Shinji sat on a seat in what looked like a train car. He didn't know how he got here, seeing as the last clear thing he remembered was the shadow of the angel swallowing him. After that, everything was murky. He remembered the fear, the sight of the LCL going bad, the knowledge that he's going to die alone in the void. He remembered as he started to feel his eyes getting heavier as he started to run out of oxygen.

He wasn't alone. The car held eight people.

A girl in a black dress, smiling at him.

A gray-skinned, sickly looking man looking empty-eyed.

A big, burly man in leather armor who looked like an ancient warrior.

A blonde, twenty-something beautiful woman. Anyone looking at her carefully would notice the predatory gleam in her eyes.

A pregnant woman, sitting on one of the seats opposite of him with a content smile on her face.

A boy with silver white hair and red eyes, wearing a white shirt and black slacks, not unlike Shinji himself.

And a familiar, brown haired and green eyed woman, smiling at him. He felt warmth coming from the woman, like the rays of the sun after a long winter.

"Who are you?" Shinji asked, still dizzy from the lack of oxygen he experienced moments ago. He realized this dream. He had many like this, but in those dreams, there was only one other passenger. Sometimes it was his old teacher or his father, but most of the time it was a younger version of himself.

"He's awake." He heard the figures whisper among themselves.

"Hello, Shin-chan." The brown haired woman said, with a drop of tear at her eyes. "I'm so happy to see you."

"Who are you?"

"You don't remember me?"

"M-mo-mother?" Shinji was crying tears of joy as recognition hit him. He never dreamed about her mother, not even after her death. He didn't even remember what she looked like much. "I missed you so much."

"I know, sweetie. I'm here now." Yui Ikari walked over to her son and hugged him first time after a decade.

"I thought you died."

"In a way I did. It's complicated. But I am here now. Thanks to the angels." Yui Ikari said, motioning to the figures.

"Angels?"

"They arranged this meeting."

"Why?"

"To learn. To understand. We don't desire your death." The white haired boy told. "We only desire completion. The means are immaterial. Peace just became an option."

"You want peace?" Shinji was feeling a little hope. Maybe he was right, the angels didn't want to kill anyone. Deep inside, despite Ritsuko's words, he hoped that peace would be an option.

"They didn't know we were sentient. They thought that we were animals on this world." Yui told him.

"Why now?"

"The time was right. You were ready." The pregnant women said.

"They saw you and felt that you wanted peace." Yui elaborated. "I saw the seed of doubt in you. So when you were about to die, I could free myself and call out to them.

"They are a lot like us. They don't want any more of theirs to die. But remember that they are also different."

"What do they want?"

"The Mother. The Father. Then go home." The warrior told him.

"I'll explain later in detail, Shin-chan. For now, answer one question. Do you really want peace?"

"YES, for crying out loud!" Shinji practically shouted.

"Good. He is honest." The others watching mother and son chorused in a whisper.

"Can we trust them, mother?" Shinji asked, a bit calmer. He knew Ritsuko's warnings. They may say they want peace, but it it could be just a ploy.

"Not without reservations." She sighed. "But this is a prisoners dilemma. Only trust can solve the problem."

"What will happen?"

"Show him." Yui told the blonde woman, smiling. She turned to the young boy.

Shinji clutched his head as images began to attack his mind. Touji lying on a bed, crippled. Tokyo-3 leveled to the ground, the broken buildings like broken teeth of a dead giant. Asuka lying in the entry plug, mangled, grasping for the sun. Misato blowing up herself as the soldiers were raising their guns to fire. Ritsuko in a pool of LCL, with a gunshot wound. Gendo Ikari clutching the stump where his hand was. Shinji choking Asuka in a ruined world after the end.

"Aaahh, make it stop! Make it stop!"

The images stopped suddenly.

"What was that?"

"The future. Or one possible future." Yui told him. "We are at a crossroad. What you choose will affect the future in a very direct manner. Shin-chan, it is very rare when the decision of a person can make the world a better place."

Another set of images went through Shinji's head. Misato smiling, in a wedding dress next to Kaji. His father smiling at him. Asuka, Rei, and their other classmates with a happy look on their faces. Touji, helping Kensuke put a tie on. Ristuko laughing at a joke.

"Another possible world. Do you want to see more?"

"No. Let's try it." He said with more determination.

"It is not so easy," the white haired boy told him as he approached. "There is still a question what you are willing to give and do for peace. But you will not be alone, Shinji, I promise you that."

The mood in the temporary operations center was far from good. It was more than twenty hours since Shinji fell into the inky black void that was the true body of the angel. Things were not looking good. Misato was out for blood and Ritsuko was the closest target. After some... unfortunate words, she slapped her. Rei was refusing to leave the EVA bays, citing readiness as her reason. Asuka still fumed about the idiot getting caught, but she stayed near her EVA too.

But the time was almost up. They had to drop the N2 mines. Ristuko – despite the appearances – was worried about the boy. He saved them many times and she was grateful, but could not properly express it to the boy. And to Misato. But she had to stay a realist. There wasn't much chance that he'd make it out in one piece this time.

Her train of thought was interrupted by a sound that was like pudding hitting concrete. The big, purple mecha was flying through the air in a big parabolic arc. It's limbs were flailing madly, as if trying to right itself. After a few seconds of flight the purple EVA landed head-first in the city center. Everyone was so occupied with the parabolic death-dive that they didn't notice that the angel shrunk and disappeared.

"Pilot life signs stable. He's conscious. Remaining battery time 4:49 on full mode!" Maya Ibuki said, not believing her eyes. "What does this mean?"

"I don't know," Dr. Akagi said. "Send a recovery team for the pilot and the EVA." She was putting the pilot at first to not aggravate the Major further.

On the Command deck, Gendo Ikari sat with Fuyutsuki behind him. Unlike most times, the Commander did not have his customary, trademarked pose. He looked at the screens with unbelieving eyes.

"This was definitely not predicted in the Scrolls."

Fuyutsuki groaned and rubbed his eyes, trying not to say that he's too old for this shit. "The scrolls are not definitive. They are more of a guide."

"We'll have to tread carefully, sensei."

"I hope your plans weren't too static." The elderly former professor said. He never was too fond of the scenario Gendo Ikari lay out, but he had his own want to reunite with Yui. While his relationship with her has always been platonic, he did love her.

"The scenario is unchanged." The younger man said, with only a hint of doubt in his voice.

'Familiar ceiling.' Shinji laid on the uncomfortable hospital bed. Even if he was conscious during his recovery he had to stay for observation overnight. He did his best to get a little sleep but spending more than a day in nothingness with nothing better to do than sleep he didn't really feel tired. He closed his eyes and did his best to fall asleep.

A few hours later, after some fitful time hovering at the edge of awareness and sleep he heard two sets of footsteps that stopped when they were near. He kept his eyes shut, wanting to know why they came to the room without revealing himself to be awake.

"He was conscious." Misato asked. "Is this really necessary?"

"For the last time, yes!" Ritsuko was understandably annoyed, since the Major has already asked this question a few dozen times. "We need to know if he was harmed by the angel."

"He doesn't even have a scratch," the purple-haired woman told her friend, in a tone more suitable for explaining quantum mechanics to a toddler, "he almost came out better than before!"

"I'm not talking about physical harm but psychological." The doctor explained. "He was in contact with an angel for more than twenty hours. We don't know what happened! Now shut up and let me do my assessment!"

"If you think he's contaminated, why didn't you do a neural scan?"

'Where did that come from?' Shinji thought, but then remembered that the empty-headed facade of Misato was far from the truth. She's the main military tactician in this war and was far sharper than she let go.

Ritsuko's thoughts mirrored that of the young boy. While the Major didn't know about the particulars of detecting contamination, she has been around long enough to hear about the meta-biological theories involved in anything that has to do with the EVA's. Or the layman version of them, anyway.

"We don't need it. The EVA records the psychograph through the A-10 interface of the pilot from the moment we start the activation process."

'Fuck,' Shinji thought, 'not good.'

Ritsuko continued. "Maya already ran a preliminary analysis on the MAGI. There are no signs that anything happened, but we have to wait a day for the full report. But I'm not worried and you shouldn't be either. This is merely a precaution. Now, go away, I have work to do!" Misato growled, but left.

"I know you're awake, Shinji."

"Sorry," he said, "I just wanted to listen in undetected. People rarely tell me the complete truth face-to-face." He offered a sheepish smile to the woman.

Asuka was pacing around in her room. That idiot of her roommate was coming home today and she didn't know what to do. Should she hit him for falling into the angel? Or should she show her relief? While she was worried about him, she would never admit that to anyone. She has realized long since the kind of love-hate relationship she had with the male pilot.

She really needed the challenge, and Wondergirl was no good. While she might had been as skilled as Asuka in hand-to-hand combat and had a similarly long training, her dismal sync score meant she could never use Unit-00 to it's full potential.

But Shinji, the boy who was conscripted (or shanghaied) into becoming a pilot was catching up quickly. While his combat skills were less than impressive at the beginning and had a low sync ratio, he was coming up quickly. She liked fighting him in the simulators because even if he was nearly not as good as her, he could still prove to be an amusing challenge.

"Tadaima," she heard Shinji call out. Before she could go greet her roommate and tell him how stupid he acted, she heard Misato beating her to the punch.

"We need to talk, Shinji. Especially about why we follow orders and don't go out guns blazing and attacking enemies with unknown capabilities!" Misato said in a lecturing tone, without any hint of anger. The redhead liked this duality in the woman, at home she might tease her about a lot of things, but during combat she was collected and competent. "Do I need to repeat the talk I gave you after the fourth angel?"

'Here it comes, the apologizing,' Asuka thought.

"I did what I thought I needed to do," the boy replied, "if I had waited, we still wouldn't have known what those capabilities were. I took an acceptable risk."

"That's not the point!" Misato replied, her tone rising a notch. "That is not your call. I am the commanding officer, ultimately I am the one who has to bear the responsibility of those actions. Any good soldier understands that."

"Then I guess I'm not a good soldier." Shinji replied nonchalantly.

"Damn it, Shinji!" Misato shouted, but calmed herself quickly. She knew the boy was never going to be the trooper she needs, but pilots were in short supply and she needed to work with him. "Promise me that you won't do something so reckless next time! Right now, on your mothers grave!"

'That's a bit dramatic,' Asuka thought, but agreed. She was pissed at the boy, she didn't want someone with that mentality watching her back.

"Okay. I, Shinji Ikari, promise on my mother's empty grave that I will follow your orders to the letter and intent during combat." Shinji said, his right hand over his heart. You could barely hear the mocking in his voice.

Misato must have missed it, unlike Asuka, because she just nodded. As the Major noticed the redheaded pilot walking out the room she switched from the no-nonsense Major into the lovable ditz they loved so much.

"Besides, if you had died, Asuka would miss her love monkey." She said with a lecherous grin.

"WHAT?" The redhead was now angry. "Why would I care about the Baka?"

Shinji just rolled his eyes and started to inch back to his room, just to be grabbed by the redhead.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"Narnia?" Shinji replied, not liking where this is going.

"What?" It seems the redhead was not familiar with the works of C. S. Lewis. "Anyhow, you still haven't cooked in the last few days!"

"I have been... indisposed." He replied.

"That's immaterial. Now get to work!"

"Aye, ma'am." Shinji mock-saluted the young girl.

A/N: This is the point where the story is going to diverge. To be honest, the original version of this chapter was going to be very different than I intended. But that story was just not going to work. Not that this has no potential pitfalls. Because of this, my 'forward material' is not so strong. So the schedule of a chapter per week is going to stay.

Omake

Misato watched in horror as the boy leveled Tokyo-3 after stumbling with an N2 launcher. While he did improve in the last months and in combat displayed a nervous and accidental competence, in the simulation he was often distracted. Discipline with the Third Child has always been a problem, but this was beyond pale.

"Okay, Mr. Oppenheimer, you can come out of the plug." She said with a sigh.

Shinji stepped out of the simulation plug. After he expelled the LCL from his lungs he was cautiously approaching Misato, who was now standing on the catwalk before him.

"What the hell was that about?" Misato asked him.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "But in my defense, who the hell builds a nuclear launcher with an auto-fire option?"

"Shinji, you know damn well." Misato replied. "We need more dakka!"

"Never enuff dakka!" Rei chimed in.

"WAAAAGH!" Asuka shouted from her plug.