Deep inside the plug, the two gazed upon a sight that neither could believe. Almost impossibly, they saw a very real, a naked, but nonetheless real human identical to Rei Ayanami curled up in Shinji's arms. They were laying on the bottom of the plug, just in front of the pilots seat. Both Ritsuko and Misato were speechless, unable to utter a word. Misato was the first to make any kind of noise.

"…rei…" Her eye spasmed. The figures eyes opened, crimson red were they, squinted against the moonlight invading the plug. It was night now, thirty-six minutes since the angel had fallen.

"…Yes?" The blue haired girl replied. Her soft and gentle voice stating her identity.

'My god… It sounds like her… She responded to the name…' Misato moved forward into the plug, stumbling to her knees. She sat there in bewilderment. "A-are you… Rei Ayanami, is that you?"

"Why yes Miss Misato, do you not recognize me?" Rei responded. Her eyes glinted with curiosity. Ritsuko was still speechless. "Hello Dr. Akagi, I do believe it's been awhile since I last saw you, how are you?"

"I-uh… I…" She fumbled with her words. With a ghostly hint of a smile Rei turned to Shinji who was currently asleep, and whispered in his ear. His eyes cracked open, fluttering a few times to adjust to the light. The moon was in full tonight, just bright enough to make Shinji squint.

"Misato!" He exclaimed excitedly. "I…" He went silent for a second or two, noticing how she was staring at the two of them in disbelief.

"Shinji, I don't believe that Miss Misato thinks I am who I say I am…" Rei shivered. Her naked petite body was no match for the intruding cold. She cuddled herself closer to Shinji, who accepted her and pulled her closer into his embrace. Head cradled on his chest, he stroked her hair thoughtfully. With the absence of his shirt one could see that he had endured a rough time in the Eva. His boyish shoulders, arms and part of his chest were heavily bruised. Tears welled into his eyes, and a smile spread across his fixed itself upon his face.

"It's true Misato. It's Rei, she's come back!" He hugged her tightly, tears of rejoice streaming down his face, a warm smile flashing. Millions of questions were racing through Misato's head. How did she come to be? Where did she come from? How was it possible? What did Shinji have to do with it? She decided to let the questions wait, and put on a soft and happy face.

"Well, come on out of there you two. You're both starting to shiver." Her eyes were comforting, docile face calling out to the two. First Rei climbed out. Misato gave her a standard wool military blanket to wrap around her shoulders. Next she herded Shinji out of the plug, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders as well. Ritsuko stared at her in alienation. Though still shocked, Misato simply shrugged. "Well Ritsuko, we've spent a good portion of our lives waging war against angels, and God himself. I guess anything's believable now." She patted Dr. Akagi on the shoulder as she passed by, leaving her to ponder upon this for a moment.

"Come with me guys." She walked the two over to an SUV labeled as a NERV vehicle. "Rei, we'll have to find you some clothes… That blanket isn't quite doing you much justice…" She stated. "Oh… Yeah… Shinji could you leave us for a second while I find her some clothes…. I—"

"Uh yeah, sure…" He said with a slight blush. "I'll just—"

"No." Rei said, placing a hand around Shinji's forearm. "I don't want him to go…"

"But Rei… You're, well… Not clothed and—" Misato stuttered.

"I'd feel more comfortable and secure… If he was here with me… I don't see why it is a problem Miss Misato. I have been naked this entire time, in the plug with Shinji ever since the attack of the angel started and it roused no problems. Why would it now?" Misato slapped herself in the forehead. The kid was confusing the hell out of her. She wanted to know why it was Rei wanted him there, when in reality most girls wouldn't and in part thoroughly detest the thought of a boy seeing them in such a state. She wanted to ask just how long she had been in the plug with him, and how she came to be. She simply settled to ignore this all and shrugged.

"Fine, whatever you say…" She rolled her eyes. The odd thing she noticed, was that Shinji did not protest this. After living with Shinji for so long, she knew that when it came to being in any kind of suggestive contact or situation with a member of the opposite sex, no matter how innocent he would become jumpy, and try to escape. This was different. Sitting there on the edge of the SUV's seat Rei had tugged on his shoulder, pulling him into the blanket with her. Her first thought was that she noticed Shinji himself was shirtless, and Rei wanted warmth. Studying their faces she could detect no kind of mischievous desire, no controversially intimate connection of any kind… But she did notice some kind of connection between the two. She couldn't quite place it, but she could sense a connection between the two. Ritsuko approached the three, still trying to clear her head.

"Listen Misato. You can go ahead and take them back to NERV HQ… I'm going to stay behind until we get Units One and Two rounded up." The ground shook beneath her feet as the hundred ton transport trucks moved about, the workers helping to lower the gigantic robot onto all four beds of the trucks. "We'll bring Asuka back with us of course.."

"That would be nice." Rei said, head rested atop Shinji's. "It has been a long while since I have seen Asuka too… I'm sure I would like to become friends with her again, seeing as she was not very happy with me the last time… Nonetheless, it would be nice." An innocent smile decorated her face.

"But of course Rei! I'm sure that she'll be happy to see you too." Ritsuko said, an enthusiastic smile clearly pasted on with the rest of her complexion. There was no covering up the fact that she was deeply puzzled and frustrated over the matter of Rei's return. She was of course ecstatic that Rei had returned, but the questions stabbed into her mind endlessly. Both Misato and Ritsuko eyed Shinji oddly. It was unlike him to act like this around any girl, this they both knew however it was really and act of him not acting. Here he was, curled up close to a female in a blanket who was completely nude nonetheless, this due to the fact that Misato couldn't actually find any clothes for her. It was almost blasphemous to his nature.

"Alright." Misato agreed. "I'll see you back at HQ in a little while then." She hurried the two into the SUV. Huddled in the back seat, they were both asleep in less than a few minutes after Misato had pulled out of the crash sight. Misato navigated down the dark roads. Streets and main roads of the industrial sector had always been poorly lit surprisingly, thus causing her to rely mainly on her headlights to stay on the asphalt.

'Ugh… Ow!' A sharp pain pierced the side of her head, digging into her brain. Misato gritted her teeth, taking a hand off of the wheel to hold her head. She had forgotten about the wound on the side of her head. Her vision began to blur slightly. 'Fuck! It's probably a concussion…' Without warning or a hint of it's oncoming, the sharp pain ripped through her thoughts again. Her head became light, and dizzy, her vision becoming even more unclear. She seemed to nod off, only to snap awake for another second. Noticing that she was going off the road, she jerked the wheel and straightened the truck out. Slowly she nodded off not a few minutes later. A few more jerks of the wheel had awoken Shinji.

"Ugh… Misato, what's going on? Are you okay?" He uttered groggily. "Misato?" From the back seat he could see that she had completely slumped into the window. Glancing into the mirror he saw that her eyes were closed. She hung forward slightly, restrained by her seat belt. Her hands had slipped off of the wheel. Slowly the SUV veered into the oncoming lane.

"MISATO!" He shouted. It was to no avail. "Misato! Wake the fuck up!" He shook her vigorously by the shoulder. Rei, who had been startled by Shinji's shouting jumped out of her sleep.

"Shin-ji?" She questioned, tugging at his sleeve in a fashion similar to a sleepy little girl. "What's going on?" Her voice was barely audible above the thump of the tires going over the roads reflectors.

"Rei! Get you seatbelt on. Misato's fallen asleep! We're going to go off the road if I don't get up there." Unthinking of his own safety, he belted Rei and began to climb over the seat. His foot slipped and he found himself caught between the seat and the passengers side window and door momentarily. Looking up he saw that a guardrail to his direct left. A jolt rocked him violently when they hit it. The car careened to the right violently, rocking after the impact. Skipping off of the rail, it headed straight for a large rock off of the side of the road, it's height slightly above that of the hood.

"SHIT!" They drifted off of the road at Seventy-five miles per hour. A second later, they collided with the rock. The SUV came to a brutal stop. The windshield became increasingly larger in Shinji's eyes at a frighteningly fast rate. His shoulder ramming into the glass at Seventy-five miles per hour, he shattered it and was thrown through the window violently, his body resembling that of a rag doll. Doubled over and upside down, he witnessed in slow motion as the SUV flipped and became airborne for a few seconds. He watched in despair and horror as it came down on it's rooftop. Sailing through the air at a significantly higher speed than the SUV now skidding through the gravel on it's canopy, Shinji reached out while he was still airborne to the car and it's occupants, as if beckoning them to come back to him. Time finally caught up and his slow motion nightmare returned to a very painful reality when he felt himself hit the ground fairly hard, the inertia of his body burning his back against something rough. Thrown back onto the road he skipped across the asphalt a few times, the rugged black road tearing away at his skin. He rolled a few times, coming to a stop half over the yellow line. The moonlight glinted on pools of blood scattered across the street. He lay there sprawled out on the asphalt. One eye hurt immensely and he could not see out of it. Turning his head to use the one that was still good was a rather painful expense. Looking through the mostly shattered windshield he could see Misato hanging there upside down. His mind raced when he saw Rei curled up in heap on the roof of the overturned SUV.

"R-R-REEEI!" He shouted the best he could, stuttering with his words through a dislocated jaw. His chest convulsed in a painful protest to his shouting, and he keeled over.

"Ge-e-aaah!" He doubled over in pain whilst lying in the middle of the road. Turning back over he attempted to make it over to the vehicle. He had made sure that his legs were still functioning, but it hurt far to much to push with them, let alone even try to walk. Digging his elbows into the asphalt he started dragging his body towards the wreckage, but winced in pain when a pang of hurt stabbed him in the shoulder. "F-f-f-fuck!" He grunted. Using only one arm, he slowly dragged the rest of his partially useless body across the road, getting closer and closer to Rei and Misato. Making it onto the shoulder, he rolled down the small grass declination and flopped over onto his stomach just under the hood of the upturned car.

"Rei…" He uttered, dragging himself into the car. Parts of the windshield scratched and cut him. Determined, he reached out and stroked her cheek. "Rei…" He choked out again. She stirred. Sluggishly she turned her head over so that her eyes could meet his..

"Shinji… You're… Hurt…" She coughed and hacked violently a few times, spitting up a fair amount of blood.

"Rei… How badly…" He stopped speaking for a few seconds. Once he got his breath back, he asked her "Are you… Hurt?" His eyes were filled with worry.

"I shall be fine… I think I'll live… What about you and Miss Misato?" Shinji had checked Misato's pulse a few seconds ago, and guessed that she would be fine. He himself was in horrible shape. Lucky to survive after being hurled through a windshield at Seventy-five miles an hour, it had fractured a part of his collar bone and dislocated his shoulder. The road had torn him up horrendously when he fell upon it at a speed of about fifty. Without a shirt of any kind, his shoulders, elbows and chest had been shredded to hell. They stung horrendously, bright red they dripped profusely with blood. Many bones in his legs had been either bruised or broken, along with a few ribs. His chin was mightily skinned up as well, issuing forth a steady stream of crimson that ran down his neck. Glass from the windshield had covered his body in lacerations and cuts, leaving him a bloody tenderized mess. Reaching out, Rei took a hold of his. He coughed and hacked violently a few times, spitting out a tooth. It pattered against the roof of the car. Gazing long into Rei's beautiful but despair filled eyes, they were the last thing he saw before all faded to black.