Note: this is a crossover with my fanfic Rebuild of Third Genesis, also on fanfiction dot net. You don't HAVE to read it to understand this chapter, but it helps.

Ever After

Fourteen: Neon Genesis Evangelion Returns

"You?!" the redhead with a eyepatch in a school uniform exclaimed, "AGAIN?!"

Quill looked at Hazuki and Lilith curiously then at the young woman, "You've been here before?"

"Yeah. They helped us kill an Angel," the other woman seemed to have calmed down a bit. She nodded to Quill, "Asuna Langley Soryu, at your service."

"Quill Fiat," she introduced herself.

Hazuki was looking around her with an odd look on her face. "What happened? The city wasn't in a valley last time, and..."

"What happened to you?" Lilith asked bluntly. "Why the eyepatch?"

"Lilith!" Hazuki scolded.

She and Lilith had landed here shortly after they began their second search for Eve/Hatsumi. They 'appeared' in NERV and were jumped by security, which Hazuki had successfully fought off. Misato had intervened before things could escilate more, pointing out they clearly weren't the angel that had attacked the city.

Searching for traces of Eve/Hatsumi the two had gone up into the city, meeting several students in the process. They found out Eve had disappeared just before the first Angel attack, annoyingly. They also had a close run in with the latest Angel... who appeared frightened of Lilith.

That had taken Hazuki aback a bit. A eldrich abomination out to wipe out human kind... was scared of Lilith. Made one wonder what she and Eve were really capable of.

"So are you still searching for that blonde?" Asuka asked shrewdly. "I thought she had been and gone?" she noted.

"That's what I thought," Hazuki conceded.

Lilith frowned as the busty young woman noted, "Something pulled us back here. I don't know what though."

"How long has it been since you first came here?" Quill wondered.

Hazuki looked at Asuka questioningly.

"Over a year," Asuka answered.

Hazuki did her best not to react to that. It had only been a month or two for them, subjectively. It also made her wonder how much time was passing on her home world?

"Why don't we go to NERV?" Asuka asked. "We can use the Magi computers to help you search Tokyo-3."

"That's very generous of you," Hazuki noted.

"Well, we do still owe you for helping with the angel," Asuka shrugged.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

There had been a shake-up at NERV too, Hazuki noted as they stood in the Commander's office. The creepy dude with the pedo beard, Gendo, was gone and Misato was running things. With a UN representative working with her.

"Back up a second," Satoko Shinden blinked. "You came from another UNIVERSE? And helped kill an Angel?"

"Dimension," Quill corrected. "There's a difference."

Satoko just sort of ignored the correction as she looked across the office at Misato. "Why wasn't this in the files I saw?" she wondered.

"Would YOU like to explain a mystery girl with a magic sword and a witch killing a Angel?" Misato asked wryly.

"Point," Satoko conceded after a moment.

"We also didn't kill it," Hazuki noted. "Distract it, yes. Kill it, no..."

"We could have killed it," Lilith offered, "if we had to."

Everyone just sort of ignored that.

Ritsuko looked over from where she had been chatting with Quill, "I normally don't agree with Gendo's having classified things, but at the time I felt it was reasonable."

"Anyway..." Misato tried to get things back on track, "you're back here again. Any idea why?"

"We're not sure," Hazuki admitted, "the trail we followed lead us back here again. I was hoping we could borrow the computers here to try a search..."

"While Quill and I investigate via other means," Lilith added.

"Asuka, you mind going along?" Misato asked.

Asuka made a face, "Why me?"

"Because we don't know this Quill woman and Lilith got into trouble pretty much instantly last time," Misato noted quietly.

"Point," Asuka conceded. She walked over to Lilith and Quill, "Okay, where do you want to start this time?"

"Let's head up to the city..." Lilith said briskly as they left the office.

"All right," Misato said briskly, "Ritsuko, take Hazuki up to the 'bridge' and talk with the Magi. See if we can figure out what's going on."

"Right," Ritsuko agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Tokyo-3 hadn't changed THAT much, Lilith noted. It appeared that after the massive geo-front cavern collapsed, they had mostly attempted to lower the existing buildings down to the now open cavern floor. Along with paving new roads etc etc. So heading to the high school was fairly easy.

"WHY are we heading to the high school?" Asuka asked, quickly realizing where they were going.

"Because I sense something from there," Lilith admitted. "It's not like how I normally sense Eve, but I'm picking up something..."

"Joy," Asuka deadpanned. "Do we need to notify security or something?"

"I think we can handle it," Lilith said.

Quill was using her Device, though she was keeping it in pendant mode to avoid drawing attention. Like a glowing, talking necklace wasn't going to draw looks.

"The energy readings are very unusual," Quill noted. "If I didn't know better, I'd say they underwent a class three Instrumentality."

Asuka made a choking sound. "You know about...?" she started.

Quill pretty much pumped Asuka on details on what they had gone through. Fascinating," she murmured, "group mind and everything. I need to write this up for the Mid-Childe Journal of Science."

Asuka had a fairly dubious look on her face. "So what's a class one or two Instrumentality?" she had to ask.

"Everyone converts into pure energy, merges together and ascends to a higher plane of existence," Quill told her cheerily, "in fact we think that's what happened to several predecessor civilizations in the Dimensional Sea..."

"Damn..." Asuka muttered as they neared the school itself.

Classes were just letting out, and a steady steam of students were going by them. Several boys were noticing Lilith in her low cut blouse and such, as well as getting clouted by girlfriends. AND there were a lot of men and women in dark suits, keeping a wary eye on Quill and Lilith.

"Holy..." the tall young man with a limp ogled Lilith.

Asuka gave him a look. "You'd better not let Hikari catch you doing that," she warned.

"Yeah," Toji conceded then he frowned thoughtfully. "Didn't we meet before?" he asked Lilith.

"About a year ago. I was with my friend with a sword...," Lilith looked amused.

"Oh, right!" Toji smiled. "She was bad-ass."

As they talked another young woman had come over, frowning as she saw Toji interacting with the blonde. "Asuka," she addressed her, "What is going on?"

"Hikari," Asuka smiled, "you remember Lilith, right? I'm showing her around."

Hikari Horaki looked less than pleased. "I see..." she said, nodding stiffly to Lilith and Quill.

Lilith just looked amused by the blatant jealousy.

His boyish 'I don't want my girlfriend to kill me' instincts activated as Toji said, "We probably should get going. Can I walk you home, Hikari?"

"Please," Hikari took his hand and they hurried off.

"Ah, young love," Quill noted quietly.

"Okay, so we're at the school," Asuka addressed Lilith, "now what?"

"We need to go inside... I want to see where Eve disappeared from on this world. We never had the chance to, last time," Lilith said seriously.

Asuka gave her a flat look. "All right," she sighed, "I'll see if I can flag down a teacher..."

Quill looked at Lilith thoughtfully. Her Device, other than the Instrumentality readings, hadn't picked up anything at all. Certainly no remaining Eve/Hatsumi energies. What was the other woman up to...?

To be continued...

Notes: It was mentioned MUCH earlier that they had ended up in a 'giant robo' world, but I never showed it. It amused me to make it Evangelion, AND to have them return there eventually.

I have a reason in mind for what Lilith is doing, and it's actually kind of silly. I'm looking forward to cranky reacts after I post the next chapter.