The low, constant hum of the linear elevator cut through the layers of armor and LCL, filling Shinji's ears as he was shot upwards into the city to fight the newest Angel. NERV had called it Ramiel, the Fifth Angel. It sounded very biblical, and appropriate.

There was a bone-jarring stop as Unit 01 ceased its acceleration. The elevator's hatch opened, and bright sunlight beamed into the cockpit. Several blocks away was a giant...purple...shape, floating in midair. Something about it remeinded Shinji of geometry. A name raced out at him from his subconscious. Octahedral. Yes, that was the name of the shape. It was crystalline, nothing organic looking about it at all.

What pushed Shinji back into the here and now was a light shimmer of the air in front of the Angel. This shimmer intensified, until a white beam erupted from the shimmer, speeding towards him. The world seemed to jell into slow motion. He heard Misato saying something to him over the comline, but she sounded muted and distant, like a record with the RPM turned way down. From the street in front of him, a giant slab of metal shot out. Some kind of shield, he supposed. He seemed to be going off on tangents...

The white light shot through the shield as if it were not even there, and bore down on him. He was helpless, pinned by the safety locks of the linear elevator. All he could do was take it...

The light, it seemed to have his full attention. He could dimly remember frantic calls on the comm link. Someone was calling him. It seemed important, but it did'nt really seem to matter at the moment...

He felt as if his insides had been set on fire, when the Angel's light hit him. It seemed to drill through all of those impressive layers of Evangelion armor and destroy his center. He vaguely sensed downward motion, as he was pulled back into the earth, towards the Geofront. The darkness of the Earth seemed to fill his vision for a moment, before Shinji began fading out, and true darkness closed over him.

"How you feeling, little man?"

Huh? Where was he? This place seemed familiar. There were bay windows leading to a balcony on the far wall. On a good day like this one, the view of the ocean was simply breathtaking. The fresh sea air could sweep in and just...fill the room.

Whose room was this, anyhow? He vaguely remembered being hurt, and losing consciousness. Being hurt was nothing new to him. But waking up afterwards...that was always disorienting. He always had a slight...disconnect from time, and from himself.

There was a mirror across from his bed. Staring back at him was an eight-year old boy, with his right arm in a cast.

The sharp smell of Cuban cigars filled his nostrils. Sitting in a chair next to his bed was a man, obviously enjoying his cigar. What was his name? Things had to fall into place. His name was...Jean. Yeah, that was it. He was his aunt's brother. He seemed nice enough, although Shinji had not made a great effort to get to know the man. The one thing he always remembered about Jean was that he was French, and damned if he did not look like the splitting image of Jean Reno. That stuck out at Shinji because his favorite movie was The Professional, a movie from the 1990s, that starred Jean Reno. Super cool.

There was a glass of water near Shinji's bed. He drank it. "What happened?" he asked. Last night seemed hazy. He did remember he had been very angry about something. Shinji noticed that he felt angry nearly constantly as of late. More so than many other people, he supposed. Would he always feel that way?

Jean put out his cigar. A look of discomfort passed over his face. "There was some ugliness...last night. Words were saud, accusations were thrown about. The situation became physical."

Physical? How had that happened? He did remember that recently he seemed to be arguing with his aunt and uncle on a regular basis. Why was that? He had lived with them for the past three years, ever since he was five and his mother had died. A few days after her death, his father had someone who worked for him pick Shinji up and pack his belongings in a car. Later that day, he was in Osaka, at an estate outside the city. The man who worked for his father had handed his uncle a cell phone, with his father on the other end. His uncle and his father had talked for over an hour on another room. He had sat in the kitchen, with a woman named Violette, his uncle's wife. Screaming could periodically be heard from the room where his uncle was talking with his father. Finally, his uncle came out, looking visibly tired. His uncle spoke to the man who worked for Shinji's father. Several moments later, the man went back to his car and left.

What exactly happened always seemed to be a mystery to Shinji, but ever since that night, he had lived with his aunt and uncle at their home in Osaka. He actually liked the estate. The mansion itself was constructed in a fusion of Japanese and Western styles, with all of the modern amenities. He met his aunt's brother, Jean soon after, and Jean was nice. Everyone was nice. His uncle, his aunt, everyone was just...nice. He had not thought heavily about that until recently. The more he seemed to think about that, the more it seemed to anger him. Everyone being nice, he seemed to see it for what it really was. False smiles, surrogate mothers. Grins covering teeth that would eat him up. False friends...false family members. He had to fight that. It had seemed terribly important that he...FIGHT that. Why was that?

"Jean...what happened?"

Jean looked at Shinji. "You got into an argument with Samanosuke and Violette at dinner last night. Sometime during that, you tried to kill Samanosuke, with a knife. In getting the knife away from you, Samanosuke broke your arm."

That...was me? Shinji wondered. He remembered that for a while, and even more so for the past several days, it felt like a...bile, a poison was in him. Overwhelming feelings of hatred and confusion seemed to be all that was on Shinji's mind. He could not concentrate in school. School was boring anyway. He had almost been relieved when he got in a fight with that asshole who had been trying to shake him down for his allowance. Breaking that kid's ankle and collarbone, stomping his kidneys had been enourmously satisfying. The boy had been at least three years older, and outweighed Shinji by maybe thirty pounds, but he had screamed like an old grandmother when Shinji went to work on him. The rest of the day had been a blur. The principal had called his aunt and uncle in and informed them of Shinji's expulsion from school. Bla..bla...bla.

Dinner that night had been awkward, and silent. His aunt and uncle, whetever they did for a living, they were fantastic at it, but they knew very little about raising children. Shinji expected them to scream at him or something. Tell him he was a dissapointment, anything. He was'nt their child! But they said nothing. Finally Shinji began screaming at them, calling them cowards and pieces of shit human beings. They were sorry excuses for parents. Were they too scared too say anything? He called them bastards and bitches and every vile name he could think of. All they did was just look at him, worry and shock on their faces. The... depths of his anger and vitriol had surprised them.

Violette began crying and tried to go over to him, embrace him. She was babbling something about it was alright to be angry. He would get over his father, someday. Something about her, a stranger talking about his father, burned him up. With a kick, he knocked her to the floor. How dare she bring up his father?! What did she know about anything?! He had yelled at her. All of this yelling seemed to be tiring Shinji out. He looked at his uncle, sitting at the table, looking at him. There was something...His father was here! His uncle had been replaced somehow by his father! He was right there! Wearing the same glasses, the same dark suit. The same Goddammed smile, as if he knew just a little more than you. There was something superior about it that drove Shinji mad. He had to show him. Cut that smile away from him. Who was he to smile at him, after he dumped him like a bad habit? Shinji picked up a nearby knife and leapt at his father, or the man who he thought was his father. Who could tell anymore?

Jean finished talking. "That's what happened?" Shinji asked.

It seemed unreal, like another person. But it was him. How had he let himself get to such a state?

The bedroom door opened, and his aunt and uncle walked in. They both looked disheveled, as if neither one had spent much time sleeping. Jean stood up and looked at his sister. She began speaking to him rapidly in French. Jean began speaking back to her, in a surprised tone.

"Enough." his uncle said. "We have decided where our priorities are in this, Jean. Working at the Agency and raising a child cannot go hand in hand. You know that. The fact that we have done so for so long is our fault. We are partially to blame for what has been happening. The decision is made. Your phone, please."

Jean handed him his cell phone. Samanosuke punched in a number and waited. "Connect me to ICA Actual. This is Golgo 13, code ASDF-143-RT7. Patch me through to Diana, please. I will hold, thank you."

Several moments passed. Samanosuke entered into a neutral, businesslike tone. "Diana? Thank you for speaking with me. I am buying out my contract today. My wife also. Yes, something very important has come up that requires our full attention. Agency work is just not possible. Yes. Thank you. The work was pleasant, in a way. A part of me will miss it. Hold on, my wife wishes to speak with you." he handed Jean's phone to Violette.

Violette's French accent filled the room. "This is Queen Bee, code YTGD-445-JKL. I am confirming the closing of my contract for the reasons already specified. No, my brother will continue to be on call for the Agency. The appropriate financial transfers will be made by the end of the day. Thank you. Goodbye. She closed the phone and handed it back to her brother.

Shinji looked first at his aunt, then his uncle. What had they done? Things were getting weird. His aunt was trying to smile at him, put him at ease, but the whole attempt just seemed awkward.

"What did the two of you just do?" he asked.

"We quit our jobs." Violette said.

"Why did you do that?!" Shinji yelled. "Who told you to do that?!" He got the distinct feeling they had done that because of him. Why would they do that?

"For too long...we have been lying to ourselves." his uncle said. "The kind of work we did...it is not the kind of work that allows children in one's life. Eventually we would have had to make a decision. Today, we made it."

"Who told you to do something stupid like that?!" Shinji yelled at them."You should'nt have given up your jobs for me!" They were trying to guilt trip him, or something.

"This is no trick," Violette said, sitting on his bed. "I think...I think we need each other. Last night showed that, if nothing else."

"Need each other? Who told you to quit your jobs? I certainly did'nt. Two of you are goddamm fools, that's what you are." Shinji said in a shaky voice, although he was'nt so sure...

"My brother..." Samanosuke laughed. "My brother really messed with your head, did'nt he? You want to hurt him something fierce, don't you? You showed that last night."

"Why do you have to keep bringing that UP?!" Shinji yelled. "I just want to forget. I just want to forget everything. My life...myself...I don't feel like...me. I have'nt felt like myself for a long time..." Shinji turned over in the bed. He did'nt want to look at them...

Samanosuke walked around the bed and stood there, looking at him. "You got kicked out of school."

"So what?"

"We've made arrangements to have you home schooled. You're not getting out of school that easily."

"If I'm getting home schooled, why did you quit your jobs?"

"The two of us will also be teaching you something. Discipline. Self-control. Mastering yourself. You know how to fight? You like to fight? We will teach you how to be constructive, not DEstructive with your anger, your emotions."

"What are the two of you going to do, teach me martial arts?"

"Yes. We know...let's say we are extremely skilled in that area. We will teach you all that we know."

"Why would you do that?"

"You're not a lost cause. My brother may have thought that, but we do not. You are not our son, but you are...someone's son, and we have been entrusted with raising you. In the past, we have been negligent in that regard. That changes today."

Not a lost cause...

"When do we start?"

"Soon. Your arm will need to heal up. Maybe in about three weeks. I think you will find the two of us a greater challenge than beating up the school bully."

Violette kissed Shinji on the forehead and then the three of them left, leaving Shinji alone in his room. Things had been crazy for a while...he had been crazy for a while. Maybe this would help. He turned over onto his side. He did like to fight. He actually felt like he was looking foward to his lessons. Learning new wats of kicking ass sounded good to him. All that other stuff...discipline, self-control...maybe there was a place for that too.

He was asleep within seconds.

Shinji was awoken by the feeling someone was watching him. He sprang up in bed only to see two ruby-red eyes watching him. He had seen those eyes before. Ayanami. That's who those eyes belonged to. There was something familiar about the light in them. They looked...lost. That was something Shinji recognized, as he saw something very similar in his own eyes ever since he had come to Tokyo-3 and seen his father again.

She spoke. "Pilot Ikari. You are awake.'