+++++ NERV. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

"He responded well to the sedatives." Naoko was keeping her eye on the MAGI's output, the sensors attached to Shinji feeding a constant stream of data to her tablet. "The dosage had to be increased to a point I'm not terribly comfortable with, but I'm sure with more experience I'll have a better read on how he handles medications."

"Kujikawa-chan and Amagi-chan both received significant cranial trauma." Kyoko rocked her hand side-to-side, indicating the manner in which the trauma was delivered. "They're being actively monitored at the moment. When they wake up, they'll have a nurse right there with them."

"Satonaka-chan-"

Yui cut in, "Ikari-chan. Which makes it better to simply call her Chie-chan." The correction was delivered in a monotone, only slightly distracting her from reviewing the combat data acquired from the drone before it was destroyed.

Naoko swallowed a retort. "Chie-chan is apparently both strong and durable. According to Captain Minders, she was able to carry Shinji by herself at a dead run across uneven ground. She shows no signs of injury, nor any signs of fatigue. She does, however, show a slight temper."

"To be fair, mom," Ritsuko began with a drawl, "you lit that firework by telling her that she didn't need to stay at his side." When Yui looked up from her tablet with a question in her eyes, she added, "She's resting comfortably in the other gurney that I pushed up against Shinji's. She's been given instructions to let him rest, and I urged her to simply keep hold of his arm for the moment until he wakes up."

"Thank you." The Commander of the most powerful military weapon system known to humanity gave a grateful nod to a woman she'd helped learn the kana. "What do you believe you can farm off to others, so that you can dedicate your time to both the conditioning and the research into how this 'luck' functions?"

Ritsuko sat back in her chair and made a face. "Not much. I'm sorry, Auntie, but even before we became a nearly mono-gendered species, we were pretty low to the ground on qualified scientists for my projects. I'm fine with working my normal eighteen hour shifts to keep up on everything."

"I am not," Yui asserted firmly. "Pilot…my son…needs greater support from you and your paramour. Your life experience, combined with your familiarity with psychology and physiology, will be better spent by spending time with him in a non-research context. Please draft a schedule that allows you and Lieutenant Ibuki at least four hours a day with him."

After a brief moment of universal surprise, Naoko attempted a diplomatically phrased interjection, "Commander-"

"I appreciate your position, Naoko. I understand that, in a different world, our lives would have been drastically different. Where we are, right now, and what we're responsible for, right now, requires that we set aside our preferences to address the challenges before us." Choosing to use her old friend's name, instead of her rank, continued the trend of keeping the conversation 'unofficial'. "Ritsuko-chan…please be honest with me, do you believe you would like to be a more intimate part of my son's life?"

"I'd like to think I already am, considering how he reacted to my assistance in gathering the initial sample." Ritsuko pointedly did not look at her mother. "Shinji-kun and I have had several talks, and he's shown genuine interest in growing closer to Maya-kun and I. We've been interrupted several times by this 'Tartarus' issue, or other odd occurrences, but I think we stand a good chance of helping him relax if we can spend time with him and Chie."

Not to be pushed off, Naoko tried again to speak, "Yui, would you be so kind as to actually listen to me?" Once more, there was a sense of shock in the room. It was a rarity for discord to have a place in the leadership's ranks, at least when more than just Yui, Naoko, and Kyoko were present.

"…Be very careful with how you phrase your requests," Yui intoned firmly. "Proceed."

"Hmm, yes. My apologies, I'm going to have to be careful about that until we can remove the conditioning." Inclining her head slightly in apology, she continued, "I would like to spend some time with Shinji myself. I believe that we might have greater luck helping him gain acceptance in the fact that he is an attractive mate, and that he himself needed no 'luck' to garner interest from the ladies he has, if he is allowed to speak with someone he doesn't see as being pushed on him." Gesturing to herself, she tipped her head side to side to indicate that she was only operating on a theory. "Let him come to Ritsuko-chan and Maya-chan naturally. Let him accept Kirijo-chan and Chie-chan naturally. Let me build a rapport with him that isn't based on likely genetic suitability, so that I can help him build a foundation to stand upon that won't include aggressive late-night walks in the forest."

Believing that Naoko was finally coming around on an issue that she'd shown reluctance over, Kyoko pushed to support her idea in the hopes that her friend would come to accept Shinji's acquaintanceship with Ritsuko and Maya sooner rather than later, "That is a valid line of thought. Naoko-chan is the best suited to understanding the neural pathways he's developed over the years. We could start their bonding by having him sit for a flash-scan. Create a model of his brain using a dummy-terminal, then have it interact with the MAGI for a while to reduce the total time we're having to spend with him compromised. If nothing else, he'll come to develop a greater appreciation for how hard everyone is working and be exposed to the reasons behind that hard work."

Even to the two women closest to her, Yui's face had become unreadable. There were calculations taking place, thoughts too alien to anyone else being weighed against knowledge none of them possessed. It was the reason she was 'in charge', and the reason that everyone was worried about how Shinji was being handled. "I will ask the same thing of you that I have asked of Miyuki…you will not act as a guardian, or as a mother. I will have your word on that, before I agree."

"I give you my word, he will not see me as a motherly figure," Naoko grinned playfully, hiding her relief. "I intend for our dialogues to be free-flowing and frank, and I would like him to come to view me as a peer that he trusts implicitly."

"Have a plan on my desk tomorrow morning, then." She glanced over at the monitor displaying Shinji's vital signs, and felt a weight of fatigue she hadn't in a long, long time. "Everyone get some rest while you can. We don't know how he will act when he wakes up, and I do not want us to make any mistakes." Returning her focus to the combat data she'd been perusing, she continued her efforts at developing a system to contain Shinji. She also continued to come up blank.

+++++ Somewhere. (Monday, August 30th, +9, Last Quarter 4/4)

Shinji's eyes snapped open. A rush of cold air had rolled along his body, from the soles of his feet to the tips of his hair. From what little he remembered of the circumstances leading to him falling asleep, though, 'cold' was not a part of the discussion. Blinking a few times, making an effort to clear his eyes enough to see past the dark fog that he believed to be caused by something cluttering up his vision, he quickly discovered that his eyes were not actually faulty.

The world around him was composed entirely of a dusk-filled void, the ground only marginally 'lighter' than the sky with both seemingly not standing still. Taking his time in standing, occasional fits of vertigo playing merry hob with his sense of balance, he looked around to try and find anything to explain where he was. This wasn't Tartarus, it lacked the orderly insanity that realm seemed to prefer. It wasn't Sachiel's domain, everything was far too dry. He knew it wasn't NERV…because he'd fallen asleep with Chie doing everything she could to reassure him that she was with him because she chose to be with him.

"Oh, wow!" A familiar voice carried across a distance that was at once both a yawning chasm and an intimate proximity, "Now this is a dream I don't mind having."

Turning quickly, he saw Yuka Ayase walking closer with a soft smile on her lips. The distance each step carried her seemed to be disconnected entirely from the length of her motions, which prompted a sense of concern in his heart that led him to approaching her as well.

The dyed-blonde young woman jumped up to hug him around the neck, laughing brightly as he caught her and attempted to keep them both upright. "Ugh, I was so bored just staring out at this void. At least now I can practice what I'm going to say to the real deal while I'm waiting to wake up."

Was he dreaming this? He couldn't deny that there was an allure that Yuka exuded. She comforted him without coddling him, she enjoyed letting loose without being self-destructive. She saw far more than she let on, and she kept up a false front to keep pain away. He understood her all too well…and that understanding might explain why his mind chose her instead of any of the others that were more confusing to him.

Slipping down to her tiptoes, she looked up into his eyes and let her lips grow pouty. "How do you explain to someone who's never known appropriate social etiquette what it means to be counter-cultural? It's almost unfair, thinking about how you can look at me without any preconceptions. When I see you, I see…I see someone that probably would have stopped me from choosing to go all Gyaru. Someone that would have told me I was beautiful, but never reached under my skirt. Someone that wouldn't have tried to trash my reputation. I know you," her pout shifted towards thoughtfulness, "but you're not equipped to know me."

There was sense in what she said. If he had grown up around someone as lively as her, someone as determined to tell the world to leave her alone, he might have a better understanding of her. Those traits were why he enjoyed having her around, though. The layered personalities, the masks that hid her thoughts but not her emotions, the way that she always seemed to have a trick up her sleeve.

"Maybe that's what I should do…." Her head tilted coyly, her eyes narrowing as an idea grew. "The only way you're going to understand who I am is if I show you why I am the way I am." A small huff of a sigh left her. "I really don't want to show you my family, though. They'd probably all try to convince you to sleep with them for money." The way his mouth dropped from a curious consideration of her words to a genuine scowl of disapproval made her giggle again. "That! That right there is why I wish I could convince the real you to just go with the flow. You're not in this for cheap sex, you're wanting to actually feel what your partners feel. You're real. You're genuine." Leaning up and kissing him lightly, she purred happily. "You're probably the only guy I've ever respected…and if society can't accept what we'll learn to accept, then they can blow goats."

The realization that he wasn't actually dreaming hit him the instant she mentioned her family prostituting themselves. "This…this isn't a dream…." His eyes blinked rapidly, trying to keep up with his thoughts. "Y-you…you're actually Ayase-san."

Yuka's eyes went wide, but her grip tightened behind his neck. "Holy shit! How…am I not dreaming? Where are we?"

"I-I don't know," he admitted freely. "I thought I was dreaming of you, because you're probably one of the only people I understand. I thought my mind was just…grasping for something. I'd never imagine your family…doing that."

"…Awkward," she tittered out. "Ok. Uhm…so, like…as it turns out, I really meant everything I just said." Pressing her lips together and rolling them against one another for a second, she fought unsuccessfully to stop from blushing. "I…had hoped to make that come out more polished, though. I know you see through the whole Gyaru thing…and that you don't judge me for being me. I just didn't want to…not be me, while explaining to you what I am. Oh boy, I am not making any sense."

He slowly shook his head, as confused as she believed him to be. "I know what you are, though. You're Ayase-san." Realizing that he'd been staring, he looked off to the side, examining the horizon. "I don't need to know more than that, not really. You don't like people who abuse authority, you don't like people who think they know it all, and you don't like people who fake a smile while sneering behind someone's back." One shoulder lifted slightly in a shrug. "You also don't like cucumbers or cantaloupes."

With his eyes averted, he missed the way she bit her lower lip and smiled. "But I do like tall, honest, men who aren't afraid to see past someone's mask."

Self-hatred slithered back into the front of his mind. "You only like me because you're forced to."

Placing two fingers against his cheek, she firmly turned his head back to face her. "Don't listen to those voices," she admonished with gentle tones. "The ones that say you're worthless. That say you're a failure. That say you'll only succeed because nobody else is competing. That's the evils of a world based on 'winning' and 'losing' talking. That's your past talking. Your future is filled with much brighter things. Things like me, hopefully," she added with a charming smile.

"Y-you…you don't understand." He wanted, so terribly, to listen to her. To let her honesty become some sort of truth in his mind. What he wanted didn't matter. He had to protect them. "I…I have…uhm, some sort of…twisted luck. It's making you like me. It's…it's changing people's minds, making them do things they wouldn't."

Adding a thumb to keeping his head facing her, she pinched his cheek lightly. "That's probably the stupidest thing I've heard you say, not to mention the most belittling thing." Neither her emotions nor her tone changed from the same soothing confidence she'd been using. "If you were lucky enough to survive the extinction of the male gender, then there was literally no way that you couldn't have become the focus of those hetero or bi-sexual women remaining. If you had competition, you might have a point. As it is, your mind is twisting the situation around to put the responsibility on you instead of the universe." Her smile changed to one tinged with sympathy. "When we wake up, I'm going to show you my diary. Specifically, a section that should be creepy, if you didn't know I'd written it ten years ago. You are everything I have wanted in a man, but never thought I'd find. I've wanted someone like you to like someone like me for a decade…and you don't get to tell me that your luck made me write that out a decade before I even knew you existed." When he went to speak, she jiggled his face a bit to stop him. "You live in a world filled with dark terrors and evil whispers, Shinji. A world where you doubt that you have any right to exist, where you believe you don't have a right to happiness. Instead of listening to that, how about you listen to the counter-cultural cutie that's willing to take our relationship at your pace?"

"…That's a bad idea."

"Why?" She stopped pinching his cheek, and instead ran the backs of her fingernails against it. "Because you want to have sex?"

"Y-"

"So do I," she admitted with a shrug. "But I understand that the reason you want to is because you want to feel something, anything, that brings you a reason to not simply sit down and give up. You want to feel joy at the hands of someone who needs you." She paused, letting her words sink in. "So do I. Stop thinking that you're the only one making decisions. We have free will too, and those of us who want to see a world where we're all free to make our own mistakes, safe from monsters that would kill us, and living with people who make us happy have every right to offer what we have to those we would offer it to." Trailing her nails down his cheek, she set one beneath his chin and tapped it in time with her heart. "I'm a bit of a selfish bitch, I admit that. That's why I hoped we could all spend time with you in pairs. Reduce jealousy, increase teamwork, and…maybe start to open people up to sharing you without becoming a sack of wet cats." Her eyes sparkled mischievously. "How about you and I strike a bargain? Would you be willing to take, in exchange for giving?"

"I-I don't need you to-"

"Uh, uh, uh," she moved the finger to his lips, "part of the bargain is you taking. Could you do that for me?" His slow nod caused her to wrinkle her nose cutely. "Good. I want you to tell everyone else that you want to spend time alone with Mitsuru-chan and me. That you are willing to spend time with us, in pairs, because it has worked out really well for you with Rise-chan and Sumire-chan, as well as Yukiko-chan and Chie-chan." Rolling her eyes and sighing, she edited her thought before she spoke it aloud. "Ulala-chan might need you to just bend her over a table to get it out of her system, I think. She wants validation of her beauty, and every guy that she's ever chased has taken one look at her left cross and noped on out of her life. If you and Eriko-chan spend time with her, it might just be better to have that time be spent in bed. I'll talk to Eriko-chan. She's managed to open your mind some, so she might be willing to play bassist to Ulala's lead guitar so we can get that drama llama settled in a pen."

The idea was daunting. It wasn't a lie that he wanted to spend time with them, that part was simple enough to say without any issues. But specifically choosing pairings to spend time with him? That was a difficult bridge to cross. "What…uhm, what am I taking?"

"Me." Her face shifted to serious, which was an odd emotion to cross her features. "I…have had a dream for most of my life," she began. "I've always wanted to be a housewife. Keeping the house clean, cooking meals, showing up for business parties and making mindless conversation while being the trophy for my husband's accomplishments. I don't want to have to…doubt. I don't want to have to control the household, or the family. I don't want to have people look at my marriage and say that I 'wear the pants in the family'. I want people to look at my marriage and say, 'He is the luckiest man alive. Good job, nice house, beautiful wife.' I want you to take what I have to offer, and not push me to allow you to reciprocate. Let me be happy making you happy, take the happiness that I give you and show it to the world!" Her face darkened briefly. "Let me make my family suffer knowing that I managed to break free from their bullshit cycle of self-destruction."

He blinked, not having expected any of what she'd just said. "You…you want me…."

"To be the dominant part of our relationship, yes," she stated bluntly, serenity returning to her face. "Not angry yelling, or anything stupid like that. I want you to set the direction, the tone. I want you to pull me into your lap from time to time, let me know that I'm your wife. Show everyone else who I belong to. Let them see how happy I am able to make someone, and let them feel stupid for doubting that I could ever be both who I am…and what I am."

"…A 'counter-cultural cutie'."

"Damn right," she declared with a huge grin.

The entire concept forced him to think. If his luck was twisting people's minds, if it was forcing them to be what he most desired, then there was literally no possible way that it would have pushed Yuka into becoming…that. He was the one who served, he was the one who made people happy, he was the one who took joy in giving joy. He'd…he'd never want that for someone else. He'd never want that from someone else. "Chie-chan accepted Sachiel-san's offer. She's…she knows what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling. That's part of the deal they made."

"Huh." She pursed her lips in thought. "Gonna admit, wouldn't have seen Chie being the first to jump at that. She's been really protective of you and your situation. Can this Sa-chi-e-ru-san do this for more than just Chie?"

Memories lapped to the surface of the ocean of his mind, the fight in the forest, the offer from the stranger. "I…I think I can. I don't know if that would give you access to the same type of magic Chie-chan gained, but…." The impressions, the knowledge of how a pairing of souls worked, gained clarity as he thought through the motions involved. "No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't stop it, I don't think, if…if someone like Sachiel-san offered to give you their strength like he did for her. But I know how to stop people from doing the same thing, stop…stop bad people like Pixie from shoving their way into my life."

"Pixie-san?"

"Y-yeah. After your head injury, Shizuko-chan found out that Pixie had been manipulating us. She, and those like her, wanted to take control of me. Keep anyone else from…repopulating."

"How nice," she said too sweetly. "I'll have to thank her by ripping her fucking wings off." Catching the look of surprise on Shinji's face, she arched an eyebrow. "One, nobody hurts my friends. Two, nobody hurts my man. Three, nobody manipulates me. She's a dead woman, when I find her."

"A wise decision, in the long term." The addition of an unrecognized third voice caused Shinji to grab Yuka and pull her against him protectively. Without a body in sight to attach to the voice, all he had to go off of was the erudite intonation it used. "My apologies, I had not meant to startle you. I sought to give you time to speak with one another, in the hopes that it would ease this meeting's path."

With everything that had happened over the past week, Shinji's response was justifiably hostile, "Who are you? What do you want?"

After a brief pause, carrying a sense of consideration and doubt, the voice replied simply, "Amara, and hope."

Twisting her body about so that she stood with her back against Shinji's front, Yuka tugged his arms and hands down so they held her more comfortably. "What makes you think we can give you any hope, Amara-san?"

"Because there are none who are not Shinji Ikari capable of doing so. As he must rely upon you to survive, so must I rely upon him to exist."

"…I have no idea what you're talking about," Shinji growled.

"You do not, but there are Shinji Ikari who do. One day, if I am fortunate, you will be one of them."

Reaching up behind her head and once more laying her finger against Shinji's lips, Yuka took control of the conversation, "Why am I here, if who you needed was Shinji-kun?"

"Because he trusts you, and he has no reason to trust me yet." A hint of pleading entered her voice, "I would offer to you a similar bargain that was given between the Son of Adam and The Chariot. A joining of purpose, between you and the Shinji Ikari of your realm…a gift of my power to aid you in protecting him against what is to come. A bridge built, so that he can see my intentions without becoming beholden to them against his will."

Yuka laid her head back against his chest, looking up at him and removing her finger from his lips. "You trust me?"

"You've never given me a reason not to," he replied with a slight shrug. "I've told you all I have no idea what I'm doing."

"Then do you trust me when I say I'll show you proof that I've wanted someone like you since long before I knew you existed?" She smiled when he nodded without hesitation. "Good." Looking back out at the horizon, towards the direction the voice was emanating from, she let her smile fade towards a serious glare. "Why should I trust you, Amara-san? How do I know you're not setting a trap?"

The voice took another moment to ponder. "Please attempt to speak something that you know to be untrue. A falsehood with the intent to mislead us."

"Ok…Shinji-kun's eyes are uglurhrk." Feeling her throat seize, the various tissues and muscles that would allow her to speak stubbornly refusing to move, Yuka had a brief moment of panic until everything resolved to normal. "What the fuck?!"

"Within me, within the space that comprises what I am, it is not possible to speak falsely." There was an undertone of apology to her words. "I was created to help…guide understanding of the truths of all creation. If you speak a lie unknowingly, it would pass through your lips without hesitation. Misunderstanding, or ignorance, are not prevented so that any who comes to me can overcome those flaws. We cannot learn if we do not speak, but we cannot trust if we purposefully create mistruth. The strength of your belief in the lies you tell yourself affects what you can and cannot verbalize."

Shinji frowned, then tried the experience for himself, "My name is Shinji Ikari, and I am a purple seahorse." His frown became a scowl.

"Patience, please," Amara begged. "The flaw that exists within me is that someone who cannot be touched or influenced by the guiding illumination of pure truth is either unable to speak…or able to say anything they wish. I have only known one other, such as you, and that experience is why I chose you instead of them. You despise falsehoods. You embrace the hard truths, even though you suffer under the heavy burden of delusions imposed on you by others."

"You're asking me to trust something that I can't know if you're manipulating!" His arms tightened around Yuka, fear that he was failing to protect her growing in his gut. "For all I know, you could be making her stop talking!"

"If I play you false, you are able to dissolve the bonds! I see in you the knowledge of how to separate from those ties you wish nothing from. The ability to reverse those links that strengthen you, should they instead begin to weaken you. The Cold Light gave you this knowledge, did she not?"

"Can you prove to me you're not lying?"

"If you accept her bond, yes." Her desperation was quite apparent. "You will feel, through her, the truth of my words. If you trust her, as you say you do, she will attest to my honesty."

As he was about to retort, Yuka once more asserted herself, "Shinji…sometimes you have to take a leap of faith to get anywhere, ok?" She saw the fear in his eyes, and felt her heart warm knowing that the fear was for her safety. "If we take this deal, will it help us win like the other guy said it would?"

Amara was quick to respond, "Yes. His ability to aid your cause is limited to The Chariot alone. He cannot give his strength to more than one without weakening both, ultimately defeating the purpose of empowering any. My aid is limited in the same fashion, as is any who might reach out to join their causes to assisting The Wanderer's aims."

Feeling that he'd heard it somewhere before, Shinji asked, "The Wanderer?"

"…An incredibly powerful being, kept from madness by a host of willing Goddesses. He could destroy everything with a thought, but instead chooses to allow life to proceed so long as it does not attempt to dictate the lives of others," the mix of reverence and fear in her voice spoke to how she viewed him. "He battles against another being of even greater power, one that is only of greater power by virtue of a longer life filled with conflict. Should The Wanderer awaken to his true potential, or if he can call upon powerful allies…I might no longer be forced to exist in despair."

"Then why don't you go ask him to help you? Why do you need to push Yuka to bond with me?"

Instead of allowing the argument to continue, Yuka thumped the back of her head against his chest again. "Hey…I know you're worried about me. I know you're terrified I'm going to be hurt. You need to let me choose my life, too. I need you to tell me if you don't want this, but not because you think I don't. If you don't want to have me around like that, because you don't want to have me fall in love with you, then say so. If you think you have the right to speak for me, without giving me the benefits of being married to you, then we're going to have a problem."

His face slowly fell, crestfallen at realizing he'd been very hurtful. "I…I want all of you. That's why I shouldn't have any of you."

"We'll agree to disagree, for now." With a warm wink, she grinned happily. "I'll help you understand, later on. Ok, Amara-san…let's do this."

Before Shinji could form a protest, the world around them glowed an odd shade of red, his mind devolving back to pure unconsciousness.

+++++ Author's Notes:

Decarabia: Nope, Kaiwan. The pre-evolution Neutral-Chaos Night starfish thing.

CQC: Close-Quarters Combat. Basically anything within 100 meters of the enemy is considered CQC. It can range from hand to hand fighting, to attempts to control the immediate battlespace with suppression and clearing, to moving from room to room within a building to recover hostages or neutralize targets, to psycho-physical domination of the environment through overwhelming force and sensory assaults. It's a broad term for the focused chaos of intimate hostilities, and it can be the most beautifully ugly fighting a person can be a part of.

SMTV: Do I own it? Yes. Have I played it? No. Haven't had time to, with everything going on. Games like that I want to play from start to finish without taking long breaks so that I have a better understanding and buildup of the lore and interconnections with other SMT games, you know? This Shinji will inevitably meet more characters from SMT games, absolutely. Not going to spoil who or what, though.