Title: Ikari Shinji: Pilot, Savior, Prince?

Author: DhampyrX2

Genre: Drama/humor X-over

Rating: PG-13 to R at some point

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

Summary: Well, here's the start of the NGE/DBZ cross I suggested in the ideas area. Hope you like it. Comments and reviews are most welcome.

"blah" is talking

blah is thinking

"blah" is Vegeta talking

It took what seemed like hours to explain Vegeta's failed final battle to prevent First Impact, but in reality it probably only took a few minutes.

"So, you were there? You saw first Impact?" Shinji asked in awe. He was relatively certain he had cracked and was having a some kind of stress hallucination, but it was still interesting.

"Not exactly," Vegeta admitted. "I fought the angel, but I was already more than two centuries past my prime by then. I was elderly and decrepit. It was a testament to years of training and mental discipline that I was able to reach the first level of Super Saiyajin. I tried for the second because I wasn't getting the job done and my heart gave out. The Angel didn't let me live long enough after that to even fall to my death. Still, I went out a warrior in battle. All three times I died as myself, I died a warrior in battle. No Saiyajin could ask for more," he elaborated. After a pause to think, he asked, "You do remember what I told you about me when you were small don't you?"

"You were the last full-blooded prince of your people, and the last prince all together, I guess, because you outlived your heirs and by the fourth generation none of them seemed to show any traits of your race anymore besides your ferocious appetite. You come from the planet Vegeta-sei, which was subjugated by the planet broker Frieza who enslaved and humiliated your people until he grew to fear you and destroyed your home world. Only six of you survived the destruction, you, Nappa, Radditz, Turles, Brolly, and Kakarotto, who liked to be called Goku because he was a brain damaged idiot clown. You died twice before your final death, but were resurrected each time. The first time by the Dragon Balls after Frieza killed you, the second by a deal made with Enma-sama after you used a kamikaze attack against Majin Buu. You're here to guide me in my destiny and help me reach my potential. That's all I really recall," Shinji recounted dutifully, as if in a mission briefing at NERV.

Vegeta looked at the boy for a long time before he folded his arms and grunted. "Not bad," he admitted. It was high praise from the likes of the Saiyajin-no-ouji.

"Thanks," Shiji responded timidly.

That response brought back the angry Vegeta that had been there for most of the conversation. "Don't start that stupid weak willed kow-towing again, brat. Out of all people, I'm the least one you should feel subjugated toward. And the one you should listen to the most," Vegeta snapped.

"Huh?" Shiji asked in equal parts fear and confusion.

Vegeta tried to think of how to word his thoughts, but finally sighed as he walked over to weight bench in his gravity room he had constructed in the corner of Shinji's mind they were currently conversing in, for that was where they were. "Let me explain the rest of it, and maybe you'll understand," he began with no little amount of frustration in his tone. "I'm a part of you, but I'm not something your imagination came up with. Millions of years ago, before First Impact, I was a very real person. Everything I ever told you was true. What I never got the chance to explain is how we're connected. After I died I was sent before Enma-sama as normal. Now, on Earth I was limited to SSJ-1 by my advanced age, something unheard of for a Saiyajin because we all died in combat long before the ravages of age took us. But, in the realm of the dead you are what your soul knows you to be, with all your skills and abilities at their peak. I was a young man fully capable of the upper reaches of SSJ-4, something age was already beginning to deny me even as I had reached that level because I had stunted my early growth into my power under Frieza's yoke without realizing it. Are you following me so far?" the prince asked.

"Yes, sir," Shinji responded with rapt attention as he began to doubt he was going as crazy as he thought he was.

"Good." Vegeta declared. "Now, one thing you must understand is that when you die there are three options depending on your karma. The first time I died I was evil and was prepped to go to Hell until I was wished back. The second and third times I dies I had done too much to warrant hell, but I wasn't pure enough to go to Heaven like Kakarotto-baka and his friends, including my mate, did. Normally this would mean my soul would be sent for reincarnation after my mind was erased. A clean slate to try again for Heaven. The only problem was that by the third time I died, I was to strong to be sent to that fate by force. Enma might have subdued a SSJ-2 my with Babidi's taint on my soul, but he could not dominate a SSJ-4 Saiyajin-no-ouji in his eternal prime. I also had no intention of letting the Onna's home be ravaged while I waited for a chance to be reborn somewhere."

"So what happened?" Shiji asked with child-like curiosity.

"The red-baka compromised. I'd be reborn and reincarnated when humans had evolved back onto the planet again, something that would have been impossible without some very illegal tweaking from Dende and Kakarotto behind the scenes. the catch was I'd be brought back on the eve of great threats to the world so I'd be old enough to fight them and clear my karmic record. I've fought more apocalypses and major disasters than I can count over thousands of years and hundreds of lives. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost, but it always gave it my all. The only advantage I had was well...me. A copy of my true self, with all my accumulated memories would piggyback with each of my incarnations so I would have a guide to do whatever I had to do," Vegeta explained as he waited for Shiji to understand what he just told him.

When the terror and horror showed on the fourteen year old pilot's face, it was clear the prince has succeeded. "You mean I'm?" Shinji asked in alarm.

"My reincarnation. The last hope for mankind. The rightful heir of the Saiyajin-no-ouji. Yes. You're all those things, gaki. I'm you and you're me, as much as it turns my stomach to be some scrawny human weakling. Again," Vegeta spat with a superior smirk.

"Hey," Shiji uncharacteristically asserted before he realized what he had done and looked to the ground in shame.

The mighty prince smirked in appreciation at the outburst, however, as he commented, "It's about time you fought back, brat. I was beginning to think that pathetic Frieza knock-off we call your father had arranged enough conditioning to bury you completely. I wondered where the little brat I was teaching to never take anything from anyone had gone. Once you had more than the mind and soul of a Saiyajin within you. You had..."

"Pride. I had a saiyajin's pride. There's one thing a Saiyajin always keeps. His pride," Shinji whispered as a long forgotten lesson began to reassert itself on his mind.

"That's right brat. They can take your body. They can take your mind. They can even take your soul, but they will never take..." Vegeta began.

"...my Pride." Shinji snapped with a little snarl. It was rather pathetic compared to even the weakest snarl from the fallen prince of Vegeta-sei, but it was a start.

"Welcome back, brat. I think this might work out after all," Vegeta responded with a wide smirk. It had begun. Now the fun was about to start.

As the room faded and Shinji became aware of Eva around him again, he heard a triumphant Vegeta exclaim, "I told you I could bring him back, Onna. What? Ow! How dare you pull on my ear, I am prince of all Saiyajins. He needed that wake up call. You coddle him too much! OW Damn it woman! Stop hitting me. If I wasn't older than you I'd claim child abuse! He is me, you know!"

Shinji actually chuckled and smiled a bit as he said, "I don't know if I'm nuts, or who you're talking to, Vegeta-sama, but it sounds like you have your work cut out for you."

As this scene took place, the crew was planning to nuke the Angel just to recover Unit 01 as they, well Gendo really, felt the pilot dead, and of not he was at least expendable.

"Both Evas standing by at operating position," Shigeru reported.

Maya acknowledged him with a nod as she responded, "Ready to generate A.T. Field."

"Roger," Ritsuko answered as she lit another cigarette to calm her frayed nerves. She felt horrible about this, and not just because Misato kept glancing at her gun holster an unhealthy number of times. Somehow she felt the Commander might want to increase security and transfer the violet haired strategic officer to another country if Shinji was killed because of the bombing instead of before it.

Makoto announced, "60 seconds to bombing."

"The Oxygen circulation has stopped," Shinji announced with dread.

"Fu, Fu, F... It's cold... Fuah... No use, the suit has reached its limit," he added as he tried to warm himself without success.

"Now the end..." Shinji declared with a tired sigh.

"I thought we covered the defeatist shit, brat, a voice called out from the back of the pilot's mind.

"Vegeta?" Shinji asked, astonished.

"Is there anyone else in your head I should know about, baka?" the prince sarcastically replied.

"No. It's just nice to know I won't be alone here. At the end," Shinji replied with a small grin.

"End? END! My furry tailed ASS it's the END! We are NOT dying here, brat. We have too many Angels to kill and too much to do. Your father still has too much to answer for. We're getting out of here right now!" Vegeta snapped with absolute confidence.

"How?" Shinji asked in a worried tone of voice.

"Use the same trick I taught you as a boy to warm yourself. The one where you circulate and call your ki," Vegeta began. As Shinji began to do a he was told he could feel the alien prince smile as he continued, "Good. Keep doing that as fast and as hard as you can. Yes that's it. Can you see the blue aura beginning to erupt from you? Now concentrate on syncing with this rusty heap you call and EVA and pour all you energy in creating one mighty burst out. She'll do the rest," Vegeta instructed.

"She? She who?" Shinji asked in confusion even as he did what he was told.

"The soul of EVA," was the prince's response as the power began to flow into Unit 01 and both pilot and EVA let out a bellow that seemed to personify power and control over your own power at the same time.

"YES! THAT'S IT! NOW! LET IT ALL GO NOW!" Vegeta cried as the sub-dimension around them seemed to groan and shake.

Asuka waited patiently for the order to neutralize the Angel's A.T. field with her Unit 02's own when she felt it. It was like a huge static charge in the air that built until the very ground beneath the 'shadow' Angel began to splinter and crack. "What's going on?" The half-German pilot asked nervously.
"Status?" Misato demanded. Something about this seemed to fill her with an odd sense of hope, but damned if she knew what. All she knew was the itch on her neck was going crazy right now.

"No information," Mokoto responded nervously.

Maya checked her instruments and reported, "All meters at full swing."

"But we have done nothing," Ritsuko replied back in confusion.

"Impossible! Shinji-kun is..." Misato said with hope beginning to light up in her eyes. I knew he wouldn't let me down/ the beauty thought in triumph.

Ritsuko just gaped in shock as she commented, "Unbelievable. Unit One's energy has reached the zero point."

The sphere that was the twelveth Angel began to split and emit bright blue light, as well as blood as everyone could feel something building. Finally, the sphere exploded in a hail of gore as Unit 01 seemed to float in mid-air for a moment before if fell to the ground in a crouch. Ad the purple behemoth rose to its feet, it beat its chest and let out a mighty roar as it went into a monkey-like dance for a moment before it's eyes stopped glowing and the unit went silent. (Think the Oozaru dance Gohan does in the opening credits of DBZ form where he was doing survival training with Piccolo and went ape. It's the same one from the intro to the first DBZ Budokai game.)

-
Asuka felt a sudden and incongruous need to hide her head in shame at the display, as if one of her parents were embarrassing her publicly or something as she asked "Am.. am I riding a thing like that...?"

-
"What... the hell?" Ritsuko asked herself in confusion. Dancing EVAs were never a part of the scenario.

"iI understand that EVA isn't just a copy of the First Angel, but how is NERV going to use the EVAs after it defeats every Angel? And why do I have a picture in my head of Shinji dancing like that while acting like a jungle man in a loincloth? Misato asked herself with a little giggle at the image.

It seemed to take no time at all for the entry for Unit 01 to be ejected and for Misato to be right there to tear it open and get to her Shin-chan to check to see if he was alright.

"Shinji-kun, Shinji-kun, Shinji-kun!" Misato demanded as she checked the boy over after his ordeal. "Shinji-kun, are you okay? Shinji-kun!" she demanded as she began to weep.

"...I just wanted to see... again..." Shinji muttered through his exhaustion as Misato continued to cry over him.

"Didn't you say you'd scold him?" Asuka asked with a raised brow as she approached the pair. She'd never admit it, but she wasted to make sure the baka was alive as well.

Misato simply continued to cry.

Later on in a sickroom, Shinji woke up with Rei by his side.

"Ho-hum," Shinji said in boredom. He was so tired of hospitals.

"You need a regen tank. I know the fake blond could build one of you leave some old schematics we had to learn for emergency repairs in the field under Frieza lying around, Vegeta whispered just soft enough to be heard in the back of Shinji's head.

"You may just rest for today. We'll do everything for you," Rei announced with as much concern as she announces anything.

Shinji looked more distressed at the inaction as he protested, "Hm. But I'm all right now."

Rei actually smirked a bit, something that looked almost Saiyajin on her face as she responded, "Well, that's good for you," in her usual deadpan.

"Hmph..." Shinji huffed as the blunette left the room.

As Rei left, she made sure to discretely push Asuka so the red-head would move from her position hiding near Shinji's room unsure whether or not to go in.

"Ah, oh! Mmm ..." Asuka exclaimed as she tripped in front of the male pilot.

Shinji chuckled once he was sure Asuka was alright, even as he felt Vegeta want to go out and comfort the girl. He'd have to ask about the instinct later.

Shinji idly sniffed the lingering scent of LCL that seemed to have seeped into his pores as he said, "Still smells... of blood..."

In his mind a familiar voice snorted and responded, Better get used to it, kid. I think we'll be smelling it a lot again from now on."

END OF THE REST OF PART 1