The whole idea's kind of absurd isn't it? Shinji Ikari, teenage wonder, watch him attend classes in-between saving the world from giant monsters!
Still, I suppose an education wouldn't hurt.

Much.

Tokyo 3 high school, for a school in the last bastion of humanity it was awfully plain, just a small collection of graying buildings on the west side of town. That was kind of nice really, a little dose of normalcy in between bouts of giant robot violence.
And speaking of plain...

"Good afternoon Ikari, I'm Class Representative Hikari Horaki. If you have any questions, just ask me."

This Hikari was a plain looking girl: light blue eyes, brown hair and a medium build. Her scent was also normal; too normal... she didn't even have the slight peppermint tinge that seemed to taint the scent of everyone around here. Still, that didn't make her a bad person, just a suspicious one. Not really in the mood for conversation, however pleasant this Hikari had proved to be, I replied with a simple thank you and took my seat.

Almost instantly, the sharp tang of dried blood and an oddly cold feeling drew my attention to a corner of the class; Rei sat at a window, an icy statue in the middle of a sea of empty seats. Judging from the fact that she was still mostly hidden in bandages, her injuries must have been bad, but her posture wasn't that of someone in pain, let alone someone whose injuries supposedly warranted being dressed like Egyptian royalty past its sell-by-date. I paused a moment at that; everyone was taking great pains not to sit within two desks of Rei…

Still, Rei's injuries, whatever they might be, were not any concern of mine, so I got back to the business at hand: pretending to listen to our newly arrived teacher's monologue.
Like most schools nowadays, Tokyo 3's students were each issued with a laptop for day-to-day work. Whilst their improvement to our learning was questionable, they certainly helped the covert communications ring present in every classroom, as I soon found out…

Are you the pilot?

At first the question floored me, how did anyone know about me being in NERV? But I quickly calmed down, I was probably the first new class member for a while, and turning up right after the Evangelion …it didn't take a genius to advance that logic series…

During my little monologue whoever it was who had sent the message had obviously lost patience and had repeated the message.

Are you the pilot? Y/N

I'd been told quite firmly by Dr Akagi that I could, under no circumstances tell anyone ANYTHING about the Evangelion or NERV, but she hadn't said anything about me keeping my pilot status a secret, and the person asking probably knew so what was the harm? So I typed in yes Yes I know it was stupid now but I plead insanity caused by giant purple monster.

The reaction was as immediate as it was predictable; I was half-deafened by excited yells and deluged with questions like "How did you get chosen?" "What's its special attack?" and "Are you single"
Quite how our 'sensei' failed to notice half his class teleporting over to my desk and screaming their heads off I will never know, but he didn't even blink. Maybe life in education had sharpened his powers of self-delusion to such a fine degree that he didn't even perceive reality anymore, or maybe he was stone deaf, I don't know.

"Think ya somthin special don'cha?"

"Hi Touji."

The crowd cleared instantly, revealing a scowling boy in a blue tracksuit, judging from his aggressive posture it was he who had spoken.

"Suzahara! You're late!"

Touji's expression softened for a moment as he turned to the Class Rep.
"Sorry Rep, I was visiting Mari."

"O-oh, okay." Hikari took a small step back, the indignant anger in her voice being replaced with concern.
His face darkened again, as if saying that name reminded him of why he was here.

"I'll talk to YOU after school punk." And with that he stomped over to an empty seat behind mine, glaring at me the whole while.

Needless to say this dampened my learning enthusiasm somewhat.

All too soon the end of school bell rang, on hearing it I leapt to my feet and strode quickly from the room, hopefully I'd been fast enough to evade that 'Touji' kid.
Fate it seemed wasn't with me, for no sooner then I'd stepped out of the door then:

"Hey you!"

"Hello Touji, is there anything I can help you with?" I responded calmly, if I could keep things polite, I might be able to avoid the confrontation his scent told me he was itching for.

Incidentally anger, real anger is more a taste then a smell, the closet thing I can think of to compare it to is…ash, wood ash tinged with mustard.
Look trying to translate an emotions scent/taste is like trying to describe blue to a blind person with pictures, I'm trying my best ok?

"Cut that the fuck out."

"What?"

"pretendin ta be polite and shit, I ain't buyin it."

"I'm sorry?"

"Pardon me Touji." This time it was Aida who spoke, hopefully he might explain what was going in on.

"You're probably wondering what's got my friend here." He gestured to the fuming Touji "So riled up"
Seeing my nodding reply he continued.
"You see, my man Touji and his sister couldn't get to a shelter during that last attack"
Suddenly it all made sense; Touji's anger, his visiting someone called Mari, his sister had been injured in the attack! And judging from Touji's aggression towards me, not by an angel… which meant…

"Oh no"
"Oh yes, it was your piss-poor piloting that put my sis in da hospital and now ya gonna pay."

I shot Aida a pleading look, begging him to talk some sense into his friend before things got out of hand.
"Sorry Ikari, once he gets like this there's no stopping him."

Suddenly an alarm began to blare, one I recognised from my training time in the cage; the Angel alarm, we were under attack. Internally sighing with relief (relived to be attacked by a giant monster, yay) "sorry, got to go!" I yelled before turning and running towards the gate.

"Hey Ikari! Watch it!"

I spun around in alarm at the sound of Aida's voice to see Touji was running at me, fist raised.

I wasn't too worried, I'd taken a lot worse punishment in the past and if what he and Aida said was true I certainly deserved his anger and a few punches. His first blow knocked me from my feet, it didn't hurt as such but it was a lot harder then I had thought.

Shinji…
No… no if he was waking up then.
"Run Touji"
Ignoring my panicked advice Touji grabbed me by the collar and pulled me up to eye-level.
"Say goodnight loser."

Everything went black.

The last thing I expected to wake up to was being pummelled by one of the people I had 'saved' in the EVA. It took me a second to get my bearings, the last thing I remembered was being blown up, now some kid was attacking me, still I never pass up the opportunity for a little 'fun'.

"Say goodnight loser."

His fist met the palm of my hand with a meaty THWACK.
"Goodnight…loser"
From here it was a simple application of pressure and-
CRACKLE-pop Ahhh, the sound of bones breaking, such a sweet melody when sung in duet with pain isn't it?
The look of total shock on the boys' faces (Touji and Kensuke), I tell you I had not seen such gratifying expressions of shock in ages, and the fear! It practically dripped from them! I pushed harder, grating the shattered bones of Touji's hand and wrist against each other, savouring the sweet smells of terror mixed with the dregs of anger and blood until…

"Stop it."

I turned at the touch, feather light and cool, to stare into a pair of unblinking red eyes.
I was stunned, the touch was light but the gaze wasn't, it spoke of disinterest and forbidden secrets, of pain and bloodshed grown stale in the corners of the soul. All framed with icy blue hair and a exquisitely delicate bone-structure, memory stirred, this was the girl with the strange blood, the one who had appeared before us in the street, according to Shinji her name was 'Rei' but such a name meant little to me. To me her name was Galatea, desire, pain…
In that instant I fell in love.

I responded to her request, releasing Touji's hand from my grip and letting him fall to the floor clutching the shattered appendage, stepping closer to her as I did so.
"To what do I owe the…pleasure of your company, my dear"
Up close her scent was marvellous; a cloying combination of peppermint, cheap shampoo and dried blood. She looked at me blankly as I lent forward and inhaled deeply, rolling her scent round in my mouth and mind, savouring it and our proximity like an intimate embrace.

"We are required at NERV, did you not hear the alarm?"

Alarm? Ahh, there it was, the incessant klaxon wail in the background had been muffled until now by my own thoughts and Touji's screams.
"Sorry, my lady, shall we go together"
Given her slightly puzzled expression before nodding, my treasure was unused to flattery or indeed pleasant interaction, which would change…oh yes.
And so, with an apologetic wave to Aida who was crouched over Touji's swearing body, we turned and ran.

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"Huh?" I awoke with a start… and immediately began to choke on a thick viscous liquid that tasted horribly like... blood!
Instantly I began to panic; what had happened while I was out? had I killed someone?

"Shinji"
Misato! Her voice calmed me for a second, long enough for me to spot the slightly yellow tinge to the air and the odd tang to the blood only found in LCL.

"What's wrong Shinji"
"N-nothing Misato, just zoned out for a second"
Predictably Misato sighed angrily before replying scathingly.
"Pay attention Shinji! our lives depend on you PAYING ATTENTION!
Ok... I was in the EVA, this could be good or bad, on the plus side I wasn't drenched in someone else's blood (You know what I mean!) or locked up. The bad news was that I was loaded into an EVA that was apparently about to launch with no idea of what the hell was going on.

Franticly I tried to assess the situation, by straining my ears I managed to catch some talk about an "ammo building" which was good, I remembered Dr Akagi talking about those in a training exercise; Tokyo 3, as a military fortress had a number of buildings solely designed to act as back-up armories for the EVA's, any given building might contain anything from an extra umbilical cord to an EVA sized axe. Damn useful, IF you knew where they were.

"Ok Shinji, EVANGELION LAUNCH!"

Its at moments like this that I wonder which God's dog I ran over in a past life.

In a second I was on the surface, the EVA coming to a halt with the neck jarring speed I had learned was characteristic of the launch system.

Through the EVA's senses I detected the overpowering stench of peppermint mixed with ozone and…squid? Spinning the EVA around I spotted my quarry lazily hovering towards me.
This angel was even worse looking then the last; a bizarre squid/bug hybrid coloured a hue that could charitably be called puce.
Right, that was the Angel, but where was the rifle?
Almost on cue a building to my right split open revealing a rifle and extra clip in the largest weapon rack EVER.
Dr Akagi had gone about things like "depleted uranium." And "magnetically assisted launch coils." Or general techno-babble to that effect. I'd pretty much stopped listening after I realised that the amount I understood was inversely proportional to the amount she said.
(Ritsuko often has that effect on people)
"Just point and pull the trigger." Misato'd told me so I did just that, emptying the clip of my rifle in one huge burst; shrouding the angel in smoke and debris.

"How was that MisatAHHH!" My smug one liner was cut short as the angel's arm scythed out of the gloom.

The Eva seemed much more responsive to my mental commands this time around, a very good thing considering that this angel seemed to have been designed to capitalize on my relative clumsiness. Even with the rifle it was like being attacked by the bastard offspring of a rabid octopus and a blender. I could almost hear the sobs of NERV accounting as a narrowly dodged blow from the angel's lariat transformed a high-rise into the world's second largest example of modern art.

Misato was screaming advice over the radio but I couldn't take my attention off the angel long enough to even listen let alone reply.
By now it was getting obvious that I would never get near the angel while it still had those lashes, and with my now empty rifle just so much scrap-metal I was screwed. OR was I?
A mental flick of a wrist unsheathed my prog-knife, sure it was a crazy, almost award winningly stupid and generally suicidal plan, but those were the very reasons that it was going to work...I hope.
Misato's degeneration into the realm of made-up expletives signified that she had a similar opinion of my plans merits. But what the hell, who wants to live forever?
That speech would have made me feel a whole lot better if a little voice at the back of my mind would stop screaming "Meeee!" at the top of its proverbial lungs.

What?

Now, it's a common misconception that HE only comes out when I'm angry or hurt, this isn't the case. Whilst HIS appearances most often coincide with these events, I can get angry without turning, just as he can be happy or calm when awake, especially soon after he's awoken. That's what happened here: no homicidal rage, no morbid poetry on his part, the blood red rage staining my vision was mine and mine alone, the only thought on my mind was: "Hold on... just a little longer..."

Had I been paying attention to anything other then how much being pseudo-impaled by a pair of laser whips hurt, I might have spotted the writhing, neatly bisected shape in the Angels core, and just before it shattered, how human it seemed.

"Are you sure, Rei? Purple?" Kozou lifted his eyebrow at the ferocity of Gendo's query.
"Yes, sir, his behaviour was most unlike that previously reported by section 2." Rei didn't mention the Third's advances to her, nor how said advances made her feel, such things were best left unsaid until she could consider the matter further.
"Interesting...perhaps it wasn't a waste after all..." A memory stirred in the back of Kozuo's mind, a memory of the early stages of Project: Tainted Lily, of the first few attempts at combining human and angel…

"Very good, Rei, that will be all."

Silently Rei bowed and left the room, the conversation already dropping from her mind. The Third Child's mental state was no concern to her or her mission and could therefore be ignored.

"You don't think-"

"What else could it be professor? After all this time it appears that Samael is here to play again."

OK done, bit longer then my other chapters in an attempt to make up for my appalling update record…you know, if someone out there still reads my work…

So… any ideas on what the Third child is yet?