A/N: I'm sorry I've slowed down with the updating. Working 6 days a week right now and have just been handed a completely new load of responsibilities in the forum I mod. In addition, I'm working on the Web comic for the forum, so a lot of my writing time goes there. But I promise I will update as fast as possible. Thank you people for staying faithful.

Shinji stared on for a second as some complete stranger started to try to feel his way up Rei's shirt. He growled and clenched his fist. Kensuke ran up gasping for breath, "Ayanami?"

The man looked up and smirked then leaned closer to Rei's ear, "Looks like we have an audience."

Shinji kept his eyes on Rei, "Kensuke."

"Yeah?"

"Catch Rei," Shinji then took off towards the man.

Then man smiled and twisted Rei's wrist, "I would stay back if I was you." A shot surprised the man. He looked behind him and saw Misato standing there with her gun pulled. He sneered, "This is getting crowded."

Rei saw the man distracted and stomped on his foot releasing his hold on her wrist. She stumbled forward only to fall into Kensuke. She looked up, "Aida?"

Kensuke smiled, "Hey Ayanami."

They both looked up just in time to see Shinji drive his shoulder into the man's gut pushing him backwards into the wall. The man gasped as the air left his body. Shinji then connected with a left hook to the side of his face. The man fell down to his knee only to be hit with a knee into his jaw knocking him backwards. Before he could get up Shinji was on top of him repeatedly punching his face. Rei's surprise turned to fear when Shinji seemed unwilling to get up. She ran to him.

"Don't you ever touch her again! I should kill you for this!" yelled Shinji as he punched the now defenseless man. His attack froze when he felt two arms wrap around him and felt a head rest against his back.

"He is subdued Shinji. Thank you for rescuing me."

Shinji tried to escape Rei's hold, "Let go Rei."

Rei shook her head, "I wish to leave now."

The man saw his opening and smiled as he started to reach into his pocket while the two above him argued.

"Rei, he almost-"

"I know Shinji, but I wish to no longer be here. Allow the security to take him away. He will be punished."

Shinji sighed, "Okay Rei, if that's what you-" Shinji stopped when he felt a prick in his chest. He winced as he felt something started to burn. He looked at the assailant below him only to see him smiling while holding a now empty syringe in his hand. The man had a wicked grin on his face.

Rei noticed something was wrong, "Shinji?"

Shinji winced as it felt like hot magma ran through his veins. The man easily pushed Shinji off, got up, and started to run away until he felt a gun to the side of his head. He looked out of the corner of his eye to see Misato standing there obviously pissed now, "What did you just do?"

"What I was paid to do."

Shinji was now on the floor holding his chest in pain. Rei was sitting holding Shinji trying to figure out what was wrong. One of the security men quickly radioed for someone to call an ambulance.

"Shinji?"

Shinji started to struggle to breathe, "Rei, what's happening to me? It's hurting my chest." Not long after Shinji passed out due to the pain.

The paramedics ran into the store. They quickly pushed everyone out of the way, but Rei was reluctant to let him go. The security took the assailant away and Misato went to try to help the paramedics separate Rei and Shinji. She put her hand on Rei's shoulder, "Come on Rei, they need to get to him."

Rei shook her head as tears started to run down her cheeks, "Shinji will be okay. He must be okay."

Misato sighed and pulled Rei away, "I know he will, you just have to let these people do their jobs." Rei quietly stepped out of the way as the paramedics went to work.

---Later at the Hospital---

Rei sat quietly in her chair in the waiting room. It had been hours now. Misato had gone with security to help "interrogate" the assailant. The elevator bell went off as Misato walked in. Rei looked at her as asking if she had found anything out.

Misato shook her head, "We know he was hired to do this, but he won't say what was in the syringe or how hired him to do it. Any new on Shinji"

Rei frowned while shaking her head, "They have been running tests on him for a long time now. They do not know what happened."

They were interrupted when a doctor in white coat walked into the room, "Miss Ayanami?"

Rei stood, "Yes?"

The doctor acknowledged her, "I'm Doctor Yishu. It seems that whatever it is that was injected in Mr. Ikari is still at work. His pulse is still much higher than normal. I've ran a few tests and we'll get the information back from them in the morning. Until then, all we can do is try to sedate his activity. If he keeps this up, his body will simply give out and his heart may start to fail."

Rei nodded silently letting it all sink in.

"Ms. Ayanami, do you have any idea what he was exposed to. If we knew then-"

"She wouldn't know what it is because it was supposed to be outlawed." Everyone turned to the elevator where the voice had come from. There stood Kouzou Fuyutsuki. The elder man still seemed to carry an air of maturity around him. He stepped towards the doctor, "It was called the Achilles Vaccine. It was supposed to help create a more effective soldier with heightened anger and the dulling of pain."

"The Achilles Vaccine," questions Misato. She had once heard Ritsuko tell her about this. "But the JSSDF medical division gave up research on that after the first few test subjects died."

Fuyutsuki nodded, "Yes, it's used to heighten the adrenaline output of the subjects body until they are administered an antidote. But it proved to be too unstable and dangerous. The test subject's bodies showed signed of great stress and quickened degeneration. Basically, the human body couldn't stand the injection more than a few hours."

"But, Shinji has been like this for several hours now," stated Rei.

Fuyutsuki nodded again, "It seems that young Ikari's previous experience as an Eva pilot has made his body slightly more resistant to such a side-effect. However, it will most likely not completely stabilize the Vaccine, just delay it."

"We must do something to help Shinji," stated Rei.

Fuyutsuki smiled, "I know child. When one of the people at NERV recognized the symptoms and called me, I took the liberty to pick something up." He then reached behind him and presented case to the doctor. "This is the antidote to the vaccine. Please administer it immediately." The doctor took it and quickly started back towards the ICU.

Rei still had a few questions though, "How did anyone at NERV know about Shinji's condition? They may have seen it on the NERV video feed planted in the mall, but they would not have had enough information to know what was happening."

Misato laughed slightly while rubbing the back of her head, "Well, I kind of called them and told them what I knew. Just that Shinji had been injected with something and he seemed to be struggling with breathing."

"That still is not enough information to constitute a diagnosis," stated Rei.

Misato nodded, "Yeah, well we kind had been notified by an old friend of mine to be looking out for these symptoms. We weren't told why; just someone had broken into a secured vault and stolen a sample of something that could not be identified."

Fuyutsuki smiled and nodded, "And they were told if they came up to contact myself. We didn't want to release the information that a potentially deadly vaccine had been released to the public."

"So, they asked us to be a watch dog until something surfaced," finished Misato. "I wish it hadn't been Shinji though." She turned to Fuyutsuki, "Any leads on who took it."

Fuyutsuki nodded, "We had a theory and since from what I have heard it seems Shinji was not targeted at random, that was the last piece to prove it."

Rei's face darkened as she clenched her fist, "Who?"

"I don't think it would be wise to tell you that right now Ayanami."

"Someone tried to harm Shinji. I will not allow this to go unpunished."

Misato smiled at Rei's protectiveness of Shinji. "I know you want revenge Rei, but right now why don't you let me take care of this and you stay here with Shinji. We both know who should be the first face Shinji sees when he comes out of this."

Rei blushed slightly and nodded.

Misato smiled, "Take good care of our boy for me. Me and Fuyutsuki will take care of this." She then motioned for Fuyutsuki for them to leave. They both got on the elevator and pushed the button for the bottom level. When the door closed Misato frowned, "It's the old man isn't it?"

Fuyutsuki nodded, "He was one of the few that knew the pilots would be a perfect test subject for this, and one of the few that Shinji had the most resilience out of the four remaining pilots."

Misato slammed her fist into the side of the elevator, "That old bastard is still playing with him."