Disclaimer
The series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, from which this work of fiction is based, is owned by GAINAX. Characters presented in this document that come directly from the series are also owned by GAINAX. I own all original characters.

Evangelion: Primum Revelation
Chapter 2: Lost and Found
Written by T.S. a.k.a. "Kain Tempest"

Shinji pulled the trigger for Unit-01's right hand. The reaction by the giant being was instantaneous. The clenched fist closed completely. The strength of the Evangelion was to be expected; the sack of blood and bones in its grip was almost as frail as air. The sound of bones turning into powder and pressure of all the blood being squeezed out, causing the vessels and skin to rupture made Shinji's stomach twist into a knot.

The sound echoed within the cavernous chamber, unabsorbed by the metallic walls or the gold lake around him. At the same moment he pulled the trigger, he felt a large piece of himself be torn away, as if the soul of this monster was, in fact, an important part of Shinji. Not only was it an end to an era in mankind, but also the end to the ignorant days of being merely a child. Shinji had made a difficult decision, one that confirmed his place in the world forever. As his mind announced it, a small splash in the lake seemed to confirm it.

Not even looking up to see the result of his action, Shinji had Unit- 01 release the handful of bloody pulp. With a groaning sigh; the behemoth brought its bloodied hand to its side. There was a second splash. One last reminder that what he had done was not reversible. The war with the Angels was over. The reason for NERV's existence had ended, as did Shinji's value. Deep down, the realization was earth shattering, but the pounding in his heart and the words that rang in his ears were the only things he could recall.

Shinji couldn't blame anyone. Not Asuka, Rei, Misato, or his father. The blood that soiled the Evangelion's hand was caused by his choice. Unlike Touji, he had the power to change things, but here he was. Head hanging down, simply staring at the console blankly, not wanting to see reality. He killed someone. It wasn't just a thing like the Angels were. He could easily kill other Angels because they were so alien from human beings, but this time, he killed something that looked so much like a person. Not to mention one that cared about him. It didn't feel like an obligation to reciprocate the Fifth Child's affections, it was an honest feeling of mutual love that he felt. Wasn't it?

Shinji slowly raised his head to see darkness above and the golden lake below.

"The song is good." Shinji blinked in surprise as the same even tone said the words. He looked around and his eyes settled back onto the lake of LCL where Kaworu's head bobbed on the surface, crimson eyes staring directly at him. Not at Unit-01, but him. The disembodied head grinned. "Isn't it, Shinji?"

Shinji's eyes flew open and he took a sharp intake of breath. The golden lake and Kaworu's head disappeared from his minds eye to give way into cerulean darkness. The boy sat up in bed and looked around and listened. The room was dark, the only light being the blue moonlight that shone through the single window in the room. Asuka snored softly in the bed on the opposite side of the room.

In the darkness he could see her outline and she was sleeping on the edge of the bed, a pail seated nearby. A week had passed since they were in the abandoned city on the coast and now Asuka's bouts of nausea returned. At this point it didn't seem like food poisoning, rather it seemed that Asuka had come down with stubborn flu. She didn't have a fever, or any other symptom, she was just constantly sick to her stomach. Shinji was thankful that he thought to bring some medicine along before they started off again. It seemed that it was working, but the redhead refused to take any chances and became quite attached with the metal pail since they found the cabin.

Shinji turned his attention to the window. There were no sounds outside and it made the night peaceful. No animals stirred and no monster would be stalking in the shadows. All of that was gone, leaving an empty world without fear. Shinji frowned; he had to use the washroom.

The boy brought his feet over the edge of the bed and softly put them down on the wood floor. Asuka would kill him if he woke her up after she had finally gotten settled. Shinji reached down and cautiously felt around the floor until his hand settled on the black rubber grip of the flashlight, his other hand wandered and found his shoes. He crept out of the room and slipped the door shut behind him.

Shinji had emerged onto the balcony landing of the cabin. A second bedroom had been made in the space under the eaves of the sloping roof and was accessed by a large, sturdy ladder. The bottom floor was illuminated by the moonlight outside shining through several windows. Shinji had opted that the two of them slept in the second bedroom, there was another one downstairs, directly below the one that they used, however there was the presence of the puddle of LCL, the remnant of a person after Third Impact.

Shinji put on his shoes and clambered down the ladder. He glanced towards the closed door to that very bedroom. Even though there was nothing to be afraid of from a puddle, it was the equivalent of finding a dead body at this point. He turned and made his way past the dusty table, a lonely couch, and a rickety rocking chair, to the front door.

Shinji swung the beam of light from the flashlight across the gray trunks of the trees that stood so close to the cabin. This wasn't a natural clearing that the cabin had been built. All the trees responsible for making the cabin came from all around. It was item of rustic civilization nestled deep in a pocket of verdant green. Turning to the right, Shinji walked slowly through the thick grass, carefully feeling the ground in order to avoid tripping over a tree root or stone.

Shinji paused at the door to the outhouse. It was simply a precaution, despite the fact that there was no one in there, there was a possibility that an animal could be holing up inside and would not take kindly to his barging in. However, that simply puzzled Shinji. After Third Impact, there was no sound of animals as if they too were eliminated in the cataclysm. Indeed everything in the world that could be under the sun or in the deepest shadows were gone. All save the plants however.

Shinji blinked away the mysteries, and pushed them into a corner of his mind to be reviewed later. He had to go to the bathroom.
Zipping up his fly and fastening his belt buckle, the boy rubbed the dreariness from his eyes and picked up the flashlight, passing it across the distance towards the cabin. Shinji gave out a yawn. After a few steps he stopped and noticed that he was humming. He blinked and stopped himself, confused at what had possessed him to do so. It was clear that he must have been tired because it sounded as if he was hearing music.

Shinji stopped in his tracks and looked around. He was expecting silence but in the distance he could hear the sound of a guitar being played. It couldn't be his imagination. Could it? The boy faced the direction he could only guess the instrument was being played from and with only a glance out of the corner of his eye at the cabin, he started towards it.

Only a few paces into the trees and already Shinji was anxious about leaving Asuka alone. If it were his imagination, then it wouldn't be worth getting her out of bed. Besides, he didn't want to give the spitfire another reason to insult him. But if this wasn't his imagination...

Shinji started considering what the source of the music could entail. If it was coming from a derelict car out in the wilderness, it couldn't be possible that the batteries had been lasting this long, at least, not without him hearing them earlier. The only plausible explanation was that there was someone out in the woods playing a guitar. And singing. However, the language was foreign.

Again anxiety was brought in another wave in Shinji's mind. What if they didn't understand Japanese? What if they were more lost and confused than Shinji or Asuka were? As soon as he was beginning to panic, he thought of Asuka and how she would yell at him, if she were with him now, for being a wimp. He may still be a kid, but he was also a male. Running into a hostile person shouldn't get him scared. Although Shinji would have disagreed, just imagining Asuka's presence pushed him forward, farther from the real Asuka. Shinji realized that he was being pushed into a scary situation by another situation that bothered him.

Only took a couple of minutes before Shinji realized that his guess at where the music was coming from was incorrect. Listening more closely to the person's singing, he turned in one direction and took several paces, before turning in another. Weaving a meandering path through the trees. Before he knew it, he was lost.

Turning and looking around, Shinji's brow furrowed. He couldn't recognize his path through the forest and knew all too well that he had lost his bearing and that he didn't know where the cabin had disappeared to in the forest.

With relative darkness and a near infinite limbo of trees with only the sound of the phantom singer in the distance, it was easy for Shinji's imagination and fears to start creeping up on him. He swallowed and closed his eyes, focusing on listening to the sound of the music. Reorienting himself, he started after the noise again, this time at a run.

Both hope and dread filled Shinji's racing heart as he finally heard the music becoming louder and clearer. He pumped hard, his eyes wide and the light of the flashlight bouncy as he ran. Suddenly, everything disappeared from around and below him. Shinji let out a cry of alarm as he pitched forward and down the slope and towards the spot of burning light.

Striking the ground, Shinji immediately snapped his eyes shut as he bounced and tumbled the rest of the way down. His entrance was greeting by shout, the end of the music, and the sound of a crackling fire. Shinji opened his eyes to see the black sky above and a face silhouetted by the nearby flame.

"Are you alright?" The face said, half-panicked. Shinji blinked, his eyes wide as he nodded. The face drew back. "Ha. You scared me."

Shinji sat up and looked at the figure. He blinked and frowned, but couldn't quite see who it was.

"And I thought I was alone." The figure approached again and offered Shinji a hand up. He hesitated a moment before taking it and being pulled up onto his feet with one strong tug. "You're sure you're okay?" The figure asked again.

"Y-yeah. T-thank you." Shinji stammered. The man gave a chuckle and put a hand on his hip. There was an awkward silence for a second; neither of the two strangers were sure what to say next. After a few moments the man walked over to the fire and turned back to Shinji, now with the firelight against his face. He was a rather handsome man of oriental descent with shoulder-length brown hair. It was only then that Shinji realized the man was actually speaking fluent Japanese and not the same language he had been singing just a moment ago.

"So what's your name?" The man asked. Shinji blinked, still lost in the lull.

"Uh... I-Ikari. Ikari, Shinji."

"Well, pleased to-" The man paused and Shinji winced, hoping he didn't do anything wrong. "Did you just say your name is Ikari?" Shinji stepped closer to the firelight and nodded. The man blinked and stared at him in shock before flopping down on a fallen log. "I'll be damned."

"Is something wrong?" Shinji asked. He took a step back, but was puzzled when the man responded with a laugh.

"I never imagined it would be such a small world."

"Pardon?"

"Hmm. So you don't recognize me? I'm not at all surprised, we never actually met. In fact, you probably never heard me despite how closed I was to you." This only helped to confuse Shinji even more.

"Excuse me? Who are you?"

"Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba." It took a few moments before it registered.

"Of NERV? You worked alongside Misato, didn't you?" Shigeru nodded, happy to see that Shinji had figured it out.

"Like I said. I don't think we were ever formally introduced. I've seen a lot of good things from you, Shinji Ikari. I'm glad to see that you're alright." Shinji nodded. "And I thought I was the only one left."

"I thought we were to." Shinji sat down on a log opposite to Shigeru. The young man looked up.

"'We'? You mean there is someone else? Who?"

"Uh... Asuka." Even though Shinji now recognized Shigeru, he still felt a little pensive about giving any more information. He still wasn't quite sure where the two of them stood.

"Asuka Langely Sohryu? My God, it seems miracles can happen."

"What?" Shigeru shook his head and Shinji frowned, he didn't like his question being shrugged off, but kept quiet. He opted to change the subject. "Where have you been?" Shigeru looked up at him.

"You mean after Third Impact?" Shinji hesitated then nodded. Shigeru whistled and looked skyward. "I'd say it's been two days since I found myself being swept up onto the beach. Of course, I was disoriented and confused for a long time. The last thing I remembered was being in NERV headquarters, holed up by the JSDF."

"The Japanese Self Defense Force?" Shinji looked puzzled. "Why was the JSDF attacking us?"

"Isn't it obvious? NERV's job was to use the Evangelions to kill the Angels. When they were all gone they realized what NERV was capable of with EVAs. The Committee, our sponsors, didn't trust us so they worked with the JSDF to try and disable NERV so that we couldn't try anything."

"But we didn't plan on trying anything. Asuka couldn't pilot Unit 02 and Unit 00 was completely destroyed. I wouldn't have used Unit 01 to hurt anyone." Shigeru's face turned to ashen solemnity.

"What about when Unit-03 turned on us." Shinji's jaw dropped as the sting of cold realization came across him. His father had been capable of making Unit-01 work without Shinji synching with the EVA.

"With so much power, Commander Ikari could have done some very terrible things." Shinji was quiet for a moment.

"So... They wanted to kill me to protect others. When did NERV become the enemy?"

"The minute we made the mistake of trying to stop the Committee from hacking into Tokyo-3's MAGI computers. The MAGI could be fooled into thinking it was necessary to launch the EVAs and to fight back. But if they had the MAGI there would be no way anyone in the organization could convince enough personnel in the facility to help manually launch the EVAs." Shinji nodded, he remembered during the Angel attack when all the power in Tokyo-3 was out and how many people it took simply to simply release the Evangelions from their cages.

"And even if someone managed that, the EVAs would be limited to a few battery packs." Shigeru nodded slowly.

"If we weren't so foolish and simply allowed NERV to be taken over, none of this would have happened." Shigeru hung his head. "God were we stupid."

Shinji was about to open his mouth and say something. Be he stopped himself and wondered how Shigeru would react if he found out the truth. There was no point in making an enemy out of someone that Shinji was fortunate enough to meet out in what seemed like such an empty world.

However, Shigeru's appearance also brought more questions to Shinji. Namely, were there others that were awakening from the ocean? Were they really alone anymore?

"So... Where is Asuka anyway?"

"We had found a cabin somewhere in the woods. I came here when I started to hear you play your guitar and sing. However," Shinji looked away sheepishly. "I lost track of where the cabin was." Shigeru sighed, disappointed.

"Well I've been wandering these woods for about a day, and I can tell you that they are awfully thick and that slope you had fallen down just a moment ago was probably the only landmark I've found thus far."

"So we're lost?" Shinji's voice was tinged with despair.

"Maybe not. How good is your memory?" Shinji looked at him curiously.

"Um... Pretty good, I guess."

"When you started away from the cabin, which way were you facing? Relative to north." Shinji thought about it. Recalling the direction of the setting sun when he and Asuka had found the cabin.

"South... West?" Shigeru nodded and stood up and looked around. He turned to face the slope and slowly turned forty-five degrees left and pointed.

"Probably around that direction." He said flatly. He then turned to the fire and picked up a pail lying nearby and doused the flames. He then slung the guitar and a duffle bag over his shoulder and carried along the bucket. "Let's go." Shinji hesitated for a moment, surprised at how quickly and confidently Shigeru had gotten his bearings and started walking. Grabbing his flashlight, Shinji followed, leaving the meager campsite of the musical lieutenant behind.
"Damn it, Shinji, where the Hell are you?" Asuka groaned as she eased her self onto the sofa in the cabin. She plunked the wet pail next to her after a round of vomiting. She no longer had her cold, but now it seemed that she was constantly sick to her stomach and it was down right frustrating. Especially when there wasn't anyone around to provide moral support. But really, that was the only thing she required of Shinji, beyond providing proof that she wasn't completely alone.

She unscrewed the cap to a bottle of water to chase down a pair of nausea pills in order to settle her stomach and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She heaved a frustrated sigh and stared up at the rafters above her. Morning sunlight shone through the windows. She didn't know how long Shinji had been gone, only that he had left everything behind except for the clothes on his back and a flashlight.

If it weren't for the nausea and her anger from him disappearing, she would have worried about his fate. Had he been attacked and dragged away by some animal? That was one of the least likely possibilities, again, because they were probably the only living things on earth aside from the plants. A more humorous and most likely possibility was that he had gotten lost somewhere between the cabin and the outhouse.

She smiled at the thought, but exhaustion caused her to give up that expression. She took another swig of water, sloshed in her mouth and spat it out into the bucket, trying to expel the acrid taste of bile from her mouth. She curled up against the stiff cushions. She was already bored, having nothing to do in the cabin. She would have preferred to keep travelling, but she had to wait not only for the nausea to subside, but she needed Shinji to return. Of course, the former had to be accomplished before she could begin on the latter.

Asuka growled, which only came out as a groan. The discomfort of her stomach was keeping her awake. She stifled a small yawn and stared at the bark of the cabin walls and allowed her mind to drift. Going over the events of the past few days and backwards. As her thoughts continued backwards, she decided to leave her experiences in Tokyo-3 behind. She didn't need to cry and in retrospect, she was infuriated that she had allowed herself to cry before. That brought her back to thinking about Misato's jacket, which was now draped over her backpack upstairs.

Before the two of them had left the city on the coast, they had the common sense to forage out of stores and gather supplies. Neither of them knew exactly where they had shown up since they had left what was left of Japan by boat. Truly, there was nothing for them in that graveyard. However, they had a suspicion that they were on the northern coast of China. Then came the question of where they should go. Shinji had suggested traveling south, a warmer climate being easier to manage that the cold of Russia or taking risks in the Chinese mountains. Unfortunately, the roads leading south didn't always follow the coast and they decided to cut through the forest. Too bad they didn't know just how large the wooded area was before nightfall.

"Stupid Shinji and his dumb ideas." Asuka grumbled, burying her face in a lonely pillow.

"Wer möchte einen idioten wie sie?"

Asuka's heart skipped a beat and she lifted her face from the pillow, her breath caught in throat and she slowly looked around the room. She had thought she had heard someone say something. In German no less.

"H-hello?" She whispered. Asuka quickly realized though, that she had imagined it. But the voice she imagined was that of a girl. There was also the twisted pleasure in the background of the voice, as if those hurtful words were actually enjoyable. If she ever said that to Shinji, it would be out of anger, not purposeful cruelty. Had she ever said those words to anyone before? She couldn't have.

There was in one corner of her mind that she neglected, one place that objected to her assumption. Even when the Fifteenth Angel dove into her psyche, it never happened to look at her time at NERV before Tokyo-3. In the end she forgot about it, it never really seemed important.

Asuka began trying to remember that time, allowing the memories to well up. It was at the first NERV headquarters, the one in Germany. She was training to become a pilot, while rocketing through the grades at school and landing into college. She had gone through textbooks, cover-to-cover in a few scant weeks whereas her peers would take four months, if not more. People thought her ability to get by so successfully was a product of natural intellect, and not her ability to work hard. They also said that she was just like her brother and that was where it had all began.

The boy was short, having been slow to reach puberty, however he bounded through the grades with scores that seemed to laugh at his instructors. Despite his age and physical stature, none of the other children dared to tease him because they knew that he was not only very smart, but also dangerous. Asuka and the boy were the same age. Asuka could remember his shaggy brown hair that stood up in numerous directions and ice blue eyes. Asuka feint disinterest at the time, not at all believing that this boy was any threat to her. When she made eye contact with him, however, she was hard pressed not to shield her face from his cold stare. Asuka physically shuddered in remembering that look.

As the rest of their peers looked on in shock and admiration, the two 'geniuses' had waged a silent war through their academics, jockeying for the highest average. The competition for a better grade became trivial, however, when she discovered that the boy was also training to become an Evangelion pilot. Neither of them knew at first. When their paths finally crossed in one of the underground installation's corridors, Asuka hid in a bathroom stall where she could take a breath without revealing how much the boy disturbed her.

"What was your name again?" Asuka breathed. She could easily remember what he looked like two years ago, but couldn't remember his name. Asuka grew impatient and with a huff, pressed the pillow to her face.

What did it matter anymore? If the kid didn't get himself killed with his attitude, he probably was gone like the rest of the human race. Again her thoughts returned to that of Shinji. Where was that idiot? She swung her feet off of the couch and got up to stretch. Wandering over to a window she looked out at the bright day and around at the woods. Nothing. She made her way back to the couch.

The creak of rusty hinges caused Asuka to stop and look to the door to the second room on the main floor of the cabin. When they had first arrived, Asuka was too ill to actually explore and when she inquired why she couldn't stay downstairs, Shinji was very vague in his reasons but was firm. However, now that the medication was kicking in, her attention needed a diversion. Now was the time to see what caused Shinji to avoid the room.

The infinite number of possibilities of what could be behind those doors that had turned Shinji away from it filled Asuka's mind. Although it was broad daylight outside, she felt as though she was in a horror movie and the single plinking piano keys would begin to play at any moment as her hand moved closer. She gave the door a firm push and it swung away, opening into the mysterious second room. She stepped through and looked around.

It was a single person's bedroom that took up half of the cabin's floor space, but despite its size, the furnishings were sparse. Two bookshelves, a desk and chair, a rotting recliner and a ragged bed soaked in golden fluid. Asuka frowned at the stuff on the bed, not recalling what it was at the moment. But then her memory flashed back to Shinji cleaning the same substance of his pack a week ago. It was LCL. But LCL was only used by NERV to fill the EVA cages and entry plugs, why would there be LCL lying anywhere else? Asuka wanted to touch the stuff, to see whether it did feel like what she thought it was. She stopped and reconsidered the action, retracting her hand. Turning away, she set about examining the rest of the room.

A white map had been rolled out on the desk held down by a metal ruler and a heavy magnifying glass. Long red lines cut across the black grid work that divided light blue ripples into equal sections. Asuka examined the map for only a few moments before looking away, not understanding it. She was about to wander to the bookcase when she noticed the silver and black box sitting on a small wooden crate at one side of the desk. She picked it up, immediately recognizing it as a radio. Turning it over, Asuka looked it up and down before finally switching it on and being greeted with soft static. She played with the controls, scanning through the signals only find either more static or complete silence. Asuka turned it off and set the radio down on the desk.

There were numerous binders on the bookshelf, all white with black printing on the spine, in Japanese no less. Asuka plucked one from the case and flipped through it, finding more maps and reports. Asuka put the binder back and sighed. She sat down in the recliner and looked around the room. There was nothing,. God, without electricity or another human being she would go insane with boredom. Considering the fact that she had already started hearing voices, that didn't seem very far off.

Asuka shifted in the recliner, something was digging into her backside. She reached behind her and grasped a leather book. She pulled the item free and brought it front of her. There were no markings to tell what it was, in kanji or otherwise. She opened it up.

"What?" Asuka whispered, finding only blank pages. She started flipping through finding out they had begun to start writing, at the very back of the book. No, it would be the back of the book in Japan. This person started where books normally begin in Europe, right to left. As if she had found the Ark of the Covenant, Asuka's jaw found it's way into her lap as her eyes passed over fluent English in cursive script. God, how long had it been since she had seen those wonderful Arabic letters lined up to form a European language? Her grin widened with every passing word, until she finally reached the end of the page.

This was the journal of who ever had lived here before Third Impact took them away. These were the private thoughts of one human being. In a sense, it was the writer's being wrapped up in a day-to-day account of their lives. The gravity of the book's contents finally dawned on her. Asuka rested the leather bound book on her lap and looked at the featureless cover. One part of her wanted to leave this alone, and respect the privacy of someone who no longer existed, and yet another wanted to have something to stimulate her mind, no matter how intimate the information could be. Finally, another part of her reasoned that she was doing the missing man a favor by reading this story, because they would never tell it to another soul.

The debate was short, but her action reluctant. Asuka carried the book to the couch in the next room, got comfortable, and began pouring over the stranger's thoughts.
Her brain was only half awake when she registered Shinji's voice in the distance and she jumped up with a start, spilling the journal onto the floor. She raced to the front door, tore it open and rushed outside to see Shinji practically crawl across the uncut grass.

"Asuka, is that you?" Shinji breathed, raising his head and revealing the heavy circle under his eyes. The dangerous look on the redhead's face didn't click in for several seconds, all too late for him to work up an effective defense.

"Where the Hell were you, you idiot? I had the mind to leave you in this knot hole if it weren't for the fact that my guts are turning inside out every damn morning!" Shinji stumbled back, as if physically struck by Asuka's verbal maelstrom. "You look like you haven't slept at all! What were you doing all this time? Playing hide and seek with yourself?"

"Ah... No?" Sleep deprivation had left Shinji with no way of working out a very good excuse. This was probably the equivalent to coming home drunk... To any place but the Katsuragi household. Asuka huffed and looked away, unimpressed by the zombie.

"You really haven't changed." Asuka looked back at Shinji and growled.

"What the Hell did you just say?" Asuka blinked, noticing that Shinji was looking over his shoulder and his lips weren't moving. Either he went out to practice ventriloquism or... Asuka leaned to one side to see an older man with long dark brown hair give her a weak smile. She immediately jumped back in surprise. The fellow laughed. "Howdy."

Asuka was in shock, her lips moved, trying to make out words, but no sounds came out. She just stared in disbelief at the second member of the walking dead and the third human being she had seen in days including herself. Shinji looked up at his silent companion with concern.

"Asuka? Are you alright?" This gave Asuka the opportunity to stop staring at the stranger and vent her emotion out.

"How the Hell did this happen? Where on earth did you find this guy? And why do you look like something the cat dragged in? Gott im Himmel, was ist los herum hier?" Already, Asuka was losing focus on speaking Japanese, returning to spouting out German and leaving Shinji in a deeper fog.

"Well, I'm Lieutenant Shigeru Aoba. I ran into Shinji here in the woods and since he lost his way, we've been walking through the woods all night. Though I'm not sure how to answer your first and last question." Asuka looked at the fellow in surprise.

"L-lieutenant? You're military?" Shigeru sighed.

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like you pilots know we lieutenants exist. No, I'm not military. I'm NERV personnel. We never met, Asuka, but I'm one of the ones responsible for giving you information during your missions." Asuka didn't look convinced and crossed her arms. Neither of the men spoke, and having lost interest in yelling and interrogating them, Asuka turned away and walked back into the cabin. Shinji looked at Shigeru, who simply shrugged. The two bushwhackers dragged themselves through the front door.

Shinji had deposited himself onto the couch just as Asuka picked up the journal. She glanced over as she heard Shigeru dump his luggage next to the door and stumbled down into the rocking chair. He sighed as the chair rocked and creaked. Soon the two were fast asleep. Asuka looked away and returned to the study and shut the door behind her, plopping down into the recliner. She cracked open the journal again.

An event of such importance should have affected her more than it did. Shinji had found another human being in what seemed like an empty world. There were plenty of questions she wanted to ask this Shigeru fellow. In their state, though, they wouldn't be able to give the answers she needed. Besides, she already had someone she could easily delve into now, someone who seemed familiar, but was surely a complete stranger. Asuka wondered if this sensation was going to haunt her forever, a constant sensation of déjà vu whenever she touched the life of an assumedly complete stranger.

Asuka shook her head. The answers could wait awhile. After all, she wasn't too impatient. With Shinji and Shigeru sleeping soundly in the next room, Asuka flipped to the next page in the journal and nestled down in the recliner to read.

To Be Continued...

Author's Note
Some of my readers may not appreciate the entrance of Shigeru. However, I've been careful to try and only add elements that will further the plot. Save for some fan service. The addition of the journal was a last minute choice, but I believe it will be of greater significance later in the story. Out of all the characters, I often am most concerned with trying to keep Asuka's personality as close to the original one, even though Third Impact would give license for a few minor alterations. I would like to thank those who have reviewed and commented on my work, I appreciate it.