Well, yes…This is The Evincar with a new fanfic!

Whee time to totally ignore him and go read a fanfic about Asuka and Shinji's "true testament of love's life's adventures…uh…truth".

Frankly, even as an A/S fan, I've begun to like Rei more and more, simply because the best Rei appearances are in A/S/R fanfics, where Asuka rejects Shinji but begins to feel jealous as Rei slowly begins to develop feelings and open up…

I like Rei/Shinji fics where the progression is slow and steady and where we can ignore the fact that she's made from his mother and that she doesn't have genitals…

I like Asuka/Shinji fics where there's some DAMN conflict! And I don't mean the whole clichéd fight scene or Shinji in Asuka's arms, or suicide…

I mean, you can employ those, but employ a lot of them, have a ton of conflict, love is all about conflict and I hate romantic fics without a realistic amount of conflict…

I like Kensuke fics where Kensuke has one line and is not romantically involved with anyone…

I like Gendo fics where the authors don't go, "OMG! GENDO'S SO BADDD!111"…

There are no villains in Evangelion (except maybe SEELE and the Angels?), just tragic characters…Gendo, Ritsuko, everyone in NERV is just a victim of situation and have their own tortured reasons, etc…I like a fic that can consider Gendo's humanity along with his evil, and consider his reasons and his love for Yui…

I like SI fics where the author doesn't make it seem unrealistic…I was thinking of making a SI Fic where I'm killed in battle and everyone else sort of forgets about me after a few weeks. Now that's realistic.

Speaking of insert, I hate it when authors insert their inane and often obscure musical tastes into their fanfics…Like where they randomly work in one of the characters liking the band or the music somehow loosely tied into the plot, or just quoting contrite lyrics that seem meaningful…

Frankly the one fics that I've never read are Yuri, Fire and Ice…

Heck, I've even read and marginally enjoyed (or not hated because of clichés) a Kawuro/Shinji fic….But Asuka/Rei? Come on! No really, come on! Like that'd ever happen in the Evangelion universe…Maybe Maya/Something, those are interesting…

But I'm rambling, aren't I? Author notes aren't supposed to be so damn huge…

This is my new fanfic…It's a bit of crossover, but not really overt, so don't get turned off by it, it's straightup Evangelion, no sign of my Madness fic (Wherein I crossover approximately 10 billion animes with Evangelion…at the same time)

I hope you guys enjoy it, and before the one guy who likes Fate of Destruction or NGE: New Age complains, nah, I'm not giving up those fics…I just felt like a new fic after finishing my first fanfic ever (EOE: DARKNESS!)…

And Neon Genesis Evangelion: Madness? Well I don't know if that'll ever end.

Ehehhe…Let's start the show, get out and start reading and reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Evangelion or its characters. Gainax does, and they rock. Who else could create both Evangelion and FLCL! I also don't own anything that happens to be referenced in this story.

The Year 2015

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters

A young boy with black hair and sharp blue eyes sat against the wall, his head slumped over, his knees pulled in, not speaking, his eyes closed, shut off from the word.

Indeed, The Second Child was not the only comatose pilot, it seemed.

Three soldiers dressed in commando gear stepped in front of Shinji Ikari, drawing his pistol and aiming it at the Third Child's head.

The soldier almost sighed, speaking into his radio.

"We've located the Third pilot, preparing execution….I'm sorry kid, nothing personal, just orders."

Shinji almost smiled, but he felt too numb. He knew that finally, finally he would be going somewhere different, maybe somewhere where he could find happiness, or at least solitude.

"Think of this as your home as well, Shinji…"

He paused, and then tentatively stepped over the threshold, his voice but a whisper.

Rei looked down into the fountain as the Third Child stood close by, her face emotionless.

"The first time we touched…I didn't feel anything"

"Huh?"

"Your hand…The second time, I felt odd and queasy, I think"

"Ah…about that, I'm sorry Ayanami"

"The third time…I felt warm inside…It was the heat from your hand, even through the plug suit, you were happy I was alive. But the fourth time, I was just happy…Happy that you were concerned with me."

Rei looked up at Shinji, who looked at her in a mix of awe and admiration.

She spoke, her calm voice echoing in the courtyard.

"May I…hold your hand again?"

"Yeah…"

.Ritsuko stood in front of the tanks of liquid, smirking confidently as Shinji and Misato stared in awe.

"Rei!"

A hundred giggles and voices echoed in the room, all Rei, and Shinji stumbled backwards, his eyes bulging out.

"All of these are salvaged parts…Spare Reis…They have no souls, they're nothing but hollow Reis, and I despise them…"

Misato aimed her handgun at Doctor Akagi as the Reis all around Shinji began to dissolve, their eerie smiles still on many of their dissolving faces.

"Do you have any idea of what you're doing!"

"Yes, I'm destroying them…These are not human…just things with human forms…The Chamber of Guff…is empty"

Shinji stared at the small screen in his entry plug, displaying a smiling Second Child.

"I'll forgive you for the landing, this time. We did win…"

She gave him a warm smile that seemed to make his soul burn with fire.

"And you did pretty well-for a klutz"

Shinji grinned back at her, and their smiles widened.

"Words of praise, from you!"

"Shinji...Don't look for me anymore…"

"What?"

"Only infants require parents. You are no longer an infant. Stand on your own two feet and walk…I learned to do the same"

"But I-"

"People can only live by their own strength…They only grow by their own strength…"

"Father…"

"Don't try to think we can understand each other. For some reason people think that they can do that. Remember that they can't. Never completely. Never enough."

Gendo Ikari looked his son in the eye, showing almost no emotion.

"People are such sad creatures…"

For a minute Shinji thought he detected a hint of utter sadness in his father's cold eyes, but shook that thought away as his father turned around towards the waiting helicopter, muttering only this.

"I'm leaving"

"You know, pain is something man must endure in his heart…"

Kawuro grinned as Shinji fidgeted nervously.

"And since the heart senses pain so easily some believe life is pain. You are delicate like glass, that is, your heart is"

Ah…This flashback of your life before your death seems overrated…To think that my last thought will be of Kawuro.

Shinji sighed as he heard the gunshot, and then another, and then one more, and his shoulders shagged, relaxed.

And he remained there, his eyes closed, until he noticed that he could hear footsteps, and then a familiar voice.

"No offense either, soldier…Now come on, we have to get you to Unit 01!"

Shinji opened his eyes and sighed, his body still limp but completely unwounded, three soldiers lay sprawled in their own blood next to him, and a panting Misato Katsuragi stood in front of him, pistol in her hand.

Rescued from death…just so they can use me again…in the Evangelion.

Misato bent over, apparently taking Shinji's silence as shock from almost dying, and checked the enemy radio, turning it on and listening through the static.

"What is the situation of Team 7? We found the purple one. Retrieving it isn't a problem. Looks like the red one has been launched. We are currently searching for the launch path used."

Misato gasped.

"Damn them, they have no idea what they're doing… Quick Shinji, get up! Get up! Do you want to die? Or get into Unit 01? Come on!"

Shinji's unwounded body remained in a state of dead lethargy, his mouth closed.

And then, a strangled whisper, almost an afterthought.

"Help me…Asuka…"

Misato's eyes widened and she roughly grabbed Shinji by the arm.

"Hiding behind the skirt of a teenage girl! You can't deny reality, Shinji, you can't hide from this, you can't give up now, come on!"

Shinji simply slumped over as Misato pulled him by his arm.

"I don't want to live…I was going to die…but you brought me back here…I want to die…I deserve death…"

"Dammit Shinji!"

She grabbed him by the arm and began pulling him away.

"You have to live now, protect us and stop them, then you can contemplate death!"

Shinji sighed, complying finally.

Just a tool…is that all I am to you, Misato?

Shinji sat in Evangelion Unit 01's entry plug as the large biomechanical monster surfaced in front of the NERV base, missiles flying about as VTOL's dodged around Unit 01 like gnats to an elephant.

Misato's blood was fresh in his mouth…Asuka's screams were fresh in his ears.

Tool or not, he realized something now…he truly felt something for the people around him, for Misato, for Asuka, for Rei, for everyone, and he knew now that at least those feelings had been meaningful, they had been real, as real as Misato's sacrifice.

He would not allow Asuka to sacrifice herself for a coward like him, no, not a chance.

Evangelion Unit 01 charged forward, as Shinji heard Asuka over the communicator; saw her Evangelion's back to him as he charged in from behind her.

"The last one!"

She seemed oblivious as she eyed the remaining Mass-Produced Evangelion that was still standing, her energy depleting quickly.

"The lance!"

A large purple hand flashed in front of Asuka and snatched the Lance of Longinus out of thin air, its point precariously stopping only a few feet away from Unit 02's head.

"Shinji!"

Asuka was too tired and shocked to insult or berate him, as she might have done because the Invincible Ikari was finally here to save her.

No, she was emotionally and physically drained, and so was, apparently her Evangelion, as it slumped over on all fours and as the lights within Asuka's entry plug went dull, the last of the reserve power gone.

Evangelion Unit 01 stood like a great purple monolith in front of the debilitated red Evangelion as two more SEELE Units stood, one of them missing an arm, the other one disfigured and injured beyond belief, but apparently still ready to fight.

Unit 01 charged forward, one of the Lances still in its grasp, and stopped short, ducking as one of the SEELE Units hurled a Lance towards him like a javelin.

Shinji peered at the Evangelion Unit with great unimaginable hate, his eyes bulging out, his fists clenching and unclenching.

Unit 01 slammed into the now unarmed SEELE Unit, grabbing its great head within a purple hand and gripping mightily, the great white head bulging and then exploding in a spray of odd fluid.

Just as the other Unit turned to peer at Shinji with its only unwounded eye, Unit 01 connected its Lance straight through the Mass-Produced Evangelion's head, the monstrous ivory Evangelion letting out a horrifyingly inhuman screech as it toppled over.

Shinji smiled, his entire body shivering as he turned around to look at Asuka's Evangelion, and then met a cold, uncomfortable feeling in his gut as something smacked into him from behind.

He peered down to see a Lance of Longinus protruding out of his Evangelion's chest.

His eyes bulged out and he almost chuckled as he felt the unbearable pain surging through his body, hearing an odd voice through his communicator before he descended into darkness.

"Shinji! Idiot! Don't die on me now, Shinji!"

Hah…God…when I surrender to death, you rescue me…and you take me away when I fight against death, just as I'd realized…what…

Then, simply darkness.

The Year 2026

Tokyo 3, Japan

A small public park

A young man sat against a marble bench, the shrubbery around him swaying lazily in the summer breeze.

Tokyo 3, despite the Angel Wars and the rubble that had been collecting for years, despite all of that, it was still a beautiful place, and within the last decade, more and more people had been filing in.

The young man shivered, and let out a choking scream, startling a young toddler who had been picking at the grass next to the bench.

The toddler scampered off crying, and Shinji Ikari sighed, peering at the mother of the young child with an apologizing face.

"Sorry miss…just a bad flashback…"

The mother let out an indignant huff and then darted away down the grassy path with her toddler in hand as Shinji scratched the back of his head, a frown on his face.

"Dammit…the nightmares are back again…"

Shinji Ikari was now a young man of twenty five years, a great deal of them spent in misery and war.

Things had calmed down considerably now, but the nightmares would always be with Shinji.

His face had taken on more and more of his father's qualities, making it rather handsome, and the black unshaven stubble on his chin made him look eerily like his father at that age, before Gendo had even met Yui.

Suddenly an odd ringing and Shinji lifted up his cell phone.

"Yeah…alright…I'll be right there, Rei…okay."

He sighed, putting the cell phone away.

Rei was yet another story…He never fully understood her connection with the events of the SEELE invasion, and how she had been involved exactly, but he had been glad to find her alive, next to the dead body of Gendo Ikari, a frown on his face and bullets from Ritsuko Akagi's bullets in his gut.

Rei had changed…over the years…and Asuka…

Shinji shook the memories away, not willing to remember anymore.

He turned down the path, heading back towards the apartment he and Ayanami shared, when he heard a moan. He peered towards where he had heard the sound and saw a man, evidentally homeless, huddled up against a tree trunk.

Shinji slowly strolled towards the man, not sure why. He was a nice guy, but not really charitable towards stranger. Still, the man looked pitiful, wrapped in a brown blanket that hid his face, shivering uncontrollably.

Ikari fished around in his pocket for a some spare change and scooted closer to the man.
"Excuse me sir? Are you-"

Something wiggled out of the blanket, a long odd fleshy protuberance that Shinji could not comprehend or understand. It seemed almost like a…

Tail!

Shinji dashed off away from the man for a few minutes and then stopped when he was a good distance away, to catch his breath.

"What in the hell was that! Rei's right…I've been working too hard lately…I need a few days sleep."

Shinji hadn't slept in weeks, the nightmares plaguing him anew, even in Rei's comfort and company.

He sighed as he finally made his way up the familiar steps and opened the door, announcing hoarsely.

"I'm home…"

A pale young woman with soft crimson eyes and cerulean hair appeared before him, an almost indiscernible smile on her face.

"Welcome home, Shinji."

Well, that's the first chapter…Sort of short? Sort of odd? Sort of unoriginal?

Don't worry, it's just the first chapter, things will be taking many twists and you'll find out what the state of affairs of all of Shinji's friends and relations are…Trust me, this won't be your typical Post-EoE fic…