Well, hope you're enjoying this fanfic as well as my other many fanfics…Maybe I've made way too many…eh…who cares…

Anyway, sorry for taking ages with the update, I was busy, bored, tired, and out of Writing Mode. :)

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

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters, Unknown Location

Shinji Ikari stared up at the Evangelion in determination, and then suddenly sighed. He realized that despite his sudden agreement with Ritsuko's entreaties, she was now unconscious and he hadn't any idea how to board this giant monster she called an Evangelion.

He clenched his eyes tight in confusion and fear and tried to focus on the faces of his mother and father, together, a couple, smiling happily.

Ritsuko's words were still haunting him with a horrifically sublime sense of hope.

"Shinji…no…Your father couldn't make it…he's…in the NERV hospital…he's hurt…He called you here because he may be dying and he wanted to see you one last time."

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters, Control Room

Maya typed frantically on her keyboard, her face a visage of horror and seriousness.

"Critical damage to surface level! The Angel is trying to blow itself a passage down to the Control Room itself! It's directly above us!"

Gendo Ikari stumbled about as dust from the shaking ceiling flitted down, and Misato's face twisted into confusion at the base's sudden helplessness. They truly hadn't any weapons left.

"I think we can see that, Maya…How much time do we have?"

Maya seemed uneasy and then finally spoke, her voice wavering.

"Ten minutes…approximately…probably less…"

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters, Unknown Location

Shinji Ikari stared at Evangelion Unit 01 with fear and determination, the robot or monster or whatever it was, vaguely threatening to him, especially because he hadn't any idea how to board it and the place around him was crumbling.

Couple that with the fact that Ritsuko Akagi was still out cold, prone down below and Shinji Ikari's mind was racing with chaos and confusion.

Gendo Ikari stared down at his son, shaking his head.

"You…disappoint me."

Shinji clenched his fists, shouting out towards the Evangelion with almost a strained roar.

"Dammit! What am I supposed to do?"

Suddenly a large rumble shook the catwalk and designated Third Child stumbled backwards, actually thinking for a second in fear that the Evangelion had come alive to attack him.

Instead, a huge, threatening, but at the same time vaguely welcoming pod was now protruding out of the Evangelion, directly in front of Shinji Ikari.

The young man stared into the strange darkness of the entry plug and shuddered, stepping inside with his eyes and fists clenched unbelievably tight.

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters, Control Room

Maya gasped, typing rapidly on her keyboard as the ground around them shook, dust floating down from the ceiling, countless screens simply erupting into static.

"The Komagatake defense line has been broken..."

"All layers from first to eighteenth damaged!"

Misato gasped.

"Can its blast really be capable of that sort of power! Its attack broke through eighteen special armor plates at once!"

Kouzou stared at Gendo, wondering what plan the younger man had up his sleeve.

We've lost communication with both your lover and your son...Do you even care, Gendo Ikari? No…I suppose you don't

Suddenly the control room shook once more, this time as something actually came out of NERV Headquarters and out into the surface, instead of the other way around. A purple mechanical blur.

Evangelion Unit 01 landed next to the gaping hole created by the solemn angel and seemed to stare it down, hunched over in a predatory stance.

The control room seemed to let out a collective gasp as they all scrambled about and typed, trying to recover data on the situation and the pilot outside.

Only Gendo Ikari remained unchanged, staring forward at the screen presenting the calm before a horrendous battle, a smirk splayed across his face.

Tokyo 3, Japan

Shinji strained at the controls, his hands shaking as he peered around the entry plug.

First he'd almost drowned in the liquid inside, or so he'd thought, then he'd managed to somehow get the giant bulking monster to the surface. Now it seemed not to respond as he inanely and intensely punched and jerked with the controls, simply crouching there silently, staring at the ominous looking angel, which quite frankly, terrified even someone as apathetic as Shinji Ikari.

Suddenly he heard a voice waft into his cockpit and he shook, utterly startled, the voice strained and feminine.

"Shinji Ikari, do you copy?"

Shinji paused and then sighed, replying awkwardly.

"Yeah…"

"Okay Shinji…I need you to listen to me, alright…We don't have much time for a crash course in piloting."

The angel stood eerily dormant, staring at the Evangelion with its odd eyes.

"Shinji…you need to understand the neural, the mental connection, you could say, with your Evangelion…If you want to walk, think only of walking…clear your mind…"

Shinji squinted his eyes and spoke as the Evangelion began to warily make its way forward.

"Walk…"

The Evangelion tripped forward, awkwardly and anticlimactically, slamming down and barely supporting itself with its hands, as if by reflex.

But the moment was a loss, the angel charged forward like a blur, trying to take advantage of the Evangelion's loss of balance.

"No! Dammit! Shinji, remember, that's not your arm! It's not your arm!"

Shinji groaned as the angel slammed against him, the Evangelion's right arm straining as Shinji tried to throw his attacker off, almost controlling the Evangelion effortlessly in a time of reflex and danger.

He swung a fist up against the angel's bulk, slamming it away, and then rose up with a roar, the Evangelion mirroring him even to the roar.

Evangelion Unit 01 charged towards the angel as it seemed to struggle to rise. Instead it raised one of its long arms towards the charging Evangelion before it could arrive.

Suddenly there was a flash, then simply darkness.

Shinji Ikari screamed, staring out into the grueling darkness around him, hearing moaning and screaming and suddenly feeling a numb but strong pain on the left side of his head.

Stumbling backwards, or maybe more like floating backwards, he saw her, like an angel, indeed with angelic wings, floating above him, bringing light to the squirming black all around him.

I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die… I don't wanna die…I don't want to…Mother!

Evangelion Unit 01 sprang up in a purple flash, startling everyone, from Misato and the control room, to even the pilot and the angel standing in front of it. On the left side of its face was a smoking hole, from where Sachiel's energy beam had slammed into Evangelion Unit 01's face.

Misato's voice came wafting into the entry plug, and she seemed horrendously worried.

"Sh-Shinji…That's not your….that's…that's…"

Shinji Ikari felt a drop of blood fall into his lap and looked up, suddenly noticing the horrendous pain in his left eye, and then realizing half of his vision was bathed into darkness.

He tried to open his left eye, move it around, blink, and slowly brought up his right hand, touching against his left eye, curiously.

Where the Third Child's eye would usually be was a mangled socket of blood and fluid, dripping down his face.

Shinji Ikari stared up to the heavens, his single eye bulging, and let out a horrifying scream, a bestial shriek that echoed throughout the Evangelion.

Then, he was bathed in light.

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters, Control Room

Misato felt a shiver run up her spine as Shinji's scream echoed throughout the control room, fresh and horrifying as if he were right there beside him.

"Front area of the head cracked!"

"Head damaged; extent unknown!"

"Control nerves snapping one after another."

"No response from pilot."

All of the control room was silent, everyone with shocked and miserable looks on their faces, even the Sub-Commander, who had a wizened look of sublime sadness splayed across his face.

"Pilot's brain waves are erratic. Heart beat is very weak."

"Heart support system to maximum. Begin cardiac stimulation."

"Roger…"

"Pulse recognized…"

Maya typed rapidly at her console, her face horrified with worry.

"Trouble maintaining activity!"

"What's the status?"

"Synchrograph has reversed. Pulses are flowing backward!"

"Cut the circuits! Stop them!"

No use! The signal is refused. It can't be received!

"No response from the monitoring system. Life or death unknown!"

"Unit 01 is totally silent."

Misato sighed, shaking her head, her face laced with worry.

So much for this time...father

"Stop the operation. Pilot's protection has top priority. Eject the plug by force!"

"Force eject the entry plug, hurry!"

"Denied. The pilot must remain under all circumstances; you forget the angel is currently invading our base. Locate the First Child for deployment"

The Commander's voice interrupted coldly, and his ruthless order was followed without a noise of objection or reason, he had trained his subordinates well, even Misato remained dormant and confused.

Only Gendo Ikari seemed to remain the same, calm and silent.

Finally he spoke, ignoring the video screen as it showed Sachiel slamming into the dormant Evangelion Unit 01 and knocking it down onto the concrete. It loomed over the biomechanical menace, as if considering something, and then simply left it behind, leaping down into the gaping hole it made, shaking the entire NERV Base with its horrific entrance.

Gendo Ikari suddenly stood, staring at Kouzou and nodded, no secret message, simply handing over the command to the older man, Kouzou frankly had no idea why Ikari was leaving, but he hoped for the sake of humanity that there was a plan B.

Tokyo 3, Japan

NERV Headquarters, Unknown Location

Ritsuko Akagi groaned as the ground shook, wiping the warm blood off her brow and struggling to become orientated with her surroundings. The base was certainly crumbling around her, and she could see huge gaping holes above her.

I wonder…what…

Then she noticed that Evangelion Unit 01 was gone.

She smirked sadly and tried to stand up, noticing her phone was broken.

So he really did it…he really had the guts to do it…I thought I'd imagined that last part as I went unconscious…

He clenched his fists as he stared at the Evangelion.

"All right, I just have to get in it…that's all…I'll…I'll do it."

The faux blonde sighed, remembering the boy's somber face, and what she had told him about his father. The little lie to save the whole of humanity…then why did it make her feel so disgusted?

Ritsuko Akagi tried to tell herself that she would try to be kind to the young Ikari, treat him like a new friend, even if she were being fake, it was necessary for his mental stability and recovery, she had read his data file, after all…

Shinji Ikari groaned, feeling his entire body racked with pain, his soul with misery.

He floated in the grayness now; the dark black abyss had been replaced with a gray numbness.

Shinji peered out from within the grayness, as a huge flash of light illuminated him. His pain was forgotten, his misery was numbed.

There was only a surge of energy, familiar energy…someone who cared for him was close by.

"M-Mother?"

Then a stronger burst of light, blinding his right eye momentarily, and then a feeling of…

Shinji Ikari spoke only four words as the Evangelion slowly sprang up, as the light washed through his body, a pulsing that was different from the beating of his heart in his bloodied head.

"I…love you too…"

A bestial roar echoed throughout the control room as Evangelion Unit 01 sprang to life, its nefarious eyes glowing, its legs straining as it sprang down into the great yawning that Sachiel had entered through.

The final battle had come.

Well, hope you liked this chapter…a little short, and a little odd, perhaps ,but still alright, they'll get longer as we go around…And yes you'll meet Rei, obviously, eventually, this is a Rei/Shinji fanfic, after all…

Well, anyway, see you next chapter.