Chapter One was really weird, short, and well...weird...Hopefully Chapter Two will be better...as we descend into...Madness.

And by the way, review this, you bastards! Why is it I've seen awful, AWFUL fics with like 3 chapters and 200 reviews, and I write 10 chapters for NGE: Madness and get like only seven reviews?!

Grrrrr!

And I'm not saying Madness is great...it's just kind of not a piece of crap like Fate of Destruction...

But I digress.

Let's start the show!

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or its characters. Gainax does, and they rock. Who else could create both Evangelion and FLCL?!

The Ruins of Tokyo 3, Japan

Misato Katsuragi's Apartment

Shinji Ikari rose from his position next to the large wooden dinner table, staring out the glass partition of the patio. Behind him three places had been set with food, napkins, and utensils.

He knew they would never come back, they had left him forever, abandoned him. He had failed.

He stared up into the shimmering sky, staring at the red ring in the sky with a sad smile.

They had all abandoned him, even Asuka. He still remembered waking up next to the beautiful girl on the cold beach sand, holding her hand and softly speaking to her.

The Third Child smiled as he stared up at the sky, an odd grin dancing across his face.

There was white hand in his right hand and squeezed it for strength, speaking aloud.

"I'll never see them again..."

The world seemed silent except for his voice.

"It's better to think of it this way..."

He squeezed her hand again, smiling grimly.

"I'm still alive, so I'll keep on living..."

He cocked his head over to his left side, and in the distance he could see the glimmering specter of the First Child hovering over the water, exactly as she had been when he had first met her.

But when he had awoken, the cold hand that he had clutched had disappeared, taking along with it, Asuka. She had probably awoken to him, clutching his hand, and then recoiling in disgust. He realized she had always despised him. There was no doubt of that.

"Hey Shinji, wanna kiss?"

"No...It was all a game to you..."

"I hate you! I hate everyone!"

Shinji smiled sadly.

"There was never any hope for us...for me, for anything...Nobody ever cared for me..."

He had come here shortly after Asuka had abandoned him; thinking maybe she would return here...He had been foolish to think even Third Impact had changed her.

Shinji walked out into the patio, staring down on the empty streets. They were completely empty, no sign of any life, cars and debris precariously strewn all around. Shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, all empty shells where human flesh had resided were all over the place, along with a shock of red-hair, perhaps a wig, that seemed to shiver.

"Wait?! A moving wig? No! It has to be her!"

Shinji dashed out the front door, bypassing the destroyed elevator and dashing down the stairs. He spun around stairwell after stairwell, until he burst out into the cold night air, his heart pumping rapidly as his breath floated out visibly in front of him.

Sure enough, slumped against an upturned van was a vision of beauty and impecunious. A starving angel.

He reached out slowly towards her, unsure of what to do, brushing his hand against her cheek.

"Asuka?"

A shiver passed throughout her body, but she made no other movements.

"Asuka?!"

He clenched his fists, stiffening as he finally decided what to do. If she was conscious she would've killed him for this, but he had no choice.

Even though he had just survived the apocalypse, he couldn't help but blush as he picked up her surprisingly light body and began to lug it towards the stairs with both hands, trying not to touch any promiscuous places.

After what seemed like hours, he finally reached his floor, pushing through the open entrance of Misato's apartment, and slumping Asuka's limp body on the couch, and then collapsing on the floor next to the couch, feeling extremely tired.

Asuka yawned, slowly raising her body upright and staring around the small room.

Next to her was another naked body, slumped under the covers, evidently a young man her age.

"A dream?"

Shinji moved towards her, but she seemed not to notice.

"I need you!"

Asuka turned to look around the room, noticing a bra and some other clothing strewn across the room, Shinji's words go to deaf ears.

She slowly got off the bed, peering at the naked man who had been besides

"Idiot Touji?"

Touji moved slightly in the bed, stirring under the covers but remaining asleep.

Asuka's face twisted in disgust.

"I see. I drank on the way home from work and ended up sleeping with this jerk again. Lately when we see each other that's all we do..."

Asuka slowly reached for a pair of panties and a green shirt, carefully putting them on to hide her nudeness, and then moved towards the small bathroom.

"Men...You let them do it with you once and from then on that's all there is. I wonder if they think about anything else... Well, I guess if you do it once, then it's no different from a hundred times."

Asuka made an unpleasant face as she looked in the bathroom mirror, drinking in a mouthful of tap water and gargling.

She gagged and spit out the water, her face twisting into a look of extreme disgust.

"Yuck! There's still some left in my mouth...."

Asuka slowly began reaching for her skirt, fixing her hair as she quickly got dressed.

"That idiot, always dodging the issue like that and refusing to commit. Even though we both know it's just convenient excuses to make do for the moment"

She stopped next to the front door, making sure she was completely ready.

"But things proceed and before you know it we're living together. How did...that...happen?"

Shinji grabbed his head, stumbling around the room, utterly confused.

"What...happened?!"

He stumbled around the room, slamming his face into the wall.

To his surprise, he went straight through it, strolling right into the neighboring apartment.

To his even greater shock, there was a familiar face residing in it, tucked in under a kotatsu.

"M-Misato?!"

Misato turned her head towards Shinji, but seemed to be looking straight through him, instead to the wall behind him that separated the two apartments. She spoke as she stared, apparently to herself.

"A dream? A bad dream. I wonder if I'm balancing my stress...Things could never work out with that man now...absolutely impossible. Well, I guess it's no use complaining about reality in your dreams."

Misato groaned as voices from next-door streamed in.

"...Shut up you idiot! I've had enou..."

"Asuka! Stop being so..."

Misato groaned, her face twisting in disgust.

"And now of course the live-in couple is just going to start the peacemaking ritual again..."

The noises next door suddenly stop.

"See, they're getting ready"

Shinji moved closer to Misato, waving his hand in front of her face.

"Misato?! Why are you ignoring me?"

The older woman turned to her side as her cell phone suddenly began ringing, the noise echoing through the apartment.

Misato groaned once more, grabbing her phone and answering in an annoyed voice.

"Hello?"

"Oh, Ritsuko."

"The upcoming vacation? Sure, no problem. Okay, okay."

"Canceled without a doubt. There's no way I'd visit back home now. They'd arrange some marriage meeting and I'd be done for."

Loud moans streamed into the room, evidently from the apartment next door.

"No! No! Not a chance. It's the neighbors -- the neighbors. Like cats in heat, they never seem to tire of it. Night after night -- it's like they don't have anything else to do; not another care in the world. "

"You're just saying that because you don't have to live with it."

"That's right, and they're already living together. And they're so young."

"Men just want a mother figure that will spoil them, and women become intoxicated with the comfort that situation provides. It's just two lonely people making a couple. It doesn't look like it'll last long. They'll probably hit the breakup battle stage soon."

"No! It's just common sense. Why do you think mothers don't let their children go? Because mothers need their children. Without a child a mother cannot exist. This is the same thing -- it's so stupid."

Shinji shook his head, stumbling rapidly away, straight through the open front door as Misato opened it and strolled outside with a garbage bag in her left hand, bumping into Asuka, who seemed in a good mood.

"Ah, hello, Miss Sohryu, was it?"

"Oh, how are you...Miss Katsuragi?"

"Nice, thank you, how are you?"

"Just fine, I'm off to work"

"Well, see you then, have a good day."

Asuka nodded, a fake smile plastered on her face as she walked down the stairs...

"You too..."

Shinji looked at Asuka and Misato confused at their interaction, and then gazed directly at Asuka as the woman walked off.

"She's alone...No, she has people...people who love her, who care for her...I am alone"

Shinji followed Asuka as she veered off down the street, talking to herself as she walked alone.

"Aah -- that neighbor lady. Wasting my time with pointless talk! Shit! Now I'll never make the 9:30 express. Jeez she pisses me off!"

Asuka continued walking past the train station, Shinji trailing behind her.

He stared at her back, shivering slightly as he walked.

"Asuka!"

The red-haired woman stopped to Shinji's surprise, and turned her head behind her.

The boy stumbled backwards, hiding behind a large electrical pole.

Asuka simply turned back and continued walking forward as if nothing happened.

Shinji fell to his knees, whispering in a somber voice.

"I'm not here"

Suddenly the world around Shinji seemed to stop, Asuka simply freezing in mid-stride. The boy stood, and noticed everything around him frozen, as if paused, birds floating in the air, people frozen in awkward positions.

"This isn't reality. It's a world without me."

"Even if I'm not here, the world doesn't change."

"Only the relationships with me have disappeared."

"That's right, I'm not here."

Suddenly Shinji heard Rei's soft voice, and spun around. It was coming from his right, but he couldn't see Rei or anyone there, for that matter.

"You were taking revenge on reality with convenient dreams."

Shinji paused, confused, and then slowly responded to the invisible Rei.

"Is that bad? Is that so wrong?"

Shinji's response came from his left now, still Rei's voice, as if the Rei had moved.

"You were fleeing into dreams, and glossing over the truth."

Shinji grimaced, now turning to his left.

"Is it wrong to dream?!"

Shinji stumbled back as Rei appeared directly in front of him, looking exactly as she always had, dressed in her pale white plug suit.

"Rei?!"

"That is not a dream. It is just an illusion. A compensation for reality."

Shinji awoke with a scream, sitting upright as he felt something warm shaking him rapidly, sweat running down his face.

"Shinji! Shinji!"

Shinji gazed up dreamily into Asuka's pale, beautiful face as she shook him into reality.

"Are you okay?"

"Wha? Of course I am, you idiot..."

Her face softened.

"What about you? You were screaming in your sleep?"

Shinji turned his head, looking at the glass patio partition and the starry night above.

"I-I'm fine"

Shinji clutched his head in his hands, sighing.

"I'm fine..."

Asuka looked at him questionably, a hint of concern in her blue eyes.

"I'm fine."

"If you say so...Thir...Shinji..."

Chapter Two is done...I enjoyed writing it, kind of...Now I'm off to write Chapter Ten of Neon Genesis Evangelion: Madness...Please friggin' review my fics! Eehhehe....

I've realized as a Eva fic author, I'm a sadist, I like delivering pain to my readers, I try to do it by making good fics, but sometimes I deliver pain because my fics suck (like FoD)...Eeheheheh

And as an Eva fic reader, because I've read a lot of Eva fan fiction, I'm a masochist, I draw a secret delight from good angsty and dark fics...

Well, see you next chapter, where you'll see more interaction between Asuka and Shinji...Until then, farewell, and please friggin' review, ye bastards! Eeehhehehe...