Part 1

Where does happiness lie?

I'll kill you!

She reached to the heavens…

I'll kill you!

Grasping towards the harpies…

I'll kill you!

One last effort for naught. From the blinding light above a dark streak cut through the larger of two arms, the smaller split in its wake. Asuka, in that moment, knew on an instinctual level that she would die.

The pain she felt was great, nigh unbearable. Her lone sapphire eye looked towards the sky, tears like liquid crystals forming inside of them. One last thought permeated her dying mind.

'Shinji, where are you?'

At that moment, on that day, the church bells tolled, marking the end of a young life who blazed like fire. Beautiful and lonely.

EVA

Asuka gasped and sat up in shock, clutching her left eye and right arm. She felt horrible pain in both, like they were being scorched by lava. Her heart beat fast and hard, as if it might burst from her ribcage.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes but the young girl forced them down, pushed away that urge to cry. She did not scream out. She sat there in silent suffering, breathing deeply.

It took a while to calm herself, for the memory of the pain to ease enough to think and move. When the while came, the pilot surveyed her surroundings. She was on a bed, not in her Unit 02. The room she was in was small and metal. Next to her bed was a small porthole.

She was undoubtedly on a boat. Now she had the where, all Asuka needed was the why. Had that glorious battle that ended in tragedy all been a dream? Was she being sent back to Germany? The thought of that notion hurt greatly, the mere idea of being replaced sent through her a great anguish.

Asuka then laid her eyes on the calendar in the room. It was the 24th of August, 2015. She knew she had awoken some time in late December, Rei's suicide explosion was on the 17th of December, 2015.

That left only two answers, both equally absurd in their own respects.

Number 1: She had gone back in time. After she died, her consciousness had gone back in time to before she joined the Evangelion war effort, keeping all her memories.

Number 2: It was a dream. In her excitement and worry, she merely dreamt the whole 5 months up in her head forming a sort of prediction of what would happen.

If it was a dream, it was a very realistic and long one. If it was time travel, then how did she get sent back in the first place. The redhead supposed that she would have her answer eventually, all she had to do was wait.

Asuka looked at the alarm clock on the table beside her bed.

6:36

It was too early for her liking. If her dream/memories were correct, Misato and the idiot trio would be due to arrive today at around 9. If everything played out as it did before, she would've time travelled. If it did not then that would mean the whole experience was a dream and she could rest easy.

2 and a half hours of waiting. That wasn't long at all.

EVA

2 and a half hours of waiting was a long time. Asuka had almost cried when she saw Kaji alive and breathing and when he had questioned her, she merely said that she dreamt he'd died. He didn't seem convinced for some reason but he comforted her all the same as she talked it through with him.

After that little event, the Second Children ended up doing a lot of waiting for the transport chopper carrying Unit 02's umbilical cable and also her co-pilot. When she'd asked Kaji who the Third Children was, the older man had given her a non committal answer. He'd smirked and said it was a surprise.

What a bother.

She waited impatiently for the helicopter to arrive on the deck. She gazed it like a hawk as it landed and focused her eyes solely on the doors of the helicopter.

The first one out was Kensuke Aida.

No.

Then Toji Suzuhara.

Please no.

And finally, Shinji Ikari. Dieser Bastard!

Ichi: end.