"This... could be a problem," Gendo commented as the news program moved on to the next topic.

"I'm not going to say it," said Fuyutsuki dryly.

"I think it might be time to come up with Plan C," continued the Commander, turning to his subordinate. "Get me new psychological profiles on the national Evangelion pilots."

"By your command," Fuyutsuki bowed sarcastically, and left.

"Alright. Stay put, we'll come get you – the advance forces should catch up with you in about ten minutes," came a voice over the radio. Michael looked about, confused – where was he?

Oh, wait, that's right. The "Evangelion" thing. He was still wearing the bandages from last time, how could he have forgotten? Did it go crazy again?

"Mike? Mike, answer me. What's your status?" That was one good thing about this entire mess. At least he knew what he was doing. He took a deep breath of the weird blood-like water, and pressed the button to answer.

"It's fine," he said. "Just got dizzy for a moment."

"Try to focus, Mike. Stay calm, we're going to get through this." Michael laughed. He was never anything but calm – wait, no, that wasn't right, he was terrified. The Americans could try to attack at any minute and he didn't have any power left – wait, the Americans?

That couldn't be right.

No, his mind told him, it was right. But, weren't the Americans dealt with? He could remember... something? A girl? A rocky island?

His brain suddenly felt like it was three times the size of his skull, and he bent over in agony – some part of him knew what was about to happen, and when the first missile hit he was already moving. The new part of him tried to unplug something from his left arm, then paused. Another bit of pain. It reached for something – a weapon – before realising that wasn't there either. Two more missiles exploded on the Evangelion's armour plating, and the impossible voice came back over the radio.

"Mike! Mike, they've got you zeroed in, you need to move. Get out of the Eva and head... to the big building behind it. There should be a portable radio in the cockpit. Get a move on!"

By the time the voice had finished, he had already left.

"So... what even is this "function" you're going to tomorrow, Rei?" Hikari asked, holding another dress up to compare it with the blue-haired girl. "Does this have anything to do with Shinji being weirder than normal?"

"It is... it is..." Rei found herself surprisingly hesitant to answer the other girl's question. Strange. "I invited Pilot Ikari to a screening of a certain motion picture tomorrow," she said, quietly.

"You asked him out." Hikari said flatly, then smiled. "You. Asked. Shinji. Out." The smile erupted into laughter. "I guess that means I win the pool, then!" She put the dress over her arm, along with the other clothes she'd selected. When Rei had told her the budget for this operation, the girl had slipped into a catatonic state; apparently most high school students didn't have enough money saved up to purchase several houses.

"Explain," said Rei. I assume she is talking about some manner of bet. But who would have a swimming pool on hand to waste in such a manner? Such things are rare in Tokyo-3.

"Well, it's been kind of obvious you two are kinda crazy for each other – I mean, you actually talk to him! So, all the girls sort of... started a betting pool on when you'd get together and which one would make the first move," Hikari explained.

"It... was obvious?" Rei was used to a world where people didn't really take notice of her actions. This does answer a critical question. If the Commander was opposed to my actions, he would have said so by now. Therefore, he is giving me permission to proceed.

"You hang out with him whenever you both have free time. You both work together, you've been bringing in lunch from home more often these days – lunch that just so happens to be the exact same stuff he brings, so one of you's making food for the other – and you speak to him in class. You're almost like a normal person around him, it's pretty clear something's going on," said the brunette.

"Umm... excuse me," said the cashier. "That's two hundred Euros, in total..."

A remote, detached part of Michael's mind knew exactly what was happening. It had happened already, after all. The remainder was cut off from that knowledge, and so Michael was panicking. The American forces had stationed a squad inside the shopping centre he'd ejected into; they'd opened fire on sight and now he had a bullet in his right shoulder blade.

He breathed rapidly, and screamed. He'd fallen behind a shop counter – right on to his injured shoulder. Rapid footsteps approached, and he knew the Americans were headed right for him. Another part of his mind – how many of these did he have? - took over, and everything became crystal clear.

Especially the piece of glass he now held in his hand.

The first American soldier appeared in front of him, on the right side of the counter. Michael moved, grabbing the soldier's gun with his free hand and forcing it away from his body. The shard of glass came up, through the soldier's neck. Why hadn't the soldier stopped him? Everything was moving really slowly, except for him. Strange. He threw the shard of glass aside, and it floated lazily down to the ground.

He looked around – the other three soldiers were scattered about the store. None of them were even looking at him! Grabbing the rifle, he brought it up and pulled the trigger-

it kicked, and the shots slammed into the shop's roof. The enemies turned, still too slow, and raised their own guns. Michael threw the rifle aside, and grabbed the corpse's sidearm; a strange-looking pistol. Maybe this one he could aim.

He span as one of the soldiers opened fire, and the bullets thudded into the corpse slumped over his shoulder. He pulled the pistol's trigger, and it fired three times. Were they supposed to do that? It didn't matter. The bullets hit their mark, and the soldier fell. From there, it was a simple matter to line the pistol up on the next two soldiers and pull the trigger.

Surely it shouldn't have been that easy?

The distant part of his mind was shouting something. Something thudded into his bac-

-and now he was awake.

Time slowed down, and his mind started analysing the situation. A hospital room. Pistol holster at the foot of the bed, so still in friendly territory. Defensible location. Westward-facing. He blinked, and time returned to normal. What the hell happened? The last thing I remember is...

That was it. Passing out in the command centre. That... was probably going to be awkward. At least it doesn't seem to hurt any more. It was true – the pain was gone. Whether they'd doped him up on morphine or actually fixed whatever was wrong with him was a mystery, though.

Shuddering, he recalled the dream he'd just had. He presumed it was a dream, anyway – it was the only thing he'd ever experienced matching the general description of one. If they're all going to be like that, I'm not sure I want to have any more. It was bad enough going through all of that once.

It was about eight years since he'd crushed the American siege around Birmingham; the city having held out against the invaders since the start of the war some months before. Unit 07 had pushed into the city, and neither his supporting forces nor the tattered remnants of the regiment holding the city had managed to catch up... until an American infantryman put two rounds into his back. From what he gathered, the first British tanks pulled up outside of the shopping centre about a minute afterwards, and he'd survived.

Barely.

Michael lay back, pushing the memory from his mind. He'd been so scared back then; worried about what he was doing, scared of fighting and terrified when he'd been bleeding on that shop floor. Now, though... even if it happened again, he doubted he'd feel anything more than a vague sense of tiredness.

He sighed, and closed his eyes. Sleep came quickly.

"Hey Ayanami," said Shinji as the girl walked through the door to the apartment, bags hanging off her arms. "And... class representative? You two went shopping?" Clothes shopping by the look of it, he thought, definitely not usual Rei activity. That... probably means tomorrow is actually a date. What the hell am I supposed to wear? I don't think I can get away with the school uniform look and -

"Ikari? Are you well?" asked Rei, quietly. Shinji realised he'd been standing in the entrance to the kitchen holding a knife and a pepper for about... twelve seconds, by his internal clock. He shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said, smiling. "Horaki, are you staying for dinner? I need to know before I start cooking." Hell, I'm amazed Rei's here to eat. Where the hell has she been the past few days?

"Uh... yeah, sure," answered Hikari, stepping inside the apartment. "I didn't know you two lived together, no wonder -"

"We should put this away first," interrupted Rei, drawing confused glances from both Shinji and Hikari. It wasn't like her to talk over people. For her part, the quiet girl just walked off to her own room. Shinji just shrugged at Hikari, and turned back to cooking. Weird she didn't know that. I told Toji pretty much the day after she moved in...

He put the thoughts from his mind, and slid his earphones back in.

"Seriously, when did that happen?" asked Hikari as the two girls unpacked the clothes they'd bought.

"Ikari offered me the room after the battle with the Sixth Angel," Rei clarified. "It is... pleasant? living here."

"So... about a month ago? And you're only now asking him out? How does he even afford this place, anyway?" the brunette girl's brain was nearly overloading with the sheer amount of questions it was coming up with.

"Ikari does not own or rent this apartment," said Rei, choosing to answer the least difficult question. "It is owned by NERV and assigned to Captain Katsuragi, who is Ikari's legal guardian."

Hikari just stared at Rei for a few moments. "Okay, before dinner, we are going to sit down and you are going to tell me everything that's happened between you two since he got here. I think I could probably change your names and sell the story as a book." On command, Rei sat on the edge of her bed.

"On the twenty-first of February, Ikari was summoned to NERV in order to pilot Evangelion Unit One against the Fourth Angel," Rei began. Hikari got the feeling this was going to take a while.

"GUESS WHO'S HOME!" shouted Misato, throwing her work bag into the living room. Silence greeted her, so she glanced into the kitchen. Shinji was cooking, and it was probably not a good idea to shock a child soldier who was holding a knife. Rei's door was shut, which was good – she only ever closed it when she was in. Glad to see the girl's back from wherever the hell she's been. That was probably why Shinji was whistling; Misato hadn't been in the apartment much recently, either, so he'd been on his own for most of the past few days. NERV had been too busy getting Unit 02 patched in to the city's systems to do any tests or training exercises, so the only social outlet the boy had had was school.

She followed the bag, and threw herself onto one of the couches in the living room. As per usual, the television seemed to have some pre-Impact film on; an old James Bond movie, as it turned out.

The door to Rei's room opened, and the blue-haired girl stepped out... followed by another girl Misato recognised as some schoolkid or other. That was definitely weird, even considering everything else that had happened over the past few months. It seemed yet another constant in Misato's world was changing. She gave a wave to the girls as they approached.

"'sup?" she greeted. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pen-Pen walk out of the door to the bathroom. Rei's... friend? Guest? looked at it for a moment, then just shook her head. That's normal, at least.

"Ikari is cooking dinner," Rei reported. "Horaki is dining with us, if you consent." Misato nodded her head – it'd be a good thing in the long run if the girl had friends other than Shinji – and motioned to the kitchen.

"Make sure he knows he's cooking for four, then," she told Rei. Turning to the other girl – Horaki – she continued, "You'd be surprised how good a cook the kid is. On top of that, he's a neat freak – it's almost like the gods wanted to reward me for something!"

"No wonder Rei's so interested in him," Hikari joked. "She told me he cleaned her old apartment top to bottom the first time he visited."

"He also said to her, and I quote: "If you let this room get as bad as your apartment I am going to set it on fire and make you clean up the mess,"" said Misato, laughing. "I'm not joking, he actually said that!"

Hikari laughed, and nearly fell out of the chair. "Really? He really doesn't seem the type," she managed to wheeze out.

"Shinji's pretty scary sometimes, I have to admit," Misato recounted seriously. "I take it you haven't heard the story of when he first arrived here?" The brunette shook her head. "Well, we were in the middle of an Angel attack at the time – that's why he did so badly at first, that was literally his first time in the damned thing. Anyway, I manage to save him from being crushed by the Angel and get him to NERV. All well and good, and we've got Unit One ready for him and everything, and then the Commander of all people nearly fucks it all up."

"What? How?" asked Hikari, incredulous. Even she had heard stories of the Commander, a figure with so many unbelievable rumours swirling around him that some of them had to be true.

"Well, we get to the Eva's cage – the hangar we keep them in – and Shinji's staring up at the thing's face, when the Commander asks him to pilot it. Shinji says something like "Okay but only for a price," rather reasonable in the circumstances and when you consider the Commander abandoned the kid when he was four years old... only the Commander says "no."" Misato sighed. "Shinji did not like that. Keep in mind I had been with the kid for most of the day by that point, and he seemed nice, if rather quiet. So when the Commander gives the order to bring Rei – who wasn't even capable of walking – up and make her pilot it, and I hear some fucking terrifying growling coming from right next to me, I'm a little surprised. Moreso when he threatens to kill me if Rei dies while he pilots."

"Shinji did that?" Hikari managed to say, her eyes wide. "Shinji Ikari? The boy who befriended the first people to beat him up in school? I don't think I've ever even heard him swear, let alone threaten to kill someone!"

"It's not something I do often," Shinji said from the entrance to the kitchen, plates of food in his hands. Misato and Hikari both jumped with shock. "Last time I got that angry with anyone was... just after the Sixth Angel, I think." He cleared Misato's junk off of the table, and laid the plates down. Rei followed, bearing yet more plates. "After I asked Rei to move in. The Commander was... reluctant. I persuaded him otherwise," Shinji stated, his tone level.

"You quoted the UN Declaration on Human Rights and then threatened to call in the British Evangelion Task Force if he didn't agree," Misato countered, and noticed Rei's glance at the boy as she realised what Misato had said. That was definitely a blush.

"I used a clear, logical argument and forced him to reconsider his position," said Shinji, sounding offended. "I didn't actually threaten anything, I just made the point that if he was going to keep being so reticent I'd make sure there were consequences."

"So... you threatened him, then," Misato pointed out. Shinji sighed. This was going to be a long evening.

Weirdly enough, he didn't mind.

Morning. Michael took in the sounds of the room before opening his eyes, a lesson he'd learned during his fourth battle. He could hear the sound of someone breathing – a familiar pattern, so it had to be Rose, asleep. No other people were in the room, and that was all he needed to know before opening his eyes.

He looked at the brown-haired girl for a moment, taking in every line of her face and committing them to memory. Then, he looked around the rest of the room again. Everything was the same as last time, only now the sun was not shining through the window. The pain was still gone, thankfully, and it didn't seem like they'd doped him up.

Michael sat up, grabbed the holster, and checked his pistol. It hadn't been cleaned for a day or so, but that was to be expected. The small click as he checked the chamber echoed through the room, and Rose's breathing changed. Time for some answers, he thought.

"Good morning," he said when Rose opened her eyes. This was the tricky part – he didn't know if he should be the commander of the Task Force right now, or the girl's friend. The tactical need for a status report argued with the emotional need to know if she was alright in his head, and he opted to just let Rose make the next move.

"Good morning," Rose replied. "How are you feeling?" An informal question, so this would be an informal conversation. Good.

"Fine. No pain anywhere, and I don't think I'm on painkillers, so that's an improvement. And I'm not spitting blood, so that's definitely an improvement," he said. "How about you?"

"I wasn't the one who collapsed in the middle of the command centre," Rose said, sternly. "I'm as well as I've ever been." Was that a switch to formal conversation or was she just telling him off for not telling her about his problems or... what?

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds; Rose clearly expected him to speak, but he wanted to wait. Eventually, he caved in.

"Did they tell you what happened?" he asked.

"A lot of words that I didn't quite understand, but the gist of it was the doctors don't know. There was some talk of internal bleeding, and then it stopped or something. I think you should be combat-ready if we get a scramble alert," answered Rose. "So... was that just a one-off thing or have you been hiding this from me?" Okay, that one was clear enough.

"It started a short while back; after the Admiral's funeral," Michael admitted. "That's when it started being noticeable. All my insides just started hurting all the damn time, but I figured it wasn't important enough to warrant any worry." He grinned sheepishly. "I guess I was wrong."

"Being in constant pain is something you should see a doctor about, yes," Rose admonished. "Deus est Caelo, Mike, you're a fucking Evangelion pilot! Your death would spark wars! Don't hide stuff like this!" Her voice had raised to near maximum volume. So she was concerned, after all. Weird.

He got up, off of the bed, and started to walk-

and that was when the alarms went off.

There is a nine-hour time difference between Tokyo-3 and London, with Tokyo-3 receiving sunlight that many hours before London. Factoring in the fact that Michael was on Gibraltar, not in London, it was closer to eight hours. That meant that when the alarms went off, Shinji Ikari had just got back from his date with Rei. In practice that just meant the two of them arrived back at the apartment. The two teenagers looked at each other, as if to say "Really? Now?" and were nearly bowled aside as Misato ran out of the living room, pulling her jacket on.

The journey to NERV headquarters was made in silence The pilots sat in the back of the car, holding hands; both knew this could be their last opportunity to do so.

Ten minutes later, Shinji was waiting on the surface, piloting Unit 01. A massive Evangelion transport aircraft was slowly coming to a halt above him and Unit 02. The plan was simple; intercept the Angel at the beach. Fallback points were being set up leading all the way back to the city, in case the Angel proved difficult to kill. A mobile reactor system, loaned by the Russian Army, would provide power in the field; the power lines making up Japan's electrical grid were simply too fragile to use in combat. Unit 00 would be in emergency reserve, and the positron cannon NERV had "liberated" from the JSSDF would provide fire support if they were pushed back to the city.

That was the plan, anyway. Shinji thought over it as people swarmed over his – his Evangelion's – skin, tying him – it – to the transport plane, and got the distinct feeling something was going to go wrong.

The aircraft lifted off, huge engines pushing the plane and its two massive charges into the air. A small tone came from Shinji's left, and he saw someone had sent him a text-only message.

"FROM: EVA 00," it read. "Good luck, Shinji."

The boy smiled, and rested his head. This was going to be a long flight.

Similar preparations were underway in the Royal Navy Evangelion Task Force base on Gibraltar (and also in the Russian Army Evangelion Squadron's eastern base, and in the Chinese People's Evangelion Corps' depot), soldiers rushing to complete the pre-launch sequence for the massive collection of rockets. An ancient, titanic Saturn V main stage booster provided the core, surrounded by Sprint boosters looted from an American weapons storage facility. Yet more solid-fuel rockets, leftovers from the UN Space Program, would push the entire assembly far enough away from the ground that the other rockets could ignite without melting most of the island.

Michael slid his helmet on, revelling in the soft click of the connection, and stepped out of the changing room. Rose stepped out the door to his left, dressed in her own armour.

"It's a magnificent sight, isn't it?" Michael asked. Rose nodded, speechless.

The collection of boosters, larger than most office buildings, was matched in size by its payload. A gigantic fairing, which would ensure aerodynamic stability if Michael lost focus, stood half-open. Unit 07 slowly slid back on rails into the fairing. The Evangelion was equipped with a full load-out; dozens of rotary point-defence guns, missile racks and of course, the Trebuchet siege gun. A full-sized longsword was already stored inside the fairing, and the poetic side of Michael couldn't help noting it seemed to be waiting for a christening of blood.

He smiled underneath his helmet as Unit 07 locked into place with a deafening crash of metal. It had been far too long since he had gone to war.

"Release clamps in three... two... one. Release!"

Shinji laughed maniacally as Unit 01 fell through the air, and let himself enjoy the free-fall for a few seconds before righting Unit 01 for landing. Two massive war machines hit the soft sand of the beach, throwing up plumes of dirt. He cast a glance around... and there were the support units – the reactor, the weapons carriers and the fire support. He started moving towards the cluster of vehicles, opening up the power socket on the Eva's back.

A channel opened on his right, where Unit 02 had landed.

"You're on overwatch while I close for melee, rookie," she ordered. Shinji nodded as he plugged in a power cable. With his other hand, he picked up an assault rifle.

"Unit One to Reactor Control, how does it look?" he asked, opening a channel to the reactor vehicle.

"Green across the board, Unit One," said the woman on the other end – a steely-eyed Russian with burn scars. "Get the bastard for us, will you?"

"My pleasure," Shinji replied, throwing a spear for Unit 02 to catch.

"Thirty seconds to contact," warned one of the generic NERV technicians. I still have to look into whether they've got vats full of those guys in the basement, Shinji thought. Something to do when I get back.

"Got it," Shinji replied. "I think... yeah, I see it. Moving to engage."

"Primary stage ignition in ten..." came over the radio, as the countdown started. Michael checked his straps – the cockpit was cramped enough that if he was thrown around he'd hit something dangerous. Rose tapped him on the shoulder, and he held her hand.

"Five."

"Did you make sure to pack your toothbrush?" he joked, the lines coming easily now he was about to go into battle.

"I got two, just in case you forgot yours," Rose said.

"Three."

"You know," Michael began

"Two,"

"This could,"

"One!"

"be fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucccccccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!"

"Confirm ignition! Ignition successful!"

Shinji ran backwards, holding down the trigger of the assault rifle as not one but two Angels sprinted towards him. Behind him, Unit 02 was still trying to get itself out of the sand, buried head-first in an almost comical manner.

"Why the hell do they even give us these!?" he shouted as the rifle's bullets sparked uselessly off the twin Angels' AT Fields. "I have never killed an Angel with one of these! They never FUCKING WORK!"

The fight had begun poorly, and things had only gotten worse. Asuka had decided that following orders was not something she was prepared to do; while she managed to split the Angel in half... that was kind of what the Angel seemed to want. The two halves had formed into Angels, and easily overpowered Unit 02 despite Shinji and Asuka's efforts. That wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was that some asshole had ordered the reactor vehicle – and all the other support vehicles – to withdraw. Shinji had just three minutes left on the clock, and he had no idea how he was going to win this fight.

Okay, so... I have a knife, and the rifle. Asuka's spear is behind the Angels, so that's going to be a pain to get to. He'd blocked all external communication channels except those coming from Unit 00 and Unit 02 – technically against orders, but it wasn't like they could help much anyway. Two minutes forty five left. I need to move.

"We'll reach the target in two minutes," reported Rose. "All systems nominal, reactor is green. We're ready for sync."

"One thing first," Michael said, keying in the external cameras. The inside of the fairing was all they could see.

"You're not really going to do that, are you?" Rose asked. "If you slip up once on the way down..."

"If we slip up once. It is a team effort, Rose," Michael replied. He hit a switch on the control panel above him... "But I am going to give us a bit of a margin." The fairing in front of Unit 07's face flew off, and Michael smiled.

The vast emptiness of space stared back, blankly. Starlight filtered through the cameras, and then through their eyes as they synchronised-

"You know, it would be really nice if just once these guys were simple to kill," Shinji muttered to himself as he pushed Unit 01 over a ruined building, grabbed Asuka's spear, brought it up – and impaled one of the Angels right through the core. "Okay," he continued, throwing the dead Angel over his back and turning to face the second one, "That was pretty simple." One minute left.

He ran forwards, thrusting the spear out with his AT Field-

and took an energy blast in the back, as the Angel in front of him punched him in the face.

"That's just unfair," Shinji moaned, "You two can heal each other. Of course you can. Maybe if I kill you both at the same time..." He stood up, drawing his knife with his left hand and raising the spear with his right. Thirty seconds. The two Angels charged him; he ducked the first blow, thrust upwards with the spear into the right-hand Angel's arm, slashed out with the knife catching the left-hand Angel across the "face", and span around. The right-hand Angel slammed into the left-hand Angel, the two giant alien beings sprawled on top of each other on the floor. Shinji raised the spear to finish the job-

and that, of course, was when the power ran out.

"You have got to be kidding me," Shinji said, resigned, into the dark cockpit. The external cameras switched themselves on, working off of the emergency power supply, and Shinji noted the two Angels were already standing up.

"Shinji!" Rei called, her voice broken by the radio, "Look up!"

"What?" he said, and looked up. "WHAT?!"

Unit 07 surfed the remaining half of its heat-shielded fairing down through the atmosphere, flames curling up around it and trailing back off into space. Retrorockets flared, slowing the Evangelion down to a survivable sub-sonic speed. The fairing continued, slamming into the two Angels at hypersonic speed.

Unit 07 landed, feet-first, on the soil of Japan, a longsword clutched in its hand. It strode towards the Angels, which had been barely fazed by the impact, and its lighter guns spat fire. The Angels ignored the barrage and broke into a sprint, separating to try to flank the Evangelion. The Trebuchet fired, pushing the left-hand Angel back, and the longsword came up through the other Angel-

"You need to break both cores at the same time!" came a voice from somewhere to the right (and somehow slightly ahead and backwards at the same time) and the Evangelion moved, slamming its free hand into the closer Angel. The other Angel had managed to close into range, trying to get into a blind spot, but Unit 07 had no blind spots. Two pairs of eyes (plus one singular eye) and innumerable cameras let it keep track of everything around it.

It focussed its guns and missiles on the left-hand Angel, whittling down its core, while bringing up the sword again and impaling the right-hand Angel. It struggled for a few seconds, nearly managing to free itself...

which was when Unit 07 fired the Trebuchet cannon again, into the left-hand Angel's core.

Both cores shattered, and the Angels dissolved.

Michael gasped as the synchronisation link to Rose and Unit 07 was broken, a feeling of sadness overcoming him for a brief moment. There will be other battles, he consoled himself. He looked over the readouts to his left, and made a note of something rather important.

He turned as far around as he could, looking Rose in the eye.

"Welcome to Japan," he said, and passed out.