, in which case
_I'll_ stay."

Ariel hesitated for a moment, before her shoulders fell. She could see
it in Asuka's stature, what the girl wanted her answer to be. She made
a choice.

She plopped back down in her seat, the chair creaking under her. "All
right, Asuka, get going," she said, waving at her.

Asuka froze, giving Ariel a confused look. She blinked several times,
as she realized Ariel had actually called her bluff. Finally, she
tensed her fists, turning on her heel.

"Good!" she said, a bit too loudly. "Remember, the _second_ that
baka's conscious!"

"Understood," Ariel mumbled, even though Asuka probably didn't hear
her. ^My apologies, Asuka. But if only one of us can get sleep, it
had best be you. Your job is more important than whatever menial task
I might be assigned.^ She looked down to Shinji, who remained placidly
asleep. ^You owe me, Ikari-kun.^ She still referred to him as 'Ikari-
kun' in her thoughts; it was hard to erase the title Zero had used on
him, when it had been all she'd had to go on during the years in limbo.

^You, the one who caused Zero to seal me and my brethren away...^ she
shook her head. ^To see you reduced to this.^ Pause. ^You're at my
mercy, aren't you?^

A small part of her idly wondered what would happen if Shinji
'accidentally' smothered in his sleep. She could use a pillow to...

^NO.^ She shook her head violently, throwing out that aberrant thought.
^I cannot risk something like that. Someone would find out, and
then...^ Pause. ^I would feel guilty? Is that the name for that
sensation? My thoughts are more confounded by the day. I trust this
is just some effect resulting from the fatigue.^

She hunched forwards, sitting on her hands and trying very hard not to
think. The blissful boredom had just begun to settle back in when two
sets of footsteps could be heard approaching the tent. Ariel had been
living here long enough to guess at who it was. She took a breath,
gathering herself together as she clenched a small fist.

The first person she saw was Kaoru, sticking his head in through the
flap, wearing that smug smile that seemed eternally glued onto his
face. Ariel smoldered, quietly envisioning ways to remove that grin,
none of them pleasant.

Kaoru crooked a finger at her. "Ariel-san, if you wouldn't mind...?"

Ariel looked away. "I've been told to stay here, Tabris. You can't
override that."

Kaoru shook his head at her. "A slip like that could give you away,
_Ariel_-san," he said, coming very close to correcting the
mispronunciation that had become her name. "And in any case, you know
as well as I that Shinji-kun does not need protecting, at least not for
the moment. So, if you would?"

Ariel made an annoyed noise, but rose. She crossed the tent in a few
strides and was soon blinking in the sun, shielding her eyes against
the surprisingly harsh glare. But even her momentary blindness didn't
keep her from noticing the other arrival, standing just off to the side
of the tent flap. Ariel could _smell_ Zero's presence. It made her
want to retch.

"Thank you," Kaoru said, sparing Ariel a nod. He immediately shifted
his gaze to the other girl. "You can go in now, Rei."

Rei made a small noise of acknowledgement before brushing by Ariel, who
was still standing in front of the entrance. Ariel shivered, not
bothering to cover her grimace as Rei moved past her.

"You should find a way to be civil around Rei, you know," Kaoru
remarked, stepping off to the side a bit.

Ariel followed his movements with her eyes, without turning her head.
"Compared to what I would prefer to do to her, that _is_ civil."

Kaoru looked at her for a long moment before letting out a low sigh.
"You disappoint me, Ariel-san. I'd have thought joining the lilum
ranks would have given you a new perspective."

^I don't want to kill everyone, just one person in particular,^ Ariel
thought in reply. The words didn't make it to her voice, fortunately.
She crossed her arms over her chest, meeting Kaoru's deceptively cold
gaze with one of her own. "What cause do you have to bother me this
morning, _Nagisa_-san?"

"We are simply concerned for Shinji-kun," Kaoru replied, matter-of-
factly. "As much as you might wish to believe otherwise, we did not
come expressly to bother you." He paused, staring at her face for a
moment. "And it seems you have had a hard enough time already."

Ariel 'hmph'ed in response, doing her best to mimic Asuka when she did
it.

"I will take over watching Shinji-kun, if you wish."

"No." The reply was immediate. "I have the strength to watch a
hospital bed. Don't concern yourself with me."

"I wasn't. I am thinking of Shinji-kun's health." He stopped there,
letting a moment of silence pass. Then:

"So you would sacrifice your own health just to further endear yourself
to Soryu?" he asked.

"That's not your business."

Another pause. "What are you going to do when she finds out?"

Ariel grit her teeth, whirling and stepping up to him, both her fists
clenched. "_You_ should not bother," she hissed out. "My plans are my
business alone." She punctuated this by raising a fist up to his eyes.
She could look him dead in his eye, without needing to tilt her head;
Ariel was fairly tall to begin with, and Kaoru had not had the benefit
of a growth spurt like Shinji had.

Kaoru didn't flinch. "Very well," he said, nodding once. His own hand
flashed up, grabbing Ariel by the wrist. "But my advice stands that
you find a way to be civil to Rei. It is in your best interests to
control yourself, Ariel-san." He forced her hand back down, slowly and
deliberately. Ariel fought against it, but found that even her toned-
up muscles could not shake him off.

Ariel was finally able to step away when Kaoru let go. Massaging a
sore wrist, she turned her back to him. "And why are you waiting out
here, Nagisa? I would have guessed you would also wish to see Ikari-
kun in this condition." She tried to keep her voice even, but couldn't
keep a nervous shiver out of her voice.

"I do," Kaoru said, his voice calm. "But Rei requested some time
alone. It was the least I could do."

Ariel 'hmph'ed again, this one even less successful than the first.

* * *

The only visitor inside the medical tent was easily ignoring the
argument just outside. It was none of her concern, at least not for
the moment.

But now...she was at a loss for what to do. It was actually a similiar
sensation to the one she'd felt upon hearing that Shinji was in the
infirmiary, suffering from some kind of head wound. Simple
helplessness and confusion. She didn't know what was expected of her,
or what the elusive feelings inside her required of her.

However, she remembered that she had been in this situation a few times
before. An empty seat was placed conviently by the bed; she settled
quietly into this. Usually she would have brought a book with her to
pass the time until he finally awoke; any book, no matter how dull
others might think it, would keep her occupied until she'd read the
last page.

But this time was slightly different in that she wouldn't - or rather,
couldn't - stay here that long. Kaoru was insistent that they look
over Unit-00 this morning, though why she wasn't sure. But she did
know that she felt more at ease here, able to see with her own eyes
that Shinji was still alive and relatively well. She knew something of
wounds and healing, and could tell that the wound on his head would
close soon.

"Rei?" Kaoru's voice came through the open tent flap. "Is everything
all right?"

"Yes," she answered simply.

"May I come in?"

Rei heard the girl outside mutter something angrily under her breath.
She paid it no heed. "Yes."

Kaoru pushed his way through the flaps and joined Rei at the bedside.
"I heard nothing from outside," he commented, quietly. "I did not know
what to think."

Rei said nothing, still looking at Shinji's sleeping form. Kaoru
waited.

"I do not know..." Rei began, quietly. "...what I should do in this
situation."

A pause. "Yet you visited all the same...why?"

Rei shook her head silently.

Kaoru went back to watching Shinji's chest rise and fall, waiting for
something to happen. When nothing did, he tried another path of
conversation:

"Would you like to stay here? I believe I can study Unit-00 on my
own."

Another head shake. Whether it meant 'no' or 'I don't know', Kaoru
wasn't sure.

The sound of quiet breathing from the three of them as Kaoru's mind
spun its wheels. "Would you like to say something? Perhaps Shinji-kun
can hear, though he remains asleep."

No response. Possibly a signal he was going down the right path. "Do
you not know what to say?"

A long pause, then a hesitant nod, so small he wouldn't have seen it if
he hadn't been focusing his entire attention on what Rei was doing.

"Well...a suggestion is to simply wish him well. Rather appropriate
for this situation, wouldn't you say?" he asked, smiling a little.

Rei did not mirror the smile. She simply remained quiet.

Kaoru watched her for a few minutes, before shrugging. "I will be at
Unit-00," he said, as he left. Rei heard him say something to Ariel,
and was dimly aware that it was a warning to stay out of the tent for a
few more minutes.

After some indeterminate time, she stood. She took a breath as though
to speak, but then let it out slowly without uttering a word. She
shifted her weight to turn, but then seemed to change her mind and move
back alongside the bed.

Carefully, she reached out with one hand and brushed Shinji's hair
back, away from the cut on his head. She ran her fingers over the
wound, taking care not to disturb the dried blood. For some reason,
her hand felt cooler against his skin.

"I...wish you well, Ika...Shinji-kun," she said, finally. "And...I am
sorry."

She wasn't entirely sure where that last part had come from. The words
had come into her head, and she had seen no reason not to say them.
With that, she finally walked out of the tent, much to the relief of
the girl waiting outside.

Soon after Rei and Kaoru had left Ariel alone, tranquility had settled
back in on the medical tent. The white-haired girl sat quietly in a
chair, her chin dipping slowly down to rest on her chest, until finally
her breathing came slowly and regularly. The only sound came from her
occasional snore and the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor.

* * *

Shinji's head was pounding.

That was the first and only thing that he could think of: that the
mother of all headaches had settled down into his skull, and looked
like it was going to be staying for a while.

He groaned, the mere thought of getting to his feet more than enough to
make him nauseous. And he'd been in the middle of such a nice dream,
too. A soft voice, comforting and unnerving at the same time, had
spoken to him as though through a wall. He hadn't been able to make
out words, but he remembered the apprehension had faded and a wave of
calm had washed over him. There had been a soft hint of pressure on
his forehead, and then it had been gone.

And now, here he was, wishing so much to just be able to go back to
sleep. But, he figured he may as well see where he was, since last he
remembered he'd been on the ground in front of Unit-00. This
definitely didn't feel like hard soil under him. He opened his eyes,
staring upwards into the canvas roof of a tent.

His brain felt like it was sloshing around in his skull. Nothing could
stick, for several moments. He was too confused to recognize it at the
moment, but it was not unlike how he'd felt in those first few moments
after his Eva had gone berserk.

He coudl feel the softness under him that was not the hard ground he'd
grown used to. As he moved, he could hear the loud rustling of over-
starched sheets under him.

^What happened?^ he wondered, as his thoughts started becoming more
coherent. He tried to recall the last thing that had happened, but
that turned out to be an effort in futility. All he got were scrambled
memories, all from sometime yesterday evening, but he wasn't sure when,
exactly.

For some reason, his mind kept drifting back to Eva-00. The thought of
that giant made his blood run cold, for some reason. But all the same,
he found himself returning to it on it, coming back to the thought and
then trying in vain to focus on something else, something less
frightening, only to see that cyclopean visage in his mind once again.

Some amount of time passed. Shinji's eyes drifted over to the left,
not noticing Ariel's sleeping form. There, in the corner, was a simple
metal pole, supporting an IV bag. It wasn't hooked up to him; it had
simply been brought in, just in case.

Shinji had no way of telling just what fluid was in that bag, but he
felt an inexplicable apprehension from looking at it. It seemed
harmless enough, dripping occasionally, keeping time with the beeping
from the heart machine.

Dripping. Something made Shinji look down, to see what it was dripping
onto. Someone had left an old plate on the ground, either by chance or
to catch the drips he didn't know. But yet...the white surface of the
plate did not seem to be quite as perfect as it should be. Three dark
spots had seemingly been burned into the plate's surface. Their
arrangement bore a striking resemblance to a human skull: two large
round ones spots for eyes, and one smaller triangular one approximating
a mouth. Shinji's eyes, still unfocused, widened a little as a drip
from the IV struck the plate. A wisp of smoke snuck off the plate
where the fluid hit it, accompanied by the sizzling sound of something
melting.

He wasn't alone. The sleeping girl in the corner notwithstanding,
Shinji could somehow _feel_ that something else was in the room. It
didn't take long before he found it. Or perhaps the other way around.

Something fell down next to him, from somewhere above. Though Shinji's
face still appeared calm, the increasingly rapid beeps from the heart
monitor told otherwise. The thing began to show itself.

At first, it just appeared to be a thin black line on his pillow.
Until that line moved, twitching as it was joined by another such line.
As it turned out, it was not a line but a leg. A long, spindly
appendage pulling a ridiculously oversized body up into view. Shinji
blinked, forcing himself to focus on the thing. He remembered what
this was, a daddy longlegs. A sort-of spider, and completely harmless.
At least, that was what his mind was telling him. But Shinji's eyes
widened, nonetheless.

Something was wrong. Daddy longlegs didn't have eyes, did they? He
couldn't remember. But this one's body was covered in eyes,
perpetually staring in every direction, and colored the exact shade of
LCL. As it moved, these eyes dripped with some kind of fluid. The
pillow hissed as this fluid hit it, tiny holes burned into the fabric.

The creature stopped. Though the eyes never moved, Shinji got the
distinct impression that it was looking at him. And very closely, too,
in the way someone looks at a familiar face, before recollection
finally comes. Shinji's eyes snapped away from the thing, over to the
plate still sitting in the corner. The creeping sunlight was playing
with the shadows on its surface; now the triangle mouth almost appeared
to be grinning at a private joke.

Fear welled up in him, but came too late. Before Shinji even had time
to scream, the daddy longlegs wound up its tiny body and leapt onto his
face.

And then, he was no longer in the world.

* * *

He was the strongest of his brethren. Floating invincible, taunting the
bastard offspring holed up in their pitiful sand castle of a stronghold
below with his invulnerability. Soon they would be gone, and the True
Children would be all that remained in a world that they would make. A
mere thought, and the bastard's toys, their only pittance from the
forbidden fruit, were gone, as was most of their protection. The symbol
of the creator flared out in a show of righteous destruction,
terrifying the weaklings that fled out of his way. As their protection
disintegrated, he ventured in. He would find his way to the progenitor
with certainty.

He was met by a hail of bright pinpricks, weaving their way from an
equal in size, colored red, the shade of war and blood. It mocked him
with its less than useful attempts at attack, and he simply deprived it
of its arms. It screamed in a voice only he could hear, but it again
tried to attack him, in a blind charge. So he simply deprived it of
its head.

The next challenger that was gazed by his eyeless sockets was a little
different. It had no left arm, and it was a shade of blue, of the calm
of thought. In its hand was a small, round object, with characters
from a script he did not know, but he instantly knew what that pale
imitation was for. The challenger passed through his absolute
territory, but despite its colouring, it did not have the wisdom to see
his final defense. So he did much the same to it as he had done with
the last.

He was almost on his goal now. He could feel the calling of the true
Father as he forcefully beat down the last walls and came upon the
pitiful beings who had thought to blaspheme the creator's essence, with
the dolls they thought could challenge him. Though he had only
empty spaces where there should have been eyes, he could see the
expressions of final terror on their faces as death became him in their
eyes. When...

Death came for him.

Neither blue nor red, the incarnation of ferocity and vengeance came
out of nowhere, with much the same form as the last two challengers,
but infinitely more gruesome. And then it was merely a blur; the
torture of merciless attack, a moment of weakness, a strange
revivification...and then final death.

But even with the last bits of the vision, Shinji could hear the cries
for vengeance that were not his own, even as he was pulled into
another, different, one.

He was again not himself. He felt tiny...mocked, and on a shaky
foundation. But he could see 360 degrees all around him, and though he
knew he was the weakest, it would all change if he was to succeed where
others had failed.

Despite being the weakest, he was too large and ungainly to reach the
Father directly. No matter. Even though the toys of the bastards
could harm him, they posed no threat to him now. And no wall could
stand for long against his tears of self-pity, nursed so long
in isolation that they burned. So began his lament, crying out to the
progenitor in search of salvation, but then...

His weakness became the death of him.

As he left the vision, the same cry for vengeance resonated again in
his mind, both the one before and the one after, until they became so
intertwined and echoing in the expanding dark that they seemed one and
the same.

It was then that he hit the bottom, with nothing but the shock of
stopping to tell him. There was nothing of the pain of being smashed
against a hard surface. The pain did not recede, but something else
drew his attention, as he heard the cries of frustration, vengeance,
and pain whirl above him, drawing into the unmistakable shape of an
eye, staring at him without mercy. And yet another sight formed within
its dark depths, forming the image of a head...a white skull, with the
same empty spaces for eyes and a mouth as he had seen once before.

He did not know who or what created the phantasmagoria of horror that
now floated above him, stripping away his mind and leaving a poor,
bare, naked fear. But _it_ knew him.

^We know you now. And we know what you have done to us.^ A voice, or
two voices, or many voices, speaking in perfect unison.

Shinji did nothing. All he could do was watch and listen.

^You have known us before. But She is not with you now. And you
cannot stop us.^

Shinji was aware of heat. At first no more than a vague discomfort, it
was rapidly growing in intensity.

^You cannot control your doll. You fail to even notice the Traitor in
your midst, and accept her as one of your own even though she too would
have destroyed you all. Consider this our pittance to the inferior
species. We tell you the hour of your death, whence we come.^

Now the heat was unbearable; it felt as though his entire body was
aflame. And yet, through the blinding, burning pain, he could hear one
thing: a laugh. Rather, _two_ laughs. Half-crazed to begin with, now
utterly insane with the promise of long-awaited release. And in no way
human.

Shinji screamed.

* * *

Ariel let out a loud groan as consciousness found her again. She
definitely did _not_ feel like being awake, right now. Sleeping in a
chair had not been such a great idea, as now her body ached nearly
everywhere, and she hadn't even moved yet.

But then again, sleep was not quite so tantalizing, either. Her rest
had been plagued by strange dreams. The last such dream - of a warm
rain suddenly turning to acid, melting the land and everyone on it -
had been enough to shock her awake. She wasn't sure of what such a
vision could mean -

The rest of the world was beginning to intrude. Though she hadn't
opened her eyes yet, her other senses were waking up quickly. And now,
one sound in particular was grabbing her attention: the drawn-out
'beeeeeeeep' of a flatlined heart monitor.

Ariel's eyes snapped open, immediately going to the bed where Shinji
lay. Correction: where Shinji _had_ been lying. For where the leader
of the camp had previously been lying comatose, there was now nothing
but an empty bed. The electrodes that had been stuck to Shinji's body
were stretched out and abandoned on the floor, explaining why the heart
rate monitor read nothing.

She was on her feet in an instant, fighting off momentary dizziness as
the blood rushed to her head. Ariel stumbled over to the bed, blinking
away the last of sleep. She rested her hands on the white sheets,
sinking into the mattress as her eyes roved over the bed, looking for
any trace of Shinji Ikari. It was then that she saw it.

Her eyes cold, she reached out, gingerly taking the curled-up form of
the daddy longlegs off of the pillow. The bug was dead, she could tell
that much just from how it hung motionless from her fingers. Her gaze
drifted back down to the bed, lingering on the pillow where the imprint
of Shinji's head could still be seen. Her breath caught as something
registered.

She was out of the tent before the carcass of the daddy longlegs had
even hit the ground.

* * *

"Don't you have work do be doing?"

"Well..." Kensuke said, shrugging. "I guess so. But I think I need a
break from that."

"Heh heh. My kinda kid. Knows when to take time off."

"Really, Major? I mean, sir? I mean - "

"You're not under my command. Lewis is fine."

"O-okay, Lewis-san," Kensuke replied, grinning ear-to-ear.

They were currently standing nearly in the middle of the American side
of the camp, as evidenced by the camo fatigues nearly everyone wore and
the guns kept in plain view. They were both leaning against the side
of a dormant M1 tank, taking a cigarette break. Well, technically,
only one of them was on a cigarette break, as evidenced by the
smoldering cylinder between Lewis' fingers. But Kensuke rarely missed
an opportunity to talk with the American commander, these days. Lewis
didn't seem to mind him, at least.

"So, anyway," the younger of the two was going on, "you were saying
you're bringing in SAM batteries?"

"Yep. Surface-to-Air-Missiles can be fun. Might even be worth the
trouble, what with everyone telling me the charlies can fly."

"Charlies," Kensuke repeated. There was something intoxicating - to
him anyway - to hearing a _real_ military officer say that word. "So
then what about this tank?"

"Well, we only got a half-dozen of 'em. All we can spare, you know.
But they'll stop anything that moves, at least in my experience."

"Yeah, and I heard you can actually convert one of these things to find
land mines?"

"Yeah, I guess, though I doubt we'll be doing much of that out here.
Hey, you wanna drink, kid?"

Kensuke, who was still dazzled by the thought of seeing the hardware in
action, didn't respond for a minute. By the time he became aware that
Lewis had asked him a question, the American commander had taken a
flask from his hip and had a quick sip.

"Uh...sure, I guess..." Kensuke replied, slowly. He took the offered
flask and tilted it back, slowly, until he felt the liquid hit his
tongue. The second it did, he was sure his teeth started melting,
since that was the _only_ thing that could taste like this. He
coughed, managing to spit out most of it, but he still felt a fair
amount burn its way down his throat, hitting his stomach with the force
of a small thermonuclear device.

A heavy hand clapped him on his back, as Lewis took his flask back.
"_That_ wakes you up, don't it?" he asked. Kensuke didn't reply at
first, as it seemed his vocal cords had been vaporized.

"Keep that up, and I'll be needing to get you some of my hangover
cure," Lewis joked, leering at the boy.

Kensuke just coughed hoarsely, feeling his voice slowly come back,
along with his sense of taste. Lewis just clapped him on the back
again, laughing a bit.

"Guess that explains why...(cough)..._you're_ not hung over, right?"

"Bingo. You see, kid," Lewis began, shifting his position against the
tank, "Waaaay back when, when I was still a private tryin' not to get
his own ass shot off, me an' the boys'd go out drinking _every_
weekend. But you know, you can't get a promotion if you're all shit-
faced every Monday." He paused to take another sip from the flask.
"So I figured I'd try makin' something that'll beat even the worst
hangover the Army'll throw at you. Took me a few years, but I _did_
it." The man let out a short laugh. "And _damn_ can it wake you up
fast. I hear you can also use it to strip paint."

Kensuke's eyes widened a bit. "Wh...what's in it, then?"

Lewis waved a finger at him, like a parent telling a child 'no'.
"That's a secret, son. You see, half my guys use it to wake up, too.
And if told 'em what was in it, they prob'ly wouldn't use it anymore."

"Ha...so then is that what that yell from Misato-san's was, this
morning?"

"Yep. Lady overdid it a little, last night," Lewis said, shaking his
head. "Figured she could use some wake-up juice. Must've hit her
pretty hard, though. She okay?" he asked, looking at the boy
slantwise.

"As good as can be expected, I guess. She's not hung over."

"Enjoying ourselves?" came a feminine voice from in front of them.
Both of them looked up to see Maya standing there, quirking an eyebrow
at them.

"Hey there, Ibuki," Lewis called out, getting up quickly. "What's up?"

Maya let out a short sigh, resting one hand on her hip as gave them a
disapproving look. "I've come to deliver a report on the progress of
Unit-04's repairs, Major."

"Please," the man said, spreading his arms wide. "If this kid can call
me Lewis, then of course a young lady like yourself can."

Maya blinked once, then turned up her nose at him indignantly. "As I
was saying, Major," she continued, glancing down at the clipboard she
was holding. "It's been ascertained that although the backup batteries
are functional, the S2 organ of Unit-04 is completely destroyed, and
will remain nonfunctional until a suitable repair facility can be
located..."

Kensuke listened to the young woman prattle on, even as she went on
into the technical details he doubted even the pilots themselves would
understand. It was news about the Evas, and that was enough for him.
He couldn't say as much for the American commander, who took another
shot from his flask and leaned against the side of the tank, not even
appearing to pay attention. Yet it was still Kensuke who noticed the
motion off to the side, about a dozen meters from where they were
standing.

His eyes focused on Shinji, walking slowly towards some unseen point in
the distance. The boy's eyes were unfocused and unblinking. Stranger
still, he was only wearing his pants, seemingly unaware of the rocky
ground under his bare feet. His very walk seemed unnatural: step with
one foot, pause briefly, step with the next, pause, and so on. It was
almost like seeing a puppet on strings.

"Morning, Ikari-kun!" he called out, unwittingly interrupting Maya, who
gave him a narrow-eyed look of annoyance. He shrank away from the
woman, redd1ening a little under that gaze. He'd received more than
his fair share of _those_ from Hikari.

^Geez, do _all_ women have a 'crush male confidence' expression?^ he
wondered. ^Sure seems that way.^

Shinji, for his part, did nothing. He merely continued on at his odd
pace. Step-pause-step-pause-step...

"Hey, Ikari?" Kensuke asked, taking a few steps towards the other boy.
Still no response. Step-pause-step...

Even as he watched, Shinji passed several other people, out doing their
assigned duties. A few of them bid him good morning, a few of them
gave him odd looks at his state of near-undress. He didn't notice
them.

"Weird," Kensuke mumbled to himself, watching.

"Don't _he_ look screwed over," Lewis commented, arms crossed over his
chest. He looked down at Kensuke, completely ignoring the burning look
Maya was throwing him. ^Wish I knew how to do that,^ Kensuke thought
idly.

"He on something?" Lewis asked.

Kensuke looked back to the boy. "What do you - "

"You know. Crack? LSD? Maybe even sneakin' a little PCP, angel
dust?"

Kensuke stiffened, turning to face the American commander and trying
not to look intimidated by the other man's height advantage. "He's
_not_," he said, emphatically. "Shinji wouldn't do that to himself."

"Wouldn't be surprised if he was," the man said, shrugging. "Hell,
half my men are openly on some drug or another, and the other half
are just hiding it better." He paused for a minute, looking
unnaturally pensive. "Maybe _he_ needs a shot of that hangover
cure..."

Maya cleared her throat. "Umm...excuse me, Major?"

"Yeah?" he asked, facing the young woman again. "Sorry. Go on, Ibuki.
Say, once you're done, I'm headed out for a little patrol. You're
welcome to tag along." He glanced down to Kensuke. "And you too,
kid."

"Really?" Kensuke asked, beaming.

"Uh...I'll think about it, Major," Maya said, a little nervously.
"Now..." she paused, flipping through her pages even though she'd known
exactly where she was in the report. "Unit-04's synch ratio with its
Dummy plug is predicted to fall well into the nominal range, as the
linkages between the systems remain intact..."

Kensuke turned away from Shinji, going back to listening about the Eva.
It wasn't that he didn't care, it was just that he knew someone would
catch up to him eventually, and this was a rare opportunity, getting to
listen to technical details about Evangelions.

* * *

All accounted for, it took Ariel over half an hour to finally track
down Shinji. It was amazing how quickly even someone as well-
recognized as that boy could disappear in this camp. To compound
matters, she'd had to be very discreet. Telling everyone straight-out
that their leader had disappeared wouldn't be a good idea, if for no
other reason than the story would find its way back to Asuka.

^She assigns me one simple task, and I failed,^ Ariel thought, mentally
kicking herself. ^All I had to do was _watch_.^

So, she'd had to ask people if they'd seen Shinji wandering around.
She'd been rewarded with tips pointing her in all different directions.
Someone had seen him going off that way. Or no, it was the other way.
Or no, towards the Eva. No, it wasn't that way, either. It had been a
very frustrating thirty minutes. Finally, she'd given up and taken an
educated guess at where Shinji might be headed. And so, she finally
found him approaching the sea of LCL.

There he was, in the distance, trudging his slow way to where the land
ended. Ariel, having been running for most of the past half hour, let
out a relieved sigh at he sight of him and bent over, catching her
breath. But as she looked up, her eyes widened. Where Shinji was
headed, the land ended _very_ abruptly, in the form of a cliff
overhanging the sea.

Her tired limbs started moving again, accelerating her up to a sprint
as she closed the distance.

"Ikari!" she called out to him, as she grabbed onto his arm, holding
him in place.

To her credit, she achieved what many others hadn't been able to: she
got his attention. With speed she hadn't expected, he twisted,
throwing her off with such strength that she went tumbling to the
ground.

Shinji halted his slow advance towards the precipice, turning in place
to face her. Ariel for her part, struggled back to her feet, keeping a
safe distance between them this time.

"Where..." she paused to take a breath, trying to fill her strained
lungs. "Where are you going, Ikari-kun?"

Shinji stared at her for a long while before finally opening his mouth
to speak. "I...cannot...I must...go to them. I..." - he paused,
cutting off mid-sentence as though trying to find a word, but keeping
his dead stare on her - "...must go back," he finished.

"Well," she ventured, taking a cautious step towards him. "Why not
come back with me, then. People will be waiting for you."

Shinji continued staring blankly. "Not...back with them. Never...back
with them. I...have to...go..." he began walking again, taking a step
backwards, towards the edge of the cliff.

Ariel chanced another step. "Where?" she asked, trying to prod an
answer. "Where, Ikari-kun? Where are you going?"

He half-turned to face the sea, making a loose gesture in its general
direction. "I must...go...to them. They call...for me. Or else...the
pain won't end. For...anyone." Another step.

This time, Ariel held her ground. She just stared, not believing what
she'd just heard. "You can't be serious," she said, quietly.

"This is...the only way...to end it..." Step.

"You can't..." she began, then shook her head. "So...is that what
they're trying to do?" she asked, even as he took another step back.
She met his eyes, or tried to. "They want to take you from us?"

Step. "I must go..." Shinji continued, in a voice eerily devoid of all
expression. "It's useless...to fight anymore." Step.

"Ikari-kun! I think...I think I know what's going on. Are they inside
you?"

Step. "Must...go..."

"Ikari-kun, stop it! You're believing a lie, they _want_ you to do
this! I'll...I can help you! Just let me...let me..."

^Into your very innermost mind,^ she finished. ^If only I could still
break my way through a lilum's AT field.^ She felt a little guilty
just for thinking that. Forcing mental contact was no better than
rape. No, it was a million times worse. But, given the situation...

Shinji turned his head to one side, then slowly back the other way,
slowly shaking no. "Why...believe you? You...traitor." The last word
came out with some emphasis. Step. "They told me...you betrayed them.
Why trust someone like you? You'll...betray us, just like them. It's
just...a matter of time..." Step.

Again, Ariel paused, even as she saw Shinji was running out of ground.
Those words had hit a chord in her. ^If I can abandon my own
brethren...then could I betray the humans, too?^

She shook her head violently, shoving that doubt to the back of her
mind, though she was unable to dispel it. "That's only what _they_
told you!" she shouted at him.

Step.

"You can't believe them, Ikari-kun!"

Step.

"You don't need to do this! You'd be no better than...than..."

^Than me?^

Step. Rocks tumbling into space as his feet reached the edge.

"There is no other way..." he mumbled, before taking one more step, and
letting gravity have him.

Days afterwards, Ariel would still not be able to explain how she'd
been able to move so fast. Perhaps she'd been moving towards Shinji
already, and just hadn't known it, what with how her mind had been
churning. Perhaps the raw adrenaline had been enough to boost her
system. However she did it, she found herself suddenly at the edge,
reaching out desperately to grab him.

Contact. She clenched her fingers tightly, digging them into his flesh
as her other arm grabbed at the dirt, bracing herself for the impact
she knew was coming. Her shoulder was nearly jerked out of the socket
as Shinji's fall abruptly halted. Ariel let out a strained cry at the
sudden force.

Through eyes nearly clenched shut with the effort, she looked down to
him. She'd managed to grip his left wrist, holding him aloft over the
sea. Looking a little further down, she almost let him go. Down
there, it was just LCL. She'd been afraid there were rocks waiting at
the bottom, but as it seemed, ther was nothing but the placid surface
of the sea itself.

Placid? Even as she watched, the surface churned, with the force of
something other than the tide pushing at it. Waves rippled, moving and
shifting until they resolved into the form of -

A face.

No, not a face. More like a skull, with nothing but a pair of eye
holes and a gaping mouth. This mouth opened even wider, yawning open
to finally consume the boy hanging over it, protected only by the
strength of one girl's grip on him.

Ariel could feel that grip weakening, as her hand protested the huge
weight it was being forced to carry. Sweat, born of her exertion all
the way up to this moment, was running down her arm, collecting in her
palm, killing friction. But she willed her hand to tighten, willed
herself to hang on, just for a minute longer...

She pushed as hard as she could with her other arm on the ground,
trying to pull him up. It would have been easy if she'd been able to
get her legs under her, but she was on her stomach, unable to change
positions without letting go of Shinji. And, she thought, as a low,
inhuman moaning rose from the LCL below her, that was not an option.
They were waiting for her to quit, to let go.

She pulled, straining against the pull of gravity, but it was
worthless. She was shaking, a cold feeling running through her as she
began to admit to herself that maybe, just maybe, she wouldn't be able
to save him.

^I'm sorry, Asuka.^

Anger flooded her. Anger at her worthlessness, anger at her own
betrayal, anger at the rest of her brethren for trying something as
underhanded as this, anger at everything and everyone, just that it had
turned out this way. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was
shouting at Shinji, shouting anything she could think of, in a fury.

"What are you trying to do!" she screamed. "You're quitting, you
useless bastard? You're not worth my coming out here! You're not
worth Asuka, or even that monster Zero! You'd throw them all away!"

Shinji, who'd been looking disinterestedly down at the face in the LCL,
now looked up to Ariel's tanned face, now beginning to glisten with
unbidden tears going down her cheeks. Ariel clenched her hand on his
wrist, using what had to be the last of her strength.

"You haven't changed at all! You just want the easy way out, is it?!"

Shinji's eyes regarded her, unseeing.

Their palms were together now, slipping centimeter by centimeter. In a
moment nothing but her fingers would be holding him, and a moment after
that, nothing. Ariel's eyes hurt, from exertion and frustration. He
was slipping away...

"Damn you, Ikari! WAKE UP!"

She felt something move under her fingers. Like a current, steady and
rapid. Recognizing that feeling, she reached for it, through the
physical connection of her hand to his. It was a mental exercise, no
less taxing than the physical duress she was under already. But as she
threw everything she had left into it, she felt his mind graze hers.
She caught a glimpse of rampant disorder, in a place she knew was not
her. But even as she touched it, the chaos of his mind began to
reorder itself. Unable to hang on to the mental feeling any longer,
she receded, snapping back to herself.

Below her, Shinji blinked. He looked up at her again, his eyes
regaining their focus. These same eyes widened as the boy realized
there was nothing under him. He let out a brief cry, before clenching
his hand onto hers, then grabbing onto her wrist with his other hand.

"Ikari-kun?" she asked, almost disbelieving.

Shinji let out another cry. "Wh-what's happening?"

"I'll...I'll explain later," she said, pulling up again, with
everything she had. Still not enough; even though he wasn't slipping
anymore, the boy was just too heavy for her to lift one-armed. "I'll
tell you...in a minute...but _you're_ the one...who's explaining to
Asuka..."

"Jesus, kid!"

Ariel almost let go with surprise. That voice hadn't been Shinji's, or
her own. Next to her, another body appeared, skidding to a halt and
going down to its knees on the edge. Ariel recognized him quickly as
Lewis.

"What're you idiots doing?" he shouted at them. But even as he was
doing this, he was also getting on his stomach, reaching down as far as
he could with one arm. "C'mon..." he said. "C'mon, just gimme your
hand...good boy." Shinji released Ariel's wrist and grabbed wildly,
Lewis catching the hand in a crushing grip. The American commander
turned to look over at Ariel. "Ready, girl?" He didn't wait for so
much as a nod. "One, two...THREE!"

They both pulled, leaning back and getting their legs under them. With
the assistance of the muscular American, Shinji was suddenly much
lighter. He was hoisted back over the edge in no time flat.

Shinji was hyperventilating. "I...I...thank you, I - " he was cut off
as Ariel slapped him, hard. The girl's face, screwed up with anger,
suddenly turned to an expression of horror as it turned out that the
force of the blow was such that he lost his balance, nearly careening
back over the edge.

Lewis' quick reflexes saved the boy this time. The American grabbed
him by the collar, pulling him back to his feet with one hand as his
other hand went to his hip.

Ariel was already going. "You idiot!" she shouted at him. "Did you
know what you were doing? You were going to throw it all away, just
for - "

A sharp metallic 'click' could be heard, accompanying the sound of a
gun sliding out of its holster. Ariel soon found herself staring down
the barrel of a .45 with the safety off. She wisely stopped talking.

"Look, kiddies," Lewis said, slowly and evenly. "I saw that whole mess
back there, and at the moment, I dunno which one of you to shoot. So
why don't you _both_ just shut up. Ibuki?"

Maya appeared behind him. "Uh...y-yes, Major?"

"_You_ take this one," he said, shoving Shinji at her. The boy
stumbled and only just caught himself before he could crash into the
woman.

"And _I'm_ escorting this one," he continued, gesturing with his gun at
Ariel. "I personally got some questions to ask the two of them."

When all three of them remained silent, frozen to the ground by a
mixture of fear and shock, he threw a quick grin at Maya. "See, didn't
I tell you patrols could be exciting?" With that, he took the lead,
prodding Ariel towards the waiting Land Rover. Maya took the hint and
started leading Shinji after them. Inside the truck, Kensuke watched
with a shocked expression, frozen to his seat.

* * *

Shinji's head was pounding with a nasty headache. This was helped in
no way by the pounding it was receiving from a certain irate redhead.

"Baka, baka, baka, BAKA!!" Asuka shouted, punctuating each word with
another knock on his skull. "What the _hell_ were you doing?"

Shinji was doing his best to cover his sore head, but Asuka just kept
knocking his hands out of the way. "I don't - " he tried.

"Stop!" Asuka commanded, with another punch. "Don't you _dare_ try
answering me!"

"But you asked - "

"I said _stop_!"

It actually didn't take Asuka long to get tired of hitting him. She
soon resorted to verbally chewing him out. Since half of what she said
was in German, Shinji could only nod periodically, being sure never to
make eye contact. Looking at those burning blue eyes would only
antagonize the girl, who seemed convinced at least for the moment that
he'd capitulated to her superior grasp of the situation.

"Just think what would've happened if Ariel hadn't been there!" she was
shouting now. "What then? Huh?" She shook her head, eyes held
tightly shut. She turned her back to him, squaring her shoulders.

"Just...you idiot," she said, more quietly. Shinji thought he heard a
quaver in her voice.

"What's it really worth to you, huh?" she asked. Now that quaver could
have been an illusion. "What's all our...work, worth, if you're
stepping off a cliff?" One hand came up to her face, wiping something
away. With her back to him, he couldn't see what she was doing.
Rubbing a smudge off her forehead, maybe.

Shinji wanted to say something; he could almost feel the anticipation
hanging, as the girl waited for him to try and explain himself. But
the words were slow in coming. He couldn't understand what had
happened himself; he didn't even remember it, in fact. What chance did
he have of explaining it to another person?

Now Asuka was looking over her shoulder, one narrowed eye staring back
at him. Shinji's thoughts became even more scrambled with the addition
of this extra pressure. He looked down at his knees, still searching
in vain for what to say.

As Asuka looked away from him again, he felt his chance slip by.
"Idiot," she mumbled. "So _that's_ how it is, huh?" She started
walking away. Shinji rose to his feet, watching her leave and still
not knowing what to say, or even if it would make any difference, now.

"Asuka, I - " he began.

The girl whirled on him just as she reached the exit of the tent.
"_You_ just stay there, Third Child!" she shouted at him, making people
all around look up at the commotion. Shinji winced at the emphasis
she'd placed on 'child'.

"I'll lead you back home when everyone _else_ is through with you," she
continued, half-turning away. "I sure can't leave you alone, anymore."

Whole minutes after she'd left, Shinji was still just staring at the
vacant air she'd just recently been occupying. He covered his face
with his hands, trying to block out the world for just a minute as he
leaned back, lying down on the bed.

So _now_ what? Asuka hadn't called him 'Third Child' in years. He
could still see her face, furious with him, but a little different
around the eyes...sadness, betrayal, maybe. Even after all this time,
he still couldn't tell what was going on in her head. Maybe Touji
would understand women better...

* * *

Asuka really didn't have any destination in mind; she was too angry to
think, really. Her mind was completely occupied with coming up for new
curses to use on Shinji when she saw him next. Her feet still knew the
way to go, however. Somehow, before she knew it, she was on the
American side of the settlement. And approaching a certain girl she'd
wanted to see the moment she was through with Shinji.

"Hey," she said, getting Ariel's attention. The girl was sitting on
the ground, leaning up against a pile of recently emptied shipping
crates. She turned her head, looking dully at Asuka for a moment
before recognition flickered in her eyes.

"Hello," she said, quietly, before turning away again. She slowly
brought up a flask in one hand, raising it to her lips for an instant
before bringing it back down. Her eyes squeezed shut for a moment as
she swallowed.

"What's that?" Asuka asked, sitting down next to the girl.

Ariel paused for a moment before answering, as though she were thinking
something over. "Lewis gave it to me once he was through...questioning
me. He said it looked like I needed it."

"Typical male reasoning," Asuka said, smirking a little. "Not only do
they know _everything_, they know you can fix anything with either
bullets or booze."

Ariel let out a brief snort, not really a laugh despite the sarcasm.
She tried to take another sip, but Asuka's hand flashed out, snatching
the flask out of her hand before it could reach her mouth.

"Now _this_ is the last thing we need," she preached. She stared at
Ariel, who'd gone back to staring blankly forwards. A moment passed,
of relative silence.

"I'm sorry," Ariel said.

"Thank you," Asuka said, simultaneously.

Another pause, this one a bit more tense. Both girls looked at each
other, then looked away for a moment, before they both cracked a grin.

"You first," Ariel said.

"You heard me," Asuka shot back, batting the other girl's arm. "And
don't you _dare_ apologize. Without you, my Shinji-chan'd be - "

"You told me to watch over him, and I couldn't do - "

"Stop." A simple command. Asuka waited until Ariel had quieted down.
"First, don't interrupt me while I'm _thanking_ you. Second, don't
apologize."

"But I - "

"Don't make me repeat myself."

Ariel quieted down again, but this time Asuka thought she could see a
hint of a smile on the girl's face. It could have just been her
imagination, though.

"So what happened with you?" Asuka asked, finally. "So they
'questioned' you, huh?"

"They wanted to know what I was doing on a cliff with the leader of the
settlement," Ariel explained with a shrug. "They asked me all sorts of
questions, and they only spoke English."

Asuka grimaced. "Ugh. I could never get the hang of that language.
To many contractions and too much slang." She paused. "But I'm still
better at it than half the other people here," she finished, sticking
her nose up a little.

"I know. During the questioning, that man, the commander, left his gun
on the table. He didn't say anything, or even touch it. But I was
looking at it the whole time, and knew he was telling me I was lucky he
didn't just shoot me then."

"Little lady," Asuka said with a deep voice and her fists on her hips,
mimicking Lewis. "Did he call you that?"

Ariel thought about it, then nodded. "Once, I believe."

Asuka shook her head. "That guy gets on my nerves, you know?"

Footsteps crunched up towards them. Ariel looked up long enough to see
who it was, then nodded at Asuka. "I know the feeling," she said. "I
know it _all_too_ well," she finished, as the other person made it up
to them.

"Hello there, Ariel-san," Kaoru said cheerfully, smiling down at her.
"Good to see you're doing well."

Ariel shot him an annoyed look, before resting her head on one hand,
convieniently blocking out all view of the boy.

"I heard what happened earlier," he said, continuing. "It was a very
interesting story."

Ariel let out a quiet sigh, before pushing herself to her feet.
"Goodbye," she stated bluntly, starting off. Asuka was by her side an
instant later.

"Please, Ariel-san," Kaoru continued, trailing behind them. "I'd just
like to tell you something."

"You don't _need_ to," Ariel said, speeding up. "I know what it is."

"Really?"

She stopped so short that Asuka overshot by a good three steps before
turning around. Ariel looked over her shoulder, giving him the same
annoyed expression. "What?" she asked, her voice venemous.

Kaoru took a breath. "Thank you."

Ariel blinked. Her annoyed look vanished in an instant, replaced by
one of cautious inquisitiveness, as she turned to face him.

Kaoru nodded at her, extending a hand. "Thank you for helping Shinji-
kun this morning, Ariel-san. I'm glad you were there for him."

Ariel blinked again. She became dimly aware of Asuka nudging her,
prodding her to go ahead. With another brief sigh, she reached out and
took Kaoru's hand, only intending for the briefest of a handshake. But
Kaoru's fingers closed tightly on her hand, holding her in place.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to talk to you about it later," he
said, giving her a polite smile, much in opposition to his tight grip
on her. He leaned in closer. "So you can tell me _exactly_ what it is
that happened," he whispered to her ear. He pulled back, giving her
another smile that, though still friendly, still gave Ariel a feeling
of apprehension. Only then did he release her hand.

"Until then," he said, waving as he walked off.

"Well..." Asuka said, almost before he was out of earshot. "What do
you think of that?"

Ariel said nothing, just stared at her palm, flexing her fingers.

"Interesting," Asuka commented, watching this. "So, are you going to
take him up on it?"

"Eh?" Ariel asked, just now noticing that Asuka was talking.

"The guy just asked you out," the other girl said, tilting her head in
Kaoru's direction. "What're you going to say?"

Ariel broke eye contact. "I don't know," she replied, her voice almost
bitter.

"Dunno about that kid," Asuka continued, watching Kaoru's receding
form. "He's a little...weird. Living with _Ayanami_, of all people.
If he were anyone else, I'd have a big fat 'PERVERT' branded right on
him," she said, spreading her hands as though marking out the size of
the mark. "But...I don't know."

"And neither do I, Asuka. I'll...think about it."

Some distance off, someone else watched the girls leave. He stayed
there until they turned around the corner of a shelter and were out of
sight. But he also watched Kaoru walking away, the boy as carefree as
ever. He'd seen the boy earlier today, talking to Ariel in front of
the medical tent. It'd been difficult to tell just what had passed
between those. Perhaps a fight, or perhaps they were both just nervous
around each other. Now that his mind had had most of the day to work
the situation over and distort the facts, he was convinced that it had
looked like Kaoru had been holding her hand in front of the medical
tent, if only briefly.

A low sigh of defeat could be heard.

Light reflected off the observer's glasses as he walked off for another
part of the camp. He needed to think.

* * *

Unit-04 had become a swarm of activity. The downed giant was still
lying where it had been dropped by American helicopters days earlier,
but a small camp had sprung up around it. Tents had been put up almost
as soon as the Eva had been dropped, with generators and electronic
equipment being brought in as necessary. Now, some more permanent
structures of wood and concrete were being raised, giving the workers a
more hospitable work environment.

The Eva itself was still a mess, the hole through its torso still
gaping wide. But now wires of all sizes were streaming out of it.
They lay everywhere, forming a treacherous network of spaghetti on the
ground. But they were necessary; on the other end of the wires were
computers and generators, all being used to try and restore some
modicum of functionality to the Eva.

Kaoru liked coming here. It was fun for him to watch the people
bustling around the white armored titan, trying to repair the very
thing which, not too long ago, had been their enemy. Currently, he was
standing on a catwalk which had been set up over the chest.

A slight vibration on the platform signaled the arrival of another
person. Glancing to the side without turning his head, Kaoru saw Rei
coming up to him.

"Good morning," he said, looking back to the Eva underneath them.
"Coming to see this with me?"

Rei said nothing, simply stopped about a meter off to his left and
rested her arms on the railing, looking off into space without really
focusing on anything.

"What did you make of Shinji-kun's episode earlier?" Rei asked,
quietly, after a few minutes of silence.

Kaoru hesitated a bit, glancing at her again at the word 'Shinji-kun'.
Finally, he answered. "I suspect simple fatigue," he said, sounding
more sure of his answer than he was. "I was rather intrigued that Ni-
san was with him."

Rei's only reply was in the form of a nod. Again, the two fell silent,
one feeling that there was nothing to be said, the other trying to
decide what to say next.

^I will have to conduct further investigations of Unit-00 later,^ Kaoru
reasoned. ^There is no need to burden Rei with any ungrounded
concerns.^

He'd had a look at Unit-00 earlier that day, synching with it briefly
to see if there were any problems. He couldn't stop thinking about
that strange feeling he'd gotten last night, just before he'd managed
to wake up Rei and escort her back to her shelter. He did not like
jumping to conclusions, but he couldn't resist wondering whether or not
that odd feeling and Shinji's behavior today were related.

But again, these were not concerns he wanted Rei to have.

Finally, Kaoru found the right words. "And did it bother you?"

Rei shook her head no. "I see no reason to be concerned."

"Considering how late he was likely awake last night, it is the only
explanation I have," Kaoru agreed, nodding for emphasis. "But..." he
began, only now turning his head to look over at her. "How have you
been feeling?"

Rei did nothing, at first. It was almost as though she'd forgotten
Kaoru existed. But after a long moment, she closed her eyes, holding
them shut for a few seconds, in a sort of prolonged blink.

"Last night..." she started, "...I nearly said...the wrong thing." Her
voice was calm, but Kaoru could tell something was wrong from the way
she hesitated.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Shinji-kun asked me what I wanted," she replied, standing up a bit
straighter and leaning forwards on her palms. "I told him that I
wished to know what it was I felt."

Kaoru's mouth quirked, in a quickly repressed smile. "Really?" he
asked, turning to look back at the Eva. "And how is that 'the wrong
thing'?"

Another pause, this one shorter than before. "Because what I feel may
have changed," she said, her tone still calm, but quieter. "This
morning, when I awoke, I felt...much as I did before."

"Before?"

"Before Third Impact," Rei answered. "There may be lingering
sentiments...but they feel as though they are hidden, now. Even from
me."

Now Kaoru's mouth quirked in the other direction. "That is
disconcerting."

"I see no reason to be concerned," Rei stated, repeating the same
phrase from before.

"Why so?"

"Whatever may happen to me, it is likely inevitable," Rei answered.
She then went quiet, seemingly satisifed that that was a sufficient
answer.

Kaoru closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head slightly. But he
said nothing.

"I must go," he said, stepping away from the railing. "I have...other
things to attend to, Rei."

Rei only nodded at this, and even then only slightly. Kaoru's gaze
lingered on her for a moment before he turned and headed for the end of
the catwalk.

He was in the process of trying to figure out what 'other things' he
had to worry about when he remembered Shinji's plight. Since Asuka had
not been with the boy earlier, Kaoru assumed she was done with him, at
least for the moment. He elected to see how Shinji had fared against
what must have been a lover's spat of epic proportions.

The best place to start would be the shelter Shinji and Asuka shared.
He immediately set off in that direction.

It didn't take him long to reach the shelter, but he found it empty.
Kaoru tried his next best guess: the medical tent. As it turned out,
this time he was right.

He found Shinji inside the tent, sitting almost motionless on the bed.
The boy's hair was a mess, and his clothes appeared to have just
recently been pulled on. But the worst part was the look on his face:
he looked utterly dejected, having given up on doing anything else for
the rest of the day.

However, Kaoru was still able to get Shinji's attention, beckoning that
he come outside. Shinji seemed hesitant at first, but finally rose and
joined his friend.

"What is it, Kaoru-kun?" Shinji asked. The shattered quality of his
voice almost exactly matched the expression on his face. But there was
also a note of relief, of seeing at least one friendly face today.

"Nothing much," Kaoru answered, putting his hands into his pockets.
"You simply appeared bored, that is all."

Shinji managed a tiny shrug. "Well, I'm just waiting," he said,
dejectedly. "Waiting for someone. She said she'd come back here,
and...well, I need to talk to her."

"Who?"

Shinji paused before answering. "Asuka. She left a while ago, and she
told me to stay here. Said she can't trust me by myself, anymore."

"Well...I believe she was just overreacting, Shinji-kun. Soryu just
needs time to cool off. How are you feeling, by the way?"

"All right, I guess," Shinji replied, rubbing the back of his head.
"But I don't want to take my chances. I think I'd be better off
staying here, you know."

Kaoru cocked an eyebrow at his friend. "She will not be returning for
some time, Shinji-kun. I saw her talking with her friend Ariel just a
moment ago."

"Yeah," Shinji said, absentmindedly. "That's someone else I need to
talk to. I can't believe what...you know, she did for me. Like Asuka
said, I can't thank Ni-san enough."

"Yes, but as I said, they are occupied," Kaoru answered quickly, trying
to brush this line of conversation aside. He started taking a few
steps away, watching to see what Shinji would do. "But why are you
looking for Soryu now if you had the opportunity to speak with her
earlier?"

"...I'm just...nervous, that's all," he explained. "Couldn't find the
guts to tell her this morning, I guess." Shinji remained in place for
a moment, and then his feet began to move, following Kaoru apparently
of their own accord. Kaoru nodded slightly, at this.

"Tell her what?" he asked, trying to keep Shinji talking.

"Nothing," Shinji answered, a little too quickly. He shook his head.
"It's not your problem, Kaoru-kun."

Kaoru thought it over, finally nodding silently. He kept walking as he
sorted things out in his head, knowing that if he stopped then he might
never get Shinji to start walking again. But if he couldn't come up
with an answer soon, he'd get the same result.

"It's about Rei, isn't it?" he asked the other boy.

Shinji made it one more step before he stopped dead. Kaoru's eyes
narrowed at the shocked look he was receiving. ^I guessed correctly,^
he thought to himself. Never mind that Shinji had stopped walking; he
got the feeling this was more important than getting his friend some
fresh air.

"Uh...well, that is..." Shinji stammered.

Kaoru put on a slight smile and gave a nod. "Come, Shinji-kun," he
said, tilting his head to one side. "If I know that much, could you
tell me the rest?"

Shinji averted his eyes, his mouth going tight. Just as the boy was
beginning to shake his head, Kaoru pulled out his other trick.

"_I_ could talk to Soryu for you," he offered. "Of course, I would
have to guess at most of it. But still..." he finished, beginning to
turn away.

"No, wait a minute, Kaoru-kun," Shinji blurted out, jogging over to
Kaoru and putting one hand on the boy's shoulder. Kaoru smiled
inwardly, hearing the tiny note of panic in his friend's voice. ^He is
so easy to tease that I cannot resist sometimes. I see why Misato-san
does the same.^

"Here, I can tell you," he said, leading Kaoru further off. "I guess
it'll help to clear out my head. I just...I don't know what to say to
Asuka," he said, shaking his head helplessly, as he walked. "I don't
know where to start, or how to put it."

"Then just say what happened."

"That wouldn't work," Shinji replied, immediately. "Asuka would...I
don't know...get the wrong idea. She'd take it out on me. Or worse,
on Rei."

Kaoru quirked an eyebrow, turning his head to study Shinji's face as he
walked alongside the boy. It proved to be a pointless effort; Shinji's
brow was furrowed, and his lips were tight. The boy was nervous, but
Kaoru had been able to guess at that much five minutes ago.

"I went to go talk to Rei last night," he finally began, once they were
clear of the activity surrounding the Eva. "It looked like she'd been
having a rough night," he explained. "With people calling her
'Ayanami-sama,' and not leaving her alone. I decided I should see how
she was doing.

"And that's just what I did," he continued, after a short pause.
Shinji held up his hands, not knowing what else to say. "But somehow
the conversation got around to something else. I ended up asking her
what it was she wanted, and..." he shook his head, closing his eyes as
though trying to block out the world and all the madness it threw at
him.

"And what?" Kaoru asked, deciding to try pressing the issue.

Shinji shook his head. "I ran away," he said, a bitter note entering
his voice. He put on a sad smile. "I was just trying to help her,
and...I ran away. Again."

Kaoru just "hm"'ed a response to this. But Shinji continued, anyway.

"It's just...I don't know. Maybe it was the beer. Those Americans
know how to get drunk, don't they?" Shinji asked, giving Kaoru a
nervous smile. The gray-haired boy kept his expression deadpan,
silently urging Shinji to continue with what he'd been saying.

"Well..." Shinji tried to say. "The way she...I mean, how she..." he
shook his head. "See what I mean?" he said, glancing at Kaoru. "I
just don't know how to put it."

"Really?" Kaoru asked, as they continued walking. Now they were even
leaving the settlement behind, wandering off towards the sea of LCL.

Shinji turned his head away from Kaoru, looking at a spot on the ground
a few meters in front of him. "Give me a minute to think about it," he
muttered.

"Of course, Shinji-kun," Kaoru said, amicably. "But at least allow me
to keep walking with you."

Shinji said nothing, merely continued on, lost in his thoughts. As it
turned out, he needed much longer than 'a minute' to sort things out.
He just kept walking, seemingly hypnotized by the synchronized rhythm
of their footsteps.

Shinji halted as he noticed sand under his feet. His eyes regaining
their focus, he looked around, seeing the familiar orange sea
stretching out in front of him.

Kaoru laughed a little, seeing Shinji's surprise that they'd come out
so far. "We've had our exercise, at least," he said, plopping down on
the sand. Shinji followed suit a moment later.

"Have you found the right words yet?" Kaoru asked quietly, after a
quiet moment. Shinji could only shake his head, pulling his knees up
to his chest.

"Thanks for listening to me, at least, Kaoru-kun," Shinji said,
apologetically. "I know you probably have things you'd rather be
doing."

"Perhaps. But I know you would do the same for me, Shinji-kun."

Shinji nodded. "It's just...I don't know what I'm going to say to
Asuka. I can't avoid her. She doesn't deserve that. But...if she
were here right now, I don't know what I'd say to her."

Kaoru looked out at the sea, organizing his thoughts. Finally, he got
to his feet and turned to go. But before he started off, he asked one,
simple question:

"And if Rei were here right now, what would you say to her?"

Kaoru saw Shinji blink in response to that, and saw the boy's breathing
pause for a moment. Nodding to himself, Kaoru started walking away.
^Now to go ask Rei just what _did_ happen.^

But Shinji didn't move. He just sat there, on the beach, watching as
the sun slowly came down towards the horizon.

Though he may have appeared calm on the outside, inside his thoughts
were a mess. Much as he tried to explain it away, one thing remained:
the image of how Rei had looked last night. And as much as he tried,
he couldn't forget that he'd thought she was beautiful.

That one, random thought stuck in his head, spawning a host of other
things to consume his consciousness: ^What does that mean?^ ^Was I
just tired?^ ^Am I allowed to think that?^ ^But I'm with Asuka, I
shouldn't even _look_ at other girls like that...^

Given, he was able to see other people as attractive. Misato _did_
have a certain allure, even though she was a decade older than him.
Hikari was cute; he could definitely see what Touji saw in her. But
these were just platonic observations...like looking at art, or
something. It meant nothing. Mostly. So if he thought Rei was
beautiful, what of it?

So then...why did he feel so guilty over it?

He tried to picture Asuka's face in his mind. It didn't take long.
The girl had many expressions, of anger, taunting, haughty, and - when
she thought he wasn't looking - compassion. That last was the rarest,
of course, but at the same time the most precious. He'd known from the
day he'd seen her that she was very attractive, and he was constantly
reminded of this by her immense popularity. He nodded to himself,
silently consenting that she, too, was beautiful. The realization
didn't slap him in the face, like it had last night; he just naturally
concluded that. He'd been with her long enough to know.

Unbidden, a memory of Rei's face came to mind, from the night before.
He didn't feel the sudden shock of realization this time, of suddenly
having the ground taken out from under him as he saw something he
hadn't seen before. But it still lingered in his mind; as sudden as
that thought last night had been, he couldn't find a way to convince
himself it was false.

Of course, he also couldn't help thinking that she supposedly looked
like his mother had. He only had a few memories of his mother, all
hazy either from age or from getting blocked out to save him from pain.
There were no pictures, he knew that much. But still, he couldn't help
feeling like Rei's face was familiar to him. So then what did that
mean? Was he allowed to think someone with his mother's face was
attractive?

He'd concluded, long before Rei had come back, that he wasn't going to
think of the girl as his mother reincarnated; that wasn't fair to
either Rei or his mother. But, seeing her last night...it was
disturbing. Was something wrong with him?

He let out a breath, shuddering a little. He didn't want to have to
think these thoughts. He should just be happy with the way things
were. Besides, Rei was not really someone who'd be able to appreciate
being called beautiful; she didn't care what people thought of her.

^Stop being afraid of me.^

The blue-haired girl's voice rang in his mind as another memory
surfaced. Yes, she'd said that. So then..._did_ she care what he
thought of her? Maybe. She'd also told him he could use her first
name; so did she think he was a friend? Again, maybe. Or perhaps that
was just how Rei was.

He shook his head, trying to physically throw out all these confusing
thoughts. But they wouldn't leave him alone. Resting his chin on his
knees, he stared out over the sea of LCL, watching as the burning ball
of the sun slowly made its way down to the horizon. How long had he
been here, anyway? When he'd left the site of Unit-04, it couldn't
have been much past noon. It had to be getting late in the year, if
the sun was setting this soon.

His stomach unceremoniously began to growl, but he ignored it. He felt
some unnamed desire keeping him here. A little hunger was worth it, if
he could just sit here for a while longer.

It had been a while since he'd taken the time to watch a sunset. He'd
usually been too busy or too tired to bother. But now, he figured he
could waste the time. Slowly, the sky shifted from blue to a mix of
orange and red, and slowly, the sun began to sink beneath the waves of
LCL.

He stayed there a while longer, watching the sky darken. It wasn't
long before the moon became visible in the sky, throwing its pale light
down where the sunlight had been what felt like moments earlier.
Shinji let out a small sigh of frustration, seeing this.

"Hey, Shin-man," came a voice from behind him. Shinji jumped at the
noise, turning quickly to see Kensuke striding up to him.

"Uh...hi..." he said, cautiously.

"What're you doin' way out here? I've been lookin' for you."

"Nothing...it's just..."

"Yeah, yeah," Kensuke continued, almost as though Shinji hadn't spoken.
He grabbed the other boy's arm, dragging him to his feet. "Well,
c'mon, let's get back. Have you eaten yet?" As though in response to
this, Shinji's stomach growled again.

Shinji let himself be led along, but at the same time tried to continue
his thought. "It's just...I can't tell."

"Can't tell what?" Kensuke asked, as he half led, half dragged Shinji
back towards the camp.

"I can't tell...which I like more. The sunset, or the moonrise."

Kensuke paused long enough to give Shinji a confused look. "Whatever,
man," he said, not understanding. "But hey, do you have a minute?"

"...sure. What is it?"

"Well," the boy tried to begin, but cut off. "Well..." he tried again.
"Suppose there were a girl you thought you liked..."

"Yes?" Shinji asked, unable to keep from getting a little nervous.

"...but it looked like some other guy might be interested, too."
Pause. "And this guy looks more...you know, her type. And cooler than
you are. It's just...well, what would _you_ do, Shinji?"

"Well...that's kind of...hard to answer right here. Can I think about
it?"

"Sure. But I mean, this guy is _way_ cooler. She...well, say the girl
looked like she liked combat machines - "

"Then she'd be right up your alley, right?"

Kensuke shrugged helplessly. "You'd think. But this guy, he...he
doesn't just _watch_ machines. He actually _pilots_ them. So, you
see..."

Shinji was actually happy to hear his friend out; as long as he was
dealing with someone else's problems, he didn't have to face his own.
But it was about then that fate stepped in.

It started with a vague sensation in the small of his back. He had
experienced it a number of times before, but until recently he had paid
it little mind. Now, it felt just as it did before, but with a bit
of...bite. Like the tiniest bit of ice placed under his skin: not
painful, but not fading, either. Shinji tried to scratch that spot as
Kensuke continued on, but the scratching had no effect, until something
as cold as death burst from the tiny spot, overwhelming his nerves and
freezing his body.

He doubled over as his body convulsed painfully. His vision flared,
and breath came short, as he got a sensation, that something had tried
to touch him...

"Hey. Hey! Are you alright?"

Shinji found he was on the ground, looking at a worried Kensuke.

"Ikari! Don't you scare me like that. One moment you were scratching
your back, the next you're fainting! _Again!_

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Started: January 1, 2002
Version 1 Ended: February 12, 2002
Version 2 Ended: March 1, 2002
Version 3 Ended: May 20, 2002
Version 4 Ended: May 21, 2002
Version 5 Ended: June 19, 2002

Thanks go to Avatar of Dragonia, Heavyarms Kai, and Judging Eagle for
prereading, as always. Extra thanks go to Avatar of Dragonia for his
suggestion scenes for this chapter, and to Heavyarms Kai, who
shouldered most of the prereading burden this time around.

Web site address: http://www.angelfire.com/anime4/shinjirei/index.html
AND http://www.geocities.com/otakusadist/index.html. Sorry about all
the relocations, it's just I can't seem to please whomever keeps
deleting my sites.

I should also mention that the Tako Balls, i.e. the awards given to Eva
fics,are being held again. Go to http://www.darkscribes.org/takoballs
to see what's up. Also, please vote for me. ^_^

e-mail address: otakusadist@hotmail.com