Well, here's the next chapter of Darkness, I've been way too focused on Madness to do anything for this fic or FoD, but I will, and maybe for my other fics too…

Well, let's go:

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

The Kitchen

Shinji Ikari sat in his usual spot by the kitchen table, stiffly sticking a plastic fork into a plate of eggs before him, as a few odd flies hovered above the food.

He peered to his left, letting the eggs drip against his fork, his eyes darting to a great crimson stain on the carpet, and then lines across it that seemed to indicate the moving of a heavy object.

"Nice one, Sherlock…"

Directly under his chin was a shock of red hair, soft against his pubescent stubble, on his lap, Asuka Langley Sohyru lay, precariously sleeping.

He peered down at her, feeling her warm breath against his chest.

He felt odd, felt as though there were feelings surging through his body that he could not describe, but they were soon replaced by a numbness.

What…What am I supposed to feel…about her?

Shinji suddenly stiffened.

"Asuka! Asuka please, I need you, don't leave me Asuka!"

"Ah…"

"I'm sorry. I don't know what to feel at times like this..."

"I think you should smile..."

Shinji rubbed his forehead.

"No…No…That's wrong…No…"

Shinji looked up, just in time to see a figure flash in front of him, a young girl with blue hair…and crimson eyes.

"No…No…That…Hmmm…"

"Baka?"

Shinji stiffened, looking straight down into the open eyes of the Second Child.

"Ah-Asuka."

"Talking to yourself, Shinji? That's really not very healthy…"

She stretched against his body and smiled, getting off of him and standing, her red locks falling against her shoulder.

She smiled at Shinji, a warm smile that disarmed his confusion, and actually made him blush, if only for a moment.

He was on the ground and his face was inches away from Asuka's slumbering countenance, so close that he could almost feel her warm breath on his face.

Shinji stared at the face and blushed deeply.

She was like an angel in slumber, even when she was so teary-eyed.

He could stare at it for hours, yet he knew it was time to do something, mainly flee as fast as possible before she woke up, or…

In a fit of bravery caused by a mix of empathy and hormonal passion, Shinji slowly edged his face closer to the beautiful face in front of him. Each second as he drew close seemed like an eternity.

But finally their lips touched, and Shinji drank in a light yet satisfying peck on her lips, fully expecting to die when she woke up. But he was in peace now, and would be willing, he told himself, after that.

Suddenly Asuka moved her face closer, her eyes still closed and clamped her lips onto his, responding in a deep kiss, which sent Shinji in a biological frenzy and almost gave him a stroke as he felt her tongue slashing against his lips and her slow pleased moans.

Asuka turned around and took a seat, munching contentedly on a plate full of pancakes in front of her, not looking up at the Third Child, who was whispering to himself again.

"That's…that's not me…I…never…"

Shinji sobbed, taking the piece of paper and laying it against the door leading to Asuka's room.

He then opened the door to the deck, took one look back, and leapt into oblivion.

Asuka yawned, slowly opening her door and looking at the piece of paper, reading it curiously.

"She is fake, oh, tis true.

To think that a siren's tongue doth lash with both love and scorn

To think that I would consume that witch's brew.

Oh she is truly beautiful, dangerously so.

It makes me clench my fists and bemoan that cruel whore

Pale alabaster lips, a cold statue's kiss.

Oh god, I hate her so.

She is not worth a grain of dust, but neither am I.

To yearn that we could love in misery

Adore in filth, oh that would be true.

That would deliver me from hell to the church's pew.

-I love you, Asuka. Goodbye."

Asuka's eyes shot open wide and she dashed through the hall, turning just in time to see Shinji Ikari step off the railing and hurtle down to the concrete below.

"Noooo! SHINJI!"

Shinji shook his head, peering at the stale eggs in front of him as Asuka continued to eat.

"That…that is not me…I do not understand…Rei."

Shinji shook his head, peering outside the train window as landscape hurtled by, too quickly for him to see, just a blur.

In front of him stood Rei Ayanami, and she seemed to have a slight smile dancing across her face.

This disturbed Shinji beyond belief.

"You! Stop it! That has nothing to do with me, you know that! No one cares about me!"

Misato stood beside Rei, suddenly, speaking in a calm tone.

"You always made yourself seem less than you really are, Shinji."

"I have nothing!"

Misato smiled, a drop of blood flying from her lip to the floor below as she continued speaking.

"And you try to think yourself valueless, thinking that, by doing nothing, you would not be hurt."

Shinji shook his head.

"Nobody accepts me…"

"That is only in your mind…Your mind is tiring, Shinji."

"So, I have to pilot Eva, again…"

"You've been trying to think yourself worthless since the very beginning."

The blood coming from Misato's mouth now was a stream pouring out onto the floor, but Misato did not flinch, Shinji sat, shivering, his hands on his ears.

"I had to do that…I have to do this…I…am nothing…"

Toji appeared suddenly beside Misato, so three figures were now forming a semi-circle around the Third Child, and spoke. As Toji spoke, Shinji noticed that he was missing an arm and a leg, bloody stumps left where the limbs would usually be, but was standing on his one leg as if there was absolutely nothing amiss.

"No, that's not so, Shinji, you're trying to think like that, but you're wrong!".

"I am worthless. I have nothing to be proud of."

"So you pilot Eva?"

"Piloting Eva lets me be myself."

Shinji could suddenly hear Asuka's voice echoing in the train, repeating his words.

"Piloting Eva lets me be myself."

Shinji nodded.

"Before piloting Eva, I had nothing. I am here because I pilot Eva, I have nothing else."

Asuka's disembodied voice echoed Shinji's words once more, sending a shiver up his spine.

"I have nothing else."

Shinji clenched his fists, sweat dripping from his brow, and stood, staring at the three figures in front of him, furiously

"I have nothing!. Nothing! The value to live! Hah! No, I don't have it…I hate myself…I hate myself…Thus…"

The figures disappeared, and Shinji could hear Asuka's voice.

"I hate you! I hate you! You think you can ever understand me! You weakling!"

And then Toji's casual voice.

"I hate you…You injured my sister, and made me a cripple!"

Then Kensuke's voice.

"I hate everything about you!"

Then Hikari's voice.

"Sorry, but I hate you."

Then Ritsuko's voice.

"I hate you, I hate all the Ikari!"

Then Misato's voice.

"I hate you!"

Shinji stiffened and screamed, and then shuddered as he felt thousands and thousands of voices cry their hatred of him, the anguished voices of humanity were truly speaking at that moment.

Shinji's knees buckled, but he nodded to himself, as if content.

"Now…everybody hates me. Everyone hates me…"

Rei suddenly appeared seated beside Shinji, her face listless.

"That is only in your mind, Ikari."

"No! I hate myself! I hate myself!"

"You only think others hate you, you want them to hate you."

"No…I realize now, even when I was in the Eva…Then, people praised me, but I was not happy, they hated me…They always did."

"What is your true heart?"

"I don't know…none of them…both of them…"

"So you pilot Eva?"

"I have nothing…I…am nothing."

"Shinji."

Shinji's eyes darted towards Rei, surprised that she had spoken his first name, but then his eyes widened as he realized it was Asuka's voice.


The Ruins of Tokyo 3, Japan

Misato Katsuragi's Apartment

Shinji's Room

"Shinji! Shinji!"

He felt a firm hand shake his shoulder, and he spun around on his back roughly, his eyes shooting open to behold Asuka Langley Sohyru hovering over him with a concerned look on her face.

"Shinji? Are you alright? I heard you, you were crying?"

Shinji Ikari had not slept for weeks, or so he thought. He could no longer remember.

It seemed impossible; he usually had an average amount of sleep before Third Impact, although the nightmares would interrupt his peace every other day or so. They were horrific, the pain did not dull in time, it simply became comfortable. So when he began to stop having them, odd dreams instead dawning on him, and line between them and what he perceived as reality irrelevant, he seemed quite uncomfortable, and almost felt like he was missing the pain, he had grown to know it, it had become a part of him.

Shinji smiled absentmindedly, a tear streaming from his head, going down his head and into his dark hair, it felt good.

He slowly brought up his hand and caressed Asuka's cheek, causing the Second Child to blush.

"Shinji? Don't get any perverted ideas now, I was just worried because I hear-"

Asuka's voice was cut off as Shinji's lips brushed against her's, the Third Child having lifted himself up to meet her in a warm embrace.

She struggled with her feelings, her old pride returning again, her hate, but an overwhelming feeling of shared warmth and love overwhelmed her, and she submitted, returning the kiss with vigor.

Shinji smiled, remembering the night before when he had imagined Asuka like some succubi, and he remembered the faint red eyes of…that girl.

But he brushed them out of his mind with a thought, as he felt a warm hand tug at his shirt, pulling it off his body as he continued to kiss Asuka's face, down into her neck, and then lower and lower.

Shinji smiled, half-nude as he looked down upon Asuka's loving face, ready to accept the consummation of their emotions. They would soon be one, physically, but he realized now, this act would be more of an afterthought. They had always been connected, by a thin red, invisible line, that linked both of them, through their shared history of misery. And now, neither of them wanted to be alone.

"I have something…as long as she is here…I realize that now…All you need is love…Love is all you need."

Hope you're not minding the insanity, WAFF, random flashbacks, and weird surrealism…One more chapter left to go and this'll be the first Evangelion fanfic I'll ever have finished! (Since NGE: Madness is going to be like a bazillion chapters…) The last episode will be coming soon! Get ready!