So, I must apologize for the lengthened wait I made you all suffer through. To be blatantly honest, I didn't really know what to do with the story after the explosion. I remember my previous story that was much more Evangelion-esque in which it had a happy ending and a sad ending, but when I watched those I always saw it as bullshit. If the director is going to weave a story, he should pick out at least one 'true' ending. So in this thought I did, I know how it's going to end (for the most part) and I hope you all enjoy.

Kristopher

I Only Left You so I Could See the Look on Your Face,

When I Return

Present (Main Story)

"Wonder Girl said whaaaat?" Asuka's vocal point reached a high pitched note that rang with a hint on concern.

Shinji looked up at her sadly, his eyes covered by his hair, the young boy's watch still covered with Rei's blood.

The two sat in one of the remaining sectors of NERV, a lounge that had escaped being shredded by bullets, or sealed shut with LCL. Thanks to the laptop at Shinji's feet, the firey redhead was able to take a large slurp of her icy cool water while waiting for the baka's answer. After what had happened since her return anything cold aside from pop was a blessing she did not take for granted.

"She said she loved me…Aya…Rei told me s-she loved me…" Shinji's soft voice barely audible, a thick layer of sadness which covered his voice stole most of his ability to speak above a whisper.

"What? How could a doll like her every feel anything for anyone!" Asuka questioned while standing him, her face nearly inches from the top of his head, staring down at him with an almost jealous rage. She knew her comments would not bring Shinji to answer her, but at least it might piss him off enough to bring him out of this slump. Asuka's methods to get what she wanted were always a bit…off.

Shinji ignored her, rose and walked toward the door. He didn't think he could be more depressed than he was when he came into the lounge, but Asuka always surprised him. Asuka watched him go with mild amusement, even if he hadn't cheered up, she had still enjoyed verbally thrashing him, though it did pisser her off slightly that he still didn't respond the way she wanted.

Sitting down with her drink the young girl leaned back and stretched, pushing her chest as far forward as it could go, even though there was no one here to see her perfect bosom, she still did it just by habit. Yawning loudly. she leaned her head back against one of the steel pillars that also acted as a water fountain, and flattened her violet dress down with one hand and rubbed her bandaged eye with the other, which was quite a feat because even though the bandage on her arm had been removed, revealing nothing, it still hurt to move it.

"He's so stupid!" Asuka muttered to herself, not really wanting to be alone again. Even though she had returned, there had been nothing but people just getting in her way.

Side Story Asuka (10 Days Prior to PRESENT)

The yellow substance make a wet patting sound as it splattered against the cool Earth.

"Uugrk…" Asuka let out, her hand over her mouth and another wet splat uttered out as the vomit pushed her hand away and once again smacked agasint the ground. The disgusting taste of orange juice and tomatoes that vomit always tasted like, filled her throat as she unintentionally licked her lips which caused her churning stomach to do a flip.

The Second Child's vision had become blurry from the tears that had reddened her eyes, snot dripped from her nose and clung to her chin with the last bits of vomit. Another wave of nausea hit the poor girl and her dry heaves echoed out across the open piece of land, sputtering and intense sobbing followed. The place she stood was expansive, because of it's present inhabitants, the ground had been torn up, the grass was now a dead yellow color and there was blood, and now vomit, everywhere. The expilot began clawing at her red hair that matched her cheeks and eyes, the plug suit clung to her skin with a hot wetness that made her even more sick, and the bandages on her arm and eye itched fiercely.

Asuka Langely Sohryu gazed up, her eyes bloodshot and burning as she looked at the object of her pain, and for a moment, was glad that her nose was so stuffy that she could not smell, looking at it, she threw her head back and with the remainder of her energy let out a blood curling scream that echoed for what seemed like minutes.

Eva Unit 02 was a wretched site. The hundreds of disgusting, black hearted vultures were still picking at the remnants of it's meat, just like they had done. Because of the weather, the metal had begun to rust, which added to the nausea-inducing smell. The blood…oh God the blood…Asuka thought, she was nearly up to her ankles in the millions of gallons of blood that had, because of its size, just began to coagulate. The chest cavity, Asuka remembered as she unconsciously gripped her own, had been picked to the bone, which was now whitening in the midmorning sun.
What had Asuka left behind? In her own Heaven she had a life, a younger Kaji that was in love with her more than she could ever ask for, a mother and father who were alive and she never heard the word Eva. Standing in the burning sun Asuka continued to think about herself, how she was surprised that there had not been Eva battles in her Heaven, and yes, it was true that piloting and more importantly winning was crucial to her existence…the last few weeks of NERV had been too much. Ever since being mind raped and then subsequently eaten alive, and EVA was the last thing she ever wanted to be with.

Her world had been perfect and nothing like her true reality at all, she was back in Germany, spending most of her time lounging around and making out with Kaji, and though this was bliss…she knew deep down that it was not real. Her nightmares are what kept her from being truly happy. Because she had created her own world…perhaps she had truly desired these nightmares, images of death and carnage, her mother committing suicide. The worst part was that she did not feel anything. She could not feel fear, anger, hate or anything, just bliss…but when she did travel into her dreams, her nightmares, the closest thing to pain that she ever felt was numbness. It was as though her heart had been divided in half, and a wall stood erected through the middle of it, blocking her off from anything except happiness, and when she wasn't happy she was nothing, blank, empty, and numb. After some time her mind simply could not stand it, and any existence would be better than that of her current…thus she fled. Rejecting Third Impact, her 'heaven', her own little crimson crystal world, the tiny jewel in which she was incased, in which everyone on Earth was incased fell into the ocean, and being what felt like reborn she awoke in the ocean. Crawling out of the water like some odd process of evolution…then, as though being called, she ran until it hurt to where she had fought her most famous battle…and lost. Here she was now, among her EVA, wishing she was dead.

Side Story Asuka (7 Days Prior to PRESENT)

She was going to be sick again. It had been two days and the young expilot was once again about to pass out. The city had been completely shut down, there was no power anywhere, and that massive loss of power led to mass amounts of spoiled food, Asuka had been surviving on pop and candy for the last three days and this was something her body was not used to. She had been 'crashing' more and more and felt completely drained all of the time. The sugar from her diet was giving her only a limited span of daily 'life' before she would collapse into exhaustion, being forced to sit or sleep, something she hated to do, for though the dreams were not as horrid, they still made themselves known. It was on the evening of the third night that Asuka noticed the long trail of lights leading from one extreme of the broken city to the other after waking up from a nightmare. A dream in which Shinji's EVA had joined the MP EVAs and proceeded to devour her slowly and painfully…

"No!" Asuka hissed to herself, "Shut up!"

She rubbed last bits of exhaustion from her eyes as she commanded herself not to think about the dream. Squinting up it looked as though the lights led from Misato's house to somewhere near the center of Tokyo-3. Misato's apartment, Asuka's old home. The redhead clenched her fist.
"Why does it have to be her…or him!" She screamed at the empty streets, her high pitched voice cracking and echoing off the walls.

"It's not fair! It's not fucking fair! I hate them! Why! Why did this all have to happen, why did I have to be a Eva pilot! I hate it, I hate this world, I hate my dreams, I-I hate this food, I hate EVERYTHING!"

She collapsed onto the cool ground, the tiny pebbles cut her knees causing that pain that she was in to intensify, and finally, the pilot just broke down and wept, crying herself to sleep.

Side Story Asuka (6 Days Prior to Present)

The smell swept around her. It was everywhere, on her bed, her clothes, her floor, the stench filled her nostrils, she could nearly taste it. Asuka knew that she had slept here recently, and with the sound of breaking nails, dug her fingers into the nearest thing she could grab and thoroughly trashed the entire room.

"That Goddamn doll! That stupid bitch! How could she! Why would she!"
The teen was breaking down, and it was getting worse with every passing day, it wasn't that she was mad, it was that she was lonely, and as the absence of man ate away at her mind, she broke down more and more. After tearing up the bed, the walls, the closet, the room, and with fingers bleeding Asuka Langley Soyhru fell onto the hardwood floor, her eyes wide and her flesh white. She tried to tear past her thoughts, all her fears, desires, hatred and loneliness and forced herself to think clearly.

"What do I do now?" She asked no one in particular in a whisper like voice.

Asuka did not move for the rest of the day, and as night fell the usual lights came on and with a unsteady stance, she began toward NERV.

Main Story (5 Days Prior to Present)

It was done. Shinji leaned back against the doorframe of the hospital room above that room, the smoky smell of Shinji's clothes that had been unchanged for the past five days were giving away to the stench of perspiration and blood. The shards of glass that had imbedded themselves into the poor teen had been ripped out followed by nearly three pints of gushing, pouring, dripping, crimson blood. Gauze now replaced those pieces of hot melted glass, though without medical knowledge, they would soon become infected or at the very least, leave permanent scarring. The quiet whimperings that Rei had let out right before she said those words were still fleeting through the Third Child's mind and left a memory that far outweighed the pain from his leg and arm. Now Shinji was, just like Asuka…numb.

The young boy looked terrible, his eyes sullen, his face thin, his hair was greasy, and blood, his and Rei's, covered the rest of his malnutritioned body. For the first few nights he had stayed in the hospital room with--his eyes began to tear up--what was left of Rei Ayanami. The only time he escaped this room was the night three days prior when his appetite overpowered his sadness and drug him into the NERV kitchen for a little sustenance. Now he just couldn't stand the sight of his love anymore, and had to escape, her broken body, carried up by a crying Shinji, now lay motionless on the hospital bed. The young brunette had no idea what he was going to do no-

"SHINJI!"

Glancing over slowly, with a barely audible moan, his eyes widened somewhat at the sight of a Asuka Langely Soyrhu sprinting full paced toward him. Slamming into his with her arms wide open the toy fell to the floor causing Shinji's skull to bounce upon the hard tiled floor, instantly giving him a splitting headache. Shinji stared up at the ceiling, eyes half open, as Asuka's nails dug into his sides, pulling him as close as possible, and sobbing without an ounce of pride or former anger showing.

What a reunion.

Main Story (Present)

"The MAGI says that there are approximately forty-five hundred humans on Earth currently, with a number of them arriving daily." Maya Ibuki said with a aura of pride to her voice. She felt as though working on the MAGI, learning more about it's systems, brought her just a little bit closer to Ritsko.

Shinji found his way into the main command center where the young short haired brunette and two others stood with her. One, a male about 25 stood with blonde hair, sat on one of the desks, profusely complimenting her in an attempt to flirt. And another, an older, grey haired grandfather of three who looked at the screen with tired eyes, wondering if any of his family had returned.

"I set up a parameter around all of Tokyo-3, if anyone else comes back, then the MAGI will locate them so we can retrieve them."

"Wow lieutenant Ibuki, you're such a genius!" The younger man exclaimed.

"No one else has returned to Tokyo-3 as of yet?" The old man questioned in a worried tone.

"No, unfortunately. But if they do, an alarm will sound and you'll the first to know Mr. Kalamarti."

Their conversation abruptly stopped when they heard Shinji's footsteps behind them, when they noticed who it was, the two men let out a little sigh of relief. They had only been around Asuka 3 days and already they were sick of her, and, well, to be honest, a bit afraid also.

"Sup Shinji?" The younger man asked.

The Third Pilot did not reply, he simply collapsed on the nearest chair and rested his chin on his crossed arms in front of him, staring blankly at the black computer screen.

"You should really eat something." The older man said hopefully, the expilot reminded him somewhat of his oldest son, back when he was just a teen, and had instantly taking a liking to the quiet boy.

"I'll go get you something to eat." He said, walking out of the room.

When the door shut, and Shinji in an almost trance-like state, the younger man continued his flirting.

"So Maya, te-tell me more about these amazing machines."
Now usually Maya would have always been up for a chance to talk about her machines, but with the younger man's obvious intentions she simply did not feel like discussing it.

"I-I should go…check on the other sectors of NERV." She said shyly, quickly dashing out of the room, tool bag in tow.

"Maaaaaaaaan…why couldn't I have found a beautiful girl like that back when before all this happened? Third Impact and shit…I thought I was all done with this stuff when I got outta high school. Ugh…I feel sorry for the kids who have classes after all this…with all I used to hear about Second Impact, the discussions about Third are going to be ten times worse…don'tcha thing Shin-man?"

The boy did not reply, he appeared to have fallen asleep.

The blonde looked at him and his heart sunk a bit, it was obvious the kid had been in love with the blue haired chick, but now? He just felt bad for the little guy, maybe the old geezer was right, maybe some food would cheer him up. With that decision, the younger man walked with his hands in his pockets toward the cafeteria.

Shinji had slept deeply, a sleep that was good for the body, but because of the nightmares, terrible for the mind. He had dreamed he was stuck back in NERV, before Third Impact, explosions were happening all around him, alarms buzzed and people were screaming. When he found Rei she was already dead, crushed below his EVA. The dream had been so real, for a time he could have swore the alarms were real.

As he began to wake up after his 14 hour sleep, he unconsciously squinted. The lights were flicking on and off above him, and was irritating the hell out of him, but there was something odd about it, and just as he began to opened his eyes, he smelled a woman's perfume.

"Morning cutie! Sleep well?" Misato stood smiling above him, her necklace dangling over Shinji, eclipsing the light with every pass.

Shinji's eyes instantly grew three times their normal size and a tear shot down his face as he swept up into her arms. The two of them cried, holding each other. For a split second, Shinji was happy…his 'mother' had returned.

The world seemed to be tearing itself apart. Shinji was lying in bed, his old bed, back in the apartment complex on the outskirts of town. It had taken nearly every living person in Tokyo-3, correction, it had taken every living person in Tokyo-3 to get him to leave NERV headquarters. Eventually Maya, whom had surprised everyone nearly a week and a half ago with the knowledge that she had been a premed student for 3 years before changing to information tech, sedated the young boy and Asuka and Misato drove him home. He awoke the next morning drowsy and with another headache, Asuka was screaming again, complaining about her room while the kitchen was being torn apart by Misato, who was desperately looking for a beer. He sighed deeply turning over on his side, the blanket thrown over him and sucking in the fresh air through his nose, noticed that they had changed his clothes. The young boy once again cried, not because he had been drug away from the place where Rei—he violently shook his head, trying to force the image of her bruised and broken face from his mind—but the young boy cried for the actions of everyone, he even remembered Asuka helping bring him home…even if her definition of helping was screaming at him and delegating orders.

Within a half hour Asuka's sing-song voice cut through the air sweetly,

"Ooooooh Shinji…" She cooed.

The redhead only acted this way when she wanted something, and her voice was so sweet it was disgusting. It was as though Shinji just took a big gulp of too sugary kool-aid and the overpowering fake sweetness left a bad taste in his mouth. The young boy didn't respond, and after a few moments Asuka cut the crap and yelled at him,

"You've been asleep for almost a whole day! I'm starving get up and-"

"ASUKA!" Misato's voice called out from the other room, "Get out here and leave Shinji alone! I'll be making dinner."

The door shut behind her a bit too hard and she complained to Misato,

"But Misato, Shinji makes a good breakfast…it's about the only thing that baka can do right and yours is…"
"Mine's what Asuka!" Mistato's masculine voice snapped back. "If you don't like it then you don't eat!"

There was a silence, then about a half hour later the door opened slowly and the smell of ashes and what seemed like burnt popcorn entered the room.

"Shinji?" Misato's voice too was sweet, but more of that like a worried mother than the sickly sweet voice of Asuka. Shinji remembered this voice, she always used it whenever he wanted to run away, or had locked himself away in his room, vowing never to pilot an EVA again. He almost hated it, because he knew now that she was worried, she acted like this, but when he disobeyed her, her voice would change into that of an overbearing parent.

"I know you're probably not wanting to do anything but sleep." She continued, "But you should still try and eat this, you need to eat Shinji. I'm…know what happened…Maya told me…"
After Misato's return, their loving and heartbreaking embrace, Shinji came back to himself and pushed away from her, dashing down the hall to once again be alone. It was there that Maya explained everything to her, and for his own safety and health, they both thought it best for him to be away from NERV, for a few days at least. It was there, in the fully equipped nurse's station, the gateway to where Rei fell, that Shinji made his last stand…and lost, being drug back to the apartments, and like a true parent, Misato, stifling her giggles bathed and changed Shinji, and put him to bed.

Shinji lay in bed, his head was dizzy and because of the heat from the room and the stench of 'lunch' his thoughts danced around topics that he couldn't comprehend. It was 'true thought' his mind decided, and he fell swiftly back to sleep, in the train car where the red colors of the outside poured in, and he sat alone.

The dream world was strange. He always hated when he was here, the heat was present and the annoying sounds that all train cars made just added to his headache. As the car jerked back and forth, so did his body, and his neck popped painfully. Leaning his head back against the window he only thought of one thing…her.

Closing his eyes inside a dream had always been perplexing to Shinji. What if he fell asleep inside his dream? Was it possible? Would he enter another realm of sleep? What would happen? But he knew he couldn't fall asleep on the train. For the moment he closed his eyes he her whimpering, whispering out her last words, and Shinji scrambling up into the nurses station and trying to save her and…

NO! He opened his eyes and stared forward, he did not want to relive it. When he lowered his head forward again there were two women in front of him.

The loud one smiled, "So you even run from bad memories huh?"

Shinji didn't respond so the girl continued,

"You're so stupid, this wouldn't have happened if you would have chosen to become one with me! I'm not as weak as she is!"

The other woman was quiet, studying Shinji's mild reactions with that of a very interested sports spectator, she thought to herself: I could have protected you if you would have become one with me. Though this sad thought crossed her mine she still spoke out in a reassuring tone,

"Everything's going to be alright Shinji-"

But before the older, purple haired woman could finish her sentence, 7 days of pent up anger, emotion, sadness, hate, and fear was all let loose,

"Stop fucking saying that! You have no idea what I'm going through, the one person I had every loved, the one person who ever understood me, who ever trusted and cared for me is…she is…oh God why…God Damn you father! If you wouldn't have drug her back there…oh my God…." He broke down for the millionth time since the accident, each time this happened he felt as though a bit more of his soul simply eroded away.

"Don't be so stupid!" Asuka called out again. "Wondergirl's not the only point to all of this!"

Shinji looked up, a questionable look on his face,

"I-I don't understand…"

Asuka threw her arms up in an overexaggerated fashion, "It's not that hard to understand…don't you remember anything?"

Misato cut in, slightly annoyed,

"Don't you remember what happened when you and Rei first came here?"

It seemed as whenever Rei was mentioned, her name, stood out, like a light in the darkness. Shinji looked at Misato's promising face with hope.

"You, Shinji Ikari…are still a God."

His jaw dropped at this comment, millions of thoughts rushed through his head as his eyes became as large as saucers.

Misato was nursing a large buzz. The fourteen cans of beer she used to both silence Asuka's voice and to get the taste of her burnt meal out of her mouth caused her to stumble around until she found the right bedroom (took her three tries) and was now half asleep in her bed. She was quickly ripped from her sleep when she heard Shinji scream.

Leaping up, then stumbling into a nearby lamp, she made it to the young boys bedroom nearly unscathed and saw a very awake and very wide eyed Shinji Ikari sitting upright.

"Shinji!" Misato asked in a voice so full of concern that it squeaked a little.

He turned to her, an almost crazed look on his face as he smiled and looked at her, eyes unblinking and he spoke,

"Kawrou."